From primal scenes to synthetic cells.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 30864949.
- Also identified by DOI 10.7554/eLife.46518 and PMC identifier 6415934.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Synthetic cells spark intriguing questions about the nature of life. Projects such as BaSyC (Building a Synthetic Cell) aim to build an entity that mimics how living cells work. But what kind of entity would a synthetic cell really be? I assess this question from a philosophical perspective, and show how early fictional narratives of artificial life - such as the laboratory scene in Goethe's <i>Faust</i> - can help us to understand the challenges faced by synthetic biology researchers.
Medical subject headings
- Artificial Cells
- Life
- Systems Biology