Friday, October 23, 2009

Construct and Destruct - Time bomb is ticking!

I was a science student. While other schools had options to choose between biology and mathematics, in my school it was a compulsion to take both. To think of the fact that I had to take biology used to give me nightmares. I never wanted to pursue medicine and I never wanted to be associated with it even remotely. Now, a decade later, I am hooked to TV serials related to medical drama (read House MD, Grey’s Anatomy etc) so much that I start thinking that I can be a doctor who can solve the puzzles of human body, one of the most complex systems ever created, at will! How much I think that I missed out in going ahead to learn the most versatile (???) and intricate systems ever made.

There are two facets of the human systems which fascinates me: The construct part and the destruct part.

Construct part: Huge volumes of cells and molecules interacting with each other to keep the multiple systems, working within the framework human body, in order. Complexity was probably the result of the way we started as different structures and functions and finally were designed to the kind of structure we have today.. It’s quite intriguing to think about what and how we are made of, probably every other system in the world will just fall as a subset to it. Just think about it, it’s a little berserk and freaky - I am writing this because I am thinking, typing, expressing something - all because I have a brain. It controls by thought process, it lets me write, feel, express. Imagine what makes the brain work and how it sends signals to other parts of the body to make them work in turn,is another mind boggling subject. I may not be the best guy to explain about the operations of human body (basics of which everyone is aware of), but I hope you are getting my point here.

Destruct part:
Some recent incidents which I would like to point out:

1.32 year old male (my roommate’s colleague) faints in his office and before he was taken to the hospital he passed away because of cardiac arrest!
2.43 year old hale and healthy male (my dad's very good friend) was suffering from high fever continuously for few days. He was tested positive for malaria. After few days I heard he passed away due to multiple organ failure!!

May be we are probably more complex than we need to be and highly inefficient. Many molecular processes involve indirect signaling and unnecessary cascades, we have vestigial bones and organs, our energy is mostly wasted as heat, etc. One small break in the link can destroy the system. A little niggle here and there can cause a catastrophic damage to the entire system. Sure, medical science has evolved to an extent that it can delay the inevitable but definitely not to make humans immortal. Eventually the system is bound to break, the lifetime of which is very much finite. It is like a time bomb and has to explode one day.

Well, whatever I have written is a no brainer, but the fact that I am writing this using my brain which is ordering the other requisite parts to perform what needs to be done to write this post is what which baffles me, puzzles me and probably keeps me going!! Think about it and pay a little attention and I am sure you all will find this quite interesting (?), insane, crazy – you can have your own adjective!

8 comments:

Abinav Kumar said...

What's up! Bomb ... why so medical?

Manoi said...

These medical drama series are having an effect on my brain :D

Abinav Kumar said...

aah. how good are they? as in .. apart from their ability of creating medical tension with grave looking faces and some good background scores? are they medically correct most times? are they as good as our own CID ...?? :P

Manoi said...

House MD is awesome.. Well, reserve my comments about the medical correctness. But in terms of wit, it ranks up the order. Hugh Laurie is just awesome.. You should watch it just for the wit and conversation part..

Anush said...

totally agree with the initial part of ur post .. human body is indeed one of the most complex systems !

But whatever is there is there for a reason ...dont get so negative about it ... things do go wrong in any system , however medical science has progressed significantly and as u said it can help to a large extent.

Making people immortal aint such a good idea , just like birth , death is also important event of nature .. delaying it is fine to an extent , but putting it off can trigger some other catastrophic reaction defeating the very purpose

Manoi said...

I dont think there was anything negative about what I wrote! Construct and destruct - both sides right?

My closing comment pretty much sums what I wanted to say..

Mrithyunjay said...

Nice post ...

What about extrapolating it ... and brining in a Sci-Fi related discussion ... Any takers ???

some1unowell said...

humans r the scum of this planet..i hope they self destruct before they destruct this planet..no more comments..period.