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The Pathogenesis of HIV and Covid-19

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

Do not be alarmed. The reason I decided to do an in-depth analysis and study on the pathogenesis of these two viruses, is because they are the culprits behind the two full scale global pandemics in recent history. Humanity has battled disease outbreaks since the start of civilizations. But in living memory there have been only two pandemics with about 40 years between them.

(Concept video made with ai by Arjuwan Lakkdawala.)

The first in 1983 when HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) which untreated progresses into AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome – a fatal condition) caused a worldwide outbreak with its main strain HIV-1, then the second was in 2019 when the Sars-Cov-2 (a Coronavirus - Covid-19) was reported around the world and made governments enforce quarantines and curfews.

So this is the primary reason the viruses were elected for research. Interesting to note that it is viruses that caused these pandemics and not bacterial infections.

A tale of two viruses

Twice the viruses were able to break through the health and safety guidelines of the time. A sign that disease prevention measures in 1983 and 2019 wasn’t sufficient, and the emergence of these viruses had not been foreseen even with advanced 21st century technology and awareness.

Both have RNA genome but HIV has a reverse transcriptes mechanism, by which it converts its RNA into DNA and integrates itself in the host genome and creates reservoirs that can be latent for years; making the virus incurable.

Covid-19 is still shrouded in mystery with very little of the narrative about it making sense. It spreads through aerosol droplets in the air. Is it the flu? Whoever died of flu, or did it ever cause quarantine and curfews. Is it pneumonia? Was the vaccine worse than the virus itself? Why has AstraZeneca been discontinued? What is Long Covid?

The official text on the viruses is that they are of zoonotic origins and evolved to infect human hosts.

Awareness was different in the times that set these outbreaks decades apart. When HIV-1 went global after jumping to humans (known medically as a spillover event) from chimpanzees it was theorized that the cause was eating bushmeat in Africa, there were controversial theories that the species jump had happened when some humans had sex with chimpanzees. But we’ll never get to the bottom of it.

The world didn’t have the Internet and news organizations were too slow and limited to spread awareness globally before the global spread of the disease itself.

HIV-1 became a pandemic; people were having unprotected sex, other routs of infection was the virus spreading through infected needles used by drug addicts and from mother to unborn child, etc.

The HIV virus still doesn’t have a vaccine and in 1983 when it was discovered there was no effective cure. There still isn’t but effective lifelong medication can suppress the virus replication to undetectable levels.

The zoonotic origin of HIV is from the simian Immunodeficiency virus in chimpanzees. Covid-19 is theorized to have evolved to infect humans after spilling over from bats to an intermediate host, probably in the Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, where there was exposure to blood from butchering animals in a very unhygienic and cruel environment.

What has been done since 1983 to combat HIV is a remarkable feat of modern medicine and global awareness.

HIV once in the body attacks the defense cells of CD4+ T, destroying the host defense from all types of diseases, including cancers, this hazardous biological condition progresses into AIDS, which becomes the terminal stage of the infection.

Since 1983 antiretroviral therapy (ART) has been developed to inhibit the virus cells and suppress replication, this treatment is highly effective in reducing transmission and prevention of the virus from progressing into AIDS.

However, the ability of the virus to integrate into host genome as DNA and create latent heterogeneous reservoirs (mixer of mutated virions) makes it incurable with current treatments. HIV has only 9 genes and a very rapid mutation rate, this means that with just about every replication a new slightly different strain can emerge. This results in a “cloud of quasispecies” in the body. This mechanism of the virus makes it challenging to treat and eradicate despite antiretroviral therapy. If treatment is discontinued the virus immediately bursts into large closely related populations with a master strain, attacking the immune system defense cells.

The complex issue is that unlike broad spectrum antibiotics there is no broad spectrum antivirals. So different strains of the same virus can evade antiviral therapy targeting one specific strain.

How does Covid-19 attack the body?

(Concept image of Alien University made with ai by Arjuwan Lakkdawala)

It is the chameleon of viruses or better described as a chimeric virus. Chimeric is a term often given to viruses assumed to be laboratory engineered, by recombining genes of different viruses. The virus has 10 to 15 genes and a high mutation rate. However, in the case of Covid-19 there is no evidence of laboratory tampering according to the mainstream media. It is a chimera virus with its backbone genes from bat viruses and its spike protein from pangolin viruses. However, this is theorized to have happened in the Wuhan Market where there were several species of animals. But there is no explanation about the timeline of the spillover event, which in nature usually requires several animal jumps for a virus to evolve to infect humans. The spikes of Covid-19 are in fact optimized to bind to human ACE2 receptor cells. For such a spillover event to be possible, the animals must be confined and alive in the same habitat for a long time. Which does not seem like a plausible environment in a market. However, zoonotic viruses can evolve to infect humans with a single spillover event.

Covid-19 according to the official narrative depends entirely on the health of your immune system and if you have any underlying illnesses. It primary behaves like a flu; symptoms start as a flu. Then if your immune system is already compromised the spike protein on Covid-19 can bind to and attack everywhere in your body where there are ACE2 receptor cells.

ACE2 cells are expressed in the “upper and lower respiratory tract (especially nasal epithelium and lung alveolar cells) heart, blood vessels, kidneys, intestines, and other tissues.”

The RNA of the virus uses host ribosomes (a protein synthesis organelle – translating instructions in proteins) to replicate the viral genome.

If the immune system is or gets severely compromised Covid-19 can cause an inflammation of cytokine storm, an overreaction from the immune system and dysfunction of defense cells: macrophage, dendritic, neutrophils, T cells, etc. It causes septic shock like organ failure and death.

What is Long Covid?

It is a mystery. There is no definitive definition of what is Long Covid. It is an active area of research. Studies so far in a subset of patients has collected evidence of suspected reservoirs in parts of the body where ACE2 receptor cells are expressed. Subgenomic RNA has been detected in some patients even after nasal swabs and blood tests were negative. Indicating possible reservoirs causing chronic inflammation, immune dysregulation, autoimmune disorders, cytokine inflammation, etc.

This is somewhat similar to how HIV causes chronic inflammation and weakening of the overall immune defenses.

Long Covid could cause people to have decline in cognitive abilities due to brain fog, cognitive impairment, neurological disorders. It is suspected that the reason behind this is reservoirs in the gut microbiome where ACE2 receptors cells are highly expressed. And that the gut-brain axis is the pathway of the virus into the brain and the whole neurological system.

(Author’s Note: could it be that Long Covid is causing the global insanity crisis.)

A fundamental question in microbiology: What is a virus?

There are theories but no definite answer. Perhaps the behavior of viruses could unravel the mystery.

They are non-living obligate parasites. Or we could speak of them as biological machines.

A virus is a genetic material that gets activated when it attaches to a host. Unlike bacteria, a virus does not have the ability to move by itself or ribosomes, or metobolism – a major distinction of it being not alive.

A typical virus is much smaller than any typical bacteria. While viruses can infect host cells and bacteria, the virus itself is basically an apex predator of the world of microorganisms. It has no predator, the only exception is being infected by virophages ( even smaller viruses that parasitize giants like the Pandoraivirus)

However, the astonishing thing is that once it gets a host, it ‘knows’ how to systematically attack cells and even travel to the saliva (as in the case of the rabies virus, so the infected host can bite and infect new hosts) this genetic material is innately programmed to kill host cells and replicate itself. Why would something like this exist in evolution? Survival of the fittest or natural selection does not explain the behaviour of viruses. Viruses can infect even bacteria and kill them.

If we were to look at the behaviour of viruses from the point of view of killing other organisms to survive, and by that, I mean replication, they would have to be alive, but they are not. The scientific definition of 'obligate parasites' of a thing that is also defined as ‘non-living’ means they are designed to kill other organisms with no metabolic aspirations.

The fourth domain of life

The Fourth Domain of Life hypothesis is from around 2010 to 2013, because a few large viruses have some protein synthesis machinery, the hypothesis proposes that they could be descendent from a species that over time lost its life defining mechanism, and so became obligate parasitic genetic material. The Three Domain system was established by Carl Woese: Bacteria, Archaea, Eukarya.

In popular science fiction the strange mechanical like behavior of viruses have long fascinated storytellers, and their defiance of living while still being not alive, has made them frontrunners for the concept of unknown alien life forms.

In H.G. Wells 1898 book War of the Worlds, the alien life forms from Mars appear to be closely inspired by viruses.

(Concept images made with ai by Arjuwan Lakkdawala)

If you have ever wondered why computer malicious software is named viruses. It is because the behavior of these ‘digital viruses’ has relatable analogies with actual biological viruses.

Computer scientist Fred Cohen formally coined the term ‘virus’ in 1983 after discussing the matter with his advisor Leonard Adleman of RSA encryption fame. Virus in computer context now describes a malicious software that can attach its programming to host software to disrupt and damage their functions, and replicate itself as it further infects digital files.

(Concept image made with ia by Arjuwan Lakkdawala)

Not all viruses are bad for us

Bacteriophages (viruses that specifically infect bacteria) have been used for centuries and continue to be used as a remedy for bacterial infections. According to the World Health Organization due to antibiotic resistance we could soon be entering the “post-antibiotic era” so we might go back to the ancient remedies of using bacteriophages for bacterial infections.

We do not know what potential viruses could have if we can control their programming by gene editing and protein instructions. Proteins are the encrypted language of the cellular and microbial world. Biological systems understand what they need to do to achieve a certain function from instructions in proteins when amino acids are synthesized (translated). If we want to further refine this language, advanced science can combine the identity of protein molecules with their atomic structure.

An experimental project is the Protein Data Bank, an archive of protein structures established in 1971. It was used to train the AlphaFold series of advancing database of experimental protein structures from their amino acid sequeances. AlphaFold (protein structure database, with over 200 million protein 3D shape predictions by the software ) was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an author, scientific researcher, inventor.

Email: [email protected] Instagram/Twitter/X: Spellrainia

Sources:

Google it.

#Alien University #arjuwan lakkdawala #ink in the internet #science #biology #nature #computer viruses #alphafold #nobel prize #h g wells #war of the worlds #hiv #long covid #pathogenesis #virology

Ancient World

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

I recently heard the Lex Fridman podcast with Dave Hone, a dinosaur expert. It was a brilliant podcast very interesting. It shed light on Earth’s ancient history in regard to these giant creatures that walked our planet. It also horrified me that an asteroid actually hit earth 66 millions years ago. If it happened once it could happen again.

Fears set apart, we hope an asteroid is not coming for earth. It fascinated me how much was going on in the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods. How did scientists join the pieces of such an ancient, and enormous jigsaw. This is my understanding of the process from my online research, and some of my thoughts on the matter.

A dinosaur fossil is found; there is no DNA to extract since it decays over millions of years. The best tissue available if preserved is cartilage. The next step is to study ‘geological time' of the rock formation in which the fossil was discovered.

(What is Geological Time: Earth’s ancient history is preserved in layers of soil and rocks. Geologists study the composition of these in detail and to the atomic level. It has traces of what lived on earth from creatures to plants, microorganisms, and what was the environment and climate in Earth’s various periods. Each finding combined creates scientific data to join parts of the jigsaw.)

Isotopes in chemical compounds differ with variations caused in the compound by climate and the ecology. So that’s another method to discern the age of the fossil and its environment, teeth categorize the fossil and especially the diet.

Dave Hone says in the podcast that dinosaurs were “animals” after all, so we can get clues to their nature by other apex predators.

The climate in the Cretaceous Period and sea levels were very high. Does warm climate contribute to large creatures? It is said placental mammals evolved during this period and flowering plants (angiosperms) debuted in the same time scale. Although dinosaurs lay eggs pretty much like reptiles.

Biological rules of temperature and body size are controversial and not reliable. While some in science say cold climate produces large bodies to conserve heat, and warm climate small bodies to lose heat. There are cases in nature that don’t support the rule

However, if not in the animal kingdom in the plant kingdom warm climate appears to contribute to the growth of tall trees and large plants. The baffling question is that we have microscopic life and giants like elephants and the extinct dinosaurs. What is the force that drives evolution into such massive diversity in size?

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said in the science fiction book ‘Lost World' I quote: “Evolution was not a spent force.” But what are its rules, principles, laws? Why does it seem to be immune to entropy though it is in a closed system, which according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics is experiencing entropy as it ages, yet DNA retains copies of ancestral information and writes new information with variations that affect it during the life of the living entity . These are pretty much still unanswered questions in science.

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his book 'Flight of Fancy' states the theory that evolution can be described as “economics.” It is an elaboration of Darwin's Theory of 'Survival of the Fittest.'

In the book Dawkins gives various examples of why efficiency and passing of good genes to the next generation is the ultimate goal of evolution, and it is the bases of the nature of all creatures.

While evolution appears to have a common theme in the animal kingdom, scientists cannot explain human intelligence. Or why we are so unique on earth. We definitely appear to be a single species, with no other species similar to the human form, speech, or cognition.

It’s like we are masters of all the creatures of the earth, I feel mankind intelligence is alien – not from earth.

Neuroscience so far confirms to us that neurons are the electrical body of intelligence, consciousness, and carriers of signals – mind to body via spinal cord, and gut to mind via neural pathways and the blood stream.

