Our Baby Universe with Ed Copeland and Planck Satellite

Where do the seeds of structure in our Universe come from, and why does our Universe appear the way it does? In this talk, Ed explores what happened in those earliest moments that lead to the Universe forming itself into what it is today. He also tells us a bit of a story about how the theories were developed, and who the scientists were behind them.Our Baby Universe: Ed Copeland at TEDxUoN

Cosmic microwave background seen by Planck

 The ESA's Planck satellite, dedicated to studying the early universe, was launched on May 2009 and has been surveying the microwave and submillimetre sky since August 2009. In March 2013, ESA and the Planck Collaboration publicly released the initial cosmology products based on the first 15.5 months of Planck operations, along with a set of scientific and technical papers and a web-based explanatory supplement. This paper describes the mission and its performance, and gives an overview of the processing and analysis of the data, the characteristics of the data, the main scientific results, and the science data products and papers in the release. Scientific results include robust support for the standard, six parameter LCDM model of cosmology and improved measurements for the parameters that define this model, including a highly significant deviation from scale invariance of the primordial power spectrum. The Planck values for some of these parameters and others derived from them are significantly different from those previously determined. Several large scale anomalies in the CMB temperature distribution detected earlier by WMAP are confirmed with higher confidence. Planck sets new limits on the number and mass of neutrinos, and has measured gravitational lensing of CMB anisotropies at 25 sigma. Planck finds no evidence for non-Gaussian statistics of the CMB anisotropies. There is some tension between Planck and WMAP results; this is evident in the power spectrum and results for some of the cosmology parameters. In general, Planck results agree well with results from the measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations. Because the analysis of Planck polarization data is not yet as mature as the analysis of temperature data, polarization results are not released. We do, however, illustrate the robust detection of the E-mode polarization signal around CMB hot- and cold-spots. See: Planck 2013 results. I. Overview of products and scientific results

ESA and the Planck Collaboration

Cosmological parameters from 2013 Planck results^[18]

Parameter	Symbol	Planck - Best fit (CMB+lensing)	Planck - 68% limits (CMB+lensing)	Planck - Best fit (Planck+WP+highL+BAO)	Planck - 68% limits (Planck+WP+highL+BAO)
Age of the universe (Ga)		13.784	13.796±0.058	13.7965	13.798±0.037
Hubble's constant ( km⁄Mpc·s )		68.14	67.9±1.5	67.77	67.80±0.77
Physical baryon density		0.022242	0.02217±0.00033	0.022161	0.02214±0.00024
Physical cold dark matter density		0.11805	0.1186±0.0031	0.11889	0.1187±0.0017
Dark energy density		0.6964	0.693±0.019	0.6914	0.692±0.010
Density fluctuations at 8h−1 Mpc		0.8285	0.823±0.018	0.8288	0.826±0.012
Scalar spectral index		0.9675	0.9635±0.0094	0.9611	0.9608±0.0054
Reionization optical depth		0.0949	0.089±0.032	0.0952	0.092±0.013

Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Armitage-Caplan, C.; et al. (Planck Collaboration) (20 March 2013). "Planck 2013 results. I. Overview of products and scientific results". Astronomy & Astrophysics (submitted). arXiv:1303.5062.

See Also:

• Goddamn Particle
• The Universe According to Planck(The Satellite)
• Planck Results Are Out

When You Look at the Cosmos......?

Scientists have turned up rare evidence that space-time is smooth as Einstein predicted, while pushing closer to a complete theory of gravity. From NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope. See: SpaceRip.com

.....you might be enamored with how you might see the cosmos as I am.

The question of continuity of expression as some mathematical construct with out seeing the uniqueness of  lets say lensing....how might we associate with such dynamics of that continuity?

According to Einstein's theory of general relativity, the sun's gravity causes starlight to bend, shifting the apparent position of stars in the sky.

It's the way in which the Lagrangian expressions are understood or how satellite travel helps to denote the pathways throughout our universe. Are traverse pathways being suggested as we might see the holes in the cosmos as unique just to satellite travel alone? Ask yourself how the photon is influenced then? What pathways are traveled that we may see the evidence on the screen that such association measure in the spectrum are revealing of events across space and time.

Astronomers use the light-bending properties of gravity to view very distant galaxies--such as the arc shapes in this image--in a technique called "gravitational lensing.

