Yoda Sutras: Concourse No.28

Series 1

IV - 1: Evening Always Comes

Mind is a tangled web.

Use it to catch the world.

Try to comprehend the infinite complexity of it all…

…elegantly embedded in the fabric of space and time.

Open your eyes in amazement.

Be Aware.

See.

Alternate Energy:

Hydrogen-powered Flight

Researchers report they have set aloft the first large unmanned aerial vehicle powered solely by a compressed hydrogen fuel cell, the same kind of technology being developed for hybrid cars. Although it flew for no more than a minute, further refinements could potentially allow this type of aircraft to make a transatlantic voyage within a few years. Hydrogen fuel cells are desired for their ability to replace fossil fuel in some settings. Their core technology is the proton-exchange membrane, which extracts electricity from hydrogen and oxygen and gives off nothing but water vapor in the process. Prior flights of fuel cell aircraft have involved either small remote-control planes or those powered with liquid hydrogen. Compressed hydrogen, which is what the automotive industry is using, is cheaper and easier to work with. Besides requiring no refrigeration to keep it liquid, compressed hydrogen also reduces a craft’s weight, which is an important consideration because the energy density of compressed hydrogen is still only tenths that of gasoline or airplane fuel. The challenge in a longer sustained flight is primarily hydrogen storage, which means a transatlantic flight is in the realm of possibility.

Think.

Global Warming: Anemic Phytoplankton

Learn.

Phytoplankton in the Pacific Ocean are starved for iron, and as a result these microscopic plants soak up less of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide than was previously thought. The world’s oceans tend to absorb carbon dioxide in the form of carbonate, but the Pacific Ocean actually emits CO₂ in areas of cold, upwelling water that warms as it reaches the surface, releasing the gas. Phytoplankton thrive on this CO₂, using it to drive their photosynthesis. But the plankton don’t grow very fast given the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus at their disposal. To find out why, marine researchers took a zigzagging 12-year journey through the Pacific, collecting tens of thousands of plankton samples. Fluorescence imaging gave them a measure of the plankton’s photosynthesis. Too little iron is the problem, the group finds. Phytoplankton living in water with lower iron concentrations perform less photosynthesis than those in iron-rich conditions, even though they both make the same amount of chlorophyll. Prior studies of ocean photosynthesis relied on satellite images, which measure chlorophyll levels alone, so they wouldn’t have revealed this distinction. A major source of iron for the oceans is dust blown in from the deserts. As the climate changes, new wind patterns may alter the ocean’s iron content, which may in turn alter carbon uptake.

Imagine.

Understand.

Astronomy:

Red Dwarfs

Size matters for stars. Smaller stars may not have quite enough mass to sustain the fusion that keeps those just above the limit—known as red dwarfs—burning bright for billions of years. This deficiency condemns them to persist for much shorter periods as so-called brown dwarfs. And larger stars that have reached the end of their hydrogen fusion fuel burn out into white dwarfs—dense, hot but cooling remnants. New observations with the Hubble Space Telescope have captured images of both the very faintest stars of this ilk—those nearest to the lowest mass limit—as well as white dwarfs so old they are turning blue. Astronomers trained Hubble on a nearby globular cluster—NGC 6397—a roughly spherical grouping of hundreds of thousands of stars in the southern hemisphere constellation Ara. By snapping nearly 400 overlapping images of a region of that cluster over the course of more than 110 hours—nearly five days—the astronomers hoped to capture the very faintest stars in the bunch. The light from these faint stars is so dim that it is equivalent to that produced by a birthday candle on the moon as seen from Earth. Nevertheless, aided by computers the resulting images revealed such dim objects, interspersed among the heaviest and lightest stars in the universe. As predicted by theory, the smallest red dwarfs were just 8.3 percent the size of our sun, or roughly 80 times bigger than Jupiter. Once at this threshold or larger, the tiny stars can fuse hydrogen into helium for periods longer than the age of the universe, estimated at 13.7 billion years. The unlucky stars smaller than that peter out after roughly a billion years, and are too faint to be observed.

Explore.

Investigate.

Experiment.

Neuroscience: Baby Neurons

The human brain continues to produce new nerve cells throughout its life and these neurons may be key to learning new information. But many of these novice neurons wither and die before joining the vast signaling network of their mature peers. Now new research seems to show that the presence or absence of new information—represented by the neurotransmitter glutamate—may determine a young neuron's survival. A group of neurobiologists suspected that a lack of brain signals significantly impacted a new neuron's fate. Much like the new kid in school, a recently generated neuron must make friends—form synapses—within three weeks or it will not survive. To test this theory, the researchers created a virus capable of blocking the receptor for glutamate—a chemical involved in transferring information between brain cells. When injected into mice, the virus effectively cut off the glutamate receptor—N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)—in new neurons, which were also marked with fluorescent dye to ensure tracking. In the absence of signals from surrounding cells, these did not last more than a few weeks. The NMDA receptor modulates synapse formation and determines what pattern of input activity new neurons receive, which in turn determines survival. The NMDA-receptor mediated event is a competition between mature cells vying for connectivity and young ones competing with both the mature cells and their peers to fit in.

