There has been much success recently in theoretically simulating parts of complex biological systems on the molecular level, with the goal of first-principles modeling of whole cells. However, there is the question of whether such simulations can be performed because of the enormous complexity of cells. We establish approximate equations to estimate computation times required to simulate highly simplified models of cells by either molecular dynamics calculations or by solving molecular kinetic equations. Our equations place limits on the complexity of cells that can be theoretically understood with these two methods and provide a first step in developing what can be considered biological uncertainty relations for molecular models of cells. While a molecular kinetics description of the genetically simplest bacterial cell may indeed soon be possible, neither theoretical description for a multicellular system, such as the human brain, will be possible for many decades and may never be possible even with quantum computing.

最近，在以分子原理一级模拟复杂生物系统的各个部分方面取得了很大的成功，其目标是对整个细胞进行第一性原理建模。然而，由于单元的巨大复杂性，存在这样的仿真是否可以执行的问题。我们建立近似方程式，以估计通过分子动力学计算或求解分子动力学方程式来模拟高度简化的细胞模型所需的计算时间。我们的方程式限制了细胞的复杂性，这在理论上可以用这两种方法来理解，并为开发可以被认为是细胞分子模型的生物学不确定性关系提供了第一步。尽管实际上可能很快就可以对遗传上最简单的细菌细胞进行分子动力学描述，