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Multicellular Function: Why We Aren’t Just One Big Cell: Crash Course Biology #41
- Science
There are countless types of plants and animals on Earth, but how do they work? In this episode of Crash Course Biology, we’ll take a bird’s eye view of how multicellular life functions, including how it’s organized, how it regulates itself to maintain homeostasis, and the big question: Why are these living things so wildly complex? Introduction: Bizarre Beasts 00:00 Multicellular Organization 1:16 Cell Specialization 3:34 Why We Aren't Unicellular 4:37 Cons of Multicellularity 5:53 Dr. Rebeca Gerschman 6:44 Homeostasis 8:24 Review & Credits 11:09 This series was produced in collaboration with HHMI BioInt...
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that will lead to an organism's continued survival.
.
And while we have our differences, all multicellular organisms use the same basic operating system.
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B1 · Intermediate
Fine if you can follow simple news
- 88% of the words are B1 or easier.
- 118 words a minute: slow, clear speech.
- 76 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.
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Life is… weird. An octopus has a mini-brain in each of its eight arms, operating them semi-independently from its central brain. Many plant species purposefully defend themselves from being eaten by releasing toxins despite not having brains at all. And wombats take cubed-shaped poos!
When it comes to multicellular organisms, or living things made of more than one cell, our planet has a bevy of bizarre beasts. But what we call weird, be it the nervous system of an octopus or the digestive tract of a wombat, is actually the result of millions of years of evolution selecting for traits that will lead to an organism's continued survival.
Each of these internal systems fits the needs of the organism that evolved them. And while we have our differences, all multicellular organisms use the same basic operating system. We're organized and regulated groups of cells, collaborating to form systems that operate in intricate harmony.
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