This book describes a revolutionary new approach to determining low energy routes for spacecraft and comets by exploiting regions in space where motion is very sensitive (or chaotic). It also represents an ideal introductory text to celestial mechanics, dynamical systems, and dynamical astronomy. Bringing together wide-ranging research by others with his own original work, much of it new or previously unpublished, Edward Belbruno argues that regions supporting chaotic motions, termed weak stability boundaries, can be estimated. Although controversial until quite recently, this method was in fact first applied in 1991, when Belbruno used a new route developed from this theory to get a stray Japanese satellite back on course to the moon. This application provided a major verification of his theory, representing the first application of chaos to space travel.

See Also:

• Time Dilation

• Relativistic Time Dilation in Muon Decay

• New constraints on energy-dependent speed of light from gamma ray bursts

Radiation Belt Storms Probes Launched

 NASA hosted a two-day event for 50 social media followers on August 22-23, 2012, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA's twin Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) are scheduled to lift off aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 4:08 a.m. on August 23. Designed for a two-year primary science mission in orbit around Earth, RBSP will provide insight into our planet's radiation belts, and help scientists predict changes in this critical region of space.

 http://youtu.be/w0SaKPuocRA 

NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes blasted off from Cape Canaveral on August 30th, 2012. Bristling with sensors, the heavily-shielded spacecraft are on a 2-year mission to discover what makes the radiation belts so dangerous and so devilishly unpredictable.

"We've known about the Van Allen Belts for decades yet they continue to surprise us with unexpected storms of 'killer electrons' and other phenomena," says mission scientist David Sibeck, "The Storm Probes will help us understand what's going on out there." 

Each of the two Storm Probes is bristling with sensors to count energetic particles, measure plasma waves, and detect electromagnetic radiation. Learn more

See: The Radiation Belt Storm Probes

See also: 

• Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP)

Grail At the Moon

 Grail Recovery and Interior Labratory

NASA's Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)-A spacecraft successfully completed its planned main engine burn at 2 p.m. PST (5 p.m. EST) today. As of 3 p.m. PST (6 p.m. EST), GRAIL-A is in a 56-mile (90-kilometer) by 5,197-mile (8,363-kilometer) orbit around the moon that takes approximately 11.5 hours to complete.

Visualisation of the “Geoid” of the Moon

Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP)

The launch of an Atlas V carrying NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) payload was scrubbed today due to weather conditions associated with lightning, as well as cumulus and anvil clouds. With the unfavorable weather forecast as a result of Tropical Storm Isaac, the leadership team has decided to roll the Atlas V vehicle back to the Vertical Integration Facility to ensure the launch vehicle and twin RBSP spacecraft are secured and protected from inclement weather. Pending approval from the range, the launch is rescheduled to Thursday, Aug. 30 at 4:05 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. See:  RBSP Launch Targeted for No Earlier Than Aug. 30

RBSP is being designed to help us understand the Sun’s influence on Earth and Near-Earth space by studying the Earth’s radiation belts on various scales of space and time. 

The instruments on NASA’s Living With a Star Program’s (LWS) Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) mission will provide the measurements needed to characterize and quantify the plasma processes that produce very energetic ions and relativistic electrons. The RBSP mission is part of the broader LWS program whose missions were conceived to explore fundamental processes that operate throughout the solar system and in particular those that generate hazardous space weather effects in the vicinity of Earth and phenomena that could impact solar system exploration. RBSP instruments will measure the properties of charged particles that comprise the Earth’s radiation belts, the plasma waves that interact with them, the large-scale electric fields that transport them, and the particle-guiding magnetic field. 

The two RBSP spacecraft will have nearly identical eccentric orbits. The orbits cover the entire radiation belt region and the two spacecraft lap each other several times over the course of the mission. The RBSP in situ measurements discriminate between spatial and temporal effects, and compare the effects of various proposed mechanisms for charged particle acceleration and loss. See: RBSP

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

Engineers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., prepare to place Radiation Belt Storm Probes spacecraft "B" in a thermal-vacuum chamber, where they can make sure the propulsion system will stand up to the range of hot, cold and airless conditions RBSP will face in outer space. This round of testing took place in late October-early November 2010.

See Also:

• Sampex

Sampex

SAMPEX, the Solar Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer, was successfully launched by a Scout rocket on July 3, 1992. It is investigating the composition of local interstellar matter and solar material and the transport of magnetospheric charged particles into the Earth's atmosphere.

