Desicritics Category: BizTech: Science

Beautiful Mathematics in Control Theory

Sumanth — Thu, 4 Mar 2010 00:12:02 EST

I became nostalgic as an angry Boman Irani asks Sharman Joshi in 3 Idiots,”how does an induction motor start?” Sharman Joshi answers “broom, brooooom......” imitating the noise that a motor makes as its starts accelerating. Many years back, I spent many days over a couple of months to understand how exactly the rotating magnetic field is produced by the coils in the stator of an induction motor and how this magnetic field cuts the squirrel cage rotor making the rotor to rotate to oppose the cause of electricity.

Most students of electrical engineering in those days of course loved the great bible by B.L. Theraja for mugging up all the concepts and mathematics just for exams. One day my Iranian friend showed me the Iranian (translated) version of this bible.

However, as the guys of these Engineering disciplines graduate to final semesters, they encounter a serious course called “Control Theory”. This course throws mathematical bouncers from day one and there is no one who can mug up this subject. The Laplace transforms, differential equations, the stability criteria, and the observability and controllability conditions make their life miserable. Most guys in those days used to feel greatly relieved once they escaped with minimum required credits to clear the course.

However, those few who can spare time and persist long enough during and after the course, can hope to tame the wild dragon and its mathematical equations and land riding on it at a beautiful place, which unravels many secrets to working of machines and complex systems all around.

Control theory is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering and mathematics, that deals with the behavior of dynamical systems. The process of designing a system to control behaviour of a dynamical system is called “control philosophy”.

Control Systems are not about anything specific. It is all about information flow and feedbacks. It is all about massive chains of feedbacks that run inside machines, humans, societies and systems all around. In a way, it connects the researcher to “Unified Systems Theory”. The researchers practice to observe only at the information flow, the non-linear elements in systems and the feedbacks that take place. Soon they realise that the feedbacks can be altered and the behaviour of the system can be changed.

At an undergraduate, graduate course, project or dissertation work, it mostly involves the machines. Most students start practicing to observe the behaviour of machines and systems around, model and control them. Then they work to improvise the mathematical algorithms for optimisation.

For example, a student can find a crankshaft of vehicle behaving same way as an electrical network of inductors, capacitors and resistors. A human being walking can be visualised as an inverted pendulum balancing itself. It is all about behaviour of dynamical systems, their stability and their control.

Inverted Pendulum Video:

Robot balancing itself:

Controlling a massive inverted pendulum in sky:

The students learn that corrective actions to reach a desired state in a dynamical system not only depend on the error, but also the integration of errors over a period of time. It is also important that overshoots due to a badly tuned control systems can lead to unwanted oscillations with the states of the system badly swinging across a desired state creating havoc.

The students know mathematically, how deadly the time delays between actions and results (inherent in systems) coupled with bad control strategy can make a system unstable, instead of improving its behaviour. For example, imagine how difficult it would be to drive a car, when there is a 2 seconds delay in the behaviour of steering wheel and/or the accelerator pedal. You will not be able to drive such a car. However, huge delays exist in systems around us on which we intervene so often. For example, the way a child responds to positive or negative feedback, is known only after a certain delay, for which many people never have any patience. As a result, there are enough small children who manipulate and control their parents instead of getting controlled.

The feedback and interventions play an important role in global markets. Bad sentiments in market makes people withdraw money and remain in cash and this positive feedback (or vicious circle) causes further crash to happen. Similarly, the higher liquidity due to government stimulus or funds from across the world can boost markets and make the feedback loop run in the opposite direction boosting the sentiments. Now, this entire phenomenon can be modelled using an autoregressive with moving averages (ARMA) models or by difference equations.

The future states of any dynamical system are a function of its current states and also a function of its series of part states and series ofpast inputs (or interventions). When a dynamical system has many actors, many couplings, times delays, non-linear behaviour, then that system is intelligent enough to fool any number of best brains in the world. So, most often sincere and highly popular interventions further screw up a badly behaving system, making the people demand further increase of interventions, which leads to a completely screwed up system. In fact, this entire phenomenon can be understood when one mathematically simulates it in a program in Matlab.

Photo Essay: Moon Struck

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 20:22:55 EST

I came back a bit earlier from work as I was not feeling well and on the way home from the tube station I happened to look up as it was quite bright. And it was a giant moon. Seriously large. After gaping at it, I raced home, grabbed the tripod and camera, went out into the green and started taking pictures. That moon was the biggest full moon of the year.

As usual, I tried to over-engineer the photo and tried to take a photo through the trees and failed miserably. So then I moved deeper into the green.

The moon was seriously bright, looked very nice. Never you mind that several neighbours were looking at me strangely and thinking that I am either a mad man or a perv or both. It was very cold.

