Lifeboat Foundation

Designer chromosomes enable new studies of genome organization and evolution.

The human brain is three times bigger than a chimp’s and more spherical than a Neanderthal’s. Within a maze of bumps and grooves, neurons converse in distinct patterns that give humans unique cognitive abilities.

Scientists haven’t fully deciphered those patterns. But researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center are determined to solve the molecular mystery of what makes us human.

In a study published in the journal Nature, they compared brain cell types and activities among humans, chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys. Human brains had more of a kind of cell that may help them adapt based on new experience and heal from injury. Certain human neurons also had more of a gene that affects language development.

Scientists have characterized the folding of the cerebellar cortex using data from a sample of 56 mammalian species, allowing them to study the diversity and evolution of cerebellar folding.

Things may not have ended well for dinosaurs on Earth, but Cornell University astronomers say the “light fingerprint” of the conditions that enabled them to emerge here provide a crucial missing piece in our search for signs of life on planets orbiting alien stars.

Their analysis of the most recent 540 million years of Earth’s evolution, known as the Phanerozoic Eon, finds that telescopes could better detect potential chemical signatures of life in the atmosphere of an Earth-like exoplanet.

An exoplanet (or extrasolar planet) is a planet that is located outside our Solar System, orbiting around a star other than the Sun. The first suspected scientific detection of an exoplanet occurred in 1988, with the first confirmation of detection coming in 1992.

Researchers seeking to understand how birds got their beaks turned back the evolutionary clock just a tad.

Are you captivated by the enigma of consciousness? Intrigued by the complexities of the human mind? Or perhaps, you’re just a seeker, thirsty for knowledge that lies beyond conventional wisdom? As a futurist, evolutionary cyberneticist, and philosopher of mind, I invite you on a mind-bending, soul-stirring expedition with a just-released remastered version of my documentary film Consciousness: Evolution of the Mind (TV-PG). Watch it now in its entirety on YouTube (Ecstadelic Media channel)!

#consciousness #evolution #mind #documentary #film

Consciousness: Evolution of the Mind (2023 | Remastered)

Continue reading “Watch Consciousness: Evolution of the Mind (2023” »

New research in social bats raises the intriguing possibility that evolution can reprogram the brain’s “place cells,” which are typically associated with location, to encode all kinds of environmental information.

In 1916, famed theoretical physicist Albert Einstein put the finishing touches on his Theory of General Relativity, a geometric theory for how gravity alters the curvature of spacetime. The revolutionary theory remains foundational to our models of how the Universe formed and evolved. One of the many things GR predicted was what is known as gravitational lenses, where objects with massive gravitational fields will distort and magnify light coming from more distant objects. Astronomers have used lenses to conduct deep-field observations and see farther into space.

In recent years, scientists like Claudio Maccone and Slava Turyshev have explored how using our Sun as a Solar Gravity Lens (SGL) could have tremendous applications for astronomy and the Search for Extratterstiral Intelligence (SETI). Two notable examples include studying exoplanets in extreme detail or creating an interstellar communication network (a “galactic internet”). In a recent paper, Turyshev proposes how advanced civilizations could use SGLs to transmit power from star to star – a possibility that could have significant implications in our search for technosignatures.

The preprint of Turyshev’s paper, “Gravitational lensing for interstellar power transmission,” recently appeared online and is being reviewed for publication. Slava G. Turyshev is a research scientist with the Structure of the Universe Research Group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This group is engaged in a wide range of research topics associated with the evolution of the Universe from the Big Bang to the present day. This includes the formation of the first stars and galaxies, the role of Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the formation of large-scale cosmic structures, and the accelerating expansion of the cosmos Universe (respectively).

#HumanEvolution #UnipolarWorldOrder #MultipolarWorldOrder #GlobalBrain #GenerativeAdversarialNetworks #GlobalMind #SyntellectHypothesis #Geomind

What may seem like discord and chaos at first glance is, in actuality, the driving force behind harmony, balance, and evolutionary progress. In this grand cosmic symphony, each note—be it dissonant or melodious—has its unique place, contributing to the overarching masterpiece that is the universe. Thus, the ongoing struggle of opposites is not a malign cosmic joke but rather the divine mechanism through which the universe finds its equilibrium. And so, amid all the clashing and clamor, let’s not forget: even chaos has a purpose, and that purpose is nothing short of cosmic harmony.

-Alex Vikoulov

Continue reading “The Dialectics of Chaos and Order: A Digital Philosophy Perspective” »