Sunday, April 10, 2011

Day 16: Blastula



Today's photo(s) was taken at different times today and shows the rapid cell division of the salamander eggs.  No wonder why early cell biology was done with amphibian eggs, as it is clearly easy to see with a good microscope, or in this case an excellent macro lens.  These photos were taken 6.5 hours apart and show the change from 16-cell stage embryo to a blastula, in which the center of the ball (egg) becomes hollow.

These photos were taken through the glass of Emily's aquarium, with Nikon flashes on the sides and (remotely fired).  The macro lens is the Nikkor 105mm VRII.

2 comments:

  1. Cool, kind of hard to see the hollow part unless you compare it to the other days photos.

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  2. Yeah, I doubt you can see that it is hollow at this stage. In the next week, we may be able to catch the folding of the neural tube.

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