Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ’em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.
And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on;
While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on.
(Augustus De Morgan: A Budget of Paradoxes)
There's so much we don't know, so much we don't understand. Sometimes we are like elephants, trying to understand the mosquitos that bite us. Other times we are the mosquitos, trying to make sense of the enormity of the elephant upon which we have landed.
Think about this: scientists have just discovered the largest structured formation in the universe. A group of quasars; primitive, pulsating centers of potential galaxies that stretch across a space of 3 billion light years. In other words, light emitted from one end of this structure would take three billion years traveling at light speed to reach the opposite end of the structure. It boggles the mind.
At the other end of the size spectrum lies the bacteriophages. A bacteriophage is a virus that attacks bacterial cell. Imagine how small a virus is compared to a single bacteria. You could fit 4000 or so of these phages inside of the width of a human hair. They're incredibly small! So cover your nose and mouth when you cough or sneeze. You're ejecting tens of millions of these suckers each time you do.
The phage virus has a protein capsule head, a tail, and some legs that act like a tripod, allowing it to land/stand on the cell surface. It's a classic, instantly recognizable "bio shape" that sort of looks like a lunar (moon) lander:
Take a look at that sucker! It's a marvel of evolution! A sub-microscopic structure that has evolved for one purpose and one purpose only: to ensure its own survival. To reproduce. The head/capsule (capsid) is like a jiffy-pop popcorn pan. Except there's no popcorn inside of the phage capsid - what's inside? You got it - phage DNA. It's code of viral life. Or semi-life. Or, whatever a virus is, scientists aren't really sure. The phage lands on the bacteria, drills its way through the bacterial cell wall, and then injects its own DNA into the bacterial cell, forcing the bacteria to make copies - millions and millions of copies - of the phage DNA and new viruses.
These viral offspring fill the cell to the bursting point, at which time the cell releases millions of new viruses. It's quite similar to what's going on in many people who are combatting the influenza virus - "the flu" - right now. ("The Flu" - so named because Renaissance Italians believed that those who got sick fell under the influenza (influence) of unhealthy astrological alignments.)
The evolutionary precision of this design is magnificent, and has been known for decades. But something was recently discovered that blew me away. The virus's legs, those tripod-like things, are not merely a way for the virus to stand and attach to the bacteria. Recent electron micrographs reveal that they remain tucked away - folded up into the phage until they're needed. And then, the virus unfolds its "legs" and they do something amazing: they walk. They walk the virus along the surface of the cell looking for a good point of attachment. A suitable entry point for its own DNA.
Scientists have taken a series of electron microphotographs of this process and have recreated the series of events that occurs. Now, watch this CGI recreation of the process below. There's a blue protein capsule, and the yellow legs. And that DNA that has to be injected to infect the cell. The phrase "dynamic conformation" is used. It just means that the legs are capable of changing their shape.
How does this occur? Why does this occur? How does the virus - which obviously doesn't have a brain, or even the neural net of a starfish - "know" how to do this? Is the virus alive? And if the virus is alive, does this mechanism demonstrate a primitive kind of intelligence? Don't laugh - searching for, and locating the proper point of entry seems pretty intelligent to me. Luke Skywalkeer had a heck of a time trying to do it.
What are the lives of animals and plants ultimately about? Survival. Reproduction. Passing on their genetic material to the next generation. Some viruses, the phages, attach to bacterial cells in order to do this. And 90% of all of the cells in the human body, 90% of human mass, is composed of bacteria - not blood, heart, lung, skin etc. So what does that make us? Who, or what are we? Are we merely the containers, the environment, required by a more plentiful yet more primitive form of life? Who is really in charge? Is it humans, with their arsenal of antibiotics and vaccinations? Or is it this unbelievably small form of life that lives within us, benefitting us, yet also holding the potential to become lethal and harm us?
Are we the elephants? Or are we the mosquitos, gazing out at the vastness of the universe of which we are but a small part?
What are your thoughts on this?
11 comments:
I believe that the phages have grown and changed over time so that they are even more successful when injecting their DNA. Maybe the reason that scientists have just recently discovered that the phages can move to find the weaker areas of the bacteria, because the phages only just adapted to doing this recently. The phages have always survived by living off the bacterium, but they could have just recently adapted so that they can reproduce even more successfully by finding weak spots in their target.
On a separate note, I think we are neither the elephant or the mosquito in this situation. Because the bacterium live within us and depend on us-but we depend on them as well-its more of an equal situation here, rather than one being the main organism and the other being a smaller or bigger part of it.
