'''Protoplasm''' is the living substance inside the cell. At the simplest level, it is divisible into Cytoplasm and Nucleoplasm. It is also sometimes termed '''bioplasm''' (Beale; meaning the essential "substance" of living matter within a cell) and is distinct from non-living cell components lumped under '''Ergastic_substances'''. Ergastic substances can, but need not, occur in the protoplasm. In many plant cells, most of the volume of the cell is occupied not by protoplasm, but by a large water-filled Vacuole enclosed by a membrane, the '''tonoplast'''. The idea that protoplasm is divisible into a ground substance called ''cytoplasm'' and a structural body called the ''nucleus'' reflects the more primitive knowledge of cell structure that preceded the development of powerful microscopes (see Electron_microscope). It was once widely held that life could exist in essentially a "soup" of organic and inorganic substances, mysteriously directed by the nucleus and controlled by the cell membrane. Today, it is known that the cytoplasm is structurally very complex, and that protoplasm is living because of the complexity of the cytoplasmic organelles and their careful separation and orchestration of multiple chemical processes. Charles_Darwin and his contemporaries viewed '''protoplasm''' as the sole content of a cell - in other words, cells were nothing but simple blobs composed of protoplasm. This simplified view of cells' biology circumvented the problem of the origin of life that Darwin and others struggled with. However, that problem was later re-introduced in the 1950s when the complex structure of DNA was discovered. The concept of protoplasm was also part of the Mythology of the essence of life as being something nearly sacred, induplicable by man. An organism was expected to be able to ingest chemicals either produced by nature or made in the laboratory, and it could evolve into quite a number of other living creatures, but protoplasm itself was not supposed to be able to be made in a laboratory. That accounts for the root ''proto'' meaning "first" in its name. And so the word was Deprecated amongst materialistic biologists at various times. Protoplasm exists in two forms: *Sol State (or liquid state) *Gel state (or semi-solid state) Whether the protoplasm is in the sol or the gel state depends upon the physiological state of the cell {{cellbio-stub}} Category:Cell_biology Da:Protoplasma De:Protoplasma Es:Protoplasma Eo:Protoplasmo It:Protoplasma Nl:Protoplasma Ja:原形質 Pl:Protoplazma Simple:Protoplasm Sv:Protoplasma