Take a 50-second ride through the inside of an adult mouse lung in this video created by Rex Moats, PhD, scientific director at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. A post published today on the NIH Director's Blog describes the animation and points out that the video is a prime example of how scientists are using big data to make biomedical research more accessible to the public:
We begin at the top in the main pipeline, called the bronchus, just below the trachea and wind through a system of increasingly narrow tubes. As you zoom through the airways, take note of the cilia (seen as goldish streaks); these tiny, hair-like structures move dust, germs, and mucus from smaller air passages to larger ones. Our quick trip concludes with a look into the alveoli -- the air sacs where oxygen is delivered to red blood cells and carbon dioxide is removed and exhaled.
... [Moats] created this virtual bronchoscopy from micro-computed tomography scans, which use X-rays to create a 3D image. The work demonstrates the power of converting Big Data (in this case, several billion data points) into an animation that makes the complex anatomy of a mammalian lung accessible to everyone.
Speaking of the power of big data, the Big Data in Biomedicine conference returns to Stanford May 20-22. For more information about the program or to register visit the conference website.
Previously: Big data = big finds: Clinical trial for deadly lung cancer launched by Stanford study and Peering deeply - and quite literally - into the intact brain: A video fly-through
