V

Snakes of color
Spirals deploy
Wrapped in time
Cloaked for ploy
Plant sewn crystals
Water and vine
Red serum slumber
Heavenly rewind
Unfurled fumes
Gaseous and confused
Twists all matter
Focused and reused

In another article by Ethan Zuckerman, a brilliant tale of consciousness through the eyes of a stroke victim, whom just happens to be a research psychiatrist at Harvard studying the differences in the brain between those we call "normal" and those with "disorders," Jill Bolte Taylor goes through a tremendously detailed account of the experience of her stroke and the sensations that followed. A must read for all those interested in the conundrum known as reality.

Artist's view of star formation in the early universe. By Adolf Schaller. Source: NASA.

I recently came across an article, by Ethan Zuckerman, on Murray Gell-Mann, a world renowned theoretical physicist (having worked on the atomic bomb, and discovering quarks to name a few). In the article, Gell-man briefly describes the trials and tribulations of forming theories and discovering the laws of the Universe. Here is a succinct snippet from the article:

[Murray] Gell-Mann tells us that in 1957, he and colleagues put forth a theory of the weak nuclear force that contradicted seven experiments. But it was very beautiful. And it turned out to be right - all seven experiments were proved wrong. What’s striking, he tells us, is that in fundamental physics, a beautiful or elegant theory is more likely to be right than an inelegant theory.

Gell-Mann points out that Einstein was famously indifferent to experiments that contracted his theories. “It’ll go away,” he’d dismiss an experiment that appeared to contradict his work.

What do we mean by beauty and elegance? It’s not a human role - these laws aren’t just the construct of the human mind, they’re really big. Newton believed that natural philosophy was about discovering these laws. A clue that you’re onto a law is that it “can be expressed concisely in terms of mathematics that we already have.” That’s Gell-Mann’s mathematical definition of beauty.

In trying to build laws of the universe, it’s a mistake to think of a “theory of everything”. Any theory that works will be a quantum theory, which means that it will be probabilistic, even if some of those probabilities are near certainty.

In discovering these laws, we’re “peeling the skin of the onion”, using higher levels of energy, getting deeper into particle structures and closer to the fundamental law. As we peel the onion, we see that each layer is similar to its neighbors - they require similar mathematics. “The manifestation of the law at different scales exhibit approximate self-similarity” - Netwon called this “Nature Conformable to Herself”

Gell-Mann clearly states a truth of truths: amongst chaos, beauty reigns king. I agree with most of what is said in the article. However, the thing that struck me as odd was the notion that the laws of the universe are contained at the smallest possible level. This theory is rather ignorant of the universe itself. Take for example: time. Time is the result of the laws of the Universe put into motion. Yet the driving force for this motion seems to have no laws except itself. Fundamentally creating a paradox for the Universe as a whole. However, every force is the result of a transfer of one form to another. What I propose is that this so called "peeling the skin of the onion," should not be limited in scope to an inward view of reality, but an outward one as well. Laws of the universe exist not only on a small scale, but a large one as well. I think that what we will find to be true in the future is that we are on a very small ring of a very large onion. Only time will tell, and even then, it will be a mystery.

Evelyn Glennie is the only person I have witnessed speak so clairvoyantly about the substance of music, and with such accuracy. In this 30 minute speech, she elaborates on her unique understanding of sound and how it reverberates through our body, and how our body translates this vibration through every facet of our senses. Through the use of emotions, our senses propagate a unique experience of perception that allows us to step aside from our corporeal selves to visualize the essence of these very vibrations in relation to reality.

A brilliant composer, Jonathan Clark, is putting together a modern opera with a genomics theme. It seems very ambitious, and worth a gander.

http://genome.wellcome.ac.uk/doc_WTD021032.html

In light of the music moment, I'd like to share a phenomenal song I came across recently that I just can't seem to stop playing. I don't care much for the video, but the song blew me away.

Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: it transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.

- Albert Einstein

Well done!

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/02/03/obrien.robot.car.cnn

"Rinsing away dreams is a way of saying that we must not only dispel the illusions and anxieties of our sleeping moments but those of our waking ones as well. All life is a dream, not because it isn't there, but because we all project different meanings upon it. We must cleanse away this habit."

- Deng Ming-Doa

"Hearing nuns' confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn."

- Fulton J. Sheen

We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.

- Wernher von Braun

"Men's natures are alike, it is their habits that carry them far apart."

- Confucius

"There is no time, there is no space. What was, is, and ever shall be. You are you, playing chess with yourself... You are the referee. Morals are your agreement with yourself to abide by your own rules. To thine own self be true or you spoil the game."
-Heinlein, Time Enough For Love p.586

"Time will tell the truth, but too much will cover it up."