This image shows a water droplet suspended in an emulsion of olive oil (black and purple) and lipids, molecules that serve as the building blocks of cell membranes. Each lipid has been labeled with a red fluorescent marker, and what looks like red and yellow flames are the markers reacting to a beam of UV light. Their glow shows lipids adhering to the surface of the water droplet, which will soon engulf the droplet to form a single lipid bilayer, which can then be transformed into a lipid bilayer that resembles a cell membrane.

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Photo credit: © NIH / IMAGE POINT FR / BSIP / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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