Page 70 - The Miracle in the Cell Membrane

he cell mem brane is a thin, elas tic struc ture
sur round ing the cell. It is just a few mol e cu -
les thick: 7.5 to 10 nanom e ters (a nanom e ter
is 1 bil lionth of a meter). To obtain the thick -
ness of a piece of paper, you would have to place more than
10,000 cell mem branes one atop the other. Basically, the
mem brane is a bor der pro tect ing the cell from the out side,
but it also pos sess es very many com plex fea tures and
duties that sci en tists have still not dis cov ered.
The micro bi ol o gist Professor Michael Denton refers to
these duties in one of his books:

.. The cell is unique ly and ide al ly fit to func tion as the basic unit
of car bon-based life. Cells are capa ble of car ry ing out any
instruc tion, adopt ing any shape, cre at ing the vast diver si ty of
mul ti cel lu lar organ isms and ulti mate ly the whole world of life.
Evidence is exam ined which sug gests that the cell mem brane is
unique ly and ide al ly fit for its role of bound ing the cell's con -
tents and con fer ring on the cells of high er organ isms the abil i ty
to move and adhere select ive ly to one anoth er. The mem brane is
also fit, in that its select ive imper me a bil i ty to charged par ti cles
con fers addi tion al elec tri cal prop er ties, which form the base of
nerve con duc tion . . . . The known prop er ties of cells are remark -
a ble enough, but still there is much to learn. The pos si bil i ty that
cells may pos sess pow er ful com put ing abil i ties and may even be
able to behave intel li gent ly is con sid ered. 23

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