| Friday, July 7, 2006 |  |
| Hands shown to emit light | 4 comments |
| 7 Jul 2006 @ 02:48 Hands shown to emit light By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Human hands glow, but fingernails release the most light, according to a recent study that found all parts of the hand emit detectable levels of light. The findings support prior research that suggested most living things, including plants, release light. Since disease and illness appear to affect the strength and pattern of the glow, the discovery might lead to less-invasive ways of diagnosing patients. Mitsuo Hiramatsu, a scientist at the Central Research Laboratory at Hamamatsu Photonics in Japan, who led the research, told Discovery News that the hands are not the only parts of the body that shine light by releasing photons, or tiny, energized increments of light. "Not only the hands, but also the forehead and bottoms of our feet emit photons," Hiramatsu said, and added that in terms of hands "the presence of photons means that our hands are producing light all of the time." The light is invisible to the naked eye, so Hiramatsu and his team used a powerful photon counter to "see"it. The detector found that fingernails release 60 photons, fingers release 40 and the palms are the dimmest of all, with 20 photons measured. The findings are published in the current Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology. Hiramatsu is not certain why fingernails light up more than the other parts of the hand, but he said, "It may be because of the optical window property of fingernails," meaning that the fingernail works somewhat like a prism to scatter light. To find out what might be creating the light in the first place, he and colleague Kimitsugu Nakamura had test subjects hold plastic bottles full of hot or cold water before their hand photons were measured. The researchers also pumped nitrogen or oxygen gas into the dark box where the individuals placed their hands as they were being analyzed. Warm temperatures increased the release of photons, as did the introduction of oxygen. Rubbing mineral oil over the hands also heightened light levels. Based on those results, the scientists theorize the light "is a kind of chemiluminescence," a luminescence based on chemical reactions, such as those that make fireflies glow. The researchers believe 40 percent of the light results from the chemical reaction that constantly occurs as our hand skin reacts with oxygen. Since mineral oil, which permeates into the skin, heightens the light, they also now think 60 percent of the glow may result from chemical reactions that take place inside the skin. Fritz-Albert Popp, a leading world expert on biologically related photons at The International Institute of Biophysics in Germany, agrees with the findings and was not surprised by them. Popp told Discovery News, "One may find clear correlations to kind and degree (type and severity) of diseases." Popp and his team believe the light from the forehead and the hands pulses out with the same basic rhythms, but that these pulses become irregular in unhealthy people. A study he conducted on a muscular sclerosis patient seemed to validate the theory. Both he and Hiramatsu hope future studies will reveal more about human photon emissions, which could lead to medical diagnosis applications. More > |
| Tuesday, January 17, 2006 | |
| Environment in crisis: 'We are past the point of no return' - James Lovelock | 0 comments |
| 17 Jan 2006 @ 07:23 Environment in crisis: 'We are past the point of no return' Thirty years ago, the scientist James Lovelock worked out that the Earth possessed a planetary-scale control system which kept the environment fit for life. He called it Gaia, and the theory has become widely accepted. Now, he believes mankind's abuse of the environment is making that mechanism work against us. His astonishing conclusion - that climate change is already insoluble, and life on Earth will never be the same again. By Michael McCarthy Environment Editor Published: 16 January 2006 The world has already passed the point of no return for climate change, and civilisation as we know it is now unlikely to survive, according to James Lovelock, the scientist and green guru who conceived the idea of Gaia - the Earth which keeps itself fit for life. In a profoundly pessimistic new assessment, published in today's Independent, Professor Lovelock suggests that efforts to counter global warming cannot succeed, and that, in effect, it is already too late. The world and human society face disaster to a worse extent, and on a faster timescale, than almost anybody realises, he believes. He writes: " Before this century is over, billions of us will die, and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable." In making such a statement, far gloomier than any yet made by a scientist of comparable international standing, Professor Lovelock accepts he is going out on a limb. But as the man who conceived the first wholly new way of looking at life on Earth since Charles Darwin, he feels his own analysis of what is happening leaves him no choice. He believes that it is the self-regulating mechanism of Gaia itself - increasingly accepted by other scientists worldwide, although they prefer to term it the Earth System - which, perversely, will ensure that the warming cannot be mastered. This is because the system contains myriad feedback mechanisms which in the past have acted in concert to keep the Earth much cooler than it otherwise would be. Now, however, they will come together to amplify the warming being caused by human activities such as transport and industry through huge emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2 ). It means that the harmful consequences of human beings damaging the living planet's ancient regulatory system will be non-linear - in other words, likely to accelerate uncontrollably. READ MORE More > |
| Monday, November 21, 2005 | |
| ExxonMobil Funding Disinformation Groups About Global Warming | 0 comments |
| Monday, October 3, 2005 | |
| Scientists Capture Giant Squid in Photos | 2 comments |
| 3 Oct 2005 @ 02:51 Scientists Capture Giant Squid in Photos By HIROKO TABUCHI, Associated Press WriterWed Sep 28, 2:05 PM ET The giant squid can be found in books and in myths, but for the first time, a team of Japanese scientists has captured on film one of the most mysterious creatures of the deep sea in its natural habitat. The team led by Tsunemi Kubodera, from the National Science Museum in Tokyo, tracked the 26-foot long Architeuthis as it attacked prey nearly 3,000 feet deep off the coast of Japan's Bonin islands. "We believe this is the first time a grown giant squid has been captured on camera in its natural habitat," said Kyoichi Mori, a marine researcher who co-authored a piece in Wednesday's issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. The camera was operated by remote control during research at the end of October 2004, Mori told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Mori said the giant squid, purplish red like its smaller brethren, attacked its quarry aggressively, calling into question the image of the animal as lethargic and slow moving. "Contrary to belief that the giant squid is relatively inactive, the squid we captured on film actively used its enormous tentacles to go after prey," Mori said. "It went after some bait that we had on the end of the camera and became stuck, and left behind a tentacle" about six yards long, Mori said. Kubodera, also reached by the AP, said researchers ran DNA tests on the tentacle and found it matched those of other giant squids found around Japan. "But other sightings were of smaller, or very injured squids washed toward the shore — or of parts of a giant squid," Kubodera said. "This is the first time a full-grown, healthy squid has been sighted in its natural environment in deep water." Kubodera said the giant squid's tentacle would not grow back, but the squid's life was not in danger. Jim Barry, a marine biologist at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California, has searched for giant squid on his own expeditions without luck. "It's the holy grail of deep sea animals," he said. "It's one that we have never seen alive, and now someone has video of one." New Zealand's leading authority on the giant squid, marine biologist Steve O'Shea, praised the Japanese team's feat. "Through sheer ... determination the guy has gone on and done it," said O'Shea, chief marine scientist at the Auckland University of Technology, who is not linked to the Japanese research. O'Shea said he hopes to capture juvenile giant squid and grow them in captivity. He captured 17 of them five years ago but they died in captivity. "Our reaction is one of tremendous relief that the so-called ... race (to film the giant squid) is over ... because the animal has consumed the last eight or nine years of my life," O'Shea said of the film. Giant squid have long attracted human fascination, appearing in myths of the ancient Greeks, as well as Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." Scientific interest in the animals has surged in recent years as more specimens have been caught in commercial fishing nets or found washed up on shores. Kubodera would make no claims about the scientific significance of his team's work. "As for the impact our discovery will have on marine research, I'll leave to other researchers to decide," he said. Other biologists saidi they expected the video would provide insight on the animal's behavior underwater. "Nobody has been able to observe a large giant squid where it lives," said Randy Kochevar, a deep sea biologist also with the Monterey aquarium. "There are people who said it would never be done." More > |
