Have you ever heard of the gap junction; a.k.a. the connexin molecule? Maybe, but have you ever really contemplated its role in life as we know it, multicellular life, such as ourselves? Probably not.
“It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious”
Alfred North Whitehead (1861 – 1947)
Let us think about the simplicity and elegance of this molecule and how it makes our cells communicate with one another other, how it makes the whole greater than the sum of the parts.
“The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards.”
Arthur Koestler (1905 – 1983)
“Truth is eternal, knowledge is changeable. It is disastrous to confuse them.”
Madeline L’Engle, An Acceptable Time
As simple as the connexin molecule seems and as many complexities that it solves does not change the truth and importance of its function.
“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works.”
John Gaule
From simple systems that are reliable come all well functioning complex systems.
“Maybe you have to know darkness before you can appreciate the light.”
Madeline L’Engle, A Ring of Endless Light
Unfortunately, this seems to be the way in which we live our lives. We refuse to acknowledge the light until we know darkness, then it is too late to regain the light.
“That’s the way things come clear. All of a sudden. And then you realize how obvious they’ve been all along.”
Madeline L’Engle, The Arm of the Starfish
In time, every man realizes that lifestyle directs his life and health, but don’t let that time pass.
“Every man is the builder of a temple called his body”
Henry David Thoreau
Darrell L. Tanelian, M.D,. Ph.D.

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