Fluid dinamics mimic quantum mechanics

Researchers succeeded to produce the fluidic analogue of a classic quantum experiment in which electrons are confined to a circular "corral" by a ring of ions. In their experiment they filled a circular tray with silicone oil and made it vibrate at a rate just below that required to produce surface waves. When they dropped a single droplet on the surface it began to bounce up and down producing waves that hit the wall, interfered with each other and kept moving the droplet around. At first glance the movement of the droplet seemed chaotic but as time passed and data gathered, it turned out that it was following a decent probability distribution. This pattern is very similar to the movement of an electron placed in a ring of ions.

Although this experiment may seem to most of us as yet another analogy in nature, the situation is much more serious than that! Quantum phenomena are usually unique to our microcosm and are hard to mimic on a macroscopic scale. This experiment is one of the few that helps our limited imagination to have a tiny grasp on the world of subatomic particles and get a clearer picture of quantum mechanics, a discipline that, according to the famous physicist Richard Feynman, "nobody understands".

Full Moon causing bad sleep proven

It has long been known that many people have poor sleep and find it difficult to fall asleep around the full moon. Scientists for the first time report strong evidence that the lunar cycle seems to influence human sleep, even when we do not 'see' the moon and are not aware of the actual moon phase. While they monitored the sleep of 33 volunteers it turned out that around the full moon brain activity related to deep sleep drops by 30 percent, it takes on average five minutes longer to fall asleep, and the length of overall sleep time is twenty minutes shorter.

Although the correlation between moon phases and sleep can be measured, the underlying causes are yet to be discovered. This research will likely encourage scientists too look for a circalunar clock in the human brain. Given that we have a circadian clock defined by the Sun, maybe a circalunar one as well, is it possible that the rhythm of other nearby celestial objects can also have an influence on us? If it is so scientists will have to reconsider the theorems of an old pseudoscience - astrology. One of the tasks of astrologers in ancient times was to find connections between the movement of planets (including the Sun and the Moon) and the behavior of people. Scientists working on this research seem to do the same job but with modern empirical methodology. Maybe in the future modern science will be able to merge ancient and contemporary wisdom and ascertain the truths lying in old pseudoscientific schools little by little.

Planting false memories in mice

Neuroscientists for the first time succeeded in planting false memories in the brains of mice. Using a technology called optogenetics they managed to mix up the memories of mice about two different chambers. In a three day experiment mice were first put into chamber A where they became familiarized with a harmless environment. On the second day they were placed in chamber B where they received a mild foot shock. However, at the moment of the shock researchers used light to activate the cells encoding the memory of chamber A. With this method they achieved to incept a false memory and connect the unpleasant feeling of the electric shock to the memories of chamber A instead of chamber B where the shocks actually happened. When mice were put back again in chamber A they froze in fear even though the chamber was harmless.

If you have seen the movie The Manchurian Candidate you probably freak out now just as the mice did in chamber A by the idea of changing the contents of existing memories by external means. We could say that this method holds the potential to cure PTSD and similar syndromes in the future but at the same time we can easily imagine what purpose this technology could serve if it fell into the wrong hands. Anyway, it is interesting to see that the memories that make up and define our personality are so fragile and susceptible to physical influence.

Read more about the research here.

Dolphins use names

Dolphins have long been viewed as one of the most intelligent species on Earth besides humans. Their communication and learning abilities are outstanding. In a recent study researchers claim that dolphins call to each other using distinctive whistles that serve as names. Dolphins use many different sounds for communication while hunting or playing. It turned out that when a dolphin sends a vocal message it includes a short tune that serves as its own signature whistle. When others reply they repeat this sequence to indicate who they answer to and also include their own unique sound signature. This method is very similar to the distant communication practices of humans where we include the name of the sender and the addressee for example in a postal letter or an e-mail.