| Friday, August 19, 2005 | |
| National Drought Monitor | 0 comments |
| 19 Aug 2005 @ 01:41 National Drought Monitor |
| Monday, August 15, 2005 | |
| Tsunami clue to 'Atlantis' found | 1 comment |
| 15 Aug 2005 @ 23:31 Tsunami clue to 'Atlantis' found A submerged island that could be the source of the Atlantis myth was hit by a large earthquake and tsunami 12,000 years ago, a geologist has discovered. Spartel Island now lies 60m under the sea in the Straits of Gibraltar, but some think it once lay above water. The finding adds weight to a hypothesis that the island could have inspired the legend recounted by the philosopher Plato more than 2,000 years ago. Evidence comes from a seafloor survey published in the journal Geology. Marc-André Gutscher of the University of Western Brittany in Plouzané, France, found a coarse-grained sedimentary deposit that is 50-120cm thick and could have been left behind after a tsunami. Shaken sediments Dr Gutscher said that the destruction described by Plato is consistent with a great earthquake and tsunami similar to the one that devastated the city of Lisbon in Portugal in 1755, generating waves with heights of up to 10m. The thick "turbidite" deposit results from sediments that have been shaken up by underwater geological upheavals. It was found to date to around 12,000 years ago - roughly the age indicated by Plato for the destruction of Atlantis, Dr Gutscher reports in Geology. Spartel Island, in the Gulf of Cadiz, was proposed as a candidate for the origin of the Atlantis legend in 2001 by French geologist Jacques Collina-Girard. It is "in front of the Pillars of Hercules", or the Straits of Gibraltar, as Plato described. The philosopher said the fabled island civilisation had been destroyed in a single day and night, disappearing below the sea. Sedimentary records reveal that events like the 1755 Lisbon earthquake occur every 1,500 to 2,000 years in the Gulf of Cadiz. But the mapping of the island carried out by Dr Gutscher failed to turn up any manmade structures and also showed that the island was much smaller than previously believed. This could make it less likely that the island was inhabited by a civilisation. Story from BBC NEWS: [link] Published: 2005/08/15 13:47:56 GMT More > |
| Erotic images can turn you blind | 0 comments |
| 15 Aug 2005 @ 23:18 Erotic images can turn you blind 18:09 12 August 2005 NewScientist.com news service Gaia Vince Researchers have finally found evidence for what good Catholic boys have known all along – erotic images make you go blind. The effect is temporary and lasts just a moment, but the research has added to road-safety campaigners’ calls to ban sexy billboard-advertising near busy roads, in the hope of preventing accidents. The new study by US psychologists found that people shown erotic or gory images frequently fail to process images they see immediately afterwards. And the researchers say some personality types appear to be affected more than others by the phenomenon, known as “emotion-induced blindness”. David Zald, from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and Marvin Chun and colleagues from Yale University in Connecticut, showed hundreds of images to volunteers and asked them to pick a specific image from the rapid sequence. Most of the images were landscape or architectural scenes, but the psychologists included a few emotionally charged images, portraying violent or sexually provocative scenes. The closer these emotionally charged images occurred prior to the target image, the more frequently people failed to spot the target image, the researchers found. “We observed that people failed to detect visual images that appeared one-fifth of a second after emotional images, whereas they can detect those images with little problem after neutral images,” Zald says. Primitive brain “We think there is essentially a bottleneck for information processing and if a certain type of stimulus captures attention, it can jam up the bottleneck so subsequent information can’t get through,” Zald explains. “It appears to happen involuntarily. The stimulus captures attention and once allocated to that particular stimulus, no other stimuli can get through” for several tenths of a second. He believes that a primitive part of the brain, known as the amygdala, may play a part. That region is involved in evaluating sensory input according to its emotional relevance and has an autonomic role, influencing heart rate and sweating. “It is possible that emotionally-charged stimuli produce preferential rapid routing of the impulse that bypasses the slower cortical route via the amygdala," Zald told New Scientist. "Patients with amygdala lesions pick out the target image without reacting to violent images, although they show normal blindness reactions when sexual images are introduced, which suggests another mechanism may also be involved.” Harm avoiders The researchers think emotion-induced blindness could lead to drivers simply not seeing another car or pedestrian if they have just witnessed an emotionally charged scene, such as an accident or sexually explicit billboard. The effect could exacerbate the more obvious problem of drivers simply being distracted by large, arresting images. "It's the responsibility of drivers to ensure that when they are behind the wheel they keep their eyes on the job in hand," says a spokeswoman from Brake, a UK road safety organisation. And some people are more vulnerable than others. The study assessed participants using a personality questionnaire, rating them according to their level of “harm avoidance”. Those scoring highly were more fearful, careful and cautious; those scoring low were more carefree and more comfortable in difficult or dangerous situations. The researchers found that those with low harm avoidance scores were better able to stay focused on a target image than those with high harm avoidance scores. “People who are more harm avoidant may not be detecting negative stimuli more than other people, but they have a greater difficulty suppressing that information,” Zald suggests. The Brake spokeswoman says companies should think about the consequences of placing emotionally charged billboards at dangerous road junctions: “We should be concerned if drivers are experiencing split-second breaks in concentration, which could result in an accident or death on the roads.” Journal reference: Psychonomic Bulletin and Review (August 2005 issue) |
| Tuesday, August 9, 2005 | |
| Why Great Minds Can't Grasp Consciousness | 0 comments |
| 9 Aug 2005 @ 06:24 Why Great Minds Can't Grasp Consciousness Ker Than LiveScience Staff Writer LiveScience.com Mon Aug 8, 2:23 PM ET At a physics meeting last October, Nobel laureate David Gross outlined 25 questions in science that he thought physics might help answer. Nestled among queries about black holes and the nature of dark matter and dark energy were questions that wandered beyond the traditional bounds of physics to venture into areas typically associated with the life sciences. One of the Gross's questions involved human consciousness. He wondered whether scientists would ever be able to measure the onset consciousness in infants and speculated that consciousness might be similar to what physicists call a "phase transition," an abrupt and sudden large-scale transformation resulting from several microscopic changes. The emergence of superconductivity in certain metals when cooled below a critical temperature is an example of a phase transition. In a recent email interview, Gross said he figures there are probably many different levels of consciousness, but he believes that language is a crucial factor distinguishing the human variety from that of animals. Gross isn't the only physicist with ideas about consciousness. Beyond the mystics Roger Penrose, a mathematical physicist at Oxford University, believes that if a "theory of everything" is ever developed in physics to explain all the known phenomena in