Orpheus and Euridike - Underworld in sleep paralysis?

The story of Orpheus and Euridike is world-famous and one of the most interesting love stories in world literature. After Euridike's death, Orpheus goes to the underworld to find his deceased lover. His experiences in the underworld are partly reminiscent of experiences reported by people who have experienced sleep paralysis. During his visit to the underworld, Orpheus experiences a kind of colorless shadow world in which there seems to be no landscape or buildings of its own. It is a colorless and somehow insubstantial place, but where the souls of the deceased reside. The deceased fit into this environment; they are pale shadow beings. This idea of the underworld, where the colorless shadows of the deceased reside in an equally colorless and geographically devoid environment, is partly similar to the experiences of sleep paralysis, where those who experience it in their sleep suddenly find themselves in a very strange, insubstantial, colorless and yet very concrete and find an effective environment. There is a certain horror. More recently, sleep paralysis has been discovered as a specific form of sleep disorder. But in the culture of the ancient Greeks, this phenomenon was not yet rationally described.

On the other hand, the ancient Greeks had a rich repertoire of various mental techniques in the context of oracles, divinations and necromancy. According to the story, Orpheus also used these meditative aids in his search for his deceased friend Euridice. The question now arises as to whether the Greeks possibly had meditative or drug-like means to artificially and deliberately induce the state of sleep paralysis for the purposes of spiritual enlightenment or for the purpose of establishing contact with the deceased?

image source: pixabay.com, Image by Artie_Navarre from Pixabay

For most of us, the passage of time flies in just one inexorable direction. But for theoretical quantum physicists, time's direction isn't quite so inflexible. It's possible to theoretically model, simulate, and observe the backwards flow of time in ways that are impossible to achieve in the real world. And now, scientists have shown that simulations of backwards time travel can help solve physics problems that cannot be resolved with normal physics. Led by physicist David Arvidsson-Shukur of Cambridge University, a team of physicists conducted an experiment in which the input state can be altered by simulating a backwards loop of time that allows them to alter the parameters after they have already been set. These loops are purely hypothetical, of course – but they can be simulated using quantum teleportation circuits created with entangled particles, in order to mathematically solve problems. "Imagine that you want to send a gift to someone: you need to send it on day one to make sure it arrives on day three," Arvidsson-Shukur explains. "However, you only receive that person's wish list on day two. So, in this chronology-respecting scenario, it's impossible for you to know in advance what they will want as a gift and to make sure you send the right one. "Now imagine you can change what you send on day one with the information from the wish list received on day two. Our simulation uses quantum entanglement manipulation to show how you could retroactively change your previous actions to ensure the final outcome is the one you want."

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Mutiny on Mars

In addition to a number of technical difficulties in colonizing Mars, there is the human aspect.

It can be assumed that people who work on Mars in the service of corporations or countries, for example, in order to make Mars generally usable or even habitable for humans, have to do very hard physical, mental and social work. Good wages, a great adventure or the prospect of becoming famous are certainly attractive. Nevertheless, it will be an extremely tough job, with every single employee risking their health and life.

But despite all the hardships, the new alien planet will eventually be something like a new home for these first workers on Mars.

At some point, some employees will not only be proud of their own achievements, but they will also ask themselves to what extent some clients, who are increasingly distant from them not only spatially but also in practical life, have the right to instruct them as the first real inhabitants of Mars admit.

These employees have then achieved so much, risked so much, that they may want more than a job with some powerful person. It is the longing for freedom, for a new beginning without all the legacies of social transgressions on the home planet.

So in the distant future there could be a mutiny by the human inhabitants of Mars against an earthly system that is no longer recognized as the commanding authority.

Good luck to the mutineers, as exploring and repopulating alien planets should be a real fresh start, not exporting a decadent system ruled by a plutocracy.

A team of researchers from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, and collaborators developed GeneCompass, one of the first foundation models of its kind that encompasses a vast expanse of knowledge across a diverse array of species, owing to the fact that it has been trained on over 120 million single-cell transcriptomes derived from the genomes of mice and humans. It is a self-supervised model. During the process of pre-training the model, it retrieves information from four types of biological datasets in the form of ‘prior knowledge’ and integrates it. It has excelled and outperformed several state-of-the-art models when studying a single species. It can also open new avenues for carrying out studies across different combinations of species other than humans and mice. This model can potentially contribute to discovering key regulators that determine cell fate and to identifying promising target candidates in the drug discovery and development field.

