Cells Cells are some of the smallest organisms around. All living things consist of cells, and yet they are invisible to the naked eye. How and why are they so small? Well, cells are the basic structural and functional units of life. As life on earth has evolved into organisms of different species and living things, two basic laws of nature have dictated why cells have remained so small. One is simply, shorter is faster. …showed first 75 words of 338 total…

…showed last 75 words of 338 total…surface area and volume of a sphere on a linear graph its easily discernible that as the size of the sphere increases the ratio of surface area to volume dramatically decreases until finally the volume of the sphere surpasses the surf ace area. Simply, by minimizing its size, a cell is maximizing the speed at which it can communicate, the rate at which diffusion can occur, and the amount of surface area at its disposal.