Category: Science

Zika: Brazil admits it’s not the virus

By Dr. Joseph Mercola – guest writer for Wake Up World

Amidst growing fear-based propaganda warning of the threat of Zika virus comes a quiet admission from health officials in Brazil: Zika alone may not be responsible for the rise in birth defects that plagued parts of the country.

While there is some evidence suggesting Zika virus may be linked to the birth defect microcephaly, and the virus has been spreading throughout Brazil, rates of the condition have only risen to very high rates in the northeast section of Brazil. Since the virus has spread throughout Brazil, but extremely high rates of microcephaly have not, officials are now being forced to admit that something else is likely at play.

Dr. Fatima Marinho, director of information and health analysis at Brazil’s ministry of health, told the journal Nature, “We suspect that something more than Zika virus is causing the high intensity and severity of cases.”[1]

Nearly 90 percent of Brazil’s microcephaly cases occurred in the Northeast

Since last November, more than 1,700 confirmed cases of congenital microcephaly or other birth defects of the central nervous system have been reported in Brazil.

When the cases first began and were reportedly linked to Zika virus, health officials believed they’d see “an explosion of birth defects” acro

Amid growing fears of the Zika virus comes a quiet admission from Brazilian health officials: Zika is not responsible for the country’s rise in birth defects.

Source: Zika: Brazil Admits It’s Not the Virus

Alter your brainwaves, change your life

By Gilbert Ross – guest writer for Wake Up World

Riding the Waves of Change - How Altering Your Brainwaves Can Change Your Life

The scientific idea of brainwaves has made its way into popular media as can be witnessed in art, movies and science fiction. The image of a person with electrodes on his scalp while his brainwaves are being recorded is almost as iconic as the symbol of the atom or the depictions showing the ascent of man according to evolution. Yet very few people are aware of the fact that our brainwaves can be altered and, more importantly, by shifting into different states of brainwave activity, we can swiftly change our state of consciousness — say from one of anxiety to one of deep calm and openness — and by doing so, we also shift our emotional and physical state as it corresponds to that brainwave level. This is an idea which deeply fascinates me and intrigues me.

Short waves and long waves

The brain produces electric impulses. These impulses can be recorded by devices such as EEGs, fMRIs and others and are shown as waves of varying speeds or frequencies. The speed of the brainwaves are measured in Hertz (cycles per second). There are four general categories of brainwave levels: The Beta, Alpha, Theta and Delta.

 The Busy Beta: This is the state you’re in when in your normal state of consciousness. If your mind is occupied with something such as being engaged in a conversation or thinking about solving a problem, it is predominantly emitting brainwaves in the Beta level. Beta waves are relatively faster than the other three categories but have a small amplitude. They range between the 12 Hz to 38 Hz.
Keep reading…

Source: Riding the Waves of Change – How Altering Your Brainwaves Can Change Your Life

Graham Hancock explores the mysteries of DMT

As I’ve stated before, I am fairly open-minded when it comes to entheogens and hallucinogens as long as they’re used in a respectful and sacred manner. I do not believe in using these substances simply to get high or out of curiosity.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking these trips aren’t “real” and that they won’t affect your life. They could possibly take you into another dimension; the point is, we have yet to understand how it really works. That’s why it’s critical to use strong spiritual discernment when using these substances. Without it, you could unintentionally go on a hair-raising trip to hell and back. Or worse, bring an unwanted entity back with you.

Graham Hancock: DMT (dimethyltryptamine), the most powerful hallucinogen known to science, is a rocket ship to the other side of reality — and that other side is incredibly interesting!

I’ve had the privilege of undertaking multiple DMT journeys and can confirm the reports of the volunteers cited in an important new study, namely that with DMT there is an overwhelming sense of entering into a seamlessly-convincing ‘alternate universe’ that feels ‘more real than real’, often densely populated with a variety of strange objects and other highly complex visual content, including what appear to be sentient ‘beings’, coupled with the equally overwhelming sense of receiving a download of structured and significant ‘information’ most of which, however, proves difficult to retrieve once back in the ‘normal’ alert problem-solving state of consciousness.

Part of the problem is that the rocket ship to the other side of reality returns us to this ‘normal’ state of consciousness VERY quickly – usually within less than 10 minutes because the effects of injected or smoked DMT, although extraordinarily powerful, are of extremely short duration.

The duration can be extended with monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors, as in the Amazonian visionary brew . The duration can be extended with monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors, as in the Amazonian visionary brew Ayahuasca.

