Google AI makes breakthrough in biology

From China’s DeepSeek, to Trump’s Stargate initiative, AI continues to make headlines. Image generators can create hyperrealistic images, video generation continually improves, militaries are integrating AI into more systems, and people are falling in love with chatbots. Dystopia encroaches. 

Such news, rightly, creates a sense of unease around rapidly progressing technology. However, advancing AI technology has also created several positive breakthroughs in science. In particular, one historic breakthrough is in “protein science,” a subset of biology that studies the very building blocks of life. 

A leading molecular biologist called the leap, “the biggest ‘machine learning in science’ story that there has been.” Down the line, it could lead to countless other breakthroughs in vaccine development, cancer research, and more. 

So, what is this breakthrough? And how does it reflect the glory of God as the designer? 

What is molecular biology? Why does it matter? 

If you think back to sixth-grade science, you might remember that the mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell. But what are the mitochondria made of? Molecular biology studies the way molecules work together to form cells and life itself. 

Atoms make up molecules. Molecules—specifically amino acids—make up proteins. Proteins, constructed by cells according to the blueprint encoded in DNA, are the building blocks of life. 

Now, different kinds of amino acids come out of the “factory” of the cell in a kind of string. This “string” then folds on itself to create a complex shape, a physical structure that defines its purpose. The resulting 3D structure is a protein and can fit with other proteins like a specialized jigsaw puzzle.

As you probably guessed, amino acids are very small. So, it’s exceptionally difficult to tell their shape. Understanding their structure, however, is critical to understanding them. It would be like having a puzzle where you could see the image, but not the shape of edges—knowing the images is useless. 

So, how to discover the structure? 

Google’s AlphaFold 2 makes historic breakthrough

A decades-long running competition, called “CASP,” sought to solve this problem. Contestants were teams of scientists who would try to predict a protein’s shape from the information about its sequence. (I know, sounds like a thrilling game.) 

In 2020, an AI created by Google, called AlphaFold2, solved the problem. While not perfectly accurate, the AI still won the competition by a landslide. And it unlocked another world of insight. 

Over six decades, 150,000 protein structures were mapped through painstaking research. It was laborious, expensive, and time-consuming. In a few months, AlphaFold discovered 200 million—nearly all proteins known to exist in nature. 

John M. Jumper and Demis Hassabis, who created the AI system, were awarded half the 2024 Nobel Prize in chemistry. For more on this story, watch the incredible YouTube video by science educator “Veritasium” (Derek Muller, PhD in physics).

Some contest that AlphaFold2 didn’t “solve” the protein folding problem because it predicts the shape rather than showing you what it actually is. Results, then, will generally need to be confirmed by experiments. Nevertheless, everyone agrees that AlphaFold2 set our understanding of life ahead immensely.

As we continue to wrestle with the costs and benefits of AI, we can’t neglect the good it does—especially in science. 

The God who numbers every protein

The wonders of AI pale in comparison to the mind of God. Jesus taught, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6–7). 

In its context, this passage is about fearing God rather than man. Jesus is showing how Yahweh God is not capricious or forgetful. He relies here on an oft-used rabbinic argument of moving from the lesser to the greater. 

If God cares about the sparrows, if he knows the number of hairs on your head, he knows and cares about you. So, here’s a modern parallel: Fear not; even the amino acids are numbered, each structure mapped out. He knows every protein’s exact location in space, infinitely more accurately than AlphaFold. God spins every protein sequence like a cosmic embroiderer.

Will you give him glory for his creation? Will you take a moment and meditate on his grandness? How can this truth help you “fear not?”