And that mystery, forever unsolved, is life.

Ferdinand Bauer is regarded as one of the world’s greatest natural history painters.

A division of a plant cell. As the cell prepares to divide it concentrates its DNA inside the nucleus into distinct structures called chromosomes (cell 2). In order for cellular factors to get access to the chromosomes the cell degrades its nuclear membrane (cell 3). The chromosomes in the nucleus are made of two identical parts, called chromatids (cells 3-4), which get pulled during cell division towards the opposing poles of the cell (cells 5-6). After chromatid separation a new cell wall forms that separates the two new daughter cells (cells in 7). The new cells reform their nucleoli and decondense the chromosomes in them (cells in 8).