The result of this study is the full conviction that, at least in these structures, we are really dealing with the remnants of corals, most of which belong to the Favositidae, a family that has so far only been found as fossils in the Paleozoic, the ancient layers of Earth.

Das Ausland, 1881, No. 16, Article 1

And also,

Well-preserved forms are, of course, quite rare; it is mostly debris, e.g. quite similar to that observed in young ocean limestone of the Mexican Gulf. After acquiring some practice and comparing many cuts, certain recurring forms can be restored quite easily. Especially developed are the sponges of which I have already determined three specific genera.

Das Ausland, 1881, No. 16, Article 1

Reading this in Das Ausland must have ruffled the feathers of directors of zoology and paleontology, especially coming from Weinland, who responded to Anton Rzehak’s criticism with:

This may still seem like a venturesome statement today, but my peers, who have known me for twenty-five years, will probably know that I do not easily pronounce my conviction.

Das Ausland, 1881, No. 26, Article 1

And indeed, Weinland went on to express his conviction by establishing in a treatise 16 genera each with multiple species, submitting his work to the Leopoldina and Acta, and proclaiming that:

Not ten years will pass before we will have a small universally recognized fauna of the meteorites.

Das Ausland, 1881, No. 26, Article 1

Certainly this is a fascinating story and a book worthy of reading! And regarding Hahn’s ideas about the iron meteorites, you will want to research the ironically named Chondrites.

Read: The Meteorite (Chondrite) and its Organisms

Read: Das Ausland Articles

Fred Hoyle’s IFS Lecture December 1982

Microfossils and Biomolecules in Meteorites – Dr. Richard B. Hoover

This video by Dr. Richard B. Hoover points at why I am so interested in meteorites. Imagine if Dr. Hoover is correct and that life pervades the universe, or even lets say a large galaxy and/or group of galaxies. This is a viable outcome of nature and follows from simple exponential growth given a time span on a scale of billions of years. As long as life has evolved to be able to travel the vast distances between stars this is a simple and interesting hypothesis. But we are of course mostly interested in complex life — we are scanning right now for complex information signals in all numbers of frequencies when all we have to do is study the meteorites already in our possession. If the universe is filled with single cell life forms, it would suggest that the potential of life to manifest itself in form/energy/matter such as humans or dinosaurs, etc.. exists as a latent potential throughout the region of the universe inhabited by these life forms. And complex life arises almost immediately when a new planet or moon with suitable conditions arises. This would basically be the answer to the Drake Equation. It is highly likely that there are other complex lifeforms. We now would feel confident to search for complex life signatures because we know now that the universe is filled with simple life and primitive multicelluar life like trilobites, dinosaurs, mammals, etc… So now the ultimate question would seem to be where did the first evolution of these organisms arise? In our galaxy? the Andromeda galaxy? Where exactly are Earth’s lifeforms on this larger tree of life? Reality is starting to seem like something out of a science fiction book. Of course this is just one possible speculative scenario. I can imagine others.

Note, I have been photographing meteorites in cross polarized light for the past few years; including CO type meteorites. You can see my work at Solar Anamnesis.

Also consider reading these articles:

Claims of Indigenous Life Forms in Meteorites: A Short Review

Chandra Wickramasinghe Testimony

Once the reader gets to the later parts, it becomes somewhat abstract and the reader may not be able to get through it without a background in chemistry and physics. Chapter Nine, when the phrase “Order Out of Chaos” is developed, is difficult. Despite this, it is much more accessible than a scientific paper on the subject. It may take two or three reads to fully absorb the ideas presented. Overall it is one of my favorite reads.

Some important conclusions from the book:

• The arrow of time objectively exists and it arises from non-equilibrium and irreversibility at the microscopic level.
• The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics can be understood as a selection principal. It operates as a negative on allowable initial conditions, in other words it restricts systems with certain initial conditions from existing.
• Time travel to the past is not allowed by thermodynamics because time reversal requires infinite information concerning the initial conditions of the system, an impossibility to an observer in the universe. This implies that information is closely connected to irreversibility and time.
• Thermodynamics can be expressed from dynamics through the idea of correlations and internal-time operators. Thus, dynamics has been extended once again (general relativity, quantum mechanics, and chaos theory).
• The universe as a whole is in a non-equilibrium state and it is an irreversible process with pockets of reversible dynamics.
• In general, one of the goals of the authors is to make dynamics and thermodynamics consistent with each other.

Dr. Robert Melamede – Endocannabinoid System

 
The Endocannabinoid System in Health and Disease – Dr. Ethan Russo

Quick summary:

• Endocannabinoid System composed of three components: 1) endocannabinoids, 2) CB₁, CB₂ and TRPV₁ receptors, and 3) regulatory enzymes
• CB₁ is the most abundant G-protein-coupled receptor in the brain
• Cannabinoids modulate how fast things move through the gut!
• CB₁ is the “psychoactive receptor” and CB₂ is the immunomodulatory receptor
• CBs 10-fold more potent than morphine in WDR neurons mediating pain
• All humans have a baseline Endocannabinoid System, influenced by genetics or some life event; in some people the system becomes deficient – disease and other issues arise in the body
• Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency (CED)
• THC notoriously increases appetite, why aren’t users more often obese? THC alters the microfloral balance in gut, prevents weight gain
• Cannabis very effective in Fibromyalgia
• Migraine info at 41 min
• Migraine related to CED

Cannabis and Cannabinoids – Dr. Jeffrey Hergenrather

Quick summary:

• Compared to the flower: oils, edibles and other extracts lose many of the cannabinoids and terpenes
• Cannabis is an adaptogen – can give you whatever your body needs to regain its homeostasis
• CBDs with THC works optimally, together it gives a greater than additive effect, i.e. better than consuming each individually; plant flower and all it contains is overall better than the extracts
• At 1 hour and 2 min in the lecture, entire list of cancers which exhibit cannabinoid sensitivity and in many cases the tumor goes away with cannabinoid treatment

Younger Stamets talking about Psilocybin Mushrooms:

Great Lecture about Fungi:

Mushrooms as medicine for humans (and bees!):

The Phylos Galaxy

And I recommend watching some of the Cannabis Science Pub – Feb 2016