Frankenstein’s monster looks a bit different now

As our ideas about what constitutes the essential elements of life continue to evolve, science continues to worry at the edge of the distinction between dead and alive, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

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South Wales was the scene of a mass revolutionary wave linked to the Chartist movement, which almost sparked a British-wide movement. KEITH FLETT looks at a moment in our rebellious history that is usually hidden from view

A screening of the People’s Emergency Briefing offers a sobering account of ecological collapse — and a reminder that collective resistance remains possible, says MIKE COWLEY

MARY DAVIS argues that a two-state solution remains the most broadly supported and realistic solution to ending Israeli occupation and repression. New opportunities for pro-peace forces, both Arab and Jewish, within Israel should not be lightly dismissed

HALLOWEEN plays on our fascination with the line between life and death. Bringing things to life is the focus of a rich variety of stories — from Frankenstein’s monster to Chucky the scary killer doll to Pinocchio the puppet.

The golems of Jewish folklore date from at least the 12th century. Greek myth contains several examples, from Pygmalion’s sculpture of a woman who is brought to life, to Talos, a man made of bronze.

The Westcar papyrus stores a tale from 1650 BC in which magic brings a wax crocodile sculpture to life. Even the biblical story of Adam is part of this ancient tradition, involving as it does the animation of clay to produce life. 

Stories of coming-to-life have always been a curious mix of magic and religion, invoking spirits, spells and gods, and science and technology. At the core of all these tales is an era’s technology: the possibility that through skilled craft one might transform inanimate matter into life.

Our own era’s technologies are no different. The explosion of generative AI has provoked much debate on the topic. Might this feat of engineering already be alive? If not, could it yet become alive? Just like the stories of the ancient sculptors, we are so impressed by the artistry and craft of modern technology we are compelled to ask these questions.

Some have argued AI needs new classification: it might not be “alive” in the sense we know, but a different sense. As socialists and humanists we know that all human lives have inherent worth.

If we believe that all human life is equally valuable, should we resist a partial categorisation? Human life is either there or not. There are no half-humans or sub-humans, though those who commit slavery and genocide have claimed otherwise. It is wise to resist any equivalence between partial or apparent life, and that of human lives. 

Many fields have the fundamentals of life as their target. The concept of “minimal biology” is to work out what the simplest and most basic arrangement of genes is that can produce and sustain a living cell. 

There are essentially two approaches here — the first is to take a complex living cell and strip it down to the fewest genes possible for it to still grow and reproduce.

The archetypal minimal cell was made in 2016. It is called the JCVI cell and has fewer than 500 genes. This single cell line is now honed and used by researchers to understand the basics of bacterial cell machinery. 

The other approach is bottom-up — to take a cell membrane and fill it gradually with components until it starts to function as a cell. This is the field of synthetic cells, although the distinction can be unclear as to what, or how many, parts of the cell have to be synthetic to count.

Does it matter if the genes were pinched from other bacteria? Should the cell membrane housing all the genetic apparatus be synthetic? The metrics of a successful functioning cell are also unclear. 

2026 has seen a couple of milestones in this area. In the summer a team in the US launched “spudcells”, a form of synthetic cell with only 36 genes that they claim can grow and divide, thereby completing a cell lifecycle. (The name is partly inspired by Sputnik, and partly because they look like little potatoes.) Their results claim that genes could be replicated into multiple copies which are then separated from one another into different cell vesicles. 

What’s unusual about the approach, and which distinguishes it from other minimal cells, is how the cell divides. Living cells do that using a cytoskeleton: an internal structure that grows and shrinks, organising the division of cell contents as it divides.

Controlling an artificial cytoskeleton has stumped synthetic biologists for some time. In the spudcell, they instead used surface proteins that collect and assemble at the membrane surface.

Because of the way they bunch up, they make a constriction in the cell membrane, tightening the band around the original blob until it breaks into two. This is very inefficient, but it does sometimes work, although the DNA doesn’t always separate equally. 

The trick of avoiding a proper cytoskeleton is canny and will allow others to try new things in synthetic cells, but the search continues to expand the toolbox.

Another announcement in synthetic cells was made last month by a different group that has produced an artificial cytoskeleton to replace the structuring filaments. The group from North Carolina used DNA that can be designed to fold up into a specific shape. 

The ability of molecules to make shapes inside cells is key to life. It all hinges on self-assembly: how molecules pack themselves together, orient themselves, join and fuse to produce larger structures.

Sometimes these larger structures can go wrong. 

Last week a team based in Dresden reported results from investigating a protein implicated in neurodegenerative disease. Droplets of the protein can form long fibres, which produce a second, totally different arrangement of the protein that may cause problems.

The scientists hope that this discovery will contribute to understanding what goes wrong at the end of a real cell’s life, when these fibres can be found woven into the brain’s ordinary networks. 

Both life and death can arise from different molecular arrangements, and the possible combinations are dizzying. In every human cell there are around 10,000 distinct proteins, each with their own patterns of assembly and dynamics.

Biochemists are piecing together their behaviours, bit by bit, since it’s all of these tiny processes that make fibres and structures, patterns and dynamic, moving materials, to do everything that a true living cell does.

Though the processes themselves are not alive, much like the myths of the past, the scientists that work on them believe that someday, perhaps soon, they’ll form the basis of new forms of life. 

Science and Society / 23 September 2026 Plastic bombastic 23 September 2026 This year sees a dramatic change in legislation on the use of cancer-causing plastic pollutants. Will we see new technologies take its place? ask ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

China’s investment and commitment to scientific research is already paying off, pushing the country to the centre stage of global technological advance, writes S Krishnaswamy

Science & Society / 29 July 2026 The growing culture of lab meat 29 July 2026 Innovation in biotechnology is changing how we conceive of meat, say ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT of SCIENCE AND SOCIETY

Book Review / 10 April 2026 Lifting the stigma of schizophrenia 10 April 2026 RICHARD SHILLCOCK examines an enjoyable, but philosophically conventional book, and urges Marxists to employ their capacity to embrace the totality in any explanation