Some requirements for the study of the organization of cellular processes
The subject of this discussion is the organization of enzymic processes within cells. Organization is a difficult word; perhaps a distasteful one to many biochemists, who often wonder whether people who ask them to study organization mean anything precise. Yet if biological activities are to be treated in chemical terms it is necessary to study not only individual enzymic processes but also the way that these are related to each other (Peters 1930; Hopkins 1935). One of the chief difficulties in doing this is that in living systems diverse processes go on very close to each other and yet in separate compartments. This may indeed be a large part of the secret of the synthetic feats performed by enzymic action. To study the relation of these various nearby processes in the cell we require above all methods providing a high degree of resolution in space. Any discussion of the subject is bound to be concerned largely with how to obtain this resolution. It can probably only be achieved by microscopy, including its recent refinements. The microscope provides a power of spatial resolution much greater than can be obtained, in most cases, by such methods as extraction or isolation or the study of electrical activities, valuable though these are in their proper places.