Common errors in Mystic cells and how to identify them!

Hello again Mystics!

Your friendly Admins are bringing you a few new helpful tips for attacking nasty errors that pop up in Mystic cells.

Let these tips bring us all towards happier, heathier, less mergery Mystic cells!

Axons: There can only be one!

Where one axon reigns, all others must perish.  Or so say the olden neuron texts of yore.  And you don’t want to mess around with those texts of yore lest ye be smited by the olde gods of science!

Axons are long, thin, straight(ish) branches.  They may have clusters of dense vesicles, and tend to flow together in groups with other axons.  They often branch out at obtuse angels.  Only one axon should grow out of your cell.  The rest of the branches are called dendrites and they are usually more “branchy,” not as thin, and often have more boutons and nubs.  The axon may extend farther than the general “boundary” that the rest of the cell’s branches stay within.

If you find that your cell has two axons in different places, you’re likely going to need to let one go.  Do a through check of each branch to see where the problem lies, and then remove the merger branch.

Slide jumps: Where did my branch go?

Just like in e2198, Mystic cells sometimes are plagued by bad slides and misalignments.  These can be tricky to navigate since we only have one viable plane in Mystic, so let’s go over some tips for getting these branches correct.

One very helpful tip is to use the shape of your branch and its relative position to other branches to help you identify a branch’s location after a jump.  The branch may have a drastic shift in position after the jump, but it should be in a similar place relative to the branches that surround it.  If you’re having trouble locating your branch after a jump, you can trace out some of the branches that are adjacent to it, which should help you get a better idea of where its new position will be.

Another good tip for working with slide jumps is to follow the direction of the branch.  Even if your branch splits and dramatically jumps within your cube, the branch should continue in generally the same direction it was going before the split.  If you find that your continuation has taken a left turn after the jump, you may want to go back and reexamine it to make sure you’ve caught the right branch and not an impostor.

Hopefully these tips will help us trace cells with greater finesse than ever before!

Happy tracing!  For science!