Have you ever wondered what is the basic biological process that allows all living organisms to develop and grow, to replace worn-out cells and tissues, to (sometimes) regenerate body parts and even asexual reproduce?
Enter MITOSIS, in my opinion, the true miracle of life.
By formal definition, MITOSIS is a process that takes place in the nucleus of a dividing cell, involves typically a series of steps consisting of prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase, and results in the formation of two new nuclei each having the same number of chromosomes as the parent nucleus.
In 1855, Rudolf Virchow, a German researcher, made a fundamental observation about all living creatures: every cell originates from another cell, or “omnis cellula e cellula,” in the original Latin. This process signals the new generation of life. The term was described for the first time by the Polish histologist Wacław Mayzel in 1875. The name is derived from the Greek word “mitos” – meaning “warp thread”, because chromatin of the cell nucleus appears as long threads in the first stages of this process.
Mitosis allows the cells in your body to divide and regenerate, your hair to grow, your skin to heal after being wounded. Almost all of the DNA duplication in your body is carried out through mitosis.
Think of it for a minute.
There is a process that allows an entity to create two identical copies of itself with the same shape, functionality and characteristics. Truly miraculous! From one, through an invisible process, you get two! And all three are identical to one another! To truly comprehend the miraculous nature of this seemingly obscure biological process, try yourself to imagine how you can create from one chair two identical chairs!, or from one table, try to split in half so you can have 2 identical tables, same size, same functionality! Impossible, right? Well, the human cell does it every time with a successful rate of more than 99.99%! How incredible is that!
In my opinion, I think here resides the divine intervention that scientists and theologians sometimes argue about in the ever-lasting debate of the origin of life and in the famous Evolutionism vs Creationism tug-of-war controversy. For me, there is no other explanation.
