They’re called nanosyringes, but they’re actually about 50 nanometers wide. Still, the needle was tiny compared to the hulking 10-micron Astrophage—only about one two-thousandth the width. I poked an Astrophage with the needle and what happened next was nothing I could have expected. First off, the needle penetrated. No doubt on that front. For all its resistance to light and heat, apparently, Astrophage was no better at dealing with sharp things than any other cell. The instant I poked a hole in it, the whole cell became translucent. No longer a featureless black dot, but a cell with
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