There is a membrane-bound structure called a peroxisome, another of de Duve’s discoveries, where some of life’s most dangerous reactions—for instance, the oxidation of molecules—is sequestered, and where hydrogen peroxide, an intensely reactive chemical, is generated. Were the peroxisome to open up and release its internal poisons, the cell would be attacked by its own reactive contents. It is the chalice, filled with poisons to metabolize other poisons, that the cell keeps carefully closed.