It is essential to decode universal regulatory mechanisms that dictate the expression of genes across a diverse set of organisms for accelerating clinical research and expanding our existing knowledge of basic and crucial life processes. Traditional research methodologies and existing deep-learning models have only considered using individual models of organisms separately. This has resulted in a dearth of integrated knowledge of features observed across different cell types over a variety of species. The development of this model was made possible by combining the outcomes of recent advancements in the fields of deep-learning (DL) methods and single-cell sequencing methods.

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Science fiction movies: Entire planet Terra under American territory?

Science fiction Films and science fiction Literature are always popular with the public. They offer imaginative ideas about the future, offer pleasant and also deterrent models, which in turn stimulate the imagination of readers and viewers. As diverse and varied as the offerings of science fiction literature and science fiction films may be, they all have something in common: the planet Terra is always under American rule, which is of course good and positive. Although people of different origins are often involved in the plot, the actual rule is in the American hands. It is also not suggested that there are different states on the planet Terra, it dominates only America. Fictional interstellar wars and encounters with other fictitious planetary inhabitants and other fictional species take place in the science fiction films and the science fiction literature exclusively under the direction of the fictitious unified terrestrial government, which is exclusively American. The fictitious terrestrial culture is exclusively American, the mentality, the hobbies and the way of life. Hamburgers and baseball as the last remnant of the earthly way of life. Now the science fiction literature and the science fiction film industry belongs to the entertainment sector. It's supposed to entertain, nothing more. Nevertheless, consumers of this conversation are left with the question: Should a political worldview be transported together with entertainment, uniting the whole world - under an American label?

Materialism - The world a children's construction set?

Materialists consider themselves the only enlightened modern people in the world. Mentally they live in a very simple and logically secured world, where matter is a kind of practical and reliable building block system, where every building block fits to the other and where there are reliable rules and laws, by which one can calculate and measure the only true world of material things and can predict.

The "materialists" don't take note of the fact that the investigation of physical matter always produces new results and that knowledge always replaces one another in a fluid way and sometimes contradicts one another, because most materialists, who support their theory that nothing exists apart from matter, defending furiously against those who think differently are very rarely natural scientists or physicists. Most materialists are philosophers and humanists who don't really follow or follow the complex current discourse on the "nature of matter". These philosophical materialists argue from a knowledge of matter that has long been outdated and, in their ignorance, consider themselves particularly modern and enlightened. In summary, most self-proclaimed materialists are merely aggressively defending some sort of simplistic modular system and are basically just adherents of a rigid cult of faith.

In a new study in mice, a team of researchers from UCLA, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and Harvard University have uncovered a crucial component for restoring functional activity after spinal cord injury. The neuroscientists have shown that re-growing specific neurons back to their natural target regions led to recovery, while random regrowth was not effective.

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Bringing dead creatures back to life authentically via genetic engineering?

It's not just religions that deal with forms of resurrection and rebirth. Nowadays, modern science is increasingly interested in bringing extinct creatures back to our time. Others interested in the concrete resuscitation of deceased living beings using scientific technology are wealthy private individuals who would like to have their beloved pets and family, but also themselves, resurrected after death. DNA is a blueprint for a type of biological template. The template is specific, for example in terms of formal and functional aspects, but empty in terms of content. This template - like web templates - must be filled with content. Only then does something like personality emerge, something unique. In biological life, the content is influenced, in addition to the "template", by the influence of the environment, time sequence and events, risks and opportunities. The template is interpreted slightly differently depending on external conditions and the individual's reaction. Certain options are more prominent, others are more likely to be neglected. The sequence of events. the reaction to it, the experience and behavior form the basis for the unique personality in the form of a biography. It is questionable whether pure DNA replication can really restore original, faded individual life. DNA replication will use the same template to produce a new, unique, but different entity based on different circumstances and environmental conditions.

There will be no copy of the past, only a similar image, and the quasi-machine reproduction of a past biological existence turns out to be an illusion.

Are there any objects that are smaller than quanta?

Are there any objects that are smaller than quanta? Is there a world that is even smaller than that of quanta? On what scale does the world of matter end? Does the world of matter end at all, or do we have an inadequate conception of matter?

Is there a limit in the areas of size/width or minimum smallness? Are our universes just a part of a much larger world?

On the other hand, is there a perspective from which the quanta appear as huge universes?

Rise of AI - How dispensable are people?

