Revelation

By Alan Tyndall

In our world of increasing cyber-attack, threatened nuclear war and climate change, mankind seems locked into ancient hard-wired tribal patterns of suspicion and aggression.
Popularist nationalism, fuelled by fake news via social media and vested mega-industry interests, is an overwhelming scientific reality. The evolutionary jump 200,000 years ago, which enabled an insignificant ape in Africa to develop the critical social skills to dominate the planet, is now threatening its existence. Homo sapiens sapiens needs another evolutionary jump – but will it come in time?
In a laboratory in Cambridge University, a distinguished neurologist is close to developing a revolutionary brain stem cell therapy which may restore lost functions. Unexpectedly, he is forced to use it secretly when a close friend and colleague develops rapidly progressive dementia. The results are far, far more than ever dreamed of. Could this be the beginning of a new era of hope for humanity, and can it survive the hostile agents committed to eliminate it?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Feb 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781528995924

Alan Tyndall

Alan Tyndall, retired professor of medicine from the University of Basel Switzerland, is a pioneer in the use of stem cell therapy in autoimmune diseases with over 100 publications and textbook chapters on the subject. His non-medical interests include evolution, consciousness research, entomology, climate change, astronomy and literature. His longstanding ambition was to write a page turning bio-thriller with the aim of entertaining and informing the lay reader, while at the same time stimulating an awareness of critical issues affecting life on our unique and fragile planet.

Book preview

Revelation

Alan Tyndall

Austin Macauley Publishers

Revelation

About the Author

Copyright Information ©

Acknowledgement

Part I: Evolution: Prologue

Chapter 1: Six Months Previously

Chapter 2: Consciousness

Chapter 3: Decline and Fall

Chapter 4: Hope Springs Eternal

Chapter 5: Rising from the Abyss

Chapter 6: Thanksgiving and Discovery

Chapter 7: The Awakening

Chapter 8: Prometheus

Chapter 9: A Terrible Beauty

Chapter 10: Walking with the Gods

Chapter 11: The Kraken Wakes

Chapter 12: A Lean and Hungry Look

Chapter 13: Inquisition

Chapter 14: Wolves at the Gate

Chapter 15: Prelude

Chapter 16: The Custodians

Chapter 17: Waste Not, Want Not

Chapter 18: Revelation

Chapter 19: The Way of All Flesh

Chapter 20: The Unmasking

Chapter 21: Calm Before the Storm

Chapter 22: Once More unto the Breach

Chapter 23: Too Little, Too Late

Chapter 24: The Bonfire of the Vanities

Chapter 25: The Dogs of War

Chapter 26: The Eye of the Cyclone

Chapter 27: Changing Minds and Hearts

Chapter 28: Into the Lion’s Den

Chapter 29: Conjunction

Chapter 30: Tis Time to Fear when Tyrants Seem to Kiss

Chapter 31: Homo Sapiens Sapientior

Chapter 32: Joining the Dots

Chapter 33: Fallible Infallibility

Chapter 34: Birds of a Feather

Chapter 35: Moment of Truth

Chapter 36: A Rose by Any Other Name

Chapter 37: Most of the People Most of the Time

Chapter 38: Shifting Sands

Chapter 39: From the Jaws of Death

Chapter 40: Lowest Common Denominator

Chapter 41: Crescendo

Chapter 42: End Game

Part II: Pale Blue Dot: Prologue

Chapter 1: Millennium

Chapter 2: Conclave

Chapter 3: Obe

Chapter 4: Creativity

Chapter 5: Malaise

Chapter 6: Fault Lines

Chapter 7: Janz

Chapter 8: Clio

Chapter 9: Dissent

Chapter 10: Grettha

Chapter 11: Choices

Chapter 12: Epiphany

Chapter 13: Countdown

Chapter 14: Revoada

Chapter 15: Colony

Chapter 16: Goliath

Chapter 17: The Seventh Extinction

Epilogue

About the Author

Alan Tyndall, retired professor of medicine from the University of Basel Switzerland, is a pioneer in the use of stem cell therapy in autoimmune diseases with over 100 publications and textbook chapters on the subject. His non-medical interests include evolution, consciousness research, entomology, climate change, astronomy and literature. His longstanding ambition was to write a page turning bio-thriller with the aim of entertaining and informing the lay reader, while at the same time stimulating an awareness of critical issues affecting life on our unique and fragile planet.

