#The_Invention_and_Discovery_of_the 'God Particle' - HIGGS - Jim Baggot #Review

The significant discovery of the Higgs boson has been one of the principal reasons why physicists, and chemists alike, were so excited about the LHC; and thus, within the scientific community the announcement was a cause for a major celebration indeed. For most of the general public, however, while the announcement was certainly intriguing, there were many basic questions yet to be answered: Just what was the Higgs boson, and why had it been labeled the God particle? Why were physicists expecting to find it, and what did the discovery really mean?

Jim Baggott's book 'Higgs: The Invention and Discovery of the 'God Particle'' is a kind of remedy to this situation and provides the necessary context that the general public needs in order to understand the discovery of the Higgs boson and what it all means.

The bridge with Chemistry is in the beginning with Dirac's theory on combining Quantum Theory with Einstein's Special relativity (also his work on non-relativistic Quantum Mechanics with Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle makes a mention). The author thus says that if one wanted to study high energy particle collisions one needed to climb mountains - that would mean the presence of more such particles over the high mountains (and also the efforts).

When hosts of particles were being discovered during 1932-47, naming turned out to be a big task and Baggot comes out with the chronology of how they were named. 

Baggott first takes us through the history of the development of the Standard Model (which theory the Higgs boson is a part). He begins with the discovery that atoms are made up of the more elementary particles of electrons, protons and neutrons. And then takes us through the discovery of the still more fundamental particles of quarks, leptons and bosons, and the 4 fundamental forces that govern these particles: gravity, the electromagnetic force, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force. As with most authors of such Physics writings, there is the account of Weinberg-Salam theory with SU(2)xU(1) that always flies above my head.  But then there is good ending to it that enters the mind to satisfaction of the theory. 

There is a funnier part in between the chapters that made an interesting reading. The incident relates to the Physicist Veltman who entered an elevator in the last so that the weight exceeded the limit for the elevator to take off. Not relenting to this hang-on, he asked one of the persons inside to press the 'ON' button as soon as he would command that. Saying that he jumped into the air inside the Lift. Lo, the elevator worked out. If a person falls freely he will not feel his weight.

The Feynman quote that a proton-proton collision is like smashing two pocket watches together to see how are they put together also made an interesting insight.

While we know that the atom is 99% empty, the revelation that pulling a quark from interior of nucleon is done with the creation of anti-quark whose immediate pairing leads to a meson, makes a sensible answer to the vast emptiness we have been visualizing.  This is further explained with the fact that the mass of 2 up-quark is 4.5 - 9.9 MeV and the rest of the proton mass comes from the energy of Gluon fields inside the proton whose mass comes out to be 938 MeV!

For instance, and of crucial importance here, is that--after learning of the 3 types of elementary particles, and the 4 basic forces-- we learn that there was a problem with the then-current theory regarding the masses of the elementary particles- in that the 4 forces alone were simply unable to account for it. In order to overcome this difficulty, some physicists postulated that there must be a charged field pervading space, since such a field appeared to be the only appealing way to solve the mass mystery. This field was called the Higgs field.

A part of the book warranted fast reading as it was with the funding allocation and political deliberations.

A $15 billion project in the end it took 2 decades of untiring efforts by armies of physicists, engineers, construction workers etc. About 10000 tonnes of liquid Nitrogen and 150 tonnes of Liquid Helium ( A leakage of Helium alone caused a damage to about 53 magnets) was pumped into the LHC magnets that ran across 27 Km and was commissioned by August 2008, with the discovery of the Higgs particle by 2012 with more than 100 authors contributing to it! Used by Weinberg and Salam to account for electro-weak symmetry breaking this boson is having a spin 0 and a mass of about 125 GeV

This boson is so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our final understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive, that he gave it a nickname: the God Particle. Good read above all.

Things to make and do in the Fourth Dimension- Matt Parker #Review

There are only 10 types of people in the world – those who understand binary, and those who don’t.  And so the book starts with 'zeroth chapter' as 0 has a significant value.

Mathematics is a rapidly evolving field, Matt Parker here necessarily tries to remind us of that truth. This book operates as a tour bus for readers who want to learn more about a wide variety of mathematical topics and how it can be fun.

For instance, the number 111,111,111 multiplied by the same gives 12345678987654321 which is quite pleasing.  Some more such tricks are added in the chapter. Another one which is quite interesting is 333. When these 3 digits are added, it gives 9. Dividing 333 by 9 gives 37 and this number results regardless of the digit we use. You can try with 888 and divide it by 24.

The author goes on to say that Mathematics is about adding new rules and see what happens on breaking them!

On the fun aspect to his narration we are asked to visit the website of NASA which host 'astronomy pictures daily- https://apod.nasa.go/htmltest.gifcity/sqrt2.1mil- and upon visiting you will be treated with "The Square Root of Two to 1 Million Digits". These digits are a whopping page consuming. Nevertheless, NASA says it is for fun and it really is.

