Dr. Stuart Hameroff has one of the most logical explanation of consciousness. Essentially, he believes that consciousness is
a frequent mind state between the classical (Newtonian) world and the Quantum world. Therefore, enlightened minds have the
highest frequency of states of Classical-Quantum mind. The
notable insight that he has made clear is the fact that the single
cell paramecium has no neurons and yet they exhibit living
activities of eating and mating which are signs of "conscious
action" They also defend themselves like fleeing an adversarial
organism. Dr. Hameroff claims that microtubules are the
locations where "conscious computing".
The document describes several submissions to the Art of Neuroscience 2017 competition. The submissions include:
1. An electron microscope image showing a microglial lysosome and autophagosome, capturing the process of autophagy.
2. A description and calcium imaging data from cortical neurons in a mouse brain, showing patterns of neuronal activity.
3. A sample of hippocampal neurons labeled for microtubules and actin, imaged with a fluorescent microscope.
4. An artwork inspired by Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam", depicting interacting pyramidal cells in the mouse brain.
5. Diffusion MRI data quantifying whole-brain axonal connections in the rat brain, clearly
This document contains descriptions of 14 art submissions to the Art of Neuroscience 2017. The submissions include jewelry and artworks inspired by neuroscience concepts, research on gender stereotyping and brain responses, paintings exploring connections between neuroscience and art, images of brain structures and cells created using various microscopy techniques, and more. The submissions are from researchers in multiple countries and cover a wide range of neuroscience topics communicated through different artistic mediums and styles.
The brain is the center of the nervous system in vertebrates and some invertebrates. It is located in the head and protected by the skull. Brains can vary greatly in complexity across species. The human brain is the most complex known biological structure and is larger relative to body size than in other primates. Despite scientific progress, much about how brains work remains unknown.
This document discusses a hypothesis that molecular dynamics across neural membranes and cytoskeletal structures provide a matrix for self-organized behavior and information processing in the brain. Specifically:
1) Patterns of molecular activity may form stable solitons or "chaotons" capable of storing information over time, providing a basis for learning, memory, and consciousness.
2) These solitons could behave in a self-similar way across complexes of neurons operating within synapto-dendritic field activity.
3) Atomic force microscopy may help experimentally confirm theoretical models of these solitons and emergent structures in subcellular processes.
This document summarizes a paper on computational modeling of astrocytes. It discusses:
1) The biological roles of astrocytes in the brain and evidence they play a role in complexity.
2) Existing models of artificial neural-astrocyte networks (ANAN) that aim to model astrocyte functions, including penultimate ANAN, genetic ANAN, and self-organized map ANAN.
3) Challenges in constructing adequate learning algorithms for ANAN given their complexity.
Somatic cells are the main building blocks of living creatures and can be observed under a microscope. A human body contains approximately 220 different types of somatic cells that perform various functions. Somatic plant cells contain additional structures like chloroplasts which enable photosynthesis and produce oxygen vital for human survival. The lesson introduces students to the main parts of somatic cells like the nucleus, cell membrane, mitochondria and describes their functions. It compares somatic cells to plant cells, highlighting additional structures in plant cells. Finally, the lesson explains the process of cell division through mitosis and has students identify the phases of mitosis using 3D models.
The document discusses Montague Ullman's research on the relationship between dreaming consciousness and quantum phenomena. It summarizes some of Ullman's key ideas, including that dreaming and waking consciousness are complementary states that represent a hidden unity. Quantum features like non-locality and the contextual relationship between observer and observed provide analogies for understanding dreaming. The author then discusses their own experiential dream research study over two decades, which led them to a theory that dreams seek wholeness from the collective unconscious and reveal insights into interconnectedness through symbolic dream language.
it gives information about the nucleus which is the major cell component and its various parts like nuclear pores,nucleolus etc. it helps in the replication of DNA which contain genetic material.
The document describes several submissions to the Art of Neuroscience 2017 competition. The submissions include:
1. An electron microscope image showing a microglial lysosome and autophagosome, capturing the process of autophagy.
2. A description and calcium imaging data from cortical neurons in a mouse brain, showing patterns of neuronal activity.
3. A sample of hippocampal neurons labeled for microtubules and actin, imaged with a fluorescent microscope.
4. An artwork inspired by Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam", depicting interacting pyramidal cells in the mouse brain.
5. Diffusion MRI data quantifying whole-brain axonal connections in the rat brain, clearly
This document contains descriptions of 14 art submissions to the Art of Neuroscience 2017. The submissions include jewelry and artworks inspired by neuroscience concepts, research on gender stereotyping and brain responses, paintings exploring connections between neuroscience and art, images of brain structures and cells created using various microscopy techniques, and more. The submissions are from researchers in multiple countries and cover a wide range of neuroscience topics communicated through different artistic mediums and styles.
The brain is the center of the nervous system in vertebrates and some invertebrates. It is located in the head and protected by the skull. Brains can vary greatly in complexity across species. The human brain is the most complex known biological structure and is larger relative to body size than in other primates. Despite scientific progress, much about how brains work remains unknown.
This document discusses a hypothesis that molecular dynamics across neural membranes and cytoskeletal structures provide a matrix for self-organized behavior and information processing in the brain. Specifically:
1) Patterns of molecular activity may form stable solitons or "chaotons" capable of storing information over time, providing a basis for learning, memory, and consciousness.
2) These solitons could behave in a self-similar way across complexes of neurons operating within synapto-dendritic field activity.
3) Atomic force microscopy may help experimentally confirm theoretical models of these solitons and emergent structures in subcellular processes.
This document summarizes a paper on computational modeling of astrocytes. It discusses:
1) The biological roles of astrocytes in the brain and evidence they play a role in complexity.
2) Existing models of artificial neural-astrocyte networks (ANAN) that aim to model astrocyte functions, including penultimate ANAN, genetic ANAN, and self-organized map ANAN.
3) Challenges in constructing adequate learning algorithms for ANAN given their complexity.
Somatic cells are the main building blocks of living creatures and can be observed under a microscope. A human body contains approximately 220 different types of somatic cells that perform various functions. Somatic plant cells contain additional structures like chloroplasts which enable photosynthesis and produce oxygen vital for human survival. The lesson introduces students to the main parts of somatic cells like the nucleus, cell membrane, mitochondria and describes their functions. It compares somatic cells to plant cells, highlighting additional structures in plant cells. Finally, the lesson explains the process of cell division through mitosis and has students identify the phases of mitosis using 3D models.
The document discusses Montague Ullman's research on the relationship between dreaming consciousness and quantum phenomena. It summarizes some of Ullman's key ideas, including that dreaming and waking consciousness are complementary states that represent a hidden unity. Quantum features like non-locality and the contextual relationship between observer and observed provide analogies for understanding dreaming. The author then discusses their own experiential dream research study over two decades, which led them to a theory that dreams seek wholeness from the collective unconscious and reveal insights into interconnectedness through symbolic dream language.
it gives information about the nucleus which is the major cell component and its various parts like nuclear pores,nucleolus etc. it helps in the replication of DNA which contain genetic material.
Stem cells Used to Develop Mini Human Brain & Stem Cells for Spinal Cord Inju...Ankita-rastogi
Stem cell derived from human umbilical cord or bone marrow improves mobility with spinal cord injuries providing the first physical evidence that the therapeutic use of these cells can help restore motor skills lost from acute spinal cord tissue damage. For more information visit: http://www.cryobanksindia.com/moms-corner/case-studies/
Biology unit 2 cells organelle notes template worksheetrozeka01
This document provides a table listing the names and functions of major cell organelles, including the nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi body, mitochondrion, lysosome, cell membrane, peroxisome, chloroplast, cell wall, vacuole, and ribosome. Pictures are also included to illustrate each organelle.
This document provides information on the structure and course of a Biological Psychology course. The course will take place over 3 sessions in October, November, and December, with each session consisting of lectures, breaks, and practical exercises. The course will cover 13 chapters on topics related to the nervous system, sensory systems, and motor systems. The textbook is Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain by Bear, Connors, and Paradiso. The course is intended to provide students with a solid foundation in biological psychology.
Medicine Nobel Prize 2014, Dr CHI DAC BUI, MEDIC MEDICAL CENTERhungnguyenthien
The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to John O'Keefe, May-Britt Moser, and Edvard Moser for their discoveries of place cells in the hippocampus and grid cells in the entorhinal cortex. Place cells activate when an animal is in a particular location, and grid cells provide an internal coordinate system that allows navigation. Together, place cells and grid cells form neural networks critical for spatial memory and navigation. Their work fundamentally changed understanding of how the brain computes cognitive functions like navigation.
This document reviews various techniques that have been used to study neural crest cell migration, including:
1. Classic ablation experiments, which remove neural folds to observe structure development but have interpretive issues.
2. Explantation experiments, which culture neural crest cells but their potential varies depending on location.
3. Cell marking techniques like radioactive labeling but the label is diluted over generations.
4. The quail-chick chimera technique, which grafts quail neural tissue into chicks to track migration based on nuclear differences.
5. Cell lineage studies using fluorescent dyes to label and track single cells and their descendants.
6. Cell lineage studies using retroviruses to incorporate genetic markers into mouse
This document discusses neuronal cell tumors, which are rare but do exist. It provides examples of neuronal cell tumors like central neurocytomas that have been found in the brain. Key evidence that these tumors are of neuronal origin includes the expression of neuronal markers like neurofilaments and synaptophysin, as well as the presence of neuritic processes and synaptic vesicles in microscopic and electron microscopy images. While unusual given neurons' post-mitotic nature, some tumors seem to arise from neuronal cells based on their specialized neuronal features and characteristics.
Mathcad P-elements linear versus nonlinear stress 2014-t6Julio Banks
This work couples the classical ESED (Equivalent Strain Energy Density) Method; aka, Glinka. The most expedient method of solving a structural problem using FEA (Finite Element Analysis). There would be occasions when stress concentrations would be calculated due to interior corners, holes, sudden change of geometry (aka stress raisers). Although some software would allow regions in the vicinity of such stress risers to be defined by nonlinear material models such as "Elastic Perfectly-plastic", "Bilinear (Elastic and linear plastic), or the fundamental Ramberg-Osgood metal strain-stress models. Once the Linear-elastic FEA solution is obtained one can readily determine that Pseduo nonlinear strain, the corresponding stress and the implicit stress-intensification factor, Kt. It should be noted that once the analyst-designer is ready for final analysis, it would be most prudent to create a FEA model in which the regions of high concentration of stress to be modeled with local nonlinear models of the metal using St. Vennants' Principle of load-and-resistance distance from area of interest. The P-method is an excellent FEA element that can "find the actual nonlinear stress" by the simple iterative increase of the order of the polynomial representing the stress fields within every P-element. It should be noted that this research was facilitated by the use of the P-element FEA software called StressCheck which is 100% P-element solution which I am quite pleased to have had the opportunity of utilizing for this research.