Emerging from the clouds.

Then an interesting cloud formation came along. On the left, you could almost make out a head with a snout above the moon, with the lower jaw under the moon and on the left, you can see an open mouth. There is an elephant shaped head. Then in the right photograph, the moon becomes an eye. Ok, I think I am now imagining things.

Then a corona type of formation formed around the moon. I suspect it was due to some very light cloud.

Then there were no clouds at all. Very clear, giant lantern in the sky, old woman in the moon..

The whiskery clouds came back and you could actually see moonbeams…very strange, never saw anything like this before. I also managed to capture Mars. (see that little white dot on the left of the photo?) And no, its not a problem with your pc monitor getting a bad pixel.

Finally, you see the moon, the moonbeams, the clouds, and the warm welcoming houses surrounding the green. Can you see the regular shadows on the green itself? It's a buried World War II air raid shelter there, unfortunately it cannot be accessed. A WW2 bomb had fallen 100 meters behind the house on the far left..

Full slide show here with a bigger resolution.

Solar Eclipse and the Haiti Earthquake

Suresh Naig — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:03:02 EST

On the day of solar eclipse on 15th Jan, there was a debate in Bangalore specific English news channel. As usual, a scientist who believes in nothing other than science, an astrologer who has a mixed belief system, a rationalist who neither believes in science nor astrology and a moderator who gave an impression that he never listened to anything other than his own voice were assembled in the studio.

It was a live program and so many persons participated in the program asking silly questions most of the time and occasionally sensible ones too. One caller wanted to know whether there could be any connection between the Haiti earth quake and the solar eclipse. As usual the scientist gave an emphatic NO and when asked to explain by the astrologer, he explained Haiti was nowhere on the path of solar eclipse.

It appeared to me that the scientist was arrogant, in the sense that brushing aside anything without an open mind and scientific study is unscientific. Unlike the religion which has strict rituals which cannot be questioned, whereas the question is the essence behind scientific discoveries, if brushed aside could become counterproductive to the very science. Answers to certain questions gave us electricity, anti-biotics etc. If those right questions were not asked by the right people, science at large and we in particular would have been the losers.

When scientists confess that earth quakes cannot be predicted, I understand that it cannot be predicted 'today', with the present knowledge and gadgets in our possession. Our met department has created a model, collating all the details for the past 50 years or so on the monsoon pattern and try to predict the future monsoon with such limited details of half a century, resulting in widely off the mark prediction of monsoon every year. What is wrong in collating the details of past eclipses and earthquakes? Most of the discoveries in the past were serendipities and who knows yet another could be waiting in what scientists brush aside as coincidence.

Eclipsing the Eclipse

Suresh Naig — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:01:25 EST

Solar and lunar eclipses are usual occurrences and so also are the controversies surrounding them. Astrologers claim certain untoward incidents attached to these celestial events and rationalists dispute the same. Certainly eclipses are eclipsed by these people.

It is quite common for religious Hindus to abstain from eating food two hours before and after the onset of eclipses. Equally, it is a common occurrence for the rationalists to distribute freshly cooked food during the eclipses, to dispel the myth. Eclipses are certainly eclipsed.

Many people belonging to the IT sector in Bangalore worked on 9th January, a Saturday, to take a compensatory off on 15th Jan on account of annular solar eclipse. I was wondering why the well informed people from the IT sector were becoming gullible to the religious or scientific myth. Then I realized 14th being a declared holiday on account of Sankranti, these people could avail an extended weekend and the solar "Grahana" came handy. The hype created by the scientific community towards the annular solar eclipse has surpassed the religious fervor and the well informed IT guys have taken an informed decision, to have a long week end.

I remember the last significant solar eclipse in the 80s where it was such a rare event. The media created a hype about it, warning people about the dos and don'ts during the eclipse. The media hype was something similar to the Skylab crash, wherein some Newspapers used to print on their first page the countdown for the crash, 7 days to go, 6 days to go etc. Some villagers in India had vacated their dwellings and moved to faraway places, because it was declared by the media as a probable Skylab crash site and many public transport drivers abstained from duty on the solar eclipse day, fearing untoward consequences. Our group of friends enjoyed the solar eclipse with chilled beer and playing cards staying indoors. Skylab crashed and the solar eclipse occurred without any perceptible damage. Now the next one is around the corner with two consecutive lunar and solar eclipses in quick succession.

I was intrigued by the raging controversy between the religious zealots and the vociferous rationalists and wondered why the Hindu religious practices are always the easy targets for these people. Religious practices such as fasting are common to all religions and why only Hindu practices are mocked at? Is it because the Hindu religion is a soft target making them vulnerable, while all other religious practices are untouched.

