Science and Inquiry discussion

Have we come up with a list of possibilities for July yet? Perhaps the group would like to start making recommendations for the next read?

I'd like to start by recommending a scientist/writer: Bernd Heinrich. He's written a variety of books about his biological/ecological studies.

Some possibilities are

In a Patch of Fireweed: A Biologist's Life in the Field An autobiographical memoir. From Amazon.com: For the reader, it is simply a delight, a rare chance to share the perceptions of an unusual mind fully in tune with the inner workings of nature. Before his years of research in the woodlands and deserts of North America, the New Guinea highlands, and the plains of East Africa, Heinrich had a sense of the wild that few people in this century can know.

Ravens in Winter Again, from Amazon: a rare example of sharing in the wild. For the next four years he spent winter weekends observing these birds at a remote site in Maine, braving fierce weather, lugging enormous amounts of bait to lure ravens to his study area and sleeping in a cabin where temperatures often plunged below zero at night. The story related here, which is constructed from his field notes, moves slowly; we learn a good deal about scientific methods and a lot about patience. Overall, however, the book is suspenseful and exciting. The author follows a series of clues, some going nowhere, and others finally leading to the solution to this puzzle of animal behavior.

Bumblebee Economics Highly recommended. A magnificent book that combines the best of both writing and science...Heinrich has performed a masterful job of sharing his personal research efforts and those of others in his field. He has written an extremely interesting book and in the process has shown how one kind of organism can be used as a model to investigate behavior, physiology, ecology and evolution. Bumblebee Economics should serve as a model for good scientific writing.
--Matthew M. Douglas (Quarterly Review of Biology )

I love Bernd Heinrich's books. "Mind of the Raven" is one of my favorites.

Cool! This is why I love this group--getting recommendations about authors I might never have discovered on my own. Bumblebee Economics sounds particularly interesting.

Pandora's Seed: The Unforeseen Cost of Civilisation by spencer Wells. "Many of the crises we see in the 21st century, I would argue, have their roots in the dawn of the Neolithic," he says. "We spent an enormous amount of time as hominids and as primates living as hunter-gatherers. That is the natural way for us to live, and we're suddenly living in this profoundly unnatural way, and we're still in the process of adapting to it and working out how to live with it."

I'd like to read Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honeybee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis. I haven't read it yet, but all the reviews look great. It's about colony collapse disorder and the pollination bees provide to fruit crops.

I'd also like to nominate The Fellowship: Gilbert, Bacon, Wren, Newton, and the Story of a Scientific Revolution. "Seventeenth-century England was racked by civil war, plague, and fire, a world ruled by superstition and ignorance. But then a series of meetings of "natural philosophers" in Oxford and London saw the beginning of a new method of thinking based on proof and experiment. At the heart of this renaissance were the founding fathers of modern western science: The Royal Society. John Gribbin's gripping, colorful account of this unparalleled time of discovery explores the birth of the Society and brings its prime movers to life. Gribbin shows how the triumph of the scientific revolution changed the world--and still continues to change it 350 years later. The Fellowship reveals that all that ensued was ultimately not the work of any single isolated genius, but of a Fellowship of brave and inquisitive men in search of the truth."

I'm interested in Mendeleyev's Dream The Quest for the Elements...

but I also think it would be timely to read something that would help expose the environmental impact of the ongoing oil spill...any suggestions???

Might I suggest:

The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force by Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Sharon Begley

The authors make a case for the mind producing an actual force that affects matter, an idea certainly not in the mainstream of science which takes the materialistic view that the mind is an immaterial by product of the brain and thus cannot causally affect matter.

Dr. Schwartz is a practicing physician treating patients with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). He has developed a treatment that teaches patients how to focus their minds when they have an attack in such a way as to "rewire" their brain by recognizing the obsession as a false signal and redirecting their actions. Thus many of his patients subdue their disease by the power of their directed will, causing real, measurable, alterations of their brain structure.

There is also an investigation into the age old "free will" debate and the authors come down on the affirmative side. In particular they argue for "Free Won't" , i.e. the power to restrain from action, which is just as important, if not more so, than initiating an action.

The mechanism through which the mind produces effects is proposed to be quantum mechanics, which I suppose is the only way it could feasibly happen. The authors propose that the brain is a complexity of quantum waves which the mind has the ability to detect, or sense, thus collapsing the wave into concreteness. At least I think that is what they say.

