Just yesterday I was reading a very interesting article over at the NEw Scientist, as you do…. According to this article, our brains can rewire themselves in just seconds to compensate for a break in incoming data… Which suggests that our brains are actually more flexible than we used to think.
The article states:
We already knew that the brain is constantly adapting throughout our lives, for example by generating new neurons well into adulthood. But just how quickly can it adapt – and does it always involve creating new circuits?
To investigate these questions, Daniel Dilks and his colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology took advantage of the blind spots that occur naturally in our eyes where the optic nerve exits the retina. The brain normally combines images captured by both eyes to fill in the resulting gaps in vision, but Dilks prevented this in 48 volunteers by patching one eye.
Why do I mention this today? Well let me tell you something else first of all, notice your own thoughts while reading this…
This is taken from this article at The Telegraph… Please do not go and read that article until you have finished reading what I have to say here, because it forms part of a theory of mine….
Apparently, (and maybe worryingly) there are huge blobs of mysterious goo, that are floating in the Arctic sea off the coast of Alaska… According to the article, hunters from the Alaskan coastal town of Wainwright noticed the dark, shiny substance floating for miles in the icy Arctic waters of the Chukchi sea.
Ok, before I carry on, notice what you are thinking right now… What are you imagining…? I’ll carry on with the story…
The odorous substance, which has been described variously as “gooey”, “gunky” and “hairy” has been also been found of the coast of Barrow, 72 miles north east of Wainwright. Samples of the huge “gobs of gunk” were taken on Friday by officials from the North Slope Borough, who flew out to Wainwright with the US Coast Guard to investigate. Jelly fish and a dead goose were found tangled up in stands of the substance.
Again, just be aware of what your imagination is doing right now… I am a sci-fi nerd and filled my childhood with fantasy novels, so my imagination was on overload when I had read this much…
It continues… The “goo”, which is believed to be formed of organic matter, is reportedly floating in strands of up to 15-miles long. The US Coast Guard told the Anchorage Daily News that the strange find is not an oil product or a hazardous substance of any kind. ”It’s definitely, by the smell and make-up of it, some sort of naturally occurring organic or otherwise marine organism,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Terry Hasenauer.
Interesting, eh? Apparently, the results of tests are going to be out next week and we’ll find out if in fact we’ll need to get a Steve McQueen-like hero to head up a team to take on the blob that is covering the entire planet… 😉
You see, science can begin to start showing us that our brains fill in gaps when we see certain things… Also, our imaginations can start filling in gaps as to what we think and know about certain pieces of information we have… I use the gooey blob story as a bit of fun, but we all tend to filter reality in a number of ways, don’t we?
I am not going to expand on it greatly today, but I do wonder if you ever take time to view the world in a truly neutral way… And wonder if it is possible to see the world and relate to your imagination in a truly unfiltered way?
If not, as many would believe, then how do we go about filtering things in a way that is to our greatest personal advantage rather than making so much seem so sour?
Have a marvellous weekend, I’ll be back next week… 🙂
