Luckly this one I scaled everything right.
The idea is to where the stem cell on one ear and a daughter cell on the other, they would all be anodised aluminium:
http://s786.photobucket.com/albums/yy148/DesignBot/Drawings/?action=view¤t=Earringsfinished.png
Saturday, 29 August 2009
Blurb for brooches
You know, this project has done wonders for my communications skills. Writing for non-scientists requires a different skill set (which I may not have totally grasped, feel free to edit out confusing bits). It's fun :)
Second person is intended to make the writing accessible rather that patronising.
Retinal progenitor cell- Retinal stem cells are a specialised variety of stem cell that produce all the different types of neurons that make up the retina. Scientists hope to one day use retinal stem cells to repair damaged eyesight in humans, by getting them to replace the neurons that allow you to see.
Rod cell - Rod cells sense light at low levels, giving you night-vision. They cannot differentiate between colours, which is why at low light levels you see in shades of grey. They are called rods due to their long, thin shape, which helps pack in lots of the light-sensing protein rhodopsin into a small retinal surface area.
Cone cell - There are three types of cone cell in the human eye. They sense red, green or blue light depending on the type of light-sensing protein they contain. They give you colour vision. Different species have different types of cones. Birds, for example, have a fourth cone cell type that allows them to see ultraviolet light.
Bipolar cell - These cells take signals from cone, rod and horizontal cells and process them before sending a signal on towards your brain. They are important messenger components in the retinal circuit.
Horizontal cell - By integrating messages from rods and cones, horizontal cells help you to perceive edges sharply. Using a process called 'centre-surround inhibition' they amplify the signal produced at transitions in your field of vision. Transitions could be from dark to light, or from green to red.
Amacrine cell - Amacrine cells take signals for bipolar cells and pass them on to ganglion cells. An amacrine cell can have one of many processing functions. Some affect your colour perception. These cells are responsible for the green after-image you see after staring at a red light.
Ganglion cells - The long axon of a ganglion cell stretches many centimetres from the retina to the brain, along the optic nerve. These cells carry the information from bipolar and amacrine cells to your visual cortex, where the image that landed on your retina is interpreted.
A further note: the colour scheme of these brooches - blue, green and red - references the three primary colours of light as seen by human cone cells. It also references the three colours primarily used in fluorescent microscopy, a technique used by scientists to see the shapes of these different retinal neurons.
Second person is intended to make the writing accessible rather that patronising.
Retinal progenitor cell- Retinal stem cells are a specialised variety of stem cell that produce all the different types of neurons that make up the retina. Scientists hope to one day use retinal stem cells to repair damaged eyesight in humans, by getting them to replace the neurons that allow you to see.
Rod cell - Rod cells sense light at low levels, giving you night-vision. They cannot differentiate between colours, which is why at low light levels you see in shades of grey. They are called rods due to their long, thin shape, which helps pack in lots of the light-sensing protein rhodopsin into a small retinal surface area.
Cone cell - There are three types of cone cell in the human eye. They sense red, green or blue light depending on the type of light-sensing protein they contain. They give you colour vision. Different species have different types of cones. Birds, for example, have a fourth cone cell type that allows them to see ultraviolet light.
Bipolar cell - These cells take signals from cone, rod and horizontal cells and process them before sending a signal on towards your brain. They are important messenger components in the retinal circuit.
Horizontal cell - By integrating messages from rods and cones, horizontal cells help you to perceive edges sharply. Using a process called 'centre-surround inhibition' they amplify the signal produced at transitions in your field of vision. Transitions could be from dark to light, or from green to red.
Amacrine cell - Amacrine cells take signals for bipolar cells and pass them on to ganglion cells. An amacrine cell can have one of many processing functions. Some affect your colour perception. These cells are responsible for the green after-image you see after staring at a red light.
Ganglion cells - The long axon of a ganglion cell stretches many centimetres from the retina to the brain, along the optic nerve. These cells carry the information from bipolar and amacrine cells to your visual cortex, where the image that landed on your retina is interpreted.
A further note: the colour scheme of these brooches - blue, green and red - references the three primary colours of light as seen by human cone cells. It also references the three colours primarily used in fluorescent microscopy, a technique used by scientists to see the shapes of these different retinal neurons.
Designage
Right right,
Here is the brooch design sheet:
http://s786.photobucket.com/albums/yy148/DesignBot/Drawings/?action=view¤t=ohfuck.png
The reason why the file name is ohfuck is that I did it waaaaaay too big in photoshop, so when I resize it smaller the quality is affected, now I don't know how this will affect the printouts, but seeing as we have to give in digital copies aswell the size shouldn't matter there. I was wondering if a copyshop would be able to sort it, I will have to go to one anyway as I don't have an A3 printer.
