Friday, January 30, 2015

Weekend Rebel Science Excursion - 38

Today, let's consider some old and some new revolutionary science concepts and surprises.

Two discoveries I want to talk about come from the realm of telescopes (outer space) and a microscope (inner space).

One discovery involves very old planets, which, as discussed later in the post, seems to possibly challenge the time line of Big Bang cosmology (a.k.a. abiotic evolution).

The other involves microbes that use molecular machines to de-construct rocks and metals, then use the resulting atomic parts to generate energy for the microbes' own use; a phenomenon which has generated an interesting observation (by the professor who discovered them) that those microbes "had to have invented wonderful machines" (see video below).

The third issue is an old, rejected one ("genetic memory") that one doctor is trying to resurrect.

I. Rock Microbes

This may involve some of the first molecular machines used by microbes:
A founding father of geobiology, Nealson's interdisciplinary approach is seen in his work between the geological and microbiological sciences. His geobiology work began in the 1970s with his research on the biochemistry of iron and manganese in freshwater and marine environments. It led to the isolation and characterization of one of the first dissimilatory metal-reducing microbes, Shewanella oneidensis, that has developed into an important model environmental microorganism.

A pioneer of the bioluminescence field, Nealson was the first to describe the phenomenon of quorum sensing in luminescent bacteria that were symbionts in various marine organisms. This work encompassed microbial ecology, physiology, biochemistry, and genetics.

Recently, Nealson and colleagues have researched the function of microbial fuel cells, carbon and nitrogen processing in cyanobacteria using nano-SIMS, the genomics of important metal-biotransforming microorganisms, and the mechanisms of microbial mineral formation and dissolution. They have made exciting discoveries leading to applications, such as removal of toxic metals in water and electricity production. He is a key member of the astrobiology community and trusted NASA advisor. His creative thinking, scientific interests, and dedication to mentoring inspire the scientific community and students alike.
(American Society for Microbiology Honors Kenneth H. Nealson, cf. Microbes Eat Rocks, Pop Science, NAS Sites, U. of Cal. 2009).

II. Old Planets

Another discovery bears upon the Big Bang time line, as well as on the time when the first carbon was made in stars, so as to make our carbon-based Earth-life forms possible:
Five rocky alien worlds that are 80 percent as old as the universe itself have been discovered, suggesting that Earth-size planets have been a feature of the Milky Way galaxy almost since its beginning.

The newfound exoplanets circle Kepler-444, an 11.2-billion-year-old star about 25 percent smaller than the sun that lies 117 light-years from Earth. All of the worlds are Venus-size or smaller and are therefore rocky, though scientists know nothing else about their composition.

All five alien planets complete an orbit in less than 10 days, meaning they're almost certainly too hot to support life as we know it. But Kepler-444 hints at the existence of other ancient planetary systems that may be more hospitable, researchers said.

"We now know that Earth-sized planets have formed throughout most of the universe’s 13.8-billion-year history, which could provide scope for the existence of ancient life in the galaxy," lead study author Tiago Campante, of the University of Birmingham in England, said in a statement.

For perspective, Earth and everything else in our own solar system formed about 4.6 billion years ago.
(Old Planets Discovered). It is important that scientists and science news reporters be careful with issues:
On a personal note, I reported on this last year as straight news. I assumed that such an announcement had been vetted and the results peer-reviewed. They hadn’t been at that time. As such, I think it’s up to the scientists making the claim to make that clear, and to be more circumspect in their announcement… just as it’s up to those of us reporting on big news to be skeptical and make sure that the process of peer review has been fully respected. That’s on me, and I blew it.
(So, About That Huge Discovery Last Year). Thus, I have several questions about the "old star and planets" news release.

Those questions, so far, are:
1) What about the accuracy of their technique ("asteroseismology") for determining the age of each star (i.e. does the technique work the same for each generation of stars, e.g. 1st, 2nd, or 3rd generation, since each of those stars is very different from the others) that evolves at the center of a solar system?

