Перекласти. the quality of life emerges on the level of the cell. just as an atom is the smallest unit of an element, so too the cell is the smallest unit of life. the difference between a living cell and a conglomeration of chemicals illustrates some of the emergent properties of life. fundamentally, all cells contain genes, units of heredity that provide the information needed to control the life of the cell; subcellular structures called organelles, these being miniature chemical factories that use the information in the genes and keep the cell alive; and a plasma membrane, a thin sheet surrounding the cell that both encloses a watery medium (the cytoplasm) that contains the organelles and separates the cell from the outside world. some life-forms, mostly microscopic, consist of just one cell, but larger life-forms are composed of many cells whose functions are differentiated. in these multicellular life-forms, cells of similar type are combined into tissues, each performing a particular function. various tissue types combine to make up a structural unit called an organ. several organs that collectively perform a single function are called an organ system, and all the organ systems functioning cooperatively make up an individual living thing, the organism.