Short answers, pulled from the story.
The German histologist Walther Flemming coined the word mitosis in 1882. He derived the term from the Greek mitos meaning warp thread to describe the invisible fibers that pull genetic material apart during cell division.
In animal cells the nuclear envelope disintegrates into small vesicles during prometaphase. These vesicles allow microtubules to invade the nuclear space and attach to the chromosomes before re-forming around daughter chromosomes during telophase.
Mitotic cell rounding transforms animal cells into a near-spherical morphology to generate intracellular hydrostatic pressure up to ten times higher than during interphase. This physical transformation rigidifies the cell periphery and serves as a protective mechanism to ensure accurate mitosis and proper spindle alignment.
Mistakes during mitosis can lead to aneuploid cells with too few or too many chromosomes which are strongly associated with cancer and non-viable embryos. Errors such as nondisjunction or anaphase lag can induce mitotic catastrophe or apoptosis but may also create mutations that drive tumor development.
Plant cells include a unique preprophase stage where a phragmosome forms a transverse sheet of cytoplasm to mark the division plane. This process also involves a preprophase band of microtubules and actin filaments that forms underneath the plasma membrane before the nuclear envelope breaks down.