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MICROBIOLOGY
During 1985, we made some substantial improvements in our technique for culturing
Dunaliella and transferring aliquots to the laser room.
By using laminar flow hoods,
sterile
techniques, and extensive rinsing of vessels that have been acid-cleaned, we have reached a
point at which cultures can be kept in the laser room for more than 24 hours without
appreciable deterioration.
This technique gives us the option of inserting new samples just
before 4:30 p.m. each day, so that we are ready for data collection the following day.
Baselines obtained in this way are much quieter.
This effect can be observed in Figure
8, the
global control for the 1986 data. We are pleased to find that the differences that represent
the “scores”
are almost normally distributed.
CONCLUSION
A protocol has been developed that allows the compilation of data relating sequence
length and psi “score.”
Pilot runs contain strong evidence of a psi effect, and the results
have indicated some tentative, but interesting, suggestions of variation of score with sequence
length.
Details of work to be carried out in 1986-87
will be discussed before data collection.
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ANNEX
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BEHAVIORAL RESPONSE OF MICROORGANISMS TO psi STIMULUS
PART II: STATISTICAL ANALYSES OF DATA FROM DUNALIELLA
C. M. Pleass
University of Delaware
College of Marine Studies
Newark, DE
19716
N. Dean Dey
University of Delaware
College of Marine Studies
Lewes, DE
19958
ABSTRACT
A consciousness experiment in which the Doppler shift of He/Ne laser light was
used to describe changes in the velocity and vector of a marine alga, Dunaliella, was
reported
by
Pleass
and Dey
in
1985.
Because
the
subject
of
the
consciousness
experiment Is living, we expect strings of baseline velocity and vector data which are,
at some
level,
inexplicably
time-variant.
This complexes
the
statistical procedures
which must be used to analyze the data.
This
paper
examines
the
variation
in baseline
data
strings, and
describes two
alternative statistical procedures which have been used to determine the probability of
consciousness effects.
Two levels of control are applied, allowing global comparison of
frequency
distributions
of
experimental
scores
with
similar
distributions
derived
artificially from baseline data.
In both cases the null hypothesis is that there is no psi
effect. The data quite strongly suggest the rejection of the null hypothesis.
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BEHAVIORAL RESPONSE OF MICROORGANISMS TO psi STIMULUS
PART
II: STATISTICAL ANALYSES OF DATA FROM DUNALIELLA
INTRODUCTION
The College of Marine Studies of the University of Delaware have over a decade
of experience
with the
culture
of marine
microalgae.
Initially,
these
cultures
were
prepared
as experimental
diets
for oysters
in controlled environment mariculture.
In
1982, .Pleass and Dey began a series of studies of the response of a hardy green alga,
Dunalieila to
psi stimulus, using the Doppler shift of scattered laser
light as a rapid,
accurate measure of the change in swimming velocity and direction of individual
cells.
The
apparatus
and
techniques
used
were
described
at
the
28th
Parapsychological
Association Convention and published in the Proceedings (Pleass and Dey
1985).
This
reference
should
be
taken
as
Part
I
in
an
ongoing
series.
It
contains
secondary
references relevant to the experiment per se.
In summary,
cells
of
Dunalieila
are
approximately
10"^ m
in
length.
Using
whiplike flagella in a motion similar to breast stroke, they swim at velocities up to ca.
2x10"^ msec"*
(Figure
1).
The
laser
Doppler
apparatus
uses
a He/Ne
laser
in
the
mode
illustrated
in Figure
2.
The measuring volume
is the
ellipsoid where the
split
laser beams
cross.
It
has
a volume
of
ca.
IxlO"6
cc.
Cultures
of Dunalieila can
easily
sustain
10®
cells
per
cc,
with
intercellular
spacing
of
the
order
of
10"4 m.
Under these conditions, bursts of scattered light from the laser crossover will normally
correspond
to
the
passage
of one
individual
cell.
On the
rare occasions when
the
measuring volume contains more than
one, the observed
velocity
will be the mean.
Data rates
are
quite
high,
ca. 70 sec"!, depending on the cell concentration and the
average
motility.
The
apparatus
is
single-components
it
will
record
velocity
and
direction
along
any
one
chosen
axis.
Since
algae
frequently
migrate
vertically
in
response to circadian rhythms, the vertical axis is normally used, and it may be assumed
unless
an
alternate
is
specified.
The
apparatus
is
interfaced with an IBM PC and
baseline data are normally stored as the average of 100 or 200 velocity readings.
Laser Doppler studies of the circadian rhythms displayed by motile marine algae
have been described (Pleass and Dey
1985).
Baseline data
describing
algal
velocities
must be assumed to contain trend, rhythm and nonrandom noise, and this complexes the
preparation
of
statistics
describing the
results
of experiments whose objective
is
to
record
behavioral response
to
an exogenous
stimulus.
This
paper
will
focus on
this
problem using results obtained from consciousness experiments with Dunalieila.
The
most
fundamental
point,
which
is
rarely
found
explicitly
stated
in
the
literature,
is that any experiment with a living system
is by definition, irreproducible .
In
fact,
the
hard
physical
sciences
which
derive
from
observation
of
inanimate
structures, and the application of logic, encourage an invalid extrapolation: that precise
replicability is a sine qua non of experimental science.
Theoretically,
every
observation
must
ultimately
reduce
to
a
probabilistic
conclusion, in part because of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and in part because
no system can be conceived which
is perfectly stable through time at any temperature
above
absolute
zero.
This
point has been widely recognized
in the writings of many
distinguished physicists and philosophers.
3ahn and Dunne have brought these together
in an
excellent
treatment
of
the "quantum
mechanics
of
consciousness."
(Jahn and
Dunne 1984) which may provide a starting point for a formal theory of consciousness.
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Flagella at the front end
approxlmatlng
a breast ^oke.^
Jerkv forward motion.
Examples are
Dunalien a ana a
/"* 's
Flagella at rear end,
natural
universal
joint.
rotating like
a propeller
The body counter-rotates
on
a
slowly.
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