Question

How do you appreciate the fact that a huge elephant, man and trees are made of cells, which are very small and look at them under a microscope?

Answer 1

Cells are known to be the basic structural and functional unit of life. Cells are very small in size and can only be seen under the light microscope. They are often known as the “building block of life”. Starting from the unicellular organism and ending up to the multicellular, all organisms consist of cells.

Complete answer: Cell biology is the study of the cell on the basis of its structure and function.
That’s why cells are known to be basic building blocks of life. Cell biology comprises eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells. All organisms starting from unicellular organisms like Amoeba to multicellular organisms like elephants or the Giraffe are made up of cells. However, these cells do not expand in size in organisms that are huge in size, instead, they multiply, and differentiate and perform different functions, such that the organism can perform all the life processes unhindered. Since the huge size in large organisms is formed by the multiplication of cells and not by an increase in size, a cell has to be observed only under a light microscope.

Note: Cells were first seen in the 17th century in Europe with the invention of the compound microscope. In 1665, Robert Hooke coined a term the building block of all living organisms to "cells" after he observed a piece of cork and a cell-like structure. After a few years, in 1674, Anton Van Leeuwenhoek was the first to examine live cells in his examination of algae.