Game of Life

This should help to give an idea on how complex structures (like cells) can arise from simple ones (like atoms).
After all, life itself is nothing else than a high level of organization of very simple things. So we should not "see" life in the constituent parts, but rather in the way they relate to each other, and what level of complexity they can achieve.

Now, one might think that really complex rules would give rise to complex systems... well, not really. Apparently, it can take very simple rules to generate astonishingly complex systems. If we think about it, actually, if we want to account for the existence of life, we have to rely on basically the four allowed interactions, so... this is a process called self-organization. For more detailed references on this topic, please follow this link.

I'll point out to one more thing, and that is the Game of Life. It was proposed by John Conway, and it appeared on a 1970 Scientific American issue, on Martin Gardner article. It is sometimes called only "Life".
"Life" is an example of cellular automata. Basically it is a big chessboard with some squares painted and others not. There are very simple rules to advance, and they imply watching the whole board. There are no winners, and no losers, but it's certainly worth a try.

More interesting questions

Somebody posted recently regarding the "interesting questions" post, and he posed some other interesting questions:

What's Time?
What's Space?
What's Time-Space?

Interestingly ;) the Theory of General Relativity is a good way to look for these answers.
General Relativity is basically a theory on gravitation, and how it shapes the universe. It is also an attempt on a description of what was thereafter known as the space-time continuum.
Certainly way beyond Secondary School syllabi :) but nonetheless one of the most exciting fields in Physics.
Coupled with Quatum mechanics (the other great theory of physics) we can get a fair description of the universe from the smallest to the biggest.
Which brings us to the problem that both theories are incompatible... right, too good to be true, huh?
Nowadays the theory with best hopes to explain both things is called Superstring Theory... and that is still beyond many physicists grasp :(

Later we'll go through the historical ideas that attempted to describe time and space... thrilling experience.

Thanks for the post! I look forward to many more.

Books

I will review the books on this list as time goes by. Mostly I will put books I've read and that are science related but that anyone can read... Sometimes I might put some booksI haven't read but would like to, and others I'll put books I am reading at the time.
So, my first list:

Biology

• Dragons of Eden, Carl Sagan.
• Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Daniel Dennet.

General Science

• Broca's Brain, Carl Sagan
• Pale Blue Dot, Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan

Physics:

• A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
• Hyperspace, Michio Kaku

Mathematics:

• Journey into Genius, William Dunham
  

Cooking

• El Cocinero Científico, Diego Golombek

Science Fiction:

• Timeline, Michael Crichton
• Fantastic Voyage 2, Isaac Asimov
• The Gods Themselves, Isaac Asimov
• Martian Time Slip, Philip K. Dick
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Interesting questions...

What is the relativity theory about?

What are black holes?

Where is the limit of life? What defines that something IS alive? Molecules are alive? If not, how can a cell, that is made of molecules, be alive?

If everything is energy, why can't I transform myself into, say, a table?

How will the universe end?

How did the Universe begin?

What was there BEFORE the Big Bang? Can we even ask ourselves that question?

Interesting place!

Science News for Kids

Some relativity links

Astronomy for kids
The Albert Einstein Experience