From & To Sathish #7 - Page 46

https://nautil.us/the-sublime-smarts-of-slime-molds-1219723/?utm_campaign=website&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nautilus-newsletter

The Sublime Smarts of Slime Molds

These single-celled blobs show intelligent behavior

By Sarah Gilman

Slime molds can be more dazzling in appearance than their name suggests. Like fungi, these difficult-to-classify organisms reproduce with spores, and to release these spores, they grow fruiting bodies in a wide array of shades and textures. Some resemble peacock-iridescent disco balls on stalks; or miniature red, gold, and orange popsicles. Others, like this Badhamia utricularis photographed by Andy Sands, look like tiny tangerines or juniper berries.

Most are miniscule, at least in the early stages of life. To find them, Sands, a United Kingdom-based photographer, advises budding slime-mold photographers to do as he does: “get a pair of strong reading glasses, a magnifying glass, and a flashlight, and crawl around under holly bushes for hours on end.”

Scholarly manuscripts from ancient China describe one species as “demon droppings.”

Slime molds are protists—a mishmash of eukaryotic organisms that are neither animals, plants, nor fungi. Their spores germinate to form amoeba-like or flagellated cells, which can merge into a zygote, and eventually grow through mitosis into one giant, creeping cell with multiple nuclei, called a plasmodium. Depending on the species, a single plasmodium can cover an area of more than 108 square feet, the size of a small bedroom.

The many shapes and shades of slime molds—there are more than 900 species worldwide—have led to an equally arresting array of common names. Fuligo septica, for instance, forms a chunky, bright-yellow mass, which Indigenous people of Mexico have called “moon’s excrement.” Scholarly manuscripts from ancient China, meanwhile, describe what is likely the same species as “demon droppings.” Today, it is more widely referred to as “dog-vomit” or “scrambled-egg” slime mold. Other species have earned such charming sobriquets as “wolf’s milk,” “chocolate tube,” and “pretzel.” One Arkansas-based researcher had a friend suggest that the whole cryptic group would be much better described as “sublime molds.”

These remarkable creatures do more than rack up nicknames. They also challenge the conventional scientific wisdom that an organism must have a central nervous system to learn and to show intelligent behaviors. One well-studied species, the yellow Physarum polycephalum, can find the most efficient path to food through a maze. Various researchers have also placed little piles of food on flat maps of Tokyo, Canada, the U.K., and Spain and shown how Physarum navigate between hubs in ways that mirror those regions’ modern transportation networks or follow routes of comparable efficiency.

In another experiment, researchers presented the species with various food mixtures. The Physarum specimens first explored each mixture, then consistently chose the one with the most ideal nutrient balance. In still other experiments, the organism used its own slime paths to remember where it had been. Physarum can also habituate to stimuli, such as a novel chemical, proceeding more cautiously and slowly across a surface where the chemical is present but learning to ignore it over time if repeated encounters lead to no ill effect. A habituated slime mold can even pass on what it has learned to another plasmodium by fusing with it.

Whether these experiments confirm that slime molds are sentient is hard to say. But it does call into question the need to sort all organisms into tidy categories.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/family-relationships/article/im-59-shes-19-were-in-love-now-what-120041352.html

I'm 59. She's 19. We're in love. Now what?

In this week's "Ask Amy & T.J" column, Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes tackle the timeless question: Is age really just a number?

*Angelic Message*

*The Burden*: “*When we carry a load of should and shouldn’ts imposed on us by others we become like this ragged, struggling figure trying to magics ke his way uphill*.

“Go faster, try harder, reach the top!” shouts the foolish tyrant he carries on his shoulder, while the tyrant himself is crowned with an imperious rooster.

*If life these days feels like just a struggle from the cradle to the grave, it could be time to shrug your shoulders and see what it feels like to walk without these characters on your back*.

You have your own mountains to conquer, your own dreams to fulfill, but *you will never have the energy to pursue them until you release yourself from all the expectations you have gathered from others but now think are your own*. Chances are they exist only in your own mind, but that does not mean that they can’t weigh you down. It is time to lighten up, and send them on their way.

*A man’s true life is the way in which he puts off the lie imposed by others on him*. Stripped, naked, natural, he is what he is. *This is a matter of being, and not of becoming*. The lie cannot become the truth, the personality cannot become your Soul.

