박문호의 베스트북
마이크로 코스모스
린 마굴리스
24년전 생물학을 만나게 해 준 책
이미 고전이 된 책
고전이 된 책이 최고의 찬사라니!
저에게는 모든 책이 신간으로 다가옵니다.
마이크로코스모스 앞부분을 읽다가 놀라운 경험을 하고 있습니다.
박문호 박사님을 만나 자연과학을 공부하기전에 아내가 대화를 나누는 중에
저에게 무슨 사람이 로봇같냐며 도데체 자아와 실체가 없는 사람같다며 불평을 하길래
솔직히 나는 나란 실체를 아무리 생각해도 무엇인지 어떤지 알 수가 없다고 대답하였습니다.
거기에 곁들여 나란 실체는 존재하지 않는 것 같다는 이야기를 하였습니다.
내 몸의 일부가 나인가? 내 얼굴이 나인가? 내 몸뚱아리 전체가 나인가? 아님 나의 생각이 나인가?
나의 생각이 온전히 독립된 실체인가? 아무리 나를 쪼개고 더하고 죽이고 살려봐도 나란 실체를 체감하기가 어렵더군요.
더군다나 내몸에 내가 죽을 때까지살고 있는 미생물과 기생충등을 내몸의 일부로 받아드리지 않음은 어불성설이라는 생각이 들더군요. 그래서 나는 여러가지 물질과 다른 미생물과 기생충과 그 모든 것들이 작용하는 총체적인 것이여서 나란 인간의 실체를 정확히 규정할 수 없다고 이야기 하였습니다.
오히려 나란 인간의 실체는 나 자신보다 남들이 규정하고 보아주고 인식하는 실체가 오히려 정답에 가깝지 나 스스로는 도무지 알길이 없다고 솔직히 고백을 하였습니다.
그리고 나란 실체를 규정하는 타인의 인지에 의해 나와 나의 삶의 양태가 결정되는 게 아니라 우주에서의 객관적인 물질의 존재로서의 나의 실체적인 모습이 있을 거고 그것이 나의 삶을 지배할 거라고 이야기 했습니다.
그런데 마이크로 코스모스의 도입부의 내용이 충격적이게도 제가 생각했던 내용을 과학적인 관점에서 명확하게 기술하고 있습니다. 읽다가 어느부분에서는 호흡이 멈춰집니다.
인간의 세포마저도 박테리아와의 공생을 통하여 구성되었다니, 더군다나 생명의 진화가 박테리아와 공생과정의 산물이라니, 지난 강의에서 배웠던 미토콘드리아, 엽록체에서도 배운내용이기는 하지만 좀더 리얼하고 실감나게 고분자 물질들간의 공생으로 생명현상을 설명해 가는 린 마굴리스를 떠 올리며 감탄을 연발하고 있습니다.
우주에서의 객관적인 실체로서 저의 모습을 낱낱히 밝혀줍니다.
책의 한구절 한구절이 가슴에 낙인 처럼 박힙니다.
한구절의 글이 너무 소중하고 아까워 그냥 지나칠 수가 없습니다.
주마간산으로 읽을 책이 아닙니다.
이제 비로소 이책을 통해서 아내에게 저의 누명을 벗을 기회가 주어졌습니다.
좋은 책을 만나게 해 주셔서 감사합니다!
Customer Reviews
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Margulis and Sagan relegate Darwin to a secondary place within the order of things: the most powerful and important changes in evolution happen not through mutation - as Darwin would have it - but through symbiosis, '...the merging of organisms into new collectives, proves to be a major power of change on Earth.' In particular oxygen-breathing bacteria merged with other organisms to enable oxygen-based life on the once alien surface of this hydrogen filled planet. 'The symbiotic process goes on unceasingly.' 'Fully ten percent of our own dry body weight consists of bacteria - some of which.... we cannot live without.' That's an estimation of ten thousand billion bacteria each!
Imagine a droplet of water with a membrane holding the water in place and allowing certain nutrients in. This is a simplified description of how it is imagined the first becteria came into being. The book offers a fascinating history of the evolution of life on our planet. This is a wonderful story full of fantastic developments spanning thousands of millions of years. Every now and then we are reminded by the authors that none of it could have taken place or could be happening now were it not for the metabolic abilities of bacteria. It gives a really eye-opening account of bacterial sex with the insight that all bacteria, all over the planet, are really part of one organism because they are all able to exchange genetic information. For instance it's thought that bacteria obtained their now well-known resistence to penicillen from their bacterial cousins in the soil. But also, you begin to get the impression that perhaps it's the bacteria which have used every means possible and are now using us too to spread onto the land and all over the planet and beyond from their original wet home in the ocean. Humans are defintely relegated to a secondary place within something much, much bigger that is (consciously?) evolving.
This is a fascinating book which has radically changed the way I perceive life and the universe. I read it with great excitement and completed it with a new awe for those minute beings, the bacteria, which have, until now, had a very bad press. The best non-fiction book I've read this year.
In the introduction she lays out her philosophy about life on earth, for which she was roundly criticized by many reductionist scientists. In the past, she writes, all life on Earth was traditionally studied as being merely a prelude to the appearance of humans. Now, overwhelming evidence suggests that microbes (one-celled organisms) not only inhabit every known living thing on earth, they are also indispensable to the survival of all living things. They, not human beings, are the most important beings on the planet.
Furthermore, in opposition to one of the most accepted tenets of Neo-Darwinism, Margulis states that life did not colonize the planet by competition so much as by networking. Cooperation between one-celled creatures led, over billions of years, to the evolution of beings such as ourselves, who possess the capability for self-conscious awareness. Our human consciousness, of which we are so proud, "may have been born of the concerted capacities of millions of microbes that evolved symbiotically to become the human brain."
Strong words! Yet, Margulis sets forth compelling evidence in the remainder of her book to support her bio-philosophical ideas. Along the way, we learn many amazing things. For instance, we get a perspective on what upstart newcomers we are: the continents we inhabit now appeared in their present locations only in the last tenth of a percent of Earth's history. We learn that bacteria invented genetic engineering. Thus, when ultraviolet light damaged early microbes' DNA, the creatures produced repair enzymes to remove the damaged portions and copy new replacement DNA. This is a natural form of gene splicing.
Sometimes, the DNA used in gene splicing was borrowed from neighboring bacteria of different strains, thus affording these critters a prodigious adaptability. This borrowing still goes on today. Through intermediaries, two very different bacteria can share genetic information. Why is this important? Because it allows the distribution of genetic information in the microcosm with a speed "approaching that of modern telecommunications--if the complexity and biological value of the information being transferred is factored in." This speed makes bacteria the biosphere's first responders in dealing with planetary changes.
In responding to change, bacteria end up altering and shaping their environments. Few people realize that the entire earth's atmosphere, which we depend on for our life's breath, was created, and is maintained, by microbes. This is a good thing to remember next time you feel like spraying down your bathroom or kitchen with anti-microbial spray. Our fear of bacteria is misplaced. Yes, some are harmful to us, but most are beneficial. Indeed they are a lot more helpful to us than we are to the rest of the planet!
This book isn't an easy read, but it will broaden one's outlook on our place in the natural world. Even if bacteria are not in the end responsible for the intricacies of our human brain and consciousness, we still owe them many debts. This book unveils the smallness of humans before the vast and minute workings of nature, and encourages a sense of humility before the greater Life that surrounds us.