Pedantry is when you see a comic showing Captain Hook, and your first reaction is to look up which hand he actually lost to the crocodile.
P.S. The answer turns out to depend on which version of the play, book, or movie is considered “definitive”.
One answer is that it’s the square-cube law, but in fact there are single cells that weigh several kilograms. It isn’t impossible to get that big but it would seem that evolutionarily it’s just easier (and thus what happens) to divide the big organism into smaller subunits. Even eukaryotic (nucleated) cells have subunits (such as the nucleus), after all.
The cube square law is a very good thing. It means that larger cells (or organisms) have more trouble distributing the nutrients (and oxygen) that arrive at the outer membrane (or exoskeleton) to all of its component parts. This is the reason that we don’t have to worry about the enormous invertibrates that used to fly around millions of years ago: since the atmosphere has less oxygen now, they simply would not be able to survive.
Comics I Don't Understand 
The squirrel gets a LOL? What topsy turvy world is this?!
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‘Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.’ This is a particularly good set; my favorite is the Hafeez.
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Pedantry is when you see a comic showing Captain Hook, and your first reaction is to look up which hand he actually lost to the crocodile.
P.S. The answer turns out to depend on which version of the play, book, or movie is considered “definitive”.
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Pedantry is when you feel the need to tell other people which hand it was.
Pedantry is when you insist you have a better definition of “pedantry.”
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So why aren’t there single-celled organisms that size?
Is it mostly just the square / cube law effects?
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Pedantry is answering Mitch4’s question.
One answer is that it’s the square-cube law, but in fact there are single cells that weigh several kilograms. It isn’t impossible to get that big but it would seem that evolutionarily it’s just easier (and thus what happens) to divide the big organism into smaller subunits. Even eukaryotic (nucleated) cells have subunits (such as the nucleus), after all.
Literal pedantry. I used to be a science teacher.
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More! Squirrels!!
http://comicskingdom.com/six-chix/2018-10-07
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Thanks! That wasn’t the answer I would have expected, which is great since that means it is informative.
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@Mitch4, that sounds like you got a response to your ‘why’, but I don’t see it. ‘Why not?’ I wonder.
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Chak, I meant carlfink’s reply, which in my interface here comes right after my question and right before Andrea’s link.
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Attack of the 20 foot paramecia.
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Doubly amazing! Not only Reality Check but Close To Home gets an LOL in the same group. Must be a full moon or something…
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The cube square law is a very good thing. It means that larger cells (or organisms) have more trouble distributing the nutrients (and oxygen) that arrive at the outer membrane (or exoskeleton) to all of its component parts. This is the reason that we don’t have to worry about the enormous invertibrates that used to fly around millions of years ago: since the atmosphere has less oxygen now, they simply would not be able to survive.
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