Biology Week 4: The Pattern and Complexity of Life


Narcissism often impairs our ability to see the human experience holistically. Collin Barras brought this to light when sharing several fossil discoveries and the possibility that our earliest ancestors may have originated in Europe and not Africa.  Despite potential excitement for such findings, I couldn't help but focus on the rigidity of Western Science. Nathen Young of UCSF points out that so much of these published findings reference the hominin evolution only and fail to properly portray the significance of the apes.  Is the human desire to read a scientific article contingent upon its direct impact on our own lives?  I am saddened by this as I learn more about animal intelligence and cognition.  Birds remember 10,000 locations for hidden seeds and dolphins send visual images via sounds waves! Animals are living and thriving in incredible ways and should be honored as justly as humans.

We appear desperate in the west for quick answers and recognition, sometimes at the expense of acuracy.  New bones continue to emerge and threaten previous anthropological theories.  Premature attachment to scientific discoveries without thorough investigation may cloud our awareness of any contradictory data.  We see what we want to see!  This impatience is surely correlated with western societal pressures to "make something of yourself." The inability could have a serious impact on livelihood. Even more scary are the findings, as reported my Stephen Buranyi and Hannah Devlin, of "incorrect and/or falsified data" in medical trials, some of who's results were regarded as medical truths for over a decade.  The notion that our medical treatments are based upon the intention of preserving individual careers goals is in a word, scary.

**Food or thought for those of us moving into the healthcare field and inspiration to never stop asking the question "what is the intention behind the work that I do?

In a similar vain, NASA was not so keen on James Lovelock's thoughts about life on Mars.  As the federal agency continues to persue signs of life on this Carbon dioxide packed planet, Lovelock lacks confidence of any success there.  From his perspective, life cannot exist in a state of chemical equilibrium.  Mars, with its lack of significant oxygen or methane, has no potential for chemical reactions to occur.  Gaia (Earth), on the other hand, breathes life with its  abundance of both reactive elements.  Though strange to think of, life thrives in a state of instability and change. This makes sense from an eastern stance.  In Buddhism, life is defined by a continual birth-death-rebirth dance. In taoism, our existence is based on our relationship to our surroundings. Which ever way you slice it, we need movement and interaction to survive as living things.

Though I am often weary about the intentions of western science, it is helpful to hear from folks like Lovelock, Barras and Young as they point out our complexity and connectivity. Life is not possible without a relationship to other members of our own species.  It is also impossible without a relationship with plants, animals and the environments that they inhabit.  I appreciate the opportunities to hone in an awareness of these harmonies as they exist on our "unstable" planet.




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