#microscopy monday

[biologist4ever]

A Look Inside a Brain Cancer Cell

This isn't just a pretty picture; it's a map of how a brain cancer cell thrives.

The luminous cyan web is the actin cytoskeleton. It's the cell's scaffolding and its engine, constantly remodeling to push the cell forward through the brain's delicate tissue.

The fiery red network is the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Think of it as the cell's intensive production and logistics hub, synthesizing proteins and managing the intense stress of rapid, chaotic growth.

When you see them together like this, you're witnessing the fundamental machinery of invasion. The cell isn't just growing; it's strategically rewiring itself to survive and spread.

[omg-snakes]

Top left: Fedgewick, a Hypo Lavender Masque

Top right: Thrundle, a visual het Peach Lavender Masque

Bottom left: Crotchmonitor, a visual het Peach Hypo Lavender Masque

Bottom right: Partycake, a Hypo Lavender

I put together a comparison of four Lavender corn snakes with varying combinations of Hypo and Peach genes. My hope is to have a way of more easily identifying Peach from Hypo since I have two clutches this season with both genes and it's really, really hard to tell them apart.

I may try again with a higher magnification to see if the differences are more apparent, but as one can tell by their little faces, the snakes were not thrilled to participate this evening so I tried to minimize the disruption to their snakey lives.

[omg-snakes]

For Microscope Monday I wanted to take a close look at Aurelian. He's been a bit of a mystery since he was hatched by @fractiousrvt. We know he's Lavender, het for Charcoal and Diffused, and proven het for Anery by this year's pairing with Peekaboo. But none of this explains his soft and pinkish coloration!

I decided to compare him with Thrundle, my visual het Peach Lavender boy.

Instead of wrangling snakes with one hand and focusing with the other, I opted to painstakingly construct a very fancy tool called the Microscope Lookin'-At Cup which is a deli cup with a couple of small holes cut in the lid that are the same size as the working area of the microscope. This allows the snake to be comfortable while also letting me use both hands!

I used 40x and 80x magnification to compare sections of scales from both snakes.

So looking at the images above, do we have any answers as to what is going on with Aurelian? No. No we do not. But y'know, sometimes questions are more interesting than answers!

[omg-snakes]

I am really enjoying your microscope pictures. But I am ALSO really enjoying the mental image of you wrangling snakes under the microscope to get the photos. 😆

Hello friend! I had a lot of fun taking photos, and I'm glad others think they're neat, too!

Please also enjoy the mental image of me being smeared with musk and still being able to smell it two hours later despite multiple sessions of washing. (Smells like a burning wig. Bleh!)

Also snakes acting like I'm killing them to death the second I pick up the camera but being totally fine and calm when I set it to the side.

Also Partycake was being surprisingly cooperative and I was really grateful... until I realized that her seeming compliance was just her shifting mental focus into taking a protest dump on my desk that was so massive that I'm halfway convinced she may have a pocket dimension inside her body. I'm really glad I picked up my glasses before setting her down.

I think microscopy Monday is going to be a thing going forward so hopefully we'll all get a little better at this.