A research indicates that trees might be ‘aware’ of their size: Scientists found out that birch trees adjust their stem thickness to support their weight. (1)
We hold our consciousness so high.
Never have we thought to look down to the dirt.
Never have we thought that this might be the lowest of the possible forms of Being.
And that we need to get low in order to rise…
Look around.
So many things to see.
Do you see anything?
What does this mean for the EEG’s ability to reflect consciousness? “The study does support the possibility that certain EEG features might not always accurately capture the level of consciousness in surgical patients,” says senior author George A. Mashour, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the U-M Department of Anesthesiology.
However, “EEG likely does have value in helping us understand if patients are unconscious. For example, a suppressed EEG would suggest a very high probability of unconsciousness during general anesthesia. However, using high anesthetic doses to suppress the EEG might have other consequences, like low blood pressure, that we want to avoid. So, we will have to continue to be judicious in assessing the many indices available, including pharmacologic dosing guidelines, brain activity, and cardiovascular activity.”
Pal notes that there is physiological precedent for an EEG mismatching behavior; for example, the brain of someone in REM sleep is almost identical to an awake brain. “No monitor is perfect, but the current monitors we use for the brain are good and do their job most of the time. However, our data suggest there are exceptions.”
Their study raises intriguing questions about how consciousness is reflected in the brain, says Pal. “These measures do have value and we have to do more studies. Maybe they are associated with awareness and what we call the content of consciousness. With rats, we don’t know-we can’t ask them.” (1)
Close your eyes.
Sleep.
And you will dream.
Do you see?
It is not the activity of the brain that tells us that the brain is active.
But its ability to stay inactive.
You cannot be awake when you are awake.
But only when you are sleeping…
Shhhh…
The kid is still in bed…
One of the fundamental physical constants, the ‘weak axial vector coupling constant’ (gA), has now been measured with very high precision for the first time. It is needed to explain nuclear fusion in the sun, to understand the formation of elements shortly after the Big Bang, or to understand important experiments in particle physics. With the help of sophisticated neutron experiments, the value of gA has now been determined with an accuracy of 0.04%. (1)
Trying to measure constants.
To formulate models.
Which need more constants.
Which we then have to measure.
Until we measure everything.
Until we have defined all constants.
What a stable world that would be.
Perfectly defined.
Perfectly modeled.
It is raining.
Let’s find shelter.
Come on.
And in that stable world.
A kid.
And in the fierce rain.
Takes a step forward.
Into the rain.
Laughing!
Ruining everything!
By studying the phenomenon of contagious yawning, the researchers learned that people’s reactions in virtual reality (VR) can be quite different from what they are in actual reality. They found that contagious yawning happens in VR, but people’s tendency to suppress yawns when they have company or feel they’re being watched don’t apply in the VR environment. Further, when people immersed in VR are aware of an actual person in the room, they do stifle their yawns. Actual reality supersedes virtual reality. (1)
Reality…
What an overrated word.
We grow up worshiping it.
But without knowing why.
What is real?
What is not?
Fundamental questions we fail to answer.
And yet we are driven by them every day.
Reality…
It is not the cosmos calling us.
It is us calling at the cosmos…
In an empty world…
The only thing we worship without knowing why.
And, because of that, the only thing worth worshiping…
Reality…
It is…
Yawn…
People who are grieving a major loss, such as the death of a spouse or a child, use different coping mechanisms to carry on with their lives. Psychologists have been able to track different approaches, which can reflect different clinical outcomes. One approach that is not usually successful is avoidant grief, a state in which people suffering from grief show marked, effortful, repeated, and often unsuccessful attempts to stop themselves from thinking about their loss. While researchers have shown that avoidant grievers consciously monitor their external environment in order to avoid reminders of their loss, no one has yet been able to show whether these grievers also monitor their mental state unconsciously, trying to block any thoughts of loss from rising to their conscious state.
A new collaborative study between Columbia Engineering and Columbia University Irving Medical Center published online in SCAN: Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience demonstrates that avoidant grievers do unconsciously monitor and block the contents of their mind-wandering, a discovery that could lead to more effective psychiatric treatment for bereaved people. The researchers are the first to show how this unconscious thought suppression occurs, by tracking ongoing processes of mental control as loss-related thoughts came in and out of conscious awareness during a 10-minute period of mind-wandering. (1)
How can the mind block itself?
How can the brain control the brain?
How can you control you?
The more one tries to make sense of the cosmos, the more we realize that everything runs in circles. The snake will bite its own tail. The tide will rise again. Life will come after death. The morning will shine again.
And every passing minute, you will be constantly speaking.
To the only person that can hear you.
And the only thing you can hear is what you have already spoken.
Shhhh…
