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Global Focus on Knowledge 2009: Understanding “Life” Systems — The Rapid Development of Life Sciences

What is “life”? There are millions of species of life on earth, and 6.7 billion living organisms of only one species, humans, exist on the planet. And when one considers the bacteria living in the earth and oceans, the number of species, let alone the number of individual organisms, is far too large to measure. Since humankind emerged, we humans have been trying to understand these different “lives” in order to live and also to satisfy our curiosity. Historically, there have been several periods when humans’ understanding of the varieties of life has advanced dramatically. The dozen-plus years since the second half of the 1990s have certainly been such a period, as our view of life has changed greatly during this time, based on newly obtained knowledge. Two developments that have created important currents in this transformed way we see life are the decoding of the complete base sequence of the human genome ― the blueprint for life ― and the development of imaging technology that can observe human life while it is in a living state. These lectures, which will provide an overview of our rapidly developing understanding of life, brought about through new technologies and information, will be divided into three levels: the genome system, the cell system, and the brain, which represents a highly advanced life system.