I believe that we are both the elephants and the mosquitos. Pondering the basic formations of life, a constant pattern of smaller things making up bigger things, and bigger things composed of smaller things, is always present. We are constantly finding new lengths to which this pattern continues. Like you mentioned, we are learning of enormous quasars, and another recent study has proved that even electrons have smaller parts. We as humans are part of an ecosystem, a world, and our planet is part of a solar system which is part of a galaxy, etc.... I can't help but feel this pattern could continue infinitely in either direction. We are powerless in both respects, made of smaller creatures we depend on, yet to small to have real significance. But no matter what, we are part of a larger component.
The question is, are we bacteria in the universe's cells? Probably not exactly like that. It would be cool to imagine, but obviously some things do not seem to be conscious. But what about the virus, for example? Clearly, this virus in some way needs to process sensory information if it is capable of 'finding' a proper spot to inject its DNA. Perhaps it does 'think' but in some way, it must be able to react to its surroundings. We can never know for sure whether the small, and even the large, is capable of thought.
I think that it depends on which perspective you are looking at the situation from. We are clearly infinitesimally small parts of the galaxy, and even smaller parts of the universe. Yet to the bacteria and viruses, we are the universe. Even if they are semi-intelligent or conscious, which seems possible based on their behavior, individual humans are all that individual bacteria will ever know.
It kind of reminds me of part of one of the Men in Black movies, where Will Smith’s character is insulting the creatures that live inside a locker at the train station. That locker is their entire world, and they do not realize how much bigger the universe is. However, we later are shown that our world is actually inside of a locker at a train station for huge aliens, and we do not realize how much bigger the universe is. Like in the movie, I think that it is possible to be both the elephants and the mosquitoes, and which one we are only matters at each particular moment.
Unlike the bacteria, we might not actually be living on some greater organism, but we are parts of a much larger system and we can change our universe even less than our bacteria can change us. The biggest question that I have is, if we are the “bacteria” or “mosquitoes” to the rest of the universe, what does that make our bacteria? If we are the bacteria’s universe, what does that make our universe?
JUST TO BE FAIR,
在浩瀚无垠的宇宙中，除了我们已经知道的银河系、河外星系外，还有很多我们不知道的物质存在着，许许多多我们想象不到的物质。银河系只是其中一个小小的星系，而在银河系中的小小太阳系之中，有一颗星球叫地球，而人类则生长在这上面。达尔文的《进化论》中阐述了一个关于生命体最基本的道理，“物竞天择，适者生存”。而人类，侥幸成为了千万年生物进化和演变之中的“适者”，正因为此，人类自诩为宇宙中的高等生物。但是毕竟地球的46亿年历史相对于宇宙的150亿年历史来说还是短了些，那我们为什么没有理由认为在宇宙间存在发展时间超过地球的其他星体以及更高等生物的存在呢？
然而在即使在地球上，人类也不得不敬畏一些哪怕仅仅是低端的生物体。噬菌体就是个很好的例子。噬菌体能够很轻易地攻击细胞并破坏其DNA，而人体的百分之九十以上都是由细胞组成的。总是噬菌体这样的单细胞低等生物也并不是没有摧毁人体细胞组成的能力。
万事万物都有生长、兴盛、消亡、消失的一天，太阳有，地球有，人类也会有，太阳在大约60亿年后就会消失，在它能量达到极限的时候，它就会爆炸形成一个巨大的火球，吞噬着在它周围的一切星体，包括地球，我们生长生活的地球，但是，60亿年，对于我们来说，它很漫长，因为我们无法活到那么久。但是对于整个宇宙来说可能便只是惊鸿一瞥。 的确，当人类看待那些低等单细胞生物时就好像大象；而当我们面对宇宙时却会发觉自己比蚊子还要渺小。但是人类必须清楚的认识到这一点，意识到即使作为地球上最高级的生物，我们也有可能被低级很多的噬菌体攻击，而相对于宇宙而言，人类又是微小得甚至能被忽略。因此，敬畏自然，才是人类最基本的必修课。
According to Google, Pandaboy007 (!) wrote:
In the vast expanse of the universe, in addition to what we already know of the Milky Way, extragalactic, there is a lot we do not know the substance exists, many imagine the substances. The Milky Way is just one small galaxies, while the little solar system in the galaxy, a planet called Earth, human growth in it. Darwin's "theory of evolution" explains a truth about the most basic of life forms, "natural selection, survival of the fittest". Human, fluke become tens of millions of years of biological evolution and the evolving "fittest" Because of this, the human self-proclaimed higher organisms in the universe. But after all the 4.6 billion-year history of the Earth relative to the universe 15 billion years of history, or short some, then why do we have no reason to believe that development longer than Earth's other stars and higher organisms exist in the universe?
