Magnetic Resonance Imaging allows us to see some awesome stuff! Andy Ellison has taken it a step farther by taking images of fruit to create MRI Art.

MRI’s allow the viewer to visually experience these 3-D images of fruit in slices, which creates a pulsating psychedelic effect that is hypnotic and beautiful.

The image Above is Garlic, the view is Axial. Enjoy the other Images Below along with a link to Andy Ellison’s page. Peace.

MRI Art – Fruit Imaging

Pomegranate

Strawberries

Pineapple

Peach

 Onion

Tomato

Lettuce

 Corn

 Celery

Banana

Garlic (Coronal)

> Andy Ellison | Inside Insides

Trippy Fruit Slices – Psychedelic MRI Art Gallery

The symbiosis between film matter and organic matter resulted in this conceptual body of trippy art.

In his series Impermanence, South Korean artist Seung-Hwan Oh creates surreal distorted photographic portraits by growing emulsion-eating fungus on his film.

Oh first allows the fungus to partially destroy the developed film in a process that takes months or even years. He then digitally prints the distorted images (the film is too fragile to print in an analog process).

Impermanence – Surreal Portraits Made With Fungus, Art Gallery

Collage artist Eugenia Loli uses photography scanned from vintage magazines and science publications to create psychedelic visual narratives that borrow from aspects of pop art and traditional surrealism.

Loli gives much of her work away as high-resolution files which you can download and print directly from her Flickr account for personal usage. She also has a collection of official, signed art prints available here.

Psychedelic Vintage Collage Art by Eugenia Loli (Gallery)

Sex. Drugs. Late nights.

You may be reading the first four words of my memoir. Or you could be simply listing three things that show signs of being a genius, according to various studies. There’s evidence that shows that if you’re spending less of your nights hitting the books and more time smoking weed and getting laid until 3am, then you’re probably wiser than the rest of us.

Researchers in England have found that students studying at prestigious universities such as Oxford and Cambridge spend more on sex toys than their peers at other universities. Cambridge and Oxford’s sex toy sales on just one website (Lovehoney.co.uk, who funded the research) totaled a staggering $31, 461. No word on what products they ordered, nor whether they kept their glasses on while they used them.

“The correlation probably has something to do with the open-mindedness that comes with intelligence,” says Annalisa Rose, 23, who works at Honey, a high-end sex shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

I think that the ability to engage in an open sex life comes with the abilities of introspection and logical thought, and those require some level of intelligence. If we’re talking about an open sex life that comes from an emotionally healthy place, sexual mores are mostly made up anyway and intelligent people can rationalize past them. – Annalisa Rose

The 2nd part of our “genius trifecta” is drugs.

Smarter people are more likely to smoke pot or do a line than the average simpleton. This is because, according to many studies, a smarter person isn’t more likely to choose the “smarter” choice of not doing drugs but is instead more likely to pursue the more evolutionary novel choice, one that would inherently expand their horizons. Smarter people don’t necessarily ‘think smarter’ – they simply rationalize where they’re supposed to “feel.” So while a less intelligent person is less likely to pick up a heroin habit in the first place, the more intelligent person will rationalize it. (This explains every good jazz album ever made and also every Christian rock album ever made in the same sentence.)

So while a less intelligent person is less likely to pick up a heroin habit in the first place, the more intelligent person will rationalize it. (This explains every good jazz album ever made and also every Christian rock album ever made in the same sentence.)

A 2010 study that ran in Psychology Today (what, you don’t subscribe?) also states that those with an IQ of 125 or higher are exponentially more likely to use drugs. Says the study:

Net of sex, religion, religiosity, marital status, number of children, education, earnings, depression, satisfaction with life, social class at birth, mother’s education, and father’s education, British children who are more intelligent before the age of 16 are more likely to consume psychoactive drugs at age 42 than less intelligent children.

…there is a clear monotonic association between childhood general intelligence and adult consumption of psychoactive drugs. “Very bright” individuals (with IQs above 125) are roughly three-tenths of a standard deviation more likely to consume psychoactive drugs than “very dull” individuals (with IQs below 75).

Late nights, too, play a leading role in that of the smart person: an academic paper entitled “Why The Night Owl Is More Intelligent,” published in the journal Psychology And Individual Differences, says that for several millennia humans have been largely conditioned to work during the day and sleep at night.

Those that buck the trend, the paper suggests “…that more intelligent individuals may be more likely to acquire and espouse evolutionarily novel values and preferences than less intelligent individuals.”

The paper goes on to say that those who are more liberal and more inclined towards atheism are more likely to be intelligent, too.

Essentially, if you’re more of a forward thinker, if you’re trying something new and pushing your boundaries, you’re most likely more intelligent. This doesn’t mean that Toronto mayor Rob Ford is some kind of lucid genius, however. It merely suggests that smarter people are more likely to have more sex, do drugs, and stay up late.

So if you’re getting laid at 3am on Sunday morning and have a full bowl packed beside the bed and you aren’t going to church the next day, you’re probably a genius.

Either that or you’re incredibly good at living your best life.

> Smarter People and Their Habits | Esquire

Smarter People Stay Up Late, Do More Drugs, and Have More Sex (Study)

Neuroscientist Greg Dunn decided to trade in his microscope to become a professional artist. 

He still uses a microscope in his art though. Meta much? What gives! Greg is an interesting dude, and his brain art offers deep food for thought when it comes to interconnectivity and the fractal nature of the universe.