Copyright Information ©

Alan Tyndall (2021)

The right of Alan Tyndall to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781528995917 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781528995924 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published (2021)

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd

25 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5LQ

Acknowledgement

Most of the data-concerning consciousness research, climate change, entomology, astronomy and mass extinction are correct and I am indebted to, in order, Daniel Dennert, Naomi Klein, E.O. Wilson, RM Schofield, Carl Sagan and Robert Hazen for their knowledge and inspiration over many years.

The concept of a society trapped within its negative behavioural patterns, despite scientific progress, was inspired by John Gray.

Mind-to-mind data transfer was inspired by the article in PloS One*

The use of stem cells, in general, comes from my own research and clinical practice, with obvious poetic licence and fantasy regarding their ability to initiate the next anthropogenic evolutionary leap for our species.

I would also like to thank my friends and relatives who read and commented honestly and helpfully on the text. In particular my friend and colleague, Prof Jaap van Laar, with whom I have collaborated in the field of stem cell therapy over 20 years and who encouraged me to publish.

Special thanks to Chiara and Anthony for their continued encouragement and faith.

*Grau C, Ginhoux R, Riera A, Nguyen TL, Chauvat H, Berg M, Amengual JL, Pascual-Leone A, Ruffini G. Conscious brain-to-brain communication in humans using non-invasive technologies.

PLoS One. 2014 Aug 19;9(8)

Part I: Evolution

Prologue

The suggestion to walk back to the village from the entomology research institute immediately put Adam into a panic. He had not been outside since his procedure and was consumed with an almost overwhelming sense of impending doom. Remembering his dear friend and physician Ron’s advice to engage with normal life again, he struggled to suppress these negative thoughts and set off reluctantly with his research assistant, Evelyn.

At first, he seemed motivated and fascinated by this fresh exposure to nature; the late summer flowers teeming with bees and the rays of soft golden late summer light filtering through the trees giving an almost theatrical setting to their walk. However, as they left the gardens to follow the narrower trail through the small forest to reach the village, he became agitated, looking behind and sideways in an increasingly nervous fashion.

What’s wrong Adam? Evelyn asked concernedly, also checking the nearby bushes but seeing nothing threatening. They had switched to first names lately, given the extraordinary circumstances of recent events.

Something is terribly wrong Evelyn – we must get away from here as soon as possible. Come, he grunted, grabbing her roughly by one hand and breaking into a half run.

Evelyn was taken completely by surprise and feeling the panic rising in her chest thought, My God – it was too much to do this – he was not ready for such exposure yet.

By now, Adam, sweating profusely and with a contorted terrified face, was picking up speed as if pursued by wild predators. Just as Evelyn was about to break free from him and call the emergency number on her cell phone, a shadowy figure emerged on the track 100 metres in front of them. Adam swerved violently and began retracing his steps when another two men stepped in front of them, blocking their path. He came to an abrupt stop in a half-crouched position and seemed to enter an almost catatonic state.

Evil, black evil, floods of filthy malevolence, death and destruction. Overwhelming. Negative, so negative. Must defeat, stop. Must eliminate, prevent, save, Evelyn, sweet innocent Evelyn, me and my gift, my powers, my burden. Must not happen

Thinking they were about to be mugged by common thieves or worse, Evelyn was about to cry out for help – there could be other pedestrians on the track; when she suddenly recognised her former lover Guy.

Guy, she uttered in relief. What in the name of God are you doing scaring us like that – I thought you were going to attack us.

