Sam Kneller's Blog, page 52
January 15, 2017
Experiential Knowledge or Religious Beliefs, which shall it be?
Knowledge is experiential. Religion is based on beliefs. Beliefs are imagination, theory, potentiality. Belief is not knowledge until it is experienced…
Knowledge is experiential. Religion is based on beliefs. Is there a winner? Or are there other vital questions hidden by such a debate?
Many religious people express their beliefs as truth and that they “know it to be true”. This is purely brainwashing as we are not born with religious beliefs; they are “passed” on from others. That’s not to get into the fear and controlling aspects of many belief systems. Thus I would say peace and positive growth only occurs when we pass along experiential knowledge. It is what it is.
I would say that it is quite clear on which side of the fence the author of this comment stands. What tends to happen, and has happened here, is ‘taking sides’ and pitting one side (experiential knowledge) against the other (religious beliefs).
It is the vocation of The Explanation to not get involved in ‘taking sides’ or, to put it another way, debates. This is not out of a desire to not participate or to not answer questions and objections. It is, however, a way of staying out of the tit-for-tat, argument-against-argument, boxing matches that tend to punctuate and entertain such important subjects.
Yes, both experiential knowledge and religious beliefs are very important subjects. They characterize vast segments of the world’s population and are both front and centre in the conflict of believers and non-believers.
The Explanation will answer questions about both these phenomena … in due time.
A wise man once said, ‘That which I see not … teach thou me’.
The point being that before we can get into experiential knowledge and religious beliefs we have to understand the big picture. That might sound like a cop-out but when you go into a forest to ‘thin it out’ — as do well-trained foresters, they must understand the overall forest and how the trees function one in relation to the other. There are group dynamics and you can’t just go in and ‘cut every third tree down’ for example. You have to understand the ‘context’ … all the context … before a forester can prune back or uproot a tree.
There is a definite context in which both experiential knowledge and religious beliefs operate. The role of The Explanation is to explain what that context is. First we’ve got to understand the big picture, the forest, then we can see the role of each tree. Likewise with experiential knowledge and religious beliefs.
What is the ‘bigger picture’?
Here are the bigger questions, the ones people don’t ask, the one’s The Explanation feels necessitate addressing:
Why is it that man can have experiential knowledge?
Why is it that man can have religious beliefs?
Why is it that man has an imagination to
Think up experiences to search out knowledge?
Develop beliefs in unprovable experiences?
Why is it that mankind, no matter their race or whereabouts in the world, has the ability to imagine?
Why can mankind debate such questions as experiential knowledge and religious beliefs?
Why, in the end, is their such confusion over such questions?
Why can’t mankind find answers to such existential questions?
Will mankind ever come to obtain such answers?
If so, how will mankind reach these answers?
How will mankind, if it can, know when it’s reached satisfactory answers?
Where will mankind find answers to such questions?
The Explanation dares to ask the ‘forest questions’ … those that give the context. To be direct, such questions cannot be answered in a ‘comment’ just like a forest doesn’t ‘appear’ overnight. It takes time and development.
Questions pitting Knowledge against Beliefs or Science against Religion … if that is even the way to express such debates … cannot be broached unless and until the overall context is established.
The Explanation is laying out the groundwork in two books: Inventory of the Universe (which you can purchase at Amazon, download for free or read online) and Audit of the Universe which is still being finalized. Then we begin to reveal the forest and the trees in the third book, Origin of the Universe.
To ‘speed things up’ we will be starting an online video course at the beginning of 2017 that will get into the ‘forest questions’ above. In fact the first question we will deal with is the ‘origin of all the confusion’ that exists not only regarding ‘knowledge vs. beliefs’ but the general confusion that surrounds most if not all the major questions we have about ‘Life’ today.
Stay tuned for further information about these exciting new developments of The Explanation. Sign up to receive your free invitation to the new video course … you will be positively surprised by what we’ll be offering you.
Was “Experiential Knowledge or Religious Beliefs, which shall it be?” worthwhile for you?
If so, please help me out:
– Add your comments below, join in the conversation.
– Click now and like The Explanation with Sam Kneller on Facebook
– Click and signup for future blog post notifications (you get a Free book as well)
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Much appreciated
The Explanation with Sam Kneller
The post Experiential Knowledge or Religious Beliefs, which shall it be? appeared first on The Explanation with Sam Kneller.
Experiencial Knowledge or Religious Beliefs, which shall it be?
Knowledge is experiential. Religion is based on beliefs. Beliefs are imagination, theory, potentiality. Belief is not knowledge until it is experienced…
Knowledge is experiential. Religion is based on beliefs. Is there a winner? Or our their other vital questions hidden by such a debate?
Many religious people express their beliefs as truth and that they “know it to be true”. This is purely brainwashing as we are not born with religious beliefs; they are “passed” on from others. That’s not to get into the fear and controlling aspects of many belief systems. Thus I would say peace and positive growth only occurs when we pass along experiential knowledge. It is what it is.
I would say that it is quite clear on which side of the fence the author of this comment stands. What tends to happen, and has happened here, is ‘taking sides’ and pitting one side (experiential knowledge) against the other (religious beliefs).
It is the vocation of The Explanation to not get involved in ‘taking sides’ or, to put it another way, debates. This is not out of a desire to not participate or to not answer questions and objections. It is, however, a way of staying out of the tit-for-tat, argument-against-argument, boxing matches that tend to punctuate and entertain such important subjects.
Yes, both experiential knowledge and religious beliefs are very important subjects. They characterize vast segments of the world’s population and are both front and centre in the conflict of believers and non-believers.
The Explanation will answer questions about both these phenomena … in due time.
A wise man once said, ‘That which I see not … teach thou me’.
The point being that before we can get into experiential knowledge and religious beliefs we have to understand the big picture. That might sound like a cop-out but when you go into a forest to ‘thin it out’ — as do well trained foresters, they must understand the overall forest and how the trees function one in relation to the other. There are group dynamics and you can’t just go in and ‘cut every third tree down’ for example. You have to understand the ‘context’ … all the context … before a forester can prune back or uproot a tree.
There is a definite context in which both experiential knowledge and religious beliefs operate. The role of The Explanation is to explain what that context is. First we’ve got to understand the big picture, the forest, then we can see the role of each tree. Likewise with experiential knowledge and religious beliefs.
What is the ‘bigger picture’?
Here are the bigger questions, the ones people don’t ask, the one’s The Explanation feels necessitate addressing:
Why is it that man can have experiential knowledge?
Why is it that man can have religious beliefs?
Why is it that man has an imagination to
Think up experiences to search out knowledge?