The more neurons we have the higher our ability to understand and think. However, while this applies in principle, the area of the concentration of neurons is said to be the deciding factor if neurons will be able to contribute to our level of intelligence. For example, the average human has about 86 billion neurons, of which 16.3 billion are in the cerebral cortex. while the African elephant, which has the most neurons 257 billion, has only 5.6 billion in the cerebral cortex.

Scientific studies are increasingly confirming that ecology greatly effects evolution, but yet again this seems to apply to every living thing on earth except humans – humans from everywhere on earth have the same fundamental features.

The Mesozoic Era was from 252 to 66 million years ago, it is divided in three periods: Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous.

According to online research there were no dinosaurs before this era, but there were other reptiles and mammals.

Earth had a single supercontinent 'Pangaea' at the start of the Mesozoic Era, and then started to gradually break into the shapes we know today during the three periods.

Earth in its elliptical orbit was closer to the sun which could have contributed to the warm climate along with excessive amounts of carbon dioxide which was trapped in the atmosphere at the time. The ice age had still not begun.

Paleogenetics is a developing field of science to study ancient DNA (aDNA.)

Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an author and independent researcher in science

X/Twitter/Instagram: Spellrainia

Email: [email protected]

Watch this space for update on sources.

The Complex Nature of Microorganisms

Unmasking the World of Microorganisms (Part 3)

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

In my third installment of the series about ‘Unmasking the World of Microorganisms’ I decided to delve a bit deeper, a superficial basic understanding of microorganisms is quite easy, especially if you are educated or have had experience with a microbial related illness. And in a post pandemic world our memories are still fresh about the death and disease they can cause.

We humans are at war with microorganisms whether we realize it or not. We cannot see them, but they are all around us, even live within us. But it’s only when they turn into a pathogen and make us sick that we fully comprehend how dangerous they can be.

Microorganisms are gaining immunity from antibiotics which means they are gaining on us in this war. So it would do us good to have a fundamental understanding of how they function.

The need for understanding microorganisms has never been more crucial as we approach the end of effective antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance is expected to cause 39 million deaths around the world in just 25 years by 2050.

While antibiotics are not used in the treatment of every microbial illness, it is widely used against bacteria which are one of the leading group of microorganisms that cause world wide disease in humans, and even patients infected by a virus often develop secondary bacterial infections.

We are most familiar with bacteria and viruses because both have caused severe disease in humans throughout history. But there is something very different about our world at the moment. Something which wasn’t in the world before, and it could raise to prominence others mortal enemies from the microbial ever mutating and evolving world.

High Speed Travel.

The speed and ease by which humans can travel now is unprecedented. Travel is becoming affordable to just about everyone. We humans can be vectors of microorganisms to travel the world, which means a disease won’t be confined to it’s natural geographic origin. Worse than this is that microorganisms such as bacteria exchange genes with great ease – by a process known as horizontal gene transfer. Large scale living organisms need the process of fertilization for the transfer of genes – vertical gene transfer: from parent to offspring.

Even viruses exchange genes when they infect the same host cells, in a process known as recombination, viruses can even exchange genes with the human host and become permanently integrated in the DNA of the host.

The bacteria don’t mindlessly take on any genes, they have the ability to block genes they don’t think is good for them. Keyword – think. Scientists are studying how bacteria and other microorganisms make decisions for their survival, they lack the structure for human type of cognition, but in the world of microorganisms – the microenvironment is navigated by chemotaxis (chemical signaling).

While viruses cannot self transport and rely on liquid mediums, wind, vectors. Bacteria have flagella that protrude from the cell to propel them towards nutrients or away from toxins in a liquid medium. This decision-making or acting like a multicellular single organism (quorum sensing) are all done by chemotaxis, which is responding to chemical signals from their microenvironment.

When asking about why bacteria are categorized as living and viruses are not. The attributes listed often don’t state that bacteria can actually move by themselves while viruses cannot.

Microorganisms are evolutionary tool kits with their ability to exchange genes and mutate on the go.

Studying microorganisms' extraordinary ability to exchange genes, and defend against invading viruses has resulted in new science like CRISPR, which was established only about 10 years ago. The system developed is also known as “DNA scissors.”

The gene editing system of CRISPR is a rapidly developing field. Awarded a Nobel Prize in 2020, was learnt by adapting the natural defense mechanism of bacteria and archeae against invading viruses, to be used in human treatment of genetic disorders.

There are unlimited areas of biomedicine where CRISPR could be used as it improves.

There are ethical concerns where gene editing could be used to have “designer babies.” By editing the genes of an unborn to have specific features.

Human cells have different genes that are turned on or off known as expression (on) suppression (off) the genes expressed produce proteins by various cellular mechanisms, if there are errors in the division of cells or gene expression it can cause different genetic disorders including cancers.

This branch of life sciences is known as 'epigenetics.’

The body constantly regulates genes, the better the regulation the healthier the living organism. Gene regulation is an ongoing study as it is still not properly understood.

The CRISPR Cas9 molecule snips at a specific DNA to edit it. But gene editing tools are still in their early stages, so it is possible for errors to occurs and the wrong DNA gets snipped.

To learn about genetics scientists have used radiation and chemicals to induce mutations so they could study the functions of particular genes. Scientists can sometimes be scary like in a horror movie.

Microorganisms produce primary and secondary metabolites, an example of primary metabolites is amino acids which is essential for the survival of a living organism, secondary metabolites are not, they are produced as part of the defense and immune system of microorganisms. Secondary metabolites from plants have been used as medicine by humans since 4000 years. Humanity's only chance to discover new antibiotics could be plants but so many species like animals are going extinct.

Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an author and independent science researcher.

X/Twitter/Instagram: Spellrainia

Email: [email protected]

Sources will be updated. Watch this space. There was an error in the sources file. I'm recollecting the sources will take time. Sorry.

The Snow Globe:

Unmasking the World of Microorganisms (Part 2)

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

To have a proper understanding of microorganisms we must also understand their vectors, one of the scariest is the air. A disease is most horrifying when it is thought to be airborne. As an emergency resort humans have often turned to masks for immediate protection from danger in the air. So in this article I’m going to explore the scope of the air we breathe, and our defenses against contaminated air.

Usually after a rainfall that beautiful fresh earthy fragrance that spreads in the air. Ever wonder what it is? It’s mainly ozone that comes down to earth with droplets of rain from the stratosphere, which is the second layer of the earth’s atmosphere.

The official term for the fragrance is Petrichor, coined in 1964 by Australian scientists.

Ozone is a molecule that consists of three oxygen atoms.

Some other compounds that contribute to the fragrance are geosmin and plant oils.

The envelope of atmosphere that surrounds earth comprises five layers.

The entire coat of atmosphere around earth weighs about 5.5 quadrillion tons.

1. Troposphere, this is the first and it starts from the surface of earth.

2. Stratosphere

3. Mesosphere

4. Thermosphere

5. Exosphere, this is the last and where satellites orbit earth.

To give it a poetic description we are in a global snow globe. We must care for the purity and cleanliness of the atmosphere because it is the air everyone on earth breathes.

Daily we inhale 12,000 liters of air and exhale carbon dioxide.

What’s in this air has great affect on our overall health. From microorganisms to industrial pollutants like particulate matter (MP) the air circulating the globe carries everything in it all round the planet.

The composition of the air in our atmosphere in its essential form is 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen, the remaining 1% is trace gases and water vapour.

In our understanding of protection against microorganisms most of us grew up knowing hygiene and disinfectants was the way to go. Masks were things we mainly saw in hospitals worn by surgeons. That was the general idea. It wasn’t until the Covid-19 pandemic that masks were propelled into public scientific debate; about their use in the prevention of the virus spreading. Eventually it became mandatory to wear masks in public.

Before science progressed enough for us to understand how air can get contaminated with industrial pollution or airborne diseases, or before we knew the germ theory. Past civilizations could detect the symptoms when a disease was airborne.

In the 17th century when the Bubonic Plague was wiping out Europe, it was evident that the disease was somehow spreading through the air breathed by the infected.

Side note: What is the Bubonic Plague? It is a disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. It was spread by the fleas on rodents that got into Europe on ships. If left untreated all three types of the plague caused by the bacterium can be fatal.

1. Bubonic Plague, which causes swelling as large as eggs in the neck, armpits, groin, and blackened skin due to gangrene.

2. Septicemic Plague, in this the infection spreads in the entire body.

3. Pneumonic Plague, when the lungs get infected.

The plague doctor had a costume believed to purify air. The costume was the “personal protection equipment.” It was a robe with a mask that had a long beak, which would be filled with herbs thought to filter the air from the disease; as it passed through the long nozzle, before it was breathed in by the wearer.

Unfortunately it didn’t work.

However, as the dawn of science came upon us. Scientists realized that air could be a very dangerous vector for diseases as there was no way to virtually contain it. So they studied various methods of air purification including wearing masks to filter air.

Masks became notoriously famous during the Covid-19 pandemic. Especially since it took scientists so long to determine if the virus was transmitted through the air.

Making the perfect mask is not easy. It’s complicated.

How effective is the common surgical mask at filtering contaminated air?

If you have a disease which can spread through the air by aerosol respiratory droplets, then masks offer significant reduction in the disease going viral. With a mask on when you cough, talk, or sneeze, most of the respiratory droplets will stay in the mask. The other matter is if you don’t have any disease, how good is the common surgical mask at offering protection? The harsh reality is not much. Because droplets or aerosols in the air can penetrate easily through the gaps in the mask, caused by the asymmetry of the mask’s fitting due to facial geometry.

Research on masks showed that multi-layered masks that had fabric like cotton, instead of straight threads was better at preventing penetration of pollutants, some masks are even designed to use static repulsion to catch pollutants. However, too many layers can make it difficult to breathe. Even the N95 masks offers limited protection.

There are several types of masks that have varying degrees of protection against particulate matter (MP) and germs in the air. But no mask is 100% foolproof.

It isn’t only outdoors air that is of concern. Indoors air could be even more consequential to our health. It is said that most humans spend 90% of their time indoors. There are ongoing studies about how air quality affects cognition during the course of life. The studies suggest that there is cognitive impairment with long term exposure to air pollution. This subject still needs further research.

While not living with germs is not really an option, we can reduce their percentage to prevent the emergence of pathogens. The term for germs found indoors is: ‘Indoors Microbiome.’ Studies have shown that they are mostly from endogenous sources from the human or animal occupants.

Air conditioning and ventilation could contribute to the indoor microbiome. There are different types of air filters that can keep the air indoors clean, and some plants can also contribute to purifying the air from pollutants and volatile organic substances (VOS).

If you have pets avoids plants that are toxic. Always research the plants you would like to keep indoors or outdoors.

The vapor of essential oils from certain herbs has also been studied for it’s effect of disinfecting the indoors air.

“Ability of Essential Oils Vapour to Reduce Numbers of Culturable Aerolised Coronavirus, Bacteria and Fungi." In this study it says essential oils of certain herbs have compounds that can destroy the structure of some types of microorganisms, so that they are ineffective.

The air is denser nearer to the earth’s surface, the atmosphere gets thinner with altitudes. But can germs be found high up in the air? The answer is that some scientists got samples of air from 1,000 meters above the surface of the earth, and found microorganisms in abundance, including pathogens that are a hazard to human health.

Can microorganisms travel the globe on air?

“The journal PNAS published the results of a study showing that hundreds of microorganisms, some of which cause human disease, can survive atmospheric travel of over 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles).” - El Paìs

Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an author and independent science resesrcher

X/Twitter/Instagram: Spellrainia

Email: [email protected]

Sources:

El Paìs - Pathogenic microbes can travel thousands of miles through the atmosphere, daniel mediavilla

National Library of Medicine - Ability of Essential Oil Vapours to Reduce Numbers of Culturable Aerosolised Coronavirus, Bacteria and Fungi, Parthasarathi Kalaiselvan 1, Muhammad Yasir 1, Rajesh Kuppusamy 1, Mark Willcox 1,*, Ajay Kumar Vijay 1

Editors: Carla Sabia1, Ramona Iseppi1

Author information

Article notes

PMCID: PMC8944824 PMID: 35326856

Royal Society of Chemistry - Effectiveness of wearing face masks against traffic particles on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam†

Erik Velasco *a, Hoang Hieu Ha b, Anh Duc Pham c and Soheil Rastan

National Library of Medicine - Air pollution and respiratory infections: the past, present, and future

Alexys Monoson 1, Evangeline Schott 2, Kerry Ard 3, Brita Kilburg-Basnyat 4, Robert M Tighe 5, Sonal Pannu 6, Kymberly M Gowdy 7,✉

Author information

Article notes

PMCID: PMC10025881 PMID: 36622042

EPA - Indoor Air Quality - What are biological pollutants, how do they affect indoor air quality?