Perhaps in all other religions, a religious practice remains as a religious practice and only the Hindus attempt to give a scientific perspective to their practices, irking the scientific community. As long as Darwin's theory of evolution is disputed in the closed walls of Sunday schools in Churches, replaced by the Genesis theory, scientific community is not bothered. If abstaining food, taking bath after eclipses etc are going to remain only as strict religious practices, I am sure the scientific community will ignore it.

Book Review: Atul Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

Sunil — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:46:03 EST

Ever thought about how healthcare could be improved? How doctors could reduce errors or complications during serious operations? Almost everyone has a theory on why hospital errors always occur. But Gawande, in his latest book The checklist manifesto: How to get things right, suggests that a major part of the solution lies in an innocuous and mundane a checklist. The book’s point is very simple. No mater what you do, checklists can help you do it better. This applies to the usual suspects (like the airline industry which pioneered checklists) as well as what would seem improbable; a hospital.

He sets us up well, starting with typical medical almost horror stories, of near misses and tragedies in the operating theater, and lays out what he calls “the problem of extreme complexity”. Medical cases are astounding in diversity and complexity. Problems can arise at any time during a medical procedure, and quickly go out of hand. So what can be done to improve this? Aren’t doctors and nurses doing their best already? And then, right away, he throws at you a solution so startlingly simple that you almost laugh it off. A checklist. Checklists work and are widely used in a whole range of professions (who sometimes don’t even call it a checklist). Gawande first describes a few cases in medicine that he came about during his academic research, which intrigued him because they achieved improvements that were way above the typical average in those settings. Piecing together the facts, he realizes that what works here is a little list of things that doctors and nurses run through before, during and after every medical procedure, as part of a defined yet flexible and adaptable checklist.

Digging deeper, he starts to explore checklists in a diverse range of industries. The airline industry is an obvious place to start, and Gawande draws us into the process by taking us to testing facilities at Boeing, starting from the first checklists the airline industry drew up in the 30s and 40s. But from there he starts seeing and then describing checklists in a whole range of industries, from the building industry to investment bakers, top chefs and Wal-mart. The story on the response to hurricane Katrina, the government bungling and incompetence, and the emergence of Wal-mart as an unlikely hero in New Orleans thanks to its superb enforcement of checklists is as amazing as it is inspiring. By the time he gets into specific studies in the medical profession, you already know that checklists make a huge difference. Then comes the studies he helped carry out in hospitals across the world, from rural Tanzania to crowded urban India through the UK and America. In every case enforcing these checklists dramatically improve hospital performance. And the items on the checklist are simple, obvious things. Check antibiotic, wash hands, change gloves, change tubing, that sort of thing. But in the heat of a critical operation, or when overwhelmed by huge patient numbers the obvious is often skipped. By setting up the checklist, giving nurses the authority to enforce them, and making medical teams work like a team the checklist becomes a staggeringly effective weapon, taking little time to enforce, but packing a massive wallop of effectiveness. The errors that come up can be quickly spotted and fixed, the entire medical team becomes more effective, and the doctor’s ego can be kept in check.

Regular readers of Gawande’s books or articles on healthcare in The New Yorker know that he is a consummate writer. He combines a doctor’s thorough knowledge of the healthcare system in America with the rigors of a scientist and the vivid imagery of a fantastic, old fashioned story teller. In his books you’ll find bits of the old sage, and the thriller writer, and the writer of a whodunit. The checklist manifesto is no different. With every old medical war story he brings up, and with every other profession he dives into, you are sucked into the details of that story, even while you shout out the solution; “a checklist!”. He draws you into the story, makes you feel involved in the process, and you gasp with him when checklists work, or scowl when medical professionals resist them, and smile when a great victory is won thanks to an error the checklist caught. Whether he overstates his claim or not, time, the clinical and hospital review process and accumulating evidence will tell. But he certainly does a fantastic job of convincing you that checklists can make a big difference in medicine. While medicine will remain a highly specialized skill requiring years of study and training, the adoption of a simple, rigorous, adaptable checklist is not only possible in medicine, but works magnificently.

Some might think that something as simple as a checklist does not deserve a whole book dedicated to it. By the end of this book though, even a seasoned skeptic will accept defeat. Through the book and this one simple point Gawande is able to give the reader a vivid description of the range of errors or complications in medical science, the immense complexity of modern medicine, and a whole host of issues doctors and nurses face in hospitals in every corner of the world, developed and developing. Some problems are not as disparate as one might assume. By the end of the book, it becomes obvious that some aspects of medical practice isn’t that different from any other complex (as opposed to complicated) field of work, and when checkpoints work so well elsewhere, there is no reason for it not to work as well in medicine. Even smart, intelligent, highly trained people can make mistakes, and checklists can help reduce them. And this is a smart, intelligent, simple book that is well worth reading.

