Maurice B. Hallett - Molecular and Cellular Biology of Phagocytosis

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One of the most exciting microscopic events that can be observed in real time is probably phagocytosis. Showing it to anyone who has yet to see it (children, non-scientific adult, scientist from different disciplines, etc.) what happens during phagocytosis is always a stimulating experience. Often while watching, the observer gives encouragement to the cell (Come on! You can do it, Just one more) and may cheer when the phagocyte succeeds (Good cell, youve done it, Great job, etc.) as if the cell were responsive to the words. I guess that it is because in the non-microscopic world, trying to get a dog or a horse do something amazing is rewarded only by encouragement

But consider this. You are given a microscope to view two grey microscopic blobs, with the task of discovering which one of the two is alive. One is a grey blob of gel and the other a living cell. The school-level definitions of life include respiration, growth and excretion. This might not help to distinguish between them. Scientists setting out to discover if there is life on Mars have found this out (distinguishing life from other chemical processes is tricky). You cannot see any substructure in the grey blobs because of the poor optics available. However, you might quickly discover which is the living cell simply by poking each blob with a micropipette. If one of the grey blobs pushes out a pseudopodia at the opposite side to the one you are prodding and then moves away from the irritation, you might immediately guess that it was the living cell. A nonliving blob of gel would not and could not do this. Yet, would a small bag of chemicals do it? A phagocyte , whether a small neutrophil or a large amoeba, is not a dog or a horse to be encouraged; it is instead a bag of chemicals admittedly, a complex bag of chemicals, with substructure (smaller bags within the larger bag), but still a bag of chemicals. When you see this bag appear to think, and decide to grab a smaller object so that you feel it is trying or struggling to grab something, it is mere anthropomorphism. It is just a bag of chemicals. But to see a bag of chemicals do something like phagocytosis, putting out pseudopodia, and holding an object and then proceeding to swallow it, is to see a miracle.Molecular and Cell Biology of Phagocytosisis the study of this miracle.