To live is to die a little every day

In our society, death is still ignored as much as possible.  Dying is for others, and should be 'avoided as much as possible'.  But this just makes the confrontation extra hard.

The difference between an incurably ill person and a healthy one is not that the one is going to die, but that he can no longer ignore death.  We all know somewhere in the back of our mind that we will die some day. But life gets a whole different meaning when we are suddenly forced to integrate the dying into it.

This may just be the biggest lesson life has to teach us.  And the hardest...
Are you ready?

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How certain is reality?

It appears we still have a lot to learn in chemistry.  Mendeleev's table is up for review: an atom is no longer necessarily a core with a fixed number of electrons; that number can vary.  Variable atoms, among which hydrogen and oxygen - two key elements for life on earth. (For the curious, check this link) 

Also recently, a gene was discovered that develops characteristics according to the sex of the body it is in.  In other words: one gene, different characteristics based on context.  This reminds me of quantum physics, where the results of the observation become dependent on the context of the experiment.

Conclusion: nothing is as certain as we would expect.  The question is: doesn't this go straight to the heart of western philosophy, which thinks in terms of 'beings'? Shall we finally be forced to relinquish thinking in boxes and pigeon holes?

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