Finding Giardia

About a month ago I completed my Ph.D. dissertation on the lifestyle of a well known, but not wel-come critter...Giardia lamblia. I have spent hours upon hours staring at this little bugger in various microscopes, during various stages of its lifecycle trying to understand how it divides. There are many reaons for studying this which I would be happy to discuss at length, but for now just assume that it's the most facinating thing in the world to spend years of your life studying!

One frustration we scientists often have is sharing our excitement for our chosen passions with non-scientists. I had the pleasure of working with a talented group of animators at Stylus an exciting new company that makes 3D animations (a la Pixar) of biological processes for use in presentations. They made an animation of the lifecycle of Giardia as it passes through the intestine of an average unassuming animated creature. Not only is it wonderful to see a true artists interpretation of the information we were feeding them, but I think they really made something that captures the imagination..leaving people wanting more! In fact it inspired our friends to make their own video interpretation of my research.

In my unbiased opinion I think it's pretty exciting...what do you think?