Observations – Harmonia Philosophica

Microscopes as the Death of Science…

Two Americans and a German researcher on Wednesday were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work fine-tuning optical microscopy so that molecular processes could be viewed in real time.

The 2014 laureates in chemistry are Eric Betzig of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Virginia; Stefan W. Hell of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Germany; and William E. Moerner of Stanford University in California.

In awarding the prizes at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, the Nobel Committee said in a news release: “For a long time optical microscopy was held back by a presumed limitation: that it would never obtain a better resolution than half the wavelength of light. Helped by fluorescent molecules the Nobel Laureates in Chemistry 2014 ingeniously circumvented this limitation. Their ground-breaking work has brought optical microscopy into the nanodimension”. (1)

We believe we have progressed. But science is still based on one and very limited foundation pillar: What we SEE. From the Unbelieving Thomas to modern biologists, we all have to see in order to believe.

We cannot see that our eyes are not our eyes.
Democritus chose to pull them off.
So as he was not blinded by their use…

We do not trust our intuition.
We do not trust our mind.

We already know what we see before we see it.
We already understand things without ever laying eyes on them.
We already had the greatest Science before we had the first microscope.
We stopped having good Science the moment we started using one…

The sound of atoms… The sound of the universe…

What does an atom sound like? Apparently it’s a “D-note”.

That’s according to scientists at Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg, Sweden, who have revealed in a new study that they’ve captured the sound of a single atom.

“We have opened a new door into the quantum world by talking and listening to atoms,” study co-author Per Delsing, a physics professor at the university, said in a written statement. “Our long term goal is to harness quantum physics so that we can benefit from its laws, for example in extremely fast computers.”

For their study, Delsing and his colleagues constructed an artificial atom 0.01 millimeters long and placed it on the end of a superconducting material. Then they guided sound waves along the surface of the material, bounced sound off of the atom, and recorded what came back using a tiny microphone located on the other end of the material. (1)

The whole universe is a symphonic orchestra.
The scientists got that right.
But we are not just listening.
We are part of that orchestra!

We are mathematicians.
Playing a tune as we formulate reality.
A sacred reality we are honoured to be part of.

Open your ears.

Listen to Pythagoras.

His silence echoing through the aeons…

More deafening than ever.

Speed of light. Speed of change.

Were physicists all wrong about the speed of light? You might think so, given the stories posted recently about a new paper suggesting that light travels a bit more slowly than the 186,000-miles-a-second figure that’s familiar to generations of science geeks.

“The speed of light has almost mythical significance in physics”, Tyson told The Huffington Post in an email. “But to be honest, the headline in this case needs to say something like ‘New Calculations Suggest that the Speed of Light May Be 0.0000003% Slower Than We Thought,’ which then might not have garnered any headlines at all”.

In the paper, Franson argues that a “corrected” value for the speed of light might help explain a puzzle stemming from observations of a supernova that exploded in 1987.

Following its explosion, astronomers observed photons (particles of light) and nearly massless particles known as neutrinos streaming from Supernova 1987a, Franson told The Huffington Post in an email, adding that photons and neutrinos have been thought to travel at roughly the same speed. But the first photons from the supernova, which was located in a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way known as the Large Magellanic Cloud, were observed much later than the first neutrinos — a discrepancy that astronomers were hard pressed to explain.

Franson’s paper offers calculations suggesting a possible explanation for the anomaly, as he explained in the email:

What is new about my calculations is that they suggest that a gravitational field may slow light down slightly more than it does other particles, such as neutrinos. Neutrinos have extremely small masses and they travel very nearly at the speed of light as a result. My calculations suggest that the velocity of light may be slowed down by a few parts per billion more than the neutrinos. (1)

We observe.
We “discover” (create?) limits.
We observe again.
We “discover” those limits do not exist as we thought they were.
We observe.
We discover that…

Well, you get the meaning…

Curiosity, microbes, observing.

A recent study of swabs taken from the rover before it launched found its surfaces contained 65 bacteria species. Engineers are supposed to put spacecraft like Curiosity through a stringent cleaning regimen before launch. Yet certain species of bacteria are known to survive even NASA’s cleanrooms. Wondering about what remained on Curiosity even after cleaning, scientists from the University of Idaho and California’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory swabbed different parts of the rover before sending it off. After gathering and characterizing their bacteria, the scientists exposed them to harsh conditions, including desiccation, ultraviolet light exposure, extreme cold and extreme pH levels. About 11 percent of the bacterial strains they found survived at least two conditions. (1)

The premise that we can observe something without affecting it is one of the major dogmas of science today.
Destroying that illusion it is the first step towards the truth.
Realizing that observing something is what makes that something exist is the next step.

Towards understanding what is in front of our eyes.
Which is actually behind them.
Inside our minds I mean.
Well, you know what I mean.
Observe me well.
I am here.
Close your eyes.
I am gone.

Mars here we come!

Mindfulness’ meditation. Gene expression.

It’s no secret that mindfulness meditation – a practice that encourages focusing attention on the present moment – can ease emotional stress. And evidence is mounting that mindfulness also may have key benefits for your physical health – from lowering blood pressure to helping curb addiction. But a new study conducted by researchers working in Wisconsin, Spain, and France shows that mindfulness can even affect your genes. Specifically, the study shows that mindfulness can limit the “expression” of genes associated with inflammation. (1)

Philosophy made easy with science.

The only trick, is to be able to see the evidence in front of you.

Let go. Don’t think too hard. Just accept them.
Analyzing amazing observations TOO MUCH can alter them to disappearance, the same way meditation alters genes…

Too much thinking is synonym to dogmatism.
A free mind just feels the cosmos as it is.
And guess what: This is the ONLY way…