The Universe In Our Body

Going through the 12 astrological signs we learn how the structures of the astrological symbols are rediscoverd in the form and function of our organs and realize how connected we are with all of life. This book, with beautiful colour illustrations, will empower you to see who you truly are, a spark of the Divine in a human body (microcosm), resembling the universe (macrocosm). For the German translation, visit www.trafford.com/robots/03-1310.html.

Built from the debris of exploding stars that floated through space for billions of years, home to a zoo of tiny aliens, and controlled by a brain with more possible connections than there are atoms in the universe, the human body is the most incredible thing in existence. In the sequel to his bestselling Inflight Science, Brian Clegg explores mitochondria, in-cell powerhouses which are thought to have once been separate creatures; how your eyes are quantum traps, consuming photons of light from the night sky that have travelled for millions of years; your many senses, which include the ability to detect warps in space and time, and why meeting an attractive person can turn you into a gibbering idiot. Read THE UNIVERSE INSIDE YOU and you'll never look at yourself the same way again.

The acclaimed author of Einstein’s Dreams tackles "big questions like the origin of the universe and the nature of consciousness ... in an entertaining and easily digestible way” (Wall Street Journal) with a collection of meditative essays on the possibilities—and impossibilities—of nothingness and infinity, and how our place in the cosmos falls somewhere in between. Can space be divided into smaller and smaller units, ad infinitum? Does space extend to larger and larger regions, on and on to infinity? Is consciousness reducible to the material brain and its neurons? What was the origin of life, and can biologists create life from scratch in the lab? Physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, whom The Washington Post has called “the poet laureate of science writers,” explores these questions and more—from the anatomy of a smile to the capriciousness of memory to the specialness of life in the universe to what came before the Big Bang. Probable Impossibilities is a deeply engaged consideration of what we know of the universe, of life and the mind, and of things vastly larger and smaller than ourselves.

The brain ... There is no other part of the human anatomy that is so intriguing. How does it develop and function and why does it sometimes, tragically, degenerate? The answers are complex. In Discovering the Brain, science writer Sandra Ackerman cuts through the complexity to bring this vital topic to the public. The 1990s were declared the "Decade of the Brain" by former President Bush, and the neuroscience community responded with a host of new investigations and conferences. Discovering the Brain is based on the Institute of Medicine conference, Decade of the Brain: Frontiers in Neuroscience and Brain Research. Discovering the Brain is a "field guide" to the brainâ€"an easy-to-read discussion of the brain's physical structure and where functions such as language and music appreciation lie. Ackerman examines: How electrical and chemical signals are conveyed in the brain. The mechanisms by which we see, hear, think, and pay attentionâ€"and how a "gut feeling" actually originates in the brain. Learning and memory retention, including parallels to computer memory and what they might tell us about our own mental capacity. Development of the brain throughout the life span, with a look at the aging brain. Ackerman provides an enlightening chapter on the connection between the brain's physical condition and various mental disorders and notes what progress can realistically be made toward the prevention and treatment of stroke and other ailments. Finally, she explores the potential for major advances during the "Decade of the Brain," with a look at medical imaging techniquesâ€"what various technologies can and cannot tell usâ€"and how the public and private sectors can contribute to continued advances in neuroscience. This highly readable volume will provide the public and policymakersâ€"and many scientists as wellâ€"with a helpful guide to understanding the many discoveries that are sure to be announced throughout the "Decade of the Brain."

Marko Pogacnik is an expert in geomancy, that is, exploring the landscape experientially and gathering information about the Gaia and the different levels of the earth's reality. In this unique book, he brings the same approach to the study of the human body, exploring how we can consciously enter our own body space to experience it from the inside, and how to prepare to meet the coming challenges -- the equivalent of climate change.This book is both theoretical and practical, and includes exercises called Gaia Touch exercises, inspired by the elementals, which will stimulate personal development and help us become conscious co-creators with Gaia of the new emerging reality.

The story of the human body is perhaps the greatest story ever told--spelled out over millions of years of evolution and repeated by each of us in our own lifetime. We live it, and yet remain largely unaware of the intricate processes that play out within ourselves and those around us. For example, why can very young children learn languages more easily than adults? Why do our bodies break down during old age? How can a baby--a separate and genetically different human being--be created inside a mother without being rejected by her body? How have our complex and little-understood brains contributed to making us the most successful species on the planet? Now The Learning Channel presents Intimate Universe, the extraordinary story of human life from birth to death, which explores, at each stage, the incredible physical workings of our bodies. It is a unique and enthralling account of the body's journey from the miracle of conception and the shock of birth through the rapid and turbulent changes of adolescence and the gradual deceleration into old age and death. In Intimate Universe, author Anthony Smith transcends anatomical trivia to chronicle the body's powerful tale. In a clear and captivating style, he narrates the miraculous dramas that unfold within the hidden architecture of our internal structures. Whether it's the week-by-week account of an unborn baby's development, the uncanny signals and connections made by the brain, the remarkable abilities of the immune system, or simply the way our body sustains itself under different conditions, Smith explains the basics of physiology simply and elegantly. To support the author's exceptional narrative, IntimateUniverse includes over 150 full-color illustrations, computer-generated images, and state-of-the-art microphotography that illuminate and add context to the topics discussed. In addition, the book provides relevant anecdotes for each of the major chapters. An excellent addition to any family library, Intimate Universe is not only a valuable and comprehensive reference, but a resource that will provide new insight into our bodies' physiological challenges and fascinating secrets, allowing us to better understand ourselves. EXPLORE THE MARVELS AND MYSTERIES OF THE HUMAN BODY All the DNA present at the moment of conception of the 5.8 billion people alive today would weigh only one thousandth of an ounce. Here's how to spot the brain at work: Stand directly in front of someone and ask an arithmetical question. Left-brain activity will cause the person's eyes to avert to the right; ask a spatial question and the eyes will avert to the left, reflecting right-brain activity. If the body's branching network of blood vessels were placed end to end, they would stretch for nearly 60,000 miles--more than seven times the distance around the equator. Hearing is never more acute than at birth and declines gradually with time. By the age of ten, a child will have heard more sounds than he will hear during the rest of his life. As skin becomes less elastic, the repeated puckering caused by facial expressions begins to etch permanent lines. Scientists estimate it takes 200,000 frowns to make a brow line. No one is born with freckles. They are a protective response against sunlight. During a child's first year, 60 percent of her food intake goes toward providingenergy for brain growth and development.