Develop beliefs in unprovable experiences?
Why is it that mankind, no matter their race or whereabouts in the world, has the ability to imagine?
Why can mankind debate such questions as experiential knowledge and religious beliefs?
Why, in the end, is their such confusion over such questions?
Why can’t mankind find answers to such existential questions?
Will mankind ever come to obtain such answers?
If so, how will mankind reach these answers?
How will mankind, if it can, know when it’s reached satisfactory answers?
Where will mankind find answers to such questions?
The Explanation dares to ask the ‘forest questions’ … those that give the context. To be direct, such questions cannot be answered in a ‘comment’ just like a forest doesn’t ‘appear’ overnight. It takes time and development.
Questions pitting Knowledge against Beliefs or Science against Religion … if that is even the way to express such debates … cannot be broached unless and until the overall context is established.
The Explanation is laying out the groundwork in two books: Inventory of the Universe (which you can purchase at Amazon, download for free or read online) and Audit of the Universe which is still being finalized. Then we begin to reveal the forest and the trees in the third book, Origin of the Universe.
To ‘speed things up’ we will be starting an online video course at the beginning of 2017 that will get into the ‘forest questions’ above. In fact the first question we will deal with is the ‘origin of all the confusion’ that exists not only regarding ‘knowledge vs. beliefs’ but the general confusion that surrounds most if not all the major questions we have about ‘Life’ today.
Stay tuned for further information about these exciting new developments of The Explanation. Sign up to receive your free invitation to the new video course … you will be positively surprised by what we’ll be offering you.
Was “Experiencial Knowledge or Religious Beliefs, which shall it be?” worthwhile for you?
If so, please help me out:
– Add your comments below, join in the conversation.
– Click now and like The Explanation with Sam Kneller on Facebook
– Click and signup for future blog post notifications (you get a Free book as well)
– Share and tell your friends using the Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and email icons above.
Much appreciated
The Explanation with Sam Kneller
The post Experiencial Knowledge or Religious Beliefs, which shall it be? appeared first on The Explanation with Sam Kneller.
January 10, 2017
Neurons – Communication Traffic Junctions of the Nervous System
Your 100 billion neurons, with their axon extensions measure 160,000 km, communicate millions of signals simultaneously and continually at 540km/hr to make your body function correctly.
We’re going to observe my adult brain with its neurons more globally because, as we perceive on the unique scanner image, the brain truly functions as one unit.
Galacti shows us a more in-depth fullbody scan that shows the brain’s diverse, varied, and specialized composite elements working as part of the central nervous system. On the scan, we can see that my brain is connected to the spine as well as the architecture of the body’s control room: the central nervous system.
(chapter 9.3.1)
The brain imaging scan shows us 500 billion glia cells. The glia provide the structure that keeps the neurons connected. It also directs nutrients, water, and chemicals as well as evacuating all the waste to keep the neurons running smoothly. This is a miniature cycle that is repeated innumerable times.
My neurons may look like traffic junctions, and that is an apt comparison. The 100 billion neurons in my brain, which can come in over ten thousand “flavors” or varieties, process and transmit information throughout my body. At any given moment during this tour, my brain function depends on neurons of all shapes, sizes, and types.
These include sensory neurons that handle eyesight, taste, and smell; interneurons, which communicate to other neurons; and motor neurons, which initiate my muscles to, say, move and crawl into the MRI chamber. Each of the ten thousand varieties of neurons has specialized characteristics in performing its role.
Galacti points out that most neurons on the scan share basic features, such as the tree-branch-like structures called dendrites. The dendrites function as the “inbox” of the neuron, while the axon, which is the transmitter, functions on “send.”
Measuring up to one meter in length, the axon ends in wiry extensions called axon terminals, which send information to dendrites of other neurons, close by and further along the nervous system. In a young adult’s brain, this grid of axons, laid out end to end, measures 160,000 kilometers or four times the circumference of the Earth.
This is what we mean by observing the brain globally! The workings of this grid become even more complex as we study them. Like Internet servers, the axons and dendrites never physically come in contact.
Instead, they are separated by a synapse, a space measuring one ten-millionth of a millimeter. For reference, a single hair on my head is about one fifth of a millimeter thick. We ponder how miniscule a synaptic cleft—the gap between neurons—is and how important it is in brain function.
Tiny but powerful, the synapses send two types of signals that the dendrite receptors capture and process. Chemical synapses emit over a hundred identifiable types of neurotransmitters, including chemical messengers such as acetylcholine, endorphins (the feel-good hormone generated by, for example, exercise), dopamine, and amino acids such as glutamate.
Electrical synapses send electrical signals. Both kinds of information help the body and brain function in complementary roles. We think we have a general picture, especially since the scan is right in front of our eyes. In fact, synapses are involved in the very act of looking at and comprehending the scan.
However, the big picture that we’re seeing contains many pieces. For example, there are many variations: axonless, dendriteless neurons, and two axons or two dendrites that interact over a synapse.
We pause to appreciate the scale of this grid of neurons in the nervous system. Each of the 100 billion neuron cells in the grid possesses zero to 100,000 dendrite receptors as well as the transmitter axons at the other end.
A display highlights the longest axon, which measures one meter from my spine to my big toe, with multiple axon terminals at the extremity near that big toe.
The scan image attempts to show the intricate chemical and electric “conversations” taking place as each neuron connects to between 5,000 and 200,000 other neurons and exchanges electrical and chemical messages via the synapses.
Picture the conversations as telegrams containing brief marching orders. They travel around this labyrinth at speeds of 540 kilometers per hour, sending information to make my body and brain work day in and day out. This process is unnoticed, invisible, and mind-boggling.
This post is an excerpt from chapter 9.3.1 of Inventory of the Universe.
Since you read all the way to here… you liked it. Please use the Social Network links to share The Explanation with your friends.
The Explanation Blog Bonus
This first video is short but interesting because it admits something simple but profound … we have not yet identified the connection between neuronal activity and mental activity. Science thinks it is getting closer but can it crack the code?
This 2nd video reveals the intricacy and complexity of 100 billion neurons, each connected to up to 50.000 other neurons to communicate. It says that this vast system together is at the origin of our imaginative ability. We need to think how this ‘imagination’ all came together.
Dig Deeper into The Explanation
Join the mailing list for updates and future events. No obligations, total privacy, unsubscribe if you want.
Your gift is a link to download a free pdf of The Explanation and a free pdf of Answering the Big Questions in Life
Join The Explanation Newsletter to receive information and updates. Total privacy and you can unsubscribe at any time... but you won't want to!
