Science Research - Giving and Receiving

A very interesting stuff to share…

According to a Scientific Research (researchers from The University of Michigan) carried over a period of 5 years on 423 elderly married couples, Giving (instrumental and emotional) greatly reduced mortality rate of those who give. For those who provide instrumental help (eg. running errands, providing rides) to others, their (the givers) mortality risk (死亡率 ) reduced by 42%. For those who provide emotional support for others, their (the givers) mortality risk reduced by 30%. Furthermore, it is also interesting to note that for those who receive help from others, the effect on their mortality risk is minimal.

Source and References :

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/301/5632/461a

http://www.britannica.com/bps/additionalcontent/18/10375493/Giving-Aid-Staying-Alive

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/pdf/ps/give_live.pdf (Full Research Article : PROVIDING SOCIAL SUPPORT MAY BE MORE BENEFICIAL THAN RECEIVING IT: Results From a Prospective Study of Mortality)

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/media/releases/2003/pr030708.cfm

http://hi.baidu.com/%D1%F4%B9%E2%CA%A6%BD%E3/blog/item/d2bd174af42966fb83025c20.html (Chinese)

Thank you and best regards.

For the gardens and parks

That day while travelling in MRT I saw a guy wearing a T shirt with designs of some seashells with wordings of ‘Tioman’ and the following : “She sells seashells at the seashores.” A pretty good design I reckon.

Here are some I thought of for Singapore Botanic gardens / Chinese garden / Japanese garden :

Let yourself be taken to the garden where worries are forsaken.

Watch the sun come down with no sound, over the sky that dons the evening gown.

Soak yourself in the greenery and notes its history, you and the flock of birds you see are all part of the scenery.

Tian Xia Fu Mu (Parents of the World)

Recently heard from radio about an interview with the director of ‘Tian Xia Fu Mu’ ( 天下父母 ) TV program in China. The director mentioned that the most important / biggest problem faced by adults in modern society is the education of the kids. He commented that both the kids as well as the parents need to be educated. The kids need to understand the hardships of your parents, they need to be moved ( 感动 ) before they can be positively influenced ( 感化 ). The parents also need to be educated so that they know how to treat their kids.

Here are some very touching shows in the ‘Tian Xia Fu Mu’ programs :

How a 4 year old kid saved and encouraged her blind father. The kid was already a few years older during the TV interview. The kid’s daily chores involved going to the market and doing the cooking for her father. Her cooking skills can certainly put many adults to shame. :

http://v.txfm.com.cn/player-media-84.html

How a man looked after his bedridden father for more than 20 years :

http://v.txfm.com.cn/player-media-87.html

How a father went to mountains after mountains in different provinces to gather herbs for his daughter who had contracted a very serious illness :

http://v.txfm.com.cn/player-media-88.html

Environmental Friendly Products shop

Saw in the Chinese newspaper that there is this shop in China town that sells all sorts of environmental friendly products. Name of the shop 'Choose'. Address : 26A Sago Stgreet. Tel: 63230651.

The Holographic Universe

In the early school days, we had been taught that there was a one to one correspondence between an image the eye see and how that image was represented in the brain. In other words, when we see a tree, there is really a tree physically out there, outside our body and its image is present in our mind. Now scientists are telling us that the above is wrong. What are ‘outside’ are actually a bunch of interference pattern / waveforms which can be represented in a frequency domain (through Fourier transform). These frequencies are filtered and converted by many parts of the brain before they appear as familiar objects ( eg. Trees, mountains, cups, bowls … ) that make up our world. If such is that case, can we say that the physical world that we always perceive is just an illusion? If the external world is unreal, then what is real? What is reality? Well, this book provides some insights into this issue. Besides telling us that our brains mathematically construct objective reality (the physical world) by interpreting frequencies seen through the eyes and other senses, scientists also came out with another radical conclusion --- space and time are also ‘Unreal’, they are constructed by our Mind.

Coming to the topic of the Hologram, this book explains the principles behind the creation of a hologram. This eventually led scientist to discover that the human mind and vision function using holographic principles. Moreover, scientists also believe that the Universe is structured like a hologram and we human beings, are also part of the hologram. It's interesting that two top scientists from two entirely different fields, a neurologist and a physicist both arrived at the conclusion that the Universe is holographic in nature through their own researches. The book then went on to use the holographic principles to explain many other phenomenon, paranormal human experiences and unsolved puzzles that Science could not explain.

Although this book was published in 1991, it was still a very popular read based on the comments submitted at Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Holographic-Universe-Michael-Talbot/dp/0060922583/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241935295&sr=8-1 ). The book summarized findings of many experiments and research throughout the world that are relevant to the subject on Holographic Universe. You do not have to be very knowledgeable in Science or proficient in Mathematics to understand this book’s contents. The author is very clear in his explanation and the laying down of research findings. Surprisingly, this book also provides some insights into the meaning of life and existence, based on the outcome of many researches of people with paranormal experiences and the findings of top scientists. These insights and some of the discoveries on the secret of the Universe can form the basis for World peace and harmony if all people understand them.

This is one of the most interesting and mind-blowing piece of Scientific work that I have come across.

Reference :

Michael Talbot, The Holographic Universe, 1991, Harper Perennial, USA.

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This book is available in some bookstores in Singapore as well as in some National Library branches.

