What is consciousness?

may not be sufficient to overcome what people call the "ick" factor of using our own waste to power our homes. But it is not just human poo that could solve our problems and change the world. Animal poo could also limit deforestation by providing an alternative paper source other than trees. This tree substitute is not as smelly as may think or any different to your average piece of paper. Reportedly being the same quality and a similar price to regular paper. Poo paper is being produced in Kenya already with 20% of their paper now being made from elephant poo. This is obviously environmentally friendly, and saves indigenous trees from being destroyed. But it's not just good for the environment; it's also good for the community, with 500 local people being able to pull themselves out of poverty with the new industry providing stable income and jobs for local people. There is also more opportunity for this business to grow and help more people and the environment as 600 elephants pass through the sanctuary producing this unique paper, meaning resources are not in short supply. 600 may not sound like a lot but an

average elephant eats 250kg of food each day. Out of that amount about 50kg of dung is produced, making 125

sheets of A4 paper. The sanctuary produced 2,809 tonnes of paper from animal dung last year, and it expects that figure to triple by the end of this year. And this is not only happening in Kenya, but also in many other countries with elephant populations such as Thailand, Sri Lanka and India. Can this be generalised without elephants at every doorstep? Yes: this paper-making process can be applied to other animals with similar fibres found in their waste: cows, horses, donkeys, buffalos and others whose diets consist of grass. This means this sustainable business can be performed in most countries and the business can happen on a more global scale further helping the environment and more communities.To sum up, this poo paper could be a major contributor to the slowing down or even the stopping of deforestation and could help bring people out of poverty across the world. To conclude, although the majority of the population believe that poo is pretty useless, in reality animal and human poo could be a large part of the future. With cars and companies already being powered by this sustainable superhero and paper already being produced by it. I'm sure this underappreciated waste product will be the star of many future innovations and the answer to many of our problems, also very probably will be a key player in the fight to save our planet.

Sources

● bbc.co.uk/news/business-36162953 ● bbc.co.uk/news/business-37981485 ● corporate.uktv.co.uk/news/article/top-tenbizarre-science/

By Nanthana Lathan Year 10 To this day, scientists and philosophers are still debating new ideas on what consciousness is, many of these controversial and puzzling. Many agree that there is some sort of consciousness within humans and even mammals, the topic continues to baffle scientists and philosophers. The main debate is how and what needs to be explained and analysed to achieve the answer of what consciousness is. Some may refer to consciousness as an aspect of "inner life". It could also mean a certain level of awareness, or refer to an individual's thoughts and imagination. All these explanations have implications for our life as a society, as the idea of consciousness gives rise to the idea of conscience.

State of Consciousness

The state of consciousness refers to the brain being aware of the internal and external environments in order to react to a situation or simply being aware of our surroundings. There are times where consciousness is absent from our brain, for instance in dreamless sleeps or in comas. There are also circumstances where the relationship between the mind and the world can be hindered, known as "altinerate consciousness". This can be produced through drugs, alcohol or can occur naturally.

Scientific Study

Scientists avoided researching the topic of consciousness for many years due to it being something hard to test, as it always seemed hard to define in measurable terms. However, there have been experiments and testing on the brain exploring how consciousness can affect the brain activity.

Neural Correlates

This refers to an experiment where scientists examined the relationship between the subject doing the activity and what the brain is signalling in the scans when doing the activity simultaneously. The aim was to determine if a particular part of the brain or a pattern was seen to associate it with the consciousness awareness that is occurring when doing the activities, using several brain imaging machinery such as EEG and fMRI scans. This led to the theory that consciousness was associated with the high-frequency oscillation of brain activity (repetitive patterns of the neural activity in the central nervous system). This idea came about in 1980 when Christof von der Maksburg and Wolf Singer stated gamma oscillation coils solve the so-called blinding problem, by linking information from different parts of the brain into a unified experience.

These experiments showed how consciousness is the state of being aware of situations and the surroundings in order for us to act accordingly. The brain shows different wavelength patterns when doing different activities therefore this could link to our consciousness and how we apply that to different circumstances we are in. Although the origins of consciousness and how it came about still remains a mystery there are still more improvements and discoveries within this area of research.

Philosophical Perspectives

“Consciousness” has often been described as the part of the soul, which defines morality and ethical choices. Many religious people believe that the conscience is the voice of God guiding humans through their life and aiding them to make good choices whilst providing free will. This is one of the beliefs in Christanity, as well as other religions. It is believed that consciousness is the religious awareness of God. There are often many correlations between the soul and one's consciousness. Things that are ruled by your consciousness consist of being aware of the different outcomes from situations and the variety of feelings such as guilt or worry.