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The Smallest Stuff! Atoms!The Atom Sucker got out of control, now all Andrew's parts are small.
What are your smallest parts? Well, you've got arms and legs, and ears, and knees, and elbows and eyeballs. They're pretty big. Then there's toenails and nose hairs and those little bumps on your tongue. But there are parts of your body that are so much smaller than that! There are the cells that make up all your body parts! |
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The dish-shaped things are blood cells that carry oxygen to every part of your body. The other fuzzy-looking cells belong to the immune system. They patrol your body, looking for enemies like bacteria and viruses.
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When you see something or hear something or smell something - when you move your finger or think a thought - these guys are passing messages to each other! The green cell is from the immune system. |
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 Atoms are not really solid. Particles on the outside whiz around the center so fast that atoms seem solid. It's kind of like the blades of a fan. Atoms are mostly empty space! |
But even these are not the smallest parts that make up living things. The smallest parts are atoms. There are more than 100 kinds of atoms. There are oxygen atoms in the air - you couldn't survive without them. There are iron atoms in your blood. Iron atoms make red blood cells red! But all atoms. But all atoms have the same structure. It's a little bit like the solar system. The largest chunk of an atom is in the center. Smaller particles zip around the center at incredible speeds. You are now going to see something that very few people have ever seen. It's a photograph of atoms. These are atoms of silicon, the material that makes up sand. |
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These atoms have been magnified 45 million times!
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These
cells 
This
looks like a spider web, but it's a web of cells in your brain!