the universe, it should at least partially account for consciousness. Penrose also believes that quantum mechanics, the rules governing the physical world at the subatomic level, might play an important role in consciousness. It wasn't that long ago that the study of consciousness was considered to be too abstract, too subjective or too difficult to study scientifically. But in recent years, it has emerged as one of the hottest new fields in biology, similar to string theory in physics or the search for extraterrestrial life in astronomy. No longer the sole purview of philosophers and mystics, consciousness is now attracting the attention of scientists from across a variety of different fields, each, it seems, with their own theories about what consciousness is and how it arises from the brain. In many religions, consciousness is closely tied to the ancient notion of the soul, the idea that in each of us, there exists an immaterial essence that survives death and perhaps even predates birth. It was believed that the soul was what allowed us to think and feel, remember and reason. Our personality, our individuality and our humanity were all believed to originate from the soul. Nowadays, these things are generally attributed to physical processes in the brain, but exactly how chemical and electrical signals between trillions of brain cells called neurons are transformed into thoughts, emotions and a sense of self is still unknown. "Almost everyone agrees that there will be very strong correlations between what's in the brain and consciousness," says David Chalmers, a philosophy professor and Director of the Center for Consciousness at the Australian National University. "The question is what kind of explanation that will give you. We want more than correlation, we want explanation -- how and why do brain process give rise to consciousness? That's the big mystery." Just accept it Chalmers is best known for distinguishing between the 'easy' problems of consciousness and the 'hard' problem. The easy problems are those that deal with functions and behaviors associated with consciousness and include questions such as these: How does perception occur? How does the brain bind different kinds of sensory information together to produce the illusion of a seamless experience? "Those are what I call the easy problems, not because they're trivial, but because they fall within the standard methods of the cognitive sciences," Chalmers says. The hard problem for Chalmers is that of subjective experience. "You have a different kind of experience -- a different quality of experience -- when you see red, when you see green, when you hear middle C, when you taste chocolate," Chalmers told LiveScience. "Whenever you're conscious, whenever you have a subjective experience, it feels like something." According to Chalmers, the subjective nature of consciousness prevents it from being explained in terms of simpler components, a method used to great success in other areas of science. He believes that unlike most of the physical world, which can be broken down into individual atoms, or organisms, which can be understood in terms of cells, consciousness is an irreducible aspect of the universe, like space and time and mass. "Those things in a way didn't need to evolve," said Chalmers. "They were part of the fundamental furniture of the world all along." Instead of trying to reduce consciousness to something else, Chalmers believes consciousness should simply be taken for granted, the way that space and time and mass are in physics. According to this view, a theory of consciousness would not explain what consciousness is or how it arose; instead, it would try to explain the relationship between consciousness and everything else in the world. Not everyone is enthusiastic about this idea, however. 'Not very helpful' "It's not very helpful," said Susan Greenfield, a professor of pharmacology at Oxford University. "You can't do very much with it," Greenfield points out. "It's the last resort, because what can you possibly do with that idea? You can't prove it or disprove it, and you can't test it. It doesn't offer an explanation, or any enlightenment, or any answers about why people feel the way they feel." Greenfield's own theory of consciousness is influenced by her experience working with drugs and mental diseases. Unlike some other scientists -- most notably the late Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, and his colleague David Koch, a professor of computation and neural systems at Caltech -- who believed that different aspects of consciousness like visual awareness are encoded by specific neurons, Greenfield thinks that consciousness involves large groups of nonspecialized neurons scattered throughout the brain. Important for Greenfield's theory is a distinction between 'consciousness' and 'mind,' terms that she says many of her colleagues use interchangeably, but which she believes are two entirely different concepts. "You talk about losing your mind or blowing your mind or being out of your mind, but those things don't necessarily entail a loss of consciousness," Greenfield said in a telephone interview. "Similarly, when you lose your consciousness, when you go to sleep at night or when you're anesthetized, you don't really think that you're really going to be losing your mind." Like the wetness of water According to Greenfield, the mind is made up of the physical connections between neurons. These connections evolve slowly and are influenced by our past experiences and therefore, everyone's brain is unique. But whereas the mind is rooted in the physical connections between neurons, Greenfield believes that consciousness is an emergent property of the brain, similar to the 'wetness' of water or the 'transparency' of glass, both of which are properties that are the result of -- that is, they emerge from -- the actions of individual molecules. For Greenfield, a conscious experience occurs when a stimulus -- either external, like a sensation, or internal, like a thought or a memory -- triggers a chain reaction within the brain. Like in an earthquake, each conscious experience has an epicenter, and ripples from that epicenter travels across the brain, recruiting neurons as they go. Mind and consciousness are connected in Greenfield's theory because the strength of a conscious experience is determined by the mind and the strength of its existing neuronal connections -- connections forged from past experiences. Part of the mystery and excitement about consciousness is that scientists don't know what form the final answer will take. "If I said to you I'd solved the hard problem, you wouldn't be able to guess whether it would be a formula, a model, a sensation, or a drug," said Greenfield. "What would I be giving you?" |
| Friday, July 8, 2005 | |
| EXPLORER: SEARCH FOR ADAM | 6 comments |
| 8 Jul 2005 @ 00:51 EXPLORER: SEARCH FOR ADAM By Bijal Trivedi National Geographic Channel June 16, 2005 Analyzing DNA from the cheek cells of a group of Mongolians enabled geneticist Spenser Wells, an Explorer-In-Residence at the National Geographic Society, to figure out whether they were indeed descendants of the notorious warrior who lived 800 years ago and thousands of miles away. Such exotic historical enigmas are daily fodder for Wells who is in the midst of the Genographic Project (GP)‹a massive undertaking to sample human DNA from around the world to illuminate human genetic and migratory history. ³There is a history book in your DNA [that reveals] how people are related to each other all over the planet and how we have moved around,² says Wells. The last 10,000 years are of particular interest to Wells who, since childhood, wanted to be an historian. ³I was fascinated by Egypt and Greece and Rome and all of these great empires and I¹m very interested in the impact of these empires on the patterns of genetic variation‹for example, can we see traces of the Phoenicians in North Africa?