Evolution

The Theory of Evolution states that modern man evolved from the ape family. This can not be verified as the 'missing link' has not as yet been found. There is no conclusive evidence to prove that man evolved from apes. Footprints of modern man have been found side by side with dinosaur tracks. Archeological evidence exists that contradicts this theory of 'the origin of man'. Modern human artifacts have been found in all layers of geological strata some going back hundreds of millions of years. These artifacts prove that modern man may be million of years older than history tells us. Paleontology In biology, evolution is the change in the heritable traits of a population over successive generations, as determined by the shifting allele frequencies of genes. Evolution is ultimately the source of the vast diversity of life: all contemporary organisms are related to each other through common descent, products of cumulative evolutionary changes over billions of years. Over time, new species evolve from existing species through speciation, and other species become extinct, resulting in the ever-changing biological world reflected in the fossil record. The basic mechanisms that produce evolutionary change are natural selection (which includes ecological and sexual selection) and genetic drift acting on the genetic variation created by mutation, genetic recombination and gene flow. Natural selection is the process by which individual organisms with favorable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce. If those traits are heritable, they pass them to their offspring, with the result that beneficial heritable traits become more common in the next generation. Given enough time, this passive process can result in varied adaptations to changing environmental conditions. The modern understanding of evolution is based on the theory of natural selection, which was first set out in a joint 1858 paper by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace and popularized in Darwin's 1859 book The Origin of Species.

In the 1930s, scientists combined Darwinian natural selection with the theory of Mendelian heredity to form the modern evolutionary synthesis, also known as "Neo-Darwinism". The modern synthesis describes evolution as a change in the frequency of alleles within a population from one generation to the next. This theory has become the central organizing principle of modern biology, relating directly to topics such as the origin of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, eusociality in insects, and the staggering biodiversity of the living world. Because of its potential implications for the origins of humankind, evolutionary theory has been at the center of many social and religious controversies since its inception. Continued Wikipedia

In the News ...

Survival of the prettiest: Sexual selection can be inferred from the fossil record PhysOrg January 29, 2013

Sexual selection, a concept introduced by Charles Darwin in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, is a significant element of his theory of natural selection. The term "sexual selection" refers to the evolutionary pressures that relate to a species' ability to repel rivals, meet mates and pass on genes. We can observe these processes happening in living animals but how do paleontologists know that sexual selection operated in fossil ones? Historically, paleontologists

have thought it challenging, even impossible, to recognize sexual selection in extinct animals. Many fossil animals have elaborate crests, horns, frills and other structures that look like they were used in sexual display but it can be difficult to distinguish these structures from those that might play a role in feeding behavior, escaping predators, controlling body temperature and so on. However in their review, the scientists argue that clues in the fossil record can indeed be used to infer sexual selection.

Human Evolution Enters an Exciting New Phase Wired - November 29, 2012 If you could escape the human time scale for a moment, and regard evolution from the perspective of deep time, in which the last 10,000 years are a short chapter in a long saga, youd say: Things are pretty wild right now. In the most massive study of genetic variation yet, researchers estimated the age of more than one million variants, or changes to our DNA code, found across human populations. The vast majority proved to be quite young. The chronologies tell a story of evolutionary dynamics in recent human history, a period characterized by both narrow reproductive bottlenecks and sudden, enormous population growth. The evolutionary dynamics of these features resulted in a flood of new genetic variation, accumulating so fast that natural selection hasnt caught up yet. As a species, we are freshly bursting with the raw material of evolution.

New Kenyan fossils shed light on early human evolution PhysOrg - October 3, 2012 Fossils discovered east of Africa's Lake Turkana confirm that there were two additional species of our genus - Homo - living alongside our direct human ancestral species, Homo erectus, almost two million years ago. The finds, announced in the journal Nature, include a face, a complete lower jaw, and part of a second lower jaw.

Many human 'prototypes' coexisted in Africa BBC - August 9, 2012

Fossils from Northern Kenya show that a new species of human lived two million years ago, researchers say. The discoveries suggests that at least three distinct species of humans co-existed in Africa. The research adds to a growing body of evidence that runs counter to the popular perception that there was a linear evolution from early primates to modern humans.

New Flat-Faced Human Species Possibly Discovered Live Science - August 8, 2012 New fossils from the dawn of the human lineage suggest our ancestors may have lived alongside a diversity of extinct human species, researchers say. Although modern humans, Homo sapiens, are the only human species alive today, the world has seen a number of human species come and go. Other members perhaps include the recently discovered "hobbit" Homo floresiensis. The human lineage, Homo, evolved in Africa about 2.5 million years ago, coinciding with the first evidence of stone tools. For the first half of the last century, conventional wisdom was that the most primitive member of our lineage was Homo erectus, the direct ancestor of our species. However, just over 50 years ago, scientists discovered an even more primitive species of Homo at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania they dubbed Homo habilis, which had a smaller brain and a more apelike skeleton.

New Kenyan fossils shed light on early human evolution PhysOrg - August 8, 2012 Exciting new fossils discovered east of Lake Turkana confirm that there were two additional species of our genus - Homo - living alongside our direct human ancestral species, Homo erectus, almost two million years ago. The finds, announced in the prestigious scientific journal Nature on August 9, include a face, a remarkably complete lower jaw, and part of a second lower jaw.

The mystery of how Earth's primordial soup came to life MSNBC - February 20, 2012

Just as species are believed to have evolved over time, the individual molecules that form the basis of life also likely developed in response to natural selection, scientists say. Life on Earth first bloomed around 3.7 billion years ago, when chemical compounds in a "primordial soup " somehow sparked into life, scientists suspect. But what turned sterile molecules into living, changing organisms? That's the ultimate mystery. By studying the evolution of not just life, but life's building blocks as well, researchers hope to come closer to the answer.

Humans Are Still Evolving, Study Says Live Science - October 4, 2011 Humans, like all other organisms on Earth, are subject to the pressures of evolution. New research suggests that even in relatively modern societies, humans are still changing and evolving in response to the environment.

Climatic Fluctuations Drove Key Events in Human Evolution, Researchers Find Science Daily - September 26, 2011 Research at the University of Liverpool has found that periods of rapid fluctuation in temperature coincided with the emergence of the first distant relatives of human beings and the appearance and spread of stone tools.

Skull points to a more complex human evolution in Africa BBC - September 16, 2011 Professor Chris Stringer compares one of the 13,000-year-old skulls (centre) with modern (l) and ancient (r) African fossils. Scientists have collected more evidence to suggest that ancient and modern humans interbred in Africa. Reanalysis of the 13,000-year-old skull from a cave in West Africa reveals a skull more primitive-looking than its age suggests.

Pre-human fossils viewed as 'game-changer' for evolution MSNBC - September 8, 2011 An analysis of 2 million-year-old bones found in South Africa offers the most powerful case so far in identifying the transitional figure that came before modern humans - findings some are calling a potential game-changer in understanding evolution.

Complex Life Emerged from Sea Earlier Than Thought Live Science - April 14, 2011 Life on Earth began in the oceans, but new fossils are showing that complex algae-like organisms left these salty seas earlier than thought, about 1 billion years ago, and spent more time evolving on land.

A new evolutionary history of primates PhysOrg - March 17, 2011 A robust new phylogenetic tree resolves many long-standing issues in primate taxonomy. The genomes of living primates harbor remarkable differences in diversity and provide an intriguing context for interpreting human evolution. The phylogenetic analysis was conducted by international researchers to determine the origin, evolution, patterns of speciation, and unique features in genome divergence among primate lineages.

New plant species gives insights into evolution PhysOrg - March 17, 2011 A new University of Florida study shows when two flowering plants are crossed to produce a new hybrid, the new species' genes are reset, allowing for greater genetic variation.

New Statistical Model Moves Human Evolution Back Three Million Years Science Daily November 6, 2010 Evolutionary divergence of humans and chimpanzees likely occurred some 8 million years ago rather than the 5 million year estimate widely accepted by scientists, a new statistical model suggests.

