Zeitgeist Rama

“These are some of the things hydrogen atoms do, given fifteen billion years of cosmic evolution. It has the sound of epic myth, but it’s simply a description of the evolution of the cosmos as revealed by science in our time. And we, we who embody the local eyes and ears, and thoughts and feelings of the cosmos, we’ve begun at last to wonder about our origins. Star stuff contemplating the stars, organized collections of ten billion billion billion atoms contemplating the evolution of matter, tracing that long path by which it arrived at consciousness here on the planet Earth and, perhaps, throughout the cosmos. Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive and flourish is owed not just to ourselves, but also to that cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring.”........ Carl Sagan... Who speaks for the Earth?

[only-conservative-here]

[redbloodedamerica]

^This

[psychocrazyy]

~Chappeless

[sagansense]

Astrology dumbs down the complexity of the universe, presuming to know things about the cosmos by superimposing trivial stereotypes and provincial characteristics artificially constructed amongst society atop actual knowledge acquired through diligent, meticulous, committed, and honest investigation of the natural world. And by superficially placing people into neatly assorted boxes, Astrology additionally dumbs down the complexity of people, as well. We have the scientific fields of psychology, evolutionary psychology, psychiatry, sociology, neuroscience, neurobiology, primatology, genetics, genomics, positive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and the behavioral and social sciences for a reason. And the pseudoscience of Astrology is essentially ignoring all of these departments of curiosity and saying, “nope, this is easier and doesn’t require me to learn anything too difficult and complex.” The macro evolution of the universe and equally, the micro to nano scale evolution by natural selection of our brains deserve so much more respect, attention and patience than that. At one point, I tried to get over it and said “oh well, at least people are looking up”; but anything that encourages complacency and arrogantly substitutes shallow falsehoods for actual science and tries to convince the public it’s of any importance at all is pretty much a slap in the face to all the actual learned professionals, research scientists and students dedicated to truth; to understand, in the deepest ways, humans, the Homo genus, our biological, molecular, and atomic relationship with the plethora of diversity on this and potentially other biospheres, and most familiarly, our society at large, for the betterment of our future. That’s the one side of it. The other is that Astrology blatantly disregards how fascinating and complex and most importantly— understandable—the universe is. Astrology has had over two thousand years to evolve and adapt to modern understanding, failing to do so or even attempting any such response to appeal to reason through a response to falsification by experiment. With respect to the present era of the human condition and the rampant virus of anti-intellectualism and fake news infecting the untrained and scientifically illiterate mind, anything posing as empirical scientific truth which confidently directs individuals away from actual knowledge regarding the mechanics of life and the universe governed by physical laws is maliciously standing in the way of education; and thus, human evolution, slowing societal progress as a whole, and suffocating our collective potential.

@sagansense (via sagansense)

[zacharycava-deactivated20180420]

We are built to be effective animals, not happy ones … Of course, we’re designed to pursue happiness; and the attainment of Darwinian goals—sex, status, and so on—often brings happiness, at least for a while. Still, the frequent absence of happiness is what keeps us pursuing it, and thus makes us productive.

Robert Wright, The Moral Animal (1994)

[panatmansam]

By Natalie Wolchover, Quanta Magazine

Why does life exist?

Popular hypotheses credit a primordial soup, a bolt of lightning, and a colossal stroke of luck.But if a provocative new theory is correct, luck may have little to do with it. Instead, according to the physicist proposing the idea, the origin and subsequent evolution of life follow from the fundamental laws of nature and “should be as unsurprising as rocks rolling downhill.”From the standpoint of physics, there is one essential difference between living things and inanimate clumps of carbon atoms: The former tend to be much better at capturing energy from their environment and dissipating that energy as heat. 

Jeremy England, a 31-year-old assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has derived a mathematical formula that he believes explains this capacity. The formula, based on established physics, indicates that when a group of atoms is driven by an external source of energy (like the sun or chemical fuel) and surrounded by a heat bath (like the ocean or atmosphere), it will often gradually restructure itself in order to dissipate increasingly more energy. This could mean that under certain conditions, matter inexorably acquires the key physical attribute associated with life.

(excerpt - click the link for the complete article)

[zeitgeistrama]

Dissipative structures

[naidalunabioluminescent]

Dazzling Images of the Brain Created by Neuroscientist-Artist

 The brain has been called the most complex structure in the universe, but it may also be the most beautiful.

Greg Dunn earned a PhD in neuroscience before deciding to become a professional artist. His work captures both the aesthetics and sophistication of this most enigmatic organ. Here are a few of his dazzling creations:1-Cortical Columns, 2-Basket and Pyramidals, 3-Gold Cortex II, 4-Cortical Circuitboard, 5-Brainbow Hippocampus in Blues, 6-Brainbow Hippocampus variations, 7-Glia and Blood Vessels, 8-Glial Flare,  9-Spinal Cord

“There’s no distinction between painting a landscape of a forest and a landscape of the brain.”

The patterns of branching neurons he saw through the microscope reminded him of the aesthetic principles in Asian art, which he had always admired.

