Science, Art, Litt, Science based Art & Science Communication

Qs people asked me on science and my replies to them - part 164

Q: How do you cite a tweet in an academic paper?

Krishna: If you are dealing with science, tweets are a big NO in research papers! I would reject a paper (and even articles for my networks) if you cite tweets because they are not reliable. Anybody can say anything in tweets. And opinions don’t count in science!

Q: Do we believe in Veda or science?

Krishna: You don’t ‘believe’ science because science never asks for a blind belief. You trust science because it is the best to understand this universe and utilise this knowledge for the benefit of mankind.

Do we oppose our ancient wisdom by following science?

No, we don't, provided it promotes true knowledge and facts. Like this...

असतो मा सद्गमय ।
तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय ।
मृत्योर्मा अमृतं गमय ।
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥
– बृहदारण्यक उपनिषद् 1.3.28

From untruth lead us to Truth.
From darkness lead us to Light.
From death lead us to Immortality.
Om Peace, Peace, Peace.

-- Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

That is exactly what science does. It takes us from falsehood and misconceptions to facts. It leads us from darkness to light. Science is fighting disease and death too. It is promoting human welfare.

Am I not following ancient wisdom by going the way of science? :)

Q: How does a scientist's mind work?

Krishna: If you have lots of knowledge on something, the world looks differently from others view point. You look everything from the view point of science.

If you get training in Critical Thinkingand scientific thinking, your mind works differently from those of others around. I will give some examples:

When you encounter a situation, using only the right facts you have to perceive the situation correctly. There is a thing called pseudo-science. People try to interpret things using it and think they are actually using science! Consider this:

People say 'Nazar' (Buri nazar in Hindi/Urdu, evil eyes, looks, views in English, 'disti' in Telugu) can cause harm and therefore each and every person should put grey pumpkins in front of their houses to neutralize the effect of 'Nazar'. These pumpkins, after sometime, shrivel and become black, and people say, the rays from evil eyes burn the pumpkins instead of them and that is why they shrivel and turn black and it is science!

Now a person of science like me thinks and investigates like this:

Wait a minute. What I have learnt is … living substances or products of living substances contain water. And when they lose that water, they shrivel.

And then I go near the damaged pumpkins and examine them. What do I find?

Black Fungal spores! My knowledge tells me microbes infest and degrade dead ( not connected to living things/trees anymore) things.

So these pumpkins hung before homes, after sometime become black, not because of 'nazar' but because of fungal spores.

What is worse is these spores come out of the pumpkin and spread all over the place whenever a breeze brushes it causing allergies in people. Imagine a whole neighbourhood infested with these spores spreading asthma in the vulnerable!

So it is bad to follow such superstitions!

That is the scientific way of thinking. To do that, you have to eat, sleep, drink, think, follow, and trust science 24X365X100.

Question everything. Never blindly follow what your culture, tradition, elders, friends say. When only your scientific analysis says something is right, then only accept it.

Ask for or seek evidence. Don’t just blindly believe everything you hear, read, see. Evidence is of several types. Anecdotal evidence is the worst form of evidence and real scientists treat it with high skepticism. Meta Analysis is given the topmost rank in the evidence pyramid.

Now one person asked me ‘’If scientist or a person who has scientific attitude will only believe which has evidence, how would he/she discover anything new, which had no evidence before, then how he know anything new, how can scientific attitude or way of thing contribute to anything new’’. Completely wrong!

Inventions are based on evidence established facts like scientific theories and laws. They don’t come from thin air!

Like wise discoveries are made from evidence established natural laws!

Okay sometimes evidence is shown after a theory is framed. But a theory is framed using already established knowledge. The facts get established only when evidence is shown. Without any evidence there won’t be any difference between ordinary thinking and scientific thinking.

No scientist accepts anything without evidence. Evidence is the backbone of science without which science collapses.

And use only evidence established facts for your thinking, analysis and conclusion.

Once you develop this highest form of thinking and broaden your mind, I can assure you, you will never go back to your old ways again.

Other examples to show how a scientific mind thinks: Science's rules are unyielding, they will not be bent in any way fo...

Science's rules are unyielding, they will not be bent in any way fo...

Science and superstitions : How rational thinking can make you work...

Burning Q: Why are more and more young people who claim they are mo...

Superstitions don't have any science behind them!

Superstitions

Q: Why doesn't air get effected by gravity?

Krishna: Where did you get this wrong idea?

Air is affected by gravity and that’s why we have an atmosphere in earth. If it wasn’t affected by gravity then air would just float away.

The most basic answer to our question is that gravity is necessary in order to hold our atmosphere to the planet. Air molecules are in constant motion at the molecular level, like a room full of bugs flying in every direction. The typical air molecule moves about 500m/s (1100mph) in air at 27°C (about 80°F), but only for a very short distance before bumping into something or another air molecule. At the outer edge of our atmosphere those molecules moving outward, without anything with which to collide, could escape from the Earth. Some molecules move faster and some move slower, but the point is that without our gravity air molecules would wander away from us and out into space. Thus gravity is important just to keep the air around us.

Q: Is it right to call a person peddling pseudo-science and rubbish a guru? Several rationalists are doing that!

Well, when a person peddles pseudo-science, what is wrong in calling a spade a spade? Do you call a spade a diamond? Is that right? Isn’t that deceiving people?

You rubbish a ‘guru’ if he starts talking rubbish. These people can hoodwink ordinary and the innocent but not the scientific community who knows what genuine science is and what pseudo-science is.

And what is wrong with educating people and making them realize how they ‘re getting cheated by pseudo-science?

What is right and what is wrong? Isn’t believing blindly someone wrong? Is keeping quiet even when people 're getting cheated right?

