[nyc111]

There is a section at the end "How did we figure all this stuff out?". Really amazing.

And the scale invariance of nature is clearly visible here. The cell is "small" compared to human scale but it is as complicated as any machine existing in human scale. There is no absolute small or big in nature.

[roenxi]

I was about to post a very similar comment. That last section elevates the article from "interesting" to "wow, that was great". It isn't just revealed wisdom; the gentleman want to show the limits of the knowledge.

And the "in silico" experiments are probably a bit of a sleeper for people outside the field. It is really obvious how improvements in computing power will have/had a transformative impact on this field. To go from poking out random molecules and growing dangerous things in a pitri dish to fast computer simulations from DNA seems like quite a big jump in how quickly the field can learn.

[fartsucker69]

there would be an absolute small, at planck scales (from what we know)

there's also an absolute big, known in cosmology, far beyond the scales of galaxies, galaxy clusters, etc... it's your mom

[beders]

It is a highly evolved bacterium for sure. It still hasn't figured out how to form multi-cell clusters. And let's hope it stays that way ;)

Also scale is subject to physical limitations. Bones can only carry that much weight - chemical processes are limited by - for example - maximum energy dissipation rate.

[graemep]

It is a lot more complex than anything made by humans, but it is nothing like as complicated as a human that consists of a huge number of cells.

[dotnet00]

Technically humans are also made by humans :)