Does a child know that he is still inside a womb? Does a single cell comprehend to which body it belongs? What if it is not a single cell, but a community of cells called brains? How many levels of self-realization are there? For thousands of years the thinking tried to decipher the concept of a Universe, bringing together the knowledge and observations of a single and combined minds.
This painting was inspired by my thoughts on the similarities between current knowledge about the embryo development and the Big Bang theory.
1. Embryo starts as a zygote caring all of the genetic information unique to an individual. The fertilization is characterized by the higher temperature and in most animals this temperature is 0.3-0.5 degrees above the maternal temperature. According to the Big Bang theory, our universe emerged from a singularity of extremely dense and hot state carrying information for the future galaxies formations.
2. After conception the embryo continues to grow with the accelerated rate reaching the maximum rate between the 18th and 22nd week (4th-5th months). Ultimately two cells (the original egg and sperm) divide into the 6 trillion cells of a newborn baby.* As we know so far since the moment of the Big Bang space has been continuing to expand with accelerating speed forming new galaxies and other celestial bodies. .
3. During fetus growth embryonic stem cells develop into each of the more than 200 cell types of the adult body when given sufficient and necessary stimulation for a specific cell type. Universe started as “loose” quarks which later formed into the matter. Some schools of modern physics also search for a unified theory which would be able to explain four fundamental forces as derivatives of one basic force.
4. In most mammals (including humans), some insects and in some plants the sex of a new organism depends on the combination formed as a result of interaction between matching chromosomes of father and mother. XX combination will lead to a female and XY to a male. According to the Big Bang theory during the first moments of the Universe the interaction between matter and antimatter determined that our Universe became a “matter” one. " For each 3 billions antiparticles created there were 3 billion and one particle. … Entire materiate world, from galaxies to humans, owes its existence to that tiny excess of particles over antiparticles..”.**
5. Biological neural network is mostly responsible for accepting, processing, storing and distributing information within the organism’s body. Memory functions, ability to acquire and process knowledge all depends on it. And now talking about the Universe the traveling light performs that “neural” function by being the medium that accepts, stores and distributes information about objects of the Universe. Our knowledge of the Universe mostly based on the information brought to us through the light. In some weird ways it even performs the “memory” function as through analyzing light which travels great distance to reach us we receive information about objects that existed billions years ago and are gone by now.
I can continue this list, but I would like to inspire thoughts and leave something to the imagination of readers who decide to answer the question: Is that possible that our Universe is a live Embryo developing inside the bigger body?
* Here you can see detailed chart of fetus growth: Analyzing the different stage of Human growth.
** This extract is from the very interesting book “The Accelerating Universe” by Mario Livio. While exploring the beauties of the Cosmos in accessible and engaging ways the Author researches fascinating ideas about place of symmetry and elegance in the scientific theories.
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