The unraveling
Our body’s most basic design feature may hold the key to understanding how our society has become so unraveled.
Will this be life-giving for me?
How can we tell if something is alive? Biologists look for 5 traits, processes or functions as signs of life: metabolism (consume, construct, destruct, excrete) growth (learn, build, improve) reproduction (spawn offspring or ideas) responsiveness (sensitive, attentive, active) movement (action, progress, liveliness) These are the characteristics of life — the life of anything. That’s cool, […]
The Message Our Body Brings to Life
Does it surprise you to look at these two photos, side by side? The one on the left is among the tiniest of miracles, a cell in the brain. The one on the right is perhaps the grandest of miracles, the universe. Their similarity is striking. It’s all a matter of scale… and perspective. One wonders […]
When Chemistry became Biology
What are we made of? the stuff of starsthe elements of the periodic tableconcocted of chemicals that explode,ions that interact,molecules that relate. We are the stuff of life.No more, no lessand yet. Yet,we think, and moveand have our being. Somehow we animated,went from sketch to living color.Our chemistry became biology,we moved from dead in our […]
What is life? Any puppy can show you
Are you alive? How can you tell? Frederic Martini, the author of my Anatomy and Physiology textbook, says that, “though the world around us contains an enormous diversity of living organisms that vary widely in appearance and lifestyle … biologists have found that all living things share certain basic characteristics.” These include: Responsiveness Growth and […]
Marked by Beauty
Imagine, to be marked with such beauty and not even know it…
Don’t Just Stand There, Move
The anatomy and physiology book from which I used to teach college students states, “Biologists have found that all living things share certain basic characteristics, including the following (in this order): responsiveness, growth and differentiation, reproduction, movement (internal or external), metabolism and excretion. By internal movement, they mean the movement of things inside the organism. By […]
