A Poem for Christmas 2016 by me to me

Christmas for me 

Each morning I wake up is Christmas Day for me.

Unknowingly I have sinned the night before

Each morning I need Christ to be born again in me

To remove the sin the night before

Born again each day in me

A new life in Christ to lead

The multitude sings and dance

In the streets and shopping malls

Hailing Christ birth only once a year

They matter not to me

The path of least resistance

Surely is the easiest way 

For it is written

“Enter ye in at the strait gate:

For wide is the gate, and broad is the way

That leadeth to destruction

And many there be which go in”

So they sing and dance all through the night and year

Each morning till my breath of life stays

I shall take the hard and narrow way

In remembrance of Christ birth each day

Who came to Earth to suffer for me

Surely I shall follow Him

Carrying my own cross along with Him

Through life journey in Christ till the end

To be born again each day in Him

Till I reach home to Him

That’s Christmas each day for me – jb lim

Fukushima Disaster Radioactivity found in the Pacific Ocean?

 Radioactivity in the Ocean?

An Analysis by

lim ju boo

Wow!  I received yet another bogus circular inside my smart phone asking people to avoid eating fish because radioactive has been detected millions of times above normal in the Pacific Ocean.

Just remember, Japan and the surrounding water in Japan is over 5,000 km away from Malaysia.

What a joke for me.

Let me clearly put it this in a very simple easy to understand way for my Gentle Readers.

Pu-241 decays into americium-241, with a half-life of 14 years. In short it becomes less and less radioactive over the years.

Plutonium (Pu-239) is a key nuclear material used in modern nuclear reactor like those in Fukushima.

Plutonium-239 is also one of the three main isotopes demonstrated usable as fuel in thermal spectrum nuclear reactors, along with uranium-235 and uranium-233. Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,110 years. But I do not know which of the isotopes was implanted into the Fukushima reactors.

But it makes very insignificant difference in our argument here, and I shall explain why.

The fission of one atom of Pu-239 generates 207.1 MeV = 3.318 × 10−11 J, i.e. 19.98 TJ/mol = 83.61 TJ/kg or about 2 322 719 kilowatt hours/kg.

 

Einstein used the CGS system of units (centimetres, grams, seconds, dynes, and ergs), but the formula is independent of the system of units.

Energy Equivalent:

In natural units, the numerical value of the speed of light is set to equal 1, and the formula expresses an equality of numerical values: E = m. In the SI system (expressing the ratio E / m in joules per kilogram using the value of c in meters per second).

E = mc2

E / m =  c2 = (299792458 m/s)2 = 89875517873681764 J/kg (≈ 9.0 × 10¹⁶ joules per kilogram)

So, the energy equivalent of one kilogram of any mass like Plutonium as long as it is totally fissionable able   is equivalent to the above calculation.

Put it another way, 1 kg of Plutonium or 1 kg of any mass, theoretically yields an equivalent of

= 89.9 petajoules

= 25.0 million kilowatt-hours (approx. 25 GW·h)

= 21.5 trillion kilocalories (approx.  21 P cal)

= 85.2 trillion BTUs

= 0.0852 quads or the energy released by combustion of the following:

21 500 kilotons of TNT-equivalent energy (approx. 21 Mt), or

2,630,000,000 litres or 695,000,000 US gallons of car petrol

This amount of energy if put into a car (let’s say) would be able to push the car up to 31,771,200 km or 19, 857,000 miles (assuming the petrol consumption of an average car is 14.87 km per litre or 35 miles per gallon).

Round and Round the Earth Circumference:

This amount of energy from 1 kg of Plutonium is more than sufficient to power a car up to 3.91081 x 10¹⁰ km or 975,873 times round and round the equatorial circumference of Earth

(Earth’s equatorial circumference is = 40,075 km)

(1 US gallon = 3.78541 litres, and 1 mile = 1.60934 km)

That’s a horrendous amount of energy no nation can ever use up even for 10 years or more.

So, I do not think Japan has ever used 1 kg of any form of isotopes of Plutonium.  It was probably just 200 gm. of highly purified fissionable Plutonium, whichever the isotope they selected.

But let us say for academic argument between you and me in this WhatsApp chat group for the sake of stimulating our mind and for fun sake.

 Let us see what happens if all the entire 1 kg of pure fissionable Plutonium were released into all the oceans on this Planet, and not just a small part of the Pacific Ocean near Japan as claimed.

Well, let’s do some simple mathematics and see what happens.

How Much Water in the Oceans

First, we need to know how much water there in all the oceans of the world are, including the ice caps, glaciers, & permanent snow, etc., except inland waters like lakes and river, and water trapped in subterranean layers of the Earth and in the atmosphere, etc.  

Let us make our calculations simple.

The data I got from various sources puts the estimate at 1,362,145,400 cubic kilometres.

That’s equivalent to 10¹²  x 1,362,145,400 cubic km = 1.36 x 10²¹ litres of ocean waters which is an extremely modest estimate I should say.

Let us say, all the 1 kg of pure Plutonium has leaked into all the oceans and seas and thoroughly diluted by ocean currents of various sorts for another 1,000 years to come. What happens?

Since one kg = 1,000,000 mg of Fukushima Plutonium

Then the dilution factor is:

1.000,000 / 1.36 x 10²¹ litres = 7.35 X 10 – 16 mg = 

0.000,000,000,000,000735 mg per litre only diluted into all the ocean and sea water by ocean drifts, convection and currents

Level of Detection in Analytical Chemistry:

As an analytical chemist it is possible for us to detect any chemical substance down to the tune of several parts per billion or ppb (1 billion = 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or 10⁹). We use highly sophisticated instrumental and state-of-art i analytical procedure to bring it down to this analytical level.

But to ask me or any well-trained analytical chemist,  even with the most advanced and classy analytical instrumentation and procedure available to my disposal  to detect any chemical substance down to the level of just 0.000,000,000,000,0007 mg per litre,  is like asking me to detect 30 – 40  molecules  inside the biggest lake in the world, let alone detect any radioactivity from a few million  molecules  of a radioactive substance thrown into the Amazon or Yangtze River.

Well mathematics does it and has shown me the way to argue for argument’s sake.

Localized Area:

 Of course, if we are only talking about a small area in the Pacific Ocean near, and around where the Fukushima earthquake catastrophe took place, then there may be a small concentration of radioactivity concentrated around that area only where the discharge flowed. Maybe a small strip of the North Pacific Ocean was affected.

Even then over time, water currents will wash away all contaminations well away from coastal regions where there is human habitation. By then any radioactive wastes from spent nuclear fuel will also be so diluted by the enormous volumes of the Pacific Ocean, that nothing can be detected chemically, or its radioactivity shown by the Geiger-Mueller (GM) tube. 

Furthermore, there is no need for fishing boats to go so near the coast or strip of waters where the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster took place, or where the radioactive waters was found.  It is a normal practice for fishing boats to go far out at sea for deep sea fishing.  The fishing yield may not be big enough near coastal region to be commercially viable.

Tritium: 

Most of the radioactivity in the Fukushima wastewater is from tritium, a type of hydrogen found naturally in far higher quantities in the ocean than from the Fukushima disaster. The rest of the radioactivity is so minimal that even eating fish in extreme amounts laced with them would even be less than the radiation received in a dental x-ray.  Even that, the natural tritium present in the ocean pales compared to other radioactive substances such as 91 % are from potassium-40, 8.6 % are from rubidium-40, and 0.3 % from uranium which were already present in the ocean since Earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago.

