• Question: what is cells are the most important

    Asked by gangnamstyle to Callum, Gina, Katie, Michelle, Sam on 10 Nov 2012. This question was also asked by tommycollings, wlawler3, mollibear.
    • Photo: Sam Godfrey

      Sam Godfrey answered on 10 Nov 2012:

      The brilliant things about cells is that they are all important because they do different jobs. So brain cells like neurons are perfect for the job of helping you think, but useless at getting rid of poisonous things like liver cells do. And red blood cells are great at carrying the oxygen that we need to stay alive, but no good at helping bones grow. Some special cells called stem cells can turn into lots of different cells, but as we get older we have less of these as we keep the cells that are perfect for their specific job. It is a bit like in the real world. You start school with the possibility of doing any job, and as you get older you choose subjects, then a career that you want to do. Eventually you end up a specialist. My brother is a carpenter and brilliant at making things and I couldn’t do what he does. And he couldn’t do science like me. We are both specialised and neither of us is more important. This is a lot like cells.

      Hope this helps

      Sam

    • Photo: Michelle Linterman

      Michelle Linterman answered on 11 Nov 2012:

      This is a very tough question to answer! In a your body there are hundreds of different cell types, each have their own special job that they are experts at doing. Together, they all play a very small role in keeping you alive, healthy and happy.

      But, if I had to pick one, it would be the cell called the zygote. The zygote is the first cell that made you, it forms when a sperm from your dad mixed with the egg from your mum. This means at one time, you, me and everyone else was just one cell! To me this makes the zygote the most important cell for making every one of us.

      What happens next is this one cell splits in two, making two cells, these then split again making 4 cells……. this continues until there are about 32 cells, up until this point the cells are all quite similar to each other, but after there are about 32 cells, the cells keep splitting, but they start to do different jobs in the developing body, and this continues until what is made is a big mass of trillions of cells, you! Made of hundreds of different types of cells, all working together. So cool!

    • Photo: Katie Howe

      Katie Howe answered on 12 Nov 2012:

      Hmm interesting question! – as Sam said all cells are important as they are specialized for the job they do. But my favourite cell has to be the egg cell (I would say that though as that is what I do my research on!)

    • Photo: Callum Johnston

      Callum Johnston answered on 13 Nov 2012:

      I think one of the most important types of cell is the oligodendrcytes (sorry, I know that’s a big complicated word). But they are a type of brain cell and when you are born you don’t have very many off them, but as you grow up and learn new things they are the cells that help you remember all the masses of this information. When you’re a teenager you’re still making new cells but you’re starting to lose some as well because your brain has to decide which things it thinks it is important for you to know, they are normally the things you do most often. When you get older these oligodendrocytes get damaged and die and that is one of the reasons old people start to lose their memories!

    • Photo: Gina Tse

      Gina Tse answered on 13 Nov 2012:

      This is a great question, but unfortunately does not have one correct answer.
      I’m sure each of the scientists have their favourite; most probably the ones they are working on 🙂

      Like Sam said, all cells are important and each have their own role to play. And of course, if they weren’t important we wouldn’t have them. I’d imagine we would get very sick if we had just even one missing cell type.

      Although there are many different type of cells (well over 200), my personal favourite is the stem cell. It has the ability to become any type of cell. These cells are thought to be very important in the future medical treatment, especially in regenerative therapy.
      Scientists and doctors think stem cells could be use to help people grow back cells that do not grow as we get older; such as brain cells, nerves and so on. It could potentially cure someone who had been paralysed in accident!
      However, there are a lot of debate as to whether it is right to use these cells because of the way we produce them.

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