A blog on Islam, Muslims, spirituality, the Islamic movement,
current events, technology, and other areas of interest
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Hot Rocks Keep us Alive
From the Discovery Channel News:
If it weren’t for the hot rocks down below Earth’s crust, most of North America would be below sea level, report researchers who say the significance of Earth’s internal heat has been overlooked.
Without it, mile-high Denver would be 727 feet below sea level, the scientists calculate, and New York City, more than a quarter-mile below. Los Angeles would be almost three-quarters of a mile beneath the Pacific.
In fact most of the United States would disappear, except for some major Western mountain ranges, according to research at the University of Utah.
Wa mā min dābbatin fī l-ardi wa lā tā’irin yatīru bijanāhayhi illā umamun amthālukum mā farratnā fī l-kitābi min shay’in thumma ilā rabbihim yuhsharūn.
There is not an animal (that lives) on the earth, nor a being that flies on its wings, but (forms part of) communities like you. Nothing have we omitted from the Book, and they (all) shall be gathered to their Lord in the end.
(Qur’ān, Sūrat al-An‘ām, Āyah 38)
How often do we appreciate the amazing order and structure that Allāh has placed in every facet of every system He has created? From the organized structure of the incredibly minute atoms that build up all the molecules within an organism, to the complex social structures that are manifest among a species of those organisms. A video follows showing us just a glimpse into the amazing social dynamic that exists among the animals with which we share this earth. Watch it to the very end for something rather unexpected.
One cannot help but be reminded of one of the lessons that Allāh has taught us through Prophet Sulaymān (Solomon), may Allāh grant him peace. That these communities that we so often blindly pass off as being less “evolved” are actually much more sophisticated than we think. Perhaps these reminders can help us gain a better appreciation for Allāh’s creation and the hidden beauty that lies right underneath our feet...
Fatabassama dāhikan min qawlihā wa qāla Rabbī awzi‘nī an ashkura ni‘mataka llatī an‘amta ‘alayya wa ‘alā wālidayya wa an a‘mala sālihan tardāhu wa adkhilnī birahmatika fī ‘ibādika s-sālihīn.
At length, when they came to a (lowly) valley of ants, one of the ants said: “O ants, get into your habitations, lest Solomon and his hosts crush you (under foot) without knowing it.”
So he smiled, amused at her speech, and he said: “O my Lord, so order me that I may be grateful for Your favors, which you have bestowed on me and on my parents, and that I may work righteousness that will please You. And admit me, by Your Grace, to the ranks of Your righteous servants."
People who can communicate in more than one language – bilinguals - are intriguing to psychologists. A new study focuses on how bilinguals switch between tongues – how come they don't mix up words from different languages? A prevailing view is that bilinguals have a kind of switch at the front of their brain that inhibits the language(s) not currently in use. Now Kuan Kho and colleagues report the case of two bilingual patients who, during the course of brain surgery for epilepsy, appear to have had their 'switches' involuntarily flipped.
Prior to surgery, patient A – a Dutch-English bilingual - underwent a Wada test that involves anaesthetising one half of the brain at a time. When his left-hemisphere was anaesthetised he first went mute for a few minutes, then he fully recovered English (his second language), but struggled with Dutch. Asked to recall a story told to him earlier, he was only able to do so in English. Any Dutch he did come up with, he spoke in an English accent!
Patient B, a French-Chinese bilingual, was having his brain prodded with an electrode to identify which neural tissue was involved in language before the surgeons got to work. The patient was asked to count. He began in French, then when he reached seven (...quatre, cinq, six, sept), the stimulation was applied to his left inferior frontal gyrus, at which point he involuntarily switched to Chinese (...ba, jiu, shi). When the stimulation ended, he reverted to French.
These case studies support the notion that, in bilinguals, specific regions at the front of the left hemisphere act as a language switch. The observations are also consistent with another recent study, which documented involuntary language switching in two bilingual patients who received transcranial magnetic stimulation to their left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, as a treatment for depression.
Universities Prepare for Data Deluge from CERN Collider
The world’s largest science experiment at CERN will produce 15 petabytes of data!
The world’s largest science experiment, a physics experiment designed to determine the nature of matter, will produce a mountain of data. And because the world's physicists cannot move to the mountain, an army of computer research scientists is preparing to move the mountain to the physicists...
At universities across the United States and at other institutions around the world, teams of computer research scientists and physicists are preparing for the largest physics experiment ever...
The collider will give protons a pop hoping to catch a glimpse of the Big Bang, or at least the subatomic particles that are thought to have last been seen at the big event 10 billion to 15 billion years ago that led to the formation of the universe. The CERN collider will begin producing data in November, and from the trillions of collisions of protons it will generate 15 petabytes of data per year.
By comparison, 15 petabytes would be the equivalent of all of the information in all of the university libraries in the United States seven times over. It would be the equivalent of 22 Internets, or more than 1,000 Libraries of Congress. And there is no search function.
Wired News: Scientists Work on Encyclopedia of Life
Wired News on a new ambitious project called the Encyclopedia of Life:
In a whale-sized project, the world's scientists plan to compile everything they know about all of Earth's 1.8 million known species and put it all on one Web site, open to everyone.
The effort, called the Encyclopedia of Life, will include species descriptions, pictures, maps, videos, sound, sightings by amateurs, and links to entire genomes and scientific journal papers. Its first pages of information will be shown Wednesday in Washington where the massive effort is being announced by some of the world's leading scientific institutions and universities. The project will take about 10 years to complete.
A study of medieval Islamic art has shown some of its geometric patterns use principles established centuries later by modern mathematicians.
Researchers in the US have found 15th Century examples that use the concept of quasicrystalline geometry.
This indicates intuitive understanding of complex mathematical formulae, even if the artisans had not worked out the underlying theory, the study says.
The discovery is published in the journal Science.
The research shows an important breakthrough had occurred in Islamic mathematics and design by 1200.
“It’s absolutely stunning,” Harvard’s Peter Lu said in an interview.
“They made tilings that reflect mathematics that were so sophisticated that we didn’t figure it out until the last 20 or 30 years.”
The Islamic designs echo quasicrystalline geometry in that both use symmetrical polygonal shapes to create patterns that can be extended indefinitely without repetition.
17th Century Muslim Swordmaker and Carbon Nanotubes
Tina Fineberg for The New York Times
The New York Times ran an article today about the famous 17th century Muslim swordmaker named Assad Ullah who made legendary swords known as Damascus sabers.
An excerpts from the article:
“All hail the great 17th-century nanotechnologist Assad Ullah!
“Actually, he was a swordmaker, one in a long line of smiths who forged the legendary weapons known as Damascus sabers. They were strong yet flexible and supremely sharp, which European warriors first discovered, much to their misfortune, at the hands of Muslims during the Crusades.”