Most of the radioactivity in the Fukushima wastewater is from tritium, a type of hydrogen found naturally in far higher quantities in the ocean than from the Fukushima disaster. The rest of the radioactivity is so minimal that even eating fish in extreme amounts laced with them would even be less than the radiation received in a dental x-ray.  

Tritium  is a radioisotope of hydrogen (with a half-life of about 12.3 years) and emits weak radiation (β-particles) n nature, about seventy quadrillion (7 × 10¹⁶) Bq of tritium is produced annually by cosmic rays, etc. on earth. In the past nuclear testing (1945 to 1963), tritium of 1.8 to 2.4 × 10²⁰ Bq was released. In addition, tritium is discharged daily from facilities such as nuclear power stations around the world and the annual amount of tritium released from nuclear power stations around the world is 2 × 10¹⁶ Bq. 

Before the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)'s Fukushima Daiichi NPS Accident, the annual amount of tritium released from nuclear power stations all over Japan was 380 × 10¹² Bq (which is the average annual amount discharged into the ocean during the five years before the accident). The total amount of tritium existing in nature is estimated to be 1 to 1.3 × 10¹⁸ Bq. 

The released tritium exists mostly as hydrogen that makes up water molecules and it is also contained in water vapor in the atmosphere, rainwater, sea water and tap water. The annual amount of tritium contained in the precipitation in Japan is estimated to be about 223 × 10¹² Bq.

In the International System of units (SI), becquerel (Bq) stands for  the unit of radioactivity. 

One Bq is   1 disintegration per second (dps). 

Even that, the natural tritium present in the ocean pales compared to other radioactive substances such as 91 % are from potassium-40, 8.6 % are from rubidium-40, and 0.3 % from uranium which were already present in the ocean since Earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago.

Minamata Disease

The Minamata disease due to the continuous industrial discharge of methyl mercury into the Minamata Bay of Japan between 1932 – 1868 by the Chissa Corporation, a chemical company is an example of localized chemical pollution that lead to severe neurological disorders such as   ataxia, paraesthesia (sensation of ‘pins and needles’), muscular weakness, loss of vision, hearing and speech impairment, deformity, birth anomaly, insanity, coma, and other clinical presentations, and eventual death.

It is one example how poisonous discharge into the rivers and seas can affect the health of a fishing community living around that area due to consumption of fish and shellfish that have accumulated mercury in their tissues.

The disease first recognized in 1956 has since disappeared. The reason is obvious. All the mercurial toxic waste has since disappeared around Minamata Bay and the Shiranui Sea due to enormous dilution by ocean waters that drifted them far out into the North Pacific Ocean. I believe not a trace of mercurial complex can be detected there now.

Dilution Factors

 The amount of toxic or radioactive molecules or any atoms, molecules or particles present in a volume will depend upon the concentration of a substance present.

In Chemistry, this is called Avogadro number or Avogadro constant (named after the Amedeo Avogadro) which is the number of molecular particles, or atoms present in the amount of substance given by one mole. It is related to the molar mass of a compound.

Avogadro's constant or (NA or L), has the value 6.022140857(74) × 10²³ mol−1

What would the Avogadro number of radioactive waste now in the localized part of sea near Fukushima disaster area? 

I believe it would be much less than 6.022140857(74) × 10²³ mol−1 due to its much less concentration - number of molecules per mole as defined by Avogadro constant.

Uranium and Plutonium

Plutonium (Pu) is a transuranic radioactive chemical element and an atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal that is silvery-grey in colour that tarnishes when exposed to air.  Plutonium is the heaviest element known in nature but in trace amounts.  
Its trace presence in Nature is similar to its small amounts of production from the neutron capture of natural uranium-238.

 

Plutonium is much more common on Earth since 1945 as a product of neutron capture and beta decay, where some of the neutrons released by the fission process convert uranium-238 nuclei into plutonium-239.

Since it is derived from uranium, and since uranium is a more common elements in the Earth's crust, than silver by 40 times and silver is 500 times more common than gold, uranium can be found almost everywhere in rock, soil, rivers, and oceans.

If uranium is quite a common ore on the Earth’s crust, and since it is already present naturally on this Planet with or with the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors what then is the problem. 
The Fukushima reactors did not add more radioactive elements into the seas and environment.  Japan did not bring them from outer space. It came only from Planet Earth, and they merely put them inside their reactors.  

The total amount of radioactive substances on the entire surface of this Earth, whether inside reactors or outside in the natural environment is exactly the same.  Nothing extra was added by Man or Nature. 

They were already there 4.543 thousand million years ago even long before the beginning of any life form creeping on the surface of this Earth. What then is the problem?

In fact, the reactors subtracted the amount by spending it to yield nuclear energy, except it left behind unspent fuel as wastes, which is the issue. Spent plutonium fuels are no longer fissionable. That at least is my understanding how nuclear reactors work.

Total Amount is the Same Within and Without

Because the total amount of radioactive substances on Earth are the same, be they inside reactors or outside in the natural environment, what then is the fuss if the same natural uranium from outside which plutonium is derived decides to leak into the environment through rain,  storm,  dust winds  and the elements causing  natural erosion.

Would environmental and health activists make a fuss as though the disaster came from the damaged reactors at Fukushima?

Now this rubbish thing about radioactivity in the Pacific Ocean from the Fukushima disaster and asking everyone not to eat fish which to me as a food scientist and research nutritionist, is one of most laughable jokes of 2016 when fish is one of the best sources of excellent protein quality, and nourishment for the protein-hungry world.

In my opinion there is hardly any health risk consuming any fish or any seafood caught anywhere around Japan or elsewhere as there is hardly any trace of radioactivity in them due to the huge diluation by ocean waters mixed into the wastewater  

Whom do you believe? Those health quacks who ask others not to eat fish, and makes all sorts of health and toxicological claims or some one who showed us clearly the amounts of radioactivity in the ocean waters is so minimal.

 

Please go to this update on the Fukushima scare about radioactive seafood from Japan. 

There I explain in simpler language about trillium in the water waste where Japan is currently discharging into the Pacific Ocean. It is placed just before another article entitled here as:

“Why is the Ocean Waters Salty? Is it getting Saltier? 

 

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2023/

 

Magnetic Nano Particles to Open Gates to Brain-Blood Barrier

Dear Professor Dr.  Andrew Charles Gomes

Thank you for your question soliciting my coments on this website:

http://newatlas.com/magnetic-nanoparticle-open-blood-brain-barrier/36736/

I am not an expert in this area of medicine – nano-medicine, or in nano-pharmacodynamics or its kinetics.  

But still,  I shall attempt in a simple, non-technical way to answer your question by  explaining  its mechanisms as a potential drug-delivery system especially in hard-to-access target areas such as the brain where concentrated drug dosage need to be delivered without compromising toxicity exceeding therapeutic index / therapeutic  windows to the rest of the body especially for cytotoxic agents in cancer treatment.

Brief Introduction:

The application of nanotechnology as a drug delivery system especially in cancer research and in other therapeutics is considered as nanomedicine. This  discipline is one of the most active and exciting areas of medicine scientists are actively working on today.

It applies nanotechnology to highly specific medical  and pharmacological interventions for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. The haste in nanomedicine research over  the past few decades is now  recognized  as part of translational medicine  that may result in  considerable marketing efforts  by  bio-pharmaceutical companies throughout the world.

