Natural Intelligence and Anthropic Reasoning

This paper aims to justify the concept of natural intelligence in the biosemiotic context. I will argue that the process of life is (i) a cognitive/semiotic process and (ii) that organisms, from bacteria to animals, are cognitive or semiotic agents. To justify these arguments, the neural-type intelligence represented by the form of reasoning known as anthropic reasoning will be compared and contrasted with types of intelligence explicated by four disciplines of biology – relational biology, evolutionary epistemology, biosemiotics and the systems view of life – not biased towards neural intelligence. The comparison will be achieved by asking questions related to the process of observation and the notion of true observers. To answer the questions I will rely on a range of established concepts including SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence), Fermi’s paradox, bacterial cognition, versions of the panspermia theory, as well as some newly introduced concepts including biocivilisations, cognitive/semiotic universes, and the cognitive/semiotic multiverse. The key point emerging from the answers is that the process of cognition/semiosis – the essence of natural intelligence – is a biological universal.Brunel University Londo

Effects of channel surface finish on blood flow in microfluidic devices

The behaviour of blood flow in relation to microchannel surface roughness has been investigated. Special attention was focused on the techniques used to fabricate the microchannels and on the apparent viscosity of the blood as it flowed through these microchannels. For the experimental comparison of smooth and rough surface channels, each channel was designed to be 10mm long and rectangular in cross-section with aspect ratios of ⠥100:1 for channel heights of 50 and 100μm. Polycarbonate was used as the material for the device construction. The shims, which created the heights of the channels, were made of polyethylene terephthalate. Surface roughnesses of the channels were varied from Rz of 60nm to 1.8μm. Whole horse blood and filtered water were used as the test fluids and differential pressures ranged from 200 to 5000Pa. The defibrinated horse blood was treated further to prevent coagulation. The results indicate that a surface roughness above an unknown value lowers the apparent viscosity of blood dramatically due to boundary effects. Furthermore, the roughness seemed to influence both water and whole blood almost equally. A set of design rules for channel fabrication is also presented in accordance with the experiments performed

The Physics of Vibration

Vibrations are mechanical oscillations. They can be described by frequency, amplitude, phase and shape. There are several ways to describe amplitude, and these different terms cannot be used interchangeably. Moreover, each of these terms indicates different physical properties of the vibration signal, and thus has different relevance for benefits and risks by vibration exercise and therapy. Vibrations can naturally emerge in systems that allow transfer between different types of energy, e.g., between potential and kinetic energy (pendulum) or between elastic and kinetic energy (spring-mass oscillator). Driven vibrations are generated by actuators that impose their own frequency onto another system. Resonance occurs when an actuator excites a natural oscillator at its preferred frequency, the so-called eigenfrequency. Analysis of oscillatory signals has traditionally been performed with spectral analysis, which is based on Fourier’s harmonic analysis. More recently, wavelet analysis has been proposed for time-variant signals. A third opportunity is offered by averaging methods, such as peri-stimulus plots and peri-stimulus histograms, in particular when the shape of complex oscillations is of interest