How plants drove animals to the land PhysOrg - September 30, 2010 A new study of ancient oxygen levels presents the first concrete evidence that after aquatic plants evolved and boosted the levels of oxygen aquatic life exploded, leading to fierce competition that eventually led some fish to try to survive on land.

Animal- Human Connection: Crucial in Human Evolution Science Daily - July 21, 2010 It's no secret to any dog-lover or cat-lover that humans have a special connection with animals. But in a new journal article and forthcoming book, paleoanthropologist Pat Shipman of Penn State University argues that this human-animal connection goes well beyond simple affection. Shipman proposes that the interdependency of ancestral humans with other animal species -- "the animal connection" -- played a crucial and beneficial role in human evolution over the last 2.6 million years.

New hypothesis for human evolution and human nature PhysOrg - July 21, 2010 ... the interdependency of ancestral humans with other animal species - "the animal connection" played a crucial and beneficial role in human evolution over the last 2.6 million years. South African fossils could be new hominid species BBC - April 9, 2010 The remarkable remains of two ancient human-like creatures (hominids) have been found in South Africa.

"Key" Human Ancestor Found: Fossils Link Apes, First Humans? National Geographic - April 8, 2010

An Australopithecus sediba skull bears both human and ape traits.

New species of early hominid found PhysOrg - April 6, 2010

A previously unknown species of hominid that lived in what is now South Africa around two million years ago has been found in the form of a fossilized skeleton of a child and several bones of adults. The new species may be a transitional stage between ape-like hominids and Homo habilis, the first recognizably human ancestor of Homo sapiens.

Scientists reveal driving force behind evolution PhysOrg - February 25, 2010 The team observed viruses as they evolved over hundreds of generations to infect bacteria. They found that when the bacteria could evolve defences, the viruses evolved at a quicker rate and generated greater diversity, compared to situations where the bacteria were unable to adapt to the viral infection.

Intelligent people have 'unnatural' preferences and values that are novel in human evolution PhysOrg - February 25, 2010 More intelligent people are significantly more likely to exhibit social values and religious and political preferences that are novel to the human species in evolutionary history. Specifically, liberalism and atheism, and for men (but not women), preference for sexual exclusivity correlate with higher intelligence, a new study finds.

DNA evidence tells 'global story' of human history PhysOrg - February 22, 2010 In recent years, DNA evidence has added important new tools for scientists studying the human past. Now, a collection of reviews published by Cell Press in a special issue of Current Biology published online on February 22nd offers a timely update on how new genetic evidence, together with archaeological and linguistic evidence, has enriched our understanding of human history on earth.

Cultural views of evolution can have important ethical implications PhysOrg - February 21, 2010 Cultural views of evolution can have important ethical implications, says a Duke University expert on theological and biomedical ethics. Because the popular imagination filters science through cultural assumptions about race, cultural history should be an essential part of biomedical conversations.

Evolution may take giant leaps PhysOrg - December 12, 2009 A new study of thousands of species of plants and animals suggests new species may arise from rare events instead of through an accumulation of small changes made in response to changes in the environment.

Feeding birds 'changes evolution' BBC - December 3, 2009 Bird-feeders, hung in many a garden, can affect the way our feathered friends evolve, say scientists. European birds called blackcaps follow a different "evolutionary path" if they spend the winter eating food put out for them in UK gardens. The birds' natural wintering ground is southern Spain, where they feed on the fruits that grow there.

Mammoth dung unravels extinction BBC - November 19, 2009

Mammoth dung has proved to be a source of prehistoric information, helping scientists unravel the mystery of what caused the great mammals to die out. An examination of a fungus that is found in the ancient dung and preserved in lake sediments has helped build a picture of what happened to the beasts.

The Future of Evolution: What Will We Become? Live Science - November 16, 2009 The past of human evolution is more and more coming to light as scientists uncover a trove of fossils and genetic knowledge. But where might the future of human evolution go? There are plenty of signs that humans are still evolving. However, whether humans develop along the lines portrayed by hackneyed science fiction is doubtful.

Reproduction: Why Having A Mate Provides An Evolutionary Advantage Over Self-fertilization Science Daily - October 22, 2009 OK, it takes two for human reproduction, and now it seems that plants and animals that can rely on either a partner or go alone by self-fertilization give their offspring a better chance for longer lives when they opt for a mate. Sex with self in the animal and plant world is known as selfing. Offspring born from selfing share all of their genes in common with their parent, and each is capable of producing another generation of offspring. Offspring from outcrossing share 50percent of each parent's genes, and some are born males incapable of bearing offspring. Selfing populations don't have to deal with pesky males for reproduction.

The first men and women from the Canary Islands were Berbers PhysOrg - October 21, 2009 A team of Spanish and Portuguese researchers has carried out molecular genetic analysis of the Y chromosome (transmitted only by males) of the aboriginal population of the Canary Islands to determine their origin and the extent to which they have survived in the current population. The results suggest a North African origin for these paternal lineages which, unlike maternal lineages, have declined to the point of being practically replaced today by European lineages.

Are humans still evolving? Absolutely, says new analysis of long-term survey of human health

PhysOrg - October 19, 2009 Although advances in medical care have improved standards of living over time, humans aren't entirely sheltered from the forces of natural selection, a new study shows.

Time in a bottle: Scientists watch evolution unfold PhysOrg - October 18, 2009

"Darwin's Wing" Fills Evolution Gap National Geographic - October 14, 2009

Ratchet-like genetic mutations make evolution irreversible PhysOrg - September 24, 2009 The team used computational reconstruction of ancestral gene sequences, DNA synthesis, protein engineering and X-ray crystallography to resurrect and manipulate the gene for a key hormone receptor as it existed in our earliest vertebrate ancestors more than 400 million years ago. They found that over a rapid period of time, five random mutations made subtle modifications in the protein's structure that were utterly incompatible with the receptor's primordial form.

Research team finds first evolutionary branching for bilateral animals PhysOrg - September 23, 2009 When it comes to understanding a critical junction in animal evolution, some short, simple flatworms have been a real thorn in scientists' sides. Specialists have jousted over the proper taxonomic placement of a group of worms called Acoelomorpha. This collection of worms,

which comprises roughly 350 species, is part of a much larger group called bilateral animals, organisms that have symmetrical body forms, including humans, insects and worms. The question about acoelomorpha, was: Where do they fit in?

New Understanding of the Heart's Evolution Live Science - September 3, 2009 Humans, like other warm-blooded animals, expend a lot of energy and need a lot of oxygen. Our four-chambered hearts make this possible. It gives us an evolutionary advantage: We're able to roam, hunt and hide even in the cold of night, or the chill of winter. Now scientists have a better understanding how the complex heart evolved. The story starts with frogs, which have a threechambered heart that consists of two atria and one ventricle. As the right side of a frog's heart receives deoxygenated blood from the body, and the left side receives freshly oxygenated blood from the lungs, the two streams of blood mix together in the ventricle, sending out a concoction that is not fully oxygenated to the rest of the frog's body.

First genetic link between reptile and human heart evolution PhysOrg - September 2, 2009 Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease have traced the evolution of the four-chambered human heart to a common genetic factor linked to the development of hearts in turtles and other reptiles.

Why Did People Become White? Live Science - September 2, 2009

Humans come in a rainbow of hues, from dark chocolate browns to nearly translucent whites. This full kaleidoscope of skin colors was a relatively recent evolutionary development, according to biologists, occurring alongside the migration of modern humans out of Africa between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago. The consensus among scientists has always been that lower levels of vitamin D at higher latitudes - where the sun is less intense - caused the lightening effect when modern humans, who began darker-skinned, first migrated north.

Humans Walked After Tree-Climbing Era, Study Indicates Live Science - August 10, 2009 Many scientists think early humans walked on their knuckles before evolving the ability to walk upright, but a new study suggests they may have bypassed that step. Researchers examined the wrist bones of several primate species, and found that humans more likely evolved from a treeclimbing ancestor, rather than a knuckle-walking one. The new model reignites a longstanding debate about the origin of walking on two legs, or bipedalism, in humans.

