A Cell, a Germ, and a Mini-Universe Walk Into a Lab

The Signal

In the span of a single week, scientists accomplished three things that would have sounded like science fiction a decade ago: they assembled a living cell from scratch, created the precursor cells needed to grow human sperm in a dish, and built a miniature universe where time itself can be seen speeding up, slowing down, and stopping entirely. Each breakthrough is staggering on its own. Together, they point to something larger — a quiet shift from studying nature to building it...