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Brain stimulation by using non-invasive technology is a branch of the neurotechnology field Researchers have increasingly used a variety of techniques to modulate the brain without the need for drugs. A relatively new technology that scientists have been testing is called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). This is a method of non-invasive brain stimulation that has very few side effects. It has utility for a variety of different brain based disorders. The basic idea behind this new treatment method is researchers attach two electrodes to certain areas on a person’s head and then they allow an extremely small 2 millamp electric current to pass through the electrodes.

This may remind people of the more drastic shock therapy (ECT} but it is much gentler and more selective than that treatment. ECT always requires a person to get anaesthesia to get it. ECT gives a person’s brain a giant 600 millamp buzz and this then causes a seizure. ECT affects almost the entire brain and has many negative side effects such as memory loss. tDCS, however, only excites or inhibits brain regions directly underneath the positioned electrode. The electrode that is attached to the (+) anode part of the 9 volt battery is able to increase neuron firing. The electrode that is connected to the (-) cathode decreases neuron activity. So this allows researchers to selectively upregulate or downregulate activity in specific brain areas.

Transcranial direct current stimulation as a tool is very useful for a variety of mental illnesses. A positive aspect to using transcranial direct current stimulation is that it is actually much cheaper to use than the more expensive transcranial magnetic stimulation. It can also be used on a person while they are wide awake and fully conscious. This basically enables a person to use the technology on themselves if they understand what they are doing. The main disadvantages to using tDCS is that it can really only activate brain areas that are near to a person’s skull. It cannot reach deep brain areas. Another negative is that it is less selective in its targeting accuracy than other methods of brain stimulation.

When tDCS is applied over an area of the brain called the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (LDPFC), scientists have found that they can improve a person’s ability to spontaneously generate a list of novel words. tDCS is also able to enhance working memory, the brain’s ability to temporarily store and manipulate information. When the LDPFC area is activated it can also help to improve the symptoms of depression in depressed patients. Researchers have already performed a preliminary study on patients with major depression and obtained positive results. tDCS has been used to alter a person’s perception of pain, so tDCS may even eventually become a treatment for people who currently have unmanageable pain.

Transcranial direct current stimulation has an enormous number of other different uses. Scientific researchers have done several preliminary studies to test this technology. Researchers have found that tDCS is able to modulate a person’s desire for eating foods when it is applied over the DLPFC. So this may eventually be used as a treatment for those who are overweight or obese. Transcranial direct current stimulation has also been used a a brain stimulation method to improve recognition memory in patients who have Alzheimer’s disease. So this may become a beneficial treatment for those types of people. tDCS has also been used as a method to reduce craving for smoking. This treatment could be beneficial for people with all sorts of addictions such as alcoholism. Overall transcranial direct current stimulation shows a lot of promise for a variety of different brain disorders.

For more information see my blog brain stimulation and another article brain MRI and this article Arizona brain injury lawyer.

Because Carbon Dating is so often referred to, it is important to continue the discussion how Carbon Dating actually supports the viewpoint that we live on a young earth, rather than on a planet that is four-plus billions of years old as Darwinists claim it is.

By way of review of previous articles discussing Carbon-14 dating, Carbon Dating relies on several assumptions which corrupt the integrity of the dates that it obtains.

In Carbon Dating the amount of Carbon-14 remaining within organic remains is measured. Carbon-14 is produced up in the earth’s atmosphere. During the process of photosynthesis, plants take in CO2, which contains trace amounts of Carbon-14. The plants’ tissue thus contains trace amounts of Carbon-14.

When an animal breathes in air, eats a plant, or eats an animal which ate a plant, that animal also takes in trace amounts of Carbon-14 which becomes a part of its tissue. Once a plant or animal dies it stops taking in additional amounts of Carbon-14, and because Carbon-14 decays away over time, the less Carbon-14 found in an organic remain the older will be the age assigned to that particular remain.

As I stated in those previous articles, to derive the age of an item based on Carbon Dating, several wild guesses, which are referred to as assumptions, must be made. It is these assumptions that completely corrupt the integrity of the Carbon Dating method.

For example, scientists using the Carbon Dating method in order to ascertain the age of a particular organic remain must assume that the rate of Carbon-14 decay has always remained the same. Since no one was there to test, study or observe that the rate of decay has always been the same, this single wild guess, if incorrect, will cause the supposed age obtained by this particular dating method to be completely in error.

