If our valued Readers are interested, I propose to start a New Series of Posts on some of the latest Scientific advances that could be of interest to our Community of Advaita Thinkers and Philosophers. These Posts will be infrequent and in the form of simple “Alerts” on the current research findings. What gets reported by me will obviously be constrained by at least two of my own limitations:
(i) The conscious and or unconscious ‘filtering mechanism’ exercised by my mind in selection of the topics; and
(ii) What research papers happen to come to my notice.
For the present, here is a sample Post to show how I propose to structure this venture taking selections from the works published during the last couple of weeks:
[If Dennis agrees and if there is sufficient interest, we may continue and improve upon this idea. Readers may like to send their views to Dennis (in confidence, if desired).]
1. Free Will:
“We directly investigated the formation of spontaneous abstract intentions and showed that the brain may already start preparing for a voluntary action up to a few seconds before the decision enters into conscious awareness.”
From: Predicting free choices for abstract intentions, C.S. Soon and others, PNAS, Apr 9, 2013
2. Consciousness:
“Scientists have found evidence to support the “integrated-information theory,” which holds that consciousness relies on communication between different brain areas, and fades as that communication breaks down. EEG studies have also revealed distinctive brain wave patterns that signal when consciousness is lost and regained.”
From: Measuring Consciousness, D. Cossins, The Scientist, Apr 17, 2013
3. Origin of Life:
“An extrapolation of the genetic complexity of organisms to earlier times suggests that life began before the Earth was formed. Linear regression of genetic complexity on a log scale extrapolated back to just one base pair suggests the time of the origin of life 9.7 billion years ago.”
From: Could Life Be Older Than Earth Itself?, J. Scharr, Discovery, Apr 18, 2013 (based on Life Before Earth, Alexei A. Sharov, Richard Gordon, Cornel Univ, 28 Mar 2013)
4. Grand Unified Theories:
“A new structure, currently dubbed Y(4140), was discovered in experimental data at Fermilab and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We don’t know what it is. It could be some sort of exotic new combination of quarks, though not the so-called charmonium that involves charm quarks, or something else.”
From: Atom Smashers Find Something Not So Charm-ing, Jesse Emspak, LiveScience, April 16, 2013
Ramesam: Your proposal sounds very interesting, and I definitely support it. Hope that it becomes realized, so that we (not only those with some scientific background) can benefit from it. Thank you.
Martin
I think it is an excellent idea. Before commenting on advances in science as they occur, , it would be useful if you could kindly give a back ground note, explaining the present understanding in quantum physics, about the nature of the smallest particle of matter. I understand sometimes it is seen as a wave and sometimes as a particle and that it does not have a fixed position; that it depends upon the observer. In other words, he may see it at one place and if he moved his gaze to an other place, he might find it there! Also, about Higgs boson and God particle, what exactly do they hope to establish. . I would be grateful if you could direct me to any article or writing, which explains all this in simple language that a layman can understand. Many thanks.
Thanks Martin and Gurudas.
Re: The Suggestion of backgrounders made by Shri Gurudas:
We may occasionally come up with such articles, though it may not be practicable to give the background for each newly reported development.
With regard to Quantum Physics and Advaita Vedanta:
I wrote four One-page non-technical articles five years ago with the following titles:
1. Reality ‘Out There’ and Quantum Physics.
2. We are All an Entangled Web.
3. The Weird World of Small Things
4. Invisible Energy in Empty Space.
These were also included in my Book “Religion Demystified”, 2008, ISBN978-81-7525-971-3.
There are no substantive new developments in this area during the last five years to warrant a revision. We can add a couple of lines updating the info. where needed.
If Dennis agrees, we may reproduce those short articles at this site.
I guess there are already quite a few popular-type articles on Higgs Boson – the so called God particle ( a misnomer). I can post a short write up on it one of these days.
regards,