TheExplanation.com
Email address:
Learn how to play Take Inventory – The Interconnectivity Game (free) that nourishes your neurons and is taking the world by storm. Play a round with family and friends. View the above videos and use the tags at the end of this blog for dozens of ideas to play Take Inventory – The Game.
See the index of the book Inventory of the Universe to find a specific chapter and read it online.
Purchase Inentory of vthe Universe at Amazon
Purchase the Kindle version – Barnes@Nobles (Paperback and Nook)
Google Play – Kobo – iBooks app on Apple devices.
Was “Neurons – Communication Traffic Junctions of the Nervous System” worthwhile for you?
If so, please help me out:
– Add your comments below, join in the conversation.
– Click now and like The Explanation with Sam Kneller on Facebook
– Click and signup for future blog post notifications (you get a Free book as well)
– Share and tell your friends using the Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and email icons above.
Much appreciated
The Explanation with Sam Kneller
The post Neurons – Communication Traffic Junctions of the Nervous System appeared first on The Explanation with Sam Kneller.
January 3, 2017
The Brain Amazingly Small, Amazingly Powerful – Why?
The Brain … you don’t even think about it … but it is the Control Centre that allows you to function in a Human Manner. Physically it fits into your hand but Bodily it powers your Being.
Imagine.
Our next destination is a surprise: It’s the brain, figuratively and literally.
We are inside a medical imaging lab, still within the same complex as before. However, as we look around, decode the sensory input, and analyze the location, we are using our brains.
(chapter 9.1-2)
Powerful processes are occurring within this organ, which only weighs 1.4 kilograms (the same as a small hand weight). These processes result in our ability to identify the machines: a CAT scanning machine, an MRI machine, and an EEG diagnostic machine. We can also identify Galacti’s current costume as a lab coat.
More importantly, we can contemplate the question that is on our minds: What is our purpose in this lab? What are we here to learn? We can remember all of the rich experiences we have had thus far.
We recall observing the moment of the Big Bang, exploring the planets, appreciating how our own Earth is tailor-made for our existence, observing the water cycle, meeting earthworms, exploring the growth and harvesting of wheat, and learning about animals’ remarkable abilities.
We can review our experiences and try to imagine future ones as we predict what we will do next and where Galacti will lead us on this tour.
All of this mental activity takes place in our brains, which form the most complex facet of the entire universe. We will explore our brains using the tools we have available, such as the imaging systems and something more. We’ll look at the figures and then examine our control center.
The control center is called the cerebral cortex, and it is the means by which we can reach answers to our main questions: Are humans equipped to perceive, think and reason? Even more importantly, if the answer is yes, then why are humans equipped to reason?
The Cerebral Cortex and the Geography of the Brain
As the technician, Galacti runs the CAT scan machine in order to help us explore the cerebral cortex, one part of an adult brain.
I volunteer to be the test subject and enter the machine to have my brain scanned so that our fellow travelers can observe it.
While Galacti does this, he provides information and statistics. There are about 100 billion neuron cells inside the brain. Compare this with the estimated 400 billion total number of
stars in the Milky Way.
These neuron cells will make up the picture of my brain scan. This figure encompasses the entire brain as a whole, but when we talk about the brain, we usually divide it into distinct parts
like our specialized CAT scan does. As the machine creates an image of my brain, it displays the cortex.
The cortex is the outer layer, which resembles a mass of unusually thick linguini. This “linguini” contains thirty billion neurons, electrical and chemical transmitters that connect via several thousands of strands forming a network of one trillion synaptic connections.
My brain activity is registering on the scan as I contemplate the number of possible neuronal circuits that brain signals can follow. Like packets of information on the internet, the number of pathways is practically limitless. This dwarfs the integrated circuits in the world’s most advanced computers.
The other portions of the brain are equally complex, yet when we think of or talk about the brain, we don’t focus on these huge numbers and the complexities they imply.
When we think about the brain, we don’t focus on the huge numbers involved and the complexities…
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Usually, when we are presented with a description of the brain, we hear about the practical, problem-solving left hemisphere and the emotional, artsy right hemisphere. If we break down the brain structure further than the logical, how-to hemisphere and the emotional, big-picture-oriented hemisphere, we discover four lobes.
The frontal lobe, particularly the prefrontal cortex, shapes our personality and higher cognitive functions as well as our movements. It also brings forth all the social variety we see in this room alone. The parietal lobe is the sense center, which integrates information from all five senses.
A very simplistic structural view of the brain referring to the four lobe regions and the two-sided brain.
The occipital lobe allows us to recognize that the machines are white, cream-colored, or gray, and that the opening to the MRI machine is a circle. Lastly, the temporal lobe allows us to distinguish my face from another traveler’s or recognize the scenes of our hometowns being shown to us from the library of the universe.
However, these lobes take their names from the skull bones encasing them, and not from their structure or role! This proves how little we understand the brain. Humans have dissected the brain into compartments for scientific, medical, and anatomical purposes.
This practice may make labeling easier, but it gives a simplistic impression that we easily comprehend the way the brain works as a whole. In fact, for all of our progress in understanding the brain, it is still a great mystery.
Can the structure of the brain truly explain why we do what we do, how we think, why we love what we love, and why we fear what we fear? We stop to ponder this question.
Can the structure of the brain explain why we do what we do, how we think, why we love what we…
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This post is an excerpt from chapter 9.1-2 of Inventory of the Universe.
Since you read all the way to here… you liked it. Please use the Social Network links to share The Explanation with your friends.
The Explanation Blog Bonus
WARNING: This first video about the brain contains graphic images of a human brain from a recent autopsy. Background noise is unrelated to this brain or the deceased. In this teaching video, Suzanne Stensaas, Ph.D., Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah School of Medicine, demonstrates the properties and anatomy of an unfixed brain.
There are two purposes for this video: 1) to stress the vulnerability of the brain to highlight the importance of wearing helmets, seat belts, and taking care of this very precious tissue, and 2) to use as a teaching aid for students who only have access to fixed tissue, models, and pictures.
I would add that it also becomes visibly clear that the ‘four lobes’ mentioned above are not really apparent.
This is a longer documentary about the brain a study into its central role in everything we do.
Dig Deeper into The Explanation
Join the mailing list for updates and future events. No obligations, total privacy, unsubscribe if you want.
Your gift is a link to download a free pdf of The Explanation and a free pdf of Answering the Big Questions in Life
Join The Explanation Newsletter to receive information and updates. Total privacy and you can unsubscribe at any time... but you won't want to!
