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Amoeba Sisters
How Cells Become Specialized
How do cells in your body differentiate into other types of cells? Explore cell specialization featuring stem cells and their role in cell differentiation.
SciShow
Having Six Fingers Is a Dominant Trait
Genetics are extremely complicated—so complicated that having an extra finger or toe, for example, is exceedingly rare despite it being caused by a dominant gene.
Wonderscape
Cell Differentiation and Organismal Complexity
Explore the process of cell differentiation and how cells specialize to perform various functions in animals and plants. Learn how cells organize into tissues, which in turn form organs and organ systems, allowing organisms to perform...
Curated Video
Specialization of Cells in Animals and Plants
The video discusses how different types of animal and plant cells are specialized for various functions. The video highlights sperm cells, nerve cells, muscle cells, root hair cells, sieve tubes, and flame cells to illustrate how each...
Professor Dave Explains
The Origin of Multicellular Life: Cell Specialization and Animal Development
Alright, so we've learned a lot about the origin of life. We learned about how the first organic molecules can have formed spontaneously, and how they might have assembled into the first protocell. From there, endosymbiotic theory tells...
Wonderscape
Science Kids: All About Cells
Learn all about animal cells and plant cells with new, precise, yet easy-to-understand, definitions and explanations. Students will learn what cells are and why they are important to living things. They will also understand the parts of...
TED-Ed
How Turtle Shells Evolved... Twice
How do turtle shells form? Scholars explore the evolution of turtle shells and learn about how they form from many different bones before relating the process to cell differentiation in an organism. Pupils also look at different turtle...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
X Inactivation
Have you ever wondered why calico cats have such a colorful coat? The process of X inactivation is an interesting phenomenon in females that drives the physical appearance of individuals. Viewers of an intriguing video connect knowledge...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Cellular Specialization Differentiation
Review the principles of cell specialization and find out how differentiation allows multicellular organisms develop. [8:31]
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Embryonic Stem Cells
An overview of early development of a zygote to an embryo. Embryonic and somatic stem cells. [19:55]
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Hhmi: Biointeractive: Stem Cells: Differentiation and the Fate of Cells
See how the three germ layers in early embryonic development eventually lead to the formation of major human organs. [1:29]
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Hhmi: Biointeractive: Stem Cells: Newt Limb Regeneration
Watch this animation of newt limb regeneration, and find out how specialized cells make it happen in a relatively short period of time. [1:20]
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Hhmi: Bio Interactive: Human Embryonic Development
A video showing the development of human embryonic cells. Learn how cells specialize from stem cells to produce all the tissues of the body. [2:18]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mit: Science Out Loud: Why Can We Regrow a Liver but Not a Limb?
Unlike lizards, humans can't regrow limbs. But we can kinda-sorta regenerate our livers. Ceri, an undergrad in Biology and Comparative Media Studies at MIT, explains how and why. [4:06]
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Early Development: Three Germ Layers: Lesson 2
This lesson will identify the three germ layers that form in an early embryo and the tissues and organs that develop from them. It is 2 of 5 in the series titled "Early Development: Three Germ Layers."
Science Friday Initiative
Science Friday: A Decade After the Genome, Scientists Map the Proteome
Nearly all the body's cells contain identical DNA. So why does a neuron grow up so differently than a liver cell? Proteins, says Akhilesh Pandey, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Hhmi: Biointeractive: Stem Cells: Cytoplasmic Factors
Find out how cytoplasmic factors in a developing embryo play a vital role in determining which genes to turn on and off for appropriate cell development. [0:56]
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Zygote Differentiating Into Somatic and Germ Cells
Learn how a zygote, the single cell produced by fertilization, divides by mitosis to produce all the tissues of the human body (including germ cells, which can undergo meiosis to make sperm and eggs). [9:35]
Bozeman Science
Bozeman Science: Cellular Specialization
Paul Andersen explains how cells differentiate to become tissue specific. He also explains the role of transcription factors in gene regulation. The location of a cell within the blastula ultimately determines its fate. The SrY gene is...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Cellular Specialization (Differentiation)
How do cells become a muscle or a nerve cell? This video will review over the process of cell differentiation from a STEM cell. [8:30]
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Surface Area to Volume Ratio of Cells
Seeing that the surface area to volume ratio of cells generally decreases as cells get larger, making the exchange of resources, waster and heat more and more difficult.
Science Friday Initiative
Science Friday: From Stem Cells to Eggs (And Beyond)
Stem cells can be turned into heart, liver, and brain cells -- but what about a whole new organism? A study in Science explains the transformation from stem cell to egg to mouse pup. [7 mins. 52 secs.]
Bozeman Science
Bozeman Science: Development: Timing and Coordination
Paul Andersen explains how genes control the timing and coordination of embryo development. Seed germination initiates the discussion of cell differentiation. The SRY gene and genetic transplantation shows the importance of embryonic...