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Mapping the cell: advent of the thin section and characterization of the ER

Abstract

The development of improved techniques for studying tissues by electron microscopy parallelled the discovery and characterization of the endoplasmic reticulum. But researchers had first to be convinced that the endoplasmic reticulum wasn’t an artefact produced by electron-microscopic techniques.

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Figure 1: Comparative use of electron microscopy.
Figure 2: Images of the endoplasmic reticulum obtained by different techniques.
Figure 3: The canalicular nature of the endoplasmic reticulum.
Figure 4: Equating views of the endoplasmic reticulum obtained by electron microscopy with those obtained by earlier techniques.

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Correspondence to Nicolas Rasmussen.

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Rasmussen, N. Mapping the cell: advent of the thin section and characterization of the ER. Nat Cell Biol 1, E99–E101 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/12100

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