Cell Biology and Cell Theory Review

A collection of vocabulary terms covering the fundamental concepts of cell biology, the characteristics of life, and the historical development of the cell theory based on the provided curriculum and lecture notes.

Cell

The basic structural and functional unit of life, possessing a highly organized structure that enables it to carry out vital functions.

Cellula

A Latin word meaning "small room" or "chamber," which is the origin of the word cell.

Characteristics of Life

A set of traits including being made of cells, possessing genetic material, metabolism, maintaining homeostasis, growth and development, reproduction, response to stimuli, and using energy.

Metabolism

The sum of all metabolic and biochemical processes (energy flow) that take place within cells.

Homeostasis

The process by which living organisms maintain a stable internal environment.

Spontaneous generation

The ancient belief that living organisms could arise naturally from nonliving matter without parents or reproduction, such as frogs from mud or mice from dirty clothes.

Microscope

A scientific instrument that uses lenses to magnify and resolve objects too small to be seen by the naked eye.

Robert Hooke

An English scientist who, in $1665$, published Micrographia and coined the term "cell" after observing cork tissues.

Micrographia

The famous scientific book published by Robert Hooke in $1665$ containing illustrations of his microscopic observations.

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

A Dutch cloth merchant who, in $1674$, used high-quality lenses to discover microscopic life, such as those found in pond water and teeth scrapings.

Animacules

An archaic term meaning "little animals," invented by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek to describe microscopic organisms like bacteria and protozoans.

Matthias Schleiden

A German botanist who concluded in $1838$ that every plant tissue is composed of cells or derivatives of cells.

Robert Brown

A Scottish botanist who discovered the cell nucleus in $1831$, a discovery recognized by Matthias Schleiden as being connected with cell division.

Theodor Schwann

A German zoologist and physiologist who established in $1839$ that animal tissues are composed of cells, each containing a nucleus.

Rudolf Virchow

Known as "the father of modern pathology," he introduced the third dictum of cell theory in $1855$: Omnis cellula e cellula.

Omnis cellula e cellula

A Latin phrase meaning "All cells come from cells."

Robert Remak

An embryologist and neurologist who discovered in $1852$ that the origin of cells is the division of pre-existing cells, based on observations of red blood cells from chicken embryos.

Modern Cell Theory Principles

$1$. All living organisms are composed of one or more cells. $2$. The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of life. $3$. All cells arise from pre-existing cells.

Heredity in Modern Cell Theory

The principle that cells contain DNA (in chromosomes) and RNA, which are passed on to new cells during division.

Chemical Composition in Modern Cell Theory

The principle that all cells within similar species are fundamentally the same in chemical composition.