Isn't it amazing that zoologists keep coming out with numerous astonishing proofs that animals have shocking behavioral similarities to us? Although we have managed to build a complex and rapidly developing civilization in the last few thousand centuries, it seems that our planet may still hold the potential to give rise to other highly intelligent species.

Read more about the study here.

Sunday-off: What are the origins of maths?

Is mathematics the inherent part of our reality or merely the human tool to explain the structure of the Cosmos? Most physicists claim that mathematics is the language of our Universe while neuroscientists think that it is only our cognitive interpretation of the world that surrounds us. Here is an exciting interview with four notable scientists on this issue.

Lifting mood by brain ultrasound

Researchers from the University of Arizona have found that applying ultrasound waves to specific areas of the brain appear to alter patients' moods. In their experiment they generated sound waves of 2 megahertz and passed them through patients' skulls for 30 seconds. The treatment caused improvements in mood like feeling lighter, happier and more attentive for up to 40 minutes. Researchers claim that this finding can lead to new treatments for psychological and psychiatric disorders. They are planning to develop a wearable machine for such purposes.

Do you like the idea of having a tool on your head that will lift your mood whenever you switch it on? It is definitely outrageous that the feeling that we chase in our whole life can be generated by pushing a button. We shall hope that this tool will be used only as a therapeutic tool and will never hit the commercial market.

Read more about the research here.

Cosmic source of Gold

Researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics claim that the collision of two neutron stars is the likely source of precious metals. Neutron stars are remnants of massive stars. They are not that frequent in space and their collision is even less likely. It seems that the gold you wear around your fingers was formed in such a collision.

Alchemists of medieval times probably would have been discouraged if they knew that the formation of gold requires enormously huge energies that can only be created by the collision of two superdense celestial bodies of which one teaspoon has the mass of 900 Egyptian pyramids. However, if these collisions are infrequent that means gold is not a rare material only on Earth but in the whole cosmos as well. Now that you know the scientific background of gold creation you have yet another reason for being proud of the family jewels you inherited from grandma.

Read more about this new theory here.

Universe may not be expanding!

In his recently published paper theoretical physicist Christof Wetterich claims that it is possible that the Universe is not expanding but instead the mass of all the matter is growing continuously. If this is the case the redshift of distant stars could still be explained, moreover, the mystery of that baffling initial singularity of the cosmos present at the moment of the Big Bang could also be solved. However, even if Wetterich's conjecture is right, it is still difficult to prove it experimentally given that mass is a dimensional quantity and can be measured only relative to something else. Therefore, a universal growth of all the matter in the cosmos could not be measured.

Wetterich's theory implies that our Universe was not packed into an infinitely dense singular point at the initial phase of the Big Bang but gained its mass and has been growing it since the moment of its birth. This idea would mean a huge turn in cosmology and philosophy and would have far-reaching consequences in our view of the world. It will be worth following his future work and the reactions of the scientific community. Read more about Wetterich's theory here.

Planets' dance forms mandalic patterns

Buddhist mandala made of sand

Check out these beautiful patterns plotted by a charting software depicting the relative movement of planets of our solar system. They are mostly concentric shapes and natural ratios like the Fibonacci numbers determine their characteristics. Similar shapes can be found in the ornaments of different religions around the world. The most famous examples are Buddhist and Hindu mandalas that aim to represent the unity of the cosmos. Christianity and Islam too have their own concentric shapes in churches and mosques serving the purpose of fascinating the faithful and lifting the religious experience of churchgoers.

How come that the movement patterns of celestial bodies resemble so much the intuitive artwork of religious people of ancient times? Is it possible that our brains are in a way programmed to get spiritually excited by the orderly shapes of our Universe? If the aim of eastern mandalas is to represent the cosmos, they are actually not far from reality given that the universe can be partly described as the eternal dance of objects exposed to the force of gravity.

