A One Inch Cube
This was taken from the latest issue of WIRED Magazine. This particular issues deals with Things We Don't Know, and it is completely fascinating. This particular mystery feels pretty applicable to me right now.
How does a fertilized egg become a human?
Imagine that you place a 1-inch-wide black cube in an empty field. Suddenly the cube makes copies of itself - two, four, eight, 16. The proliferating cubes begin to form structures - enclosures, arches, walls, tubes. Some of the tubes turn into wires, PVC pipes, structural steel, wooden studs. Sheets of cubes become wallboard and wood paneling, carpet and plate-glass windows. The wires begin connecting themselves into a network of immense complexity. Eventually, a 100-story skyscraper stands in the field.
That’s basically the process a fertilized cell undergoes beginning with the moment of conception. How did that cube know how to make a skyscraper? How does a cell know how to make a human (or any other mammal)? Biologists used to think that the cellular proteins somehow carried the instructions. But now proteins look more like pieces of brick and stone - useless without a building plan and a mason. The instructions for how to build an organism must be written in a cell’s DNA, but no one has figured out exactly how to read them.
1 comment:
Hey Jason!
I just tripped over your blog. Glad to see you & family are doing well - love the video of your son.
As to your comments, since Kelly & I had our first just last month, I have found myself wondering how someone could look at a newborn and not be in awe of our Creator.
I'm fascinated by the very moment when God provides the spark that sets a tiny beating heart in motion!
Anyway, good to catch up!
Wade Strzinek
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