News Health & Medicine

A catalog of all human cells reveals a mathematical pattern

The relationship between size and number also shows up in everything from ecosystems to language

An image of red blood cells and blue lymphocytes.

A new catalog of the number and size of the cells in the human body revealed, among other things, that the number of lymphocytes (blue in this illustration) in blood was greatly underestimated.

KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

By Darren Incorvaia

The human body is made up of a complex community of trillions of cells of diverse shapes and sizes, all working together to keep you alive.