Science

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Scientists Now Believe the Universe Itself May Be Conscious

by Jake Anderson, The Anti-Media

You don’t have to look far to find outlandish theories on the nature of the cosmos and human consciousness. These days, notions once relegated to science fiction are finding their way into esoteric academic journals, and from there, into mainstream discourse. One example of this is the Simulation Argument, recently championed by Elon Musk; another is ‘time crystals,’ a tantalizing non-linear phase of matter. The newest symphony of mind jazz being broadcast across the Internet posits new ideas about the embattled theory of “panpsychism,” or the belief that mind is a fundamental property of the physical universe and is imbued into all states of matter.

A new paper, published by physicist Gregory Matloff, has brought the idea back into scientific discussions, promising experimental tests that could “validate or falsify” the concept of a ubiquitous “proto-consciousness field.” Matloff also pushes the controversial idea of volitional stars, suggesting there is actually evidence that stars control their own galactic paths.

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Why Does Great Music Give You the Chills?

by Mitchell Colver, The Conversation

Have you ever been listening to a great piece of music and felt a chill run up your spine? Or goosebumps tickle your arms and shoulders?

The experience is called frisson (pronounced free-sawn), a French term meaning “aesthetic chills,” and it feels like waves of pleasure running all over your skin. Some researchers have even dubbed it a “skin orgasm.”

Listening to emotionally moving music is the most common trigger of frisson, but some feel it while looking at beautiful artwork, watching a particularly moving scene in a movie or having physical contact with another person. Studies have shown that roughly two-thirds of the population feels frisson, and frisson-loving Reddit users have even created a page to share their favorite frisson-causing media.

But why do some people experience frisson and not others?

Working in the lab of Dr. Amani El-Alayli, a professor of Social Psychology at Eastern Washington University, I decided to find out.

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Why the Earth's magnetic poles could be about to swap places – and how it would affect us

by Phil Livermore, University of Leeds and Jon Mound, University of Leeds

The Earth’s magnetic field surrounds our planet like an invisible force field – protecting life from harmful solar radiation by deflecting charged particles away. Far from being constant, this field is continuously changing. Indeed, our planet’s history includes at least several hundred global magnetic reversals, where north and south magnetic poles swap places. So when’s the next one happening and how will it affect life on Earth?

During a reversal the magnetic field won’t be zero, but will assume a weaker and more complex form. It may fall to 10% of the present-day strength and have magnetic poles at the equator or even the simultaneous existence of multiple “north” and “south” magnetic poles.

Geomagnetic reversals occur a few times every million years on average. However, the interval between reversals is very irregular and can range up to tens of millions of years.

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Scientists Have Detected 6 More Mysterious Radio Signals Coming From Outside Of Our Galaxy - TruthTheory

By Jess Murray Truth Theory

Scientists have recently discovered signals that are emanating from a specific area far beyond our own universe, which are coming from the same location as the 10 powerful radio signals which were recorded in March this year.

These fast radio bursts (FRB) only last milliseconds, however they are some of the most explosive signals that have ever been detected from space, as they generate as much energy as the sun in an entire day during their incredibly short recording.

When these recordings were detected in the past, scientists thought that they were one-off occurrences which all came from random locations in space, however, since the detection of the 10 repeating signals from the same location, added to the newly found similar bursts, scientists are now stumped as to the cause of these incredibly powerful, but random, bursts.

Researchers have estimated that there are currently about 2,000 similar FRBs firing across our universe every single day, but due to the fact that they are so short-lived, they are difficult to detect and record.

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New Scientific Study Says Solar Can Already Generate More Energy Than Oil

by Lance Schuttler , The Mind Unleashed

Oil proponents have been saying for awhile now that solar doesn’t match up to oil’s energy output, but that statement may have just been proven false. In a major scientific study published in November 2016’s Renewable and Sustainable Energy Review, researchers looked at 29 separate studies and compared the solar photovoltaics (PV) generated as compared to the energy needed to create and install the panels.

The study compiled all the data from the 29 separate studies to gain a clearer picture of solar power’s energetic output. What they found was that only 5 of the 29 studies used recent data, which initially, showed a bleaker picture of what solar can actually generate. However, after compiling data with up to date technological advances in solar energy, the studies showed that solar can generate 14 times the power needed to create the panels.