Extinct Walking Bat Found; Upends Evolutionary Theory National Geographic - August 10, 2009 A walking bat in New Zealand took its marching orders from an ancestor, a new fossil-bat discovery reveals. Scientists had long thought that the lesser short-tailed bat evolved its walking preference independently.

Mobile DNA elements in woolly mammoth genome give new clues to mammalian evolution PhysOrg - June 8, 2009 The woolly mammoth died out several thousand years ago, but the genetic material they left behind is yielding new clues about the evolution of mammals. In a study published online in Genome Research, scientists have analyzed the mammoth genome looking for mobile DNA elements, revealing new insights into how some of these elements arose in mammals and shaped the genome of an animal headed for extinction.

"Human"-Faced Missing Link Found in Spain? National Geographic - June 11, 2009

An 11.9-million-year-old fossil ape species with an unusually flat, "surprisingly human" face has been found in Spain.

Scientists hail stunning fossil of a 47-million-year-old, lemur-like creature BBC - May 19, 2009

Ida ... 'Missing link' primate likely to stir debate MSNBC - May 19, 2009

Blog: Myth of the Missing Link Live Science - May 20, 2009

Blog: Why 'Ida' Inspires Navel-Gazing at Our Ancestry Live Science - May 20, 2009

Ancient Human Ancestor 'Ida' Discovered - Missing Link? Live Science - May 19, 2009

New Fossil Primate Links Humans, Lemurs? National Geographic - May 19, 2009

Common Ancestor Of Humans, Modern Primates? 'Extraordinary' Fossil Is 47 Million Years Old Science Daily - May 19, 2009 In what could prove to be a landmark discovery, a leading paleontologist said scientists have dug up the 47 million-year-old fossil of an ancient primate whose features suggest it could be the common ancestor of all later monkeys, apes and humans.

Ten fossils that evolved the tale of our origins MSNBC - October 17, 2008 Where did we come from? Many truth seekers turn to faith and religion and find their answers therein. Others approach the question through a scientific lens and the theory of evolution. They have pieced together a tale of human origins from the fossils of our ancestors. The tale is incomplete and its telling reshaped with fresh interpretation of the growing fossil record. Click on the "Next" label to learn about ten fossil discoveries that have evolved the scientific rendering of human origins. In this image, a reconstructed Neanderthal skeleton is compared to a modern human.

Details Of Evolutionary Transition From Fish To Land Animals Revealed Science Daily October 16, 2008 New research has provided the first detailed look at the internal head skeleton of Tiktaalik roseae, the 375-million-year-old fossil animal that represents an important intermediate step in the evolutionary transition from fish to animals that walked on land.

Fish With First Neck Evolved Into Land Animal -- Slowly National Geographic - October 15, 2008 The skull of a 375-million-year-old walking fish reveals new clues to how our fish ancestors evolved into land dwellers.The fossil fishcalled Tiktaalik roseae was discovered in the Canadian Arctic in 2004 and provides the 'missing link' between fish and land vertebrates, according to scientists. It's also the proud owner of the world's first known neck.

Details Of Evolutionary Transition From Fish To Land Animals Revealed Science Daily -

October 16, 2008

Evolutionary Origin Of Mammalian Gene Regulation Is Over 150 Million Years Old Science Daily - July 3, 2008

'Mitochondrial Eve' Research: Humanity Was Genetically Divided For 100,000 Years Science Daily - May 16, 2008

Reason For Almost Two Billion Year Delay In Animal Evolution On Earth Discovered Science Daily - March 27, 2008

Geologists Say 'Wall Of Africa' Allowed Humanity To Emerge Science Daily - December 22,

2007 Scientists long have focused on how climate and vegetation allowed human ancestors to evolve in Africa. Now, University of Utah geologists are calling renewed attention to the idea that ground movements formed mountains and valleys, creating environments that favored the emergence of humanity.

Mountains of Evidence Suggest Human Evolution Had Rocky Start Live Science - December 20, 2007 Geology may be a long-overlooked, major factor that created conditions favoring the evolution of modern humans. It's fairly well-established that changing climate, and thus vegetation, in East Africa spurred human evolution, but there has been no agreement about what exactly caused that change, said Royhan Gani

Primitive early relative of armadillos helps rewrite evolutionary family tree PhysOrg - December 12, 2007 A team of U.S. and Chilean scientists working high in the Andes have discovered the fossilized remains of an extinct, tank-like mammal they conclude was a primitive relative of todays armadillos.

Human evolution is 'speeding up' BBC - December 11, 2007 Humans have moved into the evolutionary fast lane and are becoming increasingly different, a genetic study suggests. In the past 5,000 years, genetic change has occurred at a rate roughly 100 times higher than any other period, say scientists in the US. This is in contrast with the widelyheld belief that recent human evolution has halted.

Finds test human origins theory BBC - August 8, 2007 Two hominid fossils discovered in Kenya are challenging a long-held view of human evolution

How did we go from ape to airplane? MSNBC - August 9, 2007 Shakespeare, hip hop, airplanes and millions of other innovations are all products of one of mankind's most distinguishing characteristics: human culture. While it's clear that our brains hold a remarkable capacity to think and create, other animals demonstrate what some consider cultural behaviors. How the astounding complexity and diversity of human cultures sprang from the much simpler traditions found in animal communities has remained a puzzle.

Kenyan Fossils May Add New Branch to Human Family Tree National Geographic - August 8, 2007

Finds test human origins theory BBC - August 8, 2007 Two hominid fossils discovered in Kenya are challenging a long-held view of human evolution.

Elephants, Human Ancestors Evolved in Synch, DNA Reveals National Geographic - July 24, 2007

From Jaw to Ear: Transition Fossil Reveals Ear Evolution in Action Scientific American March 15, 2007

Interspecies Sex: Evolution's Hidden Secret? National Geographic - March 15, 2007

Robo-salamander's evolution clues BBC - March 9, 2007 A robot is being used to investigate how the first land animals on Earth might have walked

Evolution Getting Faster Thanks to Germs, Viruses, Study Says National Geographic - March 7, 2007

Researchers Study Formation Of Chemical Precursors to Life PhysOrg - August 7, 2006

Evolution Reversed in Mice BBC - August 7, 2006 US researchers have taken a mouse back in time some 500 million years by reversing the process of evolution.

Fossil Fish With "Limbs" Is Missing Link, Study Says National Geographic - April 6, 2006 Fossil hunters may have discovered the fish that made humans possible. Found in the Canadian Arctic, the new fossil boasts leg-like fins, scientists say. The creature is being hailed as a crucial missing link between fish and land animals including the prehistoric ancestors of humans.

Arctic fossils mark move to land BBC - April 5, 2006

Fossil animals found in Arctic Canada provide a snapshot of fish evolving into land animals, scientists say. The finds are giving researchers a fascinating insight into this key stage in the evolution of life on Earth.

Ancient skull found in Ethiopia BBC - March 27, 2006

Fossil hunters in Ethiopia have unearthed an ancient skull which they say could be a "missing link" between Homo erectus and modern people.

Evolution Predictable Everywhere in the Universe, Scientist Says Live Science - March 14, 2006

Human Genome Shows Proof of Recent Evolution, Survey Finds National Geographic - March 8, 2006

Most Ashkenazi Jews From Four Women Live Science - January 13, 2006 Some 3.5 million of today's Ashkenazi Jews - about 40 percent of the total Ashkenazi population - are descended from just four women, a genetic study indicates.

Evolution Revolution: Two Species Become One National Geographic - July 27, 2005 A newfound insect shows that two species can combine to create a third species, and that humans may be unknowingly encouraging evolution, according to researchers. Most new animal species

are believed to arise when a single species splits into two. But new animals can also be created when two species come together to create a single new species, the researchers say.

Butterfly unlocks evolution secret BBC - July 24, 2005

Why one species branches into two is a question that has haunted evolutionary biologists since Darwin. Given our planet's rich biodiversity, "speciation" clearly happens regularly, but scientists cannot quite pinpoint the driving forces behind it. Now, researchers studying a family of butterflies think they have witnessed a subtle process, which could be forcing a wedge between newly formed species.

