Dust and Ashes, Chemicals and Cells

The chemical and cellular basis of life.

by Jack Hoehn  |  6 March 2024  |

The editing of the King James Bible (KJV) was not done by manuscript with red pencil marks of the text for corrections or edits, and of course not on a computer screen like the one I am using to write this article. Not even with goose quill and ink. It was done by ear. The translators sat around a table as one person read a manuscript but the final edit was done by ear, so that it sounded right when read, as much as being a correct translation. This is why the King James Bible still stars when it is read with a cadence and tonality to the text not found in more modern translations. It was meant to be read aloud.

I am not sure it is the most accurate translation of the Hebrew, but Genesis 18:27 still sounds poetic to me when Abraham responds to his Creator,

Cells

Neither Abraham nor the 17^th century KJV translators knew that the dust and ashes of this world were made of 92 separate elements, of which at least 19 and possibly 26 are essential for human life. The Greeks had supposed, reasoning from stone to sand to dust, that everything was made of tiny bits they imagined called atoms. Good guess. But that atoms were made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, and they were made of even smaller realities that eventually could not be observed, or that some molecules could be made that were shapes, and other strong but random ionic bonds would not be discovered by science until the 20^th century and some in the 21^st.

Abraham likely knew that “In the beginning God…” and the creation week story that gave him a Sabbath. But neither Abraham nor Paul nor Aristotle nor Antoine Lavoisier knew the details that the Big Bang origin of the universe created hydrogen, helium, and a little neon. Nor the details of formation of star factories to create the 92 elements of the periodic table, nor the combinations of those elements into various molecules with both ionic or covalent bonds. Chemicals needed a safe place to function in order to be alive. That place provided for life is the unit known as a cell. Although some fragments of broken-down life, such as viruses, do exist outside of cell membranes, none of them can perform all the functions of life without the existence of membrane-formed cells, their codes, and machines.

It wasn’t until 54 years after the KJV Bible was translated that any human ever saw a cell, with an improved optical microscope looking at a piece of cork. The little spaces making the bark of this lightweight oak tree reminded Robert Hooke in 1655 of monks’ rooms called cells in large monasteries. So Hooke discovered that living things were made of microscopic units called cells. Although all living things have cells, what we now know is that each cell is a unique and specific functional unit with thousands of different functions, strengths, purposes, designs. “Let there be a firmament….” required creation of uncountable little floating photosynthesis factories making oxygen powered by sunlight. “Let the land produce vegetation….” started a creation of cells that became plants that became trees that made bark of cork that would let us float on the water too! And of course the fish and triceratops and birds and turtles and rabbits and you are all “just made of cells” but cells unique and specialized and protected and functional by the 37 trillion.

Membranes

The protection of life chemicals and machines requires a membrane. But a cell membrane is not a simple plastic bag like a zip-lock sandwich bag. Even a simplified diagram of a cell membrane is itself very complex. The surface on the outside of the membrane has to be chemicals soluble in water (hydrophilic); on the inside of the membrane it has to be hydrophobic or not soluble in water. This by itself can control some of the chemicals needed or excluded by the cell. But other chemicals need specific transporters, switches, detectors, pumps to get in or out.

Movement

Although rocks and sand and water move by gravity, living things move against gravity, and even at the cellular level all plant and animal cells are constantly in motion. Materials from the outside world are moved into the cell, through the cell membranes, and then shuttled to appropriate intracellular sites or organelles. This movement is orchestrated and regulated by the cells’ skeleton. Cells have a top and a bottom and sides, and this orientation must be preserved in multicellular organisms. This movement requires energy.

So cells have power stations called mitochondria producing adenosine triphosphate (ATP), cell fuel. Cell growth and maintenance require a constant supply of ATP and building blocks to make the proteins necessary for life. And for mechanisms to remove the worn or used chemicals with the cell–disposal systems. Letting the right chemicals in, and letting the used waste products out, but preventing harmful chemicals and molecules and organisms from entering the cell is the function of the cell membrane. This requires unique protein complexes in the plasma membrane.

How does a cell membrane know when to open the gates and let a certain chemical in? Well, there are chemical switches that recognize the presence of a needed substance and open a channel that permits rapid transport of the needed chemicals. Other chemicals can not just flow through open gates, but require active motors to transport them into the cell (kinesins) or out of the cell (dyneins). And then some cell motors just cause the cell itself to move, like a sperm cell swimming to find the ova.

We Are Chemicals

Every component of life is chemical. Made of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, etc., combining to form molecules of shapes and precise location to function.  The scientific encounter with chemistry and the cell with its membranes certainly promotes humility. We are all made of “dust and ashes”–we are indeed created with the dust of the ground and we may well be reduced to ashes. But we can talk to the Almighty and our conversations with God can be recorded in a book.  We can hope to survive and revive after the dust and ashes part.

Scientific discoveries about the body temple demand at a minimum humility from scientists. Scientific discoveries about our bodies invite awe and wonder from believers. And encourage our hope that dust and ashes are but the beginning of the story, not the end.

This is #5 in series on worship guided by science. #1 is here. Jack is also known as Dr. John Byron Hoehn, MD, CCFP (Canada), DTM&H (London). His book Adventist Tomorrow—Fresh Ideas While Waiting for Jesus in its second edition continues to be the most popular book Adventist Today has published. Jack’s wife, Deanne, has published a delightful new book called Loving You—I went to Africa, about their 13 years as medical missionaries. These books are available at SHOP in the menu at the top of the page. All sales go to support Adventist Today.]

Both illustrations are public domain. The Cells are Cork by Flikr, Berkshire Community College Bioscience. The Diagram of a Membrane is from from Wikimedia, William Crochot.

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