There are at present a significant number of products using nanotechnology  such as cosmetics on the market and an increasing numbers are  in the pipeline. Presently, nanomedicine is restrained to drug delivery systems, and the results of R & D in this areas has exceeded  75% of total nanotechnology sales.

However, the application of nanotechnology as an emerging drug delivery systems would depend on their safety and efficacy data, but I believe would fail to reach clinical development for other therapeutic regimens because of their poor biopharmacological properties, such as modest solubility or poor permeability across the brain-blood barrier or even through the intestinal epithelium, circumstances that translates into poor bioavailability and undesirable pharmacokinetic  end-points.   

Currently there exist various nanoforms that have been attempted as drug delivery systems. They vary from metallic-organic conjugates,  biological compounds, such as albumin, gelatin and phospholipids in liposomes complexes, to chemical compounds  such as various polymers and solid metal-congugated complexes.

Polymer–drug conjugates, which have high-small size spectrum are normally not considered as nanoparticles(NPs).  But since their size can still be structured within 100 nm, they have been  integrated into these nanodelivery systems. 

These nanodelivery systems can be designed to have drugs absorbed or conjugated onto the particle surface, encapsulated inside the polymer/lipid bonds or dissolved within the particle matrix including perhaps magnetic –sensitive NPs which is the question Professor Dr.  Andrew Charles Gomes, a Senior Consultant ENT Surgeon associated with Johns Hopkins Hospital was asking me to comment

Brain-Blood Barrier:

First, we must consider the existence of  blood–brain barrier (BBB) which is a highly selective permeability barrier that disconnects the circulating blood from the brain extracellular fluid in the central nervous system (CNS).

This blood–brain barrier is shaped out by the brain endothelial cells, which are then linked by tight junctions with an extremely high electrical resistivity.

Neurophysiologists know that the blood–brain barrier allows only the passage of water, some gases like oxygen and carbon dioxide,   and lipid-soluble molecules into the brain.  These molecules are transported by passive diffusion, as well as the selective transport of compounds such as glucose and amino acids that are critical for neurological function.

On the other end of the blood–brain barrier it may prevent the entry of lipophilic, potential neurotoxins by way of an active transport mechanism mediated by P-glycoprotein.

Astrocytes are essential in this barrier mechanism to create the blood–brain barricade. A small number of regions in the brain, including the circumventricular organs (CVOs), do not have a blood–brain barrier such as what Prof Dr. Andrew Gomes emailed me on the above website.

However, there  are  regions in the brain where there is an open gate, and where  certain “thermo-gates” are temporary opened  at certain temperatures.  It is here scientists take an advantage when the gates are opened and / or subjected to a magnetic field for drug-laced nanoparticles to gain entry.

Normally, the blood–brain barrier exists along all capillaries and consists of tight junctions around the capillaries, but do not exist in normal circulation. Endothelial cells restrict the diffusion of microscopic objects such as bacteria and pathogens, and large or hydrophilic molecules into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), but  allowing the diffusion of small or hydrophobic molecules  such as oxygen,  carbon dioxide and hormones.

It is in these regions of the brain t that actively transports nutrients such as glucose and specific range of proteins across the barricade which encompasses a thick basement membrane and astrocytic sheet.

This "bio-barricade” results from the selectivity of the tight junctions between endothelial cells in CNS vessels restricts the passage of even solutes which generally are not magnetic-sensitive

At the interface between blood and the brain, endothelial cells are sewed together by these tight junctions. These junctions are composed of smaller subunits, frequently biochemical dimers, that are trans-membrane proteins such as occludin, claudins, junctional adhesion molecules.

The units of these trans-membrane proteins are fastened into the endothelial cells by another protein complex that includes other associated proteins. None of these molecules to the best of my understanding can be subjected to magnetic induction.

As I have already explained, the blood-brain barrier is a highly selective semipermeable barrier running inside the majority of all the vessels in the brain, and they only that lets through water, some gases and a few other select molecules, while inhibiting potentially toxic elements in the blood from entering the brain.  

It is almost improbable for most drugs to get through excepts perhaps Levodopa, the drug  used in the management of Parkinson’s  disease.  Levodopa is probably  the best drug that mimic dopamine,  the natural neurochemical in the brain

No Entry:

Scientists currently tell us 98 percent of therapeutic molecules are also blocked by the brain-blood barrier.

However medical researchers have developed a technique using magnetic nanoparticles to open  the door for such molecules, and in so doing opening the gates  to new therapeutics  regimen for brain diseases.

"At the present time, surgery is the only way to treat patients with brain disorders," says Anne-Sophie Carret, a study senior author in this area of magnetic nano-therapeutics  

Currently surgery is the only option to remove certain kinds of tumors.  But some disorders are located in the brain stem, amongst nerves;  making surgery impossible says Anne-Sophie Carret.

By opening the blood-brain barrier to these therapeutic molecules, the researchers feel that  would provide an alternative to surgery for treating various brain diseases.

According to researchers the technique involves sending magnetic nanoparticles to the surface of the blood-brain barrier at the desired location in the brain. The researchers say this could be achieved using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology, albeit a different method was used for their study.

Scientists in the study say that the drug-laced nanoparticles are directed to the desired location, the nanoparticles are then exposed to a radio-frequency field that caused them to dissipate heat.

This causes a small rise in temperature which in turn places mechanical stress on the barrier, thus opening  a localized gate  which allows therapeutic molecules to pass through. The opening is only temporary, remaining open for around two hours the researchers claimed.

"While other techniques have been developed for delivering drugs to the blood-brain barrier, they either open it too wide, exposing the brain to great risks, or they are not precise enough, leading to scattering of the drugs and possible unwanted side effect," says principal investigator Sylvain Martel.

Currently technique is experimental, and was developed using murine (rats and mice) models. It is yet to be tested on humans, but the researchers are optimistic that  one day it can be used  on humans.

"Although our current results are only proof of concept, we are on the way to achieving our goal of developing a local drug delivery mechanism that will be able to treat oncologic, psychiatric, neurological and neurodegenerative disorders, amongst others," says Carret.

To the best of my understanding at the time of writing this comment, this is a novel approach in breaking into the brain-blood barrier using magnetically-induced nano therapeutic molecules, but the question I  would like to  ask the researchers is, how then would these drug-tagged nanoparticles get out from the brain parenchyma once it has delivered its therapeutic molecules to the target region. Surely, the brain-blood barrier is only a one-way street.

One-Way Entry:

Drugs, especially metallic complexes and large molecules with high molecular weights cannot find their way into the general blood  circulation or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow  even via active transport mechanisms,  let alone by diffusion especially if a one-way gate is closed once the nanoparticles get lodged inside the brain  This is the dilemma I need to ask my scientific-medical counterparts . I wonder what their answers would be as much as I like to direct this same question to  Professor Andrew Charles Gomez.

A Neuro-Scientist Opnion:

I had a discussion with Professor Dr. Ong Wei Yi, who is my nephew and a neuroscientist at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS) at a family dinner on September 3, 2016.

I was talking about the use of nano-delivery cream in cosmetic application such as in sun screens,  and my nephew  cautioned me about the use of nanoparticles, depending on their size as they can lodge in the brain even by inhalation, but not by injection, probably because  of this brain-blood-barrier mechanisms,   and they can cause extensive neurodegeneration and wide spread tissue and organ damage according to Professor Ong Wei Yi.