Human evolution at the crossroads MSNBC - May 2, 2005

Scientists are fond of running the evolutionary clock backward, using DNA analysis and the fossil record to figure out when our ancestors stood erect and split off from the rest of the primate evolutionary tree. But the clock is running forward as well. So where are humans headed? Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins says it's the question he's most often asked, and "a question that any prudent evolutionist will evade." But the question is being raised even more frequently as researchers study our past and contemplate our future. Paleontologists say that

anatomically modern humans may have at one time shared the Earth with as many as three other closely related types - Neanderthals, Homo erectus and the dwarf hominids whose remains were discovered last year in Indonesia.

Scientists Find Portal To Show Animals Evolve Science Daily - February 8, 2005 Like the gaudy peacock or majestic buck, the bachelor fruit fly is in a race against time to mate and pass along its genes. And just as flashy plumage or imposing antlers work to an animal's reproductive advantage, so, too, do the colored spots that decorate the wings of a particular male fruit fly.

Earliest Bilateral Fossil Discovered Astrobiology - June 2004

Scientists have reported that bilateral animals appeared 600 million years ago, about 50 million years before the Cambrian Explosion. Before the Cambrian 550 million years ago, most life on Earth was composed of bacteria and single-celled animals. But then something happened to cause an "explosion" of complex multi-cellular body forms. Scientists have long been puzzled about why this burst of diversity occurred. Some have suggested that a sudden rise in oxygen allowed larger and more complex life forms to appear and develop. Others have suggested that animal complexity started long before the Cambrian, and that we had only failed to find fossil evidence of it.

Prehistoric DNA to Help Solve Human-Evolution Mysteries? National Geographic - March 25, 2004 Experts speaking at a chemistry conference held in Chicago earlier this month argued that ancient genetic material could be used to better understand the relationships among hominids and answer questions about the evolution of speech and other defining traits of humans.

Evolution's Twist: USC Study Finds Meat-tolerant Genes Offset High Cholesterol And Disease Science Daily - March 22, 2004 When our human ancestors started eating meat, evolution served up a healthy bonus - the development of genes that offset high cholesterol and chronic diseases associated with a meat-

rich diet, according to a new USC study. Those ancestors also started living longer than ever before an unexpected evolutionary twist.

Snake Ancestors Lost Limbs on Land, Study Says National Geographic - February 11, 2004 Since the 19th century naturalists have debated whether the ancestors to modern snakes lost their limbs at sea or on land. Recently the discovery of early marine fossil snakes with tiny hind limbs reignited the controversy.

Availability of Oxygen Triggered The Evolution Of Complex Life Forms Space Daily - January 29, 2004 Oxygen played a key role in the evolution of complex organisms, according to new research published in BMC Evolutionary Biology. The study shows that the complexity of life forms increased earlier than was thought, and in parallel with the availability of oxygen as an energy source.

Cave colors reveal mental leap BBC - December 11, 2003 Red-stained bones dug up in a cave in Israel are prompting researchers to speculate that symbolic thought emerged much earlier than they had believed. Symbolic thought - the ability to let one thing represent another - was a giant leap in human evolution. It was a mental ability that allowed sophisticated language and maths.

Scientists Find Evolution Of Life Helped Keep Earth Habitable Science Daily - October 31, 2003 The researchers used a computer model describing the ocean, atmosphere and land surface to look at how atmospheric carbon dioxide would change as a result of glacier growth. They found that, in the distant past, as glaciers started to grow, the oceans would suck the greenhouse gas -carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere -- making the Earth colder, promoting an even deeper ice age. When marine plankton with carbonate shells and skeletons are added to the model, ocean chemistry is buffered and glacial growth does not cause the ocean to absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Worms hold 'eternal life' secret BBC - October 2003

Key human chromosome unravelled BBC - October 2003

Ancient organism challenges cell evolution BBC - June 2003 Scientists have found an organelle - an enclosed free-floating specialized structure - inside a primitive cell for the first time.

The creativity gene that maketh man BBC - February 18, 2003 The gene is found only in human-like primates US scientists have identified a gene which they say could explain why humans are unique. It seems to have arisen between 21 and 33 million years ago, when primates were becoming more human-like. The gene emerged about the time the path that led to humans, chimps, bonobos, orangutans and gorillas was splitting off from that of old and new world monkeys. The gene could have duplicated itself, creating many new ones specific to humans.

All humans are descended from a single man who lived in Africa around 60,000 years ago National Geographic - February 2003

Fossil find stirs human debate BBC - February 2003 The fossil of an early human-like creature (hominid) from southern Africa is raising fresh questions about our origins.

Documentary Redraws Humans' Family Tree January 21 2003 - National Geographic By analyzing DNA from people in all regions of the world, geneticist Spencer Wells has concluded that all humans alive today are descended from a single man who lived in Africa around 6,000 years ago

13,000 year old Human skulls are 'oldest Americans' BBC - December 3, 2002

Tests on skulls found in Mexico suggest they are almost 13,000 years old - and shed fresh light on how humans colonized the Americas. The human skulls are the oldest tested so far from the continent, and their shape is set to inflame further a controversy over native American burial rights.

Life 'began on the ocean floor' BBC - December 4, 2002

A new and controversial theory on the origin of life on Earth is causing a stir among scientists. And one of the implications is that life could be more likely on planets where it was previously thought unlikely to flourish. The theory claims that living systems originated in so-called "inorganic incubators" - small compartments in iron sulphide rocks.

Origin Of Bipedalism Tied To Environmental Changes May 9, 2002 - Science Daily During the past 100 years, scientists have tossed around a great many hypotheses about the evolutionary route to bipedalism, and what inspired our prehuman ancestors to stand up straight and amble off on two feet. Now, after an extensive study of evolutionary, anatomical and fossil evidence, a team of paleoanthropologists has narrowed down the number of tenable hypotheses to explain the origin of bipedalism and our prehuman ancestors' method of navigating their world before they began walking upright. The hypothesis they found the most support for regarding the origin of bipedalism is the one that argues our ancestors began walking upright largely in response to environmental changes -- in particular, to the growing incidence of open spaces and the way that changed the distribution of food. - See more at: http://crystalinks.com/evolution.html#sthash.HvT1oEHU.dpuf

Reality
Reality is a consciousness program (hologram, simulation, illusion, dream) created by digital codes. Numbers, numeric codes, define our existence and experiences. Human DNA, our genetic memory, triggers (remembers) by digital codes at specific times and frequencies as we experience. Those codes awaken the mind to the change and evolution of consciousness. The brain is an electrochemical machine (computer) that processes through binary code zeroes and ones that create patterns of experiences and realities.

The illusion of physical reality is created by the patterns of the Fibonacci Sequence - the Golden Spiral of Consciousness consisting of zeros and ones that align with the brain.

Reality is a computer generated consciousness hologram in which the characters it creates at the physical level are programmed to believe it is real. Reality is a game of illusion, delusion, perception and deception. Reality is about the evolution of consciousness in the alchemy of time. Reality is about experience and learning. Reality is virtual, perceived through conscious awareness. We exist in a biogenetic experiment to experience emotion through the construct of linear time. All and everything is created by geometric design following the patterns of sacred geometry. Reality appears to move in synchronized linear fashion creating the illusion of time, also known as the loops/cycles of time, wheel of karma, or the alchemy wheel.

