Illustration Friday: Mischief

With finals and all, I was going to skip this week until I saw this article.

Chris Bazinet, at St John's University in New York believes that early mitochondria were mischievous. They could have colonised new hosts by bursting out and jumping to nearby cells.

Mitochondria are the "powerhouses" of our cells. I used to know what that means, but now all I know is that they are an important part of producing energy for us. Ok, before I go further, I want to make it clear that they are a part or our bodies. And guess what? They used to be parasites!!!! That's right. Mitochondria is:

A remnant of an ancient parasitic bacteria that now helps to produce energy inside the cell.

What!?! How come no one ever told me this?
Try not to be creeped out as you go to sleep tonight.
(Those mischevous mitochondria.)

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