TED Tuesday: String theory

Physicist Brian Greene explains superstring theory, the idea that minscule strands of energy vibrating in 11 dimensions create every particle and force in the universe.

Too mundane for space travel?

Who would have thought that a nickel and titanium "memory metal" known as Nitinol, recently popular for use in dental braces, would have been originally developed by NASA for aerospace uses! This new alloy does not crimp when bent and returns to its original shape as teeth shift! But that's not the only invention that fascinates you with the fact that it was originally invented for space travel. A few days back I came across this article from Radaronline.com that shares with its readers 13 such items that we use in our daily lives which were originally invented for space travel. They range from handheld video cameras to Zen perfume. Check it out!

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Sunday Spotlight: CPAK 2009

CPAK (Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge) began in 2004 as a means of bringing together scientists from various disciplines together; scientists who were truly open-minded and were ready to think unconventionally; scientists who didn’t believe all of what the text books tell us and wanted to consider what the so called legends and myths of cultures worldwide say; scientists who wanted to know what really happened on this planet in the past. According to CPAK website, “Over the last five years CPAK has become the premiere gathering place for those interested in ancient cultures, lost knowledge and the cycle of the ages. Leading explorers, authors, professors and scientists make presentations and examine the latest archaeological finds, astronomical research and new interpretations of structures, myth and folklore that shed light on the true history of mankind. The result is an epiphany of awareness as we collectively begin to understand where we came from and where we are going in this ascending age.”

I thought of sharing this event with my readers as I feel at least some of you will find it interesting like I do. This year’s conference is on October 10th at the University of California’s Irvine campus in CA, USA. If you are truly interested, I’ll leave it up to you to visit the website, read, watch and listen more. There are some samples of past presentations at the conference to whet your appetite. Happy “knowledging”!

Sunday Spotlight: Devavision Productions

Some time back I came across and watched the video Scientific Verification of Vedic Knowledge on Google videos. This video is made by a group of people who call themselves Devavision Productions. The website homepage spells out their moto to be "Revealing the hidden treasure of India's ancient Vedic wisdom and culture".

I was really impressed with the research these people have done and the efforts they are putting in to get the word out there. I believe that there is a lot of ancient knowledge (not just in India but in other cultures as well) which is still "hidden" from us because we infact haven't reached the spiritual, scientific and cultural maturity that is needed to comprehend it. So I'm delighted to see someone put in some serious effort towards "uncovering" that knowledge. Hence I thought I would do my bit of "publicising" this commendable effort and write a blog entry about them. Check them out if you are interested in ancient Indian knowledge!

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Sci-tech goes arty

I have written quite a few posts before which showcase the merger of science/technology and art. The endeavours have ranged from fascinating micro-photography to Frizions to high-speed captures of shattering objects. Today I'm sharing with you one more spectacular example of science/technology and artistic inspiration combining. The source of this art-work is the 'Glowing animals: Pictures of Beasts Shining for Science' photogallery.

How does it glow?

Multiple colors of fluorescent protein, introduced into its DNA (2008)

What can we learn?

One of the team of scientists that won a 2008 Nobel Prize for green fluorescent protein--Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Y. Tsien--couldn't resist showing off their creation a bit. From Tsien's lab comes this artful plate with selectively swabbed fluorescent bacteria. The discovery of green fluorescent protein by Shimomura in 1956 was the result of crushing countless jellyfish. After publishing his findings in 1962, Shimomura studied GFP in detail and realized that no extra fuel was needed to make it glow--other glowing substances need chemical additives to shine. GFP, by contrast, just needed to be exposed to ultraviolet light.Chalfie, the third of the GFP Nobel winners, realized the maintenance-free protein could be used to literally watch how creatures work. He proved with the intestinal bacterium E.
coli that GFP alone--with no fuel--glowed, and promptly started putting it into roundworms.Roger Tsien kicked it up a notch by reengineering GFP to be cyan, blue, and yellow. Yet more colors were found in fluorescent coral. He remixed these materials into glowing proteins such as "mPlum," "mStrawberry," and "mOrange."Though their inventions may have revolutionized the fields of medicine, biology, and chemistry, the fluorescent proteins also have creative applications, as shown above. Fluorescent proteins have also been used in the name of art to make sculptures out of glowing beakers and live glowing rabbits.
— Photograph courtesy UC San Diego via AP

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TED Tuesday: Homo Evolutis

..... the species that takes control of the evolution of his/her own species ..... and the others'.