Reality began with a tone (big bang that continues to pulsate and create) - (horns, cones, harmonics, soul notes) and spiraling light (consciousness) which create ongoing and endless grids in which souls virtually experience. Grids have frequencies to which souls attach for that experience. Souls enter one or more grids in which they experience simultaneously. Reality is never the same. Like the flow of the collective unconsciousness, it is forever in motion creating new patterns of experience. Consciousness spirals like a slinky, mirroring the movement, or evolution, of DNA. The higher your consciousness moves up the slinky, the faster the vibrational frequency - the faster you think, create, understand higher holographic archetypes of reality, and increase your manifestation in physical reality. Your thoughts/consciousness begin at the top and spiral down to the physical realms which are so slow moving - you forget the nature of reality - that which is above. Now as we approach the end of the reality experiment, everything moves into higher frequency until it ceases to exist from the physical, returning to light and total consciousness. Prophecies throughout time bring the same message about this timeline being the end of the cycles of time evolving into something more - something non-physical - the return to light. You see it all around you as the grids that maintain our physical connection are collapsing. Along with this we are witnessing the collapse of economic, political, social, and religious systems. Natural disasters are accelerating exponentially allowing souls to understand everything is changing. We are running out of Time, that which holds the Illusion in place. We are light beings (consciousness from a creational source) having a physical experience, evolving back to our natural state. This reality program is about to end/evolve. Some people link this with 2012 - a metaphor for the return to consciousness. You can't put an exact date on it, if time is an illusion.

Indigenous people have always understood that reality is an illusion or dream from which we will awaken.

Mythology: Hopi Ant People, Snake People, Blue Kachina, Star Gods

The Apache and other Pueblo Indians, such as the Zunis and Hopi, have legends about their ancestors emerging from an underground world, generally after some cataclysmic event, as if a cycle in time, or another reboot in the programmed realities of the human experiment, always linked to star gods, or star people, who brought them here from outer space. Hopi Prophecy speaks of the return of the Blue Kachina, or Star People at the end of this cycle of time. They speak of the Snake People (metaphor for human DNA) and the Ant People (gray aliens,) who protected them beneath the surface. Physical reality is a metaphor for 'beneath the surface'. To rise above is to return to higher consciousness, through the Back Hole (Eye of Time) or the Stargate of human creation.

Reality

Reality in everyday usage means "everything that exists". The term "Reality", in its widest sense, includes everything that is, whether it is observable, accessible or understandable by science, philosophy, theology or any other system of analysis. Reality in this sense may include both being and nothingness, whereas existence is often restricted to being (compare with nature). In the strict sense of Western philosophy, there are levels or gradation to the nature and conception of reality. These levels include, from the most subjective to the most rigorous: phenomenological reality, truth, fact, and axiom. Other philosophies, particularly those founded in Buddhism, have different explications of reality. Conceptions of reality in Buddhism include: dharma, paramattha dhamma, samsara and maya.

Phenomenological Reality On a much broader and more subjective level, the private experiences, curiosity, inquiry, and selectivity involved in the personal interpretation of an event shapes reality as seen by one and only one individual and hence is called phenomenological. This form of reality might be common to others as well, but at times could also be so unique to oneself as to be never experienced or agreed upon by any one else. Much of the spiritual experience of an individual occurs on this level of reality.

Truth When two or more individuals agree upon the interpretation and experience of a particular event, a consensus about an event and its experience begins to be formed. This being common to a few individuals or a larger group, then becomes the 'truth' as seen and agreed upon by a certain set of people. Thus one particular group may have a certain set of agreed truths, while another group might have a different set of truths that have reached consensus. This lets different communities and societies have varied and extremely different notions of reality and truth of the external world. The religion and beliefs of people or communities are a fine example of this level of reality. This is well expressed in the famous quote by Henry Thoreau, "It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak and another to hear." However, humans

are fallible and are limited to individual experience. Truth cannot simply be considered truth if one speaks and another hears because individual bias and fallibility take away any assertion that the idea of truth, itself, exists. Other views of truth assert that truth is that which is considered to be the supreme reality and to have the ultimate meaning and value of existence, regardless of subjective inference. Truth can not merely be discerned by deductive reasoning but can only be more deeply understood by inductive study and skepticism.

Fact A fact or factual entity is a phenomenon that is perceived as an elemental principle. It is rarely one that could be subject to personal interpretation. Instead it is most often the observed phenomena of the natural world. The proposition 'the sun rises in the east', is a fact. It is a fact for people belonging to any group or nationality regardless of which language they speak or which part of the hemisphere they come from. The Galilean proposition in support of the Copernican theory, that the sun is the centre of the solar system is one that states the fact of the natural world. However during his lifetime Galileo was ridiculed for that factual proposition, because far too few people had a consensus about it in order to accept it as a truth. Fewer propositions are factual in content in the world, as compared to the many truths shared by various communities, which are also fewer to the innumerable individual phenomenological realities. Much of scientific exploration, experimentation, interpretation and analysis is done on this level. This view of reality is well expressed by Philip K. Dick's statement that "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."

Axiom Axioms are self-evident realities, the existence of which is accepted as given and on which further conceptions are generated.The facts of a natural world would hold true only in the systemic construction of that world. Hence in a different system, the facts of another world might no longer hold valid. The fact that 'the sun rises in the east', might not be valid in a different solar

system where the planet might be tilted in a different angle, or revolving in a different direction around its star, so that the star might rise on the planet's horizon in the west instead of the east. Hence the facts of a systemic entity might not be universal outside the realms of that system. However, exceptionally rare conceptions might be universal in ethos. Mathematical formulations and propositions in mathematical logic are based on axioms, and hence these fields are often referred to as pure disciplines. The validity of the set theoretic proposition would hold true in any systemic process or universe. Its validity is self evident in ontological existence and works on the axiomatic level of reality.Some portion of ultimate reality may lie beyond our scope to examine or even imagine. Many of the concepts of science and philosophy are often defined culturally and socially. This idea was well elaborated by Thomas Kuhn in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). Most of the cultural conflict in the world occurs when certain individuals or groups try to impose their phenomenological realities or truths on other people or communities.

What reality might not be "Reality", the concept, is contrasted with a wide variety of other concepts, largely depending upon the intellectual discipline. It can help understand what we mean by "reality" to note what we say is not real but usually if there is no original and related proofs it isn't reality. In philosophy, reality is contrasted with nonexistence (penguins do exist; so they are real) and mere possibility (a mountain made of gold is merely possible, but is not real) unless they are discovered. Sometimes philosophers speak as though reality is contrasted with existence itself, though ordinary language and many other philosophers would treat these as synonyms. They have in mind the notion that there is a kind of reality - a mental or intensional reality, perhaps that imaginary objects, such as the aforementioned golden mountain, have. Alexius Meinong is famous, or infamous, for holding that such things have so-called subsistence, and thus a kind of reality, even while they do not actually exist. Most philosophers find the very notion of "subsistence" mysterious and unnecessary, and one of the shibboleths and starting points of 20th century analytic philosophy has been the forceful rejection of the notion of subsistence - of "real" but nonexistent objects.It is worth saying at this point that many philosophers are not content with saying merely what reality is not - some of them have positive theories of what broad categories of objects are real, in addition. In ethics, political theory, and the arts, reality is often contrasted with what is ideal.One of the fundamental issues in ethics is called the is-ought problem, and it can be formulated as follows: "Given our knowledge of the way the world is, how can we know the way the world ought to

be?" Most ethical views hold that the world we live in (the real world) is not ideal - and, as such, there is room for improvement. Political theory is often an extension of the above. Few (if any) political views hold that the world we live in is the best possible world. Most political views argue that the world - or, more specifically, present-day society - could be improved in one way or another, and propose various means to achieve such an improvement.In the arts there was a broad movement beginning in the 19th century, realism (which led to naturalism), which sought to portray characters, scenes, and so forth, realistically. This was in contrast and reaction to romanticism, which portrayed their subjects idealistically. Commentary about these artistic movements is sometimes put in terms of the contrast between the real and the ideal: on the one hand, the average, ordinary, and natural, and on the other, the superlative, extraordinary, improbable, and sometimes even supernatural. Obviously, when speaking in this sense, "real" (or "realistic") does not have the same meaning as it does when, for example, a philosopher uses the term to distinguish, simply, what exists from what does not exist.In the arts, and also in ordinary life, the notion of reality (or realism) is also often contrasted with illusion. A painting that precisely indicates the visually-appearing shape of a depicted object is said to be realistic in that respect; one that distorts features, as Pablo Picasso's paintings are famous for doing, are said to be unrealistic, and thus some observers will say, but with questionable grammatical correctness, that they are "not real." But there are also tendencies in the visual arts toward so-called realism and more recently photorealism that invite a different sort of contrast with the real. Trompe-l'oiel (French, "fool the eye") paintings render their subjects so "realistically" that the casual observer might temporarily be deceived into thinking that he is seeing something, indeed, real - but in fact, it is merely an illusion, and an intentional one at that.In psychiatry, reality, or rather, the idea of being in touch with reality is integral to the notion of schizophrenia, since it has often been defined in part by reference to being "out of touch" with reality. The schizophrenic is said to have hallucinations and delusions which concern people and events that are not real. However, there is controversy over what is considered out of touch with reality, particularly due to the noticeable comparison of the process of forcefully instituting individuals for expressing their beliefs in society to reality enforcement. The practice's possible covert use as a political tool can perhaps be illustrated by the 18th century psychiatric sentences in the U.S. of black slaves for 'crazily' attempting to escape. In each of these cases, discussions of reality, or what counts as "real", take on quite different casts; indeed, what we say about reality often depends on what we want to say it is not.

