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

Qs people asked about science and my replies to them -Part 230

Q: Why are so many people unhappy in life despite the scientific and technological development?

Krishna: Define happiness.

Different people will give different interpretations to happiness.

Most peoples’ emotion of ‘feeling happy’ is defined by their conditioning of mind, values, education levels, statuses in the societies they live in, needs, comforts and what not.

Ask anybody the Q, ‘Does scientific knowledge bring you happiness?’ , you can expect a big Q mark on their faces. OK, there is an exception: The Scientific Community - because the majority of this community feels happy if they acquire new knowledge. I most certainly do! :) Because it helps the world in some way or the other.

Does technology bring happiness? If comforts can bring happiness, technology can bring comforts. It can also meet most of your needs. And most technology is based on science.

But still why do you see a Q mark on peoples’ faces when you ask them, ‘Can science make you happy?’ The answer is Peoples’ perception!

Does watching a great movie make people happy? The answer would most probably be ‘yes’. Does wearing new clothes make you happy, “yes’, again. Does eating a plate full of food make you happy? Yes! Does sleeping on a soft bed make you happy? Yes! Does living in a comfortable house make you happy? Yes! Does travelling in your own car make you happy? Yes! Does the ‘pain relief’ make you happy? Yes! Yes …… yes, and yes.

What brought all these things? And most things around you? Science and Technology!

But still why do some people say spirituality is the only source of happiness? That science and tech give unhappiness? And why do people fall prey to this preaching?

The answer is your mind is being conditioned.

The present state of the world is highly competitive. This makes people very uncomfortable. If you want to use the ‘comforts’ of science and technology, meet your needs through science and technology, you have to work really, really hard. Run races, fight battles to win places, burn your brain day in and day out. But still you might not be there where you want to be because you really don’t know how to get to the top of the happiness mountain. You just make ‘blind attempts’!

‘Being happy’ depends on your mental state. Your inner biochemistry ( which is a part of science) dictates it. If you allow this biochemistry to get manipulated by external factors, you will never reach the state of complete bliss.

Remove all those manipulative factors, and take full control of your happiness machine, you will be happy.

This is a fact. Rest is trash.

Q: What are the 5 strange places on the planet where gravity doesn’t work?

Krishna: Gravity works everywhere on our planet!

“Places where Gravity doesn’t work” is just the word gimmick used by some to attract people either to their write ups or tourism spots.

Sometimes optical illusions might make you feel this ( like gravity hill), tilted rooms/houses. While in other descriptions some forces like wind might create more force to overcome gravity ( like ‘ ‘reverse water falls’ where water moves upwards instead of downwards). It is like rockets going into space using force.

While the right balancing act of rocks might make you feel gravity ‘s not working in a place.

While you can enjoy these stories for a while, don’t lose your scientific outlook forever to irrational thoughts.

Gravity works everywhere on our planet Earth.

Q: What is the point of social sciences when they fail to make accurate predictions?

Krishna: The social sciences are those subjects which examine and explain human beings. This includes a variety of ways – from understanding how minds work, to how societies as a whole function. The major social sciences are Anthropology, Archaeology, Economics, Geography, History, Law, Linguistics, Politics, Psychology and Sociology.

Each human being is different. Due to several factors, people behave differently. Therefore, predictions can't be generalised and made accurate.First we must understand that science helps us understand the world and universe we live in.

For instance, if you take anthropology, it covers a broad range of topics – from human behaviour, to cultural relations, and how the evolution of humanity has influenced society's structure. It's often described as being both scientific and humanistic. Culture helps you understand how and why a society reacts in the way it does to things happening around.

Then archaeology is the study of humanity, it relies much more on the material evidence left behind by cultures. There is excavation work, analysis and surveying to be done. We can learn a lot through the history of human beings.

Economics looks at the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. You can choose to take a close view or a broad one, but in general, it comes down to looking at how the economic systems of the world work. This knowledge can be applied both theoretically and practically, meaning the subject is well suited for anyone interested in the current economic world.

Though many of us may remember geography as the subject at school that involved maps, it goes beyond that – analysing population, the land itself, the relationship between the two and often linking to the earth sciences (such as geology). During higher studies, you'll be able to specialise in a particular branch – such as oceanology, environmental management or tourism geography.

Can you say law is useless? NO! It helps you maintain peace and stability in the society.

Subjects like international relations, media studies or even accounting are important and help us in their own ways.

Q: Can I take about 10 paracetamol tablets in one go?

Krishna: Oh, my! Why do you want to take so many tablets? If you think you can relieve your pain or other symptoms with such an action you are highly mistaken. Haven't you heard about drug overdose?