However, the nausea and physical discomfort that accompanies Ayahuasca can detract from focus on the visionary elements of the experience, and besides the MAO inhibitors in the vine themselves possesses psychoactive properties and may potentiate the effects of other psychoactive alkaloids in the plant mixture, with the result that the subjective effects of Ayahuasca differ from those of pure DMT.

Continue reading “Graham Hancock explores the mysteries of DMT” →

Your skin has smell receptors that help it heal

By Carolanne Wright

Smell is one of the most ancient human faculties — it has also been the least understood by science until recently. Biologists first uncovered the inner workings of chemical sensors in our noses, otherwise known as olfactory receptors, in the early 1990s, a finding that led to a Nobel Prize.

But the story doesn’t end there. Over the last decade, scientists have discovered that smell receptors are not only found in the nose, but also throughout the body — in the brain, colon, heart, liver, kidneys, spine, prostate and even sperm — and play a crucial role in a range of physiological functions. And now, a team of researchers at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany have confirmed even our skin is covered with these receptors.

“More than 15 of the olfactory receptors that exist in the nose are also found in human skin cells,” said lead researcher, Dr. Hanns Hatt. What’s more, exposing the skin receptors to specific odors triggers a cascade of reactions that prompt healing of injured tissue.

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Source: Wake Up World

Human cells found to be as powerful as lightning

pexels-photo-67102

Another amazing scientific breakthrough: Our cells are at least as powerful as lightning. Too bad we can’t use them to power our vehicles and our homes. Not yet anyway…

Using newly developed voltage-sensitive nanoparticles, researchers have found that the previously unknown electric fields inside of cells are as strong, or stronger, as those produced in lightning bolts.

Previously, it has only been possible to measure electric fields across cell membranes, not within the main bulk of cells, so scientists didn’t even know cells had an internal electric field.

This discovery is a surprising twist for cell researchers. Scientists don’t know what causes these incredibly strong fields or why they are there.

But now using new nanotools, such as voltage-sensitive dyes, they can start to measure them at least. Researchers believe they may be able to learn more about disease states, such as cancer, by studying these minute, but powerful electric fields.

University of Michigan researchers led by chemistry professor Raoul Kopelman encapsulated voltage-sensitive dyes in polymer spheres just 30 nanometers in diameter.

Testing these nanoparticles in the internal fluid of brain-cancer cells, Kopelman found electric fields as strong as 15 million volts per meter, up to five times stronger than the field found in a lightning bolt.

However, this discovery goes beyond being incredibly interesting; the finding will likely change the way researchers look at disease.

Continue reading “Human cells found to be as powerful as lightning” →

Medical breakthrough: Now you can live without breathing

This is truly amazing and could save millions of lives, possibly your own or someone you love. Kudos to the scientists behind this mind-blowing breakthrough.

A team of scientists at the Boston Children’s Hospital have invented what is being considered one the greatest medical breakthroughs in recent years. They have designed a microparticle that can be injected into a person’s bloodstream that can quickly oxygenate their blood. This will work even if the ability to breathe has been restricted, or even cut off entirely.

This finding has the potential to save millions of lives every year. The microparticles can keep an object alive for up to 30 minutes after respiratory failure. This is accomplished through an injection into the patients’ veins.

Once injected, the microparticles can oxygenate the blood to near normal levels. This has countless potential uses as it allows life to continue when oxygen is needed but unavailable. For medical personnel, this is just enough time to avoid risking a heart attack or permanent brain injury when oxygen is restricted or cut off to patients.

Source: Scientists Invent Oxygen Particle That If Injected, Allows You To Live Without Breathing, TechWench.com

Why you hate the sound of your own voice

Credit: SpeedKingz | Shutterstock.com

I don’t know about you, but I can relate to this situation. I’m always a little shocked to hear a recording of myself; it sounds so foreign to me. How about you?

Why Do People Hate the Sound of Their Own Voices?

If you’ve ever listened to a recording of your voice and thought to yourself, “Do I really sound like that?!” you’re hardly the only one. People hear themselves talk all the time, so why do they sometimes think that recordings of their voices sound so strange?

Here’s the simple answer: what you hear when you speak is not the same as what others perceive, said Dr. Yale Cohen, director of the Hearing Sciences Center at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.

“The voice that you hear on a tape recorder is actually how your voice sounds,” Cohen told Live Science. [5 Things a Person’s Voice Can Tell You]

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Source: Why Do People Hate the Sound of Their Own Voices?, Live Science