A Twist in Time: Finale
Inner Life of a Cell
Walking into a 200 seat planetarium style venue, you meander around a queue line that has several genetics facts sponsored by the University of Central Florida School of Medicine and other affiliated hospitals in the Orlando area. Similar to the Soarin' queue, questions pop up such as "How many chromosomes are in the human body?" and a variety of choice to select.
After turning into the theater, you notice that the chairs are reclined back in a comfortable position, with a camera in the center of the planetarium. You lounge in your reclined chairs circled around the camera in the center, and wait for the show to begin. A cast member instructs you about the 25 minute show, no eating, drinking, flash photography, etc -- and then the adventure begins.
Narrator: "The building blocks of life - how we as a species have evolved from such microscopic origins is a feat unlike anything else in history. Through the didactic and precise calculations of manifestation - human life evolves from such humble origins as a tiny atom -- but how does this atom of protons, electrons, and neutrons grow? The answers lie with two chemically distinct forms of nucleic acids within eukaryotic cells - DNA and RNA.
As humans - we must be able to store and preserve our genetic information - and pass that information along to future generations. DNA and RNA share the same language - the same coding patterns.
Through the lense of microscopy - we can see the inner life of our cells - and how our genetic code creates the life we know that. Join us on an expedition inside the human cell - to see its inner workings and machinations."
The film continues
Classical music begins to play as you are taken inside the cell - using CGI and other resources to tell the tale - you travel into the Nucleus and see where the DNA and RNA of the human body are stored - and how they are replicated. The computer animation identifies the central dogma of molecular biology - meaning that DNA is transcribed into RNA, which is translated into Proteins.
You then travel deep into the the DNA to see its base pairs lined up and organized in its double helical structure inside the body. As the camera pans out you pass the RNA in the nucleolus. The camera pans out and you travel to the mitochondria and see the Citric Acid Cycle - as well as a variety of other glycolytic pathways - at work pumping out ATP via the electron transport chain and other areas. Expanding out you can see the nutrients and oxygen particles traveling into the mitochorndrial matrix and towards the mitochondrial DNA. The energy producing machinery is seen throughout this part of the film, as abundant ATP powers the other cellular activities that you will be encountering.
You come across a motor protein then walking along the cytoskeleton to induce its motor capabilities.
The Smooth and Rough Endoplasmic Recticulum are identified and seen as you travel around the cytoskeleton and the membranous space of the cell.
The Narrator elicits how the ER is a series of interconnected membranes that are actually contiguous with the nuclear envelop of the membrane. The double membrane of the ER is folded into numerous invaginations, creating complex structures with a central lumen.
You round the smooth ER and travel then to the Golgi Apparatus and the Lysosomes of the cell - as you continue your journey around. The finale of the show is of carbohydrate metabolism - deriving the methods for forming ATP and acetyl-CoA that make the body active. The adventure into the cell ends and you exit back into the lobby atrium.
