[tomohelix]

I don't like that description very much. The cell being "alive" is literally the top reason the cellular machineries work so well. By being "alive" it is keeping the environment optimal and perfect for the enzymes to run and being productive. Taking this away and then seeing problems about efficiency is like taking off the wheels and then asking why the car is not running well.

They are trying to fix it by maintaining the same cytoplasmic conditions using all the machines and sensors in a bioreactor. But that can scale is a different question. The narrow ranges of conditions biological processes require is already hard to maintain while the cells itself is still whole and using more than half of its enzymes to do this.