If more and more jobs are eliminated by AI and, on the other hand, more and more people are poorly qualified from the perspective of industry, from a purely economic perspective, more and more people become "superfluous" and, on the other hand, more and more people that cannot sustain themselves economically, are to be materially supplied.

For example, there are increasingly supermarket checkouts that are controlled by automated intelligence, making sales assistants superfluous from the corporations' perspective in the long run. Recently, there has also been an increasing number of municipal authorities that are handing over communication services to AI robots, thereby eliminating the need for human advisors in offices and authorities.

These are contradictory phenomena and necessities. Will this situation lead to a world view of utilitarianism? What value do people have in such a system?

On the other hand, very wealthy people will not face the problem of being replaced by artificial intelligence. On the contrary - wealthy people can bring additional artificial intelligence onto the market, forcing poor people into hopeless competition with automated machines.

This mechanism shows the hypocritical side of utilitarianism: Poor people increasingly have to legitimize their existence through their usefulness in the interests of corporations. Rich people are freed from self-legitimation based on usefulness. Money thus becomes the legitimation of human existence.

image source: pixabay.com

A new study on mice suggests the cause of Alzheimer's disease may not be the buildup of beta-amyloid clumps in the brain but rather breaks in the connections (synapses) between brain cells. By manipulating the natural processes of RNA editing in mice modelled to reflect Alzheimer's symptoms, researchers prevented the connections in their brains from breaking down. Memory was restored without removing the protein clumps that are thought to cause the disease, suggesting damage between neurons was a critical problem. The finding provides a new understanding of Alzheimer's disease and an approach that could potentially address memory loss in Alzheimer's patients.

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A strange pair of galaxies several billion light-years away could be evidence of a hypothetical 'crease' in the Universe's fabric known as a cosmic string. According to an analysis of the properties of the pair, the two galaxies may not be distinct objects, but a duplicate image caused by a trick of the light. And the reason the light is duplicated could be because of a scar in the space between us and the galaxy, creating a gravitational lens. A paper describing this cosmic string candidate, led by Margarita Safonova of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, has been accepted in the Bulletin de la Société Royale des Sciences de Liège, and is available on preprint server arXiv. These theoretical topological defects are estimated to be no wider than a proton, may extend the entire breadth of the Universe, and are thought to be incredibly dense and massive. Theory suggests that they may very well be real, but we haven't seen much physical evidence of them.

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Support cats! They are so nice, friendly and cute!

A collaborative effort between the Departments of Pharmacology, Chemistry, and Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego, led to the development of MitoSpace, a self-supervised deep learning model. It can be considered an ‘atlas’ to map various phenotypic characteristics of the mitochondria’s reactions and responses to different drugs. It is a high-content image-based screening process with the goal of recognizing substances that can alter cellular phenotypes. The deep learning element adds a twist to this process by creating a ‘latent space’ from the images fed to it without requiring any data labels to train it.

Traditional methods identified compounds that had the ability to reposition disease phenotypes toward healthier phenotypes. The main goal of these methods was to determine the relationship between the morphology of the cell and its state and to find drugs that could shift the cell’s state to a more desired form. Knowledge of the cell’s morphology gives more information on the disease, which in turn is useful to find the corresponding drug that could be used to ‘correct’ the diseased cell’s state.

A drawback of these methods is that they have been unable to cover the vast expanse of the spectrum of potential responses that different phenotypes can exhibit.

A defined set of features, such as the texture, shape, and size of the organelles under study, is prepared and further processed to find a subset of features that classify phenotypes into healthy or diseased types. An example of one of these methods is the NCI-60 cell line panel. To obtain information on the drug’s anticancer properties and link its mechanism of action to potential causative genes and diseases, 60 cell lines from different types of tumors were used.

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Enzyme mechanisms, intricate sequences of events within an enzyme’s active site facilitating chemical reactions, are key to understanding enzyme function and evolution. Experimental approaches provide critical insights into these systems, including kinetics, mutagenesis, spectroscopy, structural analysis, and computational techniques like quantum mechanics and molecular mechanics. By providing machine-readable representations of the catalytic steps from numerous enzyme processes, the Mechanism and Catalytic Site Atlas (M-CSA) combines this voluminous knowledge. EzMechanism, an automated program utilizing M-CSA data developed by scientists from the European Bioinformatics Institute, Cambridge, UK, expedites the development of probable enzyme mechanisms from a specific active site structure, assisting researchers in putting out and evaluating hypotheses for further investigation.

