Sense and Feelings
Have you wondered?
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Do plants have senses like human beings?
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Why do we feel ticklish, and how does it make us laugh?
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What is pain?
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When a mosquito bites us why does that spot get inflamed and why do we feel the urge to scratch it?
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Why do astronauts feel 'weightlessness' in space?
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Why is it that one feels lighter in the swimming pool?
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How does our brain control the entire body and the senses?
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Why do we feel a 'current' at our elbow if it strikes a hard object?
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Why we sometimes feel irritation in our body?
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Why do we feel tired after working for a long time or walking up a hill?
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Why do ameba moves away from a drop of acid when the acid is dropped in the pond containing ameba?
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When a train passes very close to us why do we feel a pull towards it?
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Why do we feel giddy when we take a ride on a giant wheel?
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Why and how do we feel difference by the sense of touch?
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Why a sensitive plant (mimosa)folds its leaves on getting any type of little stimulus?
Let me try to answer these questions.To sense is the essence of all matter. Every atom in the universe is affected by every other atom, through a multitude of forces and fields – gravitational, magnetic, electric or electromagnetic. These forces can affect the organization of a system, disturbing its balance. Living systems distinguish themselves by their ability to react to the variousstimuli (sensations) in such a way that they may survive any threat posed by thestimulus. Living systems that exist today are the result of experimentation (geneticmutations) and selection of several million billion generations. Only such systems havesurvived which could cope with many challenges they have faced from their environment.A human body or a plant is a living system and is made up of a multitude of atoms, ions and molecules, some of which are present in the solid state, some in liquidand others in the gaseous state. It can often sense the presence of energy (in the form of aradiation or mass) around it. It can often sense even the chemical nature of substances inits vicinity, e.g. the sense of taste or smell in human beings. It is subject to all forces thatany matter in any of these states may be subject to. To feel, then, is to be conscious of sensations (due to the changing stimuli/environment ) caused by such forces in our body.The stimuli can be physical forces like gravitation, centrifugal or centripetal forces. Itmay be the friction experienced by the surface of our skin due to the motion of surrounding medium or it may be chemical due to the presence of some foreignmolecules.We feel pain/irritation when our body gets damaged, we are stung by an insect,
bitten by an animal or reptile, or when some part of our body starts malfunctioning. Allthese are instances when our body needs care. Indeed as soon as we feel pain we knowthat we need to take care of our body by initiating some remedial action e.g. scratching.Our body has a vast intricate nervous network linked to our brain- the central processor,which controls all the actions of our body. The entire body including our skin is covered by the nerves. As soon as any of these nerves sense an extraordinary situation, we feel it.This extraordinary situation can be a cut, a burn or a blow from another hard body. Our body has evolved to initiate certain actions within itself so as to mitigate the danger to it.Thus if it is a cut, which may lead to excessive loss of blood, actions are initiated to clotthe blood and initiate cell phagocytosis and division to repair the injury. The nerves onour skin are responsible for our feeling of touch. When our body comes in contact withanother body our body can senses it. But as we come into touch with many objects, our body has learnt to ignore many normal sensations of touch except in areas where wenormally do not expect any thing to touch, like our armpits. We feel ticklish by anexternal body touching our private parts because when the touch sensors in these areasare excited they generate an unusual reaction in our brain, of amusement. We can nottickle ourselves because we know that those parts going to be touched before we touchthem.But the stimulus which makes us feel need not be always external,. For example,when our elbow strikes a hard object we feel as if an electric current has passed throughour body, although there is no external source of electricity. This is because thesubstances (molecules or ions) present in our body can indeed generate electric current.In the neurons in our nervous system do generate electric pulses which are responsiblefor transmission of the messages to the brain. The electric current we feel on striking ahard object to certain parts of our body is an unusually large such current.Human body has evolved on the earth, which has alternate phases of light anddarkness (day/night). It is like a machine that needs energy and periodic rest( a time torecuperate). It gets energy by metabolizing food. Whenever the rate of metabolismincreases beyond the normal levels, e.g. when one walks uphill the energy resources of the body are depleted at a much faster rate , it also leads to accumulation of more waste products of metabolism. This leads to a feeling of tiredness. But one can feel tired evenwhen one is not working very hard. Sometimes if the nature of a work is verymonotonous, one feels tired – because of mental fatigue.We all know how a large ship or a boat floats on water—it is because the push of the molecules of water neutralizing some of the gravitational pull the ship/boatexperiences due its mass (Archemedes principle). Human body experiences a similar push inside a swimming pool. All the sensors in our body are accustomed to the normalforce due to gravity, so when this force decreases as when we are riding a giant wheel or in outer space we feel it, because our body is subject to the same forces any other solid or liquid experiences when rotating (centrifugal and centripetal forces). These forces candisturb the equilibrium position of certain parts(sensitive hairs of the ampullar crest in theauditory system) of our sensory mechanism the result is feeling giddy.
Now let’s talk about our sense of motion:
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Why don't we feel the rotation of the earth?
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When we are sitting in a train standing on a platform see other train which is moving feel as though our train is moving in opposite direction?
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After we have traveled in a train for two or three days why do we feel like moving even when at rest?
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If we continue to rotate ourselves with our eyes open after some time when we stopwe feel as if we are continuously moving and there is a feeling of instability of mind.Why?
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When a bicycle is moving fast why do we feel more shocks compared to when thecycle is moving slow?
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When we start rotating on our own axis then why do we feel dizziness?
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When we see down from the top of a very high building, we feel dizziness. Why?
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Why do we feel a queer sensation in our stomach while going up in lift, during take-off of plane, or riding on a high swing?
Normally we sense motion through the sight of objects around, the feel of air rubbing onour skin or the sounds which are characteristic of some kinds of motion. But a blind anddeaf person on a totally shockproof closed vehicle can also sense motion. This is becausewhen our body is in motion it is subject to all the forces a solid object filled with someliquid will be subject to. It is subject to all the laws of motion we study in physics. Whena body is accelerating as in the case of traveling in a train or rotating at high speed thefluids inside are body (blood etc.)are subject to additional forces. Our body adjusts tothese forces as far as it can but if we suddenly stop (this motion) the body does not come back to the normal state instantaneously, it needs some time. One can thus understand our feelings after a long journey or a swirl.Motion is relative, this is one of the basics tenets of physics. We sense motionrelative to objects around us. Thus while sitting in a train compartment stationary on arailway platform we can get confused about the motion of a train moving on the adjacentrails in relation to the motion of the train in which we are sitting -- if our attention isconcentrated towards the other train. But if we distribute our attention , say towards the platform also, we immediately know that we are sitting in a stationary coach. This because our consciousness is tuned to the fact that platforms are always stationary. It isnot true that we cannot sense the rotation of Earth on its axis. If we are conscious of thefacts relating to the positions of stars and planets in the sky indeed we can feel therotation of Earth. We do not feel the same way as on a merry go round because theobjects around the earth are much farther away ( hence they appear very small) also thespeed of rotation (revolutions per minute) is much too small for us to register easily. Weare also so much accustomed to this motion that like our many other everydayexperiences that we do not feel it.
The next sensation in our body is Pain!!:
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Why do we feel stomach ache?
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When a snake or scorpion bites we feel pain but an ant or mosquito bites causeitching. Why is it so?
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Why do we feel more pain when we get hurt in winters than in summer?
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When we are playing football or are busy and we get hurt, why don't we feel pain at
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