This is my nephew’s professional opinion as a neuroscience expert at NUS.

Many Questions:

I too have many questions to ask on their biosafety that requires extensive and long-term toxicological evaluation and long-term clinical trials with safety and dose data clearly demonstrated -  right to the end of Phase Four of drug trials before magnetic  nano therapeutic molecules can find their way into clinical applications

Comments by ju boo lim (lim ju boo) 

Artemisinin and Malaria a Nobel Prize Recognition of TMC

Dear Dr Chan Boon Lye

Thank you for your further info about Artemisinin and Chinese researcher Tu Youyou who won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

This, indeed is a very great honour for a Chinese, and a giant leap for a medical researcher in TMC from China for a female Chinese to win this very prestigious Nobel Prize in Medicine or in Physiology.

As far as I know, there are 12 Chinese so far world-wide, 3 from Mainland China, including Tu Youyou, one from SAR Hong Kong, and the rest who won this coveted Prize in Physics and Chemistry were Chinese working in the United States.

But Tu Youyou is the first female Chinese from People's Republic of China, and the only Chinese to win one in Physiology or Medicine. What a tremendous honour for the super-fast growing superpower of China and the Chinese race world-wide.

What is more glaring is that she won this much esteemed Prize not in conventional allopathic medicine, but in a 2000-year old Traditional Chinese Medicine (TMC).  This gives the practice of TMC such a tremendous boost in recognition against the fast declining popularity of allopathic drug-based mainstream medicine. 

  

My Awareness as a Medical Researcher:

In the 1980’s when I was working at the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) there were already much  talks among us researchers at international  conferences,  scientific meetings and medical updates  about the resistance of MP (malaria parasite)  - Plasmodium falciparum  to most anti-malarial drugs, notably chloroquine a drug that has long been used against malaria.

Malaria claims the lives of nearly one million people each year, mainly in Africa. Chloroquine was then the best anti-malaria drug available against the scourge  of this tropical disease.

It was about the time I returned from London after completing my PhD in natural medicines. I went to London and universities elsewhere in the UK 3 times over for my postgraduates

I remember one afternoon standing on the open wooden corridor of the old colonial building, the old section of IMR after completing my PhD  in this field of expertise, I had a long discussion with Prof Dr Mak Joon Wah, MD PhD who then was the Head of the Malaria Division at IMR.

His office was just next door to mine. I asked him if he knew about a plant called Artemisia, a specie called Artemisia annua  in which contains  a therepeutic principle called Artemisinin.  

 I told Prof Mak that artemisinin has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine as a very effective treatment for malaria. That was the knowledge I brought home from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London.

The year when I suggested that to Dr Mak, was around 1988 or 1989? I then proposed to Prof Dr Mak, that he  should consider using  this naturally-occurring medicine instead of using the conventional chloroquine-resistant  synthetic agent  against  P. falciparum (malarial parasite) since  the parasite was already showing resistance to chloroquine,  first observed in Vietnam and in Thailand.

 Fortunately Prof Mak told me he was aware of artemisinin, but unfortunately he also told me the World Health Organization has recommended that artemisinin should be reserved as the last resort as the only last hope left for treating malaria since MP has already shown resistance to most anti-malarial drugs, the best then was chloroquine, the chemical analogue of quinine from the bark of the cinchona tree.

So it looks like artemisinin is now a reserved natural drug-of-choice against malaria

Spoke to a WHO Malariologist:

I also remember some years later I also spoke to a WHO Consultant Malariologist who was posted to IMR.

During our dialogue, he admitted we were losing our battle against malaria and that mosquitoes have existed even much earlier than the dinosaurs, maybe about 100 million years ago.

He told me he was sent by WHO to Malaysia from Assam in the south-eastern region of the Himalayas

He told me malaria existed even in Assam, it was not a huge problem there because the Assamese used traditional medicine to treat themselves. In the case of malaria or any form of fevers, they did this by chewing the bark of a tree (presumably, the bark of the cinchona tree) 

Then the fever and malaria were all gone within hours. It was not a problem for the Assam people because they rely on their good old traditional medicine.

But he said WHO had a “better” idea for them.  WHO then started introducing chloroquine and other synthetic anti-malarial drugs into Assam to fight the disease en masse

After WHO did that he said, malaria took revenge, and ravaged the population there uncontrollably.   That was why he escaped from Assam and came to Malaysia to do the same to this country to the loud laughter of both of us.

 Our Experience among Orang Asli in Malaysia:

The same thing we experienced here in Malaysia among the Orang Asli. When our malaria team from the IMR went into the jungles and the orang asli settlements to do a survey, we found almost all of them carry Plasmodium falciparum or other species of Plasmodium in their blood as seen in thick blood films on Giemsa stains

But they do not suffer from any of the classical clinical signs and symptoms of malaria. They merely walk about healthily with the malarial parasites in their blood.  It was a kind of symbiosis between their body and the parasites.

Despite that, we still dosed all of them with synthetic chloroquine with the hope of getting rid of all the MP (malarial parasites) in the blood.  Then naturally the MP count fell.   

We were very happy because we thought we were very clever, we have achieved our objectives. We also thought we were very clever and smart, smarter than Mother Nature.

We then returned to our sophisticated research laboratories at IMR in Kuala Lumpur and ‘bemused’ at our ‘victory’ because we thought we have solved their chronic sub-clinical malaria problems.

Then we returned to re-evaluate our findings and our prophylactic and therapeutic regimen a month later. What did we find? Well, this time the entire settlement there not only got back all the MP into their blood, but they all also came down with clinical malaria as well, which was never there before.

It only shows if we have not interfered with Mother Nature with our synthetic drugs, we would not have made the problem worse.

The Orang Asli have been living peacefully in the jungles in harmony with Nature, and the malaria parasites too have been living peacefully with them in their blood without attacking them. They were in harmony with Nature, some kind of natural symbiosis.  

We are not too sure about this biological phenomenon as the malarial parasites require at least 6 major steps in their life cycle for their development once the malarial parasites or other species of Plasmodium, such as P.  falciparum P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae enters  the body from the bite of the Anopheles mosquito during which clinical manifestations of malaria will develop.

But most of the native people living in the jungles or in malarial infested regions have high loads of malarial parasites in the blood without suffering from the classical clinical presentations of the disease.  It is quite a  phenomena we cannot quite understand.

Perhaps they are immune to it with chronic and long exposures to the bit of the Anopheles mosquitoes till they do not respond clinically? It could be the exhaustion phase from an acute to the chronic phase a disease until the body fails to respond as postulated by the famous Canadian physician Dr Hans Seyle in his theory  of General Adaptation Syndrome when the body undergoes from acute to chronic stress.  This could be the best explanation.

Alternatively, they may have developed a symbiotic relationship with the parasites in their blood

Yet, once we interfere with this biological relationship we invite trouble. The parasites attack back.

Perhaps if we have used artemisinin or other natural medicines, the scenarios would have been entirely different.

As doctors and research scientists we have much to learn from other alternative systems of medicine such as traditional medicines, botanical and herbal medicines, naturopathic medicine, nutraceutical and nutritional medicines.

Allopathic Medicine vs Traditional and Complementary Medicines:

Doctors and practitioners of most  alternative systems of medicine learn their therapeutics from Mother Nature thousands of years ago. 