Mathcad seven common financial computationsJulio Banks
The most important factor in a marital relationship is the wise management of the family income. I strongly recommend that dating or married couples consider mastering the simple financial calculations in this document. I have transcribed the reference document verbatim to the level allowed by Mathcad. The numerical results exactly match all of the examples provided in the reference article given included at the end of the Mathcad calculations. This last method is useful when borrowing or lending and need to know the interest
rate of return (ROR) being paid or collected, respectively. Henceforth, let us refer to i simply, as ROR.
Why the Fluid Friction Factor should be Abandoned, and the Moody Chart Transf...Julio Banks
The document discusses why the fluid friction factor (f) should be abandoned in fluid flow calculations. F is a mathematically undesirable parameter that complicates solving problems by requiring pressure (P), flow velocity (W), and pipe diameter (D) to be included together in equations. It is better to keep these variables separate. The Moody chart, which is based on f, must be used iteratively to determine W or D. However, the chart can be transformed to separate P, W, and D. The transformed chart in Figure 2 allows directly reading the values without iteration. In summary, using f and the standard Moody chart introduces unnecessary mathematical complexity, while the transformed chart allows simpler, direct calculation of flow parameters.
The 10 steps required to execute the power of intentionJulio Banks
This paper is intended to guide the "Dreamer" or "Dream weaver" to consider his or her desire to have an entity (a thing or a relationship) manifest for the benefit of all involved. "If one gets to keep" one will be less satisfied that "If one gets to give". It is not "The love of money..." but "The lust of money ...", "... the root of all sorts of evil". A simple acquisition prayer is "Lord, give me health to make wealth and wisdom to properly manage those resources for the benefit of all the people of good will associated with me"
Claims of islam as being a religion of peace, compare their verses of peace t...Julio Banks
According to the document, Islam teaches that charity and disaster relief should primarily benefit Muslims. It argues that the Quran and hadith instruct Muslims not to assist non-Muslims, as unbelievers are destined for Hell. Further, natural disasters are seen as punishment from Allah, so helping victims would go against Allah's will. While zakat (almsgiving) is emphasized in Islam, the document asserts it is meant for fellow Muslims within the community, not universal charity as understood in Christianity.
1. The document provides formulas and values for the areas and volumes of various shapes, including a hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus, circle, sector of a circle, and triangle. It also includes formulas and solutions for finding the slope, midpoint, and distance between two points, as well as trigonometric functions for a given angle. Finally, it lists the volume formulas and values for a cube, sphere, cylinder, and right cone.
Mathcad manual sizing of hvac equipment in tons and cfmJulio Banks
This document discusses manual sizing methods for HVAC equipment. It reports that contractors use a variety of methods to size AC systems, including Manual J calculations (33%), software (34%), and square footage estimates (24%). Square footage estimates ranged from 350-700 sq ft per ton. Over a third of contractors intentionally oversize systems to avoid complaints or accommodate future expansions.
Contractors also use various methods to determine air flow requirements, such as square footage estimates (30%), with responses ranging from 0.8-1.5 CFM per square foot. Some contractors (25%) report that certain sizing methods can be inaccurate, such as square footage estimates if window loads and insulation are not considered. Many contractors intentionally
Introspection and enlightenment a case for teaching intelligent designJulio Banks
This essay provides justification for teaching Intelligent Design along with Biology. Adolf Hitler and Stalin used the results of the
Theory of Evolution to commit atrocities against humanity.
John wheeler, physicist biocentrism dictates that human consciousness shapes...Julio Banks
Does the Universe Exist if We're Not Looking?
Eminent physicist John Wheeler says he has only enough time left to work on one idea: that human consciousness shapes not only the present but the past as well
This article is a "Verbatim" edition copied from the Internet into PDF. This article is worthy of a wide discemination as it connects the ungerse to human existence. It is ironic that Pythagoras stated "Now thyself first, then you will know the universe and God" (Paraphrased) while Aristotle stated "“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” ; these two (2) quotes, combined, state that it is wise to learn from cosmology as the universe is the state set for human existence and this is the idea of Biocentrism.
The Neuber Method is useful in calculating the nonlinear stress at a highly localized stress concentration region in a part. The linear FEA solution has the stress concentration factor, Kt, implicit in the linear solution. The Neuber method would calculate a nonlinear effective stress-strain point which allows the analyst to establish the kt. This paper demonstrate an explicit solution based on the establishment of a linearized stress-strain portion of the material. A related and more accurate method is the ESED
Math cad embedded footing - combined (jcb-edited)Julio Banks
This document describes the properties and characteristics of a compressor, embedded footing foundation, and soil. It then determines parameters needed to calculate the foundation's stiffness and damping for vertical, horizontal, rocking, and torsional motion. Stiffness and damping coefficients are derived for the embedded footing considering interaction with the soil.
Math cad damped, forced vibrations (jcb-edited)Julio Banks
This document analyzes the damped, forced vibrations of a mass-spring-damper system. It specifies the system parameters and derives equations to describe the transient and steady-state responses. The transient response is a combination of decaying exponential terms, while the steady-state response is a sinusoid at the driving frequency. Plots show the displacement over time for the transient and steady-state responses separately, and their combination. A final plot shows the displacement and driving force versus time.
Math cad prime quadratic equation derivationJulio Banks
The principal reason for this presentation is that one can often choose, a priori, the root that has physical meaning such as positive geometry entities such as positive dimensions, etc
Math cad vm-001 stress-strain transformationsJulio Banks
This document describes three approaches to teaching stress-strain transformations: theoretical calculations, experimental measurements, and finite element analysis. It analyzes an L-shaped aluminum beam subjected to a load to determine stresses at a point. Method I calculates stresses theoretically. Method II uses strain measurements from a rosette gauge to determine stresses through equations. Method III uses finite element analysis. The results are compared to reinforce understanding of stress-strain concepts through different approaches.
Stem cells Used to Develop Mini Human Brain & Stem Cells for Spinal Cord Inju...Ankita-rastogi
Stem cell derived from human umbilical cord or bone marrow improves mobility with spinal cord injuries providing the first physical evidence that the therapeutic use of these cells can help restore motor skills lost from acute spinal cord tissue damage. For more information visit: http://www.cryobanksindia.com/moms-corner/case-studies/
Biology unit 2 cells organelle notes template worksheetrozeka01
This document provides a table listing the names and functions of major cell organelles, including the nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi body, mitochondrion, lysosome, cell membrane, peroxisome, chloroplast, cell wall, vacuole, and ribosome. Pictures are also included to illustrate each organelle.
This document provides information on the structure and course of a Biological Psychology course. The course will take place over 3 sessions in October, November, and December, with each session consisting of lectures, breaks, and practical exercises. The course will cover 13 chapters on topics related to the nervous system, sensory systems, and motor systems. The textbook is Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain by Bear, Connors, and Paradiso. The course is intended to provide students with a solid foundation in biological psychology.
Medicine Nobel Prize 2014, Dr CHI DAC BUI, MEDIC MEDICAL CENTERhungnguyenthien
The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to John O'Keefe, May-Britt Moser, and Edvard Moser for their discoveries of place cells in the hippocampus and grid cells in the entorhinal cortex. Place cells activate when an animal is in a particular location, and grid cells provide an internal coordinate system that allows navigation. Together, place cells and grid cells form neural networks critical for spatial memory and navigation. Their work fundamentally changed understanding of how the brain computes cognitive functions like navigation.
This document reviews various techniques that have been used to study neural crest cell migration, including:
1. Classic ablation experiments, which remove neural folds to observe structure development but have interpretive issues.
2. Explantation experiments, which culture neural crest cells but their potential varies depending on location.
3. Cell marking techniques like radioactive labeling but the label is diluted over generations.
4. The quail-chick chimera technique, which grafts quail neural tissue into chicks to track migration based on nuclear differences.
5. Cell lineage studies using fluorescent dyes to label and track single cells and their descendants.
6. Cell lineage studies using retroviruses to incorporate genetic markers into mouse
This document discusses neuronal cell tumors, which are rare but do exist. It provides examples of neuronal cell tumors like central neurocytomas that have been found in the brain. Key evidence that these tumors are of neuronal origin includes the expression of neuronal markers like neurofilaments and synaptophysin, as well as the presence of neuritic processes and synaptic vesicles in microscopic and electron microscopy images. While unusual given neurons' post-mitotic nature, some tumors seem to arise from neuronal cells based on their specialized neuronal features and characteristics.
Mathcad P-elements linear versus nonlinear stress 2014-t6Julio Banks
This work couples the classical ESED (Equivalent Strain Energy Density) Method; aka, Glinka. The most expedient method of solving a structural problem using FEA (Finite Element Analysis). There would be occasions when stress concentrations would be calculated due to interior corners, holes, sudden change of geometry (aka stress raisers). Although some software would allow regions in the vicinity of such stress risers to be defined by nonlinear material models such as "Elastic Perfectly-plastic", "Bilinear (Elastic and linear plastic), or the fundamental Ramberg-Osgood metal strain-stress models. Once the Linear-elastic FEA solution is obtained one can readily determine that Pseduo nonlinear strain, the corresponding stress and the implicit stress-intensification factor, Kt. It should be noted that once the analyst-designer is ready for final analysis, it would be most prudent to create a FEA model in which the regions of high concentration of stress to be modeled with local nonlinear models of the metal using St. Vennants' Principle of load-and-resistance distance from area of interest. The P-method is an excellent FEA element that can "find the actual nonlinear stress" by the simple iterative increase of the order of the polynomial representing the stress fields within every P-element. It should be noted that this research was facilitated by the use of the P-element FEA software called StressCheck which is 100% P-element solution which I am quite pleased to have had the opportunity of utilizing for this research.
Mathcad seven common financial computationsJulio Banks
The most important factor in a marital relationship is the wise management of the family income. I strongly recommend that dating or married couples consider mastering the simple financial calculations in this document. I have transcribed the reference document verbatim to the level allowed by Mathcad. The numerical results exactly match all of the examples provided in the reference article given included at the end of the Mathcad calculations. This last method is useful when borrowing or lending and need to know the interest
rate of return (ROR) being paid or collected, respectively. Henceforth, let us refer to i simply, as ROR.
