Biophysics and me

Hmmm . . . Biophysics and me, me as an example of Biophysics. I'm looking over the list of departments that include Biophysics. Some seem very apparent, and others are beyond my current understanding. I don't know what protein folding is, I don't know what phylogenetical analysis is. However, I'm sure that they are wordy complicated explanations of things that occur naturally every day all the time, perhaps in my own body. The introduction we've had into Biophysics seems like a good place to start. What does life need in order to exist. What is life? What is living? How do we decide what fits and what doesn't. None of it seems any more concrete than photons doing whatever they want. It's all how you look at it, whether or not your looking, and who is doing the looking with what methods and instruments.

I know I'm a "living sustem" because . . .

This is a tough one. I automatically want to start listing the characteristics of life as presented from anatomy/physiology that describe metabolism. I don't think that's true. I know I'm a "living system" because I feel connected to a larger system, and I know that I am comprised of smaller systems. It's kind of like that fractal thing. I am a system that has a likeness to a larger system that I help compose. Likewise to all the tiny living systems that compose me, that are similar to me. Of course I feel as though everything is part of this system and the living system I am, since we are all made up of the same stuff. All that universal dust and stuff that swirled around and made up everything that is in our Universe. Every particle is a part of that "living system", as am I. Of course, I can always just say that I know I'm a "living system" because I metabolize. So what . . . that's just the function of my form. Every form has it's function.

Can I synthesize East and West?

I can and do, every day. I HAVE to be to work and school at specific times and accomplish specific goals for each with a deadline. However, the means by which I accomplish those goals are up to me. If I accept that I will live by these standards and these goals then I know that in order to be peaceful I must make sure to do things correctly for me. I must take time for myself (even when there is no time) to reflect and think of things as they are. I must be calm and accepting when things change (as they always do) and find creative ways to accomplish my goals. I must be malleable and take the time to be good to my body and my mind, because those are the tools I use to accomplish my goals. I learn Traditional Chinese Medicine and the philosophies that are the foundations for that medicine. I then take that information and decide how best to present it to those who are of western mind and who do not want to hear about philosophy and energy, Qi. I have to translate it into a language that western people understand and accept. In order to do that, I have to have a solid understanding of both East and West.

My E-Prime Day

I think I woke up before the alarm. It felt to me as though I was late, or perhaps I had missed something that I thought I should have been doing. I didn't feel as though I wanted to get out of bed, although I do believe that I was not tired. I think that I was feeling inclined to stay in bed because it was my day off of work and school and if I had wanted to, I could have stayed in bed longer than I did. At that point I felt it was more beneficial for me to get up and go to an acupuncture appointment. I was thinking about my day and how I would schedule the things I felt I needed to accomplish, and I noticed the cat screaming at me. I believe that he was crying because felt he wanted to go outside to lay in the sun and the grass. He seems like a cat to me, and as a cat he is most often unable to speak and tell me what he wants. Because he cannot speak, I think that I assume that he wants things, rather than knowing for a fact.

Descartes has a lot to answer for!

This was an interesting one to ponder. On one hand you have Descartes to thank for lots of progress. I don't think all the progress that was made was necessarily good. Our planet is pretty trashed after that Industrial Revolution. It makes me wonder if we hadn't been steered to the path of observing all of nature in a mechanical fashion or trying to understand all of nature with only that which we could concretely understand, would we have advanced in a more harmonious and non-invasive way? Would we be a kindlier gentler people if we had made our leaps and bounds with the idea that we are natural and that nature cannot be concretely explained beneath a microscope? Would we have started with machines that collected energy from the sun or spent our time healing and curing with the energy we have within us instead of knives and poisons we cook in a lab? Hard to say. What if we had taken a path that was not the one Descartes envisioned?

Our “Energy Efficient” Culture

If everything with a temperature about absolute zero (which is a heck of a lot) is radiating energy, we certainly aren't using it or at least maximizing our use of it. Our bodies, light bulbs, the rug, the tires spinning everywhere all the time. That would be a good one to tap into, tires. So many tires going around and around constantly all the time. We could have little tiny battery packs collecting charge from everything. Fish tanks and plants, strapped to our backs and onto our pets' collars. Wow, that's a lot of energy all over the place.

Newton's Three Laws and me

Hmmm
First law:
Objects at rest remain at rest, objects in motion remain in motion.
Well, the remaining at rest is pretty accurate, it's that darn motion thing being interfered with all the time by that blasted gravity. Stupid gravity, it's not like it's even a real "force" anyway.
Second law:
The acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the force acting on it, and inversely proportional to its mass.
Yes, when I ride my bike around I would agree that the more force I use, the faster I move. AND I have also noticed that when going uphill, I notice that using more force makes me move just as fast.
Third Lay:
If two objects interact, the force exerted by object 1 on object 2 is matched by a force exerted by object 2 on object 1 of the same size, but in the opposite direction.
When I run into something of similar mass, we deflect backwards the same distance. If I run into something smaller than me, it deflects backwards farther. If something larger than me I deflect backwards farther.

Cat experiment

Hahaha I love any instructions that start with "First, get a cat." So, since I have a couple to choose from (and a less cooperative dog too) I go ahead and get a cat. Fortunately, I have one in particular who loves to get pushed across the rug and generally squished about. He is also pretty inquisitive so I'm sure he, too, is curious to see what happens when he gets dragged across the floor in the dark. He seemed pretty oblivious to the tiny little sparks that snap and crackle all over. Science is cool.

Consciousness out of chaos?

That's what happened after the big bang, right? Bang, there was this huge expansion of particles shooting out and slamming into each other, collecting into masses. The masses swirl around and get more and more solid. Then . . . there was consciousness? Or was it BANG there was consciousness that saw all those particles and started to create form for itself to express itself through. Darkness then intention, function which creates a form for itself to inhabit. Or . . . was there darkness and then consciousness appeared, intention appeared and determined that in order for itself to create form, or substance that could execute that intention there needed to be a BANG with which it could create that form. Three into one, the Tai Qi . . . something like that?

Fractals as patterns of complex systems

I only sort of get this. I looked up fractals and saw pictures, read definitions, got examples. It's a concept that seems a little vague to me. I understood the examples like ferns and trees, clouds and mountains. Each branch has a likeness of the whole tree when viewed from a distance. Each enlargement is similar looking to the views from further away. There were some cool pictures I saw that showed each enlargement, similar to the previous, and each time it was enlarged you could see that you could just keep going and going and going . . . I really liked that idea, that there was no end in either direction. Just the repeated pattern stretching out forever.

"Ordered Chaos" - does this sound familiar?

Yes, it does sound familiar. Order from chaos seems to be the goal of every present day person. To make sense and to make solid all that which is uncontrollable and intangible. Taming the wild and harnessing the powers of the universe for the ultimate super rockin' cappuccino! And look out when that untameable power of the chaotic universe lashes back on that hand that is trying to reign it in. We've all felt that chaos in our preferred order. Weather and people being people and not having those shoes in my size and and and . . . I think that when we relax and let the chaos flow, that's when the order comes naturally. Kinda like some fractal that doesn't look like anything (chaos) until you enlarge it like crazy and then it appears to become something wonderful (order). It's there already, we just have to let it come out!