How Complex Life Actually Began — New Imaging Reveals the Earliest Cells

Anton Petrov walks through new imaging research that finally lets scientists see how the first complex cells assembled — the endosymbiotic event that produced all plants, animals, and fungi.

Why this matters → When we can directly see the architecture of the first eukaryotic cell, the boundary between physics and biology — and between separate organisms and a cooperating whole — gets harder to draw. Stewardship of life rests on knowing what life actually is.