This 17.5 minute talk by Juan Enriquez is another of the fascinating ones from the TED talks. The idea of how our species could evolve in near future is mind-boggling. The ability of our descendents to see, hear and talk would cover a much wider range of light and sound spectrum. They would have all the sensory capabilities of all the other creatures on this planet that fascinate us today. And may be, there would be no other species left on this planet either .....

$6 solar cooker to save the world!

Just came across this amazing story on Discover magazine's blog!

"The Kyoto Box, a $6 solar cooker made from cardboard, has won the Financial Times-sponsored Climate Change Challenge contest for innovative ways to decrease the human impact on the environment. Its capacity to not only cook food but also sterilize water could help three billion people reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The Kenya-based Norwegian creator of the cooker, Jon Bøhmer, has been awarded $75,000 to put the idea into production."

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What would you un-invent?

[Image source: http://www.sonic.net/]

Today I had decided not to write any blog post, just take a break. But when surfing the internet, I came across a very short and simple yet very interesting article. It is written by Paul Marks on the New Scientist blog, Short sharp science. The author puts forth a very simple scenario and a question for his readers: If you were able to use a time-machine and go back in time, which invention would you un-invent to make the world a better place (in your view, of course)? And this post has recieved 183 comments. I didn't read all of them but the first 30 odd I read gave some interesting and amazing answers, ranging from God to internet to roundabouts. So I HAD TO sign in to my blog and share this with my readers!

As for me, I'd un-invent the first ever steam-machine that began the industrialisation and I'd also un-invent religion. In my view, the world would be a much better place without both these. The former has brought the world too close for comfort and yet managed to isolate every human. The latter has brought a subgroup of the populace together but alienated it from the rest of the human race.

So, what would YOU un-invent?

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Making science fun

This is going to be a quick little post about something interesting I found on Twitter. Spangler Science's Twitter profile describes itself as "The coolest educational toys, science kits and hands-on science activities that make learning science fun." It is an endeavour started by Steve Spangler from Englewood, CO in the US that is a great resource of apparatus and ideas for kids to perform some really cool science experiments. Spangler takes the science out of the confines of a lab and makes in outdoor, fun activity. There are even field trips arranged such as 'Science at the sea'. Steve also has a blog that keeps his fans / users updated with new ideas. There is even an "experiment of the week" widget that anyone can install. The blog also gives links to his presence on other social networks, fun videos of experiments amongst other things. A website/service that has won the 2008 award from Edublog for 'best use of video/visual' is definitely worth a look. Whether you do or do not have kids, it is bound to make science fun for you!

And just as I finished writing this post, I came across this blog post by BadAstronomer Phil Plait about an artist who incorporates science in her paintings for kids! Tiffany Ard had been an artist and an award-winning designer for over 14 years, mostly creating corporate web sites and print pieces for giant faceless corporations. But now she draws pictures of microscopes and laws of planetary motion, to name only few, and conveys scientific concepts through them. They're sold to parents all over the world who want to make education of their kids creative and entertaining. Besides 'science art', she also does some other art work like Plexiglass paintings. Check her out!

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... how I wonder what you are!

I was first going to title this blog “twinkle twinkle little star”. But as I repeated the old nursery rhyme to myself I realised the second line more appropriately captured the essence of astronomy; how I wonder what you are! For eons, we humans have looked up in the night sky I wondered about what the little twinkling wonders were. Depending on our level of scientific and technological advancement it could be simply gazing upward with naked eye and trying to join the dots making imaginary creatures or it could be focusing a humongous telescope array on colliding galaxies to learn about how the universe came about. But the heavenly bodies never stop intriguing us. The branch of science that studies the celestial objects is called ‘astronomy’, from the Greek words astron meaning "star" and nomos meaning "law". 2009 has been declared the International year of astronomy (IYA 2009).

I have wanted to write about IYA 2009 for a while but today was a good day to do so. The RTR09 campaign for which I’ve been volunteer blogging lately has nothing scheduled for the next three days so it is a good time for me to get back to my science writing. Also, one of the cornerstone projects for IYA 2009, 100 hours of astronomy, began yesterday. This is a worldwide marathon event that goes on for 100 hours straight and astronomers and lovers of astronomy organise and participate in various events around the globe dedicated to astronomy for these 100 hours. A special 24 hour-long webcast is going to be broadcasted that will take you on the tour around the world in 80 telescopes starting 9am UT today. It will include interviews of scientist at these facilities, their overview and some views of what one can see from these on-land and in-orbit telescopes. It starts in about 30 minutes so tune in fast!

