The Royal Society Michael Faraday award is the UK’s most prestigious science communication award.
Tomorrow, the 2010 winner Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell, will give her prize-lecture entitled “The end of the world in 2012? Science communication and scare stories”.
The lecture starts at 17:30 UK time and can be watched live online via the Royal Society website.
21st December 2012 marks the end of the Mayan calendar and some people believe it also means the end of the world.
Professor Bell Burnell, an astrophysicist , will talk about the significance of this date from an astronomical point of view. The Earth’s axis wobbles and its alignments with the stars change slightly every year. Once every 25,800 years, the sun lines up with the centre of the Milky Way galaxy on a winter solstice. This will happen on Dec. 21, 2012. The sun will appear to rise in the same spot where the bright centre of galaxy sets.
Did the Mayan’s know this, and if so how? I tried to find out but a quick google search of “End of the world 2012” threw up a lot of wacky sites (try it!) so I think I will wait to hear what Professor Bell Burnell has to say tomorrow….
That’s a great read. Yet I wonder if there is a real basis to all conspiracy theories, or we, people are just trying to entertain ourselves with the made up idea of hidden conflict as it gives everybody an opportunity to experience total immersion in life’s drama and fight the demons. See, imaginary drama and its effect on our brain is as strong as the actual events, at least it’s how our body perceives it. Fear is an incredibly powerful emotion. When something makes us feel afraid, the body immediately releases endorphins, norepinephrine and dopamine. And as you may be aware of the greater the release of mentioned chemicals, the greater the addiction like symptoms to a conflict. You know what I am talking about, right? Of course, you do. By no means I am saying that your story is not the right one, I am just reflecting on overall phenomena. Why are we so fascinated by conspiracy ideas?
That’s a great read. Yet I wonder if there is a real basis to all conspiracy theories, or we, people are just trying to entertain ourselves with the made up idea of hidden conflict as it gives everybody an opportunity to experience total immersion in life’s drama and fight the demons. See, imaginary drama and its effect on our brain is as strong as the actual events, at least it’s how our body perceives it. Fear is an incredibly powerful emotion. When something makes us feel afraid, the body immediately releases endorphins, norepinephrine and dopamine. And as you may be aware of the greater the release of mentioned chemicals, the greater the addiction like symptoms to a conflict. You know what I am talking about, right? Of course, you do. By no means I am saying that your story is not the right one, I am just reflecting on overall phenomena. Why are we so fascinated by conspiracy ideas?
All these conspiracy theories are simply assumptions; Such assumptions are the work of the mindthan has no clarity. I kee seing significant misaunderstanding about problems related to social fears; and all the conspiracy theories are obviously their by-product. So, I must repeat… Fears are undisputably problems of the emotional repressions, as well as ignorance. Why don’t we look at what we know to be psychology. The human mind is quite difficult to treat. Psychology tries to understand the mind and a person’s behavior by analyzing thinking. THINKING! You see?! Disregarding of how trivial it may sound it must be clearly noticed as a fact. One of the key tools in psychology is the observation of human behavior. But psychology has not been able to answer the fundamental questions. Contrary to it, main tool of spirituality for the purpose of comprehending the mind and human behavior comes from observation of the mind itself. When we’re fully in the present moment, the mind is not busy processing any thoughts which makes the mind pure. Many people have most probably never experienced such innocence of the mind when they are awake since only sleep usually is able to calm us to this level of disappearance of the Ego, and with that all pain, including suffering that remain ignored, like social fears that give birth to conspiracy theories.
All these conspiracy theories are simply assumptions; Such assumptions are the work of the mindthan has no clarity. I kee seing significant misaunderstanding about problems related to social fears; and all the conspiracy theories are obviously their by-product. So, I must repeat… Fears are undisputably problems of the emotional repressions, as well as ignorance. Why don’t we look at what we know to be psychology. The human mind is quite difficult to treat. Psychology tries to understand the mind and a person’s behavior by analyzing thinking. THINKING! You see?! Disregarding of how trivial it may sound it must be clearly noticed as a fact. One of the key tools in psychology is the observation of human behavior. But psychology has not been able to answer the fundamental questions. Contrary to it, main tool of spirituality for the purpose of comprehending the mind and human behavior comes from observation of the mind itself. When we’re fully in the present moment, the mind is not busy processing any thoughts which makes the mind pure. Many people have most probably never experienced such innocence of the mind when they are awake since only sleep usually is able to calm us to this level of disappearance of the Ego, and with that all pain, including suffering that remain ignored, like social fears that give birth to conspiracy theories.