Ispectrum magazine #05

ISPECTRUM
Issue 05/January-February 2014

MAGAZINE

FLASHBULB MEMORIES
WHY ITS HARD TO FORGET THE PAST

BIOLOGICAL CLOCK

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT
INTERVIEW WITH
PROF. DR. VON WEIZSÄCKER

THE INFLUENCE OF
EMOTIONS ON GENETICS

CONTENTS
FEATURES

08

14

03
FLASHBULB MEMORIES
WHY ITS HARD TO FORGET
THE PAST
06 Explaining FBMs
08 FBM variations and accuracy
14
BIOLOGICAL CLOCK
HEALTHY SLEEP
15 Sleep restriction
18 Our life is a rhythm
24
INTERVIEW WITH
28 Energy efficiency
33 Climate protection
34 CO2 Emissions

3

24

37
1

37
THE INFLUENCE OF EMOTIONS
ON GENETICS
38 Environmental influences can
influence genes
41 Positive and Negative Emotions: How can they affect our
health?
43 DNA for all: To laugh or to cry,
that is the question
44 Music for Emotions
46 Mother Emotions: Fear and
love. Can we control our emotions?

editorial
Mado Martinez
Editorial Director

Dear readers,
I hope the year 2014 we have just
started will be even better than the
one we left behind. Let’s move forward!
Issue #5 commences with “Flashbulb
Memories”. I am sure you remember
what you were doing during the 9/11
terrorist attack on the World Trade
Centre Towers. Do you want to know
why you remember? You will have to
read this.
Markus Köller went to an important
international symposium in Münster,
Germany, to interview Prof. Dr. Ernst
Ulrich von Weizsäcker about climate
change. It’s a matter of importance to
listen to what he has to say.
Elaine Vieira is a well known scientist
and a tireless researcher. She shares
with us in this issue her latest discoveries in the field of our biological clock
and healthy sleep. What do they have
to do with obesity, diabetes and other
diseases? We will find out by reading
about her findings.
All these very interesting things, and a
little bit more, launch us into what will
be a fascinating year. Don’t forget to
share with us your comments and feel
free to submit your own articles.

Ispectrum
magazine
Editorial Director
Mado Martinez
madomartinez@ispectrummagazine.com
Art Director
Rayna Petrova
raynapetrova@ispectrummagazine.com
Copy Editing and Proofreading
Matt Loveday
mattloveday@ispectrummagazine.com

Contributing Writers
Rob Hutchinson
Markus Köller
Elaine Vieira
Images
Cover Photo : 9/11 World Trade Centre,NY
commons.wikimeadia.org,
public domain photos,
morguefile.com

WWW.ISPECTRUMMAGAZINE.COM
admin@ispectrummagazine.com
+44 7938 707 164 (UK)

Follow Us
2

Ever wondered why there are certain events that stick in your
mind and no matter what you do you just cannot bury them
in the past?

3

FLASHBULB MEMORIES
WHY ITS HARD TO FORGET
THE PAST
BY
ROB HUTCHINSON
WEBSITE

WWW.ISPECTRUMMAGAZINE.COM

A

major world event or an
accident you witnessed or experienced yourself, these memories can seem as vivid as the day you
experienced them many years later.
Take for example 9/11. If you ask anybody what they were doing that day as
the Twin Towers fell the vast majority
will be able to tell you where they were,
what they were doing, even what the
weather was like. The reason for these

4

exceptionally sharp memories are
that they are flashbulb memories (FBMs)
a snapshot taken at a shocking or highly
emotional time that sears the event into
the memory. But do these FBMs diminish
over time and what affect does it have on
eyewitness testimony? Surely a memory
as powerful as this will be strong
evidence in court and be an asset to the
criminal justice system.

MEMORY TYPES -WHERE
DO FBMS FIT IN?

The way information is stored
depends on the type of memory it is.
There are two main memory categories short and long term memory.
Because it is not necessary to store
all the information we process in our
brain these memory types act as a
filter. After being perceived information passes to the short term memory, which can store the information
for around 20 seconds. After
this the information is either lost or
transferred to long term memory.
This transfer happens due to the
repeated use of the information or
rehearsal of it.
The long term memory is limitless,
although the memories in this vast
storage unit can decay over time or
due to illness. Long term memory is
obviously the more complex of the
two and has separate categories of
its own.
These memories can be split into
explicit (requiring conscious thought
5

to retrieve the memory), implicit
(the major form of long term
memory that does not require conscious thought, almost like an autopilot) and autobiographical memory,
which contains specific life events
that we remember better than
others.

