MYCORRHIZAS: The Internet of Plants

Biology

Date : Apr., 2021

Source : PHYS.org

Networking and intercommunication is not for humans only. Plants can be wired and collaborate together, thanks to a web-like infrastructure generated by fungi. A new publication describes this world of connection and interdependence between different species. It looks like a collective intelligence, using the best resources available to drive their growth and reproduction, and their survival in case of imminent danger.

The Secret Doctrine (Vol. II, p. 590 – 1888 Edition) , talking about the “old Esoteric doctrine” teaches that :

When the first ‘Seven’ appeared on earth, they threw the seed of everything that grows on the land into the soil. First came three, and four were added to these as soon as stone was transformed in plant. Then came the second ‘Seven’; who, guiding the Jîvas of the plants, produced the middle (intermediate) natures between plant and moving living animal.”

Watch : https://youtu.be/yWOqeyPIVRo

Read more : https://phys.org/news/2021-04-complex-world-resources-environments.html

XENOBOTS : When Cells decide to Live on their Own

Biology

Date : Mar., 2021

Source : QUANTA Magazine

An experiment in biology is opening up new territories for the understanding of living cells. Embryonic cells separated from their organism (African clawed frogs) seem to self-organize their structure and behavior, like strange living robots.

Why is this interesting? First, it shows that the DNA does not define the form, because the cluster of cells, bearing the same DNA than the original embryo, started to develop very differently. This takes us to the second point: the cells removed from the original embryo were presumably separated from the etheric double of the embryo, which is the one that guides distribution and organization of the different cells, and now had no model to follow. However, the cells showed some intelligence of their own as they developed in a very basic structure able to move around. 

Read more: QUANTA Magazine

What is Life ? How It started ?

Space Sciences, Biology

Date : Mar., 2021

Source : PHYS.ORG

Scientists are still trying to understand what LIFE is and how it started on Earth.
NASA is currently developing active programs to search for life on the Solar System planets and on exo-planets.
Life is defined by the NASA as :
«  A SELF-SUSTAINING CHEMICAL SYSTEM CAPABLE OF DARWINIAN EVOLUTION »
The way scientists are looking at the beginning of life on Earth :
« FOUR BILLION YEARS AGO, SOMETHING HAPPENED… AND LIFE STARTED… A PROCESS OF RANDOM VARIATION IN THE STRUCTURE OF INHERITED BIOMOLECULES, ON WHICH WAS SUPERIMPOSED NATURAL SELECTION TO ACHIEVE FITNESS.
Mme Blavatsky said (Secret Doctrine, vol. I, p. 539 – 1888 edition) :
«  The Principle of Life on the manifested (or our) plane is but the effect and the result of the intelligent action of the « Host » – collectively, Principle – the manifesting LIFE and LIGHT. It is itself subordinate to, and emanates from the ever-invisible, eternal and Absolute ONE LIFE in a descending and a re-ascending scale of hierarchic degrees – a true septenary ladder…”and religion.

Watch: YouTube

Read more: PHYS.ORG

Lucid Dreams: A Scientific Experimentation

Biology, Psychology, Parapsychology

Date : Feb. 2021

Source : Current Biology

A team of researchers has developed a methodology to experiment two-way communication with dreamers during their sleep. They used EEG (electroencephalography) and facial or ocular response to correlate with stimuli. Dreamers were able to hear simple arithmetic questions and to provide correct answers via a pre-established protocol (ocular or facial movements).
Once awaken, the experimenters were able to confirm they received the questions and transmit the answers, with some distortion in some cases. This experiment confirm the sleep learning phenomenon and open the door to a better understanding of the dream states.

Read more: Current Biology

Neural Network & Cosmic Web

Biology, Space Science

Date : Oct. 2020

Source : Frontiers in Physics

The network of neuronal cells in the human brain is seen as a complex multi-scale structure which can be modeled as a hierarchical network forming the physical and biological basis of cognition. The Universe, as far as we can observe and model it, looks like a web, the cosmic web. A new study analyzed the similarities between the two systems, and an astonishing conclusion emerged, showing that the order of magnitude of the quantity of information existing in the human mind neural network is identical to the quantity of information in the entire observable universe ( 1016).

The Secret Doctrine (Vol. I, p. 592 – 3rd Edition) states that : “Occult Philosophy has taught since the existence of human speech and language, on the principle of the immutable law of analogy, “as it is above, so it is below”, another of its axioms, that there is neither Spirit nor Matter, in reality, but only numberless aspects of the One ever-hidden Is, or Sat.”

Read more : Frontiers in Physics

An Unknown Form of Neural Communication

Biology, Medicine

Source : Science Alert

Date : May 2020

Communication between the neurons – the elementary cells of the brain – has been conventionally understood, using mechanisms as synaptic transmission, axonal transport, etc. A team of scientists has identified a new, unknown process of neural communication which seems to leap wirelessly from neurons – even when they are severed. The transportation medium may be a set of electromagnetic waves which have been identified to be active during sleep in the cortex and the hippocampus. It looks like new science.

Read more : Science Alert , The Journal of Physiology

Lithopanspermia : Interplanetary Transmission of Life

Biology, Earth Sciences, Space Sciences

Source : arXiv.org

Date : Feb 2020

The theory of lithopanspermia proposes the natural exchange of organisms between solar system bodies through meteorites. This has become recently an active field of researches. This paper, based on latest findings from over 62,000 meteorites found on earth (The Meteoritical Society, 2020) describes the complete process of biological organisms transport back-and-forth between the Earth and Mars.

