Life may actually flash before your eyes on death by Holly Honderich

I don't know if you caught this recent little news item (it probably got buried because of the start of WW III)...it has fascinating implications.

Life may actually flash before your eyes on death - new study
By Holly Honderich
BBC News, Washington

New data from a scientific "accident" has suggested that life may actually flash before our eyes as we die.

A team of scientists set out to measure the brainwaves of an 87-year-old patient who had developed epilepsy. But during the neurological recording, he suffered a fatal heart attack - offering an unexpected recording of a dying brain.

It revealed that in the 30 seconds before and after, the man's brainwaves followed the same patterns as dreaming or recalling memories.

Brain activity of this sort could suggest that a final "recall of life" may occur in a person's last moments, the team wrote in their study, published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience on Tuesday.

Dr Ajmal Zemmar, a co-author of the study, said that what the team, then based in Vancouver, Canada, accidentally got, was the first-ever recording of a dying brain.

He told the BBC: "This was actually totally by chance, we did not plan to do this experiment or record these signals."

So will we get a glimpse back at time with loved ones and other happy memories? Dr Zemmar said it was impossible to tell.

"If I were to jump to the philosophical realm, I would speculate that if the brain did a flashback, it would probably like to remind you of good things, rather than the bad things," he said.

"But what's memorable would be different for every person."

Dr Zemmar, now a neurosurgeon at the University of Louisville, said in the 30 seconds before the patient's heart stopped supplying blood to the brain, his brainwaves followed the same patterns as when we carry out high-cognitive demanding tasks, like concentrating, dreaming or recalling memories.

It continued 30 seconds after the patient's heart stopped beating - the point at which a patient is typically declared dead.

"This could possibly be a last recall of memories that we've experienced in life, and they replay through our brain in the last seconds before we die."

The study also raises questions about when, exactly, life ends - when the heart stops beating, or the brain stops functioning.

Dr Zemmar and his team have cautioned that broad conclusions can't be drawn from a study of one. The fact that the patient was epileptic, with a bleeding and swollen brain, complicates things further.

"I never felt comfortable to report one case," Dr Zemmar said. And for years after the initial recording in 2016, he looked for similar cases to help strengthen the analysis but was unsuccessful.

But a 2013 study - carried out on healthy rats - may offer a clue.

In that analysis, US researchers reported high levels of brainwaves at the point of the death until 30 seconds after the rats' hearts stopped beating - just like the findings found in Dr Zemmar's epileptic patient.

The similarities between studies are "astonishing", Dr Zemmar said.

They now hope the publication of this one human case may open the door to other studies on the final moments of life.

"I think there's something mystical and spiritual about this whole near-death experience," Dr Zemmar said. "And findings like this - it's a moment that scientists lives for."

Link to original article:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60495730

BEAUTY: Interior--Omer Arbel

Vancouver-based architect and designer Omer Arbel designed a stunning home for a family on Long Island Sound. The home itself is fascinating... a study in geometry and angles without feeling sharp or closed. But what really caught my eye was the original light fixtures Arbel designed.

Called the 14 series, Arbel describes it as a sort of ambient chandelier. Instead of being a single grand fixture or pendants clustered together, the 14 is a series of blown glass spheres that spread out over an interior. Arbel says the 14 gets "its power through a strategy of composition and clustering. The 14 fills the volume of a room, making the height and shape of its dimensions understood to the inhabitants in a direct physical manner... Individual pendants are visually quite subtle, but gain tremendous strength when multiplied and clustered in large groups. Light interacts with the bubbles and imperfections of the cast glass to produce a glow reminiscent of small candles floating within spheres of water. "

The result is rather magical...


http://omerarbel.com/

The Plastic Dining Room

The School of Fish, a non-profit organization based in Vancouver, BC dedicated to persuading culinary schools throughout the world to include a comprehensive sustainable seafood course as a requirement prior to graduation, have built a charming, floating dining room.

From their website:
"With the assistance of our marine engineer and with all safety regulations taken into account, we have designed and built a luxurious dining room which is staying afloat with the use of 1,675 plastic 2-litre bottles built into its frame.
Within this floating dining room will be a table for twelve guests. Tickets are $195 per person plus tax (when booking prior to July 31 and will be $215 thereafter). You are invited to dine with us in the warm summer air while floating on your own private dining room with an up-close view of the sailboats passing by throughout the night. All materials going into and coming out of this floating dining room will be renewable, recycled, reclaimed and/or repurposed.
Intimate lighting, soft music, designer furnishings, bone china dishes, elegant silverware and crystal glassware will all be included to add to this unique experience. The floating plastic represents the issue of our oceans becoming a collecting ground for discarded plastic; one of the many threats to our seafood supplies."

After spending this past summer in San Diego, the floating Plastic Dining Room will be partnering with restaurants around the world for next summer. It may be floating into a port near you! (I am hoping it gets to SF since we are in a foodie paradise here!)


http://blog.schooloffishfoundation.org/