2) What generation (e.g. 1st, 2nd, or 3rd generation) is the star which is currently at the center of that 5 planet solar system (e.g. On the Origin of the Genes of Viruses - 8)?

3) Did carbon ever form in that star or in a predecessor star in that system (On the Origin of the Genes of Viruses - 6)?

4) Was there enough time from the Big Bang for that star and its planets to have evolved based on the estimated age?

5) Were any of the planets of that system once in the habitable "Goldilocks" zone?

6) Did they later all get pulled so close to the star as a result of an inordinate change in mass, etc., of that star?

7) Did carbon-based life ever evolve on any of those 5 planets?

8) Did any civilizations on any of those 5 planets ever evolve?

9) If so, did those civilizations become intelligent then later destroy themselves (What Kind of Intelligence Is A Lethal Mutation?)?

10) How does this alleged discovery conform to the current Big Bang theory and time line: (Big Bang -> elements appear -> galaxy / star formation -> carbon formed in stars -> carbon released upon star's demise -> carbon ends up on planets -> carbon-based life evolves on one or more planets)?
Another reason I am sceptical of the estimated age of that star, is that the basis of the assertions of early solar systems has, in the past, been based on questionable applications of current knowledge (e.g. using Moore's Law as a dating mechanism: New Hypothesis Says Life Began Before The Earth).

III. Genetic Memory vs. Epigenetics

It has been the consensus of scientists for some time that Lamarckism is wrong (On The Origin of Genieology, 2, 3; cf. Genetic Memory).

Nevertheless, an article recently appeared in Scientific American espousing genetic memory, which is Lamarckian (Genetic Memory: How We Know Things We Never Learned).

Other developments have shown that some behavior generated aspects of a parent are passed on to offspring in some species, but there is a debate as to whether it is genetic or epigenetic:
"The key question isn’t whether this so-called ‘transgenerational epigenetic inheritance’ happens — it does — but rather how it happens (and how frequently, and in what contexts and species)."
(Mice Inherit Specific Memories, Because Epigenetics?). The details are being sorted out, but all agree that more experiments (which are more closely controlled and performed) are needed.

Perhaps the comment section will have some ideas on some or all of these subjects.

Have a good and rebellious scientific weekend.

Microbe species which have existed for billions of years "had to have invented wonderful machines" says Dr. Nealson in this video:



Dr. Bonnie L. Bassler of Princeton University explains the wonderful language microbes use to communicate:


Thursday, January 29, 2015

Security: Familyland, Fatherland, or Homeland? - 5

Recent FOIA lawsuits in the United States have revealed disturbing trends, habits, and policies as regards spying on Americans.

The Snowden revelations (ACLU vs. Clapper, Alexander, Hagel, Holder, and Mueller, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; The Queens of Stalingrad, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) expand upon that.

Those revelations also paint a Big Brother picture of the mind of certain factions within the "American Democracy."

The new reports are more of the same type of sicko, fascist, Orwellian, dictatorial, Big Brother psychopathology:
Federal agencies tried to use vehicle license-plate readers to track the travel patterns of Americans on a much wider scale than previously thought, with new documents showing the technology was proposed for use to monitor public meetings.

The American Civil Liberties Union released more documents this week revealing for the first time the potential scale of a massive database containing the data of millions of drivers, logged from automatic license plate readers around the US.
...
“The broad thrust of the DEA is to spread its program broadly and catch data and travel patterns on a massive scale,” Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with ACLU, told the Guardian. “This could be a really amazing level of surveillance that we’ve not seen before in this country.”
...
Clark Neily, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, a Virginia-based libertarian law firm, said Americans would be disturbed to know that law enforcement’s quest for revenue impelled mass surveillance.

“It’s deeply concerning and creepy,” Neily said. “We’re Americans. We drive a lot.”

The ACLU followed up Monday’s tranche of DEA documents, which were obtained under Freedom of Information Act (Foia) requests, with the further documents revealing that federal agents planned to use automatic license plate readers to monitor attendees at gun shows in April 2009. The group said it did not know whether the car surveillance was still going on, or how wide it ever spread.
...
The perception that an average citizen’s car could be monitored upon entering or leaving a gun show – or any other lawful assembly – infringed upon civil rights, said Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.

