Whether it’s more troubling to imagine that the Universe goes on forever in every direction, or that it has an edge, beyond which there is nothing, is hard to say.Astrophysics doesn’t provide any guidance as to which flavour of existential crisis we should be having – while we can’t say with any level of confidence whether the Universe goes on forever or not, we can say that our observable universe has an edge, in the sense that there’s a distance beyond which, whatever may or may not exist, we absolutely cannot see it.

The Universe: Infinite Or With A Boundary

<a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/why-the-sky-is-dark-at-night/">Olbers’ Paradox</a> asks: if the Universe is infinite, and if there are stars (or galaxies) throughout it, why is the sky dark? Surely, if we look in any direction in the sky, that sightline will, eventually, land on a star. Common sense, therefore, tells us that everywhere we look, the sky should be as bright as the Sun, constantly aglow.

Olbers’ Paradox

The standard resolution to this paradox invokes the finite age of the cosmos and the speed of <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/science/how-the-brightest-minds-in-science-from-einstein-to-da-vinci-revealed-the-nature-of-light/">light</a>. Even if the cosmos is endless and full of stars, one might reason, we can only see the ones that are close enough for there to have been enough time (since the beginning of the Universe) for the light to reach us from there. Anything distant enough from the Earth that the light travel time is more than the age of the Universe is invisible to us.

The Standard Resolution

The stranger physics comes in when you ask, what are those things whose light has travelled for that long? The Big Bang theory says that the Universe 13.8 billion years ago was a hot, dense inferno, in which all of space was filled with glowing-hot plasma, rippling and churning like the surface of the Sun. Because all of space was glowing, when we look into the farthest reaches of the cosmos in any direction, that glow is in fact what we see.﻿

The Age Of The Ever-Expanding Universe

The reason the Universe can be glowing all around us but still look dark comes down to the physics of light in an expanding universe. When space expands, and the distance between objects grows, the light passing between those things gets stretched out, shifting the light to lower frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum.For visible light, lower frequencies correspond to redder colours, so this effect is called “redshift”. You can think of it like a Doppler shift – the same kind of effect that’s responsible for a siren dropping to a lower tone when an ambulance speeds away from you

Another Paradox Resolved

While we may never know if the Universe as a whole is infinite or bounded, we know that the <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/will-the-cosmic-microwave-background-disappear/">cosmic microwave background</a> – the distant shell of fading fire that surrounds us – is the most distant light we can ever see, at the edge of our observable universe. But just like the darkness of the night sky, this edge is a matter of perspective. Someone living in a galaxy billions of light years away from us sits at the centre of their own observable universe, which may only partly overlap our own.

We Are Not The Center Of The Universe

Puzzling over the answers to a centuries-old cosmic paradox can teach us profound things about the Universe.

sciencefiction

Science Fiction

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

Olbers' Paradox: What the mystery of the night sky teaches us about our Universe | BBC Science Focus Magazine

This year, the northern summer solstice falls on June 21 at 5:13 am EDT (June 21 at 9:13 UT). Solstices occur simultaneously around the world, but their local times vary with time zones.  Traditionally, summer and winter solstices helped mark the changing of the seasons. Today, meteorologists officially use temperature records instead to draw lines between the seasons.

Summer and winter solstices

The Earth's axis of rotation is tilted about 23. degrees relative to Earth's orbit around the sun. This tilt causes the Northern and Southern Hemispheres to get unequal amounts of sunlight over a year. The Earth's axis is tilted most closely toward the sun for two moments each year. These are called solstices. The Northern Hemisphere is tilted more toward the sun from September to March, which feels like autumn and winter. The hemisphere tilted most toward our home star sees its longest day and the hemisphere tilted away from the sun sees its longest night.

Understanding solstices

Cultures around the world have devised ways to celebrate and revere celestial events. <ul><li>Stonehenge, a 5,000-year-old monument, has a famously special relationship with the solstices. On the summer solstice, the complex’s Heel Stone, which stands outside Stonehenge’s main circle, lines up with the rising sun.</li><li>The Great Pyramids at Giza also seem to be aligned with the sun. When viewed from the Sphinx, the sun sets between the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre during the summer solstice.</li></ul>

Celebrating the solstice 

<ul><li>The solstices mark the brightest and darkest days of the year, but the temperatures don't reflect that because it takes time for Earth's land and water to heat up and cool down.</li><li>Some believe that since Earth's rotation is slowing down, each new solstice sets a new record for daytime length. But that's not the case. Instead, changes in the distribution of Earth's mass can subtly tweak our plant's rotation rate.</li></ul>

Misconceptions about the solstices

Once a year, an astronomical alignment ushers in this seasonal change. The summer solstice is celebrated across the world—and shrouded in myth.

