The Wonder of Body Cells

On Sat, 22 Sep 2012 04:48:21 -0700 (PDT), "G=EMC^2"
wrote:

All 10,000,000,000,000,0000 of them Each one has the genetic
codeWOW Cells do millions of things for you. They take care of you
from birth till death. Cells take good care of themselves too. Cells
can be clever I think of cancer cells as stupid "confused" Cells
die nomal and some killed. I'm thinking cells this week and will add
m ideas. TeBet Eat lots of MSP fo good health

Something I've wondered about for a long time. A scientist once
showed that most cells are not immortal, that is, they won't keep
dividing into new, daughter cells forever. Cancer cells are now
believed to be an exception; they are believed to be immortal. And
yet normal body cells are not supposed to be immortal. A body cell
will undergo about 53 cell divisions and then stop dividing.

That *is* a lot of cells, of course! After just 40 divisions there
are over a trillion cells. Since each cell division represents a
doubling of cells (there are twice as many as before), by the time we
reach 53 cell divisions there are a whole lot more cells.

Then I think of how, throughout our entire lives, there are body cells
that just keep on dividing, like skin cells, that are constantly being
replaced as old skin cells die off and are blown or rubbed off the
body. Bone marrow cells, which continuously divide and provide new
red blood cells to our circulatory system, are also an example of what
seems to go against the findings of that scientist.

It's an enigma that I still have not been able to resolve.

Any ideas?

--
Indelibly yours,
Paine @ http://astronomy.painellsworth.net/
"Love almost everything; you can only learn to love by loving."