Reality, World Views, and Theories of Reality A common colloquial usage would have "reality" mean "perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes toward reality," as in "My reality is not your reality." This is often used just as a colloquialism indicating that the parties to a conversation agree, or should agree, not to quibble over deeply different conceptions of what is real. For example, in a religious discussion between friends, one might say (attempting humor), "You might disagree, but in my reality, everyone goes to heaven." But occasionally - and particularly in the case of those who have been exposed to certain ideas from philosophy, sociology, literary criticism, and other fields - it is thought that there simply and literally is no reality beyond the perceptions or beliefs we each have about reality. Such attitudes indicate anti-realism, that is, the view that there is no objective reality, whether acknowledged explicitly or not. If we really do literally mean by "reality" simply "beliefs about reality," then our article about reality would necessarily, to be complete, have to outline every world view (this is how the German word Weltanschauung is usually translated) - every broadly different way of "seeing" reality. In this sense, the topic of reality encompasses many other topics: perception, psychology generally, cognitive psychology and cognitive science, religion, sociology and anthropology, and topics in philosophy. But there is a way to make the topic of reality less cumbersome for present purposes: restrict the discussion to theories about the general topic of reality itself. Thus, for example, a certain Christian world view would not count as a theory of reality, but the theory that the Christian world view is a "construction" of reality would count as a theory about reality. It is theories about reality, in this sense, that philosophers discuss as part of metaphysics; such theories are also sometimes discussed in literary theory (which is, today, heavily influenced by Continental philosophy and heavily anti-realist) as well as in sociology and cultural anthropology.

Philosophical Views of Reality Philosophy addresses two different aspects of the topic of reality: the nature of reality itself, and the relationship between the mind (as well as language and culture) and reality. On the one hand, ontology is the study of being, and the central topic of the field is couched, variously, in terms of being, existence, "what is", and reality. The task in ontology is to describe the most general categories of reality and how they are interrelated. If - what is rarely done - a philosopher wanted to proffer a positive definition of the concept "reality", it would be done under this heading. As explained above, some philosophers draw a distinction between reality and existence. In fact, many analytic philosophers today tend to avoid the term "real" and "reality" in discussing ontological issues. But for those who would treat "is real" the same way they treat "exists", one of the leading questions of analytic philosophy has been whether existence (or reality) is a property of objects. It has been widely held by analytic philosophers that it is not a property at all, though this view has lost some ground in recent decades. On the other hand, particularly in discussions of objectivity that have feet in both metaphysics and epistemology, philosophical discussions of "reality" often concern the ways in which reality is, or is not, in some way dependent upon (or, to use fashionable jargon, "constructed" out of) mental and cultural factors such as perceptions, beliefs, and other mental states, as well as cultural artifacts, such as religions and political movements, on up to the vague notion of a common cultural world view or Weltanschauung. The view that there is a reality independent of any beliefs, perceptions, etc., is called realism. More specifically, philosophers are given to speaking about "realism about" this and that, such as realism about universals or realism about the external world. Generally, where one can identify any class of object the existence or essential characteristics of which is said to depend on perceptions, beliefs, language, or any other human artifact, one can speak of "realism about" that object. One can also speak of anti-realism about the same objects. Anti-realism is the latest in a long series of terms for views opposed to realism. Perhaps the first was idealism, so called because reality was said to be in the mind, or a product of our ideas. Berkeleyan idealism is the view, propounded by the Irish empiricist George Berkeley, that the objects of perception are actually ideas in the mind. On this view, one might be tempted to say that reality is a "mental construct"; this is not quite accurate, however, since on Berkeley's view perceptual ideas are created and coordinated by God. By the 20th century, views similar to Berkeley's were called phenomenalism. Phenomenalism differs from Berkeleyan idealism primarily in that Berkeley believed that minds, or souls, are not merely ideas nor made up of ideas, whereas varieties of phenomenalism, such as that advocated by Russell, tended to go farther to say that the mind itself is merely a collection of perceptions, memories, etc., and that there is no mind or soul over and above such mental events. Finally, anti-realism became a fashionable term for any view which held that the existence of some object depends upon the mind or cultural artifacts. The view that the so-called external

world is really merely a social, or cultural, artifact, called social constructionism, is one variety of anti-realism. Cultural relativism is the view that social issues such as morality are not absolute, but at least partially cultural artifact. From Wikipedia Consensus Reality Hyperreality Onion Theory of Reality Ultimate Reality Simulated Reality Illusion

In the News ...

Reality: A Mere Illusion (Part 1) Epoch Times - December 15, 2009

Every action and all matter that has developed in the universe conforms to what we know as reality. The idea that our universe passes like a giant's dream, or like a product of a

very complex virtual reality program, more closely resembles an ingenious science fiction script than the crude and imperfect world in which we move every day. However, the reality that we perceive seems to be contrary to scientific logic, if we bear in mind that matter hardly exists. The construction blocks of visible matter are atoms, which are merely small nuclei lost in the middle of a great spacial emptiness, surrounded by nearly invisible particles (electrons) that orbit them at magnificent speeds. If our bodies were to be put under a powerful microscope, what would be seen would probably be a sea of sand grains in perpetual motion. According to recent research in the field of quantum physics, all of what we know as matter - the solid cement of what appears to be what our reality is composed of - could be nothing more than quantum fluctuations in the middle of the empty universe. A group of physicists led by Dr. Stephen Durr from the John Von Neumann Institute in Germany confirmed that the sum of the three subatomic particles that make up protons and neutrons (called quarks) barely represent 1 percent of their total mass. Such evidence suggests that the rest of the nuclear mass would be consist of gluons, ephemeral particles that bubble in the middle of the emptiness, which function to maintain the unity among the trio of quarks inside protons and neutrons. This fact suggests the hypothesis that our tangible reality might be mere fluctuations of emptiness or purely nothing. The Other Truth What we see with our physical eyes is greatly reduced to a convenient scope. Possessing a pair of eyes that could see only microscopic particles would make it impossible for us to move in a world with objects so large, as the objects with which we generally interact are composed of billions and billions of microscopic particles. According to biologist Richard Dawkins, rocks only feel hard and impenetrable to our hands because they can't penetrate each other. For us, it is useful to have notions of hardness and solidity as it helps us navigate our world. Navigating in an illusory reality, we have to accept that somewhere in the universe another reality can be found. There could be a gigantic slumber, a crazy bubble, or God, if you will. Since the reality of particles cannot be more than smoke and shadows, it could be that the real existence of all objects in the cosmos resides in one or more parallel spaces. Many scientists speculate that, just like a three-dimensional object can project a twodimensional shadow over the ground, a multidimensional universe (like the case of the String Theory) could cast a shadow in three-dimensional space. If this theory is correct, every object and organism in this world would not be more than a gross representation of objects and organisms in a more 'real' universe. Coinciding with this theory, the existence of an extracorporeal mind in another dimension might be the

ideal explanation for why we have memory, as the atoms in our brains are replaced hundreds of time throughout the course of our lives. According to Dawkins, not a single atom that makes up our bodies today would have been in our bodies during an event in our childhood that we remember. Steve Grand, author of 'Creation: Life and How to Make It,' suggests that matter moves from one place to another and reunites momentarily so that you can be you. Therefore, you aren't the matter of which you are made. This would imply that our real bodies are in the space that we cannot comprehend - while a virtual body, a mere container, would be what is in what we call reality.

