  The Beginnings of Life In a maze under the scrutinizing light of a scientist’s bulb, a mouse scurried from corridor to dead end to corridor and out again. All the while there was an eye staring down calculating the point where intelligence met awareness and it could not see the connection.
The mouse was picked up and it became fastened to a piece of wood with minute manacles. It could not move away. The life force grew strong in panic, but could that be isolated? With lasers all the hair was removed and the heat was increased to prevent the effects of the cold. Still the mouse remained as strong and as afraid. The scientist removed its tail, lasers for a clean cut and a searing closure of the wound.
Although shocked, the life remained strong. One by one the mouse’s toes were removed until they were no more than rounded stumps, but there was no change in the body’s actions. The scientist paused, she could see this would require more serious work and the mouse was sedated. One by one she cut off its limbs down to the sockets and the wounds were closed. Held to the piece of wood by two straps around its remaining body.
The heartbeat maintained itself though with slightly less pressure than before, less body to receive blood. Its ears were carved away; its eyes gouged out; its teeth pulled away and its tongue cut out. Life remained. In exasperation the scientist sliced the mouse’s brains away, tossed it aside and somewhere in between the life disappeared and no amount of careful science could explain how. 
