The Cellular Level: Our Bodies, Our Cells Flashcards
How many cells?
Humans have trillions; blue whales have quadrillions
What is complementarity?
A doubling of reality eg light as both a wave and a particle. Niels Bohr saw complementarity as a fundamental property of existence at every level. A body is both a singular entity and arises from the nimble interactions of cells
What is the microbiome?
The community of microorganisms (mostly bacteria but also fungi and viruses) that cover the surface of one’s skin and line all the spaces within one’s body that are in continuity with the outside. These non-human organisms represent more than half of the living cells of one’s body. Integral to our health and survival.
How do we share microbiomes?
The microorganisms travel from us every time we touch something. The process of bacterial exchange is so pronounced that the microbiomes of people (and pets) who live together become one giant shared biome.
Where did your cells come from?
At the cellular level, each cell traces back to a cell in an earlier version of you. Further back from newborn to fetus to embryo to fertilised egg. And before that egg and sperm, part of your mother’s and father’s bodies. All the way back to Homo erectus, Homo habilis, to earlier mammals, amphibians, to simple multicellular organisms and then to single cell organisms and to a probable common single cell ancestor. The teeming hordes of living things on Earth, not only in space but also time, are all one massive, single organism. All cells come from prior cells.
What are atoms made from?
Self-organising subatomic particles like protons, neutrons and electrons
What is the Copenhagen interpretation (named after Niels Bohr’s home city and illustrated by Schrödinger’s cat)? And Max Planck quote
If the outcome of the double slit experiment depends on conscious observation, then by extension, since all everyday objects and processes are ultimately made up of quantum-scale events, it seems to imply there is no actual solidity whatsoever to material existence. Max Planck: “I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness.”
How are quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity incompatible?
General relativity considers space-time to be smooth. However, Max Planck’s calculations showed there must be minimal units of time and space. This indicates space-time is granular so not smooth. Applying the maths of either to the other yields nonsensical outcomes.
