The discovery of synaptic vesicles

When the Journal of Cell Biology was born, in 1955, electron microscopy (EM) was a new but booming source of biological information. As George Palade stated, “the then dormant field of biological morphology” was now undergoing “a period of intense activity, reminiscent of a gold rush … only filaments, membranes, and particles have taken the place of more conventional nuggets.”

The inadequate reproduction of EM images in existing journals was one of the driving forces for founding the Journal, which until 1962 was called the Journal of Biophysical and Biochemical Cytology. Many of the best papers in those first years came from just looking—and having the ability to interpret what all those fuzzy blotches might mean.

A prime example came in the first issue (De Robertis and Bennett, 1955). The synapse had been...