Scientists have discovered that a single-celled organism can negotiate the shortest way through a maze.
It means that some of the lowliest creatures in the plant and animal kingdoms, such as slime and amoeba, may not be as primitive as once thought.
Slime before (left) and after (right) negotiating the maze
Pieces of slime mould, an amoeba-like organism, were enticed through a 30-square-centimetre (five-square-inch) maze by the prospect of food at the end of the puzzle.
The researchers believe the slime is exhibiting some form of primitive intelligence.
WHY DRINK MORE WATER? The following will probably amaze and startle you.
One glass of water shuts down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University study.
Lack of water is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.
Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen.
Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer. Are you drinking the amount of water you should every day?
Jeremy Narby’s thesis in The Cosmic Serpent, the idea that Amazonian shamans use ayahuasca to lower consciousness into the teeming micro-worlds of DNA, was compelling and seductive. My sense has always been that he was acutely aware of the dangers of such a convincing weaving-together of the worlds of animism and science - that if too successful, the book may engender a muddy confluence of the two rather than a fruitful new relationship where the distinct values of each complement rather than lose their power in some swirling half-way meeting point. He told me his spoken word ventures with The Young Gods found him occasionally disconcerted with the lack of caution among some of the new generation of young Western ayahuasca users, where the rigour inherent to both our culture’s scientific method and other cultures’ shamanistic method has often been dissolved in enthusiasm. Perhaps it’s a good thing that, as far as I’m aware, The Cosmic Serpent never really took off in the way it might have. Only recently have I heard it mentioned more and more often in conversation, giving me the impression that it’s quietly grown in impact, hopefully giving its deceptively simple ideas time to take proper root.
The Cosmic Serpent delved into the world of indigenous shamanism with the rather unscientific (but fertile) attitude that we should try taking the perspective of shamans at face value, to see where this led. Following this path armed with (but not beholden to) the discoveries of 20th century biochemistry led Narby to conclude that these shamans may well be keepers of a tradition that affords us a shockingly experiential method of communication with the biosphere’s genetic information storehouse. These codes that we’ve begun to document and decipher using our discipline of detachment are alive, and talking to us in the visionary worlds unlocked by plant psychedelics.
http://www.ted.com Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.
COSMIC JOURNEY: A HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC COSMOLOGY. The history of cosmology is a grand story of discovery, from ancient Greek astronomy to -space telescopes. This Website, prepared by experts, mirrors the structure of the science, with cosmological theory and astronomical instruments side by side.
Baltimore is as musically diverse as anywhere else, but in 2008, indie rockers associate the city with colorful, energetic music, from the expatriated Animal Collective to Dan Deacon's Wham City crew. The music of Beach House, the Baltimore-based duo of multi-instrumentalist Alex Scally and vocalist/organist Victoria Legrand, is a shadow narrative running parallel to this trend: Their delicate, lovelorn pop comes in the form of deathly waltzes and dark pastoral dirges on which Legrand sings about desire, loss, and dreams as if telling a ghost story, splitting the difference between lovely and creepy.
For pristine pop, Beach House's self-titled 2006 debut was awfully raw: Legrand downplayed her classical piano and voice training in a humble negation of virtuosity. The organs sounded like something thick and coarse being pulled through a small, jagged opening; chord structures were simply suggestions; imperfections were kept intact. That balance of beauty and imprecision made inspired songs like "Saltwater", "Tokyo Witch", "Apple Orchard", and "Master of None" easy to fall in love with.
The duo's songwriting hasn't fundamentally changed on Devotion; they've simply cleaned up their act. These are crisper, brighter, bolder songs, retaining Beach House's sense of elegant decay while sweeping up the debris. "Gila" is a funeral on a sunny day; its shimmering organs are controlled, never bleeding chaotically as they did on the debut, and are complemented by frilly but steadfast guitar. "Turtle Island" reaffirms Beach House's preference for simple, skeletal percussion, but its dense melody is a marked advancement. The result of this pre-spring cleaning is that Devotion lacks some of the immediate highs of the first album-- you no longer get the sense of rooting for an embattled underdog-- but winds up consistently stronger.
There exists a state which I will call "CydelikSpace," that I have visited numerous times through the use of psychedelics. CydelikSpace has correlations to the digital world of "cyberspace" described in William Gibson's novels. However, CydelikSpace is not a fictional dimension. It is accessible now, and even appears to be the underlying reality behind all existence. It is of this state that one becomes aware, to a greater or lesser degree, during deep psychedelic experiences, and any other mystical or spiritual experience.
CydelikSpace is vast. It appears to contain all matter and energy in all of its manifestations since the beginning of time. This state also contains thought. In fact, it may be thought that gives birth to matter, since experience of CydelikSpace supports the notion that the manifest universe is a construct of consciousness, and not the other way around.
While in this state I have experienced in lucid detail, what seems to be every thought that has been formulated in my mind throughout my entire lifetime, as well as each perspective through which I've viewed life, and each experience I have had. I have seen my entire life laid out in suspension before me, and I could wander through my previous perspectives as a detached observer. I could view my life through four dimensions, easily recalling in full detail perspectives and perceptions back through early childhood. I could see the development throughout my life, of ideas, identity, beliefs, coincidences, relations, and limitations. These were seen with the precision of someone analyzing graph charts displaying data, yet with full emotional connection. It is said that when one is about to die, their entire life flashes before their eyes. While under the influence of psychedelics this flash has lasted for hours, and allowed for reflection, devoid of panic, anxiety, attachment, or fear.
Not only is CydelikSpace a complete depository of my own life's perceptions, it similarly contains all thoughts and experiences of every human, animal, plant, and molecular life form that has existed in the universe since time began, including the life experience of individual cells and galactic star systems. Other lives can be experienced with almost as much detail as one's own, down to a child's wonder upon first feeling dew on the morning grass, the trace of lipstick left on your lips after kissing a lover whom you've never before met, or a child's first impression of a pattern on clothing, seen while playing at nursery school, in a building too modern to have existed during your own childhood. These vivid impressions can be much more extraordinary!; being in an extraterrestrial body while making love and enjoying the sensations perceived through a much finer tactile sense than exists in humans, or, the experience of a planet's soul over millions of years as different groups of plants evolve, flourish, and give way to their successors upon its surface.
