A culture of denial over the horizontal spread of genetically modified nucleic acids prevails in ... more A culture of denial over the horizontal spread of genetically modified nucleic acids prevails in the face of direct evidence that it has occurred widely when appropriate methods and molecular probes are used for detection.
According to Bergson (1916), the traditional problem of free will is misconceived and arises from... more According to Bergson (1916), the traditional problem of free will is misconceived and arises from a mismatch between the quality of authentic, subjective experience and its description in language, in particular, the language of the mechanistic science of psychology. Contemporary western scientific concepts of the organism, on the other hand, are leading us beyond conventional thermodynamics as well as quantum theory and offering rigorous insights which reaffirm and extend our intuitive, poetic, and even romantic notions of spontaneity and free will. I shall describe some new views of the organism arising from new findings in biology, in order to show how, in freeing itself from the 'laws' of physics, from mechanical determinism and mechanistic control, the organism becomes a sentient, coherent being that is free, from moment to moment, to explore and create its possible futures.
On‐going in situ measurements and sky mapping are revealing new and hidden structures in the
magn... more On‐going in situ measurements and sky mapping are revealing new and hidden structures in the magnetic plasma bubble around our Sun
Astrophysicists have discovered plasma in our skies since the 1960s and increasingly regard
plasm... more Astrophysicists have discovered plasma in our skies since the 1960s and increasingly regard plasma a key element in understanding not only Earth and our solar system, but also life and the universe
Earth’s layers of magnetized plasma shield its atmosphere from the solar wind, thereby
protecting... more Earth’s layers of magnetized plasma shield its atmosphere from the solar wind, thereby protecting life as we know it, yet Earth‐Sun connection may be more direct than anyone has imagined
Observations on the largescale structure of the Universe over the past decades have given rise
to... more Observations on the largescale structure of the Universe over the past decades have given rise to the notion of the ‘cosmic web’, which is nothing if not the cosmic electricity grid of the Electric Plasma Universe
... Most, if not all, of the elements will have been tamed in the course of evolu-tion and henc... more ... Most, if not all, of the elements will have been tamed in the course of evolu-tion and hence no longer mobile. ... In signing on to the International Biosafety Protocol in January, more than 150 governments agreed to implement the precautionary principle. ...
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has infected 50 million people worldwide and killed 16 million... more Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has infected 50 million people worldwide and killed 16 million so far, and the epidemic is still spreading with 16,000 new cases of HIV infection daily and a projection of 100 million infected individuals by the end of the next decade. There is no question that a safe and effective acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) vaccine is urgently needed to bring the current AIDS pandemic under control. But, is preventive AIDS vaccine an attainable goal? Unfortunately, the results of many laboratory and clinical studies over the past two decades are not encouraging. We comment on the efficacy, safety and ethics of AIDS vaccine, and the urgent need for a new strategy for AIDS vaccine development.
A recent technique optimizing the detection of small birefringences typical of biological liquid ... more A recent technique optimizing the detection of small birefringences typical of biological liquid crystals has been described elsewhere. Here, we derive a liner relationship between color intensity, molecular birefringence and degree of phase alignment, based on which, a quantitative image analysis is developed. The image analysis is used to define the dynamics of the phase transition-like increase in color intensity
In four different lines of Drosophila melanogaster the highest frequencies of bithorax phenocopie... more In four different lines of Drosophila melanogaster the highest frequencies of bithorax phenocopies result from ether treatment during the precellular blastoderm stages. The spatial characteristics of the phenocopy spots are dependent on the precise timing of phenocopy induction, and are not in accord with those predicted from the model of sequential determination of whole compartments put forward by Garcia-Bellido et al. in 1976. Ether treatment for 13 successive previous generations gave rise to changes in the spatiotemporal characteristics of the phenocopy response. Our results suggest the involvement of continuous diffusion-like processes in the prepattering event which is affected by ether.