Paracetamol overdose is one of the leading causes of acute liver failure. Adults can usually take one or two 500mg tablets every 4-6 hours, but shouldn't take more than 4g (eight 500mg tablets) in the space of 24 hours ( Even that is too much if you ask me). Taking more than this amount risks permanent and even fatal liver damage.

Paracetamol is the most common medicine taken in overdose. It can lead to liver failure in a number of days, despite using medication to protect the liver. Liver failure can be fatal. Over 150 people die each year as a result of a paracetamol overdose.

Some might take it accidentally and not intentionally.

Paracetamol (Tylenol) causes death by destroying the liver. If you take a fatal dose, it’s quite normal to feel totally fine for the first two days afterward. In fact, that’s what’s so insidious about overdose—three or four days later you still feel fine, but your liver has been destroyed, and at that point nothing on earth can save you but a liver transplant.

Then, over the next few days, you start to feel the effects of losing your liver. Your skin and eyes turn yellow. You experience severe pain and nausea. You lose the ability to eat. You start throwing up constantly.

In extreme cases, taking too much paracetamol may lead to: encephalopathy (problems with brain function)

After that, the abdominal pain becomes steadily worse. You become confused and delirious. You start experiencing tremors, then convulsions. A few days after that comes seizures, coma, and death.

It’s a long, agonizing, lingering death that can take weeks.

If death does not occur, people tend to recover fully over a couple of weeks. Without treatment, death from toxicity occurs 4 to 18 days later.

Q: Is Western-based science the only valid avenue to knowledge?

Krishna: Scientific method based science is the only valid avenue to genuine knowledge.

It doesn’t matter where it originated.

Science is universal in nature. Science doesn’t have markings like western, eastern, American, British, Indian, Russian, Australian, Asian, European, Earth’s, Mars or even milky way.

However, people who practice or believe in pseudo-science mark science as “Western” or “Eastern” and refuse to accept it if it doesn’t support their views.

Q: If a person shares his views regarding something that you don't know about, what would you do, say yes or just node?

Krishna: In science, opinions don’t matter.

If somebody shares his views on a subject I don’t no anything about, I will go learn about it and then think critically about the views and accept them only if they are evidence based facts.

Trash has no place in my mind.

Blind beliefs are a big NO!

Q: What is Loschmidt's paradox? What does it have to do with the 2nd law of thermodynamics? Is this paradox resolved?

Krishna: Loschmidt’s paradox, also known as the reversibility paradox, this is an objection to the effect that it should not be possible to derive an irreversible process from time-symmetric dynamics, or that there is an apparently conflict between the temporally symmetric character of fundamental physics and the temporal asymmetry of the second law of thermodynamics.

This paper says it has been resolved: https://arxiv.org/ftp/physics/papers/0511/0511090.pdf#:~:text=(29)....

Q: What is Boltzmann brain?

Krishna: A Boltzmann brain is a fully formed brain, complete with memories of a full human life in our universe, that arises due to extremely rare random fluctuations out of a state of thermodynamic equilibrium.

In this physics thought experiment, a Boltzmann brain is a fully formed brain, complete with memories of a full human life in our universe, that arises due to extremely rare random fluctuations out of a state of thermodynamic equilibrium. Theoretically, over an extremely large but not infinite amount of time, by sheer chance atoms in a void could spontaneously come together in such a way as to assemble a functioning human brain. Like any brain in such circumstances, it would almost immediately stop functioning and begin to deteriorate.

Q: Why don't birds fall off from trees while sleeping?

K: Birds cannot fall off a perch when asleep. Each toe is connected to a cord inside the leg. When the leg is bent, the cords stretch tight and clamp the toes around the branch. It takes more energy to leave the perch than to stay there.

Image source: bird: perching mechanism

Q: Are rocks and minerals part of science?

Krishna: Everything in this universe is science based and science -run. Why pick one or two and ask if they are part of science? Show me anything which is not a part of science here.

Oh yes, there are a few: like pseudo-science and religion!

Q: According to Hinduism, which is the correct day to fast? And what are the scientific reasons behind?

Krishna: Don’t ask for ‘scientific reasons’ when you are asking Qs about culture and traditions.

Because when you connect them to science, that becomes pseudo-science, and not genuine science.

I never ever fasted in my life but didn’t suffer any bad consequences. I even eat during eclipses. I got fever some 20 years back. I don’t have any health issues. Can anybody who fast say the same thing about his/her health?

Whatever people do in this regard is based on culture, traditions and religious beliefs. Science has nothing to do with it.