Why the Fluid Friction Factor should be Abandoned, and the Moody Chart Transf...Julio Banks
The document discusses why the fluid friction factor (f) should be abandoned in fluid flow calculations. F is a mathematically undesirable parameter that complicates solving problems by requiring pressure (P), flow velocity (W), and pipe diameter (D) to be included together in equations. It is better to keep these variables separate. The Moody chart, which is based on f, must be used iteratively to determine W or D. However, the chart can be transformed to separate P, W, and D. The transformed chart in Figure 2 allows directly reading the values without iteration. In summary, using f and the standard Moody chart introduces unnecessary mathematical complexity, while the transformed chart allows simpler, direct calculation of flow parameters.
The 10 steps required to execute the power of intentionJulio Banks
This paper is intended to guide the "Dreamer" or "Dream weaver" to consider his or her desire to have an entity (a thing or a relationship) manifest for the benefit of all involved. "If one gets to keep" one will be less satisfied that "If one gets to give". It is not "The love of money..." but "The lust of money ...", "... the root of all sorts of evil". A simple acquisition prayer is "Lord, give me health to make wealth and wisdom to properly manage those resources for the benefit of all the people of good will associated with me"
Claims of islam as being a religion of peace, compare their verses of peace t...Julio Banks
According to the document, Islam teaches that charity and disaster relief should primarily benefit Muslims. It argues that the Quran and hadith instruct Muslims not to assist non-Muslims, as unbelievers are destined for Hell. Further, natural disasters are seen as punishment from Allah, so helping victims would go against Allah's will. While zakat (almsgiving) is emphasized in Islam, the document asserts it is meant for fellow Muslims within the community, not universal charity as understood in Christianity.
1. The document provides formulas and values for the areas and volumes of various shapes, including a hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus, circle, sector of a circle, and triangle. It also includes formulas and solutions for finding the slope, midpoint, and distance between two points, as well as trigonometric functions for a given angle. Finally, it lists the volume formulas and values for a cube, sphere, cylinder, and right cone.
Mathcad manual sizing of hvac equipment in tons and cfmJulio Banks
This document discusses manual sizing methods for HVAC equipment. It reports that contractors use a variety of methods to size AC systems, including Manual J calculations (33%), software (34%), and square footage estimates (24%). Square footage estimates ranged from 350-700 sq ft per ton. Over a third of contractors intentionally oversize systems to avoid complaints or accommodate future expansions.
Contractors also use various methods to determine air flow requirements, such as square footage estimates (30%), with responses ranging from 0.8-1.5 CFM per square foot. Some contractors (25%) report that certain sizing methods can be inaccurate, such as square footage estimates if window loads and insulation are not considered. Many contractors intentionally
Introspection and enlightenment a case for teaching intelligent designJulio Banks
This essay provides justification for teaching Intelligent Design along with Biology. Adolf Hitler and Stalin used the results of the
Theory of Evolution to commit atrocities against humanity.
John wheeler, physicist biocentrism dictates that human consciousness shapes...Julio Banks
Does the Universe Exist if We're Not Looking?
Eminent physicist John Wheeler says he has only enough time left to work on one idea: that human consciousness shapes not only the present but the past as well
This article is a "Verbatim" edition copied from the Internet into PDF. This article is worthy of a wide discemination as it connects the ungerse to human existence. It is ironic that Pythagoras stated "Now thyself first, then you will know the universe and God" (Paraphrased) while Aristotle stated "“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” ; these two (2) quotes, combined, state that it is wise to learn from cosmology as the universe is the state set for human existence and this is the idea of Biocentrism.
The Neuber Method is useful in calculating the nonlinear stress at a highly localized stress concentration region in a part. The linear FEA solution has the stress concentration factor, Kt, implicit in the linear solution. The Neuber method would calculate a nonlinear effective stress-strain point which allows the analyst to establish the kt. This paper demonstrate an explicit solution based on the establishment of a linearized stress-strain portion of the material. A related and more accurate method is the ESED
Math cad embedded footing - combined (jcb-edited)Julio Banks
This document describes the properties and characteristics of a compressor, embedded footing foundation, and soil. It then determines parameters needed to calculate the foundation's stiffness and damping for vertical, horizontal, rocking, and torsional motion. Stiffness and damping coefficients are derived for the embedded footing considering interaction with the soil.
Math cad damped, forced vibrations (jcb-edited)Julio Banks
This document analyzes the damped, forced vibrations of a mass-spring-damper system. It specifies the system parameters and derives equations to describe the transient and steady-state responses. The transient response is a combination of decaying exponential terms, while the steady-state response is a sinusoid at the driving frequency. Plots show the displacement over time for the transient and steady-state responses separately, and their combination. A final plot shows the displacement and driving force versus time.
Math cad prime quadratic equation derivationJulio Banks
The principal reason for this presentation is that one can often choose, a priori, the root that has physical meaning such as positive geometry entities such as positive dimensions, etc
Math cad vm-001 stress-strain transformationsJulio Banks
This document describes three approaches to teaching stress-strain transformations: theoretical calculations, experimental measurements, and finite element analysis. It analyzes an L-shaped aluminum beam subjected to a load to determine stresses at a point. Method I calculates stresses theoretically. Method II uses strain measurements from a rosette gauge to determine stresses through equations. Method III uses finite element analysis. The results are compared to reinforce understanding of stress-strain concepts through different approaches.
1. The document is the front matter of a book titled "Practical Engineering Failure Analysis" that lists 171 other titles in the Mechanical Engineering series published by Marcel Dekker, Inc.
2. The titles focus on various mechanical engineering topics such as design, materials, fluid mechanics, tribology, reliability, and maintenance.
3. The list ranges from titles published in the 1960s to the early 2000s and covers subjects such as gear design, finite element analysis, lubrication, heat transfer, machining, and more.
The document discusses the three parts of the coping brain: the reptilian brain, emotional brain, and neocortex. The reptilian brain governs survival instincts like aggression, fear, revenge, and territorial behavior. The emotional brain is responsible for emotional expression and social identity formation. The neocortex, also called the thinking brain, is the largest part and coordinates responses during stress by drawing on memory and developing new coping strategies using reasoning and learning abilities.
The insular cortex is an area of the brain that is involved in smoking cessation. Scientists recently identified the insular cortex as playing a key role in helping smokers quit. The insular cortex processes internal body sensations and regulates cravings and urges. Damage or abnormalities in this region have been linked to addiction and substance abuse issues.
The document discusses the evolution of nervous systems in invertebrates and vertebrates. It describes how invertebrates like sponges, cnidarians, flatworms, and mollusks have a ganglionic nervous system with nerve cords and ganglia. Vertebrates evolved a cerebrospinal nervous system with a centralized brain and spinal cord. The cerebrospinal system allows for more complex processing and specialized functions in different brain regions. Comparing nervous system organization across species provides insights into neurodegenerative diseases and potential new treatment strategies.
This document provides an autobiographical introduction to the author's lifelong interest in memory from his childhood experiences in Vienna in 1938 up until receiving the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2000 for his contributions to the study of memory storage in the brain. It describes the author's vivid childhood memories of his 9th birthday and the events of Kristallnacht a few days later when his family was forced to leave their home. This traumatic experience sparked his early interest in understanding human behavior and memory, which first manifested as a focus on history and psychoanalysis in college, before turning to the biological study of the brain and memory in a scientific career spanning over 50 years.
1) The document discusses various theories about the physical source of consciousness, including the idea that consciousness is a field effect associated with the electric and magnetic fields of living organisms, rather than solely a product of biochemical brain processes.
2) It reviews models proposing that consciousness arises from quantum processes in microtubules in brain cells or from neural synchrony across synapses. However, it notes these models do not fully explain the complexity of consciousness.
3) The document argues that consciousness should be viewed as a holographic phenomenon dispersed throughout the brain and body, rather than located solely in the brain, and is closely tied to memory storage and retrieval processes.
The document discusses several key topics in anatomy and physiology:
1) It defines homeostasis as the maintenance of stable internal conditions in the body. Organs like the lungs, kidneys, and GI system help maintain homeostasis.
2) It describes the autonomic nervous system which controls involuntary functions like heart rate and digestion unconsciously.
3) It explains neuron anatomy and how they transmit electrochemical signals through the body via electrical impulses along axons.
Brain based research -overview of recent neuroscienceLfialkoff
- There were major breakthroughs in neuroscience in the late 20th century using new brain imaging tools that explored brain composition and function. This led to a basic understanding of differences between brain hemispheres and roles of different brain regions.
- The brain is incredibly complex with billions of neurons and connections. It is highly connected throughout regions and hemispheres. The brain is very plastic and adaptable through life experiences and learning. Brain evolution over hundreds of thousands of years shapes how humans think and learn today.
- Recent research emphasizes four principles of brain function: complexity, connectivity, plasticity, and insights from evolutionary biology to understand the adaptive yet inherited nature of the human brain.
Brain based research -overview of recent neuroscienceLfialkoff
- There were major breakthroughs in neuroscience in the late 20th century using new brain imaging tools that explored brain composition and function. Researchers developed a basic understanding of differences between brain hemispheres and focused on temporal, frontal and rear brain regions.
- The brain is incredibly complex with billions of neurons and connections. It is highly connected across regions and hemispheres. The brain is very plastic and adaptable through life experiences and learning. The brain evolved over hundreds of thousands of years shaping how humans think and learn.
The document compares the nervous systems of invertebrates and vertebrates. Invertebrates have simpler nerve net or ganglionic nervous systems, while vertebrates have more complex and centralized brain-spinal or cerebrospinal nervous systems. The evolution of nervous systems increased complexity from nerve nets to ganglia to brains correlated with increasing complexity of movement and behavior. More complex nervous systems in vertebrates provide advantages but also vulnerabilities like different parts being susceptible to neurodegenerative diseases.
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The document discusses Yoshinori Ohsumi winning the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his decades of research elucidating autophagy, the process by which cells recycle their own contents. Ohsumi's work changed the understanding of this fundamental cellular process and has implications for developing potential treatments for chronic diseases. As a researcher, Ohsumi focused solely on science rather than accolades, though he had dreamed of receiving the Nobel Prize as a child.
Train The Brain Therapeutic Interventions for APD and other Brain DisordersLorraine Sgarlato
The document discusses neuroplasticity and auditory processing disorder (APD). It summarizes that neuroplasticity refers to the brain's ability to change and rewire itself based on experiences. Early studies found brain maps could change in response to damage or skill learning. APD refers to difficulties processing auditory information in less than optimal environments and may be associated with language or learning issues. Identification involves behavioral and electrophysiological tests, and risks include certain birth factors or brain injuries. Management may involve therapies to strengthen auditory processing skills.
For most of the twentieth century a “brain-first” approach dominated the philosophy of consciousness. The idea was that the brain is the thing we really understand, through neuroscience, and the task of the philosopher is try to understand how that thing “gives rise” to subjective experience: to the inner world of colours, smells and sounds that each of us knows in our own case. This philosophical project has not gone all that well–nobody has provided even the beginnings of a satisfying solution to what David Chalmers called “the hard problem” of consciousness.
