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The Holographic Universe – Workshop series

Posted: December 5, 2012 by phaedrap1 in Science
Tags: Holographic Universe, Quantum Physics

Quantum physics and recent scientific experiments are radically changing our understanding of life, our reality, and our spirituality. It is giving us a new model for the way our universe works and the practical steps to take toward true joy and excitement and peace of mind.

Quantum Physics is actually a science of mathematics, and it is the most accurate mathematical science ever discovered to explain what we see in our “reality.” The mathematics used to create a hologram is the same mathematics used in quantum physics to “describe nature” and explain the behavior we see in our “reality.”

This is why quantum physicists say that the universe seems to be more like a hologram than solid reality and more and more scientists and researchers in addition to quantum physicists are now agreeing.

Electrons, which are the building blocks of what we call “reality,” are not solid particles at all, but exist as waves of possibilities. In this wave form, they are called “quanta,” which is why the study of how they behave is called “quantum physics.”

Electron – the core element of what we call our “physical reality” – is only a solid particle, is only matter when someone is looking at it. Otherwise, it’s a wave, and not solid at all.

– Double Slit Experiment (watch what it is)

Richard Feynman, a famous quantum physicist, once said that if you really understand the Double Slit experiment, you can understand all of quantum physics, and how the entire universe works as well.

When we speak of an electron existing as a “wave,” it isn’t like an ocean wave, or a radio wave. It is more like a wave of possible locations where the electron could end up as a particle when it is observed – a wave of possibilities.

This “wave of possibilities” in which the quantum world exists has been called many names over the years, such as…
•   the “quantum wave function”
•   the “implicate order”
•   the “Planck Scale”
•   the “zero point field”
•   the “superstring field”
•   the “unified field”

Mainly it is just called “the Field.” It is a field of unlimited possibilities out of which everything is created.

The Field – it is a field of unlimited possibilities out of which everything is created.

Lynne McTaggart, author of “The Field,” defines it as “a field of all possibility.” (page xxi)

In other words, everything you can think of, and everything you can’t think of, and everything no one can think of, already exists in wave form in the Field.

So…. The “Field” is a “place” outside of space and time where everything (all possibilities) already exists, but only in “wave” form. This field does not contain particles; it is not matter; it is not part of the physical universe. Instead it is what the entire universe is made from – from these waves of possibilities.

The problem is that no one can prove that the Field exists. You can’t see it; you can’t photograph it; you can’t measure it; you can’t hold it in your hand. But when quantum physicists assume the Field is there, they can make incredibly accurate mathematical predictions about the physical universe and how it behaves, which they can not do without taking the Field into account.
Think of it like electricity. You can’t see electricity itself; you can only see what electricity produces.

In the words of Albert Einstein, “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

But this idea that “reality” is an illusion is not a new concept. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism all talk about Maya, or life as an illusion.

“The real sky is knowing that samsara [the physical world] … merely an illusory display.”
– Mipham Rinpoche, Quintessential Instructions of Mind, p. 117

The Kabala says that “the first aspect of God is all that there really exists; all else is an illusion.”

A Course in Miracles puts it this way… “In any state apart from Heaven [in the physical world] life is illusion…. Outside of Heaven, only the conflict of illusion stands; senseless, impossible and beyond all reason…. Illusions are but forms. Their content is never true.” – T-23.11.18:8-19:9

What quantum physics has done is…

1. Scientifically confirmed what many other people have said about “reality” being an illusion, and…
2. Discovered that “reality” is actually a holographic picture that only looks and feels real.

The Holographic Universe – Invitation

The Holographic Universe – Workshop Part 1/5

This is Part One of a 5-part workshop series designed to examine how quantum physics and recent scientific experiments are radically changing our understanding of life, our reality and our spirituality.

Part One of the workshops is an 86-minute movie. Watch it as a streaming video below or by clicking here to watch it on authors web site. To watch on an iPad, click here. Download it as an .avi movie file (900 MB) by clicking here and watch it on whatever movie player you have.

There are 5 parts of this workshop, they are free and you can download them all to your computer. See the rest of them here as they can’t be found on You Tube.

Butterflies are Free to Fly: A New and Radical Approach to Spiritual Evolution is a free ebook written by the same author of The Holographic Universe workshops. You can download it in various different formats (including for Kindle, Sony, and other pocket readers) by clicking here. It is also available as an audiobook for free to listen to on any mp3 player. You can download the audiobook by clicking here. You can read a synopsis and the Introduction by clicking here.

Visit Stephen Davis YT channel here. His websites can be found @ www.butterfliesfree.com and www.holographicuniverseworkshops.com.

