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The current thinking is that, as cells become larger, the volume increases faster than the surface area. Doubling the volume will double the number of metabolic reactions, but since the surface area only increases by 1.414, the cell has difficulty taking in food and ejecting waste products via diffusion through its surface. In other words, only a microscopic cell can have a large enough outer surface to avoid strangling on waste products, and larger cells would die.

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14y ago

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