Science & Technology
Today, I would like to say a few words about the suppressed Pythagorean Tradition both as a celebration of a lost art of thinking that gave rise to the greatest revolutions in science and even moral philosophy but also as an antidote to the impotent cult of scientism which has permeated every branch of thought in presently beleaguered age. This cult of scientism masquerading behind peer reviews and a new technocratic priesthood of "experts" professes arrogantly to hold all the answers to the nature of the universe from the "start" of the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago, the structure of atoms made up of quarks that have never been observed, fundamental "forces" that are presumed to exist as separate entities and mysterious stuff like "dark matter" mixed with "dark energy" that we are told makes up 95% of existence.
The orbiter, one of four distinct Chang'e-5 mission spacecraft, delivered a return module containing 1.731 kilograms of lunar samples to Earth Dec. 16 before firing its engines to deep space for an extended mission.
The Chang'e-5 orbiter later successfully entered an intended orbit around Sun-Earth Lagrange point 1, roughly 1.5 million kilometers, in March. There it carried out tests related to orbit control and observations of the Earth and Sun.
New data from satellite trackers now suggests Chang'e-5 has left its orbit around Sun-Earth L1 and is destined for a lunar flyby early September 9 Eastern time.
This week on MindMatters we are joined by Juliana Barembuem of Language with Chu, a polyglot and long-time student of language, who presents a number of 'outside of the box' perspectives on language; what do languages have in common with discoveries in biology? Is language a feature of intelligent design? How is the use of language abused and in service of ideas that actually confuse and misinform - to name just a few. One thing to realize is that the deeper we get into this discussion the more we see that these lines of inquiry are really just the beginning of this conversation.
Running Time: 01:43:02
Download: MP3 — 94.3 MB

Algorithm developed by Lithuanian researchers can predict possible Alzheimer’s with nearly 100 per cent accuracy
According to World Health Organisation, Alzheimer's disease is the most frequent cause of dementia, contributing to up to 70 per cent of dementia cases. Worldwide, approximately 24 million people are affected, and this number is expected to double every 20 years. Owing to societal ageing, the disease will become a costly public health burden in the years to come.
"Medical professionals all over the world attempt to raise awareness of an early Alzheimer's diagnosis, which provides the affected with a better chance of benefiting from treatment. This was one of the most important issues for choosing a topic for Modupe Odusami, a PhD student from Nigeria", says Rytis Maskeliūnas, a researcher at the Department of Multimedia Engineering, Faculty of Informatics, Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Odusami's PhD supervisor.
Over the past half a century, biologists have studied the mechanisms involved to piece together most of the major steps involved in making faithful repairs in DNA. Yet, one part of the process has remained frustratingly unclear.
By marking key enzymes and DNA with fluorescent tags and watching the repair process unfold in real-time in an Escherichia coli model, researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden have filled in missing details on how bacteria find the templates they rely on to keep genetic repairs error-free.
One trick most living things use to keep their code in order is the process of homologous recombination, the biological equivalent of comparing two distinct versions of a script to make sure a copy hasn't mistakenly introduced any errors.

Fast-moving debris from a supernova explosion triggered by a stellar collision in the VT 1210+4956 system crashes into material thrown out earlier, and the shocks cause bright radio emission seen by the VLA.
"Theorists had predicted that this could happen, but this is the first time we've actually seen such an event," said Dillon Dong, a graduate student at Caltech.
Dong and colleagues first detected radio emission from VT 1210+4956 in VLASS data.
Comment: At least two other nova events have been reported recently:
- New nova visible in Cassiopeia constellation discovered by amateur astronomer
- Rare recurrent nova outburst visible in constellation Ophiuchus
- Why the sun's atmosphere is hundreds of times hotter than its surface
- Astronomers observe SIX galaxies undergo sudden, dramatic transitions into super-bright quasars
- 100 previously catalogued stars just vanished!
- Massive, mysterious filament structure extending around the Milky Way's edge discovered
- Behind the Headlines: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made?
- MindMatters: The Holy Grail, Comets, Earth Changes and Randall Carlson
- Behind the Headlines: The Electric Universe - An interview with Wallace Thornhill