² says Wells. His latest adventures have led him to discover that Thomas Jefferson¹s ethnic background is not quite as one would expect. He has hunted down possible descendents of Solomon, the third king of Israel. And, he has entered a world where science and religion converge‹the search for what he calls the ³scientific Adam,² the man who gave rise to all men today and the ³trunk² of the human family tree. Wells has used DNA to trace this common ancestor back to Africa and perhaps to the very plains where he may have hunted. He has even identified a living tribe with an ancient lineage that offers a window into the life of ³scientific Adam²‹and, the face of one of the tribe members served as a model to determine what he may have looked like. Unlike medical geneticists who study genetic changes that cause morphological differences or diseases, population geneticists like Wells study genetic changes that don¹t have any effect at all. These changes, called genetic markers, are created by random mutations in the DNA and are passed down through the generations. Each population accumulates its own distinctive set of markers. As these mutations are pretty rare, if two people share one of these markers that suggests they share an ancestor. By comparing DNA samples from many different populations, Wells hopes to reveal the shape of the human family tree, from twigs to trunk. Wells has traveled the world studying genetic patterns for about the past 15 years. He¹s completed fieldwork in central Asia, India, and the Middle East collecting samples from about 10,000 people. Analysis of these samples revealed a broad-brush view of how man originated in Africa and moved around planet to Australia and Central Asia. ³But,² says Wells, ³10,000 samples isn¹t enough to reveal details about how we are all related and moved around.² To figure out the details he proposed a project that required 100,000 samples‹the Genographic Project. As part of the GP, 10 centers scattered around the globe will each take blood samples from 100-200 indigenous populations (50 to 100 individuals per population) over the next five years. Together the project should yield data on at least 100,000 individuals. Everyone knows a little about their parents, grandparents, and maybe even their great grandparents‹but beyond that is a historical realm. ³People always ask Œit must be really tough to get samples from tribes in remote regions¹ but that¹s not true. When you explain to people that they are carrying this history book in there genome, in their blood, and that you can help them read it they are fascinated‹most people want to participate.² ³I¹ve sampled in Lebanon and Christians and Muslims alike want to know if they are related to the Phoenicians‹they are intrigued by the chance they could be a descendent of this great imperial power,² says Wells. Similarly on the island of Pate, off the coast of Kenya near the Somalia border, the people have an oral tradition that they are related to Chinese sailors who washed ashore on 400-foot ships and married local women. Wells discovered that the residents of Pate don¹t have any Chinese Y chromosomes but they have Y-chromosomes from everywhere else‹India, Pakistan, the Middle East, and Europe. However, the presence of 15th century Chinese pottery on the island suggests that there may be truth to the tales and more genetic sampling is needed. ³Genographic is not really a genetics project. It is using genetics as a tool to study history and anthropology. I¹m interested in the impact of the Inca empire on the genetic patterns in upper Amazonia, in Central Asia I want to look at the impact of Alexander the Great,² says Wells as he rattles of a hit list of historical mysteries that he hopes to solve. The GP has taken on a particular urgency because of massive migrations currently in progress. People are leaving their ancient homelands, moving to the cities, and becoming part of the melting pot. As people marry individuals from other cultures genetic patterns are quickly scrambled. If Wells can¹t identify the location where a particular genetic pattern arose, it becomes tricky to identify how different ethnic groups are related to one another. ³This makes the job of a population geneticist very difficult because though you carry your genes with you, you lose the context in which that genetic variation arose,² says Wells. A symptom of this mixing is the rapid decline in the number of spoken languages in the world. In the year 1500, linguists estimate 15,000 languages were spoken; today there are 6,000. By the end of the century about half to 90% of those are going to be extinct, says Wells. ³We are going through a period of cultural mass extinction. We have a narrowing window of opportunity to collect genetic samples from indigenous populations where people have stayed put for a very long period of time.² Wells hopes that by studying the DNA from these groups he can locate where particular genetic changes occurred and when, which will reveal how our ancestors migrated around the planet. To date, Wells has visited about 50 countries to sample different genetic lineages. Of all the indigenous tribes he has met, the Hazabe of Tanzania have had the greatest impact on Wells. ³I have hung out with other Bushmen and they are fascinating. But most of them don¹t actually live the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. They can still mock it up for a film crew but none of them actually live in villages. The Hazabe live as hunter-gatherers. They are actually pulling up trees and carving bows and arrows and they make fire by rubbing sticks together, it is amazing and it really does give you an insight into the way people probably lived 50 or 60 thousand years ago.² More > |
| Tuesday, June 21, 2005 | |
| Nanotech's "Second Nature" Patents | 0 comments |
| 21 Jun 2005 @ 00:06 Patenting "Second Nature": Nanotechnology Patents Will Supercharge Global Corporate Control 16 June 2005 ETC Group Releases New Report on Nanotechnology and Intellectual Property: Nanotech's "Second Nature" Patents The full text of the 36-page report is available here Twenty-five years after the biotech industry got the green light to patent life, nanotech goes after the building blocks of life. On the 25th anniversary of Diamond vs. Chakrabarty,* the US Supreme Court's landmark decision (June 16, 1980) that opened the floodgates to the patenting of living organisms, ETC Group releases a new report, "Nanotech's 'Second Nature' Patents." Since Chakrabarty, the biotech industry has worked hand-in-hand with governments to allow for the patenting of all biological products - the first monopoly grab over life. Chakrabarty set the stage for today's nanotechnology patents, where the reach of exclusive monopoly is not just on life - but the building blocks of life - nanotech's 'second nature' patents," explains Hope Shand, Research Director of ETC Group. ETC Group's new report examines current trends in intellectual property and nanotechnology and the implications for the developing world. Nanotechnology refers to the manipulation of matter at the scale of atoms and molecules, where size is measured in billionths of meters. The world's largest transnationals, leading academic labs and nanotech start-ups are all racing to win monopoly control of tiny tech's colossal market. "Control and ownership of nanotech is a vital issue for all governments and civil society because nanomaterials and processes can be applied to virtually any manufactured good across all industry sectors," said Kathy Jo Wetter of ETC Group. "Patents are being granted that cut across multiple industry sectors - a single nano-scale innovation may span pharma, food, electronics and materials alike," continues Wetter. The US National Science Foundation predicts that nanotechnology will capture a $1 trillion dollar market within six or seven years. ETC Group finds that breathtakingly broad nanotech patents have been granted that cut across multiple industry sectors and include sweeping claims on entire areas of the Periodic Table. Although industry analysts assert that nanotechnology is in its infancy, "patent thickets" on fundamental nano-scale materials, tools and processes are already creating thorny barriers for would-be innovators. Claims are often broad, overlapping and conflicting - a scenario ripe for massive patent litigation battles in the future. ETC Group's report provides case studies of patent activity involving four of nanotech's hottest and potentially most lucrative nanomaterials and one essential tool: carbon nanotubes; inorganic nanostructures; quantum dots; dendrimers; scanning probe microscopes. G8: Downsizing Development? When the G8 Summit meets in Scotland next month, the leaders of the world's most powerful countries will unveil a "Pro-Poor Science" strategy to turn new technologies like nanotech into a silver bullet for social injustice. "Despite rosy predictions that nanotech will provide a technical fix for hunger, disease and the environment, the extraordinary pace of nanotech patenting suggests that developing nations will participate primarily via royalty payments," said Pat Mooney, Executive Director of ETC Group. "In a world dominated by proprietary science, researchers in the global South are likely to find that participation in the nanotech revolution is highly restricted by patent tollbooths, obliging them to pay royalties and licensing fees to gain access," said Mooney. "Ultimately, nanotech will profoundly affect the South's economy, regardless of its handling of intellectual property," explains Silvia Ribeiro from ETC Group's Mexico City office. "Nano-scale technologies will revolutionize the way that new materials are designed and manufactured - changes that