Q:Are there some people who think that physics and mathematics are the most interesting and important science, or chemistry and biology? Do you have a different opinion?

Krishna: Can one field be isolated from the other ones in science now? NO!

I am a Microbiologist. I depend on microscope which is given to us by physicists. I depend on biochemical experiments for my results so the field is important too for me. I depend on data and statistics for my conclusions so they are vital for my work.

Physicists and mathematicians depend on their health and good working condition of their brains for their work which depends on their biology.

When everything is inter-related, you cannot pick one and say this is more important than the other fields. These differences might be pursued in the outside world but not in the labs anymore, not by genuine scientists.

Q; How do geniuses see the world compared to normal people?

Krishna: Geniuses are not people who do things or solve problems quicker than others around like the IQ tests in a given time frame and score high marks or grades.

Different people give different definitions for the word genius and therefore, their answers also reflect their perceptions.

They are people who can look at things from various angles gathered from immense knowledge, creatively connect diverse things, persist under the most trying circumstances, read in between lines, think critically and see through things and their world is definitely different from that of others because of this.

Q: Why do some clouds shine in the night?

Krishna: High up in the sky near the poles some 50 miles above the ground, silvery blue clouds sometimes appear, shining brightly in the night. First noticed in 1885, these clouds are known as noctilucent, or "night shining," clouds.

The formation of the clouds requires both water and incredibly low temperatures, according to NASA. The temperatures turn out to be one of the prime driving factors for when the clouds appear.

So the appearance of the noctilucent clouds, also known as polar mesospheric clouds or PMCs since they occur in a layer of the atmosphere called the mesosphere, can provide information about the temperature and other characteristics of the atmosphere. This in turn, helps researchers understand more about Earth's low altitude weather systems, and they've discovered that events in one hemisphere can have a sizable effect in another.

They light up because they're so high that they reflect sunlight from over the horizon. They are formed of ice water crystals most likely created on meteoric dust. And they are exclusively a summertime phenomenon. As summer warmth heats up air near the ground, the air rises. As it rises, it also expands since atmospheric pressure decreases with height. Scientists have long known that such expansion cools things down – just think of how the spray out of an aerosol can feels cold – and this, coupled with dynamics in the atmosphere that drives the cold air even higher, brings temperatures in the mesosphere down past a freezing -210º F (-134 ºC).

Q: Why are the Indians intelligent and scientific?

Krishna: Oh, common! This is the height of jingoism.

Intelligence is no one nation’s exclusive property.

Most Indians don’t even know the difference between science and pseudo-science. They connect everything they follow and believe to science and think they are scientific! But in reality, they are more pseudo-scientific than scientific!

So?!

Q: Can you expalin the cultural practices we Indians are following with its scientific reasons?

Krishna:

You won’t get any correct answer to this Q from any one because if you connect ancient cultural practices to modern science, that becomes pseudo-science, not genuine science.

Most people don’t know the difference between genuine science and pseudo-science and paste -copy several things from the net ( I have seen this happening several times on various social media sites).

Be alert - Pseudo-Science and Anti-Science are on the Prowl!

Love Science, not its impostors!

What demarcates science from nonsense

Q: How does our milky way get its spiral form?

Krishna: According to research from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), magnetic fields play a strong role in shaping these galaxies. "Magnetic fields are invisible, but they may influence the evolution of a galaxy. We have a pretty good understanding of how gravity affects galactic structures, but we're just starting to learn the role magnetic fields play.

Magnetic fields in the spiral galaxy are aligned with the spiral arms across the entire galaxy—more than 24,000 light years across. The magnetic field alignment with the star formation implies that the gravitational forces that created the galaxy's spiral shape is also compressing the magnetic field. The alignment supports the leading theory of how the arms are forced into their spiral shape known as "density wave theory."

Scientists measured magnetic fields along the spiral arms of the galaxy called NGC 1068, or M77. The fields are shown as streamlines that closely follow the circling arms.

The M77 galaxy is located 47 million light years away in the constellation Cetus. It has a supermassive active black hole at its center that is twice as massive as the black hole at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy. The swirling arms are filled with dust, gas and areas of intense star formation called starbursts.

SOFIA's infrared observations reveal what human eyes cannot: magnetic fields that closely follow the newborn-star-filled spiral arms. This supports the leading theory of how these arms are forced into their iconic shape known as "density wave theory." It states that dust, gas and stars in the arms are not fixed in place like blades on a fan. Instead, the material moves along the arms as gravity compresses it, like items on a conveyor belt.

The magnetic field alignment stretches across the entire length of the massive, arms—approximately 24,000 light years across. This implies that the gravitational forces that created the galaxy's spiral shape are also compressing its magnetic field, supporting the density wave theory. The results are published in the recent edition of Astrophysical Journal.

Celestial magnetic fields are notoriously difficult to observe. SOFIA's newest instrument, the High-resolution Airborne Wideband Camera-Plus, or HAWC+, uses far-infrared light to observe celestial dust grains, which align perpendicular to magnetic field lines. From these results, astronomers can infer the shape and direction of the otherwise invisible magnetic feild. Far-infrared light provides key information about magnetic fields because the signal is not contaminated by emission from other mechanisms, such as scattered visible light and radiation from high-energy particles. SOFIA's ability to study the galaxy with far infrared light , specifically at the 89 micron wavelength, revealed previously unknown facets of its magnetic fields.

Further observations such as these from SOFIA are necessary to understand how magnetic fields influence the formation and evolution of other types of galaxies, such as those with irregular shapes.

Q:If we were to discover anything in the world today, why do we say that our most intelligent congregation was already written in our Vedas?

Krishna: Because of jingoism. When asked to provide evidence people are even twisting and spinning vedas to fit into modern scientific explanations creating pseudo-science in the process. We are fighting it and soon you will see the results.

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