How dare you mock the Lord’s name, whore, was the chilling response. In total shock and disbelief, Evelyn tried to put some logic into the scene which was unfolding in front of her when she realised that the other two companions had come up behind them. One of them had a handgun half raised and was clearly recognisable by his handsome features and blond hair.

The consciousness symposium, she thought wildly Eternal Life, the laboratory vandals and thieves. What is happening?

Did you think you could get away with your heresy, you devil’s slut, he said in a chillingly controlled voice, barely able to contain his murderous fury. Did you think that Jesus would forget, forgive and let this cringing abomination loose on His world, continued Roger Blackwell waving his gun towards Adam, who had by now adopted a foetal position on the ground, shaking violently.

We have been tracking your evil all along – and now it’s time to end it in the name of all that is pure and good – sorry you had to be involved Dr Jeffries but you had your choices.

In desperation and wild panic, Evelyn turned to Guy pleading, Guy, tell me this is not real. How could this be happening – we were so close once.

How dare you debase me by dragging in our relationship? he responded, I loved you Evelyn, pure and honest love, and you led me on, all the time rutting with this piece of filth, he continued, now beginning to tremble and with tears of rage and pain streaming down his face. Luckily, I found Roger and Eternal Life who saved me and my soul.

But that’s just not true Guy, you know that. I was very fond of you. I still am. I never slept with Professor Fletcher and never would. How could you have become like this? she cried, at the same time succumbing to the blinding conviction that she was about to die. The third member of the group had just moved up to join them, coolly drew his pistol and put it to the back of Adam’s head. Suddenly, she felt the whole world come to a standstill, but incredibly at the same time felt a wave of profound calm wash over and through her.

The sound of the two shots echoed loudly through the trees, sending a startled flock of roosting partridges noisily to the sky.

Chapter 1

Six Months Previously

Evelyn’s beauty had a subtle profound quality, beyond the clichéd images of fashion and film; ice-blue eyes too intelligent to be teasing, shapely lips too thin and lively to be seductive and a sharp-featured, angular face framed in an exuberance of wild curly red hair too untidy to be elegant. The first impression of an undersized physique was rapidly replaced by one of barely suppressed energy in a diminutive but shapely figure as one observed her restless yet graceful movements. A light dusting of freckles and scarce use of makeup imparted an almost girlish aura which had beguiled many would-be seducers until they tasted her white-hot disdain.

Dr Evelyn Jeffries, PhD and senior lecturer in entomology at Cambridge University, was anything but a good time girl and plaything for randy colleagues. The eldest of three daughters from a modest Edinburgh family, during childhood and adolescence she had never questioned the rather strict presbyterian mores of her family and enjoyed the sense of community the church offered. Both parents were teachers whose work ethic and support had led her easily into a successful undergraduate career with a degree in comparative biology. However, in her early 20s, an exchange year in Stanford had exposed her to the world of secular humanism, jazz clubs and marihuana, all of which teased open and titillated regions in her inner self which she did not until then know existed. It was there that she first met Adam Fletcher, a visiting charismatic handsome young Cambridge professor whose passion for insect behaviour and its links to societal structures took her instantly. His lecture had been on the subject of why suddenly a queen from a stable nest would take flight with some accompanying males, mate in the air then start a new colony, a process called the ‘revoada’. With time, this new colony would become foreign to the old one, with all the associated kinship related hostilities and loyalties so depressingly familiar in human societies.

The offer of a PhD in his Cambridge laboratory was an easy decision, which until recently she had never regretted. That was seven years and three lovers ago, the most recent affair being rather painful. Guy had been truly enraptured with her but could not accept her holding back on the last fragments of full commitment. He had suspected that she had a deep-seated, idealistic dream of a perfect partner and that one day, somehow, she would connect with this. He even suspected that her beloved boss was the object, though this was never mentioned directly. For her part, Evelyn simply could not give herself fully and finally, despite a great and terrible fondness for Guy, she felt compelled to end it. He seemed to have accepted it graciously and she hoped his strong Christian faith would help him through it.