SAMPEX is a momentum-biased, sun-pointed spacecraft that maintains the experiment-view axis in a zenith direction as much as possible, especially while traversing the polar regions of the Earth. It points its solar array at the Sun by aiming the momentum vector toward the Sun and rotating the spacecraft one revolution per orbit about the Sun/spacecraft axis.

The Solar Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX) satellite was launched in July 1992 into a low earth orbit at an altitude of 520 by 670 km and 82 degrees inclination. The satellite far exceeded its expected three-year lifetime. It has primarily operated in a three-axis stabilized mode but has also been spun for limited periods. The satellite carries four instruments designed to measure the radiation environment of the Earth's magnetosphere.

SAMPEX was an international collaboration between NASA of the United States and Germany.^[2] It was part of the Small Explorer program started in 1989^[2]
SAMPEX science mission ended on June 30, 2004.^[3]

Interplanetary Transport Network

This stylized depiction of the ITN is designed to show its (often convoluted) path through the solar system. The green ribbon represents one path from among the many that are mathematically possible along the surface of the darker green bounding tube. Locations where the ribbon changes direction abruptly represent trajectory changes at Lagrange points, while constricted areas represent locations where objects linger in temporary orbit around a point before continuing on

This book describes a revolutionary new approach to determining low energy routes for spacecraft and comets by exploiting regions in space where motion is very sensitive (or chaotic). It also represents an ideal introductory text to celestial mechanics, dynamical systems, and dynamical astronomy. Bringing together wide-ranging research by others with his own original work, much of it new or previously unpublished, Edward Belbruno argues that regions supporting chaotic motions, termed weak stability boundaries, can be estimated. Although controversial until quite recently, this method was in fact first applied in 1991, when Belbruno used a new route developed from this theory to get a stray Japanese satellite back on course to the moon. This application provided a major verification of his theory, representing the first application of chaos to space travel.

Since that time, the theory has been used in other space missions, and NASA is implementing new applications under Belbruno's direction. The use of invariant manifolds to find low energy orbits is another method here addressed. Recent work on estimating weak stability boundaries and related regions has also given mathematical insight into chaotic motion in the three-body problem. Belbruno further considers different capture and escape mechanisms, and resonance transitions.

Providing a rigorous theoretical framework that incorporates both recent developments such as Aubrey-Mather theory and established fundamentals like Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser theory, this book represents an indispensable resource for graduate students and researchers in the disciplines concerned as well as practitioners in fields such as aerospace engineering.

See:Interplanetary Superhighway Makes Space Travel Simpler
July 17 2002

MESSENGER Reveals Mercury’s Geological History

Stefan of Backreaction posted a blog entry called,"Mercury looks like the Moon, nearly... that brought me up to speed on what the planet actually looks like.

His article provides for the links here in this entry, as well sets the stage for the culminating vision I have of our solar system. Looking at the solar system in the processes I outline are important point of seeing the gravitational aspects of the universe as we have come to know it.

I had never considered what the actual surface of Mercury would look like, other then what I had thought it to be, when told as a child. A molten surface.

Using the laser altimeter, MESSENGER will verify the presence of a liquid outer core in Mercury by measuring the planet's libration. Libration is the slow 88-day wobble of the planet around its rotational axis.

Seeing Mercury the way it is below provides for some thought about Mercury facing toward the Sun. It's surface looking at the picture below, I was wondering if facing directly in opposition to the Sun would showing brighter spots as we look to the right of this image.

This also raised an interesting question on my mind about how the uniformity of the surface could retain it's moon like look while undergoing the passage of "increased heat" as it faced the sun at anyone time through it's rotation.

Question 4 : What is the structure of Mercury's core?


Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

More recently, Earth-based radar observations of Mercury have also determined that at least a portion of the large metal core is still liquid to this day! Having at least a partially molten core means that a very small but detectable variation in the spin-rate of Mercury has a larger amplitude because of decoupling between the solid mantle and liquid core. Knowing that the core has not completely solidified, even as Mercury has cooled over billions of years since its formation, places important constraints on the thermal history, evolution, and core composition of the planet.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

This MESSENGER image was taken from a distance of about 18,000 kilometers (11,000 miles) from the surface of Mercury, at 20:03 UTC, about 58 minutes after the closest approach point of the flyby. The region shown is about 500 kilometers (300 miles) across, and craters as small as 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) can be seen in this image.