FBMs fit into this last category
of autobiographical memory. These
precise, long lasting and concise
memories are remembered with
astounding clarity. However, it is not
the same as photographic memory,
as it is possible for FBMs to decay
over time and little details to be lost.
FBMs are like taking an instant image
of everything that is presentw

9/11, 2001 Attack on the World Trade Center,New York

at the time of a shocking event
in a person’s private or public life.
Feelings and emotional responses,
those present with them at that
time, even the exact thing they were
doing the moment before the incident can all be recorded with amazing detail. In a 2002 study on 9/11
by the Pew Research Center for the
People and the Press 97% of those
interviewed had a FBM for the
attacks. Interestingly 38% of
those said that for them 9/11 was
the biggest life event for that year,
which explains why so many recorded a FBM. The key for recording a
FBM is that the event is of great
personal importance and contains
high emotion and surprise alongside
drastic consequences. For the
memory to be so long lasting it needs
6

to be highly distinctive and significant. But how are these FBMs any
different from traumatic memories?
The key is that traumatic memories
contain high levels of stress caused
by anxiety or fear, which are
generally absent from FBM. This is
not to say the two are not similar.
During a traumatic event arousal
is increased, leading to increased
attention to surroundings and events
causing the memory to be more
detailed.

Much of the research into FBMs
have focused on events where
important public figures who were
loved by many have been murdered. The death of John F Kennedy

has always held a place
in the hearts of many
Americans, and provided a dearth of research
into FBMs. In the many
studies conducted a
high proportion of people had a vivid memory of the day’s events,
with the personal emotional effect on themselves and the shock
being the main contributors to the formation of the FBM. It was
JFK’s assassination that
first prompted investigations into the FBM
as many researchers at
the time were surprised
by just how accurate
people’s
memories
were.
Although certain aspects
of the memory disappeared it was fixed into
the brain in such a way
that it did not appear to
erode over time. Brown
& Kulik studied these
memories in depth and
contributed to the definition of FBMs that we
use today.

EXPLAINING FBMS

So how can FBMs be
explained?
There are a variety of
different models, so
here is just a taste of the
most compelling and
scientifically supported

ones. The original FBM
memory model was
designed by Brown &
Kulik. The Photographic
Model determined that
for a FBM to occur there
must be a high level

JFK

7

John Lennon,1975

of surprise, consequentiality and emotional
arousal involved. A high
level of arousal would
cause more frequent
rehearsal and a stronger memory reconstruction at later dates.
The
Comprehensive
Model
succeeds
in
going further than the
Photographic Model by
building an interconnected
relationship

between the variables
involved in the recording of the FBM.
Whilst the Photographic
Model put forward a
jumble of variables, the
Comprehensive Model
worked at explaining
the correlation between
them.
The model proposes
that knowledge and
interest in the event
determine the level of
8

importance to the individual, therefore also
affecting the individual’s emotional arousal.
The level of importance
of this event contributes
to the prior rehearsal
of the memories, making the FBM so strong.
Associating
these
together allows the
individual to remember vivid aspects of the
event such as what they
were doing at the
exact time and the
people they were with,
alongside a detailed
explanation of the event
itself.
A different take on the
FBM is provided by the
Importance-Driven
Emotional
Reactions
Model, which focuses on
personal consequences
as the most important
event.
If the personal consequence is high then the
emotional reaction will
be strong, both
important factors in the
creation of a FBM.

This model is actually based on the
experiences of people who experienced an earthquake. Victims of the
earthquake were interviewed alongside a control group and their
memories recorded. At a later date
participants were interviewed again,
with the long term memories of the
victims being understandably more
durable and accurate than those
of the control group. From this
they proposed the model, with the
importance of the personal consequences seen as a fundamental part
for the formation of FBM. However,
being based only on the one study
it has very clear problems, and cannot explain why the murder of John
Lennon affected so many people
despite his death not having any
close personal consequences to
many of those who remember the
event so well.
9

FBM VARIATIONS
AND ACCURACY

Like many aspects in psychology
cultural and gender variations can
affect the level of accuracy
in FBM.
Edery Halpern & Nachson (2004)
looked into the gender differences
involved in FBMs.
Israeli university students completed
questionnaires about their memories
for certain terror attacks, with the
results showing that men had more
distinct FBMs than women and that
they also recounted more significant details of the events. Women,
however, reported more emotional
reactivity than the men. Due to the
lack of research into this area it is

hard to draw conclusions from one
study or try to link the differences in
responses to any corresponding
factors. Across cultures the factors
that affect FBMs remain constant,
but there are cultural variations
that influence the vividness of the
recounting. Kulkofsky et al (2011)
studied the formation of FBM across
five different countries; the USA,
UK, China, Germany and Turkey.
They found that the Chinese memories were less influenced by any personal factors connected to the event.
This could be because in Asian culture there is less emphasis on individuality, so their recollections of

10

FBMs show less personal connection
with the event. Age differences also
play a part in the vividness of the
memory. The younger you are the
more likely you will be to
have a strong recollection later in
life. Cohen et al (1993) examined
age related differences in FBMs.
They tested participants 11 days
after an important event and then
again 11 months later.
Less than half the adults had
a FBM of the event but nearly
all of the younger participants
did.

