Cellular space
Human cells come in a variety of sizes, from 10 to 100 micrometers in diameter. (A micrometer or micron is 1,000 times smaller than a millimeter.) Imagine a single grain of salt cut into five pieces. Each of those pieces would be about the size of an average human cell, invisible without magnification and so small that about 635 of these cells could fit across the diameter of a penny.
Yet within the tiny confines of a cell, much has been packed, from organelles to a nucleus containing roughly six feet of coiled DNA if stretched out end-to-end. The space encased by the cell’s membrane is very busy and incompletely understood.
Researchers like Lorenzo Puri, MD, and Alessandra Sacco, PhD, at Sanford Burnham Prebys explore these tiny worlds, sorting out the signals and cues both inside and outside of cells that help dictate and determine normal development, health and aging.
About the art: Odra Noel is a medical doctor and PhD in basic science, with additional degrees in aesthetics and music. Her silk paintings focus primarily on human biology, often informed by microscopy. Wellcome Collection.