The Gravity Field



Clementine color ratio composite image of Aristarchus Crater on the Moon. This 42 km diameter crater is located on the corner of the Aristarchus plateau, at 24 N, 47 W. Ejecta from the plateau is visible as the blue material at the upper left (northwest), while material excavated from the Oceanus Procellarum area is the reddish color to the lower right (southeast). The colors in this image can be used to ascertain compositional properties of the materials making up the deep strata of these two regions. (Clementine, USGS slide 11)

This is always of interest to be because it is an accumulation of the synthesis of views we gain as we come to understand not only the views of on the Window of the universe, as we look at the Sun under information obtain in the neutrino laboratory's and information modelling of how we can now look at the sun with this new view.

But the truth is, the Earth's topography is highly variable with mountains, valleys, plains, and deep ocean trenches. As a consequence of this variable topography, the density of Earth's surface varies. These fluctuations in density cause slight variations in the gravity field, which, remarkably, GRACE can detect from space.

Well, by adding the label of Grace and Grace satellite systems, it is important to me that not only is gravity considered in context of the exploration of space in terms of Lagrangian, but of viewing how we map the earth and the views we obtain of that new gravity model of earth. This application then becomes of interest as we understand how we see the gravity model of Mercury and how the geological structure of Mercury will be reflected in that gravity model.

The Culminating Vision

Fig. 1. Story line showing the principle of least action sandwiched between relativity and quantum mechanics See A call to action

See:

The Periodic Table of the Moon's Strata

Time-Variable Gravity Measurements

Andrew Wiles and Fermat

The Other Side of the Coin

Susan Holmes- Statistician Persi Diaconis' mechanical coin flipper.

In football's inaugural kickoff coin toss, the coin is not caught but allowed to bounce on the ground. That introduces an extra complication, one mathematicians have yet to sort out.

Persi Diaconis See here.

The Ground State

There is always an "inverse order to Gravity" that helps one see in ways that we are not accustom too. The methods of "prospective measurements" in science have taken a radical turn? Satellites as a measure, have focused our views.



While one may now look at the "sun in a different way" it had to first display itself across the "neutrino Sudbury screen" before we knew to picture the sun now in the way we do. It was progressive, in the way the sun now forms a picture of what we now know in measure.

So you try and bring it all together under this "new way of seeing" and hopefully your account of "the way reality is," is shared by others who now understand what the heck I am doing?

To get a simple physical understanding of what the acoustic oscillations are, it may be helpful to change the perspective. Normally, the common way of presenting the phenomenon has been in terms of standing waves where the analysis is done in Fourier space. But the baryon-photon fluid really is just carrying sound waves, and the dispersion relation is even pretty linear. So let’s instead think of things in terms of traveling waves in real spacehttp://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:xLcnPGO6BDQJ:cmb.as.arizona.edu/~eisenste/acousticpeak/spherical_acoustic.ps+Fourier+space+when+I%27m+thinking+about+sound.&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=ca-Steward Observatory, University of Arizona
c 2005

"Uncertainty" has this way of rearing it's head once we reduce our perspective to the microscopic principals(sand), yet, on the other side of the coin, how is it that only 5% of mass determination allows us to see the universe mapped in the way it has in regards to the CMB?

There is this "entropic valuation" and with it, temperature. Some do not like the porridge "to hot or to cold," with regards to "living in a place" within the universe.

So I'll repeat the blog comment entry here in this blog so one can gather some of what I mean.

At 2:56 AM, December 11, 2007, Plato said...

As a lay person with regards to the complexity of the language(sound)and universe, it is sometimes reduced to "seeing in ways that are much easier to deal with," although of course, it may not be the same for everyone?:)

:)Something good science people "do not want to hear?"

Good link in html.

The launching of the sound waves is very similar to dropping a rock in a pond and seeing the circular wave come off (obviously that a gravity wave, not a compressional wave, but I’m focusing on the geometry). The difference here is that the area where the “rock” entered is still the most likely region to form galaxies; the spherical shell that it produced is only carrying 5% of the mass.

Hopefully, this demystifies the effect: we’re seeing the imprint of spherical sound waves launched from the sites of dark matter overdensities in the early universe. But also I hope it makes it more clear as to why this effect is so robust: the propagation of sound in the baryon-photon plasma is very simple, and all we’re doing is measuring how far it got.

