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World's Fastest Cells Raced On Petri Dish

Posted by timothy on from the stick-timekeeping-duties-to-the-intern dept.

ananyo writes "In a tongue-in-cheek contest of microscopic mobility, a line of bone marrow stem cells from Singapore beat out dozens of competitors to claim the title of the world's fastest cells. They whizzed across a petri dish at the breakneck speed of 5.2 microns per minute — or 0.000000312 kilometers per hour."

15 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. Speed demons by masternerdguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Still faster than congress debating a bill.

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    1. Re:Speed demons by axlr8or · · Score: 2

      Yeah, but you can't compare apples to oranges. Congressional constituents are considered single celled amoeba. They are just about as likely to eat one another as do anything productive. Marrow cells on the other hand.....

    2. Re:Speed demons by Alsee · · Score: 2

      Speed of Congress debating a bill: NaN

      Debating bills went the way of buggy whips. Modern political technology initiates the filibuster simultaneously with the bill's original proposal. Politicians are excited about the recent neutrino results, and the possibility of initiating the filibuster process prior to bill proposal.

      -

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  2. Misleading summary by tpjunkie · · Score: 5, Informative

    They were simply the fastest cells that were among those that were raced; many cells from various species of protists, not to mention sperm cells are capable of faster speeds than that.

    1. Re:Misleading summary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Although my sperm normally moves at one-quarter impulse, it can achieve warp 9.7 for up to 3 hours.

      Your boyfriend farting doesn't count as self-mobility so the 9.7 warp data is invalid.

    2. Re:Misleading summary by ortholattice · · Score: 2

      Indeed, sperm cells from the rhesus macaque have been clocked at over 200 um/sec, or 12000 microns/minute, which is 2300 times faster than the 5.2 microns/minute winner in this race.

    3. Re:Misleading summary by ananyo · · Score: 2

      They were simply the fastest cells that were among those that were raced; many cells from various species of protists, not to mention sperm cells are capable of faster speeds than that.

      This is a fair point - though the story points to the fact these cells were being raced for a reason - it tells us more about embryo development. Racing sperm cells wouldn't tell us much about that (well, except how quickly a species could actually create the embryo in the first place).

    4. Re:Misleading summary by MrIlios · · Score: 3, Funny

      Sperm cells were not allowed to enter this particular event as they were registered for the sack race...

  3. I have watched some spirochetes by mark_reh · · Score: 2

    moving pretty fast. Hard to believe cells that are not normally motile (bone marrow stem cells) would beat cells that are exquisitely evolved for high speed locomotion. Come to think of it, paramecium can move pretty fast, too.

    1. Re:I have watched some spirochetes by vlm · · Score: 2

      Come to think of it, paramecium can move pretty fast, too.

      http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/RossKrupnik.shtml

      2 mm/sec?

      I believe it. Those things are a PITA to observe under a scope without adding this slime stuff that slows them down.

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
    2. Re:I have watched some spirochetes by MachDelta · · Score: 2

      Detain. I remember that stuff from bio labs. One of the dumbest labs I ever did. First, they expected freshmen undergrads to have the skill to catch a paramecium with a dropper and a dissecting microscope. Then, they expected us to know just how much detain to add to the slide so that we could find the damn thing, but not so much that it was totally immobilized. Then, they expected that if we added some food to the slide, we would be able to observe it eating...

      I don't think anyone in my lab class managed all three. I remember wishing I was still at home, in my bed.

  4. 0.000000312 kph is XXX in scale speed? by iamhassi · · Score: 2

    If they're 0.000000312 kilometers per hour how fast is that "scale speed"? If they were the size of a car, how fast would they be traveling?

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    1. Re:0.000000312 kph is XXX in scale speed? by NFN_NLN · · Score: 2

      If they're 0.000000312 kilometers per hour how fast is that "scale speed"? If they were the size of a car, how fast would they be traveling?

      If a "Adult bone marrow stem cells" is ~ 25 microns = 25E-6m
      http://www.biology-online.org/biology-forum/about154.html?hilit=Stromal

      If an average car is 4.12m
      http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_average_length_of_a_car

      Then 4.12/25E-6=x/(0.000000312km/h)

      x=0.0514176km/h

    2. Re:0.000000312 kph is XXX in scale speed? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 4, Funny

      theres about 60 minutes in an hour

      About sixty? Now I'm scared.

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  5. Wait for it... by RobinEggs · · Score: 3, Funny

    This story will definitely break slashdot's sperm joke record