What is the biggest single-celled organism? - Murry Gans
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Date: 2020-08-22
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Comments and reviews: 8
samiamrg7
I remember an experiment we did in science class once to demonstrate the difficulty presented by volume increasing faster than surface area. We cut 2 cubes of some kind of gel, one big and one small, and out them in a colored water solution and left them over night. When we cut them open the next day, the smaller cubes were mostly saturated but the larger ones were not.
This applies to cells because they rely a lot on the passive diffusion of water (osmosis) in order to save energy. It would take a lot of energy to speed up the transfer of chemicals by using a process other than osmosis.
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I remember an experiment we did in science class once to demonstrate the difficulty presented by volume increasing faster than surface area. We cut 2 cubes of some kind of gel, one big and one small, and out them in a colored water solution and left them over night. When we cut them open the next day, the smaller cubes were mostly saturated but the larger ones were not.
This applies to cells because they rely a lot on the passive diffusion of water (osmosis) in order to save energy. It would take a lot of energy to speed up the transfer of chemicals by using a process other than osmosis.
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K1naku5ana3R1ka
Another aspect you didnt mention is the radical difference in how things move in the microscopic and macroscopic worlds (I think thered a Ted-Ed about Reynolds numbers, great additional material); the way animals like the elephants and grizzly bears you mentioned eat and move and reproduce involves a whole mess of rigid skeletons and muscles and specialized cells that likely would be impossible for a unicellular creature to mimic, while a cells tricks with microtubule skeletons and flagellae would not work at macroscopic scales.
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Another aspect you didnt mention is the radical difference in how things move in the microscopic and macroscopic worlds (I think thered a Ted-Ed about Reynolds numbers, great additional material); the way animals like the elephants and grizzly bears you mentioned eat and move and reproduce involves a whole mess of rigid skeletons and muscles and specialized cells that likely would be impossible for a unicellular creature to mimic, while a cells tricks with microtubule skeletons and flagellae would not work at macroscopic scales.
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paradox
2 things. it is this kind of instantaneous access to info that makes the internet the greatest achievement of all time. (for now) and I suspect that the origin of life had many starts and stops before there was a Universe that was perfect enough to be copied endlessly,
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2 things. it is this kind of instantaneous access to info that makes the internet the greatest achievement of all time. (for now) and I suspect that the origin of life had many starts and stops before there was a Universe that was perfect enough to be copied endlessly,
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Chris
On land today, the biggest single celled organism is an ostrich egg, in the ocean i would hazard a jelly fish, in thw invisible world i would guess an amoeba!
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On land today, the biggest single celled organism is an ostrich egg, in the ocean i would hazard a jelly fish, in thw invisible world i would guess an amoeba!
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vilma
what is the biggest single-celled organism? is now interrupted by W0W0W0W0W0 ELEPHANTS ARE HUUGEEEE CHECK OUT THE CELLS ON THIS THING W 0 0 0 W
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what is the biggest single-celled organism? is now interrupted by W0W0W0W0W0 ELEPHANTS ARE HUUGEEEE CHECK OUT THE CELLS ON THIS THING W 0 0 0 W
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SEB1991SEB
He should've mentioned like how large an elephant would be if all of its cells were the size of the largest cell in the world.
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He should've mentioned like how large an elephant would be if all of its cells were the size of the largest cell in the world.
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dear
me in a jail cell: call me mitochondria!
literally anyone: why would i call yo-
me: because im the powerhouse of the cell!
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me in a jail cell: call me mitochondria!
literally anyone: why would i call yo-
me: because im the powerhouse of the cell!
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Raghu
Interesting! So the limit to the size of a cell is essentially a trade-off between it's sustenance and waste excretion!
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Interesting! So the limit to the size of a cell is essentially a trade-off between it's sustenance and waste excretion!
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