Matthew Kuo tells us how tiny worm faecal pellets affect how oil pipelines sit on the seabed.

Nanowires growing in real time. Each nanowire is roughly 400 atoms wide.

Dr Andrew Gillis explains how an elephant fish embryo lives off a large yellow yolk sack for 7 to 10 months before hatching out as a fish. Dr Gillis: “This is a picture of an elephant fish embryo. Elephant fish are cartilaginous fishes, and are distant cousins of sharks, skates and stingrays. The elephant fish lives in deep water off the coasts of Australia and New Zealand, but migrates annually into shallow coastal bays to lay their eggs. I study the embryonic development of elephant fish,...

In this video Dr Sungjune Jung shows us the fluid structures produced by the impact of two liquid jets. Dr Jung: “This video shows the evolution of the flow structures generated from the collision of two liquid jets each with a radius of 420um. The jets were ejected from parallel cylindrical nozzles with an internal diameter of 0.85mm. The collision of the jets resulted in various systems of behaviour which depend on the jet velocities and the liquid properties. We focus on the system where...

This is a beautiful image of human brain cells, which can now be grown from adult skin cells. Yichen Shi: "Brain neural stem cells derived from human skin cells: these stem cells express typical marker genes of brain neocortical stem cells, such as Pax6 (Red fluorescent labeled), and form a rosette structure resembling the transection of the neural tube." The entire image is about 250 μm across (a really thick bit of human hair). More...

PhD student Paola Cognigni shows us this beautiful image of a fruit fly’s brain and gut. Paola Cognigni: “This video shows the anatomical and functional connection between the brain and the gut in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. This work is carried out in Dr Irene Miguel-Aliaga's lab in the Department of Zoology as part of a research project that aims to find and explain the interactions between internal organs and their importance in growth and health.” The brain is about 700...

Here we can see the underside of mouse tail skin. Claire Cox: "The epidermis, which is the outer layer of mammalian skin, is maintained by numerous stem cell populations. The identification of the factors involved in controlling these populations and thus epidermal maintenance is highly valuable. Not only will it provide information as to how a complex tissue is organised and controlled, the principles that are learnt can be applied to other tissues. Through the work that I am completing, I...

Dr Andrew Gillis shows us an embryonic skate head and explains how the red denticles dotted all over it have very similar properties to human teeth. Dr Gillis: "This is a picture of the head of an embryonic skate (Leucoraja erinacea). A skate is a cartilaginous fish, closely related to sharks and stingrays. This embryo has been stained with dyes that colour the skeleton - cartilage is blue, and mineralised tissue is red - and then cleared with chemicals to make it transparent. The result is...

Matt Benton shows us nuclei moving inside a beetle egg as a beetle embryo forms. Matt Benton: “For my PhD I am studying the embryonic development of the beetle, Tribolium castaneum. During development in this beetle, a large number cells must move together at a certain location of the egg to form the embryo proper. At the same time, other cells move to overlap the forming embryo, to protect it and help it grow. Currently, we only have a basic understanding of how these different groups of...

In this video Dr Ingrid Graz shows us a thin layer of gold on top of rubber. Cracks in the gold allow it to stretch and we can use this for stretchable electronics. Dr Graz: “Imagine a future mobile phone that can be wrapped around your wrist or an MP3 player that is integrated in your T-shirt. Stretchable electronics is a new evolution of electronics - the idea behind is to create electronic devices that can be rolled, flexed, deformed and even stretch like a rubber band. To enable...

In this video we see a killer T cell of the immune system attacking a cancer cell. Professor Gillian Griffiths: “Cells of the immune system protect the body against pathogens. If cells in our bodies are infected by viruses, or become cancerous, then killer cells of the immune system identify and destroy the affected cells. Cytotoxic T cells are very precise and efficient killers. They are able to destroy infected or cancerous cells, without destroying healthy cells surrounding them. The...

In this video Dr Beverley Glover explains how a daisy is a collection of tiny flowers grouped together to make it look like a single big flower. Dr Glover: “The flowering plants (Angiosperms) form the dominant vegetation over most of the Earth’s land surface. They are found in all habitats except the Antarctic, and can tolerate an extraordinarily wide range of environmental conditions. All major human food crops are Angiosperms. We are interested in the evolution and development of the...

Dr Tim Wilkinson is combining liquid crystals with nanotechnology to try and create 3D displays which would look like real life. Dr Wilkinson: “Liquid crystal displays are now a commonplace technology from mobile phone displays to wide screen televisions. They are, however, still limited by the shape, size and speed of their pixels when they are used to display video images. This video shows microscope sequences of a new nanotechnology based liquid crystal pixel structure that will allow...

In this video, we see a mouse embryo developing. Erica Watson tells us that studying this process helps us better understand human pregnancy. Erica Watson: “The development of a fetus is elegant yet complex. Amazingly, most fetuses undergo a highly orchestrated sequence of events during development to produce a healthy baby. This suggests that a baby can adapt to changes in the womb, such as to the availability of nutrients from its mother. But how do these environmental changes affect the...

In this video Dr Chris Forman shows us his incredible images of a fruit fly foot and beetle antenna. Dr Forman: "Nature has found remarkable ways of using small amounts of energy to combine common elements such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen into fascinating and complex assemblies like these insects shown here. If we could do the same in our manufacturing processes then perhaps we could recycle our products more easily and we wouldn't use as much energy processing large lumps of...

In the first of this microscopic video series, Dr Chris Forman shows us the eye of a beetle and the eye of a fruit fly and explains how they have inspired technology. Dr Forman: “Nature has found remarkable ways of using small amounts of energy to combine common elements such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen into fascinating and complex assemblies like these insects shown here. If we could do the same in our manufacturing processes then perhaps we could recycle our products more...