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  2. Inside a Human Cell

Film 01Life science60 secondsFree to watch

Inside a Human Cell

Sixty seconds inside one cell: the membrane, the nucleus, and the parts that build, ship and power.

Life science. Upper elementary and middle school. Not second grade. A look at where the workshop is heading.

Film 01

Inside a Human Cell

Life science60 secondsHas soundFree to watch

This film has sound: narration and music. The words are also captioned in the picture. Nothing plays until you press play.

Chapters

Seven parts, one minute

  1. 0:00Thirty trillion cells
  2. 0:07The cell membrane
  3. 0:17The nucleus
  4. 0:26The endoplasmic reticulum
  5. 0:35The Golgi apparatus
  6. 0:43The mitochondria
  7. 0:52One cell, trillions of them

With scripts on, choosing a chapter plays the film from there.

Transcript

Every word, as text.

This transcript is the text alternative to the film. It is the narration, word for word. The same words appear as captions in the picture.

0:00 Thirty trillion cells: Right now, about thirty trillion cells are hard at work inside your body. Let’s step inside one.

0:07 The cell membrane: First, the cell membrane: a flexible double layer of lipids, studded with protein gates that decide what gets in, and what stays out.

0:17 The nucleus: At the center sits the nucleus, the control room. It protects your DNA, the instructions for everything this cell will ever do.

0:26 The endoplasmic reticulum: Those instructions travel to the endoplasmic reticulum, where tiny ribosomes read them and build proteins, one link at a time.

0:35 The Golgi apparatus: The Golgi apparatus modifies, sorts, and packages those proteins, then ships them out in bubbles called vesicles.

0:43 The mitochondria: And powering it all: the mitochondria, turning sugar and oxygen into ATP, the energy every cell runs on.

0:52 One cell, trillions of them: One cell. Thousands of jobs, all at once. And you are made of trillions of them.

End of film, 1:00

How it was made

One picture, then a model, then a voice.

  1. Start with a picture

    It began as one original cutaway illustration of a human cell.

  2. Build and film it

    The illustration was turned into a 3D model, then lit, animated and rendered in Blender: 1,440 frames at 24 frames a second, 1080p.

  3. Give it a voice

    The narration is a synthesized voice reading a script in seven parts. Music, labels and captions were added on top.

The model, the voice and the renderer are named on the credits page.

A close view inside the cell: one orange mitochondrion with folded inner ridges beside a yellow bundle of tubes, with a caption card that reads 05 / Mitochondria.
A frame from the sixth part, 0:43.

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