The breakup had been twelve months ago, around the time that Adam had started behaving strangely. Her biggest regret was that she had nobody with whom she could discuss these conflicting and confusing emotions. Neither of her sisters would understand her increasingly agnostic feelings towards the church nor her feeling of emptiness and frustrated passions.

She had long ago given up any hope of her unrequited love being returned – as a young student she had been inspired by his enthusiasm for research and commitment to teaching and during her PhD had slowly but surely fallen secretly and hopelessly in love with him. It was part chemistry – she loved the way he looked, moved, spoke and his fresh masculine smell but also cherished his gentle but determined attitude. He was already married when they met: an apparently ideal couple, having met as students and having independently pursued their own successful careers. His wife. Catherine was now a senior reader in English literature and a world authority on Thomas Hardy.

Until recently, Evelyn would never have considered letting her feelings for Adam be known, even to her most intimate friends. However, as campus rumours began spreading a year ago of the Fletchers’ domestic problems, a small spark of hope was ignited, especially when they had separated recently. Of course, she had never intimated such to Adam nor had his behaviour been in any way overtly sexual in the past, although she had lately been uncomfortably aware of his occasional intense stare at odd moments during their working day together.

In fact, despite the usual plethora of campus gossip, infidelity within the Fletchers’ marriage had never been suggested. More confusing for her was the rising uneasy feeling that the Adam of today was perhaps not the person she would gladly abandon herself to as she had dreamed of in the recent past. He was also making errors in his scientific work, initially small ones, but detectable to an expert such as her and very out of character. Lately, the errors had been more blatant and becoming harder to explain.

So far, no publications had been submitted which she could not fully endorse, but she had needed to correct certain data interpretations by Adam, which shook her, until now, unreserved faith in his academic prowess. Her fear was that she might have to consult the University Committee of Scientific Transparency and Excellence if things deteriorated. She well knew from previous briefings and orientation lectures that scientific fraud enabled by devoted juniors was an increasing problem in all academic centres.

As these thoughts swirled through her mind, Evelyn tried to force herself to concentrate on the job at hand – determining the zinc and manganese content of old, worn-out leaf cutter ants’ jaws on her spectrometer. At the same time, she became uncomfortably aware that her boss, Adam, had ceased operating the electron microscope on the bench opposite her and was again gazing in an unfocussed manner into the ant farm colony on the next bench while mumbling quietly under his breath. Several of the PhD students had also noticed this and were discretely ignoring him. To break the awkward atmosphere, Evelyn said brightly, They really seem to know what they’re doing, don’t you think professor?

Waiting, anticipating, expectation, crushed excitement. Never arrives, never fulfils, never completes, never satisfies, never concludes, no closure. Is this it? Meaningless junk strung between cradle and grave. Mindless neuron, hormone driven responses. Survival of the species. Insane confidence trick played by mindless idiots. Joke’s on You Creation, you got it wrong with us Homo sapiens 200,000 years ago. Too many neurons obscenely bloated prefrontal cortex, too much protein can play the game now and it’s grim. Consciousness, awareness, simulation and sin. Gifts of the Gods, weapons of mass destruction. Overpopulation, global warming. Should never have let us transcend our gentle Homo sapiens idaltu cousins; they would never fuck up this planet – didn’t have the tools. Probably would have if they could have – selfish genes and all that. Is that what You planned? Game over, let this mad mob blow it all away and it starts again somewhere else in Your endless, pitiless universe. Christ, who knows, and anyway …

With some effort, Adam dragged his attention back from yet another dark, self-obsessed reverie to the reality of the laboratory and the actual situation. He had increasing difficulties concentrating on his work lately, which he blamed on his recent marital separation and difficulties obtaining research grants. But something else, new, seemed to be wrong – a strange omnipresent unquiet lurking on the edge of his consciousness like a flitting shape in the shadows beyond a campfire. Disturbing but not yet threatening. Was he simply depressed as his friend Ronald Schwartz suggested? Ron was the head of neurology and had known Adam since their schooldays. They were meeting later that day for a seminar and maybe to talk afterwards about the separation from his wife Catherine and Adam’s increasing emotional lability and social withdrawal.