Conventional allopathic doctors use chemical drugs and surgery only less than 100 years ago compared with thousands of years of therapeutic experiences for traditional and other systems of medical practices. 

Conventional drug-based medicine handles chronic and degenerative diseases such as metabolic syndrome (diabetes and endocrine disorders), hypertension, CVA, cardiovascular disorders, cancers, renal and neurological disorders, etc  poorly using synthetic chemical drugs to control (not cure) the disease,  compared to the slower but more responsive therapies of botanical and natural medicines.

Traditional Chinese Medicine for instance has served the Chinese civilization very effectively for over 2000, while naturopathic medicine or natural medicine based on food, rest, physiological fasting, etc  has been around since the time of Greek Physician, Hippocrates of Kos, the Father of Medicine around   460 – c. 370 BC.  Hippocrates advocated

 "Let Food Be Your Medicine"

This is therapeutic nutrition or nutritional medicine. Food especially plant-based (fruits and vegetable) contains hundreds of phytochemicals including antioxidants. They are functional foods and also be nutraceuticals. Almost half the present generations of synthetic chemical drugs used in conventional medicine have their origin from herbs and medicinal plants.

Hippocrates only advised “let food be your medicine” not the other way round. How can that be using medicine and drugs as our daily food? This round about quote was put there into Hippocrates mouth by modern allopathic doctors and drug companies working hand-in-gloves to promote their chemical drugs as food. The root causes was never taken into account, but simply to supply the same medication month-to-month till the next routine appointment three months later comes round!  

Unfortunately this last claim by Hippocrates that "let medicine be your food" was repeatedly quoted by many, including health-care professionals like parrots who has not a clue what they are uttering.

They just follow the repeated quotation from others like parrots. They merely follow the crowd to be on the safe side, but has no clue what were they were uttering.

Food and herbs do contain medicinal principles besides their nutrient contents, and can be used as food as well as medicine. But we need to be selective

But how illogical is it to advise someone to take tablets, pills, drugs, injections, including herbal medicines as our daily food and bread?

This last quote is highly illogical and can only come from someone who has no knowledge on the difference between medicine, food and nutrition.

They merely blare out their ignorance by following what others have quoted.

Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine only advised physicians of his time to treat their patients with food, rest and exercise

Never did he advise taking natural medicine as food. Food and medicine are two different things

How illogical to take drugs and all kinds of medicines as our daily food and bread. The body must be terribly ill to be supported like that! 

Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine had never advised that! 

Lim juboo  BSc (Physiol) PG Dip Nutri  MSc  MD  PhD (Med)  FRSPH  FRSM

Human Brain versus a Supercomputer

Dear Dr. Lim

I don't need to understand Mandarin to appreciate this.  What a Genius this Chinese Youngster is !!! I Awesome and Amazing…Simply fantastic.....

The Human Calculator...... !?!

Check out the amazing mathematical talent of this Chinese youngster

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2123538422915

Dear Palan,

Thank you for the video on this math prodigy from China. It was lodged there for some time and I did not get to read it until about 3 days ago until I scrolled it down.  A lot of mails were also the same. They all were hidden below the screen due to other junk mails that occupy a lot of screen spaces. Thanks anyway.

In exchange, I have written my opinion. It is lengthy, so please take your time to read as it took me almost 2 days typing my thoughts. 

---------------

Most students from Chinese schools are exceptionally good at mathematic. But this boy went beyond being an ordinary Chinese math student. I think he is a math wizard extraordinary. 

Unlike doctors, and biological scientists, engineers generally are very good in mathematics. So I asked my youngest daughter who is both from Chinese school and an engineer on the possibility of mentally calculating such complex numbers so fast.

She told me there is a way, but need to be trained from young. 

Since she was unable to prove or show it to me, I do not believe her. I need to think of some alternative possibility. 

The alternative is, this boy in the video is not a human being.  I think he is from another world with another brain far more advanced than ours. I sense he is an alien who went to China disguised as a Chinese in human form. 

No human brain from this earthly world could possibly calculate such a complex arithmetic at that speed.  Do we believe he has a human brain? 

Let me explain. 

The Human Brain:

An average human adult has about 100,000,000,000 brain cells. Let me cut short a calculation in neuroscience to inform ourselves a human brain can execute 20 million billion (20 million, million, million) calculations per second. 

That is fast – exceedingly fast indeed. But that’s not the point. No computer on Earth, not even the world’s fastest supercomputer in Tianjin, China is able to supersede the speed of a human brain for multiple complex functions except for mental arithmetic.

China's Tianhe supercomputer calculates at a drizzling speed of 33.86 petaFLOPS, or 33.86 quadrillion floating point operations per second.  That’s superfast. 

Very impressive though for China, but the human brain is far more complex in structure and function than that. Why? The human brain has a complex network of billions of neurons (nerve cells) and a ramification of neurons and neurotransmitters that receive and send out neurotransmissions, signals, messages and instructions to the entire body every second of our lives. 

The CPU:

The Central Processing Unit (CPU) of an ordinary desk top computer is 5 million times faster than the speed of a single neuron. But our brain is not made of a single neuron, but 100,000 million of them. 

Collectively, this means an average human brain can process information 20,000 times faster than an ordinary desk top computer. That’s the horrendous speed for a human brain. That’s even more impressive. 

The brain is extremely complex. It has to perform multiple complex operations such as the control of speech, hearing, vision, heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, muscle coordination, decision making, responding to a threat or an injury. This is far beyond what a supercomputer, let alone a home computer or a mere calculator can do.

Biological Orchestra:

Besides, it also indirectly controls the endocrine organs through innervations (nerve supply) to these organs in order to control the secretion, amounts, inhibition, and regulatory control of hormones to the body as well as changing the body chemistry so that the entire body can function in a balanced and orderly manner (in homeostasis).

For instance, the master gland called hypophysis (pituitary gland) is an elongated appendage of the brain that secretes numerous hormones, as well as controlling other endocrine glands in order to regulate the biochemistry of the body.

The pituitary gland is aptly called the “conductor of the endocrine orchestra”

Thus, the brain is not created to perform mental arithmetic like a computer or a calculator.    

The brain has to ‘calculate’ and coordinate the complexities of all kinds of physical, chemical, sensory, motor and other bio-mechanisms exceedingly fast in order for the entire body can stay defended,  alive and protective. 

Conducting mental arithmetic is not part of brain’s function, let alone calculating complex equations very fast like a calculator. A calculator is made to do just this single function. 

A Life without Arithmetic:

In fact a human being can live his entire genetic life span without doing a single mental arithmetic.  So do all animals with brains. None of the animals in the wild we know do arithmetic unless trained to do very simple additions and subtraction in a circus or in an animal show. The rest of the animals can live their entire life spans in the wild or in captivity without calculating anything. So do primitive people.

Other biological functions controlled by the brain to sustain life take precedence over mathematics. 

Priority: 

Let me give you a simple example how threats and injuries to the body takes priority over mental functions.  

Suppose you are deep in thoughts over some calculations, whether mental, or written. Let us say someone now touches your hand with a hot iron. Instantly you will lose your mental attention on what you are doing.

Your first instant reaction is to withdraw your hand from the hot iron. That is a reflex action.

The pain signal will not even have time to go to your brain to let it first decide.  The pain transmission will pass through the sensory neuron before it synapses across the spinal cord to the motor neuron to force your hand to instantly withdraw from the hot iron. 

