The Control of the Cell Cycle educational game is based on the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded for discoveries concerning the control of the cell cycle.
- What happens during ordinary cell division - mitosis?
- What happens when a cell dies inside our body?
- How does the body know when to make new cells?
- What are the different phases in mitosis?
- In what order does cell division occur and what ensures that nothing wrong happens?
- How can a cancer tumor be formed?
The cell cycle is the series of events that take place as the cells grow and divide. In average this process takes about 24 hours for cells in mammals. The game is rather easy to go through if you are familiar with the different phases in the cell cycle (cell growth, chromosome duplication, cell growth again, chromosome separation and finally cell division). If you're not, pay extra attention to the image of the cell cycle in the introduction. As a "Cell division supervisor", inside the cell nucleus, you are to steer the cell division process to make sure everything happens in the right order. If not, the cell will be destroyed and you'll have to start all over again. You also have to make controls now and then, to make sure nothing happened with the genetic material on the way. If you make too many mistakes, the energy level in the cell will drop and the cell division will not be able to proceed. The challenge is to complete the game and to make sure that the cell was correctly divided!
You can also watch a short black-and-white video clip of cell division.
The Control of the Cell Cycle Game was produced by: Nobel Media. Sound by Sound Propulsion, Stockholm
First published: February 2002
Estimated play time: 10 min.
Sound: Yes
High score: No