Yoda Sutras: Concourse No.31

Series 1

IV - 4: Existence is Non-linear

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.

Quantum Physics:

Light Curves

For decades, physicists have known that quantum theory allows for wavelike objects to follow curved trajectories known as Airy functions, after the 19th-century British astronomer George Biddell Airy. Scientists have now managed to bend a beam of light into just such a shape. A team passed an ordinary, but thick, laser beam through a liquid-crystal screen. The incoming light waves were oscillating in sync, but the orientations of the liquid crystals knocked them out of sync in a predetermined way. So the waves emerging on the other side formed interference patterns—with their peaks and troughs either canceling or reinforcing one another. One main shape veered to one side, tracing a parabola similar to the ballistic trajectory of a cannonball. Similar, but thinner shapes, also part of the Airy function, extended parallel to the main parabola. The curved patterns could help in the manipulation of light and also, because of light's pressure, of matter.

Think.

Astrophysics: Supermassive Kick Out

Learn.

Kicked out of its home galaxy by a gravitational rocket, a supermassive black hole roams intergalactic space, a solitary glutton seeking a fresh supply of gas and stars for its next meal. That may sound like science fiction, but researchers say they now have the first observational hint that black holes weighing millions to billions of times as much as the sun really can be ejected from the galaxies in which they formed. If confirmed, the finding would have far-reaching implications for understanding galaxy formation. Mounting evidence suggests not only that every large galaxy houses a supermassive black hole at its core, but that a galaxy’s central hub of stars grows in lockstep with the mass of the black hole. Now it appears that some galaxies may be deprived of the monsters that somehow regulated their growth. A kick would also provide a profound confirmation of recent supercomputer simulations of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The kick is believed to be generated when two giant black holes from different galaxies merge, unleashing an enormous burst of gravitational radiation. These proposed ripples in space-time, predicted by Einstein’s theory, travel at the speed of light. Most of the gravitational radiation is emitted in one direction, pushing the merged black hole system in the opposite direction, like the kickback from a shotgun. If the kick is big enough, according to simulations, the merged supermassive black hole could exit its galaxy.

Imagine.

Understand.

Global Warming:

Ocean Methane Release

Since time immemorial, methane and oil have seeped from beds buried beneath the ocean sediment off the California coast. The methane bubbles up and out of the sea, adding to the store of greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere. The oil floats up as well and, over time, breaks down into tar that settles back into the marine sediment layer. Now new research into that tar residue seems to show that such seeps are influenced by ocean temperatures, and therefore by the very global warming they help to engender. A team studied the amount of tar in samples taken from the seafloor of the Santa Barbara channel off the California coast. Because the oil and gas escape at the same time, measuring tar levels in such samples provides a good estimate of how much methane was released. Digging into the sediment to a time corresponding to the last 32,000 years, the scientists found that tar levels peaked at the same time as global temperatures: roughly 16,000 to 14,000 years ago and 11,000 to 10,000 years ago. These findings indicate that petroleum seeps are 'activated' during time periods of warming, and increase their seepage of methane and oil. Currently, such seeps worldwide account for the release of 30 teragrams (roughly 33 million tons) of methane every year, or roughly 15 percent of the natural sources of greenhouse gas. But tar levels during warming periods were as much as three times higher than at present, meaning methane releases could potentially triple. Because methane is a potent heat-trapping gas, this increasing seepage could result in even greater warming—another positive feedback loop not unlike the loss of albedo (reflectivity) at the earth's poles as their snow cover melts.

Explore.

Investigate.

Experiment.

Medical Research: Cancer Cell Suicide

Suicide is the regular mode of cell death. When cells reach the end of their useful life, internal mechanisms kick in and the cell automatically perishes, a process known as apoptosis. But in cancer cells this mechanism has often been genetically disabled or otherwise broken, allowing tumors to proliferate. Now researchers have found a way to reactivate programmed cell death and thereby treat cancer. In preparation for apoptosis, a chain of chemical events takes place in the cell. Near the end, the chemical procaspase-3 is activated. This chemical then transforms into caspase-3—an executioner enzyme that terminates the cell. Scientists realized that a compound that activated procaspase-3 might be effective in killing cancer, because many tumors show elevated levels of procaspase despite their inability to complete apoptosis. After screening 20,500 related molecules for this activation ability, a team of researchers narrowed it down to four likely candidates. Of these, only one showed an increasingly strong effect with increased doses: newly named procaspase activating compound, or PAC-1. By bypassing the broken pathway, the cells' own machinery can be used to destroy them. Tests in mice proved effective in treating grafted human kidney- and lung-cancer cells, and those results also indicated that PAC-1's strength correlated with procaspase-3 levels in the various cancer cells.

Analyze.

Know.

Study.