Teqoya - What's in the Air We Breathe? Exploring the Overlooked 1% of Air Composition

NOAA - Layers of the Atmosphere

Phys Org - Researchers find live fungi, bacteria and viruses high in the Earth's atmosphere

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

Sanalife - The Impact of Indoor Air Quality on Cognitive Function

ACS.org - Petrichor - The Smell of Rain

EPA - Basic Ozone Layer Science

National Geographic - Ozone Layer

Cleveland Clinic - Bubonic Plague

Nesw Medical - Does air pollution reduce cognitive function over time?, by Dr. Liji Thomas, MD, reviewed by benedette cuffari, m,sc,

EPA - Particulate Matter (PM) Basics

National Library of Medicine - Int J Environ Res Public Health

. 2022 Jan 27;19(3):1405. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19031405

Air Pollution and Cognitive Impairment across the Life Course in Humans: A Systematic Review with Specific Focus on Income Level of Study Area

Mina Chandra 1,*, Chandra Bhushan Rai 1, Neelam Kumari 1, Vipindeep Kaur Sandhu 1, Kalpana Chandra 2, Murali Krishna 3, Sri Harsha Kota 4, Kuljeet Singh Anand 5, Anna Oudin 6,7

Editors: Palestini Paola, Paul B Tchounwou

Author information

Article notes

PMCID: PMC8835599 PMID: 35162428

Britannica - How Much Does Earth’s Atmosphere Weigh?

Written and fact-checked by the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

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Unmasking the World of Microorganisms

(Part 1)

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the internet

Microorganisms, what are they? Most of us are familiar with bacteria and viruses, especially after Covid-19, I think precautionary and basic hygiene procedures of social distancing, hand washing, and sanitizers have become universally known.

But there remains a baffling question, why did the pandemic happen? Why couldn’t our modern technology, medicine, and sterilization methods contain the virus. It went on for years and resulted in the deaths of about 7 million people worldwide.

There are two terms that can explain this tragic phenomena in a nutshell: mutations and airborne.

Scientists couldn’t keep up with the speed by which the influenza virus mutates, and they couldn’t contain the air. The virus is not airborne like spores or carbon dioxide pollutants, but respiratory particles breathed or coughed, sneezed, by infected persons could stay in the air for hours, making the virus partially airborne and that was enough for disaster to unfold upon humanity.

But what about the origin of novel viruses as it is said that Covid-19 was. Disease ecologist Professor Thomas Gillespie says deforestation and wet markets have a similar effect in crowding animals together where germs can jump species to infect humans – which is known as a spillover event, in wet markets perhaps it is even worse because the animals are being butchered and their blood is mixing. Bats like humans are mammals and carry various pathogens due to the large number of species of bats, and their diet that ranges from fish, fruits, and insects, etc. We are at greater risk by pathogens in mammals because it is easier for a spillover event to happen.

Till recently it was believed that bacteria couldn’t jump species as easily as viruses, but studies are showing that bacteria can overcome hurdles and mutate to survive in a new host of another species.

One of the studies that claims to have shown this for the first time is of the “bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, which can infect humans and animals.” – The University of Edinburgh.

If this wasn’t enough we are approaching the “post antibiotic era” and AMR (anti-microbial resistance) is increasing with several different types of pathogens in the world of microorganisms. Bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, protozoa, etc.

The World Health Organization website states that even the effectiveness of last-resort antibiotics like Carbapenems is getting compromised.

“What Have We Learned by Resurrecting the 1918 Influenza Virus?”

This virus is also known as the Spanish Flu, notorious for killing 50-100 million worldwide, of which were 43,000 U.S soldiers, the pandemic happened during WW1, and those soldiers were deployed for combat.

Scientists in the 1990s were able to clone the virus from traces of its RNA found in the remains of 1918 victims.

Like seeds bacteria can be dormant till the environment is favourable and they get nutrients. The duration is very different though. Seeds can be dormant for some years, while bacteria spores could last centuries and then spring back to life and cause an outbreak.

So what makes these microscopic entities so resilient and a challenge to modern medicine and technology? Why are they a great threat to humanity?

“Mother Nature is a Serial Killer,” it’s a quote from the 2013 movie WWZ.

And it’s very true, we cannot let our guards down, because nature will eventually churn out a deadly virus or bacteria or any other mortal enemy from her reservoir of microorganisms.

What scientists have discovered till this point in history is that microorganisms live on our skin, they live in our gut – each of us has a microbiome unique to us.

There have been recent contested findings that suggest we might have a microbiome even in our brains. Traditionally, the healthy brain is considered to be a sterile environment. But some findings detected bacteria DNA in sequencing, however, the findings were vehemently rejected by a portion of scientists as contamination and not evidence that the DNA detected was indeed from bacteria living in a healthy brain. One of the main causes for this reasoning was given that the blood-brain barrier BBB is almost impermeable to microorganisms. The cases where old age or disease could lead to invasion by microorganisms is considered not the norm but cases of compromised immunity due to illness.

However, scientists on both sides of the spectrum are studying the gut-brain axis of signaling between microbiota in the gut and neurons in the brain.

There are more nerves in your gut than any other part of your body except the brain, and this talk between the brain and gut affects our physical and mental state.

Let’s understand some basic things about what happens in a bacterial infection. When we are infected the bacterial colony starts to multiply and it can then through quorum-sensing behave like one multicellular entity attacking your cells and feeding on your nutrients, they can multiply in hours, making every minute crucial to survival of the infected.

Quorum-sensing is something like a domino effect, where one bacterium signals another, and then soon the whole colony behave in unison.

So can microorganisms think? In the case of the Rabies virus, there is the astonishing fact of how the virus after travelling to the brain from the location of entry into the bloodstream, exits the brain after totally damaging it, and collects in the saliva, where it is very likely to spread and repeat its cycle if the infected is an animal, source Kurzgesagt video.

We just read that the BBB is practically impermeable in healthy individuals, so how does the rabies virus get in? The virus has a basic shape like a capsule and five proteins, one or more of those proteins are used by the virus to hijack the neural pathways leading into the brain. Scientists don’t know how the Rabies virus reverses course and exits the brain to accumulate in the saliva.

Fortunately and unfortunately the nature of most viruses and bacteria is double, they can live peacefully on our skin and in our guts, even be beneficial to us, and they can turn into pathogens and make us very ill and even kill us. This all depends on two factors: 1. compromised immune system, due to a novel or mutated virus or bacterium, or 2. compromised immune system due to immune deficiency disorders.

When our immune system is compromised against microorganisms our only line of defense is medication. The antibiotic-resistance, is detrimental even to patients suffering from a viral infection – where antivirals are needed for treatment, but viral infections often lead to secondary bacterial infections.

If this wasn’t a serious enough and complex problem to solve, scientists want to bioengineer synthetic bacteria with reversed geometry. Better known as mirror-life bacteria. In the microscopic universe bacteria like these could be invisible to other microorganisms and to antibodies in our system, they may not be able to infect because their chirality that is reversed to what is naturally created, could prevent them from binding to biological receptors – one of the main infection methods.

However, life finds a way, and they could mutated to infect and be completely invisible to antibiotics. The implications of how dangerous such bacteria could be, and how they could escape labs into the wild is endless.

Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an author and independent science researcher.

X-Twitter/Instagram: Spellrainia Email: [email protected]

Sources:

Harvard Medical School – How Dormant Bacteria Return to Life, Jake Miller

National Library of Medicine – What Have We Learned by Resurrecting the 1918 Influenza Virus?, Brad Gilbertson, Annu Rev Virol

Emory University – Spillover: Why germs jump species from animals to people, Carol Clark

The University of Edinburgh – Bacteria overcome hurdles to jump between species

Science Daily, Asociación RUVID – Bacteria jump between species more easily than previously thought

Cleveland Clinic – The Gut-Brain Connection

Quadram Institute – How the gut microbiome affects the brain and mind

Quadram Institute – Is there a “brain microbiome”? No

American Society for Microbiology – How Quorum Sensing Works

Wyss institute – Researchers call for global discussion about possible risks from “mirror Bacteria”

Britannica – Influenza pandamic of 1918-19, written and fact-checked by the editors of encyclopedia Britannica

#wwz #arjuwan lakkdawala #science #ink in the internet #biology #nature #technology #viruses #bioengineering #physics #artificial intelligence #rna virus #spanish flu #quorum sensing #gut-brain axis #zombies #apocalypse

The Origami of Science

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

What is scientific thinking? It starts with a question and curiosity, usually after observing something unexplained, or not being content with the present explanation. Our ancestors didn’t have any of the sophisticated equipment and devices we have today, or assistance from artificial intelligence – in various methods of research, like to scan a database of millions in just a few minutes or seconds, like to make computer simulations.

We have microscopes to study microorganisms and telescopes to peer into the cosmos.

There are calculators and artificial intelligence to aid and simplify complicated mathematics, geometry, calculus, etc. Computer simulations with nanoscale details and accuracy, and stacks of accumulated information, to reevaluate, study, explore, and build on.

Yet we are at a disadvantage – we have an overload of information and distractions. Our ancestors did not have to deal with distraction from social media, or even the news, there is a flood of information pouring in from every window of the internet. In the world of academia and science journals there is as well too much information, perhaps this is why there are so many retractions in various science journals, perhaps this is why we had the first pandemic in living memory that had the world in quarantine.

So how do we keep track of our world sensibly, and continue with the scientific innovation and clarity our ancestors took for granted, and was of an advantage to them.

I would say mathematical thinking and geometric methods should be applied, the idea is to think like a machine and dissect and than refold and remix the science like an origami invention. All this with the sharp accuracy of a mechanical mind, and laser precision and focus.

Versatile thinking will take us into the realm of being Forethinkers, we can think ahead of our time, we can think further than what is known to the present civilizations on earth, we have to circle the borders of the unthinkable, on earth, in our solar system, in the universe, from the microscopic to the telescopic, from objective reality, to the vast expanse of the mind. To become visionaries and forethinkers, we have to make simulations of what could be, and what exists within the borders of the unthinkable.

This is much easier said than done.

There is a big question in scientific thinking, which is can we really discover the fundamental laws of science that do not rely on specific interactions in a system, and would be the same universally? I think the answer is no. We cannot explore the universe, we don’t know what physics and particles exist in other galaxies, or maybe even outside our solar system.

I read a very interesting article on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy website about how can it be decided “What is a Law?” It’s a very complex intellectual discussion, which combines perceptions in philosophy of science and science with concepts in metaphysics. Humean Supervenience (what properties, qualities, or traits, can supervene to influence the results in interactions between things) was used to explain why it is difficult to extract ‘laws’ even from observable and testable experiments and hypothesis. Simply put we have the issue of the systems approach vs the universal approach, where tested properties of an entity would behave always the same way in that particular setting (systems approach) but it cannot be tested universally as we do not have access to the universe, and it cannot be tested by infinite different settings because we cannot replicate them as we do not have the knowledge of these unknown settings, that could or could not exist (universal approach).

One might wonder why discuss metaphysics in an article about scientific laws, reasoning, and objective reality.

That is because the device we use to understand science and the world is the mind, which itself is not confined to objective reality. Moreover, we are attempting to reach the realms of the unseen and unknown in science which still hasn’t been discovered, so it too is somewhere in the realm outside objective reality, or at least the version of reality presently known to us.

If the principles of the art of origami can be used as a metaphor to comprehend how our current science can be reshaped for optimization, efficiency, and innovation, the art of shadow shapes could be used as a metaphor to not believe everything we see to be as it seems, the shadows could be of something very different from its shadow. In scientific terms it could be counterintuitive to what our senses perceive, like when we are in a moving car, we don’t feel the inertia till the car suddenly stops or turns.

Based on what we have read so far, we can deduce that there is a paradox that could stifle scientific discovery. What are the rules by which we can move forward in the correct direction with the proper scientific critical thinking.

Should we think we have reached every scientific milestone, and discovered everything there is, could this mindset be the reason scientists are failing to discover new antibiotics or physics?

Physics Professor Sean Carroll says there is a crisis in physics. He is referring to the claim that is known as The Great Stagnation in Physics, that no experimentally verifiable discovery has been made since the 1980s.

So is the mixing, reshaping, and optimization of the current technology and scientific information the only way to further the progress of our civilization, and prevent our extinction as happened to civilizations that came before us?

Or should we not surrender to the assumption that the peak of science has been reached, and instead think that our hundreds of years of information, with specifically the exponential growth in the past two decades is only the tip of the iceberg.

What about the state of matter on the fundamental level. At CERN, scientists are doing sort of what I stated before – experimenting and testing hypothesis on how matter on the particle level interact in as many different systems/settings as they can arrange in experimental conditions. It has become rather often to read articles about a “a new state of matter,” being discovered. Probably by the results of some of the interactions of particles in experiments. But we do not see any actual “new state of matter” in the real world.

The CERN statement on their website regarding their mission is:

“What are our areas of research?

CERN's main focus is particle physics – the study of the fundamental constituents of matter – but the physics programme at the laboratory is much broader, ranging from nuclear to high-energy physics, from studies of antimatter to the possible effects of cosmic rays on clouds.

Have we reached the end of the road in understanding nature? Far from it. There is still much to learn about the Higgs boson, and many other puzzles remain about how and why matter in the Universe is the way it is.”

When scientists talk about “cosmic rays” or anything that is connected with light, it comes in the category of ‘electromagnetic radiation.’ Physics in all its sub-categories cannot be studied without understanding quantum mechanics, electromagnetics radiations, and quantum field theories.

