SpudCell will replicate continuously by 2030 | Kate Adamala

About this episode

Chemists at the University of Minnesota, led by Kate Adamala, recently built a synthetic cell that eats, grows, and divides; purely by putting together molecules in the laboratory. Their creation, called SpudCell, can only divide for five generations. What will it take to make it grow for longer? And why bother making a synthetic cell in the first place? Subscribe to Asimov Press: https://press.asimov.com Chapters: 00:00 SpudCell is not alive 05:16 How SpudCell was made 13:14 How to make a continuously replicating cell 29:48 Finding new mechanisms for cell division 40:38 What is the point of SpudCell? 54:51 Mirror life, and whether SpudCell uniquely enables it 1:14:38 Biotic, China, and 2050