A Frozen February Empties One Microscopist's Specimen Supply
A frigid February morning in Edinburgh found Patrick Hickey out of living things to put under his microscope. The plants and fungi in his garden had dried up, and the summer puddles had long since frozen over.
Hickey, a mycologist at Hypha Research Ltd., was using plant leaves to study mitochondria, the cellular organelles that generate energy.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
Take
The mismatch is the charming part: a mycologist, and the thing going under the lens is a plant leaf.
Pushback
The dried-up fungi may be beside the point. What he was actually putting under the microscope was a leaf, so it was the plants and the frozen puddles that closed off his options.