Cell (biology)

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The cell is the structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building block of life. Some organisms, such as most bacteria, are unicellular (consist of a single cell). Other organisms, such as humans, are multicellular. (Humans have an estimated 100 trillion or 1014 cells; a typical cell size is 10 µm; a typical cell mass is 1 nanogram.) The largest known cell is an unfertilized ostrich egg cell.

In 1835 before the final cell theory was developed, a Czech Jan Evangelista Purkyně observed small "granules" while looking at the plant tissue through a microscope. The cell theory, first developed in 1839 by Matthias Jakob Schleiden and Theodor Schwann, states that all organisms are composed of one or more cells. All cells come from preexisting cells. Vital functions of an organism occur within cells, and all cells contain the hereditary information necessary for regulating cell functions and for transmitting information to the next generation of cells.

The word cell comes from the Latin cellula, meaning, a small room. The descriptive name for the smallest living biological structure was chosen by Robert Hooke in a book he published in 1665 when he compared the cork cells he saw through his microscope to the small rooms monks lived in.

For more information about Cell (biology), read the full article at Wikipedia.
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News tagged with cells

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Biologists discover bacterial defense mechanism against aggressive oxygen

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

4 hours ago | not rated yet | 0

Bacteria possess an ingenious mechanism for preventing oxygen from harming the building blocks of the cell. This is the new finding of a team of biologists that includes Joris Messens of VIB, a life sciences research institute ...

Researchers identify role of gene in tumor development, growth and progression

Medicine & Health / Cancer

5 hours ago | not rated yet | 0

Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center and VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine researchers have identified a gene that may play a pivotal role in two processes that are essential for tumor development, growth ...

Study uses brain scans to discover how children 'read' faces

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

6 hours ago | not rated yet | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Oxford University scientists are using brain-scanning technology to understand how we learn to recognise and 'read' faces as children.

When It Comes to Drug Delivery, Size Matters

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

10 hours ago | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the great promises of nanotechnologies lies in its ability to create drug-containing nanoparticles decorated with targeting molecules that recognize and bind to cancer cells, providing drug delivery ...

Braking news: Particles from car brakes harm lung cells

Medicine & Health / Research

11 hours ago | 5 / 5 (2) | 0

Real-life particles released by car brake pads can harm lung cells in vitro. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Particle and Fibre Toxicology found that heavy braking, as in an emergency stop, caused ...

First reconstitution of an epidermis from human embryonic stem cells

Medicine & Health / Research

12 hours ago | 5 / 5 (2) | 0

Stem cell research is making great strides. This is yet again illustrated by a study carried out by the I-STEM Institute (France), published in the Lancet on 21 November 2009. The I-STEM team, directed by Marc Peschanski has su ...