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Salient: Victoria University Students' Newspaper. Vol. 24, No. 8. 1961.

Wildman at Vic

Wildman at Vic.

Two hundred Botany enthusiasts were treated to a free slide show by Dr. S. G. Wildman, Professor of Botany at the University of California, Los Angeles, U.S.A.

Dr. Wildman, who has been conducting research on cell-structure and organisation, as well as on the Tobacco Mosaic virus, showed a series of slides demonstrating some advances in techniques, both microscopic and photographic, which have been developed lately in the U.S.A.

The main point of his accompanying talk was that he has discovered, with his research team, that the contents of a cell are constantly moving, fast enough to necessitate high-speed photographic techniques in order to obtain a true picture of the cell-contents and their interrelations. These techniques have revealed part of the nature of the mitochondria and the complex protein reticulum in the protoplasm. To photograph these structures shutter speeds in the order of 1/500th of a second were necessary. The Professor stressed the fact that this motion of the cell-components tends to be overlooked by many biologists.

Dr. Wildman also showed some slides of work being done on the protein jacket of the chloroplasts (the only cell-contents which don't move) that seems to suggest that this is the same material as that of the mitochondria. The technique used to detect the chloroplasts depends on the fact that chlorophyl fluoresces under ultra-violet light, so giving orange/red spots to show the position of the chlorophyl-containing chloroplasts.

After the talk Dr. Wildman answered questions from the audience.