TheExplanation.com
Email address:
Learn how to play Take Inventory – The Interconnectivity Game (free) that nourishes your neurons and is taking the world by storm. Play a round with family and friends. View the above videos and use the tags at the end of this blog for dozens of ideas to play Take Inventory – The Game.
See the index of the book Inventory of the Universe to find a specific chapter and read it online.
Purchase Inentory of vthe Universe at Amazon
Purchase the Kindle version – Barnes@Nobles (Paperback and Nook)
Google Play – Kobo – iBooks app on Apple devices.
Was “The Brain Amazingly Small, Amazingly Powerful – Why?” worthwhile for you?
If so, please help me out:
– Add your comments below, join in the conversation.
– Click now and like The Explanation with Sam Kneller on Facebook
– Click and signup for future blog post notifications (you get a Free book as well)
– Share and tell your friends using the Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and email icons above.
Much appreciated
The Explanation with Sam Kneller
The post The Brain Amazingly Small, Amazingly Powerful – Why? appeared first on The Explanation with Sam Kneller.
December 27, 2016
Human Reproductive System – Opposite Sexes but So Complementary
The human reproductive system, male organs and female organs. So very different, inside and out, but so complementary.
The reproductive system is our focus as doctors give an ultrasound to a pregnant mother-to-be, as well as giving a mammogram to another lady. This encourages us to think about the differences between women and men.
(chapter 8.8)
Why do women have breasts?
Why are women uniquely equipped to have children, making eggs that are fertilized with sperm cells as learned about in the laboratory?
Why do men have more hemoglobin, the material red blood cells are made of, than women?
Why do women have four to five million red blood cells, while men have up to six million red blood cells?
The last question about the reproductive system has an answer: the testosterone hormone is responsible for red blood cell production. Since men have more testosterone than women (young adult males have a testosterone/estrogen ratio of fifty to one), men naturally produce more red blood cells.
Why do women have four to five million red blood cells, while men have up to six million red…
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We ponder that women’s ovaries also produce testosterone, but at lower levels than in men. Young girls in puberty have a higher level of the hormone estrogen, which is responsible for the development of breasts and fuller hips, than adult and menopausal women do.
Estrogen levels also rise during pregnancy. The doctors show us lab results conducted on both the woman having a mammogram and an ultrasound from the pregnant woman.
We see the fatty breast tissues presented in gray on the mammogram display, with the dense tissue displayed as white areas. The dense tissues, which develop because of hormones
(especially estrogen), contain milk ducts.
As women approach menopause and advance past childbearing age, their estrogen levels drop and fatty tissue levels increase. Progesterone, another female hormone, regulates estrogen levels and increases breast health.
We ponder the unique ingredients of life regarding the reproductive system, such as the hormones we have seen in the lab, which account for the differences between men and women and also play a role in childbirth. Look at the ultrasound.
Hormones account for the differences between men and women and also play a role in childbirth.…
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We can’t see the hip bones or the cervix, but the doctors inform the woman having the ultasound that the hormones in her body are softening the bones in her pelvis to make them looser and more stretchable during birth, while the cervix, a part of the uterus that remains closed to protect the baby until birth, is becoming more flexible due to other hormones.
During the early stages of labor, as part of the reproductive system, the baby’s head pushes against the cervix and opens it. During active labor, the cervix fully dilates and the baby moves, changing position with its flexible bones several times. We hear the doctors discussing all of this and placing simulations on the screens, showing us the uterus contracting powerfully to push the baby out.
We see the baby’s large head, and we wonder how it moves safely through the birth canal and out of the body. Remember the five bones in an infant’s skull and the two gaps in the skull called fontanelles?
These gaps allow the baby’s head to move agilely through the birth canal and vagina as the baby is born, while the loosening of the woman’s pelvic bones makes the pelvis more elastic and allows the baby more freedom to move out of the uterus and birth canal.
The men and women think about the reproductive system and birth process that occurs every minute, every day, 360,000 times per day (or the population of Thessaloniki, Greece) all over the world. That’s four newborns every second worldwide.
We think about the DNA seen in the last chapter, as well as the sperm and egg cells that unite and the 120 million sperm that men’s testes produce in a day. This production is governed by hormones in the brain.
This leads us to another interesting difference between men and women: while men produce spermatozoa, women are born with one to two million follicles contained in their ovaries.
By the time girls reach puberty, they lose 50 to 75 percent of their follicles, which number 400,000 in a teenage girl.
Of the 1,000 follicles lost during a woman’s monthly menstrual period, only one matures into an egg. We wonder why a woman has so few eggs, and why only 0.1 percent of all the follicles in a mature woman’s body develop into an egg whereas men produce millions of sperm.
Why does a woman have so few eggs, and why only 0.1 percent of all the follicles in a mature…
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Another difference is the body fat that provides women with curves and full hips; we wonder where these differences come from. Is it merely in the hormones? Is it in the DNA, or as doctors suggest, the brain?
The doctors have done their work and the car accident victim is recovering. Our Inventory of our bodies is finished, except for one notable omission. We haven’t examined the brain, even though we have been expanding our minds throughout our tour.
Our bodies work well. They work invisibly and unceasingly, each system interconnected, allowing us to communicate knowledge and perform the full range of human abilities with our muscles and hands.
However, as worthy as our bodies are of contemplation, we think we need to examine the brain in order to have the complete picture of what makes us human.
With a healthy sense of curiosity, we prepare for our next adventure, with all of the strength of our hands, voices, and bodies at our command to assist us.
This post is an excerpt from chapter 8.8 of Inventory of the Universe.
Since you read all the way to here… you liked it. Please use the
Social Network links to share The Explanation with your friends.
The Explanation Blog Bonus:
Well, no bonus this week. I searched for a decent video that didn’t just give information about the male and female genitalia … there are plenty of those … I want to show their complementarity: not only how they ‘fit together’ but work together both for pleasure and reproduction. One will not work without the other. They are not ‘independent’. It’s a twosome or nothing will happen naturally!
If you do find something that reveals such complementarity please let me know and I’ll be glad to add it here.
Dig Deeper into The Explanation
Join the mailing list for updates and future events. No obligations, total privacy, unsubscribe if you want.
Your gift is a link to download a free pdf of The Explanation and a free pdf of Answering the Big Questions in Life
Join The Explanation Newsletter to receive information and updates. Total privacy and you can unsubscribe at any time... but you won't want to!
TheExplanation.com
Email address:
Learn how to play Take Inventory – The Interconnectivity Game (free) that nourishes your neurons and is taking the world by storm. Play a round with family and friends. View the above videos and use the tags at the end of this blog for dozens of ideas to play Take Inventory – The Game.
See the index of the book Inventory of the Universe to find a specific chapter and read it online .
