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2018-05-232018-05-23

New Giant Viruses Further Blur the Definition of Life

Biology

Date: March, 2018

Source: Quanta Magazine

Defining the boundary between living and non-living organism is a difficult matter in science. Conventionally, viruses are regarded as the boundary between the two because although, they have nucleic acids (DNA or RNA), they are very simple and unable to survive outside a host (infected cell). However, scientists have now discovered viruses that are far more complex, which makes them able to do many of the functions attributed to living organisms. This discovery is interesting because it blurs the supposed line separating living from non-living, and may point to the idea that life is an intrinsic property of matter.

Article: https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-giant-viruses-further-blur-the-definition-of-life-20180305/

2018-04-20

Sprawling Maya network discovered under Guatemala jungle

Archeology

History

Date: Feb, 2018

Source: BBC

Archaeologists have discovered a large network of Mayan structures in the jungles of Guatemala that would alter our understanding of Mayan civilization. Using a laser technology called Lidar (light detecting and ranging), the researchers were able to see 60,000 ruins beneath the forest canopy.

“I think this is one of the greatest advances in over 150 years of Maya archaeology,” said Stephen Houston, Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology at Brown University.

“Lidar is revolutionizing archaeology the way the Hubble Space Telescope revolutionised astronomy,” said Francisco Estrada-Belli, a Tulane University archaeologist. “We’ll need 100 years to go through all [the data] and really understand what we’re seeing.”

The Mayan civilization is believed to have attained its peak 1,500 years ago, and was estimated to have five million people. “With this new data it’s no longer unreasonable to think that there were 10 to 15 million people there,” said Mr Estrada-Belli, “including many living in low-lying, swampy areas that many of us had thought uninhabitable.”

Source: BBC. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-42916261?intlink_from_url=http://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c1038wnxyy0t/archaeology&link_location=live-reporting-story

Note: The Secret Doctrine refers to the work of Auguste le Plongeon “Sacred Mysteries among the Mayas and the Quiches, 11,500 years ago”, who shows the identity between the Egyptian rites and beliefs and those of the people he describes.The ancient hieratic alphabets of the Maya and the Egyptians are almost identical.
H.P.B. suggests that there was an ancient connection between the Central American peoples, the Mayas and other races, and the Egyptians by means of a connecting Atlantis.

2018-04-202018-04-20

Creating Babies with no Egg or Sperm

Biology

Health and Medicine

Date: April, 2018

Source: New Scientist

A number of discoveries and researches have opened up the possibility of making babies without the use of egg or sperm from the parents. A bioengineer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yue Shao, published in 2017 his findings when he was still at the University of Michigan that the cells he was working with seemed to have assembled themselves into what appeared to be early-stage human. A year before that, Japanese researchers in Kyoto University were able to produce mice babies from eggs that were made from adult skin cells.

This has important implications on the possibility of having babies for people who are infertile. Coupled with growing research on the possibility of letting the fetus grow outside the body using artificial sacs, a new way of reproduction seems no longer remote.

Hank Greely, a bioethicist and lawyer at Stanford University in California, said, “My guess is this would be a major way of having babies 100 years from now.”

Source: New Scientist, April 14-20, 2018;

2018-04-202018-04-20

Yoga and Mindfulness Improve Emotional Health of Third-Graders

Psychology

Education

Health and Medicine

Date: December, 2017

Source: Science Daily, Psychology Research and Behavior Management

A study made by Tulane University showed that third graders who manifest anxiety were helped in their well-being and emotional health after practicing yoga and mindfulness activities.

A group of 20 students underwent special yoga practice while a control group of 32 students underwent the usual school care including counseling. The yoga practice included breathing exercises, guided relaxation and yoga postures. The researchers used two instruments to assess the change in the students: the Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale-Peabody Treatment Progress Battery version and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory.