The patterns of branching neurons he saw through the microscope reminded him of the aesthetic principles in Sumi-e art, which he admires. Dunn realized neurons could be painted in this sumi-e (minimalist ink wash painting) style to wonderful effect.

The microscopic world belongs in the world of Asian art. There’s no distinction between painting a landscape of a forest and a landscape of the brain. – Greg Dunn

Enjoy his beautiful creations!

 Sumi-e Style: Brain Art

Cortical Columns

It’s almost a zen quality to the branching pattern of a neuron that I was interested in capturing initially. – Greg Dunn

Basket and Pyramidals

Gold Cortex II

Cortical Circuitboard

Electron Micrograph of Micro-etching

Brainbow Hippocampus in Blue

The image above was inspired by the Brainbow process, a neuroscience technique for coloring neighboring neurons by combining colored fluorescent proteins.

Brainbow Hippocampus Variations

Glia and Blood Vessels

Glial Flare

Spinal Cord

 Art has the power to capture people’s emotions and inspire awe [in a way] that a lot of charts and graphs don’t have. – Greg Dunn

> Dazzling Images of the Brain Created by Neuroscientist-Artist | Live Science

Neuroscientist Paints Sumi-e Style Brain Art (Gallery)

Derby the dog was born with malformed front legs. Derby’s awesome owner sought help after being unsatisfied with the current wheeled options to assist disabled dogs.

The result was a set of custom designed, 3D printed prosthetic legs that allow Derby to run and play, just like any normal dog. 

Disabled Dog Experiences First Run with 3D Printed Legs (Video)

In this Shots of Awe episode, Jason Silva talks about the fundamentals of the cognitive ecstasy we experience from the chase of knowledge. Knowing provides closure, but the mystery of not knowing inspires curiosity, wonder and a shared quest for answers.

To entertain such ontologies is to re-contextualize one’s self as a marvelous conduit in a timeless whole, through which molecules and meaning flow, from nebulae to neurons and back again. – Tim Doody

The Ecstasy of Curiosity and Insatiable Drive for Knowledge – Jason Silva (Video)

Timelapse Earth in 4K resolution, as imaged by the geostationary Elektro-L weather satellite, from May 15th to May 19th, 2011.

Elektro-L is located about 40,000 km above the Indian ocean. It orbits at a speed that causes it to remain over the same spot as the Earth rotates.

Technical Details of Capture

Timelapse Earth – 4K Edition (Video)

Speeds Up Brain Processing Potential

According to a research journal article published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience in February 2012, meditation can alter the geometry of the brain’s surface. There was a study done at UCLA involving 50 meditators and 50 controls that addressed a possible link between meditation and cortical gyrification, the pattern and degree of cortical folding that allows the brain to process faster. This study showed a positive correlation between the amount of gyrification in parts of the brain and the number of years of meditation for people, especially long-term meditators, compared to non-meditators.

This increased gyrification may reflect an integration of cognitive processes when meditating, since meditators are known to be introspective and contemplative, using certain portions of the brain in the process of meditation.

Loosens Our Neural Pathways

Rebecca Gladding, M.D. explains in an article published in May 2013 Psychology Today, how the brain functions better with meditation, and the positive affects it has on the brain, the longer you meditate.

Basically, Gladding explains how the brain can be molded by meditation. Specifically, the connection to our fear center and our “Me” Center (place where the brain constantly reflects back to you) wither away by meditating on a regular basis.

This loosening up lessens our feelings of anxiety, because the neural pathways linking our Me Center to our fear decreases. The unhelpful feelings of anxiety become regulated, meaning, sufficiently ignored, which enhances better neural pathways to form. New neural pathways include improved assessment and empathetic responses. The important thing that Gladding also mentions is that to maintain the benefits of meditation, you must keep meditating because:

the brain can very easily revert back to its old ways if you are not vigilant.

Reduces the Risk of Heart Disease

A large cardiovascular study was done and published in November 2012, in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

There were 201 people with coronary heart disease given two choices:

(1) Take a health education class promoting improved diet and exercise.
(2) Take a class on transcendental meditation.

Researchers studied these participants for five years and discovered something interesting. Those that chose (2) the meditation class had 48% reduction to the overall risk of heart attack, stroke and death.

Meditations Improves Memory Recall

New research shows that meditation can further enhance the abilities of memory recall.

Catherine Kerr is a researcher at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging and the Osher Research Center. She has found that those that practice meditation could adjust their brains waves better. They could screen out distractions and increase productivity faster than those that did not meditate. Less distractions gives room for the brain to integrate new information. This slight change in brain adjustment can dramatically aid in memory recall.

Kerr explained more in an article called, Meditation’s Effects on Emotion Shown to Persist, published in June 2013 at Psych Central

Mindfulness meditation has been reported to enhance numerous mental abilities, including rapid memory recall. Our discovery that mindfulness meditators more quickly adjusted the brain wave that screens out distraction could explain their superior ability to rapidly remember and incorporate new facts. – Catherine Kerr

> Proven Benefits of Meditating | Thinking Humanity

4 Scientifically Proven Positive Psychological Benefits of Meditation

Terence McKenna is one our favorite psychedelic luminaries. Here is a short interview of his where he talks about many ideas concerning drugs, legality, and love that are increasingly becoming commonplace among a larger and larger portion of our global populace.

Ideally, we’ll look back at this time in history and laugh at our collective foolishness and hubris.

My mind is made up, don’t confuse me with facts. – Terence McKenna

Terence McKenna at His Best: Drugs, Legality, and Love (Interview)