A Spark of Life -- What is Life? -- Life from Chemicals? -- 1080p HD

eternally come on nobody has any experience of that but if we depend on our own experience we'll never understand what's beyond us because we're limited for so many days in so many ways I've been searching for the key watching nature grow wishing I could know all about the things I see seeing life and death in a passing breath life is such a mystery to me of course we're limited no one argues with that but when people one by one contribute new discoveries then there's progress well just look how far we've come in the last hundred years well in a way you're right but what if we want to know something we can't measure or see something that's outside our view outside our grasp what then but in science nobody imagines anything we deal with what we can observe what we can measure touch see yeah that's what the frog was doing all he could see was his own little well and from that he thought he could figure out everything everything outside his well just like in your biology department they study matter and from that they try to figure out what life is i mean from what they know they're making theories about what they don't know is that knowledge I don't know, Peter. Everything you've been telling me goes against what I've been studying for years.

That may be so, but it makes sense, doesn't it? Maybe. It's something to think about. Anyway, I've got a biology lab.

I've got to go. So I'll see you later, Peter. See you later, Mark. They're trying to figure out what life is.

Four and a half billion years ago, Earth's molten surface was covered with lava and gases. As it cooled through the millennia, the gases condensed torrential rains fell and mixed with carbon monoxide ammonia methane and hydrogen to form what is known as the primordial soup giant electrical storms and ultraviolet radiation charged the mixture and in an orderly and natural way carbon compounds the building blocks of life formed this is how non-living matter transformed itself into what we call life chemicals that can reproduce themselves what did he say life is chemicals that can reproduce themselves from what they know they're making theories about what they don't know is that knowledge let's see today's labs about metamorphosis the life cycle of lepidoptera and then a short lecture i guess i'll start by studying its wing venation to wonder what made things alive. That's what Peter was talking about all through lunch.

Hey, Peter, where were you? Class went overtime. Henderson. Boy, you're really into it, huh?

I sure am. It's the best course I've ever had. We're studying the Gita. The Gita?

So what's that? Is that your text? Yeah, the Bhagavad Gita as it is. It was written down 5,000 years ago in the Sanskrit language.

The Sanskrit language? Well, you really found something to chew on, eh, Peter? Have I ever. Why don't you have an apple instead come on mark i'm really excited about this really yeah okay so what's it about well here i'll show you from childhood to youth to old age the material body is always changing but within the body is an anti-material particle it never changes but always stays the same i've heard of anti-matter yeah anti-matter has qualities exactly opposite to the qualities of matter.

Material things come and go, but antimatter remains the same. It's permanent. That's not what I heard. That must be the Gita's theory, huh?

It's not just a theory. It's something we can perceive. We can actually perceive antimatter. How's that?

Well, by understanding that although the body's constantly changing, you're still the same person. You don't change. So the thing is, who are you the one who's not changing well it's it's just my memory i can remember when i was younger but that doesn't really explain it it's just a function of the brain the reason i'm the same person as i always was is because of the genetic code that keeps working inside all the cells of my body so the new cells are just like the old ones it's all due to the genetic code so you are a genetic code well the genetic code is just a mechanism it ensures that your cells change in a uniform way but does it explain who you are does it explain your continuing identity so you're saying that my body is matter and that i'm anti-matter and that matter is not conscious but anti-matter is exactly without the anti-material particle the body's dead the Gita says this particle is alive and makes the body appear alive.

The body grows because this living force is in it. Since the living force is in it, the body continues to grow. Cells and living things are in constant flux, dividing. Gradually, the whole organism changes.

From childhood to youth to old age, the material body is always changing. Within the body is an antimaterial particle. it never changes it always stays the same you're still the same person although your body continues to change hydrogen and nitrogen 15 other elements as you know are common all over the planet human body can be explained in terms of the interactions of these chemicals you can see there's nothing extraordinary going on here there's no special ingredient called life the way the chemicals combine makes life seem extraordinary but really life is just a complex organization of material elements life isn't produced when chemicals interact this combination of blood and tissues and organs doesn't make me alive well the only thing you find in the body is chemicals i mean what else could it be if we're just chemicals then where's the source of all the energy in the body they've analyzed all the parts and systems right yeah so what's alive in the body where are you think of the body's different parts well there are bones nerves the brain muscles lungs the liver kidneys the heart the circulatory system corpuscles, the cell, the nucleus, chromosomes, genes, DNA, RNA, and the atom.