One more fun you can try out is 3(3+1)x (2x3+1) / 6 = 14

With Paul Erdos commenting the discovery of the century as Ramanujan, an anecdote of an event in which mathematician Thomas Hardy visits an ailing Ramnujan is quoted. Thomas Hardy told Ramanujan that the taxi number in which he came was rather boring. It was 1729, to which Ramanujan quipped at once, "This is the smallest number which could be written as the sum of 2 cube numbers in 2 different ways". They are 9^3+10^3 and 1^3+12^3. The genius to the fore!

Parker also discusses the honeycomb conjecture and Thomas Hales. The honeycomb conjecture asks us to minimize the perimeter of a connected planar region, relative to its ability to cover the plane without overlap. There is this mention about why circular wheels rotate while square ones do not. In physics we have the answer based on friction which is minimum with circle. Here the author describes it circle geometry not allowing the change in centre of mass (while rotating).  The CMS changes when it is square or any other shape and the illustration is very satisfying.

Quite common with puzzles is the pizza cutting in equal halves or other shapes. Parker illustrates them with so many shapes and divisions with constant width. For a regular polygon with odd number of sides one can flip just under half the edge inside and make corresponding polygon/folding or flexing.

This new thing called 'lune' can be witnessed if one draws two straight lines in the balloon. The kind of triangle one can make out from a sphere has also been the subject of discussion in Mario Livio's "Is God a Mathematician". Enough matter is there in the book for these parameters.

A strange question: Is it possible to fit an object through itself? (Say can you fit a cube through a hole in the cube of same size). Solved by Prince Rupert there is enough discussion on ways to slice a cube along with reference to the shadow of a cube which turns out to be hexagonal. Heard of Rupert's cube?

The discussion on Platonic solids is exhaustive too. The vertices, edges, faces, sides of several important shapes/geometries are well discussed. For a chemist this can assume significance as it can throw some light on to the crystal structure that just change name upon distribution of  atoms. (like wurtzite and anti-wurtzite).  The Octahedron has four triangles per vertex and icosahedron five.

The Herpes virus which was my guest last December finds a mention too, but only in terms of geometrical shape -Twenty icosahedron.  These viruses just join the vertices to make a large structure which usually looks very beautiful. (we have been fed with so much on the present virus structure of 2020).

Also the bacteria are able to knot the DNA to make their population felt. If they are unable to unknot they cease to function! One of the best reference to this concept is the mathematical way to make the cancerous cells forget to knot! Makes out so much sense. If they forget to  unknot they also might cease to function. How much mathematics has a role to play is quite appreciable.

About graph theory the author dedicates a chapter and cites a few books to read like "how to draw a straight line"- by Alfred Kempe!

When Kepler lost his wife he used statistical skill with mathematical model to find a new one and it took two years to get that. And it occurred to me that present data garnered by Facebook and Google can be used to achieve that goal in quite a square root time (of 2).

We usually associate pi with circular radius and other factors connected with circle. But here was a new thing : 1+1/4 +1/9+1.16 = Pi^2 /6.  How does pi prop us suddenly here. The author leaves us to ponder over this question which is highly significant.

The last few chapters really made good reading with reference to Algorithm, Avicenna, Bernoulli, Mobuis (and Listing the discoverer of the strip but named after Mobius), Negative numbers etc.  The author has set up a site to justify his book which is makeanddo4d.com

As promised in the title, the book gives us some things to make and do. Building a tesseract, a hyper cube,  out of pipe cleaners and drinking straws might prove good for students who want to model them. There are also some fun ideas for knitted and crocheted mathematics.  Many of the puzzles and creations are also available on the book's website if you don't want to cut up your book.

If you are a hesitant around mathematics, Parker has  enough enthusiasm for you, and it is contagious.

Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl #Review

Humans in suffering tend to feel hopeless with a deep sense of failure. MAN's SEARCH FOR MEANING (Frankl, 1984) is a helpful book during such times: it is highly probable that one would find a solution to their depressed feelings, if the book is read actively.

Written by Austrian neurologist-psychiatrist and a Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl, this book is simple yet intense and reflective. Frankl is the founder of Logotherapy, a form of existential psychology. Awarded with several accolades, his books and talks are the most inspiring on finding meaning in life and in suffering.

The book stands out extraordinarily as Frankl, by narrating his life instances in the Auschwitz concentration camp, presents the remarkable idea of how we can choose to see a purpose or meaning in any situation, including the worst conditions. He descriptively illustrates his personal experiences and observations of minute human changes which infuses hope into the reader.

