Second key to life

“Matter moves”

Previously on Secrets of Life:

In the first blog lecture we introduced the following equation:

Life = Matter + Energy + “????”

It is miraculous to encounter “????” and we asked ourselves why this ???? exists and what it is? We see that the concept of “life” is strongly related to materials as construction blocks of life forms. The question we can ask ourselves is whether this “????” exists around us and joins matter in a miraculous way under certain conditions? Or is “????” something that is already related to matter in one way or another and always there to come alive in certain situations?

Let us first explore what matter is and how it behaves in its most elementary molecular state. It may give us further clues.

Blog lecture 2: Matter moves

We have reached a scientific understanding now of the behavior of matter that may help us come to an understanding of what life is and this big “why” question. We first need to become aware that matter is never static. Material moves all the time even though we cannot perceive it with our naked eye. Matter consists of a specific combination of molecules which in turn consist of atomic kernels and electrons that twist and twirl around each other in specific movements. These movements show a diversity of patterns and frequencies, even within the same type of molecules. So, for intance, a molecule of water does not always behave exactly the same! The more complex a molecule gets the more complex the different molecules behave together.

To show this I can best link you with a very short  illustration on YouTube:

Vibrations of Molecules CHEM Study

There is no need to remember all the details of the animation or explanation. You just need to recall that every combination of molecules that shape our material surroundings and our own selves has a set of different moves with different frequencies. Blog lecture 3 will take this a step further.