Infjs Forums - Science and Technology

The Neurology of Self-Awareness

NeverAmI — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 21:42:43 GMT

I find this topic fascinating. I found a great article by one of my favorite neuroscientists, V.S. Ramachandran. I thought I would share with all of you.

The Neurology of Self-Awareness

Quote:

How does all this lead to self awareness? I suggest that self awareness is simply using mirror neurons for "looking at myself as if someone else is look at me" (the word "me" encompassing some of my brain processes, as well). The mirror neuron mechanism � the same algorithm � that originally evolved to help you adopt another's point of view was turned inward to look at your own self. This, in essence, is the basis of things like "introspection". It may not be coincidental that we use phrases like "self conscious" when you really mean that you are conscious of others being conscious of you. Or say "I am reflecting" when you mean you are aware of yourself thinking. In other words the ability to turn inward to introspect or reflect may be a sort of metaphorical extension of the mirror neurons ability to read others minds. It is often tacitly assumed that the uniquely human ability to construct a "theory of other minds" or "TOM" (seeing the world from the others point of view; "mind reading", figuring out what someone is up to, etc.) must come after an already pre- existing sense of self. I am arguing that the exact opposite is true; the TOM evolved first in response to social needs and then later, as an unexpected bonus, came the ability to introspect on your own thoughts and intentions. I claim no great originality for these ideas; they are part of the current zeitgeist. Any novelty derives from the manner in which I shall marshall the evidence from physiology and from our own work in neurology. Note that I am not arguing that mirror neurons are sufficient for the emergence of self; only that they must have played a pivotal role. (Otherwise monkeys would have self awareness and they don't). They may have to reach a certain critical level of sophistication that allowed them to build on earlier functions (TOM) and become linked to certain other brain circuits, especially the Wernickes ("language comprehension") area and parts of the frontal lobes.

"Scientists puzzled over tiny freshwater jellyfish"

Anita — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 02:34:02 GMT

Mystery blooms on Walden Pond

Scientists puzzled over tiny freshwater jellyfish

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff | September 10, 2010
http://www.boston.com/news/science/a...n_pond?mode=PF

CONCORD � Gwen Acton thought the dime-sized translucent pods she saw on her Sunday swim in Walden Pond were strange, beautiful seeds that had drifted down to the water surface from some flowering plant.
But as she cut through the water in a crawl stroke Monday she noticed their numbers had ballooned. She saw them everywhere. And they were pulsating.

�I said to myself: �Oh, no. I am surrounded by thousands and thousands of jellyfish,� �� Acton said.

She was.

A deeply mysterious species � freshwater jellies � has bloomed in one of the nation�s most visited ponds. The organisms rarely cause health problems in humans, but the discovery has set off a flurry of interest at the New England Aquarium, where scientists have unsuccessfully attempted to breed the elusive creatures.

It is not that the tiny jellyfish are rare; after probably hitching a ride to the United States in the late 1800s on Asian water hyacinth or other ornamental plants, the jelly fish are believed to have spread to lakes and ponds throughout the country because of activities of fishermen and waterfowl.

But because the tiny jellies can lie in a dormant state for years � perhaps decades � and bloom en masse suddenly before disappearing just as quickly, people rarely come across them or do not know what they are looking at when they do. In Massachusetts, where officials began keeping track of the species about five years ago, they have been recorded in about five or six lakes and ponds across the state.

But no one has reported them before in Walden Pond, and Acton, who lives nearby in Concord, has not seen them in the 15 years she has been swimming there. The Walden Woods Project, which curates the most extensive research collection by and about Henry David Thoreau, conducted a preliminary search of his work just in case he might have noticed them during his time at Walden, and found no mention.

�Jellyheads like me knew these guys are around, but they can go for years and years and years without anybody seeing them,�� said Steve Bailey, New England Aquarium�s curator of fishes. �They are a wickedly cool critter that is still a mystery to us when so many other things have been demystified.��
When Peter Davenport of the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, and Tony LaCasse of the aquarium, dipped nets from a canoe in the dark Walden water yesterday morning, they came up empty. But they had proof the jellies existed: On Wednesday, a visitor armed with goggles and a net dove 5 feet below the water surface and scooped up scores of them, which park workers promptly transferred into a plastic bag.