The use of synthetic inhibitors of metalloproteinases (SIMP) or medroxyprogesterone (MP) can prev... more The use of synthetic inhibitors of metalloproteinases (SIMP) or medroxyprogesterone (MP) can prevent or significantly delay the ulceration of alkali-injured corneas by influencing collagen degradation. We have examined the remodeling of rabbit corneal stroma following alkali injury and have assessed the effect of SIMP and MP treatment. Following a defined alkali injury to the rabbit cornea, animals were divided into three subgroups, one group treated with topical beta-mercaptomethyl tripeptide (SIMP), one treated by subconjunctival injection of MP and one treated with a control solution. The corneal tissue was taken at 3 days, 1, 2, 3, 4, 9 and 26 weeks after alkali injury and prepared for light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). A quantitative measurement of birefringence, in terms of the optical path difference (OPD), was made using a modified polarized microscopy technique based on the analysis of interference colours. The results showed that SIMP effectively prevented deep corneal ulceration. MP could delay the ulceration and the corneas treated with MP appeared to have better transparency than the other groups. There was a significant difference of the OPD between the anterior (5.8 +/-0.3 nm) and posterior (7.8 +/-0.4 nm) stroma of the normal cornea (P<0.001). The OPD values from the central corneas from alkali-injured eyes were generally lower than normal during the first 4 weeks and then gradually recovered to the normal level or above, except for the posterior stroma of the MP-treated eyes. We found that the OPD changes were very dependent on the presence of corneal lesions. The stroma near corneal ulceration, scar tissue, calcified stroma and the retro-corneal collagen layer showed a significant reduction of birefringence (lower OPD values). These OPD values remained much lower than normal up to the end of the experiment. TEM showed disrupted corneal stroma in all three groups, with thinner scar tissue in the MP group. The fibril diameters did not change significantly 3 days and 1 week after the alkali burns (27.1+/-2.3 nm in the control group, 27.3+/-2.2 nm in the SIMP group and 27.7+/-2.1 nm in the MP group) and there were no differences compared with 29.7+/-1.7 nm of the normal cornea (P>0.05). After 2 weeks of tissue remodeling, the fibril diameters in alkali-injured corneas showed a large variation (the range was between 11.5 and 80 nm) with a bimodal distribution, especially in the control group. The technique presented here for birefringence evaluation can provide an alternative way to monitor wound healing and tissue remodeling, both visually and quantitatively.
New evidence suggests that the L-field is generated by, and
embodied in, the quantum-coherent liq... more New evidence suggests that the L-field is generated by, and embodied in, the quantum-coherent liquid crystalline water that makes up to 70–90% of organisms and cells, and is essential for life. Water forms quantum coherent domains at ordinary temperatures and pressures. Within organisms, coherent domains become stabilized as liquid crystalline water on the vast amount of membrane and macromolecular surfaces, effectively aligning the entire body electrically to form a single uniaxial crystal. This liquid crystalline water makes life possible by enabling proteins and nucleic acids to act as quantum molecular machines that transform and transfer energy at close to 100% efficiency. It provides excitation energy to split water in photosynthesis, releasing oxygen for the teaming millions of air-breathing species that colonize the earth, at the same time generating electricity for intercommunication and the redox chemistry that powers the entire biosphere. Living water is the means, medium, and message of life.
There is an urgent need for policies that can address both the challenges and opportunities for s... more There is an urgent need for policies that can address both the challenges and opportunities for sustainable development in urban settings. Within the past two decades, the idea of cities as fractal structures resulting from social and economic processes led to a transition in thinking of cities as machines to cities as organisms. Independently, the concept of ‘sustainable cities’ had emerged earlier, with many successful implementations already underway. I propose to define a sustainable city as one able to feed and power itself as much as possible using land and energy efficiently with the least environmental pollution and impact on climate change, minimizing wastes and recycling and reconverting wastes into resources. Coherent fractal space-time structures are the key to a circular thermodynamics of organisms and sustainable systems that achieves the state of minimum entropy production and dissipation that Ilya Prigogine had proposed as a conjecture. In this article, I explain how the principles of circular thermodynamics can be applied to sustainable cities.
The history of western culture since then is one of increasing alienation from nature and hence f... more The history of western culture since then is one of increasing alienation from nature and hence from our natural being, while nature becomes fragmented into atoms and fundamental particles. Yet when this reductionist, atomistic science is pursued to its logical conclusion and pushed to its very limits, it can only undermine the basis on which it was built. For everywhere, it reaffirms the unity of nature in which the knowing being is inextricably embedded10, compelling us towards a new knowledge system and a new way of knowing that is at the same time very old. It harks back to the universal indigenous wisdom that sees nature as she really is: the evolving plenitude that affords the existence of all things, the ultimate inspiration for the consiousness striving to know. I believe that the new science will come to resemble traditional indigenous science in many fundamental respects. To make the affinities explicit, I propose to call it the indigenous western science; 'indigenous' because it is premissed on a direct experience of nature which is a unity embracing the knowing being. In this sense, indigenous knowledge is indifferent to time and place, but is the prerogative of the natural being of all ages. The natural being is the vehicle to authentic knowledge. Knowing involves the unfragmented indigenous consciousness - the natural being - communicating with nature, engaging her wholeheartedly without bounds or boundaries. There is hence no mismatch between knowledge and our experience of reality.
