Lesson Overview

7.1 Life is Cellular

Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
THINK ABOUT IT
Whats the smallest part of any living thing that still counts as being
alive?

Can we just keep dividing living things into smaller and smaller parts,
or is there a point at which whats left is no longer alive?

As you will see, there is such a limit. The smallest living unit of any
organism is the cell.
Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
The Discovery of the Cell
What is the cell theory?
Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
The Discovery of the Cell
What is the cell theory?

The cell theory states:
- All living things are made up of cells.
- Cells are the basic units of structure and function in living things.
- New cells are produced from existing cells.
Write the cell theory on the bottom of page 100, #14
Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
Early Microscopes
It was not until the mid-1600s that scientists began to use microscopes to
observe living things.

In 1665, Englishman Robert Hooke used an early compound microscope to
look at a nonliving thin slice of cork, a plant material.

Under the microscope, cork seemed to be made of thousands of tiny, empty
chambers that Hooke called cells. The term cell is used in biology to this
day.

Today we know that living cells are not empty chambers, but contain a huge
array of working parts, each with its own function.
( Page 98 in your workbooks )

Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
Early Microscopes
In Holland, Anton van Leeuwenhoek
examined pond water and other
things, including a sample taken
from a human mouth. He drew the
organisms he saw in the mouth
which today we call bacteria.
Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
The Cell Theory
Soon after Leeuwenhoek, observations made by other scientists made it
clear that cells were the basic units of life.

In 1838, German botanist Matthias Schleiden concluded that all plants are
made of cells.

The next year, German biologist Theodor Schwann stated that all animals
were made of cells.

In 1855, German physician Rudolf Virchow concluded that new cells could
be produced only from the division of existing cells, confirming a suggestion
made by German Lorenz Oken 50 years earlier.
( Page 99 in your workbooks )
Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
The Cell Theory
These discoveries are summarized in the cell theory, a fundamental
concept of biology.

The cell theory states:
-All living things are made up of cells.
-Cells are the basic units of structure and function in living things.
-New cells are produced from existing cells.


Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
Exploring the Cell
How do microscopes work?
Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
Exploring the Cell
How do microscopes work?

Most microscopes use lenses to magnify the image of an object by focusing
light or electrons.
Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
Light Microscopes and Cell Stains
A typical light microscope allows light to pass through a specimen and uses
two lenses to form an image.

The first set of lenses, located just above the specimen, produces an
enlarged image of the specimen.

The second set of lenses magnifies this image still further.

Because light waves are diffracted, or scattered, as they pass through
matter, light microscopes can produce clear images of objects only to a
magnification of about 1000 times.
( Page 99 )
Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
Light Microscopes and Cell Stains
Another problem with light microscopy is that most living cells are
nearly transparent, making it difficult to see the structures within them.

Using chemical stains or dyes can usually solve this problem. Some of
these stains are so specific that they reveal only compounds or
structures within the cell.

Think of your cheek cells! What did you do to see them?

Draw this on page 99:
Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
Light Microscopes and Cell Stains
Some dyes give off light of a particular color when viewed under specific
wavelengths of light, a property called fluorescence.

Fluorescent dyes can be attached to specific molecules and can then be
made visible using a special fluorescence microscope.

Fluorescence microscopy makes it possible to see and identify the locations
of these molecules, and even to watch them move about in a living cell.

( page 99)

We lit up the
Mitochondria in
this example.
FUN STUFF!
Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
Electron Microscopes
Light microscopes can be used to see cells and cell structures as small as
1 millionth of a meter. To study something smaller than that, scientists need
to use electron microscopes.

Electron microscopes use beams of electrons, not light, that are focused by
magnetic fields.

Electron microscopes offer much higher resolution than light microscopes.

There are two major types of electron microscopes: transmission and
scanning.
Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
Electron Microscopes
Transmission electron microscopes make it possible to explore cell
structures and large protein molecules.

Because beams of electrons can only pass through thin samples, cells and
tissues must be cut first into ultra thin slices before they can be examined
under a transmission electron microscope.

Transmission electron microscopes produce flat, two-dimensional images.
Draw this on
Page 99
Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
Electron Microscopes
In scanning electron microscopes, a pencil-like beam of electrons is
scanned over the surface of a specimen.
Think Scanning=Surface
Because the image is of the surface, specimens viewed under a scanning
electron microscope do not have to be cut into thin slices to be seen.

Scanning electron microscopes produce three-dimensional images of the
specimens surface.

( Draw:
page 99 )

Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
Electron Microscopes
Because electrons are easily scattered by molecules in the air, samples
examined in both types of electron microscopes must be placed in a
vacuum in order to be studied.

Researchers chemically preserve their samples first and then carefully
remove all of the water before placing them in the microscope.

This means that electron microscopy can be used to examine only nonliving
cells and tissues.
Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes
How are prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells different?
Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes
How are prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells different?

Prokaryotic cells do not separate their genetic material within a nucleus.

In eukaryotic cells, the nucleus separates the genetic material from the rest of
the cell.
Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes
Although typical cells range from 5 to 50 micrometers in diameter, the
smallest Mycoplasma bacteria are only 0.2 micrometers across, so small
that they are difficult to see under even the best light microscopes.
( page 100 )
In contrast, the giant amoeba Chaos chaos may be 1000 micrometers in
diameter, large enough to be seen with the unaided eye as a tiny speck in
pond water.

Despite their differences, all cells contain the molecule that carries
biological informationDNA.

In addition, all cells are surrounded by a thin, flexible barrier called a cell
membrane.
Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
Size Comparison




Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes
Cells fall into two broad categories, depending on whether
they contain a nucleus.

The nucleus is a large membrane-enclosed structure that contains the
cells genetic material in the form of DNA. The nucleus controls many of the
cells activities.


Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes
Eukaryotes are cells that enclose their DNA in nuclei.

Prokaryotes are cells that do not enclose DNA in nuclei.
This is a must know slide!
Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
Prokaryotic cells are generally smaller and simpler than eukaryotic cells.

Despite their simplicity, prokaryotes grow, reproduce, and respond to the
environment, and some can even move by gliding along surfaces or
swimming through liquids.

The organisms we call bacteria are prokaryotes.
Prokaryotes
Lesson Overview
Life Is Cellular
Eukaryotes
Eukaryotic cells are generally larger and more complex than prokaryotic
cells.

Most eukaryotic cells contain dozens of structures and internal membranes.
Many eukaryotes are highly specialized.

There are many types of eukaryotes: plants, animals, fungi, and organisms
commonly called protists.