The Sound of Cells

Other identifiers by BWJones · 2004-04-16 05:18 · Score: 5, Informative

From the article: Pelling agrees, and says that he and Gimzewski are doing tests to rule out the possibility that other molecules in the fluid bathing the cells, or even the tip of the microscope itself, are generating vibrations that their probe picks up.

Even if this is the case, because of a cells small molecular fingerprint or components tend to dictate what role a cell plays or what the status of a cell is on a more discrete time basis that say gene expression, one would wonder if this is not also an identifier of status or identity as well. For more detail on cytosomics or metabolomics, see this site.

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Re:Other identifiers by BaronAaron · 2004-04-16 05:32 · Score: 3, Insightful

Someone want to explain to me why it's so hard to verify where to sound is coming from?

Move the needle off the cell. If the sound stops then you know the sound wasn't coming from the surronding fluid or the tip of the microscope.

Am I missing something?
Re:Other identifiers by SEWilco · 2004-04-16 05:39 · Score: 4, Interesting

Move the needle off the cell. If the sound stops then you know the sound wasn't coming from the surronding fluid or the tip of the microscope.
Am I missing something?
Maybe the cell or its wall is vibrating due to sound from outside the cell. The probe might not pick it up, for example the cell wall may be resonating to a certain frequency in the sounds while the probe might be too small and rigid.
Re:Other identifiers by Thurn+und+Taxis · 2004-04-16 06:23 · Score: 3, Informative

That's certainly one important control, but it's not enough. The vibration could be due to motion of the microscope stage which is coupled well to the probe tip by the cell, but not by the fluid. The mechanical load of the cell on the probe tip might also reduce the passive resonant frequency of the tip. I'm not sure exactly which tips he's using, but some of the more compliant V-shaped AFM tips unloaded resonant frequencies as low as 20 kHz; loading them with the mass of a cell could easily drop the resonant frequency down to 1 kHz. Unless he's done some careful work to show that these vibrations he's seeing aren't due to thermal noise, I would have serious doubts that they tell you anything about the cells.

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Beep beep by AtariAmarok · 2004-04-16 05:18 · Score: 4, Funny

I hear the things beeping all over the place now. Little tinny tunes like Mexican Hat Dance too.

Oh, sorry, thought you said cell PHONES.

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oh great... by TR0GD0RtheBURNiNAT0R · 2004-04-16 05:20 · Score: 4, Funny

Even more voices to listen too...

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I'm telling you... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-04-16 05:22 · Score: 5, Funny

It's the Midichlorians. You'll hear them too when you learn to quiet your mind.

Re:I'm telling you... by AndroidCat · 2004-04-16 05:54 · Score: 2, Funny

That was a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. They didn't have Prozac back then.

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Makes total sense... by turrican · 2004-04-16 05:22 · Score: 2, Interesting

This is one of those things is basically an inevitability, waiting only for the proper tools to exist.

Reminds me of how a mechanic might listen to an engine, or part of it, to determine what's going on inside.

What they will hear... by hords · 2004-04-16 05:25 · Score: 5, Funny

"Get your body in shape you insensitive clod"

I hear dead people

Doctor of musicolonoscopy by Jtheletter · 2004-04-16 05:25 · Score: 2, Funny

I always wondered what field Dr. Teeth, from Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, held his degree in, now we know!

Hey man, just relax and bend over the examining table while I prep this guitar tuner for insertion....

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Obligatory Family Guy Quote: by Navius+Eurisko · 2004-04-16 05:27 · Score: 2, Funny

Skin Cell 1: Hey I saw you on the cover of Scientific American!

Skin Cell 2: Palez! The photo totally made me look fat!

Skin Cell 3: Jesus, just take the complement!

dolphin tech by Doc+Ruby · 2004-04-16 05:28 · Score: 4, Interesting

Aren't there lots of stories about dolphins bumping swimmers repeatedly with their snouts, causing a medical examination which discovers a tumor? I haven't heard any theories that dolphins are causing the tumors (though they'd have plenty of material for revenge), but these bigbrained cousins are notorious for their sense of sound, superior to our sight. Maybe we should be certifying them, instead of crudely replacing them with machines.

