40 Critical Thinking Questions

25. In your everyday life, you have probably noticed that certain instruments are ideal for certain situations. For example, you would use a spoon rather than a fork to eat soup because a spoon is shaped for scooping, while soup would slip between the tines of a fork. The use of ideal instruments also applies in science. In what situation(s) would the use of a light microscope be ideal, and why?

26. In what situation(s) would the use of a scanning electron microscope be ideal, and why?

27. In what situation(s) would a transmission electron microscope be ideal, and why?

28. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each of these types of microscopes?

29. Explain how the formation of an adult human follows the cell theory.

30. Antibiotics are medicines that are used to fight bacterial infections. These medicines kill prokaryotic cells without harming human cells. What part or parts of the bacterial cell do you think antibiotics target? Why?

31. Explain why not all microbes are harmful.

32. You already know that ribosomes are abundant in red blood cells. In what other cells of the body would you find them in great abundance? Why?

33. What are the structural and functional similarities and differences between mitochondria and chloroplasts?

34. Why are plasma membranes arranged as a bilayer rather than a monolayer?

35. In the context of cell biology, what do we mean by form follows function? What are at least two examples of this concept?

36. In your opinion, is the nuclear membrane part of the endomembrane system? Why or why not? Defend your answer.

37. What are the similarities and differences between the structures of centrioles and flagella?

38. How do cilia and flagella differ?

39. Describe how microfilaments and microtubules are involved in the phagocytosis and destruction of a pathogen by a macrophage.

40. Compare and contrast the boundaries that plant, animal, and bacteria cells use to separate themselves from their surrounding environment.

41. How does the structure of a plasmodesma differ from that of a gap junction?

42. Explain how the extracellular matrix functions.

43. Pathogenic E. coli have recently been shown to degrade tight junction proteins during infection. How would this provide an advantage to the bacteria?