ABSTRACT
The electron microscope ended the limp, minimalist view of cellular anatomy and cellular life more broadly. The nature of the transporting machine was first imagined over half a century ago in studies using the electron microscope to examine the acinar cells of the mammalian pancreas. The cell was imagined to be seething with life on a miniature scale, not as moving, flowing protoplasm, but as a diminutive Cartesian machine, an effervescent mechanical concoction that would gladden Rube Goldberg’s heart. With feverish activity, even turmoil, and with kinetic urgency, the machine and its microscopic parts moved to and fro carrying out their appointed tasks. Many of the structures were thought to be part of a complex machine designed to move proteins to their respective destinations within the cell, as well as to the outside. Even the anatomical or structural basis for the proposed machine was unclear.
