Five Differences 1

Running head: FIVE DIFFERENCES

Five Differences
Hassan Rizvi
CTU Online
Teresa Mcclain
BIO141
11-23-2008

Five Differences
A human cell resembles a computer in a lot of functional and structural
aspects. Just like a computer a human cell has a nucleus which is the main
processing unit of a cell. It has specialized structures which receive the data
from different parts of the body, and it runs a specific program thereby forming
the desired product. The wire system of a computer can also be resembled to
the nerves supplying the cells of a human body, yet despite these similarities
there are a lot of differences, some of which have been highlighted as follow:
A human cell undergoes a programmed death known as apotosis whereas
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a computer does not. Every human cell has a unique genomic sequence that
determines its life span before even its created hence every human cell
undergoes a definite life span before it is destroyed by the different organelles
within the body called as lysosomes. There is no such pre-determined life span
for a computer function.
A unique feature of a human cell in contrast to a computer function is that
it can undergo changes to increase its size and function on demand, for example
a cardiac cell undergoes increase in size called as hypertrophy under the stress
of high blood pressure, decreased oxygen concentrations, etc. To meet the
needs of the body, yet it does not alter its basic internal structure. It does this
by increasing the number of specialized building units called proteins that
increase the overall size of the cardiac cell but the integrity is maintained.
A human cell can transform into a malignant (cancerous) cell if there is
damage to its genetic structure or it undergoes exposure to a cancerous
chemical agent. This simply is a kind of damage where the genes responsible for
the degradation of a cell are damaged and as a result the cell functions in an
uncoordinated fashion, utilizing the nourishment of other cells. An example is the
colon cancer in which the cigarette smoking toxins damage the p53 (tumor
suppressor) gene there by leading to the malignant or cancerous transformation
of the normal colon cells into aggressive tumor cells.
A human cell in contrast to a computer has different biochemiochemical
cycles working within its organelles to liberate energy for the cell for example
within a very specialized structure of a cell called the mitochondria there is a
biochemical cycle called as oxidative phosphorylation. This cycle liberates energy
in the form of phosphate rich compounds called as ATP (Adenosine
Triphosphate), the energy currency of the cell. There is no such thing with a
computer.
A human cell has specialized structures on its surface called as receptors.
Different drugs or hormones bind to these receptors and induce a whole world of
chains within a cell ultimately leading to the formation of a desired product.
There is no change of this sort in a computer.
Hence from the above details it is obvious that there are differences
between a human cell and a computer. The human cell is also unique in the
sense that it is biological in origin yet has a large system of structure and
function programmed to meet the demands of the human body. It is amazing to
see that this micro molecular structure is a whole world which is currently the
target of research for understanding not only disease pathophysiology, but also
for novel therapeutic techniques for treatment of apparently non curable
diseases.
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References
Basic cell functions. Retrieved November 21, 2008, from Oracle ThinkQuest web site:
http:// library.thinkquest.org
Cell function in human body. Retrieved November 21, 2008, from Pubmed web site:
http:// www.pubmed.org
Cell function. Retrieved November 22, 2008, from BMJ web site:
http:// www.bmj.com
Computer function. Retrieved November 22, 2008, from Sacramento state web site:
http:// www.csus.edu