Read more : arXiv.org

Going Vegan

Biology, Earth Sciences, Health & Medicine

Source : NEW SCIENTIST

Date : Dec. 2019

Million of people are giving a try to a vegan diet during the month of January 2020. Researchers at the University of Oxford are running a pilot experiment to assess the value of veganism for the environmental impacts aspect. Veganism is considered better for the planet than other diets. A 2018 Science study has quantified the today’s food supply chain impact at the global scale – feeding 7.6 billion people : meat and dairy contribute about 60 percent of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emission, and provide only 18 percent of our calories. The alternative of veganism starts to gain some momentum, and some coaching is available on the Vegan Society Web Site.

Evidence for Possible Bio-Signature on Mars

Space Sciences, Biology, Archeology

Source : ScienceDirect

Date : Nov 2019

Fossil hunters have been digging up remains of extinct species on Earth for centuries. Now the work is about to begin on Mars. Using hyper-spectral imaging spectroscopy from the surface of a Mars crater (Jezero crater) where a paleolake has been identified, a team of scientists reached the conclusion that the carbonate signal they detected may indicate the presence of microscopic bio-signatures like the ones from stromatolites (fossils of cyanobacteria, single cell microbe). This finding may confirm the possibility for some primitive life activity on Mars four billion years ago. The next space mission to Mars (Mars Rover 2020) will land in this crater to confirm (or not) this detection in February 2021.

Read More : ScienceDirect

Read on stromatolites : Wikipedia

See More : NASA/JPL

Organic Compounds Discovered on one of Saturn’s Moon

Space Science, Biology

Source : NASA

Date : Oct 2019

Analysis of ejected material from Enceladus, one of Saturn’s Moon, has identified nitrogen and oxygen-bearing compounds. These components are identical with the ones which produces amino-acids, through chemical reactions. Amino-acids are considered as building blocks of life on Earth.

Read More : NASA, WIKIPEDIA

See More : YouTube

Mindset inducing changes in the biology of the body

Biology

Source: Current Biology

Date : May 2015

Stress-related diseases like major depression is causing visible alterations on the individual’s genome. A recent study demonstrated that stress and adversity can cause mtDNA amount and telomeric length reversible changes. One possible hypothesis linking stress/adversity to molecular changes could be through the hypothalamic pituitary axis.

Madame Blavastky explained to her students that : “The fourth cavity of the brain is the Pituitary Body, which corresponds with Manas-Antaskarana, the bridge to the Higher Intelligence; it contains various essence. The pituitary Body is the organ per se of the psychic plane.” (Collected Writings, Vol. XII, p. 697)

Read More : Current Biology

Human impact on threatened terrestrial vertebrates

Biology

Date: March 2019

Source: PLOS | Biology

Endangered & Extinct Species

A global analysis of cumulative human impacts on threatened species on the distribution of 5,457 terrestrial vertebrates show that impacts to species are widespread, occurring across 84% of Earth’s surface. Almost one-quarter of assessed species are impacted across >90% of their distribution, and approximately 7% are impacted across their entire range.

Read more at : PLOS

Mme Blavatsky wrote (The Theosophist, Vol. VII, N° 76, January 1886) : ” Evolution starts to mold future humanities within the lower scales of being. Therefore, by killing an animal, or even an insect, we arrest the progress of an entity towards its final goal in nature – MAN ; and to this the student of occult knowledge may say that it not only retards the evolution of that entity, but arrests that of the next succeeding human and more perfect race to come.”

Sleep increases chromosome dynamics in neurons

Biology, Health & Medicine

Date: March 2019

Source: Nature

Sleep increases chromosome dynamics that clear out DNA damage accumulated during waking hours. A new study shows that sleep can heal DNA damage induced by many causes, including radiation, oxydative stress, . . . According to current state-of-the-art, sleep process is still far from being understood : “Nevertheless, the core cellular function of sleep is unknown, and there is no conserved molecular marker to define sleep across phylogeny“, “. . . however, why sleep has evolved and which fundamental ancestral functions it regulates, remain enigmatic.

Read more at Nature Communications

Neuroscience Readies for a Showdown Over Consciousness Ideas

Biology

Date: March 2019

Source: Quanta Magazine

Molecular Thoughts

Identifying consciousness in the physical realm is one of the strongest push from the scientific community, in order to validate the materialistic model. This article talks about a new initiative to narrow down the landscape of possibilities :

Now a new project currently under review hopes to close in on some answers. It proposes to draw up a suite of experiments that will expose theories of consciousness to a merciless spotlight, in the hope of ruling out at least some of them. If all is approved and goes according to plan, the experiments could start this autumn. The initial aim is for the advocates of two leading theories to agree on a protocol that would put predictions of their ideas to the test. Similar scrutiny of other theories will then follow.

Read more at: Quanta Magazine

What is Life ?

Biology

Date: January, 2019

Source: New Scientist

All the signs are you’re alive: you respond to stimuli, you’re using energy, your cells are reproducing. Yet plenty of things around you obviously aren’t alive, despite ultimately being made of the exact same atoms. Physics or biology alone can’t explain the difference, and in the first of a new occasional series of “Big Questions”, physicist-turned-biologist Paul Davies marries concepts from the cutting edge of both disciplines to come up with a big answer – one that takes us outside the bounds of the laws of nature as we know them.

Read more at: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24132150-100-lifes-secret-ingredient-a-radical-theory-of-what-makes-things-alive/