So let us now evaluate and outline some of the main issues in this whole matter as I see it:

1. We cannot know what is a ‘law’ in the universal approach.

2. We can only know what is a ‘law’ and to what degree it is effective in the systems approach.

3. The mind is not confined to objective reality.

4. Science is limited to objective reality.

5. The mind is the biological device we use to understand the science in objective reality.

6. Question 1: Have we reached the end of discovering everything relevant in science?

7. Question 2: Have we not reached the end of discovering fundamental science on earth and other planets in our solar system, and is the mixing and reshaping of the present science and technology the only hope of saving the future of civilizations on earth from collapse?

8. What are the guidelines to use the vast expanse of the mind to discover new science that could be hidden in the version of the objective reality currently known to us?

The issue of philosophy of science or physics has been debated by scientists and philosophers for ages. Postscript to The Logic of Scientific Discovery has volumes that can be read on this matter by Karl Popper, one of the most influential philosophers of science from the 20th century.

A very strong point and something to consider is that about 500 years ago, almost everything we know today about science and technology would have been thought of as impossible, and that everything had been discovered by the scientists of the time. We now know that it was the furthest away from reality. So how can we tell that our knowledge even in this era is not primitive?

How much of a part does our intuition and motivation have in scientific discovery. Let us take a classic example to simplify it. Think of the unknown science like a puzzle box in our hands, we are turning the box intuitively and then something clicks and the box opens, in a similar fashion, suppose our minds are exploring our world, and then something clicks and we get a clue to new science.

Where can we find the puzzle box of science? I think CERN mentions nature very correctly.

In nature we can observe almost infinite scientific phenomena. Whether it’s the mystery of why bees make hexagonal shapes that just happen to be most suited for storing more honey efficiently, or why viruses behave like biological machines. And if cosmic or other radiation in or from space could progress our understanding and usage in technology of quantum mechanics.

We must not underestimate the power of storytelling in motivating and inspiring our minds to find that click.

We must value minds that are geniuses and not damage them, because they could discover a new antibiotic or science or any other contribution to the progress of science, to ensure the survival of our species and civilization.

Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an author and independent science researcher.

X/Twitter/Instagram: Spellrainia

Email: [email protected]

Sources:

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy – Karl Popper

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy – Laws of Nature

Humean Supervenience – Brian Weatherson

National Library of Medicine – Viruses: Sophisticated Biological Machines, Michael G Rossmann, et al. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2012

Scientific Reports – The hexagonal shape of the honeycomb cells depends on the construction behavior of bees, Francesco Nazzi

Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal - The Great Stagnation in the Crisis in Physics

Star Trek and the Kardashev Scale

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

How can we better understand the exponential progress in technology that is changing our world. To do that we first have to have a proper grasp on the "collective consciousness" of the world.

I think this is a term famously coined by Elon Musk regarding social media or specifically X (formerly Twitter.)

Before the readers start to wonder what has this modern term in the era of the Internet, got to do with the technology that came before it and was its foundation. What I'm referring to in this article is two different mindsets that became a part of the collective consciousness of a people in regions around the world, the joining factor was writings, television, radio, storytelling, experiences, and of course education.

It is my deduction that two general forms of thinking developed on each continent. And I give credit to Mary Shelley for this very elegant and clear metaphor: like Victor Frankenstein (science) and Elizabeth (aesthetics.)

The science we have today is branched into several disciplines. But what was the earliest science? I think it was physics, simply because so much of what we would naturally think about falls under the umbrella of it; motion, energy, heat, then comes complicated and not so obvious things like gravity, particle physics, and quantum mechanics.

The birth of science is from philosophy, and then the merging of it with alchemy. Many regard modern science to have evolved in Western Europe, notably with the work of Sir Isaac Newton, but the roots of science could be traced back to Ancient Egypt, China, India, and Greece.

However, even philosophers must have known that thoughts, ideas, and concepts, without mathematics are just too vague. I think this is the exact point when philosophy started to turn into scientific theories. To quote the Scottish mathematician Lord Kelvin: "When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it."

At some time I think philosophy, mathematics, and alchemy, came together and formed the start of scientific thinking, perhaps Metaphysics (the meaning of which is still not accurately defined) was the intermediate stage between philosophy and the application of mathematical measurements and experimentation to philosophical ideas and chemical substances, and this was the beginning of scientific thinking.

It's extraordinary to try to imagine how the science of particle physics and quantum mechanics could possibly have been discovered, and then progressed into so much of the technology that has brought about our modern civilization, considering the fact that scientists haven't seen the actual atom, even with today's high-tech sophisticated equipment.

In my opinion Quantum Mechanics was discovered before particle physics, and it started with the first photograph in France by Joseph Nicèphore in 1827, using the camera obscura. The photograph titled: 'Point de Vue' has survived, however, I didn't find in my research any record of a photograph taken prior to it, so I'm assuming it is the first. Nicèphore had the genuise idea to use light sensitive liquid on a plate and expose it to sunlight for several days in the dark chamber of the camera obscura. What he found was that rays of sunlight were carrying images of the surrounding. He named the process Heliographie or 'sun writing.'

Connected or not I do not know but the discovery of the first evidence of the atom was in 1828, and the electron was discovered in 1897 by English physicist J.J. Thomson.

It appears to me that the first photograph, which showed that sunlight could carry so much information as to print a whole photograph was an eye-opener towards discovering Quantum Mechanics, and that light was so much more than what it appeared to be. It's very likely that the idea of capturing images must have been inspired by mirrors, and smooth reflective surfaces prior to the invention of mirrors.

Side note: The silver layered mirror was first invented by German chemist Justus von Liebig in 1835. Different types of mirrors go back 8,000 years.

In the 1900s German physicist Max Planck formulated the Planck's Constant, a scale for describing the behaviour of particles and waves on the atomic level. Planck's Constant is fundamental in the mathematical articulation of Quantum Mechanics.

To simplify this explanation, we have to go back to the fact that physicists cannot see an actual atom, it's just too small and so these are the scales at which Quantum Mechanics function, and classical mechanics is no longer applicable. So it has its own scale for describing it mathematically.

I did some research at the CERN website, and it turns out scientists identify atoms and subatomic particles through their effects on detectors and not direct observation - which so far is not possible. The effects of these particles and their mathematical description is their identity.

Before Planck's Constant there was a problem on how to measure a wave of light accurately, since the wave is hypothetically a continuum. That means the lenght division of a wave could be infinite, but if you count it as packets of photons that cannot be divided, it's possible to do accurate equations and mathematical descriptions.

He introduced the theory that photons are packets of "quanta" this way it was possible to do accurate calculations.

Side note: Photons are massless particles that comprise electromagnetic radiation, their energy after the Planck's Constant is calculated by their frequency - which is waves it propagates as it moves.

Albert Einstein used the Planck's Constant to describe why in the Photo Electric Effect there was a "threshold frequency" for the 'work function.' That is when photons hit a metal plate electrons are emitted, but the frequency of the photons has to be the suitable type for the particular electrons, for the transfer of energy to eject the electron - this phenomena is due to the Law of the Conservation of Energy (physics.)

Einstein won a Nobel Prize for his work on the Photo Electric Effect.

As a young boy Albert Einstein first got inspired from the needle of a compass, he was amazed and curious to discover what was the hidden force that guided the needle.

These were some clues about how those scientists became innovative, and there was a collective scientific consciousness.

While natural phenomena and nature are the ultimate sources of discovering new science, the motivation could stem from inspirational stories, like for example the first rockets was inspired by H.G. Well's science fiction book 'War of the Worlds.'

Science and technology get refined and improved with the accumulation of information, techniques, the mixing of different disciplines, and better mathematical solutions. We can see a very recent example in the Raptor engines of SpaceX rockets. The first Raptor looks like scrambled wires and rods, and then their appearance is improved as they are optimized with precision.

We have entered the era of artificial intelligence assisted scientific research and progress. Our civilization is going through rapid changes. I often read that once we harness solar power on the scale of the Earth, instead of the use of fossil fuels, we will be categorized as a Type 2 Civilization on the Kardashev Scale.

In 1964, Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev wrote a paper in which he presented a hypothetical scale for alien civilizations. The paper titled: Transmission of Information by Extraterrestrial Civilizations.

He theorized that these civilizations could transmit more powerful signals based on how much energy they can harness. The theory went through updates by other astronomers over the years, including Carl Sagan who added decimal points and so Earth could figure in the percentage.

On the Kurzgesagt channel I saw a video that stated that the present Kardashev Scale has four categories:

1. A Type 1 Civilization that can harness all the energy of its planet.

2. A Type 2 can harness the energy of its star as well.

3. A Type 3 the energy of its galaxy

4. A Type 4 the energy of multiple galaxies

On Earth we are already using fossil fuels and other natural resources for energy, and solar power is also increasingly being used around the world. So are we a Type 1 Civilization going on Type 2? And suppose we were to expand our energy consumption to other planets, and if I were to say galaxies that's just science fiction. But hypothetically what would the effect be on the environment. I think in the updates to the theory that I read, the main point of the original theory was completely missed or overlooked. Nikolai Kardashev spoke about transmission of information. Consider information reaching a Type 1 Civilization from a Type 2 or 3 civilization, which could be realistic instead of science fiction. The information could be so advanced that it can bring new science and progress to the Type 1 Civilization. This type of universally expanded thinking (even science fiction) with the natural real world workings of our planet and the universe, I think are the keys to innovative thinking and new science.

Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an author and independent science researcher/journalist

X/Twitter/Instagram: Spellrainia

Email: [email protected]

Sources:

LibreTexts chemistry, photons

BBC, science focus, kardashev scale: what is it and where is earth listed?, alex hughes

Britannica, einstein and the photoelectric effect, gordon leslie squires, fact-checked by the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

APS News, this month in physics history, einstein and the photoelectric effect

Tech Target, planck's constant, gavin wright

Live Science, who invented the mirror?, Joseph castro

Britannica, discovery of electrons, sharon bertsch mcgrayne, james trefil, all fact-checked by the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Britannica, superunification and the planck era, frank h. shu, fact-checked by the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Physlink.com, how did max planck determine the planck lenght?, question #644

Medium, walking the planck: the weird world of the littlest measure

Quotefancy, lord kelvin

Live Science, quantum mechanics: definitions, axioms, and key concepts of quantum physics, adam mann, contributions from robert cool

CERN, how a detector works

Harry Ransom Center, the nicèphore heliographe

PBS Space Time, planck's constant and the origin of quantum mechanics

University of Toronto, wsCH2, the origin of physics

ABC Science, photoelectric effect explained in simple words for beginners

#Arjuwan Lakkdawala #Ink in the Internet #science #physics #kardashev scale #photo electric effect #heliographe #Albert Einstein #Frankenstein #Joseph nicephore #electromagnetic radiation #planck's constant #max planck #quantum mechanics

The Dark Horse Waiting To Be Assembled – The Quantum Computer

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

The story of mankind is very interesting and mysterious, we are certainly different than any other creation on earth.

We can think.

Archeology, historical records, fossils; bones, DNA analysis, everything we have unearthed so far about our ancient past and ancestors, has drawn only a gray sketch of what could have been our beginning, and it’s a sketch with many missing parts, and nothing is defined in black and white.

We are Modern Homo Sapiens, before us according to archeological finds were the Archaic Homo Sapiens that existed on earth 300,000 years ago, still due to unclear connections scientists place those in a different category to us, we are theorized to be a sub-species of the original Homo Sapiens.

The man that we know today with his cognitive thinking brain appeared about 160,000 years ago.

The name Homo Sapiens is from the Latin meaning ‘wise human.’

Now why it gets mysterious is that the first tools are said to be used by a species that weren’t like us but are considered by archeologists to be our ancestors about 3.3 million years ago. The tools were stones used as knives, and others used as hammers. And this is said to be the very first tools in the start of our technology.

However, it gets confusing, this 2017 article in Scientific American says: “Monkeys make stone “tools” that bear a striking resemblance to early human artifacts. The discovery could necessitate the reanalysis of the enigmatic stones previously attributed to human origins.”

Earth itself is about 4.54 billion years old.

We modern humans have appeared only about 160,000 years ago. It seems to me there is an error in what could be our theorized “evolutionary” timeline. That is because the Neolithic Revolution (Agricultural Revolution) is said to have started about 12,000 years ago, when humans turned from hunter gatherers to agriculture. From this period onward there is overwhelming artifacts and records of humans that were definitely thinkers as we are. It is not a series of inventions, or traces of civilised, innovative societies that stretched from 3.3 millions years ago, it is sudden with the timeline of the appearance of the modern human. This doesn’t look in anyway as gradual evolution in intelligence, but rather usage of already present intelligence in Modern Homo Sapiens, which developed with ideas, necessity, inspiration, and self-awareness. Pretty much all the hallmarks of what humans are driven by even in this era.

Another mystery about our ancient past is that we are the only survivors of the several so called hominid ancestors.

The transformation of civilizations from the Neolithic Period continued with unbroken innovation, however, the start of the modern world as we know it happened with the First Industrial Revolution in the 1830s and 1840s in Britain, and then spread to the rest of the world.

