There is a self-reinforcing feedback loop within science: models of reality are proposed, and experimental tools and methods are created to test those models. Tools dictate what can be discovered, and the models determine which tools are made to begin with. Theoretical models are often useful for a long time, until their fundamental limitations are recognized. The time has come for biology to undertake a reevaluation of its models, if we want to progress in our understanding of the cell.

In molecular biology, no metaphor has carried more weight than the notion of cells as machines. Schoolchildren are taught to think of cells as little computers, filled with molecules that perform logical functions. When François Jacob and Jacques Monod, two Parisian scientists, discovered the principles of gene expression in 1961, they thought of biomolecules as executing “conditional statements common to programming languages to control protein production.” In 1973, physicist Charles H. Bennett compared RNA polymerase, the protein that makes messenger RNA from a DNA template, to a Turing machine.

By equating living cells and computers, one has mistaken the map for the territory. A cell cannot be fully understood by studying all of its components in isolation, as a steam turbine or other machines can be. Cells are stuffed with billions of interacting molecules, the behavior of which changes from one environment to the next. And yet, biologists have long devised methods to study cellular components individually, rather than as continuously changing parts of a whole. The mental model of ‘cells as machines’ has negatively impacted the tools and methods used in biology.

Studying molecules in isolation leads to an incomplete view of cells. For decades, there were no suitable ways to study biomolecules in cells across space, time, and in their natural contexts. But now, this is changing. New methods are slowly revealing that cells are far more complicated—and beautiful—than any man-made machine.

The research on cell culture is still ongoing. In order to obtain new research results, high-quality cell culture consumables are essential. Biologix Cell Culture Series offers a range of safe and reliable basic supplies for cell transfer, filtering, and other applications.

Article cited from THE LATECOMER