SMRTR Science & EngineeringJun 8, 2026Hacker News

Why are cells small?

SMRTR summary

Cells stay small because of two key physics rules: surface area-to-volume ratio and diffusion. As cells grow larger, their membranes can't keep up with energy and waste needs, and molecules take too long to find each other — a protein crossing one centimeter would take over six hours.

SMRTR provides this summary for quick context. The original article belongs to Hacker News.

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