When that protective action is done, part of the stimulus will travel to the brain to inform it what happened and the action taken. The pain from a hot iron will instantly causes you lose your mental concentration on arithmetic.  That evasive action takes precedence over whatever you are doing.

However in the absence of a threat, many other physiological functions such as heart and breathing rates maybe slightly slowed down when we are in deep thoughts, during mental exercise and when meditation is in progress. Thoughts require attention and the rest of other physiological functions maybe very slightly affected.

Brain Power:

The brain albeit only 2 %  of our body weight, actually uses quite a significant amount of energy for all its activities compared to the energy requirements by the rest of the body. 

In order to summarize some studies by scientists specializing in brain nutrition or in neuroscience, the amount of energy a brain uses is about 20 % of the body’s energy requirements.  In absolute numbers, this is about 45 joules (10.8 calories) per hour or 0.75 joules (0.18 calories) each minute or 260 calories per day. 

 

However, since the brain’s function is manly electrical in nature, it uses very minute amount of electricity for its neurochemistry and neurotransmission to communicate with the rest of the CNS (Central Nervous System) instead of using heat energy.

Hence, we need to convert the heat energy (calories) into electricity (mini-watts).  Some heat energy is used for metabolic and cellular dynamics and kinetics and to keep the brain warm and alive.  

Extrapolating this energy transfer, we can say the brain uses about 0.003 calories per second. This is 0.0125604 watt-sec or 12.5 milliwatts of electricity per second. Even that must be a highly active thinking brain I should say. The tiny electrical activity in the brain can be shown on an electroencephalogram (EEG).

Compare this to about 1800 calories a day requirement for an average adult male for heat production, heartbeat, breathing, locomotion, biochemical activities, and other active physical work. 

This means the brain energy consumption is about 14 -20 % of the body’s requirements. 

Another estimate puts the energy consumption of a human brain around 12 watts for the whole day or a tiny 0.000138 watt-second or 0.138 milliwatt (mW) per second.  I believe is more comfortable estimate.  

How to Measure Brain’s Energy:

Since there are a number of estimates given by various researchers on how much energy a thinking brain actually uses, there is nothing like investigating this yourself. But how do we do this? 

Let us give ourselves one possibility how this could be done – at least this would be the way I would do it. You need not follow my procedure. You can use your brain to think of other alternatives. This is my way of measuring:  

1.   First, we would take blood samples from the carotid arteries from the neck, the arteries that run up to the brain.

2.   Next, we would analyze the nutrient content, especially glucose, oxygen and carbon dioxide contents in the blood

3.   Next, we will draw blood again, this time from the jugular veins that exist from the brain back to the heart after discharging its glucose, fatty acids, amino-acids, and determine the remnants of oxygen-carbon dioxide ratios into and out of the brain. Again we will analyze and measure their contents using various analytical techniques. 

4.   Next, we will determine the carotid-jugular (c-j) differences in glucose, oxygen-carbon dioxide contents and ratios, as well as the uptake of other nutrients?   

5.   Next, we will compare this difference among various humans and with other experimental animal models.

6.   Next, we will calculate out how much glucose (in particular) has being used up (metabolized) by the brain from this c-j differences

7.   Next, we will calculate out how much heat energy has been released in the combustion (metabolism) by knowing caloric values of every nutrient as we normally do in a bomb calorimeter. 

8.   Next, we will conduct an autopsy of the brains of each animals being sacrificed in this medical experiment to determine their brain sizes.

9.   Next, we will use exactly the same animal or human and measure their body weight, age and sex, and compare their intelligence with their brain-body weight ratios, etc, etc.

10.                Next, we will do a correlation study to determine the oxygen consumption, nutrient uptake and match them against  brain sizes, brain tissues morphology and histology, and the intelligence of each experimental animal

11.                Next, we can even trace the metabolic dynamics on how exactly the sugars are being used by the brain tissues for electric activities and mental work. This, we can map out  using radioactive tracers such as radioactive carbon tags or radioactive labels on sugar molecules, and see where they go after entering the brain. 

12.                Next, we will perform a statistical analysis to determine what the coefficient of correlation (Pearson's measure) among the variables, or would it be a scatter-gram?

13.                Next, we can determine if there are statistical differences in all the comparative studies by determining their P values (example P<0 .05="" span="" style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  

14.                Next, if we have sufficient similar studies done elsewhere, we will combine all the results, and conduct a meta-analysis to determine how much energy the brain actually uses under varying physical, mental and physiological states.

Actually if anyone is interested, this suggestion of mine can be used by him or her to get, not just one, but 2-3 PhDs by registering with various universities, and write different thesis.

 There will be more than sufficient data in this study for a few PhDs. It all depends on how he / she manipulates with the data for statistical analysis and interpretation.  

Energy consumption:

Back to our original discussion; out of the total amount of energy our brain uses (as determined by other scientists using other procedures), approximately 60 to 80 percent is for mental work, namely for neural signaling. 

Not surprisingly, the percentage is higher in children whose brains are still developing intellectually. Scientists found the brain of an infant consumes about 3/4 of available energy, and a 10 year old child, about 1/3.    

Unfortunately the brain of an adult requires even lesser energy. Maybe the brain of an adult does not think anymore.

Perhaps an adult’s brain has gone into doldrums and despair once he leaves school or a university. He does not want to learn or think anymore. 

The Supercomputer:

Whatever the figure, the brain is a highly efficient organ, far more competent and dazzling than even a supercomputer. Remember what I said earlier, it is our brain that created the world’s fastest supercomputer, not the other way round. Let me now compare the energy requirements of a supercomputer.

 

The IBM's Watson supercomputer requires ninety IBM Power 750 servers, each of delivering 1000 watts.  That is 90 000 watts or 0.09 Megawatts.

China has the world fastest supercomputer. Her Tianhe-1 supercomputer consumes more than 4.04 Megawatts (4,040,000 watts or 4040 kW) of electricity. 

So we can now understand how little electricity our brain uses. Of course a modern calculator that can calculate complex math equations uses very little electricity. In fact it works on penlight batteries. 

Do Not Disturb:

The tiny amount of energy we use in thinking, calculating or doing mental arithmetic cannot be distracted away, else we no longer can think properly. Let me give an example.

A student who is studying or taking an exam cannot be distracted by noise, people talking, laughing, someone shouting, or by any other disruption, otherwise he cannot concentrate. 

That is why in an examination hall when students take an exam, measures are normally taken to ensure the hall and the outside environment are kept silent without distraction.  No outside people are allowed near the hall. Traditionally we know this but we may not understand why, because we do not think anymore. 

Thinking brain vs. computer logic:

A computer or a calculator in contrast is entirely different. It has none of these biological functions to contend with.  Their only function is to process binary bits of zero and 1 which are binary digits using “off” and “on” switches and these are controlled by electronic “gates”.  This makes them remarkably faster than a thinking human brain that has to process a100 trillion neural, cellular and other biological signals per second. 

This is far more complex than binary bits of zeros and 1.

Computers and calculators do not have this biological ability.  

According to neuroscientists, our brain with its 200 billion neurons containing 125 trillion synapses in the cerebral cortex alone can process 20 million, million, million (20 trillion) calculations per second. This is another way of putting it. 

As I said earlier, if a human brain has no other function to perform except mental arithmetic, it can calculate far faster than even the most powerful computer on Earth. 