On Walden�s shore yesterday, visitors ogled the undulating creatures and repeatedly asked one critical question: Do they sting?

Although the organisms� tentacles have thousands of stinging cells to immobilize the tiny plankton they eat, most people are unaffected by them. Some people, like Acton, say they cannot feel them while swimming, but others have said they can, and have reported mild itching, red spots, and, in some cases, a slight numbness, said Terry Peard, a retired biology professor from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Peard, who studies the organisms, first heard of freshwater jellies in the late 1980s, became interested in them, and hosts www.freshwaterjellyfish.org in part to keep track of public sightings in the United States.

People rarely see the jellyfish because they spend much of their life out of sight. Tiny stalked forms of the jellyfish, known as polyps, attach to underwater surfaces such as plants, rocks, and tree stumps to feed and reproduce asexually during spring and summer, developing colonies.

But some offspring of the polyps develop into full-blown jellyfish that can grow to the size of a quarter. When or why is a mystery. The blooms take place in warm water, usually above 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and some at Walden speculated this summer�s soaring temperatures may have contributed to the bloom.

Scientists also believe other factors, including the abundance of microscopic animals they eat and the acidity of the water, contribute to the jellies� growth. They are not linked to poor water quality, and do not appear to harm native species.

�I start getting sightings in July and go to October�� across the country, Peard said, noting this is a prime time for sightings.

A worker saw some in a pond at Nickerson State Park in Brewster on Aug. 21, and in New Hampshire, the Department Of Environmental Services has received 10 calls this week on them.

�They are very cool to look at,�� said Jody Connor, director of the center that monitors lakes and ponds, and who has been tracking the jellyfish since the early 1980s. �For a while we used to put them in beakers, but they don�t last long.��

Peard said this year�s reports from New England do not appear to be any more frequent than previous years. Yet because the creatures are so elusive and public reporting of them is sporadic, it is hard to track any definite trends in blooms, he said. �We really don�t know much about them,�� Peard said.

Acton, the Walden swimmer, said the jellies she saw were gorgeous, like �underwater snowflakes.�� But that didn�t stop her from being worried when she realized what they were.

�No matter where I was swimming, I knew I was going to touch them, but then I realized I hadn�t been stung so far,�� Acton said. She got out of the water and asked a woman whether she had seen jellyfish. The woman looked at her somewhat oddly and said there is no such thing as freshwater jellyfish. Acton researched them when she got home, found they were real, and telephoned the aquarium.

Yesterday, as LaCasse and Davenport searched for the jellyfish, swimmer Jean Weicker was asked whether he had seen any of the creatures. Weicker chuckled at what he thought was a joke.
Yeah, sure, he replied. And there are sharks in there, too.
Beth Daley can be reached at bdaley@globe.com.

Just how much of an effect do we really have?

Raccoon Love — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 03:13:38 GMT

After reading a bunch of arguments on both the people who validate global warning and those who reject it, has left me wondering, just how much of an effect do we currently have on our planet and to be more general the universe around us?

Do you think us, being such a small part of our planet really have such a profound impact to the point of altering global patterns? I believe it is no doubt that we have evolved scientifically, advancements in space exploration have truly proven that. Later, however comes the argument that we are able to go and explore what's beyond our own atmosphere yet be unable to effectively and rapidly cover a catastrophe such as an oil spill.

I guess what I am trying to say is, just how far do you think are we?

Jedi Monkey Game

corndogman — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:35:57 GMT

http://www.addictinggames.com/bloonstowerdefense4.html

Pop balloons in a monkey version of tower defense. Upgrade to Jedi Monkeys.

What are your top five?

corndogman — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 21:36:32 GMT

What are your top 5 pieces of technology?

What would life without technology be like?

April — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 02:01:57 GMT

if we didn't have modern technology such as radios, tvs, computers, vehicles of all sorts, modern irrigation systems, etc. etc. how do you think your life personally would be different?

What's the coolest invention ever created?

Anita — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:47:10 GMT

What's the coolest invention ever created? Why?

What inventions do you think we should toss to extinction? Why?