What is the summer solstice? Here’s what you need to know.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the backyard barbecue staple as “a flat, round cake of minced beef, fried or grilled and typically served in a bread roll garnished with various condiments.” One thing that generally doesn’t make the ingredients list? Ham. This begs the question: Why is a hamburger called a hamburger if there isn’t any ham in it?

The Hamburger

There’s no clear reason as to why a hamburger is called a hamburger, but our best guess is right in the name: The origins can be traced back to Hamburg, Germany. As Europeans began to immigrate to the United States en masse in the 18th and 19th centuries, they brought with them their favourite foods, including Hamburg steaks, or fried patties of <a href="https://www.rd.com/list/best-cuts-of-beef/">minced beef</a> and <a href="https://www.rd.com/article/why-onions-make-you-cry/">chopped onions</a> that were bound together with eggs, bread crumbs, and mild spices.

The Hamburg In The Hamburger

Were the inventors actually brothers Frank and Charles Menches, who placed a beef patty between two slices of bread at a county fair in Hamburg, New York, in 1885?  Or was it Oscar Weber Bilby, who first sandwiched a patty in a bun in 1891 in Tulsa, Oklahoma?  Perhaps the idea belongs to all of them. No matter who originally came up with the sandwiched patty, the national love affair with the hamburger thrives to this day, with burgers being about as American as it gets.

The Invention Of The Hamburger

While we can’t say for sure why a hamburger is called a hamburger, beef burgers are still called hamburgers, even though there’s no ham in them. The term “Hamburg” influenced the modern food’s name, perhaps because Hamburg steak so closely resembles the beef patty, so every burger is considered a hamburger, including those with meatless patties.

Hamburger Is A Name For Any Burger

In the 18th century, on the rainy isle known as England, the Earl of Sandwich ordered his cook to serve him meat placed within slices of bread so that he didn’t have to abandon his duties for a meal. And so the sandwich was born.  Why is a burger not a sandwich? There are many subtle differences between the two (like the type of bread used and the way the bread is cut), not the least of which is the filling. A burger will always contain one or more grilled patties of ground food—meat or vegetables or faux meat—and will always be circular.

Comparisons With The Sandwich

The iconic hamburger has a rich international history that's still up for debate.

Why is a hamburger called a hamburger? It's traveled around the world to get to where it is today, with a name to remind us of its origins.

food

Food

Why Is It Called a Hamburger If There’s No Ham?

Do Coke Zero and Diet Coke have the same ingredients and same flavor? You might be surprised by the results of our research. <ul><li>The ingredient lists are similar</li><li>Both consist of carbonated water, caramel color, phosphoric acid, potassium benzoate, aspartame, natural flavors, and caffeine</li><li>Coke Zero has two ingredients Diet Coke lacks: potassium citrate and acesulfame potassium</li><li>Diet Coke has one ingredient not found in Coke Zero: citric acid</li><li>Coca-Cola Zero Sugar looks and tastes more like Coke-Cola Classic</li></ul>

The Two Cokes

<ul>
<li>Diet Coke: Smooth and sweet, enjoyable, bubbly, goes well with a meal, refreshing by itself.</li>
<li>Coke Zero: Smooth, sweeter, and more bubbly.</li>
</ul>

Coke Zero vs. Diet Coke

'80s expert and diet soda fan Gael Fashingbauer Cooper conducted a taste test to compare Coke Zero and Diet Coke. Here's what she discovered.

Coke Zero vs. Diet Coke: What’s the Difference?

<ul><li>It has been more than 50 years since astronomers first proposed "dark matter", which is thought to be the most common form of matter in the universe.</li><li>Despite this, we have no idea what it is - nobody has directly seen it or produced it in the lab.</li><li>Nevertheless, physicists today overwhelmingly favour the dark matter hypothesis incorporated in the so-called ΛCDM model (Lambda Cold Dark Matter).</li></ul>

Dark Matter And Philosophy

In the case of two competing hypotheses, what determines the final probability of each hypothesis is the product of the ratio between the initial probabilities of the two hypotheses (before evidence) and the ratio of the probabilities that the evidence appears in each case (called the likelihood ratio).Determining what exactly counts as the "initial probability" of a hypothesis, and the possible ways in which such probabilities can be determined, remains one of the most difficult challenges in Bayesian confirmation theory.