There is no way to make the nonessential the essential. The nonessential remains the nonessential and the essential remains essential, they are not convertible. And striving towards truth is nothing but creating more confusion. The truth has not to be achieved. It cannot be achieved, it is already the case. Only the lie has to be dropped. All aims and ends and ideals and goals and ideologies, religions and systems of improvement and betterment, are lies. Beware of them.

Recognize the fact that, as you are, you are a lie. Manipulated, cultivated by others. *Striving after truth is a distraction and a postponement. It is the lie’s way to hide*. See the lie, look deep into the lie of your personality. Because to see the lie is to cease to lie. No longer to lie is to seek no more for any truth – there is no need.

The moment the lie disappears, truth is there in all it’s beauty and radiance. In the seeing of the lie it disappears, and what is left is the truth.”

*Beautiful and capable and healthy and wise…and most importantly*

https://www.science.org/content/article/killer-whales-groom-each-other-pieces-kelp?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=1100454b53-nature-briefing-daily-20250624&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-33f35e09ea-499400700

Killer whales groom each other—with pieces of kelp

In a newly discovered form of social tool use, orcas scratch each other’s backs with seaweed

ByAnnika Inampudi

In the cold waters of the Salish Sea, just off the coast of British Columbia, you might be able to catch a glimpse of a killer whale’s skincare routine. Using their teeth, the giant ocean predators break off short lengths of bull kelp, a seaweed that looks like a multitailed whip, and place it between their stomach and the belly of another whale. The result is a magnificent image: two killer whales, moving in synchrony, their bodies making a curved “S” shape as they hug a small piece of kelp between them.

This act of mutual exfoliation, which researchers call “allokelping” in a study published today in Current Biology, marks the first time aquatic mammals have ever been observed making tools to cooperatively groom each other. The finding expands the already rich social repertoire of these endangered animals, which form fast friendships, and even care for their grandchildren after going through menopause.

Researchers have long known marine mammals can make tools. Bottlenose dolphins, for example, detach marine sponges and wear them over their noses to protect them from sharp objects on the marine floor as they look for fish to eat. And whales, which constantly shed their skin like humans do, are no strangers to using tools for grooming. Bowhead whales in the waters near Canada’s Baffin Island sometimes rub themselves on rocks to slough off dead skin, much like humans use pumice stones as an exfoliator.

Michael Weiss, a marine biologist at the Center for Whale Research, and colleagues made the discovery while flying drones over the Salish Sea, the main habitat of southern resident killer whales—observations the team has been conducting since 2018. Initially, the researchers were focused on the endangered orcas’ foraging and social behaviors, to better understand which traits give individual animals a better chance of surviving and reproducing. But early last year, their technology got an upgrade, to newer drones that can still see the orcas with fine detail even from 30 meters in the air.

Weiss and his team singled out a single pod of 25 orcas. Across a 12-day period, they recorded 9 hours of footage and witnessed 30 instances of allokelping. Roughly three-quarters of the pod participated in the behavior at some point over the 12 days.

“With this high-definition video, we could see this little length of what turned out to be bull kelp between them,” Weiss says. “I was like, ‘Oh, that’s an interesting single observation.’ But once we knew what to look for, we started seeing it everywhere.”

There are many possible reasons why whales and dolphins use tools to fast-track the molting process, says Dalhousie University marine biologist Sarah Fortune, who has seen the bowheads’ exfoliating rock scrubs in person. It could be a way to retain or offload heat as the seasons change, she says, or possibly a way to get rid of parasites that hang onto the animals’ skin.

But making a tool for hygienic purposes, and using those tools in social contexts? That’s new, says Dora Biro, a behavioral biologist at the University of Rochester. Using tools to promote social bonds is rare, even among land animals. It is even more rare to see tool use that has a simultaneous benefit to both parties.

“I think the most interesting thing about the article is that [the orcas] are using kelp as a social tool,” says Janet Mann, a behavioral ecologist at Georgetown University who has studied tool use in whales and dolphins for decades. “I’m not sure I can think of another example quite like it,” Biro adds.

As of now, allokelping seems like a unique behavior to southern resident killer whales. It’s possible, however, that drones could capture similar skincare routines across other species of whales and dolphins.

