[tosser0001]

Even the Wikipedia entry on them has the classic bean-shaped diagram. If they are not really like that, why did that become the standard representation? Have they always been know to exist in more network-like structures, and was that why there was initial resistance to seeing their origin in free-living prokaryotes?

[comboy]

Cell diagrams are simplifications. Cells are not like your room with a few things inside. They are more like a decent city. In human cells you have hundreds to thousands of mitochondria.

[UniverseHacker]

It was because they could only image a dead/fixed 2D cross section on an electron microscope. The 2D cross section of a vast interconnected network of tubes looks like disconnected small “beans.”