• Question: why are cells so small but they keep us alive and running?

    Asked by arthurkieran123 to Dave, Matt, Tomasz on 21 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: David Christensen

      David Christensen answered on 21 Nov 2013:

      Hi arthurkieran123!

      I don’t think I can really answer why cells are really small, but the fact that they are really small is actually useful for us! We are entirely made up of cells, so if they are really tiny, which they are, then we are made up of a huge number of cells (somewhere between 10 and 50 trillion!). If all those cells are working really hard together then they can achieve a huge amount – just like when a lot of people work together to do something.

      I hope this answers your question 🙂

    • Photo: Matthew Tomlinson

      Matthew Tomlinson answered on 21 Nov 2013:

      Hi arthurkieran123

      I’m not sure why cells are the size they are, I would guess it has something to do physics, like conservation of energy perhaps. They keep us running because there are so many of them and they are always talking to each other. I think an analogy might be Lego, for example with Duplo you can build big bulky structures, normal Lego is smaller and you can build finer things, but with Technic you can build some really complicated structures.

      I hope you see what I mean and that answers your question!

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