Relative Size of Life – Launching Pad for Cell Biology

00:01 It's important to think about the relative sizes within biology because often we'll see our cells spending time at such a small level, such a microscopic level, it becomes hard to relate it to what we're learning.

00:17 So atoms are super super tiny. There's no way we can see those with naked eye.

00:23 We cannot even see it under a light microscope.

00:26 Even when we put sixty or so atoms together, we still cannot see that under a light microscope.

00:34 And even if we look at the macromolecules, which is a lot of what we're going to be spending this course on, we still cannot see those.

00:41 It's not until we start looking at mitochondria and bacteria that we can start even seeing those things under a light microscope.

00:54 Above the level of bacteria, we can see red blood cells.

00:57 They're not that much bigger because they don't have many of the components inside them that most of our cells have.

01:05 But when we get up to the level of our animal cells or plant cells, we can see that there is much more complexity in them.

01:13 Some of which, you can even see under a light microscope.

01:16 It's not until we get up to the level of a frog egg that we could even see this with a naked eye.