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usually a single cell develops into a huge mass to form a substance or an organism. is this happening because of multiplication of sub-atomic particles? if yes, then is it possible to multiply the cell number, as it is usually happening in our body tissue?

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closed as unclear what you're asking by ACuriousMind, Kyle, Brandon Enright, dmckee Jul 31 at 2:08


Biological processes just rearrange atoms, they don't create new atoms. In other words, babys grow because they eat, that is their source of new atoms to rearrange. –  Bernhard Jul 29 at 20:09

3 Answers 3

Biological processes do not generate atoms or even sub-atomic particles out of thin air. When a cell splits, the number of total atoms in the daughter cells is exactly the number of atoms in the mother cell. Sustained growth is possible since nutrition provides an external source of energy and raw material, allowing the daughter cells to grow and achieve enough mass for another split. Nothing of this is connected to subatomic physics.

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then where is the nucleus of daughter atom being produced from? isn't it anyway related to cell duplication? –  Saikrishna Chowdary Jul 29 at 19:27
@Saikrishna: The cell splits in two. Half of its atoms go to the one daughter, the other half goes to the other. No atoms are produced. The daughter cells then incorporate nutrition from the environment into them, adding the nutrition mass to their mass, until they contain enough material/atom to survive another split. If you wish to know more about the biological process, this site (and my rusty introductory bio knowledge) cannot help you, but I assure you that no atoms are ever produced or lost in any biological process (that would be fusion/fission!). –  ACuriousMind Jul 29 at 19:32
I don't need to produce any atom. I just need to multiply the atom but at an instance! can that be possible? –  Saikrishna Chowdary Jul 29 at 19:35
@Saikrishna: I'm afraid I have no idea what you mean by multiplying if not "Now I have 1 atom, and later I have 2 atoms". And that would be producing an atom. –  ACuriousMind Jul 29 at 19:37
I mean I want to multiply the cell number at a greater speed and obtain a mass of required substance from a single cell with proper DNA combination between each of those cells. will that be possible? –  Saikrishna Chowdary Jul 29 at 19:44

Cells reproduce by growing and dividing, but they do not duplicate each atom, molecule, or subatomic particle individually prior to doing so. Cells take in nutrients from their outside environment; in a human, these nutrients are initially carried by the digestive system. These nutrients contain carbon, as well as other elements, needed for cell growth, and also sustain it throughout its life. Before a cell divides, it reproduces its chromosomes, so it has two sets of DNA (the process is different in the formation of eggs and sperm). The additional set is built up from nutrients taken in from outside the cell; additional cell parts are also manufactured this way. When duplication is complete, the cell splits, creating new daughter cells which then grow and develop, and, eventually, reproduce. Basically, the atoms of the cell do not reproduce; the cell takes in nutrients and uses them to build new cell parts. Improper construction of the DNA can lead to mutations in the cell. So the answer to your question is no. I'm not sure what the second part of your question means, although it appears to be moot.

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is it possible to multiply the atom at an instance? –  Saikrishna Chowdary Jul 29 at 19:37
What do you mean? –  HDE 226868 Jul 29 at 19:39
I mean I want to multiply the cell number at a greater speed and obtain a mass of required substance from a single cell with proper DNA combination between each of those cells! –  Saikrishna Chowdary Jul 29 at 19:43
You would probably be better off talking to an expert in biology. I don't think I know enough to fully answer this question. –  HDE 226868 Jul 29 at 19:45
well then! thank you for your valuable assistance! if you don't mind, can you help me in forwarding this question to any of the experts in biotechnology whom you come across in future? –  Saikrishna Chowdary Jul 29 at 19:48

No. There is no way we can produce baryonic matter out of void. Most of the non-dark matter in the Universe is hydrogen, which is fused into heavier elements inside of stars. There is no "copying" of matter, only rearrangement from one form into another (or transfer from matter to energy or vice versa).

While you can theoretically turn energy into matter, it would take a tremendous amount of energy to create a teeny-tiny amount of matter (consider a nuclear bomb in reverse) and even then there is no straightforward way we know of to do that.

Biological processes are best left to another SE field, but cells grow by absorbing and processing existing matter. This is why we have to do boring things like breathe and eat: the stuff which composes us must come from somewhere.

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