Still, most of these researchers appear to agree that measurable Carbon-14 should decay away in less than 100,000 years (most scientists claim an even shorter duration for complete decay). Please realize that this is an assumption, a wild guess, because there was no one around to test, study and observe that the decay rate of Carbon-14 has always been the same.

Based on the above-stated premise, Carbon Dating cannot gauge the age of an object older than 100,000 years since there would be no Carbon-14 left to measure if the item is actually that old, or older.

This is of particular interest because secular teachings claim that most diamonds are a billion or more years old, which is at least 10,000 one-hundred-thousand-year periods of time. If diamonds, and the earth, are indeed billions of years old, diamonds should never contain Carbon-14.

However, the Carbon Dating of diamonds from around the world provides strong proof that the earth is only a few thousand years old. Recent studies of diamonds obtained from various parts of the world reveal that the sparklers still contain amounts of Carbon-14. This proves that the diamonds can only be a few thousand years old, not millions, much less billions, of years in age.

Again, Carbon-14 Dating is proving to be unfriendly to the old-earth claims, which are a prerequisite for Darwinism and the secular worldview which is based upon “billions of years leading to Darwinian-style evolution” being true.

Russ Miller is author of The GENESIS Report Series. Register at http://www.new-earth-thought.com to receive FREE his 50 Facts vs. Darwinism e-mail series.

In the scientific community there are two main schools of thought on the origin of life on Earth. One is that life was started here via a process known as panspermia. This is where bacteria are carried through space from another planet on a comet or meteor. The idea is that these bacteria would somehow survive impact and then go on to flourish on the new planet, in this case Earth.

While the theory of panspermia is certainly valid, Earth was heavily bombarded by meteorites prior to the start of life, it still doesn’t answer how life came to be in the first place. The likelihood of something surviving an impact combined with landing somewhere where it could thrive seems like a remotely small chance as well. The more widely accepted theory is that life on Earth originated here and did not come from another planet.

No concrete theory has been put forward that shows how life can come into being from non-living material yet. Without perfectly sterile lab conditions and a few hundred million years it may prove impossible. However it is theorised that life began as a series of organic chemicals and molecules. One of these molecules gained the ability to replicate itself. The crucial feature of this replication is that it was not perfect, there would sometimes be ‘errors’ in the reproduction.

If an ‘error’ in reproduction left that particular strand at a disadvantage then they would not reproduce as much and would eventually die out. If an error or mutation left a strand at a clear advantage, however, then they would reproduce in greater numbers and would take over. This is the start of natural selection and evolution, the theory that is thought to govern the development of all life right from the beginning to where we are today. Eventually DNA would emerge as the dominant force in replication and life was well on its way to becoming cellular.

Eventually primitive life would evolve membranes and so cells were born. The leap to membranes is actually easier to comprehend as the phospholipids present in cell membranes form bilayers spontaneously when placed in water. This property would allow the contents of life to be contained within the confines of a cell. The cells that would go on to become the ancestors of all life on Earth were present at this time, just over 3.5 billion years ago. They were primitive compared to modern cells, still lacking a nucleus, mitichondria and chloroplasts.

The next main development that would change the planet came with the advent of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis would allow life to use sunlight as an energy source. Cells that did not develop photosynthesis would also benefit as they could consume the photosynthesising cells. The secondary effect of stimulating the growth of life was what is know as the ‘Oxygen Catastrophe’. Oxygen is a waste product of photosynthesis and was toxic to a great many organisms. The waste oxygen would have first become bound to limestone and iron in the sea, before it could escape into the atmosphere. The atmosphere would slowly build up in concentration of oxygen and the ozone layer eventually formed, guarding the planet’s surface from harmful ultraviolet radiation. As a substantial amount of life died from oxygen some would find a way to harness it to enhance their metabolism.

Cells would continue to adapt over millions of years, gaining organelles and nuclei. At this point in history, around 1.1 billion years ago, the first supercontinent was beginning to take shape and plant, animal and fungus cells had split and were clearly defined, although still single-celled. As colonies of cells built up in volume over time some cells in certain parts of the colony would evolve into specialist cells giving a benefit for the whole colony. As this division began to take place it could be said that this was the start of multicellular organisms. Around 900 million years ago the first multi-celled animals began to appear.

Around 770 million years ago scientists believe that the planet went through a phase that has become known as Snowball Earth. For 20 million years the oceans froze over and the Earth entered a severe ice age. Eventually after time volcanic eruptions would cause enough carbon dioxide to enter the atmosphere and heat the planet due to the greenhouse effect.

