Dr. Isis's lab group is collaborating with some other kick ass folks to put together an equipment grant for a brand new fancy-pants microscope. One of the tasks in putting together this grant has been to test drive some microscopes, take some images, and compare them. This is important because it both shows that we know how to take some awesome pictures and allows us to demonstrate differences in quality to justify which microscope we want. I have been a total geek about this project, loving the opportunity to play with microscopes that cost more than a Bentley and have been putting together different tissues from different organs of varying imaging complexity to image for the project.
This morning a colleague gave me a piece of tissue from one of their experiments that I think is probably the hardest tissue to image in the history of the whole body for our grant. I figured that if the new microscopes could take a high resolution image of this tissue, it could certainly do some of the less challenging things I'll need it to do. I thought you might enjoy seeing the result...
Figure 1: Can you figure out which organ it is?
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Can you figure out which organ it is?
Of course not. But I did give it a modest try. Shhhhhh . . .
Posted by: Juniper Shoemaker | February 26, 2009 1:58 PM
I am going with Kidney :)
Posted by: Eppendork | February 26, 2009 2:01 PM
Lung! Lung? Maybe...
Posted by: Wisaakah | February 26, 2009 2:26 PM
Looks like liver to me.
Posted by: S. Rivlin | February 26, 2009 2:42 PM
scale?
Posted by: PalMD | February 26, 2009 2:56 PM
OK, Dr. Isis, this isn't fair without a scale!
I could be looking at a 10X section of a kidney glomeruli, a 40X section of spleen pulp, or a 100X close up of lung.
Wait a moment...
...if the GFP/FITC green and the YFP yellow are being used to stain tight intracellular junctions and the blue is DAPI, I'd have to say that we're looking at endosteal bone.
Posted by: Toaster | February 26, 2009 2:58 PM
Scale bars dammit!
In their absence I'm going with some lung.
Posted by: ambivalent academic | February 26, 2009 3:26 PM
If it's hard to image, its either not going to have light travel though it (bone) or something with something that auto-fluoresces (collagen). I am going to say that it is a joint, or like the cap of cartilage on some bone.
Oh, and if you haven't decided on a camera, may I suggest a Nuance...they are amazing.
Posted by: Geeka | February 26, 2009 3:38 PM
tell me Isis - when using a microscope worth more than a bentley is it still possible to wind the little knob on the side too much whilst focussing and put the lens through the slide you're trying to look at? This happened frequently to me at school but I'm guessing its not a problem for you.....
Posted by: tai haku | February 26, 2009 4:09 PM
Is it possible? I suppose, but on a microscope worth more an a Bentley it's all about the auto focus motor, baby. You define a point in the sample, a step distance to move the focus and let the motor do the work until you're satified. Then you just sit back and let the focus come to you.
Posted by: Isis the Scientist | February 26, 2009 4:12 PM
I vote for cartilage or a bone growth plate. And I thought that from the image on my feed, I'm not just riding Toaster and Geeka's coattails. You have to tell us what kind of scope gave you the picture when you tell the answer! Do the colors indicate depth?? Two-photon microscopy??
Posted by: Shawna | February 26, 2009 4:30 PM
I put in another vote for kidney. Gorgeous-looking. That's journal-cover material right there.
Posted by: scicurious | February 26, 2009 5:10 PM
Part of the eye, a rod or cone perhaps?
Posted by: Ron Hager | February 26, 2009 5:27 PM
I vote kidney!
Posted by: Beth | February 26, 2009 5:36 PM
I vote liver, but that's 'cause I'm ignant.
Posted by: Brian | February 26, 2009 7:08 PM
I think they look like little neurons with the branches, but I don't know what any other kinds of cells look like.
Posted by: Liz | February 26, 2009 7:15 PM
I vote lung. Sure looks like bronchiolae to me, although my first impression was of cyclical carbon molecules...
Posted by: liveparadox | February 26, 2009 8:10 PM
Make an X over the image and you should be at a yellow blob in the center. Just southwest of the yellow blob, I see ELVIS!
Posted by: jc | February 26, 2009 8:12 PM
I'll give you wackaloons a hint. The blue is a vessel stain (I'm a one trick pony in any tissue) and the objective is a 10x.
Posted by: Isis the Scientist | February 26, 2009 11:12 PM
that is pretty. but uh, i'm really not used to looking at that kind of picture.
Posted by: leigh | February 26, 2009 11:18 PM
I have no idea what that image is (materials guy), but that's a beautiful image. What kind of microscope is that? It looks like something out of a confocal, but at 10x it could be something from a really nice fluorescence scope...
Posted by: Adam | February 26, 2009 11:55 PM
Cardiac jelly?
Cardiac cushion?
Posted by: ambivalent academic | February 27, 2009 12:16 AM
I should be sleeping and not obsessing over this...
Given that the blue is a vessel stain, both lung and kidney are out completely since both are highly vascularized. The objective rules out lymphoid tissue.
Therefore I believe it's cartilage. And the yellow is for desmin.
Posted by: Toaster | February 27, 2009 12:53 AM
Penis.
Posted by: TLP | February 27, 2009 4:02 AM
Penis.
Posted by: TLP | February 27, 2009 4:04 AM
Hammond B-8 with Leslie rotating speakers?
Posted by: Brian | February 27, 2009 7:49 AM
I vote for Penis as well.
Posted by: Michelle | February 27, 2009 12:24 PM
Now that the magnification and the color index are (partially) provided, I would guess the image could be of a toe or a finger.
Posted by: S. Rivlin | February 27, 2009 1:51 PM
Isis, I know you are all hardcore science crazy, but I really hope there's no Smiley Face sticker out of view of the microscope shot. :)
Penis +1.
Posted by: jc | February 27, 2009 2:20 PM
It's the motherfucking pancreas!!!
AMIRITE!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Posted by: Comrade PhysioProf | February 27, 2009 5:28 PM
oh piffle! It's skin.I'm told that skin is an organ- so it's plain old skin....
Posted by: Mimi Rivkin | February 27, 2009 11:00 PM
My husband suggests perhaps it is the butt?
Posted by: Arlenna | February 28, 2009 12:18 AM
i'll go with lung... might be liver.
Posted by: tevebaugh | February 28, 2009 2:07 PM
Lung it is, little chickens. The green is the autofluorescence of the parenchyma. Although, I am proud of the number of you who guessed penis. Also, Arlenna's husband is hilarious.
Perhaps I will try putting some more organs up here for your guessing pleasure.
Posted by: Isis the Scientist | February 28, 2009 2:16 PM