Genetics:

Gene Differences

The DNA sequences of humans and chimpanzees are 98 percent identical. Yet that 2 percent difference represents at least 15 million changes in our genome since the time of our common ancestor roughly six million years ago. Now a new computational technique has identified 49 regions that have changed particularly quickly between humans and chimps, and may have revealed at least one gene critical to the development of our larger brains. Researchers used computers to search for segments of DNA that showed the most changes between human and chimp genomes. The computers identified 49 such areas in the human genome, dubbed human accelerated regions (HAR). The most radical revolutionary, tagged as HAR1, transformed 18 of its 118 nucleotides in the course of the last few million years; only two had changed in the prior 310 million years that separate chickens from apes. Closer observation of the region revealed that it overlaps with two neighboring genes: HAR1F and HAR1R. These genes do not code for proteins that then carry out a particular function in the body, rather they produce a messenger RNA (mRNA) molecule that guides the production of proteins by other genes. Further experiments revealed that HAR1F is strongly expressed in the developing neocortex of human embryos, starting in the seventh week. The mRNA is produced by Cajal-Retzius neurons, which previous research has shown to direct the creation of the layers of neurons in the human cortex. These cells also produce the protein reelin, which helps create the architecture of the human brain. HAR1 is just the first of the 49 rapidly evolving regions to be studied.

Innovate.

Ponder.

Perceive.

Create.

Alternate Energy: Hydrogen-producing Bioreactors

Penetrate.

By putting bacteria to work, a new bioreactor produces hydrogen hundreds of times as fast as previous prototypes. In a microbial fuel cell, bacteria break down organic matter, releasing electrons and protons into a solution. The protons migrate through a membrane, while the electrons enter a cathode and pass through a circuit that delivers them to the protons on the other side. There, protons—ionized hydrogen—and electrons react with oxygen to produce water, at the same time generating a voltage that keeps the electrons flowing, so the device produces a small amount of electric power. In the absence of oxygen, and with the help of a metal catalyst, the protons and electrons will instead combine into hydrogen gas. However, such hydrogen-producing bioreactors require an external voltage to pull the electrons from one side to the other, and so far have been very inefficient: A 1-liter bioreactor would normally produce 4 milliliters of hydrogen per day. By switching to a different membrane and using phosphates to ferry protons through it, a research team have now created a prototype bioreactor that can produce hydrogen 300 times as fast as before, with bacteria that can feed on a variety of foods, including glucose and cellulose. It produces almost three times as much energy—in the form of hydrogen gas—as it uses electrically. Researchers are now working on genetically engineered microbes that can produce hydrogen more efficiently.

Wonder…

But Beware!

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

_________Transcend._________

Atha Yodanushasanam

Now begins the teaching of Yoda.

Infinity surrounds us; very provincial we should not be.

And then there is the empty sky and the stars, and infinity. Before that infinity we are simple dots.

When you are utterly silent you are in tune with existence. You are no more just a part of the small locality of the galaxy. You become a member of the vast existence.

Silence is tremendous. Truth is known through silence.

If you want to move with truth, you have to move with truth — truth cannot move with you.

Language is a human invention. Truth is not an invention, truth is a discovery —

Silence is God-given, language is man-made.

Silence is golden, silence is precious. A single moment of silence is far more valuable than hours of thinking, studying.

Language is linear, and existence is non-linear.

10.

Existence has no past and existence has no future. Existence lives in eternity; it is always NOW.

11.

God is present. You cannot say 'God was' — that will be stupid. And you cannot say 'God will be' — that will be stupid again.

12.

Language is linear, and truth is simultaneous. Everything is existing simultaneously.

Close your eyes, meditate.

May the force be with you.

D. H. Lawrence was walking in a garden with a small boy, and the boy asked, 'Tell me, sir, why are the trees green?' Now, if there was some scientist, some foolish scientist, he would have said, 'Because of the chlorophyll, ' or something like that. But Lawrence is not a scientist, and not a foolish man at all. He is one of the great mystics the West has produced, but is not known as a mystic. One of the great tantrikas the West has produced, but is not known as a tantrika. If you were not a scientist, an ordinary person, you would have felt embarrassed. You would have answered something or other, or you would have forced the child to keep quiet. You would have said, 'When you grow up, you will know.' That's what fathers go on doing. Neither they know, nor their fathers nor their fathers' fathers — and they go on saying, 'When you become a grown-up person you will know. Don't disturb me.' But D. H. Lawrence is an authentic man. He looked into the child's eyes and he said, 'They are green because they are green.' He is saying there is no answer. 'I am ignorant' he is saying — 'I am as ignorant as you are.' And don't think for even a single moment that if you come across God and you ask him why the trees are green.... He will also shrug his shoulders, I tell you. He will not be able to answer you, because he is not a school master.

- Osho