Compulsory English Grade 12 || Language Development || Exercises of Unit 12- Animal World || The Medusa and the Snail || Lewis Thomas

 

 

Unit 12- Animal World

The Medusa and the Snail

Lewis Thomas

 About the Essay

The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher by Lewis Thomas

(November 25, 1913 – December 3, 1993) who is the great physician and etymologist, essayist, administrator, educator, policy advisor, and researcher. He is a terrific writer with a keen eye for biology and the natural world in general. In The Medusa and the Snail, he gives a collection of notes on the natural world that makes us fall into deep reflexion. Furthermore, he explores the symbiotic (mutual) relationship- an interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, between man and nature as well as the self and the other.  

 

Before you read

a. What do these pictures mean?

Ans:- In the first picture, one person is different among others. The person is different to the rest not in terms of physical appearance, but in terms of his philosophy, behavior, knowledge etc. We can see a clear distinction between the individual and a group. All people share common attributes except the one who is shown uniquely. Or his role is much more important that others'. But the second picture is totally different to the first one. There is no such a thing, which is different and has different roles. All the bricks in a circle are standing in such a position in which the balance of one brick determines the balance of other bricks. If one falls down, automatically all brick fall down. This picture illustrates what interdependence or coexistence is. The roles of entire creatures are same on the living planet to maintain ecosystem. No creature is unique and all the creatures have equal roles to play.

 

b. How are they different?

Ans:- Two pictures are different to each other because in the first picture individual entity is marked to be unique or different than others. But is the second picture, it is shown that every entity has to play an important role to save others. The first picture shows individualism, egoism, self importance, distinctiveness but the second picture shows unity, union, harmony, mutual help, combination etc.

 

Paraphrase of the Essay

These days people are becoming self conscious. Even some popular magazines post articles on self. People read books on self realization, self help, self dependent and attend meetings and seminars on self learning, self enlightenment. Even we try to read about it after we know about it.

 

Myself is an interesting word, which was formed long ago from original root 'se' or 'seu'. But all the descendant words of 'myself' were formed to allude to other-connected people. 'Se' is also used to indicate "separate", "secret" and "segregate". The extended form of "se" is "swedh" in Greek, and it means people of one's own sort and "ethos" means the custom of such people.  Another word "Ethics" from "ethos" means the behavior of people like one's self. 

 

Human beings think themselves a unique creature in nature but it is not so actually. Though uniqueness is a common place property of living things, there nothing such as unique about it. The phenomena can't be unique and universal at the same time.

Even though they are the children of a single clone, individual, free-swimming bacteria can be seen as distinct entities different from one another. The dynamic microorganisms of the same species are like solitary eccentrics in their swimming behavior. When they're looking for food, some of them tumble in one way for a set number of seconds before stopping, while others tumble in multiple directions for varied lengths of time. When we watch them attentively, connected to the surface of an antibody-coated slide by their flagella, we can identify them apart by the way they twirl, as if they had distinct names.

Beans have self-labels such as glycoproteins, lectins and are distinguished by them as a mouse is distinguished by his particular odor. The labels are glycoproteins, or lectins, and they may play a role in transferring the close and necessary relationship between the bean and the nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live in the plant's flesh, embedded in root knots. The lectin from one line of bean has a unique attraction for the surfaces or bacteria that inhabit that line, but not for bacteria from other bean lines. This system is designed for the maintenance of the special relationship. Nature is pieced together by little affections.

Coral (sea creature) polyps (tissues) are self-aware on a biological level. If you place two polyps from the same genetics line, they will fuse and become one, but if the lines are different, one will reject the other.

By smelling themselves, fish can recognize each other apart as individuals. Mice can do the same, and the olfactory discrimination is controlled by the same H2 locus that contains the immunologic self-marking genes.

The nucleated cells that have been separated from the parent organism and isolated in a laboratory dish are the only living units that appear to have no sense of privacy at all. When given the chance and the correct conditions, two cells from totally different sources, such as a yeast (mushroom) cell and a chicken erythrocyte (RBC), will touch, fuse, and the two nuclei (centers) will merge as well, resulting in a gigantic hybrid cell. Naked cells with no self-respect appear to be barren of any feeling of self. Self-markers and the sensing mechanisms that identify them are commonly thought to be mechanisms for preserving individuality for its own purpose, allowing one kind of creature to defend and protect itself against the rest. As such, self-preservation is the goal of self-awareness.

However, this does not appear to be the case in actual life. The self-marking of invertebrate species in the water, who must have perfected the process long before evolution got around to us, was set up to allow creatures of one sort to find organisms of another kind, not for predation but to establish symbiotic families. The anemones that live on crab shells are extremely finicky (obsessive), as are the crabs themselves. (The anemones are poisonous and their tentacles containing poison provide protection to the crab against predators) Only a single anemone species will find its way to a single crab species. They have a keen awareness of each other and live together as if they were meant for each other.