Brand Confusion in Indian Pharma

Suresh Naig — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:36:39 EDT

Last week I received a frantic call from Dubai. The call was from the cell phone of my MD but the caller was his wife. They had left for Dubai just tThat morning. Due to some goof up, she couldn’t locate the pouch which contained all the medicines. My MD is on a host of drugs for hypertension and diabetes. In addition, he was consuming medicines to facilitate digestion and tension relievers too. When she tried to buy the medicines, whose brand names she had remembered well, she was in for a rude shock, that none of the brands she had mentioned were available with the chemist in Dubai. She had left her cell back home, which contained the Doctor’s contact details.

She started reeling out the brand names to find whether I knew its generic composition, for she knew about my pharma background. I couldn’t help her since my knowledge about the medicines was at least two decades old and the Indian pharmaceutical industry had grown big without my help, introducing many new drugs. Left with no other alternative I barged into the consultation chamber of my MD’s physician for help. My MD’s wife picked up the cell on the first ring and I handed over the phone to the doctor. The physician talked with the pharmacy attendant at Dubai and the matter was settled to the relief of everyone.

I realized then, that the pharmaceutical industry in India had not grown in quality, however much they have apparently grown in size and prosperity. The old tactics were at play even now. When any new drug is invented and put into the market in western countries, the same would be swiftly copied in India and sold under a different brand name. It is very easy in India. We follow what is known as “process patenting” and not “product patenting” as followed in USA and many European countries.

When a new drug is invented and put into the market in USA or UK after lengthy formalities the molecular formula becomes open document. Once it is known any person with the requite knowledge of chemistry could synthesize the chemical through a different process other than the patented one in India. Many pharmaceutical companies in India market their own brand names for a single chemical drug. Many original inventions are driven to a corner by these me too brands, claiming a huge price advantage. These brands are akin to the pirated books we get on the foot-path; it has everything other than the rewards reaching the author.

In the USA, brand names are available only for the original inventions and all other companies have to market the drugs only in generic name, after a stipulated time period. When a drug is successfully launched in USA or UK it is replicated and marketed in different brand names in India. These look alike drugs look alike in brand names too. “Viagra” would morph into “Penegra”, “Zenegra” or for that matter “Zeebra”. The Zebra with an extra “E”, which stands for that extra virility. Many single ingredient drugs are marketed in India under different brand names, inconveniencing many patients.

My father was on a particular drug, which he was consuming while in Tamil Nadu, which was not available at Bangalore. It took some time for me to ascertain its chemical name so that I could get the “substitute” here. Some doctors lose their cool when a brand prescribed him/her is substituted by the chemists, not realizing that what they have prescribed in itself is only a substitute many a times.

There are not less than 50 brands each for “Enelepril” a drug prescribed for hypertension, or another anti hypertensive “Atenelol” or “Metformin” which is prescribed specially for obese diabetics. In India a failed attempt was made in the 80’s, when” Tagamet” was not allowed to be marketed under its exclusive international brand name. Many Indian companies instead introduced this drug under its generic name “cimetidine” and it met with an orchestrated failure.

From then on all the companies reverted to their age old comfortable game of re-invention, euphemizing it as reverse engineering. Certainly it has moved many pharmaceutical companies in the reverse direction, engineering or otherwise.

Book Review: Living Green - The Missing Manual

Sunil — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 06:24:38 EDT

Over the past few years "sustainable living" has suddenly grown in importance in the more developed and affluent countries of the world, and most people are at least curious about it. Yet it isn't always easy for people to know if their lifestyles are green or not. An easily readable yet comprehensive and enjoyable resource for green living would be of great value to everyone, from the die hard eco-warrior to the gently curious citizen. Nancy Conner's Living Green is just that much required reference to fill that void.

A well written book that can be read as a serious reference or a quick pointer for specific questions, this book (from O'Reilly's Missing Manual series) addresses most questions anyone could have about living green, and what all it involves. Living green isn't just about replacing a few light bulbs or occasionally bicycling to work, but is about a comprehensive lifestyle change where the consequences of all our actions are considered from an earth perspective. The book also does well in suggesting that we do have choices, and by living green we do not have to abandon all the comforts we have become accustomed to.

