A chemical sign of life : Tashiro, Shiro : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive
I enjoyed this discussion of experiments relating to the production of carbon dioxide by nerve fibres. Familiarly, Tashiro views irritability as a sign of life, and demonstrates the production of carbon dioxide by nerve fibres upon irritation. I view this as an uncanny biochemical presaging of the environmental enrichment investigations of the 50s and onwards which Dr. Peat often cites.
Some stimulating quotations:
'Indeed, as life originates from lifeless, we are led to conclude that the simplest rudiments of psychic life must also be found in the lifeless. And perhaps the universe as a whole, inert as it appears to us to be, may have a psychic life of its own.' (I am here reminded of the work of J.C. Bose which Dr. Peat writes about in his article 'Fatigue, Aging and Recuperation')
'It has been observed, also, that if Ehrlich's method of staining tissues with methylene blue is used, a spot on the surface of the brain loses its color when it is stimulated, owing to the consumption of oxygen and the resulting decolorization of the blue.'
I enjoyed this discussion of experiments relating to the production of carbon dioxide by nerve fibres. Familiarly, Tashiro views irritability as a sign of life, and demonstrates the production of carbon dioxide by nerve fibres upon irritation. I view this as an uncanny biochemical presaging of the environmental enrichment investigations of the 50s and onwards which Dr. Peat often cites.
Some stimulating quotations:
'Indeed, as life originates from lifeless, we are led to conclude that the simplest rudiments of psychic life must also be found in the lifeless. And perhaps the universe as a whole, inert as it appears to us to be, may have a psychic life of its own.' (I am here reminded of the work of J.C. Bose which Dr. Peat writes about in his article 'Fatigue, Aging and Recuperation')
'It has been observed, also, that if Ehrlich's method of staining tissues with methylene blue is used, a spot on the surface of the brain loses its color when it is stimulated, owing to the consumption of oxygen and the resulting decolorization of the blue.'
