| Inner Life of a Cell - Robert Lue | for everyone |
Inner Life of a Cell - vídeo clip
http://multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu/innerlife.html
Robert Lue
http://www.apple.com/science/insidetheimage/rob_lue/
The mesmerizing “Inner Life of a Cell” is an animation showing a number of intra-cellular processes. It was created for educational purposes, but recently it has also gotten international attention, beyond the Harvard undergraduate classrooms for which it was initially intended. It exemplifies what science education is painfully lacking— stunning and accessible visual representations portraying the very essence of what science is all about. Robert Lue, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology was instrumental in its production. Here we have a brief conversation. — Felice Frankel
Rob, tell us what was inspired you to get you thinking about this approach to conveying this amazing stuff going on in the cell?
To a significant degree, the inspiration came from my experiences as a cell biologist seeking to tie together the molecular details of how individual proteins function in the context of the living cell. This process of synthesis lies at the heart of cell biology, and when you consider the critical role that visualizing cells in the microscope played in the birth of the field, bringing the two together in a 21st
Century manner made perfect sense. Cell biologists are intimately aware that seeing something is often the first step to deeply understanding it. Furthermore, the creation of visual models is a standard part of developing and challenging hypotheses. Whenever I engage an idea in biology, the process always includes the creation of visual models in my head. Thus, for more than twenty years I have wanted to visualize cellular processes but until now have never had access to the tools to even begin to bring such mental images to life.
The sense of urgency around the need to harness today's visualization tools in the service of biology is sharpened by the struggle to bring molecular perspectives on biology home to students at both the high school and college level.
Can you talk to us a little about the process of working with the animators?
The development of each animation is a sustained collaborative effort on several fronts. On the one hand, you have scientists and educators with deep knowledge of both the science and what fundamental concepts need to be communicated, and on the other you have animators and programmers with mastery of the software tools and the visual idiom.
Bringing these two groups together is an essential part of the process and requires a commitment on both sides to a collaborative effort. This begins with the creation of detailed story boards based on the relevant scientific literature and with a particular pedagogical goal in mind. The initial storyboard serves as a framework that facilitates synthesis of multiple scientific models of how individual components function into a coherent sequence of events that takes into consideration the cellular context and the element of time. Using this framework, the scientists take the first step in "imagining" a visual representation that transforms a hypothesis written in words into moving images with the power to communicate.
The initial story board is then fully developed through close collaboration with the animators. In a highly iterative process, the visual narrative is further developed in light of their input on the available animation tools and effects, and fully informed by their expertise on effective visual storytelling. Continued dialogue with the scientists at every step is essential. This ongoing dialogue transforms and molds the animation during development as scenes and players are revised to take into account available scientific data as well as what constitutes visual clarity. Indeed the constraints imposed by the need for coherence both in visual and spatial terms forces us to challenge traditional modes of representation and makes for an exciting development process.
We have a sense of the fantastic response from the public. Would you say it's the same from the researchers in the field?
I am happy to say that the response from researchers in the field has also been overwhelmingly positive. Of the many hundreds of requests we have received to use the animation, roughly a third come from research scientists and professors of biology and chemistry. Researchers from several biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies have requested our permission to use the animation in presentations ranging from award ceremonies to high school outreach programs. We have also received many requests from researchers interested in using the animation in talks at scientific meetings and in their undergraduate courses. In fact, one of the frustrating aspects of the project is that we have received many requests from researchers interested in collaborating on animations relating to their own work, but simply don't have the resources to work with all of them. Thus, we have a waiting list of researchers ready to collaborate on future Biovisions animations. This speaks to the power of visualization, not only in teaching but also in the realm of communicating ideas between scientists.
Do we know how true to life are these animations are? Has there been some artistic freedom used in visualizing Lipid Rafts or Micro Tubules.
Every scene in the animation is true to a key aspect of our current understanding of the biology portrayed in that scene. That said,decisions are made as to what concept should be emphasized, which ultimately drives the nature of the visual expression. This allows for artistic freedom, but it is a freedom constrained by what we are trying to communicate; it is not artistic freedom driven by say some abstract conception of beauty. In the case of the lipid rafts, the visual representation is meant to illustrate the relative homogeneity and cohesion of raft components in comparison to the surrounding membrane, while simultaneously illustrating the greater thickness of the rafts as well. The range of colors represents the diversity and relative abundance of each lipid component, while the overall choice of palette is clearly an aesthetic one. In the case of the microtubules, the individual tubulin components are shown with their correct three-dimensional shapes based on protein structure analysis, and the overall organization of each microtubule is based on high resolution electron microscopic images. On the other hand, the color, surface rendering, and lighting are all clearly based on aesthetics.
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