“The intervention improved psychosocial and emotional quality of life scores for students, as compared to their peers who received standard care,” said principal author Alessandra Bazzano, associate professor of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences at Tulane University School of Public Health. “We also heard from teachers about the benefits of using yoga in the classroom, and they reported using yoga more often each week, and throughout each day in class, following the professional development component of intervention.”

Sources:

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180410100919.htm
Alessandra N Bazzano, Christopher E Anderson, Chelsea Hylton, Jeanette Gustat. Effect of mindfulness and yoga on quality of life for elementary school students and teachers: results of a randomized controlled school-based study. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 2018; Volume 11: 81 DOI: 10.2147/PRBM.S157503

2018-04-112018-04-20

4 days after death, hundred of genes still active

Biology

Health and Medicine

Date: June, 2016

Source: Science Alert; Science

A team of researchers from the University of Washington found that genes continue to be active in mice and zebra fish even days after their death. This research was triggered by a previous finding that genes in human cadavers were still active more than 12 hours after death. What they noted was that the gene activity after death was not sputtering but rather they became more active after death. In the case of zebra fish, “548 genes retained their function for four whole days after the animals had died before showing any signs of winding down.” This finding raises the question on when really is the time of death. It also has implications on the state of the organs after death when they are being considered for transplant.

What surprised researchers was the fact that the genes which were activated after death were those which were active during the formation of the embryo and which become inactive during one’s lifetime.

Sources:

Science, June 22, 2016; http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/06/undead-genes-come-alive-days-after-life-ends
Science Alert, June 23, 2018; https://www.sciencealert.com/hundreds-of-genes-caught-sparking-to-life-2-days-after-death

2018-04-102018-04-10

The Block Universe

Physics

Date: July, 2017

Source: Quanta Magazine

The nature of time and its flow remains a mystery from the point of view of modern physics. Many physicists argue that Einstein’s masterpiece, the general theory of relativity, and the Standard Model of particle physics, describe a timeless cosmos, sometimes called a “block universe” — a static block of space-time in which the totality of time already exists. In this view, all points in time equally “real,” which means that the future and past are no less real than the present. The flow of time, or passage of the future into the past, must presumably be a mental construct.

Although this idea remains controversial, it bears a very interesting resemblance with how H. P. Blavatsky explained the nature of time in The Secret Doctrine:

“Time is only an illusion produced by the succession of our states of consciousness as we travel through eternal duration . . . . The present is only a mathematical line which divides that part of eternal duration which we call the future, from that part which we call the past. . . . The real person or thing does not consist solely of what is seen at any particular moment, but is composed of the sum of all its various and changing conditions from its appearance in the material form to its disappearance from the earth. It is these “sum-totals” that exist from eternity in the “future,” and pass by degrees through matter, to exist for eternity in the “past.” No one could say that a bar of metal dropped into the sea came into existence as it left the air, and ceased to exist as it entered the water, and that the bar itself consisted only of that cross-section thereof which at any given moment coincided with the mathematical plane that separates, and, at the same time, joins, the atmosphere and the ocean. Even so of persons and things, which, dropping out of the to-be into the has-been, out of the future into the past — present momentarily to our senses a cross-section, as it were, of their total selves, as they pass through time and space (as matter) on their way from one eternity to another.” (SD I, 37)

2018-04-10

Role of magnetic fields in star formation

Space Sciences

Date: October, 2016

Source: Nature 538,8

Because the theoretical predictions for star formation in science do not match what is actually observed, scientist have lately begun to consider the possibility that electromagnetism plays a roll in the process.

The Scientific Journal Nature (538,8), published an article : ” Astronomy: Magnetism drives star birth”. In this article, Nature refers to an article from Astronomy & Astrophysics (593,L14, 2016), where a team of scientists made observations of a large gas cloud with the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) telescope in northern Chile. They observed that the gas of a stellar system collapsed and fragmented, . . . forming a string of clumps. The clumps will eventually form the cores of future stars. From these observations, they ran numerical simulations to match the observations, and they discovered that these formations can be modeled, using strong magnetic fields. The study findings confirm theoretical predictions that magnetic fields play a major part in protostars formation.

