Your Textbooks Are Wrong, This Is What Cells Actually Look Like

With new advances in microscopy, biologists are able to see the secret life of cells unfolding like never before. » Subscribe to Seeker! » Watch more Focal Point | » Visit our shop at You probably remember being taught about the cell in your high school biology class—learning the cell structure, labeling the membrane, the nucleus, and the cytoplasm. But it turns out, what we’ve learned from our biology textbooks is likely an oversimplification, and biologists at research organizations like the Allen Institute for Cell Science are working to take a more integrated and holistic view to better understand the cell and all its complexities. We are in a new era of cell biology. For centuries, microscopes have illuminated previously invisible worlds, and the recent advancements in microscopy are no different. Breakthrough laser microscopes are not only allowing biologists to image a cell in thr