A Simple Explanation of Extracellular Vesicles--Reprint

A Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything suggests that all entities are "units of consciousness" capable of knowledge and communication. Science is beginning to discover this. Here's a reprint of an article concerning communication by "extracellular vesicles (EVs)".

REPRINT  By Dr. Mercola  (redirect to Mercola Website's original article) 

One way your cells communicate with each other is through the release of tiny “bubbles,” known as extracellular vesicles (EVs). These tiny cells are about the size of bacteria and viruses, and they’re only visible using an electron microscope.

For many years researchers believed EVs were carrying biological debris made up of various proteins and genetic material. It’s now known EVs have a much more important role, acting as ferries to send important messages to other cells.

Now a new study using roundworms has added more insights into how these cellular messengers work.

Extracellular Vesicles May Play a Significant Role in Human Health and Disease

Researchers from Rutgers University revealed 335 genes in roundworms (C. elegans) that supply information about the biology of EVs. About 10 percent of those genes were related to the formation, release, and, possibly, function of EVs.1

EVs are found in blood, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, and more, but it’s unknown where they originate, how they’re made, or how their “cargo of molecules” is released.2 In other words, EVs remain much of a mystery.

The EVs may be good or bad. For instance, they may play a role in sending messages between cells that promote tumor growth. The study also revealed more information about how EVs are produced and why they carry certain “cargo.”

For instance, EVs are known to carry proteins responsible for polycystic kidney disease, the most commonly inherited disease in humans, but no one knows why.3 Maureen Barr, lead author and a professor in the Department of Genetics in Rutgers' School of Arts and Sciences, told Science Daily:4

"These EVs are exciting but scary because we don't know what the mechanisms are that decide what is packaged inside them … It's like getting a letter in the mail and you don't know whether it's a letter saying that you won the lottery or a letter containing anthrax."

C. elegans is the perfect vehicle for learning more about EVs because the worms have similar genes to humans. Such research could help uncover EVs’ significance for human health and disease. Barr continued5

"When we know exactly how they work, scientists will be able to use EVs for our advantage … This means that pathological EVs that cause disease could be blocked and therapeutic EVs that can help heal can be designed to carry beneficial cargo."

Your Body Is Constantly Communicating

EVs are only one way your cells receive important information. The microorganisms in your gut also play a role. For instance, your gut’s microorganisms trigger the production of cytokines. Cytokines are involved in regulating your immune system’s response to inflammation and infection.

Much like hormones, cytokines are signaling molecules that aid cell-to-cell communication, telling your cells where to go when your inflammatory response is initiated.

There are signals between your gut and your brain, most of which travel along your vagus nerve.6 Vagus is Latin for “wandering,” aptly named as this long nerve travels from your skull down through your chest and abdomen, branching to multiple organs.

Cytokine messengers produced in your gut cruise up to your brain along the “vagus nerve highway.” Once in your brain, the cytokines tell your microglia (the immune cells in your brain) to perform certain functions, such as producing neurochemicals.

Some of these have negative effects on your mitochondria, which can impact energy production and apoptosis (cell death), as well as adversely impact the very sensitive feedback system that controls your stress hormones, including cortisol.

So, this inflammatory response that started in your gut travels to your brain, which then builds on it, and sends signals to the rest of your body in a complex feedback loop. Signals from your gut microorganisms travel elsewhere in your body to, including to your skin.

Then there are your hormones, or your body’s chemical messengers, which exert their effects throughout your body, helping to coordinate biological processes like metabolism and fertility. As reported by Frontline:7

“It is thanks to these chemicals that distant parts of the body communicate with one another during elaborate, and important, events. In response to a signal from the brain, hormones are secreted directly into the blood by the glands that produce and store them.”

Bacteria Have a Sophisticated Method of Communication

Bacteria (both good and bad) have a very sophisticated way of communicating with each other, and once they receive the signal that their numbers are sufficient to carry out their genetic function, they launch into action as a synchronized unit.

Researchers have discovered that bacteria communicate with each other using a chemical language called "quorum sensing." Every type of bacteria make and secrete small molecules. When a bacterium is alone, these molecules simply float away.