There is a treasure-trove of information on the website (link above) for those interested so I recommend you have a look for yourself. You will find events in your area or information about how to organise one, projects you can participate in from anywhere in the world and also grants being awarded to promote the interest of general public in astronomy. So go out in the open and start observing those “twinkle twinkle little stars” that “up above the world so high” shine and glitter “like a diamond in the sky” and make you exclaim “how I wonder what you are!”

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Where are we going?

This video is pretty impressive and fascinating. But it also left me with a feeling of unease. Thinking about the future of human race wasn't all that pleasant. Will the future homo sapiens poses any characteristics, physical and/or psychological, that actually make us "human"? Have you ever thought?

Are there more dimensions?

So I am sharing a YT video on my blog after a while today. I'd probably end up writing a separate blog entry about this whole documentary, What the bleep do we know!?, someday. But that's going to take some time because this is no ordinary doco. It makes you think.....of course, only if you are ready to think of science and philosophy as two sides of a coin and not as ideologies that will never mix.

Anyways, what I wanted to particularly share about this video was the Dr. Quantum video which starts at 03:55 in this clip. I think this bit is very cleverly made for people who can understand its "hidden" message, who do want to think "out of the box", literally and figuratively. Like the small circle in the Flatland doesn't believe in the existence of any more dimensions till she bumps into Dr. Quantum, similarly it made me think that why can't we take this analogy further and talk about our own world? (And I think that is the purpose of this animation.) We live in a 3d world (and if you consider time as a dimension, in a 4d world).....but couldn't there be more dimensions of which we will never think of unless we experience them? I'd say there are.......

Readers who are well-acquainted with philosophical and/or metaphysical literature will very readily agree that there is a belief that there are "beings" from higher dimensions (sometimes called 'angels') whom not everyone can experience. I do not have such experience till now but this animation here just got me thinking.....................

Frizions: Art emerging from science

Just yesterday I wrote about the polarised light in the context of how the artificial polarised light causes ecological pollution. However, today while browsing the New Scientist website I came across an article that portrays polarised light as an art tool! NASA scientist and artist Peter Wasilewski creates stunningly beautiful images with polarised light and ice in the process of freezing. And he calls them “frizions”. The article gives details of the process along with the link to a slideshow that showcases some of the magnificent pieces of art produced and to the website of the artists himself. One of the very few examples where art and science meet, it makes for a pleasurable viewing.

What goes around, comes around

This blog entry has been long overdue, since November last year, when I listened to John Anthony West’s (JAW, for short) PhoenixFire show, episode 8, Consider the Kaliyuga. However, I wanted to write a well thought piece and so I didn’t rush into it. I read his article by the same title on Graham Hancock’s website. Amongst other things, JAW reminds us of his favourite belief that progress is not linear. Progress does not go, in his own words, “from dumb, primitive caveman to smart old us, with our weapons of mass destruction and bobblehead dolls.” To support this, he gives the example of Plato’s concept of ‘Cyclic life’ and the even more elaborately explained ‘Yuga’ concept in Hindu Vedic literature. I agree with this form of life and progress/regress myself and do not believe that we are the first advanced human civilisation this planet has “endured”. You will find this opinion mentioned in few of my other blog entries as well. Human race has reached the pinnacle of progress and then has tumbled off the throne at least once, if not more times, before. As JAW points out, almost every civilisation has legends of ancestors who were more progressed, materialistically and spiritually, than us. Up until recently we have called them a myth, a fantastic invention of some innovative mind etc. only because we were never progressed enough to grasp the ideas in those stories. Only when we exploded our first atomic bomb did we realise that one such bomb, Brahmastra, was used in epic war of Mahabhaarat. Only when we ourselves fly around the globe in Boeing 747s do we understand that the flying machines appearing in legends worldwide can actually be manufactured and used. These are only couple examples that should help us open our minds and consider the myths and legends more rationally. And, more importantly, not think of us as the most progressed homo sapiens ever.

As illustrated in JAW’s audio show and his article, ancient Hindu philosophy measures the time in ‘Yuga’, age or epoch. There are 4 different Yuga, each characterised by a virtue that is accorded the highest value in each one.
Krita / Satya Yuga: Dhyana (meditation). In the highest yuga, the great majority of people can experience spirituality by direct intuitive realization of truth. The veil between the material and the transcendent realms becomes almost transparent. It is a period free from any kind of unhappiness or misery. [Plato’s Golden age]
Treta Yuga: Yadnya (sacrifice). The Treta Yuga is the mental age. Mental power is harnessed and men are in power. There are inventions that dissolve the illusion of time. Clairvoyance and telepathy are common skills. [Plato’s Silver age]
Dwapar Yuga: Archana (worship). In the Dwapar Yuga, science flourishes, people experience the spiritual in terms of subtle energies and rational choices, inventions are abundant, particularly those that dissolve the illusion of distance (between people and between things), and power is mostly in the hands of women. [Plato’s Bronze age]
Kali Yuga: Daana (alms). In the lowest epoch, Kali Yuga, most people are aware only of the physical aspects of existence. The predominant emphasis of living is material survival, and power is mostly in the hands of men. [Plato’s Iron age] (Source: Wikipedia, text in [ ] mine.)

The occurrence of these Yuga best makes sense when considered as illustrated in the figure at the top which depicts the ideas of Sri Yukteswar. There is some dispute over the time scale of each of the Yuga, the one in Hindu scriptures requiring 4.3 million years for one cycle to finish. Sri Yukteswar revised these estimates to 24000 years in total and JAW feels these are more agreeable. I’m not going to comment on which time scale is correct though I feel the original 4.3 million year one is way too long based on the rate of progress/regress of modern humans in last few thousand years. I keep typing ‘progress/regress’ because that is a relative term and also it will depend on which Yuga we are in right now, which will be clear in some time. The cycle of progress/regress should, logically, go like this: Krita/Satya (descending half) → descending Treta → descending Dwapar → descending Kali → ascending Kali → ascending Dwapar → ascending Treta → Krita/Satya (ascending half) ..... and this continues to cycle. So now based on the “definitions and characteristics” of the various Yuga mentioned earlier, below is my interpretation of what could be happening,

• In descending half of Krita/Satya, a great majority of people can experience spirituality by direct intuitive realization of truth. But the spiritual consciousness decreases over time. The veil between the material and the transcendent realms, which was almost transparent, becomes less so. Communication and experience are still possible through mental power, physical aspect is redundant. It is a period free from any kind of unhappiness or misery.
• In descending Treta, the spiritual consciousness is about 75% of that in Krita [source here]. But mental power can still be harnessed and men are in power. Clairvoyance and telepathy are common skills. But the veil between the material and the transcendent realms thickens. People lean towards reuse of various inventions that allow physical transcendence of time and space.
• In descending Dvapara, people experience the spiritual only in terms of subtle energies and rational choices and spiritual consciousness is reduced to 50% of Krita [source here]. Scientific and technological regress makes lifestyle more materialistic. Some knowledge is lost and science and technology become limited to 3-d of space instead of 4-d of space and time in Treta. People become more warlike. It is definitely not a period free from unhappiness or misery as in Krita and Treta.
• In the lowest epoch, Kali Yuga, most people are aware only of the physical aspects of existence. The predominant emphasis of living is material survival, and power is mostly in the hands of men. Spiritual consciousness is reduced to 25% of Krita [source here]. In descending Kali, whatever remains of scientific and technological knowledge is lost, people are forced to adopt primitive lifestyle, that of cavemen or hunter-gatherers. There are some signs of “religion” in form of rituals whose meaning has been long lost. Then the march of progress begins again, with the ascending half of Kali, which is probably what we know as “history” today.
• In ascending Dwapar, science flourishes, inventions are abundant, particularly those that dissolve the illusion of distance (between people and between things). People experience the spiritual in terms of subtle energies and rational choices and power is mostly in the hands of women. I feel that we are on verge of going into the ascending Dwapar now. Or in fact, it looks like not whole of the human race makes the transition all at once. Some sections of the society and some nations are already showing signs of being well and truly into ascending Dwapar but majority of the world population is still struggling in Kali. May be it always happens that some lead the way and rest follow, which can only be logical reflecting on our history so far.
• The ascending Treta is the mental age. Mental power is harnessed and men are in power. There are inventions that dissolve the illusion of time. Clairvoyance and telepathy are common skills. People become more peace-loving as the ability to transcend time and space makes warring over anything futile. We are obviously yet to reach this stage but we do have examples of such inventions and skills in legends and mythology, which might be from the descending Treta. It is plenty clear that we will only be able to grasp the features of a given Yuga (descending, in the past) when we ascend back to it.
• In the ascending half of Krita/Satya, the highest yuga, a great majority of people acquire ability to experience spirituality by direct intuitive realization of truth. The veil between the material and the transcendent realms becomes almost transparent. It is a period free from any kind of unhappiness or misery.