“It would be chilling,” Olson said. “You could think twice about exercising that right.”
...
The license-plate readers have fed hundreds of millions of records about motorists into a national database, the first round of ACLU documents show. If license plate readers, also known as LPRs, continued to proliferate without restriction, and the DEA held ldata for extended periods, the agency would soon possess a detailed and invasive depiction of people’s lives, the ACLU has warned.
(U.S. Government Plan to Track Drivers). When is accountability going to be put back in place?

Help the ACLU "sue the bastids!"

The previous post in this series is here.

"I really think that white people are from another planet ..."



More proof from Chris Hedges ...



Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Another "O" in Oil-Qaeda's Quiver

Drilling For A Living Killing
Today's post will fault the media, to the degree they are responsible, for the impending catastrophes being brought on civilization by the realm of Oil-Qaeda (We Failed - NYT Editor). 

There is rarely a mention of Oil-Qaeda in the main stream media, so you may not be familiar with the term or its origination (Oil-Qaeda: The Indictment, 2, 3, 4; Choose Your Trances Carefully - 2).

The scenario is like it was when there was no journalism during the main stream media failures following 9/11 (Warriors Press For Propaganda), so they overlooked the lies which led us into invasions and occupations of nations that had nothing to do with it, while no actions were taken against some nations that were involved in it (Fighting Terrorism For 200 Years - 4).

Oil-Qaeda is the toxic realm of international corporations which began, and now perpetuate, the extraction & burning of fossil fuels, the pollution of the Earth with oil spills, and the making of plastic to fill the oceans (New Continent Found - Garbage Gyre II).

Yes, Oil-Qaeda is the toxic realm now facilitating the polluting of the environment required for human habitat (e.g. Koch-Oil-Qaeda Plutocrats).

The U.S. federal and state governments are virtual employees of Oil-Qaeda (Obama Sez Baby Can Drill) in those areas where it facilitates more catastrophe for civilization (Drill Baby Drill, BOEM).

The grieving climate scientists (Mourning Our Planet: Climate Scientists) say we must leave fossil fuels in the ground if we are to survive (Petroleum Civilization: The Final Chapter (Confusing Life with Death), 2, 3) as President Obama brags about the U.S. being the number one taker-of-oil-from-the-ground, then says "take even more out."

Evidently, the government now sees itself as a mortician (MOMCOM's Mass Suicide & Murder Pact, 2, 3, 4, 5).

Little wonder, then, why scientists and activists are grieving (Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch, 2, 3, 4, 5).

"Ballad of a Thin Man", by Bob Dylan (lyrics here)



Chomsky on celebrating killing:




Bob Dylan - The Ballad of a Thin Man from Vasco Cavalcante on Vimeo.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Blizzards and Space Exploration

Meteorologists in the North-East warned of a blizzard via an approaching winter storm named Juno.

Folks there are going through the blizzard quite well so far, having listened to the warnings and then having prepared ahead.

That having been done, now it is time for the sledding, snowshoe-hiking, skiing, and other snow fun from Central Park in New York, to Boston, on up to Maine:
Tens of millions of people along the East Coast hunkered down for a storm that for most failed to live up to predictions that it would be one of the worst they'd ever seen.

Forecasters originally said the storm could bring 1 to 3 feet of snow and punishing hurricane-force winds. But early Tuesday, they downgraded most of those numbers, saying New England would fare the worst, but even then not as bad as expected.
(East Coast Snow Storm). It is so good to see people prepare as governments take appropriate heed and warn folks ahead of time.

Good luck to all the folks up in the North-East!

On other fronts, the Dawn spacecraft is approaching the largest "asteroid," Ceres (NASA Dawn), as NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is approaching Pluto (Close Encounter with Distant Pluto).

