The Cell: A Very Short Introduction 1st Edition by Allen, Terence, Cowling, Graham (2011) Paperback

In this Very Short Introduction, Terrence Allen and Graham Cowling describe the nature of cells - their basic structure, their varying forms, their division, their differentiation, their signalling, and programmed death. Cells are the basic constituent of life, and understanding cells and how they work is central to all biology and medicine. Abstract: In this Very Short Introduction, Terence Allen and Graham Cowling describe the nature of cells - their basic structure, their varying forms, their division, their differentiation, their signalling, and programmed death. Cells are the basic constituent of life, and understanding cells and how they work is central to all biology and medicine. Read more... All living things on Earth are composed of cells. A cell is the simplest unit of a self-contained living organism, and the vast majority of life on Earth consists of single-celled microbes, mostly bacteria. These consist of a simple 'prokaryotic' cell, with no nucleus. The bodies of more complex plants and animals consist of billions of 'eukaryotic' cells, of varying kinds, adapted to fill different roles, including red blood cells, muscle cells, branched neurons. Each cell is an astonishingly complex chemical factory, the activities of which we have only begun to unravel in the past fifty years or so through modern techniques of microscopy, biochemistry, and molecular biology. In this volume the authors describe the nature of cells, their basic structure, their varying forms, their division, their differentiation from initially highly flexible stem cells, their signalling, and programmed death. Cells are the basic constituent of life, and understanding cells and how they work is central to all biology and medicine In this Very Short Introduction , Terrence Allen and Graham Cowling offer an illuminating account of the nature of cells--their basic structure, forms, division, signaling, and programmed death. Allen and Cowling start with the simple "prokaryotic" cell--cells with no nucleus--and show how the bodies of more complex plants and animals consist of billions of "eukaryotic" cells, of varying kinds, adapted to fill different roles--red blood cells, muscle cells, branched neurons. The authors also show that each cell is an astonishingly complex chemical factory, the activities of which we have only begun to unravel in the past fifty years. Here, Terrence Allen And Graham Cowling Describe The Nature Of Cells - Their Basic Structure, Their Varying Forms, Their Division, Their Differentiation, Their Signalling, And Programmed Death. The Nature Of Cells -- The Structure Of Cells -- The Nucleus -- The Life Of Cells -- What Cells Can Do -- Stem Cells -- Cellular Therapy -- The Future Of Cell Research. Terence Allen And Graham Cowling. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 129-130) And Index. Content: 1. Recognising the cell -- 2. The structure of the cell -- 3. Cell division, differentiation, and death -- 4. Special cells for special jobs -- 5. Stem cells -- 6. Ethics, politics, and regulation -- 7. Celluar therapy -- 8. The future is now.