crazykilla

I am pleased with all the posts on this thread as I like to have people's opinions too. Would I be right then in saying something like the magnetic attraction between two pieces of iron is basically a simplified version of biology? An invisible attraction between things in the universe? It does seem weird that we're just bags of chemicals, since we see everything from a single point of view as if we're in control and even the fact that the bags of chemicals are surprised to hear the idea of being bags of chemicals is even more amazing. But I am not having trouble comprehending this, I am just trying to express my opinions of how hard it must be. Thank you to everyone who has helped be get a better understanding in this subject.

Thank you, that explains a lot.

This is very interesting. I find it amazing how such lifeless things can create something like a human through chemical reactions. How it responds to light and sends signals to the brain which then decides how to react to them. How emotions such as surprise can cause reflexes such as blinking. But then again there must be some sort of intelligence? All these atoms have come together for some sort of reason. It can't just be chemical reactions that lead these atoms to form and perform actions. It can't just be chemical reactions that forces all the species in nature to reproduce, to make more copies of itself without a clear purpose? To seek out food and water, to grow towards the light, to continue being what we call 'alive'. To want to care for a baby that might not even be it's own (Saw that in cross-species altruism thread). To pass down some important memories (such as avoid this predator or go to the other side of the south pole just to reproduce with all the other penguins without any given purpose) through DNA into their offspring. If all of these are just chemical reactions then there must be no such thing as life? It's hard to believe as I sit here with the ability to see my monitor, to move my fingers across my keyboard and to smell all the aromas around me and respond to them, think about them that all of these are just the combined work of everything within my body including all the bacteria who are also just a combination of more chemical reactions. Are we then any different to the futuristic androids we hope to create in the near future? And then when something kills us such as a disease all these chemical reactions just end? We are dead, yet all those chemicals are still there, all those atoms and structures but they do not continue to react in any way. One more thing that I don't understand is how the brain stores a consciousness/memory. Is it again just chemicals in different areas/states in the brain that allow us to remember things?

My science teacher once told me something along the lines of if you are not connected to the ground you can safely touch electrical wires because the voltage throughout is the same. I've seen videos on how large electrical wires are maintained somewhere near some mountains, the maintenance guy uses a special rod that connects the rod to the wire with electricity and after a few seconds it is safe for him to climb on to the wires without being shocked. I've also seen an experiment on youtube where a bunch of people grab an electric fence and stand on insulators such as wooden tables and plastic containers and buckets. What exactly is required to shock a person? Does the electricity not pass through the person if he's insulated? Also what does the person need to be insulated from? Would digging out a chunk of grass and dirt and coating the bottom in rubber and standing on the top of the grass result with you still being insulated?

Hello, I'm a mainly self-educated scientist at the age of 16. I have a biological question, what caused all those atoms such as hydrogen, carbon and oxygen to combine together and form an organism? How did these atoms communicate with each other to evolve, to create muscles and store fat when all they ever needed is to sit around as oceans or gases? How did these inanimate elements that we see daily come together to form life? I find it difficult to understand why something with nothing remotely resembling life can come together with other elements and see the need to eat, reproduce or anything. Does this basically mean that every atom has a mind of its own? Is all that we see inanimate not so inanimate after all? This is hard to ask and to answer I'm sure.