Page 27 - The Miracle in the Cell

t every location in our bodies, a tiny yet
complex living process takes place.
Whenever we examine with a micro-
scope the details of any human organ,
we see millions of tiny living entities
that have massed together to form that organ
and which at every instant are in constant activity. Not just
human beings, but all living organisms are formed from aggregates of
these tiny microscopic entities called cells.
Cells are divided into two types: those without a nucleus
(prokaryotes) and those that do possess a nucleus (eukaryotes). Bacteria
are single-celled organisms that lack a nucleus. Every human, animal
and plant cell does contain a nucleus, but they have a different struc-
ture. Using the energy from the Sun, with the aid of the chloroplasts
found in their cells, plants produce nutrients and oxygen for humans
and animals. This book focuses mainly on the human cell, but will
touch on plant cells from time to time.
Your body contains more than 100 trillion cells, some so small
that one million of them brought together would fit on the tip of a
needle. Despite this tiny size, however, the cell is considered by the
scientific community as the most complex structure man has ever
come across. Though many of its secrets have still not been unraveled,
it forms the greatest impasse for evolutionary theory. The Russian
evolutionist Alexander I. Oparin expresses this truth, which cannot be
overlooked:
Unfortunately, however, the problem of the origin of the cell is perhaps
the most obscure point in the whole study of the evolution of organ-
isms. 1
Another admission on this topic belongs to Professor Klaus
Dose, the Director of the Institute for Biochemistry at Johannes
Gutenburg University. In regard to the formation of the living cell,

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