There are instances when two animals, each attracted by the molecular configuration of the other, combine their bodies to form a single organism.

The finest story I've ever heard about this is about the nudibranch and medusa that live in Naples Bay. The nudibranch, a common sea slug, was discovered to have a microscopic vestigial parasite in the form of a jellyfish stuck to the ventral surface near the mouth when it was first identified. Some marine experts began examining the local seas for early embryonic forms in order to figure out how the medusa got there, and they uncovered something incredible. Although the connected parasite appears to have become so specialized that it has given up living for itself, it is still capable of producing children, as evidenced by the fact that they are abundant at certain times of the year. They float through the upper seas, grow up beautifully and astoundingly, and eventually mature into full-grown, attractive jellyfish. In the meantime, the snail creates snail larvae, which begin to grow normally, although only for a short time. They become ensnared in the tentacles of the medusa and then swallowed within the umbrella-shaped body while still very little. On the surface, it appears that the medusae are now the predators, retaliating for prior humiliations, and that the snails they prey on are the victims. However, this is not the case. Soon, the snails, hungry and undigested, begin to nibble away at the radical canals, then the rim's edges, and eventually the tentacles, until the jellyfish is reduced in substance as the snail grows in size. The arrangement returns to the initial scene at the end, with a fully developed nudibranch basking and only the round, properly edited parasite safely glued to the skin near the mouth remaining from the jellyfish.

It's a perplexing story to unravel, and much more perplexing to consider. Both creatures have been marked as self in order to find each other in the seas of the Bay of Naples for this encounter. If you want to call it that, the partnership is quite specific. Only this kind of medusa and this type of nude branch can come together and coexist in this manner. Even more astonishing, they are unable to live in any other manner. They are reliant on one another for survival. They aren't actually their own selves, but rather distinct outsiders.

 What does the collaboration of the selves tell us about our identity?

 I get a strange feeling when I think of these creatures. They don't actually remind me of anything. This is the first time I've heard of such a cycle. They're strange and it is called unique. At the same time, they remind me of the entire earth at once, like a barely remembered dream. I can't seem to keep my mind still long enough to consider it through.

Working with words

A. Read the text and tick the best alternative to fill in the gaps.

a. Persons who are related to you and who live after you, such as your children or grandchild are called descendants.

i) relatives                ii) descendants                 iii) siblings

b. Twirl means to turn or spin around and around quickly.

i) Twirl                       ii) Fold                                  iii) Fetter

c. Glycoproteins /glai·kow·prow·teenz/ are proteins which contain oligosaccharide /ol-i-goh-sak-uh-rahyd, -rid/ chains (glycans) attached to amino acid side-chains.

d. Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins that are highly specific for sugar groups that are part of other molecules and so cause agglutination of particular cells.  

i. Lactose                 ii) Legumes             iii) Lectins

e. Polyps are abnormal tissue growths that most often look like small, flat bumps or tiny mushroom like stalks found in the phylum Cnidaria / naɪˈdɛər i ə/ and the medusa.

i) Polyps                   ii) Buds                                 iii) Tulips

f. Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey.

i) Murder                  ii) Homicide                        iii) Predation

g. Anemone is a genus of flowering plants in buttercup family.

i) Anemone ii) Ammonia                       iii) Amoeba

h. A finicky person is extremely or excessively particular, exacting or meticulous in taste or standards.  

i) arrogant               ii) finicky                              iii) symbiotic

i. Nudibranch is a group of soft-bodied, marine gastropod mollusks which shed their shells after their larval stage.

i) Shell                       ii) Nudibranch                   iii) jellyfish

j. A medusa is a free-swimming sexual form of a coelenterate such as a jellyfish, typically having an umbrella-shaped body with stinging tentacles around the edge.

i) medusa                ii) sea horse            iii) sea slug

B. Look up a dictionary and write the meanings of the following words then use them in your own sentences.

i. Arthropod- any member of the phylum Arthropoda; Arthropod is an invertebrate animal which has jointed legs.

ii. gastropod - snail or slug from Mollusca phylum; Nudibranch is an example of gastropods.

iii. biomass - renewable organic material from plants or animals; Biomass is the largest source of total annual US energy.

iv. calcification - the process of building up calcium in body tissue; Calcification happens when calcium builds up in body tissue, blood vessels or organs.

v. metamorphosis - physical development of animals after birth or hatching; Metamorphosis is a process by which animals undergo extreme, rapid physical changes some time after birth.

v. Sturgeon - a very large primitive fish with bony plates on the body; The fisherman struggles to angle the enormous lake sturgeon from the water after he caught it.

Comprehension

Answer the following questions.

a. What are the indicators of the fact that we are very self-conscious about ourselves these days?

