Editing Protoplasm (section)

==History of the term==

The word protoplasm comes from the Greek protos for first, and plasma for thing formed. It was first used in 1846 by Hugo von Mohl to describe the "tough, slimy, granular, semi-fluid" substance within plant cells, to distinguish this from the cell wall, cell nucleus and the cell sap within the vacuole. Thomas Huxley later referred to it as the "physical basis of life" and considered that the property of life resulted from the distribution of molecules within this substance. Its composition, however, was mysterious and there was much controversy over what sort of substance it was. Unsurprisingly, attempts to investigate the origin of life through the creation of synthetic "protoplasm" in the laboratory were not successful.

The idea that protoplasm is divisible into a ground substance called "cytoplasm" and a structural body called the cell nucleus reflects the more primitive knowledge of cell structure that preceded the development of electron microscopy, when it seemed that cytoplasm was a homogeneous fluid and the existence of most sub-cellular compartments, or how cells maintain their shape, was unknown. Today, it is known that the cell contents are structurally very complex and contain multiple organelles.

*In 2268 The USS Enterprise Under the command of Captain James T. Kirk encountered a Giant [[Space Amoeba]]. The same entity was responsible for consuming systems in the 39J sector of space and had also destroyed the [[Vulcan]] manned [[Constitution Class]] starship USS intrepid (NCC-1631)with all hands.

[[Category:Science]]