could turn commodity markets upside-down and make geography, raw materials, even labour, irrelevant. Nanotech underpins a new strategic platform for global control of materials, food, agriculture and health, and patent monopoly is a powerful tool for realizing that strategy," said Ribeiro. Many South nations are still grappling with unresolved controversies over biotechnology, but by the end of this year, ready or not, even the world's "least developed" nations who are members of the World Trade Organization will be obligated by its Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (WTO-TRIPs) to evaluate and enforce nanotech patents. Lessons learned from Diamond v. Chakrabarty: Despite all the hype about Mr. Chakrabarty's oil-eating microbe and how it would gobble up oil spills, the patented microorganism never worked. Instead of curing environmental ills, the biotech industry has introduced its own contamination problems - unwanted gene flow from genetically modified crops, a particularly serious problem for centres of genetic diversity in the developing world. Unlike 25 years ago, today's nanotech-related patents have not required major rule changes. As a result, many governments are unaware of the nanotech patent rush. ETC Group recommends that the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) initiate a global suspension of patent approvals related to nanotechnology until South governments and countries-in-transition can undertake a full evaluation of their impacts, and until social movements can cooperate with WIPO, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to examine the impact of nanotech-related intellectual property on monopoly practices, technology transfer and trade. The full text of the 36-page report is available for downloading, free-of-charge, on the ETC Group website *Note to Editors: In 1971, Ananda Chakrabarty, an employee of General Electric, applied for a patent on a genetically modified oil-eating microbe. The US Patent & Trademark Office rejected his patent application on the grounds that animate life forms were not patentable. On June 16, 1980 by a narrow 5-4 margin, the US Supreme Court ruled that Chakrabarty's oil-eating microbe was not a product of nature; living organisms could be seen as human made inventions and are therefore patentable subject matter. |
| Tuesday, May 31, 2005 | |
| WATCHING NEW LOVE AS IT SEARS THE BRAIN | 4 comments |
| 31 May 2005 @ 18:12 WATCHING NEW LOVE AS IT SEARS THE BRAIN By Benedict Carey New York Times May 31, 2005 New love can look for all the world like mental illness, a blend of mania, dementia and obsession that cuts people off from friends and family and prompts out-of-character behavior - compulsive phone calling, serenades, yelling from rooftops - that could almost be mistaken for psychosis. Now for the first time, neuroscientists have produced brain scan images of this fevered activity, before it settles into the wine and roses phase of romance or the joint holiday card routines of long-term commitment. In an analysis of the images appearing today in The Journal of Neurophysiology, researchers in New York and New Jersey argue that romantic love is a biological urge distinct from sexual arousal. It is closer in its neural profile to drives like hunger, thirst or drug craving, the researchers assert, than to emotional states like excitement or affection. As a relationship deepens, the brain scans suggest, the neural activity associated with romantic love alters slightly, and in some cases primes areas deep in the primitive brain that are involved in long-term attachment. The research helps explain why love produces such disparate emotions, from euphoria to anger to anxiety, and why it seems to become even more intense when it is withdrawn. In a separate, continuing experiment, the researchers are analyzing brain images from people who have been rejected by their lovers. "When you're in the throes of this romantic love it's overwhelming, you're out of control, you're irrational, you're going to the gym at 6 a.m. every day - why? Because she's there," said Dr. Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University and the co-author of the analysis. "And when rejected, some people contemplate stalking, homicide, suicide. This drive for romantic love can be stronger than the will to live." Brain imaging technology cannot read people's minds, experts caution, and a phenomenon as many sided and socially influenced as love transcends simple computer graphics, like those produced by the technique used in the study, called functional M.R.I. Still, said Dr. Hans Breiter, director of the Motivation and Emotion Neuroscience Collaboration at Massachusetts General Hospital, "I distrust about 95 percent of the M.R.I. literature and I would give this study an 'A'; it really moves the ball in terms of understanding infatuation love." He added: "The findings fit nicely with a large, growing body of literature describing a generalized reward and aversion system in the brain, and put this intellectual construct of love directly onto the same axis as homeostatic rewards such as food, warmth, craving for drugs." In the study, Dr. Fisher, Dr. Lucy Brown of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx and Dr. Arthur Aron, a psychologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, led a team that analyzed about 2,500 brain images from 17 college students who were in the first weeks or months of new love. The students looked at a picture of their beloved while an M.R.I. machine scanned their brains. The researchers then compared the images with others taken while the students looked at picture of an acquaintance. Functional M.R.I. technology detects increases or decreases of blood flow in the brain, which reflect changes in neural activity. In the study, a computer-generated map of particularly active areas showed hot spots deep in the brain, below conscious awareness, in areas called the caudate nucleus and the ventral tegmental area, which communicate with each other as part of a circuit. Click to read More > |
| Monday, May 30, 2005 | |
| Footage of man summoning UFO live during news broadcast. | 2 comments |
 30 May 2005 @ 03:40http://www.filecabi.net/v.php?file=ufoondemand.wmv Footage of man summoning UFO live during news broadcast. Took everyone by surprise. Says he leaned how to do this from the Old Testament and has been calling them for 20 years and he now supposed to show people. More > |
| Saturday, May 28, 2005 | |
| Jiminy Cricket | 0 comments |
 28 May 2005 @ 17:48Alpine cricket is 'rough lover' A species of Alpine cricket has proved itself to be an uncharming lothario who can mate every 18 seconds, European scientists report. While most crickets serenade their lady friends before making a move, this particular species is somewhat brutish, often causing injury during sex. Anonconotus alpinus will sneak up on any passing female, clamping her violently with his sharp pincers. What is more, he is ready for action again after only seconds of rest. The work was conducted by a team of researchers from the Universities of Derby and Geneva. Males seem to be highly unselective when it comes to mating Karim Vahed, University of Derby "The alpinus species of Anonconotus has a completely different approach to the mating process to the majority of bush crickets as it is far more aggressive," said Karim Vahed of the University of Derby. Unfussy stallion Not only are other crickets rather more gentlemanly in their approach, they also often take days to recover after copulation, making alpinus the "stallion" of the insect world. However, there is a bit of a mystery behind alpinus' reproductive success. Most crickets sing to their "lovers" before mating, which is how they avoid copulating with the wrong species: female crickets simply do not fancy males who sing a foreign song. "Pre-copulatory song usually acts as a barrier to cross-species mating because females aren't attracted to the song of another species," explained Dr Vahed. But alpinus males do not bother with any such formalities: they will apparently leap on any unsuspecting cricket - male or female - without introduction. So Dr Vahed and his colleague Gilles Carron would like to spend more time in the alps working out just how alpinus avoids wasting time and energy on inter-species liaisons. "[We would like to find out] what happens in areas of the mountains when two of the Anonconotus species are in contact," said Dr Vahed. "The reason why this is particularly interesting is that males seem to be highly unselective when it comes to mating." |
| Friday, February 25, 2005 | |
| Drunvalo On Global Warming | 1 comment |
