Reminds me of some Alan Kay talks:

https://youtu.be/YyIQKBzIuBY?t=1384

He actually mentions the book that is the source for the first illustration in the article. He also often talks about the speed of molecules and how it's counter-intuitive to the commonplace idea of cell operation.

Cell biology was an inspiration for original OOP (which wasn't much like Java/C++ at all).

When reading about Covid stuff and immunity, I often think how these mechanism could be imitated in engineering. I definitely believe there are some general principles that we could benefit from without trying to "simulate" biology.

Edit: Sorry, same author/illustrator, but different book.