Purchase Inentory of vthe Universe at Amazon
Purchase the Kindle version – Barnes@Nobles (Paperback and Nook)
Google Play – Kobo – iBooks app on Apple devices.
Was “Human Reproductive System – Opposite Sexes but So Complementary” worthwhile for you?
If so, please help me out:
– Add your comments below, join in the conversation.
– Click now and like The Explanation with Sam Kneller on Facebook
– Click and signup for future blog post notifications (you get a Free book as well)
– Share and tell your friends using the Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and email icons above.
Much appreciated
The Explanation with Sam Kneller
The post Human Reproductive System – Opposite Sexes but So Complementary appeared first on The Explanation with Sam Kneller.
December 20, 2016
Hands and Fingers – to Accomplish what the Mind Conceives
Hands and fingers are able to accomplish whatever the mind conceives. Their dexterity coupled with our talents allow us to paint, write, carve, cook, throw and even turn our emotions into actions.
Think of the nurse’s hands holding a syringe or a suture, some of the tools needed to make a patient well. The muscles in the shoulders are involved in lifting those hands to accomplish whatever task the nurses want to accomplish.
(chapter 8.7)
The deltoids and humerus of the shoulders and upper arms connect with the muscle tissue of the triceps and biceps in the upper arms. These in turn connect with the extensor and adductor muscles in the forearm.
Several specialized tendons connect the forearm muscles with the eight bones that comprise the wrist, as well as the delicate bones of the fingers, the metacarpals (which connect to the knuckles), and the three phalange bones that make up the rest of your fingers and thumbs.
From the shoulder to the hands, all the muscles are engaged as the doctors and nurses use needles and thread or staples to heal patients. In addition, the despite protective surgical gloves.
2,500 nerve endings in our hands allow for sensitivity of touch from hot-cold, smooth-rough,…
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We can see a Galacti-provided scan of a hand moving. The bones, tendons, and muscles work in concert and the nerve endings light up in order to show their presence. We have always taken the motion of hands for granted: we assume that bones and muscles will do their jobs smoothly and without ceasing.
We take the motion of hands for granted: we assume that bones and muscles will do their jobs…
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We observe 3-D images of hands performing various common activities: they paint a wall by using their muscles and phalanges to grasp a brush, throw a ball underhand, carve wood using their fine motor ability, type on a computer (like I do as I write up this journey), work with a hammer and nail, chop in-season vegetables, and stir soup.
Hands touch and feel the patients’ skin. Hands beat drums. Hands grip everything from bananas to spoons to bicycle handles. Hands clap, one of their many expressions. We applaud the doctors. Hands enable us to defend ourselves, and they also communicate.
We watch the American Sign Language sign for the word “hands.” A deaf person moves her hands in a straight line across each other and outward, holding her hands upright with the palms facing her.
We make the “OK” sign back to her. As we experienced at the beginning of this stage of our journey, handwriting is another way we communicate with our hands; it is another way in which we transmit knowledge.
An ancient scribe from Greece appears in our midst. He is about to communicate his own knowledge in his own fashion. His fingers flex as they curl around a hammer in one hand and a chisel in the other. He carves letters of the Greek alphabet to form a word he translates as “gnosis,” or knowledge. Here, hands are being used to “write” in stone.
Galacti makes the ancient Greek scribe vanish. The thirty dedicated muscles of the hand working with its twenty-seven bones make movements at the guidance of the three different nerves.
We anticipate perfectly how much force is needed to hold a tissue or throw a ball, while the muscles stabilize our grip. The flexor muscles, for example, close the fingers to make a fist or to curl around a rope when doing rope-climbing exercises.
In addition, the unique thumb muscles allow the digit to move independently and oppose or parallel the position of the fingers—as in our rope-climbing example—or while working a BlackBerry.
In that case, the fingers cradle the phone while the thumb operates it. Other muscles allow the fingers to spread apart and bend at the first knuckle, a position that allows us to play scales on a piano or type on a computer, as mentioned.
When we stop to think about all the other actions our hands can perform, the catalog is extensive: weaving, welding, gripping the wheel of a car, making and repairing jewelry,
sewing, mining ore, harvesting wheat (as we saw in our exploration of flora), lighting candles, repairing lamps, making lamps, carving chess pieces, creating integrated circuits, pouring chemicals in a beaker, measuring those sensitive chemicals with precision, using a telescope to locate galaxies, using a microscope to examine stomach bacteria . . . the list goes on.
As Galacti notes, we may all be amazed when a chimpanzee uses a tool, or a bird constructs elaborate nests with its beak, or a dog opens a door with its paw, but the sheer range of handiwork humans can produce deserves more consideration than we give it in our daily life.
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Certainly, when it comes to the deliberate work parents do in caring for their children, such as changing diapers, brushing hair, applying bandages, or teaching a child how to garden, the mothers and fathers in our group can appreciate those actions!
As the doctors examine the car accident victim with their healing hands, we notice the feminine body from a scientific perspective, and we pause for a moment to reflect on men’s and women’s anatomy.
This post is an excerpt from chapter 8.7 of Inventory of the Universe.
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Today I have a couple of videos, this first one shows what a robot can accomplish and then what real hands actually do and feel. Hands really are amazing parts of our bodies.
Watch this incredible hand dexterity. Yet, we all have everyday capacities with our hands and don’t realize the variety and extent of what our hands allow us to do.
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December 13, 2016
Muscles on the Inside, Skin, Hair, and Nails on the Outside … Key Body Parts
3d Animated Realistic Human Heart – V2.0
by Doctor Jana
on Sketchfab
Use your mouse to zoom in and move the image around and see various angles of the heart muscle. Admire the synchronization and strength or this central organ for life.
We will briefly discuss skin, hair, nails and muscles. We already know the skin is our protective covering and is large enough to coat our entire body.
(chapter 8.5-6)
One of our group members, a male weighing sixty-eight kilograms (150 pounds), considers this fact: if his skin were stretched out flat, it would cover about 1.8 square meters (slightly larger than the size of a single bed) and would weigh four kilograms (nine pounds), which is the weight of a large baby!
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All this skin contains nerve endings and protects blood vessels, bones, muscles, and organs. We ponder how, thanks to varying amounts of melanin pigmentation, this resilient covering can be dark, olive, pink, brown, or extremely fair.
We think about the abundant oxygen that helps the growth of new cells. It makes up the sixteen trillion skin cells in each of our bodies, as well as replacing the 3.6 kilograms (eight pounds) of skin cells that we lose each year (when put together, they’d be roughly the size of a Thanksgiving turkey). We also think about the hair—blond, brown, black, straight, or frizzy—that covers our skin and scalp.
