Archives for: December 2011 You are a collection of cells
(literally trillions of them), each with a specific design and
function. However, with a few exceptions, your cells all have a
basic architectural design. Most of the time they are depicted
as looking like a fried egg cooked sunny side up, but in reality
they are three dimensional beings, more akin to a golf ball that
you’ve cut across its midline. The “white” of our cell model is
the body of the cell, and here are found many specialized areas
called organelles that do particular jobs, much like our own
internal organs have specific jobs as well. The “yolk” of our
cell model is called the nucleus, and in this compartment there
lies the object of our affections, the chromosomes. Chromosomes
were first discovered at the end of the 19th century by a German
biologist named Walther Flemming. Flemming was looking at cells
under a microscope and got the idea to use colors to dye the
cell to make it easier to see things. The idea must have worked
better than a