The document discusses the brain's cellular and molecular organization. At the cellular level, the brain is comprised of neurons, glia, and microvessels organized into complex cellular networks (CCNs). The basic building block and functional unit of these networks is the neurovascular unit (NVU), which includes neurons, glia, endothelial cells, and pericytes that are in close proximity and engage in extensive cross-talk. At the molecular level, proteins form global molecular networks (GMNs) that cross cell membranes and extracellular space. Integrins link intracellular and extracellular molecular networks into GMNs. The NVU possesses molecular switching mechanisms like integrins that allow information processing in GMNs, endowing the NVU with
Scientists are using new technologies like fMRI to study how the brain is affected by experiences like learning a new language or playing video games. Animal models and human studies show that the brain remains plastic throughout life, changing with new experiences. Research on neurogenesis and neural communication has provided insights into development and learning. Studies on animal behavior have also helped explain behaviors and how animals survive.
How our brain functions when we are aged? In the fast changing world, many a times we heard people saying i am 60 years old and i cannot learn new skills. Is there any truth in the statement. Who is the best consultant for 'downsizing' if we do not use our resouces-It is brain by process.
Our Quarterly house magazine meant for our associates. This covers topics related to Mind management, wealth management , Risk management, Leadership and Marketing management. This issue covers Mirror Neurons, Net worth and Risk Management
What is going on in psychiatry when nothing seems to happenAdonis Sfera, MD
1. New tools like two-photon microscopy, optogenetics, and white matter tractography are allowing researchers to visualize brain structures and activity in vivo with greater precision, providing insights into cognitive disorders like schizophrenia.
2. Studies using these tools suggest abnormalities in dendritic spines, disrupted connectivity between brain regions, and altered glial cell activity may be involved in schizophrenia pathogenesis.
3. Emerging areas of research like the human microbiome, epigenetics, and de novo mutations may also provide clues about schizophrenia etiology and potential new treatment targets.
Apologia - A Call for a Reformation of Christian Protestants Organizations.pdfJulio Banks
This document shows how to know whether an organization claiming to be IRS 501(C)(3) tax exempted nonprofit is being partisan by teaching that the republican party is the party of Jesus Christ violating the nonpartisan IRS requirement are false Christian organizations.
The treatment of large structural systems may be simplified by dividing the system into
smaller systems called components. The components are related through the
displacement, and force conditions at their junction points. Each component is represented
by mode shapes (or functions).
The document describes an algorithm to determine the common or synchronization period (Tc) of two independent asynchronous events with periods of ta and tb. The algorithm involves 4 steps: 1) Determine the maximum (t2) and minimum (t1) periods. 2) Calculate the difference in periods (Δt). 3) Determine the number of t2 periods in Δt (N2). 4) The synchronization period is Tc = N2 * t1. Two examples applying the algorithm are also provided.
This document provides guidance for Christians on how to effectively share the gospel with Muslims. It emphasizes unfolding God's word sequentially to show his panoramic rescue plan fulfilled in Jesus. Key points include: discussing eternity planted in the human heart and God's power to save as common ground; using Old Testament stories and quotes like Ecclesiastes 3:11-12 that resonate with Muslims; and following Jesus' gracious example in John 4 of conversing in a seasoned, question-answering way that led villagers to acknowledge him as Savior. The goal is engaging Muslims through meaningful conversation that traces the Bible's rescue themes.
Math cad prime the relationship between the cubit, meter, pi and the golden...Julio Banks
It has been reported that the ancient Egyptians knew pi, the golden ration (phi) and the meter. This paper summarizes the relationship of pi, and phi via the cubit.
Transcript for abraham_lincoln_thanksgiving_proclamation_1863Julio Banks
Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation designated the last Thursday of November as a national day of Thanksgiving. It recognized the blessings of abundant harvests despite the ravages of the ongoing Civil War. Lincoln acknowledged that peace had been maintained with other nations and order and law had prevailed across most of the country, except for battlefields, where advancing Union armies had reduced areas of conflict. He attributed the nation's continued prosperity and population growth, despite wartime losses, to God's gracious gifts and providence. Lincoln called on citizens to offer gratitude and also humble prayers for healing of the nation and restoration of peace.
Thanksgiving and lincolns calls to prayerJulio Banks
1) Abraham Lincoln issued proclamations for national days of fasting, prayer, and thanksgiving during the Civil War, recognizing America's dependence on God for blessings and calling the nation to humble itself before God.
2) Lincoln prayed for victory at Gettysburg and vowed to stand for God if given victory, which may have turned the tide of the war.
3) After the war ended, Lincoln gathered his cabinet to thank God on their knees that the war was over, setting an example for the nation to acknowledge God's role in their blessings and salvation.
Jannaf 10 1986 paper by julio c. banks, et. al.-ballistic performance of lpg ...Julio Banks
This paper is the result of the response of LPG (Liquid Propellant Gun) to high-temperate simulated-desert condition using ANSYS FEA (Finite Element Analysis) and Mica Heating Banks.
web site: http://www.joycenter.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Mans-Search-for-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl.pdf
A case can be made that since the main basis of "The Theory" of evolution is the "Self-preservation principle". That is, how could the propagation of the a specie be enhanced by the demeaning action of a group against its constituents and even self-against-self. The only explanation is that humas were created and not a result of a random sett of actions causing consciousness arriving from non-conscious matter. Life comes from life, and intelligence (DNA), comes from intelligence. This book can be contrasted with: The Lucifer Effect Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by Philip Zimbardo' and also with the Bible for a view of The Meaning of Life from ancient to contemporary writings for balance understanding of the physical (Psyche) to the metaphysical (Spiritual). We can view the human condition as the effect of gravity of interacting physical objects and human interaction as the response to spiritual influence (angels and demons).
The document discusses the concept of "shadow-self", which refers to humans projecting negative aspects of themselves onto others. It argues that true love and self-acceptance are the answers to overcoming this tendency. It provides several biblical passages about love and discusses how Jesus taught about being free from condemnation. The document concludes that psychological projection arises from psychological dissonance, and that finding one's "true self" through love and embracing uniqueness can lead to enlightenment.
The first step required to defeating an enemy is by first thoroughly defining it. A physician runs tests of their patients to determine the type of pathogen ailing such patients. Similarly, we must be clear that A Muslim Terrorist is indeed a Fundamentalist and not a Radical Terrorist since the method of striking terror is explicitly and clearly defined in the Qur'an. Christianity is the only religion that needs not attack any other religion such as the Islam religion since God is the author and finisher of our faith and also commands the Christians to allow God to avenge Himself for our attacks even from Islamic Terrorist. A Christian is commanded to live at peace with all humans and when such a peaceful coexistence is not achieved then we must simply stay away from such toxic humans.
The primary test for a true religion is that "The Judeo-Christian God does not need nor require that mere mortal human beings to defend Him".
NASA-TM-X-74335 --U.S. Standard Atmosphere 1976Julio Banks
NASA-TM-X-74335 --U.S. Standard Atmosphere 1976. This information is useful for airframes (e.g., missiles and aircrafts) aero-thermos analysis and design.
Apologia - The martyrs killed for clarifying the bibleJulio Banks
I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! 16But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!” - Revelation 3:15-16
“A man who does not have something for which he is willing to die is not fit to live.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
Apologia - Always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is within yo...Julio Banks
1) Christians should be humble, compassionate, and unified in their love for one another, even in the face of suffering for doing good.
2) When suffering, Christians should bless those who harm them and not repay evil with evil.
3) The passage encourages Christians to always be prepared to explain the hope they have in Jesus Christ when asked, but to do so gently and respectfully.
Spontaneous creation of the universe ex nihil by maya lincoln and avi wasserJulio Banks
Questions regarding the formation of the Universe and ‘what was there ’ before it came to existence have
been of great interest to mankind at all times. Several suggestions have been presented during the ages –
mostly assuming a preliminary state prior to creation. Nevertheless, theories that require initial conditions
are not considered complete, since they lack an explanation of what created such conditions. We therefore
propose the ‘Creatio Ex Nihilo ’ (CEN) theory, aimed at describing the origin of the Universe from ‘nothing ’ in
information terms. The suggested framework does not require amendments to the laws of physics: but rather
provides a new scenario to the Universe initiation process, and from that point merges with state-of-the-art
cosmological models. The paper is aimed at providing a first step towards a more complete model of the
Universe creation – proving that creation Ex Nihilo is feasible. Further adjustments, elaborations, formalisms
and experiments are required to formulate and support the theory.
The “necessary observer” that quantum mechanics require is described in the b...Julio Banks
This essay is intended to share the vies of the author of his Judeo-Christian belief and the physical validation of such believes based upon the theories of Quantum Mechanics.
A fund way to remember how to "fix our manifested creation" by means of observation is as follows: "Keep an eye on the ball", "Do not drop the ball"
Advances in fatigue and fracture mechanics by grzegorz (greg) glinkaJulio Banks
Professor Grzegorz (Greg) Glinka has made substantial contributions to the field of stress concentration evaluation using linear FEA results using the ESED (Equivalent Striain Energy Density). ESED aka Glinka methods allows the determination of strain-stress state at a point of local concentration by equating the strain energy from the linear FEA area in the material strain-stress curve to that of the actual strain-stress of the material using a models such as Ramberg-Osgood. The ESED method is more accurate than the Neuber requiring the equating of SED (Strain Energy Densities) of linear FEA results that Stress is proportional to strain even when the FEA predicts a stress greater than the ultimate strength of the material. One easy method of remember when to use ESED versus Neuber is that ESED, more accurate, should be use on the stress analysis of rocket structures and Neuber delegated to aerospace engines and components.
How to know which god one must serve - A Christian Apolgist EssayJulio Banks
The attached essay is best descrived by the following two (2) quteos:
“True humility is not thinking less of yourself;
it is thinking of yourself less " - C. S. Lewis
“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive.
