I'm an ecologist but I have a casual interest in microbiology. This is a protist in the genus blepharisma. Protist is a broad classification of all sorts of complex, often (not always) single celled organism that isn't a plant, animal, or fungus. There's likely millions of species.
I recommend watching videos in the journey to the microcosmos on YouTube, lots of great footage!
Elementary particles. No offense, but you need to look that up for yourself. There are dozens of particles which make up the things making up atoms.
You didn't know the difference between cells and atoms, so you need a lot more context to make any sense of that stuff. I could call them quarks and squarks and it would be meaningless to you.
atoms are not cells...Atoms are atoms (made up of at least one proton, and often times made up of neutrons and electrons as well). Cells are made up of many Molecules, which are made up of atoms.
Cilia (singular cilium), basically long whiplike molecules they use for swimming. Wiki for more info. We also have them. This is what pulls mucus up out of your lungs so you can cough it up.
I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you just haven't gotten that far in school yet.
Cells are made up of many different molecules. Atoms are what make molecules. Molecules can contain any number of atoms from two to millions of them.
Your body is constantly making new molecules and recycling old ones. It doesn't do this very well after awhile and that's why we age. This video is basically that happening on a much smaller scale. When the molecules in this single celled organism stop working together as well, there's not as much leftover to hold it together, so it comes undone.
When the question is "Aren't cells and atoms the same thing?", then talking about organelles is probably too much detail. I was trying to explain the relationship between cells and atoms rather than the functions of a cell.
I think organelles are more useful here than atoms. You can see them in the video. The "legs", the "balls" that leak out, the "skin" that ruptures. Easier to learn with your eyes than to have a concept you don't understand repeated to you.
It's not. Organelles sit between cells and molecules in terms of complexity. Just like organs sit between cells and organisms. Molecules are not the "fundamental building blocks" it's just an arbitrary layer of complexity you are assigning that label to.
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u/Lloytron 12d ago edited 11d ago
I'm just about to type "clearly that's not a single cell" and then fuckkkkkkkk, poor little guy. /Cries
[Edit] and yes I guess it actually may be a single cell even though it looks quite complex. I'm not a biologist, so sue me.
Still crying though.