Those two planetoids are being approached for the first time for a more close-up photo shoot, as well as for serious scanning by other instruments to gather "relevant information" (the NSA must have been in on that design).

The EPH ("exploded planet hypothesis") people are going to be looking for "clues."

Clues which indicate whether or not Ceres could be composed of some of the remains of a large ocean.

The remains of a large body of water which was once part of a planet.

A planet which orbited the Sun, somewhere between Mars and Jupiter.

Yes, that planet orbited the Sun, until it exploded, to become the debris field we now call the "asteroid belt" (eg. EPH, Weekend Rebel Science Excursion, 7, Exploded Planet Hypothesis).

Why that planet exploded is, among other things, a debate, in science fiction circles, associated with Dyson Grids (as discussed in the links just above).

Meanwhile, the Voyager I and II spacecraft are entering interstellar space:
Voyager 1 has entered interstellar space. The NASA spacecraft, which rose from Earth on a September morning 36 years ago, has traveled farther than anyone, or anything, in history. Now Voyager 1 is in the space between the stars.
(NASA Voyager). Not to mention the Mars Rovers crawling over the very interesting Martian landscape (Curiosity, Opportunity).

I will close with a report from Australia about radio signals received there from space:
Astronomers in Australia have picked up an “alien” radio signal from space for the first time as it occurred. The signal, or radio “burst”, was discovered on May 15, 2014, though it’s just being reported by the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. “The burst was identified within 10 seconds of its occurrence,” said Emily Petroff, a doctoral student from Melbourne’s Swinburne University of Technology. “The importance of the discovery was recognized very quickly and we were all working very excitedly to contact other astronomers and telescopes around the world to look at the location of the burst.”

Emerging from an unknown source, these bursts are bright flashes of radio waves that emit as much energy in a few milliseconds as the sun does in 24 hours. “The first fast radio burst was discovered in 2007,” Petroff tells FoxNews.com, “and up until our discovery there were 8 more found in old or archival data.” While researchers use telescopes in Hawaii, India, Germany, Chile, California, and the California Islands to search for bursts, it is the CSIRO Parkes radio telescope in Eastern Australia that is the first to catch one as its happening.

The cause of these mysterious signals remains unknown, with possible theories ranging from black holes to alien communication. However, UFO hunters shouldn’t get too excited. According to Petroff, “We're confident that they're coming from natural sources, that is to say it's probably not aliens, but we haven't solved the case completely. The two most promising theories at the moment are that these bursts could be produced either by a star producing a highly energetic flare, or from a neutron star collapsing to make a black hole. Both of these things would be from sources in far-away galaxies just reaching us from billions of light years away.”
(Fox News). There is nothing like the Earth, so we should care for it each and every day, never polluting and ruining it with overuse.

Bright spot (frozen lake in crater?) becomes visible on Ceres as Dawn spacecraft approaches:


Monday, January 26, 2015

Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah (Binary Blues)



Father Death
by Allen Ginsberg

Hey Father Death, I'm flying home
Hey poor man, you're all alone
Hey old daddy, I know where I'm going

Father Death, Don't cry any more
Mama's there, underneath the floor
Brother Death, please mind the store

Old Aunty Death Don't hide your bones
Old Uncle Death I hear your groans
O Sister Death how sweet your moans

O Children Deaths go breathe your breaths
Sobbing breasts'll ease your Deaths
Pain is gone, tears take the rest

Genius Death your art is done
Lover Death your body's gone
Father Death I'm coming home

Guru Death your words are true
Teacher Death I do thank you
For inspiring me to sing this Blues

Buddha Death, I wake with you
Dharma Death, your mind is new
Sangha Death, we'll work it through

Suffering is what was born
Ignorance made me forlorn
Tearful truths I cannot scorn

Father Breath once more farewell
Birth you gave was no thing ill
My heart is still, as time will tell.



"Zeros & Ones", by Baby Seal Club (lyrics)



Sunday, January 25, 2015

On The Origin of Genieology - 3

Painting by David Ho
In this series, "genieology" has been mentioned in one sense as being: "genetic essentialism --the idea that our genes carry our fundamental essence" (On The Origin of Genieology).

