For Now

Our Meaningful Universe

Modern evidence of natural “coincidences” that the Universe was designed for complex, intelligent life. The key mechanisms and properties that allow life as we know it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoI2ms5UHWg

Of course having a privilege doesn’t make you special, it gives you a responsibility to do something useful with the gifts you’ve been given. And to have fun.
David

Wolves Change Geography

A short film about “trophic cascade“- the cascading consequences of changes in individual species populations – especially of top-of-the-pyramid predators.

After 70 years absence, wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park in the United States. They restored balance to grazing populations. This created a cascading effect that allowed the natural restoration of plant life, improvements in bear and rodent populations, and better river flows. Wolves changed the geography.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q

Our Blue Earth

Awhile back, I wrote about a TED talk that framed “Earth” as a dark ages term. That we lived on an ocean planet and there’s far more life in the water than on land. How land is a 2D flatland while the ocean is 3D.

It was a cool talk. Similar references have more actively suggested a name change for the planet. From space, we are indeed a blue planet. However, we’re still talking surface appearances. Under all that water is more earth. And there remains more earth than water. But that’s just the crust, like the skin of an apple. Even deeper is the mantle made of viscous rock. The earth’s crust is just the solidified surface of that. The mantle makes up 84% of the earth’s volume. Would it be a better representation?

And then there’s Lovelock’s Gaia theory that shows that organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a self-regulating, complex system that contributes to maintaining the conditions for life on the planet. Our oxygen-rich atmosphere is one example. The name Gaia is Greek, from the goddess or personification of the earth as the mother of all.

Perhaps that’s the best idea of all. Gaia recognizes the earth as a whole interdependent system that supports life. A useful reminder for all of us.
David

Bruce Lipton and Tom Campbell

This summer, MBT Events toured physicist Tom Campbell around the west coast to speak with other cutting edge thinkers and recorded the conversations. In this chat, Dr. Campbell met with epigenetic biologist Bruce Lipton. It was the first time they’d met.

Tom talks a little about set theory and observes that many of the problems of modern science are due to thinking inside a subset. If we recognize consciousness as the superset, then we can derive all subjective experience as well as all physics as subsets of consciousness. As well as addressing many issues, it also makes things like paranormal normal.

“Part of our evolution now is beyond biology, in the evolution of community and networks and information. Does it grow love or does it grow fear? Does it increase separation or bring us together?”
Not typical observations you expect to hear from a scientist.

part 1

part 2

Ordered Water

You’re probably familiar with surface tension in water. However, the effect is much deeper than was previously thought. In this talk by Dr. Gerald Pollack, UW professor of bioengineering, he shows  that, when exposed to light (energy), a visible layer of water self-orders and becomes a liquid crystal. It gains a negative charge, becomes more stable and viscous, and it excludes solutes – things floating in the water.

This explains a number of natural phenomena he questions during the start of the talk; like photosynthesis, why water vapour gathers into clouds, and why life uses water so much. He suggests some applications, like a water purifier. He even touches on why water had become an unpopular science and the ball was dropped.

58 min