What do you think?

Salvatrice wrote: "...I also think it would be timely to read something that would help expose the environmental impact of the ongoing oil spill...."

Not One Drop: Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
This book is about the impact on the people who were most affected by the Valdez Oil Spill, politics, and corporate corruption. This book is certainly timely, and received high review marks. It isn't about science and inquiry, but I think I'd like to read it.

The problem is, I would like to read all the books that have been nominated!

I am so glad you posted the Not One Drop idea David, because it is the one book I keep coming back to about this topic in my searches. The reviews are good, and there aren't that many books available that really explore the impacts of this size "spill".

Chas wrote: "Might I suggest:
The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force by Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Sharon Begley
"

This book sounds fascinating! It reminds me of the theories by Roger Penrose The Large, the Small and the Human Mind and by Erwin Schrodinger What is Life?: With Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches. Both of these authors discuss how consciousness may be due to some quantum physics, that is not yet understood.

David wrote: "Chas wrote: "Might I suggest:
The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force by Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Sharon Begley
"

This book sounds fascinating! It reminds me of the t..."

Then there is also "The Emperor's New Mind" by Roger Penrose. I read it several years ago, but he postulates quantum effects in the human brain also. I don't think anyone is comfortable considering themselves an automaton and thus many people are looking for scientific theory to bolster the feeling inside us that says we have free will to make our choices, that we are not puppets to our genes and environment.

We need to close the nominations now, as we have quite a few books suggested already. Please vote in the poll now!

Vote here

Chas wrote: "Then there is also "The Emperor's New Mind" by Roger Penrose. I read it several years ago, but he postulates quantum effects in the human brain also."

Chas, I'm sorry; I created the poll at the same time you posted this suggestion. Save your suggestion for next time (which will be soon). I read both of these books by Penrose, and I especially enjoyed "The Emperor's New Mind". It is exactly my favorite type of book, covering a wide variety of topics under a single theme.

I know it is on the poll already, but does the Schwartz/Begley book (Mind and the Brain) qualify as science? At first glance, it seems pretty airy-fairy.

Gary wrote: "I know it is on the poll already, but does the Schwartz/Begley book (Mind and the Brain) qualify as science? At first glance, it seems pretty airy-fairy."

I obtained the book from the psychology section at my local Barnes & Noble. I am new here and I don't know if psychology qualifies as science here in this group or not. Schwartz is a neurologist which is certainly a science of medicine, but I don't know if that alone qualifies his book as "science".

As for the brain quantum theory, it is obviously highly speculative, but Schwartz has good company in that area, in particular, Oxford's Roger Penrose's "The Emperor's New Mind".

Gary wrote: "I know it is on the poll already, but does the Schwartz/Begley book (Mind and the Brain) qualify as science? At first glance, it seems pretty airy-fairy."

I found the following info on Wikipedia. Schwartz writes about it in his chapter on proposed quantum effects in the brain.
--------------
The quantum Zeno effect (with its own controversies related to measurement) is becoming a central concept in the exploration of controversial and unproven theories of quantum mind consciousness within the discipline of cognitive science. In his book, "Mindful Universe" (2007), Henry Stapp claims that the quantum Zeno effect is the main method by which the mind holds a superposition of the state of the brain in the attention. He advances that this phenomenon is the principal method by which the conscious will effects change, a possible solution to the mind-body dichotomy. Stapp and co-workers do not claim finality of their theory, but only:[32:]

The new framework, unlike its classic-physics-based predecessor, is erected directly upon, and is compatible with, the prevailing principles of physics.

Needless to say, such conjectures have their opponents, serving perhaps to create more furor, rather than less, for example, see Bourget.[33:] A summary of the situation is provided by Davies:[34:]

There have been many claims that quantum mechanics plays a key role in the origin and/or operation of biological organisms, beyond merely providing the basis for the shapes and sizes of biological molecules and their chemical affinities.…The case for quantum biology remains one of “not proven.” There are many suggestive experiments and lines of argument indicating that some biological functions operate close to, or within, the quantum regime, but as yet no clear-cut example has been presented of non-trivial quantum effects at work in a key biological process.

While this last objection may no longer be valid,[35:] the significance of the Zeno effect in determining the rate of quantum decoherence in biological systems remains unknown.