Featured image: mytopfbcover.com

The Watchers — By Adonai

Archaeologists Discover Shipwrecks, Ancient Harbor On Coast of Israel

Posted: December 5, 2012 by phaedrap1 in News, Science
Tags: Archeology, news, science

ScienceDaily (Nov. 28, 2012) — Archaeologists from the University of Rhode Island, the Israel Antiquities Authority, and the University of Louisville have discovered the remains of a fleet of early-19th century ships and ancient harbor structures from the Hellenistic period (third to first century B.C.) at the city of Akko, one of the major ancient ports of the eastern Mediterranean. The findings shed light on a period of history that is little known and point to how and where additional remains may be found.

The discoveries were presented on November 15 and 17 in Chicago at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research by URI assistant professors Bridget Buxton and William Krieger on behalf of the Israel Coast Exploration project.

According to Buxton, three of the four well-preserved shipwrecks found off the coast south of Akko were first detected using a sub-bottom profiler in 2011. Later, storms stripped off several meters of inshore sediments and temporarily revealed the wrecks, as well as an additional large vessel. The wrecks are now reburied.

During the brief time the shipwrecks were exposed, the Israel Antiquities Authority investigated one of them: a 32 meter vessel which still preserved its brass gudgeon (rudder socket) and many small artifacts, such as plates, a candlestick, and even a cooking pot with bones in it. Laboratory analyses completed this summer by the IAA revealed that the ship’s wood came from Turkey. The team believes these ships may have belonged to the Egyptian navy under Admiral Osman Nurredin Bey, whose ships were severely damaged in his attempt to capture Akko in the Egyptian-Ottoman War of 1831. The town eventually fell to Egyptian land forces under Ibrahim Pasha in 1832.

“These ships have occasionally been exposed and buried again by storms since we found them,” Buxton said. “We’re in a race against time to find other ships in the area and learn from them before storms totally dislodge or destroy them.”

Although shipwrecks from the 1800s are not the highest priorities in a region where civilization goes back thousands of years, Buxton is excited by the discovery for what it tells her about where much older ships may be found.

“Like many underwater archaeologists I’m very interested in finding a well-preserved example of an ancient multi-decked warship from the Hellenistic age,” said Buxton. “These ships were incredible pieces of technology, but we don’t know much about their design because no hulls have been found. However, a combination of unusual environmental and historical factors leads us to believe we have a chance of finding the remains of one of these ships off the northern coast of Israel.”

Buxton believes that the ships they are looking for are likely buried in the coastal sediment, which has built up over the centuries through natural processes. However, time is not on their side. “That protective silt is now being stripped away,” she said. “And it’s being stripped away a lot faster than it was originally dumped, by a combination of development, environmental changes, and the effects of the Aswan Dam.” The Nile River has historically deposited large quantities of silt in the area, but the dam has significantly reduced the flow of silt.

The archaeologists found the ships and another early modern vessel within Akko’s modern harbor while testing their equipment in preparation for an ongoing survey out in deeper water. The sub-bottom profiler detects anomalies below the sea floor. “It’s the gift that keeps on giving,” Buxton said. “We found so many targets to explore that we didn’t have time to check all of them, but even just having information about where things are helps Koby (Jacob Sharvit, director of the IAA Maritime Antiquities Unit) know where to look after any big storms.”

One line of buried targets detected off the southern seawall of old Akko is particularly suggestive. Continuing excavations in this area over the summer revealed an alignment between these targets and a newly-discovered slipway and shipshed structure, which continued out under the sea floor 25 meters from the Ottoman city wall. The feature resembles other naval shipsheds found in places such as Athens where they were used to haul up ancient warships. The excavation project was initially undertaken to strengthen the eroding sea wall, but it also revealed Hellenistic masonry, pottery vessels, an ancient mooring stone, and a stone quay 1.3 meters below the modern sea level. The possibility that much more of the Hellenistic port lies well-preserved under the sea floor is exciting for the archaeologists, because it means that shipwrecks from earlier centuries that have so far not been found at Akko may simply be buried deeper down in the sediment.

“We’ve got fragmentary historic records for this area in the Hellenistic period, and now we’ve found a very important feature from the ancient harbor. Ancient shipwrecks are another piece of the puzzle that will help us to rewrite the story of this region at a critical time in Mediterranean history,” she said.

Located on the northern coast of Israel, the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Akko is one of the few cities in the Mediterranean with more than 5,000 years of maritime history. Also known as Acre, Ake and Ptolemais, its port was an important waypoint for the Phoenicians, Romans, Crusaders, Ottomans and other ancient maritime empires. In the Hellenistic period, it was bitterly fought over by the rival empires of Egypt and Syria.

“Understanding the history and archaeology of Akko’s port is crucial to understanding the broader issues of maritime connectivity and the great power struggles that defined the history of the Eastern Mediterranean during the Hellenistic Age,” Buxton said.