"Mapping," had to begin somewhere. Whatever that may mean,one may think of Mendeleeev or Newlands.

Generally Grouping Order increases the density of objects within a frame of reference, resulting in a more pronounced single object.

"Sand with pebbles" on a beach? It had to arise from someplace?

The other side of the Coin is?

This recording was produced by converting into audible sounds some of the radar echoes received by Huygens during the last few kilometres of its descent onto Titan. As the probe approaches the ground, both the pitch and intensity increase. Scientists will use intensity of the echoes to speculate about the nature of the surface.

and not to be undone.

Mass results in an increase in the gravitational force exerted by an object. Density fluctuations on the surface of the Earth and in the underlying mantle are thus reflected invariations in the gravity field.As the twin GRACE satellites orbit the Earth together, these gravity field variations cause infinitesimal changes in the distance between the two. These changes will be measured with unprecedented accuracy by the instruments aboard GRACE leading to a more precise rendering of the gravitational field than has ever been possible to date.

Layman pondering.

So now that you have this "comprehensive view" I have gained on the way I am seeing the universe. You can "now see" how diverse the application of sound in analogy is. It is helping me to develop the "Colour of Gravity" as a artistic endeavour. I refrain from calling it "scientific" and be labelled a crackpot.

A Synesthesic View on Life.

Who knows how I can put these things together and come up with what I do. Yet, it had not gone unnoticed that such concepts could merge into one another, and come out with some tangible result as a "artistic effort." Some may be used to the paintings of Kandinsky(abstract), yet the plethora of imaging that unfolds in the conceptual framework might have been self evident, from such a chaotic mess of the layman's view here?

Minature Satellites in Space

KC-135 Flight Experiments

The Reduced Gravity Program at NASA's Johnson Space Center provides the unique "weightless" or "zero-g" environment of space flight using a specially modified KC-135A. The KC flies parabolic arcs to produce weightless periods of 20 to 25 seconds. This capability is ideal for the development and verification of space hardware, experiments, crew training and basic research.

Flight tests of the SPHERES testbed onboard NASA's KC-135 accomplished two objectives: (1) establish the functionality of testbed systems and subsystems and (2) perform limited formation flight experiments. Flight experiments were conducted over two separate weeks in early 2000, once in mid-February and again in late March. The time between flights was used to refine operations protocols, improve testbed systems, and develop more complicated experiments using lessons learned from the first week of flights.

There is a always a history to such developments and to me not ever knowing of this process about the spheres, I find it very satisfying to have some "correlation of cognition."

Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient Experimental Satellites


The MIT Space Systems Laboratory developed the SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellites) laboratory environment to provide DARPA, NASA, and other researchers with a long term, replenishable, and upgradable testbed for the validation of high risk metrology, control, and autonomy technologies for use in formation flight and autnomous docking, rendezvous and reconfiguration algorithms. These technologies are critical to the operation of distributed satellite and docking missions such as Terrestrial Planet Finder and Orbital Express.



Most would not understand the significance of this posting.

For me it is the correlation of insight that I had in a dream sometime ago, about my future. Most would not of thought that we would be capable as human beings to have this ability, to be able to project people we will become, to a people who are working in relation to what is developing and was developed in this post.

In my dream I am releasing a satellite, a Christmas tree design one without all the bells and lights.

The Mind Field

Lee Smolin:

Height is proportional to the number of things the theory gets right. Since we don’t have a convincing case for the right theory yet, that is a high peak somewhere off in the distance. The existing approaches are hills of various heights that may or may not be connected, across some ridges and high valleys to the real peak. We assume the landscape is covered by fog so we can’t see where the real peak is, we can only feel around and detect slopes and local maxima.Lee Smolin

See here for more information.

Without giving some coordinates to the thinking in Colour of Gravity I thought it important that such talk be given a new perspective that had not been considered in the context with how hierarchically how I gave meaning to such colours.

But the truth is, the Earth's topography is highly variable with mountains, valleys, plains, and deep ocean trenches. As a consequence of this variable topography, the density of Earth's surface varies. These fluctuations in density cause slight variations in the gravity field, which, remarkably, GRACE can detect from space.

See here for more info on Grace.