Philosophy to The Rescue

Newtonian laws may work slightly differently when there’s extremely small acceleration involved, such as at the edge of galaxies. This tweak was perfectly compatible with the observed galactic rotation. Nevertheless, physicists today overwhelmingly favour the dark matter hypothesis incorporated in the so-called ΛCDM model (Lambda Cold Dark Matter). If the two competing theories of dark matter and modified gravity can equally explain galactic rotation and other anomalies, one might wonder whether we have good reasons to prefer one over another.

Dark Matter Hypothesis

Philosophy cannot ultimately tell us whether astronomers are right or wrong about the existence of dark matter. But it can tell us whether astronomers do indeed have good reasons to believe in it, what these reasons are, and what it would take for modified gravity to become as popular as dark matter.We still don’t know the exact answers to these questions, but we are working on them. More research in philosophy of science will give us a better verdict.

Still Clueless

There’s a perfectly good alternative to dark matter, but most scientists aren’t keen on the idea.

philosophy

Philosophy

Dark matter: should we be so sure it exists? Here's how philosophy can help

The mere thought of barbecue's smokey scents and intoxicating flavors is enough to get most mouths watering. However, there is a lot of chemistry that sets barbecue apart from other cooking methods and results in such a delicious experience.   Cooking is the process of using high temperatures to drive chemical reactions that change food at a molecular level.Barbecue: Open flame cookingOn a barbecue, the hot grill grates heat the food via direct contact through a process known as conductionThe food also warms and cooks by absorbing radiation directly from the flames below

Cooking With Fire: The Chemistry Of Bar-Be-Que

<ul><li>When foods are exposed to heat for prolonged periods of time, non-carbon atoms in the food break down, leaving behind the crispy, black carbon.</li><li>Cooking over the direct heat of a barbecue allows you to add just the amount of char to match your taste, but some of the chemicals in charred meat are known carcinogens.</li><li>When smoke comes in contact with food, the components of the smoke can get absorbed.  </li><li>One way to use chemistry to make food smokier is to periodically spray it with water during the barbecuing process.</li></ul>

That Smokey Flavour

From char and crisp, to nutty and meaty, there's science behind every flavor and texture. The secret is an open flame.

These are the chemical reactions that make barbecue so delicious

One of the most easily recognised features of <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/ocd">OCD</a> is the seemingly illogical actions people initiate while suffering from the condition. However, even though these rituals may seem illogical to the casual observer, our work has demonstrated that these rituals have an intelligible underlying logic of their own. It is also important to point out that successful treatment of OCD is based on being able to identify the underlying logic and use interventions based on the exact same logic.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder(OCD)

We can distinguish obsessive compulsions based on <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/fear">fear</a> (such as hand washing enacted to prevent contamination) from those based on pleasure (such as <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/compulsive-behaviors">compulsive shopping</a>, vomiting syndrome or pathological gambling).  Many such rituals are done in a specific sequence and others can be done to feel a certain way or to achieve a specific sensation. The logic underlying these rituals is important, because if the clinician doesn’t recognise the logic supporting the compulsion, they won’t be in a position to know what kind of intervention will be necessary to treat the problems effectively.

Rituals Based On Fear Or Pleasure

Rational and preventive rituals: These rituals are specific actions that arise from the patient’s belief that doing so can prevent a certain feared situation from happening.  Reparative rituals: The performance of these ritualised actions or thoughts hold the illusion of protection for the person from something that could have happened already. Propitiatory rituals: The performance of these rituals or thoughts (seemingly magical) appear to make something positive happen, or have the illusion of helping the patient avoid something negative.

A Strategic Description of Rituals

<ul><li>Avoidance of any anxiety provoking places, people or objects. This is essentially an attempted solution which feeds the problem.</li><li>A continual search for reassurance or help from family members, friends or partners, who can eventually become entangled in the pathological mechanisms.</li></ul>

Failed Attempts at a Solution

Family members are very often involved in these dysfunctional rituals or control. Patients who suffer from OCD can become more anxious and aggressive over time towards friends and family if they refuse to cooperate and this must be managed effectively so as to avoid worsening the situation. It is very important that others participate in the treatment to increase its effectiveness. It is important that family members step aside from this pathological and vicious circle and allow for the restoration of the patient’s responsibility for their problem.