By 530 million years ago fish had evolved and were the first known vertebrates. With the ice melted, the ozone layer present and complex life thriving in the ocean it would only be a matter of time before life would take to land.

Patrick is an expert Research and Travel consultant. His current interest is in Birmingham airport hotels, Sofitel Gatwick and Gatwick Maple Manor.

As is the case with radiometric dating methods, Carbon Dating is not a reliable means of verifying that the earth is millions or even billions of years old as long claimed by Darwinian scientists.

Both radiometric dating methods and Carbon Dating rely on unfounded assumptions which corrupt the reliability of the dates that these methods obtain. I will get to these unfounded assumptions in a moment.

Looking at abundant strata and fossil evidence observable around planet earth, real science verifies that while specific dates are not likely to be valid, Carbon Dating actually supports a young earth viewpoint, which is that the earth’s strata layers can only be a few thousand years old and were laid down during a global flood.

How can this be?

The following discussion of Carbon Dating will demonstrate the validity of what the observable evidence indicates.

In Carbon Dating the amount of Carbon-14 in organic remains is measured. Carbon-14 is produced in the earth’s atmosphere and during the process of photosynthesis plants take in CO2, which contains trace amounts of Carbon-14. When an animal breathes in air, or eats a plant, it also takes in trace amounts of Carbon-14. Once the plant or animal dies it stops ingesting additional amounts of Carbon-14. Since Carbon-14 decays away over time, the less Carbon-14 found in an item the older will be the age assigned to that particular item.

To derive the age of an item based on Carbon Dating, several wild guesses, which are referred to as assumptions, must be made. It is these assumptions that completely corrupt the integrity of the Carbon Dating method.

For example, a scientist using the Carbon Dating method in order to ascertain the age of an organic remain must assume that the rate of Carbon-14 decay has always remained the same. Since no one was there to test, study or observe that the rate of decay has always been the same, this single wild guess, if incorrect, will cause the supposed age obtained by this particular dating method to be completely in error.

Furthermore, scientists seem to agree that measurable Carbon-14 should decay away in less than 100,000 years. Therefore, Carbon Dating cannot age an item older than 100,000 years since there would be no Carbon-14 left to measure if the item is actually that old, or older.

This is of particular interest because secular teachings claim that the Cambrian layer, the lowest stratified rock layer with appreciable amounts of fossils in it, is supposed to be up to 580,000,000 years old, which is 5,800 one-hundred-thousand-year periods. Yet scientific studies have revealed that all fossil-bearing layers, down to the supposedly 580-million-year-old Cambrian strata layer, still contain Carbon-14. This by itself proves that the earth’s strata, from which all old-earth beliefs have been derived, can only be a few thousand years old!

Of even more interest is that the range of amounts of Carbon-14 found in all the fossil-bearing strata is in the same range from the top layers all the way down to the bottom layers. Since Carbon-14 decays away over time, this proves that all the earth’s stratified layers were formed during a single event. Only a global flood can viably account for this.

Russ Miller is author of The GENESIS Report Series. Register at http://www.new-earth-thought.com to receive FREE his 50 Facts vs. Darwinism e-mail series.

Nine billion years after the Big Bang the building blocks of the Solar System were present as a huge molecular cloud, several light years across. As parts of the cloud began to collapse there is strong evidence that there were several supernovae near to where the Sun eventually formed. The remnants of these short lived stars and their resulting explosions would create regions of over-density within the cloud, potentially leading to the collapse of material due to gravity and so the eventual birth of the Sun as a protoplanetary disc.

As the disc spins due to momentum, molecular collisions in the centre start to become more common, and the heat starts to rise. As more and more matter began to collect in the middle the Sun started to take shape as an extremely hot and dense protostar. Over time the mass and heat reached the point where nuclear fusion was possible, and the Sun as we know it today was formed, complete with a relatively small amount of leftover material that would go on to form the planets.

The formation of planets is again down to gravity. As the dust particles began to collect to form large rocks they would grow slowly larger through collisions. These early formations are known as planetesimals. The outer solar system was the only area where it is cold enough for molecules such as methane and water to condense, and so the inner planets are formed from heavier rocky elements. These elements are relatively rare and so the inner planets could not grow as large as the gas giants that would eventually form from lighter elements further out in the Solar System.