He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the
power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and
some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are
less prone to hate our enemies.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Unlocking the mysteries of reproduction: Exploring fecundity and gonadosomati...AbdullaAlAsif1
The pygmy halfbeak Dermogenys colletei, is known for its viviparous nature, this presents an intriguing case of relatively low fecundity, raising questions about potential compensatory reproductive strategies employed by this species. Our study delves into the examination of fecundity and the Gonadosomatic Index (GSI) in the Pygmy Halfbeak, D. colletei (Meisner, 2001), an intriguing viviparous fish indigenous to Sarawak, Borneo. We hypothesize that the Pygmy halfbeak, D. colletei, may exhibit unique reproductive adaptations to offset its low fecundity, thus enhancing its survival and fitness. To address this, we conducted a comprehensive study utilizing 28 mature female specimens of D. colletei, carefully measuring fecundity and GSI to shed light on the reproductive adaptations of this species. Our findings reveal that D. colletei indeed exhibits low fecundity, with a mean of 16.76 ± 2.01, and a mean GSI of 12.83 ± 1.27, providing crucial insights into the reproductive mechanisms at play in this species. These results underscore the existence of unique reproductive strategies in D. colletei, enabling its adaptation and persistence in Borneo's diverse aquatic ecosystems, and call for further ecological research to elucidate these mechanisms. This study lends to a better understanding of viviparous fish in Borneo and contributes to the broader field of aquatic ecology, enhancing our knowledge of species adaptations to unique ecological challenges.
The binding of cosmological structures by massless topological defectsSérgio Sacani
Assuming spherical symmetry and weak field, it is shown that if one solves the Poisson equation or the Einstein field
equations sourced by a topological defect, i.e. a singularity of a very specific form, the result is a localized gravitational
field capable of driving flat rotation (i.e. Keplerian circular orbits at a constant speed for all radii) of test masses on a thin
spherical shell without any underlying mass. Moreover, a large-scale structure which exploits this solution by assembling
concentrically a number of such topological defects can establish a flat stellar or galactic rotation curve, and can also deflect
light in the same manner as an equipotential (isothermal) sphere. Thus, the need for dark matter or modified gravity theory is
mitigated, at least in part.
Current Ms word generated power point presentation covers major details about the micronuclei test. It's significance and assays to conduct it. It is used to detect the micronuclei formation inside the cells of nearly every multicellular organism. It's formation takes place during chromosomal sepration at metaphase.
Travis Hills' Endeavors in Minnesota: Fostering Environmental and Economic Pr...Travis Hills MN
Travis Hills of Minnesota developed a method to convert waste into high-value dry fertilizer, significantly enriching soil quality. By providing farmers with a valuable resource derived from waste, Travis Hills helps enhance farm profitability while promoting environmental stewardship. Travis Hills' sustainable practices lead to cost savings and increased revenue for farmers by improving resource efficiency and reducing waste.
Remote Sensing and Computational, Evolutionary, Supercomputing, and Intellige...University of Maribor
Slides from talk:
Aleš Zamuda: Remote Sensing and Computational, Evolutionary, Supercomputing, and Intelligent Systems.
11th International Conference on Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering (IcETRAN), Niš, 3-6 June 2024
Inter-Society Networking Panel GRSS/MTT-S/CIS Panel Session: Promoting Connection and Cooperation
https://www.etran.rs/2024/en/home-english/
Authoring a personal GPT for your research and practice: How we created the Q...Leonel Morgado
Thematic analysis in qualitative research is a time-consuming and systematic task, typically done using teams. Team members must ground their activities on common understandings of the major concepts underlying the thematic analysis, and define criteria for its development. However, conceptual misunderstandings, equivocations, and lack of adherence to criteria are challenges to the quality and speed of this process. Given the distributed and uncertain nature of this process, we wondered if the tasks in thematic analysis could be supported by readily available artificial intelligence chatbots. Our early efforts point to potential benefits: not just saving time in the coding process but better adherence to criteria and grounding, by increasing triangulation between humans and artificial intelligence. This tutorial will provide a description and demonstration of the process we followed, as two academic researchers, to develop a custom ChatGPT to assist with qualitative coding in the thematic data analysis process of immersive learning accounts in a survey of the academic literature: QUAL-E Immersive Learning Thematic Analysis Helper. In the hands-on time, participants will try out QUAL-E and develop their ideas for their own qualitative coding ChatGPT. Participants that have the paid ChatGPT Plus subscription can create a draft of their assistants. The organizers will provide course materials and slide deck that participants will be able to utilize to continue development of their custom GPT. The paid subscription to ChatGPT Plus is not required to participate in this workshop, just for trying out personal GPTs during it.
EWOCS-I: The catalog of X-ray sources in Westerlund 1 from the Extended Weste...Sérgio Sacani
Context. With a mass exceeding several 104 M⊙ and a rich and dense population of massive stars, supermassive young star clusters
represent the most massive star-forming environment that is dominated by the feedback from massive stars and gravitational interactions
among stars.
Aims. In this paper we present the Extended Westerlund 1 and 2 Open Clusters Survey (EWOCS) project, which aims to investigate
the influence of the starburst environment on the formation of stars and planets, and on the evolution of both low and high mass stars.
The primary targets of this project are Westerlund 1 and 2, the closest supermassive star clusters to the Sun.
Methods. The project is based primarily on recent observations conducted with the Chandra and JWST observatories. Specifically,
the Chandra survey of Westerlund 1 consists of 36 new ACIS-I observations, nearly co-pointed, for a total exposure time of 1 Msec.
Additionally, we included 8 archival Chandra/ACIS-S observations. This paper presents the resulting catalog of X-ray sources within
and around Westerlund 1. Sources were detected by combining various existing methods, and photon extraction and source validation
were carried out using the ACIS-Extract software.
Results. The EWOCS X-ray catalog comprises 5963 validated sources out of the 9420 initially provided to ACIS-Extract, reaching a
photon flux threshold of approximately 2 × 10−8 photons cm−2
s
−1
. The X-ray sources exhibit a highly concentrated spatial distribution,
with 1075 sources located within the central 1 arcmin. We have successfully detected X-ray emissions from 126 out of the 166 known
massive stars of the cluster, and we have collected over 71 000 photons from the magnetar CXO J164710.20-455217.
hematic appreciation test is a psychological assessment tool used to measure an individual's appreciation and understanding of specific themes or topics. This test helps to evaluate an individual's ability to connect different ideas and concepts within a given theme, as well as their overall comprehension and interpretation skills. The results of the test can provide valuable insights into an individual's cognitive abilities, creativity, and critical thinking skills
The debris of the ‘last major merger’ is dynamically youngSérgio Sacani
The Milky Way’s (MW) inner stellar halo contains an [Fe/H]-rich component with highly eccentric orbits, often referred to as the
‘last major merger.’ Hypotheses for the origin of this component include Gaia-Sausage/Enceladus (GSE), where the progenitor
collided with the MW proto-disc 8–11 Gyr ago, and the Virgo Radial Merger (VRM), where the progenitor collided with the
MW disc within the last 3 Gyr. These two scenarios make different predictions about observable structure in local phase space,
because the morphology of debris depends on how long it has had to phase mix. The recently identified phase-space folds in Gaia
DR3 have positive caustic velocities, making them fundamentally different than the phase-mixed chevrons found in simulations
at late times. Roughly 20 per cent of the stars in the prograde local stellar halo are associated with the observed caustics. Based
on a simple phase-mixing model, the observed number of caustics are consistent with a merger that occurred 1–2 Gyr ago.
We also compare the observed phase-space distribution to FIRE-2 Latte simulations of GSE-like mergers, using a quantitative
measurement of phase mixing (2D causticality). The observed local phase-space distribution best matches the simulated data
1–2 Gyr after collision, and certainly not later than 3 Gyr. This is further evidence that the progenitor of the ‘last major merger’
did not collide with the MW proto-disc at early times, as is thought for the GSE, but instead collided with the MW disc within
the last few Gyr, consistent with the body of work surrounding the VRM.
ESR spectroscopy in liquid food and beverages.pptxPRIYANKA PATEL
With increasing population, people need to rely on packaged food stuffs. Packaging of food materials requires the preservation of food. There are various methods for the treatment of food to preserve them and irradiation treatment of food is one of them. It is the most common and the most harmless method for the food preservation as it does not alter the necessary micronutrients of food materials. Although irradiated food doesn’t cause any harm to the human health but still the quality assessment of food is required to provide consumers with necessary information about the food. ESR spectroscopy is the most sophisticated way to investigate the quality of the food and the free radicals induced during the processing of the food. ESR spin trapping technique is useful for the detection of highly unstable radicals in the food. The antioxidant capability of liquid food and beverages in mainly performed by spin trapping technique.
1. Consciousness, Microtubules and The Quantum World
Interview with Stuart Hameroff, MD, in Alternative Therapies (May 1997 3(3):70-79 by BonnieHorgan).
Alternative Therapies: How did an anesthesiologist end up speaking at a consciousness
conference?
Hameroff: I became interested in understanding consciousness as an undergraduate at the
University of Pittsburgh in the late 60's. In my third year of medical school at Hahnemann in
Philadelphia I did a research elective in professor Ben Kahn's hematology-oncology lab. They
were studying various types of malignant blood cells, and I became interested in mitosis-looking
under the microscope at normal and abnormal cell division. I became fascinated by centrioles
and mitotic spindles pulling apart the chromosomes, doing this little dance, dividing the
cytoplasm, establishing the daughter-cell architecture, and beginning differentiation. I remember
wondering to myself how these centrioles and mitotic spindles "knew" where to go and what to
do. What kind of intelligence was running the show at the cellular level?
My main interest was still consciousness, or the brain-mind problem. At that time, scientists
were just beginning to appreciate that all cells, including neurons, contained the same structures
that make up mitotic spindles, which are basically microtubules You see, for 30 years scientists
had been using the electron microscope to look at intracellular structure. But the fixative agent
osmium tetroxide was dissolving all the internal structure. It dissolved everything. So for many,
many years the cell was perceived as a bag of water.
Alternative Therapies: The fixative that was used to examine the cell was dissolving the cell
structure?
Hameroff: Yes. The cytoplasmic fine structure was erased. Finally in the early 70's electron
microscopists switched to glutaraldehyde and saw order and structure in cytoplasm organized by
networks of microtubules. Thanks to the anatomist Keith Porter and his coworkers it became
obvious that the interior of a cell was like a tiny forest. Not only that, the forest was very
dynamic. It was moving things around, rearranging itself, defining the shape, function, and
structure of the cell. As it turned out, the same microtubules running the show in mitosis were
running the show in neurons and other cells all the time. Each neuron was a network of
microtubules. I came to think of the brain as a network of networks, forests within trees. When I
finished medical school I thought about a research career, but opted for clinical work and
matched for internship in Tucson, Arizona. I considered residency in neurology or psychiatry,
but then I met Professor Burnell Brown, the chairman of the anesthesiology department at the
University of Arizona medical center. He told me "If you want to know what consciousness is,
study the mechanism of anesthetics." He also gave me a paper suggesting anesthetics
depolymerized microtubules, and convinced me that anesthesiology was an excellent career
choice. I signed on. When I finished residency Burnell offered me a faculty position, and here I
am twenty years later.
Alternative Therapies: Let's talk about microtubules. Can you give me a layman's definition?