Scientific papers indicate that this is largely a science-media myth, encouraged by sensationalism that appeals to various existing lay misconceptions.

That is, it is not a current scientific community consensus.

The scientific journals have a lot of papers which explain that genetic essentialism is not factual, some of which were linked to in prior posts in this series.

For example, one such paper indicates:
"The tendency to infer a person’s characteristics and behaviors as based on their perceived genetic make-up is termed genetic essentialism. As Nelkin and Lindee (1995) put it, “genetic essentialism reduces the self to a molecular entity, equating human beings, in all their social, historical, and moral complexity, with their genes” (p. 2).

We argue that once people consider the existence of a genetic foundation to a particular life outcome, psychological tendency, or characteristic, their psychological essentialist biases are activated, and a particular set of associated thoughts about those outcomes are likely to emerge. First, genetic essentialism may lead people to view outcomes as immutable and determined. That is, an outcome is perceived to unfold according to some fixed set of underlying genetic processes, that people assume is largely independent of environmental influence and beyond an individual’s control. Genetic essentialism thus leads people to view genetically influenced outcomes as inescapable and fatalistic. If the genes are present, the outcome is expected.

Second, arguments for a genetic foundation for a human condition may lead people to view the relevant genes as entailing the fundamental cause of the condition – what Meehl (1977) referred to as a specific etiology. The genetic foundation and the associated condition may be viewed as having two-way pathognomicity in that the presence of the hypothesized genes is seen to prove the presence of the condition, and, likewise, the absence of the genes is seen to exclude the condition. Perception of the genetic foundation as a fundamental cause leads people to devalue the role of ontogenetic, environmental, or experiential factors.

A third consequence of genetic essentialism is that it may lead people to view groups that share a genetic foundation as being homogeneous and discrete. The relevant condition may be perceived as coterminous with the boundaries of its associated group – all members of a group that share the genetic essence have the potential to possess the associated condition, and that condition should not be observed in those who do not share the underlying genetic foundation.

Finally, genetic causes lead people to view the outcome as natural, and, in some domains, this may prompt the naturalistic fallacy such that the associated outcomes are perceived as more morally acceptable. The naturalistic fallacy refers to the tendency to derive ethical properties (e.g., being “good” or “right”) from natural properties (e.g., being “tall,” or being “green”; Frankena, 1939; Moore, 1903); that is, a particular tendency that is judged to be natural will be viewed as more acceptable than one that is deemed unnatural."
(Genetic Essentialism: On the Deceptive Determinism of DNA, emphasis added). It may be that some readers do not see the harm in the fantasy or fallacy.

Yet, it is not unlike what happened to early Darwinists infected with cultural trances of the day.

The Social Darwinists, pro-Eugenics intellectuals, and genieologists, still can't handle the fact that abiotic dynamics are far more important to evolution, and have been active for far, far longer than the more recent biotic evolutionary dynamics (On the Origin of the Genes of Viruses, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; The Uncertain Gene, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10).

Darwin, like pop genieologists today, was infected with the cultural racism of his time.

Cultural myths can skew understanding of evolution and cause many social wrongs:
"Lastly, I could show fight on natural selection having done and doing more for the progress of civilisation than you seem inclined to admit. Remember what risks nations of Europe ran, not so many centuries ago, of being overwhelmed by the Turks, and how ridiculous such an idea now is! The more civilized so-called Caucasian races have beaten the Turkish hollow in the struggle for existence. Looking to the world at no very distant date, what an endless number of the lower races will have been eliminated by the higher civilized races throughout the world." - Charles Darwin (1881 letter)
(The Evolution of Anthropogenic Extinction by Catastrophe). That racism fed the Social Darwinism errors for a long time, eventually leading to Eugenics.

The genieologists and Darwinians, in many cases, do not like evidence that abiotic, cosmic, and quantum mechanical events have had more of an impact on extinction / evolution than "Darwinian natural selection" has.