Do you think I should re-do them? Seeing as the address we have to have it to on Tues is in Imperial, I might take a bit more time and post it in by hand, is that even possible do you think?
Could you possibly write a bit of blurb/explanation as to the cells that we could include with the products? It would be really helpful in proving what we are trying to show scientifically.
What do you think of the designs so far? I have all the stages saved so I can play about with the whole thing. I used the first name you mentioned for our collection as I liked it but can change :)
Here is the brooch design sheet:
http://s786.photobucket.com/albums/yy148/DesignBot/Drawings/?action=view¤t=ohfuck.png
The reason why the file name is ohfuck is that I did it waaaaaay too big in photoshop, so when I resize it smaller the quality is affected, now I don't know how this will affect the printouts, but seeing as we have to give in digital copies aswell the size shouldn't matter there. I was wondering if a copyshop would be able to sort it, I will have to go to one anyway as I don't have an A3 printer.
Do you think I should re-do them? Seeing as the address we have to have it to on Tues is in Imperial, I might take a bit more time and post it in by hand, is that even possible do you think?
Could you possibly write a bit of blurb/explanation as to the cells that we could include with the products? It would be really helpful in proving what we are trying to show scientifically.
What do you think of the designs so far? I have all the stages saved so I can play about with the whole thing. I used the first name you mentioned for our collection as I liked it but can change :)
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Basics! Jewellery designs.
Made some basic images with prints that can be made up into jewellery designs.
Here they are:
http://s786.photobucket.com/albums/yy148/DesignBot/Drawings/
I am making up designs for the collection, will include the brooches we have talked about, the earrings pictured in the last update and necklaces based on the bipolar cell necklace idea.
How does this sound? :)
Here they are:
http://s786.photobucket.com/albums/yy148/DesignBot/Drawings/
I am making up designs for the collection, will include the brooches we have talked about, the earrings pictured in the last update and necklaces based on the bipolar cell necklace idea.
How does this sound? :)
Monday, 24 August 2009
what do retinal stem cells look like - good question...
3rd pic down on this page http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/about/divisions/neuro/npmdepts/cmn/cmnresearch/cmnplasticity/
And here http://neuromics.blogspot.com/2009/08/stemez-np1-neural-progenitors-now.html
Basically round, amorphous. They are not usually shown - they way you demonstrate that something is a stem cell is to make it generate lots of offspring, in a dish or transplanted into a retina. Stem cells are not visually distinctive, so there are more pictures of the distinct offspring.
And here http://neuromics.blogspot.com/2009/08/stemez-np1-neural-progenitors-now.html
Basically round, amorphous. They are not usually shown - they way you demonstrate that something is a stem cell is to make it generate lots of offspring, in a dish or transplanted into a retina. Stem cells are not visually distinctive, so there are more pictures of the distinct offspring.
Saturday, 22 August 2009
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
Muller cells
The glial cell type produced by retinal stem cells. A relatively unspecialised cell compared to the retinal neurons - no elaborate tree-like dendrites, etc. This cell type may be able to dedifferentiate back in to a retinal stem cell under certain conditions. Whether this happen in adults is controversial.
This group had an interesting paper - Muller cells act to refract light, helping to channel it down through the retina to photoreceptors and preventing distortion. Simpler explanation here
Picture here.
Apart from this, they have the usual glial cell function of support and nutrient supply to neurons. That cute knife-and-fork graphic can be used - if you decide to use prints. They might get a little confusing in the overlay, but for separate neuron cut-outs...
Images
Golgi (black)stained pics
and here
Fluorescent pics here
And here
This group had an interesting paper - Muller cells act to refract light, helping to channel it down through the retina to photoreceptors and preventing distortion. Simpler explanation here
Picture here.
Apart from this, they have the usual glial cell function of support and nutrient supply to neurons. That cute knife-and-fork graphic can be used - if you decide to use prints. They might get a little confusing in the overlay, but for separate neuron cut-outs...
Images
Golgi (black)stained pics
and here
Fluorescent pics here
And here
Monday, 17 August 2009
Retinal Neuron pictures
Amacrine cells
http://webvision.med.utah.edu/amacrines1.html
This one looks like the best source site for all cell types in the retina, which reminds me I need to talk about Muller cells next.
http://www.retinalmicroscopy.com/
The internet is a beautiful, beautiful thing to give us all these redunkulously specialised resources. If I ever left Neuroscience, it would be for computer programming.
http://webvision.med.utah.edu/amacrines1.html
This one looks like the best source site for all cell types in the retina, which reminds me I need to talk about Muller cells next.
http://www.retinalmicroscopy.com/
The internet is a beautiful, beautiful thing to give us all these redunkulously specialised resources. If I ever left Neuroscience, it would be for computer programming.