However, even on Earth, human beings also have the fear of some organisms even if only low-end. Phage is a good example. Phage can easily attack the cell and the destruction of their DNA, and more than 90 percent of the human body is composed of cells. Always such a low single-celled biological phage are not without the ability to destroy human cells.
Everything has grown, flourished, die, disappear the day, the sun, Earth, mankind will have the sun will disappear after about 60 million years, when it reached the limits of energy, it will explode to form a huge fireball engulfed it around all the stars, including Earth, our growth and life of Earth, however, 60 million years, for us, it is very long, because we can not live so long. But for the entire universe may be, it is only a glimpse. Indeed, when human look at those low single-celled organisms like elephants; And when we are faced with the universe Shique will find themselves even tiny mosquito. But humanity must clearly recognize it, realize that even as the planet's most advanced biological, we also may be lower phage attack, the universe, the human is small even to be ignored. Therefore, the reverence for nature, is the most basic human compulsory course.
OK, seriously, here is my actual respond.
In the vast universe, in addition to what human beings have already explored such as Milky Way galaxy and external galaxy, there are still a lot of things that we do not know or even cannot imagine. The Milky Way is actually a small galaxy compared to the universe; in the solar system, there is a small planet called earth, and we, human beings, live on it. Quoting from Charles Darwin, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, but the one most responsive to change.” and we people, fortunately had become the “most responsive” ones among millions of species on the earth. It is because of this that the humans credit themselves as the higher animal in the universe. After all, however, the earth’s 4.6 billion years history is a fairly short time compared with to the 15 billion year history of the universe, therefore, there is no reason that we should not believe that there might exist some more advanced species on other planets in the universe that have longer time of development.
However, even on the earth, humans also have to fear and respect even some lower organisms. Phage is a good example. They can easily attack cells and destroy the DNA, but more than ninety percent of the human body is made up of cells. So it is fair to say that the lower species such as phage also has the ability of destroying cells of human bodies, which are considered the “most advanced” creatures on the earth.
The truth is, everything will experience growth, prosperity, death, and disappearing – the sun, the earth, so as human beings. Scientists predicted that the sun would come to the end in about 6 billion years. As sun reaches the limit of its energy, it will explode and form an enormous fireball, swallowing all the stars around it, including the earth. Of course 6 billion years are too many for us because we can't live to be that long; but for the whole universe, it is only a short time period. Indeed, human beings feel to be elephants when looking at those tiny lower species but they definitely feel to be as small as mosquitos when facing the universe, or even smaller. In fact, human beings must realize that even as the earth summit creatures, we might still be “attacked” by lower species such as phage; but from the prospective of the universe, human beings are so small that can be neglected. Therefore, clear recognition of nature and fear and respect it should be the most basic courses for human beings.
I don't like the idea that we could be just flesh and bone, providing as just a simple host to something we can't even see with the naked eye, especially a something that is less primitive than we are. It makes me feel like the Spongebob episode where Plankton takes over Spongebob's brain and controls him without him knowing. I think it’s an interesting point you make about being charge. When we are sick, the virus we contract is in a sense “in charge”, but with the aid of antibiotics for the most part we can fend off viruses. Our higher intelligence gives us the upper hand to have a sense of control.
I believe that we are more like the elephants trying to understand the mosquitoes that bite us. I know that whenever I think about the universe and it’s enormity, it is incredibly overwhelming and it’s just too difficult to comprehend. I think as humans we are more interested in things that we can grasp, something that is within ‘measurement’. By looking at the mosquitoes and bacteria of the world, we can legitimately observe and try to understand how something so small can do something so extraordinary. Despite how cool the universe is, it’s crazy to think about something that is 3 billion miles wide, there is nothing to compare that with.
-dom
I dont think we are the elephant or the mosquito because in the larger view of the whole universe we are no bigger really than cells themselves. In the view of the phage virus we are like the entire universe, and we in turn are like the phage virus compared to say the sun or that group or quasars that is 3 billion light years across. What happens to humans will not affect the universe in any way. Though the phage virus can destroy us even though it is so small we cannot completely whip them out. So who is more powerful? Humans? Or the minuscule robot like virus that lives within us?
