Architecture
imitates life, at least when it comes to those spiral ramps in multistory
parking garages. Stacked and connecting parallel levels, the ramps are
replications of helical structures found in a ubiquitous membrane structure in
the cells of the body. A network of
membranes found throughout the cell and connected to and surrounding the cell
nucleus is called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). A trio of scientists managed
to describe ER geometry using the language of theoretical physics.
Their work
hypothesizes how the particular shape of this organelle forms, based on the
interactions between ramps. The rough ER consists of a number of more or less
regular stacks of evenly spaced connected sheets, a structure that reflects its
function as the shop floor of protein synthesis within a cell. Until recently,
scientists assumed that the connections between adjacent sheets were like wormholes—that
is, simple tubes.
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