  All cells must keep time to consistently perform vital biological functions.
To that end, the coupling and interrelatedness of diverse subsecond events in
the complex cellular environment, such as protein folding or translation rates,
cannot simply result from the chance convergence of the inherent chemical
properties of these phenomena, but may instead be synchronized through a
cell-wide pacemaking mechanism. Picosecond vibrations of lipid membranes may
play a role in such a mechanism.