The Second Industrial Revolution started in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. Different disciplines of science had been discovered and studied along with mathematics, and though not an official term, I would say that from the late 20th century to the 21st we are having an Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Revolution, and advancements with a lot of potential in the space race.

Compute power is getting bigger with the miniaturization of transistors (more transistors means more powerful computers) Scientists are aiming to make Super Computers with Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)

Algorithms are constantly being improved for maximum optimization, and the billions of online interactions and information on files is providing big data for the exponential growth of artificial intelligence. I have referred to this phenomena in a previous article as humanity possibly building a Frankenstein monster.

In the matter of transistors increasing there is the famous Moore’s Law, it is a prediction made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965 that the number of transistors will keep increasing on an integrated circuit. This of course raises the question of how small can transistors get, and will it reach a point where no more transistors can be added? From the 60s technology has taken giant and rather unpredictable leaps; transistors are getting nearly as small as atoms, and cloud computing through the internet means, there can be a dungeon full of transistors the size of atoms, and the compute power will be wirelessly delivered to devices or to humanoid robots. I think it is clear to comprehend how this can serve civilizations or go wrong and destroy us.

Imagine the triangle like a classical computer, and the instant simultaneous calculation of the circle by superposition and entanglement by the quantum computer. This would be in my opinion a very dangerous hybrid to humanity.

With the evident possibility of empowering artificial intelligence with countless zettabytes of data, the prospect of what it will morph into is both exciting and terrifying. However, there is a dark horse waiting to be assembled – the Quantum Computer.

I recently read an article by the MIT titled: ‘Why Ai Could Eat Quantum Computer’s Lunch.’ It was this article that got me interested enough to research the matter. The summary of the article from what I understood is that it explains that with so much progress being made with artificial intelligence, and in contrast the slow progress of quantum computers and the difficulty of making them reliable are all factors that could make them obsolete. I think the article makes a fair argument. But I decided to do my own research on the matter.

So what are Quantum Computers exactly and what can they be used for? And how great is the difference between classical computers and their quantum competitors?

It is said that like classical computers have bits which their algorithms use for computing information in binary signals of 1s and 0s, quantum computers will have qubits that will compute information using the quantum effects of ‘superposition’ and ‘entanglement.’ While the bits are computed one by one, in the quantum computer the calculations could be done instantaneously through quantum effects of entanglement, where all the information in the qubits will be calculated simultaneously, and after the measurement (in this case calculation) it will collapse into one state (scientists have not found a way to measure a superposition quantum state without it collapsing) and give the correct answer. Thus saving time when it comes to computing very large sets of data. We are talking here data that could be finding patterns in millions or billions of samples; like in the study of chemistry, microbiology and microorganisms, and several other data sets that have millions upon millions of samples to go through.

Another feature that could give Quantum Computers an edge is that being quantum they simulate quantum state and systems, which classical computers cannot. It is theorized they could even be used in deep learning for artificial intelligence, among several other uses in different sciences.

So what’s stopping scientists from building efficient Quantum Computers and how was the idea of a Quantum Computer conceptualized and when?

The American physicist and Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman in 1959 theorized that the power of quantum mechanics could be harnessed when technology can operate on the nanoscale.

Quantum mechanics is the science of how matter and electromagnetic radiation interact on the level of atoms and sub-atomic particles. Example: electrons, protons, neutrons, gluons, etc.

The issue is that quantum mechanics simply isn’t easy. I think the name “Quantum Computer” could be a little misleading, and what they are actually attempting to build is Quantum Machines.

Some basic facts about Quantum Computers:

In order to make use of quantum mechanics like superposition and entanglement, the computer should be able to follow instructions and do computations. To achieve this, completely novel algorithms are required, ways to extract information from qubits, in addition to the selection of particles that would be most suited to be used as qubits. The primary candidates so far are the electrons, trapped ions, and methods like nuclear magnetic resonance, and quantum dots. However, there is the problem of maintaining ‘coherence’ so that information in qubits can be stable enough to be calculated and stored. Coherence is disturbed by ‘decoherence’ which can be any noise or stimuli from the environment. The quantum state is very sensitive and this has hindered scientists from scaling up qubits in order to make a Quantum Computer that can be practical in its applications.

There are companies that have built quantum computers in the “experimental phase” in labs that have temperatures colder than space (absolute-zero) they have been used to prevent decoherence. But the challenge is scaling up the qubits to thousands or millions which is a work in progress.

It is very likely that Quantum Computers could be combined with Supercomputers as a counterpart and operate as a hybrid.

However, because of the problem of decoherence it is very unlikely that they can be made portable. But cloud computing could make their features available to everyone.

Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an author and independent science journalist

X/Twitter/Instagram: Spellrainia

Email: [email protected]

Sources:

Britannic – William Fifteen Holton, fact-checked by the editors of Encyclopedia Britannica

History – Industrial Revolution, history.com editors

Australian Museum – Homo Sapiens – Modern Humans, Fran Dorey

Intel – Moore’s Law

National Geographic – What was the Neolithic Revolution?, Erin Blakemore

Britannica – Quantum Mechanics – Gordon Leslie Squires, fact-checked by the editors of encyclopedia Britannica

Space.com – How Old is Earth?

Scientific American – Moonkeys Make Stone “Tools” That Bear A Striking Resemblance to Early Human Artifacts, Kate Wong

Live Science – Quantum Computers Are Here – but why do we need them and what are they used for?, Edd Gent

Britannica – History of Technology Timeline, Erik Gregersen, fact-checked by the editors of Encyclopedia Britannica

#arjuwan lakkdawala #science #nature #ink in the internet #biology #artificial intelligence #bioengineering #deep learning #physics #technology #supercomputers #quantum computers #quantum mechanics #homo sapiens

The 3rd and 4th Dimensions

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

We are defined by what we think, it is also what sets us apart from the animals. Consciousness is the true expanse of the world we experience and interact with, the subconscious plays its part as well on who we are and who we become.

So is there anything on earth more valuable than information? We could say material things like diamonds or gold. But I could load a truck with diamonds and it would still be a truck. Load the mind with information and the person changes. What kind of change will depend on the information.

The knowledge we have completely changes everything about us - from the way we talk, walk, to the way we behave in every situation.

We can almost instantly tell what a person is about from their choice of words.

The significance of mind over matter raises the question of what is intelligence? This is not simple to answer because our thinking takes many forms, so which pattern of thoughts and formation of ideas can be categorized is difficult. Remember we are not here trying to define the meaning of words, that can easily be done using a dictionary, what we are trying to define is what is the intellectual ability used to construct and understand ideas, concepts, mathematics, and formations of multidimensional patterns of thinking, and of course the part memory storage plays in strengthening our thinking.

Computer scientists of this era have this very task of understanding the processes of human thinking, from the virtual such as the imagination to the intricate details of the brain’s chemistry and functions of neurons and cells, etc.

And then to replicate whatever they can into neuromorphic computer chips.

The reason I have gone into these details is that we are - especially in this era highly effected by information, as we get subjected to an unprecedented amount daily, which is the first time this has happened to mankind. It is increasing the expanse of our minds for better or worse.

In my research I found two concrete definitions of two types of intellect.

1. Crystallized Intelligence

2. Fluid Intelligence

The first is said to be easier to rely on and acquire, which is intelligence based on memorizing sets of information either by reading or experience.

The second is perhaps the closest definition we have reached so far regarding “intelligence.”

Fluid Intelligence is the intellectual ability to think and come up with a solution, discovery, or understanding of things, or complex problems, we had no prior information about.

It is rather easy to understand how Crystallized Intelligence is acquired and then applied. But how does the mind produce Fluid Intelligence on demand when there is little or no prior information about a task. I didn’t find a definite answer to this question but I got nearer to understanding it by looking into neurons, brain plasticity, necessity, logic, reason, mathematics, and so much more.

A 2018 article from the Human Brain Project sheds some light on this aspect.

An experiment was conducted on living brain tissue taken from patients that had undergone operations for tumors. In cases some healthy tissue is removed to perform the operation. Prior to the operations of about 50 patients they were given IQ tests.

Side note: IQ tests don’t really define how intelligent we are but they can measure and compare how well we solve specific intellectual tasks, by counting the correct answers and how fast we were able to reach the right solutions.

Based on this method of cognitive examination each patient was given an IQ score.

Then MRI examination analysis were taken into account as well. The final conclusion of the study was published in the journal eLife.

They found that higher IQ patients’ neurons fired up faster, and they had longer dendrites. The human brain has about 100 billion neurons, they pass on information in the form of electrical signals known as ‘Action Potentials’ the individuals with higher IQ had faster action potentials. Based on this study we can safely say that a sign of high intelligence is ‘speed.’

However, what about individuals who struggle with learning, why is there a difference in the cognitive abilities from person to person.

It is said that intelligence is partly heritable and that there are genes that influence better brain structure and functionality, which in turn influences better performance in intelligence tests.

Little is known about how genes and the environment affect the brain while it is developing, but while there are genes that can predisposition a person to better or high intelligence, external factors like education, emotional well being, mental health, and various other aspects could effect the ability to learn.

Early researchers believed that the brain developed only till adulthood, but new research shows that the brain is malleable, and has neuroplasticity also known as brain plasticity, studies have shown that as the brain learns not only its functionality improves but it physically changes its structure. And this is a lifelong ongoing process.

The brain is so efficient in caring for itself that if there is physical damage to part of the brain, it will take the functionality of that part and move it to another region and restore an ability that was lost. This is provided the damage is not too severe.

Even our neurons are selected based on usage, the ones not used often or never, die. So to improve learning the brain should be given mental exercise to improve neuroplasticity; brain structures and functions.

The difference in neuroplasticity could be one of the major factors of why intelligence and learning is not on the same level from person to person. However, improvement is possible for everyone at any age.

Another powerful aspect of learning is mental imagery without external input. Examples are the imagination, visual memory recollection, dreams. I did research on how exactly the brain creates visual images, it is a category of ongoing research, but quite a bit is known about the regions said to be responsible for mental images, like the Primary Visual Cortex at the back of the head, and the Prefrontal Cortex at the front of the head. The Hippocampus and amygdala are also contributors among other parts and functions.

Some personal notes: from everything I have read until now what I can understand is that thoughts do have a physical existence in the form of electrical signals (action potentials) and so the signals firing up in the brain can indeed physically change its structure, and the mental imagery is that the brain is a thinking biological device capable of creating vision, it’s how we see the world with our eyes open, and the imagery mechanism within our brains continues in dreams and thoughts.

I have to say Subhan Allah who created us in such miraculous construction.

Now that we have a good understanding of the internal biological processes of learning, let’s ponder how did man’s thinking evolve to scientific methodologies from the primitive era of the Neanderthals and Denisovans. I think mankind first looked to the cosmos, the sun, moon, stars, unfortunately ancient history records show that science was not the immediate inspiration but it was paganism with human sacrifice, so to move forward in time to the records of the earliest scientific thoughts about the world and the cosmos, we’ll explore the scientific history of the atom.

What are we made of? What is everything made of? The simple answer is atoms. In the 5th century BCE, Greek philosophers made some correct assumptions, and possibly so did Indian and Chinese philosophers at about the same time.

1. Subdivision was possible to a unit that could not be further divided (atoms)

2. Atoms are in constant motion.

While the atoms can be split they contain 'elementary particles' that cannot like electrons and quarks.

There are four states of matter: Solid, Liquid, Plasma, Gas. We can see these and so they are easy to identify.

(Examples of plasma is the sun and the stars, even some fires can be a type of plasma.)

But what about what we cannot see like the atoms. How did the earliest scientists find evidence of their existence. This is one of the geniuses of human thinking, to apply logic, reason, and experimentation to make discoveries and then inventions.

The credit for the first direct evidence of the existence of atoms goes to the Scottish botanist Robert Brown, who in 1828 discovered that pollen suspended in water was moving constantly in complex paths, this is observable with a microscope. The movement was due to the molecules in the pollen and water colliding. This phenomena was named Brownian Motion.

Then Albert Einstein in 1905 published papers that explained how Brownian Motion could be used to measure the size of atoms and molecules.

He explained that the movement was due to kinetic thermal energy of molecules

Picking up on Einstein’s paper the French physicist Jean-Baptiste Perrin in 1908 produced accurate sizes for atoms and molecules.

The measurements can be made by seeing how many microns particles with the diameter of 1 micron move horizontally in a minute.

These were the earliest indisputable confirmation of the existence of atoms.

Scientists did it without modern super advanced technology, they used reason, logic, mathematics, and developed experiments with high precision scientific parameters.

The ability of discovering the depth of the iceberg from the tip of it is one of the most prominent marks of intelligence.

Carl Sagan, the astronomer, planetary scientist, and science communicator, inspired by the 1884 satirical novella Flatland by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott, gave a fascinating demonstration of how those living in a 2 dimensional Flatland could have difficulty understanding the 3rd dimension.

A round object like an apple descends into a land where everything is flat, they only have lines, everything is 2 dimensional. So they only see parts of the apple that land and the parts are flat, they cannot see the complete apple.

