Compare and contrast mitosis and meiosis.

Both of these are methods of reproduction in living things. Mitosis creates diploid cells, which are, under ideal situations, clones of one another. By doubling the DNA and splitting it when the cell fissures, the cell produces a duplicate of itself. This is the method that somatic (body) cells are produced.  Skin, organ, and bone cells are created in this fashion. These cells also have internal mechanisms which tell them to stop reproducing. When a cell has a mutation which allows it to reproduce excessively or when it produces mutated cells, this leads to problems such as cancer.
Meiosis, on the other hand, allows for the production of gametes, which are haploid cells. These haploid cells only have half the DNA and they need to find another haploid cell in order to create a functional organism. Gametes are sex cells, which means they are referred to as sperm and eggs. When they combine, they form a zygote. This zygote undergoes mitosis in order to grow from one cell into many.