Originally Posted by RAZD
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/skin.aspx
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skin
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | Date: 2008

skin the flexible tissue (integument) enclosing the body of vertebrate animals. In humans and other mammals, the skin operates a complex organ of numerous structures (sometimes called the integumentary system) serving vital protective and metabolic functions. It contains two main layers of cells: a thin outer layer, the epidermis, and a thicker inner layer, the dermis. Along the internal surface of the epidermis, young cells continuously multiply, pushing the older cells outward. At the outer surface the older cells flatten and overlap to form a tough membrane and gradually shed as calluses or collections of dead skin. Horns , hoofs , hair (fur), feathers , and scales are evolutionary adaptations of the epidermis. Although the epidermis has no blood vessels, its deeper strata contain melanin, the pigment that gives color to the skin.
Melanin is produced to protect skin against UV, and this is what "tan" is -- more melanin in the skin cells, the cells that are continuously shed and replaced from cells deeper in the skin that are not tanned. Without continual exposure all tans fade.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin#Epidermis
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The epidermis contains no blood vessels, and cells in the deepest layers are nourished by diffusion from blood capillaries extending to the upper layers of the dermis. The main type of cells which make up the epidermis are Merkel cells, keratinocytes, with melanocytes and Langerhans cells also present. The epidermis can be further subdivided into the following strata (beginning with the outermost layer): corneum, lucidum (only in palms of hands and bottoms of feet), granulosum, spinosum, basale. Cells are formed through mitosis at the basale layer. The daughter cells, (see cell division) move up the strata changing shape and composition as they die due to isolation from their blood source. The cytoplasm is released and the protein keratin is inserted. They eventually reach the corneum and slough off (desquamation). This process is called keratinization and takes place within about 27 days. This keratinized layer of skin is responsible for keeping water in the body and keeping other harmful chemicals and pathogens out, making skin a natural barrier to infection.
What this means is that the cells that get tanned are shed in continuous process that replaces the skin every 3 to 4 weeks, and they are replaced by cells that are not tanned and do not have your tanned "information" ...
Doesn't sound like a "colony of cells" to me. More like an integrated, well-planned structure.

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From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitosis
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Mitosis is the process by which a eukaryotic cell separates the chromosomes in its cell nucleus, into two identical sets in two daughter nuclei.[1] It is generally followed immediately by cytokinesis, which divides the nuclei, cytoplasm, organelles and cell membrane into two daughter cells containing roughly equal shares of these cellular components. Mitosis and cytokinesis together define the mitotic (M) phase of the cell cycle - the division of the mother cell into two daughter cells, genetically identical to each other and to their parent cell.
... in other words, skin cells reproduce in exactly the same way that bacterial cells reproduce, whether in colonies or as single cell organisms.
The same word is used, but there are some pretty important differences.

Bacteria and other single-celled lifeforms have mechanisms which shuffle their DNA when they reproduce, so that they are not all identical. The cells which make up a body try to make perfect duplicates as replacements, unless some adaptive mechanism is directing them to do otherwise.

A well verified, but seldom stated result of the shuffling of the bacteria's genetic material is that a small percentage of bacteria always have been and always will be resistant to antibiotics.

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