| 25 Feb 2005 @ 22:17 A friend pointed me to this article on Drunvalo's website. Any thoughts? I've copied just brief explanation of the process, however the article goes into the relevancy, ramifications and cover up here , but read the whole thing at the link below. Here's the link: Dry ICe Global Warming The Pentagon has been studying Global Warming for many years because of its possible national security problems associated with the kind of changes that could present themselves to the world through Global Warming. A special study was conducted through one of the Pentagon’s departments, the Office of Net Assessment, which is directed by Andrew W. Marshall, 83, who has the responsibility of identifying long-term threats to the United States. Mr. Marshall went to a US based think-tank called Global Business Network to compile the possibilities of Global Warming on US national security. A study was completed in October of 2003 and released to the Pentagon, which was looking at this problem from the point of view of what is the worst that could happen. It was named “An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security.” The summary went far beyond what most Pentagon experts had expected. Realizing the incredible possibilities of this study, Mr. Marshall made a decision to publicly report this and other information to the American people. And probably because of President Bush’s stance on Global Warming, which is beyond negative, he also decided to go around the president, and he published his information and concern in Fortune magazine on February 9th 2004. In his article in Fortune, Mr. Marshall explains how the melting North and South poles and glaciers from around the world are composed of fresh water and within this fact is the basis of the impending global weather disaster. The Gulf Stream or scientifically referred to as North Atlantic thermohaline conveyor is a stream of warm water that comes from south of the equator and flows over the surface of the ocean toward the north where this warm water keeps Northern America and Northern and Western Europe from freezing. It also holds most of the world’s weather patterns in the way we are used to. Then as this Gulf Stream cools down, it drops to the bottom of the ocean and returns as a river in the ocean to the south where it warms up again and rises to the surface and then returns to the north one more time in a continuous convection current. It is a huge three dimensional figure eight. The motor that keep this warm water flowing is found in the north where the Gulf Stream drops to the bottom of the ocean. It is the salt density of the ocean that causes this river to drop and pulls the warm water up from the south. Now that the poles are melting and fresh water is flowing into the Atlantic Ocean and the salt density is decreasing, the Gulf Stream does not drop quiet as far, which results in a slowing down of this Stream. The Gulf Stream has been dramatically slowing down now for at least ten years. As the Gulf Stream slows down, the warmth is not brought to the North Atlantic region, and the weather patterns begin to change for they are dependent on this warmth to keep a balance. The North Pole Melting Let’s look at the facts. Two summers ago the North Pole completely melted for the first time in history that we know of. Both private and military ships floated directly over the actual North Pole as it was completely water. This area has never been seen to be less then ten feet of solid ice. Greenpeace a few years ago announced that the North Pole’s winter to summer snow pack had receded by around three hundred miles, but no one listened. And today, as I am writing this article, we are witnessing the Alaska fire that has consumed over one million acres of forest. This fire is burning in an area that is always wet with rain or snow until now. And this fire, as you will understand in this article is directly related to the melting of the poles and the Gulf Stream. But finally the Pentagon, thanks to Andrew Marshall, has told the truth in the Fortune magazine on February 9th. The Pentagon shows a satellite photo of the North Pole in 1970 and then in 2003, which reveals that, according to the Pentagon, 40% of the North Pole has melted in just 33 years. And it is melting faster and faster now. The Pentagon has now proven that all these government statements that the poles are not melting were simply a lie. And it is a lie more damaging than anything that Bush’s Iraq war could possibly throw at the United States. The South Pole Melting In the South Pole a couple of years ago Larsen A ledge broke off, which surprised many scientists. At that time we were told by the scientific personnel that were studying this event that it was no big deal since this ice ledge had only been connected to the South Pole for about the last ten thousand years. And these same scientists also added that Larsen B ledge that was behind Larsen A ledge would never melt as it has been there for many ice ages. Yet last year, Larsen’s B ledge broke off and went to sea. These same scientists said that it would take six months to melt because of its immense size, but again they were wrong. It melted in a mere 35 days, and more significant, it rose the entire world’s oceans by almost an inch. Now with Larsen’s B ledge gone, an incredibly enormous ice shelf called Ross’s Shelf is exposed and the only thing holding Ross’s Shelf from sliding into the ocean was Larsen’s B ledge. According to my sources, Ross’s Shelf is now cracking. If Ross’s Shelf were to slide into the ocean, it has been estimated that it would raise the entire world’s oceans by sixteen to twenty feet. And that, my friends, would change the world, as almost every coastal city in the world and many islands along with the county of Holland would be underwater. Perhaps it will take an event like this to wake up the world to become serious about Global Warming. More > |
| Saturday, November 6, 2004 | |
| Air Force To Study Psychic Teleportation | 3 comments |
| 6 Nov 2004 @ 16:43 Air Force report calls for $7.5M to study psychic teleportation By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY Star Trek fans may be happy to hear that the Air Force has paid to study psychic teleportation. But scientists aren't so thrilled. The Air Force Research Lab's August "Teleportation Physics Report," posted earlier this week on the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) Web site, struck a raw nerve with physicists and critics of wasteful military spending. In the report, author Eric Davis says psychic teleportation, moving yourself from location to location through mind powers, is "quite real and can be controlled." The 88-page report also reviews a range of teleportation concepts and experiments: • Quantum teleportation, a technique demonstrated in the last decade that shifts the characteristics, but not the location, of sub-atomic particles at great distances. • Wormholes, a highly theoretical possibility whereby the intense gravitational field near black holes could rip open entrances to distant locales. • Psychokinesis, or psychic teleportation. In support of the idea, the report cites UFO reports, Soviet and Chinese studies of psychics and U.S. military studies of spoon-bending phenomena. "It is in large part crackpot physics," says physicist Lawrence Krauss of Case Western Reserve University, author of The Physics of Star Trek, a book detailing the physical limits that prevent teleportation. He describes the Air Force report as "some things adapted from reasonable theoretical studies, and other things from nonsensical ones." Some experts have long criticized what they see as a military sweet tooth for junk science. A "remote viewing" project, for example, undertaken by defense intelligence services and declassified in 1994, sought to see whether psychic powers could be employed to spy on the Soviet Union. The teleportation report "raises questions of scientific quality control at the Air Force," the FAS' Steven Aftergood says. Davis, a physicist with Warp Drive Metrics of Las Vegas, couldn't be reached for comment. The Air Force paid $25,000 for the report, part of a $20.5 million advanced rocket and missile design contract. The report calls for $7.5 million to conduct psychic teleportation experiments. "The views expressed in the report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the Air Force, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government," says an Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) statement sent to USA TODAY. "There are no plans by the AFRL Propulsion Directorate for additional funding on this contract." Explaining why the lab sponsored the study, AFRL spokesman Ranney Adams said, "If we don't turn over stones, we don't know if we have missed something." More > |
| Thursday, October 21, 2004 | |
| Un To Change Calendar | 5 comments |
