A Cell Dies

I was kindly allowed to use this footage, taken by James Weiss, which I found on his channel Jam's Germs. It documents the death of a Blepharisma musculus, which is usually a pink-ish coloured unicellular ciliate. As the cell is exposed to light, the pink pigment oxidizes quickly, and the chemical reaction melts the cell: “When Blepharisma are living where they are regularly exposed to not-strong-enough-to-kill-them light, they lose their pinkish color over time. This one lived in a pond and then was in a jar on my desk under a lamp for a couple of weeks. So it lost its pink color, and because of the pigment loss, I thought it would survive my microscope’s light. But it didn’t and melted away... Blepharisma managed to prove to me how delicate life is.” (Weiss) The piece is written for flute, soprano saxophone, Bb clarinet, trombone and tuba and was performed by Maia Roberts, Andrey Fjeldstad, Leanne Baker, Emily Watson and Alexandra Hamilton.