I were never good at Biology, but always wanted to know what a cell is actually made off. I know there are some little things in the cell, but what I meant, what chemical elements is one made off?
I suppose mostly of H2O, but maybe something else. That’s why I’m here, as I couldn’t find anything online. Maybe I’m just too stupid to find things on the web, but anyways, I would love to know it. Thank you guys!
In: 32
Mostly water, with a membrane that’s mostly fat, but with various protein structures in it.
The organelles in the cell are similar, and there are lots of different organelles in the cell. Look up a reference image of a call that’s labelled.
You’re mostly made from plant materials.
The membranes are made from fats which mostly come from your diet. You (in fact all animals) can’t make the straight chain oils that go into making your cell membrains. Many of the structures in the cell also have membranes made of the same material. The fats are basically oil with an acid or phosphate cap at one end. They’re made from chains of carbon and hydrogn. The ends contain oxygen and phosphorous as well.
Many of the structural elements of the cell as well as the enzymes in the cell are made from proteins. Proteins are assembled out of amino acids. Amino acids are made from carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen.
Those plus water probably account for 99.9% of the cell.
Mostly water (H20), lots of carbon, a lot more oxygen and hydrogen (not in water form), a fair amount of nitrogen, some phosphorus, calcium (of course), sodium, potassium, iron… it’s a real hodgepodge of chemical elements.
It’s honestly amazing how many different ways the simple building blocks of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen can be reconfigured to make different things.
Guys, thank you sooooo much for explaining it to me! I was so curious about it for many years, and that’s the day, when I finally know it. Thank you very much y’all
You are getting good answers here. Mostly Hydrogen, Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Iodine in the thyroid, Iron in the blood, etc.
If you can hang with it, [Crash Course Biology](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3EED4C1D684D3ADF). can answer a lot of questions.
> I couldn’t find anything online
The answer was literally the first thing to pop up in a Google search
You have the right answers already but you might appreciate the perspective that a professor gave me. Cells are basically bags of seawater. Whether single cells swimming in the ocean, freshwater lakes or walking around on land as part of a complex organism, they all work to maintain an internal saltwater composition similar to the sea.
Aside from water, the human body is mostly composed of a few types of macromolecules. Namely, Carbohydrates, protein, lipids, and nucleic acids. They are in turn composed of smaller subunits called monosaccharides, amino acids, fatty acids, and nucleotides, respectively.
If your interested there are plenty of introductory biology textbooks that you can find online for free.
All living things are made of four basic macromolecules:
1) Carbohydrates – for energy. 2) Fat – storage, buoyancy, thermal insulation and cell membranes. 3) Proteins – building blocks of mostly everything including enzymes. 4) nucleic acids – needed for DNA, RNA and ATP.
The most basic of the 4 are carbohydrates named because they’re made of carbon (carbo) hydrogen (hydr) and oxygen (-ate , suffix for any chemical containing oxygen). Fats contain less oxygen (6 molecules of oxygen per fat molecule) and proteins and nucleic acids also contain other elements like sulphur, selenium, nitrogen, phosphorus. There are other elemental metal ions involved in life too such as iron and copper.
Mostly water, with little bits of fat, protein, and trace amounts of inorganic compounds.
The vast majority of your body is made up of Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen, The next substantial fraction is Nitrogen, and then trace amounts of most of the rest of the main body of the periodic table.
(That is, excluding the noble gasses and super heavy elements.)
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