Chas wrote: "Gary wrote: "I know it is on the poll already, but does the Schwartz/Begley book (Mind and the Brain) qualify as science? At first glance, it seems pretty airy-fairy."

I obtained the book from th..."


there's room for everyone at this party ;)
if a particular branch or approach is not your thing, no worries, you can opt in or out of any discussions...

The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force is the winning book for the July Read. . . start your reading engines, July 1 is tomorrow . . .

Oh wow! I am so honored to have my recommendation selected. That said, I have no idea how things precede from here. Is there a discussion thread dedicated to the read of the month?

The read of the month's book stimulated me to do more reading about neuroplasticity and I can't believe what I am reading about it. For example, would you believe the brain can rewire itself to such an extent that a human has to been able to "see" using computerized camera images converted and applied to various skin areas of the body?

Would you believe that animal experiments have cut and then reconnected the optical nerves onto the auditory processing area of the brain and that 20/60 quality vision resulted?

Would you believe that a 65 year old man with stroke induced massive (97%) destructive to the area of the brain feeding the spinal cord and unable to get out of bed or bathe without assistance was therapeutically reconditioned such that he died of a heart attack while mountain climbing at age 72!??
I'm not kidding here! I'm stunned. Really!

The brain is truly mysterious and awesome (in the most traditional use of the word!). I participated in a mind/body connection class a few years ago and started learning about the power of the brain over the body during our work in the class.

The past month discussion took place over the month in the existing June 2010 thread, so I believe the discussion will take place in this thread. As to how things proceed . . . well, pretty casually. Folks feel free to jump in at any time to talk about the book!

I have great respect for the brain re-wiring itself; I suspect that's what it's done after my stroke.

Susanna wrote: "I have great respect for the brain re-wiring itself; I suspect that's what it's done after my stroke."

Susanna, if you have brain damage, the most important point to understand is that recovery is not an automatic process. It takes time, dedication, and proper therapy to get the brain to rededicate different areas to fill in for the damaged section. Therapy in the past was used for just a few weeks or months. Then many times a plateau would be reached and the therapist would stop, thinking that all the progress that could be made was accomplished. However, it is known now that there are many brief pauses while the brain consolidates progress and then with continued therapy progress resumes. It can take years, but in many cases virtually 100% recovery can be made from even severe damage.

Melissa wrote: ... I participated in a mind/body connection class a few years ago and started learning about the power of the brain over the body...

The focus we are looking at now is just the reverse. It is the power the body has over the brain, forcing it to rewire itself through repetitive training, something thought to be pure quackery forty years ago when common wisdom was that the brain was immutable from adulthood on.

Actually, I misspoke when I said "The power the body has over the brain." I should have said mind instead for that is the case specifically for OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) where the mind's will is used to physically deactivate and bypass faulty brain locked connections.

No, it certainly isn't easy or automatic.

I had my stroke about six years ago. I still find that there are things that I can do that I couldn't do previously. (Last year's project was reteaching myself to touch-type.)

The analogy that I used for my mother was that it took me a while sometimes to think of a word, because it had been "stored" on the other side of the brain, and I had to go looking for it. Sometimes I still can't think of exactly the word I'm looking for; but it's much better.

So is cognitive behavior therapy working with the same principles? Teaching the brain to think and act a different way?

Melissa wrote: "So is cognitive behavior therapy working with the same principles? Teaching the brain to think and act a different way?"

Yes, exactly. Our book says that by teaching people with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) to recognize and relabel the source of their obsession (erroneous signals generated by a malfunctioning area of the brain) and reattributing (oh, that's not real, it's just my OCD popping up again), then refocusing and redirecting the compulsion (say instead of yielding to the compulsion to wash hands to instead willfully refocus and redirect the compulsion into doing something productive, like gardening or house cleaning for example). The authors say that each time these steps are taken the compulsion weakens until it fades away or becomes very faint over time. The crux is that the old faulty part of the brain's neural connections actuality atrophy when the compulsion is redirected and new healthy neural connections emerge.

The author emphasizes that the redirection stage be conjured by the mind and treated as a focused and concentrated exercise of the will. This is prior to taking action. I think they suggest the willful focus on the redirected activity works better the longer the mind holds on it, perhaps up to fifteen minutes in a manor similar to physical exercise.