First I must say that having the sceptic aligned within oneself is a good thing. To maintain a questioning state to what is ever introduced. For me as I read the exchanges between "Susskind and Smolin" it was not without understanding that I might want to instigate "two other minds in the string debate" to engage them to bring forth "good information" about the model in science, for and against.

Who would ever of thought to give correlate the differences we see on earth as topographical features to have thought "Colour of Gravity" has now been implemented along with sound?

Do not forget "Titan's descent" and what "measure" do we have? We might want to see the surface in a way that you had not seen it before? What I have written so far in this post should open up a new concept in terms of what these measures do for us.

This recording was produced by converting into audible sounds some of the radar echoes received by Huygens during the last few kilometres of its descent onto Titan. As the probe approaches the ground, both the pitch and intensity increase. Scientists will use intensity of the echoes to speculate about the nature of the surface.

So have I lost you in regards to "subjectivity." Was the science reduced to innuendos of all kinds while showing such disrespect? It is less then the desired in exchange. So I have tried to hold this high in my values.

But alas what happens sometimes though, is that we can start speaking past each other, while most distinctly I would prefer the conclusion drawn, where both would agree on the differences. Admit, they would be working to not only support their positions and the reasons why, but instigate others to continue to question and deal respectively with the continued debate. What is gravity?

The immediacy of reactive perceptions would ask that any gravity be held in context of the reaction measured in calorimetric design.

Moving to a "fifth dimensional" understanding was a necessary part of our evolution?

If you join "electromagnetism and and gravity" what will become of your views of the world around you? I am the product of such thoughts. While scientists had been engaged qualitatively, I had become what their equations would allow them too in model design.

So I had to carefully take you to this point to have enlisted the idea of the Mind Field. It's relation to what is hidden in the subtle ideas related to Colour of gravity. That we could have this "multiversity idea held to any scientists mind", while thinking of only the technologies? It had to also have it's subjective valuation too.

How could you think as a scientist and not include this aspect of the thinking mind. That it had some "ascension" to it in terms of "pyramidal qualities." Colours that I might assign? Or, that the "bubble as a sphere" would reflect the scientists mind, as if it was a relation to "earth time variable measures" in the thoughts sequences of experience? You will reflect this, not only on a "verbal level" but one you had not seen before.

Out in Right/Left Field

If one didn't have their own "heart song" what said they couldn't "tap their way?"

Both left and right sides are necessary for complete perception of rhythm. For example, both hemispheres need to be working to tell the difference between three-quarter and four-quarter time.

The front part of your brain (frontal cortex), where working memories are stored, also plays a role in rhythm and melody perception.

So it is no surpise that I would highlight the following debate between Michael Shermer and Deepak Chopra would it.:)

Hope Springs Eternal Science, the Afterlife & the Meaning of Life-by Michael Shermer

The ancient Hebrew word for soul is nephesh, or “life” or “vital breath”; the Greek word for soul is psyche, or “mind”; and the Roman Latin word for soul is anima, or “spirit” or “breath.” The soul is the essence that breathes life into flesh, animates us, gives us our vital spirit. Given the lack of knowledge about the natural world at the time these concepts were first formed, it is not surprising these ancient peoples reached for such ephemeral metaphors as mind, breath, and spirit. One moment a little dog is barking, prancing, and wagging its tail, and in the next moment it is a lump of inert flesh. What happened in that moment?

In 1907 a Massachusetts physician named Duncan MacDougall tried to find out by weighing six dying patients before and after their death. He reported in the medical journal American Medicine that there was a 21-gram difference. Even though his measurements were crude and varying, and no one has been able to replicate his findings, it has nonetheless grown to urban legendary status as the weight of the soul. The implication is that the soul is a thing that can be weighed. Is it?

Taking the Afterlife Seriously by Deepak Chopra

If consciousness is an aspect of the field, then our brains should operate along the lines of a field. This seems to be true. For one thing, it’s impossible to explain how the brain coordinates millions of separate events simultaneously unless something like a mind field is present. Take a compass out of your pocket anywhere on earth, shake it, and a few seconds later the wobbly needle will always settle pointing north. If every person on the planet did this at exactly twelve midnight, billions of compasses would be doing the same thing simultaneously, a fact that doesn’t surprise us because we know that the Earth’s magnetic field is responsible. It would be absurd to claim that each compass decided randomly to pick north.