the.com/zygote
the single cell that decided, against all odds, to become an entire you
means The single fertilized cell formed when a sperm and an egg fuse, carrying a complete set of chromosomes and capable of dividing into an embryo.
from From Greek zygotos, 'yoked' or 'joined,' from zygon, 'a yoke' — the wooden crossbar that binds two oxen together. The word entered scientific English in the late 19th century, when biologists needed a name for the moment two cells become one: two halves yoked into a single new thing. The same zygon yokes itself into 'zygomatic' (the cheekbone, joining the skull) and stands as a distant cousin of Latin iugum and English 'yoke' itself.
- lifespan
- Exists as one cell for under a day
- size
- Roughly the width of a human hair
- full blueprint
- Carries all DNA for your whole body
- name origin
- Greek for yoked or joined together
- first split
- Divides into two within 24-30 hours