The cell… is a nexus: a connection point between disciplines, methods, technologies, concepts, structures, and processes. Its importance to life, and to the life sciences and beyond, is because of this remarkable position as a nexus, and because of the cell’s apparently inexhaustible potential to be found in such connective relationships. —Maureen A. O’Malley, philosopher of microbiology, and Staffan Müller-Wille, science historian, 2010
