Very Brief Introduction To Cells

Cells were discovered in 1665 by Robert Hooke when he took a piece of cork and looked at it under a microscope. Cork is made up of dead cells but you are still able to see the cells which proved to be interesting to him. He described it as being made up like bricks in a wall and these bricks he then called cells. Due to the size of cells it is nearly impossible to see them without the aid of a light microscope but by using an electron microscope you'd be able to see cells in much greater detail. There's a cell theory which is made up from four basic ideas.

1. Cells are the building blocks of life.

2. The cell is derived from other cells by division.

3. Cells contain D.N.A. (The blue-print for life)

4. The cell is the functioning unit of life. The chemical reactions of life take place within cells.

There are 2 types of cells, animal and plant cells.

Plant cells differ from animal cells such as plant cells have a large central vacuole with the nucleus more towards the side of the cell instead of in the middle like in animal cells. Another big difference is plants can produce and store sugar as starch where as animal cells contain glycogen. It's noteworthy to mention that a cell cannot survive without the nuculeus which acts as a type of control center, it runs the cell. The nucleus contains D.N.A. which in turn contains the cell's genes. These genes tell the cell how to grow. D.N.A. contain the genetic blueprint that tell if you have blonde hair and blue eyes.

Written by Thomas Grome