Yoda Sutras: Concourse No.34

Series 1

IV - 7: Life is Alive

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.

Medical Research:

Switching Bacteria Off

One day in the future, infection may be fought by simply switching bacterial invaders off. At least, that's the promise of new technology out of a group at Yale University that's studying riboswitches—short sections of untranslated RNA that monitor small compounds in the cell-like nucleotides, amino acids and sugars—in order to control gene expression. This nascent technology, which is currently being tested on simple bacteria in the lab, may soon constitute a novel class of antibiotics, those wonderful "magic bullets" from the 20th century that suddenly are encountering resistance from evolving bacteria. The majority of antibiotics thwart the bacterial cell by targeting either ribosomes to stop protein synthesis or the proteins involved in DNA replication. Some antibiotics work by interfering with the biosynthesis of cell walls, or with folate—a form of vitamin B integral to the maintenance of new cells. There's no method addressing RNA-mediated gene regulation. To try this novel approach, researchers created variations in the amino acid lysine to target its class of riboswitch. The drug compounds mimic a metabolite, bind to the riboswitch and trick the cell into thinking that it is swimming in the metabolite, that it is rich in the metabolite, when in fact it is starving for it. If the riboswitch believes there is an excess of lysine in the cell, it will shut off its production. Without lysine available, the bacteria will be unable to translate its RNA into proteins, which will halt its growth. As bacteria become more and more resistant to conventional antibiotics, new alternatives, like compounds that target riboswitches, are increasingly valuable.

Think.

Cosmology: Measuring the Hubble Constant

Learn.

Astronomers are honing measurements of a familiar cosmic parameter to shed new light on dark energy, the mysterious entity that’s accelerating the universe’s rate of expansion. Known as the Hubble constant, this parameter indicates the current rate at which distant astronomical objects are receding, a number that can be used to estimate the age of the universe. A new measuring method has reduced uncertainty in the constant’s value by more than half, to 4.8 percent. The method relies on laserlike radio emissions from water molecules that lie within the swirling disk of gas that surrounds a supermassive black hole at the heart of a relatively nearby galaxy, NGC 4258. By combining the new measurement with detailed maps of the cosmic microwave background, the whisper of radiation leftover from the Big Bang, theorists can better determine whether dark energy is a constant or varies with time. So far, the preliminary study matches the early results of other studies, which suggest that dark energy has a constant density. The new measure of the Hubble constant, 74 kilometers per second per megaparsec (plus or minus 3.5), indicates that the universe is about 350 million years younger than the previous 13.7 billion–year estimate.

Imagine.

Understand.

Alternative Energy:

Prairie Grass

The jockeying for the alternative energy source of the future is like a horse race with a staggered starting order. Corn got out to a big lead on the back of government subsidies, but it's been brushed back by reports that it actually generates more fossil fuel emissions during its transformation to ethanol than it avoids as a fuel. This realization caused soybeans and switchgrass to catch up. Suddenly, technological advances allowed waste products such as straw and corn stover to zoom into the picture. Now, a new class of biomass is making a dash: Jockeyed by a team of ecologists and economists at the University of Minnesota, highly diverse mixtures of low-maintenance prairie grasses have officially entered the contest. The group says these diverse grassland species constitute a carbon-negative source of energy that could alleviate 19 percent of global electricity consumption and 13 percent of the world's petroleum consumption. Ecologist David Tilman notes that in five to seven years, the source of biofuels such as ethanol or biodiesel will expand from just corn grains and soybeans to cellulose, a plant sugar known to be an ethanol-rich source. The most efficient way of producing cellulose could be a biomass feedstock. Based on his work with crops grown over 10 years at Minnesota's Cedar Creek Natural History Area and on estimates in other scientific papers, Tilman calculates that nitrogen-poor, degraded land planted with a mixture of perennial prairie grasses—such as goldenrod, Indian grass, big blue stem and switchgrass—can actually provide up to 238 percent more bioenergy than the same land planted with only one species. (Switchgrass, when grown alone in the poor soil, returned only one third of the energy of a diverse plot.) In addition, when compared with ethanol from corn grown in fertile soil, he claims his plots can return 51 percent more energy per acre. The entry of prairie grass into the alt-fuel marathon is exciting, but it's likely to take several years to determine how best to use this new resource—be it for electricity or biofuels.

Explore.

Investigate.

Experiment.

Space Exploration: Water Tracks on Mars

Deposits formed in Martian gullies during the past seven years suggest that liquid water exists on Mars today. Researchers have observed two downhill tracks of light-colored material that were not present in images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft before 1999. These tracks follow narrow ravines present on the downward sloping walls of craters, and they branch and flow around obstacles like a liquid or watery sediment would. In 2000 Michael Malin and Kenneth Edgett of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego first reported the existence of gullies in crater slopes, fueling speculation that actively flowing liquid water could have carved out the relatively young channels. Since that time the two researchers and their colleagues were busy using the Mars Orbital Camera (MOC) on the Surveyor craft to capture images of thousands of gullies at hundreds of sites, looking for signs of active water. They were rewarded with two new deposits. In one example, an MOC image from April 2005 shows a deposit on the northwest wall of a crater that was not present in the previous image from December 2001. In subsequent views of the deposit, the sun's light is coming in at different angles, but the light-colored material remains, suggesting it is not a trick of the light or the result of erosion. Similarly, images of another crater from February 2004 show the beginnings of a second deposit, which has grown in subsequent images. Although liquid water would quickly freeze and evaporate in the planet's cold, thin atmosphere, flows of water could persist long enough to carve gullies about 500 meters long. Researchers have speculated that flowing groundwater or melted ground ice could have formed gullies, which mostly occur in craters, pits and other depressions.

Analyze.

Know.

Study.

Astrophysics:

Odd Gamma-Ray Burst

On June 14, 2006, the Burst Alert Telescope on NASA's Swift satellite was belted by gamma rays, the first warning that one of the most powerful explosions in the universe was taking place as a star went through its death throes. Within moments or hours a host of astronomers had trained telescopes all over the world on a galaxy 1.6 billion light-years away (relatively close in the cosmic scheme of things) toward the constellation Indus in anticipation of an incipient supernova—the brilliant demise of a massive star. As the flash lingered for 102 seconds, it fell into the "long" category of gamma-ray bursts typically associated with such epic stellar explosions. But even after months of monitoring no supernova appeared, bursting current theories for such events and potentially revealing a new type of stellar doom. Current understanding divides gamma-ray bursts into those that last less than two seconds and those of longer duration. The latter occur when a massive but young star collapses in on itself and explodes, seeding the universe with its elemental remnants and leaving behind a central black hole of matter so dense that no light can escape. The former happen when an old neutron star spirals to its death in a preexisting black hole. In addition to differences in duration, the two types also differ in the type of energy released, with short ones emitting a quick burst of comparatively high energy. But GRB060614 (after the date it was discovered) fits neither category. Its duration supported the long variety while the intensity of its emissions more closely matched the short one. All the data seem to point to a new but perhaps not so uncommon kind of cosmic explosion.

Innovate.

Ponder.

Perceive.

Create.

Genetics: Human-Chimp Gap Widens

Penetrate.

A lot more genes may separate humans from their chimp relatives than earlier studies let on. Researchers studying changes in the number of copies of genes in the two species found that their mix of genes is only 94 percent identical. The 6 percent difference is considerably larger than the commonly cited figure of 1.5 percent. The new finding supports the idea that evolution may have given humans new genes with new functions that don't exist in chimps, something researchers had not recognized until recently. The older value of 1.5 percent is a measure of the difference between equivalent genes in humans and chimps, like a difference in the spelling of the same word in two similar languages. Based on that figure, experts proposed that humans and chimps have essentially the same genes, but differed in when and where the genes turn on and off. The new research takes into account the possibility for multiple copies of genes and that the number of copies can differ between species, even though the gene itself is the same or nearly so. Researchers believe that additional copies of the same gene allow evolution to experiment, so to speak, finding new functions for old genes. A group set out to study these gains and losses in gene number over the eons by examining the genomes of humans, chimps, mice, rats and dogs. They looked at 110,000 genes that fall into 9,990 different families of similar genes. In humans and chimps, which have about 22,000 genes each, the group found 1,418 duplicates that one or the other does not possess. For example, humans have 15 members of a family of brain genes linked to autism, called the centaurin-gamma family, whereas chimps have six, for a difference of nine gene copies. The researchers estimated that humans have acquired 689 new gene duplicates and lost 86 since diverging from our common ancestor with chimps six million years ago. Similarly, they reckoned that chimps have lost 729 gene copies that humans still have.

Wonder…

But Beware!

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

_________Transcend._________

Atha Yodanushasanam

Now begins the teaching of Yoda.

Be aware. Be aware. Be aware. Be aware, don't be sleepy.

People are in their bodies — there you are not. People are in their minds — and there you are not. Your reality is somewhere else beyond the body and behind the mind.

Between you and him the distance is great: a mind you are and a no-mind he is. Even if he uses words he is saying something in silence; you, even if you remain silent, go on chattering within.

What do you do near a waterfall? You listen, you become silent and quiet, you absorb. You allow the waterfall to go deeper and deeper within you.

A beautiful rock — what do you do with it? You delight in it. You touch, you go around it, you feel it, the moss on it…

Life is a unity. Existence remains undivided, existence remains in a deep unison. It is oneness.

Mind is obsession; it is always fixed, it has a solidness about it. And life is not solid; it is fluid, flexible, goes on moving to the opposite.

Monotony is the nature of death, because the opposite is not there. Life is alive. The opposite is there, a rhythm is there. You move, you come back; you depart, you arrive.

Life is not logic. Logic is just a part — of course, very clean cut, categorized, compartmentalized, divided — but life is messy. But what to do? It is so.

10.

Just a passage you are. Share! Give! and more will be given to you. Be a miser! Don't give! and less will be given to you because you don't need it.

11.

When you have a clarity of consciousness the whole existence reveals its reality to you. That reality is God, that reality is truth.

12.

And when you are relaxed, your eyes have a clarity; they are not crowded with clouds and dreams. No thoughts move in the mind; you can see through.

Close your eyes, meditate.

May the force be with you.

A Zen master was saying goodbye to one of his disciples, and the night was very dark. And the disciple was a little bit afraid, scared, because he had to pass a jungle of at least ten miles. And it was wild. And wild animals were there, and it was night — and a dark night with no moon. And it was getting late, almost half the night had passed. Talking to the master, he had completely forgotten. Seeing him a little afraid, the master says, 'You look a little afraid, so I will give you a lamp.' He puts a small paper lamp into his hand, lights the lamp. The disciple thanks him, goes down the steps, and the master calls him and says, 'Stop!' And the master comes close and blows the flame out. And he says, 'A real master gives courage; he does not help cowardice. Go into the dark, be your own light. And remember, nobody else's light will be of any help; you will have to attain to your own light. Be a flame to your own being. Go into the dark, be courageous.' He says a real master never helps any cowardice. In a small act, by blowing the flame out, the master gives a great message: Religion is only for the courageous.

- Osho