RE: Good question about life
July 11, 2012 at 1:59 pm
(This post was last modified: July 11, 2012 at 2:22 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
Air hunger and reflexes are difficult to explain? Some mysterious force at work when Good Ole Doctor So and So taps your knee with his little mallet? No.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyspnea
(doesn't just happen when we're born, its a recurring issue, and not just a turn of phrase the author decided to use)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_reflexes
(speaking of reflexes, here are some more that are, apparently, unique to newborns -for the most part-)
Any of the references in either article will lead you down a rabbit hole of interesting little bits of information with regards to whatever specific interests you. I'm personally fascinated with the reduction of seemingly complex or "mysterious" behaviours to machinery (why I love plants so much). There is a great deal of human behavior and biology that is currently hazy or less than fully understood, breathing isn't one of those things.
On a related note, it's a good thing that many biological functions reduce down to machinery. Life has so many ways of getting shit wrong that the simplest most idiot-proof variety of any givin solution is likely to be far more represented in living organisms than some exotic and complicated biota....which is precisely what we see when we go out looking for the hows and whys.
Consider the phrase "Don't forget to breathe." There would be far fewer breathing things in existence if this were actually possible (and the survivors would be monstrously good at consciously directed multi-tasking).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyspnea
(doesn't just happen when we're born, its a recurring issue, and not just a turn of phrase the author decided to use)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_reflexes
(speaking of reflexes, here are some more that are, apparently, unique to newborns -for the most part-)
Any of the references in either article will lead you down a rabbit hole of interesting little bits of information with regards to whatever specific interests you. I'm personally fascinated with the reduction of seemingly complex or "mysterious" behaviours to machinery (why I love plants so much). There is a great deal of human behavior and biology that is currently hazy or less than fully understood, breathing isn't one of those things.
On a related note, it's a good thing that many biological functions reduce down to machinery. Life has so many ways of getting shit wrong that the simplest most idiot-proof variety of any givin solution is likely to be far more represented in living organisms than some exotic and complicated biota....which is precisely what we see when we go out looking for the hows and whys.
Consider the phrase "Don't forget to breathe." There would be far fewer breathing things in existence if this were actually possible (and the survivors would be monstrously good at consciously directed multi-tasking).
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