Open any introductory biology textbook, and you’ll see a familiar diagram: A blobby-looking cell filled with brightly colored structures — the inner machinery that makes the cell tick.
Cell biologists have known the basic functions of most of these structures, called organelles, for decades. The bean-shaped mitochondria make energy, for example, and lanky microtubules help cargo zip around the cell. But for all that scientists have learned about these miniature ecosystems, much remains unknown about how their parts all work together.
