1998/99 DECEMBER/JANUARY MYSTERY IMAGE

As many of you guessed, this is a zygote (a fertilized cell). This mystery image was just to easy for all of you. What may not be known was how the picture was made. This image was made using a special microscope that uses lasers. A scanning-laser confocal microscope is the microscopes long name. These microscopes use special chemicals (dyes) that glow when illuminated by specific laser colors (wavelengths of light). Using these scanning-laser confocal microscopes many details of cells can be revealed. Easily seen in our zygote are the nuclei of two cells. The two cells are a result of a process called cell division. The nucleus holds the information need to build and maintain cells (DNA). Our October 1998 image was also made using this kind of microscope.
(Image by David Capco)

For those of you that are curious, here are some numbers from our list of guesses.

• 88% guessed that it was a cell or cells.
• 7% guessed that it was a galaxy or some image from space.

Some of the creative single answers are listed below.

• Super nova in a galaxy far, far away.
• Laser light image at a rock concert.