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# The Organelles - **Cell Membrane:** This thin layer of lipid (fat) molecules surrounds the outside of every cell. This membrane is **semi-permeable** (it works like a gate letting some molecules pass freely in and out of the cell, while not allowing other molecules to pass through at all). - **Cy...

# The Organelles - **Cell Membrane:** This thin layer of lipid (fat) molecules surrounds the outside of every cell. This membrane is **semi-permeable** (it works like a gate letting some molecules pass freely in and out of the cell, while not allowing other molecules to pass through at all). - **Cytoplasm:** This thick, clear liquid fills up every cell. Dissolved in the cytoplasm are thousands of molecules the cell can use as needed. - **Nucleus:** A large, round structure usually found near the center of the cell. The outside of the nucleus is made of the **nuclear membrane** - a thin layer of lipid (fat). The inside of the nucleus holds and protects all the cell's genetic information (DNA/chromosomes). - **DNA/Chromosomes:** These long, thin, string-like molecules are your genetic information. They are held and protected inside the nucleus. DNA molecules are like a large set of encyclopedias that contain all the instructions and information needed to make you who you are! Why didn't you develop into an octopus? Because the DNA in each of your cells contains the instructions to produce a human. Why don't you look exactly like the other humans sitting next to you? This is because some of the instructions in your DNA encyclopedia are a little different from the DNA instructions in other humans (only identical twins have identical DNA instructions in their cells). Each human cell has 46 DNA molecules inside its nucleus (each dog cell has 78 DNA molecules in its nucleus, each housefly cell has 12 DNA inside its nucleus). - **Ribosome:** These organelles look like little black dots all over the cell's cytoplasm. They may look simple, but ribosomes are important because they make proteins for the cell (and you!). Ribosomes made all the muscle protein you use when moving around and ribosomes made all of the digestive enzymes you used to digest the last meal you ate. - **Endoplasmic Reticulum:** (Just say ER for short!) These organelles are made of thin membranes folded back and forth all throughout the cytoplasm in the cell. They form a bunch of tunnels or caves inside the cell that act like highways and help move molecules around the cell. There are two kinds of ER found in cells: - **Rough ER:** This ER is covered with ribosomes and looks bumpy or rough. - **Smooth ER:** This ER does not have ribosomes and therefore has a smooth surface. - **Golgi Body:** This organelle is made of thin membranes and can be mistaken for Smooth ER. A Golgi Body looks like several "C"-shaped, curved membranes sitting one inside the other (like nesting bowls), and usually is surrounded by many round, bubbly-looking things called **Vesicles**. The Golgi body packages up important molecules that the cell has made and stores them in the bubbly vesicles. - **Vesicles:** These are the round, bubbly-looking things around the **Golgi Body**. Vesicles are the packages made by the Golgi body and are filled with important chemicals. The vesicle can store these important chemicals for the cell until they are needed. - **Lysosome:** These are special vesicles that contain strong, digestive enzymes. When one of your white blood cells swallows a bacteria that is trying to infect you, the lysosomes in the white blood cell break open and digest the swallowed bacteria. In cell drawings, the round lysosomes are usually colored differently (or shaded in) to help you to tell them apart from all the other round storage vesicles that are present. - **Mitochondria:** This important organelle looks something like a jellybean