Think of yourself as being about 3/2000 of a kilometer (1/1000 of a

mile) tall? Probably not, yet that is how we measure cells. Use the scale bars in

Figure 3.3 like a ruler and you can see that the cells shown are a few micrometers “tall.” One
micrometer (µm) is one-thousandth of a millimeter, which is

one-thousandth of a meter, which is one-thousandth of a kilometer (0.62 miles).

The cells in the photos are bacteria. Bacteria are among the smallest and structurally simplest cells on
Earth. The cells that make up your body are generally

larger and more complex than bacteria.

Animalcules and Beasties No one even knew cells existed until

well after the fi rst microscopes were invented. Those microscopes were not very

sophisticated. Given the simplicity of their instruments, it is amazing that the

pioneers in microscopy observed as much as they did. By the mid-1600s, Antoni

van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch draper, was spying on the microscopic world of

rainwater, insects, fabric, sperm, feces—essentially any sample he could fi t into

his homemade microscope (shown at right). He was fascinated by the tiny organisms he saw moving in
many of his samples. For example, in scrapings of tartar

from his teeth, Leeuwenhoek saw “many very small animalcules, the motions of

which were very pleasing to behold.” He (incorrectly) assumed that movement

defi ned life, and (correctly) concluded that the moving “beasties” he saw were

alive. Perhaps Leeuwenhoek was so pleased to behold his animalcules because he

did not understand the implications of what he was seeing: Our world, and our

bodies, teem with bacteria and other microbial life.

lens

sample holder focusing knob

Leeuwenhoek’s microscope

FIGURE 3.3 Rod-shaped bacterial cells on the tip of a household pin, shown at

increasingly higher magnifi cations (enlargements). The “µm” is an abbreviation for

micrometers, or millionths of a meter. Figure It Out: About how big are these bacteria?

Answer: About 1 µm wide and 5 µm long

200 µm 40 µm 1 µm

46 Unit One How Cells Work

Robert Hooke, a contemporary of Leeuwenhoek, added another lens that

made the instrument easier to use. Many of the microscopes we use today are

still based on his design. Hooke magnifi ed a piece of thinly

sliced cork from a mature tree and saw tiny compartments (his drawing of them is shown at right).
Hooke

named the compartments cellulae—a Latin word for

the small chambers that monks lived in—and thus

coined the term “cell.” Actually, they were dead

plant cell walls, which is what cork consists of, but

Hooke did not think of them as being dead because

neither he nor anyone else knew cells could be alive.

He observed cells “fi ll’d with juices” in green plant tissues

but did not realize they were alive, either.

For nearly 200 years after Hooke discovered them, cells were assumed to be

part of a continuous membrane system in multicelled organisms, not separate

entities. In the mid-1800s, botanist Matthias Schleiden realized that a plant cell

is an independent living unit even when it is part of a plant. Schleiden compared notes with zoologist
Theodor Schwann, and together they concluded that

the tissues of animals as well as plants are composed of cells and their products.

The cell theory, fi rst articulated in 1839 by Schwann and Schleiden and later

revised, was a radical new interpretation of nature that underscored life’s unity.

FIGURE 3.4 Different microscopes

reveal different characteristics of the same

organism, a green alga (Scenedesmus).

A Light micrograph.

A phase-contrast microscope yields high-contrast

images of transparent

specimens, such as cells.

B Light micrograph.

A refl ected light microscope captures light

refl ected from opaque

specimens.

E A scanning electron micrograph shows surface details

of cells and structures. SEMs

may be artifi cially colored to

highlight certain details.

D A transmission

electron micrograph

reveals fantastically

detailed images of

internal structures.

C Fluorescence micrograph. The chlorophyll

molecules in these cells

emitted red light (they

fl uoresced) naturally .

10 µm

electron microscopes
light microscopes

molecules of life viruses mitochondria,

chloroplasts

most

bacteria

most

eukaryotic

cells

small

molecules

lipids

complex carbohydrates

DNA

(width)

proteins

0.1 nm 1 nm 10 nm 100 nm 1 µm 10 µm

Chapter 3 Cell Structure 47

Modern Microscopes Like their early predecessors, many

modern microscopes rely on visible light to illuminate objects. All

light travels in waves, a property that makes it bend when it passes

through curved glass lenses. Inside microscopes, such lenses focus

light into a magnifi ed image of a specimen. Photographs of images

enlarged with any microscope are called micrographs (Figure 3.4).