Killer Cave May Have Inspired Myth of Hades

Posted: November 30, 2012 by phaedrap1 in Monuments, Occult, Science

A giant cave called Alepotrypa that might have helped serve as the inspiration for the mythic ancient Greek underworld Hades may have supported complex settlements in its heyday. Here, the cave’s main chamber.
CREDIT: Gianluca Cantoro, Foundation for Research and Technology, Hellas.

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A giant cave that might have helped serve as the inspiration for the mythic ancient Greek underworld Hades once housed hundreds of people, potentially making it one of the oldest and most important prehistoric villages in Europe before it collapsed and killed everyone inside, researchers say.

The complex settlement seen in this cave suggests, along with other sites from about the same time, that early prehistoric Europe may have been more complex than previously thought.

The cave, located in southern Greece and discovered in 1958, is called Alepotrypa, which means “foxhole.”

“The legend is that in a village nearby, a guy was hunting for foxes with his dog, and the dog went into the hole and the man went after the dog and discovered the cave,” said researcher Michael Galaty, an archaeologist at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss. “The story’s probably apocryphal — depending on who you ask in the village, they all claim it was their grandfather who found the cave.” [See Photos of Alepotrypa Cave]

A prehistoric cathedral

After its discovery, Greek officials originally saw the cave as a potential tourist attraction. However, when archaeologists realized the historical secrets it might hold, they led efforts to keep tourism from inadvertently destroying the site.

Researcher Takis Karkanas analyzing deposits in Alepotrypa Cave.
CREDIT: Attila Gyucha.

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The main chamber of the cave is about 200 feet (60 meters) tall and up to about 330 feet (100 m) wide. Altogether, the cave is nearly 3,300 feet (1,000 m) long, large enough to have its own lake, in which famed explorer Jacques Cousteau once scuba-dived.

“If you’ve ever seen ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ this might make you recall the mines of Moria — the cave is really that impressive,” Galaty told LiveScience.

Excavations that have taken place at Alepotrypa since 1970 uncovered tools, pottery, obsidian and even silver and copper artifacts that date back to the Neolithic or New Stone Age, which in Greece began about 9,000 years ago.

“Alepotrypa existed right before the Bronze Age in Mycenaean Greece, so we’re kind of seeing the beginnings of things that produced the age of heroes in Greece,” Galaty said.

Cave dwellers apparently used the cavern not only as a shelter, but also as a cemetery and place of ritual.

“You have to imagine the place torchlit, filled with people lighting bonfires and burying the dead,” Galaty said. “It was quite like a prehistoric cathedral, a pilgrimage site that attracted people from all over the region and perhaps from further afield.”

Cave settlements

The cave apparently went through a series of occupations and abandonments.

“Alepotrypa was at a perfect place to intercept sea trade from Africa all the way to the eastern Mediterranean, being right at the southern tip of Greece,” Galaty said.

An adult human burial at the open-air site near the Alepotrypa cave.
CREDIT: Michael Galaty.

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Settlement at the cave abruptly ended when its entrance collapsed about 5,000 years ago, perhaps due to an earthquake, burying cave dwellers alive.

“It is and was an amazing place, the closest thing we have to a Neolithic Pompeii,” Galaty said, referring to the ancient Roman town of Pompeii, which was buried when Mt. Vesuvius erupted nearly 2,000 years ago. Ash entombed and preserved Pompeii, and excavations there have given archaeologists extraordinarily detailed views of life during that time. In much the same way, the final cave collapse left everything in place in Alepotrypa, with everything inside getting a pearly mineral coating over the years.

Intriguingly, people apparently performed burials in the cave while conducting rituals that involved burning huge amounts of dung and depositing large amounts of colored and finely painted pottery.

“The burial sites and rituals that took place really do give the cave an underworld feel. It’s like Hades, complete with its own River Styx,” Galaty added, referring to the river that in Greek myth served as the boundary between the mortal realm and the netherworld. [Science Fact or Fantasy? 20 Imaginary Worlds]

Alepotrypa archaeology

For about 40 years, excavations at Alepotrypa were largely the singlehanded work of Greek archaeologist Giorgos Papathanassopoulos. In the last three years, Papathanassopoulos has reached out to other archaeologists, who have helped uncover a wealth of new insights on the site.

For instance, surveys around the cave now show there was a settlement outside. Altogether, hundreds of people may have lived at the site in its heyday, making it one of the largest, most complex known Neolithic villages in Europe.

In addition, analysis by researcher Panagiotis Karkanas at the Ephoreia of Paleoanthropology and Speleology of Southern Greece in Athens and his colleagues is confirming that rituals were conducted there regularly.

