6533b870fe1ef96bd12cf21c
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Nature versus design: synthetic biology or how to build a biological non-machine.
Juli PeretóManuel Porcarsubject
0301 basic medicinebusiness.industrySystems biologySystems BiologyBiophysicsInterchangeable partsBioengineeringBiological evolutionBiologyBiochemistryBiological Evolutionlaw.invention03 medical and health sciencesSynthetic biology030104 developmental biologyMetabolic EngineeringlawEscherichia coliAnimalsHumansDegeneracy (biology)Synthetic BiologyArtificial intelligencebusinessBiotechnologydescription
The engineering ideal of synthetic biology presupposes that organisms are composed of standard, interchangeable parts with a predictive behaviour. In one word, organisms are literally recognized as machines. Yet living objects are the result of evolutionary processes without any purposiveness, not of a design by external agents. Biological components show massive overlapping and functional degeneracy, standard-free complexity, intrinsic variation and context dependent performances. However, although organisms are not full-fledged machines, synthetic biologists may still be eager for machine-like behaviours from artificially modified biosystems.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-12-01 |