Researchers also say more observations are needed to fully understand the purpose of allokelping. Rocks and boulders are much harder substances, whereas kelp is smoother, Fortune points out, which suggests the algae play an unexplored role in grooming. If researchers can pinpoint the behavior to a particular species in a particular area, they can identify allokelping as cultural behavior.

Weiss adds that allokelping also fits into a bigger picture: Knowing the cultural behaviors of endangered animals is vital to keeping them alive. Traditional conservation strategies tend to focus on preserving the genetic diversity or the physical attributes of a specific animal population, Weiss says, but there is also merit to thinking about preserving animal culture—including the grooming routine of the southern resident killer whale.

“We have this intuitive understanding that human cultures are valuable, and we should seek to preserve human cultures,” he says. “And I think it’s pretty easy to extend that to animal cultures as well.”

https://nautil.us/the-science-of-tripping-comes-to-town-1220276/?utm_campaign=website&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nautilus-newsletter

The Science of Tripping Comes to Town

The many challenges of studying psychedelics

By Katherine Harmon Courage

Last week, thousands of scientists, practitioners, entrepreneurs, and members of the curious public converged on Denver for the annual Psychedelic Science conference. Neuroscience lectures by scientists from Stanford University and New York University mixed with discussions about clergy on psilocybin, workshops about the use of ecstasy for couples therapy, booths touting sound healing, and a handful of imaginative costumes. I visited for just one day, but still found it the most colorful—if not the most sequined—scientific conference I’ve covered in my years as a science journalist.

But it was also among the most fascinating and forward-looking. And dare I say, self-aware?

Serious scientific research on psychedelics has faced a world of challenges from the get-go. Even the early “psychonauts” of the late 18th century tried to grapple with the seeming impossibility of mapping quantitatively the very qualitative experience of such an altered mind state. (In an early investigation of the effects of nitrous oxide, one participant in 1799 told chemist Humphry Davy, “I feel like the sound of a harp.”)

One of the big challenges for rigorous scientific trials of psychedelic drugs—including psilocybin in mushrooms, MDMA, DMT, LSD, and the like—is that study participants rather quickly become aware of whether they have received the drug or a placebo, as Balazs Szigeti, of the University of California, San Francisco Translational Psychedelic Research Program, noted in one scientific session at the conference. Which can confound results much more profoundly than a well-blinded study, where participants are unsure about whether they had a sham treatment or the real thing.

One option is to unblind the studies—which, as scientific posters at the conference showed, are being conducted to see if psychedelics can treat everything from anxiety to post-partum depression to cocaine addiction to extreme fear of heights. Researchers could even potentially not reveal to participants that there is a separate arm of the study receiving a different treatment, Szigeti and his colleagues suggested.

Another is to use up-and-coming pharmaceutical options known as non-psychedelic analogues that are showing promise of similar impacts on the brain’s plasticity (a large reason why psychedelics are thought to be effective in some treatments), while leaving participants still firmly rooted in their familiar perceptual reality. These are, perhaps unsurprisingly, somewhat controversial in the field.

Still another option for working around some of these challenges is to dive beyond subjective reports and peer into the brain’s activity to look for proxies from fMRIs, EEGs, and PET scans.

But even these, as scientific and mechanistic as they appear, come with their own limitations, including—as one panel of experts noted—how the data is displayed. “Heat maps” of brain activity, for example, can only show where more blood is being channeled and might indicate areas that are becoming more active, whether a person is sober or on a wild psychedelic trip. And many of these images can be misleading, as Lindsay Cameron, a postdoctoral psychiatry researcher at Stanford, pointed out.

Cameron cited a much-used figure from a paper that shows substantially increased activity connecting different areas of the brain of people on psilocybin—compared with those who were sober. But, she noted, these sorts of increases are not special to psychedelics. “This happens with a lot of caffeine. It happens with meth. It happens with cocaine. Things that increase your brain activity and rev it up—it’s not a totally crazy finding,” she said. “So I want to emphasize: Know what you’re looking at when you look at these images.”

