Secrets of Your Cells: Discovering Your Body's Inner Intelligence (35 page)

Plate 8
Adrenaline

Plate 9
Caffeine, bitter taste

Plate 10
The molecule ATP—adenosine triphosphate

Plate 11
Creatine Phosphate—stores energy in our cells

Chapter 9

Connection–Cell-ebrate

One cannot but be in awe when [one] contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries to merely comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.

— ALBERT EINSTEIN

T
hroughout this book we have used Nobel Prize–winning biochemist Christian de Duve’s term
cytonaut
—sailor of the cell—to denote those of us who are willing explorers of the cell.
¹
We have ventured inside the cell and discovered some of its biochemical mysteries. We also veered away from the microscope to gain a wider view of life, investigating the larger lessons our cells hold for us. I hope it has been an exhilarating adventure for you. Here we’ll revisit some of our significant cellular explorations, to remember and “cell-ebrate” the marvels contained within this small, sacred vessel.

Interconnection

The cell, our oldest living ancestor, is the common ancestor for
all
life. Besides sharing the same DNA coding system with all other living creatures and plants, we all use the same elemental chemicals of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus as the basis for life. Our dynamic biochemical processes are also similar, getting their start in the tiniest and most ancient microorganisms.

I often have wondered: if we acknowledge this simple fact of shared “ingredients” and activities and accept it as the reality in which we all exist, will it help us recognize and respect our interconnectedness and the sanctity of all life? That has always been one of my goals for this book—to remind us of our connection with all others who share this planet. We are joined together by sharing the same elusive quantum physics, molecular DNA, and the essence of cellular life.

All living things require clean air, food, and water. Beautiful rain forests, all the other tree “people” in the world, and our growing farms and gardens generate the life-giving oxygen we breathe, while we exhale carbon dioxide, which plants transform into food—this is the ultimate recycling environment. What is one species’ waste product (oxygen from plants, carbon dioxide from animals) is essential for the life of other species. It seems to me that this is a divinely designed partnership.

Unfortunately, many of us see no connection to people in remote areas of the planet, to distant forests or animals living in the tundra—or even to our next-door neighbors. We watch in horror as catastrophes unfold around the globe: the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the threat of nuclear meltdown, the devastation wrought by tornados in the Midwest, the unspeakable suffering resulting from Hurricane Katrina, the appalling tragedy of starvation in Somalia. No matter how distant these events may be from us geographically, our cells and energetic fields are affected. Our very atoms travel through time and space, and it is said that we each may contain atoms that once spun in the bodies of Jesus and Buddha. It can come as no surprise that
in the aftermath of the Japanese disaster, radioactive molecules traveled from Sendai, Japan, to New York City. We share the same air, water, world. Everything is connected, even if we can’t see or feel the bond.

If what you have learned in this book helps support your life and nurture your cellular caretakers, will it also help you take better care of other creatures and their cells? What life-affirming contributions can we each make to the world we inhabit together? Will we begin to view our own cells and each other with greater reverence?

Original Blessing: Molecular Marriages

Our chemical universe that began about 4 billion years ago provides the foundation for all life. Amazing molecules carry information and the means for survival. The people who espouse intelligent design have at least one thing right—our molecules and cells carry intelligence. Intelligence is information. Molecular evolution is part of our heritage.

If molecules had never developed and found one another, there would be no life: perhaps God is a biochemist. Consider an idea we encountered early on—“molecular embrace.” Dr. de Duve speaks of molecular complementarity, the embrace that is the very essence of how our molecules and biology work. Biological recognition is based on an essential, dynamic relationship between molecules. To engage in a cellular response, molecules must closely fit each other so that they can mold and bend to the other. Their bonding is an intimate exchange, one that is necessary for most molecular interactions of our cells. A truly cooperative endeavor is embedded into us at a microcosmic level so that life can thrive.

This universal phenomenon of molecular embrace is the essence of how we work at a chemical level—how our enzymes manage the chemical reactions in our cells. It’s critical to immune recognition, information transfer, hormonal responses, drug reactions, and of course, DNA partnerships. Such a basic design in nature indicates how essential embrace and touch are to life—not only for cells and
molecules but for us and for other creatures with whom we share the planet. Human infants will not survive without touch—something we learned the hard way decades ago. In hospital nurseries where orphans weren’t held and nurtured, babies died. Only when people caring for them discovered that babies thrived with physical contact did we begin to learn how essential that simple gesture is to life. When mother cats, dogs, deer, and sheep lick their newborn babies, they stimulate the development of their babies’ nervous systems. We need touch, all the way down to our atoms and molecules. As above (our whole selves), so below (our cellular lives): this ancient hermetic idea is revealed by all that we are.

Embrace Life

In
chapter 1
we learned that our molecules embrace and merge with one another to create a sacred container for life’s intricate machinations and the divine spark. They share or give away their electrons, another facet of cooperation at the molecular level.

We embrace our lovers, mothers, children, and friends. We embrace ideas that fit our values. We embrace the air that surrounds us so we can enjoy life from the inside out. When we embrace nature as an essential part of our existence, we transform who and what we are. We recognize that nature can be a sanctuary for us.

Only after I moved to a rural setting and joined a community garden did I begin to deeply experience nature. When we planted seeds in the earth just after dawn, I found the sacred in the natural world, the macrocosmic counterpart to the mysteries I had found under the microscope. The magical unfoldment of the life inside a tiny seed reawakened me to the awe I experienced while watching living cells. Recently I mentored school garden programs and was struck by how easily children can embrace nature when they learn to grow even a tiny bit of their food—one small carrot can do the job. There is wonder in such activity. We can honor our cells by reconnecting to nature. When
we teach children where their food comes from, we help them grow their own roots and connections. With school gardens and in other innovative ways, we can demonstrate how the natural world is part of, not separate from, all of us.

REFLECTION

What do you embrace fully?

What or who embraces you or your ideas?

Who can you embrace right now?

EXPLORATION

Embrace

Take a few minutes to tune in to your inner cytonaut and be aware that, working together, your trillions of cells hold and cherish you in an embrace.

Notice in your mind’s eye that molecules and cells cooperate in this loving touch. They do not compete with one another to hold more of you; they share in creating the container of life for your spirit, self, and consciousness. Take a moment or two to experience gratitude for all they do.