Dear College of Science Faculty and Staff, Moving gently out of summer, we’re at the culmination of the season’s new life. The small sparrows splashing in the rain outside Churchill, the young campus rabbits enjoying delicious grass, the leaves still fresh after our damp summer, and the late blooming asters. We know quite a lot about how life is put together. There are small molecules that come together to make very large molecules – the DNA of our genes, the carbohydrates, proteins and lipids. There are cells, made of all the molecules, different kinds that have different jobs. There are organs, lots of cells, each with an important role. And there is the whole, all the organs working together, to make the sparrow or rabbit or human. It’s a simple paragraph to write, but the complexity of each aspect is mind-blowing, and nowhere near completely understood. Deducing how life works occupies researchers in every College of Science department, and congratulations! to everyone who is contributing so brilliantly, from the theoretical to the experimental to the applied. Scientists can define new biomaterials, promising to repair injury or deliver medicines, can direct custom cells to treat diabetes or cancer, and can build mini-organs that diagnose or even treat injury and disease. The power of this work is fantastic. Some time ago, when I was teaching a class called Building with Cells, the students explored how cells constructed a whole animal, and how they could be used to build in the lab. But then we turned to a different question. I asked the students, is the whole life-form simply a bunch of cells, or is it something more? The students wrote down their thoughts and then shared. Most felt we are not just a bag of trillions of cells. That a duck or golden retriever or person or earthworm is more than the sum of its cells. I asked them, is that what a soul is? Maybe, they thought. I agree with that. I think the soul is somehow a synthesis of life, not a religious construct, but the unquantifiable spark everything living carries. What about a single cell from your body? Well, no, thought the students. And what about living creatures that are made of only one cell? Do they have a soul? Harder question. Now, easing into fall, now is a great time to celebrate the precious sparks of life, the souls of everything living, the whole that is so much more than the sum of its parts.
Easing into Fall – 9.22.2023