Analyze.

Know.

Study.

Climate:

Hurricane Research

Hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean typically start as thunderstorms that blow off the western coast of Africa. With the right environmental conditions, these tropical depressions gather strength from warm ocean waters and spin up to hurricane force with the help of spiraling winds. But it is only roughly one out of 10 such storms that complete this evolution and scientists do not have a clear understanding of what makes for a future tropical cyclone. Now NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as well as British and French scientists have teamed to study the origin and development of these storms using satellite imagery, aircraft observations as well as data from ground-based radar and weather gauges. The scientists hope to discover what differentiates a future hurricane from a storm that dies at sea. To do so, however, they will have to fly NASA's DC-8 aircraft through the storms themselves. They would look down through the storm to see what the humidity, pressure, temperature and wind structures are and fly through the storms at different altitudes to sample the dust and raindrops to see how it is made up. It gives the scientists a chance to look at the storms in higher detail, like looking at it under a microscope. Paired with NOAA observers in Barbados, the scientists will be able to track storms over their complete life cycle in the Atlantic and thus refine the knowledge of the forces that shape hurricanes, thereby improving models and, ultimately, forecasting.

Innovate.

Ponder.

Perceive.

Create.

Brain: Balance in Walking

Penetrate.

Walking upright separates humans from most other creatures. Our bipedal gait is a wonder of balance but it remains unclear exactly how our brains manage to maintain this posture and use it to arrive at desired destinations. Now researchers have shown that the balance mechanisms of our inner ears play a decisive role in directing the human walk, as well as demonstrating that blindfolded volunteers can be steered by simple electrical current. A research team gathered five men and five women and set them on a path. After staring at a target six meters (20 feet) away, the subjects were blindfolded and the researchers began running a slight electrical current through electrodes placed behind their ears. The current disrupted the constant electrical signaling produced by the sensory hair cells in the three canals of the inner ear. (They fire 90 times a second when the head is at rest.) Their continuous firing rate tells the brain exactly how the head is moving, which the brain then uses to maintain balance and direction. But when that signaling is disrupted, either by increasing or decreasing its rate, walking chaos ensues. The researchers could drive the subject to either the right or left depending on the direction of the current, basically convincing the brain that the head was rotating in a given direction and forcing it to make concomitant adjustments in the direction of the walk in order to arrive at the now misperceived goal. Further, when the subjects held their heads only slightly back, the current completely disrupted their balance, inducing swaying and stumbling. The research shows that the human walk depends on the accuracy of the signals of the tiny hair cells in the ear.

Wonder…

But Beware!

Don't get caught in the mighty maze of your own mind.

_________Transcend._________

Atha Yodanushasanam

Now begins the teaching of Yoda.

Let this be very very clear: insight is freedom. Strive for freedom you have not to, you have only to look into things, how they function.

Death is closer to us than life is, because life is the wheel revolving, and the hub death is.

If it is death, see into death. If it is love, see into love. If it is life, see into life. If it is anger, see into anger. It is one thing: see into it.

Look into things, and the obvious reveals itself.

Life goes on flowing — and we become so engrossed in our games that we forget life completely.

All castles are made of sand. There are only sand-castles; there are no other castles. Bound to fall a sand-castle is, there is no way to protect it.

Evening always comes; you cannot avoid the evening… Evening comes to everybody, but there are very few fortunate ones who use the evening and start seeing that nothing belongs to us…

Whenever you start feeling that the world outside is meaningless, don't create new meanings in the outside, start moving inwards towards the home.

Whenever you feel it is getting dark, whenever you feel it is getting to be an unhappy affair, remember — it is a call from the home: 'Come back home; you have played enough.'

10.

Once you have come home, a totally different vision of things you will have. Then there is joy, celebration.

11.

Jump into your own being. Disappear there. Enough you have moved into things; now start moving into nothing, into no-thing.

12.

Enough you have looked at others, and enough you have looked at yourself as the other. Now the time has come. Start looking in. An explosion of insight let there be.

Close your eyes, meditate.

May the force be with you.

You must have heard the Greek myth of Sisyphus, that the gods punished him. And the punishment is very strange — he has to carry a rock to the peak of a mountain. The rock is heavy, and as he goes up it becomes heavier and heavier. It is a very arduous task to bring it to the peak, it takes years. By the time he reaches to the peak, the rock rolls down. That is the punishment — he has to go back to the valley, pick up the rock again, and move it. In the Greek mythology, it is said the gods were very angry and they punished Sisyphus. To me, it doesn't look so. In fact, a better punishment would have been if the rock never came back to the valley. Then what would Sisyphus do, do you know? He would commit suicide on that rock. The Greek gods don't seem very intelligent. You should learn from Indian gods. If it was an Indian myth, the punishment would have been this — that he climbs, as he comes higher the rock becomes lighter, things become easier — easier and easier and easier. Because when things are hard, there is joy. When things become easy, your ego is not challenged, there is no more joy. As he comes to the top, finished. What is Sisyphus going to do now? The Indian gods would leave him there with his rock on the top of the mountain. What will he do? He will hit his head against the rock and die.

- Osho