These cells vary. But all the cells stick together, in every sense of the term, to maintain our physical form. Under a microscope, a living cell looks like an ameba, pulsing with activity. The way it functions, though, is more like a chemical factory. It absorbs oxygen and glucose from the blood and processes these raw materials to do useful work.
Cells are incredibly complex.
Even now, we still don't know everything about them. If the neurons stop functioning, we lose consciousness and our crucial processes shut down. A case history will help to illustrate this. In Elkins, West Virginia, in 1991, a little girl named Brittany Eichelberger wandered out into the snow around the trailer home where she lived with her parents, who were sleeping at the time, unaware that Brittany had managed to open the front door. For two or three hours, Brittany was exposed to sub- zero temperatures.