This book is organised in chapters that deal with changes we can make in our homes, all the way through green business and getting involved towards sustaining a greener planet. If you are just starting with small changes in your life, and want to see what little things you can easily do around the house, the first section addresses these questions. You will easily be surprised by the number of toxins you are exposed to routinely, from harsh detergents to cleaners and solutions commonly used in bathrooms or kitchens. Importantly, the book provides low cost, simple alternatives that are far less harmful to our own health as well as the health of the planet. Taking just one example, it was most useful to hear that the ultimate all purpose natural cleaner is white vinegar and boric acid powder, which can be used to scour sinks, clean bathtubs, wipe countertops and clean floors. With a few modifications, it can also be used as a garden pesticide. The book then builds towards reducing unnecessary consumption (going for quality over inexpensive quantity is an easy first step), and reusing and recycling. It then goes a level higher, and provides outstanding resources and ideas towards building houses that are green as well as energy saving, talking about everything from simple design solutions to LEED certification for buildings.

The next section talks about a complete lifestyle change, from raising a green family (ever thought about how many landfills a baby's diapers could fill up?), green eating and cooking, raising kids who are sensitive towards the environment, through responsible shopping, and another big cause of pollution to the earth, daily transportation. The book provides a handy reminder of the different transportation options (from walking and biking to car pooling) to the costs of air travel or hotel stay, and how easy it can be to offset these effects for little or no extra cost. There are excellent resources for example on hotels or automobiles that take their environmental costs seriously, and are trying hard to improve energy efficiency and environmental stewardship. So, given a choice between two hotels or two cars of similar quality, this book makes it easy to choose the one that does a better job in protecting the environment.

The final section goes in depth into green business, and how it is possible to actually make a profit or create substantial savings by actually being green. Much of it is just simple improvements in efficiency. Using less paper or office recycling programs are low cost efforts that result in big "green" savings. There are significant energy savings offices can obtain by simply allowing more natural light in, or opening windows (as opposed to cranking up the air conditioners all the time). There are choices that can be made for the source of energy (and the differences between renewable and non-renewable energy choices, as well as how one can buy and use more renewable energy resources). Finally, the book goes into different ways by which one can be involved, from activism to socially responsible investing.

There is little doubt that the book is comprehensive, and provides information to someone curious about green living at every level. Yet, there are some caveats or limitations in this book.

For one, it is certainly true that many people have tried various eco-friendly/green choices around the house, and it just didn't "work as well" as the regular choice. This book, while providing excellent choices for green options around the house, does not acknowledge that there can be some limitations with green products. From my own personal example, we've tried just about every single green dishwashing solution out there. But none of them work as well as conventional dishwashing gels (which do have phosphates in them) while cleaning dishes that have been used for spicy, sometimes greasy, and often heavily cooked Indian or Thai food, though they do work satisfactorily for more standard "American" cooking. So, after much trial and error, we had to go back to conventional dishwasher detergents, after experimenting with a dozen natural ones that claimed to be just as "hard on dirt" but gentle on the environment. On the other hand, many other green products work satisfactorily (green laundry detergent with a little bit of hydrogen peroxide added to it works fine for lightly soiled clothes, but perhaps not as well for the rare, heavily soiled garment). Future editions of the book would do well to acknowledge some limitations of green products, and perhaps compare the two, saying where the green product is perfectly adequate, but where it might fall short. Acknowledging some limitations of green products is not necessarily a weakness, and makes it easier for the average person to make better choices while stepping towards green living.

Then, there is an extensive (and overall good) chapter on food, which oversimplifies the "organic is good" mantra, unequivocally casting all fertilisers, pesticides and genetically modified food as the great evil. However, the argument is far from that simple, since it is a very complex area that is grey and not black or white. Yes, pesticides can be harmful, and overuse of fertilisers has ruined land. But it is also true that careful and controlled use of fertiliser (along with suitable crop rotation and mixed cropping) can yield more food (at no nutritional disadvantage) than simple organic mono-cropping alone. Nor are all genetically modified foods dangerous. It remains a fact that every single food crop we eat today has been modified, over years of crossing and creating "hybrids", except that the methods used have been different. There certainly are issues with proprietary seeds and over aggressive patents, but casting all genetically modified food as bad is simplistic at best and false at worst. There is no doubt that sustainable (including organic) food practices are excellent for the earth, but by avoiding nuance, this book might put away some people who aren't blindly gung ho yet about everything green.

The book has been written from the perspective of a person living green. So, perhaps, the tone does not fully reach out to people across the aisle. Living in Texas has taught me that direct confrontation (about lifestyle) rarely works. In a place where say people often leave their lawn sprinklers on during three hour thunderstorms, or where cities still don't have recycling programs (and where one has to collect and cart recyclables to a recycling center oneself), finding middle ground is a starting first step. Perhaps this book can do more to address that.

However, overall the book is superbly written, and provides a single stop for the reader to find out anything about living green. A more than useful manual, it should be the book of choice should one want any reference towards green living. It is a worthy addition to any household, and lets you start making those small steps towards green living.

