C. Elegens Eating and Breathing

 

The structure of the cells of both humans and C. elegens are the same. Known as eukaryotic cells, they have a compartmentalized structure surrounded by a plasma membrane that separates the interior of the cell from the outside environment. And it is through this outer membrane that oxygen and nutrients enter the cell and the organism of which the cell is a part.

 In small organisms like C. elegens, oxygen and nutrients move between cells by means of molecular diffusion for the membrane of one to the membrane of another. But with larger organism direct diffusion of oxygen and nutrition to the innermost cells is insufficient to sustain their life. And that is why we humans have lungs and a system for circulating blood throughout the body.

In the case of humans, oxygen diffuses into specialized cells in the lungs from which oxygen is absorbed by blood cells and distributed to cells throughout the body when the oxygen is absorbed by the inner cells that comes into contact with the blood cells. From that point, the utilization of oxygen by the cells is the same in both C.elegens and humans.

(Interestingly, amphibians obtain oxygen only through their skin when they hibernate and the skin of humans has been found to acquire oxygen directly from the atmosphere under certain circumstances.)

Similarly, cells in out intestines collect food from the outside world as it passes through the gastrointestinal tract. Blood absorbs the nutrients from these cells and distributed it to cells throughout the body where the nutrients are absorbed by the inner cells the blood comes into contact with. From that point, the utilization of nutrients by the cells is the same in both C.elegens and humans.

But in both cases, chemistry is chemistry and life itself is just chemistry following the inviolate laws of nature.