I would be interested to others take on this once they have time to get and read some of this book.

With regard to brain-rewiring after stroke or trauma: I once had the privilege to hear a blazing old-time fiddler play a few manic sets. After his performance, one of the ladies in the audience commented that "old Bob" was "coming back nicely" after his stroke. The gentleman still couldn't speak, but his playing was almost back up to speed. I was amazed. I recall reading that in musicians the part of the brain covering tactile sensations in the hand is 9 x the size of non-musicians' and very active in forming new connections, so perhaps we should all take up an instrument as prophylaxis heading into our golden years? (I'll let you know if it works for me).

Sandra wrote:... I recall reading that in musicians the part of the brain covering tactile sensations in the hand is 9 x the size of non-musicians' and very active in forming new connections, so perhaps we should all take up an instrument as prophylaxis heading into our golden years? (I'll let you know if it works for me).

Sandra, You have hit on exactly what is currently gripping my interest, that is, the amazing plasticity of the brain as evidenced by the 9X expanded brain area devoted to tactile sensations of the hand in a violin player.

I'm currently reading: The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge. This book is giving me the view that there is an analogy to developing areas of the brain by brain exercise in just the same way that body building exercise can develop areas of the body. Visualize an Arnie Schwarzenegger brain! :>)

The case with the brain truly seems to be use it or lose it, or on the other hand, use it a lot and make it bigger and stronger.

There is reason to hope, of course, and good reason to try to keep our brains and bodies exercised and fit for the long haul. Of course, some brain and bodily damage really is catastrophic and neither preventable nor fixable. We don't want to let our enthusiasm for healthy attitudes and lifestyle lead us to blame patients for their disease. It is sobering to consider that none of us get out of here alive no matter how hard we work at keeping it together while we're here.

In this month's book a study of London cab drivers and a control group was performed in 2000 and established that the hippocampus part of the brain in the cabbies was enlarged. This is the portion of the brain that deals with spatial perception as needed by cabbies to hold the map of London in their minds. It was the first concrete proof that mental exercise and focus produces physical effects on the brain just as workouts produce physical effects on our muscles.

Since I suggested this month's book, The Mind and the Brain, and have read it already, I would like to post and point out some of the basic concepts and proposals by the authors for our consideration.

Schwartz states, “The power of attention not only allows us to choose what mental direction we will take. It also allows us, by actively focusing attention on one rivulet in the stream of consciousness, to change --- in scientifically demonstrable ways --- the systematic functioning of our own neural circuitry.”

To many scientists this is heresy, the equivalent of lifting oneself by your own bootstraps. This is because they believe that only material things can have a casual effect. The mind is not material so it is therefore impossible for it to effect physical changes (in our case, neural connections) according to materialistic theory. Then there is also the old school that held forth that the adult brain is fixed and immutable, except for the consequences of the physical death of neurons of course. Finally, they would argue against the concept of “free will” which implies that there is an immaterial spirit, the mind, which can, and does, affect the decisions and consequent actions of a person.

So, the question is, “If one consciously chooses to focus their attention for say, fifteen minutes, on planting flowers instead of giving in to a compulsion to go wash their hands (a typical OCD compulsion) and then does go plant flowers, resulting in a fading of the compulsion over time, is that an act of free will?”

I'm bummed that I can't keep up with this month's read, but it looks awesome. I read a pretty good one on a similar topic: the Synaptic Self. It was good but way above my head. I want to read more in this area.

Chas wrote: "Since I suggested this month's book, The Mind and the Brain, and have read it already, I would like to post and point out some of the basic concepts and proposals by the authors for our considerati..."

I think if Freud had access to more advanced technology our current concept of "the mind" would not be so rooted [ponder the irony there!!:] but we would have been talking about synaptic cause/effect for the past century.
The question (like every scientific question IMO) can go all the way back to the metaphysical, but keeping to the realm of the physical, the question of free will hits at the point of decision...it is activity, just like running is a physical activity but you can't "hold" running like you hold a book. It's still real, still physical.

Salvatrice wrote: I think if Freud had access to more advanced technology our current concept of "the mind" would not be so rooted [ponder the irony there!!:] but we would have been talking about synaptic cause/effect for the past century.
The question (like every scientific question IMO) can go all the way back to the metaphysical, but keeping to the realm of the physical, the question of free will hits at the point of decision...it is activity, just like running is a physical activity but you can't "hold" running like you hold a book. It's still real, still physical.