Living with the Stars tells the fascinating story of what truly makes the human body. The body that is with us all our lives is always changing. We are quite literally not who we were years, weeks, or even days ago: our cells die and are replaced by new ones at an astonishing pace. The entire body continually rebuilds itself, time and again, using the food and water that flow through us as fuel and as construction material. What persists over time is not fixed but merely a pattern in flux. We rebuild using elements captured from our surroundings, and are thereby connected to animals and plants around us, and to the bacteria within us that help digest them, and to geological processes such as continental drift and volcanism here on Earth. We are also intimately linked to the Sun's nuclear furnace and to the solar wind, to collisions with asteroids and to the cycles of the birth of stars and their deaths in cataclysmic supernovae, and ultimately to the beginning of the universe. Our bodies are made of the burned out embers of stars that were released into the galaxy in massive explosions billions of years ago, mixed with atoms that formed only recently as ultrafast rays slammed into Earth's atmosphere. All of that is not just remote history but part of us now: our human body is inseparable from nature all around us and intertwined with the history of the universe.

A 30-day journal to help you define what you want with a day-by-day guide to get you there. This is a place to record your action steps, ponder an inspirational thought, and write out your ideas or feelings.

An exciting and accessible new view of the evolution of human and animal life on Earth. From the author of national bestseller, Your Inner Fish, this extraordinary journey of discovery spans centuries, as explorers and scientists seek to understand the origins of life's immense diversity. “Fossils, DNA, scientists with a penchant for suits of armor—what’s not to love?”—BBC Wildlife Magazine Over billions of years, ancient fish evolved to walk on land, reptiles transformed into birds that fly, and apelike primates evolved into humans that walk on two legs, talk, and write. For more than a century, paleontologists have traveled the globe to find fossils that show how such changes have happened. We have now arrived at a remarkable moment—prehistoric fossils coupled with new DNA technology have given us the tools to answer some of the basic questions of our existence: How do big changes in evolution happen? Is our presence on Earth the product of mere chance? This new science reveals a multibillion-year evolutionary history filled with twists and turns, trial and error, accident and invention. In Some Assembly Required, Neil Shubin takes readers on a journey of discovery spanning centuries, as explorers and scientists seek to understand the origins of life's immense diversity.

Robert Lanza is one of the most respected scientists in the world a US News and World Report cover story called him a genius and a renegade thinker, even likening him to Einstein. Lanza has teamed with Bob Berman, the most widely read astronomer in the world, to produce Biocentrism, a revolutionary new view of the universe. Every now and then a simple yet radical idea shakes the very foundations of knowledge. The startling discovery that the world was not flat challenged and ultimately changed the way people perceived themselves and their relationship with the world. For most humans of the 15th century, the notion of Earth as ball of rock was nonsense. The whole of Western, natural philosophy is undergoing a sea change again, increasingly being forced upon us by the experimental findings of quantum theory, and at the same time, toward doubt and uncertainty in the physical explanations of the universes genesis and structure. Biocentrism completes this shift in worldview, turning the planet upside down again with the revolutionary view that life creates the universe instead of the other way around. In this paradigm, life is not an accidental byproduct of the laws of physics. Biocentrism takes the reader on a seemingly improbable but ultimately inescapable journey through a foreign universe our own from the viewpoints of an acclaimed biologist and a leading astronomer. Switching perspective from physics to biology unlocks the cages in which Western science has unwittingly managed to confine itself. Biocentrism will shatter the readers ideas of life--time and space, and even death. At the same time it will release us from the dull worldview of life being merely the activity of an admixture of carbon and a few other elements; it suggests the exhilarating possibility that life is fundamentally immortal. The 21st century is predicted to be the Century of Biology, a shift from the previous century dominated by physics. It seems fitting, then, to begin the century by turning the universe outside-in and unifying the foundations of science with a simple idea discovered by one of the leading life-scientists of our age. Biocentrism awakens in readers a new sense of possibility, and is full of so many shocking new perspectives that the reader will never see reality the same way again.