If Physics were a woman

Phoenix Down — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 02:28:42 GMT

I would reconsider my sexual orientation.
:m027:

Quote:

0. Newtonian gravity is your high-school girlfriend. As your first encounter with physics, she's amazing. You will never forget Newtonian gravity, even if you're not in touch very much anymore.

The rest are located below
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/lists/physical.html

The BEC and its Implications for Laser Technology

NeverAmI — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 06:41:00 GMT

Bored and thought I would post this that I was researching. Some of you may have heard about the Bose Einstein Condensate before. Essentially it slows down a group of atoms, held in an electromagnetic 'dish,' to almost a standstill in a supercooled environment.

YouTube- As cold as it gets

There are primarily two different lasers that utilize the BEC, at least that I know of.

One is a Gamma Ray Laser which still uses traditional photon technology but the photons are created from particle/antiparticle annihilation, in this case being positronium consisting of a positron and an electron.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0501013620.htm

Quote:

"The eventual production of a positronium condensate could help us understand why the universe is made of matter and not antimatter or just pure energy," Cassidy said. "It could also one day help us measure the gravitational interaction of antimatter with matter. At present, nobody knows for sure if antimatter falls up or down."

The other is an atomic laser that uses the actual atoms to form a beam rather than photons, it is REALLY interesting to hear how much more gravity affects an atomic beam vs the traditional photon beam.

http://cua.mit.edu/ketterle_group/pr...aser_comm.html

Quote:

Differences between an atom laser and an optical laser

Photons can be created, but not atoms. The number of atoms in an atom laser is not amplified. What is amplified is the number of atoms in the ground state, while the number of atoms in other states decreases.
Atoms interact with each other - that creates additional spreading of the output beam. Unlike light, a matter wave cannot travel far through air.
Atoms are massive particles. They are therefore accelerated by gravity. A matter wave beam will fall like a beam of ordinary atoms.
A Bose condensates occupies the lowest mode (ground state) of the system, whereas lasers usually operate on very high modes of the laser resonator.
A Bose condensed system is in thermal equilibrium and characterized by extremely low temperature. In contrast, the optical laser operates in a non-equilibrium situation which can be characterized by a negative temperature (which means "hotter" than infinite temperature!). There is never any population inversion in evaporative cooling or Bose condensation.

I think one of the neatest things is that, in order to create a BEC regular photon lasers are used. The photon wave bursts help to slow the atoms down in the condensate.

Science of (Visual) Art

KazeCraven — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 02:08:01 GMT

This is a long video, so I'll summarize below:

YouTube- 40/40 Vision Lecture: Neurology and the Passion for Art

Ramachandran strikes again. This time, he makes a hypothesis that great (visual) art exaggerates features that activate neurons in the visual cortex that we all share, and that this activation is what makes great art appeal to us. In other words, emphasizing what makes something what it is (he talks mostly about femininity) activates the brain more, and thus we prefer the art to the real thing.

Of course, he's not saying that this is the only reason that people like art, but rather that insofar as a particular piece of art can be appreciated by humans in general, that's what's happening. I am inclined to agree with him, though I disagree with his counterargument that the people who don't like, say, Picasso, are in denial due to interference with other parts of the brain. I think that the distortion needed to emphasize the essence of an object can actually fail for some people due to suboptimal wiring, and that this distortion can actually create a counter-reaction of disgust.

Buddhist Superpowers

Animekitty — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 01:37:19 GMT

Now I know that they are not really superpowers but more like ability's. If your mind is powerful enough you can make your body able to do extraordinary things.

One ability I think Buddhism allows you to train for is a sixth sense of magnetism. Your heart has an electric field that is more powerful than your brains. Controlling the heart and understanding it within yourself would mean that your body would become a conductive for detecting other magnetic currents. This could be the aura people detect when they feel good or bad vibes unconsciously. Secondly once you have control of the electricity in your heart you would also gain control of the chi points (nerves).

So what do you think.
Are there other ability's people may gain from Buddhist practices.

I didn't think you ever wanted to sleep again, so here's a video to help with that

~jet — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:52:07 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_d-gs0WoUw&hd=1

30 animated years of asteroid discovery... watch in 720p HD at the very least, and full screen it if you can. Quite impressive