Hair, whether found on the head, arms, legs, chest, back, hands or feet, is protein. Protein is a kin of skin. Similarly, fingernails and toenails grow out of the deep skin folds in fingers and toes, and protect the skin, nerves and blood vessels underneath. Our fingernails may have some slight function in gripping, but are not made for clawing or climbing!
They are purely protective, and we ponder why humans don’t need claws (or fur, for that matter) like certain mammals do! However, we’re not so much concerned with hair, skin, and nails on their own as we are with that which is “more than skin deep”—the muscles.
Muscles: The Engine
Think of the bones as the body of a car, and the muscles as the engine. Muscles turn the energy inside your cells into motion. Muscle tissue makes up 36 percent of an adult female’s body and 42 percent of an adult male’s.
All the muscles (roughly 650 to 800 in number) in our face, shoulders, back, arms, core/trunk, and legs work every day, every hour, every second—even when we are asleep and there is technically no “work” going on.
When we’re healthy, our skeletal muscles, which attach to our bones and connect joints, work so well that we can conduct our days by raising our arms to stretch in the morning, driving, walking, getting on the train, rocking a child to sleep, and even reading a story.
Facial muscles do the work of presenting a smile to the world and showing emotion. There are forty-three muscles in the face, which are controlled by five branches of the facial nerve. These make the face form the full range of expressions, from happiness to anger. Without the muscles of the tongue, mouth, and larynx, we could not form the word “hello.”
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We do all these things, often with intense thought, sometimes not, but our muscles make it possible for us to do the activities of daily living. When our bodies work well day after day, year after year, we don’t even think about the muscles that move unless we are competing in an athletic event or lifting weights at the gym.
Our thought is even provoked by the muscles involved when a group member lifts a spoonful of cereal to his mouth and balances the bowl in the other hand for demonstration purposes. The simple muscle movements involved in using utensils to eat breakfast go unnoticed during our daily lives (more on this later). As we’ve said, even smiling takes muscles.
Apart from the facial muscles, there are eleven major muscle groups in the body, each group with its own specialization.
Listed from head to toe, they are shoulder muscles, which we flex as we raise our arms; trapezius muscles in the upper back, which we tense as we perform a deadlift; the rest of the back muscles, which are involved in posture and demanding physical work; the chest muscles that protect us as well as looking attractive on men and women; the triceps, which make up two-thirds of the upper arm; the biceps and the forearms, which are all important in arm strength; the quadriceps at the front of the thigh, which aid in walking and moving; the abdominals, which are important for balance and a solid core; the hamstrings on the back of the thighs, which strengthen and stretch to prevent injury; and the calf muscles, which get strengthened through leg exercises.
This is especially true for people in occupations that require them to be on their feet all day. There is also muscle tissue in your hands. All of these muscle groups are what we call skeletal muscles. They work to make body language, running, jumping, and dancing possible. The doctors talk about these.
We also have smooth muscle tissue, which makes up our organs. We realize that this is especially significant when we think about our breath and our lungs. We again think of oxygen
and the importance of its flow to the major organs and the skeletal muscles as well as its circulation throughout the body.
The body functions thanks to the fine-tuned 24/7/365 involuntary workings of the circulatory and respiratory systems
As we see in a diagram of the heart, the cardiac muscle pumps oxygen-rich blood. Consider this fact: The cardiac muscle is found only in the heart, which keeps us alive.
We think about the way that these muscle groups interact. The tongue, mouth, and digestive muscles (smooth tissue) involved in eating provide energy to the cells and lungs (smooth tissue).
This transfers oxygen to the blood, and the cardiac tissue pumps the oxygen so that it can be conducted to the skeletal muscles, thereby enabling us to move. As we move, we expand our lung capacity and strengthen our muscles (including the cardiac muscle).
We also breathe in, which provides more oxygen for our blood.
Consider that these three groups of muscle work in perfect concert, and that all three contract constantly and invisibly thanks to the muscles fibers and signals sent by neurotransmitters in the nervous system, which are made up of amino acids and peptides and are crafted in the cells.
This protein is produced by cells and coded for by DNA filaments to do the work of contracting the muscles. This means that the doctors can reach for an IV bag, for example.
We ponder once again that the ingredients of life we saw in the lab in the previous chapter can make up all of the bones, muscles, and organs we have been introduced to.
We are drawn to the doctors’ hands. As we’ve seen in our tour, these hands perform a wide variety of tasks, including detailed surgery. Indeed, hands are one of the human body’s
most noteworthy features.
This post is an excerpt from chapter 8.5-6 of Inventory of the Universe.
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Today I’m focusing on the heart muscle, most of us don’t think of the heart as such, but it is obviously one of the most important muscles of the body. The cardiac muscle pattern is elegant and complex as the images will attest. Consider their pattern, consider their strength of ‘cords inside cords’ (2nd image below) and finally marvel at the 3D presentation realizing that your heart will pump enough blood to fill about 150 cars everyDAY, with over 3 billion contraction over an 80 year period. That’s some muscle!
The middle layer (of 3 layers) of the heart wall is the myocardium, is the cardiac muscle. The muscle cells swirl and spiral around the chambers of the heart:
>> The outer muscles form a figure 8 pattern around the atria and around the bases of the great vessels
>> The inner muscles form a figure 8 around the two ventricles and proceed toward the apex. This complex swirling pattern allows the heart to pump blood more effectively.
This next image reveals the elegant and simple combination of strands to form the strong bond that contracts and lengthens second after second, minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year … for an entire lifetime … automatically … to maintain our lives and allow us freedom of movement. The human body is a wondrous thing.
Muscle makeup … notice the muscle strands inside a second strand of muscles inside a third strand of muscles. It reminds me of the metal cords used to hold up suspended bridges … except the latter are solely for strength, they don’t contract day in and day out.
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December 6, 2016
Your Skeleton, the Perfect Support for your Body
Your skeleton supports your body no matter what position you take. And some people can take weird positions! But, the skeleton does so much more …
We see an x-ray projection of an entire skeleton. A caption on the x-ray tells us that an adult’s body has 206 bones, while an infant’s has 300 to 350. We ponder why a baby would require more bones than an adult, and we wonder about our bones in general.
(chapter 8.4)
The skeleton is a symbol of Halloween, and is often menacing. There is nothing sinister about our bones, however.
Quite the opposite! Let’s examine a life-size skeleton replica, the sort you’d see in doctors’ offices.