Yes, Evelyn, some people do believe they have collective consciousness, Adam replied, briskly, but thinking, My God, she’s so beautiful and sensual and even more so since she doesn’t flaunt it. Must not get involved – teacher/student, vulnerable period in my life…

I attended a philosophy department seminar at King’s last night on animal consciousness and there seems to be quite some disagreement about it, responded Evelyn, lightly in an attempt to diffuse the heavy atmosphere.

I’m not surprised, Adam quipped. Philosophers and neurologists can’t even agree about the definition of consciousness in humans, let alone in our stupid pets, he added sarcastically, though privately experiencing a not so dogmatic attitude to the whole issue. In fact, he had been casually reading around the area of consciousness research in the past six months or so since attending an open workshop organized by his neurologist friend who was very involved. Prof Ron Schwartz was a pioneer in the area of neuronal stem cell biology, a complex field including exciting new knowledge concerning the brain’s ability to self-renew but clouded by cynical money-driven bogus therapies for tragic neurodegenerative and other brain disorders.

I know the experts can’t agree on this, replied Evelyn patiently. But at least some form of self-awareness seems to be a central feature. And last night I learned that despite Descartes’ denial of animal consciousness, some animals are self-aware. There’s this simple mirror test: you make a mark on the face of an animal, or of a human infant, while asleep such that it can’t be seen when awake. Then hold up a mirror: if it makes a grooming movement towards the mark, then it is to some extent self-aware. Apparently, higher apes, dolphins, elephants and magpies all do this, she added.

Sounds like horseshit to me Adam retorted roughly and immediately regretted the aggressive tone seeing the hurt in her eyes. Trying to lighten the tone he added, You should hold a mirror to some of our sleazy undergrad students and maybe they’ll groom themselves as well, but the attempted humour fell flat. He had been doing this too often lately – why was he so angry and easily provoked? Catherine had in the months before their separation complained bitterly about his uncharacteristically nihilistic and unfocussed aggressive moods.

In any case, we need to finish this damned experiment before the end of the week and I have been asked by Ron Schwartz to participate in another of his consciousness symposium this afternoon. Do you think you could finalise these measurements by tomorrow, again, sounding more aggressive than intended. What’s happening? he thought.

He had also been increasingly fascinated by the same question in recent years. How could such a highly organised and perfectly functioning colony of insects not have some form of consciousness to direct their complex society?

Adam knew well the organised structure of the leafcutters, which next to humans formed the largest and most complex animal societies on Earth. Fifteen years previously, he had written his own doctoral thesis entitled Genetic programming of societal behaviour among the atta and acromyrmex genera of leaf-chewing ants. These amazing creatures had long fascinated him with their hierarchical caste society of leaf foraging workers, trail clearing ‘bulldozers’, cutters, soldiers and finally trimmers and fungus farmers using the perfectly trimmed leaf fragments as substrate. The soldiers defended the cutting and carrying workers from lethal hostile predators and would spontaneously sacrifice themselves saving the colony. Their ability to produce antimicrobial chemicals to keep their nutrient fungal crops pure would be enviable in any modern food producing facility, including quality control and waste disposal systems. Apart from humans, they were the only other animals which grew their own food and they had been doing this perfectly for millions of years without any primary, secondary or tertiary education.

