Grok around the clock tonight
What is your superpower?
Hello again dear readers.
Over the last couple of years people have been talking about their superpower for some reason. I’m not sure whether this is an unconscious reaction to covid-19, where personal power was reduced to camping in one’s domicile. Or whether this superpower trend is part of the elevate movement (whatever that is).
While I’m really not sure why discussing one’s superpower is a thing, let’s see where it takes us.
One word I’ve always liked but never put to good use is GROK. I believe I’m a grokker, if that is even a word. When I make important decisions I like to think I’m orderly and plan things thoroughly, but then after a while I just get bored and run with it. In other words I try to grok it.
GROK
VERB
1. Understand (something) intuitively or by empathy.
2. Empathize or communicate sympathetically; establish a rapport.
It is always easiest to see one’s behavior after the fact. I was thinking of doing it this way, but did it that way. What happens in-between is an unfolding process whereby our unconscious is very much involved, if not in charge, and so it’s hard to say how much one is participating in the process of going from this to that.
There’s a million self-help books out there to help you understand why you did this versus that. How logical and rational are you? How emotional or urge-driven? And how do your thoughts line up in relation to your behavior?
What is your superpower?
I guess the concept behind developing or acknowledging your superpower is to have something to rely on when your unconscious is running the show. A valiant attempt at keeping the wavelength between unconscious and conscious processes as uncluttered as possible.
And God knows we like to clutter up that mass of gray matter inside our skills all too often.
To test one’s superpower, let’s use an example from science to help us try and understand how a new discovery can help us see one aspect of life differently. In this case: aging.
Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and their partners have unearthed new findings about healing and aging by studying a tiny sea creature (Hydractinia) capable of regenerating its entire body using just its mouth.
Humans have some capacity to regenerate, like healing a broken bone or even regrowing a damaged liver. Some other animals, such as salamanders and zebrafish, can replace entire limbs and replenish a variety of organs. However, animals with simple bodies, like Hydractinia, often have the most extreme regenerative abilities, such as growing a whole new body from a tissue fragment.
Researchers were able to get the entire animal to grow back from just its mouth! As you can see from the drawing above, the stem cells, which are required, are not near the mouth.
Realizing this, the researchers looked for molecular signals directing the re-growth process. They found a gene that when deleted, no longer enabled the animal to regenerate itself.
Strangely it turned out to be a gene for senescence: the condition or process of deterioration with age. In humans a cell that is senescent no longer divides. It eventually dies and needs to be recycled, or it can cause deleterious consequences such as inflammation. From wrinkles to brittle bones, senescent cells increase with age.
Hydractinia spits out senescent cells from its mouth. But what about regeneration? Why is a senescent gene required in order to establish regeneration?
The researchers theorize that regeneration may have been the original function of senescence in the very first animals on Earth (at least 575 million years ago).
In other words, the fundamental biological processes of healing and aging are intertwined.
“We still don’t understand how senescent cells trigger regeneration or how widespread this process is in the animal kingdom,” said Dr. Baxevanis. “Fortunately, by studying some of our most distant animal relatives, we can start to unravel some of the secrets of regeneration and aging — secrets that may ultimately advance the field of regenerative medicine and the study of age-related diseases as well.”
So let’s grok this: scientists have been studying senescence as a process of deterioration, when, like a mirror, it may also be critical for cell regeneration.
What makes us age is the same “formula” (spun on its head) as becoming alive again!
Now if we can only spit out these damn senescent cells like the Hydractinia we’d be practically immortal.
Finally, a moment from Bali:
A Balinese vendor preparing flower arrangements for sale for ceremonial uses.
Later,
Neill