A living cell contains an image of the world because it is born of the world
As The protein landscape of the cell constantly morphs in response to its environment, the cell builds a record of its recent and historical adaptation encounters, in multiple layers of its molecular fabric.
References:
Bray, Wetware (2009), p. 165
A living cell contains an image of the world because it is born of the world. From an early protocell three billion years ago to the nerve cells firing here and now in your cerebral cortex, cells have been shaping and refining their chemistry to accommodate environmental pressures. Just as, in the history of mankind, waves of invading armies left their genes to succeeding generations, so the episodes of natural selection have written their stories in the makeup of a cell. Past encounters with physical trauma, food sources, parasites, predators, sexual pressures, are all recorded in the molecular fabric of living cells because, simply, they have had to respond in order to survive. Goethe captured this notion in poetic form when he wrote: