3.01 The Cell: Building Block of Life

Travel in this part of the world can be tricky, but well worth the effort. Along the way we'll pass through quite a number of checkpoints, but prior to our departure I sent a list of the members in our tour group to each station. That way passage through them should be fairly quick and easy. Hopefully we won't hit any detours along the way to hinder our progress.

We begin our journey in the town of Rashid or Rosetta ... and will travel up the Nile, arriving this afternoon in Giza to see the pyramids of Egypt.

In this activity you will: relate the advances in technology to the discovery of cells compare the operation of a compound light microscope to an electron microscope discuss the cell theory

Living or Nonliving?

Look at the two items here: a rock and a flower. How can you tell one is living and one is not?

Let's list some facts about each.

• Both are found outside.
• Neither can move.
• They are both made up of similar elements.

Hmmm...so how can we explain that the flower is living and the rock is not?

Early biologists had the same struggle. They were searching for answers to this question: What makes living things so special?

The answer ended up being in the discovery of the cells.

For something to be considered living, it must have at least one cell.

In this adventure we are going to take a tour of the basic building block of all living things: the cell. The science of cells is amazing. Each microscopic cell runs like a little machine and modern technology has allowed scientists to look deep inside the cell, but there is still much to discover.

So hang on, buckle up, and let's explore more of the wonder of the cell.

Move on to the BioVenture tab to continue.