With rich primary and secondary data, Frankl puts forward his ideas in three sections. The qualitative methodology utilized has smoothly fused his thoughts through these three parts, clarifying Nietzsche words, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” This book is a collaboration of Frankl's personal experiences and stories, references to other existential forerunners, quotes from humanistic and psychoanalytic schools, and excellent figurative examples. Many pathological terms have been used in the book, which are well explained by the author.

The first section describes the brutality every prisoner faced at concentration camps, Frankl being one of them for three years. As he realized their “naked existence,” Frankl begins by explaining how a prisoner passes through three major phases in the camp, and also how each phase transformed the prisoners from their previous lives and how they developed various pathologies. The prisoner was first in a state of shock, which was followed by the phase of developing apathy and finally, on being liberated, prisoners felt depersonalized at first and later manifested strong symptoms in differential ways.

Frankl here slowly introduces his first thoughts on these experiences. Though he has toned down the language of brutality, the message comes across loud that it was certainly the worst suffering one could imagine of.

At the end of section one, an active reader realizes the true meaning of life, of love (which is fairly depersonalized in the recent decades) and also how thankless we have become toward the little mercies in life.

An active reader also learns about “Logotherapy” that the author attempts to explain in the second section. The nature, meaning and goals are well detailed. Even the finest differences between psychoanalysis and Logotherapy are clearly specified. Frankl liberally introduces every concept of Logotherapy (such as the existential vacuum, responsibility of survival, existential frustration). He also describes the therapy process and techniques with some great figurative examples and case studies. A novice therapist may find these useful. However, he fails to explain how one can integrate these techniques with the conventional psychotherapeutic process.

Nevertheless, his strong request to re-humanize psychotherapy inspires us into a new direction of thought and practice.

The third aspect of the book is an attraction for readers wishing to apply the principles of Logotherapy on the self (to begin with): the section on tragic optimism elaborates it. The triad of pain, guilt and death is well justified, though further intensive reading is necessary for a practicing therapist.

This section is also useful for a therapist to understand how anticipatory anxieties, depression, obsessive behaviors, aggression, unemployment neurosis (and even Sunday neurosis) can be dealt with effectively through Logotherapy. Frankl takes the effort to explain how meaninglessness in life may not be pathological, but can certainly be pathogenic. However, this section is exhaustive to comprehend with the given information, and hence, would suggest further reading of the ‘Tragic Triad’ for a practitioner.

Having justified the idea of finding meaning in life, this book extends itself to coherently explain where and how one can find their purpose in life—reading this section of the book will most certainly spark a solution to every despaired reader. Frankl positively disregards a specific age group that can benefit from this book because he elucidates how old age and death must not be looked upon as an “end of opportunities and possibilities,” but as a repertoire of all the “potentials actualized, meanings fulfilled and values realized.”

He also explains how “suffering is not necessary to find meaning.” If suffering can be avoided, meaningfulness would lie in attacking the cause of suffering; but if it can't, meaningfulness would lie in changing the way we look at the situation and unlock the actual meaning lying “dormant” in that suffering! This relates very well to the “Serenity Prayer.”

Readers having knowledge in the Indian philosophy may easily connect the ideas of this book to the Bhagavad-Gita (Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, 1978) wherein Lord Krishna explains to Arjuna (and the humankind thereby) about how he could find meaning in his dreadful situation, how his suffering may be looked upon differently and how one can elevate oneself from hopelessness and anguish by realizing the purpose of one's existence on earth.

Clinically as a limitation, the book lacks presentation of validity, procedure and practice of Logotherapy. The therapy doesn't easily allow a quantitative inquiry: it is a philosophical approach to the human inner-world (as Frankl describes it). Despite the shortcomings, the spirit of the idea is noteworthy.

Recent researches have also well supported Frankl's ideas. Thagard (2012) in The Brain and The Meaning of Life, argues how brain science matters for fundamental issues about meaning in life.

Positive correlations have been found between search for meaning with other variables such as positive affect (King et al., 2006), well-being (Mascaro and Rosen, 2005), and self-evaluation (To et al., 2014). Steger et al. (2008) found that people lacked the search for meaning in life through a life-span perspective (Steger et al., 2007).

Ubiquitously, I would strongly recommend this book as the first step into existential psychology and urge the reader to continue reading Frankl's other books.

Quoted Author

Sunfall - Jim Al-Khalili #Review

This is probably JAK's first fictitious novel brought out in a story-telling style. Nearly ten chapters from the beginning would let one grope for the matter the author is trying to convey. However, this would also cover some scary facts about the Earth's magnetic field flip and the ignorant powerful politicians unable to understand the seriousness. (Could not help but remember the HBO's narration of the Russian leader's satire over Chernobyl and presently the underscored warning by the Chinese leaders over Covid-19)

The Earth’s magnetic field flickers and fades, with deadly radiation and particles in the solar wind reaching the Earth’s surface, and life on Earth is endangered as the flip of the POLES is on the anvil. Jim suggests that the North would become South as it happens every few times a million years and the last time it flipped was some 40,000 years back. But the irony is that it might take about 10 years to get the flip complete, during which time we would be exposed to some dangerous change in the life-style on the Earth (Read climate catastrophe and all equipment dependent on GPS).

