The Cell Cycle

Do you know why you grow, or why your cuts heal?  It is because of a process called the cell cycle.  It is a process that takes a day to happen. It looks like this.

Before mitosis there is interphase(in-ter-faz).  It is where the cell is being prepared for mitosis.  Interphase consists of three parts called G1, S, and G2.

The first part of mitosis is called the prophase. It is where what makes you you duplicates and becomes visible.  It looks like this.  What makes you you is called DNA and it organizes into strands called chromatids, when they are duplicated it is called chromosomes and they are held together by centromeres. This is what it looks like.

After the prophase there is the metaphase.  The metaphase is where the chromosomes align in the middle, like this.

Next is the anaphase.  This is where little stings called spindle fibers come from the nucleus and attach to the centromeres and start to pull.  Here is an example.

The last stage of mitosis is called the telophase.  It is where the cytoplasm starts dividing and two new cells are forming.  It looks like this.

After mitosis finishes there is cytokinesis.  Cytokinesis is where the cytoplasm is reforming around the two new cells after it broke down. It looks like this.

When all that is over you get two new cells that start over from beginning of the cell cycle.