For example, a theory that an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, which supplanted an Earth-events-evolution-only myth, was resisted for decades (State Crimes Against Democracy), but eventually certain evidence was given preeminence:
"One key piece of evidence was the abundance of iridium in geological samples around the world from the time of the extinction. Iridium is very rare in Earth's crust and very common in asteroids. Immediately after the iridium layer, there is a dramatic decline in fossil abundance and species, indicating that the KT extinction followed very soon after the asteroid hit."
(Science Daily, quoting an international scientific panel, 3/4/10). A very rare Earth element, iridium, which is found abundantly in asteroids, is deposited precisely at the K-T boundary layer all over the globe in sedimentary layers that date to ~65 million years ago.

Nevertheless, there are still some sour grapes out there:
For example, "nobody has ever found a non-avian dinosaur fossil exactly at the impact layer," Renne said in an email. "Hence, strictly speaking, the non-avian dinosaurs"—those dinosaurs unrelated to birds—"may have already gone extinct by the time of the impact."
(National Geographic, cf. Princeton Study). But that modification to the old hypothesis is challenged by more recent comprehensive global studies.

Studies which are now concluding that the dinosaurs were very successful, in the sense of dominating other species in that environment, but nevertheless went extinct instantly, in the geological sense of time, by the asteroid impact:
"The theory that an asteroid rapidly killed off the dinosaurs is widely recognized, but until recently dinosaur fossils from the latest Cretaceous--the final stanza of dinosaur evolution--were known almost exclusively from North America. This has raised questions about whether the sudden decline of dinosaurs in the American and Canadian west was merely a local story.

The new study synthesizes a flurry of research on European dinosaurs over the past two decades. Fossils of latest Cretaceous dinosaurs are now commonly discovered in Spain, France, Romania, and other countries.

By looking at the variety and ages of these fossils, a team of researchers led by Zoltán Csiki-Sava of the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Geology and Geophysics has determined that dinosaurs remained diverse in European ecosystems very late into the Cretaceous.

In the Pyrenees of Spain and France, the best area in Europe for finding latest Cretaceous dinosaurs, meat and plant-eating species are present and seemingly flourishing during the final few hundred thousand years before the asteroid hit."
...
"Everyone knows that an asteroid hit 66 million years ago and dinosaurs disappeared, but this story is mostly based on fossils from one part of the world, North America. We now know that European dinosaurs were thriving up to the asteroid impact, just like in North America. This is strong evidence that the asteroid really did kill off dinosaurs in their prime, all over the world at once."
(Dinosaurs Wiped Out Rapidly in Europe, 1/13/15, emphasis added). There is an agenda to have all Earth extinctions fall into the line of Darwinistic dogma, excluding cosmic events because those cosmic events make mass extinctions wholly devoid of "Darwinian natural selection" (The Evolution of Anthropogenic Extinction by Catastrophe).

There are special interests that want the current and ongoing Sixth Mass Extinction to be seen "naturally," rather than it being a Mass Murder-Suicide done by Oil-Qaeda:
"... genetic causes lead people to view the outcome as natural, and, in some domains, this may prompt the naturalistic fallacy such that the associated outcomes are perceived as more morally acceptable. The naturalistic fallacy refers to the tendency to derive ethical properties (e.g., being “good” or “right”) from natural properties (e.g., being “tall,” or being “green”; Frankena, 1939; Moore, 1903); that is, a particular tendency that is judged to be natural will be viewed as more acceptable than one that is deemed unnatural."
(Genetic Essentialism: On the Deceptive Determinism of DNA, italics added). It is habitual for societies to commit suicide (A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee).

But, habit and morality are not the same issues, nor are they based on the same behavioural dynamics (Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch, 2, 3, 4, 5).