Rose window at Notre Dame, Paris

Mosaic at the top of the Gravemosc, Qait bay

Pleasant effects of sad music explained

Have you ever wondered how is it possible that we can enjoy sad music although we always try to avoid these negative emotions in our everyday life? According to researchers from Japan, sad music does not generate only negative feelings but they tend to transmit romantic vibes as well. This kind of ambivalence could be the reason for the pleasant feeling that we get from listening to gloomy melodies. Moreover, by listening to sad tunes we get the opportunity to play with the feeling of emotional anguish without having to face the uncomfortable and harmful effects that sadness has on us when it appears in our everyday life.

It seems that we are inclined to use our mind and emotions as a playground. Whether we consume pieces of art or use mind altering substances, the truth is that we are making sport of modifying neural processes going on in our brains. Some people put on a sad piece of music to help them combat their sorrow. Others pop some antidepressant pills. In both cases we get the same result - biochemical processes in the brain change for the better and happier. Which is acceptable and which is wrong? It seems to be a matter of personal choice where we set the barrier in the mind-altering game.

Video: Jaguar on hallucinogenic herb

Some weeks ago I posted about big cats and their strange habits. I mentioned that jaguars occasionally chew on a specific hallucinogenic plant and they seem to enjoy it pretty much. It was only today that I came across the video (thanks to IFLS) depicting this habit. Here it is.

A few days off

For the rest of the week Your Contemplator will be off for a hiking trip in the Carpathians. I'll be back on Sunday and will be eager to catch up with presenting You this week's contemplative news. By the way, our beloved researchers have been rather pragmatic for the last week. There were some surprising news about living organisms in cruel Lake Vostok but revolutionary findings that would have blown our minds did not come about. Hope next week will be more fruitful. :)

Depression comes with general goals

Researchers from Liverpool, UK have found that people with depression tend to have more generalised personal goals than non-depressed people. Those who set precise and rationally attainable goals in their lives have a lower risk to develop depression than those who set goals like "being happy, being successful".

The study suggests that it is worth to define clear objectives in order to realize when we succeed. This way we can be more content and happy with our achievements and avoid the feeling of living our life without aims. Read more about the research here.

One of Nature's constants may not be constant

Scientists from the University of New South Wales propose that one of the constants of Nature may not be constant in all circumstances. Using the Hubble Space Telescope they examined the value of alpha on a white dwarf, the very dense remnant of star in its final evolutionary state. Alpha is the fine-structure constant characterizing the strength of the electromagnetic interaction and is thought to be constant all around the Universe. However, these scientists propose that alpha may have a slightly different value in a dense gravitational field like the one on the surface of a white dwarf. Now they are going to engage in further and more precise measurements to back up their theory with solid evidence.

Physical constants are thought to be consistent all across the cosmos. Claiming their variability is a brave conjecture. Physicists have long been struggling to combine the Standard Model of particle physics with Einstein's general theory of relativity. The role and effects of gravitation on subatomic processes are not yet understood. Introducing gravitation into the existing quantum theories is believed to lead us to the Theory of Everything. If this research brings promising results that will move us one step closer to attain this ultimate goal. It will be worth following its progress.

Origin of Life - Salty soup gave rise to clustered molecules

Most scientists think that a cell wall is a prerequisite for the formation of complex biomolecules like nucleic acids (DNA, RNA) and proteins. Now researchers from the Netherlands discovered that these large biomolecules are able to cluster together spontaneously when the salt concentration is increased. This means that the predecessors of living cells could work without the need to be packed into a cell wall.

Increased salt concentration was a common phenomenon on our primordial Earth. Just think of small salty seas, lakes or even puddles getting detached from the ocean and being exposed to sunlight causing the rapid evaporation of water and the increase of saltiness. These pools may have given birth to the primal forms of life which were later taken back to the oceans by tides and floods to populate the whole hydrosphere on planet Earth.

I am a bit sorry for our creationist friends for missing to see the immense beauty of this whole miraculous process.