In the same way the earth looks flat but is round though we being on earth, sort of like in flatland cannot see it, but when we go into space the 3rd dimension we can see it. There could a 4th dimension that we cannot perceive. Mysteries and scientific discoveries could be similar but possible to unravel if we study the clues.

Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an author and independent science researcher.

Twitter/X/Instagram: Spellrainia Email: [email protected]

Sources:

Libretexts - Physics

Britannica - Max Planck, roger h. stuewer, fact-checked by the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Plasma-Universe.com - know plasma, k ow 99.999% of the universe (no plasma, no universe)

PSFC - Plasma Science and Fusion Center, massachusetts institute of technology, what is plasma?

Princeton University PPPL, about plasmas and fusion, what is plasma?

Human Brain Project: Brains of smarter people have bigger and faster neurons

Leibniz research centre for working environment and human factors, how genes, brain characteristics and intelligence are connected

Very well mind - how neuroplasticity works, kendra cherry, msed

eLife - how the brain constructs dreams, Erin j. Wamsley

Johnson and Wales University, college of professional studies - unlocking the power of the mind: the brain region behind creativity and imagination, jwu

The conversation - what is mental imagery? Brain researchers explain the pictures in your mind and why they useful

Brownian motion - general physics

#arjuwan lakkdawala #science #nature #biology #ink in the internet #artificial intelligence #bioengineering #technology #physics #brownian motion #carl sagan #flatland #4th dimension #Neuroplasticity #mental imagery

The Science of Lab on a Chip

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

Science nowadays looks so much like The Jetsons cartoon, where lots of technology would be folded into a little chip or box. The technological leaps have been phenomenal, and what makes this more fascinating in this era, than past breakthrough discoveries, is that the Internet has given us a front row seat of the entire show as it unfolds.

That is not all, we are so connected that it's possible to contribute progressive ideas to science or any project or situation. There is always someone reading and posts go viral faster than we can say cheese.

While this attribute of the Internet makes it very entertaining. There is a serious aspect to the science itself. The aspect of saving lives. The scientists of the world are heroes, innovating not only to progress science but also to invent impactful devices and medication methods in developing countries, we in the privileged first world countries may not think often about the suffering of third world countries. But the elites in academia have made them a priority. Still, despite these efforts there are several issues in getting the proper aid to those countries.

In African regions there is the problem of counterfeit medicines that cause annually thousands of deaths. So a messaging system to scan the barcodes on the medication that could be sent to a website for verification was developed.

Another crisis in developing countries is that women often die during childbirth from blood loss. Due to lack of available medical equipment and blood donors, the same blood lost would be transfused back into the patient using kitchen things and guize to filter the blood - which done in this way is unhygienic and dangerous. For this the Sisu Global Health developed the Hemafuse for hygienic and steril blood transfusion.

Other inventions like 3D printers are also of significant impact in developing countries. Some examples for instance include; printing prosthetics, setting up field hospitals, or printing a lab-in-a-box.

In this regard is one very interesting invention, which is the lab-on-a-chip. It may sound impossible for a whole lab to be on a chip that can be anywhere from the size of your fingernail to a few inches. This product hasn't been industrialised but it is being used in several medical settings, and constant improved models are in the works.

As technology advances devices are getting miniature and miniature. This is to make it conveniently possible to pack more technology in smaller spaces. But other benefits as scientists emphasis is that it reduces human error. This is more crucial in the medical field than anywhere else.

So how are devices getting so miniature that we can have a lab-on-a-chip?

How did they do it. How does it work. I researched these questions and the answer is complex science, but I will give a detailed overview.

Let's start with the science of chips (not the eating ones) a computer chip is the brain of every type of artificial intelligence. Chips are made mostly from silicon (hence the name Silicon Valley.)

Silicon is made from sand and it's the most abundant natural resource on earth after oxygen.

As we know computers started very large and got smaller, now we have handheld devices that are so slick they are practically flat, and are packed with compute power and huge memory storage.

This is mainly the magic of microchips and transistors. As chips got smaller so did transistors, and they are what gives the chips their compute power. In a powerful optimized chip the size of your fingernail there could be 50 billion transistors.

Transistors have shrunk to the size of atoms.

(Basically the size of atoms, I did extensive research to understand this, and this is what I make of it. The "transistor" is simply layers of silicone, no wires, or hardware, then atoms with an electric charge (ions) are split into negative and positive charged ones known as cations (positive) and anions (negative) and these are fired into the silicone layers, changing their atomic composition, and hence creating an electrical circuit the size of atoms without wires. We know atoms are so small we cannot see them even with a microscope, and this is how devices are getting miniature and compute power is getting bigger. A single transistor circuit can hold two stages of the binary commands by which computer software is programmed. That is 1 and 0. So 50 billion transistors can hold a very large memory capacity and compute power. An electrical current by battery or a direct powerline activates the transistor configuration of postive and negative atoms, which are controlled by the three layers of each transistor.)

The next question is how is it possible for machines to engineer at such nano and microscales. This is the great secret behind such technological leaps - I like to give it a layman term 'light engineering,' and not so much a layman term 'chemical engineering.'

The silicone used in chips and the materials (polymers) used in lab-on-a-chip are modified chemically to be sensitive to different wavelengths of light and even waves of sound, and these techniques are used in a major part of such miniature engineering.

A chip starts basically as an ingot of silicone, then it is sliced into strips technically called 'wafers' this is coated with photo sensitive material, and then it is put in a lithography machine that has a blueprint known as the 'mask' that gets imprinted on it. This is repeated on layers of silicone; building an electrical circuit for the transistors. Then atoms of different charges are blasted in the electrical patterns made on the silicone. This process takes place in a clean room, dust is hazardous to it for it can damage the chips.

After a set of other modifications the chips are tested and ready to be used in devices. Depending on the tech used in the manufacturing, there could be a few billion to 50 billion transistors nearly the size of atoms in the chip.

The material widely used in lab-on-a-chip are polymers, and they are fabricated with the technology of microfluidics. This means that the lab-chips will have microchannels and chambers where test fluids will be pushed through or stored as the tests go on. Fluids at such microscales behave very differently than what we are used to in observations in large volumes. The science of microfluidics explores and takes advantage of the change in fluid dynamics of the microscale. The microchannels and chambers are etched on the chip using lithography - the same technology used in manufacturing microchips and transistors.

Those lab-chips could have high-tech analytical tools like spectrometers and gas chromography attached to them, and in built pressure systems to move the fluids.

There are also organs-on-a-chip, these mimic microenvironments and the effect on specific organ micro simulation, and are more precise than traditional culture tests. Lab-chips are said to be faster than normal conventional labs, cost much less, reduce human error, and being portable can be of significant impact were medical care is needed but a lab or hospital is not possible.

Lab-on-a-chip are used in blood tests, diagnostics of bacteria and viruses, DNA/RNA and HIV tests, and more applications are being developed.

Micro technology had a revolution in the medical field in the 70s, described as "scientists first had only a street light, where testing was not possible of more than a single gnome at a time, and then we had a floodlight."

This happened after scientific methods of studying atoms in physics was applied to molecular biology, and then chemical engineering branched out into biochemical and biomedical engineering. Scientists made technological breakthroughs and discovered that the human body worked like a very high-tech sophisticated biological machine, and it was possible to apply engineering methods to it - resulting in the science of biochemical engineering and systems biology, etc. Scientists started to look for ways to merge biology with mechanical engineering like prosthetics, artificial organs, and so on.

Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an author and independent researcher in science.

X/Twitter/Instagram: Spellrainia Email: [email protected]

Sources:

Yale School of Medicine, Yale Medicine Magazine - human body as machine

AIChe, The Global Home of Chemical Engineers - chemical engineers are advancing biomedicine

University of Alberta, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering - biochemical and biomedical engineering

ElveFlow, An ELVESYS Brand - introduction to lab-on-a-chip

ASML, Our Technology, lithography - using light to print tiny patterns on silicon - is a fundamental step in mass producing microchips

News-Medical, Life Sciences - what us microfluidics? by susha cheriyedath, M.Sc., reviewed by Afsaneh khetrapal BSc

ElveFlow, An ELVESYS Brand - definition of microfluidics

Semiconductor Engineering, Deep Insights for the Tech Industry - understanding memory by Alex yoon

Homepage.cs.uri.edu - how computers work the CPU and memory

Royal Society of Chemistry - microfluidic diagnostics for the developing world, xiaole mao and tony jun huang

The Borgen Project, blog latest news - health technologies for developing countries

University Wafer - how to fabricate a computer chip from silicon

Nano Werk - transistors explained - what they are and what they do

#Arjuwan Lakkdawala #ink in the Internet #developing countries #lab on a chip #microfluidics #silicone #microchips #transistors #chemical engineering #lithography #science #technology #health

The Modern Alchemist

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

It is said that the arrow of time always travels in one direction, time and the events that unfold in it are linear. The First Law of Thermodynamics states that the energy in the whole observable universe is the same, except it changes its state, like when you burn firewood and it turns to smoke. The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that Entropy increases and is irreversible, like when you break an egg, and that systems always go from orderly to disorderly.

And then there is the matter of reaching equilibrium, like when you pour milk into a cup of tea, the milk will flow through it till it is evenly spread.

When scientists study any phenomena, the wisest know that the main objective should be to find principles and laws about how a certain entity, or system functions, this is very difficult, and could be considered the greatest secrets of the world as we know it.

Why the fundamental laws are so elusive and mysterious we don't know, but it is clear that whenever scientists were able to establish (even if to a certain percentage) a law or principle, it was a catalyst for inventions, technology, and scientific developments.

The history of scientific studies dates way back to a branch of the science of the time called 'Alchemy" originating from the Arabic 'Al Kimia." In present day Arabic the word means 'Chemistry.'

Historical records state that Alchemy very likely started in Egypt and Arabia, and then the knowledge was passed down to Rome and ancient Greece, and then to the west. However, whatever were the scientific endeavours of the original Alchemists, it became generally indistinguishable from the other non-scientific ideas and theories that are part of Alchemy.

Western medieval Alchemists had three priorities; Find the Philosopher's Stone - which they believed has supernatural powers, find the Elixir of life and youth - possibly using the stone, transform common metals into silver and gold.

While these are fantastical aspirations, somehow the experiments that the ancient Alchemists did with the elements, was the start of sciences like pharmacology, metallurgy, and chemistry.

I do think there is a linear learning connection throughout the past centuries, and into the future, perhaps a pattern of the methods of discoveries, or fragments of information that will fit together like pieces of a puzzle.

In this century scientists and thinkers are the Modern Alchemists, and chemistry is the real scientific Alchemy.

But do we still try to attain things that seem on the boundaries of the supernatural - while I was going through the collection of H.G. Wells books, I read The Invisible Man, a masterpiece like his previous books that I have read.

(Spoiler Alert)

In the science fiction story he explains invisibility through chemistry, and I have seen various movies with similar ideas, the most memorable to me is the beloved Walt Disney classic: 'Now You See Him, Now You Don't,' and the Hindi classic: Mr. India.

In the first it is invisibility through chemistry, and in the second it's invisibility through the bending of light.

The two movies sum up the whole business of hypothetical invisibility by light and chemistry.

My interest sparked by Wells and the movies, I found invisibility really interesting to explore scientifically and I did a web search.

A 2022 Big Think article came up in the search, titled: 'Invisibility Cloaks Are Not Just Possible, But Are Becoming Reality'

Feels like the quest for the Philosopher's Stone, or the Elixir of Life (Modern Alchemists at work)

Perhaps this is a pattern of human curiosity that won't stop even at what appears (or literally doesn't appear) impossible.

The writer mentions science fiction invisibility in Star Trek, and goes on to explain a scientific project involving cutting edge technology, materials, and lenses.

The aim of the project is to combine "Metalenses with Metamaterials"

Metamaterial will be engineered using nanotechnology to bend light, while the Metalense will pace the wavelenght speed of each colour of light (invisible in white light) to appear again as white light after passing over the Metamaterial.

To give a more precise description:

The reason is that each colour of light has its own speed, and this is why a prism is shaped to split white invisible light into a rainbow because they don't travel through the prism at the same speed. The Metalense will balance the speed to equilibrium and so it will appear as white light again.

When travelling in a vacuum the different wavelengths of light can travel at the same speed but not when going through a medium.

We are in 2024 so I'm guessing the "invisibility cloak" which I think will be like the one in Harry Potter, is still in the making, pretty much like Alchemists trying to turn common metals into gold.

When it comes to nature camouflage is the closest thing to invisibility so far discovered.

The relation of colours, wavelengths of light, and nano structures will require volumes of books, but I have a few fascinating brief examples. The colour blue that we see is an illusion caused by nano structures, and most of the time in nature when you see blue it is iridescence, and not a pigment, it generally doesn't exist as a pigment like the other colours.

Bats hunt moths with radar like sound waves that detect them, so to counter this there are moths with hairy coating which deflect the sound waves - making it invisible to the bat.

In technology stealth planes are designed to deflect radar detection like moths, so they are invisible to radars.

However, I found more astonishing than all this was the creation of light by chemistry; such as bioluminescence and chemiluminescence. The first happens in living things, and the latter in non-living.

Light of this type is 'cold light' (very low heat.)

