If you’ve ever bitten into a warm, fluffy slice of toast, you have a single-celled fungus to thank. Baker’s yeast is probably the most relatable single-celled organism you’ve ever eaten. It’s the reason your bagels have air pockets and your pizza crust isn’t a flat, hard cracker.
How does it work? Yeast cells are like little chefs who get hungry for sugar. When they eat the sugar in flour, they burp out carbon dioxide gas, and those burps get trapped in the dough. So the next time you enjoy a croissant, remember you’re eating a structure built by billions of tiny, gassy little chefs.
You can even buy them dry in little packets at the grocery store. They look dead, but just add warm water, and they wake up and get to work. That’s the power of a single cell.