A culture of denial over the horizontal spread of genetically modified nucleic acids prevails in ... more A culture of denial over the horizontal spread of genetically modified nucleic acids prevails in the face of direct evidence that it has occurred widely when appropriate methods and molecular probes are used for detection.
According to Bergson (1916), the traditional problem of free will is misconceived and arises from... more According to Bergson (1916), the traditional problem of free will is misconceived and arises from a mismatch between the quality of authentic, subjective experience and its description in language, in particular, the language of the mechanistic science of psychology. Contemporary western scientific concepts of the organism, on the other hand, are leading us beyond conventional thermodynamics as well as quantum theory and offering rigorous insights which reaffirm and extend our intuitive, poetic, and even romantic notions of spontaneity and free will. I shall describe some new views of the organism arising from new findings in biology, in order to show how, in freeing itself from the 'laws' of physics, from mechanical determinism and mechanistic control, the organism becomes a sentient, coherent being that is free, from moment to moment, to explore and create its possible futures.
On‐going in situ measurements and sky mapping are revealing new and hidden structures in the
magn... more On‐going in situ measurements and sky mapping are revealing new and hidden structures in the magnetic plasma bubble around our Sun
Astrophysicists have discovered plasma in our skies since the 1960s and increasingly regard
plasm... more Astrophysicists have discovered plasma in our skies since the 1960s and increasingly regard plasma a key element in understanding not only Earth and our solar system, but also life and the universe
Earth’s layers of magnetized plasma shield its atmosphere from the solar wind, thereby
protecting... more Earth’s layers of magnetized plasma shield its atmosphere from the solar wind, thereby protecting life as we know it, yet Earth‐Sun connection may be more direct than anyone has imagined
Observations on the largescale structure of the Universe over the past decades have given rise
to... more Observations on the largescale structure of the Universe over the past decades have given rise to the notion of the ‘cosmic web’, which is nothing if not the cosmic electricity grid of the Electric Plasma Universe
... Most, if not all, of the elements will have been tamed in the course of evolu-tion and henc... more ... Most, if not all, of the elements will have been tamed in the course of evolu-tion and hence no longer mobile. ... In signing on to the International Biosafety Protocol in January, more than 150 governments agreed to implement the precautionary principle. ...
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has infected 50 million people worldwide and killed 16 million... more Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has infected 50 million people worldwide and killed 16 million so far, and the epidemic is still spreading with 16,000 new cases of HIV infection daily and a projection of 100 million infected individuals by the end of the next decade. There is no question that a safe and effective acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) vaccine is urgently needed to bring the current AIDS pandemic under control. But, is preventive AIDS vaccine an attainable goal? Unfortunately, the results of many laboratory and clinical studies over the past two decades are not encouraging. We comment on the efficacy, safety and ethics of AIDS vaccine, and the urgent need for a new strategy for AIDS vaccine development.
A recent technique optimizing the detection of small birefringences typical of biological liquid ... more A recent technique optimizing the detection of small birefringences typical of biological liquid crystals has been described elsewhere. Here, we derive a liner relationship between color intensity, molecular birefringence and degree of phase alignment, based on which, a quantitative image analysis is developed. The image analysis is used to define the dynamics of the phase transition-like increase in color intensity
In four different lines of Drosophila melanogaster the highest frequencies of bithorax phenocopie... more In four different lines of Drosophila melanogaster the highest frequencies of bithorax phenocopies result from ether treatment during the precellular blastoderm stages. The spatial characteristics of the phenocopy spots are dependent on the precise timing of phenocopy induction, and are not in accord with those predicted from the model of sequential determination of whole compartments put forward by Garcia-Bellido et al. in 1976. Ether treatment for 13 successive previous generations gave rise to changes in the spatiotemporal characteristics of the phenocopy response. Our results suggest the involvement of continuous diffusion-like processes in the prepattering event which is affected by ether.
