Tag: science

Doing a Planck

Max

This morning I happened upon a great quote from the theoretical physicist Max Planck. “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change”. I love this because life really is about perception, not some of the time, but ALL of the time.

Max Planck was a great physicist, but did you know that he was also a gifted musician? I’m sure you have heard that music and math go hand in hand (except in my case…). Max was famous for his work in quantum theory, and went on to win the Nobel prize in physics in 1918. He grew up in a typical German family in the mid-1800’s. He was a member of his local Lutheran church, loved music and math, and unfortunately lived among a lot of war and loss of loved ones. He lost his first wife to TB and three children to childbirth complications and war. Just think of the sorrow, and yet, he managed to be outstanding in his field. Notably, his son tried to assassinate Hitler, and was killed by the Nazi party. Maybe his dedication to work served to keep his mind off the many tragedies of life.

Because of Planck, we began to understand our world through quantum physics, and the presence of atomic and subatomic particles. In conjunction with Einstein, these new ideas opened up twentieth century science in a way we had never understood before. He was a brilliant man with liberal views on society. He had an open mind to other religions and philosophies. He was ethical and kind as well as smart.

Here are some more Planck quotes to dwell on:

“Science advances one funeral at a time”.

“Insight must precede application”.

“The highest court is in the end one’s own conscience and conviction—that goes for you and for Einstein and every other physicist—and before any science there is first of all belief.”

“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.”

Just a few of his many insights, I hope this gives you conviction to continue down whatever path has been laid before you. Many people fight for the right to bring new ideas into mainstream thinking. So many of these people have fought hard personal battles as well as battles among their peers to further progress our human condition.

Let’s hear it for Max and all the other scientists out there that study relentlessly with their passion, and give us understanding and hope.

Cheers, and please comment and follow for more “stuff”. Deb

EBP

I have been a nurse for almost 34 years (yes, I started my career at age 6), and most of that time has been spent in some type of procedural environment, mostly the operating room. As a new grad, I did bedside nursing for 5 years, which I have to say is super challenging and a great way to learn right out of school. There was a huge lapse of time from my initial graduation with a diploma, back in 1985, to my Bachelor’s degree in 2018. Most of this was because life got in the way, lack of money for spending on myself, etc. However, a lot of that time I spent in school taking various classes for self-improvement, which eventually led me to enough credits in various subjects to formally “wrap it up”, so to speak. You know when you were small, people used to ask you, “What do you want to be when you grow up”, and you had to come up with something? No problem for me, it varied according to age and experience, and has been approximately this progression: ballerina, teacher, professional Broadway dancer, artist (that was a close one), nurse, horticulturist, expert in English history or literature, yogi, but always….always…. writer. I have to say that it is a cumulative mixture of all of these things that make up my present day personality. However, nursing was the official occupation, and so it was the way I made my money.

The way nurses are taught today is a little different than it was 35 years ago. In 1992 someone came up with the notion of EBP: Evidence Based Practice. Evidence based practice integrates using the best research evidence to see if treatments work, integrating this with the best practitioners and resources, and taking into consideration the unique needs and preferences of the individual being treated. The reason I am telling you this, is that there is a lot more going on behind the scene of your hospital visit than you know. From the moment you enter the building, to the minute you leave,(all the clinical people you encounter are following your “care plan”, which is a giant blueprint of your condition, needs, and therapies. When I come out to talk to you in pre-op, and question you for the upteenth time about what meds you’re on, your allergies, previous surgeries, and support system for afterwards, there are reasons for that. Somewhere in the depths of your chart (paper or computerized), and in the brain of the nurse, is a care plan for you. Maybe you have a potential for pain, a potential for knowledge deficit related to your condition, or a potential for bad drug interactions that would open up a can of worms. Evidence based practice is used because we need to do things that really work. Using the notion that “it’s always been done that way”, or “Dr. so and so doesn’t like it when we do that” is total nonsensical bunk. Using science to base decision making, along with empathy to understand individual differences is the key to healthcare.

Evidence based practice works very well. Imagine, if you will, if more and more businesses and institutions used EBP to run things. EBP decisions use information from repeated rigorous data gathering. What if we used EBP to guide us in other areas, like how to manage prison populations, or what is working to alleviate the homeless crisis, or heaven forbid, how to make sensible public policies (not holding my breath on this one). I think we don’t have a lot of influence over these other realms yet, but one thing we do have influence over, is ourselves. What if we used EBP to live our lives? What I mean is, what if we were actually conscious and logical when we made decisions? Things probably would work out better. I am not saying that all decisions have to be made using only logic. I would never have gotten this far in life without trusting my intuition. That being said, using my intuition has always worked out well, so in gathering data, I could state that I have done my own trial and found intuition to be a supreme decision-making tool.

If we tried, just for one day, to be conscious in our decision making, we might eat consciously (slowly savoring a nutrient-dense meal), exercise using the best technique for our own body, rather than following someone else’s plan, and turn off the squawk box long enough to relax, read, listen to music, or meditate for our mental stability. Social media would definitely change, because you would fact-find things that you re-post. Interactions with other people would change, because you would know that living among other people and making connections would be best for your (and their) mental health. We might think before we reactively speak…..okay, that’s going to take some time. I’m not perfect, and am not conscious half of my life either, but I’m trying. I employ EBP to help me find the best way to do things, whether it is putting together a backyard landscape design, or buy food at the grocery store, and I think that more and more people are coming to the realization that we have to do this in order to lay a solid foundation for living our daily lives. Remember, EBP takes into consideration the individual and his/her needs, beliefs, and risk factors, so it’s not all just science, it’s science with a heart.