But, when there's a large enough group of bacteria, these secreted molecules increase in proportion to the number of bacteria emitting them. When the molecules reach a certain amount, the bacteria can tell how many neighbors it has, and suddenly all the bacteria begin to act as a synchronized group.

Bacteria do not only communicate in this way between their own species; they're all "multi-lingual" and can determine the presence and strength of other bacterial colonies.

Essentially, they can count how many of its own kind there are compared to the amount of another species. They then use that information to decide what tasks to carry out, depending on who's in a minority and who's in the majority of any given population of bacteria.

Even Plants Communicate

Plants communicate with other plants — even with plants of other species — through a complex underground network that includes:

1.    The plants' rhizosphere (root ball)

2.    Aerial emissions (volatile gasses emitted by the plants)

3.    Mycelial networks in the soil

These three systems work together forming a "plant internet" of sorts where information about each plant's status is constantly exchanged. One of the organisms responsible for this remarkable biochemical highway is a type of fungus called mycorrhizae. The name mycorrhiza literally means fungus root.8

These fungi form a symbiotic relationship with the plant, colonizing the roots and sending extremely fine filaments far out into the soil that act as root extensions.

Not only do these networks sound the alarm about invaders, but the filaments are more effective in nutrient and water absorption than the plant roots themselves — mycorrhizae increase the nutrient absorption of the plant 100 to 1,000 times.9

In one thimbleful of healthy soil, you can find several miles of fungal filaments, all releasing powerful enzymes that help dissolve tightly bound soil nutrients, such as organic nitrogen, phosphorus, and iron.

Previous research has shown that when a plant becomes infested with a pest like aphids for example, it warns surrounding plants of the attack via this network of mycorrhizal fungi.10

This "heads up" gives the other plants time to mount their chemical defenses in order to repel the aphids. Mycorrhizae fungi can even connect plants of different species, perhaps allowing interspecies communication.

Powerful Demonstration of Interspecies Communication

Entomologist Aaron Pomerantz was in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest when he discovered what’s described as a “weird relationship between butterflies, ants, and a parasitic plant.11 The plant appeared as yellow growths coating the side of a tree.

A caterpillar was eating the yellow buds, and the caterpillars were being “tended to” by ants, possibly as a form of protection. The ants, in turn, were stroking the caterpillars, which would release a bead of liquid nourishment that the ants consumed.

Butterflies were plentiful near the buds, too, and it turns out the caterpillars were the butterflies’ larval form. The butterflies, known as the Terenthina terentia species, even had yellow spots on their wings, presumably to blend in with the yellow parasitic plant.

Pomerantz found “nothing like this had ever been documented before,” but it’s a powerful demonstration of not only the symbiotic relationship between these species but also of interspecies communication.

Even though it’s unclear how the species are communicating – how do the ants know the caterpillars will provide food in exchange for protection, for instance? – it’s clear that they most certainly are.12 It’s another fascinating mystery of nature, and also shows that, just like within your body, complex communication is often occurring whether you’re aware of it or not.

·         Spread the Word to
FSources and References

• Current Biology December 10, 2015
• Medical News Today December 14, 2015
• Canmua December 7, 2015

• 1 Current Biology December 10, 2015
• 2, 3 Medical News Today December 14, 2015
• 4, 5 Science Daily December 11, 2015
• 6 American Journal of Physiology December 2002
• 7 PBS.org Frontline
• 8 Mycorrhizas.info
• 9 Mycorrhizas Associations
• 10 New Scientist November 12, 2010
• 11, 12 Canmua December 7, 2015

Toroidal Tree Topper

How do you like my toroidal tree topper for Christmas? I took a green and red slinky, fastened the ends together to make a donut, then set it upon the tree.  It looks like a crown up there.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

MAY PEACE REIGN THROUGH TOLERANCE OF EACH OTHER'S DIFFERENCES

Scientists Discover Plants Don't Like Being Eaten

Here's more proof of A Simple Explanation's proposition that all of creation is fractal consciousness that works on the same principles. Humans are not alone at the top of the "I think, therefore I am" pile. 

the following article is a repost from AG WEB/Farm Journal

Chewing vibrations prompt plant to react with chemical releases 

Plants know and hear when they’re being eaten alive by predators. Picture a speaker at field’s edge pumping out high-frequency vibrations to corn as the rows pick up the sound and ramp up production of pest-resistant chemistry.