Given our thin understanding of how the planet’s protective field is generated and maintained, and why it regularly flips its polarity over geological time, the scenario is plausible. Jim’s intimate acquaintance with the scientific community now kicks in to create a series of realistic vignettes of young scientists reacting to the challenge and struggling to come up with an effective response.

In the early chapters, sometimes the physics and technology get too mundane but Shireen’s escape from Tehran with old- school deception of the agents was enjoyable. The slow pace of the initial chapters shifts gear after the devastation in Rio; the motor bike escape of Sarah was enthralling; the crash landing of Indian Airlines etc. His experience with various science bodies (one such is LIFE SCIENTIFIC) is sufficient to prove right his apprehension about the world body giving dumb-response to the dangers lying ahead.

When scientists are ignored and the politicians or beureaucrats play spoil-sport, the blame-game takes a surrealistic turn.

The character Marc Bruckner mentioned with colour blindness defect might be a reference to John Dalton, the atom discoverer who himself was colour blind but managed to write a scientific paper on colour blindness- a.k.a Daltonism. The author describes Marc Bruckner’s theoretical work to create the ODIN project (fictional though) artistic in a beautiful paragraph. Theoretical physics is highly esoteric and the popularity of this work is well preserved and projected in this book. Peter Higgs managed to predict Higgs particle almost 50 years ahead using mathematics alone.

The use of quantum entanglement (QE) to interact with the locked-down AI at the Mag8 in Jordan, from Washington DC requires one to understand the weirdness of quantum entanglement. QE basically equals magic in our daily ‘classical’ world. In Quantum Mechanics, one object can actually be in two or more places at the same time, spin in both clockwise and anti-clockwise directions at the same time, walk through solid walls as though invisible, communicate instantaneously with its paired object even separated by galactic distances faster than the speed of light etc. The latter is called quantum entanglement and has been actually proven.

The author has paid tribute to a lot of people, from his sister to some wonderful scientists that he has interviewed in his popular radio show, The Life scientific.  Jim is of Iraqi-Persian ancestry and in his own Life Scientific interview, has spoken about how he never went back to his land of birth and early childhood. Jim has also spoken about the legacy of Arabic science which once had dominated the world; science was never a sole occidental construct but legacy of many civilizations over history of mankind.

The Future of Humanity - Michio Kaku # Review

This book would go to describe the human society thriving beyond our planet, beginning with the concept of interplanetary near future, on to the entire universe and further beyond. Beyond refers to the highly speculative concepts of seeding new Universes when ours ultimately dies. It is the story of human development as Michio Kaku sees it.

The new planets would basically be dead stars or pulsars that have exploded in a supernova killing everything. And about 4500 of them have been discovered so far.

The first chapter deals with the brief history of rocketry, primarily mentioning Robert Goddard and how he was often ridiculed when he talked about entry into space. Only in 1969, did the New York Times offer an apology for doubting his credibility when it published an admission that rocket propulsion can indeed function in a vacuum. This chapter further covers mining the asteroids, Space Exploration society. The author mentions Newtons' vision becoming reality with the launch of Sputnik.

Some background Astronomy for the lay reader and overview of some upcoming missions to the outer solar system has been included. Kaku delves into peripheral topics of artificial intelligence, self-replicating robots, machines with self-awareness and then on to theories of consciousness along with quantum computing basics. Indeed, he suggests these will be vital components of space travel - with an exception mentioning Alan Shepherd taking Golf Stick to the Moon without the knowledge of the authorities.

A Russian scientist, Nikolai Kardashev has created a scale of civilizations: Type I uses all of the energy from the light provided by its star; Type II uses all the energy the sun produces (think fusion); Type III uses all the energy in the entire galaxy. Obviously we're not even a Type I civilization since we don't use all the sunlight the Sun provides. We're about a 0.7 civilization. Kaku boldly suggests a Type IV civilization in which the culture utilizes the energy of the entire universe. From here, he paints a picture of possible human evolution in the context of string theory, dark energy/matter and hyperspace. Ultimately, he suggests, an advanced version of humanity could escape the death of our universe by birthing a new one. (Read Parallel Universe)

The concept of using energy from the Universe gets right fantasy. There are peaks in the Polar regions where the Sun never sets and a 1000 solar panels could create a steady supply of energy, but he cautions the dangers as the Polar regions might come under 'mining'.

With a complete map of the human brain it could be possible to beam personalities at light speed to robotic avatars based on exoplanets via a network of relay stations located on “stationary” comets. A reference is made to the mirror that was left on the Moon and laser beam was used to reflect from that part to allow humans to measure the orbital radius. A few measurements and extrapolations later would allow us to calculate moon's previous orbit or the drift if any.