Retinal neurons and relationships, part 2
Hey, just thought of a design name. Retinal Images, anyone? See Me. The Shapes Behind Your Eyes. A Vision In Aluminium. Sight Unseen.
Stop me, please.
Anyway, The bipolar cell is firing. Let's talk about its destinations: Amacrine cells and Ganglion cells.
Amacrine cells are another processing waystation, like Horizontal cells in the last post. Except that if Horizontal cells were analogous to pressing 'sharpen image' in photoshop, Amacrine cells are like tuning contrast, colour balance and intensity. They are also involved in the perception of moving objects. They are complex and not well understood, like tiny cellular James Joyces. There are 20+ subtypes that use several different neurotransmitters. The do not have axons (long thin unbranched processes), instead sending signals out along dendrites (shorter, highly branched).
(In case you're interested, by this analogy the brain and its 30+ visual cortices are annotating everything, getting out contrast, colour and intensity histograms and tuning the image reeeeallly carefully, putting in animations, spraying the clone brush everywhere, photoshopping faces onto everything and sending messages to the photographer about what to take pictures of next, except much more complicated and extensive than that. And doing it in microseconds.)
Ganglion cells take the bipolar and amacrine inputs, integrate the signals and fire messages to the brain. The axons from ganglion cells stretch down the optic nerve, traveling many centimetres into the brain. Given the size of the cell body, this is an axon 100,000 times longer than its cell. And that's pretty short as some neurons go, which is amazing.
When I say neurons 'integrate' signals... Well, it's more like the interference between waves than computer-style 'if x and y = input then z = output'. There are inhibitory and excitatory waves of electricity of different sizes travelling different distances along dendrites to the cell body, and once they get there they can combine to cancel or amplify each other, and the sum of the waves at a particular point in the cell at a particular time determines if the cell fires and the axon carries a signal too the synapse.
I LOVE neuroscience. It just gets more and more complicated the more you look. Yipeee!
Practicing scientists, I apologise deeply if my analogies have hurt you.
A further consideration: Thanks to the vagaries of evolution, this all happens BACKWARDS. Your photoreceptors are in the layer of the retina furthest from the light. All this circuitry passes information back towards the light, and the axons of the ganglion cells run over the surface of the retina till they reach the optic nerve head, where they bundle together and head for the brain.
This of course means that all these neurons are transparent, so that light can actually reach the photoreceptors. Acrylic on aluminium is sounding better and better :)
Phew. That was fun. More images in a bit.
Stop me, please.
Anyway, The bipolar cell is firing. Let's talk about its destinations: Amacrine cells and Ganglion cells.
Amacrine cells are another processing waystation, like Horizontal cells in the last post. Except that if Horizontal cells were analogous to pressing 'sharpen image' in photoshop, Amacrine cells are like tuning contrast, colour balance and intensity. They are also involved in the perception of moving objects. They are complex and not well understood, like tiny cellular James Joyces. There are 20+ subtypes that use several different neurotransmitters. The do not have axons (long thin unbranched processes), instead sending signals out along dendrites (shorter, highly branched).
(In case you're interested, by this analogy the brain and its 30+ visual cortices are annotating everything, getting out contrast, colour and intensity histograms and tuning the image reeeeallly carefully, putting in animations, spraying the clone brush everywhere, photoshopping faces onto everything and sending messages to the photographer about what to take pictures of next, except much more complicated and extensive than that. And doing it in microseconds.)
Ganglion cells take the bipolar and amacrine inputs, integrate the signals and fire messages to the brain. The axons from ganglion cells stretch down the optic nerve, traveling many centimetres into the brain. Given the size of the cell body, this is an axon 100,000 times longer than its cell. And that's pretty short as some neurons go, which is amazing.
When I say neurons 'integrate' signals... Well, it's more like the interference between waves than computer-style 'if x and y = input then z = output'. There are inhibitory and excitatory waves of electricity of different sizes travelling different distances along dendrites to the cell body, and once they get there they can combine to cancel or amplify each other, and the sum of the waves at a particular point in the cell at a particular time determines if the cell fires and the axon carries a signal too the synapse.
I LOVE neuroscience. It just gets more and more complicated the more you look. Yipeee!
Practicing scientists, I apologise deeply if my analogies have hurt you.
A further consideration: Thanks to the vagaries of evolution, this all happens BACKWARDS. Your photoreceptors are in the layer of the retina furthest from the light. All this circuitry passes information back towards the light, and the axons of the ganglion cells run over the surface of the retina till they reach the optic nerve head, where they bundle together and head for the brain.
This of course means that all these neurons are transparent, so that light can actually reach the photoreceptors. Acrylic on aluminium is sounding better and better :)
Phew. That was fun. More images in a bit.