As a tool for giving wit- the event then this is
ness testimony in crim- almost priceless eviinal cases the evidence dence.
would strongly suggest
that FBMs provide a
compelling account of
events and that they
cannot be brought into
question.
However, it is possible
for FBMs to be incorrectly recorded and it is
always best to take an
account of these memories as soon as possible after the event. In a
courtroom a year later
these memories can
be questioned, but if a
witness statement was
taken immediately after
11

The accuracy of these
memories have been
brought into question,

Pearl Harbour , 1941

Space Shuttle Challenger

the classic example of
Ulric Neisser’s account
of the Japanese attack
on Pearl Harbour in 1941
demonstrating that key
points of the memory
can in fact be wrong.
He recounted listening
to a baseball game at
the time of the attack
when in fact no baseball games were being
played at that time.

People who were asked
about their memories
of the Challenger
shuttle disaster in 1986
also showed discrepancies with the actual
events and what they
were actually doing
at the time. It seems
possible that FBMs can
have
discrepancies,
so even the smallest
incorrect detail could
12

have implications in
the testimony of people
who witnessed a crime.
Researchers at Duke
University interviewed
participants days after
the 9/11 attacks about
their memories of the
event alongside other
mundane events that
happened that same
day.

Interviewed one week, six weeks,
or 32 weeks later they found that
the consistency of the memories for
the attack and the mundane events
was actually the same, with the
number of consistencies in both sets
of memories dropping.
13

Participants remained very confident
of their memories and were unaware
of the inaccuracies that were creeping in.
FBMs are a vivid snapshot of a highly consequential and shocking life
event that is burnt into the

FBMs are a vivid snapshot of a highly
consequential and shocking life event
FBMs are yet another example of the combrain like a hot iron branded into an
animal. It will be there until the end plexities and endlessly astounding
of your life unless illness causes it to qualities of our
decay. It has its uses, but we must minds.
be careful not to rely on their accuracy too much.
14

BY
ELAINE VIEIRA
WEBSITE

HTTP://WWW.LINKEDIN.COM/

BIOLOGICAL CLOCK
HEALTHY SLEEP

O

besity is considered today an
important health problem in
modern society, leading to preventable
causes of deaths worldwide. It reduces
life expectancy by increasing the rates
of hearth disease, type 2 diabetes,
sleep disorders and cancer. Recently,
new possible contributors have been

identified as possible causes of obesity. Among them, circadian (cycles
of 24 hours) disturbances have been
proposed as triggers of obesity and
type 2 diabetes. How do we disrupt our
circadian cycles, our biological clock?
Humans are the only species that do no
follow their biological clock!

15

In our modern society we are constantly exposed to these problems which are
occurring in parallel with the epidemics of obesity. Today many researchers
say that obesity could be a result of not
how much we eat; but the time we eat!

SLEEP RESTRICTION

The circadian biological clock is
controlled by the Suprachiasmatic
Nucleus (SCN), a group of cells in the
hypothalamus that respond to light

DEREGULATION OF YOUR BIOLOGICAL CLOCK CAN MAKE
YOU FAT AND AT RISK OF METABOLIC DISEASES

and dark signals. Light reaches the
SCN, and tells our internal clock that
it is time to be awake. The SCN then
signals to other parts of the brain
that control hormones and other
functions that make us feel sleepy
or awake. With this exposure to light
in the mornings, the SCN also sends

We are constantly changing the time we
eat, the time we sleep, etc. The most
common ways that we disrupt our biological clock are: Lack of sleep (sleeping less than 7 to 8 hours), eating at
the wrong time, exposure to artificial
light at night, working at night and eating high fat diets.

