Much of our knowledge of cellular organization has been made possi¬ble by the development of better and more powerful compound microscopes. In the detailed analysis of subcellular structure, three attributes of certain microscopes like compound microscopes are of particular importance: magnification, resolution, and contrast. Magnification of the microscope is a means of increasing the apparent […]

THE NUCLEUS
Within the cells of most organisms (though not of bacteria and Cyano¬bacteria), the largest and one of the most conspicuous structural areas is the membrane-bounded nucleus. The nucleus plays the central role in cellular reproduction, the process by which a single cell divides and forms two new cells, as seen under a compound microscope. […]

Organisms are composed of a great variety of chemicals, some simple and some complex. But these chemicals do not of themselves possess the properties we recognize as life. This scientific fact strongly suggests that some kind of order is imposed on them, that they are not simply dispersed in random fashion in an aqueous medium. […]