Map showing the extreme cold associated with the Arctic air mass, with the darkest blue regions indicating surface temperatures of -35°C
For the past decade, evidence has been building in support of the counterintuitive idea that some of the recent cold winter spells at mid-latitudes in North America and Eurasia are linked to the Arctic warming faster than the rest of the world due to climate change.
Comment: What is important to note is that scientists appear to be no longer able to ignore the global cooling occurring on our planet. As for what's causing it: The rise in polar vortex events - a term unknown to most people 20 years ago - appears to be related to the increasingly meandering jet stream, the stalling Gulf Stream, Earth's weakening magnetosphere, and all of this and more is thought to be connected to our quieting Sun:
- Volcanoes, Earthquakes And The 3,600 Year Comet Cycle
- Recap: The changing jet stream and global cooling
- Sott Exclusive: Nemesis, not 'Nibiru' - Clarifying mainstream reports about 'a large ninth planet' that periodically sends comets our way
- Professor Valentina Zharkova: "We entered the 'modern' Grand Solar Minimum on June 8, 2020"
- Behind the Headlines: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made?
- MindMatters: The Holy Grail, Comets, Earth Changes and Randall Carlson
- Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Interview with Laura Knight-Jadczyk and Pierre Lescaudron
Philosopher of science Stephen Meyer's new book, Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe, documents the history of the fall of the God hypothesis in science during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. But the hypothesis is back, Meyer explains, detailing three scientific discoveries of the last 100 years that are fueling its "return."
The three are: 1) the discovery that the secret of life is the information contained in living things, 2) the discovery that the laws and constants of physics in our universe are extremely "fine-tuned" for life and 3) the discovery that the universe had a beginning.
While no one today claims it is needed to explain celestial mechanics, the "God hypothesis" was never truly replaced by plausible explanations for the origin and evolution of life. It was simply banished from science by arbitrary fiat, fueled by the successes of science in other areas.
Charles Darwin's extremely implausible explanation for the origin of species, which becomes more implausible with every new biological and biochemical discovery, remains popular in the scientific world today only because — no matter how implausible and how inconsistent with the evidence — it must be true because it is the only alternative anyone can imagine to the "unscientific" theory of intelligent design.
"The fundamental idea here is that you can encode information in the dynamics of a signal that a gene is receiving," says Albert Keung, corresponding author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State. "So, rather than a signal simply being present or absent, the way in which the signal is being presented matters."
For this study, researchers modified a yeast cell so that it has a gene that produces fluorescent proteins when the cell is exposed to blue light.
Comment: One wonders whether other stimuli, such as sound, could also be used to elicit controlled responses:
- The Enduring Mystery of Light
- Water Science: Evidence for Homeopathy
- More fantastic molecular machine videos from Wehi
- 5000-year-old stone balls continue to baffle archaeologists
- The Health & Wellness Show: Lightening up: The Benefits of Photobiomodulation
- MindMatters: Interview with Ken Pedersen: Quarks, DNA, Consciousness - It's All Information, Always Has Been
- The Truth Perspective: Mind the Gaps: Locating the Intelligence in Evolution and Design
- The Truth Perspective: Are Cells the Intelligent Designers? Why Creationists and Darwinists Are Both Wrong
Comment: For further insight into the proofs supporting intelligent design, see:
- The Probability of Evolution
- Darwinism, Creationism... How About Neither?
- Despite lack of genetic diversity narwhals still thrive
- MindMatters: Interview with Ken Pedersen: Quarks, DNA, Consciousness - It's All Information, Always Has Been
- The Truth Perspective: Mind the Gaps: Locating the Intelligence in Evolution and Design
- The Truth Perspective: Are Cells the Intelligent Designers? Why Creationists and Darwinists Are Both Wrong












Comment: See also: