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The cell is often portrayed improperly, in terms of parts, size, and dynamic processes. In starter classes, it is often displayed as a static thing with outsized parts one can memorize: nucleus, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum.

Students of all ages recall these things, with their one-paragraph descriptors, much in the vein of "the mitochondria supply energy to the cell via ATP; they are the cell's little power plants."

On this rudimentary level of understanding (which is about all I had, leaving Stanford in earlier days), the cell is seen as being relatively simple. The prevailing dogma goes something like this:

• DNA is a double-stranded molecule containing the instructions for life

• RNA copies these instructions, and runs over to the

• endoplasmic reticulum, where, using

• ribosomes, it makes

• proteins, which, acting as catalysts, run the cellular machine.

• Mitochondria provide the energy for all of this, via ATP molecules, and

• mitosis occurs when cells need to start over again, by dividing.

• The cell is a kind of wet bag of stuff, enclosed in a membrane made of lipids and other things, which lets some things in and some out.

For most of us who were exposed to this level of education, it might be best just to wipe the blackboard clean and start over again. Yes, all of the above descriptions are essentially true; they are just drastically incomplete.

So, let's reboot:

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