As we wiggle the skull and tickle the ribcage, we notice the strength and hardness of the bone tissue. Bones protect our organs—the ribcage guards our heart and lungs, for example, while the skull provides a “strongbox” for our brain, protecting against bruises. The skull is so tough and hard that it can withstand pressure that would crack your average coconut.
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The sinus cavities in the skull (which are always open to the world) and the movable jaw (or mandible) function so simply: the sinuses provide support for skin and nose cartilage and the mandible allows opening and closing of the mouth. Such basic functions help everything from smelling to breathing to talking to eating to kissing to yawning.
When a child is in the womb, those 300 to 350 bones begin to form and the cartilage hardens into a complete miniature version of an adult skeleton. After birth, as an infant develops into a child and eventually an adult, the infant’s bones—which are soft and flexible as the child is learning to crawl, walk, and run—fuse into the 206 adult bones.
The infant’s skull alone has five separate pieces, with two soft “gaps” called fontanelles. Between the ages of six and eighteen months, the fontanelles disappear as the skull bones fuse together. While talking to the patients, one of the doctors mentions that a child’s bones need strengthening.
Running, jumping, and playing sports stimulate the growth of dense bones in children in many ways, such as by increasing calcium deposits in the bones. We ponder that children are naturally physically active, which helps their bones become stronger while they consolidate.
Since we are dealing with an adult skeleton model, we examine the bones carefully. Galacti highlights them, showing how they all fit together in an orderly fashion from the temporal mandibular joint that moves the jawbone to the spinal cord that connects to the skull at the top of the body, as well as the ribcage in the middle and the pelvic girdle at the hips. In turn, the pelvic girdle connects with the long, hollow, strong thigh bones called the femurs.
They withstand our weight and the pressure we put on the bone when walking or running. The femur connects to the tibia and fibula (lower leg bones), which end at the feet. We forgot to mention the pectoral girdle in the shoulder area, which connects to the bones and the arm, which end at the eight wristbones.
Each bone is shaped to fit together and support each other, especially the “antigravity” bones such as the spine, pelvic girdle, tibia, and the multiple bones of the foot. These do the work of resisting gravity as we stand or walk.
We feel the bones of the spine, which is especially vital in supporting our body weight and helps protect the spinal nerve cord. The vertebrae, which form a long, elegant column, are composed of alternating cartilage made up of calcium carbonate and bone layers.
We think back to calcium, the fifth most abundant element in the body. It is so vital in bone composition and health. Magnesium is also important in bone function, as well as the carbon in calcium carbonate. How is it that the body contains the right amount of these minerals to make the spine and other bones strong?
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How is it that the lower bones are strong enough to keep us upright while the other bones, such as the pectoral girdle and the bones in the arms and hand, work together to do the daily tasks of living?
When we watch our group moving their arms and legs, we realize that the majority of the bones in our limbs assist us in walking while carrying a tray with our hands, for example, while the spine holds us upright.
As for the skull, we watch our mouths move and ponder once again that the only bone that can open and close or move is the jaw, which enables talking and eating.
However, other than the vital human organs, something is missing from our artistically rendered skeleton. Galacti adds most of the organs such as the eyes, nose, ears, tongue, heart,
lungs, pancreas, liver, pituitary gland, spleen, kidneys, stomach, upper and lower intestines, and gallbladder.
However, the skin, the largest organ in the body, is missing—as is another vital human “ingredient.”
This post is an excerpt from chapter 8.4 of Inventory of the Universe.
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Here are a couple of videos. This first one is a quick tutorial. Did you know that the skeleton produces the red blood cells on which life depends? The skeleton has many other important, lesser-known roles, take a look:
This is a contortionist, Sophie Dossi, on America’s Got Talent. Amazing what she can do with her skeleton. Enjoy.
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November 29, 2016
Tongues Taste Worldwide Recipes and Talk over 6000 Languages
With hundreds of thousands of ingredients worldwide used for recipes and beverages, only our tongues allow us to appreciate and enjoy the textures and flavors.
Our tongues, along with the palate and insides of the cheeks that we examine in a mirror, harbor 10,000 taste buds. Galacti and the doctors inform us that, contrary to what was previously thought, tongues do not have distinct zones for sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and the pleasantly savory taste known as umami, which allows us to taste the amino acid L-glutamate in cheese and wheat.
(chapter 8.3)
Instead, taste bud cells have different sensitivities for these flavors. These tastes allow us to savor food, which is key in the experience of eating, and also to detect when something doesn’t taste right, which is usually important for survival. In this way, they play a part in sustaining the body.
However, our tongues together with our lungs, trachea (windpipe) and “voice box,” serve an even more significant purpose.
The car accident victim is put on a ventilator, which helps her to breathe, but not to speak. Even in an anesthesia-induced sleep, the patient cannot make any kind of sound we recognize as a human voice. She is incapable of speaking any of the forty-four phonemes (vowel and consonant sounds) of the English language or the twenty-seven phonemes of the Spanish language. These simple sounds enable the doctors and nurses to express and trade their knowledge.
The voice is a subtle mixture of sounds from the throat, mouth and lips.
The doctors substitute the anatomical diagram above for the MRI image of the human respiratory/vocal system, and we follow the breath through the mouth, nose, and sinuses, then down the pharynx and into the lungs.
As the breath comes back up through the larynx and vocal folds, we are invited to speak a single word: “hello.” The vocal folds, which are delicate tissues, are brought close together as breath pushes up from the lungs and makes the vocal folds vibrate.
It also makes the tongue and lips move to produce “hello.” We notice the pronunciation, “he-loh.” The lips, tongue, and soft palate (or roof) of the mouth form the sounds. As we say “hello,” the tip of our tongue touches the soft palate on “he,” and then extends straight out between the teeth on “loh.”
That simple word might not sound earth-shattering (pun intended), considering the roughly one million words in the English language (an estimate made by Merriam-Webster) and the 600,000 words in the Japanese language. However, consider the importance of “hello” as a greeting and an expression of friendliness.
Thomas Edison popularized the word as a telephone greeting during his experiments in the nineteenth century and used it as part of his method of conveying knowledge. Galacti notes that if Edison, dubbed the Wizard of Menlo Park, thought “hello” was significant, then perhaps we should give it another look.
Think of the twelve to twenty breaths per minute that are required to supply the air to make the vocal folds vibrate. The blood cells, which carry oxygen, also participate. Think of the lung capacity, the size of a tennis court compressed to fit underneath your ribcage, that allows you to breathe and speak. We ponder that this system works so precisely every day.
It is something that we all take for granted, except of course when we have to give a talk in public! Our diaphragm and abdomen also play a role in making our voices sing with passion, authority, intelligence, and other emotions. An iPod plays music that is amplified by speakers.