It is rather confusing to know that the Moon has a different composition than the Earth has, while there are theories that the Moon was an off-shot object of the Earth (Read Thea collision).

Mining the Heavens is simply superb to read. That Asteroid Bennu was explored and the possible mechanism of bringing the Noble ores to the Earth makes interesting reading. The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) has a few stalwarts up its lounge to accomplish that but the time mentioned is over a century.

Ceres is the Goddess of Agriculture and thus we have Cereals.

That Jupiter is our guardian angel, deflecting most asteroids, comets and other space clutter that could kill us, is now established fact. Earth is a 'Goldilocks Planet', not too hot, not cold, with an atmosphere that's no too dense and a magnetic field and an ozone layer that deflects ultra-violet rays from frying us alive. It is expected that many Goldilocks planets are there in our galaxy. Possibly hundreds of thousands, but a lot depends on how we hear from outside world (Read SETI).

Use of Robots to accomplish 3D (Dull Dirty and Dangerous) jobs can be utilized for space exploration. The concept of space elevators is written down owing to the pressure it would create at its center leading to collapse is a nice mention. A lot more simple information make us feel that we are capable of understanding this Universe and would never be able to conquer it.

Read three months back, the time for review just got ripened!

Endurance - A year in space, A lifetime Discovery - Scott Kelly #Review

The veteran of four space flights and the record holder for spending 365 consecutive days in space, Scott Kelly has experienced things very few have. Not only this, his style of narration mixed with humour, awe and scare is perspiring to digest.

That he considers a stage for an Astronaut as humiliating is a frank disclosure I have never heard of when enema was said to be done to remove the entire stuff of the rectum.  This has to be done as the rocket 'take-off' to 'induction' in the orbit is very risky and requires a crawling time-consuming event. Thus Alan shepherd, he writes, was the first ever Astronaut to leave the Earth in wet pants - as he sat in the rocket to be launched which underwent several delays, to avoid abort, and that lead to excessive time being spent inside the capsule for long. The rocket, the author defines is a barely controlled bomb, on which astronauts sit with a header that communicates with the ground control for manouver.

As all the American shuttles have been grounded, they rely upon the Russian system of launch that is Soyuz. For this Kelly writes that there is a lot of training both in the US and Russia. The Russians are considered as staunch followers of traditions. One such mention is about the compulsory peeing on the back Tyre of the vehicle in which the space-men are taken from the final quarter to the launch site. It was done so because Yuri Gagarin returned successfully after a launch and he did this act before his launch - for women astronauts a container is given to collect and pour.

Up there, 400 km above Earth, things are not easy for him. In micro-gravity one would often feel like always standing upside down because blood never 'seems' coming down. Everything flies until it was fixed to some place (Velcro here is very significantly used). Food and water droplets took all positions. Kelly praises the body's attitude towards this gravity when bone began losing its mass as 'it felt' that it was no longer needed to muster mass. Whenever the 'Carbon-dioxide' absorber slowed down in need of re-filling of the equipment, eyes were found blurred (nystagmus). However eye-blurring was not the same in the case with female astronauts. That is the reason why a female astronaut has been selected to be first to Mars by 2020!

Tread mill that is used in aiding digestion and metabolism was found to be risky. A slightest misuse, it might probably shoot off leading to many a dwindle inside the ISS, fears Kelly.

His happier moment was when President Obama tweeted a few statements in his praise. Buzz Aldrin joined the tweet telling the President that while Kelly was just 249 miles above the Earth, he went to about 23900 miles to reach Moon.  This was a troll Kelly felt later in the ISS. However, he came up with a data that might have been a fitting reply to Buzz - that he had traveled more than 200 million miles when he reached 520 days in space!  The urge to foresee a return troll in a rhetoric flavour for Buzz is the hallmark of Scott Kelly.

This stunning memoir is a must-read, and that's coming from someone who rarely reads nonfiction! Endurance is split between chapters detailing his year on the International Space Station and a broader view of his life journey up to the launch of that mission.  The road to become astronaut is the toughest anyone can think (with a twin Mark Kelly also being a competitor and a pointer towards his frequent quarreling parents which later subsided). At an interview before his selection as astronaut he was asked if he would prefer 'stealing' over 'kicking a dog'. He chose 'stealing' to which a psychoanalyst graded that he was trying to tell what the analyst 'wanted to hear'. His gathering of nerves during a flight landing over a ship at the sea, flying helicopters near the crash site of Columbia (At the disaster site he even found a 'Canon' Printer which was without a single scratch), a surgery for stone removal were some of the challenging events in his life. 

There's enough technical detail in Endurance to satisfy space and tech nerds, but it's described in lay terms that will make every reader glued to the book until finished. This is a thriller.

