Q 01/05

Many chemotherapy drugs block mitosis in fast-dividing cells, causing which common side effect?

A) Stiff joints

B) Color blindness

C) Hair loss

D) Hearing loss

Answer · why

C) Hair loss

Hair loss follows because hair follicles hold some of the fastest-dividing cells in the body, so drugs aimed at dividing tumor cells hit them too. The...

Q 02/05

Which human organ can regrow to full size by mitosis after surgeons remove a large part of it?

A) Liver

B) Kidney

C) Pancreas

D) Spleen

Answer · why

A) Liver

The liver is the only internal organ that can pull this off, which is why a living donor can give part of theirs away. Its cells normally sit idle and...

Q 03/05

Whose tumor cells, taken without her knowledge at Johns Hopkins, still divide in labs worldwide?

A) Rosalind Franklin

B) Rachel Carson

C) Barbara McClintock

D) Henrietta Lacks

Answer · why

D) Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks died in 1951, but her cells became the first human cell line able to divide without limit. Known as HeLa, they were used to test the f...

Q 04/05

Named for how chromosomes look under a microscope, 'mitosis' comes from the Greek word for what?

A) Twin

B) Thread

C) Division

D) Seed

Answer · why

B) Thread

Thread is the meaning of the Greek 'mitos': stained chromosomes showed up as long strands at the start of division, two decades before anyone linked t...

Q 05/05

What does mitosis, the division behind growth and tissue repair, produce from one parent cell?

A) Four identical cells

B) Two different cells

C) Two identical cells

D) Four different cells

Answer · why

C) Two identical cells

Two identical cells result, each carrying the same DNA as the parent. That is why the fresh skin replacing what you shed every day is a perfect match ...