The immorality of those who created Petroleum Civilization, and who want to perpetuate it, is well documented (Petroleum Civilization: The Final Chapter (Confusing Life with Death), 2, 3), so there may be some justice coming down the pike:
"Mark my words, you plutocrats, denialists, fossil-fuel hacks and science charlatans – your time will come when you will be backed against the wall by the full wrath of billions who have suffered from your greed and stupidity, and I’ll be first in line to put you there."
(Mourning Our Planet: Climate Scientists Share Their Grieving Process). Don't confuse life with death or genes with genies.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

Some quotes and times from the video below:

00:00 - "One of the most crazy making yet widespread and potentially dangerous notions is 'oh that behavior is genetic'" (Dr. Sapolsky).

01:00 - "nothing is genetically programmed" (Dr. Maté).

01:30 - "the whole search for the source of disease in the genome was destined to failure before anyone even thought of it" (Dr. Maté).

02:24 - "some of the early childhood influences ... affect gene expression, actually turning on and off different genes to put you on a different developmental track" (Dr. Wilkinson).

02:45 - "[childhood] abuse actually caused a genetic change in the brain" (Dr. Maté).

03:28 - "a few thousand individuals were studied from birth up into their twenties, what they found was that they could identify a genetic mutation, an abnormal gene which did have some relation to the predisposition to commit violence, but only if the individual had also been subjected to severe child abuse" (Dr. Gilligan).

05:30 - "run with the old version of 'its genetic' and its not that far from history of Eugenics, and things of that sort, and it is a widespread misconception and a potentially dangerous one" (Dr. Sapolsky).

05:44 - "one reason that the sort of biological explanation for violence, one reason that hypothesis is potentially dangerous, it is not just misleading, it can really do harm, is because if you believe that, you can very easily say 'well there's nothing we can do to change the predisposition people have to becoming violent, all we can do if someone becomes violent is punish them, lock them up or execute them, but we don't need to worry about changing the social environment that may lead people to become violent, because that's irrelevant'" (Dr. Wilkinson).

06:28 - "the genetic argument allows us the luxury of ignoring past and present historical and social factors. In the words of Louis Menand who wrote in the New Yorker very astutely:
“It’s all in the genes”: an explanation for the way things are that does not threaten the way things are. Why should someone feel unhappy or engage in antisocial behavior when that person is living in the freest and most prosperous nation on Earth? It can’t be the system! There must be a flaw in the wiring somewhere.”
... which is a good way to put it. So the genetic argument is simply a cop-out that allows us to ignore the social and economic and political factors that in fact underlie many troublesome behaviors" (Dr. Maté).

07:25 - "addictions are usually considered to be a drug related issue, but looking at it more broadly, I find that addiction is any behavior that is associated with craving for temporary relief and with long term negative consequences along with an impairment of control over it so that the person wishes to give it up or promises to, but can't follow through" (Dr. Maté).

08:10 - "The addiction to oil ... at least to the wealth and to the products made accessible to us by oil ... look at the negative consequences on the environment we are destroying the very Earth that we inhabit for the sake of that addiction. Now these addictions are far more devastating in the social consequences than the cocaine or heroin habits of my ... patients. Yet they are rewarded and considered to be respectable. The tobacco company executive that shows a higher profit will get a much bigger reward ... doesn't face any negative consequences legally or otherwise ... in fact is a respected member of the board of several other corporations ... but tobacco smoke related diseases kill 5.5 million people around the world every year. In the United States they kill 400,000 people a year" (Dr. Maté).

09:05 - "And these people are addicted to what? To profit, to such a degree are they addicted that they are actually in denial about the impact of their activities, which is typical for addicts, is denial. And that is the respectable one. It is respectable to be addicted to profit no matter what the cost. So what is acceptable and what is respectable is a highly arbitrary phenomenon in our society. And it seems like the greater the harm the more respectable the addiction" (Dr. Maté).

09:35 - "There is a general myth that drugs in themselves are addictive, in fact the "War on Drugs" is predicated on the idea that if you interdict the sources of drugs you can deal with addiction that way. Now, if you understand addiction in the broader sense we see that nothing in itself is addictive. No substance, no drug is by itself addictive. And no behavior is by itself addictive"  (Dr. Maté).