View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/insights-into-cell-membranes-via-dish-detergent-ethan-perlstein

The cell membrane, like a good jacket, protects the cell from everything outside of it. How is it simultaneously sturdy, flexible, and capable of allowing the right things to pass through? Ethan Perlstein rediscovers the scientists and their research that have changed the way we study the membrane and the cell as a whole.

Lesson by Ethan Perlstein, animation by TED-Ed.