摘要：A seed has no flowers or leaves, and an egg no fingers or lungs.Yet plants and animals not only have these things but they resemble their parents in detail throughout their bodies.Something is inherited, but what is it? Life is based on the activities of cells.An organism has large numbers of them—a human has trillions! Cells live as separate units, which enables them each to do its own thing within its particular organ, but to be an organism they must work together.A cell can only detect its immediate local environment, but that includes various kinds of signals or information from nearby or far away within the body—or even from the external environment.It is by being local but responding globally in this way that an egg becomes an organism, an organism manages its way through life, and organisms make up species and ecosystems that interact with each other.The evolution of these abilities has produced the glorious array of living forms that populate the world.In these ways, an egg may have no thoughts but is a highly intelligent being.
