Page 38 - The Miracle in the Cell Membrane

he 100 tril lion or so cells that make up the human
body per form count less activ i ties, with out ever
stop ping, grow ing tired or need ing a rest. By
means of the cells all fully car ry ing out their own
tasks in an entire ly har mo ni ous labor, our organs and tis sues
are able to per form their func tions, and we can go about our
daily lives.
In the same way that every liv ing thing needs ener gy—
and there fore, food—to sur vive, so the cell also needs var i -
ous nutri ents in order to per form its count less func tions. In
the same way that raw mate ri als to be used in pro duc tion are
car ried inside a fac to ry and stored until need ed, and waste
pro ducts are later sent out of the fac to ry, so a very com plex
pro duc tion, stor age and waste-dis pos al sys tem oper ates
with in the cell. The raw mate ri als taken in are var i ous organ -
ic mol e cu les, min er als and met als. As these are used inside
the cell to pro duce var i ous mol e cu les, waste pro ducts are
removed from the cell or destroyed with in it. At this point,
exact ly as elec tric i ty and other forms of ener gy are need ed
for pro duc tion inside a fac to ry, the cell car ries out its activ i -
ties through the ener gy pro duced inside it.
In the same way that the qual i ty of the raw mate ri als
brought to the fac to ry is spec i fied by con tract, so the cell

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