| 21 Oct 2004 @ 18:34 The United Nations, which has a finger in every global pie, and ambitions to take over the World Internet, is inching its way towards calendar reform. Long on lofty words and windy clauses, the official UN description for calendar reform is, "Calendar Reform and the Future of Civilization" (CRFC). Ostensibly, the UN rejected considering calendar reform in 1995 as part of its 50th anniversary. Within four years, UN officials were passing calendar duty over to lifetime activist for peace, Dr. José Argüelles, an originator of Earth Day. Dr. Arguelles’ World Summit on Peace and Time was convened on June 22-27, 1999 at the UN-owned University for Peace, in Costa Rica. Why is the UN itching to change the method by which the world tells time? It’s the Gregorian Calendar. Having replaced the Julian Calendar, the Gregorian was instituted by papal decree in the year AD 1582 and adopted by virtually all nations as the common world standard. Accepted by virtually all nations notwithstanding, the Gregorian Calendar is irksome to New Agers because the whole world marks time based on the Birth of Jesus Christ. And as far as the occultist UN is concerned, that will never do. So why not break and fix it? If the concept of throwing the Gregorian Calendar out to replace it with the World Thirteen Moon 28-day Calendar of Peace isn’t ludicrous enough, calendar challengers say they are basing their reform on "common sense". "By rational discourse and common sense, it has been determined that the Gregorian Calendar does not represent a true or accurate standard of measure or belong to any systematic science of time, and hence, is worthy of reform," states a CRFC resolution from the World Summit on Peace and Time. The usual suspects were on hand when more than one hundred "followers of the World Thirteen Calendar Change Peace Movement" convened at the Costa Rican summit. Letters of acknowledgement were sent to the summit on behalf of UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan; Secretary-General of UNESCO, Federico Mayor Zaragoza; His Holiness, the Dalai Lama; and by Jonathan Granoff of the Lawyers Alliance for World Security. Dr. Rodrigo Carazo, former President of Costa Rica and founder of the University gave the opening address for Peace. In attendance with Dr. Carazo was Gerardo Bidowski, acting Rector and representative of the then newly appointed President of the University for Peace, Maurice Strong. Seven commissions were set up during a four-day period and participating was former UN assistant Secretary-General Robert Muller, now UP chancellor, who gave a guided tour of the archeology and history o f the site of the University of Peace which was concluded by a walk to his nearby residence. The Thirteen Moon "Natural Time" Calendar is touted as "a universal application of the mathematics and cosmology of the Mayan calendar as deciphered by Dr. Jose Arguelles. Ph.D., and presents a simple yet so profound opportunity to shift our everyday consciousness." Described on his Internet home page as "both a visionary and a prophet", Dr. Arguelles bestowed upon himself the pagan name of, "Valum Votan". In a New Age magazine interview, he said it was "not until after he experimented with LSD that he realized he was a visionary." The final goal is to change the calendar from its present "artificial" 12-month year to a more "natural" 13-month year that more closely parallels the lunar and biological cycles. The results and declarations from the World Summit on Peace and Time have been submitted to the General Assembly of the UN. Wild and weird as it may sound, the Thirteen Moon Natural Time Peace Calendar could replace the Gregorian Calendar, courtesy of future UN resolution. It is, after all, Canadian Maurice Strong and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev who, under the auspices of the UN, are working on an agenda to replace the Ten Commandments with the Earth Charter. Canada Free Press founding editor Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the media. A former Toronto Sun and Kingston Whig Standard columnist, she has also appeared on Newsmax.com, the Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, and World Net Daily. Judi can be reached at: cfp@canadafreepress.com. More > |
| Friday, August 20, 2004 | |
| Eye of God | 3 comments |
 20 Aug 2004 @ 15:33THIS IS A PICTURE NASA TOOK WITH THE HUBBLE TELESCOPE.. IT IS SIMPLY CALLED "THE EYE OF GOD". More > |
| Saturday, April 3, 2004 | |
| The Sixth Sense | 2 comments |
| 3 Apr 2004 @ 19:21 The Sixth Sense - More And More Science Supports It Gabriella 'Gaby' Boehmer 4-3-4 A new study by HeartMath provides evidence that the heart responds to future events and indicates women may be naturally more attuned to their intuition The phone rings and the person calling is an old high school friend who you were just thinking about the day before. You spontaneously decide to take a different route home and later find out that your usual route was closed due to a big rig accident. What a coincidence! Or is it? Were those happenings coincidences or were you, unknowingly, exercising intuition? Intuition has often been thought of as a mysterious sixth sense. However, a new research study conducted by the Institute of HeartMath ([link]) helps to solve some of the mysteries that surround intuition, revealing the role the heart plays in processing and decoding intuitive information. Weíve all heard of a mother who feels the need to check on her young son, only to find that he has left the yard and wandered into the street. Many of us have had our own intuitive experiences, yet there has been a longstanding dilemma in the scientific community over whether intuition is based on memory of a past experience, or whether it involves an actual perception of something that lies ahead. Dr. Rollin McCraty, Director of Research for the Institute of HeartMath in Boulder Creek, California, directed a recent scientific study that examined physiological indicators of intuitive perception. The study sought to test whether we somehow receive information about a future event before it happens, and, if so, to determine where and when in the brain and body the intuitive information is processed. HeartMathís new research is discussed in two parts in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. The first part (published 2/2004; paper posted at: [link] ) focuses on the surprising role of the heart in intuitive information processing. The second part, to be released in April 2004, focuses on where and when in the brain intuitive information is processed, and on how the heart and brain appear to interact in intuitive perception. HeartMath researchers found that we can actually be aware of an event five to seven seconds before it happens. In the recent study, subjects were shown a series of images. Most of the images were peaceful and calming, such as landscapes, trees and cute animals. Other photos, randomly dispersed in the succession, included violent, disturbing and emotionally stimulating images such as car crash, a bloody knife or a snake about to strike. The subjects were monitored during the viewing for changes in respiration, skin conductance, EEG (brain waves), ECG (electrocardiogram) and heart rate variability. Participantsí physiological indicators registered an emotional response five to seven seconds before an emotionally disturbing image would appear on the viewing screen. The main findings show that the heart receives and responds to intuitive information. Significant changes in heart rate variability occurred prior to disturbing and emotionally stimulating images appearing on the screen, compared to calm and serene images appearing. The fact that the heart is involved in the perception of future external events is an astounding result. The classical perspective assigns the brain an exclusive role in information processing. This study opens the door to new understandings about intuition and suggests that intuition is a system-wide process involving at least both the heart and the brain working together to decode intuitive information. Another noteworthy finding of the study was the fact that there were significant gender differences. Women appeared to have a greater sensitivity to future emotional stimuli. Female participants demonstrated a significant heart rate variability pre-stimulus response, whereas the malesí pre-stimulus response was smaller. McCraty says, ìBased on our study and other research findings, we believe that the greater the emotional significance of a future event to the individual, the larger the intuitive response will be prior to the actual experience of that event.î The heart has been regarded as a conduit for wisdom beyond our normal awareness by virtually all human cultures, ancient and modern. HeartMath believes the greatest significance of this study lies in the finding that the heart is directly involved in the processing of intuitive information. McCraty says, ìTo our knowledge, this is the first study to measure the heartís connection with intuitive perception, and this implies that the brain does not act alone in this regard. This is an important finding that may open the door to larger scientific studies and greater understanding of the heartís role in human perception and behavior.