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Have scientists created life in the lab? · The Daily Article

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  [SPEAKER_00]: Good morning and welcome to the daily article podcast from Denison Forum.
• 0:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's Wednesday, July 15th, 2026.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: This is an automated reading of today's daily article authored by Dr. Jim Denison.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Today's article is titled, Have Scientists Created Life in the Lab.
• 0:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: is that we have been reminded of God's blessings on our nation.
• 0:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: And of the many ways he has used us to bless the world.
• 0:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: President Ronald Reagan noted that if you could condense the entire history of life on earth into a motion picture that ran for 24 hours, the United States wouldn't appear on the screen until 3.5 seconds before midnight.
• 0:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: But in those 3.5 seconds he stated, Americans would perform such miracles of invention, construction, and production as the world has never seen.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: One such miracle is in the news these days.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: According to CNN, scientists say they have built a cell from scratch for the first time.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: If you're like me, three questions immediately emerge.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: What have they actually done?
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  [SPEAKER_00]: What does this mean for the future?
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Is this playing God?
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Kate Atamala is a synthetic biologist and professor at the University of Minnesota.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: She and her team say they have built a cell from scratch for the first time that can feed, grow, and replicate like a natural cell.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: They constructed their cell piece by piece from non-living chemical components.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: It grows and replicates for about five generations.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: It is made up of 150 to 200 molecules, which is far less complex than a biological cell that holds millions if not billions of molecules.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Each generation of the cell produces requires feeding and is unable to evolve naturally.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Dr. Adamala described the synthetic cell as an incredibly wimpy organism that right now basically does nothing other than to eat and occasionally make a daughter cell.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: As one biochemist said, the synthetic cell is not life created in the lab, but a genuine milestone on the road toward that question.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: We don't have an all-powerful ability to manipulate matter, to make stuff.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: I would say Kate has constructed a cell.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think she's created life.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: The CNN article notes that the human body has 37 trillion cells, more than the number of stars in the sky, and that scientists still don't know how every different cell type works, or even what exactly they contain.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Dr. Atomala said of her synthetic cell.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: It's a chassis that we're hoping to build on, and that's significant, because now we actually can have some reasonable idea of how to build on it.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: She and her team have made their work available to other researchers.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Their hope is that the cell will become a shared global standard for synthetic cell biology.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: In its current form, the synthetic cell does not pose biosafety risks and could not be used to manufacture a biological weapon.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: but it could help scientists better understand the way cells form and function.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps ushering in an era of made-to-order organisms that function like living machines.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Whether this synthetic cell will, or even can, lead to cells that perform like those created by God, is an open question.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: The question before us today is whether it should.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: As the resident scholar for ethics with a major non-profit healthcare organization,
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  [SPEAKER_00]: I often focus on the pillars of biomedical ethics, autonomy, beneficence, non-moleficence, and justice.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Stated briefly, autonomy asks if the patient has the capacity and agency to make informed decisions about their care.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: With regard to cells created in a lab, such capacity is obviously lacking.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: However, if these cells are not yet life, this issue is irrelevant.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Beneficence asks what benefits a particular medical or scientific act might bring.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Non-emeleficence asks what harm this might produce.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Just as asks, if this is ethical for society at large, does the benefit outweigh the cost?
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Who decides it's use?
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  [SPEAKER_00]: To whom will it be available?
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Who sets ethical guardrails in place?
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  [SPEAKER_00]: However, we live in a post-modern, relativistic culture to which the prophet Isaiah's description applies.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: We have rejected absolute truth and objective morality, opting for tolerance as our highest value.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Consequently, with regard to synthetic cells, we might claim that such advances are ethical in that they could benefit public health, or we might warn that they could be engineered for malevolent purposes.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: We might claim that they will benefit all of society, akin to penicillin and similar breakthroughs.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: or we might alleged that they will benefit only those who can afford them.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: In many ways, our technology has outstripped our ethics, from AI to nuclear proliferation, to biomedical engineering and genetic manipulation, we have more tools capable of destroying us than ever before.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: As a society, we need the wisdom only our all-knowing, all-loving Lord can offer.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: not just with regard to our individual souls, but also to our collective survival and flourishing.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: The good news is that the living Lord Jesus is as available to our nation today, as he was when our nation was founded.
• 5:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: John Hancock, whose outsized signature I read recently on the original Declaration of Independence, prayed that all may bow to the septer of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the whole earth be filled with His glory.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Will you make His prayer yours today?
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening to the Daily Article Podcast.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: For links, scripture references, or to find out more about Denison Forum, visit us at denisonforum.org or click the link in today's show notes.