16

signals to raise body
temperature and produce cortisol. The SCN
also responds to light
by decreasing melatonin secretion, which is
associated with sleep
onset. Melatonin production then increases
during the night and
stays elevated throughout the night, promoting sleep. Thus, it is
important to pay attention to our biological
clock and not disrupt
the sleep-awake cycle.
The
recommended
amount of hours for
a person to sleep is
between 7 to 8 hours.
If you sleep less than
7 hours per day, this
could be cause for concern. Everybody knows

that a bad night sleep
can make people tired
but today the scientific
community has demonstrated that lack of
sleep can also increase
the pre disposition to
metabolic
diseases
such as obesity and
diabetes. The average
17

amount of sleep has
declined by 1.5 hours
over the past century together with an
important increase in
obesity.
In 1999, a study from
Eve Van Cauter from the
University of Chicago
has changed the idea

that the only effect of
lack of sleep was tiredness. His group showed
that sleep restriction
in healthy young men
led to signs of insulin
resistance
which can
lead to type
2 diabetes.
The mechanism behind
these effects
seems
to
involve two
important
hormones
that regulate hunger
(ghrelin)
and satiety
(leptin).
The group
who
slept
fewer hours had an
increase in the levels of
ghrelin and a decrease
in the levels of leptin
increasing their appetite1.
Indeed, many studies
have found that people who sleep poorly
are more susceptible

to develop obesity and more risk of developtype 2 diabetes.
ing diabetes.
One study showed that
people who slept for 5
Is sleep duration more
hours each night had important than sleep
an increase of 3.6% quality? Sleep qualin body mass index. ity is just as important
Interestingly, the group as sleep duration. The
that slept fewer hours same effect of reduced
had a preference for insulin sensitivity was
fatty substances and found in people who
carbohydrates and con- slept 7 to 8 hours but
sumed more calories were prevented from
through foods of this entering deep sleep.
type. Reducing sleep- This effect could be
ing time has a power- explained by the fact
ful effect on cells in our that the onset of slowbody.
wave sleep coincides
For instance a study with hormonal changes
by Tasali, Brady and in our body.
van Cauter demonstrated that four
nights of just
4.5 hours
of sleep
reduced
t h e
reducing sleeping time
insulin
has a powerful effect
sension cells in our body
tivity of
fat cells2.
It means
that these
people have
18

Our biological clock is regulated by
complex mechanisms involving several hormones and, at a molecular
level, by the so called ‘clock genes’.
The body clock is important because
it regulates the time we eat, when we
sleep and other physiological functions. Today we know
that besides the
central clock
located in
the body clock is important
the SCN in
because it regulates the time
the hypowe eat, when we sleep and
thalamus,
other physiological functions
every cell
in the body
has its own
clock that helps to
regulate the cells metabothat a lack of another
lism. Mice that lack the clock gene clock gene called Rev-erb alpha
develop high blood sugar, high cho- leads to impaired insulin and glucalesterol levels and become obese3.
gon secretion, the two key hormones
My research with Dr. Ramon Gomis in the development of diabetes 4,5.
group
at
IDIBAPS-CIBERDEM, Nutrients such as high fat diets can
Barcelona, together with research- disrupt the circadian pattern of clock
ers Dr. Ivan Quesada and Dr. Angel gene expression in cells that could
Nadal from Universidad Miguel be responsible for impairment in
Hernandez, Elche, Spain, has shown their function. Indeed, she showed
19

that mice fed with high fat diet for
6 weeks had a loss of circadian
clock gene expression in pancreatic islets (tiny clusters of cells that
produce insulin, glucagon and other
hormones important to maintain
glucose homeostasis) that could be
involved in defects of the beta-cell
function during obesity and type 2
diabetes 4.

20

Eating at different times
can also affect our biological clock. Mice fed a
high fat diet only during the day time, when
these nocturnal animals should be sleeping, gained significantly
more weight than mice

that got the same diet
but were allowed to eat
at a normal time6. This
study could be translated to the human
situation when people
eat during the night
time. Indeed, people
with a nocturnal lifestyle characterized
by having a dinner
late at night and
eating snacks at
night showed high
levels of glucose
and low levels of
leptin and melatonin (important hormone that regu21

lates sleep) during the
night. Nowadays having a nocturnal lifestyle
is considered one of
the main risks for obesity and diabetes.

The exposure of bright
light at night through
the use of computers,
TV and cell phones
can also disrupt our
body clock. Studies in
humans showed that
bright light at night
reduces the secretion
of melatonin7. The reason is that the artificial

light emits wavelengths
that can activate cells
in the retina and send
the light signals to the
SCN telling the body:
“it is still day time”, so
melatonin production
decreases. The reduced
melatonin levels can
disrupt sleep keeping
people awake for a longer time, which makes
them eat more during
the night. Importantly,
exposure of bright light
at night is already being
considered a risk for
cancer development.

22

Changing sleeping time such as
in the case of shift work can also
affect our health. One of the effects
of industrialization was the adoption of 24-hour continuous work in
a number of industries. This has
resulted in an increase in the proportion of the population engaged in
shift work. Epidemiological studies
show that shift work is associated
with obesity, hypertriglyceridemia,
abdominal obesity, diabetes and
cardiovascular disease8. Thus, it is
clear that if we do not pay attention
to our biological clock we can cause
metabolic problems.
23

time and protection from
artificial light could be solutions to normalize our biological clock and prevent
many diseases.

