A New Wonder Out There

My dad is a passionate inventor and biologist, he won the Noble Prize for his revolutionary
study of reducing and increasing the mass and density of objects. Ever since he was in his teens,
he always imagines what would it be like to see cells as a person being tiny as their parts. Able to
see the different organelles and how they function, he thinks about things that are rarely even
thought about. Due to this, he formulated a study on how to change the mass and density of
objects. He started with something small, like a paper clip, and slowly testing even bigger objects
such as a baseball. He then was able to alter the mass and density of humans. It was tested that
it was safe for a human to be a subject for this experiment. “You’re going to see the cells up close
for me”, he grinned, he wants to experience his life-long dream by me. He wants me to see cells
up close.

His study made him invent the tool also known as the “Shrink-inator”, silly name, I know.
I both chuckled and sighed as he told me the name of his invention, geez I didn’t know my dad
was this ridiculous in naming things. Anyways, the invention came with two parts. One was a gun-
like object that can both shrink and enlarge objects at any given time. You can be as large as a
building or as small as an ant. But getting shrunk more than its limits can send you to the quantum
realm, the point of no return. Where you’ll be as small as an atom, and the laws of physics aren’t
really working down there. My dad ensured me that I will not go to the quantum realm since the
size of the cell is still significantly bigger than those of atoms. The other part is the tracker, where
my dad can track where I am in real time and it also works as a signal to tell my dad to reset my
dad in a push of a button of his shrink gun. He was readying up his contraptions, he put the tracker
on my arm, and pointed the device towards me. “Are you ready?” he said as I nod towards his
question. He fired the device, letting out a ray of light heading towards me. And there I was, able
to go thru the cracks of my floor, there I found the giant leaf near me and went over it. As I
stepped into the leaf I shrank even more, now I’m in the interior of the plant cell.

Being shrunk was a rollercoaster experience. It was like I was on the top of the
rollercoaster with a huge drop on the next part. The experience was really overwhelming, but
not as much as what I saw in the interior of the plant cell. I saw the luscious green atmosphere
on my surroundings. With the chlorophyll helping it achieve its green pigment. I could feel the
hardness of the cell well on my side, being the foundation of strength on the outermost layer of
the cell. Bit by bit I can see the different parts of the cell as what my biology teach was talking
about. There I found the mitochondrion, the powerhouse of the cell, literally the easiest part of
the cell to remember. I saw the chloroplast beginning the process of photosynthesis, turning
sunlight into energy for the cell to use. After that I saw the huge central vacuole completely filled
with water, indicating that the leaf was healthy when it fell down, not showing any wilt to signify
the lack of water. Then I saw what was like a huge maze with lots of passageways for me to
discover, I later learned that I was in the Endoplasmic Reticulum, where the nucleus is near.

Going through what seems like a maze to me, I finally found the nucleus. Strange, I noticed
that the nucleus has some sort of slime-like membrane that separates it from the other parts of
cell. It was the nuclear membrane! I forgot about that part of the cell. Anyways I went into the
membrane and I swam towards the nucleolus, where I found the ribosomes being constructed
piece by piece. It was bizarre where our source of protein is found there being made for later use
for our cell, and how all these processes work together to make us into what we are today. It’s
no wonder how dad was so passionate about discovering how cells work when you’re small.

I was getting pretty tired and I decided to signal my dad who was monitoring my location
since I stepped into the leaf. I told him that I want to go back to my normal size again and rest,
since it was getting dark. He pushed the button and there I was again, back to my usual self. It
felt weird being back to your normal size again, since being small makes you weigh less. Anyways,
I called it a day and I decided to get some good night rest. I thanked my dad for the wonderful
experience that he brought to me, and in the future, I’ll be exploring the new wonders out there.