Lahav N
Orig Life Evol Biosph. 1985;16(2):129-49. doi: 10.1007/BF01809467.
The arbitrariness of the definition of life is discussed in relation to both the archaic biological entities that preceded cells during the Molecular Evolution era, and the hypothetical, primitive, 'living' entities that presumably can be synthesized in the laboratory. Several experimental approaches to the synthesis, detection, and characterization of 'living' entities are discussed. The experimental approaches considered for the synthesis are the constructionist strategy, the whole-environment strategy, and the modular strategy, which is a combination of the first two. The whole-environment strategy is discussed in more detail and the establishment of an Evolution Synthesizer, based on this strategy, is proposed and rationalized. The guidelines for the detection and characterization of populations and processes of 'living' entities include chemical and physical analyses, but are based mainly on the reproductive characterization of these entities. It is expected that the higher the evolutionary level of the 'living' entities, the longer and more difficult it will be to synthesize them, but the easier it will be to detect them.
本文讨论了生命定义的随意性，涉及分子进化时代先于细胞出现的古老生物实体，以及可能在实验室合成的假设性原始“活”实体。文中讨论了几种用于合成、检测和表征“活”实体的实验方法。合成方面考虑的实验方法有建构主义策略、全环境策略以及前两者相结合的模块化策略。对全环境策略进行了更详细的讨论，并基于该策略提出并论证了建立进化合成器的设想。“活”实体群体和过程的检测与表征指南包括化学和物理分析，但主要基于这些实体的繁殖特征。预计“活”实体的进化水平越高，合成它们的难度就越大、所需时间就越长，但检测它们则越容易。