Scientists are now using tools to
restore the biological rhythms to
treat some diseases.
For instance, helping obese people to lose weight just by improving their sleep time and quality.
Thus, future therapies that aim to
correct the time of meals, sleeping

scientists
are now using tools to
restore the biological
rhythms to treat some
diseases

References:
1- Siegel, K. et al. Ann. Intern. Med. 141, 846-850

5- Vieira, E. et al. PloS One. 8, e69939 (2013).

(2004).

6- Megumi Hatori. et al. Cell Metabolism. 15, 848–860

2- Broussard, J. et al. Ann Intern. Med. 157, 549-557

(2012).

(2012).

7- Reiter, RJ. et al. Crit. Rev. Oncog. 13, 303-28

3- Turek, F. et al. Science 308, 1043-1045 (2005).

(2007).

4- Vieira, E. et al. Endocrinology. 153, 592–601

8- Knutsson A. Occup Med. 53: 103-08 (2003).

(2012).

24

INTERVIEW WITH

BY
MARKUS KÖLLER
WEBSITE
WWW.MEDIEN-LOGE.DE

D

aily economic challenges require
forward-looking decisions. The German
m:ut-symposium set an objective to solve
entrepreneurial questions. One of the
greatest environmental scientists of our
time was the main speaker of the event:
Prof. Dr. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker is
known for his courageous commitment
for sustained economic growth in unison

25

with environment protection. One of his
main propositions is that with an increase
of the efficiency of resources by a factor
of 5 (80%), we can solve current global
issues. In a quiet corner of the event he
has answered several questions for our
journalist Markus Köller. Read about von
Weizsäckers concerns, his private life and
how a better future can start today!

Photo:(C) 2013 Ingo Kannenbäumer, MEDIEN LOGE

26

M.K. : Prof. Dr. von Weizsäcker, today’s event is called „m:ut” which is the
German word for „bravery”. When have you shown bravery in your life?

Prof. Dr. von Weizsäcker
Hardly ever. Well, I
don’t think of myself as
a brave man. I’m just
courageous in facing
opportunities of teach-

ing and changing individuals by being quite
frank in public speeches
and presenting what I
think is the right thing

to do. So if you´d call
that kind of actions
spirited, then perhaps
I’m brave.


27

M.K. : Isn´t a retirement a way to show bravery, too? To me the age of 74
years seems like a good time to retire.

Actually I find it more
amusing to travel around
the world and try to
change peoples’ behavior by teaching them
good science and physics. Everybody I met so
far was very interested, listening and learning from the things I

was saying, which I find
important. So, my work
is one way of enjoying life. Of course I
do enjoy life at home,
too. As a matter of fact
I have an agreement
with my wife: in summer we both have to
call off all other exter-

nal obligations for four
weeks. In this time we
stay at a lovely lake
resort in Austria and
enjoy our togetherness.
Christmas is another
date, of course, when
I enjoy staying with
the whole family at our
house.

M.K. : A little guessing game: How many kWh (Kilowatt Hour) do you need
to move a ten kilogram object on the top of Mount Everest?

Yes, very good! I love
to ask people this question, because the answer
is so astonishing! Every
time I ask my students,
the answer is everything between 300 kWh
and a thousand kWh.

Actually the answer is
just a quarter – which
is absolutely astonishing!
In this difference lies
one of the hugest problems of our society: our
expectation of what a
28

kWh can do is roughly
a thousand times less
from what a kWh can
do in reality.
On this assumption,
which depends on wrong
physics, we are basing
all of our estimates of

energy demand. That
is a scandal! The result
of this misbelief is an
immense wastefulness

in the use of energy.
If protecting climate,
environment and bio
diversity requires less

consumption of energy,
water and minerals, we
better have to start with
correct physics.

M.K. : The increase of energy efficiency is the main point of your theory
for a better future. Your goal is to raise the productivity of resources up
to 80%. Here, at the m:ut symposium, are many German decision makers. If I‘d tell them to increase energy efficiency about the amount of that
percentage, they would call me crazy.

Well, actually this
increase is just the
beginning. So many
people think I’m crazy,
and if you call it brave

of me to propose such technology and correct
things, then indeed I’m physics.
brave. I find it completely normal. It’s just
good science, good
29

M.K. : Do you really think your factor 5 thesis is a realistic approach to the
climate issues?

Oh, absolutely! I
always give examples
in my speeches, which
show the possibility of
an increase in efficiency
even by a factor of 10.


