Young Writers Society

Hey there guys,

I was assigned an short (1.5 page) essay that's due on Thursday the 20th. The paper is about the rate of cell division in different tissues. We are allowed to use any books (provided we can find them in a library), any reputable online sources, and any books we can find online (for free). If anyone knows of a book or article that could help me research the rate of cell division in different tissues or knows of a reputable and not crowd-sourced website that has that information, please comment on this post or PM me. Any help would be appreciated!

P.S. It would be helpful if the books/articles could be understood by someone with very little scientific background (with no complex chemical formulae, etc.), but I will be glad to take whatever info you have to offer!

Best wishes,
MJ

Well, Mitoses happens with sex cells, and only sex cells. The genetic meterial is different in the sister cells, unlike with Meosis, whic happens in every cell except sex cells. The genetic meterial that are in the sister cells are the same. Im sure you can type in differences in mitoses vs meoises, and you can problabaly find resourses on youtube.

I was fairly certain it was the other way around (mitosis occurs in all cells but reproductive cells, which undergo a separate and slightly more complicated process called meiosis.) I think that's what my science teacher told me, but if I'm wrong you can feel free to correct me.
Best wishes,
MJ

I would suggest Google Scholar.

It's basically a Google of peer-reviewed articles that are all reputable sources. Much more reliable for scientifically sound information than regular Google searches.

To clear up the confusion:

Mitosis occurs in somatic cells, which are basically all cells except those involved in reproduction. Two identical daughter cells result, and these cells are all diploid, meaning that they contain a full set of genetic material.

Meiosis occurs only in reproductive cells. It results in four non-identical daughter cells which contain only half the genetic material of somatic cells (haploid). The process of meiosis is more complex that mitosis.

Credentials: I have two bio degrees and I've tutored the subject for years. ;P

At any rate, while I wholeheartedly second Google Scholar as an easy-to-access source for reputable sources, the one downside is that the articles available are typically written by scientists for other scientists.

For more lay-friendly material, your school textbooks are a good source not only in their own right, but also in the sources they cite. Take a look at the appendices and credits at the front/back of the book, and you'll find lists of sources for all sorts of material.

Wikipedia also gets a bad rep from being crowdsourced, and I understand that a lot of schools prohibit using it as a source, but if you look at the sources cited in Wikipedia articles, those are a great starting point for credible (and often accessible) sources, especially if they cite other sources.

In general though, websites ending in .gov and .edu are considered credible. Another rule of thumb is to look at whether or not the webpage cites any sources, with more cited sources typically correlating with more credible information. If a site does not cite its sources and it is not itself a source of the research/documentation, then it's not considered a credible source.

Hopefully that helps you in the future since it appears your assignment was due a while ago.