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As already mentioned in Chap. 5 on systems biology, another astonishing basic

property of life is to build up ever higher levels of regulation and thus of biological

languages (see box). If you look closely, this principle is already indicated in Sect. 3.1.

The ever higher levels allow us to adapt to the environment in an ever better and more

far-sighted way. First jumps to a language level between cells are thus made possible

by the sugar code, this then helps neurons, among others, to come together to form dif­

ferent brain tissues and thus to form a brain. The neuronal languages have been

described quite well in many details, starting with chemical synapses (e.g. in our brain),

electrical synapses (e.g. in insects) and the fast electrical conduction via ion channels

along the long sprouts of the nerve cells via axons. However, as can easily be seen in

well-studied brains of, say, humans, mice, ants and bees, it becomes very complex and

unmanageable in the details. In each brain region, there are different mixtures of nerve

cells, different glial cells appear, the ion channels vary (slow and fast, activating and

inhibiting) and since also, really mysterious (see below) new processes become possi­

ble, such as our different types of memory.

At the next higher level, languages are used for communication between organisms - in

other words, what we call language in everyday life. This requires a sufficiently complex

brain. However, a few million neurons are sufficient in state-forming insects to use innate

languages across the entire state and also to communicate new observations with this

innate vocabulary, e.g. the already proverbial bee dance for honey sources.

13.2

Human language is once again a significant step further developed, since it is newly

learned by a sufficiently large brain, has a very broad vocabulary and also allows the

13  Life Invents Ever New Levels of Language