The
planet we live in, is full of weird structures of contraptions. These
structures may be rigid, or they may be soft, they may be fixed, or they may
move around. These contraptions seem to be a common occurence to this planet,
and to us as well, yet the truth of these magnificent occurence of the earth is
indeed very unique. The structures and contraptions that populate this earth,
is known by one word, Life. We too are life, and these writing is a product of
life, of one those moving contraptions known as humans. The study of life, is
known as Biology, and for many seems to be very complicated, however the true
nature of life is very simple, simplistically unique and out of this world.
Life
can be broken down as an incredibly simple concept, that is a system. It is a
system, just like the system of weather or the system of the computers. When
weather is a system of wind and air, and the system of computers a system of
electricity and information, life is a system of chemical reactions. An object
that has life is known as an organism. An organism is a system with boundaries,
may be it a skin, an epidermis, or a cell membrane. It also has a central
control system, be it a brain or a nucleus. The controller controls the
chemical reactions so that it serves one specific purpose, that is to ensure
the continued existence of the system. This means to have the system keep on
going with chemical reactions. In biological terms, the purpose of the system
is to survive. As a result, the system will tend to behave in certain
predictable manners for the sole purpose of survival.
An
organism requires constant energy to perform any action, even to merely
continue be alive, or to continue its chemical reactions. As a result, the
organism can absorb particles nearby, in a process known as consumption. It can
then process the particles and convert it into useable energy to perform other
actions. Sometimes the particles are incorporated into the cell itself, to
repair damaged parts or to expand itself, thus making its size larger, or
perhaps changing its form into a more complex and able form. In order to absorb
particles in the first place, the organism has the ability to move itself
around the environment. Of course once the particles are processed, leftovers
are present, these leftovers may sometimes be harmful to the organism, and is
thus excreted back to the environment, but it is possible for the organism to
reprocess the leftovers into other useable materials. In conclusion, these are
the first few basic behaviors of life in order to survive, that is to consume
particles, to grow and develop, to excrete waste particles, and to move. In
biology, these are also 4 of the characteristics of life.
The
next 3 behaviors are additional behaviors for prolonged survival. In order for
the organism to stay safe from environmental dangers or even other organisms,
it has to be able to sense its environment and react to any changes to the
environment. The organism must also be able to differentiate particles to
consume, also known as food, and other harmful particles that may jeopardize
the survival of such organism. This is known as sensitivity. When the
environment changes, the organism must be able to adjust itself according to
such changes. That is it must be able to adapt to the environment, perhaps by
creating a thermal-resistant wall around itself. This ability is known as
adaptation. Finally, the organism has the ability to replicate itself, this may
be like a backup plan, or to create better forms of itself that can survive far
longer than the parent organism. This ability is otherwise known as
reproduction.
Reproduction
is perhaps the most unique and advanced behavior of life, as it shows that life
also has another purpose, to ensure the continued existence of life itself. It
does not only concern itself with the survival of one organism, but also the
very existence of life. An organism is vulnerable, and if only one of it
exists, it can die and life disappears. As a result, organisms reproduce to
ensure that even if they die, that is terminate in existence and all their
chemical processes stop, life keeps going. All of these behaviors of life
serves one purpose, the continued existence of life for as long as possible,
either as one organism or as generations that change over years.
A
brief history of life may give us further understanding of how life evolves for
the very purpose of survival. Although, it would be very important to
understand the meaning of evolution. Evolution, is the process of the
development of lifeforms over a series of generations, a common example being
the early giraffe growing taller necks until its current form. Evolution
happens by individual adaptation and also natural selection. Organisms over
time will adapt to their environment and add new features that would enable
them to survive much better. Organisms that have traits that enable them to
survive longer would also have more resources to replicate, and thus the
offspring will also have similar traits, and they too would survive longer. On
the contrary, an organism that fails to do so may still replicate, but their
offspring would not be as good as the other organism’s offsprings. An example
is again, the early giraffe. The giraffe originally had short necks, like
horses, but trees grew taller and giraffes now have to extend their necks to be
able to still get food. Giraffes that managed to adapt to the taller trees,
that is having taller necks means they have more food to keep them alive, while
giraffes that didn’t adapt have less food. As a result, the short necked
giraffes simply have less resources to reproduce offspring, and may replicate
less or worse, not at all. Thus their traits are not contributed to the second
generation, and over time that trait disappears, forever.
Life
most likely started out as self replicating molecules known as RNA. These
molecules assemble themselves in such a way that it can replicate itself and
produce copies of itself. From here, evolution already begins. RNA molecules
are not identical, they have variations,
variations that can produce more copies would mean there would be more
molecules of that particular variation or arrangement. Meanwhile RNA that
produce less copies means there would be more copies of the RNA that can
produce more copies than the RNA that produce less copies. Eventually, the RNA
with less copies simply gets less and less due to the environment. The first
cell came about when a self replicating RNA entered a fatty lipid vesicle that
spontaneously formed in water. Furthermore, all of this is happening in water,
as it is only possible in water. In water, molecules and particles are
suspended in the liquid, as if they are floating, and thus it is possible for
molecules to combine, attach and form RNA. While in air, that would be
impossible, as most of the molecules responsible for life are denser than air,
and thus could not float on air. And obviously it can not happen within solid
land as the molecules can not move easily.in a solid. Thus the only logical
place for it to happen is for in a liquid, in this case water.
