Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan examines ageing and death from a chemist’s perspective

Whenever I walk along the streets of London, I never cease to be amazed by a city where millions of people can work, travel, and socialise so seamlessly. A complex infrastructure, and hundreds of thousands of people, all work in concert to make it possible: the London Underground and buses to move us around the city; the post office and courier services to deliver the mail and goods; the supermarkets that supply us with food; the power companies that generate and distribute electricity; and the sanitation services that keep the city clean and remove the enormous quantities of waste we produce. As we go about our business, it is easy to take for granted this incredible feat of coordination that we call a civilised society.

The cell, our most basic form of life, has a similarly complex choreography. As the cell forms, it builds elaborate structures like the parts of a city. Thousands of synchronised processes are required to keep it functioning. It brings in nutrients and exports waste. Transporter molecules carry cargo from where they are made to distant parts of the cell where they are needed.

Just as cities cannot exist in isolation but must exchange goods, services, and people...

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