Breakthrough in Cell Biology

We all know that the basic unit of life is the cell, but have you ever wondered how these tiny cells arrange themselves so as to form our bodies into a particular shape?  Why do we have any shape at all? Why don’t we look like a bag of jelly?

I just the man met who, working in a research lab in Finland, discovered the “extracellular matrix,” a collection of proteins and carbohydrates to which all healthy cells must bind in order to stay alive, and it is this that provides the body’s structure.

This has relevance to cancer research, because those cells do not have to adhere to the matrix in order to survive, which is why they move around inside the body, and ultimately metastasize, landing somewhere and start dividing rapidly.

I asked him if he is religious, i.e., if he thought God created the extracellular matrix.   He immediately replied: no.

Now, part of his response may be rooted in the fact that he’s Scandinavian, a region where virtually no one has a religious affiliation.  More likely for this scientist, however, is that the idea that life on Earth, that has evolved over the last four billion years, probably didn’t have done so at the direction of the divine.