Yoda Sutras: Concourse No.33

Series 1

IV - 6: When the Energy Explodes

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.

Physics:

Time-lapse Analysis of Molecules

Chemists can now watch the structures of molecules as they change shape, much like shooting multiple frames of a galloping horse. The new view reveals that when certain molecules such as cyclopropane carboxaldehyde switch back and forth between different conformations, they do so less often than expected — a finding that could require chemists to revise their theories and that could lead to a better understanding of processes such as how proteins fold. Brooks Pate of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville brought the time-honored chemistry tool called rotational spectroscopy into the digital era. His team can now collect data about molecules 100 to 10,000 times faster than was previously possible, essentially combining multiple frames in one shot. Using the new technique, Pate’s team looked at a small organic molecule in which a carbon atom sticks out like an arm, attached to another carbon atom. Vibrations of the molecule can make the arm randomly switch between two different stable positions. The researchers found that the molecules wiggle their carbon arms about 10 billion times a second — one-sixteenth as fast as the chemists had predicted based on prevailing theory. The team repeated the experiment with about 10 other types of relatively small molecules. All results disagreed with the prevailing theory of how vibrations move across a molecule and lead it to change shape or break up into pieces. A more precise theory would shed light on complex phenomena that involve molecules changing shape. For example, as a protein folds, it changes shape as bonded atoms pivot around one another. The new method could also shed light on phenomena that involve molecules both changing shape and reacting chemically — such as the firing of gunpowder.

Think.

Alternative Energy: Superefficient Solar Cells

Learn.

A tiny chip similar to the solar cells carried by many satellites and other spacecraft today—including the surprisingly long-lived Mars Rovers—has shattered previous records for maximum efficiency in producing electricity from sunlight. This is the photovoltaic equivalent of the four-minute mile. The specifics: a germanium wafer is spun at high speeds and subjected to various gases that encourage the growth of layers of semiconducting material such as gallium arsenide. There are 20 to 30 layers of semiconductor material. The resulting layers in one single solar device respond to different spectra of light. The top layer, for example, captures the energy of blue light while the middle layer absorbs green and the bottom uses red. Such triple-junction solar cells are specially tuned to work with concentrated light, in this case the wattage of 240 suns. The resulting efficiency nearly doubles that of standard silicon solar cells, which hover at 22 percent. That gain requires, however, the use of light-concentrating devices, such as miniature plastic lenses and mirrors. The new solar cell achieved 40.7 percent efficiency under such concentrated light at the testing center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado. One cell of just 0.26685 square centimeter (or roughly 0.04 square inch) pumped out 2.6 watts of electricity when bathed at the maximum light concentration. Even though installed cells would require concentrators, the fact that fewer cells can produce the same amount of power—and that similar cells are already widely produced—means this system could potentially generate electricity in the range of 8 to 10 cents per kilowatt-hour—roughly equal to consumer electricity prices today.

Imagine.

Understand.

Archeology:

Uncovering Greek Legends

Ancient Greek writers had related stories of an “age of heroes” before their time, but nothing definite was known about the Aegean civilization until the late 19th century, when archaeological excavations began at the sites of the legendary cities of Troy, Mycenae, Knossos, and other centers of the Bronze Age. A German amateur archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, was responsible for some of the most famous discoveries of the 19th century. In 1870 he began excavating a mound called Hisarlık, in what is now Turkey, and found what is believed to be the ruins of Troy. In Greece he uncovered the sites of Mycenae in 1876-1878 and Tiryns in 1884. Finds of fortress palaces, pottery, ornaments, and royal tombs containing gold and other artifacts demonstrated the existence of a well-developed civilization that had flourished about 1500-1200 BC. In 1900 the British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans discovered at Knossos, Crete, a huge palace complex that he associated with the Greek myth of King Minos, the Minotaur and the labyrinth. Evans also found baked clay tablets with two types of writing, dating from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC; these are called Linear A and Linear B. Linear B tablets from about 1200 BC have been found at Pylos and other Mycenaean sites. The British cryptologist Michael Ventris and John Chadwick, a classical scholar, proved that Linear B is an early form of Greek. Linear A, the language of Minoan Crete, has not yet been deciphered.

Explore.

Investigate.

Experiment.

Cosmology: Dark Energy — Real or a Mirage?

For all the hand wringing among physicists about the nature of dark energy, the invisible stuff that appears to be revving up the rate of cosmic expansion, a nagging possibility remains. Dark energy could be a cosmic mirage — if humans live in a special place in the universe with a peculiar distribution of matter. If Earth and its environs are centered in a vast, billion-light-year-long bubble, relatively free of matter, in turn surrounded by a massive, dense shell of material, then gravity’s tug would cause galaxies inside the void to hurtle toward the spherical concentration of mass. That process would mimic the action of dark energy — a local observer would be tricked into thinking that the universe’s expansion is accelerating. But that scenario violates the Copernican principle, a notion near and dear to the hearts of physicists and cosmologists. Named after the 16th century astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, who made the then heretical proposal that Earth does not have a favored, central position in the solar system, the principle states that humans are not privileged observers in the universe, but have just as good — or bad — a vantage point as any other observer in the cosmos. Although the Copernican principle may be widely accepted by fiat, such a foundational principle has not been proven yet.

Analyze.

Know.

Study.

Neuroscience:

Cocaine High

Cocaine—a stimulating alkaloid crushed out of the leaves of the coca plant—has been reported to increase euphoria and energy as well as to trigger a mind-killing addiction in humans. The appeal is not limited to our species; rats and other animals given access to the drug will pursue it with a vigor normally reserved for procreation. This vigorous drive for the drug derives from its ability to stimulate the brain's reward pathways, altering the chemical dance of neurotransmitters that tells us what is good to do—again and again and again. Previous research has shown that cocaine triggers the reward pathway by activating the mesolimbic dopamine system—a series of neurons that originate near the base of the brain and project signals to its front. Their first stop en route is a section known as the striatum, where the signals are first received. These signals inhibit the release of the neurotransmitter glutamate and increase the amount of the neurotransmitter dopamine by blocking the latter's normal reabsorption into the synapses that released it. Taking a closer look at this process, a team of neuroscientists examined the brains of rats after they had been injected with the drug. They found that in the striatum the dopamine receptors known as D2 interfered with the normal function of some glutamate receptors—known as NR2B—by blocking their activation. The powerful draw of cocaine may be linked to its ability to convince one set of neuroreceptors to block another; this game of musical chairs between glutamate and dopamine receptors seems key to the drug's impact.

Innovate.

Ponder.

Perceive.

Create.

Human Evolution:

70,000-year-old African Ritual

Penetrate.

The discovery of carvings on a snake-shaped rock along with 70,000-year-old spearheads nearby has dramatically pushed back the earliest evidence for ritual behavior, or what could be called religion. The finding comes from a cave hidden in the Tsodilo Hills of Botswana, a mecca of sorts for the local people, who call it the Mountain of the Gods. Prior to the discovery, researchers had identified signs of ritual practice going back at most 40,000 years from sites in Europe. Researchers believe that anatomically modern humans emerged from East Africa perhaps 120,000 years ago. This incredible time lag between that occurrence and any more complex aspect of the culture other than just basic survival has always posed a problem. Although some carved ornaments and wall markings from another African site are as old as the new find, they seem to have had no obvious ritual significance. Although many of the carvings looked old, more reliable markers of the site's longevity lay buried in rock half a meter beneath the soft cave floor. In a one-meter-wide, two-meter-deep excavation right next to the snake, the researchers uncovered more than 100 multicolored spear points from a total of 13,000 man-made artifacts. The tips closely resemble those found elsewhere in Africa that researchers have dated at up to 77,000 years old. Judging from the rare colors of the stone points and the pattern of fragments, people from far and wide likely brought them to the cave partially made and finished working them there. Some of the stone tips seem to have been burned or smashed in what may have been a type of sacrifice.

Wonder…

But Beware!

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

_________Transcend._________

Atha Yodanushasanam

Now begins the teaching of Yoda.

God is always here, but we are not here.

How can you know the real if you have not known the unreal?

Forget God, so that you can remember him. Escape from God, so one day the thirst becomes a fire in you and you have to come to God again... Like a hungry man, like a thirsty man.

God is the unknown, the hidden. He is hidden here — in the trees, in the rocks, in you, in me. But to enter into that hidden reality, that occult, one needs great courage —

Life is a learning, a school it is. That's why we have been sent here, that is the purpose —

Meditation comes out of living your life in all climates, in all seasons. Looking into each fact of life deeply, understanding it — by and by, you go on collecting the essential and discarding the non-essential.

That Tao, that existence, the force, suddenly fills you, overflows from you. Grasp it you cannot while the mind is moving... But when the mind is not moving, on its own accord it comes.

God is everywhere. Only God is: he has to be everywhere.

Even while you are ignorant, God is in you. He is your ignorance — who else can be? And when you know, he is your knowing. God is your ignorance and God is your enlightenment.

10.

Sexuality and spirituality are very alike. Sexuality is very small, atomic — and spirituality is vast like the whole sky.

11.

When the energy explodes there is great joy. Because in that explosion the ego disappears for a moment. You are no more. God is.

12.

Life and death, put against each other, create the whole game.

Close your eyes, meditate.

May the force be with you.

God said to Adam: 'Don't eat the fruit of this tree. This tree is the tree of knowledge.' And Adam ate it. I think anybody who has any soul would do the same. If Adam had been dead and dull, then he would have followed. He must have been challenged; in fact, that is the very purpose. Otherwise, on the earth there are millions and millions of trees — just think, if God had not shown the particular tree, it is very very impossible that Adam would have found it. That was only one tree in the whole garden of God, and the garden is infinite. That was only one tree of which God said particularly, 'Don't eat it. If you eat the fruit of knowledge you will be expelled.' My own understanding is, God was putting a challenge to him. He was trying to see whether he is alive or dead. He was trying to see whether he is capable of disobeying, whether he can say no — God was trying to see whether he is just a yes-man. And Adam proved his mettle: he ate the fruit. He was ready to be thrown into the world, but he showed spirit.

- Osho