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On page 3 of his remarkable book The Machinery of Life, Dr. David Goodsell
says:

"Cells are small, but not unimaginably so. Cells are about one thousand
times smaller in length than objects in our everyday world (Fig. 1.1, 1.2).
Typical cells in our bodies are about ten micrometers in length – roughly
one-thousand times smaller than the last joint in your finger. A
thousand-fold difference in length is not difficult to visualize: a grain of
rice is about one thousand times smaller in length than the room you are
sitting in. Imagine your room filled with rice grains, and this will give
you an idea of the billion or so cells that make up your fingertip."

Dr. Goodsell is easy to find through the internet and is a master of
depicting and interpreting microbiology. I suggest that you call him. Also,
he's just up the road from you if he's still with Scripps in La Jolla.

I think that his work and words would make an excellent exhibit including
three-dimensional representations of his explanations and analogies. Imagine
a scale finger made of rice!

Jon Betthauser
(415) 845-0454


On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 9:32 AM, Paul Siboroski <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
>
> *****************************************************************************
>
> An impossible questions I know but any way to guesstimate the number of
> human cells in an adult index finger (or any finger for that matter)? Or
> someone I could ask?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Paul M Siboroski
> Exhibits Director
> Reuben H. Fleet Science Center
> San Diego California
> Phone: 619.685.5742
> FAX: 619.685.5771
>
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> For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the
> Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.
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-- 
Jon Betthauser

(415) 845-0454

***********************************************************************
For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.

Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.

The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit
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