So far, there are 118 kinds of elements that human beings have discovered, both found in nature and obtained through artificial manufacturing, and everything we know and see is composed of these elements.
Whether it is rock trees, cosmic celestial bodies, or animals and plants, or we humans themselves, are composed of these elements, taking the human body as an example, there are more than 60 kinds of elements that make up the human body, including both constant elements and trace elements, such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen is the constant elements that make up the human body, and zinc, selenium, copper, etc. are the trace elements that make up the human body. If these elements are disassembled, they are all composed of more tiny elementary particles, and there are currently 61 known elementary particles, and photons are one of them, that is to say, everything in the world is composed of these 61 elementary particles, so are the cosmic celestial bodies, and so are our own bodies.
It is easier to accept that tables, chairs, benches, rocks, trees, and cosmic celestial bodies are all made of the same matter, but it is somewhat surprising to say that life, especially human beings, are also made of the same matter, because human beings are thoughtful and conscious.
Elementary particles have no thoughts, and the various elements composed of elementary particles also have no thoughts, and other substances composed of these elements naturally do not have thoughts, but man is an exception, people have thoughts, have autonomous consciousness, so where do thoughts and consciousness come from? Why is it that matter without consciousness is somehow combined and then consciousness is born? This is a very interesting and mysterious topic, whether before the birth of science or after the birth of science, this problem has plagued mankind in different forms, and the exploration of this problem has always had two different paths, one is non-scientific, and the other is an analysis based strictly on science.
Non-scientific exploration holds that both human thought and consciousness arise from the soul, and that the soul is a special existence that exists before the birth of the body, and does not perish after the birth of the body, and it is this "soul" that gives human thought and consciousness.
This view seems to have some superstitious overtones, but it is really not superstition, superstition is anti-scientific, and this view is non-scientific. Anti-science is different from non-science, all problems involving science can either be proved or falsified, and the soul is precisely a problem that can neither be proved nor falsified, so this is a non-scientific problem at all, so there is no need to discuss, and there is no value for discussion. So let's look at how science understands the origin of thought and consciousness. Everything in the world is made up of 61 elementary particles, and 61 elementary particles can give birth to 118 elements through different combinations.
There are a total of 118 known elements, of which 92 are found in nature and 26 are obtained through synthetic synthesis, but this does not mean that human beings have the ability to create matter like the Creator.
In fact, 118 elements are objectively existing in the universe, but because some elements have a very short decay period, such as element 118 Og, its decay period is only one ten-thousandth of a second, after which it will decay into element 116 and continue to decay downward at a very fast speed, so these elements are difficult to find in nature, so we can only get it through artificial synthesis. If an element cannot exist objectively in nature, then no matter how far science progresses, it is impossible to create it in the universe, so the periodic table of elements with 118 elements, although it has not yet come to an end, will always come to an end. Then again, why can 61 elementary particles produce so many elements with very different properties? Because they are combined in a different way and structure.
Different combinations and structures can give birth to different substances, and it is the same to continue to expand to the macroscopic level, and these 118 elements can be combined into countless substances, such as cosmic celestial bodies, mountains, rocks and trees, television computers and so on.
All matter is the same at the microscopic level, but different combinations produce substances of very different properties and uses. And our human thoughts and consciousness are derived from the activity of the brain, and the organizational structure of the brain is extremely complex, it has tens of billions of cells, each cell has a large number of synapses, and these cells through the synapses to form a huge and complex neural network, and thought and consciousness are born in it. Simply put, the essence of thought and consciousness is actually the physiological electrical activity of neuronal cells in the brain. It seems a bit too simple to explain, since it is also the physiological electrical activity of the brain, why am I the me and you are you? This is indeed a problem, a question that cannot be answered for the time being without making it up, and only a deeper understanding of the mechanism of the human brain and the nature of consciousness can gradually uncover this mystery.