![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.lablit.com\/images\/Bugs.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIn my life as a scientist, I am continually struck by the modest miracle of the microscopic writ large. I think about this every time I streak a solution of invisible bacteria onto a Petri plate and come in the next morning to a sea of pale colonies scattered across the agar surface. Or when I amplify DNA from a clear droplet of liquid in the PCR machine and end up with a string of violent pink bands bristling on the gel under UV. Yesterday, my benchmate and I were marvelling at yet another manifestation of the tiny made tangible: E.coli transformed with a man-made DNA plasmid encoding a fluorescent tag called mCherry, so bright that after overnight growth, the bugs glow ruby red even by daylight:<\/p>\n
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\nThe color became more intense after she spun the bacteria down in a centrifuge:<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.lablit.com\/images\/RedPellet.jpg\")
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\nAnd, true to the laws of color mixing, when I miniprepped the DNA for her as a favor, the blue tracking dye turned a lovely shade of lavender:<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.lablit.com\/images\/Purple.jpg\")
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\nIt’s little observations like these that add a dash of wonder to my everyday lab experiences. But I was thinking this morning as I walked across the Quad, leaves fluttering down around me in the crisp air, that nature is the master of crafting invisible components into a gloriously omnipresent whole. The ochre and scarlet of autumn leaves are just conglomerates of microscopic pigment molecules; the blades of grass are mere chains of microscopic proteins. Even the mould that stubbornly sprouts up in the interstices of my bathroom tiles between bleach attacks is just another manifestation. <\/p>\n
\nBut nature does this so effortlessly. And we have become so divorced from the natural world that repeating its tricks in the lab seems like something original and clever. <\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.lablit.com\/images\/382_ART_Rhythm.jpg\")
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In my life as a scientist, I am continually struck by the modest miracle of the microscopic writ large. I think about this every time I streak a solution of invisible bacteria onto a Petri plate and come in the … Continue reading