Phantoms in the Brain - V S Ramachandran #Review

V.S. Ramachandran, Neuroscientist is internationally renowned for opening answers to the puzzling questions of human nature that few scientists have ever dared. His creative insights about the brain is matched by the acute simplicity of in-situ experiments - such as use of low-tech tools like cotton swabs, glasses of water and dime-store mirrors and cardboard.

A phantom is an un-real feeling that exists in the humans after the loss of organs like hand, its fingers or legs. People feel that it is there whereas, actually it does not exist. In 'Phantoms in the Brain - probing the mysteries of the Brain", Dr. Ramachandran recounts how his  work with patients who have bizarre neurological disorders has shed new light on the deep architecture of the brain, and these findings tell us about who we are, how we construct our body image (with conciousness having roots in one's culture), why we laugh or become depressed, why we may believe in God, how we make decisions, deceive ourselves and dream, perhaps even why we're so clever at philosophy, music and art. Some of his most notable cases include:

#A woman paralyzed on the left side of her body who believes she is lifting a tray of drinks with both hands offers a unique opportunity to test Freud's theory of denial.

#A man who has lost his forearm feels an excruciating pain in the palm of his hands with nails-biting it, gets a lease of life with simple box and mirror experiment. All in just a week and this after the patient has had visited several neurosurgeons and given-up.

#A man who insists he is talking with God challenges us to ask: Could we be "wired" for religious experience?

#A woman who hallucinates cartoon characters illustrates how, in a sense, we are all hallucinating, all the time.

#Another women who sees her stomach swelling feels that she is pregnant and which continues for nine-months. She even goes to hospital for delivery (with swollen stomach and no baby). This doc arranges a big baby-size toy and sedates the woman during 'delivery' only to disclose to her later that the baby died after delivery. Reconciled, she even returns home with 'birthmarks' over the stomach!

#A piece of your brain the size of a grain of sand would contain one hundred thousand neurons, two million axons and one billion synapses, all "talking to" each other.

# Pain is an opinion on the organism's state of health rather than a mere reflective response to an injury. There is no direct hotline from pain receptors to "pain centers" in the brain.

#The mechanisms of perception are mainly involved in extracting statistical correlations from the world to create a model that is temporarily useful.

#One could argue that the term consciousness doesn't mean anything unless you recognize the emotional significance and semantic associations of what you are looking at.

#Every medical student is taught that patients with epileptic seizures originating in this part of the brain [temporal lobes] can have intense, spiritual experiences during the seizures and sometimes become preoccupied with religion and moral issues even during the seizure-free or interictal periods.

The author often discusses some experiments that he and his collaborators did to shed light on puzzles going along with the condition, sometimes leading to insights that could help the patient or at least provide a basis for the development of treatments. He also adds his own speculations and hunches, which is quite interesting. He is so precise with these write-ups that he outlines where the actual knowledge ends and the speculation starts.

The book is now more than a decade old and I felt I should have read it long back. Nevertheless, I would  hope for a some more survey and edited newer version. (The co-author Sandra Blakeslee is credited in the acknowledgements for “making the book accessible for a wider readership.” The book is written in the first person narrative.)

Chasing New Horizons: Alan Stern & D Grinspoon #Review

Alan Stern takes us behind the scenes of the science, politics, egos, and expectations that has fueled the greatest space mission of our time: New Horizons' mission to Pluto. And of course, by the time I finish this book, the mission is way beyond its objective - crossed Pluto and would go on to take snapshots of Ultima Thule (~4 billion miles from the Sun) on the 1st of January, 2019. What an eve to celebrate.

Launched in Jan, 2006, the Spacecraft crossed Pluto In July 2015 at a speed of more than 52,000 Kilometer per hour and crossing more than 4.8 billion km from Earth. Focusing its instruments on the long mysterious icy worlds of the Pluto system, continued on its journey out into and beyond. Having completed its flyby of Pluto, New Horizons has maneuvered for a flyby of Kuiper belt object (486958) 2014 MU, nick named Ultima Thule.

The head of the mission, Alan Stern, and his accomplished co-writer, David Grinspoon, trace New Horizons from its conception in 1989 right through 2015’s historic event and beyond. Stern with a 'can-do' spirit infuses Chasing New Horizons, the definitive account of first flyby mission of Pluto and narrates the ordeal he went through the mission towards reaching out to Pluto, a planet when launched and now a largest object in the distant Kuiper Belt.

The authors recount every step of the mission including its highs and lows in a lucidly readable manner. The internal competition for funds and the restrictions imposed on Alan Stern when he was not allowed to seek outside help, a feud with Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA’s alternating red and green lights (based on the lobby that was against the mission) do make a 'breaking' read. That the support from the team with vivid portraits of the young scientists and engineers who were willing to stake their careers on challenges is a bolt from the blue.

