Ha. I didn't mean to be cryptic. I should have prefaced it. The other night, eating dinner with some friends, we somehow started talking about mitosis.
Here's the philosophical question: when a bacteria splits in 2, is the old bacteria dead or still alive or some third alternative?
The case for alive is that all the parts that were alive before... are alive now.
The case for dead is that it got ripped in 2 and 2 new bacteria were born.
The case for a third alternative arises from the unpleasantness of the first 2 choices!
Anyway, if it's still alive, then every living bacteria today is very old indeed, since it only has itself for an ancestor. Or something like that.
3 comments:
Hmmm... how cryptic.
Ha. I didn't mean to be cryptic. I should have prefaced it. The other night, eating dinner with some friends, we somehow started talking about mitosis.
Here's the philosophical question: when a bacteria splits in 2, is the old bacteria dead or still alive or some third alternative?
The case for alive is that all the parts that were alive before... are alive now.
The case for dead is that it got ripped in 2 and 2 new bacteria were born.
The case for a third alternative arises from the unpleasantness of the first 2 choices!
Anyway, if it's still alive, then every living bacteria today is very old indeed, since it only has itself for an ancestor. Or something like that.
Oooo.. that's an interesting and fun conversation topic! hmm..
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