Cytokines, “Saturn” and Life’s Allure
A few weeks ago, I came across this slide from one of my Immunology lectures:
Thankfully, the point of the slide wasn’t to learn all these
different cytokines (=small proteins that are important in cell signalling),
but I remember staring at the table utterly stunned by all these different proteins
within us and how unimaginably intricate our bodies are.
Sometimes, I feel a little overwhelmed by the complexity of life. How huge numbers of white blood cells are constantly circulating in us on the lookout for foreign molecules. How our cells are so finely orchestrated to secrete correctly folded proteins in just the right amount, at just the right time. How intricate cell signalling pathways are. How a tiny embryo grows into a being that can run, laugh, see, ruminate, cry and read. The more I study biomedicine and the more I uncover life’s complexity, the more I’m drawn to its allure. And even though I doubt I could ever grasp the true complexity of our bodies, it truly excites me to study it and learn more.
Some of these feelings are echoed in a song called “Saturn”. One of its lyrics I often wonder myself: ‘How rare and beautiful it is to even exist’.