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Smithsonian Magazine ·Behind the news

Scientists Say They've Made Cells That Feed, Grow and Reproduce, Bringing Them One Step Closer to Building Life From Scratch

Published 2026-07-02 19:53:39+00:00

If a synthetic cell can eat and evolve, where does the chemistry end and life begin?

0:00 / 6:56 · Narrator Gacrux

Context

Writing on 2 July 2026, the piece follows a team of synthetic biologists attempting to bridge the gap between inanimate chemicals and biological life. Their creation, the SpudCell, can eat and divide, yet it remains in a strange biological waiting room—not quite alive, but no longer just a collection of molecules. The reporting looks past the technical hurdles to ask a deeper question: if humans can engineer the hallmarks of life, does the distinction between the natural and the synthetic still hold any meaning?

Show notes

An account of the development of SpudCells, synthetic organisms engineered from raw chemicals to perform basic biological functions including feeding, growth, and reproduction. By combining oily membranes with a minimal genome, researchers have simulated evolutionary competition and cell division in a laboratory setting. The results detail the current technical boundaries of the project, including the cells' reliance on external protein-making machinery and their inability to sustain lifelike behaviors beyond ten generations.

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