Guys, remember the edible cell? Truly the most delicious of all elementary school science projects. Looking at these is making me so nostalgic, I want to plan an edible cell party where everyone has to bring one.
(Full disclosure: one of these is a professional job. Don’t feel bad if yours looked more like this.)
An oocyte, ovocyte, or rarely ocyte, is a female gametocyte or germ cell involved in reproduction. In other words, it is an immature ovum, or egg cell. An oocyte is produced in the ovary during female gametogenesis. The female germ cells produce a primordial germ cell (PGC) which undergoes a mitotic division to form an oogonium. During oogenesis the oogonium becomes a primary oocyte .
“The oocyte is an immature female sex cell. It starts off as an oogonium by the process of oocytogenesis, and matures to give rise to a fully mature ovum or egg cell and ootid (by ootidogenesis).”
In humans, the oocytes are of two types:
The counterpart of oocyte in males is spermatocyte.
heck yes reproduction!
![scipsy:
A tour of the cell [interactive]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lojdbqq0291qb3iw0o1_500.jpg)
One thing I love about science is that it shows us that sunflowers are not only pretty from the outside, but from the inside as well.
(Source: callasceline)
Fern Stalk Cross
Section Spore-producing plants belonging to the division Filicophyta are commonly referred to as ferns. The primitive vascular plants are extremely diverse and have been present on Earth for over 300 million years. (via olympusmicro)
I LOVE FERNS.
(Source: freidrichr)
nerdycookies asked: This is a question that's been troubling me since high school. One of my philosophy of biology teachers said that viruses are not alive, because they're not made up of cells. Something about this logic strikes me as circular. What do you think? Are viruses alive?
We were actually just discussing this in my Cell and Molecular biology class this morning. It really depends on the definition of life being used. Most definitions of life do not allow for viruses, leaving the cell as the basic unit of life based on several criteria (self regulation, ability to replicate, acquiring and using energy, etc). Viruses replicate themselves by infecting host cells and cannot do so without a host, cells replicate by copying DNA and organelles. If you define life as the ability to replicate, then yes, viruses are alive. My professor went on to say that if you can grow it in a dish, it’s alive. Viruses cannot be grown in a dish since they require a host cell to replicate themselves. So, really, it is up to you to decide how you define life by scientific standards and whether or not that definition includes or does not include viruses.
Thanks so much for the great question! Any other thoughts on this, please direct them to my ask box! *points below* Ask me a question. You know you wanna. *wink*
Two human cancer cells seen just before they divide into four cells, viewed at 100x magnification.
From the Nikon International Small World Photomicrography Competition … more amazing photos at the Big Picture.
