Fields or firings? Comparing the spike code and the electromagnetic field hypothesis.

Where is consciousness? Neurobiological theories of consciousness look primarily to synaptic firing and "spike codes" as the physical substrate of consciousness, although the specific mechanisms of consciousness remain unknown. Synaptic firing results from electrochemical processes in neuron axons and dendrites. All neurons also produce electromagnetic (EM) fields due to various mechanisms, including the electric potential created by transmembrane ion flows, known as "local field potentials," but there are also more meso-scale and macro-scale EM fields present in the brain.

Electromagnetic-field theories of qualia: can they improve upon standard neuroscience?

How do brains create all our different colors, pains, and other conscious qualities? These various qualia are the most essential aspects of consciousness. Yet standard neuroscience (primarily based on synaptic information processing) has not found the synaptic-firing codes, sometimes described as the "spike code," to account for how these qualia arise and how they unite to form complex perceptions, emotions, . Nor is it clear how to get from these abstract codes to the qualia we experience.

Where's My Consciousness-Ometer? How to Test for the Presence and Complexity of Consciousness.

Tools and tests for measuring the presence and complexity of consciousness are becoming available, but there is no established theoretical approach for what these tools are measuring. This article examines several categories of tests for making reasonable inferences about the presence and complexity of consciousness (defined as the capacity for phenomenal/subjective experience) and also suggests ways in which different theories of consciousness may be empirically distinguished. We label the various ways to measure consciousness the (MCC) and include three subcategories in our taxonomy: (a) neural correlates of consciousness, (b) behavioral correlates of consciousness, and (c) creative correlates of consciousness.

The Slowest Shared Resonance: A Review of Electromagnetic Field Oscillations Between Central and Peripheral Nervous Systems.

Electromagnetic field oscillations produced by the brain are increasingly being viewed as causal drivers of consciousness. Recent research has highlighted the importance of the body's various endogenous rhythms in organizing these brain-generated fields through various types of entrainment. We expand this approach by examining evidence of extracerebral shared oscillations between the brain and other parts of the body, in both humans and animals.

The Easy Part of the Hard Problem: A Resonance Theory of Consciousness.

Synchronization, harmonization, vibrations, or simply in its most general sense seems to have an integral relationship with consciousness itself. One of the possible "neural correlates of consciousness" in mammalian brains is a specific combination of gamma, beta and theta electrical synchrony. More broadly, we see similar kinds of resonance patterns in living and non-living structures of many types.

The Microcosm within: An interview with William B. Miller, Jr., on the Extended Hologenome theory of evolution.

There is a singular unifying reality underlying every biologic interaction on our planet. In immunology, that which does not kill you makes you different. -William B.

Evolutionary thinking: "A conversation with Carter Phipps about the role of evolutionary thinking in modern culture".

Evolution as an idea has a lengthy history, even though the idea of evolution is generally associated with Darwin today. Rebecca Stott provides an engaging and thoughtful overview of this history of evolutionary thinking in her 2013 book, Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution. Since Darwin, the debate over evolution-both how it takes place and, in a long war of words with religiously-oriented thinkers, whether it takes place-has been sustained and heated.

Reconsidering the logical structure of the theory of natural selection.

Natural selection has been criticized as a tautology. This would be a major problem for evolutionary biology, if true, because tautological statements can't be falsified and, therefore, can't be scientific. There is merit to this critique insofar as the theory of natural selection is indeed generally described in a tautological manner.

The rainbow and the worm: Establishing a new physics of life.

What is life? Many have asked this question, and no definitive answer is yet widely accepted. Is life something truly distinct from non-living stuff, as many dualists have suggested for millennia? Is there an élan vital that distinguishes living from dead stuff? Or is life about certain types of organization, metabolism, reproduction, goal-oriented behavior? None of these answers have yet won the debate. There is, however, an intriguing new set of ideas that have been developed by Mae-Wan Ho, a biophysicist and science activist (as she calls herself) based in London.

The middle way of evolution.

THIS ESSAY PROVIDES A CRITICAL REVIEW OF TWO RECENT BOOKS ON EVOLUTION: Richard Dawkins' The Greatest Show on Earth, and Jerry Coyne's Why Evolution is True, as well as a critique of mainstream evolutionary theory and of natural selection. I also suggest a generalization of sexual selection theory that acknowledges mind as pervasive in nature. Natural selection, as the primary theory of how biological change occurs, must be carefully framed to avoid the long-standing "tautology problem" and must also be modified to more explicitly include the role of mind in evolution.