On a new episode of ID the Future, Andrew McDiarmid reads an excerpt from the new book The Miracle of the Cell, by Michael Denton. Denton, a biochemist and Senior Fellow with Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, introduces the wonders of the cell as “the universal constructor set of life.” Download the podcast or listen to it here.

The diversity of cells — their variety of form, function, and locomotion — is beyond describing, with some cells almost seeming sentient, indeed ingenious. As Denton notes, our growing knowledge of the cell’s staggering sophistication has earned the name “the third infinity.” This quick flyby of the cell is just an excerpt from the book’s introductory chapter. There Denton lays the groundwork for the book’s deeper dive into the extraordinary fine-tuning of the chemical elements of life, a prior fitness that, according to Denton, points not only to intelligent design but to “a primal blueprint.”