Catatan

Like ourselves, the individual cells that form our bodies
can grow, reproduce, process information, respond to

stimuli, and carry out an amazing array of chemical re-
actions. These abilities define life. We and other multicellular

organisms contain billions or trillions of cells organized into
complex structures, but many organisms consist of a single

cell. Even simple unicellular organisms exhibit all the hall-
mark properties of life, indicating that the cell is the funda-
mental unit of life. As the twenty-first century opens, we face

an explosion of new data about the components of cells,
what structures they contain, how they touch and influence
each other. Still, an immense amount remains to be learned,
particularly about how information flows through cells and
how they decide on the most appropriate ways to respond.
Molecular cell biology is a rich, integrative science that
brings together biochemistry, biophysics, molecular biology,

microscopy, genetics, physiology, computer science, and de-
velopmental biology. Each of these fields has its own em-
phasis and style of experimentation. In the following

chapters, we will describe insights and experimental ap-
proaches drawn from all of these fields, gradually weaving

the multifaceted story of the birth, life, and death of cells. We
start in this prologue chapter by introducing the diversity of
cells, their basic constituents and critical functions, and what
we can learn from the various ways of studying cells.