A Virtual Tour Of A Human Cell?

With the leaps and bounds that technology has taken over the decades comes new fascinating ways of viewing science.  Yes, traditionally, these 'cool graphics' have been reserved mainly to the video game industry.  Now, a graduate student -- Tyler DeWitt has teamed up with Google and made a virtual tour of the human cell.  Yes, a grant had to be written to support the work.  What is amazing about the virtual tour is the clarity and visualization that is possible. The name Tyler DeWitt should be familiar to you (if you have kept up with the posts written on this site) -- you will remember him from a previous post of mine on communicating science.    Without further ado, here is an 8 minute tour of the cell shown below:

Was that not amazing?  I have been a proponent of virtual reality in teaching chemistry for quite a while.  Although, there remain a considerable amount of 'kinks' to be worked out until each student finds themselves in a 'virtual classroom.'  Videos like the tour above give us a glimpse into the possibilities of the future in teaching rather difficult concepts to students.



Furthermore, the concepts discussed in the video above tie in quite nicely with the mechanisms of disease from the medical community.  Imagine if the two were tied together to show a patient how a drug works?  Or if the mutation of a gene resulted in the formation of an incomplete protein?



A perfect example would be a visit to the doctor who uses the technology above in educating the patient.  If a doctor were to use the visualization above to convey that the drug a person was prescribed to was interacting with another active site, then educating the patient to change to a different medication might be much easier.  In the future, the role of virtual reality will only increase not decrease.



Examples like the video above inspire confidence in changing toward a more educated public regardless of the what concept is being conveyed.   As is often said..."a picture is worth a thousand words..."  Until next time, have a great day.


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