Direct electrical stimulation of the human amygdala, a region of the brain known to regulate memory and emotional behaviors, can enhance next-day recognition of images when applied immediately after the images are viewed, neuroscientists have found.
The results were published in PNAS.
The findings are the first example of electrical brain stimulation in humans giving a time-specific boost to memory lasting more than a few minutes, the scientists say. Patients’ recognition only increased for stimulated images, and not for control images presented in between the stimulated images. The experiments were conducted at Emory University Hospital in 14 epilepsy patients undergoing intracranial monitoring, an invasive procedure for the diagnosis of seizure origin, during which electrodes are introduced into the brain. (1)
We try to remember more.
And it seems that we will find a way to do it.
But why do we want to remember?
It seems that remembering is related to the brain. (surprise! surprise!) And it seems that it is also related to external stimuli, to the interaction with the environment via our senses. But who says that our senses work properly or that they provide any objective or “correct” view of the cosmos? Who says that what we want to keep remembering is something true – truer anyway than the things we imagine or think about?
Political favoritism can quite literally be seen from space, according to a new study that finds the home regions of leaders become brighter at night after the person comes to power.
The findings apply mostly to countries with weak political institutions and limited public education. One prominent example was Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) during the reign of Mobuto Sese Seko. Mobuto, who was president between 1971 and 1997, was born near the small town of Gbadolite. While he was in power, the town flourished.
“Mobuto built a huge palace complex costing millions of dollars, luxury guesthouses, an airport capable of handling Concords, and had the country’s best supply of water, electricity and medical services,” study researcher Paul Raschky, an economist at Monash University in Australia, said in a statement. Years of satellite data reveal Gbadolite as initially dark at night, brightening under Mobuto and quickly fading again after the authoritarian ruler’s exile and death. (1)
Nowadays everyone wants light in order to see.
We are too afraid of the dark, even though the dark has moulded us from the beginning of time. We are children of the Night, grandchildren of Chaos.
Nowadays we like to be called children of Apollo.
But we are offsprings of the Moon.
We may think of Logic as our greatest achievement, but it is Dionysus who dances every noon inside our heads.
Irrational life.
Irrational cosmos.
Irrational men.
Seek the darkness as if it was light.
Everything will be allright.
The light you seek is only inside.
The experiments of Sir Charles Wheatstone showed that the velocity of electricity is about 288,000 miles per second, much greater than the speed of light, which we all consider as the ultimate barrier. [1, 2, 3, 4]
However in order to interpret this we must understand what “electricity” is. In fact we do not have electrons moving in such speed in a wire, but every new electron which is moving into the wire “pushes” the electron which at that time is at the end of the wire thus creating this result of high speed. [5, 6] One can even think of electricity as the propagation of a wave: given a large enough wave length the peak of the wave can almost “instantly” be sent to the other end of the wire. [see “velocity of propagation” here] (in AC we do not have at all propagation of electrons)
But these notes do not nullify the importance of the abovementioned result. Electricity can transfer INFORMATION with speeds GREATER THAN THAT OF LIGHT, despite what proponents of the Theory of Relativity say (and the objections of New Scientist that the strength of the signal is lost in great distances does not hold – you can have speeds greater than the speed of light in small distances). And in any case, if these “electron-push”/ “wave propagation” mechanisms apply to electricity in a wire, why can’t it be applied analogously to light as well which is propagated in a space where the electromagnetic field in a sense “pre-exists”?
No discussion can go on with absolutes. Every absolute restriction science postulated (e.g. barrier of sound, possibility of flying, imaginary numbers etc) was later on discarded. Why don’t we learn from our mistakes?
PS. It is very interesting and suspicious that it is very hard (much harder than what one might expect) to find clear information regarding the speed of electricity in the otherwise rich with information Internet. It is characteristic that Wikipedia in the respective article writes about everything else (from electromagnetic waves to the drift speed of electrons) than the actual problem at hand [see here] and without referring to the experiment by Wheatstone. It just claims that the speed of electricity is that of light, with an Internet forum as a source. In other sites the confusion is similar [see for example here, here, here and here], with people confusing the speed of electricity with the speed of electrons, the speed of electricity with that of light et cetera, and without anyone referring to the actual experiments conducted to measure electricity speed.
PS2. And no, this is not the only “faster than light” example… See here, here (see this analysis here to help you and this discussion here to help you also), here, here (see the Nature article here), here and here for more… See also this scientific paper which refers to particles travelling faster than light, or this article which also refers to such particles as a valid possibility.
PS3. And no, definition-like “arguments” like… “we note that the observed superluminal light pulse propagation is not at odds with causality or special relativity” or “It has also been suggested that the true speed at which information is carried by a light pulse should be defined as the ‘frontal’ velocity of a step-function-shaped signal which has been shown not to exceed c” (see here) do not suffice for the negation of such above-the-light observed speeds.
Two Rutgers physics professors have proposed an explanation for a new type of order, or symmetry, in an exotic material made with uranium. When cooled to 17.5 degrees above absolute zero or lower, the flow of electricity through this material changes subtly. The material essentially acts like an electronic version of polarized sunglasses, he explains. Electrons behave like tiny magnets, and normally these magnets can point in any direction. But when they flow through this cooled material, they come out with their magnetic fields aligned with the material’s main crystal axis.
There seems to be a symmetry behind everything. A symmetry which is hidden and which requires the proper conditions to arise back at the surface. And as Heraclitus of Ephesus said, unseen harmonia is stronger / better than seen. (Greek: Η κρυφή αρμονία είναι καλύτερη από τη φανερή. Ancient Greek: ἁρμονίη ἀφανὴς φανερῆς κρείττων)…
