The Nucleus: It Depends

You've just had a biology lesson, or you recently finished reading The Double Helix: you'll probably spew out, in a much-too-enthusiastic tone, that the nucleus is the control centre of a cell, and maybe even that the contained nucleolus might be responsible for cell ageing - if you're a really eager beaver. And you'd be right.

Or, say you're currently contemplating whether a degree in Hair and Beauty might've been more for you after that dismal chemistry final: you'll describe the nucleus as - pausing here to set fire to your lab coat - a bundle of nucleons held together by the strong nuclear force. And again, you'd be right.

The definition of the nucleus is an easy example in demonstrating the difference between Biology and - you shudder at the word - Chemistry. In Biology, the nucleus is an important little number inside a cell that contains all the necessary information to program you and I into being. In Chemistry, the nucleus is a rather more abstract sphere of neutrons and protons, themselves containing different quark arrangements, that makes up the majority of an atom. They are very different things. Cells might be small, but atoms are so very much smaller. A cell's nucleus actually contains many millions of atoms, each with their own atomic nucleus. It is important to understand that whilst the term is similar, that's about as far as those similarities stretch. In turn, it will help you understand that just as all sciences overlap in countless weird and wonderful ways, other times: they don't.