Reality: A Mere Illusion - Part 2 Epoch Times - December 20, 2009 You and I, Only Holograms "To them, I say, the truth would be nothing more than shadows of the imagination." -Plato, from "The Republic" Shadows and colors of light are crude projections of a 'more real' reality. The universe that we live in presents itself as something even more illusory, where bodies, minds, and planets are parts of a great magic trick without a magician or an audience. Scientists in Hanover, Germany, working on the GEO 600, which is an instrument that detects gravitational waves, believe they have discovered a 'granulation' in space-time that indicates that our universe is nothing more than a giant hologram. Those responsible for the GEO 600 believe that, in the same way a digital image loses resolution with significant increase in its size, the captured interference in the detector could be interpreted as the universe's limited resolution of what it's capable of providing to human eyes. There's an exact point where the hologram of reality begins to pixelize itself. The scientists suspect that the precision of the GEO 600, capable of detecting variations in longitudinal waves at the subatomic scale, served to discover the tiniest grains that compose the three-dimensional holographic universe, projected from the bi-dimensional confines of its interior.

You and I, Only Holograms

The idea of a holographic universe isn't new. In the 1990s, scientists Leonard Susskind and Gerard Hooft suggested that the same principal that makes a two-dimensional image on a flat surface look three-dimensional could be applied to the entire universe. Then, why do our senses perceive reality in such a distinct and voluminous way if we appear to be no more than shadows on a flat screen? The problem could be that our

human eyes and our powerful telescope lenses conform to the reality of such a hologram of the rest of the universe. The second point to consider is that our organic brain can also be found in the illusion, never being able to interpret a universe with a greater or fewer number of dimensions than can be perceived. Neurophysiologist Karl Pribram, founder of the Center of Cerebral Research at the University of Radford in Virginia, thinks that our brains are holograms interpreting the hologram universe, mathematically constructing a reality interpreting frequencies that come from another dimension - a domain of significant reality that transcends time and space. Nevertheless, the theory of a holographic universe of only two special dimensions conflicts with multidimensional theories arising from the roots of the superchord theory. Before this mark of a disparate hypothesis, many scientists already suspected that the universe is a hologram or illusion created by particles in the emptiness. However, all of the scientific efforts to comprehend the truth amid the mirage have become trapped in a frustrating array of unprovable theories. Many vanguard theorists think that the disturbing breach in the field of quantum physics and relativity could explain historically argued phenomena in the scientific field, like those in which the mind doesn't seem to be associated to the brain - such as near-death experiences, remote vision, and precognition. In whatever case, Plato's allegory of the cave would seem to be the most rational option now for explaining these vivid daily experiences that our brains interpret as being real appearances of the world.

Deja vu: Where fact meets fantasy New Scientist - March 26, 2009

Mr P, an 80-year-old Polish emigre and former engineer, knew he had memory problems, but it was his wife who described it as a permanent sense of deja vu. He refused to watch TV or read a newspaper, as he claimed to have seen everything before. When he went out walking he said the same birds sang in the same trees and the same cars drove past at the same time every day. His doctor said he should see a memory specialist, but Mr P refused. He was convinced that he had already been. Deja vu can happen to anyone, and anyone who has had it will recognize the description immediately. It is more than just a sense that you have seen or done something before; it is a startling, inappropriate and often disturbing sense that history is repeating, and impossibly so. You can't place where the earlier encounter happened, and it can feel like a premonition or a dream. Subjective, strange and fleeting, not to mention tainted by paranormal explanations, the phenomenon has been a difficult and unpopular one to study. Now that is changing, spurred in part by Mr P and a handful of people who, like him, have dementia and experience continuous deja vu, and also by the discovery that there is a group of people with epilepsy who have deja vu-like auras before a seizure. They are making it possible for researchers to catch the process in action, bringing hope that the secrets of this strange and disturbing phenomenon could finally be unlocked. Surprisingly, not only is deja vu proving an interesting window on the peculiar ways that our memory works, it is also providing a few clues about how we tell the difference between what is real, imagined, dreamed and remembered - one of the true mysteries of consciousness. Speculations about past lives or telepathy aside, the first biological explanations of deja vu were based on ideas that two sensory signals in the brain - perhaps one from each eye or each hemisphere of the brain - for some reason move out of sync, so that people have the experience of reliving the same event. "Mental diplopia", as it was called, is intuitively appealing but the evidence is stacked against it. Information from the two eyes

mixes very early in visual processing, long before we perceive a scene. What's more, deja vu - rather ironically as the term means "already seen" - can occur in blind people, according to Chris Moulin, a psychologist at the University of Leeds, UK, (Brain and Cognition, vol 62, p 264). Then there are the cases of people who have had their two cortical hemispheres surgically separated in an attempt to relieve intractable epilepsy. If the mental diplopia idea were correct you might expect them to have permanent deja vu, yet there are no reports of this happening. A second intuitive explanation is some sort of distortion in time perception. Somehow, incoming signals must get misinterpreted and labelled with an inappropriate time stamp, making the experience seem old as well as current. If the brain's memory system is like a tape recorder, it is as if the recording head has got muddled with the playback head. It is an interesting analogy, but it does not appear to have any anatomical basis in the brain. Now another theory is gaining credibility. Perhaps deja vu feels like reliving a past experience because we actually are - at least to some extent. Psychologist Anne Cleary of Colorado State University in Fort Collins came to this idea via an interest in memory problems. Keen to explain instances such as when something seems to be on the tip of the tongue, or when we recognize a face but can't place it, she started looking for parallels with deja vu. "One particular theory of deja vu is that it may be a memory process," she says. "Features of a new situation may be familiar from some prior situation." Her first experiments seem to support this. In one, she was able to induce familiarity for images of celebrity faces or well-known places, even if the viewer couldn't place the image, simply by first presenting subjects with lists of their names. In another study volunteers reported familiarity with words that sounded similar to ones presented in an earlier list. Nevertheless, Cleary acknowledges that this can't be the whole story. "Deja vu is unique in that it is not just another instance of familiarity, it actually feels wrong," she says. How to account for this? One possibility is that deja vu is based on a memory fragment that comes from something more subtle, such as similarity between the configuration or layout of two scenes. Say you are in the living room of a friend's new house with the eerie feeling that you have been there before, yet knowing you can't possibly. It could be just that the arrangement of furniture is similar to what you have seen before, suggests Cleary, so the sense of familiarity feels misplaced. To test the idea, her team produced a large range of images showing scenes such as a bar, a bowling alley, landscapes or rooms from a house. Volunteers saw a subset of these, then they were tested on a new set, half of which were entirely novel and the other half resembling scenes from the first set in structure and configuration but not content. Not only did the similar layouts produce familiarity without recall, subjects also reported a sense of the inexplicable, having been told that all the scenes were different. Although the familiarity idea appeals to many, Moulin, for one, is not convinced. His skepticism stems from a study of a person with epilepsy that he conducted with Akira

