🕸 TREE 208: Cellular technology
A basic cell in your body is three hundredths of a millimetre across. Inside it are a bunch of little bits with the cute name oraganelles (as in little tiny organs). They operate as a super complicated factory turning amino acids into proteins and other important cell things. (I’m totally a biologist.) See the mitochondria? They are like even tinier factories inside the cell factory. They make ATP, the stuff that contracts your muscles so you can move. AND THEY HAVE THEIR OWN DNA. I’m shouting because that’s – WOW!
There are only about 200 types of cell that make up a human, which doesn’t seem like a lot when you think about how complex we are. But there are an awful lot of them. Around 30 trillion.
30,000,000,000,000
That’s not the half of it. Guess how many nonhuman cells are in and on your body.
39,000,000,000,000
You are less than 50% human1. Try not to think about the follicle mites living on your eyelashes. Instead, think about your intestines. That’s where most of the nonhuman you lives. The bacteria in your gut weigh more than your brain. And – how weird it this? – it seems to have a huge impact on your mental health.
Nature is a complex, meshy system that is full of surprises. You are part of nature.
Eat for a healthy gut. Your emotions will thank you.
Jeff
Somehow I’ve done 10 months of TREE without a single Kae Tempest song. I can only apologise.
The Memory of TREE playlist – every song from every email:
By number of cells, not by weight