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

该奖项支持一个研究项目，该项目研究细胞作为形态单位和具有独特生活史的功能实体的科学理解的历史。该项目的提案是为了响应NSF于2018年9月发布的一项名为“理解生命规则：构建合成细胞”的项目征集而提交的。这个特定的项目将揭示对细胞的科学理解是如何随着时间的推移而变化的，它将探索那些用来代表和影响细胞新思维的想法、实践和图像。该项目还将探索随着时间的推移，研究人员通过合成细胞意味着什么，这将需要解决合成意味着什么，合成细胞是什么，如何确定该过程何时成功，以及哪些图像在形成思维中发挥了核心作用。此外，该项目将开始探索历史表明的治理和安全思想，以响应拟议的合成细胞。考虑到目前在合成细胞上投入的大量资源，对科学和社会背景的潜在假设的更坚定的理解将为这些努力提供信息。此外，海洋生物实验室图书馆的一个艺术装置将记录细胞随时间变化的观点，以及合成细胞是如何想象和成像的。这个研究项目解决了关于细胞是什么，合成细胞意味着什么，以及它们的含义的问题。这项研究将从文献综述开始，并利用计算大数据分析来帮助解释这些文献，以及了解科学的社会背景和含义。此外，一系列的研讨会将汇集细胞生物学家、科学历史学家和分析学家。目标是对合成细胞的愿望有更深入、更丰富的理解，以及对可能的伦理、治理和社会影响的探索。解决上述关于细胞理解的问题将为继续努力合成细胞提供重要的视角。在上述国家科学基金会项目征集的背景下，它还将阐明关于什么是生命规则的潜在假设。该项目由“理解生命规则大构想”资助，并由分子和细胞生物科学部共同资助。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.