The build-up to New Horizon’s launch is rich with delicious tension. Stern’s team tested and re-tested New Horizon’s design and efficacy, circling back to the drawing board, verifying the bird's credibility. It was unassuming to note that at one point when the lift-off date was projected to fall on Friday the 13th some scientists, weighed down under the ever-famous superstition, almost surrendered to the tug of superstition and aborted the launch. Inclement weather delayed the launch twice, and it was thrilling to read 'no-go' at the last moment when the power failed on the day of launch and Stern decided not to rely on local power generator.

They also mention this nerve-cracking test done often on the 9-year voyage to Pluto - a 3-billion-mile hibernation, with the spacecraft waking up occasionally, studying Jupiter, flexing its software and exhaling the project directors. New Horizons also carries a trove of memorabilia, including ashes from Clyde Tombaugh, the American astronomer who had discovered Pluto in 1930. (And also my name with message 'Go New Horizons' to be beamed on UT).

During New Horizon’s lengthy sojourn Alan Stern kept a thin crew, with other members spread out to various projects only to be merged again in 2015, in a spirit of anxiety and jubilation as the bird, fully awake and functional, approached Pluto and its largest moon, Charon. The team found two additional moons (plus two already uncovered by the Hubble Telescope)—a complex six-body cluster unlike anything else in the observed solar system.

There is this mention about the computer glitch when the New Horizons soared closer to Pluto and when it refused to communicate. It was re-booted successfully and the bird beamed back jaw-dropping images and data, such as the famous thousand-kilometer wide “heart,” - now adorning many mobile phone screens, a bubbled plain of nitrogen rimmed with ice mountains the height of the Rockies, and Cthulhu, a dark terrain across the dwarf planet’s equator. Pluto has an unexpectedly varied geology and a blue haze that looks like a sheet-thin version of Earth’s atmosphere.

What attracted me in the entire writing was the nerve Alan Stern possessed to leave America for Moscow in search of a solution to the plan he had proposed to the mission that was put to hang by some people lobbying against him. (Includes anti-Nuclear group that showed 'radioactivity' concern when Plutonium was to be considered for fueling the bird)

The book presents, to some extent, a sluice of politics that could derail or demoralize a person connected with science, technology and Philosophy. Nevertheless, it could install a kind of courage on any mission in pursuit of excellence.

The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg # Review

This book in cosmology should have been read long back - particulary if one has read some books on Big Bang and particle physics.The author chronicles the very early history of the universe while describing the underlying physical concepts. In view of epoch experiments to be conducted with new Large Hadron Collider (LHC), during October 2008 at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. The LHC will create the conditions of less than a millionth of a second after Big Bang when there was a hot soup of tiny particles called quarks and gluons. This was one of the fastest read books by me as most of the concepts were already known.

The most intriguing chapters in the book are the First Three Minutes (Chapter 5) and First One-Hundred Seconds (Chapter 7). Standard model of cosmology proposes that the universe is made of , well known, four fundamental physical forces; weak nuclear force, strong nuclear force, electromagnetic force and gravitational force. When the universe was 10(e-43) seconds old (the first moment of the universe), the temperature was about 10(e32) K, and all the four forces were considered unified. (Just like the postulates of Qunatum Mechanics, where the first one is that the Universe was a smooth flow of Energy in the beginning, when matter came later!- but holds still good)

The author, being a Nobel Laureate, is one of the pioneers in this field of research and  proposed the existence of unified of weak and electromagnetic forces for which he was awarded Nobel Prize. When the universe was above the critical temperature of 3*10(e15)K, these two forces were symmetrical and had the same strength, and the symmetry broke as the cooling of the universe decreased the heat below the critical temperature. It is during the symmetry breaking epoch matter acquired the mass through Higgs Bosons. Between the first 10(e-43) to 10(e-36) seconds of the universe's birth, all the four forces were unified, but after 10(e-36) seconds strong nuclear force separated and the universe went through an inflationary epoch (sudden exponential expansion) between 10(e-36) and 10(e-32) seconds.

Reheating of the universe between 10(e-32) and 10(e-12) seconds resulted in the production of hot quark-gluon plasma. Particle interactions in this phase were energetic enough to create large numbers of W bosons, Z bosons and Higgs bosons, which are most the fundamental forms of matter. There after when the universe was about 10(e-12) seconds, the production of W and Z bosons stopped. This was followed by the quark epoch, between 10(e-12) to 10(e-6) seconds, the four natural forces took the form that is prevalent in the current universe. This was followed by the Hadron epoch, between one microsecond to one second, quarks started binding together to form hadrons (protons and neutrons), which are held together by the strong force. One second after the big bang, the lepton epoch began when neutrinos stopped interacting with other forms of matter. Leptons includes; the electron, the muon, the tauon (tau particle), and the associated neutrinos (electron neutrino, muon neutrino, and tau neutrino). Leptons and anti-leptons were annihilated except for a small residue, and this was followed the photon epoch where photons dominated the universe. Nucelo-synthesis of helium occurred during the first 3 to 20 minutes; after about 380,000 years after the Big Bang the temperature of the universe fell to the point where nuclei could combine with electrons to create neutral atoms. As a result, photons no longer interacted frequently with matter, the universe became transparent and the cosmic microwave background radiation was created. Then we were to coin the formation of Amino acids after certain drastic reactions and the events unfold.

