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Here at Eureka ! Science we know that learning is fun and that science is endlessly fascinating.
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Ask Dr. Pat

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I was trying to do my science homework but I could not find what I was looking for. So I am wondering if you can put it on your site. What I was looking for was: what are the holes called in a leaf?
Kim

Hi Kim,
From one of my botany books, here is the definition of 'stoma'.

Stoma (plural, stomata) (Gr. stoma, mouth), a minute opening, bordered by guard cells in the epidermis of leaves and stems, through which gases pass.

[epidermis would be the outside layer]

Hope this helps.
Dr. Pat

Dear Dr. Pat,
I really need some help and it will be greatly appreciated. This is for animals and plants: How many cells are there in each? What do they each do?
Thank you very much !
Garfield

Dear Garfield,
That is a hard question to answer -- it is kind of broad.

I would say that many cells combine to make a plant or animal. An analogy would be if you tried to make a life-size model of the Statue of Liberty out of meatballs. The meatballs would be the cells.

There are trillions of cells in one human body. There are different functions for the various kinds of cells. (All cells are pretty much the same, with small variations between them -- but the variations are what allow the cells to perform different tasks.) For instance you have muscle cells and brain cells and red blood cells.

And, plants are also composed of multi-millions or trillions of cells (depends on the size) and they have specialized jobs -- like root cells and leaf cells.

Thanks for asking,
Dr. Pat

Dr. Pat,
Are cells of the same kind, such as bone cells, different in different animals? Why?
Your visitor, Cecilia

They would be the same. There might be the tiniest of differences -- like different people are basically the same, only some have blue eyes and others brown.
Dr. Pat

Thank you very much !

Dr. Pat,
What does "ER" stand for in a living cell?
Thanks, Mimi

Hi Mimi,
Endoplasmic Reticulum
Dr. Pat

Dr. Pat,
Your response time is incredible. Thank you very much. But, what is Endoplasmic Reticulum? Please explain.
Thanks, Mimi

Hi Mimi,
The Endoplasmic Reticulum is the ruffles of membrane that extend out from the nucleus. In places it has ribosomes attached, and there it is called the Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum (from the days when scientists first saw what it looked like under a microscope but did not know what it did -- so the name is descriptive of look not function). The ER is where a lot of changes to RNA take place and, with the ribosomes attached, where protein synthesis takes place.
Hope this helps,
Dr. Pat

Thank you very much. This is a great website!
Aloha (Bye in Hawaiian)

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