The absolute composition of an average human (80 kg) is 52 kg Oxygen, 14.4 kg Carbon, 8 kg Hydrogen, 2.4 kg Nitrogen and trace amounts of other elements. Essentially, we are no different from a bit of coal, some water and a little Nitrogen.

Yet, we are alive; we walk, we breathe, we see, feel and think, which makes us markedly different from these inanimate elements. This is the the beauty of biology, which deals with how the coming together of different atoms can produce the incredibly complex beings we see around us.

This complexity, however, wasn’t achieved overnight. Billions of years ago, the Earth held molecules like hydrogen, water, methane and ammonia. When coupled with an energy source like lightning, and after a “brief” resting period of a few billion years, this soup of chemicals gave rise to the building blocks of life.

The first of the life forms was a complex aggregate of different molecules that had the ability to sustain itself in an external environment. We know this organism as a ‘cell’. Now, what differentiates a cell from a mixture of all its contents thrown together in a test tube is its ability to replicate and reproduce itself, and the molecules that get this party started are nucleic acids.

“Our own genomes carry the story of evolution, written in DNA; the language of molecular genetics, and the narrative is unmistakable.”
— Kenneth R.

Over time, nature scrutinized every variation that came about in organisms and selected only those features which enabled an organism to survive and utilize resources better than others. This ancient process gradually continues to shape the species on our planet even today. In fact, of all species that once traversed our planet, 99.9% are now estimated to be extinct. After billions of years of fine-tuning, those that remain are the products of evolution. Only the fittest survived. And at the pinnacle of this evolutionary process are Homo sapiens, a species capable of conscious thought.

Created in the furnaces of stars, the elements undertook a long and dynamic journey to produce life. Biology is the study of this journey; a way for the universe to know itself.

Join us or our fleshy minions will destroy you.