We certainly know that cells are what is the foundation of life. We've figured out the following so far:
1. Single-celled organisms grow, copy their insides, and then split...to form new single-celled organisms. This is also knows as asexual reproduction!
2. Multi-cellular organisms' cells grow, copy their insides, and then split...JUST LIKE SINGLE CELLED ORGANISMS. Except, they don't do this to reproduce. They do it to either repair lost or damaged cells (like when we get a scrap or break a bone) or to grow new cells (like when we're going through adolescence or a root grows deeper into the soil).
This all made us wonder HOW the cell actually grows...like what does it consume to get bigger before it splits? And we immediately thought FOOD! So we decided to isolate some cells (yeast was a natural choice), and give them access to what we know visits cells (what's in blood). This means we exposed yeast to water, sugar (food) and salt.
1. Single-celled organisms grow, copy their insides, and then split...to form new single-celled organisms. This is also knows as asexual reproduction!
2. Multi-cellular organisms' cells grow, copy their insides, and then split...JUST LIKE SINGLE CELLED ORGANISMS. Except, they don't do this to reproduce. They do it to either repair lost or damaged cells (like when we get a scrap or break a bone) or to grow new cells (like when we're going through adolescence or a root grows deeper into the soil).
This all made us wonder HOW the cell actually grows...like what does it consume to get bigger before it splits? And we immediately thought FOOD! So we decided to isolate some cells (yeast was a natural choice), and give them access to what we know visits cells (what's in blood). This means we exposed yeast to water, sugar (food) and salt.
Through out set-up, we figured out the following:
1. Yeast cells consume food and grow and then split (evidence was the higher amount of beige-water in the flask).
2. When they eat, they produce a gas that filled up the balloon (we put this there to make sure nothing got in).
This helped us put these pieces together:
Old cells + food = new cells + gas (waste)
We're kinda figuring that this might happen across species because we know we eat, grow, and produce waste, too. We're thinking this all connects to the chicken growing inside the egg, too. But how on earth does stuff that a cell needs, like water, food, and nutrients actually get into the cell?
1. Yeast cells consume food and grow and then split (evidence was the higher amount of beige-water in the flask).
2. When they eat, they produce a gas that filled up the balloon (we put this there to make sure nothing got in).
This helped us put these pieces together:
Old cells + food = new cells + gas (waste)
We're kinda figuring that this might happen across species because we know we eat, grow, and produce waste, too. We're thinking this all connects to the chicken growing inside the egg, too. But how on earth does stuff that a cell needs, like water, food, and nutrients actually get into the cell?