06_detaillectout06_detaillectout.docVIP

Chapter 6 A Tour of the Cell Lecture Outline Overview: The Fundamental Units of Life All organisms are made of cells. Many organisms are single-celled. The cell is the simplest collection of matter that can live. Even when arranged into higher levels of organization, such as tissues and organs, cells are an organism’s basic units of structure and function. Life at the cellular level arises from structural order, reflecting emergent properties and the correlation between structure and function. The movement of an animal cell depends on the intricate interplay of the structures that make up a cellular skeleton. Organisms interact with their environment; cells sense and respond to environmental fluctuations. Evolution is the unifying biological theme; all cells are related by their descent from earlier cells but have been modified in various ways during the history of life on Earth. Concept 6.1 To study cells, biologists use microscopes and the tools of biochemistry. The discovery and early study of cells progressed with the invention of microscopes in 1590 and their improvement in the 17th century. Microscopes vary in magnification and resolving power, or resolution. Magnification is the ratio of an object’s image to its real size. Resolution is a measure of image clarity. It is the minimum distance two points can be separated and still be distinguished as two separate points. Resolution is limited by the shortest wavelength of the radiation used for imaging. In a light microscope (LM), visible light passes through the specimen and then through glass lenses. The lenses refract light so that the image is magnified into the eye or onto a video screen. The minimum resolution of an LM is about 200 nanometers (nm), the size of a small bacterium. LMs can magnify effectively to about 1,000 times the size of the actual specimen. At higher magnifications, the image blurs. Techniques developed in the 20th century have enhanced contrast, staining or labeling cell components