Another good reminder that all may not be as it appears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My2q6F0Dprk

Khruangbin - A Calf Born In Winter (Official Video)

https://nautil.us/asking-trees-to-solve-a-roman-conspiracy-1207113/?utm_campaign=website&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nautilus-newsletter

Asking Trees to Solve a Roman Conspiracy

Tree-ring records suggest that drought played a role in Roman Britain’s decline

By Molly Glick

Roman Britain collapsed into chaos in the spring of 367 A.D.—the rival Picts attacked by land and sea, while the Scotti barged in from the west and Saxons from the south. Anarchy ensued in an event that’s now known as the Barbarian Conspiracy: The invaders captured and murdered senior commanders, and some Roman soldiers may have even joined in. It’s considered a pivotal event in the abandonment of Roman Britain.

Historians have surmised some of the potential causes behind this rebellion, like the Western Roman Empire’s fading control of the region and its growing financial troubles. But these circumstances don’t fully explain the abruptness with which Roman Britain fell to its foes, and the scarce written records from the time don’t offer solid explanations. For clearer answers, researchers are asking the trees.

“The Barbarian Conspiracy is an iconic event with a clear date, where we knew what happened—but not why,” says Ulf Büntgen, a geographer and ecologist at Cambridge University.

Büntgen and his colleagues decided to consult tree ring data, from oaks both living and dead, and found the record suggests that three summers of brutal drought preceded the Barbarian Conspiracy. Dry years yield thinner tree rings than wet ones. To reconstruct important details of the Barbarian Conspiracy, the authors consulted records written by Greek and Roman soldier and historian Ammianus Marcellinus. The team’s analysis suggests that the recurring droughts may have led to harvest failures and shortages of food, which can help generate instability and violence. The findings were reported in a paper published in the journal Climatic Change.

“We don’t want to say that climate caused the fall of the Roman Empire, that is too easy to say.”

In recent decades, scientists have increasingly merged evidence from environmental sources, including tree rings and ice cores, with surviving written sources to learn more about the role climate plays in conflicts, such as those among the Maya people and in ancient Korea. Researchers have studied these potential links throughout history and around the world, but the new paper offers one of the most detailed looks at antiquity.

This study “really reflects the direction of the field, where we’re getting some very high-resolution climate data and tying them to models of the ways that these societies work. I think that it’s one of the most focused looks we have at a really particular moment,” says Kyle Harper, a Roman historian at the University of Oklahoma who was not involved in the research. “The later fourth and mid fifth century is a really consequential period in human history, certainly in Roman history.”

After aligning the tree rings with the Barbarian Conspiracy accounts, Büntgen and his team broadened their analysis to the greater Roman Empire. They encountered similar findings among 106 battles fought between 350 to 376 A.D., where a statistically significant number of these battles unfolded after warm and dry summers.

Still, Büntgen says, these tree revelations have their limitations. While the information gleaned from tree rings is more objective than written accounts, they can only provide one snapshot per year—which is limited to the growing season during the spring and summer. This essentially paints a “smushed” picture of a given year’s temperatures, rather than highlighting the variabilities throughout the seasons, Harper says.

And Büntgen stresses that weather is just one piece of the puzzle. He’s careful not to attribute the Barbarian Conspiracy and other Roman quarrels solely to drought. “We don’t want to say that climate caused the fall of the Roman Empire, that is too easy to say,” he says, “but we don’t want to exclude environmental factors.”

On the flip side, climate may have also enabled the Roman Empire to make its mark. Harper and other historians argue that unusually warm, wet, and stable weather in earlier centuries helped the Roman Empire flourish. Some claim that this period of stable favorable weather, known as Roman Climate Optimum, which may have lasted anywhere between 550 B.C. to 350 A.D. (estimates vary widely), helped the empire excel in agriculture, build a thriving economy, and swell in size.

In future work, Harper hopes that research teams will try to tease out other factors, besides limited food supply, that can lead to clashes, and how some societies stay resilient in the face of climate shifts. “Why in some cases, does climate stress and drought seem to cause conflict or other social crises, and why in some cases does it not?” he says.

As climate change intensifies, studies are also examining the modern connections between weather and conflict. And while we’re not living in the Roman Empire, we can still take lessons as we endure a warming world.

“It’s important to know this past, that reminds us that environmental challenge is a fundamental feature of the fate of human societies—it certainly will be of ours,” Harper says.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjxV0nLySwE

Baakiyalakshmi | Episode Promo | 25th June 2025

The art of detachment.

