Scientists at Yale University and at Grenoble in France have created a video that shows the breakup of actin threads. Actin filaments are as strong as plastic, and give a cell support and movement. The filaments function by continuously splitting, reforming, and splitting again to exert pressure on the cellular membrane and keep cell organs in place. How and where this splitting occurred was previously unknown to scientists, until Enrique De La Cruz and his French associates used a fluorescent version of the protein that disassembles the filaments. He used a technique called "total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy" to record the process in action.
Hey, for once I'm not talking about cancer treatments. I think that this is one of those discoveries that has little practical application in the science world other than being another thing college students have to study, but it was the way that they did this that intrigued me. They made fluorescent proteins to view the actin threads splitting, much like radioactive dye in cancer patients, and then used TIRFM to videotape the action.
http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2011/04/29/video_captures_cellular_workhorses_in_action_.html
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