Interesting facts about the Human Body

Interesting facts about the human cell

1. Counting how many cells it takes to make up the human body is extremely difficult, many scientists have come to many conclusions, mostly due to the fact that each person's weight, height and biological makeup is always different to the rest. However, it is clearly apparent the number of cells that make up the average human body is easily over 30 trillion, which is an insanely large amount.

2. Admiring a cell through a microscope can give the impression that a cell is well...fairly quit!

Actually a human cell is like a very busy production factory, constantly supplying energy for the massive demand to produce and replace many proteins that are either required for the cell itself or for external use such as hormones or antibodies.

3. Human cells are characterised as a eukaryotic cells, whereas bacteria is referred to as a prokaryotic. Eukaryotes differ from prokaryotes for many reasons, mostly because they are a more complex cellular organism. Eukaryotes have certain organelles that prokaryotes don't have, their cellular make up differs and there are significant differences in regards to the DNA being circular as opposed to linear. Beside all animal species; other eukaryotic organisms also known are plants, yeast, algae plus many more.

4. The power house for the cell is an organelle called the mitochondria. It is thought that the mitochondrion was once a separate organism due the features making up the mitochondria matching prokaryotic characteristics. This cellular combination really allowed the eukaryotes to adopt energy more efficiently allowing the one cell to become multicellular.

5. As cells mature they undergo stages of differentiation to become a specialised cell. This is mostly projected due to the location of the cell in the body, and the function that is desired for the cell to carry out. For example, a cell may specialise to become a heart cell, or a lung cell.

6. There are four types of skin cells located in the first layer of the skin, also known as the epidermis layer, these cells being; keratinocytes, melanocytes, Merkel cells, and Langerhans cells. These cells are vital for sun protect, hair development, immune protect and for neuronal response.

7. The average diameter of a human cell is thought to be around 0.001 to 0.003cm; however, this is dependent on the type of cell. There are thought to be neurones that can extend from our toes via the length of our leg reaching the lower spinal region.

8. Neurones have the capability to propagate a nerve signal at relatively fast speeds; it is evident that some neurones are much faster than others. Taking muscle contraction as an example, the signal produced is known to be one of the fastest, reaching speeds of 119m/s, and when compared to pain signals of speed around 0.61m/s.

9. There are currently three types of stem cells, adult stem cells, embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells. Each have shown its own great advantage however, some seem to carry more ethical morals than others, which tends to limited the amount of scientific research and understanding of many diseases.

10. The wall of an animal cell is made up of many components. Phospholipids are bound together with the aid of cholesterol, which in various places you would find many protein receptors, other structures and carbohydrates, all which is derived from the food on your plate.