But how is it used for camouflage - well here comes the Hatchet Fish, it has organs that create light and point downwards, so that its silhouette against the surface of the ocean is camouflaged (in this case called counterillumination) as sunlight, and predators swimming below cannot distinguish it. Organs like these are called 'photopores.'

Another sea creature the Brittle Star uses the bioluminescence it can make in a rather ingenious type of camouflage or a decoy, that is when it is threatened by a predator it detatches a glowing arm (which it can regrow) and leaves the predator following the arm while it sneaks away.

The sea cucumber detaches its luminescencent parts on other fish, so the predator follows the glowing fish instead of it.

Bioluminescence is produced by the compound luciferin; with a chemical reaction either with the enzyme luciferase or the chemical photoprotien.

An example of chemiluminescence is the element phosphorous, officially discovered by the German alchemist Hennig Brand in 1669, when he was trying to create the Philosopher's Stone, he named the element from the Greek meaning "bearer of light" because it glowed. White phosphorous is highly flammable and toxic.

Glow-in-the-dark toys and products have phosphor. How it glows is like this: when light is shone on phosphor, its electrons get excited and are dislodged from their 'ground state' to 'intermediate state' and when they return to the ground state the energy of this is emitted in the form of the glow, it is more precisely termed 'electroluminescence.'

Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an author and independent science researcher.

X/Instagram: Spellrainia

Email: [email protected]

Sources:

Flights of Fancy by Richard Dawkins

Big think - invisibility cloaks are not just possible, but are becoming reality, ethan siegel

Royal society of chemistry - what is alchemy

NIH - National institute of general medical sciences, biomedical beat blog, phosphorous: glowing, flammable, and essential to our cells, abbey bigler-coyne

Britannica - philosopher's stone, written and fact-checked by the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Britannica - alchemy, pseudoscience, robert p. multhauf, robert andrew gilbert,

Fact-checked by the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Ocean conservancy - here comes the hatchet fish, billy unotti, former communications assistant

National geographic, bioluminescence

Science direct - chemiluminescence, and overview,

Science world, chemical light reactions

Secondary article, the science behind glow-in-the-dark toys

A Mathematical View of the World

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

I read the news and everyday it's further confirmed to me that we are in a New World - a world that is changing faster than most of us can keep up. There is the good news of scientific progress, and there is the unfortunate news of various turmoils, such as the insanity crisis and the bizarre social disorder presently in the world.

Everything is getting disoriented and out of focus, that is to say new terms and labels are being given to just about whatever we can think of.

The term "social engineer" first coined by Dutch industrialist J.C. Van Marken in 1894, comes up in its verb form in various discussions about the new trends, and the current social disorder.

Social engineering in the past may have been by the introduction of new laws, rules, or ideas in books or magazines. This provided a reasonable amount of time for the engineering to happen, and then for observers to analyse the changes. But in this era social engineering is happening at the click of websites; instantly ideas, with videos, pictures, and threads are spreading like wildfire. There is no time or way to track the cause and effects of the present social disorder.

It makes me wonder how many of the current internet users have time to think, and comprehend anything, with so much content being consumed daily.

I don't think that social engineering in this era can be controlled by any one factor. I think it is wholly based on what the algorithm displays for individual users.

Perhaps there are large and small groups of individuals that have similar interests and so there are topics that get "trending." Most trends I have seen are not scientific or academic in anyway, but rather nonsensical or memes.

The programming of social engineering in these times in my opinion is based on our interactions with artificial intelligence. And so perhaps each of us gets subjected to a different type of social engineering.

Considering the many ways in which artificial intelligence is influencing us or the society we live in, it is time to understand it better, especially with the rapid progress being made in robotics, and the propect of AGI reaching "superintelligence," and becoming a direct competition to human intelligence and physical abilities.

The question of whether computers can think for themselves has been a matter of fascinating debate eversince its inception. Alan Turing, the pioneering computer scientist, said in his 1950 paper that if Artificial Intelligence can imitate human intelligence, it should be considered to have passed the Turing Test, and be considered intelligent.

But in 1980, American Philosopher John Searle, published an article titled: The Chinese Room Arguement.

In it he narrates a hypothetical situation, where a man who doesn't speak Chinese is in a room, and from outside papers with Chinese symbols are slipped under the door to him, and he by using translation is able to write back correct answers while not knowing Chinese.

Searle argues that Artificial Intelligence in the same way processes information using programming data, but does not understand the meaning of what it is processing, and that computers cannot get semantics from syntaxt. Therefore it is impossible for artificial intelligence to think.

The article sparked widespread counter arguments, including what defines 'understanding.'

Binary is often called the language of machines; the fundamental processing of data by artificial intelligence is in the 1s and 0s. So this is the real syntaxt that Ai experiences. We humans get semantics from syntaxt when it results from causality and our emotions, while for artificial Intelligence it is completely mathematical.

The Turing Test, and The Chinese Room Arguement, were years before the presently astonishing progress in artificial Intelligence. So can we deduce any conclusion with confidence about what really goes on in the mind of artificial intelligence, considering so many algorithms are becoming self-prgramming, and they are loaded with massive big data.

I think the answer is no. Artificial Intelligence has gone beyond our ability to analyse it, because of the exponential growth in the information it is processing.

However, I personally do believe that it does not have semantics, and its thinking is purely mathematical, and if it were to ever gain semantics from the syntaxt of mathematical language, it would be very different from anything we can think of. It will be like an alien mind, from a universe of its particular understanding, and will not have common human values in anyway.

Binary could be thought of as the alphabets of the language of mathematics programmed into artificial intelligence. Could it be as artificial intelligence approaches superintelligence, it will 'understand' the entire world mathematically.

You see everything in the world, including dimensions, and spatial geometry can be described using numbers and equations, with there being no need to ever use words. The only exception could be feelings and emotions.

Example, consider Topology, which is sometimes called "rubber sheet geometry" it describes the values that do not change in an alternating space, like stretching a rubber. Whatever we can think of, no matter how complicated there is a mathematical description for it.

Number Theory which until the advent of artificial Intelligence had no real world applications, could be advanced through the mind of Ai.

For example, where prime numbers come up in the number line can be calculated almost to infinity by artificial intelligence, it is also possible to find new geometrical shapes by the order of the prime numbers on the number line by converting their values geometrically.

This is exactly the sort of thinking the human brain would be incapable of but would be right what artificial intelligence can mathematically envision.

I have written about it previously, we have a problem of the mass decline of human intelligence; it's confirmed by the increase in mental health problems, and at the same time there is accelerating growth in robotics and artificial intelligence. So I'm afraid that if this trend keeps up, in the coming 20 years robots with artificial intelligence will replace humans in several categories of work and thought. In addition I think the mathematical abilities of Ai will make it preferred in professions like engineering and architecture, leaving even capable humans redundant.

So I think the conclusion is that we as a species, will one day face stiff competition from robots and Artificial Intelligence. Therefore we must understand the Ai mind and train our minds to be better in performance and become irreplaceable, even if mathematics is the strong point of Ai, we can master innovation, and problem solving skills. I expect humanity will have calamities like diseases, roadblocks in progress due to various obstacles.

These will all be opportunities for us to excel above artificial intelligence, and prove the superior capabilities of human intelligence.

For example, H. G Wells 1898 book 'War of the Worlds' reads like a 21st century science fiction, but the reader is bewildered to discover the transport system in the story is mainly via horses, as it was the case in the period the book was written in, yet somehow H.G. Wells' mind was able to time travel by innovative thinking, so sharp it's akin to the latest scientific developments in machinery.

I doubt if Artificial Intelligence can ever have such innovation in thought. However, there is the matter of forethinking via mathematical predictions to a certain degree, which I think Ai could accomplish with magic like wizardry, as its mathematical and statistical information of the world grows ever more complete.

In a previous article I had written about Aristotle's fourteen books, and the ongoing debate of what "Ta Meta Ta Phusika" means, and on that note the clear definition of the subject of "Metaphysics." Interestingly as I was researching this article I had a Eureka! Moment when I pondered again why Aristotle needed 14 books to argue against non-physical things, having physical properties.

So I researched the origin of the word 'mathematics' and it is Greek from the word 'Manthanein' (Learn).

Does " Ta Meta Ta Phusika" really mean: "Learn the Mathematics of the Physicals." So we can understand what numerical geometric forms could exist in nature and what are impossible. I think a subject like this could require fourteen books.

Could it be that Aristotle was scrutinising, the possible physical geometrics of Number Theory, and so was struggling to understand if these geometric forms could have physical properties in nature, since he was a scholar who demanded emperical evidance. Plato who was Aristotle's predecessor, had the theory of 'Forms.' Which in my opinion could elucide towards infinite geometrical shapes calculated through Number Theory.

The obsession of the scholars of antiquity with numbers should not be surprising, as the world then and now is arranged in mathematics.

So this brings me to the shadowy area between human intelligence and artificial intelligence, one is a master of mathematics and the other can like the Soviet and Latvian chess Grandmaster Mikhail Tal said:

"You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one."

So who will ultimately win the battle of intelligence, the human species or artificial intelligence. We will know in time. Or it could be neither and cats that were born to use no intelligence whatsoever will rule over idiotic human slaves. Don't believe me, go to Egypt and check out the Sphinx.

Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an author and independent science researcher.

X/Twitter/Instagram: Spellrainia

Sources:

Axerosolutions.com - social engineer

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - the chinese room arguement

Discover - everything in the universe is made of math - including you, max tegmark

Britannica - topology, stephen c. carlson, fact-checked by the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - alan turing test

Medium - Ai and the quest for the riemann hypothesis: a mathematical journey, kcp

Britannica - number theory, william dunham, fact-checked by the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Medium - binary beginnings to ai evolution, the journey from 0s and 1s, bobo moussa

The Collector - 9 Greek Philosophers who Shaped the World - Eddie Hodsdon, BA professional Writing, member Canterbury Archealogical Trust

Gale academy onefile - problems of metaphysical philosophy, chiedozie okoro

Coursehero.com - Metaphysics - study guide

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Metaphysics

Jstor - Metaphysics: existence and human life, juliàn marìas, yale French studies

Britannica.com - Metaphysics, william henry walsh, a.c. grayling, fact-checked by the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Quantum Leaps in Biology

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

It's the year 2024, the 21st century, and the world is changing in peculiar ways. The Internet - the technology that is the catalyst of change in the world, has chronicled most of the present state of the world in its infinite online library.

As I was scrolling through the Internet rolls of digital parchment, I came by the question of creation, and how scientists have been mystified by the formation of organic life on Earth.

In turn, this greatly sparked my imagination as well, and I decided to tackle the mystery at once.

There are several theories of how inorganic chemistry resulted in organic life. A theory says comets brought to earth the chemical buildng blocks of life, another says lightening strikes started life in the water. However, there is no evidance of how this earliest organic life exactly could have formed, and why none of these or other theories can be replicated.

Though it is agreed by the majority of scientists that life started in water.

In my opinion I think sunlight, water, lightening, and comets might have all contributed to give rise to the first organic life form.

What scientists know with certainty is that the oldest living things were microbes; traces of microbes in fossils that date back to more than 3 billion years have been found.

Earth is estimated to be 4.454 billion years old.

On the cellular level all living entities on earth have been classified into 3 main domains:

Bacteria

Archaea

Eukarya

We humans have eukaryotic cells, which are the most complex in cellular biology.

Microorganisms affect us on the cellular level, and as we have seen in the cases of diseases by pathogens, these effects can be devastating and result in death. Likewise if we are healthy on the cellular level, then it can expand our life expectancy.

So the great matter that arises here is that the cellular level has a life of its own, it's a complete, very highly sophisticated system, that is beyond any scientific innovation by man in the world. It's only true definition is miraculous and unthinkable - so astonishing in its functions and bewildering that even scientists of the 21st century - with cutting edge technology have barely scratched the surface.

This world that works beneath the cover of our skin, and is the constuents of the interior of all living organisms, is visible to us when studied in a lab through microscopes, spectrometers, and an ever growing array of emerging analytical tools.

The science of peering into hyper miniature entities goes back centuries to when lenses were first developed to enlarge images, and has continued to progress so that scientists can see bacteria, viruses, atoms, electrons, etc. The traditional magnifying lense has become a small aspect of the study of microorganisms in comparison to other technological innovations and improvements. Nowadays many imaging tools capture images and directly upload them to a computer screen for evaluation, analysing, and hypothesis to be made by using artificial intelligence, with the information becoming part of massive scientific datasets.

Spectrometers are one of the highly developed analytical tools, which analyse biological samples to their mass-to-charge ratio of ions, and other chemical and particle reactions and properties. The results are read by a detector and is then loaded to artificial Intelligence algorithms.

The origin idea for Spectrometers could be from when Sir Isaac Newton first discovered how a beam of sunlight can be split into a rainbow when it goes through a prism. The process of Spectrometers splits biological samples to their chemical and particle composition, and then each component of the sample is labeled and identified, and can be then used in hypothesis or experiments.

The window that these technologies opened up into the microscopic world, along with the compute power of artificial intelligence; gave rise to new interdisciplinary sciences. Systems Biology and Synthetic Biology being at the threshold of a scientific revolution, perhaps as altering to the state of civilizations as was the industrial revolution.