Framework for understanding enzyme catalysis

The rules of enzyme catalysis: The ‘rules of enzyme catalysis’ were crafted by analyzing recurring mechanistic components from 2D curly arrow diagrams in the Mechanism and Catalytic Site Atlas (M-CSA), excluding radical and metal-involved redox reactions. Parsing these diagrams unveiled bond changes and crucial chemical groups. Using graph representations and integrating literature knowledge, potential electron pathways and feasible chemical transformations were extracted, resulting in 7,218 catalytic rules. These included 3,668 single-step rules observed in specific mechanistic steps and 3,550 mixed-step rules derived by merging information from different steps with similar chemical groups. Together, these rules form a comprehensive set of essential mechanistic components in enzyme catalysis.

The specificity and quantity of catalytic rules in EzMechanism hinge on the algorithm used for their formulation. Optimal rules, spanning atoms up to two bonds from reaction centers, strike a balance between specificity and applicability. This refined approach ensures inclusivity and treats functionally akin atoms equivalently for effective rule matching.

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Artificial Intelligence - Not only knowledge but also mistakes AI

In recent times, the development of ever more sophisticated artificial intelligence has played an increasing role. The accumulation of more and more knowledge in artificial intelligence is highlighted. Versions of the latest artificial intelligence should even have the entire knowledge of mankind at their disposal. The special thing about it is that artificial intelligence should even make decisions for humanity based on this knowledge base. What sounds great also raises critical questions.

Who or what measures what is "all knowledge" of mankind?

The "knowledge of mankind" is fluid. What counts as indisputable truth today may be wrong tomorrow. So could it be that in the future we will receive suggestions for action from an artificial intelligence based on the "mistakes of all mankind"?

🌟 Demystifying the Internet: The Surface, Deep, and Dark Web 🌟

Greetings, curious minds! Today, we embark on a quest to unravel the layers of the internet, shedding light on the enigmatic realms of the Surface, Deep, and Dark Web. No need to sign up or log in; this journey is all about knowledge.

🔦 Understanding the Layers: Surface, Deep, and Dark 🔦

Let's start by peeling back the digital layers that make up the web:

💡 Surface Web - The Visible World 💻

The Surface Web is where most of our online activities take place. It's the part of the internet we encounter daily, hosting websites like news portals, social media platforms, and e-commerce sites. This is the internet we know and navigate effortlessly. 🌐

🌌 Deep Web - Below the Surface 🌌

Beneath the surface lies the Deep Web, a hidden repository of information not indexed by search engines. Here, you'll find databases, private records, academic resources, and more, often tucked away behind secure logins. It's the web's extensive but unseen underbelly. 🕳️

🌑 Dark Web - Unveiling the Shadows 🌑

Venturing further into the digital abyss, we encounter the mysterious Dark Web. This shadowy realm is known for its encrypted websites, marketplaces, and forums, many of which operate beneath layers of anonymity. It's a realm associated with intrigue and secrecy. 🌐🕶️

💥 Demystifying 127.0.0.1 💥

Now, you may wonder about the role of 127.0.0.1 in this digital landscape:

🏰 127.0.0.1: Your Digital Hub 🚪

127.0.0.1, also known as "localhost," is your personal gateway to the digital world. It's where developers, tech enthusiasts, and cybersecurity experts gather to experiment, innovate, and test in a controlled, secure environment. 🛠️🛡️

🚀 Innovation's Hidden Forge 🚀

Deep within the digital catacombs of 127.0.0.1, a parallel universe of innovation thrives. It's a place where creative boundaries are pushed, and groundbreaking software, digital experiences, and visionary projects come to life. 🌟🔬

🔐 The Fortified Citadel 🔐

127.0.0.1 is also a fortress of cybersecurity, where experts converge to bolster digital defenses. They work tirelessly to protect your data from online threats, making the digital world a safer place. 🛡️💂

🗺️ Navigating the Knowledge 🗺️

While 127.0.0.1 isn't the Dark Web itself, it serves as a training ground for those who wish to explore deeper layers of the digital abyss. Armed with knowledge and skills, these curious explorers prepare to unlock the mysteries of the web's hidden layers, both known and unknown. 🔑🗝️

🌠 Expand Your Digital Horizons 🌠

And there you have it—the Surface, Deep, and Dark Web, demystified for the curious and the knowledge-seekers. No need to click a link or subscribe; the wonders of the web are yours to explore. Stay curious, and may your digital journeys be enlightening! 🚀🌌