Answer 1:
Plant cells are usually rectangular, because
of their stiff cell walls. Animal cells are
usually rounded, because they don't have cell
walls.
Most animal cells are not actually round,
because they're interacting with all the cells
around them, so they can be flattened or have
extensions reaching out. Nerve cells reach out to
each other with pointy extensions. One type of
brain cells is called 'astrocytes.' They
are sort of star-shaped.
White blood cells are round but with bumps all
over the surface. Red blood cells are round but
flat, with little dish shapes in the center of
each side. They're called 'bi-concave.'
Some plant cells are rounded. My former
student Magdalena Bezanilla gave a talk yesterday
at a cell biology conference in San Francisco.
She showed movies of growing moss cells that were
rounded at the tip where they were growing. Click Here to return to the search form.
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