Images part 1 of many
http://webvision.med.utah.edu/Wong.html
http://www.pnas.org/content/104/20/8287/F3.expansion.html
Muller cells are the only glial cells produced by retinal stem cells. More on them later.
http://www.usm.maine.edu/psy/broida/101/retina.JPG
http://www.pnas.org/content/104/20/8287/F3.expansion.html
Muller cells are the only glial cells produced by retinal stem cells. More on them later.
http://www.usm.maine.edu/psy/broida/101/retina.JPG
Retinal neurons - images and relationships part 1
Ok, here is the in-depth examination of the functions of different classes of retinal neurons.All these neuronal types can be developed from retinal stem cells
Photoreceptors: Rods and cones
Cones - come in red, blue and green-sensing varieties (in humans at least, but I digress!). Cones are responsible for all of your high-def colour vision. They are found most densely in the central retina. The combinations of different levels of red, green and blue cone activation are translated by the brain into all the different colours that we see.
Rods - These cells are more sensitive than cones and respond to much lower quantities of light. They are responsible for your vision at low light levels - the reason that your vision is in shades of grey at night is that rods are doing all the work. They do not distinguish between colours, only levels of brightness.
Rods and cones pass their signals onto nearbybipolar cells and horizontal cells via synapses. Bipolar cells can receive input from many photoreceptors (found at the edges of the retina, this setup provides high sensitivity) or one photoreceptor can output to many bipolar cells (found more centrally, this gives greater acuity of vision). A neuron can have many synaptic inputs and outputs.
Horizontal cells are involved in visual processing. They sharpen outlines in the image that hits your retinas, emphasising lines and boundaries. (explanation via link below) Maybe some kind of grid pattern would be appropriate? Basically, this kind of processing is like pressing the "sharpen image" button on photoshop. Quick and universal, sharpens edges.
Bipolar cells are basically sites of integration. They take the signals from photoreceptor and horizontal cells, add them together and send a signal of variable strength on to amacrine cells and ganglion cells.
A good, more in-depth explanation of retinal neuron connections
More in part 2!
Photoreceptors: Rods and cones
Cones - come in red, blue and green-sensing varieties (in humans at least, but I digress!). Cones are responsible for all of your high-def colour vision. They are found most densely in the central retina. The combinations of different levels of red, green and blue cone activation are translated by the brain into all the different colours that we see.
Rods - These cells are more sensitive than cones and respond to much lower quantities of light. They are responsible for your vision at low light levels - the reason that your vision is in shades of grey at night is that rods are doing all the work. They do not distinguish between colours, only levels of brightness.
Rods and cones pass their signals onto nearbybipolar cells and horizontal cells via synapses. Bipolar cells can receive input from many photoreceptors (found at the edges of the retina, this setup provides high sensitivity) or one photoreceptor can output to many bipolar cells (found more centrally, this gives greater acuity of vision). A neuron can have many synaptic inputs and outputs.
Horizontal cells are involved in visual processing. They sharpen outlines in the image that hits your retinas, emphasising lines and boundaries. (explanation via link below) Maybe some kind of grid pattern would be appropriate? Basically, this kind of processing is like pressing the "sharpen image" button on photoshop. Quick and universal, sharpens edges.
Bipolar cells are basically sites of integration. They take the signals from photoreceptor and horizontal cells, add them together and send a signal of variable strength on to amacrine cells and ganglion cells.
A good, more in-depth explanation of retinal neuron connections
More in part 2!
Friday, 7 August 2009
New Stuff!
Eh finally after all my life drama I have got some images up!
they are in my drawings album of my photobucket:
http://s786.photobucket.com/albums/yy148/DesignBot/Drawings/
Just a couple of pages from my sketchbook, more designy this time.
I think we should settle on a more definite stem cell "theme" to go for, like the metamorphosis from foetal stem cell to the range of specalized cells (and then which cells and stem cells to go for) or raising awareness of a specific stem cell therapy possiblity, for exalmple Parkinsons, spinal chord, or retinal (and then concentrate on those specific cells in our designs). It may help move the process on a bit and we can start getting some real designin' goin'. :)
they are in my drawings album of my photobucket:
http://s786.photobucket.com/albums/yy148/DesignBot/Drawings/
Just a couple of pages from my sketchbook, more designy this time.
I think we should settle on a more definite stem cell "theme" to go for, like the metamorphosis from foetal stem cell to the range of specalized cells (and then which cells and stem cells to go for) or raising awareness of a specific stem cell therapy possiblity, for exalmple Parkinsons, spinal chord, or retinal (and then concentrate on those specific cells in our designs). It may help move the process on a bit and we can start getting some real designin' goin'. :)
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