During the last two centuries, science has enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity. Amazing scientific discoveries have increased materialistic comforts beyond the public imagination and have enthralled the young generation. As a result, people increasingly view science as the holder of unequalled power capable of achieving apparently anything. Some people even argue that we should turn to science for obtaining solutions to the present day problems. However, the current state of scientific knowledge is full of gaps, blanks and question marks. Therefore any beliefs and inferences based on it are liable to be changed in the long run. Science has been incapable of providing definite conclusions in many areas. The author of 'On the Limitations of Science', J. W. N. Sullivan, writes that although our present knowledge of Nature is much richer than in any previous era, it is insufficient because no matter where we turn, we are faced with ambiguities and contradictions. This reality becomes strikingly apparent when we consider the obscure scientific views on, the origin of life, the evolution of various organisms, consciousness and death.
What is life? We find that scientists only speculate as to how life could be defined but are never sure of their own view. They give a very general and broad description of life in terms of growth, reproduction, metabolism, motion and response. A superficial classification of living and non-living appears in textbooks, is that humans, animals and plants appear and behave differently than stones, sand, etc. This line of distinction becomes blurred when stationary, lifeless objects exhibit occasional life-like features and living organisms exhibit lifelessness. Organisms that exhibit “cryptobiosis”(meaning “hidden life”) belong to the first set and examples from the second set are 'fire' and 'atoms'., a puzzling natural phenomenon. There are a surprising number of organisms that undergo cryptobiosis, including plants (as seeds), the eggs of some crustaceans and small water creatures called tardigrades.
Inactive tardigrades can be preserved in a bottle for many years, appearing dead. Add water in the bottle & they are alive. An article published in March 1983 issue of Science Digest described a study of the time lapse photographic snaps of the bottom of the sea, which revealed some amazing facts. An inanimate object like a stone remained motionless at the bottom of the sea for three months. Then it suddenly ascended one foot above the bottom surface and remained stationary for few hours. It then descended back to its original position. A hand-like texture appeared in another stone. It displayed movements for 12 hours and then remained motionless for 6 months.
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