2. Hameroff: A cell has a skeleton, somewhat like our body has a skeleton. It's called "the
cytoskeleton." Look out the window at those trees. If you put a big sheet over a bunch of closely
grouped trees, that would be like a cell. The sheet would be the membrane, but the trees would
be the structure inside the cell. The main trunks would be the microtubules and the connections
would be microtubule-associated proteins, actin, and so on.
But unlike a forest, the cytoskeletal branches are moving cooperatively, like arms and hands,
passing things along from place to place inside the cell, and rearranging themselves to change
cell shape, and grow extensions like axons or dendrites.
The actual microtubule structure is quite interesting. They are hollow cylinders whose walls look
something like hollow ears of corn with kernels in a hexagonal lattice. It occurred to me that the
states of each of these kernels in microtubules could represent information, and that microtubules
were ideal computers. That was how they were running the show.
Alternative Therapies: What functions do the microtubules perform for the cell?
Hameroff: The classical answer is that microtubules and the cytoskeleton are primarily
structural, like the body's bony skeleton. However if you look carefully, microtubules are also
the cell's nervous system and circulatory system. They move everything around the cell, organize
shape and function, and communicate with membranes and the nuclear DNA. For example
immune cells depend on cytoskeletal microtubules for recognition and response. In neurons
microtubules first establish cell shape and synaptic connections, transport materials, regulate
those synapses, participate in axonal neurotransmitter release, and transduce membrane receptor
effects. They are everywhere, and seem to organize almost everything.
Of course there's no conclusive proof that microtubules compute or process information. The
dogma, or party line is that information is conveyed inside cells by cascades of chemical signals.
But to me, that view of the cell as an organized soup doesn't make sense. Cytoplasm is often in a
gel state - like jello. It's difficult to conceive how signals can be conveyed rapidly and accurately
just by diffusion through a gel state. And in the liquid state computation and memory would be
very limited. But if you look at the microtubules which spatially organize the cytoplasm • Ethey
are already sitting there you see perfectly designed information processing devices, or at least I
do.
In general, neuroscience has focused on the one hand on membranes Eion channels,
depolarizations, and receptors, and on the other hand on genetics and the nucleus. We've ignored
what's in between. I think there's something special going on with microtubules that we need to
figure out.
Alternative Therapies: Do these microtubules exist in the cells of a tree?
Hameroff: They are in plant cells, but they are scarce. A plant cell might have a few, whereas
human neurons have hundreds to thousands.
3. Alternative Therapies: So there's a difference between the cells in a dog and cells in a human?
Or is the big difference between plant and animal?
Hameroff: There's a much bigger difference between plant and animal than between lower
mammals and humans. There's also a difference between different types of human cells.
The model of consciousness based on microtubules which Roger Penrose and I have developed
has been criticized because "we have microtubules in our earlobes and microtubules in our butts.
Why aren't earlobes and butts conscious?" The answer is that the microtubules in the brain's
neurons, besides being denser and more plentiful, are arrayed in parallel, whereas in other cells
they radiate outward from the centrosome, or centrioles, next to the cell nucleus. Centrioles,
which organize mitosis, are mysterious and elegant organelles made up of microtubules. Because
neurons don't divide, the centrioles have disappeared, or are hiding, and the microtubules are all
arrayed in parallel. The highly parallel arrangement can facilitate computation and quantum
coherence. In our model, consciousness requires a critical degree of quantum coherence in
parallel arrayed microtubules in neurons. This critical degree allows a prediction as to what
evolutionary level of neural complexity will result in consciousness.
For example if you believe that animals are conscious, you have to ask "If your dog is conscious,
how about a worm? How about a paramecium?. How low do you go?" A position taken by the
biologist Lynn Margulis is that all cells are conscious, and that even protozoa and bacteria have a
simple consciousness.
Single-cell organisms like paramecium are very interesting. They swim around gracefully to seek
food, avoid predators, find mates and have a kind of rudimentary sex. Yet these single cell
paramecia have no synapses or neurons. They do what they do by virtue of their microtubules.
The little cilia that stick out and act like sensory organs and paddles or oars, are structures made
up of microtubules and are organized by internal microtubules. So, in the case of the
paramecium, the cytoskeleton and microtubules are the cell's nervous system.
However the work I've done with Roger Penrose predicts a threshold for emergence of conscious
experience at a level of microtubule complexity and quantum coherence in roughly hundreds of
neurons. This level is found, for example, in small worms, tiny sea urchins, and other very
simple creatures. Bacteria and protozoa like paramecia are below that line, so, in this view, they
would not be conscious. They would be more like proto-conscious—something like a primitive
sub-conscious or dream state.
Alternative Therapies: Would you define consciousness?
Hameroff: I think of consciousness as our "inner life"—a series of multimodal integrated
experiences. But then you have to define the nature of experience and that is tricky. Philosopher
David Chalmers calls this the "hard problem". Why do we have this conscious experience? We
needn't necessarily have it. If the world were only slightly different, we could be robot-like
zombies with behavior outwardly indistinguishable from conscious beings. Chalmers points out
that even if we knew the activities of each and every neuron, synapse, ion channel, receptor,
molecule, etc in our brain at a given instant correlated with a given mental state, it still wouldn't
4. tell us anything about experience, or about why we have an inner life. The weird thing about
consciousness is that it's unobservable. I think the essential ingredient of consciousness is this
experience that we have. So when I talk about consciousness, I'm talking about "the hard
problem" of experience.
Chalmers' view and that of other philosophers like John Searle have ruffled the feathers of many
neuroscientists and other reductionists who believe that once we figure out what every neuron is
doing, we will have explained consciousness. They think that consciousness emerges from the
brain's neuronal firing complexity and that's all there is to it.
Alternative Therapies: Are you saying that single cells, these paramecia, do not have a sense of
self? That they do not have experience? And that at a certain level, when you get enough neural
cells containing enough microtubules, a sense of self emerges?
Hameroff: That's right, but the number which is "enough" depends on the time. For example if
all the microtubules in about 100 neurons were in a quantum state for 500 milliseconds—a half
second —a conscious event would then occur. For a more intense experience involving 1000
neurons, it would be 50 milliseconds. We claim each event is conscious because it selects a
pattern in fundamental reality, and we conclude that experience is "funda-mental"—embedded at
the nitty-gritty level of the universe. A series of conscious events gives a stream of
consciousness.
But let me back up since you brought up the important concept of "self". Another facet of
consciousness is that we have a unitary sense of self. Despite the fact that in any given instant we
may have a hundred billion neurons firing all over the brain, we somehow have a sense of
oneness. You are one person, I am one person. The sense of self also occurs in visual physiology.
If you look at this microphone sitting here, it has numerous features—the fact that it's vertical is
processed in one part of your brain, the fact that it's black is processed in another part, and the
fact that it has a little red line on it is processed in yet another. But somehow, it all comes
together as one entity. This unity, or binding is a feature of consciousness, which, along with the
others, can be explained by quantum theory.
Alternative Therapies: You can explain these?
Hameroff: I believe that proper application of quantum theory to neurobiology can explain
them, or at least a new version of quantum theory, as Roger Penrose has been suggesting.
I see five difficult features of consciousness. The first two we have already discussed: the hard
problem of experience, and the unitary sense of self. Two others are free will and the transition
from preconscious processing to consciousness itself. This transition problem is interesting
because it turns out that neurons active in a preconscious mode subsequently become conscious.
It's not like the information goes from one part of the brain to another and becomes conscious by
virtue of just being there. Consciousness happens all over the place, and in the same neurons that
were preconscious. So some event happens. Some process, or transition is occurring.
5. The fifth feature would be what Roger Penrose calls "noncomputability" which is what woke me
up to why the reductionist approach to consciousness is faulty.
As I said, I couldn't accept the reductionist approach that consciousness involved a hundred
billion neuronal switches analogous to a computer, and I was interested in the idea that
microtubules were processing information inside neurons. But people would say, "You've taken
it one level down. You're being even more reductionist than the reductionists. Maybe even
reductio ad absurdum." I realized that even if microtubule information processing was essential
for normal neural cognitive function, it didn't really explain consciousness any more than
information processing at the neural level.
Then I read Roger's book The Emperor's New Mind, which argued from a mathematical
standpoint that there are things about human thought and consciousness that are noncomputable.
That is, our thought processes are non-algorithmic, they cannot be simulated on a computer. His
book angered the artificial intelligence people because he was saying that you can work until
you're blue in the face on a computer, but it will never be conscious. There was something else.
And according to Roger, that involved quantum theory.
Alternative Therapies: Would you explain what you mean by quantum theory?
Hameroff: It has to do with reality. What is reality? We have this view of reality as
concreteness-the desk is here, the pencil is there, and so forth. But if you look at what our
universe is made of, if you look at atoms or subatomic particles various experiments tell us that
they exist• Eat least some of the time—not as particles, but as waves. So all the components of
your body and everything in this room, if taken by themselves under the right conditions, aren't
in any one definite place at any one time. They are actually spread out over space, and are best
described by a probability distribution. What this means is that mass is not the concrete stuff that
we are used to, and can switch back and forth to a wave-like state.
Yet in our world, things are definite. Things are concrete and real and specific. Everyone agrees
that small things can be wave-like, and described by a quantum wave function, but large things
are concrete. So where's the transition? What causes things to become particle-like and definite?
This transition is called reduction, or collapse of the wave function. There has as yet been no
completely satisfactory answer to this problem.
Another important aspect of quantum theory is that once two particles have interacted, even if
they appear to go their separate ways, they remain connected. There is this nonlocal
connectedness. Distance doesn't matter and time doesn't matter. This is called "quantum
nonlocality" or "quantum coherence." This feature has been proposed to explain the binding
problem in vision and in "self".
The collapse problem has been around for a while. Famous quantum theorists Bohr and Wigner
and Heisenberg concluded that things are in a wave-like state until they are observed by a
conscious human being, that consciousness causes collapse of the wave function. As weird as
this seems, experiments seemed to show wave-like behavior up to the point that the results are
observed by a conscious observer. A machine could measure a quantum system and record the
6. results, and the system would still remain wave-like until somebody actually looked at the
results. To illustrate the absurdity of this, Schrödinger came up with his thought experiment
about the cat—Schrödinger's cat.
You put a cat in a box. Then you have poison that can be triggered by a quantum event-perhaps a
half-silvered mirror that you send an electron through. The electron has a fifty-fifty chance of
actually going through the mirror. If it goes through, it triggers the poison. So there's a 50%
chance that the cat is dead, and a 50% chance that the cat is alive. But according to quantum
theory, until the observation is made, the electron both did and didn't go through the mirror, and
the cat is therefore both dead and alive. Schrödinger said that according to quantum theory, until
a conscious observer opens the box and looks, the cat is both dead and alive.
