Movement beyond data: epistemic and pictorial challenges in understanding moving life

Nothing inside organisms is at rest; everything moves. Cells are transported through the vascular system, proteins move cargo away or toward the cell nucleus, and enzymes repair DNA, which is constantly modified by metabolic cell processes or external influences affecting the organism. Various processes occur simultaneously in the crowded spaces of cells and across tissues, carefully coordinated and orchestrated. In contemporary science, movement lies at the root of studying cellular and molecular processes-in short, of all the activities that occur within the organism. This article provides a historical perspective and methodological reflection on the study of cellular and subcellular motion in current biotechnology. It shows that, far from being evident, movement is not simply observed but actively made. I argue, first, that the conceptualization of motion in current biotechnology occurs through image-making and is thus shaped by a long pictorial history and the struggle to depict movement. Second, to make the invisible move under the conditions of visibility, metaphors and imaginaries drawn from our everyday experience of animal motion are transposed into the nanoscopic sphere, thereby setting the framework and limits of understanding motion at the molecular level.