Biology is not as hierarchical as most textbooks paint it | Aeon Essays

is a science writer and a science education researcher. He holds a PhD from the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India. Edited byPam Weintraub When you think about it, it is amazing that something as tiny as a living cell is capable of behaviour so complex. Consider the single-cell creature, the amoeba. It can sense its environment, move around, obtain its food, maintain its structure, and multiply. How does a cell know how to do all of this? Biology textbooks will tell you that each eukaryotic cell, which constitutes a range of organisms from humans to amoeba, contains a control centre within a structure called the nucleus. Genes present in the nucleus hold the ‘information’ necessary for the cell to function. And the nucleus, in turn, resides in a jelly-like fluid called the cytoplasm. Cytoplasm contains the cellular organelles, the ‘little organs’ in the cell; and these organelles, the narrative goes, carry out specifi

is a science writer and a science education researcher. He holds a PhD from the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India. Edited byPam Weintraub When you think about it, it is amazing that something as tiny as a living cell is capable of behaviour so complex. Consider the single-cell creature, the amoeba. It can sense its environment, move around, obtain its food, maintain its structure, and multiply. How does a cell know how to do all of this? Biology textbooks will tell you that each eukaryotic cell, which constitutes a range of