The use of synthetic inhibitors of metalloproteinases (SIMP) or medroxyprogesterone (MP) can prev... more The use of synthetic inhibitors of metalloproteinases (SIMP) or medroxyprogesterone (MP) can prevent or significantly delay the ulceration of alkali-injured corneas by influencing collagen degradation. We have examined the remodeling of rabbit corneal stroma following alkali injury and have assessed the effect of SIMP and MP treatment. Following a defined alkali injury to the rabbit cornea, animals were divided into three subgroups, one group treated with topical beta-mercaptomethyl tripeptide (SIMP), one treated by subconjunctival injection of MP and one treated with a control solution. The corneal tissue was taken at 3 days, 1, 2, 3, 4, 9 and 26 weeks after alkali injury and prepared for light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). A quantitative measurement of birefringence, in terms of the optical path difference (OPD), was made using a modified polarized microscopy technique based on the analysis of interference colours. The results showed that SIMP effectively prevented deep corneal ulceration. MP could delay the ulceration and the corneas treated with MP appeared to have better transparency than the other groups. There was a significant difference of the OPD between the anterior (5.8 +/-0.3 nm) and posterior (7.8 +/-0.4 nm) stroma of the normal cornea (P<0.001). The OPD values from the central corneas from alkali-injured eyes were generally lower than normal during the first 4 weeks and then gradually recovered to the normal level or above, except for the posterior stroma of the MP-treated eyes. We found that the OPD changes were very dependent on the presence of corneal lesions. The stroma near corneal ulceration, scar tissue, calcified stroma and the retro-corneal collagen layer showed a significant reduction of birefringence (lower OPD values). These OPD values remained much lower than normal up to the end of the experiment. TEM showed disrupted corneal stroma in all three groups, with thinner scar tissue in the MP group. The fibril diameters did not change significantly 3 days and 1 week after the alkali burns (27.1+/-2.3 nm in the control group, 27.3+/-2.2 nm in the SIMP group and 27.7+/-2.1 nm in the MP group) and there were no differences compared with 29.7+/-1.7 nm of the normal cornea (P>0.05). After 2 weeks of tissue remodeling, the fibril diameters in alkali-injured corneas showed a large variation (the range was between 11.5 and 80 nm) with a bimodal distribution, especially in the control group. The technique presented here for birefringence evaluation can provide an alternative way to monitor wound healing and tissue remodeling, both visually and quantitatively.
New evidence suggests that the L-field is generated by, and
embodied in, the quantum-coherent liq... more New evidence suggests that the L-field is generated by, and embodied in, the quantum-coherent liquid crystalline water that makes up to 70–90% of organisms and cells, and is essential for life. Water forms quantum coherent domains at ordinary temperatures and pressures. Within organisms, coherent domains become stabilized as liquid crystalline water on the vast amount of membrane and macromolecular surfaces, effectively aligning the entire body electrically to form a single uniaxial crystal. This liquid crystalline water makes life possible by enabling proteins and nucleic acids to act as quantum molecular machines that transform and transfer energy at close to 100% efficiency. It provides excitation energy to split water in photosynthesis, releasing oxygen for the teaming millions of air-breathing species that colonize the earth, at the same time generating electricity for intercommunication and the redox chemistry that powers the entire biosphere. Living water is the means, medium, and message of life.
There is an urgent need for policies that can address both the challenges and opportunities for s... more There is an urgent need for policies that can address both the challenges and opportunities for sustainable development in urban settings. Within the past two decades, the idea of cities as fractal structures resulting from social and economic processes led to a transition in thinking of cities as machines to cities as organisms. Independently, the concept of ‘sustainable cities’ had emerged earlier, with many successful implementations already underway. I propose to define a sustainable city as one able to feed and power itself as much as possible using land and energy efficiently with the least environmental pollution and impact on climate change, minimizing wastes and recycling and reconverting wastes into resources. Coherent fractal space-time structures are the key to a circular thermodynamics of organisms and sustainable systems that achieves the state of minimum entropy production and dissipation that Ilya Prigogine had proposed as a conjecture. In this article, I explain how the principles of circular thermodynamics can be applied to sustainable cities.
The history of western culture since then is one of increasing alienation from nature and hence f... more The history of western culture since then is one of increasing alienation from nature and hence from our natural being, while nature becomes fragmented into atoms and fundamental particles. Yet when this reductionist, atomistic science is pursued to its logical conclusion and pushed to its very limits, it can only undermine the basis on which it was built. For everywhere, it reaffirms the unity of nature in which the knowing being is inextricably embedded10, compelling us towards a new knowledge system and a new way of knowing that is at the same time very old. It harks back to the universal indigenous wisdom that sees nature as she really is: the evolving plenitude that affords the existence of all things, the ultimate inspiration for the consiousness striving to know. I believe that the new science will come to resemble traditional indigenous science in many fundamental respects. To make the affinities explicit, I propose to call it the indigenous western science; 'indigenous' because it is premissed on a direct experience of nature which is a unity embracing the knowing being. In this sense, indigenous knowledge is indifferent to time and place, but is the prerogative of the natural being of all ages. The natural being is the vehicle to authentic knowledge. Knowing involves the unfragmented indigenous consciousness - the natural being - communicating with nature, engaging her wholeheartedly without bounds or boundaries. There is hence no mismatch between knowledge and our experience of reality.
