Mother/Daughter

Cell division. This is a cell of budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the microorganism that helps us make bread, beer, and wine. Budding yeast cells divide asymmetrically, with the larger mother cell forming a smaller bud which then grows and separates. Here I have captured the cells in late anaphase, just before completion of division. The outer cell walls are 3D printed steel infiltrated with bronze; the organelles are bronze, and the mitotic spindles separating inside the nucleus are sterling silver. Apatite gemstones represent the chromosomes, chosen because they get their blue-green color from phosphorus, the element that forms the backbone of DNA, from which the chromosomes are made.