î Intuitive perception plays an important role in everyday decision-making in areas such as business, medical diagnosis, law enforcement, playing sports, choosing relationships, driving defensively, mothering a child and teaching students. If the heart is playing such an important role in intuitive perception, then learning to attune ourselves more to how we feel -- or acknowledging our heart promptings -- could help to increase our ability to draw on our intuitive awareness. The Institute of HeartMath was founded by Doc Childre in 1991. For over a decade, the Institute of HeartMath has conducted leading-edge research on the relationship between the heart and brain and the ways in which this relationship affects physical, mental and emotional health and human performance. Based on this research, the Institute of HeartMath has developed a system of scientifically validated tools and technology to help people reduce stress and improve health, learning, performance and quality of life. HeartMathís research has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals and is regularly presented at psychological and biomedical research conferences both nationally and internationally. To learn more about the Institute of HeartMathís research go to [link] More > |
| Friday, March 19, 2004 | |
| Earth On Verge Of Sixth Mass Extinction | 7 comments |
| 19 Mar 2004 @ 15:10 Earth On Verge Of Sixth Mass Extinction - Scientists By Roger Highfield The Telegraph UK 3-18-4 An accelerating decline in species, in particular a fall in butterflies, provides the first hard evidence that the Earth is on the verge of a sixth mass extinction. There have been at least five over the past 500 million years, with the biggest occurring 250 million years ago. Scientists report today that species diversity is falling fast and, contrary to current opinion, insects are particularly hard hit. This indicates that scientists may have underestimated the magnitude of the pending extinction. If they are correct, the Earth is heading for the first global wipeout with an organic cause, with humans the dominant agent of destruction. Earlier extinctions were triggered by volcanism, cosmic impacts and other physical causes. "The warning is there for all to see - we are poised on the verge of the sixth extinction crisis," said Dr Sandy Knapp of the Natural History Museum. "Britain, by virtue of its well-known and well-studied biodiversity, is the canary for the rest of the globe." Around 28 per cent of our 1,254 native plant species have significantly fallen in abundance in the past 40 years, 54 per cent of the 201 native bird species over two decades, and 71 per cent of our 58 butterfly species over the same period, according to the milestone comparative study published in the journal Science, led by Dr Jeremy Thomas of the Natural Environment Research Council's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Dorchester. "One form of life has become so dominant on Earth that, through its over-exploitation and waste, it eats, destroys or poisons the others," he said. "It is accelerating, this decline, and we are going to lose more than we lost in the past 20 years." The team's study used data collected by scientists and 20,000 volunteers scouring the countryside and could only have been done here, where more is known about diversity than anywhere else. Until now, the idea that the world is undergoing a sixth mass extinction, with the loss of species rising to 100 times normal rates, has rested on studies of a relatively small portion of the world's plants and animals. Population information about insects, which make up approximately half of all known species on Earth, has been particularly sparse and talk of a mass extinction was "an enormous extrapolation", said Dr Thomas. Now this gap has been filled, as Dr Thomas and colleagues analysed six surveys covering virtually all of the native plant, bird and butterfly populations over the last 40 years, including one he helped to conduct 25 years ago, revealing the impact of pollution, habitat loss and degradation. Dr Thomas said his team was surprised butterflies had fared so poorly, a discovery with global implications. "This provides the first objective support, for any group of insects, for the hypothesis that the world is experiencing the sixth major extinction event." Over 20 years, the ranges of approximately 70 per cent of all butterfly species declined to some degree, many severely. Shadier woodland floors, resulting from changing management, have harmed caterpillars of the high brown fritillary, causing a "frightening" 71 per cent drop, for example. Loss of grasslands have harmed the blues, such as the Large Blue. On average, these insects disappeared from 13 per cent of areas they once occupied. "That's the opposite of what people thought 20 years ago: that insects were much more resilient because they could fly about," Dr Thomas said. In a second study published today in Science, Carly Stevens, a doctoral student at the Open University and the NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Huntingdon, and colleagues recorded the abundance of plant species in 68 grasslands in upland areas. She reports "strong evidence" of a decline in species richness, for instance in species such as heather, harebells and eye-bright. Nitrogen pollution is the most likely cause: excess nitrogen can allow a few species, especially grasses, to grow fast and crowd or shade out their neighbours. The nitrogen is the result of agricultural fertilisation and fossil fuel combustion. © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004. More > |
| Thursday, March 18, 2004 | |
| Big bang revised again? | 0 comments |
| 18 Mar 2004 @ 11:31 Big bang revised again? By David Clark "Cosmologists Paul Steinhardt and Niel Turok... theorize that the cosmos was never compacted into a single point and did not spring forth in a violent instant. Instead, the universe as we know it is a small cross section of a much grander universe whose true magnitude is hidden in dimensions we cannot perceive. What we think of as the Big Bang, they contend, was the result of a collision between our three-dimensional world and another three-dimensional world less than the width of a proton away from ours — right next to us, and yet displaced in a way that renders it invisible. Moreover, they say the Big Bang is just the latest in a cycle of cosmic collisions stretching infinitely into the past and into the future. Each collision creates the universe anew. The 13.7 -billion-year history of our cosmos is just a moment in this endless expanse of time." Wow. While it is exciting to elaborate on the big bang, it is wrong to pretend that a theory so fluid has sufficient authority to govern unrelated fields such as biology. In other words, the big bang theory does not prove that life can originate from nonlife by natural means. Real evidence is needed. ============================== Before the Big Bang Maverick cosmologists contend that what we think of as the moment of creation was simply part of an infinite cycle of titanic collisions between our universe and a parallel world By Michael D. Lemonick Illustrations by Moonrunner Design DISCOVER Vol. 25 No. 02 | February 2004 | Astronomy & Physics The Catholic Church, which put Galileo under house arrest for daring to say that Earth orbits the sun, isn’t known for easily accepting new scientific ideas. So it came as a surprise when Pope Pius XII declared his approval in 1951 of a brand new cosmological theory—the Big Bang. What entranced the pope was the very thing that initially made scientists wary: The theory says the universe had a beginning, and that both time and space leaped out of nothingness. It seemed to confirm the first few sentences of Genesis. Eventually, astrophysicists followed the pope’s lead, as evidence for the Big Bang became too powerful to ignore. They accepted the notion that the entire observable universe—100 billion galaxies, each stuffed with 100 billion stars, stretching out more than 10 billion light-years in all directions—was once squashed into a space far smaller than a single electron. They bought the idea that the cosmos burst into existence precisely 13.7 billion years ago and has been expanding ever since. But even now, many astrophysicists are still uncomfortable with the implication that the Big Bang marked the beginning of time itself. And the theory has yet to yield a satisfactory answer to a key question: What made the Big Bang go bang? |
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