Ebook: A Research Annual

As a discipline, cell biology has classically been defined by the boundaries which define the limits of its interests. These boundaries may apply to location -cell biologists study material within the cell - or they may apply to size - cell biologists study material above the level of the macromolecule.
For many years, the limits of technique enforced these boundaries as surely as any custom of the discipline. Our inability to investigate structures which could not be observed or molecules which could not be detected assured that cell biology would not cross the boundaries which linked the cell to other levels of organization. As the twentieth century nears its close, however, the development of an enormous range of tools and techniques, some physical, some chemical, some biological, has changed this situation forever. Cell biology today crosses the boundary, links the molecule with the organelle, associates the cellular response with the

---