Blavatsky proposes that electromagnetism (the primary manifestation of Fohat on the physical plane) is the main force responsible for cosmic processes. In the Secret Doctrine, she quotes an “ancient Commentary to Stanza IV,” which describes the formation of a cosmic systems in a way that matches what science observes today:

“The grains (of spawn) are soon attracted to each other and form the curds in the Ocean (of Space). The larger lumps coalesce and receive new spawn . . . and at the appointed time some of the lumps detach themselves and assume spheroidal form . . . after which . . . motion (the Breath) becomes the whirlwind and sets them into rotation.” (SD vol. 1, p. 97)

see : Nature article

see : Astronomy and Astrophysics article

2018-04-092020-03-31

Estonia to give DNA test and advice to citizens

Biology

Health and Medicine

Date: April, 2018

Source: New Scientist

Estonia plans to test the DNA structure of 100,000 residents and give advice regarding their predispositions to certain diseases so that they could adopt healthier lifestyles and take preventive measures.

“We want to invest in preventing or delaying the onset of common chronic diseases by using genetics to identify people at high risk,” says Jevgeni Ossinovski, Estonia’s minister of health and labour.

The country plans to do it eventually for the entire population.

Source: New Scientist, April 7-13, 2018

2018-04-092018-04-10

Google with your Mind

Psychology

Technology

Date: April, 2018

Source: New Scientist

Two scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a device that could detect what one is thinking, send Google queries and get replies from the Internet.

Arnav Kapur and Pattie Maes, the developers, called it AlterEgo, consisting of a headset that puts sensors in seven areas on the cheeks, jaw and chin, and which detects signals in these speech-related areas. In a demonstration with New Scientist writer Chelsea Whyte, Kapur was asked several questions such as the population of Santiago, Chile, the square root of 360,005 and the product of two large numbers. Kapur just repeated the questions in his mind. The computer responded with the correct answers. In a test with eight people, AlterEgo could recognize words and numbers with 90% accuracy.

AlterEgo is just one of several artificial intelligence softwares being developed to read thoughts through brain waves or nerve signals. The implications can be alarming. The technology now is still in its infancy, but it seems only a matter of time before such devices can really read our thoughts with high accuracy.

Source: New Scientist, April 7-13, 2018

2018-03-262018-04-03

Children’s Vocabulary Skills Linked to Family Income

Psychology

Education
Date: March, 2014
Source: NAEYC

Children’s vocabulary skills are linked to their economic backgrounds. A research by Stanford University shows that “by 3 years of age, there is a 30 million word gap between children from the wealthiest and poorest families. A recent study shows that the vocabulary gap is evident in toddlers. By 18 months, children in different socio-economic groups display dramatic differences in their vocabularies. By 2 years, the disparity in vocabulary development has grown significantly”.

Source: https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/tyc/feb2014/the-word-gap

2018-03-262018-04-03

Telekinetic Able to Lift Table

Parapsychology
Date: June, 2017
Source: Journal of Scientific Exploration

A research on a telekinetic subject in Brazil appeared to show that he was able to lift one side of a table by putting his palms on the surface of the table. The research was done between June 2014 and December 2015, with five video cameras recording the events. Measuring instruments were used to record physical, physiological, and environmental variables.

Sources: Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 159–186, 2017. https://www.scientificexploration.org/docs/31/jse_31_2_Gimeno.pdf

2018-03-262018-04-03

Reincarnation Case Study in Japan Involving Suicide

Parapsychology
Date: December, 2016
Source: Journal of Scientific Exploration

This is a case study of a Japanese who remembers his past life where he committed suicide. In his previous life, he belonged to the same family and thus the claimed memories and the facts could be compared more easily. The subject was also able to describe memories of his life–between–life.

Source: Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 524–536, 2016; https://www.scientificexploration.org/docs/30/jse_30_4_Ohkado.pdf