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Re:dolphin tech by 3waygeek · 2004-04-16 07:14 · Score: 2, Informative

I don't know about dolphins, but there's at least one dog who can detect melanoma.
Re:dolphin tech by marshac · 2004-04-16 07:55 · Score: 3, Interesting

I had an oceanography professor who was swimming with some dolphins.... she noticed that they were not playing a "rough" as they had in the past... a week later, she found out that she was pregnant. I really doubt that even dolphins could detect the type of vibrations described in the story however.
Re:dolphin tech by Doc+Ruby · 2004-04-16 10:02 · Score: 2, Interesting

Dolphins emit the vibrations. They "see" the layered contents of objects around them in the echoes into their foreheads and snouts. We do the same thing with radar petroleum exploration, but with less feeling, and without growing up in exclusively that sensorium.

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I used this before for network monitoring. by dekashizl · 2004-04-16 05:29 · Score: 5, Interesting

I've used audio feedback in conjunction with network monitoring, and it worked VERY well. I was developing a SOAP-based client/server app, and I tied a different sound (MIDI note actually, sometimes from the percussion instrument, sometimes ascending chords on piano) to each type of message the client and server could send.

In the course of a standard interaction, it would play login, login ack, getlist, getlist-resp, etc. I could hear the timing between calls (yeh, SOAP is kind of slow like that), and more importantly hear if it was doing the right things. You pick it up *immediately* when a chord progression is major, minor, or just plain wrong), All this without taking up any screen real estate.

This works so well, I recommend it highly. AFAIK there are no standard ways of doing this, but it certainly would be great to put some standard techniques and libraries together!

Re:I used this before for network monitoring. by jmulvey · 2004-04-16 05:37 · Score: 3, Funny

Yeah, I manage my networks using sound the same way. If I make a change to a router, I pick up *immediately* when something is wrong. The sounds are usually way off in the cubicles and go something like this: "What the heck is going on!", "Are you clocking?".
Re:I used this before for network monitoring. by Jtheletter · 2004-04-16 06:29 · Score: 3, Interesting

Ditto, I wrote a quick routine to play .wav files and plugged that into my code in place of MessageBox alerts for debugging an automated chemistry cell that was running in another lab.
I used babelfish and AT&Ts text-to-speech page to make a bunch of alert sound files in french. Besides being extremely useful (no more interrupting my workflow with a popup message everytime something happened in the lab) it was amusing as hell to watch my coworkers' reactions whenever my workstation started babbling in french about the status of sample sets.

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true, the sound of your cell indicates abnormality by Mengoxon · 2004-04-16 05:30 · Score: 3, Funny

...like, when you have Ride of Valkiries as your ring-tone

Madeline L'Engle's 'A Wind in the Door'? by unithom · 2004-04-16 05:32 · Score: 3, Funny

This is old news, ever since Meg healed her little brother Charles Wallace by teaching his cells how to sing. Or Kythe. Or something.

Conformal change vibration and resonance analysis by G4from128k · 2004-04-16 05:32 · Score: 5, Insightful

Whenever a protein or enzyme in a cell changes shape, it should induce characteristic vibrations in the surround media. Each enzyme would emit its own characteristic vibrations when it undergoes a change in shape as it catalyzes a reaction or does its business.

For example, I'd bet nerve cells give off sounds as the propagating impulse causes cell-surfane ion channels to pop open and closed. The ion pumps that restore ion concentrations would also emit a hum with characteristic frequencies. For membrane-embedded enzymes (e.g., the channels on nerve cells), interferometry off the membrane surface might help to detect these minute vibrations. I wonder if one could even detect the sound of prions forming when a protein is warped into the misshaped conformation that characterizes conditions like BSE -- sound of a brain going mad.

I'd bet that one could also analyze protein/enzyme states with a fine-grained analysis of the sound transfer function for a cell. Depending on the physical state of each protein species and its concentration, a cell would attenuate or resonate with particular acoustic frequencies. Large cell structures (e.g. mitochondria) might also have their own characteristic acoustical modulation functions that depend on the size and membrane structure. If analyzing the transfer function for a live, wet cell is too hard, I suspect that flash-freezing the cell might create a better acoustical specimen.