Family and Friends

Rituals in OCD may seem irrational, but they have a unique logic of their own.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

mentalhealth

Mental Health

The Logic of Compulsions and Ritualized Behaviors

One reason that the theory of evolution is controversial is the claim that sheer randomness produces information. That is, randomly generated events are somehow selected for survival and continuing complex development (Darwinian evolution). The theory is understandably popular because, if correct, it would answer a great many questions. The problem is, we do not see randomly generated events producing complex mechanisms in the life around us. We are asked, however, to believe that this modern synthesis is true over the grand sweep of evolutionary time.

Evolution And Sheer Randomness

Over the years, it has become evident that evolution happens in a number of ways, including horizontal gene transfer between unrelated species, epigenetic inheritance of genes that changed during our parents’ lifetimes, and convergent evolution — where vastly different life forms end up with very similar mechanisms as a result of pursuing a common goal. Efforts to incorporate these processes into evolutionary theory are sometimes called The Third Way or Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES).

The Third Way

A new model of evolution relies on information theory, which is itself interesting because information is governed by different rules from matter and energy. For example, it is created by ruling out possibilities, it is relational, not causal, and it is not reduced by being shared. It is also immaterial. For example, Einstein’s bomb equation, e = mc2 , had a huge impact on the world but by itself, it is an immaterial idea.

A New Model Of Evolution And Information Theory

Information can be stripped of all matter and appear in a variety of media: one could phone and tell you the winning lottery number or send you an email or a letter about it or discuss it on radio or TV. Vastly different material media; same information.

Material Media, Immaterial Information

<ul><li>Information is immaterial by nature but must have a physical form to exist. </li><li>Inherited information may be found in many forms.</li><li>The forms have divergent properties and information may over time change its physical form.</li><li>The term “hereditome” refers to the sum of inherited information and its forms.</li><li>The substrate of natural selection is immaterial information.</li></ul>

The Information Continuum Model Of Evolution - Key Points 1 of 2

<ul><li>The Information Continuum Model is a simple heuristic model that allows evolution and natural selection to be investigated without conceptual restrictions imposed by the properties of individual hereditome components.</li><li>The conceptual nature of Information Continuum Model enables it to serve as an interdisciplinary platform for collaboration between natural and social sciences. ﻿</li></ul>

The Information Continuum Model Of Evolution - Key Points 2 of 2

The fallacies of a simplified gene-centric model of evolution have become evident in light of the cumulative evidence that inheritance is more than just genomes. 

Information follows different rules from matter and energy, which might change the way we see evolution.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

health

Health

problemsolving

Problem Solving

There’s A New Evolutionary Theory Based On Information

Jill Bolte Taylor's story is fascinating. At age 37 in 1996, she suffered a left hemisphere stroke which caused her right hemisphere to become temporarily dominant. It took her 8 years to recover.She could no longer experience the linearity of time or a sense of urgency; speak or understand language; identify the physical boundaries of where the body began and where it ended; perceive individuality/personality; understand the concepts of self-loathing, feeling guilty, or feeling lonely; experience past regrets, present fears, or future expectations.

The Stroke That Turned Off The Left Brain

The author had a unique experience after the stroke:Peaceful euphoria and bliss of the eternal timelessness of the present moment; oneness with the universe; a gigantic ball of energy that blended fluidly with the rest of the energy in the universe; could only perceive the pixelated atoms that make up space and exist at the level of the cosmic flow; perceived us all collectively and energetically as a part of the same being; we were all woven together into a fabric of tiny molecules that were in motion; spirit soared free and boundless; both free-flowing and as big as the universe.

The 'Nirvana' Experience Of Living With Only The Right Brain

Before the stroke, I was willing to compromise my relationships by moving away from both my home and those I loved for the status and monetary gain of a career as a neuroanatomist at Harvard. Although I was truly grateful to recover the vast and important abilities of my left brain, post-stroke I was no longer willing to choose the treadmill of work, work, work. Pre-stroke, my left brain had defined success through the achievement of external rewards. Post-stroke, my right-brain characters found meaning through the internal standards of loving, being loved, and being in service to others.

