What: The mammalian cell is taught and explained in many K-12 classes as well as in college. From my vantage point they are explained with 10-20 essential parts. This simplification is necessary in the learning process to prime students' minds about the subject. But this framework misses something. Mammalian cells, as they occur in real life, are extremely complicated dynamic entities. To get a feel for actually may be occurring, a stadium metaphor may be helpful. Visualize a football stadium on game day; it is a huge structure with ten of thousands of people coming and going some sitting, some moving. Some the activity is highly structured, the game itself and the fans sitting in the seats. Some of the activity is unstructured. Penalties in the game and fans getting drunk and starting fights. The key point is that there are thousand of movements within the confined and structured space of the stadium. This crudely approximates the dynamic physiology of a mammalian cell.

Writer: Lucretia

LCC:

Where: Reference Link Has Evaporated

Date: May 7 2013 11:41 AM