Much remains unknown about the cave. For instance, “we don’t know how much deeper deposits go. For all we know, we might have Neanderthals down there,” Galaty said. “The next bay over, you have Neanderthal artifacts in caves, so it’s hard to believe there wouldn’t be such evidence in Alepotrypa. We just haven’t dug deep enough to know.”

Chemical analysis of the pottery can also shed light on its origins.

“Giorgos Papathanassopoulos has always argued this pottery was not local to the site, but came from elsewhere — that the cave was a kind of pilgrimage site where important people were buried, leading to the fanciful idea that this was the original entrance to Hades, that it was the source of the Greek fascination with the underworld,” Galaty said.

Chemical analysis of the bones can yield similar insights. “Are people actually bringing bodies from distant locales to bury?” Galaty said.

This site, along with others in Europe, might help confirm that complex societies arose earlier than currently thought on the continent.

Papathanassopoulos, Karkanas and Galaty, along with Anastasia Papathanasiou, William Parkinson, Daniel Pullen and their colleagues, will detail this year’s findings at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America on Jan. 6 in Seattle.

Charles Choi, LiveScience Contributor

Black Hole Blast Biggest Ever Recorded

Posted: November 29, 2012 by phaedrap1 in News, Science
Tags: science, Space

Explosion is at least five times more powerful than previously observed events.

An illustration of a powerful burst of material ejected from a quasar.

Material is ejected near a supermassive black hole in the quasar SDSS J1106+1939 in an illustration.

Illustration courtesy L. Calçada, ESO

Andrew Fazekas

for National Geographic News

Published November 28, 2012

Astronomers have witnessed a record-breaking blast of gas and dust flowing out of a monster black hole more than 11.5 billion light-years away.

The supermassive gravity well, with a mass of one to three billion suns, lurks at the core of a quasar—a class of extremely bright and energetic galaxies—dubbed SDSS J1106 1939. (See “Black Hole Blasts Superheated Early Universe.”)

“We discovered the most energetic quasar outflow ever seen, at least five times more powerful than any that have been observed to date,” said Nahum Arav, an astronomer at Virginia Tech and co-author of the study to be published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Using the powerful telescopes of the European Southern Observatory in Chile, Arav and his team were able to clock the speed and other properties of the outflow.

Belching out material as much as 400 times the weight of our sun every year, the blast is located nearly a thousand light-years from the quasar and has a velocity of roughly 18 million miles (29 million kilometers) per hour.

“We were hoping to see something like this, but the sheer power of this outflow still took us by surprise,” said Arav.

The central black hole in this quasar is true giant dynamo. It’s estimated to be upward of a thousand times more massive than the one in the Milky Way, producing energy at rates about a hundred times higher than the total power output of our galaxy. (See black hole pictures.)

Clues to Galaxy Evolution

Supermassive black holes are large enough to swallow our entire solar system and are notorious for ripping apart and swallowing stars. But they also power distant quasars and spew out material at high speeds.

(See “Monster Black Holes Gobble Binary Stars to Grow?”)

The outflows have been suspected to play a key role in the evolution of galaxies, explained Arav, but questions have persisted for years in the astronomical community as to whether they were powerful enough.

This newly discovered super outflow could solve major cosmic mysteries, including how the mass of a galaxy is linked to its central black hole mass and why there is a relative scarcity of large galaxies across the universe.

“I believe this is the smoking gun for several theoretical ideas that use the mechanical energy output of quasars to solve several important problems in the formation of galaxies and cluster of galaxies,” said Arav.

While Kirk Korista, an astronomer not connected to the study, believes these claims may be a bit premature, the research is expected to shed new light on the most powerful and least understood portions of typical quasar outflows.

“The superb spectroscopic data of this quasar have allowed for a breakthrough in quantifying the energetics of what is probably a typical quasar outflow,” said Korista, an astronomy professor at Western Michigan University.

“This definitely is an important step in piecing together the story of galaxy evolution, and in elucidating the role of quasars in that story.”

Animals Are Moral Creatures, Scientist Argues

Posted: November 17, 2012 by phaedrap1 in News, Science
Tags: Animal Behaviour, science

Animal behavior research suggests that animals have moral emotions. One study found that rhesus monkeys will forgo food if they had to push a lever that would electrically shock their companions to get it.
CREDIT: jinterwas | Flickr.com

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Does Mr. Whiskers really love you or is he just angling for treats?

Until recently, scientists would have said your cat was snuggling up to you only as a means to get tasty treats. But many animals have a moral compass, and feel emotions such as love, grief, outrage and empathy, a new book argues.