If we think of life on this planet in such cyclical manner, so many things become clearer. Myths do not seem like myths anymore. According to the article in Wikipedia, “Inventions are characteristic of both Dwapar and Treta yuga. Temples, wars, and writing are hallmarks of Dwapar and Kali yugas. In the higher ages (Treta and Krita/Satya), writing is unnecessary because people communicate directly by thought. Temples are unnecessary because people feel the omnipresence of God. Wars are rare but they do occur.” So then does it not make sense that the archaeological finds are never those indicating very highly sophisticated societies? If things that can be “found” tens of thousands of years later are made only in Kali and Dwapar yuga, how will we ever see an evidence for a society that has attained Treta or Krita/Satya yuga progress? If such finds are a rarity that is only logical! And if they get classified as OOParts that just shows our lack of understanding of the history of human race and the manner in which life has continued on this planet.

New Scientist links

I am finding too many interesting articles, photo galleries and stories today to write a blog entry about each one! So I figured I'd just share the links with you all and then you can do the reading yourself :). So here goes,

Seven new wonders of the world,
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16323-seven-new-wonders-of-the-world.html

The year's weirdest animals,
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16320-the-years-weirdest-animals.html

Gallery: Most stunning images of 2008
http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dn16286-best-images-of-2008

Be enlightened!

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Why Does Mona Lisa's Smile Change?

Leonardo Da Vinci's 10 Best Ideas

Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth

Small wonder

[Text and image from New Scientist webpage about the Nikon Small World competition]

Images of the microscopic never fail to amaze and since 1974 the Nikon Small World prize has recognised the very best work in the field. This year's winners range from dazzling views of tiny animals to surprisingly artistic scenes from inside shaving cream, in a portfolio of work from both scientists and artists.

Check out these superlatively artistic images that give a glimpse into the fascinating and beautiful world of microscopic scale.

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Humble sticky tape emits powerful X-rays

Read the detailed article about this fascinating find here,

http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn15016-humble-sticky-tape-emits-powerful-xrays.html

Can Science always afford to be true to itself?

Image by Manuel Cernuda via Flickr

I'm a scientist. And I believe that a scientist should always have an open and inquisitive mind to be successful. If you have pre-concieved notions, you will not be able to treat your data unbiasedly. You would get a result that YOU WANT and not what the data is telling you. But on the other hand, eventhough you are unbiased and open-minded, does the society around you always let you putforth what you have found? Does it accept the results no matter how againsts the "established facts" they are? We do not see that happening too often. There are innumerable exaples in human history where scientists have had to face various consequences because religious establishments, politicians or other such influencial people in society didn't "like" what they were being told. And this has continued till the day. We still here these whispers about prestigious government or scientific organisations themselves carrying out cover-ups and withhelding information from public. Sometimes it is justufiable becasue release of some "truths" could cause universal havoc. This reflects on our mentality as humans. We are not very welcoming of change. We want to live in our comfort zone and very rarely do we want to try or accept something completely new, unknown.

The reason I felt like writing this blog entry is because I've been watching some interesting videos and reading books about theories researchers have put forward which are completely new or against the established science. When I read the book or watch the video, the research seems very logical and evidence compelling. However, in many cases, the research and evidence for the contrasting theory is equally solid. And then one starts thinking, what is it? Is it that every researcher just picks the pieces of information that hold up their theory and ignore the rest? Or is it that there is some fundamental flaw in our understanding of things around us, science, nature, history, even human evolution?

In school we are taught certain scientific "facts" and "theories". And we grow with them, not questioning them really, either out of lack of knowledge at that age or out of sheer "follow the establishment" mentality. Those of us who do not chose scientific careers, do not ever need to bother about them really (unless you are scientifically inclined). But those who do, I'm sure, do come across comflicting views and research to what we have grown up believing, at some stage of career. It might be in your own research field or some other which you follow merely as interest, not as career. Some people chose to ignore it or just stop researching in that direction in fear of stumbling upon something completely astonishing but equally adverse to the "established" norms. But then there are others (like the authors of the books I'm reading recently and makers of the videos I'm watching) who dare to follow their heart and more importantly, brain. Next few of my blog entries are going to feature some such "out there" reasearchers and review their research.