As If On Cue

Now we have this story about a team of American scientists who have created the first synthetic cell. J. Craig Venter , a genome-mapping pioneer and researcher converted one kind of bacterium into another with its own RNA.

We just mentioned last post (Fold It, the protein folding game) about medical/scientific research and the obligation to behave ethically. The Church is not anti-science regardless of what you may have head misreported about the whole Galileo incident. Indeed she is very avid to support it, because truth can never be contradicted, and God is Truth. But as with all research, it needs to come with boundaries in order to use it rightly.

[NYT] A top Italian cardinal, Angelo Bagnasco, said the invention is ''further sign of intelligence, God's gift to understand creation and be able to better govern it,'' according to Apcom and ANSA news agencies.

''On the other hand, intelligence can never be without responsibility,'' said Bagnasco, the head of the Italian bishops' conference. ''Any form of intelligence and any scientific acquisition ... must always be measured against the ethical dimension, which has at its heart the true dignity of every person.''