– “What are you drawing?” – asked a 5-year-old boy adult men and women.
– “I’m drawing God and Angels,” – the boy answered.
– “But nobody knows what they look like!” – the adults cried.
– “Now everyone will know it,” – answered the boy calmly.
UCLA biologists report they have transferred a memory from one marine snail to another. But I have a nagging doubt.
At the very beginning, this experiment reminded me of a 40-years-old student joke on pseudoscientific methodology, in which cockroaches were mentioned. It goes like this:
“A researcher suggests a hypothesis: the hearing organs of cockroaches are located on their tarsi.” To test the hypothesis, we knock on the table where the unfortunate insect is sitting, and see that the cockroach is running away. “Then, the naturalist tears off the cockroach’s tarsi, knocks on the table and notes that the insect is not moving. Thus, the hypothesis is proved and turns into a working theory. “
But given the current trends in technology, if we move away from this research on cockroaches, this experiment looks a little different from my point of view:
There are two identical TV sets in a room on two different tables. Both TVs are connected to the 220V electrical power network. But only one of the TVs is connected to the television antenna, i.e. the first TV shows a television program, while the second one does not, only white noise. Let’s conduct a simple experiment – let’s turn off the antenna system from the first TV and connect it to the second TV. Make sure that the first TV stopped showing TV programs, and the second TV started showing TV programs. We make a very simple conclusion – the experimenter managed not only to “transplant” the TV program from one TV set to another, but also to prove that all the TV programs are located in the antenna system! What a simple and understandable experiment, but how far it is from the reality…
“UCLA biologists report they have transferred a memory from one marine snail to another, creating an artificial memory, by injecting RNA from one to another. This research could lead to new ways to lessen the trauma of painful memories with RNA and to restore lost memories.
“I think in the not-too-distant future, we could potentially use RNA to ameliorate the effects of Alzheimer’s disease or post-traumatic stress disorder,” said David Glanzman, senior author of the study and a UCLA professor of integrative biology and physiology and of neurobiology. The team’s research is published May 14 in eNeuro, the online journal of the Society for Neuroscience.
RNA, or ribonucleic acid, has been widely known as a cellular messenger that makes proteins and carries out DNA’s instructions to other parts of the cell. It is now understood to have other important functions besides protein coding, including regulation of a variety of cellular processes involved in development and disease.
The researchers gave mild electric shocks to the tails of a species of marine snail called Aplysia. The snails received five tail shocks, one every 20 minutes, and then five more 24 hours later. The shocks enhance the snail’s defensive withdrawal reflex, a response it displays for protection from potential harm. When the researchers subsequently tapped the snails, they found those that had been given the shocks displayed a defensive contraction that lasted an average of 50 seconds, a simple type of learning known as “sensitization.” Those that had not been given the shocks contracted for only about one second.
The life scientists extracted RNA from the nervous systems of marine snails that received the tail shocks the day after the second series of shocks, and also from marine snails that did not receive any shocks. Then the RNA from the first (sensitized) group was injected into seven marine snails that had not received any shocks, and the RNA from the second group was injected into a control group of seven other snails that also had not received any shocks.
Remarkably, the scientists found that the seven that received the from snails that were given the shocks behaved as if they themselves had received the tail shocks: They displayed a defensive contraction that lasted an average of about 40 seconds.
“It’s as though we transferred the memory,” said Glanzman, who is also a member of UCLA’s Brain Research Institute.
As expected, the control group of snails did not display the lengthy contraction.
Next, the researchers added RNA to Petri dishes containing neurons extracted from different snails that did not receive shocks. Some dishes had RNA from marine snails that had been given electric tail shocks, and some dishes contained RNA from snails that had not been given shocks. Some of the dishes contained sensory neurons, and others contained motor neurons, which in the snail are responsible for the reflex.
When a marine snail is given electric tail shocks, its sensory neurons become more excitable. Interestingly, the researchers discovered, adding RNA from the snails that had been given shocks also produced increased excitability in sensory neurons in a Petri dish; it did not do so in motor neurons. Adding RNA from a marine snail that was not given the tail shocks did not produce this increased excitability in sensory neurons.
