Question: Is it hard to play with cells seeing as they are really hard to see

Elliot Jokl answered on 13 Jun 2016:

Hello and thanks for the question!

So, we tend to work with cell cultures, which are thousands and thousands of cells which are attached to a plastic plate and covered in a liquid which contains all the nutrients they need to survive and grow. We can add different chemicals to the plate and see how the cells react to it. We do have to look down a microscope to see what happens because the cells are all to small to see with the naked eye. As long as you are fairly careful, the cells are quite easy to use. I have mistakenly washed them away by not being very careful when pouring chemicals on them!

Thankfully I don’t have to work with individual cells, which are very small and very fragile when on their own (but there are scientists out there who do lots of work with single cells).