This 3 minute video is really cool, despite the corny voice-over narration. This is one leaf - what does this suggest about the biological detail found in a complete plant? Or in a tree?
Watch the video, and provide your thoughts and comments. (Again, you may have to cut and paste the link if it does not appear live on your computer)
www.scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2009/09/zoom_into_a_leaf.php
13 comments:
Wow, I'm not gonna lie, that was intense. I found myself most of the time trying to figure out familiar features learned abut in either biology or zoobot. But, I was mostly looking for the face in the chloroplast, which I do believe I found. It looks like we end in the chromosomes looking at the DNA sequences. It really amazes me how we can look that into a plant, or anything for that matter. We can see every little speck of detail, and with potential to go further as our knowledge grows.
The biological detail in plants is so distinct, down to the smallest speck that you didn't even notice until you watch the video. When you look at this leaf you only see a leaf. Put it under a microscope, and for all you know, there could be a whole civilization living in it.
-M@GG!3
That was actually pretty amazing, during the third time of watching it and I stopped the bleeding from my ears, at least.
It was interesting to see how complex something as simple as a leaf can be It was equally interesting to see something such a small and hidden part of the leaf can determine something as noticeable as the color of the leaf. It was sad to find that the cameras and microscopes could go no further, though...
-Bow-N-Arrow
It was alright . i's preety amazing how complicated the parts of the leaves are but i kinda feel like its more amazing that we as human beings can make the technology to see that far into the leaf. It seems complicated to me but I just feel like if they had the same video on any other part of a plant it would be just as interesting. Anyway, i know im sounding kinda negative here. sorry. it was a fine video.
~erika
That was really cool. I like the set up of it, it was kind of like the movie that starts on Earth and moves out in the same way then back in. It was interesting to be able to see the datail in the leaf, we don't have that opertunity like that. I enjoyed that comment about we don't know what this part is for (the smaller sacks) but we do no the rest. It is stuff like this that remindes us how little we understand.
Gabriella
I thought the video was interesting. I was amazed just how far they were able to zoom in. I mean, I wasn't even aware we had the technology to do that. There wasn't really one part that stuck out to me, but it was all pretty interesting. I didn't get all the info in it due to an annoying problem with my connection, but I got the basics of the video.
-Tyler
A leaf
perhaps the most simple thing on earth
sure there are different kinds,
a ton to see
but it is known as a simple structure
I can picture someone coining the phrase... "That's as simple as a leaf"
and then students, hundreds of years later saying, wait, why? Because they would have watched a video such as this, and discovered that a leaf is not simple at all but so complex, I am sure scientists do not have it all figured out, but are pretty darn close.
This video not only shows you the complexity but connects this to that
It really shows you the outside in in a zoom, the camera, completely digitalized for parts, shows you the ins and outs and the most complex parts, parts the naked eye can not see.
One fascinating thing about hte complexity of this leaf, is the fact that one code told it to be this way. The DNA. You know how small the DNA is..... its small and pequeno. But just think! All that cokmplexity is packed into that code... I certainly cannot read that fine of print.
--Rebecca
Anonymous was right that was very intense, it went recognizable leaf to an unknown world of unfamilar shapes. The detail that is within these small leaves makes me think about when I pull a leaf off of a tree and mindlessly look at it.
Every leaf suddenly looks important, and seems important. It is all suddenly connected.
If that was just a leaf thten what is a tree?
If we continue to understand the importance and detail of all that surrounds us will we care more about the life and world of plants. If we know that plants, like us,have more to them than meets the naked eye maybe our curiousity will be sparked.
hahaah sparked..... forest fires.. no. not that sparked.
Last I saw the magnification it was over 3m. That's crazy. Seeing those little mint bubbles reminded me of the flavor crystals on chewing gum. There are so many little hairs and features that you can't see just by looking at it. I always thought of leaves to be really basic with only veins. I new some had hairs but had never seen it like that before. I always thought the flavor in mint was in the leaf, i didn't know that the surface had little mint bubbles.
I think it's amazing how much more there is when you look closely. With microscopes we know so much more and we can actually see it to confirm it. Knowing that we can see things up to 3 million sizes closer, opens up a whole new world. I still want to know how they kept that leaf still.
Impressive.
ok not my fav movie in the world but it was ok. People sometimes forget that there is so much going on behind the leaves. After looking at the leaf closer i understand how many properties a leaf has to survive all the parts and the parts behind those parts all work in unison to creat one giant functioning machine. I just think its cool how something so simple to the naked eye is really so complicated the more you look at it.
-BEN
The video was a very interesting exploration "into" the plant!
Its amazing how far we have come with our technology and ability to understand what it is that we are looking at, studying, cooking with.
Seeing the plant in such in depth is a fascinating glance into the unknown... Its often seems as we have discussed in previous instances, that the plant life, ocean life and various life forms on earth are as unique as some that have been, or are yet to have been imagined and created by science fiction screen play writers, TV writers, and authors of good old books.
Having seen and invaded on the plant, not unlike how Leonardo Davinci did so many hundreds of years ago with human bodies, I feel that as a human race our knowledge and understating of plants, is growing (no pun intended Mr. Enlger!) rapidly.
The fact the we have explored the human body so indepth and gained knowledge of even the brain and its exact function makes me wonder what we will learn about plants in the next few centuries or so. Now that we have indulged our selfs in the study of humans perhaps we can no focus even more on plants; or has it been going on all along and we have simply not been subject to the fascinating lives of green things that make it possible for us to go on living.
The next time I use mint, weather to garnish a fancy dish, top a dessert, or make a cup of tea, the images of the inner workings of the plant will always be with me...
The post that mentions Davinci and cooking was by
Caileigh Bryant
That video was kind of interesting, I think it was Gabriella who said it reminded her of Powers of Ten by Charles and Ray Eames (a very cool short film btw) and she is right the movie starts with a guy having a picnic in the park then zooms slowly back until our galaxy is nothing but a speck in the cosmos amongst millions of other galaxys. The movie then zooms back to the man and continues to zoom until you can see an atom in his hand. We should watch it in class…
-cc
WOW. coooooool. It's really strange to think about all these levels on which the things around us are functioning. There's photosynthesis the cells are doing, the parts of the leaf those cells are making up, etc. etc. Every little living thing is performing so many functions on so many levels every second of every day. It's hardly fathomable...but without photosynthesis we'd all be screwed....
-Laura
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