Viewing life - through the lens of a Cell

Dipika Mishra

We grow, we age;
With time, a toddler slips into old age.
Life slowly moves,
Sometimes on the wobbly feet
And in another case- towards the grave.

A human body encounters numerous change,
The healthy functional cell is heaped with damage.
Translational defects, misfolded protein and protein aggregates
Constitute what we call- the death phase.

Damaged mitochondria, increased ROS
All hint that the cell has lost its youth.
Increased entropy catastrophes this change
Something that the cell can no more mend.

The telomeres shorten, rampant cytoskeletal disruptions occur
Leading to the onset of Alzheimer’s and sometimes cancer.
There is chaos in the cell,
A human body aches like hell.

Nothing in this world stays forever,
Everything is entropy driven and one day ends.
Gulp cups of happiness if you can
Because my dear friends, this life will not forever remain.

The Science

Human cells exhibit numerous changes as they age. These changes are all entropy driven, similar to other processes in nature. This poem views progression of life through the lens of a cell, taking into account all the changes that the cell undergoes in the process. The poem takes the reader through the progression of life by fusing all the scientific data available that bear testimony to the intricate changes occurring in a cell.
ROS - Reactive oxygen species are free radicals whose build up in cells may cause damage to DNA, RNA, and proteins, and may cause cell death.
Telomere - A telomere is the repetitive sequences of non-coding DNA at the end of a chromosome. Telomeres protect the chromosome from damage. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres become shorter. Eventually, the telomeres become so short that the cell can no longer divide.

The Poet

Dipika Mishra is an Indian poet who lives in Odisha, India. Her innate love for science led her to pursue a PhD in Molecular Microbiology at the National Institute of Science Education and Research. However, her creative bent of mind compelled her to fuse science with poetry and thus create scientific poetry. Her poems have been published in the blogs of Global Youth Biodiversity Network, The Xylom and ScicomChall. Further, she is also interested in preaching science through science communication and was an eLIFE community Ambassador for the year 2019-2020.

Next poem: when the sky is falling by Claudia Coutu Radmore