The more we study natural biological cells, the more we learn about how to control them or build artificial versions. These independent avenues of study have huge potential, but also their limitations.                     Researchers from Imperial College London have worked out a way to borrow the strengths of each, fusing together living and non-living cells to create tiny chemical factories that might one day aid drug delivery.
       In past work, scientists have packaged proteins and enzymes inside artificial casings to better treat conditions like cancer or diabetes. Rather than just using some natural parts, the Imperial College study instead wrapped entire biological cells inside artificial ones.
       "Biological cells can perform extremely complex functions, but can be difficult to control when trying to harness one aspect," says Oscar Ces, lead researcher on the project. "Artificial cells can be programmed more easily but we cannot yet build in much complexity. Our new system bridges the gap between these two approaches by fusing whole biological cells with artificial ones, so that the machinery of both works in concert to produce what we need."
       To pair up natural and artificial cells, the team used a microfluidic process to guide liquids very precisely through tiny channels. A liquid solution containing the biological cells was carefully pumped into a tube of oil, which forces the liquid into droplets surrounded by a lipid shell. Then, the droplets containing cells were dripped into a chamber where oil was floating on top of water. Their weight dragged them down into the watery solution, sealing them inside a bilayered bubble that could then be encased in the artificial cell wall.
       The end result are hybrid cells, made up of an artificial shell containing a natural cell and enzymes. To test whether the living and non-living halves of the cell worked together, the team designed an experiment where the two parts would come together to produce a fluorescent chemical. Sure enough, a healthy glow indicated that all was in working order.
       The team also tested the durability of the cells by placing them in a copper-rich solution. This mix would normally kill biological cells, but the team found that the hybrid cells were still fluorescing, indicating that the tough outer shell was protecting the natural innards. This function could prove handy in vivo, where a patient's immune system might attack foreign cells used in a treatment.
       The researchers say the technique could have a range of applications for targeted drug delivery, sensors or even creating cellular "batteries" that run on the process of photosynthesis. With further study, the artificial casing could be made to function more like the real thing, opening its shell on demand to release its payload.
       "The system we designed is controllable and customizable," says Yuval Elani, first author of the study. "You can create different sizes of artificial cells in a reproducible manner, and there is the potential to add in all kinds of cell machinery, such as chloroplasts for performing photosynthesis or engineered microbes that act as sensors."

      Pioneering theoretical physicist and science popularizer Stephen Hawkinghas passed away at the age of 76. Details have not been released yet, but the BBC reports that his children Lucy, Robert and Tim have released a statement saying, "We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years."
      Born in Oxford on January 8, 1942, Stephen Hawking studied at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Despite the diagnosis in 1963 of a rare early-onset, slow-progressing form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis that should have claimed his life in a matter of months, Hawking survived and continued to work, write, and lecture for decades, even after he suffered total paralysis and required a speech synthesizer to communicate.
      Hawkings went on to become one of the most acclaimed scientists of his generation with a level of fame rivaled only by Albert Einstein. His early work on the mechanics of black holes led him into the fields of cosmology, quantum mechanics, and relativity. He was especially notable for his work on Hawking radiation, the Penrose–Hawking theorems, the Bekenstein–Hawking formula, and Hawking energy.
      Aside from his rather esoteric work in physics, Hawking was also an author, most famously of A Brief History of Time (1988), which was described as, "the least read best seller in history." He was also an advocate for the disabled, an outspoken proponent of materialism, and even went into acting with appearances on Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Simpsonsand The Big Bang Theory, among others.
       His PhD thesis was recently released to the public as part of an effort to make scientific more accessible. Fellow physicist and science popularizer Neil deGrasse Tyson had the following to say on Twitter on Hawking's death.
      "His passing has left an intellectual vacuum in his wake," he said. "But it's not empty. Think of it as a kind of vacuum energy permeating the fabric of spacetime that defies measure. Stephen Hawking, RIP 1942-2018.