The membrane raft hypothesis, proposed in 1997 by Simons and Ikonen, has played a paradoxical role in the history of biomembrane research. While it has generated a large amount of investigations, thus helping to increase our understanding of membranes, the object that gives name to the hypothesis, i.e. the raft itself, has been and still is an object of controversy, in which its very reality is often questioned. In this contribution I review the history of the hypothesis and its reception by membrane biologists, and summarize some of the valuable physico-chemical results that have been obtained while testing the raft hypothesis. To save a useful concept from its many misuses I propose that the expression “(transient) nanodomains” be employed instead of “rafts”.

西蒙斯（Simons）和伊科宁（Ikonen）于1997年提出的膜筏假说在生物膜研究的历史中起了自相矛盾的作用。尽管它进行了大量研究，从而有助于加深我们对膜的了解，但给假说起名字的对象（即木筏本身）一直是而且仍然是有争议的对象，在该对象中，其真实性通常是存在的。质疑。在这篇论文中，我回顾了假说的历史以及膜生物学家对假说的接受，并总结了在测试筏假说时获得的一些有价值的理化结果。为了避免一个有用的概念被滥用，我建议采用“（瞬态）纳米域”代替“筏”。