Standard Grant: Synthetic Cells and Rules of Life in Historical, Philosophical, and Social Contexts

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This award supports a research project that studies the history of the scientific understandings of what a cell is both as a morphological unit and as a functioning entity with a unique life history. The proposal for this project was submitted in response to a program solicitation that was issued by NSF in September 2018 called for "Understanding the Rules of Life: Building a Synthetic Cell." This specific project will bring to light how scientific understanding of cells changed over time, and it will explore what that shows about the ideas, practices, and images that are used to represent and influence new thinking about cells. The project will also explore what researchers have meant over time by synthesizing a cell, which will require addressing what synthesis means, what a synthesized cell is, how to determine when the process has succeeded, and what images played a central role in shaping thinking. In addition, this project will begin to explore what history shows about ideas of governance and safety in response to proposed synthetic cells. Given the considerable current resources invested in synthesizing cells, a firmer understanding of underlying assumptions about the science and the social contexts will inform those efforts. In addition, an art installation at the Marine Biological Laboratory Library will document changing views of cells over time, as well as how synthesized cells are imagined and imaged.This research project addresses questions about what cells are, what it means to synthesize them, and their implications. The research will begin with literature reviews and draw on computational big data analysis to help interpret that literature, as well as to get at the social contexts and implications of the science. In addition, a series of workshops will bring together cell biologists, historians of science, and analysts. The goal is a deeper and richer understanding of the desire to synthesize cells, as well as probing of probable ethical, governance, and social impacts. Addressing the questions above about understandings of cells will provide important perspective on continuing efforts to synthesize cells. In the context of the NSF program solicitation indicated above, it will also shed light on underlying assumptions about what count as the rules of life.This project is funded through the Understanding the Rules of Life Big Idea and cofunded by the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.