Social Foetuses

How awkward it must be to maintain a pro-choice philosophy when scientific studies continue to show how sophisticated and "un-blob-of-tissue-like" baby humans are in utero.
-Anna

Unborn babies want to socialize as early as week 18 of gestation, a study of twins has shown.

The Italian researchers used an advanced method of ultrasonography, which enables the movements of foetuses to be recorded over time in 3D. The aim was to see how five pairs of twins interacted with each other in their mothers’ wombs.

The first 20-minute recording sessions taken during week 14 of pregnancy, showed the foetuses touching each other as well as themselves, and the uterine wall.

During the second recording, four weeks later, their interest in their twin was some three times higher, with almost 30 per cent of movements directed towards the sibling. Those movements were also more accurate then self-directed ones, the researchers reported in PLoS ONE magazine.

The changes were quite consistent among the ten foetuses studied. The authors believe this indicates that humans are “wired to be social”, and our interest in communication comes naturally as the neural system matures.

LINK

Mother Carries Us All

Fetal microchimerism.
Ever heard of it?

Women retain cells of every child they have ever conceived. Every child. Not just the children she delivered, but the children she miscarried or aborted also.

Have you ever noticed that many children who have older siblings seem emotionally attached to them, EVEN when they never knew them personally? Twins who lost their sibling in utero or shortly after birth often feel a strange sense of loss. I have heard people talk about these effects in children. Did you know that some of the cells retained by the mother through fetal michrochimerism are passed on to each consecutive child the mother conceives. Thus the youngest child in the family carries part of every sibling their mother has ever carried. I am the oldest child and have found this to be a reason to envy my kid sister. I am not saying these emotional reactions are due only to fetal microchimerism. I am saying that the coincidence is very thought provoking and a little haunting.

My kid sister, Teresa, is my youngest sibling. My mother miscarried a child before Teresa was conceived. We do not talk about that missing sibling very often. However, Teresa has always remained very conscious that our family is missing a person. Since she is the youngest, I have always found this odd. My brother and I were old enough to grieve when mother miscarried Joseph Michael and yet Teresa, who was born after the incident, seems the most affected.

In the case of miscarriage, fetal microchimerism can be very comforting. A part of that child is always with the mother and younger siblings carry part of their missing sibling with them always. However, I have also thought about how haunting this idea can be when it comes to women who have chosen to abort their children. Part of those children remain with the mother always. Is it any wonder that there are post abortion healing programs for mothers, like Project Rachel? If one cannot be rid of all the physical evidence that they conceived a child, now missing, how can one presume that emotions about the event can be shrugged off?

I have found this very interesting. I am no scientist. I just hear information presented and ponder it.

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"Cutting the umbilical cord doesn't necessarily sever the physical link between mother and child. Many cells pass back and forth between the mother and fetus during pregnancy and can be detected in the tissues and organs of both even decades later. This mixing of cells from two genetically distinct individuals is called microchimerism. The phenomenon is the focus of an increasing number of scientists who wonder what role these cells play in the body." Source.

Hell: Endothermic or Exothermic?

“Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?”

I saw an article debating this question recently. Apparently it was an extra credit question on a science exam. You can see the original article Here. The student goes on to make his arguments from a scientific point of view. However the flaw of the article is that the question is in itself invalid since Hell is a spiritual phenomenon not a place which can be (even in jest) scientifically studied.

I, for my own insignificant sake, would like to put my brief 2 cents out there. Not that anyone really cares what I think.

Hell is neither exothermic or endothermic. Hell is a spiritual state one chooses as a result of their moral decisions and actions here on earth and into which the soul enters after death. The fires of Hell are symbolic or even metaphorical. The spiritual torment (hell) is derived by the soul's encounter with the being we refer to as God. Self deception is stripped away, the eyelids of the soul are removed. One can no longer turn away from Truth. The extent to which the Truth is intolerable to the individual soul dertermines how much "discomfort" the individual soul feels.

This certainly is a very simplified explanation of the issue and does not discuss the role the Christ plays in this dynamic. That is for another post. What I wanted to say for now, however, has been said.

Fourth Dimension Human

These images reminded me of what the human body might look like separated briefly from a linear timeline of experience. If one is not into that sort of thing, well, they are also pretty darn cool.

Art by Peter Janson
http://mocoloco.com/art/archives/005433.php

Einstein Quotes

Startled by the seemingly random nature of Quantum physics Einstein once exclaimed,
“I cannot believe that God plays dice with the cosmos.”
Observer, 1954

-To which an unnamed fellow scientist replied “Einstein, don’t tell God what he can and cannot do.”
-Eventually Stephen William Hawking followed up with, “God not only plays dice, he also sometimes throws the dice where they cannot be seen.”

“He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.”

“I want to know God's thoughts. The rest is just details.”

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”

“Perfection of means and confusion of ends seem to characterize our age.”

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.”

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."