Lives of a Cell

Maria Ramirez












Mike Pesci



























Tom Lahut





“Statistically, the probability of any one of us being here is so small that you'd think the mere fact of existing would keep us all in a contented dazzlement of surprise. We are alive against the stupendous odds of genetics, infinitely outnumbered by all the alternates who might, except for luck, be in our places...

“We violate probability, by our nature.

"To be able to do this systemically, and in such wild varieties of form, from viruses to whales, is extremely unlikely; to have sustained the effort successfully for the several billion years of our existence, without drifting back into randomness was nearly a mathematical impossibility.

“Add to this the biological improbability that makes each member of our own species unique. Everyone is one in 3 billion at the moment, which describes the odds. Each of us is self-contained, free standing, individual, labeled by certain protein configurations at the surface of our cells, identifiable, with certainty by the whorls in our finger tipped skin, maybe even by a medley of fragrances.

"You would think we’d never stop dancing.”

-Lewis Thomas, M.D.
The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher