July 15, 2019 Monday
Bedtime Story
Cosmological Questions
Let us sample tonight some of the questions
that cosmologists not merely pose but try to answer using physical
observations, measurements using tools of physics, mathematics and chemistry.
Correlate them with the questions posed by
evolutionary biologists and you will find unique similarity because both enter
and disturb the arena that was even hundred years ago the privilege of
religions and ambiguous philosophy.
What is the origin of the universe?
What is its first cause (that logically
follows from the cause and effect theory or the causality concept that is one
of the most fundamental and essential notions of physics)?
Is there even a necessary cause for the
universe to exist?
Is it really necessary for the universe to
exist (vague question though as it is unspecified for whom it should be or
ought to be necessary?
It would be absurd to contemplate that the
universe should exist for a virus to exist or for plastic to be created through
the evolved industrialized apes.)
What are the ultimate building blocks that
build our universe (the search is still on in spite of the terrific advances
made through particle collision physics)?
What is the reason that the universe exists
(again not a very useful question to be posed but all the same worth
considering to debunk it)?
Why is there something rather than nothing
(perhaps the most interesting one)?
Does this cosmos serve any purpose
(“purpose” questions only reflect the vanities of us human apes)?
What led to the origins of the
consciousness that was able to ask such questions?
As you can see that these questions are the
type that even a completely ignorant and illiterate but curious child is
capable of asking and hence cursorily dismissible.
And yet cosmology is providing us with
evidence-backed answers to the questions that religions till today used with
great relish and pomp to make cult-slaves out of the desperate and scared masses
plagued with miseries, relentless unmitigated serial grief and uncertainties
throughout their lives.
Yet I shall not go into these questions
today and merely leave you to think about them.
Our point of interest some nights before
was specifically the vascular smooth muscles of the blood vessels and how they
control the tone of the vessels and thereby the overall blood pressure and
perfusion of the tissues.
Understanding the chemical-neuronal
regulation of the tone of these smooth muscle cells is crucial to the
understanding of action of Ergot alkaloid.
The vascular smooth muscles on their membranes
contain special type of integral membrane protein (so called because they are
integrated into the cellular membrane) that make seven passes through the
membrane (akin to a snake coiling not just around but through a linear porous
empty cylindrical bar) and are a special type of G proteins.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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