Creation is a Vibration

Desh — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 07:38:46 EDT

In 1687, Newton published Principia where he laid the foundations of Gravity, which explained how the planets stayed in their orbits and large bodies work. Five years later, a Cambridge philospher Richard Bentley asked him a very innocuous question that hit at the root of Newton's discovery. Bentley wrote a letter asking Newton: If the gravity was always an attractive force, why doesn't the Universe Collapse? This question came to be known as the "Bentley Paradox".

Bentley not only pointed to the inherent instability of a creation made of one directional force, he started a series of actions that would later nudge the scientists from Einstein to today's top Nobel Laureates to look for the 'Truth" - a "Theory of Everything".

Einstein tried to explain it by saying that Universe was probably expanding or contracting and not static (meaning an inherent force was at play, over and above the attractive force of Gravity). So strong was the entrenched scientific ideology (Yes! Scientists are as dogmatic as the religious), that they forced Einstein to change his reason and come up with a Cosmological Constant. This was the repulsive and balancing force to gravity such that the Universe could be static and not collapse. Of course, if such a force was to hold the Universe together it would have to be very precise and Universe Equilibrium very unstable indeed - even a little nudge would bring things down!

Twelve years later Ed Hubble came out to tell the world that the Universe was indeed accelerating, embarassing Einstein to have him say that cosmological constant was his "Greatest Blunder".

Well, now things were settled, or so it seemed, about the gravity. It was argued that now Gravity will somehow slow this acceleration down. Around the turn of the 21st century however, it was clear that Universe's expansion was accelerating and NOT decelerating. So, now, Einstein's Cosmological Constant was dusted and brought out. His "blunderous" repulsive force was probably behind the accelerating expansion. It's been called Dark Energy. When something happens that we cannot explain and is not according to our wishes, we characterise it as "Dark". This episode showed that even scientists have superstitious minds.

Now the question is - if this Dark Energy is constant or growing? It seems currently that it is static. In any case, we will lose the sight of most galaxies in the next few billion years. So, if you wish to see any of those galaxies, do it NOW! It might be too late a few billion years from now!

Force-fields and Electromagnetism

Michael Faraday was, what they called at that time, a "Natural Philosopher". He was assistant of Humphry Davy a well known chemist of his time. In the class-driven British society of that time, he was treated as a servant by Davy's family and others, sometimes working as a valet replacement apart from his lab duties. It was after Davy's death that Faraday came into his own.

Faraday's greatest accomplishment was the finding that a changing magnetic field produces an electric field. His discovery did an important thing - it linked two forms of energy as mutually responsible for each other. Faraday's lack of mathematical rigor brought in James Clark Maxwell. He fashioned Faraday's findings into mathematical equations and was able to show what Faraday had demonstrated - that Electricity and Magnetism were manifestations of the same energy.

However, Maxwell, went further than that.

He found, mathematically, that magnetic fields and electric fields could be changed into one another. He found that if they changed from one to another in a never ending pattern - then they could create a wave just like in an ocean.

In 1864, he said: "This velocity is so nearly that of light that it seems we have strong reason to conclude that light itself is an electromagnetic disturbance."

While Faraday had brought together Electricity and Magnetism; Maxwell brought Light into the picture as well. He showed that all three - Electricity, Magnetism and Light were really manifestation of the same energy.

Interestingly, Swami Vivekananda had suggested the same, based on his understanding of Vedic philosophy, in one of his lectures in late 1890s:

out of this Prana is evolved everything that we call energy, everything that we call force. It is the Prana that is manifesting as motion; it is the Prana that is manifesting as gravitation, as magnetism. It is the Prana that is manifesting as the actions of the body, as the nerve currents, as thought force. From thought down to the lowest force, everything is but the manifestation of Prana. The sum total of all forces in the universe, mental or physical, when resolved back to their original state, is called Prana.

Of course, he went further that just magnetism, electricity and light were manifestations of a energy, but even "thought"! We shall see how science later went to that point much later.

Einstein's Theory of Relativity

Einstein's special theory of relativity led to the Mass-Energy equivalence. Coupled with that he showed that speed of light is actually a basic property of our existence.

Special relativity reveals that c is not just the velocity of a certain phenomenon, namely the propagation of electromagnetic radiation (light)-but rather a fundamental feature of the way space and time are unified as spacetime.

He followed this up with the General Theory of Relativity, which incorporated Gravity in the model as well. In the General Theory, he unified the Special theory of relativity and Newton's law of Gravitation. He described gravity as a geometric property of space and time, or spacetime.