Figure 3.5 compares the resolving power of light and electron microscopes with that of the unaided
human eye.

Phase-contrast microscopes shine light through specimens, but

most cells are nearly transparent. Their internal details may not be

visible unless they are fi rst stained, or exposed to dyes that only some

cell parts soak up. Parts that absorb the most dye appear darkest. Staining results in an increase in
contrast (the difference between light and

dark) that allows us to see a greater range of detail (Figure 3.4A). Surface details can be revealed by refl
ected light (Figure 3.4B).

With a fl uorescence microscope, a cell or a molecule is the light

source; it fl uoresces, or emits energy in the form of light, when a laser

beam is focused on it. Some molecules fl uoresce naturally (Figure 3.4C).

More typically, researchers attach a light-emitting tracer to the cell or

molecule of interest.

Other microscopes can reveal fi ner details. For example, electron

microscopes use electrons instead of visible light to illuminate samples.

Transmission electron microscopes beam electrons through a thin specimen. The specimen’s internal
details appear on the resulting image as

shadows (Figure 3.4D). Scanning electron microscopes direct a beam of

electrons back and forth across a surface of a specimen, which has been

coated with a thin layer of gold or another metal. The metal emits both

electrons and x-rays, which are converted into an image of the surface

(Figure 3.4E). Both types of electron microscopes can resolve structures

as small as 0.2 nanometers.

How do we see cells?

Most cells are visible only with the help of microscopes.

Diff erent types of microscopes reveal diff erent aspects of cell structure.

Take-Home

Message

1 centimeter (cm) = 1/100 meter, or 0.4 inch

1 millimeter (mm) = 1/1000 meter, or 0.04 inch

1 micrometer (µm) = 1/1,000,000 meter, or 0.00004 inch

1 nanometer (nm) = 1/1,000,000,000 meter, or 0.00000004 inch

1 meter = 102 cm = 103 mm = 106 µm = 109 nm

FIGURE 3.5 Relative sizes. Above, the diameter of most cells

is in the range of 1 to 100 micrometers. Below, converting among

units of length; see Units of Measure, Appendix V. Figure It Out:

Which is smallest: a protein, a lipid, or a water molecule?

Answer: A water molecule

human eye (no microscope)

small animals

largest organisms

humans

frog eggs

100 µm 1 mm 1 cm 10 cm 1 m 10 m 100 m

48 Unit One How Cells Work

3.4The Structure of Cell Membranes

A cell membrane is a barrier that selectively controls exchanges between the cell

and its surroundings. This function emerges when certain lipids—mainly phospholipids—interact. A
phospholipid molecule consists of a phosphate-containing

head and two fatty acid tails. The polar head is hydrophilic, which means it

interacts with water molecules. The nonpolar tails are hydrophobic, so they do

not interact with water molecules. The tails do, however, interact with the tails

of other phospholipids. When swirled into water, phospholipids spontaneously

assemble into two layers, with all of their nonpolar tails sandwiched between all

of their polar heads. Such lipid bilayers are the basic framework of all cell membranes (Figure 3.6A–C).
Other molecules—including steroids and proteins—are embedded in or associated with the lipid bilayer
of a cell membrane. Most of these molecules fl ow

around more or less freely. The fl uidity arises from the behavior of the phospholipids, which drift
sideways and spin around their long axis in a bilayer. Their

tails wiggle too. The fl uid mosaic model describes a cell membrane as a twodimensional liquid of mixed
composition.

Membrane Proteins A cell membrane physically separates an external

environment from an internal one, but that is not its only task. Many types

of proteins are associated with a cell membrane, and each type adds a specifi c

function to it. Thus, even though every cell membrane consists mainly of a

phospholipid bilayer, different cell membranes can have different characteristics

depending on which proteins are associated with them. For example, a plasma

membrane has proteins that no internal cell membrane has. Many plasma membrane proteins are
enzymes, which accelerate chemical processes without being

changed by them. Adhesion proteins fasten cells together in animal tissues.

Recognition proteins function as unique identity tags for each individual or

species (Figure 3.6D). Being able to recognize “self” means that foreig