Has there been a new organ discovered or created in the human body?
Has a new organ been discovered or created in the human body?
A new organ has been discovered which has been given the name interstitium, so the news of last week reported. Could it be that the new organ has been created and didn’t exist before the discovery?
Curiosity animated the cat
This article is not meant for challenging the discovery, nor to discuss if its correct to call the discovery an organ
The discovery of the new organ
The news item starts with the announcement that scientists have discovered a new organ. This discovery was done by accident. The act of looking demands a result to be returned, the looked-at. The act of looking, with curiosity, opens up possibilities and potentialities to be materialized and observed
Adding to the wonderment of the discovery is that the organ is nearly everywhere in our body, quoting from the article mentioned before:
“It’s nearly everywhere — just below the skin’s surface, surrounding arteries and veins, casing the fibrous tissue between muscles, and lining our digestive tracts, lungs, and urinary systems.
It looks like a mesh. The interstitium is a layer of fluid-filled compartments strung together in a web of collagen and a flexible protein called elastin. Previously, scientists thought the layer was simply dense connective tissue.
The organ has seemingly been hiddenin plain sight, and scientists say they missed it because of the way tissue is studied. Before being placed under a microscope, samples are thinly sliced and treated with chemicals that allow researchers to identify key components more easily. While the process is helpful for more easily spotting details, it drains fluid from the sample.
Devoid of their fluid, the compartments collapse, like a building with the floors suddenly knocked out, leaving the whole structure to flatten like a pancake.
To find these pockets of interstitial fluid, medical researchers looked at living tissue instead of sampling dead tissue samples. They did this by using a probing technique called confocal laser endomicroscopy.” (source, boldness added)
Different method of observation
How come an all-pervasive organ in the body hasn’t been discovered before?
The change in the observational model of the scientists, by using a different method of analysis, resulted in allowing of other information to arise into consciousness and potentially to be observed by the scientists. Curiosity is an essential attitude in allowing “new” information to be observed. Without curiosity and an attitude of open mind, this discovery wouldn’t have been made, even though the method of analysis allowed for more information to be observed.
Maybe you are familiar with the monkey business illusion video, if not check it out (before reading further — really, do it! :-)):
What happened?
I’m now going to use abstract language to refer to the the monkey business illusion video above, in case you might read further before watching the video. So if you haven’t seen it, here’s your chance!
Even though the information stays the same, during the second screening of the video — with a changed personal filter — “new” information comes into awareness. Information which was previously not registered became apparent, even though the information was already there to observe during the first screening of the video.
Some people already see the information the first screening — if you’re one of them I think that’s a good sign!
Can I see what you see?
The willingness to see new things, being curious and having an open mind are factors which determine what information could possibly come into our awareness. In a way the potential of information to be registered consciously is limited by the filter we apply, in order to collapse the potential into one single form.
The potential collapses into a single option when observed, i.e. the potential has been reduced to one option. In the video above, the actual information didn’t change between the first screening and the second screening. And yet, when viewing it for the second time with a different filter, other options were able to be given form. Looking with a changed filter allows possibilities to be observed. A changed filter allows for new information to be passed through and to be observed by us.
With watching a video the potential information to be observed has been predetermined. No other information can be observed which isn’t potentially there in the first place. The only ways for observing other information — or data — from a predetermined potential of information, is a different individual focus or filter.
With research in the real world (opposed to watching a video) the potential information to be observed has not been predetermined. This allows for more possibilities to unfold. With exploration in the real world, the act of exploration and looking demands possibilities to be collapsed and limited to one. Investigation into unlimited potential (i.e. not predetermined potential) is a different act all together, than passively extracting information from a predetermined range of potential (e.g. when watching a movie). Investigation and exploration into undetermined and unlimited potential is an active mode opposed to a passive mode.
Selecting or creating
Could it be that the new organ has been created by the act of open investigation and curiosity? Could it be that the organ wasn’t there before? I think that is the case. Let’s explore…
A research, investigation or adventure starts with an intention. The intention results in a certain hypothesis of things which might be. The hypothesis is like a search query. Without applying the filter of the hypothesis by feeding the search query into a search engine, no new information will arise and nothing changes.
Even with a formulated hypothesis it is possible for other potential information to be observed — information which is outside the intended frame of reference of the exploration. Only curiosity and having an open mind allows the unthinkable potential to collapse into existence. Only curiosity, wonder and an open mind allow for other possibilities to be observed outside of consensus or conventions. Closed minds are a guarantee for stagnation.
The act of observation is not passive
There’s no passivity in observing. The act of observing — regardless which sense organ is used as information filter — is a creative act. Or maybe better said, the act of observing is a selective act of narrowing down infinite potential to a limited form. The intention of observing determines the nature of the result to be observed. As the intention, so the nature of the result.
Curiosity is always broadening and challenging the accepted frame of reference. Curiosity challenges the consensus model of any given area of information, because curiosity is in essence open for the unexpected. The nature of curiosity is adventure and willing to look at things in a different way. Hence curiosity goes hand in hand with excitement and sometimes even fear. Fear of the unexpected and excitement because of more possibilities, which excites the essence of our being — being unlimited, free and creative in essence. Curiosity therefore is in alignment with our essence, the actual substance-less substance out there and in here.
How conscious are you about your role in collapsing possibilities? Let’s explore life with wonder and curiosity!
If you’re interested in the actual discovery of the new organ, Hashem Al-Ghaili made a video of this discovery:
