Spitzer | 1
Jennifer Spitzer
Professor Christensen
Thought Paper: The Miracle of Life
2/28/11
This NOVA special, though relatively dated, is still poignant and beautiful and full of intriguing information. It takes one into the sophisticated underground workshop of the sex organs of human beings where the process of conception and growth from zygote to fetus is no longer left to the mind's eye or illustrations in a textbook. Micro imagery is utilized to take us on a journey into the visceral setting of an actual human body where procreation is documented as it occurs.
Particular pieces of information especially stood out to me as I watched this. At the beginning, it was noted that all forms of life come from the protozoan – the first organized form of primitive life. The images of the protozoans drifting and pulsing in the sea struck me as very analogous to later images of human sperm. Another bit of information that I had learned before, but had forgotten, was that each ovary in a woman contains a quarter of a million egg cells! The female is born with them already formed, as they develop while she is still in utero. This is amazing to me. On the outside, pregnancies seem to occur so effortlessly, but it is remarkable to grasp that the excursion of the sperm to the egg can be a grueling undertaking, and the actual conception and development of a human being relies on everything being “just right” when so much can go wrong. The sperm has so many agents working against it from the acidic environment of the vagina, to getting confused by other human cells and trying to penetrate those instead of the egg, to being rejected by the woman’s own defense system, and so on. When you realize that it takes all elements orchestrated impeccably in order to create another human, it really does become evident what a miracle life is.