Alternative Therapies: I got tripped up when I read that. What about the cat? The cat knows
whether he's dead or alive. Maybe I don't know, but the cat knows.
Hameroff: That's a good point, but I think Schrödinger would have said it doesn't matter what
the cat knows—that if the cat were truly both alive and dead, he or she would be both conscious
and non-conscious. Schrödinger's point was that the conscious observer interpretation was
absurd. The problem is that other explanations are even weirder. For example in the Everett
many-worlds view, each time a quantum collapse occurs in our world, an alternative collapse
outcome occurs in a newly formed parallel universe. In this view, all possible universes exist!
Other interpretations like that of David Bohm’s deny that collapse occurs, that the universe is
actually wave-like and we just think it’s concrete and definite.
This paradoxical confusion may be resolved by Roger Penrose's "objective reduction." Roger
takes quantum superposition seriously, as an actual separation of mass from itself. To understand
that, he claims, we must consider the underlying spacetime geometry which comprises the
universe—the most basic level of reality. This forces one to think about what the universe is
actually made of.
In physics, time can go backwards or forwards and physicists normally think of "spacetime" as a
four-dimensional continuum. But what is spacetime at its most basic level? What is reality way
below the level of atoms, way below the level of quarks. What is the empty space of the
universe? Where are we?
Various experiments have shown that as one gets down to a size scale of 10-33
centimeters,
spacetime geometry is no longer smooth, but "granular", or quantized. Branches of quantum
theory have predicted that at this level—which is called the Planck scale—quantum
particle/waves known as virtual photons continuously pop into and out of existence. This is often
envisioned as churning quantum fluctuations—the "quantum foam"—which impart dynamic
structure and measurable energy. This baseline energy of the universe is called zero point energy
and was recently measured and verified. The universe is, in some sense, alive. The question now
is whether this zero point energy is random, or has some organized form or patterns. Is there
information at that level? If so, is consciousness somehow connected to it? Are we "plugged in"
to the universe? We’ll get back to these questions.
7. So we have this picture of empty space at its most basic level being highly dynamic and perhaps
organized. As we go up in scale, what about mass, or objects? According to Einstein’s general
relativity, mass, or gravity, is curvature in spacetime—the larger an object, the greater the
curvature of spacetime. We usually think of this in terms of large objects like the sun or the
earth. This is how Einstein’s theory was proven—the mass of the sun bends light coming from
stars behind it toward us. At that level, the curvature is easily measurable. Roger's point was that
it also holds true for small objects. Very small objects would have very small curvatures.
So let’s return to the question of quantum superposition. Roger's view is that a system in
superposition where mass is separated from itself involves simultaneous curvatures of underlying
spacetime in opposite directions—a separation, or bubble in spacetime.
If we have a quantum system that's small, we can imagine how an atom, for example, can be
separated from itself, and how there can be a small separation, or tiny bubble in spacetime. But
as a quantum superposed system gets bigger and bigger, it's going to meet some threshold in
nature, some objective factor, that will cause it to collapse. Roger considered that the separation
in underlying spacetime was the limiting factor. When a separation, or bubble in spacetime
became too great, it collapsed to one state, or another. We can imagine that if this didn’t occur, if
the separation continued, a separate universe would shear off as the Everett many-worlds view
suggests.
So, somehow, built into the universe is a kind of glue—quantum gravity—that prevents the
universe from shredding all the time. Separations continue only to a certain degree—an objective
criterion• Ethen must reduce, or collapse to avoid forming another world. These objective
reductions are actually a self-organizing process at the fundamental level of the universe.
So why is this important for consciousness?
Remember Chalmers "hard problem" of the nature of experience. What is our inner life, our
experience, or "qualia"? Chalmers concluded that experience is fundamental—an irreducible
feature of reality, like for example charge, mass or quantum spin. This is in line with a long
history of panpsychist/panexperiential philosophy. People like Leibniz in the 18th century, and
Russell, Whitehead and Wheeler in this century saw the universe as being composed of
fundamental units or events, each having a primitive psychological being. Whitehead's
panexperiential view seems most consistent with modern physics. He said that consciousness is a
process of events occurring in a wider, basic field of raw proto-conscious experience.
Whitehead's events, which he called "occasions of experience" are quite comparable to quantum
state reductions, as was pointed out by the philosopher Abner Shimony. This suggests that
consciousness may involve a self-organizing process of objective reductions occurring at the
Planck scale.
The idea is that experience is encoded or exists at this fundamental level. If you then have
superposition and self-collapse, a particular type of experience is selected. So the experience is a
property at that level, and when you have this self-organizing process you access and select
particular patterns or particular geometries of experience. So that the smell of a rose or sound of
an oboe is actually a particular geometry at the "funda-mental" level of spacetime.
8. From the standpoint of physics, Penrose clarified two types of collapse: one, if a quantum system
interacts with it’s environment—if it is observed—it will collapse; and two, if a quantum system
self-collapses by "objective reduction" due to the spacetime separation threshold.
When quantum systems collapse, to which state of various possible states do they collapse?
Think of a quantum system which collapses from, say, a superposed state of both A and B to a
classical state of either A or B. If the collapse occurs by environmental interaction, the choice of
A or B is computable, or probabilistic. It's going to be fifty-fifty. But if the collapse occurs by
self-collapse, by objective reduction criterion, there's a non-computable element. That is, there is
some other factor influencing which state it's going to fall into. Roger wrote a great deal in his
books about why non-computability is an essential feature of consciousness. So what is this non-
computable element? Roger suggests it could be something we don't yet know about, something
perhaps engrained at the Planck scale from the Big Bang. Something intrinsic to the universe.
It turns out that systems in quantum superposition can perform massively parallel and efficient
computing and collapse to the solution. This is the basis for so-called quantum computing which
is currently a very hot topic. No one has yet built one, but in principle they are possible, and their
theoretical capabilities far surpass classical computers. However as envisioned, technological
quantum computers will collapse by environmental interaction, and will therefore be computable
and in our view non-conscious.
For collapse to be non-computable, and thus in our view to be a conscious event, a quantum
superposed system must be isolated from it’s environment long enough to reach the quantum
gravity threshold. How long is that?
Roger linked the amount of superposed mass to the time until self-collapse through a very
fundamental formula in physics: the indeterminacy principle. If the size of the superposition—
the mass separated from itself—is termed E, for its gravitational self energy, then E is equal to a
constant over the time T till self-collapse occurs. It basically says that the size is inversely related
to the time. Therefore, a small system like an atom or electron, if isolated, would stay in
superposition for a very long time, almost indefinitely. On the other hand a large system, if
isolated and in quantum superposition, would only stay in superposition for a very short time.
We did some calculations on this. If you think about Schrödinger's cat being about 1 kilogram, if
it were isolated in its box it would self-collapse in only about 10-37
. So that solves that problem.
The cat is so large that it wouldn't last in superposition long enough to be noticable. From our
standpoint, it would either be dead or alive. But an atom, if isolated, would stay in superposition
for 107
years.
If an objective reduction process were occurring in the brain, it should occur at time scales
relevant to known neurophysiological processes—namely T should be in the range from tens of
milliseconds to hundreds of milliseconds. This turns out to require superposed mass energy E in
the range of nanograms of a biomaterial such as microtubules.
Roger had concluded that this objective reduction must be happening in our brains, that making a
decision, taking a course of action, recognizing or identifying something, forming an opinion, or
9. whatever all involved superposed possibilities collapsing into one. In his first book, Roger didn't
have a good structure for biological
Alternative Therapies: How did you end up working with Roger Penrose?
Hameroff: When I read his book The Emperor's New Mind it seemed to me that he had an
essential mechanism but lacked the proper biological structure. He talked about the possibility of
superposition of nerves either firing or not firing, but he seemed rather open about it. I wrote him
a letter and included some of my papers about microtubules and mentioned that I was going to be
in England. He wrote back and said he'd like to meet with me. So I went to Oxford and sat in his
office, which was disheveled in a very organized way, and we talked for several hours. At that
time, I didn't know if we would collaborate or not but was happy to find out a few weeks later
that Roger had described my ideas in a lecture he had given at Cambridge.
We met again at a conference in northern Sweden in 1993, and began to try to match the physics
to the biology. Then after our first Tucson consciousness conference in • E4, I took Roger and
his wife Vanessa, David Chalmers and several other people to hike the Grand Canyon. It was a
great experience. We had tremendous intellectual exchanges in a fantastic environment. Roger's
ideas began to fall together for me.
Two months later I took a mini-sabbatical with my son in Copenhagen. Roger was there and we
began to formulate our objective reduction model. We concluded that the microtubule-associated
proteins tuned the quantum coherence, and so we called the model "orchestrated objective
reduction", or "Orch OR".
Self collapse in the time range of neurophysiological events like tens to hundreds of
milliseconds, which is where most cognitive events occur, turns out to require superposed mass
in the nanogram range. We figured out how many microtubules it would take to self collapse
after a few hundred milliseconds, and that turned out to be about a billion tubulins• Etubulin"
being the subunits of microtubules. Making some rough guesses, we could say that it would take
somewhere between a hundred and ten-thousand neurons for a single conscious event.
We were concluding that consciousness was a series of discrete events, that you have one
discrete event, and another discrete event, and another, another, another. You have a series of
them that gives rise to a stream of consciousness. The number, 10,000 neurons, was interesting
because many other approaches to cognition show that an assembly of neurons in the range of
10,000 is important.
We started working on our first paper. Roger wrote the part about quantum theory and I wrote
the part about microtubules, and we slowly worked out the details of the model. This was in the
summer of '94, and the paper wouldn't be published till • E6. But in early '95, reductionist
philosopher Pat Churchland and her graduate student Rick Grush published a paper in the
Journal of Consciousness Studies attacking our model, even before it had been published! It was
an ambush. But in retrospect, it was a big favor, The Journal of Consciousness Studies said,
"You can respond in the next issue, but you have only two weeks." It was a good motivation,
because in two weeks we had a paper, going back and forth by fax.
10. Their main criticisms of the microtubule involvement in consciousness was that colchicine, a
drug taken to treat gout, depolymerizes microtubules. So Grush and Churchland said, "These
people take colchicine for gout. It dissolves the microtubules, and yet they don't go
unconscious." The reason that this objection is irrelevant is twofold: first, colchicine crosses the
blood-brain barrier in very, very low concentrations. Second, it only works on microtubules that
are in the assembly-disassembly process, that are dynamic, whereas the microtubules in the brain
are stable. They don't disassemble. The way colchicine works is that if something disassembles,
it prevents reassembling. Microtubules that aren't in this process are unaffected. There were
some other issues about anesthesia that they had misinterpreted, and stuff about Roger's non-
computability, quantum effects and so on. But basically we answered their objections point by
point, and were able to explain our ideas.
