About this episode
Cells are the fundamental building blocks of all living things, and the human body contains a staggering number of them—an estimated 30 to 40 trillion, which is more than the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Within each cell are specialized structures called organelles, such as the energy-producing mitochondria and the nucleus that contains the cell's DNA. The term "cell" was first used in 1665 by scientist Robert Hooke, who thought the microscopic compartments he saw in a slice of cork resembled the small rooms, or cellae, of a monastery.
The diversity of cellular life is vast, with sizes ranging from the microscopic Mycoplasma bacteria to the ostrich egg yolk, the largest single cell on Earth. Although most cells in an organism share the same DNA, they become specialized for different roles through a process called cell differentiation, where each cell type reads only the parts of the DNA relevant to its job. The mitochondria within our cells are believed to have originated as independent bacteria that were absorbed by larger cells billions of years ago.
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