<<previous | page index | next>>                   Deus ex Machina, Book 2 page 10-- 2/98
 

Let's start with the muscles. Muscle is the most common tissue in the bodies of most mammals. A muscle is composed of long strands, or fascicles, which are basically bundles of very long cells. Because of their length, muscle cells are controlled by multiple nucleii. You follow?

Uh... uh-huh.

Each muscle cell is filled with tiny filaments, visible only by electron microscopy. These filaments are arranged in bands of alternating thick and thin filaments. Each band has a partition at its middle called a z-disc. The segment between two z-discs is called a sarcomere. The thick filaments, by the way, are made of actin -- that's a protein -- and the thin ones are made of a different protein, myosin.

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