Instead, Adam’s childhood fascination with insects had pervaded all three stages of his education and resulting in a successful career leading to his current post as full professor of entomology at Cambridge University at the young age of 43. His major contributions to the field recently had been in the area of ‘social security’ in the leafcutter colonies. Older ‘bulldozer’ ants too weak to clear the paths for the carriers or leafcutters whose jaws had become blunted, would be ‘retired’ to the leaf carrying or the waste disposal teams and still enjoy the support of the colony. Such a ‘humane’ societal practice had been explained by some as simply a random genetically programmed behaviour of a colony which by chance gave an evolutionary advantage and therefore persisted. However, Adam had increasingly become obsessed with the idea, hope maybe, that some form of universal ‘goodness’ might exist and give some meaning to it all. That a society would work to feed its young made perfect sense in terms of evolutionary survival, as evidenced by the leaf-cutters’ production of nutrient fungus for their larvae. But why would they devote resources to supporting their old and useless members?

However, to his enormous frustration, the more he pondered these issues in recent months the less he felt able to maintain focus. He blamed this on Catherine’s unfair critical behaviour towards him and the junior staff’s increasingly disrespectful challenging of his scientific leadership. Even Evelyn had been questioning aspects of his work, a person he thought he could trust. Thinks just because she’s so sexy she can manipulate and turn the lab against me, he thought grimly, then immediately felt a wave of regret as reason kicked back in.

Driving angrily back to his temporary accommodation, his mind was so distracted by this mixture of confused and bleak thoughts that he nearly struck a cyclist at the next intersection.

Watch where you are going, you moron, he shouted aggressively at him, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was entirely in the wrong.

Chapter 2

Consciousness

Adam arrived slightly late for the consciousness symposium, which was held in the main hall of King’s College, having thought it was at 5.15, though actually it was scheduled to begin at 5 o’clock. Bastards always changing times and places, he mumbled to himself as he took his place clumsily on the rostrum. Glancing around he was surprised to see how large the audience of students and staff were and that the expert panel included some senior colleagues from the departments of neurology, physics, theology and philosophy. There was a restive atmosphere due to the delayed starting.

Thought you wouldn’t make it, Adam, Ron said rather tensely. I think we should begin now, and kicked off the discussion with an opening salvo to the philosopher, Harold Blinkstone.

So, Dr Blinkstone he quipped with a wry smile. You agree with Rene Descartes’ dualism model, that is to say, that signals from the material world, such as light, for example, are collected somewhere in the brain and transferred to an immaterial location, the ‘realm of thought’.

Well, of course, Prof Schwartz that’s a bit outdated now but essentially, yes, we philosophers do think that consciousness is a purely subjective experience and therefore can only be fully known from the inside, he answered in a similarly playful tone.

You mean that rocks and trees are conscious on the inside but we just can’t see it? blurted Adam rather rudely, prompting a short burst of nervous laughter from the audience but at the same time dampening the so far light-hearted and jocular tone of the discussion.

I’m not sure about rocks and trees Professor Fletcher, or even your fabulous ants, responded Blinkstone calmly, trying to maintain a pleasant atmosphere, but it is generally agreed that we attribute consciousness to other people because we see that they resemble us in appearance and behaviour. We reason that if they look like us and act like us, they must be like us in other ways, including having experiences of the sort that we do.

In fact, interjected Rolf Burton from the theology department, it is thought by some that consciousness involves not just self-awareness but also the enhanced understanding of the mental states of other minded creatures, especially those of other members of one’s social group. This increase in mutually shared knowledge of each other’s minds enables the relevant individuals to interact, cooperate and communicate in more advanced and adaptive ways. In fact, it could well be the foundation of the structure of most religions which clearly gave communities a survival advantage through social cohesion.

Here we go again; the spirit of God speaks to us from within, mumbled Adam sotto voce. Unfortunately, his microphone was still on and after a short stunned silence in the auditorium, Rolf Burton continued calmly, No, Prof Fletcher, I am not a proponent of the mystical psychiatrist Richard Bucke and his three types of consciousness; simple consciousness, awareness of the body, possessed by many animals, self-consciousness, awareness of being aware, possessed only by humans and cosmic consciousness, awareness of the life and order of the universe, possessed only by humans who are enlightened. However, you must admit that from time to time truly remarkable humans appear amongst us who seem particularly gifted and insightful.

