Imagine that you place a 1-inch-wide black cube in an empty field. Suddenly the cube makes copies of itself - two, four, eight, 16. The proliferating cubes begin to form structures - enclosures, arches, walls, tubes. Some of the tubes turn into wires, PVC pipes, structural steel, wooden studs. Sheets of cubes become wallboard and wood paneling, carpet and plate-glass windows. The wires begin connecting themselves into a network of immense complexity. Eventually, a 100-story skyscraper stands in the field.

That’s basically the process a fertilized cell undergoes beginning with the moment of conception. How did that cube know how to make a skyscraper? How does a cell know how to make a human (or any other mammal)? Biologists used to think that the cellular proteins somehow carried the instructions. But now proteins look more like pieces of brick and stone - useless without a building plan and a mason. The instructions for how to build an organism must be written in a cell’s DNA but no one has figured out exactly how to read them. Despite this, we know a set of genes called the hox genes lay out the basic body plan for all animals. These genes are the ones that tell the embryo where to put the arms and when to stop the spinal column. All animals share these basic genes and a slight variation can cause an extra eye or remove a wing. Scientists are still working on how exactly DNA turns a single cell into a human being, but as they continue to study the genome answers continue to appear.

Steve Olson, author of Mapping Human History

Return to Big Questions: http://www.wired.com/42

ask the writer... JMK

contributed by Guest User on Jan 24 3:47am

A fertilized egg is a human!

See, "My mom's dick".

contributed by Guest User on Jan 24 1:53pm

Season with dash of salt and pinch of pepper (add a dash of Cayenne pepper to taste).

Cleanse palate with Roma tomato bite, then slide into anus.

contributed by Guest User on Jan 24 2:25pm

My theory (completely untested and probably mentioned countless places) is there's another dimension. A fifth that is what the ancients are really referring too when they speak of the living spirit - (exptrapolate if you'd like, all the way from Atma to Brahama). It is this fifth dimension that is connected to the other four through points in space. These 'points' collect all this 'building material' through an as-of-yet unknown method, and and in the process, gain different levels of consciousness as a 'side effect'. Though this consciousness may well be the main purpose, instead of a side effect. Either way, that's life in a nutshell. None of which I can prove. Yet.
-Chad Patel
1515

contributed by Guest User on Jan 24 7:00pm

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This analogy would be more accurate if the skyscraper was capable of "functioning" as a skyscraper as it was being built. In other words, while most buildings must be completely (well, almost completely) finished before they become fully functional, the human body becomes functional to a large degree while still less than 1/100 of it's final size. A living being can continue to grow and develop and, in fact, does most of it's growth while already functioning as a fully fledged being. This capability is not shared by any building, to my knowledge. Anyone who's ever had renovations done to their home knows how impossible it is to simply add to existing wiring, plumbing and heating, etc. without disrupting the function of the existing building. This capability makes a living organism far more complex that even the building analogy suggests.

contributed by Guest User on Feb 15 2:53pm