does time exist, or did we just make it up?
Posted by Peter Owen | Filed under science
This article, though a little long, is very interesting. It questions the validity of time. Does time actually exist or is it something we made up to measure our perception? This seems straightforward. Logically, to me, it seems that we made up time to measure our perception of something. It is bizarre that time passes more slowly for those moving faster. Let’s take an example: You are in a spaceship approaching the speed of light and spend 1 light year going somewhere and 1 light year coming back. People on the earth have aged much more than you. Now keeping that example in mind, consider this: We (and by we, I mean earth and our universe) is traveling away from something (perhaps due to the big bang) at a certain rate. Therefore if this theory holds true, the origin of the big bang must be where actual time is accurate, but since we’re moving at some really fast rate away from it, we’re aging (and time is passing) more slowly for us than at the point of the big bang. Make sense? It’s very interesting to think about. I hope your brain doesn’t explode.
Physicists have long struggled to understand what time really is. In fact, they are not even sure it exists at all. In their quest for deeper theories of the universe, some researchers increasingly suspect that time is not a fundamental feature of nature, but rather an artefact of our perception. One group has recently found a way to do quantum physics without invoking time, which could help pave a path to a time-free “theory of everything”. If correct, the approach suggests that time really is an illusion, and that we may need to rethink how the universe at large works…
…In the past year, he and his colleagues have worked out a method to compress multiple quantum events in time into a single event that can be described without reference to time Physical Review D, vol 75, p 084033.
via Is time an illusion? – physics-math – 19 January 2008 – New Scientist.
Tags: quantum physics, science, time
scarlet is attractive to both men and women
Posted by Peter Owen | Filed under science
Is this supposed to be a play on words? While the article is interesting in itself, read the last sentence that I’ve quoted below, then look at the picture. Funny, no? The gist of the article is that men (and women) are more sexually attracted to those that wear read. It has been like that for quite some time, as the article points out the red light district, red on Valentine’s Day, and the use of red in fertility rituals.
What is more, men seem completely oblivious to the effect that a glimpse of red can have on their emotions.
The researchers said it appeared they were driven by primal instincts that associate the colour with sex…
…The research suggests a man in scarlet is just as irresistible to women.
via Why Men Always Fall for a Lady in Red – wiseperception.com.
Tags: attractive, red, scarlet
scientists stop the aging process in mice
Posted by Peter Owen | Filed under science
I find this extremely interesting, but at the same time, it brings up the question about immortality. Does anyone truly want to be immortal? I don’t think I do, but at the same time, this could completely improve the life of someone whose liver is too old to function. It will decrease the likelihood of a failed transplant or a transplant at all. It’s a thin line we’re walking and it appears we’re about to fall over it.
Scientists have stopped the aging process in an entire organ for the first time, a study released today says.
In experiments, livers in genetically modified mice 22 to 26 months old, the equivalent of octogenarians in human years, cleaned blood as efficiently as those in animals a quarter their age.
By contrast, the livers of normal mice in a control group began to fail.
via Scientists stop the ageing process (ABC News in Science).
study: drug can erase emotional links to fearful memories
Posted by Peter Owen | Filed under science, technology
A lab study shows that a common blood pressure drug can modify a fear memory in people. Scientists are hopeful such drugs could be used to treat people with post-traumatic stress disorder, and this is already being tried in one clinic.
The really interesting thing about this story is that the memory itself is still in tact, but the emotional link (i.e. fear) is erased. In the study, volunteers were exposed to two images of spiders and received a small electric shock when they saw one of them. This produced an emotional memory of fear whenever they saw that particular spider. The experimental group of students were then given a beta blocker (blood pressure) drug and exposed to the same image. This effectively removed the fear that was associated with the image. Truly an amazing development especially for those with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
via Study: Drug Can Erase Fearful Memories : NPR.
Tags: drug, erase memory, science
man supposedly cured of leukemia by stem cell transplant
Posted by Peter Owen | Filed under health, science
Well this IS something! I really hope (as I always do) that this could lead to a permanent cure of HIV and Leukemia. The only additional thing I would wish for is that the big drug companies see none of the profit from this breakthrough. I’m convinced there exists a non money making cure to AIDS. But I suppose that it would be wide knowledge by now.
“The patient is fine,” said Dr. Gero Hutter of Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin in Germany. “Today, two years after his transplantation, he is still without any signs of HIV disease and without antiretroviral medication.”
The case was first reported in November, and the new report is the first official publication of the case in a medical journal. Hutter and a team of medical professionals performed the stem cell transplant on the patient, an American living in Germany, to treat the man’s leukemia, not the HIV itself.
However, the team deliberately chose a compatible donor who has a naturally occurring gene mutation that confers resistance to HIV. The mutation cripples a receptor known as CCR5, which is normally found on the surface of T cells, the type of immune system cells attacked by HIV.
via Man appears free of HIV after stem cell transplant – CNN.com.
Tags: AIDS, health, HIV, stem cells
confessions of a TED addict – i can relate to this
Posted by Peter Owen | Filed under science, technology, video
I can completely relate to this article. When I first discovered TED, I spent hours upon hours watching the talks. I was completely baffled as to why I had never seen these before. I wanted to be at the conference… then I realized that it was both invite only and you actually had to do something ground breaking. That’s when it hit me… I can tag along with Nick when he’s invited due to his extensive studies at UCLA in the field of bioinformatics. Perfect.
Oh why oh why have I been bingeing on TED talks again? I promised myself I would quit watching the ecstatic series of head-rush disquisitions, available online, from violinists, political prisoners, brain scientists, novelists and Bill Clinton. But I can’t. Each hortatory TED talk starts with a bang and keeps banging till it explodes in fireworks. How can I shut it off? The speakers seem fevered, possessed, Pentecostal. No wonder I am, too, now.
A TED talk begins as an auditorium speech given at the multidisciplinary, invitation-only annual TED conference. (This year’s 25th-anniversary conference takes place next week in Long Beach, Calif.) TED then creates videos of the speeches and puts them online so they can find a broader audience — and usurp my life. There are around 370 speeches and counting on TED.com. A new one is added every weekday.
