Jan 18, 2021
The biological research putting purpose back into life
Posted by Jose Ruben Rodriguez Fuentes in category: biotech/medical
Biologists balk at any talk of ‘goals’ or ‘intentions’ — but a bold new research agenda has put agency back on the table.
Animal immune systems depend on white blood cells called macrophages that devour and engulf invaders. The cells pursue with determination and gusto: under a microscope you can watch a blob-like macrophage chase a bacterium across the slide, switching course this way and that as its prey tries to escape through an obstacle course of red blood cells, before it finally catches the rogue microbe and gobbles it up.
But hang on: isn’t this an absurdly anthropomorphic way of describing a biological process? Single cells don’t have minds of their own – so surely they don’t have goals, determination, gusto? When we attribute aims and purposes to these primitive organisms, aren’t we just succumbing to an illusion?
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