Comparison:
[a cell in the human body as seen by a scientist:]
. . . one can almost imagine that it’s a bit like a backyard pool, with inflatable toys bobbing around just waiting for something to happen. . . .
Every cell is like a sci-fi city that never sleeps. It thrums with activity. Nearly all of your cells contain staggeringly sophisticated factories that manufacture thousands of products via round-the-clock assembly lines. Labyrinthine transportation systems make even the most complex human highways look hopelessly obsolete. Packaging and shipping centers run more efficiently than DHL, power plants generate vast amounts of energy, and waste-treatment centers ensure that nothing unnecessary hangs around and nothing goes to waste.
Katalin Karikó, she of mRNA and Covid-19 vaccine fame, helps her readers understand why basic school explanations about how human cells operate frequently, and woefully, fail to capture the complexity of cell function and activity. Hence, her comparison of kiddie wading pools vs. a sci-fi city.
Context:
Chances are, you also know the cell’s rough architecture. For eukaryotes, which is to say nearly every living thing you’ve ever laid eyes on—and plenty more you’d need a microscope to see—that architecture goes something like this: a plasma membrane surrounds a gelatinous liquid called cytoplasm, in which various organelles float. At the center of the cell is a nucleus stuffed full of DNA. Going by the way some textbooks present the cell, one can almost imagine that it’s a bit like a backyard pool, with inflatable toys bobbing around just waiting for something to happen. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
. . .
Every cell [in the human body] is like a sci-fi city that never sleeps. It thrums with activity. Nearly all of your cells contain staggeringly sophisticated factories that manufacture thousands of products via round-the-clock assembly lines. Labyrinthine transportation systems make even the most complex human highways look hopelessly obsolete. Packaging and shipping centers run more efficiently than DHL, power plants generate vast amounts of energy, and waste-treatment centers ensure that nothing unnecessary hangs around and nothing goes to waste.
Citation:
Karikó, Katalin. Breaking Through: My Live in Science. Crown, 2023, pp. x-xi.
(Image by Lee Aigue, base images courtesy of Bing Jan. 2025.)
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