Uploads
Papers by Mae-Wan Ho
direct evidence that it has occurred widely when appropriate methods and molecular probes are used for
detection.
magnetic plasma bubble around our Sun
plasma a key element in understanding not only Earth and our solar system, but also life and
the universe
protecting life as we know it, yet Earth‐Sun connection may be more direct than anyone has
imagined
to the notion of the ‘cosmic web’, which is nothing if not the cosmic electricity grid of the
Electric Plasma Universe
embodied in, the quantum-coherent liquid crystalline water
that makes up to 70–90% of organisms and cells, and is
essential for life.
Water forms quantum coherent domains at ordinary temperatures
and pressures. Within organisms, coherent domains
become stabilized as liquid crystalline water on the vast
amount of membrane and macromolecular surfaces, effectively
aligning the entire body electrically to form a single
uniaxial crystal. This liquid crystalline water makes life possible
by enabling proteins and nucleic acids to act as quantum
molecular machines that transform and transfer energy at
close to 100% efficiency. It provides excitation energy to split
water in photosynthesis, releasing oxygen for the teaming
millions of air-breathing species that colonize the earth, at
the same time generating electricity for intercommunication
and the redox chemistry that powers the entire biosphere.
Living water is the means, medium, and message of life.
Within the past two decades, the idea of cities as fractal structures resulting from social and economic processes led to a transition in thinking of cities as machines to cities as organisms. Independently, the concept of ‘sustainable cities’ had emerged earlier, with many successful implementations already underway.
I propose to define a sustainable city as one able to feed and power itself as much as possible using land and energy efficiently with the least environmental pollution and impact on climate change, minimizing wastes and recycling and reconverting wastes into resources.
Coherent fractal space-time structures are the key to a circular thermodynamics of organisms and sustainable systems that achieves the state of minimum entropy production and dissipation that Ilya Prigogine had proposed as a conjecture. In this article, I explain how the principles of circular thermodynamics can be applied to sustainable cities.
direct evidence that it has occurred widely when appropriate methods and molecular probes are used for
detection.
magnetic plasma bubble around our Sun
plasma a key element in understanding not only Earth and our solar system, but also life and
the universe
protecting life as we know it, yet Earth‐Sun connection may be more direct than anyone has
imagined
to the notion of the ‘cosmic web’, which is nothing if not the cosmic electricity grid of the
Electric Plasma Universe
embodied in, the quantum-coherent liquid crystalline water
that makes up to 70–90% of organisms and cells, and is
essential for life.
Water forms quantum coherent domains at ordinary temperatures
and pressures. Within organisms, coherent domains
become stabilized as liquid crystalline water on the vast
amount of membrane and macromolecular surfaces, effectively
aligning the entire body electrically to form a single
uniaxial crystal. This liquid crystalline water makes life possible
by enabling proteins and nucleic acids to act as quantum
molecular machines that transform and transfer energy at
close to 100% efficiency. It provides excitation energy to split
water in photosynthesis, releasing oxygen for the teaming
millions of air-breathing species that colonize the earth, at
the same time generating electricity for intercommunication
and the redox chemistry that powers the entire biosphere.
Living water is the means, medium, and message of life.
Within the past two decades, the idea of cities as fractal structures resulting from social and economic processes led to a transition in thinking of cities as machines to cities as organisms. Independently, the concept of ‘sustainable cities’ had emerged earlier, with many successful implementations already underway.
I propose to define a sustainable city as one able to feed and power itself as much as possible using land and energy efficiently with the least environmental pollution and impact on climate change, minimizing wastes and recycling and reconverting wastes into resources.
Coherent fractal space-time structures are the key to a circular thermodynamics of organisms and sustainable systems that achieves the state of minimum entropy production and dissipation that Ilya Prigogine had proposed as a conjecture. In this article, I explain how the principles of circular thermodynamics can be applied to sustainable cities.