Stuff we’ve known about for years that scientists have just “discovered”
There’s no need to look far and wide these days to see the results of the ceaseless efforts of science to improve our lives and to share with us the brave, bright light of its knowledge. Let’s see what its high priests have been up to and offer them a virtual pat on the back for their trouble:
“Meditation Makes You More Creative”
ScienceDaily (Apr. 19, 2012) — Certain meditation techniques can promote creative thinking. This is the outcome of a study by cognitive psychologist Lorenza Colzato and her fellow researchers at Leiden University, published 19 April in Frontiers in Cognition. Read the full article here:
Congratulations to Lorenza and her fellow researchers. However, even a cursory look at the vast body of knowledge on meditation shows us that for thousands of years, in cultures worldwide, people have practised one form of meditation or another as a way, for example of cooperating with the body’s inner wisdom, improving concentration, living life in a more continually rejuvenated state, finding balance, creative expression, and spiritual insight, to name just a few possible motivations. The list is long and well documented. In our Western societies, despite having been largely reduced to a means of dealing with stress and inducing relaxation the art of meditation has been around for a good 40 or 50 years now. There’s no argument here, and no need for more research – we know already!
Jan Steen – The Family Concert
“Making Music Together Connects Brains”
ScienceDaily (Nov. 29, 2012) — Anyone who has ever played in an orchestra will be familiar with the phenomenon: the impulse for one’s own actions does not seem to come from one’s own mind alone, but rather seems to be controlled by the coordinated activity of the group. Read the full article here:
Music, the oldest form of expression known to mankind influences virtually every physical, intellectual and emotional process we have at our disposal. Ancient civilizations all over the world knew what music could do and why they used it. It is meant to connect minds and spirits – that’s what it does and what it’s for. It is only relatively recently in our societies permeated with the shallow philosophy of materialism that we’ve fallen into the trap of regarding music as a trivial, non-essential commodity, a peripheral aspect of human life. Music – however we experience it – has the innate power to connect minds and spirits – we know this even if we don’t know it. That’s why we make music – to connect with others and to connect with Nature and with Spirit.
“Human-Caused Climate Change Signal Emerges from the Noise”
ScienceDaily (Nov. 29, 2012) — By comparing simulations from 20 different computer models to satellite observations, Lawrence Livermore climate scientists and colleagues from 16 other organizations have found that tropospheric and stratospheric temperature changes are clearly related to human activities. Read the full article here:
So now we know – and it’s only taken 50 years to reach this blindingly obvious conclusion. Does the “debate” carry on for another 50 years or may we now conclude that it’s time to actually do something/anything that puts the health of the biosphere on at least an equal footing with the needs and requirements of mankind?
“Greenland and Antarctica ‘have lost four trillion tonnes of ice’ in 20 years”
Damian Carrington
The Guardian, Thursday 29 November 2012 19.04 GMT
More than 4 trillon tonnes of ice from Greenland and Antarctica has melted in the past 20 years and flowed into the oceans, pushing up sea levels, according to a study that provides the best measure to date of the effect climate change is having on the earth’s biggest ice sheets. The research involved dozens of scientists and 10 satellite missions and presents a disturbing picture of the impact of recent warming at the poles. Read the full article here:
They’re kidding, right? Are things happening much faster than expected? Could this possibly mean that mainstream science, on whose calculations and predictions worldwide governmental policies with regards to the protection of the global environment have been based for three generations have got their sums wrong – again?
“Those bugs ‘are going to outsmart us’ “
Article by: Josephine Marcotty, Star Tribune Updated: November 24, 2012 – 6:41 AM
As nature adapts to chemicals and genetically engineered seeds, farmers face new threats. It is what scientists and environmentalists regard as one of nature’s great ironies: Fifteen years ago, genetically engineered seeds promised to reduce the amount of poisons used on the land, but today they are forcing farmers to use more — and sometimes more toxic — chemicals to protect their crops. Read the full article here:
There are so many talking points in this illuminating article that I don’t quite know where to start, so I’ll go straight to the part that struck me most – the final sentence. A Minnesota farmer, glumly surveying his genetically modified, pesticide saturated crop that nevertheless still can’t escape disease, weeds or widespread insect damage comes to a realisation: “Rotate. That’s how you get rid of it,” he said. “Rotate, rotate, rotate.”
“Crop rotation: The successive cultivation of different crops in a specified order on the same fields, in contrast to a one-crop system or to haphazard crop successions.” (Encyclopedia Britannica).
Here are a few more words on crop rotation that apply to all growers, even those who eschew organic methods: fundamental; elementary; age-old; essential; simple; basic; common; sense. Has it really taken agribusiness until the year 2012, the year in which the virtual disappearance of the once limitless American prairies is openly spoken about to conclude that that which is in the interests of the pesticide and GM multinationals is, in the long-term in the interests of no-one and nothing else? Next thing you know they’ll be telling us they’ve discovered that the soil is actually a living organism that must be nurtured and protected in order for us to reap the benefits without decimating the ecosystem. At which point they’ll probably slap a patent on it.
We live in wondrous times, that’s for sure. And who knows, maybe one day soon science will even discover that the basic rule of life can be encapsulated in just one archaic phrase, well known to non-scientists in its many variations but nevertheless largely ignored: “You reap what you sow“. But don’t hold your breath.
“What we can see depends heavily on what our culture has trained us to look for.”
Nell Irvin Painter, American historian
RE: “Music, the oldest form of expression known to mankind influences virtually every physical, intellectual and emotional process we have at our disposal. Ancient civilizations all over the world knew what music could do and why they used it. It is meant to connect minds and spirits – that’s what it does and what it’s for. It is only relatively recently in our societies permeated with the shallow philosophy of materialism that we’ve fallen into the trap of regarding music as a trivial, non-essential commodity, a peripheral aspect of human life. Music – however we experience it – has the innate power to connect minds and spirits – we know this even if we don’t know it. That’s why we make music – to connect with others and to connect with Nature and with Spirit.”
I love this – ABSOLUTELY! We used to read a lot about the healing aspects of music when I was younger and actively playing. The longer I’m away from an instrument these days the worse I’ve become as a musician…so sad. A few old friends have gone onto using their musical talents in varying therapeutic forms. One old friend now works with hospice. His small band eases these terminally ill patients’ suffering, and he gets paid for it too.
I just joined Word Press, Steve, and am still a bit cumbersome navigating my way around it. I like your layout here but can’t see where I can subscribe to your feeds. My address on WP is: catfishredblogs.nl Hope to see you there though, at this stage, it’s all still a work in progress.
Hey Sherry, great that you’re on WordPress. I enjoy it a lot and it’s easy once you know your way around. If you want to subscribe to my blog just click on the “sign me up” button below the “Goodreads” widget, or you can “like” a post and it’ll ask you if you want to sign up. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Great selection of topics Steve. This reminds me of a book I have been reading called Proust was a Neuroscientist, on things artists discovered long before scientists!
Hi Diana, thanks, I appreciate your feedback. I’m thinking of writing a piece focusing on a number of “holistic” scientists as a counterbalance to the last piece. People like Fritjof Capra, David Peat, Rupert Sheldrake etc. The book you’re reading sounds like something I should get hold of. As a point of interest there’s a book I’m very keen on called “The Body of the Artisan” by Pamela H. Smith, which argues that historically art – a relatively new concept – and its practitioners learnt (or begged, borrowed and stole) all they knew from artisans and craftsmen. At the very least it’s a fascinating insight into the birth of what we call “art”.