Then in 96, our full model paper came out and we also published a follow-up paper addressing
the hard problem of experience, getting down to the spacetime business.
Alternative Therapies: Let's say your model is true. How can we use that model? How will it
affect the world we live in?
Hameroff: Whether it’s this model, or some other, understanding consciousness would have
tremendous implications in medicine, computer science, entertainment technology,
communications, philosophy, spirituality, and culture.
In his books, Roger talked about Platonism—the idea that mathematical truth, aesthetics, ethics,
the perception of beauty are somehow built into the universe. The implication was that however
these were built into the universe, this is what influenced the collapse in the objective reduction.
So when our thoughts collapse, we're influenced-or we can be influenced-by these Platonistic
factors engrained at the Planck scale.
Our sense of right and wrong, of beauty and of mathematical truth being built into the universe
has tremendous implications for philosophy and spirituality. We just have to tune into it, or allow
it to guide us.
Alternative Therapies: Would this be synonymous to the collective unconscious, the
archetypes, the primal patterns in our psyche?
Hameroff: Quite possibly—engrained at the most fundamental level of the universe.
Alternative Therapies: In one of your papers, you showed a diagram of the microtubules
affecting each other.
Hameroff: That diagram shows that signaling can occur along microtubules. It shows that there
are two excitable membranes. If you have tubulins in solution and you depolarize one membrane,
nothing happens to the other one. But if you make bridges of chains of tubulins between the two
and then depolarize one membrane, the other one also fires. It just shows that there is signaling
capability across the tubulin bridges.
11. Alternative Therapies: So are your microtubules communicating with my microtubules, so to
speak? Are we all affecting each other?
Hameroff: If you are implying some kind of psi, or ESP phenomena, or interconnectedness, not
by that mechanism. That's a very direct mechanical mechanism. What you are suggesting would
require a quantum mechanism.
We had a session on parapsychology at the Tucson II consciousness conference. Dick Bierman, a
physicist at the University of Amsterdam gave the last talk. He has done many retro-
psychokinesis experiments where you actually seem to influence things that have already
happened, as long as they hadn't been viewed. He concluded that psi, or parapsychological
effects, occur and can only be explained by quantum nonlocality. It's tricky because-supposedly-
information can’t be transferred. But there can be correlations. If psi effects exist, then the other
things you were talking about, like the collective unconscious, can exist too.
But we’re talking about two things: one is some type of correlation among people, and the other
is some kind of interaction between individual people and what's fundamental in the universe.
Alternative Therapies: You made a comment earlier that the paramecium was alive but not
conscious. What's the difference in your mind?
Hameroff: I’m presuming it doesn't have experience. The paramecium has a preconscious, what
we would call "dreaming" mode, but seems very unlikely to sustain quantum coherence long
enough to reach self-collapse. They would have to maintain isolation for about 50 seconds for a
single conscious event.
We have used 500 milliseconds of isolated quantum coherence as a criterion for when
consciousness can occur, and that turns out to be the level of hundreds of neurons, which is the
level of complexity of the nervous systems of small worms. Interestingly enough, this relates to
evolution.
It turns out that evolution is nonlinear. Life started about 4 billion years ago-simple life, algae,
and so forth. Then came the nucleated cell, then eukaryotic cells, but still, life evolved very
minimally, reaching only very simple multicellular organisms until about 540 million years ago.
Then, abruptly, there was this huge acceleration in evolution, which is called the "Cambrian
Explosion."
Within 10 million years, all the phyla that exist today formed, and life took off. Why? Well,
there are a lot of possible reasons. But it turns out that the size of the organisms at the beginning
of the Cambrian explosion very closely matched what we would predict for conscious
experience. They were small worms and tiny sea urchins. Fossils of these urchins, for example,
look very much like present day tiny urchins whose spines are giant complexes of microtubules.
So the hypothesis is that these were the first conscious entities, that one day there was sufficient
quantum coherence in the nervous system of one of these the worms or the spines of an urchin to
self collapse and experience happened-some little urchin or worm suddenly had an experience.
12. Having experience and being able to choose non-computably was beneficial for survival and
evolution accelerated.
Alternative Therapies: Considering everything you've learned about reality, what are your
personal opinions about life, about spirituality?
Hameroff: The more I learn about reality, the more unreal it becomes. I believe in the universe. I
think we are connected to it at a fundamental level.
Alternative Therapies: Is there anything else you'd like to say?
Hameroff: Because your readers are medically oriented, there are a couple of obvious biological
criticisms of our model that I should probably discuss. First, how can a quantum state exist in an
apparently noisy, thermal, chaotic system like the brain? The only known techn ological
examples of quantum states are things such as superconductors, superfluids, Bose-Einstein
condensates and lasers. Except for the laser, these require cooling to near absolute zero to stop
thermal oscillations so they atoms can all be aligned coherently. But the brain is very warm, so
you have thermal oscillation. With a laser, you pump the energy to get a macroscopic quantum
state. We think there is a biochemical pumping mechanism driving quantum coherence in the
brain’s microtubules.
The next problem is how do you isolate the quantum state from environmental interaction? One
of the first things you learn in cell biology is that cytoplasm exists in two phases—in a solution
state and in a gel state, and goes back and forth between the two. It turns out the transitions can
occur very rapidly, for example in the range of 40 transitions per second.
So we’ve proposed that the microtubule quantum coherence is isolated and protected by gelation.
The quantum coherence occurs in the gel phase, and then the collapse occurs and you have a
liquid phase in which the microtubule information communicates. If it were a totally isolated
system, you could have consciousness, but you could never communicate. But if you have 40
cycles per second of -quantum coherence, collapse; quantum coherence, collapse; quantum
coherence, collapse-you have cycles of isolation, communication; isolation, communication;
isolation, communication. This suggests consciousness is a series of discrete events, rather than a
continuum.
There's evidence for this in Buddhism, in which meditators in a deep meditative state report a
flickering of their consciousness. They've even counted these flickerings and quantified them,
and they report them occurring something like every 20 milliseconds, which is basically
consistent with the brain’s coherent 40-Hz oscillations. The coherent 40 Hz has been suggested
to solve the binding problem we talked about earlier-the unity of a sense of self, binding it all
together. I don't think a temporal correlation per se can explain it, but the 40-Hz coherence might
be the clocking mechanism for this sol-gel transformation. The point is, you have these discrete
conscious events roughly 40 times a second.
The other issue is how you can have macroscopic quantum state across synapses, across
membranes, to involve, say, thousands of neurons. This may be explainable by gap junction
13. electrotonic synapses, which are very primitive physical channels between neurons and other
cells.
Another issue is our subjective sense of time. According to physics, time doesn't flow—time can
go backwards or forwards, and yet we seem to have a subjective sense of forward-flowing time.
The self-collapse of the wave function is irreversible, so if you have a series of irreversible steps,
you would have the sense of time moving forward.
This relates to the sense of time dilation, in that the frequency of conscious events may vary.
Michael Jordan, the basketball player seems to react faster and better than anybody else. He was
asked once, "How do you do that?" and responded: "When I'm playing well, time slows down.
The other players are in slow motion" Just like when people are in a car accident, sometimes
time slows down.
Alternative Therapies: That's very true. I was bucked off a horse once and time slowed down.
For whatever reason, I fell very gently and slowly to the ground and didn't get hurt.
Hameroff: Yes. Something enabled you to have more conscious events during that moment.
Maybe it was a second, but it seemed to you like 10 seconds. You had ten times as many
conscious events as you normally would, which allowed you to react more quickly. And Jordan
does it all the time. So if you have more conscious events per second, time subjectively seems to
slow down.
Patients who undergo general anesthesia, when they wake up, have no clue as to how long they
were asleep. Under anesthesia they don't have conscious events, so time doesn't flow. It just
doesn't exist for them while they are asleep.
There's a paper in the Tucson I book about psychedelic drugs which basically do the opposite
from anesthetics. Within receptor proteins psychedelics enhance electron mobility, therefore
enhancing the macroscopic quantum state. So it's possible to have expanded consciousness due
both to increased intensity and more conscious events per time. Plus there’s a merger of the
conscious with the sub-conscious.
Alternative Therapies: I have one further question, which is: Where is it all going? If life hit a
new acceleration point, a point of critical mass at which evolution speeded up, where is it going?
Are we headed to more conscious experiences per second? Is that what's in our future?
Hameroff: I think something interesting is going to happen, but I don't know what. It could be
that, for some, consciousness will expand. But this will be countered by increased crowding and
technological interference having opposite effects. So unfortunately it could be like wealth—the
rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Some will become more conscious, others less.
The last thing I want to say is about health. I think just about every aspect of health and disease
is related at some level to consciousness, and in every system, the microtubules are essential.
Think of the macrophages and lymphocytes of the immune system—recognition, amplification,
mobility and engulfment of foreign invaders all occur by the cytoskeleton.
14. There are many papers about the role of the cytoskeleton in genome regulation in cancer. There
is ample evidence for the fact that the cytoskeleton regulates the genes, decides which genes to
turn on, and so forth, not only in terms of differentiation in development, but also in health and
in steady state. I think consciousness, cytoskeleton and quantum coherence play essential roles in
health and disease.
References
1. Hameroff, S.R., and Penrose, R., (1996) Orchestrated reduction of quantum coherence in
brain microtubules: A model for consciousness. In: Toward a Science of Consciousness -
The First Tucson Discussions and Debates, S.R. Hameroff, A. Kaszniak and A.C. Scott
(eds.), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. Also published in Mathematics and Computers in
Simulation 40:453-480 http://www.u.arizona.edu/~hameroff/penrose1
2. Hameroff, S.R., and Penrose, R. (1996) Conscious events as orchestrated spacetime
selections. Journal of Consciousness Studies 3(1):36-53
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~hameroff/penrose2
See also:
1. Toward a Science of Consciousness II- The 1996 Tucson Discussions and Debates, S.R.
Hameroff, A. Kaszniak and A.C. Scott (eds.), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. (1997)
2. Penrose, R., Hameroff, S.R., What gaps? Reply to Grush and Churchland. Journal of
Consciousness Studies 2(2):99-112.
3. Penrose, R. (1989) The Emperor's New Mind, Oxford Press, Oxford, U.K.
4. Penrose, R. (1994) Shadows of the Mind, Oxford Press, Oxford, U.K.
5. Penrose, R. (1997) The Large, the Small, and the Human Mind. Cambridge Press,
Cambridge, U.K.