Protons…the creator gods
Humanity has a very special relationship with its gods, ever since we learned to comprehend our surrounds, anything that we could not easily understand we happily ascribed it to supernatural beings. From time to time we have invented gods and goddesses left and right and assigned them chores and functions as we seemed fit. Some are given credit for the creation of the world (Creator Gods), while others get credit for providing food (Sustainer Gods) or protecting us from the wrath of destructor gods.
Before the concept of universal god, people turned to specific gods for specific needs be it seeking favor for bountiful harvests, success in war, fertility in the home. This resulted in plethoras of gods, each one with specific skill set to take care of specific function, influencing and shaping specific element of human life. Hindus worshipped about 330 million, egyptians had almost 2000, greeks had about 30 and romans worshipped about 12. Irrespective of the number of gods the general themes were well conserved across cultures and civilizations i.e. a god for creation, god for maintenance and god for destruction.
Well we can’t blame our ancestors for all that holy crowd, they had a very different set of ideas how this world works, now that we know bit more about our surroundings it is time to redefine some the divine association. So lets explore some modern candidates who really deserve the credit to be called gods.
Why not start with creation, modern science tells us that at the absolute bottom of the reality there are elementary particles, particles with funny name like quarks, muons, bosons etc. These particles join in various quantities to create electrons, protons and neutrons, which further combine and form the building blocks of the universe that we call atoms.
Well you might say we kind of know that, but where is god in those particles, are you suggesting that these particles are god particles. Moreover who cares about how universe is created we want to know how we are created.
Well…not literally and with sex education entering the junior school even kids know that babies are no longer delivered by storks, they are result of a sexual union between male and female gametes in various life forms including humans.
During the union of gametes, the goal of the gametes is to transfer their genetic material to the next generation, but the mere fact that sperms are much more abundant than eggs, creates the question that nature has to answer, which sperm will get enter the egg and fertilise it ? It got to be only one in millions. Who is going to be the lucky one.
The nature’s answer is not to roll a dice, but to make it fascinating it trigger a race, our first race that we have all one. The race that male gamete (sperm) competes with millions of its cousins towards the eggs in the female reproductive tract.
How come there is so much competition between body’s own cells to become part of the next generation is the question that really defines what the life is all about.
“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?”
― Richard Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder
Here is a superb video that beautifully depicts the entire journey that starts with this amazing race on the planet. Watch the video and please do come back to find out what triggers this amazing race.
What empowers this race is a simply hydrogen, by hydrogen I don’t mean hydrogen gas (H2) but the molecular hydrogen (H), as we know hydrogen is the simplest atom on the periodic table with one proton and one electron, it has a tendency to shed its electron and that leave us with a proton (H+).
Almost five years ago Scientist (Yuriy Kirichok and team) working at University of California, San Francisco have identified that concentration of protons inside sperm cell is about 1,000 times higher than outside, this makes them highly acidic from inside, while female reproductive tract is alkaline.
Once sperms enter the vagina, their intracellular pH rises, one possibility is that it activates the HV1 proton channel that kind of pokes a hole in plasma membrane and protons rush out like air coming out of a punctured balloon, generating the power that pushes them upstream. Another alternative they suggested is that the channel might remain inhibited with zinc that is present in sperm cells and once zinc is absorbed by vaginal mucous it leads to opening of the channel and promote release that triggers the amazing race.
Now you know that the proton’s job is not only to combine with electrons and neutrons to make atoms they are also responsible for making babies.
Word proton originated from greek word prōtos, which means first, their ubiquitous nature makes them omnipresent, they are responsible for at least half the mass on the universe, they carry positive energy with them all the time and all the negative energies keep (electrons) buzzing around them and they also help make babies.
So, is it good enough reason for protons to be promoted to the status of creator gods ?
If it is not, please stay tuned while we explore their role as sustainer gods…
Image curtsey : writegoodtheblog.com
Originally published at scriptgrandeur.wordpress.com on February 8, 2016.
