Virtually all cells use energy and ion-specific membrane pumps to maintain large transmembrane gradients of Na$^+$, K$^+$, Cl$^-$, Mg$^{++}$, and Ca$^{++}$. Although they consume up to 1/3 of a cell's energy budget, the corresponding evolutionary benefit of transmembrane ion gradients remain unclear. Here, we propose that ion gradients enable a dynamic and versatile biological system that acquires, analyzes, and responds to environmental information. We hypothesize environmental signals are transmitted into the cell by ion fluxes along pre-existing gradients through gated ion-specific membrane channels. The consequent changes of cytoplasmic ion concentration can generate a local response and orchestrate global or regional responses through wire-like ion fluxes along pre-existing and self-assembling cytoskeleton to engage the endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, and nucleus. Here, we frame our hypothesis through a quasi-physical (Cell-Reservoir) model that treats intra-cellular ion-based information dynamics as a sub-cellular process permitting spatiotemporally resolved cellular response that is also capable of learning complex nonlinear dynamical cellular behavior. We demonstrate the proposed ion dynamics permits rapid dissemination of response to information extrinsic perturbations that is consistent with experimental observations.

For our cells to proliferate, differentiate or migrate, the nucleus needs the help of its cytoskeleton, the scaffold surrounding the nucleus which provides cells with shape and solid structure. The disruption of this strong coupling, such as the dislocation of the nucleus from its cytoskeleton, is usually a symptom of disease in the body. However, this relationship between the placement of the nucleus and cytoskeleton organization has never been demonstrated before due to the difficulty in being able to mathematically define the intricate design of the cytoskeleton. Using conventional scientific methods, a scientist would need to first determine the parameters needed to define and measure the system that is being studied. This human interpretation of reality allows for the measuring of simple systems using well-known parameters such as size, speed and distance.

Future computers could be built smaller than ever before using the tiny biological skeletons that hold our cells together. That's according to one team of scientists, who have devised a way to make computer chips using cytoskeletons - protein scaffolds that give cells their shape. They claim that the silicon chips that brought computers to the masses in the 1980s are soon to be a thing of the past. Cytoskeletons are tiny scaffolds made of protein that give cells their shape and help them move. Pictured is a microscopic image of a cell and its cytoskeleton.