The book, “Can Animals Be Moral?” (Oxford University Press, October 2012), suggests social mammals such as rats, dogs and chimpanzees can choose to be good or bad. And because they have morality, we have moral obligations to them, said author Mark Rowlands, a University of Miami philosopher.

“Animals are owed a certain kind of respect that they wouldn’t be owed if they couldn’t act morally,” Rowlands told LiveScience.

But while some animals have complex emotions, they don’t necessarily have true morality, other researchers argue. [5 Animals With a Moral Compass]

Moral behavior?

Some research suggests animals have a sense of outrage when social codes are violated. Chimpanzees may punish other chimps for violating certain rules of the social order, said Marc Bekoff, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and co-author of “Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals” (University Of Chicago Press, 2012).

Male bluebirds that catch their female partners stepping out may beat the female, said Hal Herzog, a psychologist at Western Carolina University who studies how humans think about animals.

And there are many examples of animals demonstrating ostensibly compassionate or empathetic behaviors toward other animals, including humans. In one experiment, hungry rhesus monkeys refused to electrically shock their fellow monkeys, even when it meant getting food for themselves. In another study, a female gorilla named Binti Jua rescued an unconscious 3-year-old (human) boy who had fallen into her enclosure at the Brookline Zoo in Illinois, protecting the child from other gorillas and even calling for human help. And when a car hit and injured a dog on a busy Chilean freeway several years ago, its canine compatriot dodged traffic, risking its life to drag the unconscious dog to safety.

All those examples suggest that animals have some sense of right and wrong, Rowlands said.

“I think what’s at the heart of following morality is the emotions,” Rowlands said. “Evidence suggests that animals can act on those sorts of emotions.”

Instinct, not morals?

Not everyone agrees these behaviors equal morality, however.

One of the most obvious examples — the guilty look of a dog that has just eaten a forbidden food — may not be true remorse, but simply the dog responding appropriately to its owner’s disappointment, according to a study published in the journal Behavioural Processes in 2009.

And animals don’t seem to develop or follow rules that serve no purpose for them or their species, suggesting they don’t reason about morality.

Humans, in contrast, have a grab bag of moral taboos, such as prohibitions on eating certain foods, committing blasphemy, or marrying distant cousins.

“What I think is interesting about human morality is that often times there’s this wacky, arbitrary feature of it,” Herzog said.

Instead, animal emotions may be rooted in instinct and hard-wiring, rather than conscious choice, Herzog said.

“They look to us like moral behaviors, but they’re not rooted in the same mire of intellect and culture and language that human morality is,” he said.

Hard-wired morality

But Rowlands argues that such hair-splitting is over thinking things.

In the case of the child-rescuing gorilla Binti Jua, for instance, “what sort of instinct is involved there? Do gorillas have an instinct to help unconscious boys in enclosures?” he said.

And even if instinct is involved, human parents have an instinctive desire to help their children, but that makes the desire no less moral, he said.

Being able to reason about morality isn’t required to have a moral compass, he added. A 3-year-old child, for instance, may not consciously articulate a system of right and wrong, but will (hopefully) still feel guilty for stealing his playmate’s toy. (Scientists continue to debate whether or not babies have moral compasses.)

If one accepts that animals have moral compasses, Rowlands argues, we have the responsibility to treat them with respect, Rowlands said.

“If the animal is capable of acting morally, I don’t think it’s problematic to be friends with your pets,” he said. “If you have a cat or a dog and you make it do tricks, I am not sure that’s respect. If you insist on dressing them up, I’m not sure I’m onboard with that either.”

Tia Ghose, LiveScience Staff Writer

Mongolia and the Altai Mountains: Origins of Genetic Blending Between Europeans and Asians

Posted: November 16, 2012 by phaedrap1 in News, Science
Tags: Archeology, genetics

A group of researchers led by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) has discovered the first scientific evidence of genetic blending between Europeans and Asians in the remains of ancient Scythian warriors living over 2,000 years ago in the Altai region of Mongolia. Contrary to what was believed until now, the results published in PLoS ONEindicate that this blending was not due to an eastward migration of Europeans, but to a demographic expansion of local Central Asian populations, thanks to the technological improvements the Scythian culture brought with them.

The Altai is a mountain range in Central Asia occupying territories of Russia and Kazakhstan to the west and of Mongolia and China to the east. Historically, the Central Asian steppes have been a corridor for Asian and European populations, resulting in the region’s large diversity in population today. In ancient times however the Altai Mountains, located in the middle of the steppes, represented an important barrier for the coexistence and mixture of the populations living on each side. And so they lived isolated during millennia: Europeans on the western side and Asians on the eastern side.

The research conducted by researchers from the UAB, the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont and the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC) sheds new light on when and how this Eurasian genetic blending took place.