30

M.K. : How can politics encourage this development?

You can define the
connection with a ‘ping
pong’ metaphor: If you
raise productivity, you
can get higher wages.
If you raise wages, you
have a stronger incentive to rationalize labor…
So that’s the basis of
our economic world.
The same ping pong
mechanism can be initiated in the energy efficiency section: Political
decisions and develop-

ment has to become
a ‘ping pong’ between
resource productivity
and resource prices.
I often recommended politics to increase
resource prices exactly
by the percentage that
resource
productivity has been raised. So
increase resource prices
and productivity goes
up, raise productivity
and prices go up and so
forth. This will go in a
31

ping pong mechanism,
maybe it will be going
for a hundred years.
Of course it is easier to
establish the ping pong
mechanism
between
wages and labor productivity, because workers take to the street if
they are unfairly paid.
Whereas a kWh has no
union, no lobby and
remains silent in the
corner without fighting
for a higher price.

M.K. : Here in Germany the prices for energy are already rising. But I
heard the amount of energy being wasted – even CO2-Emission – is not
going down. So a kind of opposite development is recognizable.

The increase of energy
prices is very good for
Germany. Nevertheless,
as you said before, the
emissions are rising.

This has a totally different background:
In the USA, a new
method of raw material production has been
32

discovered and is used
for a short amount of
time now: it is called
FRACKING and is a
method of extracting

natural gas from the
ground. This production
method has strikingly
decreased the coal prices on the US-market.
The solution of the coal
producers was to sell the
excess coal to Europe.
And now they blame the
Europeans for increasing their carbon emissions.
Process of Hydraulic fracturing (FRACKING)

33

M.K. : I think the current state of climate protection is perfectly explainable with the so called „prisoner’s dilemma” – no one wants to move first,
because the one who’s moving first is losing. So how do we start?

Exactly. That’s the current mentality of the
decision makers and
the attitude of the climate negotiators.

Nobody wants to move
first. Part of my message is, you can overcome the situation of
the prisoner’s dilem-

ma and move into the
first-mover-advantagesituation, by improving
resource productivity.

M.K. : Big goals need the support of everybody. Isn’t it very frustrating for
you to watch the inconclusive debates between politicians and economists
over the years? For instance, as with the debates at the last United Nations
Climate Change Conference in Warsaw (Poland)?

Of course it’s frustrating sometimes. I also
know that we’ve to be
patient with long term
developments, because
the engagement for
a better environment
and
especially
for
those changes is com-

ing in waves.
About
10 years ago, after
Al Gore published his
INCONVENIENT TRUTH,
everybody believed that
climate protection had
to be the first priority of
every government. For
example the British and
34

the German government were very active.
Since then, the priority
of environmental protection has decreased
in northern America and
in Europe, too.

M.K. : China is known as a “Climate Killer”, it barely ascended one rank
up in THE CLIMATE CHANGE PERFORMANCE INDEX 20141 from the state
“very poor” to “poor”. Do you think that this is an ongoing tendency?

I should think so. What
many persons wouldn’t
believe is that the good
exception in the field of
reducing CO2 Emissions
is Asia. The „Climate
Killer” label for China
is a very wrong term,

because the Chinese
are slowly facing the
right direction. I mean,
they managed things
in 30 years, where we
needed more than 100.
By transferring this kind
of development to the

actual goals in environmental and climatic
protection ambitions,
we can expect a fast
and positive change in
the country.

Benxi heavy steel industries in 2013 (China)
1

Cf.: http://germanwatch.org/en/7677

35

M.K. : In comparison to China, how do you rate the activities of the United
States of America regarding climate issues?

President Barack Obama

I think that President
Obama’s ambitions are
dichotomous. The top
priority was to overcome the scandal of
the northern American
health insurance situation: one quarter of
the Americans has no
health insurance. This
25% are simply dying
if they are deadly sick,
because they can’t
afford medical treatment. So he considered the overcoming of
that scandal a higher
priority than combating climate change.
The biggest problem
is that the US-Senate,
the
American
congress and the House
of Representatives has
been utterly conserva-

tive for many decades, ed. Sadly Obama gave
maybe since the Reagan up on his environmental
years, so hardly any ambitions in the end.
progress can be expect36

M.K. : Prof. Dr. von Weizsäcker, one last question: What is your inward
urge? What is still driving you after a lifelong commitment for humanity
and the planet?

My motivations are my
children and grandchildren. They should get
the possibility of having
a better future.