Before And After The Stroke

It is a relief for me to experience my emotions again, as they not only add depth to life, but they stretch my boundaries for personal growth.I regained the emotional circuits of resentment, guilt, and embarrassment, as well as all of the other more subtle feelings and emotions that make life alluring. Our emotions, even the negative ones, truly enrich our perception of experience and make life nuanced and more remarkable

Getting Back The Emotions

By having both of these hemispheres working together inside of one head, we experience a natural duality. It is normal for us to endure an ongoing internal conflict, based completely on the two uniquely autonomous perspectives of our left and right brains.Our right and left brains would forever evolve on separate yet parallel tracks of consciousness and exist in duality. Our right brain would evolve to be the home of our feminine, yin, and grace of the cosmic right here, right now, while our left brain would develop masculine, yang, and ego-centred traits based on our individuality.

Duality

When my left thinking network went off-line, a specific part of my personality, a character that I had known for decades as my ego-self, also disappeared. It was not as though I was missing a memory that I simply could not put my finger on; it was more like that memory (and I myself) had never existed at all. It’s a bit disconcerting to think that who we are is completely manufactured by a small group of cells in our left brain, and that we can lose ourselves at any moment, but that is exactly how fragile our ego identities are.

With that internal dialogue circuitry shut off, I sat in the center of a completely silent brain for five full weeks. I even lost that little voice of my left-brain ego-self that could say, ‘I am an individual, separate from the whole. I am Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor.’In the absence of my own left-brain character, which had anchored me in the external world at an emotional level, my ego-self disappeared and with it all of the personal content of my identity. Consequently, I no longer existed as an individual who was separate from the flow of the universe, and I knew nothing about my life.

The Monkey Mind Goes Silent

Because we have become the center of our own universe, our left-brain ego-cells come online and begin organizing everything in the external world around our individuality. With this shift of focus toward our relationship with the external world as separate from ourselves, the consciousness of the eternal flow remains, but shifts into the background.

Our Ego Makes Us The Center Of Our Own World

Before the hero’s left-brain ego-cells developed his perception of himself as an individual, he possessed the collective knowledge of his right brain’s unconscious mind. With time, as the individuation of his left brain developed, it grew to dominate and inhibit the knowledge of his right-brain mind.In the language of the brain, the hero must step out of his own ego-based left-brain consciousness into the realm of his right brain’s unconsciousness. At this point, the hero feels connected to all that is and is enveloped by a sense of deep inner peace.

The Hero’s Journey

There is an electromagnetic field of atoms and molecules that surrounds us, and we exist within it and it exists within us. Our left brain is unaware of this sea of energy because a small group of cells in our parietal region defines the boundaries of our body, surmising the separation. How different would our world be if we understood that we have the power to influence this field of energy through our thoughts and emotions? Perhaps gaining this insight into whole-brain living is humanity’s collective Hero’s Journey and how we will evolve as a species to live our lives with purpose.

A Collective Voyage

The Hero leaves behind the rational, ego-based consciousness that processes the reality of the external world (left brain); shed the rational, ego-based individuality; must be willing to let go of possessions and worldly knowledge; lays down the justice-demanding judgment of the dominating left brain.

The Hero's Journey Call

The Hero enters into the realm of the unconscious (right brain) and embodies the merciful characteristics of the compassionate right brain; battles the fear of death and all the other left-brain monsters; gains the insights of his heroic quest while enveloped in the wisdom of his euphoric right brain.The hero must either return home or share hard-won whole-brain knowledge; returning home, the hero is different now, aware of both conscious and unconscious characters and their conflicting values.

The Hero’s Journey To The Unconscious Realm

Reptilian Brain (Brain Stem): Instinctual survival; fundamental activities (breathing, heartbeat); regulating body temperature; managing our balance; processes pain, aggression, pleasure, and our drive to mateMammalian Brain (Emotional Limbic System Tissue): Modify and refine well-organized data from the brain stem by streaming it through the filter of emotion; make an automatic threat assessment based on how something feels.Human Brain: Directly modifies and refines the underlying emotional limbic tissue of our left-brain and right-brain.

How the Brain Works

We each have four distinctive groups of cells, divided between our two brain hemispheres, that generate four consistent and predictable personalities.Character 1: Left-Brain Thinking (Serial Processor)Verbal, thinks in language, thinks linearly, past/future based, analytical, focused on details, seeks differences, judgmental, punctual, individual, concise/precise, fixed, focus on the individual(ego), busy, conscious and biased towards structure and order.Competitive: compete when challenged and fight for what it believes in.Respects Authority: obeys rules.