At the UAB palaeogenetic laboratory researchers analysed mitochondrial DNA (inherited from the mother, it allows us to trace our ancestors) extracted from the bones and teeth of 19 skeletons from the Bronze Age (7th to 10th century BCE) and from the Iron Age (2nd to 7th century BCE) from the Mongolian Altai Mountains. The remains were extracted from the tombs discovered seven years ago, in which the skeletons of Scythian warriors were discovered and which represented the first scientific evidence of this culture in East Asia.

The results obtained demonstrate that the population from the Iron Age, corresponding to the time when the Scythian culture resided in the Altai Mountains, had a perfect blend (50%) of European and Asian mitochondrial DNA lineages or sequences. The discovery is relevant, taking into account that previous populations showed no signs of lineage mixture: the DNA analysed in the tombs located in Russia and Kazakhstan belong to European lineages, whereas DNA from the eastern part, in Mongolia, contain Asian lineages.

“The results provide exceptionally valuable information about how and when the population diversity found today in Central Asian steppes appeared. They point to the possibility that this occurred in Altai over 2,000 years ago between the local population on both sides of the mountain range, coinciding with the expansion of the Scythian culture, which came from the west,” explains Assumpció Malgosa, professor of Biological Anthropology at UAB and coordinator of the research.

Studies conducted until now on ancient DNA samples from the Altai region already indicated that the Scythians were the first large population to be a mixture between Europeans and Asians. However, the only populations to be studied were those on the western part of the Eurasian steppes, suggesting that this mixture was due to population migrations from Europe to the east.

The current research is the first to offer scientific evidence of this population mixture on the eastern side of the Altai and indicates that the contact between European and Asian lineages occurred before the Iron Age when populations were present on both sides of the mountain. The study suggests that the Asian population adopted the Scythian culture, technologically and socially more advanced, and this made them improve demographically by favouring their expansion and contact with Europeans.

The idea poses a new hypothesis on the origin of today’s population diversity in Central Asia and allows for a better understanding of the demographic processes which took place.

Frozen Scythian Warrior Tombs

From 2005 to 2007, UAB researchers worked jointly with French and Mongolian researchers in a European project to excavate Scythian tombs in Mongolia’s Altai Mountains. In the three excavation campaigns carried out over twenty tombs were excavated. Many of them were frozen and contained mummified human remains of warriors buried with their possessions and horses. This was the first time Scythian warrior tombs had been discovered in Mongolia, since all other tombs previously found had been located on the western side of Altai.

The Scythians were an Indo-European people dedicated to nomadic pasturing and horse breeding. They crossed the Eurasian steppes from the Caspian Sea until reaching the Altai Mountains during the 2nd and 7th century BCE. The Scythians are known most of all thanks to ancient texts written by the Greek historian Herodotus.

Science Daily, November 12, 2012

Trusting your instincts really does work, say scientists. You’ll be right 90% of the time

Posted: November 14, 2012 by phaedrap1 in News, Science
Tags: science

For centuries scientists have studied how both instinct and intellect figure into the decision-making process.

A new study has shown that forced to choose between two options based on instinct alone, participants made the right call up to 90 percent of the time.

Professor Marius Usher of Tel Aviv University’s School of Psychological Sciences and his fellow researchers say their findings show that intuition was a surprisingly powerful and accurate tool.

The team say that following your gut and doing what you want is usually the best option

Even at the intuitive level, an important part of the decision-making process is the integration of value – that is, taking into account the strengths and weaknesses of each option to come up with an overall picture, explained Prof Usher.

He said: ‘The study demonstrates that humans have a remarkable ability to integrate value when they do so intuitively, pointing to the possibility that the brain has a system that specialises in averaging value.

‘This could be the operational system on which common decision-making processes are built.

‘In order to get to the core of this system, Prof Usher designed an experiment to put participants through a controlled decision-making process.

On a computer screen, participants were shown sequences of pairs of numbers in quick succession. All numbers that appeared on the right of the screen and all on the left were considered a group; each group represented returns on the stock market.

Participants were asked to choose which of the two groups of numbers had the highest average.

Because the numbers changed so quickly – two to four pairs every second – the participants were unable to memorise the numbers or do proper mathematical calculations.

To determine the highest average of either group, they had to rely on intuitive arithmetic.
Their accuracy increased when more date was presented.

When shown six pairs of numbers the participants chose accurately 65 percent of the time.

But when they were shown 24 pairs, the accuracy rate grew to about 90 percent.

‘Intuitively, the human brain has the capacity to take in many pieces of information and decide on an overall value,’ said Prof Usher.

‘Gut reactions can be trusted to make a quality decision.’