O'Connor, now at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. This 39-year-old man's auras of deja vu were long-lasting enough to conduct experiments during them. The researchers reasoned that if familiarity is at the root of deja vu, they should be able to stop the experience in its tracks by distracting the man's attention away from whatever scene he was looking at. However, when he looked away or focused on something different, his deja vu did not dissipate, and would follow his line of vision and his hearing, suggesting that real familiarity is not the key. The fact that an epilepsy aura can cause deja vu at all suggests that it is erroneous activity in a particular part of the brain that leads to misplaced feelings of familiarity, suggests Moulin. Hypnotic Dissociation But how? Moulin and O'Connor think deja vu is the consequence of a dissociation between familiarity and recall. We know that we can have a sense of familiarity for a face or name without actually remembering where we know it from. Using hypnosis, O'Connor and Moulin have been able to create a more mysterious sense of familiarity that leads people to draw parallels with deja vu. One group of people was given a puzzle to solve. Then, while under hypnosis, they were told they would be given the puzzle again, but would not recall it. Another group did not do the puzzle but were told under hypnosis that they would be given it later and that they would experience feelings of familiarity but not understand why. Both situations produced a sense of eerie familiarity, which some people likened to deja vu. Moulin and O'Connor hope that their ability to induce a deja vu-like state in the lab will help them probe the phenomenon. They also believe these experiments support the idea that familiarity and recall are dissociable, and that you can have a sense of familiarity without actually having any prior experience of something. Studies of the brain also support the idea that separate circuits mediate recollection and familiarity, according to John Aggleton and Malcolm Brown of Cardiff University, UK, who recently reviewed brain imaging and animal studies (Trends in Cognitive Sciences, vol 10, p 455). They point out that different parts of the medial temporal lobe, at the side of the brain, are responsible for different aspects of memory recall (see illustration). The curved tube-like hippocampus, which runs through the centre of the lobe, mediates recollection, particularly of autobiographical memories. Meanwhile, the studies show that the surrounding parahippocampus, particularly the perirhinal cortex, may provide the feelings of familiarity. This fits well with the evidence from brain scans of Mr P and others like him, who show huge degeneration of neurons in the medial temporal lobe, and the fact that it is epilepsy originating in the medial temporal lobe that leads to deja vu auras. It is possible that both Moulin and Cleary are correct. The perirhinal cortex may store information about spatial relationships, rather than time, place and sequence of events, and so normal familiarity feelings could come largely from layout and configuration, backing Cleary's findings.

Indeed, there may be many ways to produce false familiarity, according to psychologist Alan Brown of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, author of The deja vu experience (Psychology press, 2004). His own experiments indicate some other possibilities. For example, he has induced the feeling by distracting volunteers while they saw a glimpse of a scene and then moments later giving them a good look. "If you take a brief glance when distracted, and look at the same scene again afterwards, it can feel like you've seen it before but much earlier," says Brown. He has also induced it by showing people images of things they had forgotten. "Just as a stomach ache can hurt the same way but be caused by lots of different processes, it could be the same way with deja vu," he says. The real problem with explaining deja vu, however, is not how we can get familiarity without recognition, but why it feels so disturbing. "We'd get it all the time if it were just familiarity with real experiences," says Ed Wild from the Institute of Neurology in London. He suggests that mood and emotion are also important contributors to the sensation of deja vu. We need the right combination of signals, not just the layout of a scene but how we feel at the time, to believe something is familiar when really it is not. A Matter of Degree Moulin agrees it may be matter of degree. The regions thought to mediate recall, familiarity and emotions are all extremely closely linked. A small amount of stimulation could produce a mild sense of familiarity, while a stronger stimulus could spread into neighboring emotion regions producing a more disturbing feeling, or even the striking sense of doom or premonition some people report with deja vu. Cognitive neuroscientist Stefan Kohler from the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, believes the role of emotion is even more central in generating the sense of weirdness that accompanies deja vu. He recently had the chance to image the brain of a person cured of epilepsy with deja vu auras by removal of a large tumor that was triggering the seizures. The excised areas consisted of parts of the hippocampus and perirhinal cortex, but also included the amygdala. It suggests that this region, which is known to be heavily tied up with emotion, was also involved in creating the deja vu. Kohler speculates that without the appropriate emotional arousal, perhaps the brain cannot recognize a person or place we have encountered before as truly familiar. On the other hand, inappropriate emotional arousal may make us believe something is familiar when actually it is not. The final element of deja vu, a sense that it feels impossible, probably comes from the reasoning parts of our brain. According to Kohler, when our rational knowledge tells us one thing, but our emotional instincts tell us another, it can feel very wrong. This final element is missing in people with dementia, including Mr P, who accept their experiences as perfectly normal. Kohler suspects this may be because neurodegeneration in these

individuals has caused a disconnection between the temporal lobes, which are generating sensations, and the frontal lobes which are continuously interpreting them. Our brains are looking for associations all the time. Deja vu is interesting, says Kohler, because it points to a brain mechanism that helps you interpret what you are doing. When you are having a memory, you have the sensation of recollection. It feels like having a memory, and doesn't feel like daydreaming or current reality. "Deja vu is a fault in a kind of cognitive process that is going on in the background all the time. When it goes wrong, it's very striking," says Moulin. At the extreme, patients with permanent deja vu - dubbed deja vecu, for already experienced - actually make up stories to make sense of it (New Scientist, 7 October 2006, p 32). While deja vu is starting to divulge some of its secrets, there is still a long way to go before we understand how we actually decide what is real, imagined, dreamed or experienced, and how these various tags lead to such different conscious experiences. One anecdotal finding that came to light while working on this article is that people who think a lot about deja vu are more prone to it. I had deja vu about reading about deja vu, and researchers have had deja vu about having deja vu. It certainly retains mystery enough to justify further study. After all, says Wild, "Deja vu is one of weirdest brain experiences that normal people have". Stranger and stranger yet About 10 per cent of people claim never to have experienced deja vu, while some individuals report having it regularly. Children first get it at around age 8 or 9, suggesting that a degree of cognitive maturity is required. Deja vu happens less as you get older and more when you are tired, anxious or stressed. It is particularly prevalent in people with certain conditions known to produce problems in time perception, such as schizophrenia and epilepsy. Although there is no gene for deja vu, it is possible that certain versions of genes associated with epilepsy make some of us more prone to it. Just reading this article could give you deja vu. Shadows and colors of light are crude projections of a more real reality. The universe that we live in presents itself as something even more illusory, where bodies, minds, and planets are parts of a great magic trick without a magician or an audience. Scientists in Hanover, Germany, working on the GEO 600, which is an instrument that detects gravitational waves, believe they have discovered a granulation in space-time that indicates that our universe is nothing more than a giant hologram.

Those responsible for the GEO 600 believe that, in the same way a digital image loses resolution with significant increase in its size, the captured interference in the detector could be interpreted as the universe's limited resolution of what it's capable of providing to human eyes. There's an exact point where the hologram of reality begins to 'pixelize' itself. The scientists suspect that the precision of the GEO 600, capable of detecting variations in longitudinal waves at the subatomic scale, served to discover the tiniest grains that compose the three-dimensional holographic universe, projected from the bidimensional confines of its interior. You and I, Only Holograms The idea of a holographic universe isn't new. In the 1990s, scientists Leonard Susskind and Gerard Hooft suggested that the same principal that makes a two-dimensional image on a flat surface look three-dimensional could be applied to the entire universe. Then, why do our senses perceive reality in such a distinct and voluminous way if we appear to be no more than shadows on a flat screen? The problem could be that our human eyes and our powerful telescope lenses conform to the reality of such a hologram of the rest of the universe. The second point to consider is that our organic brain can also be found in the illusion, never being able to interpret a universe with a greater or fewer number of dimensions than can be perceived. Neurophysiologist Karl Pribram, founder of the Center of Cerebral Research at the University of Radford in Virginia, thinks that our brains are holograms interpreting the hologram universe, mathematically constructing a reality interpreting frequencies that come from another dimension - a domain of significant reality that transcends time and space. Nevertheless, the theory of a holographic universe of only two special dimensions conflicts with multidimensional theories arising from the roots of the superchord theory. Before this mark of a disparate hypothesis, many scientists already suspected that the universe is a hologram or illusion created by particles in the emptiness. However, all of the scientific efforts to comprehend the truth amid the mirage have become trapped in a frustrating array of unprovable theories. Many vanguard theorists think that the disturbing breach in the field of quantum physics and relativity could explain historically argued phenomena in the scientific field, like those in which the mind doesn't seem to be associated to the brain - such as near-death experiences, remote vision, and precognition. In whatever case, Plato's allegory of the cave would seem to be the most rational option now for explaining these vivid daily experiences that our brains interpret as being real appearances of the world.

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