For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides • Hacker News Board

Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides

#101

Post by nathan_compton » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 5:25 PM UTC

ZenoArrow wrote: post #72

el_io wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You if believe creating life will end religion then you're wrong. We thought evolutionary theory would do the same, now we got people who believe god directed evolution. Some believe everything evolved from a common ancestor except Humans. So the believers will adapt to believe that Genesis was talking about exactly this.

Science can't disprove religion. Consider the "big bang", is that any less of a miracle than "God did it"? Science is like "just give us one miracle and we'll explain the rest".

I think this is really the wrong framing. Science can't disprove religion. The question is whether it makes any sense to believe in the religion in the first place, given what observation and science say about the universe. Science can't prove that God didn't create the universe a nano-second ago in exactly the state to produce this temporal evolution, but no one believes that because its not explanatory and also fails a bunch of other, not-necessarily scientific, but rationally motivated epistemological tests.

The way I see this is that science cannot disprove any particular religion, but it can probably offer more compelling explanations for the state of the world than religion can offer. People haven't flocked away from religion because explanations for the state of the world aren't really what people want from religion. They want a sop for their anxieties. they want community, etc. I think believing in nonsense is a real shitty way to get these things, but I'm not most people.

Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides

#102

Post by vintagedave » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 5:25 PM UTC

bouchard wrote: post #79

merksittich wrote: post #54

Science News has a more balanced take, with additional quotes from peers. > Some have also grumbled about Adamala’s efforts to draw attention to the work, which she says was rejected by Cell after one reviewer said SpudCells were not real biology. She then sent the 190-page manuscript to journalists, under embargo, even before she had uploaded it to the preprint server bioRxiv, where her colleagues could read and ass…

> “It’s an unusual way of doing things,” says Kerstin Göpfrich, a synthetic biologist at Heidelberg University. That's being kind; it's a complete overreaction, simply put.

In fairness, it's a workaround against something that likely should not have happened. Problems require creative (aka unusual) solutions.

Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides

#103

Post by namero999 » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 5:26 PM UTC

mattlondon wrote: post #41

bensyverson wrote: post #2

> “It’s a big step forward to this holy grail of making a living thing out of dead components,” said Sijbren Otto, a systems chemist at the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry in the Netherlands who was not involved in the work. That is the holy grail? I get that the goal is to "grow" biofuels, plastic, fertilizer, drugs, or whatever else we can imagine. But is that worth the many apocalyptic sci-fi outcomes we can ima…

> That is the holy grail? At one end we're creating artificial life , the other we are creating artificial intelligence . We're coming at everything we as the human race have known for millennia from both ends, simultaneously. We're recreating that, from scratch. That is absolutely fucking wild. Ironically this "holy" grail will end up being the thing that finally puts religious creation myths in their place (i.e. as…

I might in some sense agree with you but check your wording: creationism... we recreated life... see where I'm going?

Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides

#104

Post by gmueckl » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 5:28 PM UTC

yreg wrote: post #53

mattlondon wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That is the holy grail? At one end we're creating artificial life , the other we are creating artificial intelligence . We're coming at everything we as the human race have known for millennia from both ends, simultaneously. We're recreating that, from scratch. That is absolutely fucking wild. Ironically this "holy" grail will end up being the thing that finally puts religious creation myths in their place (i.e. as…

> we will be able to answer with 100% certainty that we are not alone or unique in the universe since we recreated life in the fucking petri dish I don't think we are alone, but this is not logically sound. The conditions in the petri dish might be easily so special that their natural prevalence is < 1 per universe.

The first time this happens in a petri dish will likely have to be under extremely controlled circumstances. But the process will be modified and toyed with once it exists and I think that this will eventually lead to whole spectrum of (quasi?)biological systems that together cover a broad range of environmental conditions.

Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides

#105

Post by graemep » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 5:29 PM UTC

el_io wrote: post #63

mattlondon wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That is the holy grail? At one end we're creating artificial life , the other we are creating artificial intelligence . We're coming at everything we as the human race have known for millennia from both ends, simultaneously. We're recreating that, from scratch. That is absolutely fucking wild. Ironically this "holy" grail will end up being the thing that finally puts religious creation myths in their place (i.e. as…

You if believe creating life will end religion then you're wrong. We thought evolutionary theory would do the same, now we got people who believe god directed evolution. Some believe everything evolved from a common ancestor except Humans. So the believers will adapt to believe that Genesis was talking about exactly this.

Who thought evolutionary theory would end religion? Sounds like wishful thinking from people who were hoping for an end to religion.

Mainstream Christianity was not biblical literalist anyway. Read what Augustine or Origen had to say about interpreting Genesis.

Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides

#106

Post by Animats » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 5:31 PM UTC

Craig Venter wanted to do this. But he died earlier this year.

Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides

#107

Post by senkora » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 5:31 PM UTC

arjie wrote: post #9

bensyverson wrote: post #2

> “It’s a big step forward to this holy grail of making a living thing out of dead components,” said Sijbren Otto, a systems chemist at the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry in the Netherlands who was not involved in the work. That is the holy grail? I get that the goal is to "grow" biofuels, plastic, fertilizer, drugs, or whatever else we can imagine. But is that worth the many apocalyptic sci-fi outcomes we can ima…

Yes, mechanically constructing life would be absolutely stupendous for science. The real tragedy of modern sci-fi is that everyone read the books and decided it was reality. “Penicillin?! A poison from fungus that kills living cells?! Haven’t you played the sci fi game The Last of Us?” Stories are stories, man. Story-logic is biased towards interesting tales. And “discovery from the natural world turned to human aims…

> Stories are stories, man. Story-logic is biased towards interesting tales.

Also known as the fallacy of “generalizing from fictional evidence”.

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/rHBdcHGLJ7KvLJQPk/the-logica...

Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides

#108

Post by namero999 » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 5:32 PM UTC

germandiago wrote: post #49

That is closer to consciousness than AI will ever be. :)

Definitely. An implication of several strands of idealism is that we will be able to create artificial life (with consciousness)... it will just look like biology.

Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides

#109

Post by twic » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 5:39 PM UTC

soraki_soladead wrote: post #4

This is awesome! Can someone in this field comment on the implications of sidestepping the cytoskeleton?

Terrible, the cytoskeleton is the best bit of the cell!

(not just grumpy because that's what I did my PhD research on)

Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides

#110

Post by graemep » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 5:39 PM UTC

mattlondon wrote: post #41

bensyverson wrote: post #2

> “It’s a big step forward to this holy grail of making a living thing out of dead components,” said Sijbren Otto, a systems chemist at the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry in the Netherlands who was not involved in the work. That is the holy grail? I get that the goal is to "grow" biofuels, plastic, fertilizer, drugs, or whatever else we can imagine. But is that worth the many apocalyptic sci-fi outcomes we can ima…

> That is the holy grail? At one end we're creating artificial life , the other we are creating artificial intelligence . We're coming at everything we as the human race have known for millennia from both ends, simultaneously. We're recreating that, from scratch. That is absolutely fucking wild. Ironically this "holy" grail will end up being the thing that finally puts religious creation myths in their place (i.e. as…

> Ironically this "holy" grail will end up being the thing that finally puts religious creation myths in their place (i.e. as bullshit) since we will be able to answer with 100% certainty that we are not alone or unique in the universe since we recreated life in the fucking petri dish so why not across the billions and trillions of other planets out there?

How does it affect religious ideas per se? its something many religious people long to find https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026/06/disclosure-day-a...