In the field of neuroscience, it has long been thought that memories are stored in synapses. (Each neuron has several thousand synapses.) Glanzman holds a different view, believing that memories are stored in the nucleus of neurons.
“If memories were stored at synapses, there is no way our experiment would have worked,” said Glanzman, who added that the marine snail is an excellent model for studying the brain and memory.
Scientists know more about the cell biology of this simple form of learning in this animal than any other form of learning in any other organism, Glanzman said. The cellular and molecular processes seem to be very similar between the marine snail and humans, even though the snail has about 20,000 neurons in its central nervous system and humans are thought to have about 100 billion.
In the future, Glanzman said, it is possible that RNA can be used to awaken and restore memories that have gone dormant in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. He and his colleagues published research in the journal eLife in 2014 indicating that lost memories can be restored.
There are many kinds of RNA, and in future research, Glanzman wants to identify the types of RNA that can be used to transfer memories.”
Vegans and vegetarians. What are all sufferings for?
I remember the words of my mother ever since I was little. She was a doctor and said if a seriously ill patient asks for a meat, then the illness comes to an end and the patient is going to do well. The desire of a seriously ill patient to eat a meat always was a signal that unequivocally claimed — the patient’s body is making progress, i.e. it is coming through an illness …
But in recent years the majority have become engrossed in vegetarianism, veganism, raw foodism, inedia, etc. Many people refuse a meat … Some people have already gnawed stools, lightbulbs, razor blades …
What is it? Fashion? The way to extinction of the humankind? What are the reasons to suffer? Many people explain their actions by a wide variety of motives: ethical, medical, religious, economic ones, etc.
I’ll try to answer these questions, because I haven’t found an acceptable answer on the Web yet.
The modern humankind, in its essence, is very heterogeneous and nutrition of people living in different parts of the planet, i.e. in different climatic conditions greatly differs from one another and if these groups of people exchange places of their living, they couldn’t even survive …
Look at people living on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, they eat raw fish and drink seal oil. Look at people who live in northern Africa, they eat acute food with a lot of camel and lamb oil (in Europe, human stomach stops functioning properly in a day or two). This list can be endless …
Of course, people have the right to experiment on their material bodies and eat whatever they want.
The representatives of the modern humankind are constantly trying something new: now they’re drinking only water, now trying to eat only plant food, then using only solar energy, then start eating insects only, etc. … The material bodies of people — like self-organizing objects — begin to adapt to all new forms of food. But in order to complete the process of adjusting the body to new types of nutrition, our material bodies need to evolve, and many future generations will be involved in this process. In the meantime, the experimentalists and their children will get sick and suffer … from indigestion and improper functioning of many elements (proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and micro elements) in their bodies that are necessary to support the vital functions of the material bodies.
BUT …
Mother Nature (the functioning algorithms of material bodies, the environment, the Universe, God) is interested in the widest food variety for people whose material bodies are able to take anything. But it’s impossible to create a perfect digestive system for swallowing metal and plastic, plants, meat, etc. It isn’t possible yet. But food diversity can greatly impact on the survival of all humankind in the future (the fall of meteorites and asteroids, volcanic eruptions, changes in the magnetic field of the planet …).
In the near future, people will be able to create the human material bodies with ability to digest anything. They’ll also create new genetically modified material bodies on the basis of genetic engineering … But the real situation looks a bit different until such creations aren’t available for a daily use.
The modern humankind should experiment with nutrition to survive in the future. So, the essential functioning algorithms of our material bodies are initially programmed to maintain similar experiments on food diversity as much as possible in principle … and they will contribute to such experiments in the future …
Maybe the earth “meaning of life” of all experimentalists — vegans, vegetarians, rawatarians, etc. — consists in creation of the material bodies with ability to digest something unique.
Everyone decides by himself whether it makes sense to take part in such experiments that lead at the first stage to sufferings and diseases of the material bodies …
That’s life …
P.S.
My tricky questions for vegans and vegetarians:
- What do you feed your pets (dogs and cats) with?
- Do you eat plants that consume the flesh of insects, birds or animals?
- How do you differentiate carnivorous plants from all the rest?
- Do such plants like wheat and rye refer to meat eating ones?