Kaluza's Unification of forces

In April 1919, Theodor Kaluza was trying to solve Einstein's equation for General relativity using 5 dimensions. He found that Maxwell's equations of Electromagnetism emerged spontaneously.

Kaluza through his work was able to unify Light (electromagnetic forces) and Gravity. He also suggested that Light was but "ripples" in the 5th dimension.

Quantum Theory, Schrodinger's Cat and Consciousness

Quantum theory has come to be defined by the Copenhagen Interpretation (although there are other theories). Although there is no definitive statement of the Copenhagen Interpretation, it can be understood from its defining principles. [5] Primarily, it says that any one time, that electron could be wave or particle, and that the wave collapsed on observation into a particle.

However, the observer was taken to be objective. Schrodinger's Cat experiment brought this part out that the nature of measurement or the observation was not very well defined in this experiment.

Eugene Wigner then brought his friend into the Schrodinger's Cat experiment:

The Wigner's Friend thought experiment posits a friend of Wigner who performs the Schr�dinger's cat experiment after Wigner leaves the laboratory. Only when he returns does Wigner learn the result of the experiment from his friend, that is, whether the cat is alive or dead. The question is raised: was the state of the system a superposition of "dead cat/sad friend" and "live cat/happy friend," only determined when Wigner learned the result of the experiment, or was it determined at some previous point?

He brought in Consciousness to bear upon the Quantum Collapse, making consciousness material to the quantum measurement process.

Wigner suggested that Consciousness causes Collapse. This is explained best as:

The rules of quantum mechanics are correct but there is only one system which may be treated with quantum mechanics, namely the entire material world. There exist external observers which cannot be treated within quantum mechanics, namely human (and perhaps animal) minds, which perform measurements on the brain causing wave function collapse.

String Theory - Unification of Everything

String Theory dusted Kaluza's light ripples in the 5th dimension to extend the work of Einstein for a "Theory of Everything" (TOE). It was an attempt to merge the Quantum Theory with Theory of Relativity (Gravity and Light).

This is still an evolving area and has many theories, but the most inclusive is the 11-dimensional M-theory. It has since evolved into the "SuperString Theory".

According to this theory, sub atomic particles are simply vibrations of the "string" or Branes (p-brane) as they are known.

0-brane is a zero-dimensional pointlike particle, a 1-brane is a string, a 2-brane is a "membrane", etc. Every p-brane sweeps out a (p+1)-dimensional world volume as it propagates through spacetime.

According to the M-theory, strings of energy could grow to branes as large as the size of the Universe.

Basically, in layman's term, Creation may actually be a Vibration. Depending on how Consciousness is defined and how being conscious - a property is defined, Creation is just a Vibration in the Infinite Consciousness.

The world is nothing but a mere vibration of consciousness in space. (Maharishi Vasistha to Shri Ram in "Vasistha Yoga")

Vasistha's Yoga also goes ahead and defines its meaning of Consciousness extensively:

That self is subtler than even space since it has no name and cannot be described; and neither the mind nor the senses can reach it or comprehend it. It is pure consciousness. The entire Universe exists in the consciousness taht is atomic, even as tree exists within the seed.

Eugene Wigner had brought consciousness into play as he was deeply affected by Vedanta. In that sense, Vedanta and its philosophy of creation and existence has affected the debate in Modern science more than once.

Reference Links:

1. Bentley's Paradox
2. James Clerk Maxwell
3. The Nobel Prize in Physics 1963 - Presentation Speech
4. Eternal Illusion and How Observer Creates His Own Reality
5. Copenhagen Interpretation; Principles
6. Consciousness causes Collapse

Beyond Words

Golden Boy — Mon, 7 Sep 2009 07:26:23 EDT

Words!

In religions across the world, Messengers are given the title of Angels! Angels are the messengers of God!

I read once that Words are like Messengers! They bring messages to us of sadness, joy, anger, inspiration, and love!

Yet there is so much that words cannot express. Beyond a certain limit one finds that one is crippled for want of words, for one's feelings that one cannot convey within the limited framework of words.

This is because words come from the realm of the Mind. The mind is the master of our five senses! And all that is, in this world, cannot be comprehended by Mind alone!

A good Example is beauty, colours... try to explain these to a blind person! Is it possible? Words then are a great handicap for us to relate with eachother beyond a certain limit. That is the limitation of the Cyber Space then!

Many people, in their personal lives, just cannot transcend beyond words. Their minds go round and round in loops, reading stuff that one has chosen, and believing what one wants to believe.

I believe that when words rule us, we end up turning them into swords! There is nothing evil in this. Because the person ruled by words are bereft of the sixth sense, the sphere beyond the mind. He looks through the coloured glasses of his beliefs, and goes around expressing himself, unable to understand how others cannot be convinced!

