The most beautiful thing I've ever seen . . .

. . . okay, that's a slight exaggeration. But it's close. You know you're a true nerd when you can look at something obscure that would make most people furrow their respective brows, but it makes you want to weep for joy.

I remember when I was taking Bio 240, or intro to molecular biology, a good five years ago, and our teacher put a picture of a ribosome up on the overhead and told us it was beautiful.

I didn't understand then, but I do now.

And thus, I give you my FISH (please recall that this is an acronym, standing for fluorescence in-situ hybridization. What you see below is a small fluorescent spot of DNA on a chromosome, indicating how many copies of a gene there are and where they are located on the chromosome. And it makes me supremely happy). (Also, click on the picture to enlarge. It still won't make much sense, but you'll be able to see the blobs better.)