A Hawaiian hula song echoes through the operating theater and is followed by a black gospel singer belting out a hymn. We move to the music and lift our voices. Galacti points out that this ability to sing and speak has allowed humans to transmit knowledge, starting with the Epic of Gilgamesh as the earliest known oral tradition story.
The role of singer/storyteller has been an honored one in many cultures, and even today in our global society dominated by the electronic and written word, there are people such as the Inugguit in Greenland.
The Inugguit are a people that speak the threatened language of Inuktun, which contains words formed by murmurs and moans that can be up to fifty letters long! They still maintain their oral tradition.
We wonder at the history of speech. When were the first syllables or words spoken? Were they spoken by the ancient Chinese or by Indus Valley dwellers? Linguists, historians, and anthropologists have various theories on the origin of language, but no one knows for sure how language began or which culture produced the first protowords.
For us, it is simply enough to ponder that speech exists at all. We can say hello and goodbye in many different languages: hola and adios in Spanish, konnichi-wa (literally meaning “good afternoon” or “good day”) and sayonara in Japanese, sawasdee for both hello and goodbye in the Thai language, bonjour and au revoir in my Paris home, and zdravstvujtye and dosvedanya in Russian.
We can say “Come here, Watson, I need you,” as another famous inventor, Graham Bell, did. Our brain is responsible for our speech, more so than our vocal folds, lungs, or the oxygen in our cells, but everything works together to produce “hola” and “goodbye.”
We ponder language, one of the hallmarks of human beings. As we’ve seen, the ingredients of life come together to form the basis for biological human beings. To take this another step, the separate ingredients of the respiratory and vocal systems—the lungs, trachea, pharynx, larynx, palate, lips, tongue, and the blood carrying oxygen—come together along with the brain to make language possible.
Someone feels his jawbone, which is making a clicking sound. We are drawn to the uniqueness of the jaw. Although mammals, amphibians, and reptiles have jaws for eating, biting, and making various noises such as barking, the human jaw is equipped to aid in speech. It is the only bone in the skull that can move freely. This encourages us to examine the human skeleton.
This post is an excerpt from chapter 8.3 of Inventory of the Universe.
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Today I have a couple of videos, this first one is for the kiddies, but we can all learn something about tongues.
This second one is interesting in that it only credits human tongues with 4 tastes. I’ve noticed that descriptions regarding properties of tongues, depending on authors, are not always the same. In spite of the differences our tongues make eating all the varieties of food a very enjoyable necessity.
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November 27, 2016
The Productive System
8.8 The Reproductive System
The doctors give an ultrasound to a pregnant mother-to-be, as well as giving a mammogram to another lady. This encourages us to think about the differences between women and men.
(chapter 8.8)
Why do women have breasts?
Why are women uniquely equipped to have children, making eggs that are fertilized with sperm cells as learned about in the laboratory?
Why do men have more hemoglobin, the material red blood cells are made of, than women?
Why do women have four to five million red blood cells, while men have up to six million red blood cells?
The last question has an answer: the testosterone hormone is responsible for red blood cell production. Since men have more testosterone than women (young adult males have a testosterone/estrogen ratio of fifty to one), men naturally produce more red blood cells.
We ponder that women’s ovaries also produce testosterone, but at lower levels than in men. Young girls in puberty have a higher level of the hormone estrogen, which is responsible for the development of breasts and fuller hips, than adult and menopausal women do.
Estrogen levels also rise during pregnancy. The doctors show us lab results conducted on both the woman having a mammogram and an ultrasound from the pregnant woman.
We see the fatty breast tissues presented in gray on the mammogram display, with the dense tissue displayed as white areas. The dense tissues, which develop because of hormones
(especially estrogen), contain milk ducts.
As women approach menopause and advance past childbearing age, their estrogen levels drop and fatty tissue levels increase. Progesterone, another female hormone, regulates estrogen levels and increases breast health.
We ponder the unique ingredients of life, such as the hormones we have seen in the lab, which account for the differences between men and women and also play a role in childbirth. Look at the ultrasound.
We can’t see the hip bones or the cervix, but the doctors inform the woman having the ultasound that the hormones in her body are softening the bones in her pelvis to make them looser and more stretchable during birth, while the cervix, a part of the uterus that remains closed to protect the baby until birth, is becoming more flexible due to other hormones.
During the early stages of labor, the baby’s head pushes against the cervix and opens it. During active labor, the cervix fully dilates and the baby moves, changing position with its flexible bones several times. We hear the doctors discussing all of this and placing simulations on the screens, showing us the uterus contracting powerfully to push the baby out.
We see the baby’s large head, and we wonder how it moves safely through the birth canal and out of the body. Remember the five bones in an infant’s skull and the two gaps in the skull called fontanelles?
These gaps allow the baby’s head to move agilely through the birth canal and vagina as the baby is born, while the loosening of the woman’s pelvic bones makes the pelvis more elastic and
allows the baby more freedom to move out of the uterus and birth canal.
The men and women think about the birth process that occurs every minute, every day, 360,000 times per day (or the population of Thessaloniki, Greece) all over the world. That’s four newborns every second worldwide.
We think about the DNA seen in the last chapter, as well as the sperm and egg cells that unite and the 120 million sperm that men’s testes produce in a day. This production is governed by hormones in the brain.
This leads us to another interesting difference between men and women: while men produce spermatozoa, women are born with one to two million follicles contained in their ovaries.
By the time girls reach puberty, they lose 50 to 75 percent of their follicles, which number 400,000 in a teenage girl.
Of the 1,000 follicles lost during a woman’s monthly menstrual period, only one matures into an egg. We wonder why a woman has so few eggs, and why only 0.1 percent of all the follicles in a
mature woman’s body develop into an egg whereas men produce millions of sperm.
Another difference is the body fat that provides women with curves and full hips; we wonder where these differences come from. Is it merely in the hormones? Is it in the DNA, or as doctors suggest, the brain?
The doctors have done their work and the car accident victim is recovering. Our Inventory of our bodies is finished, except for one notable omission. We haven’t examined the brain, even though we have been expanding our minds throughout our tour.
Our bodies work well. They work invisibly and unceasingly, each system interconnected, allowing us to communicate knowledge and perform the full range of human abilities with our muscles and hands.
However, as worthy as our bodies are of contemplation, we think we need to examine the brain in order to have the complete picture of what makes us human.
With a healthy sense of curiosity, we prepare for our next adventure, with all of the strength of our hands, voices, and bodies at our command to assist us.
This post is an excerpt from chapter 8.8 of Inventory of the Universe.
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