Illuminating the darkest galaxies

The Darkest Place Is under the Light House

“H death cannot be too much deplored,” read the note next to his name on a list of the famous who perished in the 1858 cholera epidemic (1). Utagawa Hiroshige himself, before his death at age 62, is said to have written in verse, “I leave my brush at Azuma and go on the journey to the Holy West to view the famous scenery there” (2). Metaphorical meaning and questionable authenticity aside, when...

Illuminating the Universe's Ignition

Illuminating the Dark Proteome

A large segment of the proteome consists of disordered regions, yet in most cases, little is known about their mechanisms and functions. What are the roles of protein disorder in cell biology, and how do intrinsically disordered proteins function? These are the questions Cell's Robert Kruger posed to Madan Babu, Julie Forman-Kay, and Richard Kriwacki. Annotated excerpts from this conversation a...

Illuminating the secretory pathway

Proteins destined for secretion, the plasma membrane or membranous cellular organelles enter the secretory pathway in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and move via the Golgi complex to the trans-Golgi network, where they are sorted and transported to their final destination. Malfunction in this pathway may lead to the breakdown of cellular organelles, cell polarity, overall cellular architecture ...

Illuminating the Last Mile?

The next leap in the communications market may be the extension of optical technology to access networks. Advanced fibre optical access equipment has been developed in the last decade and today trial tests are on the way and insular deployment has begun. The access network, the last mile, has not encountered any major changes of technology for a century. However, current advancements in technol...