Motivational quote

Kant: a major influence?

Check out this article on Immanuel Kant. Interesting stuff.

Reality, Truth and Obligation

It will be folly for one to get confused between reality, truth and one's supposed obligations insofar as reconciling reality with truth.

Some shout on top of their mouths about their opposition to something being practiced by others

Reality should not be equated with the truth but the equality should hold only on certain instances. Like I said above, don't confuse reality with the truth. Analyse reality to decifer any inherent false concepts.

What are we obligated to do? (In general terms). There is a difference between responsibilities and obligations. Is it an obligation on our part to ensure that in any reality, the truth is clearly separated from the falsity? Maybe the discovery of the truth should be treated as a 'work in progress?'

There must be a balance between the above two ideas because in many instances many at times people claim to have the ingredients of the truth when that isn't so. Therefore in that regard, there is some acceptance of treating truth discovery as a 'work in progress.'

The expectation is that once the truth has been discovered, it must naturally eliminate the false ideas. That can be true in a sense but you have to understand that it takes a lot of effort to eliminate false ideas. That effort and the truth can be standalone issues on their own.

There is pressure for the discoverer to convince those who don't know on the truthfulness of their thinking. But is it a must? I think that at times tje effort has to be in both directions. Those with the false ideas must put an effort to reconcile with the truth when and where it is discovered.

Ideas must be dependent on a Person but must be independent on my person.

Alpha Centaurus back to Rigil Kentaurus

The nearest star system to our Solar System, Alpha Centaurus is reverting to its old name Rigil Kentaurus, which means “foot of the centaur” in Arabic. Let me admit, I had become attached to the name Alpha Centaurus hence this new (old by the way) is difficult to swallow.

Alpha Centaurus ( OK, Rigil Kentaurus) is 4.3 light-years away from the earth. A light-year is the distance travelled by light in one year.

New elements on the Periodic Table

The periodic table now has new elements. Read the following article below for greater insights:

Last December, four new elements—with atomic numbers 113, 115, 117, and 118—earned their spots on the periodic table. They were temporarily named ununtrium, ununpentium, ununseptium, and ununoctium until the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry revealed their “unofficial” names in June. Now that the period for public comment is over,those names arefinally official,The New York Times reports. Three of the elements were named after locations of scientists’ institutions: Tennessine (Tennessee), Nihonium (Japan) and Moscovium (Moscow). Yuri Oganessian, a nuclear physics professor at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, inspired the fourth, Oganesson. The four elements, synthetically created in labs, round out the seventh row of the table.

I just wonder how many more elements are going to be discovered and whether the nature of their properties will reveal greater insights not yet considered by scientists.

Travelling to Mars in 70 days

NASA has trialled an engine that would take us to Mars in 10 weeks. Though the results have not been peer-reviewed, either way it is mind blowing nonetheless. Recently estimates of the time to travel to Mars were about 2 years. Hence 70 days would be a great step forward. This article explains the whole mechanism involved. It's a good read.

Topology and the Physics Nobel Prize 2016

Sometime in October, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the recipients of this year’s Nobel Prize for physics: half went to David J. Thouless at the University of Washington, Seattle and half to F. Duncan M. Haldane of Princeton University and J. Michael Kosterlitz of Brown University for, in the Academy’s words, “theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.”

Here is an article explaining the concepts clearly and in depth.

Here is some 'crazy' quote:

"A topologist is a person who doesn't know the difference between a coffee cup and a doughnut.” (Anonymous)