AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -A cell is the smallest and most basic form of life. Robert Hooke, one of the first scientists to use a light microscope, discovered the cell in 1665. In all life forms, including bacteria, plants, animals, and humans, the cell was defined as the most basic structural and functional unit.

Detailed explanation-2: -The cell is the smallest structural and functional unit of living organisms, which can exist on its own. Therefore, it is sometimes called the building block of life. Some organisms, such as bacteria or yeast, are unicellular-consisting only of a single cell-while others, for instance, mammalians, are multicellular.

Detailed explanation-3: -The cell is the smallest unit of life that can divide, multiply, grow and respond to stimuli from the environment. The cell structure is colloidal. The vital signs called life, manifest itself in this colloidal environment called protoplasm.

Detailed explanation-4: -But if we look for the simplest creatures on the planet, we will find a wee bacterium that lives happily in the digestive tracts of cows and goats: Mycoplasma mycoides. It builds itself from a very modest blueprint-only 525 genes. It’s one of the simplest life-forms we’ve ever seen.

Detailed explanation-5: -cell: The basic unit of a living organism, consisting of a quantity of protoplasm surrounded by a cell membrane, which is able to synthesize proteins and replicate itself.