Most of us have, at one point, felt the strange aloofness that comes with the realisation we're just one human being in a big scheme, and that all perspective kept, we're not so important after all. There's something special to the knowledge that there are billions of other planets out there and that we'll never really know what they're made of or if there's anything living on them. The stars and the universe are, without a doubt, a source of human wonder.
To me, however, the real magic is far closer.
It's in ourselves. In every of our cells. In the million of different proteins. In the amazing diversity you can achieve with 30,000 genes.
Just as the universe's real size is beyond our comprehension, so is the human body's complexity.
Studying biochemistry has taught me that nature's ingeniosity knows no bound. Every little process is regulated with chirurgical precision. Every millisecond, hundreds of thousands of chemical chain reactions happen. And as you read this, hundreds of small electrical currents run along you neurons, at a precise voltage to keep the signal at the right level, and each of them carries information for your brain or orders for your muscles.
Human physiology is a delicate but masterful balance. Our life depends on it and yet, everything happens without us noticing.
Every time I stop to consider the hidden beauty of our body, my mind is blown. It is, to my sense, real-life magic.
For some spacy mind-blowing, you can listen to Hank Green:
EDIT: Somehow xkcd managed to post something related to this on the following day. Check it out, it's hilarious.