The Four Characters

Constricted, rigid, cautious, fear-based, stern, loves conditionally, doubts, bullies, righteous, manipulates, deceives, tried and true.<ul><li>Compares present vs past memories.</li><li>Deepest emotions.</li><li>Emotional volatility and reactivity.</li><li>Happiness: the natural underlying circuitry of happiness (or lack thereof).</li><li>Stress: part of our stress circuitry; pessimistically sees the glass as half empty.</li></ul>

Character 2: Left-Brain Emotional

Expansive, open, experiential, risk-taking, fearless, friendly, kind, empathic, loves unconditionally, forgiving, trusts, supports, grateful, playful, joyful, goes with the flow, awe-inspired, curious, creative/innovative, collective, sharing, equality, contextual, style, hopeful.<ul><li>Focuses on the present moment.</li><li>Interconnected with the universal flow.</li><li>Always exists at the level of the flow of the universe.</li><li>Big picture, present moment threats.</li><li>Experiential.</li></ul>

Character 3: Right-Brain Emotional

Nonverbal, thinks in pictures, thinks experientially, present moment-based, kinesthetic/body, looks holistically at the big picture, seeks similarities, compassionate, lost in the flow of time, collective, flexible/resilient, open to possibilities, focus on WE, available, unconscious, fluid/flow, aware, expansive, connection, accepting, embraces chance, authentic, generous of spirit, clarity, intention, vulnerabilityAwareness: aware; awareness that we are safe regardless of our physical circumstanceOpenness: open; expansive; as big as the universe.

Character 4: Right-Brain Thinking (Parallel Processor)

At any given moment, there are three things going on in our brain: think thoughts, feel emotions, and run physiological responses to what we are thinking and feeling. Each of these activities is completely dependent on the health and well-being of the cells that are performing those functions.We have the power to choose moment by moment who and how we want to be.

We Can Choose What We Want To Be

When we know, understand, and nurture our own Four Characters, their relationships with one another, and their collective power within us, we promote our own cognitive, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellness.The better we understand the various groups of cells inside of our brain, how they are organized, and what it feels like to run each of those different cellular circuits, the more power we have to purposefully choose which of those neural networks we want to run.

Nurturing Our Four Characters

Humanity exists in an ongoing state of evolution:First, we are actively integrating the newly added-on tissue of our left thinking brain (Character 1) with the tissue of the underlying left emotional brain tissue (Character 2), then we are integrating the new tissue in our right thinking brain with the brain tissue in between (Character 3 and 4).Finally, we will evolve into whole-brain living, and consciously direct our own development as part of that evolution.

The Human Evolution

The New York Times best-selling author of My Stroke of Insight blends neuroanatomy with psychology to show how we can short-circuit emotional reactivity and find our way to peace. For half a century we have been trained to believe that our right brain hemisphere is our emotional brain, while our left brain houses our rational thinking. Now neuroscience shows that it's not that simple: in fact, our emotional limbic tissue is evenly divided between our two hemispheres. Consequently, each hemisphere has both an emotional brain and a thinking brain. In this groundbreaking new book, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor presents these four distinct modules of cells as four characters that make up who we are: Character 1, Left Thinking; Character 2, Left Emotion; Character 3, Right Emotion; and Character 4, Right Thinking. Everything we think, feel, or do is dependent upon brain cells to perform that function. Since each of the Four Characters stems from specific groups of cells that feel unique inside of our body, they each display particular skills, feel specific emotions, or think distinctive thoughts. In Whole Brain Living, Dr. Taylor shows us how to get acquainted with our own Four Characters, observe how they show up in our daily life, and learn to identify and relate to them in others as well. And she introduces a practice called the Brain Huddle--a tool for bringing our Four Characters into conversation with one another so we can tap their respective strengths and choose which one to embody in any situation. The more we become familiar with each of the characters in ourselves and others, the more power we gain over our thoughts, our feelings, our relationships, and our lives. Indeed, we discover that we have the power to choose who and how we want to be in every moment. And when our Four Characters work together and balance one another as a whole brain, we gain a radical new road map to deep inner peace.

