..:. Cracking My Vainpot .:..

What has a cucumber got in common with you and me?



Not that much, I thought. Well ok. All living organisms share the same DNA, using genetic codes that are almost identical. But still... cucumber!?

One good thing about studying biology is that everyday it reminds you how narrow-minded people are.

Time to take a closer look at the 1st revolutionary concept in biology, the cell.

It turns out that the epithelial cell layer that covers the surface of a cucumber look exactly like, for instance, the ones line our gut or those on the wing of a fruit fly.


Although these cells can have different number of sides, most are hexagonal.

Just like in cucumber, you can tell which of your epithelial cells will divide next simply by their shapes.

As these cells age, triangles will become a square, and then, a pentagon, hexagon, etc.

Thanks to some eccentric mathematicians, we now know that heptagonal and octagonal epithelial cells are most likely to divide, whether it's in human being, fruit fly or the humble cucumber :)

The significance of this? Give it another 20 years!