The results of their study were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

By Mark Prigg

Mail Online

Are We Getting More Stupid? Researchers Claim Our Intelligence Is Diminshing As We No Longer Need It To Survive

Posted: November 14, 2012 by phaedrap1 in News, Science

Our intelligence and behaviour requires optimal functioning of a large number of genes, which requires enormous evolutionary pressures to maintain.

Now, in a provocative theory, a team from Stanford University claim we are losing our intellectual and emotional capabilities because the intricate web of genes which endows us with our brain power is particularly vulnerable to mutations – and these mutations are not being selected against our modern society because we no longer need intelligence to survive.

But we shouldn’t lose any sleep over our diminishing brain power – as by the time it becomes a real problem technology will have found a solution making natural selection obsolete.

Researchers say be are becoming less intelligent because we no longer need intelligence to survive

‘The development of our intellectual abilities and the optimisation of thousands of intelligence genes probably occurred in relatively non-verbal, dispersed groups of peoples before our ancestors emerged from Africa,’ says Dr Gerald Crabtree, lead author of the paper published today in Cell Press journal Trends in Genetics.

In this environment, intelligence was critical for survival, and there was likely to be immense selective pressure acting on the genes required for intellectual development, leading to a peak in human intelligence.

But it was downhill from there on in as, from that point, it’s likely that we began to slowly lose ground, the researchers claim.

With the development of agriculture, came urbanisation, which may have weakened the power of selection to weed out mutations leading to intellectual disabilities.

The team believe we have sustained mutations harmful to our intelligence

Based on calculations of the frequency with which deleterious mutations appear in the human genome and the assumption that 2,000 to 5,000 genes are required for intellectual ability, Dr Crabtree estimates that within 3,000 years, about 120 generations, we have all sustained two or more mutations harmful to our intellectual or emotional stability.

Also, recent findings from neuroscience suggest that genes involved in brain function are uniquely susceptible to mutations.

Dr Crabtree argues that the combination of less selective pressure and the large number of easily affected genes is eroding our intellectual and emotional capabilities.

But the loss is quite slow, and judging by society’s rapid pace of discovery and advancement, future technologies are bound to reveal solutions to the problem, Dr Crabtree believes.

He said: ‘I think we will know each of the millions of human mutations that can compromise our intellectual function and how each of these mutations interact with each other and other processes as well as environmental influences.

‘At that time, we may be able to magically correct any mutation that has occurred in all cells of any organism at any developmental stage.

‘Thus, the brutish process of natural selection will be unnecessary.’

By Mark Prigg

Mail Online

C/2012 S1 comet heading toward Earth could outshine Moon in 2013

Posted: November 9, 2012 by phaedrap1 in News, Science

Russian astronomers have discovered a new comet C/2012 S1 hurtling toward Earth. Astronomers say that the comet, a two-mile-wide lump of ice and rock, may be the brightest in history and may shine brighter than the Moon when it passes close to the Earth.

According to Space.com, Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok of the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) near Kislovodsk, Russia, discovered comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) on 21 September via images taken with a 40-centimeter reflecting telescope. The International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts confirmed the discovery and announced it on 24 September.

According to National Geographic, astronomers say the comet is now approximately 615 million miles (990 million kilometers) from Earth, between the orbits of the two giant planets Saturn and Jupiter. Preliminary reports say the orbit will make its closest (perihelion) approach to the Sun on 28 November, 2013 at a distance of 0.012 AU (1,800,000 km; 1,100,000 mi) from the center-point of the Sun. Astronomers say the comet will pass approximately 1,100,000 kilometers (680,000 mi) above the Sun’s surface.

National Geographic reports C/2012 S1 is expected to pass at about 6.2 million miles/10 million kilometers (0.07 AU (10,000,000 km; 6,500,000 mi) from Mars on October 1, 2013. This will allow NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars opportunity to snap pictures.

Astronomers at the Remanzacco Observatory, Italy have assured that the comet is not on collision course with Earth. They say C/2012 S1 “will get to within 0.012AU of the Sun at the end of November 2013 and then to ~0.4AU (about 37 million miles) from Earth at the beginning of January 2014.”

However, it remains uncertain where the comet came from, although its orbit suggests it may have its origin in a spherical cloud of comets surrounding the solar system called the Oort Cloud where there are billions of other comets in orbit. Raminder Singh Samra of the H.R. MacMillan Space Center in Vancouver, Canada, said: “For astronomers, these distant origins are exciting because it allows us to study one of the oldest objects in the solar system still in its original, pristine condition.”

Remanzacco Observatory, Italy

False color rendition of C/2012 S1 at its discovery in September 2012.

Remanzacco Observatory

This comet’s orbit will bring it near the sun in 2013 and by November 2013, it may actually outshine the Moon in the sky.