- Do you know why there is a sticky liquid on the leaves of many plants? Are you ready to drink tea of a lime color?
- 🙂
Philosophy of the concept “information fields” and the basic principles to gain access to them
Does the “information field” exist or not? How do you think?
I guess that there are lots of “information fields” that differ from each other by the kind and form of stored information, the way of representing and perceiving it, types of information recording on carriers, information coordinates in our 3-dimensional space, etc. (In more detail the types of information I described in the Volume #25 “Information and Energy” of “The New Cosmic Philosophy” book series).
These “information fields” have special information carriers where all the data are stored; they also could have both material and immaterial nature. The main purpose of such information carriers is to save people perception, using any physical effects. Besides, there is unique filed on every type of carrier that simply has no relation to recorded information.
I`d like to mention that such concepts as “carrier” and “information carrier” are subjective ones, because they describe an object, information from the body of which an individual is able to read (to perceive). As example, one person is able to read information from the USB drive while another one considers it as an object with no intended use and nothing more.
The subjective variety of “information fields” depends on the subjective variety of information carriers that are located in the different “parts” of our 3-dimensional space.
For example:
- Any library represents a peculiar “field” of shelves with some books, which contain the thoughts of dozens of thousands of people (the authors of these books) that is information. It is unique “information field” where the pages of books made from paper are information carriers. With the course of time material information carriers of this “field” will constantly change (stone —> clay tablets —> papyrus —> birchbark —> paper —>…);
- World Wide Web is also original “information field” where the thoughts of million people are represented on the web pages. As a rule, hard drives are the parts of servers in the special “cloud” datacenters and information carriers of this “information field”. With the course of time material information carriers of this “field” will also constantly change (CD —> DVD —> HDD —> SSD —>…);
- “Information field” of the modern humankind is also unique, its information carriers are the certain exocellular (immaterial) carriers that contain all information people have systematized during cognition. In other words, this is the very same place for storing consciousnesses of all the Personalities of human beings who have ever lived or now are living on the Earth. Sometimes the concept “information core” is used instead of “information field”. Globally, this concept means one`s ability to receive information about any object of the Universe in any place of our 3-dimensional space by adjusting to wavelet characteristics of a cognizable object.
And now let us proceed to the most interesting point. Many people ask me such a question: “Can I get a personal access to the ‘information field’?” My answer is “Of course, you can. Every human being has a deep connection with this field from the birth of his corporeal body. Your intuition is a hint at this very same ‘field’.”
Some people keenly go with their gut feeling while others have no need for doing it! So, only certain individuals can reasonably answer the following question: “Why do you need an access to this information field?”
Let`s puzzle out this situation step by step.
Do you need an access to the “information field” where is stored information you don`t know about for any existing reason? No problems… Go to the best circulating library. It turns out that you just fool yourself, because you have no desire to study medicine, chemistry, biology, mathematics, etc. You have zero intention! What do you have reliance in? You think by accessing to information field you immediately and effortlessly perceive all information stored there (the thoughts of other people). Well, well… It doesn`t work like that…
“Our” World is different, this proverb is the most appropriate to describe it: “The race is got by running!” Only certain efforts aimed at cognizing a particular object (process, phenomenon) can allow you to cognize and understand it, as a result, the information you personally receive during cognition will become a part of your consciousness.
Finally, the most important question without answering which “connection” to any “information field” is simply meaningless, sounds something like this: “Is the requested information useful if you successfully receive and understand it?” Fall short of hope … no one will answer you… because every person has his own “path of life” in this World.
Only being fully aware of the goals for information obtaining (when you could be useful for the Universe), you can count on gaining access to the “information field” … All the mechanisms of Nature (all the mechanisms of the environment of human beings) function according to “self-developing” algorithms, the main purpose of which is the sustainability of all its “parts” … Nature protects itself from irrational beings who can apply information received to the detriment of the Universe …
Cast mind back to the 80s of the last century, when in the USSR many citizens collected books in beautiful covers on their bookshelves, conceiving that the bigger number of these books, the more convinced would be their guests of a great intellect of their owner … and for years these books were on the shelves with their pages being untouched…. uncovered, unread, unrealized … 🙁 Do you strain after this?
