Page 178 - The Miracle in the Cell Membrane
P. 178

very moment hun dreds of mes sa ges lit er al -
                                 ly rush from one part of our bod ies to
                                 anoth er. Your cells have been equipped
                                 with exceed ing ly com plex rec og ni tion sys -
                     tems able to make the right selec tions from among all this
                     infor ma tion  traf fic  and  extract ing  rel e vant  infor ma tion.
                     Codes belong ing to the infor ma tion are trans lat ed as the
                     result of a chain chem i cal trans for ma tion.
                        The chem i cal mes sen gers car ry ing these mes sa ges are
                     liq uids that allow dif fer ent organs to cor re spond with
                     one anoth er. As a result of this con nec tion, the cells of
                                 55
                     any liv ing things behave as a whole and act as one in the
                     face of sud den exter nal chan ges or attacks. The French
                     biol o gist Andre Lwoff, a Nobel Prize win ner in phys i ol o -
                     gy, has stat ed that every organ ism can remain alive only
                     by means of the exist ing com plex infor ma tion:
                        An organ ism is a sys tem formed by inter-relat ed
                     struc tures and func tions. It is formed by cells and cells
                     are formed by mol e cu les that are in a flaw less coop er a -
                     tion. Each mol e cule should be aware of what the other is
                     doing. It should be able to receive mes sa ges and act
                     accord ing to them. 56
                        The way that cells are able to send and receive mes sa -






                                              176
   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183