Cell Theory

Question 1

What was Robert Hooke’s contribution to cell theory?

Answer 1

(10 years before Leeuwennhoek) He was an English Biologist (1663) who first labeled what a cell was (in cork, a small compartment).

Question 2

What was Mathias Schleiden’s contribution to cell theory?

Answer 2

(1838) Saw that compartments in plants had a dark spot (nuclei in cells).

Question 3

What was Theodor Schwann’s contribution to cell theory?

Answer 3

He saw similar (to Schleiden’s) dark spots in animal tissues.

Question 4

What did Rudolph Virchow propose in 1855?

Answer 4

That “all cells arise from previously existing cells”.

Question 5

What are the modern tenets of cell theory?

Answer 5

1. Cells are the basic structural and functional (physiological) units of all living things
2. Cells are both distinct entities and building blocks of more complex organisms
3. All cells come from pre-existing cells by division
4. Cells contain hereditary information which is passed from cell to cell during cell division
5. Most of the chemical reactions of life occur within cells
6. All cells are basically the same chemical composition

Question 6

Where do most of the chemical reactions of life occur?

Answer 6

Within cells.

Question 7

What is the Hierarchy of life?

Answer 7

1. Atoms
2. Molecules
3. Cells
4. Tissues
5. Organs
6. Organisms
7. Population
8. Community
9. Ecosystem
10. Biosphere

Question 8

What does over 95% of the body mass compose of?

Answer 8

Oxygen (65%, H2O), Hydrogen (9%, H2O), Carbon (18%, major building block of all living matter), Nitrogen (3%, vital element in all proteins), Phosphorus and Sulfur.

Question 9

What component of animal and plant mass can be attributed to water?

Answer 9

60% in animals, up to 95% in plants.

Question 10

What vital elements are components of skeletons and shells of animals?

Answer 10

Calcium and phosphorus.

Question 11

What vital elements are key regulators of water movement and electrical currents that occur across the surfaces of many cells?

Answer 11

Sodium and potassium.

Question 12

What are trace elements?

Answer 12

Elements necessary for life that compose of less than 0.01% of body mass.

Question 13

Why is Iron important?

Answer 13

It’s a trace element that contains hemoglobin, which carries most of the oxygen in blood.

Question 14

What are the highly specialized macromolecules that living organisms (and not normally inanimate matter) include?

Answer 14

Carbohydrates, Lipids, Proteins, Nucleic Acids.

Question 15

What are important vital elements?

Answer 15

Elements that compose of less than 1% of body mass, including: Sodium, Calcium, Phosphourus, Magnesium, Chlorine, Sulfur.

Question 16

Water is the ____ of life.

Answer 16

The solvent.

Question 17

What important qualities does Water have/carry out?

Answer 17

It suspends he red blood cells to carry oxygen to cells (in animals), it carries electrolytes and nutrients for cells, carries metabolic waste from cells, maintains osmotic pressure in cells, and is involved in transport of molecules in/out of cells.

Question 18

What are abiotic factors and what do they do?

Answer 18

They are non-living components of the environment (water, fire, wind, gases, pH, salt concentration) that influence living organisms.

Question 19

Who is mainly credited with the concept of Cell Theory?

Answer 19

Schleiden and Schwann (1839).