Page 163 - The Miracle of Hormones

The traffic within cells is much denser than traffic created by human be-
ings. Despite this, in a cell you will never find a traffic jam like the one
pictured above. That is because a cell is a perfectly created system.

to be seen by the naked eye, and that each one of them is made to run back
and forth with great order and harmony to perform their important func-
tions. It is necessary for the continuance of life that this cell traffic flows
perfectly. Every protein, either those produced by the factory called a
"ribosome" or those that are introduced from other cells have a special
place where they will be used. The proteins needed by an organelle, for in-
stance mitochondrion, are different from others. If we consider the organ-
ization of a large city, this situation can be compared to the fact that the
various production facilities in a city have different needs.
The fact that, within a cell one hundredth of a millimeter in size, a
billion proteins are moving at every moment, brings these questions to
mind: How do the proteins produced know where they must go? How
do they reach the organelles where they are to be used or the target cells
outside the cells where they were synthesized without losing their way?
How do they come out from inside the membrane that is composed of a
fat layer tightly surrounding the organelles? How does this surprisingly
dense cell traffic function without an accident?
Let us consider the matter again for a moment substituting a newly

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