Cast mind back to the 35-45 years of the last century, when in Germany members of Ahnenerbe (“Inherited from the Forefathers“, a full name — “German Ancestral Heritage—Society for the Study of the History of Primeval Ideas”) looked for the ways to contact with “supreme minds” in order to meet targets of the world rule and to control people … 🙁 Do you strain after this?
Recall Atlantians, Sumerians, Toltecs and other representatives of “other humankinds”. It appears that these people were in the dark about the functioning principles of Nature algorithms.
Thus, find your position and make right decision!
“Do not gain knowledge only to thine undoing. Remember Adam.
Do not obtain that which ye cannot make constructive in thine own experience and in the experience of those whom ye contact day by day.
Do not attempt to force, impel or to even try to impress thy knowledge upon another. Remember what the serpent did to Eve.
In the studies, then, know WHERE ye are going. To gain knowledge merely for thine own satisfaction is a thing, a condition, an experience to be commended, if it does not produce in thine experience a feeling or a manner of expression that you are better than another on account of thy knowledge. This becomes self-evident that it would become then a stumblingblock, unless ye know what ye will do with thy knowledge.As to the manners of interpreting – these may be observed, these may be made constructive by the study of those influences that in the associations and dealings with thy fellow man ye have had weaknesses, inclinations. These are mental, not material things, though they may have brought material activity. Warnings, constructive activity in warnings, then may prove to be of helpful experience in the activity of any individual group. That this should not include documentary data or evidence, to be sure, is well; for documentary evidence to the mind of the masses is nil. Only that which produces or makes for experiences that may make a citizen a better citizen, a father a better father, a mother a better mother, a neighbor a better neighbor, is constructive.”
Edgar Cayce “Readings” (5753—2)
© 2018, Helen Zhoglo, translation into English
Objects and Philosophy of the Compatibility of Their Hardware with Software Components
In my everyday life I use iPhone 6, hardware of which – completed with the iOS 8 operating system – saw the light in late 2014. The frequently changing Apple`s iOS operating system was rapidly developing during the following three years: iOS 8 -> iOS 9 -> iOS 10 -> iOS 11. Today my iPhone 6 doesn`t maintain many of the latest features of this operating system as it requires more advanced hardware, i.e. faster processor, more RAM, more advanced camera and photo-flash, etc.
Despite the fact that iPhone 6 and iOS 11 are compatible with each other, the user is able to reveal incompatibility of its hardware with software part, which appears in use as restricted functions of the apps being installed.
I attempt to develop a “fantastic” hypothesis. If we assume that any objects of the Universe, the bodies of which are based on well-known substance, consist of hardware and software parts (they have material bodies and immaterial field “Selves” incarnated into them), then we understand many facts from everyday life of the animals around us.
Many Eastern scientists claim that “the Selves” of human beings can incarnate (set, install, penetrate …) into the material bodies of animals. I will not discuss the reasons for these incarnations in this article, but I want to draw the attention of my readers to the very clever animals around us, they just cannot tell us many things … there is incompatibility of their hardware with their software parts … there is incompatibility of capabilities of their material bodies with potentials of the immaterial field “Selves” that have incarnated into their bodies…
Of course, the animal brain is less developed than the brain of a human being (a kind of analogy is less operative processor, running on the algorithms that differ from ones of the human beings), less volume of consciousness (a kind of analogy is less amount of systematized information in the permanent memory) … so, it is quite possible that they want to say something, but most often they simply aren`t able to do it … and just look devotedly into our eyes …
At the will of Nature (self-organizing objects of the higher hierarchies), in the next 100-200 years many animals on the Earth will speak and communicate with us “in the language of the common man” … For this purpose, their material bodies will be fast-evolving, improving the parameters of their brains, the parameters of the central nervous systems, the parameters of their auditory and visual organs, etc. … changing their voice apparatus with its vocal cords… But 100-200 years on the Earth is 50-200 of their generations, during which their material bodies will evolve, passing down through the generations those changes that will contribute to their survival in “our” World …
Look carefully round you …
© 2018, Helen Zhoglo, translation into English