The Hierarchy of Heaven and Earth

A View by Richard Lang

MY MOLECULAR IDENTITY

When my observer, having investigated my cellular appearance, moves in closer towards me, (attempting to find out what I really am), she leaves behind my cellular level and discovers I am molecules. My body contains billions - I have more molecules in my body than there are stars in the sky! They are structures that come in many different sizes and shapes, often combining together to form more complex structures. A DNA molecule is like a twisted ladder or 'double helix'. Haemoglobin, a protein molecule, resembles a ball of twisted ribbon. Structure determines the job a molecule performs. Haemoglobin's unique form, for example, allows it to carry oxygen through the bloodstream, whereas some molecular chaperones have what look like little hands, enabling them to fold new-born protein molecules into their right shapes.

Molecule Into Human

My molecules are how my central nothingness appears at close range. (Only the largest of my molecules can be seen and photographed with an electron microscope.) They are the layer beneath my cells and above my atoms and play a vital part in determining who I am at the human level. For example the genetic coding in my DNA molecules translates upwards into determining the varying functions of my cells which translates further upwards to the human level, determining such things as how tall I am, how I process foods, how I respond to infections and medicines and so on. In this sense I am, humanly speaking, what my genes decide I am.

Trading Molecular Faces

When I look out from my central nothingness I do not of course see my molecular 'face', just as I do not see my human face at the human level. My appearance at any level is for others. It is only through my observer - at this range the molecular biologist - that I can come to know myself objectively. She places herself in my molecular zone and thus registers me as molecules - there in her central nothingness. If I were to observe my observer at this same range, then I would register her molecules here in my central nothingness. Thus we would each be capacity for the other's molecular appearance. We would be trading molecular 'faces'. Having studied one another at the molecular level, we could then step away from our microscopes and report our findings to one another at the human level, each reflecting back to the other their molecular identity.