The argument for the existence of free will within every human is accepted instinctively by the majority of people, I think. However, there are strong elements in our society that deny it, at least to some extent. Think about, "abuse as a child created this serial killer", "poverty causes crime", "we are a product of our society". Yet many abused children never commit crimes, most poor people aren't criminals, and most people in a society that stones an adulteress don't cast the stones.

I think in cases like the above, there is a case to be made for "free won't", that is, to say, "I won't do that!"

I just finished reading The Mind and the Brain. It is an excellent book. I learned how people with severe conditions can sometimes overcome the debilitating effects of stroke, OCD, and so on.

Toward the end of the book, the author describes how quantum mechanics may be a key component to volition and free will. But, like Sandra and Chas, I also am not completely convinced of the connection with quantum mechanics. I understand how the act of observation of an atom can resolve its (previously probabilistic) state. And the analogy between "observation" and "attention" is striking. But doesn't this just beg the question, what is the mechanism for the mind/brain to show attention to something?

David wrote: ... the analogy between "observation" and "attention" is striking. But doesn't this just beg the question, what is the mechanism for the mind/brain to show attention to something?

Hi David,

I think Schwartz was grasping at some mechanism whereby the human will is indeterminate, i,e, not reduced to the whims of physical chance, but yet the non-physical mind is also also connected to the physical world through the experiment/observer connection through the holistic views in quantum theory. Gee I'm not sure I know what I'm talking about, but that's the best I can do.

I like Pinker's way of dealing with free will much better and he doesn't call on anything spooky like quantum theory.

You guys are great. I've not read this book because it's way out of my league in terms of technical science, but I've loved the discussion.

Nope, I never spent any time reading or studying quantum physics except as minimally required in college. The science seems to have changed a lot in the last 25 years!

Melissa, the discussion about quantum physics in this book is quite elementary. I takes up one chapter (well, maybe one and a half), and is not the strong point of the book. He makes an interesting remark, that physicists use quantum theory to make precise observations and calculations, but with only a few exceptions, they rarely think about the larger implications. For example, the implications of "non-local physics" are huge, but physicists rarely bring up the subject.

One of the most interesting aspects of the book, is the author's use of arguments related to natural selection and evolution, to reason about certain aspects of the mind/brain dichotomy. He reasons, (paraphrasing) "Why would the mind evolve as a separate entity from the brain, and not be able to have any effect on the physical world? What is the use in that?"

Well, for one thing, evolution is about selection and fitness. Not about "use" as he says. Something might evolve and not have a "use" as it hasn't been selected against. I mean, we still have a little toe, for example. Why would a flower have hundreds of stamens when another flower only has five?

Form doesn't follow function necessarily.

Melissa wrote: Well, for one thing, evolution is about selection and fitness. Not about "use" as he says. Something might evolve and not have a "use" as it hasn't been selected against. I mean, we still have a little toe, for example.

I must admit I don't recall doing much with my little toe during my life. However, I once saw a man that could use his feet to write and draw artwork and I think he even used his little toes. I'm sure it was useful when our ancestors lived in the trees, but now that we wear sandals and boots we likely wouldn't miss a little toe much, but all the same I'd prefer to keep mine. :>) The horse once had five toes, but traded them all in for a single hoof.

Now flowers are complicated. A certain variety of orchid has evolved such that it fools a certain wasp into believing it is a female wasp. Thus when the wasp embraces the orchid in amorous activity it picks up and spreads the orchid's pollen. I don't know how many stamens that orchid has, but it is apparently enough to fool the wasp. :>)

I have been somewhat skeptical about the idea that consciousness is a result of quantum physics operating in the brain. It's not that I disbelieve it--just that it is not well proven in "The Mind and the Brain."

I just found this interesting article about Deepak Chopra's argument that consciousness is a quantum effect. The article mentions a book The Unconscious Quantum: Metaphysics in Modern Physics and Cosmology by Victor Stenger that refutes this idea. He argues that neuron activity in the brain falls outside the realm of Planck's constant, so it could not be a quantum effect. There is a very interesting discussion about the article, in comments that follow the article.