We are all unique: A Noah’s Ark science story
The dining room of the Ark was strangely quiet. Usually there is bedlam. For once, no food fights. Tonight, there was little laughter. A few of the animals did get up and danced to recorded music Medina’s song cycle. Like every Wednesday night it was …yes, you guessed it…‘science night’. This evening’s talk was by the Bow-Legged Antelope and he was going to talk about how unique each of them animals were and why it just had to be that way. The Bow-Legged Antelope clarified that by unique by saying he didn’t mean special.
Most of the animals were sloped low in their seats making believe they were dozing. The Dolly Goose and Purple squeaker were playing cards at the rear of the dining room. Why so quiet this Wednesday night? The animals drank more than usual amount of hard cider and Schnapps.
The animals were bored. They would rather it be game night. The German Land Lizard kept yawning. The Bow-Legged Antelope leaped out of his rocker and walked up to the podium. He decided to wake up the dining hall shouting “You are not going to believe what I am about to tell you.” The Wobbly fern duck shouted back, “why would we believe you and then the Single haired loop laughed, “You are going to tell us all about how the earth isn’t flat and the Ark will soon arrive at earth’s end, ocean’s end, and then plop over the edge while we sing “What do you do with a drunken sailor. “ The Pink inflated elephant intervened, “come on give our beloved Bow-Legged Antelope a chance to amaze us.
And so, the Bow-Legged Antelope began by saying “ my punch line or maybe you can call it a slap on the ass that all living things on earth are unique even when they share so much in common like people and mice share about 97% of their genome. The Cort Pig couldn’t stop himself from interrupting “Are you talking about mice and men or mickey mouse and my uncle. The Bow-Legged Antelope continued, “Yes I am talking about mice and your monkey’s uncle. What I am saying is that it doesn’t take much genetic information to make a mouse and your uncle unique. Just a few bits of genetic knowledge will do the trick. What is amazing is how much of what we think is the same turns out to be very different. Our Lark elk and Pink inflated elephant are each beautiful and they are both mammals and have similar genetic makeups but I would rather be run over by the Lark Elk than the elephant and anyway what does beautiful mean?
Before the Bow-Legged Antelope could continue the Stunt turn pecker jumped out of his seat and screamed “Beauty, beauty. You’re looking at her. You are looking at unique beauty.”
“Damn it”, announced the Bow-Legged Antelope. Let me continue and I will make it short and get you all to think about some stuff that will dazzle you.
I want to mention something that may make all of you uncomfortable. You know why we are all here. Noah was charged with saving knowledge, genetic knowledge, us, two of each of our specie. But he got it half, maybe one quarter right. Our knowledge is not just in our genes but our experience and more than that we are not carbon copies of each other within our own species. So many unique features, quirks, whatever you want to call them but each of us is unique. Not all Wobbly fern duck are the same.
From the back of the dining room came voices, a whole mixed up chorus of them saying the same thing……”Don’t knock our Noah, our leader, our guru. The Crested star gazer added and don’t forget what a charmer he is. The Muted Stripped Jungle Cat can’t get enough of him. We know was is going on when she sneaks into his cabin late at night and…
The Bow-Legged Antelope had enough and was about to walk away from the podium when The Crested star gazer pleaded…”Oh come on. Stop being so serious. Continue already.
The Antelope turned back to the podium. Alright. I will make it short but at leave you with some things to think about.
It doesn’t take much to account for each of us being unique, especially when it comes to our brain s and our genetic heritage. One gene can make us different from one Wobbly fern duck sitting next to another. This will amaze you. Did you know that a few people have brains that don’t allow them to experience fear. That is no joke. If you don’t experience fear and you are a Standard nose deer and you see a German Land Lizard coming to attack you, wanting to kill you and then eat you then you are in big trouble. You would be dead meat if you weren’t afraid and run away. Another example. Some animals people) can’t experience pain. So, if the German Land Lizard slams a hammer on your leg it doesn’t hurt. In fact, you laugh about it. Not such a good thing. Pain is a message. You learn from pain. You remember what cause it. Turns out that psychological pain and physical pain involve the same areas of the brain. So, if Noah tells the Muted Stripped Jungle Cat that their relationship is over. “Find someone else to love.” Normally the Cat would experience the pain of loss of being rejected.
If the Muted Stripped Jungle Cat has part of her brain damaged, or missing, the part that allows her to appreciate physical pain then maybe being rejected by Noah wouldn’t trouble her very much. Once again, a unique brain does its thing in experiencing our world on the Ark or anywhere else.
The Cort pig jumped up and said, “you mean there are some of us who unlike the rest of us can’t experience a pain in the ass, like having to listen to some stupid stuff about we are all unique.
When you do the math of all our genetic bits of genetic knowledge one gene can change who we are in ways that can even dazzle the Dark mouthed dipper.
The Standard nose deer stood up and walked to the exit mumbling “enough of all this uniqueness and the math that can account for all this and maybe out math genius Werner can help us understand that all numbers are not the same.”
The Bow-Legged Antelope had enough. He stepped away from the podium and walked away and said, “Thanks for listening you blockheads and and try to use your imagination, think about what I was trying to tell you about who you are.”