The
cell became the global unit of life, and this too is a result of simple
evolution. A membrane surrounding the RNA would increase the durability of the
RNA by a lot, and that means it can replicate more. Cells simply have more
protection that a floating RNA, and thus a membrane is incorporated into
further iterations. At one point, cells become more complicated, and RNA which
is a single strand, becomes DNA which is a double strand that loops itself into
a double helix. Most lifeforms would have DNA as DNA is much more durable and
effective. It is important to understand that RNA also contains information,
and can implement that information. Perhaps the process in which cells become
truely alive is when the DNA evolves to make self replication much more
effective. Of course, to increase the rate of self replication and make
reproduction more effective requires energy. As a result, the cell would
eventually be able to consume particles and metabolize it that is to process it
into useable energy. To do so effectively, it would need to be able to detect
food and also to move around. The cell may also grow and develop to make the
processes even more effective.
Now
that there are unicellular organisms, the purpose of the cell is not just
replicate, but also the survival of the cell. The reason for this is simple, if
a DNA is to lose its cell and become stranded, it can easily be absorbed by
other organism and be destroyed. DNA becomes incredibly vulnerable outside of
the cell, as a result of other cells. However, the condition is much worse, if
a cell is large enough, it can and it will absorb other cells, digesting it and
thus destroying it. This still happens with amoeba, paramecium, stentor, and
other small similarly sized unicellular organisms. As a result, the purpose of
the cell is now not to just preserve the DNA, but the entire system, as if the
system is to wither, then the survival of the DNA becomes jeopardized as well.
This means competition will be very fierce, and the cell will need to perhaps,
move somewhere else, and be able to detect danger and run from other cells. In
the event the cell moves to a new environment, it will need to be able to adapt
to the environment. It must be able to perform the necessary adjustments to
ensure survival in such new environment. Of course, while being in a new
environment, isolated from the old battlegrounds, being in a cell is just so
much safer than being stranded alone for the DNA. And it is much more efficient
to do so. And thus, preserving the entire system and not just the central
control system, that is the information within the system becomes the norm for
life.
While
the war between cells keeps going, it is actually very inefficient for all of
the individual organisms. This competition exhausts all cells, as each has to
prevent getting consumed while still obtaining food. Competition limits food,
and this is when true evolution kicks in. Cells that are more suited to obtain
food before other cells will produce more offspring, and thus only the best and
most efficient cells remain. But even then, as long as the numbers are high,
the same condition would persist no matter how efficient the cell is. At this
point organisms will find newer ways to break off the stalemate. Some may grow
incredibly large to feast on the smaller cells. Something like an amoeba
consuming paramecium or stentors. The rest, must adapt to this situation in a
different manner. Growing larger would simply make competition even worse.
There has to be a way, and soon, a new monstrosity, a new creature emerges,
multicellular life.
Multicellular
organisms may emerge as a direct response to the increased competition. Perhaps
several cells came together and found a way to cooperate, and merge into a
united organism. The purpose of this new organism is still the same, replicate
and maintain survival. But unicellular organisms would not be extinct, they
would just be a minor force. Of course it does not mean that their numbers are
small, their numbers are still large, however their influence is not as much
and their complexity falls behind the multicellular life. Meanwhile,
multicellular life became more complex and more advanced as time pasts. They
become larger and larger and dominate the marine ecosystem. They grew more
efficient bodies and methods, until the most common form now, the fish.
Eventually, it is decreed that life must spread from its watery homes, unto the
lands above.
The
proliferation of life may be evidence of a new purpose of life, that is to
maintain the existence of life itself, not just one species, but all forms of
life. With a new habitat, if a danger that can wipe all marine life came, life
would not be extinct. Furthermore, organisms may have evolved to be land based
because of the simple reason of adaptation. As time passes, life diversifies
into what it is, with intricate adaptations specific to each environment. Some
organisms would be immotile, that are the plants, while others would be motile.
Although plants are less complex than animals, they are still important for
animals. Animals however, are still the dominant force of the planet. Once,
there was a period of millions of years where dinosaurs, large, strong, and physically
impressive animals roamed the earth. Their reign was long, but the rampant
extinction events of the earth wiped them out 65 million years ago.
It
became apparent that mere adaptation of the physical body is insufficient for
true survival, and the problem of competition has arisen again, but now with
larger forms. Of course dinosaurs also travelled in packs, but they are still
competing with other packs for resources. As a result, there is need for an
organism that may not have a body that can withstand all environmental natures,
but one that has the ability to make necessary adjustments to the environment,
that is an advanced ability of intelligence. Moreover, the ability of
cooperation is also needed, and soon from early rodents, evolves this being
with four extended limbs, covered with hair. Over time, the being evolves into
a hairless version, and stands upright on two limbs. The being, is a very
intelligent creature, it forms packs, societies, and creates intricate tools
from the environment. With time the creature becomes more complex, smarter,
they have a sense of self, of consciousness, and in a short span of several
hundred thousand years, they dominate this earth, with large structures
dominating the lands. This creature, is no other than the Homo sapiens, the human being.
The
human excells in the evolutionary progress, because they are extremely
intelligent, and this intelligence enables them to instead of modifying their
bodies, they modify the environment to suit their bodies. This may not be the
ultimate form of the human being though, as there are theories of transporting
the human mind unto a robotic body that can withstand environmental and
physical threats better than biological matter can. However intelligent and
amazing the human is, it is a unique form of life. That is the human creates
many concepts and ideas, that seem to be on the contrary to the purpose of
life. Ideas such as of God, love, equality, justice, but more importantly of
art. These concepts are unique to humans, and illogical in a sense. But it may
be proof, that life is more than just matter.
