Cells to Surgery Quiz: January 2017

Cells are the smallest and basic units of life, whether it is a single cell that forms the entire organism, e.g., in a bacterium or trillions of them, e.g., in humans. No matter what organism a cell is a part of, they share specific characteristics.
Basic Characteristics of Cells
A living cell has a plasma membrane, a bilayer of lipids that separates the aqueous solution inside the cell called the cytoplasm from the outside environment.
Furthermore, a living cell possesses genetic information...

Cells are the smallest and basic units of life, whether it is a single cell that forms the entire organism, e.g., in a bacterium, or trillions of them, e.g., in humans. No matter what organism a cell is a part of, they share specific characteristics.
Basic Characteristics of Cells
A living cell has a plasma membrane, a bilayer of lipids that separates the aqueous solution inside the cell called the cytoplasm from the outside environment.
Furthermore, a living cell possesses genetic information...

Despite the protective membrane that separates a cell from the environment, cells need the ability to detect and respond to environmental changes. Additionally, cells often need to communicate with one another. Unicellular and multicellular organisms use a variety of cell signaling mechanisms to communicate to respond to the environment.

A concentration cell is a type of a  voltaic cell constructed by connecting two almost identical half-cells, both based on the same half-reaction and using the same electrode, differing only in the concentration of one redox species. A concentration cell's potential, therefore, is determined only by the concentration difference of the particular redox species.
Consider the following voltaic cell:

The cell is chemically composed of water, organic molecules and inorganic ions.
Water
The polarity of the water molecule and its resulting hydrogen bonding makes water a unique substance with special properties that are intimately tied to the processes of life. Life originally evolved in an aqueous environment, and most of an organism’s cellular chemistry and metabolism occur inside the aqueous contents of the cell’s cytoplasm. Special properties of water are its high heat capacity...

Hair cells are the sensory receptors of the auditory system—they transduce mechanical sound waves into electrical energy that the nervous system can understand. Hair cells are located in the organ of Corti within the cochlea of the inner ear, between the basilar and tectorial membranes. The actual sensory receptors are called inner hair cells. The outer hair cells serve other functions, such as sound amplification in the cochlea, and are not discussed in detail here.