37

Image courtesy of jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

BY
MADO MARTINEZ
WEBSITE

WWW.MADOMARTINEZ.COM

THE INFLUENCE OF EMOTIONS
ON GENETICS

Lash out in anger, fall into a melancholy state, laugh, feel grateful, experience fear... Emotions are within the river of the state
of mind that flow in the sea of our organism. Scientific studies
suggest that what we feel influences the genetic printing of
modifications that could determine the difference between a
healthy life and one of illness.

38

ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES CAN
INFLUENCE GENES

I

approached the Public
Biomedical Research Center in
Barcelona. Here works Elaine Vieira,
PhD, from the University of Uppsala
in Sweden. She investigates chronobiology and has a post doctorate from the Karolisnka Institutet
in Estocolmo and the Universidad
Miguel Hernández. Apart from having a warm smile and the charming disposition to collaborate with
me, when I asked her if emotions
can influence my genetics, she
responded; Yes, much more than
we imagine. Not only emotions,
nutrition, the environment, too.
How is this possible?
The idea that our environment
can alter our genes is not
new and it has a name:

39

Epigenetics. The name literally
means “genetic control” and completely changed the idea of life sciences. In the last decade research
has established that epigenetic
patterns of DNA passing through
genes are not definitive, ie, there
are environmental influences such
as nutrition, stress and emotions
that can influence genes. One consequence of epigenetic modifications is that changed genes can
pass on to future generations.

YOU ACCLIMATIZE OR YOU ‘ACCLIMADIE’

I have always heard that eating
food that contains harmful chemicals results in these chemicals
being deposited in my body. Not
only are these transmitted in the
food chain, but also from parents
to children for generations. Elaine
opens the door to even more possibilities.
I called Doctor Luis Bardasano,
biologist and physician, bioelectro-

magnetics specialist and Director of
Medical Specialties at the Faculty of
Medicine in Madrid. This great sage
considers himself a neolamarckian
and speaks very clearly about the
relationship between emotions and
genetics.
Stress, for example, can be considered from a neurochemical and
neuroelectric viewpoint as an element that could alter, or modify,
40

In life you acclimatize or you ‘acclimadie’. If you can acclimate, you
pass your genes to your descendants. A plum tree that is sick but
overcomes the illness gives the
following year’s best and highest
quality fruits, and consequently
gives the best seeds with a greater capacity to fight disease and
become immune.
The same happens between parents and children.

the genetic component of a cell
when it exceeds certain conditions.
What about the possibility that we
pass on to our children the genetic modifications acquired by the
influence of our emotions? Doctor
Bardasano believes this is so, and
he replies with a simple botanical
example:
41

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EMOTIONS: HOW CAN
THEY AFFECT OUR HEALTH?

To say that having a positive attitude and a cheerful disposition
from childhood will mean a healthy
life almost sounds like a fairy tale.
So “good” emotions have good
consequences and “bad” emotions
have bad consequences.
The famous Dr. Deepak Chopra,
author of several diverse books,
including
Quantum Healing,
explains how positive and negative emotions influence the spread
of disease and/or the acceleration
of healing process or the opposite:
The labyrinth of the mind-body
connection is not so easy to solve.
If we ask why a positive mind is
not necessarily a promise of good
health, when it would make sense,
we realize that the answer lies in
the definition we give to the word
“ mind.” It is not a philosophical
question, but a practical problem.
If a patient comes to me with cancer, at what point am I to judge his
mental state on the day of diagnosis, much earlier or much later?
Dr. Lawrence LeShan, author of

pioneering studies in the fifties,
established a relationship between
feelings and cancer in childhood. He
used to track his patients childhood
to banish the black seed that poisoned their psyche, thus defending
a theory that there is a seed which
42

lies dormant in the Amit Goswami is a the- its applications to the
subconscious for years oretical nuclear physi- mind-body problem. He
before inducing the dis- cist and member of the is the author of, among
ease. I myself treated a Institute of Theoretical other books, Quantum
patient with lung cancer Physics at the University Doctor. Goswami conwho could survive com- of Oregon, where he firms experiences that
fortably for five years taught physics for 32 demonstrate the preswith a major injury in years. After a period ence of subtle fields
the lungs. There was of distress and anguish (when he refers to the
no suspicion that the in his private and pro- chakras, we must take
injury was cancerous
into account the tradition
but the cancer gradfrom which Goswami,
ually arrived, and
who received his
when I told him
doctorate
in
the diagnosis
Calcutta) in the
of lung canhuman body.
cer, he panThis brilliant
icked. After
mind nuclenegative emotions
a month,
ar
theointerfere with the body’s
he began
ry
states
internal programming
to
cough
that negawhich affects
up
blood
tive emothe immune system
and he died
tions interthree months
fere with the
later. If it is true
body’s internal
that his mental
programming
state helped prewhich affects the
cipitate the events, he
immune system.
had to act fast. This
patient could overcome fessional life when he
his tumor, but not his was 38, he became
diagnosis.
interested in quantum
cosmological theory,
quantum physics and
43