Nothing belongs to me.

It's all an experience.

True peace begins when we stop trying to own moments, people, or things. Life becomes lighter when we understand that everything we encounter is simply passing through us and not meant to be possessed. The people we love, the pain we endure, the joy we feel, all of it is a part of a fleeting experience meant to shape us, not define us. When we learn to observe without clinging, we stop suffering over what leaves and start appreciating what is. Nothing is truly ours and that is what makes every moment sacred. To live without attachment is not to live without love, but to love with freedom and awareness. (Mindsets)

The art of detachment is not about indifference—it’s about reverence. It’s the quiet wisdom that whispers: Nothing is mine, yet everything is meaningful. When we loosen our grip on life—on moments, people, outcomes—we begin to see the beauty in their impermanence. We stop measuring worth by duration or possession, and instead, we honor the gift of presence. The sunrise that lasts a few breaths, the embrace that ends, the season that passes—all are sacred because they are fleeting.

True peace is born when we understand that we are not here to hold on, but to witness. The joy, the sorrow, the love, the loss—they come and go like waves, shaping the shoreline of our soul without claiming it. To detach is to trust that what is meant for us will arrive and leave in perfect rhythm, without force or fear. It is not a rejection of connection, but an elevation of it—loving fully, without chains or expectations.

This is the quiet freedom that arises when we stop trying to own life, and start living it. Not as collectors of moments, but as grateful participants in their passing.

Good morning

Reposted from Rajesh Ramaswamy ...

REMEMBER, I'M STILL THE SAME, JUST DIFFERENT IN SOME WAYS...

*If I get dementia*, I’d like my family to hang this wish list up on the wall where I live. I want them to remember these things.

1. If I get dementia, every time you enter the room announce yourself. “Hi Mom - it’s Margaret.” NEVER ask - Do you know who I am??? That causes anxiety.

2. If I get dementia, I want my friends and family to embrace my reality.

3. If I think my spouse is still alive, or if I think we’re visiting my parents for dinner, let me believe those things. I’ll be much happier for it.

4. If I get dementia, don’t argue with me about what is true for me versus what is true for you.

5. If I get dementia, and I am not sure who you are, do not take it personally. My timeline is confusing to me.

6. If I get dementia, and can no longer use utensils, do not start feeding me. Instead, switch me to a finger-food diet, and see if I can still feed myself.

7. If I get dementia, and I am sad or anxious, hold my hand and listen. Do not tell me that my feelings are unfounded.

8. If I get dementia, I don’t want to be treated like a child. Talk to me like the adult that I am.

9. If I get dementia, I still want to enjoy the things that I’ve always enjoyed. Help me find a way to exercise, read, and visit with friends.

10. If I get dementia, ask me to tell you a story from my past.

11. If I get dementia, and I become agitated, take the time to figure out what is bothering me.

12. If I get dementia, treat me the way that you would want to be treated.

13. If I get dementia, make sure that there are plenty of snacks for me in the house. Even now if I don’t eat I get angry, and if I have dementia, I may have trouble explaining what I need.

14. If I get dementia, don’t talk about me as if I’m not in the room.

15. If I get dementia, don’t feel guilty if you cannot care for me 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s not your fault, and you’ve done your best. Find someone who can help you, or choose a great new place for me to live.

16. If I get dementia, and I live in a dementia care community, please visit me often.

17. If I get dementia, don’t act frustrated if I mix up names, events, or places. Take a deep breath. It’s not my fault.

18. If I get dementia, make sure I always have my favorite music playing within earshot.

19. If I get dementia, and I like to pick up items and carry them around, help me return those items to their original place.

20. If I get dementia, don’t exclude me from parties and family gatherings.

21. If I get dementia, know that I still like receiving hugs or handshakes.

22. If I get dementia, remember that I am still the person you know and love.”

ᴄᴏᴘʏ ᴀɴᴅ ᴘᴀsᴛᴇ in honor of someone you know or knew who has dementia. In honor of all those I know and love and lost who are fighting Dementia/Alzheimer’s.

June is Alzheimer’s Awareness Month…you’re never more aware than when this disease hits your family!

#ENDALZ #alzheimersawareness #junebrainhealth