The plant-whispering scenario sounds futuristic, but the concept might not be as far-fetched as it first seems. Plants recognize the sound of herbivores feeding on their leaves and use information based on vibrations traveling through their tissues.

At the forefront of sound and vibration research in plants, Rex Cocroft and Heidi Appel of the University of Missouri (MU), have peeled back a significant layer on the mysteries surrounding exactly how plants “hear” signals from their environment and what they are listening for. In what might turn out to be a major building block for further discovery, Cocroft and Appel’s collaboration shows plants detect chewing sounds made by insects and can respond with defensive measures. Essentially, acoustic information allows plants to detect her-bivore attacks and counter by releasing chemicals.

Cocroft, professor of biological sciences at MU, spearheaded the audio portion of multiple experiments. He recorded the sound of caterpillars feeding using a vibration microphone with laser technology. The lasers use reflected light to determine how fast a surface is moving back and forth. For example, when chewing, a caterpillar repeatedly removes a small strip of plant tissue until a hole appears. That feeding vibration is patterned—far more than when a caterpillar is moving around on a leaf. Later, when Cocroft’s recorded vibrations were played back, the Arabidopsis plant responded by increasing its production of mustard oil.

A piece of reflective tape helps record the vibrations of a cabbage butterfly caterpillar feeding on an Arabidopsis plant.

“The plant that we studied is in the mustard or cabbage family and is known for producing mustard oils in the leaves,” says Appel, who directed the chemistry side of the research. “A caterpillar that eats nothing but mustard oil plants can get poisoned if the levels get too high.”

When plants are attacked, they respond with defensive chemistry that can take from a few hours to a few days to build up. Sometimes, a plant doesn’t experience change right away but gets primed instead.

Appel, senior research scientist in the division of plant sciences in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources and the Bond Life Sciences Center at MU, uses the analogy of cocking a gun—preparing for a response to a later attack.

“That’s what we found in this case: a priming response to the feeding vibration. If a plant had received feeding vibrations before it was attacked by caterpillars, it reacted with more defense than if it hadn’t heard the feeding vibrations. A silent playback device served as a control,” Appel continues.

While the first experiment showed plants responded to chewing vibrations, but not indicating if the
response to the chewing vibration was unique, it left open the possibil-ity that plants might respond to any vibration in a similar manner. However, during the second experiment, Cocroft played some plants chewing vibrations; some plants insect songs; and other plants wind vibrations. Also in the second experiment, Appel went beyond mustard oil detection and measured levels of anthocyanins—the chemical that gives flowers and red wine their color.

The results confirmed their initial discovery: An increase in anthocyanins was exclusive to the Arabidopsis plants that heard chewing vibrations.

Science hasn’t yet shown how plants distinguish chewing vibrations from wind or other movements. However, plant cells have proteins called mechanoreceptors embedded in the membranes that signal when moved in certain ways. Appel suspects the mechanoreceptors are sensing vibration.

The next step of research will be to determine how perception and detection work inside plants.

Now that they know plants can “hear,” University of Missouri researchers Heidi Appel, left, and Rex Cocroft will study perception and detection inside a plant.

Cocroft and Appel’s first experiments centered solely on Arabidopsis, a model plant Appel compares to the white rat in the medical world or E. coli in the bacterial world. Their work also focused on a single pest, the cabbage butterfly caterpillar. The duo believes they’ve discovered a common phenomenon and plan on widening the research to include more plants and pests with a grant from the National Science Foundation.

“There are maybe 400,000 species of plants, and what are the chances that we just happened to pick the one species that has this ability to detect vibration? The ability for plants to pick up sound is pretty clear, but the advance from this study is unique,” Cocroft notes.