Ans:- The popular magazines publish articles on things to do with a self, the instructive books on self-realization, self-help, and self-development are best sellers and people pay large fees to learn self-awareness. Even college teach on the topic of self-enlightenment. These are the indicators that we are very self-conscious about ourselves these days.

 

b. How have we celebrated the fact that we have our individual identity?

     Ans:- We have celebrated the fact that we have our individual and independent identity by naming it "Myself".

 

c. Are we, human beings, really unique? Why/Why not?

     Ans:- We boast that we are the supreme and unique creation on this planet. But uniqueness is not that what we assume us to be. It is a common place property of each living organism. Every creature seems to be unique in its make but every creature is connected to another directly and indirectly.

 

d. How do fish recognize each other?

      Ans:- By smelling themselves, fish can recognize each other apart as individuals. This olfactory discrimination is possible because of H2 locus which contains the genes for immunologic self-marking.

 

e.  What is the function of individuality?

     Ans:- The function of individuality is to make one kind of creature able to defend and protect itself against all the rest. Or in other words individuality is for self preservation.

 

f.   What does the mix-up of two selves tell us about our identity?

     Ans:- Thomas talks about several examples of the mix-up two selves to set up symbiotic relation in the essay. The relationship of anemones and crab and the relation between medusa and snail show that mutual support is needed to survive and maintain the balance on this biological planet. The essayist wants to leave a message that our identity is depended on other creatures' support. Instead of laying focus on "self" and "individuality" we must learn to live establishing mutual relation with other creatures.  

 

g.  What does the author illustrate with the tale of the nudibranch and the medusa?

      Ans:- Almost the half of this essays tells about the tale of the medusa and the snail to illustrate us about the importance of mix-up of selves instead of focusing on individuality and independence. If we only focus on "self" we are unable to understand the mystery of the nature. If "self" was important, the nature would not create symbiotic relation between and among the creature. The entire living organisms have beneficial relationship between and among them. Conventionally it is regarded that every creature has a sense of self marking enabling them to defend and protect itself against the rest. But the marking of the self actually is to permit creatures of one kind to locate others not for predation but to set up symbiotic households. The relation of the medusa and the snail is a sound example of this.

 

 

h. Why is the author disturbed by the thought of the creatures like the nudibranch and medusa?

      Ans:- The author assumed that every creature is unique and is different to the rest. They have their own self labels and uniqueness which are not meant to separate them with others but to establish collaboration. The author was not aware about this fact before. The game of the snail and the medusa seems to be tricky and puzzling, but the same unusual relation makes them able to survive and continue their progeny. The violent collaboration between the snail and the medusa is specific and they can't live in any other way than this. They depend for their survival on each other however they are specific others.

 

i.   What does the writer mean by "they remind me of the whole earth at once?"

     Ans:-  The author was not aware about the bizarre and unique relationship like this the snail and the medusa bond. The jellyfish entraps the slug and the very slug eats the jellyfish bit by bit leaving nothing except the round, successfully edited parasite that affixed to the skin near the mouth of the slug. This kind of unbelievable biological relation between the two distinct creatures is enough to understand the role of every creature found in this planet. The earth is inhabiting millions of micros and macro-organisms creating such type of symbiotic relation.

 

Critical thinking

a.  How does the author make satire on the modern idea of the 'self' based on individuality, independence and uniqueness?

Ans: - This essay is about the self and what nature can teach us. In the beginning the writer brings an attention to the trend in humans on uplifting the feeling of self, based on individuality, independence and uniqueness. When we read the whole of the essay, we come to know that the writer is making a satire on such trend of humans uplifting individuality. The writer doesn't think so.  To mock human's idealization of uniqueness, the writer gives several examples of uniqueness in other creatures and plants. The most striking hit is given to the readers who glorifies uniqueness, individuality and independence when he describes an interaction of two organisms where two selves make a single organism. The life of entire creatures on this living planet is based on dependency of each other. Co-existence is the most important thing rather than being aware on individual identity. We are all important and one's life is determined by another like the relation between anemones and crabs as well as medusa and snail.

 

 

b.  Analyze the essay as a creative defense of the interdependence observed in the ecosystem.

      Ans:- The main theme of this essay is the importance of interdependence in the ecosystem. This essay shows how a distinct organism is connected to another distinct organism. The essayist has clearly made us understood the mechanism of nature by bringing scientific references. When we read few initial paragraphs of the essay, we think that he is talking about the importance of self realization or self realization, something like this. It seems that the essayist idealizing the concept that humans are unique. But in a creative way, the essayist shifts on the concept of the importance of interdependence. He gives examples of other unique creations both animals and plants. Every creature has self markers and we believe that this phenomenon is to defend and protect us from the rest. The ultimate goal of the writer is to make us aware on the importance of interdependence of every creature to maintain the ecological balance. The life of every species is depended on other species.