books

Books

The New York Times best-selling author of My Stroke of Insight blends neuroanatomy with psychology to show how we can short-circuit emotional reactivity and find our way to peace. For half a century we have been trained to believe that our right brain hemisphere is our emotional brain, while our left brain houses our rational thinking. Now neuroscience shows that it's not that simple: in fact, our emotional limbic tissue is evenly divided between our two hemispheres. Consequently, each hemisphere has both an emotional brain and a thinking brain. In this groundbreaking new book, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor presents these four distinct modules of cells as four characters that make up who we are: Character 1, Left Thinking; Character 2, Left Emotion; Character 3, Right Emotion; and Character 4, Right Thinking. Everything we think, feel, or do is dependent upon brain cells to perform that function. Since each of the Four Characters stems from specific groups of cells that feel unique inside of our body, they each display particular skills, feel specific emotions, or think distinctive thoughts. In Whole Brain Living, Dr. Taylor shows us how to get acquainted with our own Four Characters, observe how they show up in our daily life, and learn to identify and relate to them in others as well. And she introduces a practice called the Brain Huddle--a tool for bringing our Four Characters into conversation with one another so we can tap their respective strengths and choose which one to embody in any situation. The more we become familiar with each of the characters in ourselves and others, the more power we gain over our thoughts, our feelings, our relationships, and our lives. Indeed, we discover that we have the power to choose who and how we want to be in every moment. And when our Four Characters work together and balance one another as a whole brain, we gain a radical new road map to deep inner peace.

Jill Bolte Taylor

Whole Brain Living

In history, people have attempted to explain the earth and humans’ position in it. A lot of people from various eras, religions, and races have uttered tales to describe, with magnificence and wonder, the roots and presence of human beings, Earth, animals, the universe, and the stars.Globalization, as well as our extremely dynamic present knowledge economy, has disintegrated belief in conventional root tales. However, the fact is that the present scientific understanding entails that people could not describe our roots and growth.

The Premise

What we understand has been that this huge explosion formed this universe 13.8 billion years previously – the initial of the range of important occurrences in the human chronicle. Also, we can tell what occurred after a fragment of a nanosecond following that instant.At that moment, our universe had even been tinier compared to an atom. It is difficult for our minds to understand some things, such as atoms, sizes; however, you could put millions of atoms in the point of an “i” with ease.Everything, from time, space and matter, started from that point.

The Big Bang

To start with, we had energy only, which immediately divided into various forces, like electromagnetism and gravity. In a split second, the simple matter appeared, and after it was complicated formations, while neutrons and protons – very tiny particles – combine to form nuclei. Anything occurred within minutes; however, with the cooling of this universe, everything impeded further.  The universe started out as something unthinkably small, with every matter and energy that is in our universe presently gathered to that, and it has been increasing since then.

The Formation Of Everything From The Unthinkable

Stars just came into existence 100000000 years following the huge explosion, at the time matter and gravity offered the goldilocks circumstances for any star to create.After a big star disappears, gravity crushes a star's essence with great strength, and a star shatters with immense energy.

The Emergence of Stars

This world was created by the buildup of debris-roughly 4,500,000,000 years previouslyWe are owed to the Sun for three things: energy, light, and heatThe creation of the globe has been a chaotic outcome of star formation, which happens in parts of space full of plumes of chemical substances.Near to the rays, where the creation of rocky planets such as Mars, Venus, and Earth took place, was a part filled with chemical substances such as iron, oxygen, and aluminium.

Our Solar System

<ul><li>Mild temperatures are important to existence, and the World possesses in-built systems that sustain them.</li><li>Rain comprises carbon, which ultimately finds its path to this World's cloak, the place it is kept for a long time.</li><li>Decreased carbon signifies less CO2 and this signifies colder temperatures.</li><li>During the cold period, less rain pours, this signifies that the kept carbon is less. CO2 degrees accumulate and things become warmer.</li><li>And when it gets really hot, more rain happens and everything cooled back down.</li></ul>

The Bedrock Of Life

<ul><li>Photosynthesis had been a powerful blessing for the initial, one-celled existence that assisted to trigger a biological innovation.</li><li>The progressive revolution of photosynthesis indicated the initial energy success in life history.</li><li>Unexpectedly, the energy was nearly infinite, and prokaryotes could multiply and spread. - 3000000000 years ago, oxygen levels in the atmosphere increased intensely, and the quantity of life in the oceans rose to nearly 10% of present grades.</li></ul>

Photosynthesis

<ul><li>Development and the annihilation of dinosaurs assisted the large structures of existence to grow that would ultimately produce mankind</li><li>Fungi, plants, and animals evolved and moved to land from oceans.</li><li>The appearance of existence on land caused expansion.</li><li>Life developed to be more clever due to advancement.</li><li>Adaptation increased information processing since information increased information.</li></ul>

