Spring Quarter started yesterday, but I am not taking any classes. I finally have a butt load of time on my hands to do whatever I please, which is mainly to stuff my mind with books that I actually want to read.
SY gave me the book The Complete Human Body over Christmas. The basal or bottommost layer of skin has the Melanocyte skin cells. These cells produce Melanin: the pigment that absorbs UV and determines skin/hair color. Melanin gets packaged into structures called Melanosomes which travel to the epithelial or uppermost layer (visible to the naked eye) and settle in comfortably. The more Melanosomes & Melanin you have, the darker your skin.
However, if you're fair skinned, you may, evolutionarily speaking have adapted to protect yourself from repeated sun exposure by FRECKLING!
Severely burned patients are threatened by dehydration -> kidney failure, I believe because the lack of skin allows water to evaporate? Scientists take 3cm or less of a patient's healthy tissue and grow it on a sheet of fabric, that'll dissolve when placed over the wound. In T minus 3o days, enough "new" skin is grown to cover the whole body. This is a Cultured epithelial autograft (CEA).
In HCC, PJ brought up a profound point. Evolution is a purposeless set of actions over a long period of time. It has no sense of good or evil. It has selected species based on their genetic predisposition. But where does our sense of purpose...our conscience come from? These things cannot have come from nothing. These things come from our Creator.
PJ is also pushing the limits of our philosophical thinking by engaging us in The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis. I found my copy in the used book-store Magus, on the Ave...almost had a sneezing fit from the musty smells. Climbed on a small stool to reach the uppermost bookshelf, and did not see it. Said a brief prayer, and saw, hidden from direct view, stacked on top of the other books the one I coveted. God is good. :)
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