Washington State College
Dr. Universe: What are cells manufactured from? – Lela, 10, Bogart, Georgia
Pricey Lela,
You’ve got every kind of cells in your physique that do numerous various things. Actually, there are about 200 sorts of cells within the human physique – from blood cells and pores and skin cells to bone cells. To search out out precisely what all these cells are manufactured from, I visited my good friend Deirdre Fahy.
Fahy is a scientist at Washington State College who’s interested in how and why issues work, together with our cells. She jogged my memory the human physique is made up of billions of cells. You would possibly take into consideration every cell as if it had been a tiny room. However this room, or cell, is so small, you’d probably want a microscope to see it.
Now, image a type of barrier across the room that permits various things to maneuver out and in of the cell. That’s the cell membrane. Contained in the room, we discover a e book with a set of directions. The e book is just like the a part of a cell known as the nucleus. It holds all the data, the DNA, that tells the cells work.
Every of the cells in your physique depends on the identical instruction e book to do its job. However what makes the cells do various things relies on which part of the directions they use.
“You could possibly think about you had this huge recipe e book, however one cell solely made breakfasts, and one cell solely made snacks, and one cell solely made dessert,” Fahy stated. “They’re all in the identical e book, however simply among the recipes are being utilized by sure cells.”
In fact, the cells aren’t really cooking you breakfast, snacks or dessert. As an alternative, they’re serving to your physique do all of the issues it must survive. For example, some cells use a recipe for constructing bone materials whereas different cells construct muscle tissue. There are cells that carry oxygen across the physique, and there are even cells that make it easier to assume, really feel and transfer.
Like all issues in our universe, the completely different elements of a cell are made up of atoms. The atoms be a part of to type molecules. One molecule that makes up many of the cell is water. Actually, about 70% of a cell is water. Utilizing its wide selection of recipes, the cell may also create other forms of molecules that assist the cell do its job.
You would possibly say every cell has its personal recipe for achievement. In her analysis, Fahy has used data of how cells work to review all the things from the internal workings of crops to why some animals get sick when bitten by ticks that carry a specific micro organism.
After we higher perceive how cells work, we will be taught extra about methods to stop completely different illnesses and enhance the well being and well-being of every kind of residing issues. Who is aware of, perhaps in the future it’s also possible to use your data of cells – or different elements of science – to assist make our world a greater place.
Sincerely,
Dr. Universe
Ask Dr. Universe is a undertaking from Washington State College. Submit a query at askdruniverse.wsu.edu.
