It is hoped that cells created in a test tube can answer some of the major questions in biology. What is the minimum that a cell needs in order to live? And how did life on Earth begin? Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg and the Paul Pascal Research Center at the CNRS and University of Bordeaux are now presenting the forerunners of an artificial cell. In an experiment of synthetic Biology they have succeeded in incorporating the simple form of a metabolic function into microscopically small droplets: a chemical reaction, maintained by an integrated energy supply.