Third rock from the sun

Nicolas Copernicus, for fear of being excommunicated by the Church, kept secret his discovery that not Earth but the sun stood in the center of our planetary system (it only became known after he died).  I believe he stiffened somewhat more in his grave recently.  Because science now knows: there is not one Earth, there are billions of earths in space.  With this estimate (that is just what it is: an extrapolated estimate based on a sample count, the geographical scope of her research for extraterrestrial (is this still a valid word?) life expanded with a factor followed by several zeroes.

Nothing is so beneficial for the human mind as the broadening of perspective, the placing of the self in the whole. How small we are, in that whole.  We àre also that whole.  We’re just too busy quarreling on this tiny piece of rock to notice.

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Flatworms incarnated

“Experts at Nottingham University have been examining how two species of flatworms are able to regenerate themselves again and again – raising hopes that scientists could find ways of alleviating the effects of ageing in human cells. […]During the study 20,000 new and fully-formed flatworms were created from just one original worm by splitting it into tiny pieces.”  [Why flatworms may hold the secret to immortality]

I’m not going to raise the ethical question about lab animals again this time (see January entry).  I just wonder what 20,000 forced new incarnations of flatworms add to the world other than quantitatively proving the repeatability of this scientific experiment.  A related question is whether resuscitation is needed ‘in all cases and at all cost’ (cf. the Dutch royal prince Johan Friso recently ‘brought back’ to a life of coma after 25 minutes of cardiac arrest and almost an hour of RCR), or life support for that matter (cf. Ariel Sharon, since 2006).   

I ask myself what we would truly be contributing to the world by regenerating ourselves ad infinitum.  I would not consider myself, nor most other individuals, all that essential to our planet’s well-being.  And most of us have hard times trying to live happily while it lasts. Just forget about the ‘ever after’ bit; it is supposed to be a timeless state, and hence not part of this universe.

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