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Brain, bodily awareness, and the emergence of a conscious self: these entities and their relations are explored by Germanphilosopher and cognitive scientist Metzinger. Extensively working with neuroscientists he has come to the conclusion that, in fact, there is no such thing as a "self" -- that a "self" is simply the content of a model created by our brain - part of a virtual reality we create for ourselves. But if the self is not "real," he asks, why and how did it evolve? How does the brain construct the self? In a series of fascinating virtual reality experiments, Metzinger and his colleagues have attempted to create so-called "out-of-body experiences" in the lab, in order to explore these questions. As a philosopher, he offers a discussion of many of the latest results in robotics, neuroscience, dream and meditation research, and argues that the brain is much more powerful than we have ever imagined. He shows us, for example, that we now have the first machines that have developed an inner image of their own body -- and actually use this model to create intelligent behavior. In addition, studies exploring the connections between phantom limbs and the brain have shown us that even people born without arms or legs sometimes experience a sensation that they do in fact have limbs that are not there. Experiments like the "rubber-hand illusion" demonstrate how we can experience a fake hand as part of our self and even feel a sensation of touch on the phantom hand form the basis and testing ground for the idea that what we have called the "self" in the past is just the content of a transparent self-model in our brains. Now, as new ways of manipulating the conscious mind-brain appear on the scene, it will soon become possible to alter our subjective reality in an unprecedented manner. The cultural consequences of this, Metzinger claims, may be immense: we will need a new approach to ethics, and we will be forced to think about ourselves in a fundamentally new way. At

"An accurate and colorful discription of a gout attack was elegantly written in 1683 by Dr. Thomas Sydenham who was himself a sufferer of gout: The victim goes to bed and sleeps in good health. About 2 o'clock in the morning, he is awakened by a severe pain in the great toe; more rarely in the heel, ankle or instep. This pain is like that of a dislocation, and yet the parts feel as if cold water were poured over them. Then follows chills and shiver and a little fever. The pain which at first moderate becomes more intense. With its intensity the chills and shivers increase. After a time this comes to a full height, accommodating itself to the bones and ligaments of the tarsus and metatarsus. Now it is a violent stretching and tearing of the ligaments- now it is a gnawing pain and now a pressure and tightening. So exquisite and lively meanwhile is the feeling of the part affected, that it cannot bear the weight of bedclothes nor the jar of a person walking in the room. "

"„TBLR1 wirkt offensichtlich den schädlichen Stoffwechselveränderungen entgegen, die typisch für Übergewichtige sind und die zu schweren Erkrankungen führen können", so Stephan Herzig. Langfristiges Ziel seiner Forschung ist, über Schaltermoleküle wie etwa TBLR1 einen aus der Balance geratenen Energiestoffwechsel gezielt zu beeinflussen. ***** Maria Rohm, Anke Sommerfeld, Daniela Strzoda, Allan Jones, Tjeerd Sijmonsma, Gottfried Rudofsky, Christian Wolfrum, Carsten Sticht, Norbert Gretz, Maximilian Zeyda, Lukas Leitner, Peter Nawroth, Thomas Stulnig, Mauricio Berriel Diaz, Alexandros Vegiopoulos und Stephan Herzig: Transcriptional co-factor TBLR1 controls lipid mobilization in white adipose tissue. Cell Metabolism 2013, doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2013.02.010. Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum"

"Eigentlich ist Thomas Maul der Deponiegärtner in Erfurter Stadtteil Schwerborn, seit 2011 arbeitet er an der Renaturierung des Geländes mit. Irgendwann hat er festgestellt, dass dort so viele verschiedene Pflanzen wachsen, dass es für Bienen eine wahre Freude ist, weshalb er in seiner Eigenschaft als Hobby-Imker mit dem Ansiedeln von Bienen auf dem Deponiegelände begonnen hat. Inzwischen wuseln dort sieben Völker mit rund 60 000 Bienen, die jedes Jahr erheblich mehr Honig als gewöhnliche Durchschnittsbienen produzieren, wie es heißt. Zur Hand geht Maul der pensionierte Uni-Professor Werner Bidlingmaier aus Weimar, und der wiederum hatte, so berichtet die Thüringer Allgemeine, kürzlich Besuch eines Kollegen aus den USA."

"Den Forschern zufolge legt dieses Ergebnis nahe, dass der Grund für die Diskrepanz der Einschätzungen beim Selbstbild von Mädchen zu suchen ist. Schülerinnen werden vermutlich eher durch Geschlechterklischees und Stereotypen als aufgrund tatsächlicher Leistung dazu gebracht, ihre Fähigkeiten in Mathe schlechter einzuschätzen. Dies führt dazu, dass sie ihre Angst im Bereich Mathematik überbewerten. Mädchen denken demnach also nur, sie hätten mehr Angst, obwohl dies in der konkreten Unterrichts- und Prüfungssituation nicht zutrifft. Dies wiederum sei vermutlich ein wichtiger Grund dafür, dass Frauen weniger häufig als Männer mathematikintensive Berufsfelder wählen, meinen die Forscher. Originalarbeit der Forscher: Goetz, T et al. Psychological Science, 28. August 2013"

Senior Futurist at the DaVinci Institute, and Google's top rated Futurist Speaker. Unlike most speakers, Thomas works closely with his Board of Visionaries to develop original research studies. This enables him to speak on unusual topics and translate trends into unique business opportunities.

A few years ago I was taking a tour of a dome shaped house, and the architect explained to me that domes are an optical illusion. Whenever someone enters a room, their eyes inadvertently glance up at the corners of the room to give them the contextual dimensions of the space they're in.