Hello,

 

I wish to learn how a human being if physically structured, from the very smallest quanta, all the way up to cells.

 

I don't know much at all, already, so would like a book (or electronic resource) which explains the structure of reality as it pertains to animated life.

 

Does anyone have any advice?

Edited July 19, 201411 yr by radicalsymmetry

In relation to quantum physics and biology you coud start with

 

Quantum physics meets biology, Markus Arndt, Thomas Juffmann, Vlatko Vedral, which is avaliable as arXiv:0911.0155v1 [quant-ph]

I think it helps to take a top-down approach. Learn how the various organ systems operate and what they do. Narrow in on how the individual organs operate to contribute to overall function, how the tissues are formed on a cellular level, how the cells themselves work, and that'll draw you into molecular biology. From there the chemistry will take you down to the quantum level if you want to pursue it that far.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm starting at Quantum physics because I find it most interesting.

Edited July 24, 201411 yr by radicalsymmetry

Sometimes a reductionist approach goes too far and leaves you with fewer answers. I don't think it makes any sense to try to understand life in general from the quantum level.

I would add to that: how a human is physically constructed makes most sense when viewed from an evolutionary perspective. We don't best appreciate the Mon Lisa by destructive testing of paint pigments.

I think it helps to take a top-down approach. Learn how the various organ systems operate and what they do. Narrow in on how the individual organs operate to contribute to overall function, how the tissues are formed on a cellular level, how the cells themselves work, and that'll draw you into molecular biology. From there the chemistry will take you down to the quantum level if you want to pursue it that far.

 

This seems intuitively correct as well. If you want to learn about something, before you can study its parts you have to start with the whole. Life isn't a jigsaw puzzle where you have a picture of the whole you use to reconstruct it. If someone gave you all the parts of a human, and a picture of a human, it wouldn't be as easy to assemble as starting with a whole human and studying how the parts go together.

 

Perhaps this is just my perspective, but I've always looked at science like the layers of an onion, starting with the big picture and seeing how each layer of knowledge is overlayed on the one before it. You don't start peeling an onion from the center.