Page 29 - The Miracle of the Blood and Heart
P. 29
Blood: The Incomparable
Liquid of Life
this book, you will see a many astonishing details regarding
the blood and the systems that it controls. The way that a red
blood cell expels the organelles inside it, sacrificing its own
nucleus—which contains all the essential data for its long-
term survival; keeping only those elements necessary for it to
live for a fairly brief length of time—is just one of those
details. In order to be able to do all this, the red blood cell has
to distinguish between necessary and unnecessary organelles
during its short lifespan, know that it must absorb hemoglo-
bin—and, even more crucially, be aware of the importance of
hemoglobin for human life. If just one of these tiny details is
neglected, if the red blood cell does not take hemoglobin into
itself for example, then oxygen would not be distributed in the
body.
We need to point out that this behavior—the red blood
cell's essentially agreeing to its own demise—deals a severe
blow to Darwin's theory of evolution. Charles Darwin
assumed that all organisms wage war to ensure the survival of
their descendants. Richard Dawkins, today's proponent of
Darwinism, suggests that this struggle for survival can be
The erythrocytes leaving the lung
and carrying oxygen are
bright red (c). After
depositing their oxy-
gen in the tissues,
they turn a darker
red hue (d).
Adnan
c) d)
Oktar
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