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Science
Include in your Science list
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By Angela U. Fariñas, Christine N. Joson
Beyond Science, beyond Einstein
Having written various books anchored on Science and having become one of the pioneers of analytical intelligence, Albert Einstein really had reached the great height on Science. Albert Einstein was a theoretical physicist who is widely considered to have been the greatest physicist of all time. He was best known for the theory of relativity and specifically the formula, mass-energy equivalence, E = mc2, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921, for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect. Not only was Einstein a man of universal intelligence but also a man of wisdom. He proved this through his 300 scientific writings and over 150 non-scientific ones. Below is the list of the top 5 quotes by Einstein worth reflecting and pondering on. Explore and take the risk! 1. “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” The warfare 2. “Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them.” How far imagination takes you 3. “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” Work hard to earn value 4. “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” Key to playing better than anyone else 5. “You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”
Inventions Inventors Didn’t Think Would Have Been Invented 1. Curiosity doesn’t always kill the cat
2. Invented in a heartbeat!
• Penicillin tops the list! Originally noticed by a French medical student, Ernest Duchesne, in 1896. Penicillin was re-discovered by bacteriologist Alexander Fleming working at St. Mary’s Hospital in London in 1928. Alexander Fleming didn’t clean up his workstation before going on vacation one day in 1928. When he came back, he observed that a plate culture that he left of Staphylococcus had been contaminated by a blue-green mold and that colonies of bacteria adjacent to the mold were being dissolved. Curious, Alexander Fleming grew the mold in a pure culture and found that it produced a substance that killed a number of disease-causing bacteria. Naming the substance penicillin, Dr. Fleming in 1929 published the results of his investigations, noting that his discovery might have therapeutic value if it could be produced in quantity.
3. A colorful surprise
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• Can you imagine the pain of undergoing auto graft and the feeling of having your operation without anaesthesia? Unspeakable horror! Although the true discoverer of anaesthesia is contested, the people who contributed to its development and use were inspired by similar accidental observations. Crawford Long, William Morton, Charles Jackson and Horace Wells all come to mind when talking about anaesthesia. These men realized that in some cases, ether and nitrous oxide (laughing gas) inhibited pain in people under their influence. Wells used the compound as an anaesthetic while he removed his tooth. From there, anaesthesia’s use during medical procedures and surgeries took off. Wells, Morton and Jackson began to collaborate and use anaesthesia in dental practices, while Crawford Long used ether for minor surgeries.
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In a world full of aggression, nothing is going to be solved. Same goes with the Earth’s inhabitants, if we let our mad selves overcome our integrity, everything will go out of hand. But in Science, the madder you are, the higher heights you can reach.
Topping the list is Marie Curie who died due to radiation sickness. Furiously devoted to science and driven to succeed, Curie worked in isolation as a student, and later with her husband, discovering radium. Her life was a roller-coaster ride of incredible professional achievement, scrutiny from paparazzi and devastating loss, including the death of loved ones. After the death of her husband, she endured symptoms of major depressive disorder, but redoubled her efforts to isolate radium in its purest form. Marie Curie, the real digger of own grave!
Clocking in at the second spot is the perceived-as-evil, Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein is a prototype for all mad scientists. While his initial intentions are not evil, he gets carried away in his quest for knowledge. Frankenstein was an isolated workaholic. His thirst for knowledge and symptoms of mania such as a decreased need for sleep fueled him to do what should have been scientifically impossible: breathe life into a collection of spare human parts. After this terrible accomplishment, Frankenstein showed alarming signs of psychosis, including hallucinations. His family died in the horrible fallout of his actions, plummeting Frankenstein into a major depressive episode before he was murdered by his own monster in the Arctic.
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4. Painless discovery
• In 1856, William Henry Perkin, age 18, given a challenge by his professor, August Wilhelm von Hofmann, sought to synthesize quinine, the anti-malaria drug. In one attempt, Perkin oxidized aniline using potassium dichromate, whose toluidine impurities reacted with the aniline and yielded a black solid—suggesting a “failed” organic synthesis. Cleaning the flask with alcohol, Perkin noticed purple portions of the solution. His dye was far better than any dyes that came from nature; the color was brighter, more vibrant, and didn’t fade or wash out.
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• Wilson Greatbatch, who saved countless lives with his invention of the implantable cardiac pacemaker, deserves the 2nd spot. In the 1950s, Greatbatch had left the Navy and was working as medical researcher. He was building an oscillator to record heart sounds when he pulled the wrong resistor out of a box. When he assembled his device, it began to give off a rhythmic electrical pulse. It was then he realized his invention could be used as a pacemaker. He spent two years refining his device and was awarded a patent for world’s first implantable pacemaker.
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On whichever level, Science has always stunned us with its new breakthroughs and evolutionary developments across the world, be it social, technological or geopolitical, it continues to up its game. Scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) were cheered like rock stars when they announced they’d finally caught a glimpse of the biggest and most elusive catch in modern physics: The Higgs boson. This proved why it topped the 1st spot! The particle, which they’re 99.99997 percent sure is the real deal, validates the Standard Model of physics, which explains
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Eight years since Angel Locsin flew as Darna in 2005, where is she when the then-beautiful Earth that transitioned to an unbearable planet needs her? Eight years is not really that protracted, but with so many things that have changed since its airing, eight years already seems like a decade. For example, climate change. Scientists were sounding the warnings about global warming, driven by human burning of carbon-based fuels, long before
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Saving the best for last! Captain Nemo secured the last spot because he is simply, uhm, mind-troubling! This mysterious explorer and scientist first appeared in Jules Verne’s 1870 novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Vingt Mille lieues sous les mers). A mechanical genius, Nemo single-handedly designed and built the Nautilus, a submarine of stupendous proportions that was often mistaken for an undersea monster. Nemo likely suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder following traumatic experiences associated with war and the death of his family. Re-experiencing symptoms sent him into an anguished and avoidant lifelong undersea journey focused on revenge against anyone he considered a tyrant. Nemo also demonstrated levels of empathy higher than what is typically seen in mad scientists, giving undersea treasures to those fighting oppression around the world.
the recreation of Mars Ravelo’s fiction, Darna. In 2005, the year the show re-aired, the National Academy of Sciences published a report that noted that roughly half the increase in temperature of the North Atlantic’s waters in the past 10,000 years had been achieved in only a decade. But since then, some of the effects of the changing climate have become more obvious -- and destructive. A 2010 Huffington Post article detailed many of these alarming signs, ranging from the bleaching and death
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how, if not why, the universe is able to take on a tangible existence. “There’s no underestimating the significance of this discovery,” said Jeffrey Kluger at TIME. “No Higgs, no mass; no mass, no you, me or anything else.” And second of all, why are high school narcissists disproportionately cool? A small but interesting study reveals that people possessing “dark” qualities like narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy were consistently rated as more attractive than so-called normal people.
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of coral reefs from increased ocean temperatures, to the complete disappearance of Alaska’s Muir Glacier, which was 2,000 feet thick in 1941. In low-lying coastal areas of the developing world, people already are being forced to relocate because of rising sea levels. The problems, unfortunately, are likely to become much worse. Some experts predict that the planet could have one billion climate refugees by 2050. Scary! Has anyone of you heard that Darna is coming back in 2013?
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