Yeah, like Leo Szilard, inventor of the atomic bomb. What a great fucking gift that was, thought Adam darkly, retreating into a surly silence. To recapture the mood, Ron turned to the physicist, How about all those quantum theories of consciousness Bob? Isn’t everything these day ‘nano’?

Sorry Ron, nano is bigger than quantum but even so I have never found experimental evidence to support these theories. Bob Burns replied.

Without boring everybody too much, this model proposes so-called ‘objective collapses’ which involve the quantum system moving from a superposition of multiple possible states to a single definite state, but without the intervention of an observer or measurement as in most quantum mechanical models. I just don’t buy it, he concluded. Supporters of this theory think this occurs in the microtubules inside the neuronal cells

Very interesting, interjected Ron, because that’s one of the typical findings in true Alzheimer’s disease; deterioration of these microtubules, and continued with a more detailed description of the early symptoms, typical diagnostic features of Alzheimer’s disease and how, in the end, all signs of consciousness are lost in the patient.

At this point, a student raised his hand, Professor Schwartz, we would like to hear more about your ideas. We all know you are an international expert in this field and that you are studying potential stem cell-based therapies for brain diseases.

Well, of course, I am prejudiced, being a neurologist I naturally favour the so-called ‘neural’ theory of consciousness, but I must remind you all, and he started searching his notes on the desk, "that a distinguished panel of eight neuroscientists recently made the statement and I will read it out:

We have no idea how consciousness emerges from the physical activity of the brain and we do not know whether consciousness can emerge from non-biological systems, such as computers… At this point, the reader will expect to find a careful and precise definition of consciousness. You will be disappointed. Consciousness has not yet become a scientific term that can be defined in this way. Currently, we all use the term consciousness in many different and often ambiguous ways. Precise definitions of different aspects of consciousness will emerge…but to make precise definitions at this stage is premature."

However, there seems to be gathering evidence that sensory inputs such as vision are grouped in clusters of specialized cells called nodes and then projected up to the cortex of the brain where they are recognised and then sent back down to other centres for further processing and storage. It’s incredibly complicated and poorly understood but does explain why certain light wavelengths are immediately recognized as ‘red’ but at any time the individual can call up the memory of ‘redness’. Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA, later spent many years working on visual consciousness, he added. Evolutionary biologists consider that the ability to be rapidly conscious of colours, faces and movement is at the basis of survival and therefore, so well developed in humans.

Too bloody well-developed, thought Adam, further retreating into his dark mood. However, at that point, he suddenly recognised Evelyn who had quietly joined the audience and was about to ask a question.

Professor Schwartz, if the problem of dementia is one of loss of neurons, why can’t we stimulate new growth from the patient’s own stem cells as is done with skin grafting and bone marrow transplantation?

It goes a bit beyond the scope of this debate Dr Jeffries, and we can discuss it afterwards, but essentially it’s not just the number of neurons we have but how they are connected and interact which gives us our intelligence and, probably, consciousness, however you define it, he responded, thinking I must ask Evelyn if she has any insights into Adam’s recent odd behaviour.

I heard that the connectivity of neurons when they grow is determined by the support cells nearby, chipped in a doctoral student from the audience spontaneously, who rose from his seat slowly and purposefully as he spoke. All eyes turned to him, a rather handsome and gentle looking young man in his late twenties wearing a conservative dark brown cord jacket, maroon polo shirt and neatly ironed denim jeans. A fashionable well – trimmed stubble, floppy wavy ash blond hair and intelligent intense blue eyes completed his attractive appearance.

You are quite right, continued Ron warily. In fact the brain tissue supporting cells called glia are now thought to be intimately involved in both neuronal development and later function Thinking "how the hell did he know about that! We only showed this in a mouse model recently and have so far not published it or discussed it outside a very restricted group of co-workers".

Ron’s unease was not