An investigation of the needs and the design of an orbiting space station with growth capabilities

An architectural approach to the evolutionary growth of an orbiting space station from a small manned satellite to a fully independent, self-sustainable space colony facility is presented. Social and environmental factors, ease of transportation via the space shuttle, and structural design are considered

HEALING RESEARCH: WHAT WE KNOW AND DON'T KNOW

Since the first major clinical trial of prayer at San Francisco General Hospital was published in 1988, numerous follow-up studies have emerged in both humans and nonhumans. Assessments and reviews of this field have varied wildly. Dr. Dossey will offer his view of where this field stands, and will offer guidelines on how best to do healing experiments. Dr. Dossey will survey the history of healing research, describe its accomplishments and shortcomings, and discuss the challenges in this field for the future

SPIRITUALITY, SCIENCE AND THE MEDICAL ARTS

After a century of neglect, spirituality is returning to the practice of medicine. Controlled studies in distant healing and intercessory prayer challenge ingrained assumptions of the nature of consciousness and the mind-body relationship. Current evidence suggests that consciousness can both insert information into the environment, and extract information ft-om it. Both these vectors are health-relevant. Although energy-based models of healing may suffice to explain many of the phenomena taking place within the healer and healee, and in the immediate vicinity of each, a genuinely nonlocal, non-energetic framework is necessary to explain how the spatiotemporal gap separating the two is bridged. The implications of nonlocal mind transcend health and illness, and involve the survival of bodily death and immortality. This material was originally presented as a Keynote Address at the ISSSEEM ElezJenth Annual Conference June 16, 2001

AN EXPLORATION OF MUTATION EFFECT SIZES IN THE NEMATODE CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANS

Mutation rates vary within and among species, in part reflecting the variable input of the two main sources of mutation, DNA replication errors and DNA damage. In somatic tissues, oxidative damage resulting from free radical attacks on DNA is an important and well-characterized cause of mutation, contributing to many diseases and to the aging process. In contrast, it is not known whether oxidative damage can lead to heritable mutations in germline (sperm and egg) DNA. In a previous study, the germline mutation rate was estimated from a mutation accumulation study in two strains of rhabditid nematode (Caenorhabditis elegans), the N2 strain which has a ‘normal’ free radical metabolism and the mev-1 strain which has constitutively high oxidative stress. Opposite to the predicted results, that study did not detect any differences in mutation rate between the two strains when fitness, the proxy for mutation rate, was measured in a benign (standard laboratory) environment. In the current study, I measured the fitness of a subset of nematodes from the earlier work in two environments, a benign environment (20°C) and a stressful environment (25°C). This comparison across environments allowed me to determine whether the mutation rate or average mutation effect size differed between the two strains. I predicted that the mev-1 nematodes would have a higher overall estimated mutation rate due to their high oxidative stress. Since mutation rate and mutation effect size are inversely related, I predicted that the mev-1 nematodes would have a low estimated effect size in comparison to the N2 nematodes. I measured reproductive fitness in the two strains of nematodes by conducting a fitness assay in two environments, a stressful and a benign environment. The mev-1 nematodes had a low average genomic mutation rate and a large average estimated effect size when compared in two environments. This results was opposite to my predictions. A possible interpretation is that the mev-1 strain did not accumulate more mutations (low mutation rate) and/or that the mev-1 nematodes could not tolerate the mutations they accumulated, especially in the stressful environment (high average effect size). Many organisms upregulate cellular protection against chronic stress. It would be of interest to investigate if the mev-1strain upregulate repair and/or protective proteins. Overall, I did not find evidence that the widespread consequences of oxidative stress that are documented in somatic tissues are occuring in the germline. This study did not provide evidence that conditions that elevate oxidative stress in the germ cells (sperm and eggs), including age and environmental exposure, impact the quality of germline DNA

BUT IS IT ENERGY? REFLECTIONS ON CONSCIOUSNESS, HEALING, AND THE NEW PARADIGM

When consciousness is involved in healing, it manifests either locally or nonlocally. Although local manifestations of consciousness can be described by the known tenets of physiology and contemporary physics, nonlocal effects of consciousness cannot be so described. Any comprehensive model of mind-based healing must account for "limit cases" such as nonlocal, distant healing effects which are apparently immediate, un mediated, and unmitigated; and effects which display time-displacement. It is questionable whether energy-based models of consciousness and healing are capable of such explanations. It is proposed that nonlocal models of consciousness must transcend a reliance on an energy metaphor. Such emerging models contain profound practical and spiritual implications

BUT IS IT ENERGY? REFLECTIONS ON CONSCIOUSNESS, HEALING, AND THE NEW PARADIGM

When consciousness is involved in healing, it manifests either locally or nonlocally. Although local manifestations of consciousness can be described by the known tenets of physiology and contemporary physics, nonlocal effects of consciousness cannot be so described. Any comprehensive model of mind-based healing must account for "limit cases" such as nonlocal, distant healing effects which are apparently immediate, un mediated, and unmitigated; and effects which display time-displacement. It is questionable whether energy-based models of consciousness and healing are capable of such explanations. It is proposed that nonlocal models of consciousness must transcend a reliance on an energy metaphor. Such emerging models contain profound practical and spiritual implications

HEALING, ENERGY, & CONSCIOUSNESS: INTO THE FUTURE OR A RETREAT TO THE PAST?

Numerous controlled studies suggest that conscious intent can mltlate helpful changes in a variery of organisms, including human beings, at great distances. These events appear (0 be genuinely nonlocal in nature. They do not yield (0 explanations based in classical concepts of energy, space, time, and causation. Classical models of distant healing, including the concept of "energy," must be reexamined. A new theoretical perspective, anchored in the nonlocal nature of human consciousness, may be necessary if we are (0 progress in our understanding of nonlocal healing events

Spontaneous Phonetic Imitation Across Regional Dialects

Speakers subconsciously alter their pronunciation towards that of their conversation partner through a process called spontaneous phonetic imitation. Previous research has shown that this imitation may not be a completely automatic process. One factor that may influence the extent of imitation is social biases based on gender, age, or region. The current study used a lexical shadowing task to determine if speakers would spontaneously imitate American English vowel variants that were not found in their native dialect. Results showed that in the non-interactive task, regionally distinct vowels were significantly imitated. Furthermore, the level of imitation was not related to previous familiarity or experience with the dialect in question

An investigation of the feasibility of scheduling communications networks

Recent increased interest in off-line data communications newworks has suggested the utility of an investigation of the feasibility of pre-scheduling a network of this type. Two different scheduling algorithms are proposed and developed