While much of Dunn’s work focuses on neurons, his subjects also include other tissue types, such as glia, non-neuronal brain cells that provide support and protection for neurons.(image 7-8)

One of Dunn’s most arresting pieces isn’t of the brain at all, but of a slice of the spinal cord.(image 9)

Through his art, Dunn hopes to give voice to scientists whose work usually isn’t appreciated by the general public, he said. “Art has the power to capture people’s emotions and inspire in a way that a lot of charts and graphs don’t have.”

[tobeagenius]

A Collection Of Books By Neurologist Oliver Sacks

If you’re interested in neuroscience or psychology, I’d highly reccomend any book by Oliver Sacks! I get asked a lot about books to read so you can also check out this video I made with my top 7 and this masterpost which includes websites where you can learn more!

1. Migrane

For centuries, physicians have been fascinated by the many manifestations of migraine, and especially by the visual hallucinations or auras- similar in some ways to those induced by hallucinogenic drugs or deliria–which often precede a migraine. Dr. Sacks describes these hallucinatory constants, and what they reveal about the working of the brain. 

2. Awakenings

Awakenings is the remarkable account of a group of patients who contracted sleeping-sickness during the great epidemic just after World War I. Frozen in a decades-long sleep, these men and women were given up as hopeless until 1969, when Dr. Sacks gave them the then-new drug L-DOPA, which had an astonishing, explosive, “awakening” effect. Dr. Sacks recounts the moving case histories of these individuals, the stories of their lives, and the extraordinary transformations they underwent with treatment.

3. The Island of The Color Blind

Oliver Sacks has always been fascinated by islands, and this book is an account of his work with an isolated community of islanders born totally colorblind.  He listens to these achromatopic islanders describe their colorless world in rich terms of pattern and tone, luminance and shadow.

4. Uncle Tungsten

A book about Sacks’ childood;  his discovery of biology, his departure from his childhood love of chemistry and, at age 14, a new understanding that he would become a doctor.

5. An Anthropologist on Mars

This book talks about 7 seemingly paradoxical neurological conditions: including a surgeon consumed by the compulsive tics of Tourette’s Syndrome except when he is operating; an artist who loses all sense of color in a car accident, but finds a new sensibility and creative power in black and white; and an autistic professor who has great difficulty deciphering the simplest social exchange between humans, but has built a career out of her intuitive understanding of animal behavior. 

6.  Seeing Voices

 A journey into the world of deaf culture, and the neurological and social underpinnings of the remarkable visual language of the congenitally deaf. Sacks writes “The existence of a visual language, Sign, and the visual intelligence that goes with its acquisition, shows us that the brain is rich in potentials we would scarcely have guessed of, shows us the almost unlimited resource of the human organism when it is faced with the new and must adapt.”

[tobeagenius]

The world’s most detailed scan of the brain’s internal wiring has been produced by scientists at Cardiff University.

Not only does the scan show the direction of the messaging, but also the density of the brain’s wiring. Conventional scans clearly show lesions - areas of damage - in the brain of MS patients.But this advanced scan, showing axonal density, can help explain how the lesions affect motor and cognitive pathways - which can trigger movement problems and extreme fatigue.

Prof Derek Jones, CUBRIC’s director, said it was like getting hold of the Hubble telescope when you’ve been using binoculars. “The promise for researchers is that we can start to look at structure and function together for the first time,” he said.

[silverhawk]

underappreciated bird species

nicobar pigeon

golden pheasant

victoria crowned pigeon

kakapo

blue footed booby

[sizvideos]

Wayan Sumardana, the Indonesian welder that made bionic arm out of junk - Watch the video

[howieabel]

“Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth – more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible; thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. It sees man, a feeble speck, surrounded by unfathomable depths of silence; yet it bears itself proudly, as unmoved as if it were lord of the universe. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.” - Bertrand Russell, Why Men Fight (1917), pp. 178-179

[redbloodedamerica]

Kids These Days

Smartphones, tablets, and games have ruined our children. They fill the world with distraction, so they no longer learn patience and delayed gratification. 

Dead Wrong.

This is the marshmallow test.  How long can I wait before I eat i?  If I wait long enough I’ll get two.  And yes, if you don’t like marshmallows, you’ll get something else instead.

It’s a classic test of self-control, and how long children can wait to eat the marshmallow predicts fairly well how they’ll do in school later on, and if they’re able to avoid obesity, drugs, and crime.

Most people assume that children do worse on the marshmallow test nowadays; parents do and experts do.  But that’s wrong.

The researcher John Protzko looked at all the marshmallow tests over the last 50 years, and he noticed that kids nowadays are twice as good at waiting for the marshmallow.  For every decade, they can wait another minute.

So, why are parents and experts wrong?

John Protzko calls this the “kids nowadays” effect.  We always compare how impolite and impatient our kids are now to what we are like as adults.  Because we’ve forgotten all about how we were when we were kids.

We were much worse.

[amodernobject]

Karl Marx thought that capitalism inevitably made the rich richer and the poor poorer. By the time Marx died, however, the average Englishman was three times richer than at the time of his birth 65 years earlier

Johan Norberg (via amodernobject)

[nevver]

2017 Siena International Photo Awards

[nevver]

She’s not there, Loreal Prystaj

[gsharm1]

The antidote to suffering is meaning…if meaning is pursued properly, then people do not get corrupted by their suffering, and that actually diminishes the net total of suffering.

Jordan Peterson (via gsharm1)