DNA FOR ALL: TO LAUGH OR TO CRY,
THAT IS THE QUESTION
The scientist and engineer Gregg Braden,
author of such exciting books as The Divine
Matrix, has interesting
theories.
Considering
various
experiments performed

on DNA he suggests
that there is an energy field through which
DNA is communicating
with photons. He also
says that living cells are
recognized by a form
of energy that is not
44

affected by distance or
by time, an energy that
exists everywhere and
all the time. Curiously
the results also shows
that
DNA changes
shape according to the
feelings of those whom
they studied, depending on if they feel fear,
anger, stress, or relaxation, love, joy, gratitude or appreciation.
It is worth mentioning that experiments
conducted in the Math
Heart Institute confirmed that individuals
who were trained to feel
a deep love were able
to change the shape of
their DNA.
According to him, there
is an energy similar to
a closely knit network
that connects all matter, and that this network may be influenced
by our vibrations.

MUSIC FOR EMOTIONS
I contacted with Marco
Antonio Diaz, director of Radio Evolution,
dedicated to science
and music. Could music
affect our emotions?
Regarding your question
about whether there is
a possibility that music
and musical emotions

also affect our genetics,
the answer would be
obvious, he answered
me.
Exposing our state
of mind to music can
change our predisposition into other directions.
Dan Winter, in fact,
45

explained about the
study conducted by
Manfred Clynes on emotions and pressure. The
study generated a test
where they put people in situations that
have made them experience several emotional responses and after

feeling the emotion,
they pressed a button.
The button recorded
the changes in pressure on the button over
time. Clynes realized
that people pressed
the same in China as
in Mexico and in New
York. The emotions we
receive are transferred
in a clear and concise
way through our pressure, he explained.
Therefore
someone

playing a musical instrument produces the
same emotional effect
on the vast majority of
people. Lets say that
the sounds give shape
to material, therefor
that is why cymatics
(the study of waves)
shows that grains of
sand that are moved
by the vibrations of a
speaker and as you
increase the frequency
emitted by the speaker,

46

the sand grains adopt
more and more complex shapes. In biology
it is exactly the same,
and therefore we can
say that emotions definitely affect our genetics, they rebound and
resonate to the state of
our society, the planets
and the stars, he concluded.

MOTHER EMOTIONS:
FEAR AND LOVE.
CAN WE CONTROL OUR
EMOTIONS?

Chinese tradition says the world
of emotions translates into yin
and yang. Indeed, Eastern wisdom
establishes two mother emotions,
from which all others derive: Fear
and love. But can we control emotions?
A psychological consultation can
give me the answer. Years ago, in
a discussion with Ana Moyano, psychologist in Alicante, we were faced
with this challenge. What was it I
was told by this woman?
That emotions come from thoughts,
but you can control what you think.
It’s simple: Think of a red dinosaur.
Have you thought about it? Great.
Now think of a blue dinosaur. Yes?
There you go. From this point of
view, controlling our emotions is as
easy as choosing what to think of
every time.
If you do not want to feel a sad
emotion you have to replace the
negative thinking that is causing it
47

(stop thinking that I lost my job,
for example) and replace it with a
positive thought (think how good
it feels to bask in the sun in the
garden or how lucky I am to have
good friends, for example) that will
trigger a range of emotions in line
with the vibration of thought.

GENERAL ADAPTION
SYNDROME: YOU MAY
BE STRESSED

Do you feel tense? You may be
under much pressure, your interests are blocked, you feel threatened, isolated, frustrated, and you
feel forced to process many information in a little time during difficulties at work, or you could even
feel surrounded by harmful environmental stimuli.
Have you thought what to do to
combat stress? No? Maybe you
48

should know that stress
has a reason to battle
your body and create
conditions and diseases
that arise that cause
your body to stop working.
Why? Because stress is
a natural and necessary
response for your sur-

vival, a defense mech- ties that impede your
anism against abuse of body. Or you lie in your
your life and the causes grave. You choose.
of negative emotions in
your body.
This authentic soldier called stress can
unchain the serious
health problems and
pathological abnormali49

“Fat cells need their sleep as well”
(Dr. Matthew Brady ,University of Chicago)

WWW.ISPEC TRUMMAGAZINE.COM

50

Ispectrum magazine #05

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Andere mochten auch

Andere mochten auch (12)

Mehr von Ispectrum Magazine

Mehr von Ispectrum Magazine (11)

Kürzlich hochgeladen

Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)

Ispectrum magazine #05