Is the cell really a machine?

It has become customary to describe the cell as an intricate piece of machinery, different from a human machine only in terms of its superior complexity. This familiar understanding underpins the conviction that the organization of a cell can be explained in a reductionist way, as well as the idea that its molecular pathways can be imagined as deterministic circuits. The mechanical conception of the cell owes much of its success to the methods traditionally used in molecular biology. Nonetheless, the recent introduction of novel experimental techniques capable of tracking individual molecules within cells in real time is leading to a rapid accumulation of data that is not consistent with an engineering view of the cell. The article reviews four main domains of current research in which challenges to the mechanical conception of the cell are particularly prominent (cell architecture, protein complexes, intracellular transport, and cellular behavior), arguing that a new theoretical understanding of the cell is emerging, emphasizing the dynamic and self-organized nature of its constitution, the fluidity and plasticity of its components, and the stochasticity and nonlinearity of the underlying processes.

See the full article (and download the pdf file) at the following link https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2019.06.002