The Moment We Die: What Science Can and Cannot Explain

A split second earlier, the person was breathing, talking, and responding to the people and situations around them.

Then in the very next second, everything changes. The person suddenly collapses.

He stops breathing.

Their heart stops beating.

In an instant, the living body becomes motionless or nonliving, like wood or stone.

Then we say they are dead. They are no more. Almost everyone whispers ‘Rest In Peace.’

It has always been a mystery to me what really happens at the moment we die. Or what is it that leaves our body?

Of course, there are many ways of understanding death. Some explanations come from science, while others arise from spirituality and religion.

Here I will focus on the scientific perspective.

I explored the literature and came across several fascinating explanations that I thought you might find interesting.

The author of the book ‘Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality’, Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan, explains that ‘the human body contains over 30 trillion cells.

Millions of them die every day, and we are completely unaware of it because this is part of a natural biological process.

Yet, if a single cell becomes cancerous, it can multiply uncontrollably and eventually kill the entire organism.

Remarkably, the fate of the whole body can depend upon the behaviour of the single cell.’

When we die, our body ceases to function as a living organism.

Soon afterwards, decomposers take over, initiating a new biological and chemical process.

Depending on environmental conditions, decomposition may take anywhere from a few weeks to several years.

According to current medical understanding, all biological processes in the body, including the neural activities associated with thoughts, memories and consciousness, gradually cease and eventually stop permanently.

What remains of the dead person is only the memories others have of them. Their personality and their physical existence never return.

In reality, death is a process rather than a single event.

It does not occur all at once. Even after a person dies, some organs and tissues remain viable for a limited period.

That is why organ transplantation is possible. Organs such as kidneys, heart, lungs, and liver can be donated and transplanted to save the lives of others.

According to medical practice, there are two main criteria used to determine death: brain death and cardiac death.

However, cardiac death has been the more familiar concept. It occurs when the heart permanently stops pumping blood, causing blood circulation to cease.

Throughout life, blood continuously transports oxygen and nutrients to every cell or tissue, keeping the body alive.

After cardiac death, oxygen can no longer be delivered to the cells and tissues.

Normally, brain death follows cardiac death because cessation of blood flow deprives the brain of oxygen.

And we know that distinct brain regions and networks regulate every bodily function.

However, in some cases, brain death occurs while other organs and tissues remain functional for a period of time.

Here, one profound mystery remains: How does the brain give rise to consciousness?

Despite remarkable advances in neuroscience, this question has yet to be fully answered.

However, from a scientific perspective, the brain largely regulates its own activity through interconnected neural networks, feedback loops, hormones, and sensory input.

However, researchers still do not fully understand how networks of brain cells give rise to thoughts, mind or consciousness.

Although consciousness is widely believed to emerge from brain activity, the precise mechanism remains unknown.

Therefore, the nature of consciousness remains one of the greatest unsolved questions in science.

In fact, there is no such thing as death which takes life, but maybe it changes its form.

Maybe it is nothing more than rearranging molecules on the physical level. In this sense, the human soul is nothing but energy.

In one of his interviews, British physicist Brian Cox explains that life can be viewed as a process through which energy flows and transforms.

Every living thing (human, animal, plant) dies, but what happens to the energy that once sustained life? Here is his version of the answer.

Albert Einstein’s principle of conservation of energy states that ‘energy cannot be created or destroyed but only transformed from one form to another.’

This provides the basis for interpreting this to mean that when a person dies, the body’s energy is transformed into another form.

In the dying process, their consciousness ceases to exist.

Death is an eternal void or an infinite nothingness. After death, there is no pain, no unrest.

Therefore, in this sense, dying is considered ‘peaceful’.

When I was a little child, I often wished that I would die before my mother and grandmother.

I could not bear the thought of losing them; I wondered how I would ever cope with their deaths. Today both of them are gone.

Today, like everyone else, I do not want to die.

Yet I know I have no control over when or how death will come.

From time to time, I find myself thinking about my own mortality and wondering how my life will end. Most people probably feel the same way.

I may die tomorrow, or I may live another twenty years. No one knows. But one thing is certain: one day I will die.

No one is unaware of the fact that they will die.

Before you were born, you knew nothing about your birth. Similarly, nobody receives information about their death.

Also, you don’t know how you will die. Some have unpleasant deaths; others die peacefully; but you have no chance to choose.

So, try to enjoy life; we’re here in this universe for only a certain period of time.

Happy reading!

This story was originally published in ‘Pen With Paper’ on Medium