S is for Spirochete

This is the story of the wiggling spirochete. According to biologist Lynn Margulis, this tiny, spiral-shaped, highly-mobile bacteria is the origin of consciousness, the reason we can think and communicate at all. The basis of her theory is that these helix-shaped spirochetes that emerged billions of years ago evolving through symbiotic relationships are not only the origin of mitochondria and chloroplast (which she has proven) but also evolved into cilia, which she suggests is the origin of our sense organs; as well as evolving into the axons and dendrites of our nerve cells or neurons. The common denominator between cilia and the axons and dendrites of neurons is the fact that tubulin proteins are the building blocks for both. Now, as everyone knows, axons and dendrites are responsible for bringing information to-and-from neurons, and there are approximately 100 billion neurons in the brain. The theory suggests that these spirochetes, no longer able to rotate and swim, evolved to become the motion agent of consciousness itself. Now, who wants to wiggle?

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