Prologue 2: The Cell
Brief Overview Reading: Chapter 1
Focused Reading: p 3-5 "Evolutionary Milestones" stop at “Controlling internal
environments"
Chapter 4: The Organization of Cells
WWW Focused Reading: Virtual Plant Cell
Purves6e, Chapter 4, Eukaryotic Cell Tour
Immunofluorescence Labeling of ER
Relative Sizes: from glucose to cells and larger
To look at images on the world wide web (WWW) you must use a computer that is connected to
the campus network, that has Netscape or similar browser, and go to the Biology 111 Home Page.
To reach the Biology 111 Home Page, up at the top of the screen in the box labeled “Location:”,
you must type in the web address (called a URL)
<www.bio.davidson.edu/Biology/Courses/Bio111.html>
You must type this exactly as it appears above, except do not include the < and > symbols. Once
you have reached the Biology 111 Home Page, all you need to do is click once on the appropriate
underlined words to see the focused reading material. If you get a message that says “Bad URL” or
the file cannot be found, then you have probably made a typo. If you wait for quite a while and
nothing ever appears or you get the message that says the server could not be contacted, then the
computer that provides this service (the web server) is too busy with all your classmates and cannot
talk with you right now. You should try again later, in one or two minutes.
Once you have found this “Virtual Cell” you will see a cartoon of a plant cell. Point and click the
mouse and you can see inside the cell. We strongly recommend that you use the “Hot Spots” option
and then click on the picture. This will allow you to see more and more detail. You should also use
the search function to select certain organelles.
Your text has supplemental tutorials and activities online. Connections between the text and online
material are indicated in the book by ‘hand on a mouse’ icon. Web reading will also include some of
these supplemental materials and will be seen in the study guide as “purves6e, Chapter, Title of the
material”. To access this material you must type in the URL <www.whfreeman.com/purves6e/> ,
click on the chapter and then the title that are indicated in the study guide assignment.
Study Questions:
1. The cell theory was one of the first fundamental theories of the biological sciences. What
are the elements of the cell theory and why is this theory so important? In what ways does
this theory drive the modern biological sciences?
2. A major tenet in the biological sciences is that form follows function. Give an example that
illustrates this point on the cellular level. Be able to explain how this example illustrates the
point.
3. What are the differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes? Give an example of each
type of cell.
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