A new technique allows scientists to track, second by second, how cells from different organs communicate in a living animal, revealing interactions that had previously escaped scientific observation.
Biology, as the study of living beings, has throughout history used different tools to understand the organism. Microscopes reveal the finest details of the body, dissection allowed the identification of different organs, and X-rays offer a general view of internal systems.
However, until the development of this new technique, it was difficult to understand how living cells communicate with each other across the various systems of the organism, which had traditionally been studied in isolation.
This innovation now opens the possibility of observing cells "talking" throughout the entire body, allowing researchers to track in real time biological processes that were previously impossible to monitor in a living organism.