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Diagnostics by gusmao · 2004-04-16 05:35 · Score: 5, Interesting

Although they may eventually reach some interesting results, it seems very unlikely that this research will change the way diagnostics are made nowadays. I don't see how someone could replace or question physiological exams based on a source of information so unreliable and subject to noises as this.

Anyway, these guys have already prooved that, in some situations, is very hard to get useful information throught sound, even when you know what you may be looking for.

Re:The smell of cancer by jeni+generic · 2004-04-16 05:37 · Score: 5, Interesting

I hope they continue to delve into the olefactory sences as well. They found out that some dogs can smell melanoma. Combine that with sound technology and we can get the lousy HMO check up process out of the way. "Hey doc, whats with this mole on my boob?" "Its a third nipple." "No shit, are you sure it's not cancer" "Of course I'm sure, I'm a doctor!"

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Apologies to George Carlin: by shadowcabbit · 2004-04-16 05:38 · Score: 4, Funny

Things you don't want to hear from your cells:

"I was thinking of redecorating the place; d'you think some melanoma would look good here?"
"C'mon, all the cool kids are having apoptosis! You're not chicken, are you?"
"The mitochondria must be liberated!"
"Hey, alcohol! Irish stout! All right, time for Liverdance!"

...and the number one thing:
"Ouch!"

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Barbarians by Wiseazz · 2004-04-16 05:42 · Score: 3, Funny

Sprinkling alcohol on a yeast cell to kill it raises the pitch

Won't someone please think of the yeast cells?

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Preceded by the work of tech artist Joe Davis? by base_chakra · 2004-04-16 05:53 · Score: 4, Informative

Joe Davis is an artist and research affiliate at MIT's Department of Biology. He and other MIT students and faculty assembled a similar system ca. 1999-2000.

Davis is an interesting guy who's gotten a fair amount of professional and media attention for his intriguing work in genetic and biological postmodern art.

LA Weekly Article + Website by David+Hume · 2004-04-16 05:54 · Score: 4, Informative

The LA Weekly had an article on this in the April 4-10, 2003, issue: Buckyballs and Screaming Cells: The amazing miniature world of UCLA chemist Jim Gimzewski

James Gimzewski's Website: Pico Lab

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And dead cells make noise too by AndroidCat · 2004-04-16 05:58 · Score: 2, Funny

while dead cells give off a low, rumbling sound that Gimzewski says is probably the result of random atomic motions.

Maybe they're just hungry, for brain cells...

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Cell alert.... by carlos_benj · 2004-04-16 05:59 · Score: 2, Funny

Alert Slashdot reader jamie pointed out a story in Smithsonian Magazine...

Maybe jamie's cells sounded the alert...

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peer review, peer review, peer review by nesneros · 2004-04-16 06:00 · Score: 4, Insightful

I'm not saying the work is bad or anything (I think it shows very novel thinking), but this hasn't been peer reviewed. This is important. Until the work has been scrutinized by experts in the field you can not tell whether or not something is statistically or scientifically significant.

No, peer review is not a perfect process, but its the best one we have. Scientists and the press need to remember this before they make claims about scientific work.

At least this article mentions the fact.

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Okay... so they make noise... by mark-t · 2004-04-16 06:08 · Score: 2, Funny

But the question is, are they into karaoke? Or maybe there's another way someone with an entrepeneural spirit could capitalize on this.

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Listening to the sound of cells seems obvious.. by wfberg · 2004-04-16 06:10 · Score: 3, Funny

Until you realise the article isn't about cell phones..

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one octave off by mossmann · 2004-04-16 06:10 · Score: 4, Informative

1000 Hz is actually about two octaves above middle C, not one as the article states.

Mitosis with SOUND by theapodan · 2004-04-16 06:27 · Score: 3, Funny

Hehe, now when the cells split in mitosis, you can hear all the "Ahhhhhh!" and "OOOOOOOHHH YEAH!" cell sex noises that they are sure to make.

Dexter's Laboratory by bluenawab · 2004-04-16 06:33 · Score: 3, Funny

Man! i dont know why i watch cartoon network so much, but i think it has some potential! i watched an episode last week in which Dexter was actually performing this very same experiment! only different being, he finds a virus-boy band! i guess i am a loser ;)

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