Apoptosis is a programmed cell death when the cell intentionally decides to die. It occurs due to the biochemical instruction from the DNA of cells. It is different from necrosis wherein a cell dies due to outside insult or deprivation. It is a complex process and is triggered by the signal molecules that tell the cell it’s time, to commit cellular suicide. It is an important evolutionary adaptation to destroy its cells when they are no more useful to the organism. The apoptosis is a Greek word which means “falling off” as leaves do in autumn. Apoptosis is characterized by cell shrinkage, blabbing of plasma membrane maintenance of organelle integrity, condensation, and fragmentation of DNA, followed by removal of the apoptotic cell by phagocytosis. The South-African born biologist Sydney Brenner, American biologist H. Robert Horvitz and British biologist John E. Sulston shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2002 for their work on apoptosis.