Initially there were up to a hundred small planets orbiting the Sun. Over the next hundred million years these would collide and merge to form the four rocky planets and their moons that we have today. It is thought that the Earth’s moon was formed from a collision with a Mars sized object towards the end of this period. Around four billions years ago the Earth and other terrestrial planets would undergo what is known as the Late Heavy Bombardment. This is a period in time that lasted for several hundred million years where the inner planets where peppered with meteorites and asteroids. The high number of impacts is credited to the migration of the gas giants causing gravitational instability in the Solar System. Evidence of this is present in the highly cratered surface of the Moon and Mercury as well as several large craters on Earth.

Once the Late Heavy Bombardment was over it is believed that solar winds will have pushed much of the excess material out into interstellar space and that the Solar System settled into what we see today, with nine planets and an asteroid belt separating the gas giants from the rocky inner planets.

During and shortly after this time the Earth was very different to what it is now. Known as the Hadean eon the world was hot, dry and extremely volcanic. There were no oceans or oxygen in the atmosphere and the surface was molten. Due to this liquidity the heavier elements fell to the centre of the planet while lighter ones would remain nearer the surface. This process would eventually give rise to the layered structure we see in Earth today.

The next events on Earth would eventually give rise to the planet being hospitable for life. As gravity allowed more of an atmosphere to be retained temperatures would fall to such a level that the outer layer of the planet cooled and a rocky crust was formed. As gases were released from volcanoes and asteroid impact the Earth built up a significant atmosphere that contained water. As clouds formed and rain began to fall the oceans filled up. Within 750 million years the Earth had oceans of water and a rocky crust, although there was significantly less land then than there is now. While the atmosphere didn’t yet contain an ozone layer and very little oxygen the stage was set for the evolution of life. There was liquid water, a stable temperature and enough organic chemicals in circulation that would allow bacteria to thrive.

Patrick is an expert Research and Travel consultant. His current interest is in Birmingham airport hotels, Sofitel Gatwick and Gatwick Maple Manor.

The pheromones are used by different organisms for different reasons. For alerting the group from threat, for sexual attraction etc. but there are other uses of pheromones which are discovered by our scientists. These pheromones can be effectively used for the control of pests in the fields.

In 1995, in United Stated, a group of insects known as Beet army-worms caused a multi million dollars loss in Texas alone by seriously affecting the cotton growing area. But in 1997, researchers could avoid it by disrupting mating procedure between male and female Beet army-worms by flooding 35-acre cotton field with sex attractant pheromones.

With such a pervasion of female scent, the males could not find the females for more than hundred days, and gradually the pest rate reduced. In such a way, certain pheromone traps have also been engineered and are commonly used by farmers and also the home owners. For example Indian Meal Moths (pantry Moths) are attracted to a pheromone in a small box which is actually a sticky substance, and are thus captured for disposal.

By the usage of these pheromones for controlling the pest, we are not only protecting the plant from the pest attack but also the environment by hazardous effects of the chemical pesticides for these pheromones are naturally occurring and eco-friendly.

In fact, few spiders in the United States and also African forests have also said to produce have also said to use pheromones in their trap to catch their pray. The Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, India, has done and still doing lot of research in the field of pheromonal control pests and the scientists here has also developed Pheromone Banks.

To develop a Pheromonal pest controlling chemical, it is first necessary to know the pheromonal systems of the different pests which have attacked the different crops.

The scientists from IICT have also discovered Pheromone Systems in many pests like Amsacta albistriga-Red hairy caterpillar (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae) which attacks the crop Polyphaguous, Hyblaea puera Teak defoliator (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) which attacks Teak, Orthaja exvinacea Mango leaf Webber (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) which attacks almost all varieties of Mango, Nephatis serinopa Black headed caterpillar (Lepidoptera: Xylorectiidae) which attacks coconut, Atherigona soccata Sorghum shoot fly (Diptera: Anthomyiidae) which attacks Sorghum.

Several synthetic pheromones have been developed in order to control the pests. If the synthetic pheromone is extensively seducing and the population of the attacking pest is low, some control can be achieved with pheromone traps or this technique can also be called as attract and kill. The mechanism is very simple.

Generally, mating disruptions have been successful in controlling of pests. Synthetic pheromones are released from numerous sources placed in different parts of the field. Because of this, the males are unable to find the respective females for mating and hence the offspring rate is considerably reduced. This technique has been successful in pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella, and Grapholita molesta.

But the most common use of pheromones is still under prognosis. By using a few traps, a farmer can check the population of the pests and can decide when it is time to spray. If the levels never reach a critical level, no spraying is required.

Phermones Guide is a beginners guide for information and resources about phermones. Please visit our website at http://phermonesguide.blogspot.com/