Although modern cell biology is often considered to have arisen following World War II in tandem with certain technological and methodological advances—in particular, the electron microscope and cell fractionation—its origins actually date to the 1830s and the development of cytology, the scientific study of cells. By 1924, with the publication of Edmund Vincent Cowdry’s General Cytology, the discipline had stretched beyond the bounds of purely microscopic observation to include the chemical, physical, and genetic analysis of cells. Inspired by Cowdry’s classic, watershed work, this book collects contributions from cell biologists, historians, and philosophers of science to explore the history and current status of cell biology.

Despite extraordinary advances in describing both the structure and function of cells, cell biology tends to be overshadowed by molecular biology, a field that developed contemporaneously. This book remedies that unjust disparity through an investigation of cell biology’s evolution and its role in pushing forward the boundaries of biological understanding. Contributors show that modern concepts of cell organization, mechanistic explanations, epigenetics, molecular thinking, and even computational approaches all can be placed on the continuum of cell studies from cytology to cell biology and beyond. The first book in the series Convening Science: Discovery at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Visions of Cell Biology sheds new light on a century of cellular discovery.

Karl S. Matlin is professor in the Department of Surgery and a member of the Committee on Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science at the University of Chicago. Jane Maienschein is University Professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University and fellow and director of the History and Philosophy of Science Project at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. She is the author of Embryos under the Microscope: The Diverging Meanings of Life. Maienschein is the 2024 recipient of the Sarton Medal, the most prestigious award of the History of Science Society, presented annually to an outstanding historian of science to honor a lifetime of scholarly achievement. Manfred D. Laubichler is President’s Professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. Most recently, he is coeditor with Maienschein of Form and Function in Developmental Evolution.