Welcome to You Ask Andy

 

Patsy Banzhof, age 15, of Lancaster, enna., for her question:

What is an amoeba?

The amoeba is one of the smallest creatures that share our world with us. The biggest is large enough to be seen as a minute white speck. Most are much smaller. In spite of his size, the amoeba makes out very well. He travels without legs, he breathes without a nose, he eats without a mouth and senses things without a nervous system. Besides' he is pretty nearly immortal,

The little fellow belongs to the kingdom of protozoas the one‑celled animals„ Some of his kin protect their soft bodies in crusty shells. But the amoeba does not pamper himself this way, Perhaps he dislikes being tied down with a permanent house

His little body is no more than a soft blob of protoplasm. Protoplasm is.that magic fluid which fills all living plant, and animal cells, The amoeba doesnft even enclose his blob of protoplasm in a tough skin; The outer edge of his blob is glassy clear and somewhat firmer than the stuff inside.

The inside is granular and contains several interesting objects. There are pockets of partly digested food called food vacuoles. Another vacuole is used to expel wastes and surplus water from the cell. The most vital object in the blob of protoplasm is a disk called the nucleus. An amoeba cannot regulate his food without the nucleus, Nor can he multiply.

The little fellow is constantly on the move in search of food, He can travel in any direction, A stream of the clear outer jelly makes a bulge, This bulge is called the pseudopod, or phony foot. The amoeba can put out several pseudopods at once. Somehow he senses the most promising direction, The inside jelly flows into the bulge and the whole blob of amoeba follows along,

The amoeba can sense food and moisture aril move towards it, He can sense a strong light or certain acids, From these hazards, he withdraws his phony‑foot and explores a more promising direction.

His food is bits of vegetation and creatures smaller than himself He is never fooled by a grain of sand. The psuedopod hooks around a tasty morsel and engulfs it. The morsel is packed into a food vacuole a sort of temporary stomach, and digested, In the protoplasm are enzymes for digesting fats, proteins, starches and sugars,

At the proper time, the amoeba multiplies. The nucleus divides into two, taking half of a cell with each section. Our amoeba simply become twins, There are no parents and grandparents. No amoeba is left behind to grow old and die. Barring accidents, this kind of cell division can go on for a million years.

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