Cell Structure and Function

Eleven topics on the cell — the smallest thing that counts as alive. The subcellular components and how each organelle's structure predicts its function, why cell size is capped by the falling surface-area-to-volume ratio, the plasma membrane as a fluid mosaic and what its selective permeability lets through, the difference between passive and active membrane transport, facilitated diffusion through channels and carriers, tonicity and osmoregulation and the direction water moves, bulk transport by vesicles, why compartmentalization matters, and the endosymbiotic origins of mitochondria and chloroplasts.