C/2012 S1 was observed close to Saturn and may still be observed with powerful telescopes as a faint glow in the constellation Cancer. It is expected to become visible to the naked eye beginning in 2013.

According to National Geographic, predictions of its orbital trajectory indicate that if it survives its close approach to the Sun, the comet will be brightest in the sky in November 28, 2013 as it moves away from the Sun. It will be visible during December after sunset and in the morning sky before sunrise. New Scientist reports that scientists at the Remanzacco Observatory say that by December 9 it should be about as bright as Polaris, the North Star, and should remain visible to the naked eye until mid-January 2014. According to Astronomy Now, the comet could become brighter than the full moon around its closest approach to the Sun.

Astronomers say that the orbit of C/2012 S1 is similar to that of the Great Comet of 1680, one of the brightest in history. Space.com reports that the Great Comet of 1680 was very bright in the sky and was visible even in daylight, throwing off a bright tail that spanned the western twilight sky. Some astronomers say that given the close orbital relationship between C/2012 S1 and the Great Comet of 1680, the objects may be the same.

Gizmodo reports that Samra, says “if it lives up to expectations, this comet may be one of the brightest in history.” According to The National Geographic, the brightness of C/2012 S1, will depend on how much gas and dust is blasted off the central core of ice and rocks at its close approach to the Sun.The bigger the cloud and tail, the more reflective the comet, astronomers say.

However, Samra cautions: “While some predictions suggest it may become as bright as the full moon, and even visible during the day, one should be cautious when predicting how exciting a comet may get. Some comets have been notorious for creating a buzz but failing to put on a dazzling display. Only time will tell.”

Gizmodo leaves a note for Mayan “doom-mongers”:

“… and one last note to the Mayan death and doom-mongers: the universe apologizes but, despite its name, 2012 S1 is actually arriving in 2013 holiday season.”

By JohnThomas Didymus

Read more: http://digitaljournal.com/article/333993#ixzz2BkrU6NBS

Singing Sand Dunes Explained

Posted: November 3, 2012 by phaedrap1 in News, Science

Sand grain size dictates how dunes whistle, study finds.

A sand dune in Namibia.

Sand blows from a dune in Namib-Naukluft National Park in Namibia in 2009.

Photograph by Frans Lanting, National Geographic

Shannon Fischer

for National Geographic News

Published October 31, 2012

When Marco Polo heard it in China, he suspected evil spirits. When residents of Copiapo, Chile, heard it emanating from a sandy hill, they dubbed the peak El Bramador, for its roars and bellows.

Scientists today call it “singing sand,” but they’re all referring to the same thing: As sand grains shuffle down the slopes of certain sand dunes, they produce a deep, groaning hum that reverberates for miles.

But how these dunes produce this “music” remains a much debated mystery. Another vexing question is why different dunes sing different tunes—and how can some even sing more than one note at a time?

A trio of Parisian biophysicists think they know the answer. It’s not necessarily the motion of the sandy ocean that determines the pitch of the note—it’s the size of the grains, though why the size matters is still unknown.

The researchers first tracked down a pair of singing dunes, one in Morocco, the other in Oman. Working literally by the seat of their pants, they scooted feet-first down the hills to trigger the avalanches. They found that, while the Moroccan hill moaned at a steady 105 Hz—or a low G sharp—the Omani dunes sang a nine-note blare that ranged from 90 to 150 Hz.

Listen to Sand Dunes Sing

With the sounds identified, the team packed their suitcases with 110 pounds (50 kilograms) of Moroccan sand and 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of Omani sand and hauled them back to their lab at Paris Diderot University. “If you want to make it sing, you need a lot,” noted study leader Simon Dagois-Bohy.

Making Mini-Avalanches

In the lab, the team recreated the avalanches in miniature, analyzing the speed, depth, and makeup of the cascades. As it turns out, the one-note Moroccan sand grains are almost entirely the same size—160 millionths of a meter, or microns across—but the noisy Omani sands run the gamut, from 150 to 300 microns.

But when the messy sands were sieved down to just the 200-to-250 micron particles, the tone cleared into a single tone. “The size of the grain controls the actual sound,” Dagois-Bohy concluded.

Why exactly this happens, and how the sound itself is created, is still uncertain. However, the Parisian group suspects that, during an avalanche, grains of sand move together down the dune—each grain colliding with and rolling around its neighbors, creating a constant stream of collisions. Larger grains of sand move around each other at slower rates, and vice versa for smaller grains.

Each bump makes a shock that, on its own, would be all but inaudible. But add them together in the right conditions, said study co-author Stéphane Douady—and the team is still working out what those precise conditions actually are—and you get “the sound of millions of little shocks.”

The singing-dunes study was published October 26 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.