| Biologists are discovering the true nature of cells—and learning to build their own.  Illustration by David S. Goodsell When the Dutch cloth merchant Antoni van Leeuwenhoek first viewed a living cell, in the seventeenth century, he was astonished. As he held up a magnifying glass to a drop of water, he saw what appeared to be countless little animals, or, as he called them, “animalcules.” Now we know that cells are the fundamental unit of life—each of our lives began from a single cell—yet we often take them for granted. In a fascinating piece in this week’s issue, James Somers writes about the cellular biologists who are not only exploring cells more deeply but finding new ways to manipulate them: “If we could design and control such cells with precision, we could use them to do what we want—generate clean energy, kill cancers, even reverse aging.” Read on for a whirlwind voyage through the cellular cosmos—and to find out what exactly transposons, JCVI-syn3A, and cryo-electron microscopy entail. “I fell in love with cryo-EM,” one researcher says. “Now it’s on the cover of every journal.” —Jessie Li, newsletter editor | 
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