The Additional Mass of Life

 Dott. Ing. Amrit Sorli   sorli_amrit@hotmail.com

Miasto Institute, 53010 Frosini, Italy

Abstract:  This paper demonstrates that there is an additional mass associated with a living organism.  Experiments were done in a closed environment to determine whether or not there was any mass change between the living and nonliving states.  There appears to be an additional mass that is associated with a living organism that disappears at death.  This additional mass could be due to a force or energy containment that exists in living organisms as it can not be accounted for otherwise within these closed systems.

Keywords:  life, mass, organism.

Introduction

            In this paper, it will be demonstrated that there is an additional mass associated with a living organism verses the same organism in a non-living state (dead).  An experiment is detailed herein which show that there is a mass change, since we used a closed system to eliminate any possible external effect on the object being tested. 

Methods and Results

Preliminary experiments have been carried out at the Bio-technical Faculty, Ljubljana, Slovenia in June 1987. Measurements have been performed on a Mettler Zurich M5 scale.  Six test-tubes were filled with three millilitres of a water solution made out of meat and sugar.  Four test-tubes were used and a fungus was put into two of the test-tubes. All of test tubes were welded airtight. The weight difference between test-tubes was measured for ten days. After three days of growth, the weight of test-tubes with the fungus increased (on average) 34 micrograms and in last seven days remains unchanged. The experiment was carried out in sterile circumstances.  Here the biomass is increasing by incorporating nonliving substances and could be represented by the following equation:                        

m_dead  + dm = m_living  ,

 where m_dead is the mass of the nonliving organisms, dm is the change in mass of the system, and m_living is the mass of the living organisms.

In another experiment, two test-tubes were filled with 5 grams of Californian worms with distilled water.  All of the test-tubes were then welded airtight.  The weight difference between test-tubes was measured for 5 hours.  At the end of the first hour there was no appreciable difference but at the end of the second and third hour there was an increased mass of 4.5 micrograms on average.  This mass then remained stable for the next 2 hours most likely due to there no longer being any living organisms.  This change in mass due to the change of organisms from a living condition to a nonliving one could be shown with the following equation:

m_living = m_dead  + dm  .

These experiments were repeated from August to September of 1988 at the Facilty for Natural Science and Technology, Ljubljana. Two Mettler Zurich scales, type H20T were used in the measurements.  Identical results were obtained. 

In another experiment, a test-tube was filled with 70 grams of live Californian worms and a small test-tube was filled with 0.25 ml of 36% water solution of formaldehyde. The control test tube contained 70 ml of distilled water with a small test tube of formaldehyde inside.  Both test tubes were welded, wiped clean with 70%  ethanol, and put into the weighing chamber of the balance. Approximately one hour was allowed for acclimatization. Later both test-tubes were measured three times at intervals of five minutes. Then the test tubes were turned upside down to spill the solution of formaldehyde and again they were measured seven times at intervals of fifteen minutes.  The weight of the test-tube with the worms was found to have increased in the first 3 minutes after the poisoning on average for an average weight of 60 micrograms and it then went down.  Fifteen minutes after poisoning, the weight diminished on average by 93.6 micrograms.

This last experiment was repeated twelve times. The standard deviation amounted to 16 micrograms. The pressure in both test tubes was one atmosphere for the entire duration of the experiment as well as the temperature remaining unchanged.  Neither the pressure nor the temperature could have therefore been the cause for the change in the weight.

In 1997, I published the results of the experiments in the "Newsletter" nr. 18-19 of Monterey Institute for Study of Alternative Healing Arts, California.  On March 3^rd 1998, Dr. Shiuji Inomata from Japan informed the editor (S. Savva) that Dr. Kaoru Kavada got similar results using rats as the experimental organism, again in a closed system.

Conclusion

A possible interpretation of this data could be that the organism, during its growing period, absorbed some unknown energy that is able to permeate a physically closed system.  The data can not be accounted for by heat transfer, pressure changes, or external masses contaminating the closed system.  Also some photosynthetic etiology would not explain the decrease in mass with death since this phenomenon occurred in non-photosynthetic life forms.

Discussion

Future experiments could be done to measure electromagnetic fields and radiation around a living creature and followed until it is in a dead state.  Such an experiment could possibly yield information about what this unknown mass of life may actually be.

Additional References:

1. Sorli, “Additional Roundness of Space-Time and Unknown Vacuum Energies in Living Organisms, Frontier Perspectives”, The Center for Frontier Sciences, Temple University, Philadelphia, Vol.10 No. 2, 2001. 
2. Sorli, “Gravitational Field Associated with Life?”, ‘Newsletter’ of Monterey Institute for Study of Alternative Healing Arts, California, NR. 18-19, 1997.
3. Sorli, KONEC CASA (Timelessness), Slovenia, 1990.