During the very first minute, when the universe was in thermal equilibrium, the numbers and the distribution of all particles were determined statistically and not by prior history; cause - effect relationship did not exist! The universe started with equal number of protons and neutrons, and the conversion of neutrons to protons (that form the basics of Nuclear Chemistry like photonuclear reaction) occurred through its interaction with; electrons, positrons, neutrinos and anti-neutrinos. Hydrogen and helium were produced in abundance prior to the evolution of galaxies and stars. Stars evolved using hydrogen as a nuclear fuel to generate energy and their existence.

The detection of background cosmic microwave radiation (CMR) in 1965 by Penzias and Wilson, was one of the most important discoveries of 20th century. Other chapters give a historical and simplified development that lead to the prediction of of CMR, a remnant of the big bang, and also history of cosmological theories of nucelo-synthesis of heavier elements.

This book is a must read for all the undergraduates in Physics and Chemistry. Recent advances in cosmology might have rendered some information contained in this book as obsolete. Nevertheless, this book is very well structured with useful glossary of physics terms and concepts and a mathematical supplement.

Your Brain is a Time-Machine - The Neuroscience and Physics of Time - Dean Buonomano #Review

                         

The brain is an illusion factory! Well, this is how the author considers before completing his thoughts about the brain and its perceptions. Time and activities based in life are aptly considered by this author to prove how our brain is a machine that has its own way of considering events and classifying them.

The book begins with a summary of the psychology, philosophy, pharmacology and physiology of time. The author has an excellent grasp of the issues at stake and the importance of doing research on these topics. How do drugs affect our time perception, and what does that tell us about the brain? How can neurons or neural networks detect measure time?  

The book also describes a bit on the physics of time and the philosophical implications. Does time even exist, or is it (like many other things), a persuasive  illusion that the brain construes to give us an advantage in evolution? Is present-ism (only the ‘now’ exists) or eternal-ism (time is another dimension and ‘now’ is to time what ‘here’ is to space) the correct model of the universe? 

The act which we take simple has been explained in significant way: that when a baby begins to look at his mother, he views it along several angles at different times and sometimes larger (when she is close) only to stitch these pictures for composing an ultimate face in its database.  This way every one gathers data and webs a new picture or scheme of things in life. The brain records the statistics of what we see, hear and experience and uses patterns to make sense of the world around us. That the brain is an expert in 'scavenging' the information is an important point delivered.

Pavlov's dog, whose stomach acidity was measured at a constant time is used to tell how body behaves with regular time-bound activities.  This is because the brain creates the sense of time as it cannot be physically measured. We, thus the author says, do create 'future' and help ourselves comfortable with the dimension of time.Going along the nuances of time the author describes the relativity with time: "A watched pot never boils" and time flies when you have fun. Chronostasis is considered as stagnant time when you are not enjoying the physical world.

There is this mention about the 'slow motion' in life. People's ability to react quicker and perceive events is compared with a CPU processor, where the processor is designed to withstand a certain over-optimised speed. Likewise the brain enters the 'over-clock' mode.There is more mention about theory of relativity and a good explanation to it with a few examples. That a special relativity is called so because we can ignore the influence of 'gravity' is quite a new approach to explain the same.

Finally an attractive quote that I found would make a few people go sarcastic is here:  There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.The reason we say that humans have free will is because we can't predict what they will do.The brain—the most complex dynamical system in the known universe—tells, represents, and perceives time in multiple ways. In this book of popular science, neuroscientist and author Dean Buonomano investigates the intricate relationship between the brain and time with ample examples. 

In the last chapter, the author cites the core issues. He ponders whether animals plan for the future and whether they reflect on the future in the same way that we do. There is this meeting with the Piranhã tribe who, according to an anthropologist, lived with them, lives in the here and now. The author also takes on free will. If time is just another dimension that we can, at least in theory, travel across, then that should logically mean that everything that is going to happen has already happened which presumably means there is no free will. Free will, the author suggests may only be the feeling associated with making decisions - just like we feel pain when we get painful stimulation. 

Free will, consciousness, space-time, and relativity from the perspective of a neuroscientist, drawing on physics, evolutionary biology, and philosophy, 'Your Brain Is a Time-Machine' reveals that the brain’s ultimate purpose may be to predict the future, and thus that it is a time machine.