November 1, 2010 (Vol. 30, No. 19)
URL:
http://depts.washington.edu/fishscop/index.html
Rating:
Strong Points: Nice video collection, downloadable files and 3-D movies
Weak Points: Not much content beyond videos
Summary:
So did you think that fancy 3-D technology was restricted to the latest blockbusters to hit your local movie theater? Ha! Clearly you haven’t visited FishScope, the website of Mark Cooper of the department of zoology at the University of Washington. With a simple pair of red/green or red/blue 3-D glasses, you can watch three (that’s right—three!) 3-D movies of zebrafish gastrulation. Don’t have the glasses? Not to worry—the rest of the site’s time-lapse recordings and confocal images are in good ol’ two dimensions. The remaining movies are categorized into developmental landmarks, NEM/forerunner cells, fish epidermal cells, neural crest/neural tube, and medaka. There isn’t much else on the site, but the movies definitely make it an appealing online destination. (I mean, really—where else can you observe lamellipodial action in wound closure?)
