title: Is whole-culture synchronization biology's 'perpetual-motion machine'?
abstract: Whole-culture or batch synchronization cannot, in theory, produce a synchronized culture because it violates a fundamental law that proposes that no batch treatment can alter the cell-age order of a culture. In analogy with the history of perpetual-motion machines, it is suggested that the study of these whole-culture 'synchronization' methods might lead to an understanding of general biological principles even though these methods cannot be used to study the normal cell cycle.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0620, USA. cooper@umich.edu
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cooper
mesh_terms: D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D002455:Cell Division / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D004247:DNA / Q000096:biosynthesis; D005057:Eukaryotic Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D016193:G1 Phase / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D008938:Mitosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D004247:DNA