Function: the concept that (almost) everyone uses… but no one really knows - and why it matters

Abstract

Biologists attribute functions to the traits of living beings. Engineers assign functions to the objects they design and to their parts. Chemists assign functionalities to certain groups of atoms in organic molecules. Physicists, by contrast, have absolutely no use for functions. Synthetic biology is at the crossroads of biology, chemistry, physics and engineering, and its core business is the manipulation, redesign and creation of functions. But what is a function? When we look at how this notion is defined in each of these disciplines respectively, it seems that they use totally different concepts that bear the same name. This poses a problem for understanding what synthetic biology is really about. It may also have profound practical and ethical implications.