Another thing I have to say about science is, it really is just in it for itself. Scientists theorize, perform experiments, and gather data because they have an innate tendency to question their world and find out facts about it. Scientists don’t (I’m sure there are a few exceptions) do all this work in order to facilitate a particular dogma. Newton didn’t create calculus to please the king of England, and Einstein didn’t find insight into time/space because he wanted to further someone’s political aspirations or religious beliefs. Neil deGrasse Tyson, a noted American astrophysicist and author stated it well.

” Science,” he says, “is objective. It’s not something that you believe or do not believe; it’s something that you accept or don’t accept. It remains true regardless of your personal beliefs.”

That being said, if your grandmother is a flat-earther, and thinks the world is flat, it doesn’t mean it is. There are a lot of things unknown to us, and I do my best to investigate the unusual things that I have noticed in my life. Some of these events are beyond the present state of science as we know it, and some of them can be verified with the increased flow of scientific findings that are coming at us with exponential speed. I intend to present a lot of these unusual things in this blog. It gives me a way to express my creativity in the writing process, and might stir up interest in various issues for you. If you like, I invite you to “follow” me with the button on the lower right corner, or “like”, or comment, or, whatever. Have a wonderful day, and savor your lunch…..yum.

Why I Talk to Plants

I’m sure you have all heard that plants grow faster if you talk to them. Well, maybe you haven’t, but this has been a notion for a very long time. I have heard a lot of factual basis along the way, and so…I talk to my plants. Actually, I have been living in a small apartment for almost 2 years, so I really just talk to one plant. Her name is “Pretty”. She was quite unhappy after the 19 hour car ride to get her here, but since I have concentrated on focusing some attention on her, she’s really thriving. I am reversing the trip in 2 weeks, so I’m hyping her up a little in regard to the car ride. Poor Pretty…..

Anyway, one thing I have to start out saying is that there have been many studies done on how plants and trees communicate. No, they don’t have a “brain” per se, but they do perceive frequencies through vibration. They can’t run away from predators, so through the ages, have developed a method to sense if something is threatening them. Plants can “hear” when they are being chewed on by bugs, and then release chemicals to to stop it. Australian scientists have found that plants also “feel” when you touch them. They can figure out if these encounters are something to be defensive about, or if you just happened to brush by them randomly. I think this is pretty cool. The reaction from patting a leaf, or spraying water droplets on a leaf, will trigger a physiological response and even genetic changes. Simply put, they have a great awareness to their physical surrounding.

Maybe you have heard of an experiment in which plants are separated and spoken to in a kind way, or an abusive way. Plants that are ignored, told they are ugly, or ridiculed, tend to wither and die. Plants that are spoken to with love and kindness, and complemented, thrive and grow strong (equal environmental factors are in place: light, water, space, etc…). Turns out, plants are a lot like people. We are all part of the same universal awareness that love makes the world go ’round. You might say, “Okay, but, I don’t have time to sit around and talk to my plants”. I get it, and here’s a way around that problem. Before you go to work in the morning, put on a YouTube or Alexa play of a high Hertz music. Hertz is a measurement, abbreviated Hz, that tells you how many beats per second of sound. For instance, plants apparently grow better when exposed to 3000-5000 Hz sounds. One study on mythbusters showed music worked even better than human speech. Also, the variation in female voices seems to work better than a man’s voice. When you give them water, say something nice, “Wow, you are so beautiful today. I hope you enjoy this water. I love you”. Sounds totally corny, but if you don’t feel like you have a natural green thumb, what do you have to lose? I know in my case, Pretty is a sucker for compliments. Not only will your plants start to adore you, but as it turns out, higher Hz music is good for us as well. More on that later…

It seems that trees communicate with each other in very intricate ways, as explained by a German author named Peter Wohlleben in his book, “The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries From A Secret World”, which I cannot wait to read. I think that I have innately known all of this tree frequency stuff, since I spent a large part of childhood perched in a giant white Oak with my best friend. Something drew us there, and we spent hours sitting in her large branches in our designated seats, talking about our lives and laughing about “stuff”. To this day, I can’t resist large trees. I have to touch them, because I feel like they have so much wisdom that humanity needs. They are like giant old Druids, and if they could talk, we would be mesmerized by their stories. I had the distinct pleasure of touching one of the oldest trees in the world, on the Western side of Olympia State Park in Washington. It is the world’s’ oldest Spruce tree at over 58 feet in circumference and 191 feet tall, it is 1000 years old. Oh, the stories it could tell! It brought tears to my eyes. But then, I tend to cry more often about the good stuff in life than the bad….

The point of all this, is that plants and trees hear and feel you in their own unique way, and they keep us alive by devouring carbon dioxide and spewing out oxygen. They love us. Talk to your plants and trees, regardless of what other people might think. Respect nature and your Earth, because it’s a lot smarter than you think it is. Take a look at the plant experiment video, and enjoy your green thumb. Don’t forget to hit that “follow” button if you enjoy my posts, Thanks!

Be Nice!
Fungi plays a part

“Sound Garden: Can Plants Actually Talk and Hear” https://www.livescience.com/27802-plants-trees-talk-with-sound.html

“It’s True – You Really Should Talk to Your Plants” https://www.thespruce.com/should-you-talk-to-your-plants-3972298

Pretty, In all of her egotistical glory…