LIFE - it is a simple complicated thing.
Body
How do you see your body?
How much of what your body does do you have to consciously think about?
What are you consciously in control of?
In a body that is constantly changing and seemingly pretty independent, where do you reside and remain a constant in it?
Our bodies are miraculous and a paradox. We see ourselves as individuals and see our body in the singular but our bodies are made up of trillions of cells so are we a community?
Approximately 99% of the human body is made up of six elements oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, calcium and phosphorus. Another five elements, sulfur, potassium, sodium, chlorine and magnesium make up around 0.85% of the remaining mass.
According to research the adult male is made up of 36 trillion cells.
A female 28 trillion cells and 10 year old children consist of 17 trillion cells.
Now I am no scientist and I have no idea how all this works I exist yet I am very ignorant about what I am.
Ok so I am made up of 36 trillion cells but around 330 billion cells are replaced daily that is about 1% of all the cells in my body, all in a constant process of decay and regeneration. After every 100 days I am made up of a different 36 trillion cells, a brand new me, brand new yet older, constantly ageing.
Our largest organ, our skin renews itself every 28 days, shedding around 30 to 40 thousand dead cells every minute, which apparently works out at around 9lb a year. Where does it go?
There is an analogy here when it comes to the planet we inhabit. Are we just individual cells in the process of decay and regeneration all playing out part in the body that is earth?
Our cells also contain the DNA molecule so what is DNA
What is DNA?
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the incredible molecule that carries all our genetic information.
It contains the genetic instructions that ensure living beings can properly develop, survive, and reproduce, with every human being inheriting half of their genetic material from each of their biological parents.
DNA can be found in almost every cell in our body, except for red blood cells, making it an essential component in what makes us human.
Here are 10 more amazing facts about DNA that you may not know…
1. All human beings share approximately 99.9% of their DNA
Although every human being is unique in their own way, all of us share approximately 99.9% of our genetic material. This shared DNA ‘writes’ the code for all our cells and tells them how to function.
The tiny amount of DNA that differs (0.1%) is what makes us different from one another. This area of our DNA is responsible for determining our physical characteristics like eye colour, skull shape and skin colour.
2. It would take 50 years to type out the entire human genome
There are around three billion units that make up the human genome.
It would take around 50 years to type out the entire genome – but you’d need to type at 60 words per minute, for eight hours per day.
3. DNA is made up of four key building blocks
DNA molecules are made up of four chemical bases (nucleotides), which are the building blocks of nucleic acids: adenine (A), guanine (G), thymine (T), and cytosine (C).
4. If you stretched out the DNA in one cell, it would stretch to 2 metres long
If you did this for all the DNA in all your cells, it would stretch to approximately twice the diameter of the solar system!
5. Around 5-8% of our DNA isn’t human…
It’s viral DNA. Human beings are thought to carry around 100,000 pieces of DNA that we have accumulated from viruses over the entire course of our evolution.
6. We’re closely related to a creature called the star ascidian…
This flat, gelatinous creature is actually a colony of individual animals, that live among rocks and seaweed.
It’s also the closest invertebrate genetic relative to humans. We share around 77% of our DNA with the star ascidian.
7. …and even more closely related to primates
All human beings share 98.7% of their DNA in common with primates like gorillas, orangutans, and chimpanzees.
8. Genes only make up about 1-3% of your DNA
The rest of your DNA is thought to control the activity of your genes.
9. Our DNA undergoes small ‘mutations’ every day
All of us have some form of ‘mutation’ happening within our cells daily – but that doesn’t mean you’ll be a superhero anytime soon…
After all, these tiny ‘mutations’ in our DNA are what make us human, with such variants being responsible for differences in eye and hair colour, and blood types.
Hundreds of times per day, something happens within our DNA to cause ‘mutations’: this can be caused by a variety of things from exposure to UV radiation, to medication/drugs and viral infections.
Thankfully, our cells can quickly adapt to these changes, and most ‘mutations’ in our DNA are harmless or even helpful. In some cases, however, these mutations have been known to cause diseases (like cancer).
10. It’s possible for one person to have two sets of DNA
Although rare, it’s possible for a human being to have two completely different DNA profiles.
This phenomenon is known as chimerism and can happen during pregnancy where the mother retains some of her baby’s DNA, or when a foetus absorbs its twin.
It can also occur in patients who’ve had bone marrow transplants, where the donor’s bone marrow continues to produce blood cells containing the donor’s DNA.
Our bodies consist of between 50 to 65% water, this percentage declines as we get older but usually stay above 50% like the plants in our garden though as we age we dry out!
When we are born our little baby bodies are 78 to 83% water during the first six months of water that volume gradually decreases.
As healthy adults our bodies are about 60% water this would mean a man weighing 70kg would contain 42 litres of water. Now there is only a finite amount of water on the planet and it is in a constant state of flow, it flows through all life. Most adults lose around 2 to 3 litres of water a day and that needs to be replaced. So the water currently passing through your body will have been in thousands to millions of other life forms plants, animals, fish, insects, birds the seas, rivers and lakes, the rain and the puddles that form after a storm.
We are all like raindrops, believing we are individuals until we fall into the sea.
So these bodies we inhabit are a real mystery to most of us, to me it feels like I am being transported about in a vehicle and I have very little understanding of how that vehicle works.
I do not need to concentrate on how my lungs work in order to breathe. I do not need to focus to ensure my body digests the food I eat. I am not conscious of what my kidneys are up to. I have no idea how I can see or hear, dwell on it all for only a minute or two a day and it is a miracle way beyond my own understanding.
Your heart beats around 100,000 times a day. If you squeeze a tennis ball hard that is around the force generated by your heart to continuously pump blood around your body. Blood that delivers oxygen and nutrients to all parts of your body. During an average lifetime a human heart will beat 2.5 billion times without any conscious effort on our part. Imagine carrying a tennis ball around for your entire lifetime squeezing it 100,000 times a day!? Our heart is making that effort to keep us alive.
Now in our society the things we look for in our own and the bodies of others are very superficial in comparison to what is going on beneath the surface. We look at aesthetics, we look for beauty, we judge and compartmentalise others on what they look like. We are all prejudiced and are all discriminated against depending on our looks.
Yet none of us would be able to recognise our own heart, our own brain.
We focus and prioritise differences that should be quite irrelevant, rather than looking at all the commonalities.
As already stated we share 99.9% of our DNA, which i guess explains why we have so many things in common. We have the same limbs, the same organs, fingers, toes, hair, bones. Our faces and bodies are constructed the same yet that .1% determines that we are all uniquely different. Our physical features are passed down through the evolutionary chain by our ancestors through our DNA so we might share physical characteristics with our parents grand parents and beyond. We share 98.7% of our DNA with the great apes Chimps, Gorilla’s and Orangutans
In the same way we inherit our physical appearance, do we inherit our emotions, can personality traits be passed down through generations. If we share 77% of our DNA with a Star Ascidian and our DNA only differs by 1.3% from primates. Then it would suggest all living creatures experience emotions to some degree and us humans, far from being detached and above all life on the planet are very much a part of it and as such should be far more humble and continually filled with wonder.
So what of our emotions are we born with a unique essence, an individual personality. How different are we really? How much free will do we have and how much is preprogrammed into us, to what extent are our lives mapped out?
Part 2
So does our evolution over 100’s of thousands of years and the programming from our DNA pre-determine much of how we think?
On one level we are very basic with the pathways in our brain to get food for the self and to reproduce for the continuation of life being the most strongly embedded.
So much of life seems to be a series of patterns.
We are made up of trillions of cells could it be we are a cell in the body that is earth.
My belief is we are all part of one thing and as a result I am fascinated by the concept of self (the essence of I as a unique individual) where does that come from?
What part of me questions my own thoughts?
Just as our hearts beat with no conscious input from us, do many of our thoughts and emotions materialise independently from what we consider to be the self?
So I am the result of 100’s of thousands of years of evolution. I can see myself as an individual which I am but also a rather insignificant cell, part of the greater whole. Just as I am made of trillions of cells in a constant cycle of degeneration, regeneration, reproducing and ageing. Then am I and all over life on this planet just cells performing the same kind of function on the life form we know as Earth?
When we are born we are already programmed through our DNA the patterns contained in our DNA goes back to the beginning of life.
Our DNA contains the basic code that tells each cell how to grow, function and reproduce.
Examinations of our DNA show that any two humans are 99.9% identical.
DNA gets into every cell in the body through a process called DNA replication, which occurs when a cell divides and copies its DNA to create a new DNA molecule for the new daughter cell, this process ensures that each new cell has its own complete genome.
DNA replication involves three main steps initiation elongation and termination during replication chromosomes replicate and the newly replicated copies are separated and partitioned into the two daughter cells this is controlled by three types of specialized nucleotide sequences in the DNA that binder proteins that guide the machinery that replicate and segregate chromosomes.
According to a 2021 study published in Science Advances only 1.5 to 7% of the human genome is unique to modern humans the study examined the genomes of 279 people and found about 50% of the genome contains DNA inherited from Neaderthals or Denisovans while the rest come from the most recent common ancestor of humans and their extinct cousins
The human genome also contains non-human DNA which can come from viruses or repetitive strings of genetic letters that may also have a viral origin.
All very technical for me but it shows how closely linked we are to all life and how long our patterns have been evolving.
So how does all this help us think about our mental health?
Well it feels to me we are in a state of almost constant conflict, we are programmed by our DNA, we are already hard wired to seek out food and to reproduce that would be our most basic and important role as a cell in the body we call Earth. We need food to sustain ourselves and we need to reproduce as a duty to the collective, the Earth we are a part of.
It is worth remembering that our DNA is 98.7% the same as Chimps, Gorilla’s and Oranutang’s. I love a book called The Chimp Paradox that talks about the battles between our emotional chimp brain and logical human brain. Modern human society is very frightening for the chimp in us.
For me society has changed rapidly over the last twenty years and this presents us with many problems, when it comes to our mental health and well being. The way our brains have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years, the way we are wired is not suited to this internet age, and makes modern living very challenging for many.
Paradoxically the internet has enabled people to connect with others all over the world, given us a wealth of knowledge at our fingertips but has also led to huge levels of loneliness and isolation for many. For every positive there is a negative, ying and yang.
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