Which calculator or even a supercomputer can handle that kind of ‘living data’? 

A computer cannot recognize biological information such sugar and adrenalin levels in the blood, speech, hearing, vision, heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, muscle coordination, decision making, etc…etc. A human brain can understand complex logic, not a computer or a calculator. It is an entirely different scenario.

But if the task is just analyzing binary digits of 1 and zero, a computer can execute them far faster. Unfortunately, it is not capable of recognizing anything more than this.  It merely works by using ‘on’ and ‘off’ switches to activate a long series of ‘one’ and ‘zero’ to represent the digits such as the example below: 

·         0=00000000

·         1=00000001

·         2=00000010

·         3=00000011

·         4=00000100

·         5=00000101

·         6=00000110

·         7=00000111

·         8=00001000

·         9=00001001

·         10=00001010

·         Etc, etc

Data into Images:

A computer can also change images into data so that it can be read. But the image need to broken down into pixels. Images are made of millions of pixels. The more pixels an image contains, the sharper it is, and more details can be read by a computer. Each pixel represents one color.

Computer logic is quite lengthy to explain here, and it is quite different from the way our brain logically understands and plan, execute, and manage images, sounds, heat, light, and other stimuli through step-by-step operations.  Our brain is thus far, far more complex than a computer or a calculator on this alone.

How a brain thinks and calculates: 

The brain with its 100 000 million neurons receives and transmits electrical and chemical signals through its long ‘transmission wires’ (nerves fibres) that link it to the different parts of the body like the network of wires from one computer to the next. The brain is counterpart of a CPU (Central Processing Unit) of a computer.

The “wiring” from the brain to the rest of the CNS is very complex with so many spinal nerves emerging from the spinal cord. Innervations to the various organs involves the neurons (nerve cells), which itself have the soma (body), axon (“wire”) and the dendrites (nerve endings). 

We will not go into intricate details all those complicated neurophysiology, neurochemistry and neurotransmission as they  involve DNA, endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, ribosomes, myelin shield, peripheral sensory and motor nerves, myelinated and non-myelinated neurons, etc, etc. 

Learning this during my student days gave me headache, let alone trying to explain them here after so many decades.  However, we can briefly discuss this  below.

Anatomy of Neuroscience: 

Scientists tell us a human brain consists of some 200,000 million nerve cells (neurons) as mentioned earlier. These are linked together by trillions of connections called synapses.  Each time an electrical impulses discharge across a neuron, they have to pass through these synapses.

Each neuron is wired to 1000 different switches that route the electrical impulse.

In total, a human brain could hold hundreds of trillions of these neural pathways. All these “switches” and “wiring” make up the human brain.

The brain on a gross scale is made up of several larger compartments. Each compartment specializes in different neurological functions.  Let us look at some of these compartments briefly. 

Lobes of a brain:

These compartments are lobes in the cerebrum. The cerebrum is placed above the rest of the brain. It specializes in the control of oneself, in organization, in thoughts and reasoning. This is an outer part which is highly convoluted with a layer over it. This layer is called the cerebral cortex where most of the brain activities are performed. 

There are of course many lobes in the brain. For instance, there is a temporal lobe responsible for perception, recognition of hearing, memory, speech. The Wernicke’s and Broca’s areas are for the management of language, movement, and emotions. Problem solving in mathematics and science are located in this region. 

There is also the occipital lobe where visual stimulation is situated. Probably the most important area is the hippocampus at the basal part of the temporal lobe where things like learning and memory are located. 

There is also the thalamus mass of gray matter in the forebrain where sensory and motor functions are controlled. Practically all sensory stimuli enter here which is then sent to the cortex for processing. 

Memory, language ability, cognition, emotional characteristics are located in the frontal lobe.

The medulla oblongata is the lower segment of the brainstem. It controls autonomic functions, such as breathing and blood pressure and heart rate.

As mentioned earlier, these functions are controlled by 200,000 million nerve cells that are wired together by trillions of other connections called synapses. Which computer in this world has all these complex network of wiring and switches that can stretch from Earth to Jupiter? Only a human brain is capable of storing such highly complicated networking.

 

Interestingly for mathematical calculations and mathematical talents, this seems to be located between the right and left parietal lobes. Einstein brain seemed to be about 20 % wider in this area.

But suffice to say our brain is like a computer linked by cables to other terminals, except the brain and the CNS is far more complex than all the network of computers linked together. 

The Capacity of Human Memory: 

Let us look at how much memories can a human brain hold? 

Tom Landauer tried to estimate this in 1986. He inferred that the brain storage capacity is approximately about 200 megabytes of information. (Landauer,1986). The capacity depends on our age, learning capacity, education level and how intelligent we are. 

However, I feel that nurturing a child during his formative years is more important than if his brain is left alone to mature on its own by nature. It is Nurture versus Nature.

Landauer derived at 200 megabytes in part by looking at the speed at which people could acquire information through reading as well as by looking at pictures. He examined rates at which people forget things, and the amount of information adults requires in order for people to perform their day-to-day duties. 

The data he got in gigabits, not gigabytes, were 1, 0.8, 3, 0.4, 2.0, 1, 0.4 and 0.5 gigabits. If averaged out, and divided by 8, it generates 227 MB. 

 

Since the brain has between 10¹² and 10¹⁴ neurons, this implies that for each bit of memory, the brain mobilizes 1,000 to 100,000 neurons. 

But that does not mean the brain uses them only for memory or mental work.  A major part of the brain’s role is for perception, motor control, and other regulatory functions as already mentioned. 

A Trillion Nerve Cells:

Scientists tell us that a human brain consists of some 200,000 million nerve cells (neurons) that are linked together by trillions of connections called synapses.  Each time an electrical impulses discharge across a neuron, they have to pass through these synapses. 

Each neuron is wired to 1000 different switches that route the electrical impulse. I need to repeat these few sentences several times above and here to impress ourselves.

In total, a human brain could hold hundreds of trillions of these neural pathways. 

All these “switches” and “wiring” make up the human brain which in turn is made up of several larger compartments that specializes in different neurological functions.  Let us look at these compartments briefly. 

The Lobes:

These compartments are lobes in the cerebrum. The cerebrum is placed above the rest of the brain. It specializes in the control of oneself, in organization, in thoughts and reasoning. This is an outer part which is highly convoluted with a layer over it. This layer is called the cerebral cortex where most of the brain activities are performed.

There are of course many lobes in the brain. For instance, there is a temporal lobe responsible for perception, recognition of hearing, memory, speech. The Wernicke’s and Broca’s areas are for the management of language, movement, and emotions. Problem solving in mathematics and science are located in this region. 

There is also the occipital lobe where visual stimulation is situated. Probably the most important area is the hippocampus at the basal part of the temporal lobe where things like learning and memory are located. 

There is also the thalamus mass of gray matter in the forebrain where sensory and motor functions are controlled. Practically all sensory stimuli enter here which is then sent to the cortex for processing. 

Memory, language ability, cognition, emotional characteristics are located in the frontal lobe.

The medulla oblongata is the lower segment of the brainstem. It controls autonomic functions, such as breathing and blood pressure and heart rate.

As mentioned earlier, these functions are controlled by 200,000 million nerve cells that are wired together by trillions of other connections called synapses. Which computer in this world has all these complex network of wiring and switches that can stretch from Earth to Jupiter? Only a human brain is capable of storing such highly complicated networking. 