Somebody told me a couple of days ago that a Literate man is more wise than an illiterate person! I don't agree!

Words, the kind of chatter of our Minds and the knowledge from books, Media, between countries and communities.. have led to the current state of affairs- Wars, Communalism, Terrorism, Global warming!

One needs to know that even beyond words and the alphabet, there is an immense Intelligence that keeps the Planets moving in their spheres, takes care that our heart pumps blood, air is pumped into our lungs, food is digested! This Intelligence of the Body and Nature is beyond the realm of the Mind.

How to reach there, how to tap into that Intelligence for answers to redeem Mankind of the problems we face today in our relationships and the environment?

I don't claim to know the perfect way to transcend beyond the limited knowledge of words, in order to tap into that Infinite Intelligence. For even I, am on the road towards reaching that plane that lies beyond words but is full of natural Intelligence!

Perhaps one of the ways to reach there is to develop our extra-sensory faculties!? Perhaps Meditation for a non-believer, and prayers for a believer maybe a good start!

But the best start of all is to understand that words are not the Ultimate Truth. Words just cannot help us to reach there. One has to tread beyond words.

Silence and looking within helps!

When Humanity will learn to tap this Intelligence that lies beyond the scope of the Mind and of words, there will be peace between individuals, neighbourhoods, communities and nations! That is the next level of evolution for Mankind.

Every Drop Makes An Ocean

Maaya — Mon, 7 Sep 2009 03:19:22 EDT

I believe in this maxim, now more than ever. I believe that a collective of something makes a much, much larger whole. That a little action can change the course of things. Of course it does.

These last 2 days I was a in a forum where there were discussions on ethics in science and technology (s&t) ... so there were these scientists, experts and there were a few of us trying to make sense of it all. These were scientists from various streams - from Life Sciences, Social Sciences, Biologists, Physicists, Information Technology etc.etc. And one got a faint glimpse into a world that otherwise one never gets to look into. One also got another glimpse. A glimpse into the relationships between S&T, Profit and Government. A glimpse of an animal that is Profit+Power that is served by Knowledge (of S&T). It felt odd to see the great being that is Knowledge (Science&Technology), as a dog chained and used by the P+P.

A few months ago, I had had an opportunity to get a glimpse into the world of our powers-that-be - the world of the decision makers, the bureaucrats. I was horrified at the helplessness that was expressed in that forum. At that time I couldn't digest the helplessness in the selling out of our powers-that-be to something which we are not able to clearly see.

It felt like society was addicted to, hooked on the Profit+Power. Like a Cocaine fix, even knowing that it is eating up our insides, we (as a society) serve the addiction, in little and big ways. Somewhere we have lost control and our (society's) addictions (plus its helplessness) have taken over.

I think we really, really, really don't understand the nature of the addiction, the nature of this animal, Profit+Power<-served-by-Knowledge-and-governments. I don't think we really understand how deep the rot is or how rotten the rot that permeates our worlds. Believe me, I have NOTHING against profit. Honest gains from honest efforts. 10%, 20%, 30%... all acceptable. How about 500%? or 1000% or 5000%? And we wouldn't want to know what goes behind making that 1000%.

If we want change, we have to commit to it, with all our strength, with all our will. Because the animal that is Profit+Power<-served-by-Knowledge-and-governments is putting out 100% effort into feeding itself. And once we make this commitment, we can said, WILL change.

And induce The Butterfly Effect.

And the change is happening. Another World is happening. It is happening because more and more people are discussing issues of equity, justice, plurality, sustainability, choices, rights ... ordinary people, teachers, doctors, scientists, law-makers, bureaucrats, youth groups, women and so on ... more and more people are committing to change, deciding to change.

If change is seen in the span of decades, it is disheartening ... but seen in a span of centuries, one sees a very certain and positive movement towards respect for all. We have come a long, long way from when women were burnt at the husband's pyre, or slaves were whipped in cotton fields, or education was only for a privileged few. We have come a long way from where the only answer came from the gun, where the poor or women could not vote, or religion controlled society, or people could be touched or included based on their caste.

These monsters are still there. These animals still breathe and feed themselves. But slowly, inexorably they are being curtailed. And this happens only because change is demanded - again and again - by people who want change, who are committed to change. Because issues like Ethics in Science & Technology get discussed. Because Right to Information, Shelter, Livelihood and Life become norms.

I remember a childhood nursery rhyme ....

If all the seas were one sea, What a great sea that would be!
And if all the trees were one tree, What a great tree that would be!
And if all the axes were one axe, What a great axe that would be!
And if all the men were one man, What a great man he would be!
And if the great man took the great axe, And cut down the great tree, And let it fall into the great sea, What a big splash that would be!