“Rather than playing plants a sound that is foreign to their natural environment, we approached it from a plant perspective,” he adds. “What everyday sounds would be relevant? This wasn’t Beethoven’s 5th; this was a chewing herbivore capable of doing a lot of damage to the plant.”

They hope to answer three questions during their next phase of research: Does the Arabidopsis reaction occur in other plants and with other insects? What parts of vibration do the plants use to identify the activity as feeding? Are the mechanoreceptors responsible for feeding detection?

Appel is hopeful other scientists will take the sound and vibration research and apply it in agriculture.

“Decades ago, basic research on plant hormones provided the understanding necessary for the eventual discovery of herbicides,” she says. “There may be an equally important discovery that arises from this work, and we certainly hope so.”

Cocroft echoes the possibilities for agriculture. “Could sound be played out to plants in a field causing them to respond in a beneficial way? Sure, it’s very speculative, but it’s also something that could happen in the future,” he adds. 

Biologists discover bacteria behave like neurons in the brain--UCSD News Release

This hybrid image depicts a human brain on the left and an aggregation of bacteria on the right--as the Simple Explanation predicted, the similarity is more than visual. (Gürol Süel)

PUBLIC RELEASE: 21-OCT-2015

Biologists discover bacteria communicate like neurons in the brain

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN DIEGO

Biologists at UC San Diego have discovered that bacteria--often viewed as lowly, solitary creatures--are actually quite sophisticated in their social interactions and communicate with one another through similar electrical signaling mechanisms as neurons in the human brain.

In a study published in this week's advance online publication of Nature, the scientists detail the manner by which bacteria living in communities communicate with one another electrically through proteins called "ion channels."

"Our discovery not only changes the way we think about bacteria, but also how we think about our brain," said Gürol Süel, an associate professor of molecular biology at UC San Diego who headed the research project. "All of our senses, behavior and intelligence emerge from electrical communications among neurons in the brain mediated by ion channels. Now we find that bacteria use similar ion channels to communicate and resolve metabolic stress. Our discovery suggests that neurological disorders that are triggered by metabolic stress may have ancient bacterial origins, and could thus provide a new perspective on how to treat such conditions."

"Much of our understanding of electrical signaling in our brains is based on structural studies of bacterial ion channels" said Süel. But how bacteria use those ion channels remained a mystery until Süel and his colleagues embarked on an effort to examine long-range communication within biofilms--organized communities containing millions of densely packed bacterial cells. These communities of bacteria can form thin structures on surfaces--such as the tartar that develops on teeth--that are highly resistant to chemicals and antibiotics.

The scientists' interest in studying long-range signals grew out of a previous study, published in July in Nature, which found that biofilms are able to resolve social conflicts within their community of bacterial cells just like human societies.

When a biofilm composed of hundreds of thousands of Bacillus subtilis bacterial cells grows to a certain size, the researchers discovered, the protective outer edge of cells, with unrestricted access to nutrients, periodically stopped growing to allow nutrients--specifically glutamate, to flow to the sheltered center of the biofilm. In this way, the protected bacteria in the colony center were kept alive and could survive attacks by chemicals and antibiotics.

Realizing that oscillations in biofilm growth required long-range coordination between bacteria at the periphery and interior of the biofilm, together with the fact that bacteria were competing for glutamate, an electrically charged molecule, prompted the researchers to speculate that the metabolic coordination among distant cells within biofilms might involve a form of electrochemical communication. The scientists noted that glutamate is also known to drive about half of all human brain activity.

So they designed an experiment to test their hypothesis. The object was to carefully measure changes in bacterial cell membrane potential during metabolic oscillations.

The researchers observed oscillations in membrane potential that matched the oscillations in biofilm growth and found that ion channels were responsible for these changes in membrane potential. Further experiments revealed that oscillations conducted long-range electrical signals within the biofilms through spatially propagating waves of potassium, a charged ion. As these waves of charged ions propagate through the biofilm, they coordinated the metabolic activity of bacteria in the inner and outer regions of the biofilm. When the ion channel that allows potassium to flow in and out of cells was deleted from the bacteria, the biofilm was no longer able to conduct these electrical signals.

