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Life at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Cells

Illustrated representation of anatomical structure of biological animal cell with organelles.

The Powerhouse of the Cell: The Branding of Mitochondria

“Powerhouse of the Cell.” The punchy headline of Philip Siekevitz’s 1957 Scientific American article on the role of mitochondria lives on to this day in public school classrooms and internet message boards. Ph.D. candidate William Aisenberg shares how the story of the mitochondrion teaches us not to forget to understand the context of what we’re learning.