I find it interesting that this virus looks so much like a lunar lander or some alien like robot from a wacky movie. It is so robotic looking that I wonder if it is alive. Its behavior suggests it does but still it does not seem like anything we think of as "living," but who is to say what is "living" or alive? Native Americans believed that everything was "alive." How does this virus react or know where the right place is to inject its DNA into the bacteria? Even though this virus does not have a brain it is able to react to its surroundings. This isn't thought but what is it? We react to our surroundings and we think and we are here to survive. So does that make us much different than the phage virus?
Bacteriophage are not living organisms, which is why I find it incredible that they can essentially “walk” on cell membranes until they find a perfect place to puncture. It reminded me much of a mosquito, searching for the most supple piece of arm to harmlessly stab into. Except these viruses are not harmless, and they have caused many deaths recently from the flu outbreak alone. It is difficult to think that something so incredibly small and non-living could cause such a widespread influenza, with very real effects on people’s lives.
I realized in reading this post about bacteriophage that I thought of the worry that is always nagging me in the back of my head. The concern that someday, our world (my world) will be taken over by robots, and non-living organisms that can perform the same tasks that I can. I have the intention of attending nursing school next year, which will place me in a field of much needed positions in the medical world. But what if, some day in the middle of the century, machines can perform every task that nurses can? I know that this may seem like a farfetched connection to bacteriophage, but the fact that this virus is non-living yet still has the intelligence to search out a perfect landing on a cell, is beyond my imagination (until now). Even now, we have many computer operated things that can perform the tasks that used to need humans to run. It remains an incredible feat that objects without any kind of brain or process of imagination can have such intelligence.
In conclusion, I must say that we are but mosquitoes, looking out upon the “vastness” of our world. In a way, I see the elephant as the world, because we are constantly trying to understand and discover things about us. We are all feeding on goods of the land, and bacteriophages feed on us. We do what we can to survive, just like viruses do what they can, sometimes taking us down in the process.
Firstly, to address the question on whether we are mosquitos or elephants, I think we are mosquitos. I feel this way because, like the quote at the beginning of the blog suggests, there are always things that are bigger than what you are. I also could not help but think that humans could be seen as the mosquitos that are slowly drawing out all of the elephants blood or delivering a disease like malaria, or in the case of the earth and humans gathering all of its natural resources and polluting the air.
Secondly, In response to the question about whether or not we are just vessels for bacteria and who is really in charge, I think that humans have to believe that while we may provide the environment for other life we are the ones who are in charge. If we didn't feel this way and just decided that these life forms were in charge there wouldn't be any reason to develop antibiotics or vaccinations . This argument also reminds me a lot of one that we had in psychology on whether or not humans had free will or if it was all biological.
Thirdly, In regards to the Star Wars reference, I think Skywalker is spelt with only one “e”.
-Sanders
I’ve always thought the Idea of an invasion was interesting. To me I see the phage virus as an underdog. Someone with little knowledge would see this virus as being simple and primitive and would then be surprised at its capability. The phage virus lands on a cell and its legs appear in a tripod shape, able to support itself. Most impressively the phage virus is capable of walking on the cell surface until it detects a weak section in the cell wall. It then drills its tail into the cell and injects its DNA, infecting the cell. The cell becomes filled with the phage virus until it becomes so bloated that it bursts and then millions of new viruses are released.
It seems almost impossible that something as simple as the phage virus, which scientists haven’t even decided on whether or not it is alive, could be so successful and destructive. It is extraordinary to me that something without a brain can have the ability to, walk recognize there is a weakness, and then capitalize on that weakness by drilling there. The only explanation I can think of is that it is just automatic. Humans are built to have automatic functions that we don’t have to think about, such as our heart beating, breathing and blinking, although we do have a brain. I imagine that the nature of the phage virus is so automatic and such an evolutionary success that there is no need for it to be more complex or to have a brain to perform its simple but impressive task.
Until it was mentioned in class I was also unaware that 90% of human mass is composed of bacteria. The first thought that comes to mind when I hear the word bacteria is not pleasant. I imagine something evil attacking my body. However, with more thought I realize that my original assumption is completely wrong. I realize that bacteria is completely necessary, but I do not yet know why certain bacterias are necessary and what they specifically do. So to answer the question “who or what are we”? I guess I would have to say that we are the same as every other organism. Our bodies are affected by bacteria and we are vulnerable to the viruses in the world. We are, as said before by Mr. Engler, “slabs of meat on a skeleton”. And most importantly humans, like other organisms, have the goal of passing on our genes with reproduction. It is survival of the fittest and humans seem to be determined to be the most capable.
Claire W
P.S. I do worry now that when I take anti bacterial medicine I may be killing myself.
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