"Just like the neurons in our brain, we found that bacteria use ion channels to communicate with each other through electrical signals," said Süel. "In this way, the community of bacteria within biofilms appears to function much like a 'microbial brain'."

Süel added that the specific mechanism by which the bacteria communicate with one another is surprisingly similar to a process in the human brain known as "cortical spreading depression," which is thought to be involved in migraines and seizures.

"What's interesting is that both migraines and the electrical signaling in bacteria we discovered are triggered by metabolic stress," he said. "This suggests that many drugs originally developed for epilepsy and migraines may also be effective in attacking bacterial biofilms, which have become a growing health problem around the world because of their resistance to antibiotics."

###

Besides Süel, other researchers involved in the study were Arthur Prindle, Jintao Liu and San Ly of UC San Diego, Munehiro Asally of the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom and Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo of the University of Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain.

The study was funded by grants from the NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01 GM088428, P50 GM085764), San Diego Center for Systems Biology and the National Science Foundation (MCB-1450867).

*************************************************************************

This study proves a central tenent of the Simple Explanation philosophy--that all creatures are organized in the same fashion, no matter their size, complexity, or physical structure. The organizational systems are hierarchically arranged aggregates of greater and greater complexity, each level carrying a larger piece of the puzzle than the level before. 

I'll come back to this in a couple of days with an article concerning the impact the bacterial "brain" has on larger organisms.

A Beautiful Piece of Toroidal Literature -- ‘The last man’ (Le dernier homme, 1957)

One of the blog's regular readers sent me this beautiful snippet of literature the other day. I have not read the entire book, but I hope you will recognize the Simple Explanation's toroidal flow and Units of Consciousness at work in the following:

“Against you, motionless thought, everything that is reflected in us of everyone comes to assume form, shine, and then disappear. In this way we have the most people, in this way everyone is reflected in each of us by an infinite glimmering that projects us into a radiant intimacy from which each returns to himself, illuminated by being no more than a reflection of everyone else. And the thought that each of us is only the reflection of the universal reflection, this answer to our lightness, makes us drunk with that lightness, makes us ever lighter, lighter than ourselves, in the infinitely glimmering sphere which, from its surface to its single spark, is our own eternal coming and going.”

Maurice Blanchot, ‘The last man’ (Le dernier homme, 1957), translated by Lydia Davis.

“Contre toi, pensée immobile, vient prendre figure, briller et disparaître tout ce qui se réfléchit en nous de tous. Ainsi avons-nous le plus grand monde, ainsi, en chacun de nous, tous se réfléchissent par un infini miroitement qui nous projette en une intimité rayonnante d'où chacun revient à lui-même, illuminé de n'être que le reflet de tous. Et la pensée que nous ne sommes, chacun, que le reflet de l'universel reflet, cette réponse à notre légèreté nous rend ivres de cette légèreté, nous fait toujours plus légers, plus légers que nous, dans l'infini de la sphère miroitante qui, de la surface à l'étincelle unique, est l'éternel va-et-vient de nous-mêmes”.

Maurice Blanchot, Le dernier homme, 1957

Close-minded Experts Get It Wrong

My brother, David, sent me this synopsis on how and why "experts" get it wrong so much of the time. It has to do with certainty in one's beliefs--experts are so certain they're right, they are prone to overlook results that do not uphold their hypotheses. Here's the report:

During a four-year study, a pool of amateur forecasters of future events beat experts with classified information, and the amateur "Super-forecasters" were more accurate than the team of experts by 30%.

Conclusions from research published in Philip Tetlock’s “Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction,” included the following:

• The most careful, curious, open-minded, persistent and self-critical—as measured by a battery of psychological tests—did the best.
• “What you think is much less important than how you think,” says Prof. Tetlock; superforecasters regard their views “as hypotheses to be tested, not treasures to be guarded.”
• Most experts—like most people—“are too quick to make up their minds and too slow to change them,” he says. And experts are paid not just to be right, but to sound right: cocksure even when the evidence is sparse or ambiguous.

