sea – Harmonia Philosophica

Recycling… Identity issues…

The secret to a long life? For worms, a cellular recycling protein is key. Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute have shown that worms live longer lives if they produce excess levels of a protein, p62, which recognizes toxic cell proteins that are tagged for destruction. The discovery, published in Nature Communications, could help uncover treatments for age-related conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, which are often caused by accumulation of misfolded proteins.

“Research, including our own, has shown that lifespan can be extended by enhancing autophagy – the process cells use to degrade and recycle old, broken and damaged cell components”, says Malene Hansen, Ph.D., a professor in the Development, Aging and Regeneration Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys and senior author of the study. “Prior to this work, we understood that autophagy as a process was linked to aging, but the impact of p62, a selective autophagy protein, on longevity was unknown”. (1)

There you go.

Recycle old material and you will live longer.

But will that new ship built with new material be the same as the old ship which started the sail?

Will you recognize your mother when you get back home?

Questions we do not care about.

Because unfortunately modern man has chosen not to return home…

And on that new ship we set sails.

All into the dark sea.

Storm raging. Thunders and rain.

You believe these are obstacles toward your goal.

But they are just a calling back home…

Where our old ship is waiting.

To carry us where we need to go…

Droplets carrying an ocean…

Self-cleaning surfaces and laboratories on a chip become even more efficient if we are able to control individual droplets.

University of Groningen professor Patrick Onck, together with colleagues from Eindhoven University of Technology, have shown that this is possible by using a technique called mechanowetting. “We have come up with a way of transporting droplets by using transverse surface waves. This even works on inclined or vertical surfaces.”

The idea of mechanowetting is basically very simple: put a droplet on a transverse surface wave, and the droplet will move with the wave. “One of the properties of water droplets is that they always try to stay on top of a wave. If that top runs ahead, the droplet will run with it,” Onck explains. It is possible to move the droplets by using mechanical deformation to create surface waves. “The remarkable thing about this is that it also works on inclined or vertical surfaces: drops can even move upwards against gravity.” (1)

Water carrying water.

A sea carrying drops.

An ocean carrying humans.

The abyss holding into hopes.

But it’s not the world you are looking at. But its mirror image.

Turn around and look at yourself.

See…

Hopes carrying the abyss.

Humans taming the ocean.

Small tiny drops…

Carrying the sea…

Small little insects… Making the ocean move… Modern science… Shrimps laughing…

Scientists have demonstrated how some of the smallest creatures in the ocean could have the same outsized impact under the waves – with swarms of marine organisms inadvertently producing powerful currents that mix and churn a turbulent undersea environment.

“Right now a lot of our ocean climate models don’t include the effect of animals, or if they do it’s as passive participants in the process”. Strength in numbers, it turns out, as swarms of the creatures migrate daily in vertical columns, feeding at the ocean surface by night, before retreating hundreds of metres deep by day.

“You have this massive migration vertically every day of literally trillions of organisms”, Dabiri told NPR. “As they start swimming upward, each of them kicks a little bit of fluid backward”. The team discovered the animals’ passing didn’t just distribute water in small, localised regions, but churned significant volumes of proxy ocean pretty much everywhere they went.

So far, these effects have only been demonstrated in the lab, but if the same thing is taking place out in the real world, biologists and oceanographers will need to rethink how marine life contributes to ocean turbulence – especially since the same thing could be happening with bigger animals, such as jellyfish, squid, fish, and even large mammals. (1)

Ancient civilizations thought of the cosmos as something alive.

Then came Descartes, Galileo and modern science.

And we “discovered” the “objective” world of phenomena…

We suddenly “knew” we lived in a cold lifeless cosmos.

And we developed great science…

While shrimps were laughing at us…

The cosmos is still alive.

It always was.

It is just us who died.

Watch that shrimp you are cooking. It is not a shrimp.

It is the universe itself. Boiling with fierce power.

Just… add a pinch of salt.

Yes. Now it’s better.

Now come on.

Let’s eat my daughter…

Give me an office with a view! [The lust for the infinite in everyday terms]

We all like to work in an office with a view!

We all like staring at the ocean!

We all like watching the stars!

It seems obvious and yet it is difficult to explain. Why do we lust for a good view? Why do we seek the openness of the sea instead seeing a nice… anything right in front of our eyes? What is so magic about a good view that makes us relax and our soul feel nice?

Humans are infinite creatures. Sons of God, we think and feel in His terms. We feel the infinite even though are finite senses will never experience it. And anything which reminds us of that makes us feel relaxed.

Look at the sea again…

You wish to go there again…

You wish to return home…

Warm. Safe. Calm.

It feels like… home, doesn’t it?

Unseen creatures…

Earlier this month, scientists observed the black seadevil species of anglerfish alive in its natural habitat for the first time.

You might recognize this sort of bony monster from Finding Nemo. One of them nearly swallows Marlin and Dory after luring them toward its gruesome jaws with the pretty bauble dangling from its forehead. It turns out, Pixar was pretty on point in that scene. Anglerfish hunt with their glowing protrusions in the deep sea, where they are rarely spotted.

According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in California, the group responsible for this footage, fewer than half a dozen anglerfish have ever been recorded in their natural habitats. As the video notes, this anglerfish is a female—males are much smaller and lead very different life cycles. For more on that weirdness, we refer you to this illustrated guide from The Oatmeal. (1)

Invisible creatures.
Lurking in the dark.
Unseen.

And yet you know they are there.

You are afraid of the dark.
Because there is something there.
Because there is always something there.

Deep fear.
Unseen wisdom.
Dark and yet so full of meaning.

Listen to the sea.