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Description
We associate movement with life. This is just as true at the level of the cell - the smallest independent unit of life, as of the whole organism which is a collection of cells organised into tissue...s and organs. If you look inside a living cell a first impression is of movement. The contents are usually in motion. This programme looks at cells using a variety of ways of seeing, using microscopes. The cells chosen are the stamen hair cells of the house plant Tradescantia; the leaf cells of that plant, and the red and white cells of human blood. After locating the stamen hairs you see first of all their surface details, and then working inwards - their living contents. Green leaf cells are similarly described using photos and models, and they are seen alive with their contents in motion. Explanations of how sections are taken and interpreted, are supported using hens' eggs and models of the same. Red and white blood cells are described in the living animal, and then after an illustration of how they are separated from each other by sedimentation and centrifugation, they are explored with photographs and models. Finally you see all these living cells again to underline their dynamic aspects.
Metadata describing this Open University video programme
Module code and title: S101, Science: a foundation course
Item code: S101; 23
First transmission date: 14-08-1979
Published: 1979
Rights Statement:
Restrictions on use:
Duration: 00:24:00
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Producer: Roger Jones
Contributors: Stephen Hurry; Irene Ridge
Publisher: BBC Open University
Keyword(s): Cell structure; Light microscopes; Microscopic examination; Tradescantia
Footage description: Close up shots of a Tradescantia plant and its flower. Stephen Hurry points out the white hairs at the centre of the flower and, as the camera moves in, the individual cells of the hairs. Shots of a Tradescantia cell under the light microscope. Irene Ridge looks at Tradescantia cells under a more powerful light microscope. She points out and identifies some of the features. In order to gain much greater resolution, Ridge next examines micrographs of the surface of Tradescantia cells taken with a microscope. Ridge goes back to the light microscope to examine the interior of a living Tradescantia cell. She points out some of the interior features but particularly the dynamic state of movement inside the cell. Stephen Hurry uses sliced boiled eggs and a model of an egg to discuss possible ways in which static three dimensional picture of a cell can be built up. Having worked out the principle, Hurry goes on to apply it on real living tissue. He slices a leaf of Tradescantia into thin sections and examines these under the light microscope. In order to sharpen the details a dye is added to the specimen. Shots of sample sections under the electron microscope. Hurry shows a model of Tradescantia leaf cell which was constructed using data from experiments such as this. Finally, Hurry looks at some more cells from living plants, this time Canadian pond weed. Shots of the pond weed in an aquarium and of individual cells under the light microscope. Irene Ridge examines some red blood cells next to a Tradescantia leaf cell and points out the enormous difference in size between plant and animal cells. She then looks at more blood cells, both red and white which are circulating in blood vessels of living tissue. Ridge goes on, briefly, to describe a method by which red blood cells can be separated from white blood cells for individual study. Shots of a test tube of blood before and after separation. Stephen Hurry looks at some micrographs taken of red and white blood cells with a scanning electron microscope. He then shows a model of a red blood cell which was made using the data from electron micrographs. Irene Ridge describes the technique of freeze fracture of cells for electron micrography. She points out the advantages of this technique and then examines in detail, an electron micrograph of a white blood cell which was freeze fractured. Several film shots, without commentary of Tradescantia and Canadian pond weed cells under the light microscope at various magnifications.
Master spool number: 6HT/73068
Production number: FOUS023P
Videofinder number: 1198
Available to public: no