Mitosis: The Movie
Here’s a time-lapse video of mitosis, the process of cell division and replication. Discover describes it as “a beautiful dance” which
begins with cells creating the right number of partners, by duplicating all of their chromosomes. At first, the dancers haphazardly mingle with each other but as things get underway, they separate and line up in a neat row. Then, dramatically, they shimmy across to opposite ends of the room, following long spindles of protein. Once the partners split up, the cell pinches down its middle and separates them forevermore. Without this courtly dance, you would never have been anything more than a fertilised egg. Life simply wouldn’t work.
I don’t know about all that, but it is kind of cool. It could use a better soundtrack, though.