Yes, the atoms in living bodies are the same as those in dead objects. So where are you? Where's the life in these material things? What we call life is a a very complex combination of atoms atoms form molecules and molecules form cells and organs that have the characteristics of life but what's the source of energy for these parts where is consciousness many different parts of the body work together to make me what i am but the parts can be replaced with machines the heart lung machine the kidney machine and you'll still be alive so where is life in the machines well what about the brain the brains like a sophisticated computer a part to help you see parts to let you hear and understand parts to store information parts to control your motor functions parts for reasoning and decision-making but where is life where are you well we don't know it evades your investigation you can say life is a chemical reaction but can you prove it well you can't prove that antimatter exists in the body you can't prove it's there by doing experiments there's no machine that'll register the living force but you can experience it you know you see the sunshine all over and you know it's coming from the sun in that way you feel consciousness all over your body because it's coming from the anti-material spark this particle is even smaller than the atom and is in the heart of every living being when blood passes through the heart it gathers energy from the anti-material spark that's how consciousness spreads throughout the body well then how do you explain death well it's not a loss of chemicals that's for sure a dead body has all the same chemicals it had when it it was alive.

DNA, RNA, enzymes, hormones, everything. So what's the difference between life and death? When the antimaterials spark, the living force leaves, the body's useless. And when that happens, when that force leaves the body, there's nothing in the world you can do to bring life back.

Okay, let's check for any more bleeders. Get a sponge count. Should I loosen the retractor? A bit.

Looks good. All right, we're ready to close. Have some Telfer and ABDs ready for the dressing and we'll use clamps on the skin i can't get a blood pressure what there's no electrical activity the monitor's flat his heart stopped quick call cardiac arrest code four i'll give him cardiac massage give him concentrated o2 per mask right any activity at all none any activity no still none it's choice of adrenaline keep your eye on the monitor watch for any pattern changes after the meds given right the ivs out you want t5 and w or normal saline a thousand normal ceiling. Any change?

Still flat. How much shock? Yeah. Get the paddles.

Get back. Set it on 200. Hit it. There's no tone.

Stimulation's ineffective. Bring him back. It's finished. There's nothing we can do to save him.

Death quietly suddenly makes us bereft. Our brother is now departed and we commit his body to the ground. Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return from earth to earth from ashes to ashes from dust to dust amen the lovable object is the imperishable living spark within no one loves a dead body biologists now know that life can be explained in terms of the same chemical physical laws that describe matter because as we have seen life is just a complex organization of matter now the interesting thing is that in the future we expect to be able to produce life here in the laboratory by combining through extremely sophisticated means these very elements that are found all around us this will be very exciting it will be the culmination of centuries of study and experiment now prior to the 1900s i want to get into now some of the issues that historically have confronted microbiologists we're using material instruments so all we can see will be material elements how can we see the living force it's beyond our power to see they always say in the future in the future we'll understand we'll create life but it doesn't seem reasonable certainly it seems more like an empty promise laboratory of various complex organic compounds but this fact does not alter the belief matter by itself doesn't seem to have any of the qualities of life consciousness the will to live direction desire how could matter ever start being conscious of itself even after millions of years suppose there is an anti-material particle in every living thing birds the trees plants and people but all these bodies are very different so is the particle in each body also different anti-material particles are different in the sense that each one is an individual but at the same time the anti-material particles in all the different kinds of bodies are equal from a spiritual viewpoint all living things are equal if we think i'm a man i'm a woman i'm american i'm chinese i'm young i'm old i'm white i'm black i'm christian i'm jewish i'm hindu we think we belong to a particular family and country and race and faith but these names apply only to the body they have nothing to do with us each of us is an anti-material particle a pure spiritual particle eternally but the answer's clear it was always here i don't have to wonder why when i see life spark lighting up the dark like the sun lights up the sky i can see the truth in old age or youth It's the soul that doesn't die, now fly, looking for answers, spending my days in darkness, life was a puzzle, the soul is the part I couldn't see, and it lives for eternity.