Early Life On Earth

<ul><li>According to the criteria of our universe, we are really young.</li><li>In only the past 6000000 years (know that our universe is at the age of 13800000000, and initial huge living organisms came 600000000 years previously), we people have made our own means, growing independently from primates.</li><li>The language ability allowed the difficulty and accuracy of the shared info that showed to become revolutionary since it allowed training together - the buildup and transferring of one person's knowledge to another person and from one generation to another.</li></ul>

From Apes To Humans

<ul><li>The practice of agriculture developed in reaction to population densities.</li><li>Initially, humans were hesitant cultivators.</li><li>As village societies turned out to be the standard lifestyle, communities had to make novel principles and conduct, and humans started working further as one</li></ul>

Agriculture

<ul><li>With the development of agriculture, it produced surpluses that allowed the growth of more difficult agrarian communities</li><li>Surplus food from farming signified that they had an excess of humans in time at hand since not everybody had to labour the ground.</li><li>At the time individuals do not have to use their entire time for agriculture, they possess time to produce and trade pots for instance.</li></ul>

The Growth Of Trade

<ul><li>In just 100 years, people have accomplished huge advancements as data and concepts travelled across seas and were interchanged faster than any time previously</li><li>Fossil fuels' energy provided communities with further energy compared to what is offered by agriculture and transformed human life.</li></ul>

Fossil Fuels

<ul><li>Since World War II, we've seen the extreme rise of financial advancement in history, caused largely by technological advancements and fossil fuels</li><li>Economic advancement signifies that the experience of people is currently totally different from the ones our ancestors had</li><li>One disadvantage to economic growth is a huge inequality, proven most strongly by the fact that presently; 45000000 individuals are enslaved</li><li>Biodiversity is falling forever, with figures of extermination presently 100s of times quicker than that of the past millions of years</li></ul>

The Last Seventy Years

<ul><li>The following days are for us to create.</li><li>In the long term, The World would be sterile and ultimately the Sun would consume it</li><li>We are getting close to the biodiversity boundary, and we are getting nearer to the boundaries for climate change.</li><li>John Stuart Mill, the 19th-century economist, chose the notion of a tomorrow with no continuous development.</li><li>Attaining a world that could survive is an aim worth targeting, it would signify that human communities can exist for thousands, perhaps a lot of centuries to come.</li></ul>

The Future Of Earth

Lets go right at the start of everythijng.

This New York Times bestseller "elegantly weaves evidence and insights . . . into a single, accessible historical narrative" (Bill Gates) and presents a captivating history of the universe -- from the Big Bang to dinosaurs to mass globalization and beyond. Most historians study the smallest slivers of time, emphasizing specific dates, individuals, and documents. But what would it look like to study the whole of history, from the big bang through the present day -- and even into the remote future? How would looking at the full span of time change the way we perceive the universe, the earth, and our very existence? These were the questions David Christian set out to answer when he created the field of "Big History," the most exciting new approach to understanding where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. In Origin Story, Christian takes readers on a wild ride through the entire 13.8 billion years we've come to know as "history." By focusing on defining events (thresholds), major trends, and profound questions about our origins, Christian exposes the hidden threads that tie everything together -- from the creation of the planet to the advent of agriculture, nuclear war, and beyond. With stunning insights into the origin of the universe, the beginning of life, the emergence of humans, and what the future might bring, Origin Story boldly reframes our place in the cosmos.

religionandspirituality

Religion & Spirituality

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

space

Space

This New York Times bestseller "elegantly weaves evidence and insights . . . into a single, accessible historical narrative" (Bill Gates) and presents a captivating history of the universe -- from the Big Bang to dinosaurs to mass globalization and beyond. Most historians study the smallest slivers of time, emphasizing specific dates, individuals, and documents. But what would it look like to study the whole of history, from the big bang through the present day -- and even into the remote future? How would looking at the full span of time change the way we perceive the universe, the earth, and our very existence? These were the questions David Christian set out to answer when he created the field of "Big History," the most exciting new approach to understanding where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. In Origin Story, Christian takes readers on a wild ride through the entire 13.8 billion years we've come to know as "history." By focusing on defining events (thresholds), major trends, and profound questions about our origins, Christian exposes the hidden threads that tie everything together -- from the creation of the planet to the advent of agriculture, nuclear war, and beyond. With stunning insights into the origin of the universe, the beginning of life, the emergence of humans, and what the future might bring, Origin Story boldly reframes our place in the cosmos.

David Christian

Origin Story

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