You can read more about this in the WSJ article "The Trick to Making Better Forecasts."   While the story focuses on monetary predictions, the approach to reasoning and decision making applies to our everyday lives.

				The Trick to Making Better Forecasts The Intelligent Investor: A new book suggests that amateurs might well be less-hapless forecasters than the experts—so long as they go about it the right way.
				View on www.wsj.com	Preview by Yahoo

Here at the Simple Explanation blog, we strive to look at scientific findings with a fresh eye. This is not ignorance on our part--it's the way forward to fresh discoveries.

Dad's 1939 Vacation Pith Helmet

In 1939, when my dad was 20 years old, he took a road trip with his family from Colorado to Tijuana and back, stopping at many sights along the way. As it says on the top of the helmet: "A grand trip through 11 states, 2 national parks, 1 national monument, 1 outside nation, 1 Pacific Island playground, and a movie studio."

Dad recorded his trip on a pith helmet he took along. The pith helmet serves as both a map and an autograph book. I imagine that everyone who signed this helmet has long since passed over to the great beyond. I am very happy to still possess that souvenir.

(You can click on any picture to see it bigger--please do!"

This part of the pith helmet map shows the trip winding through Yellowstone National Park, where he meets up with the Morgans. There's a cartoon of two stick figures = martini glass which reads: "Hi, Morg." "Hi George," (equals) "Hi Ball." That joke has always cracked me up.

Dad's trip began on August 7, 1939 and ended August 31, 1939. The drawings on the hat begin at the START point and wind all over the pith helmet until the END. A caption reads, "Length of trip 5081 miles. Approximately as far as from Home to New York City and back to Los Angeles."

"A week's stay in Los Angeles--Mausoleum, Catalina, Auto Races, Warner Brothers Movie Studio, Santa Monica Beach, Venice--Fun House, Tijuana"

Here's the Oregon coast, where he stopped at Reedsport--"more curves than between Durango and Mancos." In Northern California he visited the "Italian Swiss Colony and Winery," then stopped at the "World's Largest and Oldest Living Things--the Redwoods." There's a cartoon of a giant redwood tree with a tiny stick figure underneath it which reads, "Us. Small, like little white lice." A little farther on there's a drawing of the Golden Gate Bridge and "Treasure Island--Isle of Sore Feet." 

The brim reads: "The Five Forgotten Footworn Followers of Fame and Fortune Who Forged Forward Furiously to Frisco and Back to the Foothills of Home."  There were five signatures, now faded by time, but you can still make out my father's name, "Bill Puett" and "Dill," dad's step-dad--Dillworth Halls. Frances, his mother, would have been on that brim, too.

There are more cartoons, more signatures, more little jokes, more sights described.  I'll post more of them if anyone's interested. Just let me know...

Wolflike Genes in Dogs

This nifty graphic first appeared in National Geographic magazine in 2012. Geneticists analyzed the DNA of 85 breeds of dogs and categorized them into four categories according to how wolf-like they are gentically. The graphic below displays the dogs in order of their genetic similarity to wolves, from the "wolflike" breeds at the top of the chart, through "herders," "hunters," and "mastifflike." The color red represents percentages of wolflike genes.

"WOLFLIKE

With roots in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, these breeds are genetically closest to wolves, suggesting they are the oldest domesticated breeds.

HERDERS

Familiar herding breeds such as the Shetland sheepdog are joined by breeds never known for herding: the greyhound, pug, and borzoi. This suggests those breeds either were used in the creation of classic herding dogs or descended from them.

HUNTERS

Most in this group were developed in recent centuries as hunting dogs. While the pharaoh hound and Ibizan hound are said to descend from dogs seen on ancient Egyptian tombs, their placement here suggests they are re-creations bred to resemble ancient breeds.

MASTIFFLIKE

The German shepherd’s appearance in this cluster, anchored by the mastiff, bulldog, and boxer, likely reflects its breeding as a military and police dog."

{from http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/02/build-a-dog/dog-families-graphic}