Thanks for the excellent blog post. This is something more people need to appreciate.
I never realized just how crowded until I saw David Goodsell's molecular illustrations[1] in Drew Barry's TED talk.[2] Goodsell's drawings show the actual density and diversity of molecules inside the cell.
People get confused because they read that cells are ~99% water by molecule count. By weight they're only ~65-70% water. One out of three atoms being part of a non-water molecule means cells are tightly packed.
Thanks for the excellent blog post. This is something more people need to appreciate.
I never realized just how crowded until I saw David Goodsell's molecular illustrations[1] in Drew Barry's TED talk.[2] Goodsell's drawings show the actual density and diversity of molecules inside the cell.
[1] http://mgl.scripps.edu/people/goodsell/illustration/public
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMPXu6GF18M