Category Archives: Science
Science and Pseudo-Science
“It was reported that a joint study by Penn State University and the NASA Planetary Science Division that “A preemptive strike would be particularly likely in the early phases of our expansion because a civilization may become increasingly difficult to destroy as it continues to expand…. Humanity may just now be entering the period in …
Can light be both particle and wave – at the same time?
According to quantum mechanics, of course it can,. It is indeed both particle and wave: except that this is so only so long as it is not observed. The moment it is observed it reduces to one or the other aspect of its intrinsic duality in the non-observed state. A rough analogy would be this: …
Scientific understanding of ethics and experiences
People have traditionally attributed love of children to non-natural causes, which is fine. However, suppose that science/empiricism is able to establish that through our efforts to understand fully how all these wondrous dimensions of being fully human (as also the not-so wondrous aspects) happen to arise? Wouldn’t that understanding make us a little richer, without …
When Worlds Collide
An angry man once shot his neighbor because of a fence that had been erected a foot inside his property. If he had any notion of the vastness of the world, he might not have clung to his paltry strip of land with such passion. Though the ends of our universe have been explored by …
The Elder Pliny: One of the First Books on Natural History
There can be no science without data on everything we see around us: not just plants and animals, rivers and mountains on earth, but also planets and stars up above. All these are part of Nature which includes us too. In our own times, we need specialists to study all this, and the fruits of …
Another Darwin
“Would it be too bold to imagine that in the great length of time since the earth began to exist, perhaps millions of ages before the commencement of the history of mankind, – would it be too bold to imagine that all warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament, which the great First Cause …
On the Discovery of Another Exoplanet
Galileo constructed his astronomical spy-glasses on 1609. The following year, he discovered satellites of Jupiter: tiny specks moving around the bright surface of the huge planet. Not even by a daunting stretch of imagination could he have surmised that exactly 400 years later – in 2009- there would be a sophisticated telescope launch by humans …
Betelgeuse to become a Supernova
Astronomers and astrophysicists observe and analyze the fates and fortunes of stars up there, leaving lesser mortals to worry about oil depletion, global warming, threats of terrorism, and the like. They entertain themselves in conferences and with technical papers dealing with topics of stellar significance, rather than in tea-parties. But once in a while they …
Perceived Reality: Sound
There is the serene chant of worship which uplifts the soul, and the magic of the mantra with its occult significance. There is the melody of music filling us with delight and the hearty laughter that reflects a happy feeling. There is the cooing of birds, the gurgling of brooks, the shriek of the frightened, …
News: ” Scientists in the US have succeeded in developing the first synthetic living cell.”
The big, very big news from Science (both the journal and the enterprise) is that a large genome has been synthesized in the lab, using a computer. First a DNA was synthesized, and then it was transplanted into a host cell. I am reminded of a very similar achievement more than 180 years who: Friedrich …