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This Incredible Fabric Generates Electricity From Sunlight And Movement

by Amanda Froelich, True Activist

Researchers developed a textile capable of producing electricity from sunlight and from friction, including the wind.

Every day, unique and eco-friendly innovations are unveiled. However, a textile designed by engineers with the Georgia Institute of Technology, Chongqing University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences is likely one you missed hearing about. The fabric is newsworthy because it is capable of producing electricity from sunlight and fiction – including the wind. It could be a total game-changer, yet no one has really heard about it.

According to MotherBoard, the material is both breathable and robust and allows for enough motion to make it a good candidate for wearable electronics. In fact, an image below demonstrates a few of its uses, including powering wearable electronics and directly charging a cellphone.

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Neuroscientist Invents VEST That Gives Humans A Sixth Sense

by Vandita, AnonHQ

The VEST, or the Versatile Extra-Sensory Transducer, is an unconventional hearing device that allows the hearing-impaired to feel and understand speech through a series of vibrations.

David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine; Scott Novich, a PhD student who works in Eagleman’s lab; and their team of six electrical and computer engineering students from Rice University tested a prototype on Jonathan, a 37-year-old deaf man who, after five days of wearing the VEST, was able to understand and write the exact words that were being said to him.

Eagleman told the audience at TED 2015 in Vancouver:

“Jonathan is not doing this consciously, because the patterns are too complicated, but his brain is starting to unlock the pattern that allows it to figure out what the data mean, and our expectation is that, after wearing this for about three months, he will have a direct perceptual experience of hearing in the same way that when a blind person passes a finger over braille, the meaning comes directly off the page without any conscious intervention at all.

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Night sky guide for June 2016

by The Watchers

On June 3, planet Saturn will be at its closest approach to Earth and its face will be fully illuminated by the Sun. It will be brighter than any other time of the year and visible all night long. 

The best time of the month to observe faint objects such as galaxies and star clusters because there is no moonlight to interfere - New Moon - is on June 5. On the same day, planet Mercury will be well placed for observation across much of the world, shining brightly at mag -1.9.

The Ophiuchid meteor shower will reach its maximum rate of activity on June 20, 2016, but some shooting stars associated with the shower are expected to be visible each night from May 19 to July. The maximum rate of meteors expected to be visible from a dark location is around 5 per hour (ZHR). However, the Full Moon will severely limit the observations that will be possible.

On the same day, at 22:34 UTC, the North Pole of the Earth will be tilted toward the Sun, which will have reached its northernmost position in the sky and will be directly over the Tropic of Cancer at 23.44 degrees north latitude. This is the first day of summer (summer solstice) in the northern hemisphere and the first day of winter (winter solstice) in the southern hemisphere - June Solstice.

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Vibratory Quantum Theory Explained In 2000 Year Old Ancient Text

by Luke Miller Truth Theory

Quantum physics now states that matter is merely an illusion and that everything is energy at a different frequency in vibratory motion. This is something that science has only started to take seriously since the turn of the last century. However, this was something Hermes Trismegistus (the founder of the hermetic teachings) taught as one of the 7 principles of existence and recorded history of his teachings have dated back as far as the 1st century AD.

These teachings go further than modern science has the ability to quantify, but science is slowly catching up with many of the ideas shared. Here is a section on vibration which has been taken from the book The Kybalion. The Kybalion is an introduction into the teachings of occult hermeticism and was derived from the ancient teachings of Hermes Trismegistus.

“Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.”–The Kybalion.

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Breeding technique allows farmers to conventionally breed plants based on genetic markers; GMOs are unnecessary, costly, dangerous and now obsolete

(NaturalNews) Advances in conventional breeding techniques have now rendered genetic engineering obsolete, according to a report authored by independent scientist Benno Vogel and published by Greenpeace. Indeed, the conventional breeding technique known as marker-assisted selection (MAS) allows farmers to rapidly develop new strains of important crops, without the high costs or dangers of genetic engineering.

Genetic engineering, which produces genetically modified organisms (GMOs), consists of using biotechnology techniques to alter the DNA of organisms. In contrast, MAS uses biotechnology only to identify genetic markers linked to traits that farmers find desirable, such as pest or drought resistance. Armed with this more specific information about a plant's genetics, farmers are able to use conventional breeding techniques to produce new strains much more rapidly -- and much more quickly and effectively than can be delivered by genetic engineering.

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