A well-worn cliché is that cells are machines, the components of which are molecules. This leads to an important point: in general, molecules are too small to be seen or manipulated directly. How can one study a machine if you can’t look at or manipulate its components? To use a computer science analogy to this problem, imagine trying to reverse engineer a PC from a hundred yards away, with your only tools for manipulation being a collection of bulldozers and excavators and such that you direct by remote control. What sort of things could you do, and what sort of things would you learn?
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© 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
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(2007). Manipulation of the Very Small. In: A Computer Scientist's Guide to Cell Biology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-48278-1_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-48278-1_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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