Welcome to the Nikon MicroscopyU digital movie gallery, featuring animated videos of specimens from our library of full-motion and time-lapse videos. The digital movies are downloadable as streaming media files that will play through a web browser using RealPlayer, which is available as a free download (basic package) or for a modest price (RealPlayer Plus). Additional information and links to Real.com are provided below. Digital movies may also be downloaded as *.MPEG files directly to your computer's hard drive for local playback.

Currently, our digital library features streaming videos from three galleries. Our chemical crystallization gallery contains time-lapse cinemicrography sequences that capture the crystallization, dissolution, sublimation, or melting of purified chemicals either in the solid form or dissolved in a suitable solvent. The pond life gallery features full-motion videos of minute creatures found in North Florida's ponds and lakes. Included are a wide diversity of organisms such as hydra, protozoa, rotifera, nematodes, and crustaceans. Use the link below to navigate to the digital movie galleries. Live-cell imaging captures the exciting interaction of living cells as they move about their culture dishes both avoiding and embracing their neighbors.

Live-Cell Imaging: Cell Motility - In multicellular tissues, such as those found in animals and humans, individual cells employ a variety of locomotion mechanisms to maneuver through spaces in the extracellular matrix and over the surfaces of other cells. Examples are the rapid movement of cells in developing embryos, organ-to-organ spreading of malignant cancer cells, and the migration of neural axons to synaptic targets. Unlike single-celled swimming organisms, crawling cells in culture do not possess cilia or flagella, but tend to move by coordinated projection of the cytoplasm in repeating cycles of extension and retraction that deform the entire cell. The digital videos presented in this gallery investigate animal cell motility patterns in a wide variety of morphologically different specimens.

Chemical Crystals - Chemical compounds can exist in three basic phases, gaseous, liquid, or solid. Gases consist of weakly bonded atoms and expand to fill any available space. Solids are characterized by strong atomic bonding and have a rigid shape. Most are crystalline, having a three-dimensional periodic atomic arrangement. Some, such as glass, lack this periodic arrangement and are noncrystalline, or amorphous. Liquids have characteristics that fall in between gases and solids. This cinemicrographic collection presents time-lapse movies of various chemical compounds as they change physical states.

Pond Life - Freshwater ponds provide a home for a wide variety of aquatic and semi-aquatic plants, insects, and animals. The vast majority of pond inhabitants, however, are invisible until viewed under the microscope. Beneath the placid surface of any pond is a microscopic metropolis bustling with activity as tiny bizarre organisms pursue their lives; locomoting, eating, trying not to be eaten, excreting, and reproducing. In this collection of digital movies, observe the activities of microscopic organisms taken from a typical North Florida pond.

Your web browser (Netscape, Internet Explorer, or America Online) must be configured with a RealPlayer (version 7 or higher) plug-in to enable viewing of the digital videos. The latest software version, RealPlayer 8 Basic, will provide access to RealAudio, RealVideo, live events plus more features. In most cases, the RealPlayer 8 Basic installer automatically configures your web browser so that it starts RealPlayer 8 and begins playback when you click a RealMedia link. If RealPlayer 8 does not start when you click a RealMedia link, you must manually configure your web browser. Instructions for browser configuration are available at Real.com.

Minimum Windows computer system requirements are:

• 120 MHz Intel Pentium processor or equivalent (supports audio only)

• Windows 95 or Windows NT Service Pack 4

• 16 MB RAM

• 16-bit sound card and speakers

• 65,000-color video display card

• 28.8Kbps modem (supports audio only)

• Internet connection and web browser (Internet Explorer 4.01 or later or Netscape 4.0 or later)

You may download the basic RealPlayer software package or the upgrade version, RealPlayer Plus, by clicking on the Real.com button link below.