Other links :

http://www.amazon.com/Holographic-Universe-Michael-Talbot/dp/0060922583/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241935295&sr=8-1

Youtube videos related to the Holographic Universe :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnvM_YAwX4I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpbEhSxfxeY (interview with Michael Talbot - part 1)

The Human Body User Manual Book 2 - The Path of Healing

This book is a sequence to the top selling book - The Human Body User Manual ( http://www.54md.com/book/catalog_5.html ). In Book 2, the author will explain more in depth some principles of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). Interestingly he compared the relationship between the main human organs (according to TCM principles) with principles of management in the business world. He gave examples of how a company became successful by following certain principles (Relationship between the main human organs according to TCM) and how a company failed when it went against these principles.
That is a also a very interesting section dealing with emotions and health. According to TCM, different emotions affect different main internal organs and the functions of these main internal organs will also in turn affect our emotions.
Here is a short section I attempt to translate and share with all :
Heat stroke / cold drinks
As a result of heavy workload after a vigorous workout or exercise, the human heart need to continuously dissipate the resulting heat. This causes the body to sweat profusely to dissipate the heat. After the over-heated heart gradually return to normal temperature, the sweating will then gradually stop. During this process, the body has a self-regulated control system which is able to sense the temperature in various parts of the body and determine if the heat has already dissipated from the body. If now one gulps down a few mouthful of cold drink or goes straight into an air-conditioned environment or uses cold water to wash any part of the skin, the mouth / throat / skin area will experience a sudden strong cooling sensation. This sensation will swiftly reaches the brain, causing it to wrongly ascertain that the body has cooled dwon and signals the body to stop all acts of dissipating the body heat (sweating). Many people have this similar experience. When one sweats profusely and gulps down some cold drinks, sweating stops rapidly. The above mentioned explains this experience.
The cooling sensation only comes from the mouth / skin but if fools the brain into believing that the whole body has cooled down and stopped all heat dissipating processes. At this moment, the heart is still under high temperature, the muscles on the surface of the heart may subsequently get over-heated and injured as a result, leading to myocarditis (inflamation of the myocardium, the muscular part of the heart). In serious cases, the affected person may immediately faint while in less serious cases, the affected may show symptons of heat stroke.
Traditionally, the Chinese perceive cold drinks as harmful to health, especially if one takes cold drinks immediately after a vigorous exercise and the body is still very warm. The surface of the heart may be injured as a result of taking cold drinks. An injured heart will seriously impair its functions, causing problems in blood circulation and metabolism, leading to obesity.
This book is not available for downloading but some of its content are featured on the author's blog at :

http://alexwu2300.blogspot.com/

You will find many interesting items on Health at his blog.

Reference / Book links :
http://www.books.com.tw/exep/prod/china/chinafile.php?item=CN10110374
http://www.books.com.tw/exep/prod/booksfile.php?item=0010400035

Human Body User Manual (Traditional Chinese Medicine)

This is a Chinese book that discusses some basic principles of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) in a revolutionary and scientific way that is easily understood by the layman. Most of time the author uses the analogy of a computer system to explain TCM concerpts. Here are just a few points which I gathered from this book.

* The Human body is an extremely intelligent system, many times more powerful than the computer system, especially in the management of resources and it's ability to transform one type of resouces to another type to meet the daily needs of our body system. For example, the book explains why people with diabetes lose a lot of weight during the initial period. It is a tranformation of one kind of resource inside the body to another in order to meet the deficiency of resouces in other areas. More detailed info are contained in the book.

* Sometimes, in coping with the heavy energy / resource needs of the body (eg stressful lifestyles), the body does not have the enough resources to clean up the waste and other toxic substances residing in the body. When one goes on a long vacation with plenty of rest, the body now have the resources to start a major 'spring cleaning' and a lot of waste and other toxic substances start discharging out of the body through the blood streams. If one goes for health screening (eg. blood test) during this period, the blood results may show 'unhealthy' signs. As such, it is important to take into account which period of time when one goes for a health check. Hence normal blood test results do not necessary mean that a person is healthy and vice versa. More detailed info are contained in the book.

* The illnesses in the internal main organs often manifest as symptoms in other external organs. Every often, people took Western medicines to relieve and suppress the symptoms instead of finding the exact causes. In the long run, this may harm the body. In TCM, it is essential to identify the exact cause of the an illness and the treatment of this illness may not be at the location where the symptoms occur after the cause of illness is identified. More interesting examples and info are found in the book.

* The book also discusses the different approach between Western Medicine and TCM.

* The book also provides simple tips / exercises in maintaining a healthy body.

You can download the book at :

http://www.54md.com/book/catalog_5.html

Not to worry, there are no copyright issues with downloading the book. As mentioned in the last few pages of the book under the Interview section, the author made the softcopy of the book freely available on the web for quite some time before the hardcopy prints were out. His intention was pure as he wished to benefit more people. He was indeed surprised that the circulation of his softcopy book created a surge in the sales of the hardcopy prints!

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Here is something I heard about (not from the book) and which I like to share. In Western culture, terms like 消毒，消灭，杀菌 etc are often used. In ancient Chinese culture, terms like 解毒，化解 are often used. From this you can see two different approaches towards the treatment of diseases and in a broader sense, attitudes towards Life. Very often, as we seen throughout history, the more human attempt to kill viruses, pests etc, the more resistant the viruses, pests etc behave towards the antibiotics. The viruses may also mutate in such a way that antibiotics become ineffective in such situations. If you watch Chinese films, you will come across the word 解毒药，but certainly not the word 消毒药or 杀毒药. Being able to neutralize the poison / viruses is the approach in ancient Chinese culture.

In the resolution of human conflicts around the world, the use of vengeful means usually lead to more disastrous results in the future. Hope that all conflicts can be resolved using peaceful means.