Interestingly for mathematical calculations and those with mathematical talents, this seems to be located between the right and left parietal lobes. Einstein brain seemed to be about 20 % wider in this area. 

Brain is more Superior: 

As mentioned earlier, China's Tianhe-2 supercomputer is the fastest in the world. It calculates at 33.86 petaFLOPS (33.86 quadrillion floating point operations per second, and yet with its awesome calculating speed, it is said its computing power is less than 1% the power of a human brain.  Why is this so?

Why is it so tough for even the world fastest supercomputers to match the computing power of a human brain? Simply put:

1.   It is a human brain that created a supercomputer, not the other way round. The human brain is a superior thinking brain over an inferior creation? A supercomputer does not have that kind of fantastic volume of ‘wiring’ of neurons as a human brain. 

2.   As I have explained, a human brain has hundreds of thousands of other vital functions to manage every second of our lives. A computer or calculator need not have to do all these. It can only recognize binary bits. It cannot perform highly complex assortment of biological functions. 

3.   A computer or a calculator can shut down if not needed, but a living body cannot afford even a short moment of biological rest. If it does, it will irreversibly shut down the entire body systems. 

4.   The brain tolerate no more than 3 minutes of anoxia (without oxygen). It dies after that. A calculator or a computer can shut down anytime after saving the data. A brain once shut down losses all data and memory.

In brief, no calculator, computer, supercomputer, or artificial intelligence or robotics can parallel, let alone supersede a human brain in thinking, cognition, intellect, in language, art, science, mathematics, philosophy, rationality, reasoning, intuition, and logic. 

Scientists have already created robotics to do multiple tasks, including doing housework, serving as waiters, exploration, seeking out bombs and dangerous areas, medical applications like surgery and tiny probes into the body for investigation, and even for military operations and cyber wars…etc.

But all these robots still need to be programmed by humans for each task. However, attempts have been made to create thought-controlled  prosthetic limbs by  implanting electrodes connected to the bones and nerves of amputees so that the artificial limb can be controlled by thoughts. But that still requires the human brain to control the prosthetic to function at the will of the wearer. It cannot think on its own. Nerve impulses still need to come from the brain to the prosthetic limb telling it what to do. The brain is still the master, the artificial limb, the servant. 

They are also now trying to create artificial intelligence and robots that can think for themselves. That might still be light years away. Meantime none of these ‘thinking robotics’ can match a human brain in thinking.  

1.   A  living brain is created by God,

2.   A human brain in turn invents artificial intelligence.

3.   No way can we beat a Supreme Being who created us in the first place.

4.   In turn, no way can a computer create a human brain.

5.   Any  brain  that calculates as fast as a calculator or faster does not belong to a human species

It’s an Alien Brain:

Notwithstanding the amazing calculating speed an electronic calculator, you will notice even the electronic billboard shown in the video took some moments to calculate the results.  That genius boy took slightly longer. He is a super wizard in mental calculations. We can envisage the power of his brain which is so uncharacteristic of a human brain. 

He must be an alien from another world in human form? I do not think he is from China either. In the past there were a few such math prodigies from India and elsewhere who can calculate complex calculations within several seconds. We are not sure how their brains work? 

Continuous Calculations:

I wonder if that boy can perform mathematical “iteration” which normally can only be performed by a supercomputer. Do not confuse the term “iteration” with “integration” in integral calculus. 

Iteration in math means substituting an intermediary result in an equation back into the original formula because of shifting parameters in an ongoing reaction.

Examples are the changing parameters taking place in the interior of the Sun, or in the stars, or in a nuclear reaction where scenarios change in pico, femto or in attosecond. A supercomputer has to catch up with the recalculations as the parameters change. That’s is “iteration” 

Supercomputers are also used in stimulating the creation of the Universe during the first few seconds in beginning of time. It is used also in molecular designs of drugs, weather patterns, space flights, etc, etc.

These applications require powerful supercomputers to execute, the faster the computer, the better “to keep up” with changing limits during exceeding fast reactions. 

A Test on Myself: 

Just to test myself how fast I am able to calculate out a complex equation using a calculator (not mentally), I randomly generated out an equation, and noted the time I needed to perform it. 

Here is the arithmetic I randomly generated just for fun.

In (8.9³⁷) x log (789 853) ÷ ³⁹ √ (569 815 893 17) - ⁴⁷ √ (789 696 548 0455)¹⁹ + ³⁹ √ 569 815 893 17 + ¹³√ (log 723 094 379 128)⁶⁷ - 5π¹³ =??? (π^{13 =} Pi ¹³)

Even using a scientific calculator it took me some 20 minutes, not because the calculator was slow, but I was. But why was I slow? 

First, I have not used a calculator to perform such calculations before. It has no practical applications, except for academic interest. Hence, I am not familiar with keys I hardly use.

Second, I think hardly anybody uses a calculator to perform this sort of arithmetic in their daily life. Almost everyone use a calculator just to add, divide, multiple and divide for buying and selling their merchandise. That’s all most of us do. 

Hardly people go beyond simple arithmetic except for rocket scientists, physicists, chemists, research scientists, engineers, biometricians, or doctors conducting medical research. They need to handle biomedical and statistical analysis or complex mathematical equations.  

Third, I need to locate and understand which keys to use, and how to operate them

Fourth, I need to take care where I place the brackets and the order I need to input the figures into the calculator.  They must be placed in their right sequence, example: what is within the bracket must be calculated first. 

Fifth, I need to study the order of the log, In (log_e), multiplication, division, nth root (ⁿ √), exponential (xⁿ), addition, minus signs and the brackets placed before and after them. This takes time even with a calculator. 

The equation is quite complex, and if the figures are not keyed in the right order, the results will be erroneous.

Fun with Math:

Most youngsters use their smart phones to play games, but hardly anyone uses a calculator to figure out answers for a complex equation just for fun. 

To me meddling with a calculator is like engaging in a game of chess to determine every move. The results can be very interesting and rewarding (to me).

I found it took me some 10 minutes just to understand the special math keys I seldom use.

Then it took me another 10 minutes just to key in those long digits. That slowed me down considerably. But the calculator can actually calculate the input very fast, except parts in the equation that is astronomically huge and complex, or it was processing add-on intermediary results.

Here is the answer to my math formula:

-         (minus) 14338588.44 

I have triple checked it, and the answer was consistent. But my answer may still be wrong if I erroneously input the long digits on specific keys.

Check it out:

Later after a few tries, I learn the right keys and the order of the inputs. I then managed to get the results within 2.5 minutes instead of the initial 20 minutes.

It was not the calculator that was slow, but it was my slow, old brain working. I believe my old brain energy output must be less than 0.1 milliwatt per second working out this self equation. 

Perhaps some young math wizards out there who are fast with calculations can check out my results. Let me know if mine was correct?

Try find out how long you take to calculate out the formula by first attempt (use a scientific calculator). Time yourself, and repeat it after many tries. 

Mine was over 20 minutes first shot, but it was shorten to 150 seconds after learning the right keys. 

Most of the time taken during my first attempt, I was looking for the right keys, how to use them, and testing them out. Maybe you are more familiar using a calculator.

Good luck, and have fun with math like I do.

Just before I sign off, here's a U-tube of a superhuman who remembers events faster than a computer

Enjoy yourself with alien brains
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nki1uWTUNdI

lim juboo