Meiosis

Meiosis is the process of cell division where sex cells are produced, also when chromosomes split and form sex cells in the end. The male sex cell is called sperm and the female sex cell is called an egg. This division occurs in all eukaryotes. There are three basic steps:
1) the chromosome doubles
2) the 1st division
3) the 2nd division

Here’s an example of meiosis. A human body cell has 46 chromosomes. Female:

46

I

92

/ \

46 46

/ \ / \

23 23 23 23

I \ I /

1 egg & 3 polar bodies

or

\ I I /

4 sperm

Interesting facts that I learned were:

1) There are four stages in a nuclear division: prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase.
2) Meiosis comes from the Greek work meioun, which means “to make smaller.”
3) Some eukaryotes lost the ability to carry out meiosis and got the ability to reproduce by parthenogensis.

In my opinion, I think that meiosis is an important part of life. Without the process of meiosis, any living organism wouldn't be able to reproduce. If our parents didn't reproduce, we all wouldn't be here today.

Here are the links to the articles I got my information from:

http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/VL/GG/meiosis.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiosis