Yoda Sutras: Concourse No.44

Series 1

V - 8: Be Now, and Here

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.

Electronics:

Heat Transfer Across Molecules

Researchers have taken the first snapshots of heat bursts moving along hydrocarbon molecules. A research team anchored ends of the carbon-chain molecules to a gold surface, creating an atomic-scale carpet. A laser pulse then heated the gold base to around 800 kelvins in less than a trillionth of a second. Meanwhile, the team measured how the top of the carpet scattered light from a second laser. When heat reached the molecules' upper ends, making them jiggle, the scattered signal changed. By repeating the experiment on hydrocarbons of different lengths, the researchers showed that the bursts traveled along single molecules at a constant speed of about 1 kilometer per second. That's much faster than heat diffuses in a macroscopic object. Understanding how molecules conduct heat will be crucial for "molecular electronics." Researchers in that field seek circuits in which single electrons carry information down molecule-thin wires.

Think.

Physics:

Helium Song

Learn.

Helium never ceases to amaze. Physicists have now heard a quantum-mechanical whistle emanating from two reservoirs of liquid helium-4 that were separated by a perforated membrane. According to theory, when liquid helium is pushed through a tiny hole at ultracold temperatures, the substance oscillates at a frequency that, when amplified electronically, sounds like a whistle. Other than confirming a quantum talent first predicted for helium-4 some 40 years ago, the new findings may lead to ultraprecise devices that sense helium flow through a ring of punctured membranes to measure an object's rotation. Those devices could prove useful for such tasks as measuring earthquakes and Earth's spin. In prior, unsuccessful attempts by other teams to detect helium-4's whistle, scientists used membranes with single holes. The membrane in the new experiment was riddled with more than 4,000 holes.

Imagine.

Understand.

Astrophysics:

Veiled Black Holes

Lurking at the centers of many galaxies, supermassive black holes make their presence known by gobbling gas, which heats up to fuel quasars and other fireworks. These so-called active galactic nuclei (AGN) are among the most luminous objects in the universe. Now astronomers say that they've found a new, relatively common class of AGN, so heavily smothered by gas and dust that virtually none of the visible and ultraviolet light generated within them can get out. These hidden AGN came to light over the past 2 years, when the Earth-orbiting Swift spacecraft detected high-energy X rays coming from the cores of several hundred otherwise unremarkable galaxies. The X rays can pass unimpeded through thick blankets of gas and dust that block lower-energy radiation. A team of researchers then studied two of these AGN with Suzaku, a Japanese–U.S. X-ray mission. Although it records X rays over a much broader range of energies than Swift can, Suzaku found little medium and low-energy X-ray emission, which may explain why previous searches hadn't found these AGN. In the leading model of AGN, a supermassive black hole is encircled by a doughnut of gas and dust. An observer looking directly down the hole has a clearer view of the activity within than an observer who looks through the doughnut. But in the case of the hidden AGN, the entire doughnut is further hidden by a giant cloud of gas and dust. This new type of AGN could account for up to 20 percent of the X-ray point sources in the sky.

Explore.

Investigate.

Experiment.

Medical Research: Transformed Muscle Fibers

Researchers have prompted mice to grow whole muscles from a normally rare type of muscle fiber, yielding rodents capable of running harder and for longer stretches of time than their unaltered compeers. Such animals may help to determine the role of this poorly understood type of fiber and to identify drugs capable of counteracting muscle-wasting diseases such as muscular dystrophy in people. Muscle fibers come in two general flavors—"slow-twitch" and "fast-twitch." Slow-twitch fibers are redder (think beef or dark-meat chicken) and have more endurance than fast-twitch fibers (think pork or white meat), which contract faster but use energy less efficiently. The muscles of the newly created mice are composed of an intermediate type of fiber that is usually present in muscles only in small amounts. The researchers inserted a hyperactive form of a mouse gene called PGC-1B into growing embryos and found that this uncommon fiber, called IIX, became abundant in the resulting mice, at the expense of fast-twitch fibers. These IIX-rich animals had noticeably redder, slower-twitch muscles and, as a result, were quite the little athletes. They were able to run an average of 33 minutes before pooping out, compared with 26 minutes for their counterparts. Researchers believe that PGC-1B produces a protein that helps activate other proteins, which, in turn, stimulate the genes that make IIX fibers. Members of the same group in a 2002 study discovered that a related gene, PGC-1A, turns fast-twitch fibers (called IIB) into the slow-twitch varieties (I and IIA). The new findings could help shed light on the role of this type of muscle, which, until now, had been hard to pin down, because animals normally have relatively few IIX fibers. Manipulating the type of fibers present in human muscle could also help treat muscle-wasting diseases such as muscular dystrophy.

Analyze.

Know.

Study.

Biology:

Cell’s Tangled Web

Here is a plumbing problem: Pump water through a series of flexible microscopic tubes in a way that helps identify which pieces of DNA a protein will stick to. It may sound esoteric, but researchers have devised just such a system to help solve a fundamental problem in biology—how a cell takes shape from a fluctuating network of genes and proteins. The device is a unique example of microfluidics technology, sometimes called a lab-on-a-chip, that pushes water around in microscopic tubes and reservoirs made from the same cellophanelike plastic as soft contact lenses. Powered by hydraulics and flexible valves, the system presses down with small "buttons" of plastic to trap DNA and proteins in the middle of bonding together. Besides being able to perform hundreds of simultaneous measurements, it can detect relatively weak, fleeting interactions between molecules that other experiments can miss. It is really important to know what these interaction strengths are, as they are basically what make the cell function. Genes become more or less active at the touch of proteins called transcription factors, each of which can influence hundreds or thousands of other genes. As a factor becomes more concentrated in a cell, it will begin to activate genes that it has less intrinsic affinity for, potentially changing the cell's behavior. Researchers would like to have a map of these interactions they can fiddle with on computers, and the current research is a step towards getting a bird's-eye view of a transcription factor's effects.

Innovate.

Ponder.

Perceive.

Create.

Genetics: Gene Behind Sleep Cycle

Penetrate.

In 2000 scientists at the University of Utah discovered a family of early risers who typically slept from around five at night to two in the morning. The condition, dubbed familial advanced sleep phase syndrome (FASPS), has allowed researchers studying circadian rhythms to understand how the human body clock works, which could pave the way for future therapies aimed at seasonal affective disorder, jet lag and insomnia. Now, a new study by a team out of the University of California, San Francisco, which includes members of the group that initially identified FASPS, has determined the operational mechanism by which the gene Per2 is implicated in adjusting the body clock's response to light. Their findings state that the replacement of one amino acid from among hundreds found in a protein can result in irregular sleep patterns. A single amino acid change from serine to glycine is enough for someone who has this mutation to have FASPS. Based on lab tests of cells from the Utah family, the researchers believe that a single point mutation in Per2 results in the replacement of serine with glycine during transcription. This substitution then prevents a still unknown enzyme from adding a phosphate molecule onto the absent serine, which kicks off a domino effect resulting in lower overall transcription from DNA to mRNA (messenger RNA). This decreased mRNA, in turn, leads to lower amounts of protein when RNA is translated. The message of this gene doesn't get transmitted appropriately and therefore the protein level is low. The research team also studied the effects of Per2 mutation in mice. The scientists added a mutated copy of the Per2 gene to mice that would change the 662nd amino acid in the PER2 protein from a serine to glycine. This triggered a shift in the animals' circadian period, causing the mice to go to sleep nearly two hours earlier than before. When the researchers deleted the natural Per2 genes before inserting the mutated gene, the mice slept and woke nearly four hours earlier than before.

Wonder…

But Beware!

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

_________Transcend._________

Atha Yodanushasanam

Now begins the teaching of Yoda.

The truth is in front of you, it cannot be otherwise. Neither easy it is nor difficult. It is not a question of effort, so how can it be easy or difficult?

The faster you go, the slower you are. Don't go anywhere! Just be here — and immediately you reach.

Make now and here your only mantra, and you don't need anything else. Be now, and here. Don't go anywhere, fast or slow.

Dangerous your speed is, it is against the goal, because no speed is needed.

Faith is a decision, a total decision. You move totally in it, it is a trust, with nothing to be held behind, unconditional. It cannot be taken back.

Don't cling to anything, remain free and moving. The more moving, the nearer you are to yourself.

Enlightenment is never attained, it happens. It is not an attainment. And the achieving mind never attains it.

One who reaches is one who is not trying to achieve, who simply is happy wherever he is, who is simply blissful whatsoever he is.

You move, but your movement is not for a goal. You move out of your energy, not for a goal —

10.

A river moves from the mountains; she is not moving towards the sea, she does not know the sea, she is not bothered about the sea. The very song of moving in the hills is so beautiful —

11.

The river is not even aware there is a goal or there is a sea. That is not the concern. And if a river becomes too much concerned, then she will be just in the same mess as you are.

12.

Don't ask for the path, ask how to be more moving.

Close your eyes, meditate.

May the force be with you.

Hindus have a method of looking at the tip of the nose: just sit silently and look at the tip of the nose and do nothing. People laugh, because what foolishness! What will happen out of it? But the meaning is missed. Hindus are saying it is just in front of you, just like the tip of the nose. Be silent and look at the tip of the nose and don't get entangled into any thinking... and suddenly it is there — just like the tip of the nose, always in front of you. And this is the beauty of the tip of the nose: wherever you move it is always in front of you. Right you go, it is there; wrong you go, it is there. Be a sinner, it is in front; be a saint, it is in front. Whatsoever you do — stand in a reverse posture, in SHIRSHASAN — it is there in front of you. Fall asleep, it is there; be awake, it is there. This is the meaning of looking at the tip of the nose, because whatsoever you do, you cannot put it anywhere else than in the front. The moment you move, it has already moved. Just looking at the tip of the nose you will understand that the truth is just in front of you. Wherever you move, it moves with you; wherever you go, it goes with you. You cannot miss it, so there is no question of finding it.

- Osho