MYSTERY ANSWER

Spring /Summer 2008 Mystery Image

Read below to find out the answer to our mystery image. Did you have the correct answer, or maybe a creative answer? 

image by C. J. Kazilek

Okay, if you were really observant and checked out some of our other mystery images this might have seemed similar. It is another image taken the same time we did the Summer 2003 mystery image. The difference is we magnified it a lot more to look closer at the surface.

So what is it?

This is a picture of the surface of a single pollen grain. You know pollen, the stuff that makes a lot of people sneeze. The image was made using a scanning-laser confocal microscope. These microscopes take many images of a sample at different depths. Each image, or as we call them slice, is saved and later the entire group of images are put back together using a computer. The final image has much more detail than a standard microscope. You can learn more about how confocal microscopes work at this web page.

http://paperproject.org/slcmtechnology.html

What is the purpose of those "bumps" on the surface?

• That's a good question. If they actually have a function it could be one of the following.
• They may be left over from the process that formed the pollen grains or may have to do with the way they were packed together.
• They may also have some quite prosaic, molecular level function like holding water (by capillary attraction) close to the outer surface of the grain long enough to allow hydration.
• They may be a method of "directing" the growth of the pollen tube on germination.
• They may be low frequency interstellar communication antennae - just kidding.

So we are not quite sure if they have a function. Maybe you will be the scientist that finds out if they do and what the function is.