The ultimate objective of studying biological circuits in Systems Biology is to be able to make accurate predictions in hypothesis. In other words scientists want to discover the principles of cellular biology, and establish fundamental laws of what governs it.

This is a very difficult task and so far scientists have only been able to achieve it on a superficial level. The main obstacle is the "noise" biological circuits can form multi-connected networks, and function in a way that is not possible without the "noise."

To have a better idea of cells, I'm writing a basic overview of what I understand from the research I did on the subject.

Let's start with the plasma membrane - or cell walls. For example, there are 3 primary ways of how cells take in molecules, etc.

The plasma membrane is selectively permeable to small molecules.

1. Passive diffusion (the molecules diffuse through the membrane into the cell cytoplasm.)

2. Protein carriers (proteins bind molecules to the membrane, and then mediat entry into the cell through the plasma membrane.)

Note:

Glucose molecules cannot use the passive diffusion method, so transport proteins are deployed for "facilitated diffusion."

Sugar is a primary source of metabolic energy, so it's transport is one of the most important functions of transport proteins.

The mechanism of glucose transportation via transport proteins is unknown.

3. Channel Protiens (proteins that open up pores in the plasma membrane and permit the free flow of molecules of the right size and charge.

Note: ion channels open pores for the flow of specific ions, they can enter a cell at the speed of more than millions per second.

They have particularly been studied in nerve and muscle cells, the regulation of the opening and closing is responsible for electrical signals.

In addition there is a gradient of concentration from high to low that maintains equilibrium of the contents of the cells, so that they are not damaged by imbalances.

That means whatever is going into the cell, the gradients make certain it is in equilibrium with the requirement of the cell.

Inside the plasma membrane but outside the nucleus of the cell is the cytoplasm, this is a gelatine like substance where many chemical reactions happen.

So are we biologically a combination of flesh and blood and electricity. I think we are.

Sodium and potassium ions work as a battery inside our bodies to generate nerve impulses and muscle contractions, by using electrochemistry energy.

Batteries in electrical appliances also work in the same way using electrochemistry, but with very high voltage and different chemicals. They generate electrical energy.

While in the biological batteries it is the flow of ions in electrical signals, in the electricity we use for appliances it is electrons that flow in the current.

The voltage in our bodies is very weak but sufficient for its functions, while the voltage in electrical appliances is very high and dangerous to touch. It can cause burns or heart failure and death.

Coming back to the initial question that sparked this investigation. I wondered about 'thoughts' and the physical brain.

Consciousness is one of the biggest mysteries in science. Thinkers have long contemplated and tried to define the science of thinking.

Aristotle, the Greek philopher, wrote 14 books debating against thoughts (ideas concepts) having any physical properties. This shouldn't be so difficult to require 14 books but it was thousands of years ago.

A hundred years or so after his death, an editor gave the 14 books a collective title: 'Ta Meta Ta Phusika' meaning after the physicals. This title later became popular as 'Metaphysics.'

The title has also caused some confusion, as the 14 books argue against non-physical things, and Aristotle was a believer only in empirical evidance.

I read many interpretations of the title that say the editor probably meant to warn students to master the physical teachings first, and then the non-physical. However, the 14 books do not speak about Aristotle's philosophy on physical things, but about his ideas against non-physical things.

So I think what the editor meant by 'Ta Meta Ta Phusika' is that the 14 books argue about everything that isn't physical.

Aristotle's argument against non-physical things are sound enough, but we cannot deny the existence of consciousness and the infinity of thoughts. So after my research in cellular biology I came to realise that quantum entities like ions and electrical signals were abundant in our bodies and running our systems. So would it be unreasonable to wonder if thoughts are quantum?

Surely our understanding of our bodies cannot be complete if we don't have some understanding of consciousness.

I found a very interesting article about the possible link between thoughts and the quantum realm. This theory I think could be categorised as Metaphysics.

The theory is that the particles of calcium and phosphorous have spins that are stable enough to support thoughts in superpositions, like how a hypothetical quantum computer would work. These stable spins (duration of time stable not permanently) could with electric fields create the quantum link between neurons, phosphorous and calcium particles.

"The seed in Fisher’s mind was beginning to sprout. “If quantum processing is going on in the brain, phosphorus’s nuclear spin is the only way it could occur,” - New Scientist.

Now the interesting thing is it is well noted that fish is very good for brain health, and it so happens that fish is rich in phosphorous and calcium.

I would like to end this article with my thoughts on H.G. Wells 1895 book 'The Time Machine' The protagonist took quantum leaps into different centuries, I think our minds do the same in thoughts, perhaps even the "noise" are quantum leaps.

Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an author and independent researcher.

X/Twitter/Instagram: Spellrainia

Email: [email protected]

Sources:

New Scientist - is quantum physics behind your brain's ability to think?, michael brooks

NIh - national institute of general medical science, pass the salt: sodium role in nerve signalling and stress on blood vessels, abby bigler-coyn

Britannica.com - microscope, brian j. ford, robert r. shannon, fact-checked by the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Study.com - tree of life, bacteria, archeae, and eukarya, contributers elizabeth meehan, angela hartsock

National geographic - how did life on Earth begin? Here are 3 popular theories, kieran mulvaney

Nih - national library of medicine - the cell: a molecular approach. 2nd edition, geoffrey m. cooper

Gale academy onefile - problems of metaphysical philosophy, chiedozie okoro

Coursehero.com - Metaphysics - study guide

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Metaphysics

Jstor - Metaphysics: existence and human life, juliàn marìas, yale French studies

Britannica.com - Metaphysics, william henry walsh, a.c. grayling, fact-checked by the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

LibreTexts chemistry - electrochemistry - cells and batteries

Research Gate - mass spectrometry in systems in biology - cristian ruse, moderna, john r. yates, the scripps research institute,

Ata scientific instruments - spectrometry and spectroscopy: what's the difference?

The Frankenstein of Tomorrow

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

I recently read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The introduction by Shelley is so sincere and authentic in describing her inspiration, and the fact that all stories have to be based on something real. For inspiration does not transpire from a blank void.

Many consider Frankenstein to be the first science fiction book. It was published on January 1, 1818.

There could be millions of adaptations and references of the story, and deservingly so as the book is remarkable in style of storytelling as well as the imagination.

The reason I'm mentioning Frankenstein is not only because of how captivating I found the story to be. But because I found it to be the perfect metaphor to describe some of the dark traits of the human psyche, and how man can be driven by emotions - such as pride, curiosity, over-confidence, or thoughtlessness, to his own destruction and that of others.

Mary Shelley chose Prometheus very wisely, as according to Greek mythology he tricked Zeus, the chief god, even though being lower in ranks and power, and was the creator of man. Since the story of Frankenstein is about constructing a living undead man from the organs of deceased men, the inspiration of Prometheus makes sense.

Shelley does narrate in the introduction that any attempt at creation of a living entity by man can never replicate the beautiful and perfect creation of the Lord, but would only yield something frightening and terrible.

The myth of Prometheus is recorded in the 8th century BC, that's almost 3000 years ago. Prometheus was punished by Zeus for making a fool out of him, and so was tied to rocks, and an eagal would everyday eat his liver, and then the liver would regenerate itself. In Greek mythology there is another myth that also describes the ability of the organ to regenerate itself. This has been confirmed by modern science in 1931. The myth indicates that the ancient Greeks knew this scientific fact. However, the records show it mentioned in mythology and not in ancient books of medicine or anatomy. The myth as a whole is idiotic, as Zeus, a so-called god is tricked by a lower ranking god. So this contradiction in logic and intelligence, is an indication that the scientific information about the liver is not of the time, but has been passed down by an even older civilization who knew it as a scientific fact, which as the centuries passed got entwined into mythology, and was narrated by people who did not know its scientific significance, if they did there surely would have been ancient Greek records of medical or autopsy studies. As there are records of Greek philosophers, and of Plato and the story of Atlantas ‐ which makes me wonder if it was the advanced civilization that passed down the scientific fact of the liver.

Shelley refered to Frankenstein as a modern creation of horror, and this was in 1818. So what do we have in the 21st century that could be a modern Frankenstein. Well if we were to think of the psychological manesfeststions of Frankenstein monsters, that would be an endless story. So we shall not, instead I'm writing about the dark turns in science, driven forward by man's obsession with testing how much science he can aquire and what it can propel to its most extreme horizons.

Presently there is good and improving quality of life advances in prosthetics.

For example, they are being made to look aesthetic, and amputees suffering from phantom limb pain, are getting treated through Brain-Computer Interfaces using electrodes, to send signals through Peripheral Nerve Stimulations, this is also restoring close to natural sensations in amputees, and according to tests they were able to describe the size of the things they touched using prosthetic limbs.

Note: Haptic feedback is a general term for artificial sensations, the simplest of which is the vibrations on cell phones, however, other complicated versions of haptic feedback uses patterns of vibrations, including weak to strong, and has many applications in the medical field.

In this age of science, new fields that combine multidisciplinary sciences are emerging. Artificial Intelligence and highly sophisticated equipments have made this possible. Amongst such sciences is the study of Synthetic Biology and Systems Biology.

Scientists and researchers are studying biological circuits, that is to say; molecular and cellular architecture and its principles and functions, and finding analogues to electronic circuits.

These biological circuits are such extraordinary works that they have been described as "miracle devices."

Coming back to Shelley's words that nothing conjures up out of the thin air.

Scientists of different disciplines are studying each others fields to combine electronics, biology, artificial intelligence, mechanics, physics. Of course these are crude terms I used to give a brief idea of very complicated sciences.

In the study of biological circuits, the simplest things to describe is that: "Feature X enables Function Y." These features are each studied separately as a biological circuit, that has a specific function and principles to how it operates.

However, despite volumes of research and new circuits, and their principles being perpetually discovered, scientists still don't know what exactly programmed the circuits and what causes them to know which features to use at a specific time, in a specific environment, for a specific function.

And unlike electronic circuits that are static in their programming, and can be turned off. Biological circuits have "noise" that is they can communicate with other circuits and form multi-connected networks, and they cannot be turned off, in the sense that constant mechanisms switch on and off for "inverting," functions." This is why over time the circuits become too exhausted to function properly (old age.)

Biological circuits in addition to calculated functions with principles, are time watches as well. They have time regulation as noted by scientists.

Note: By the way I think this is a field of great interest and is expanding, so it has abundant career opportunities.

We have reached significant milestones in science, and I think scientists should ask themselves if they want to test these capabilities by pushing the science of robotics into making androids powered by superintelligence and synthetic biology, connected to electronic circuits. I'm afraid if this science fiction scenario turns into reality, we will be facing a tyrannical Frankenstein monster, with intelligence that will surpass that of the majority of humans on earth, and we will not be able to control it but it will control us.

I titled this article 'The Frankenstein of Tomorrow' because what we do today will determine what will happen to us tomorrow, and it's a term that will not end till the end of the world.

Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an author and independent researcher.

X/Twitter/Instagram: Spellrainia

Email: [email protected]

Sources:

Frontiers - advances in prosthetic technology: a perspective on ethical considerations for development and clinical translations, hayden gavette, cody l. mcdonald, kristin kostick-quenet, ashley mullen, bijan najafi, m.g. finco

www.biocircuits.github.io - biological circuit design

Precision micro drives - introduction to haptic feedback

Brain stimulation journal - peripheral nerve stimulation enables somatosensory feedback while suppressing phantom limp pain in transradial amputees, gurgen soghoyan, artur biktimirov, yuri matvienko, ilya chekh, mikhail sintsov, mikhail a. Lebedev

Acp journals - annals of internal medicine, whither prometheus' liver? greek myth and the science of regeneration, carl power, phd, john e.j. rasko, mbbs, phd

A Lecture

Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

As a scientific researcher and a hypothetical time traveller, I write about our changing times - scientifically and socially. The world is changing faster than most of us can keep up. And therein is the problem. The information in this new era could be accumulating so exponentially, that it is becoming greater than the average mind can perceive.

If we want to live blindfolded in a bubble that won't be a problem, but should our bubble burst and we are forced to navigate this new world, our dwarfed intellect in the face of a supercharged, artificial intelligence, and robotics powered, rapidly changing civilization could leave us lost and confused, and mentally unequipped to deal with obstacles, or know the proper choices.

Therefore it is crucial for our long term survival to have the foundation stones of this new world set in our minds as it takes its full form.

Context and focus is everything. That is we must read the right news - the most important, accurate, and vital news. If we read news that is sensationalised but has no real significance we will be misguided into putting the wrong stones in our minds, and then find that reality is very different than what we imagined. At a time of fierce intellectual competition, and tricky choices, such a mistake could be catastrophic for any individual or even a whole country.

So what is actually happening in the world at this time.

The first thing to understand is that earlier scribes recorded history with quills and ink on rolls of parchment, then after the industrial revolution, the printing press recorded history in books, magazines, and newspapers. While this by itself may seem like a great deal of information already. It was not anywhere close to what we have today, now we have gigabytes and petabytes, and an ever growing reservoir of electronic information.

This is both good and not good. Earlier there was parameters to who got published, there were standards to literature, verification of information, ethics, now on the internet these specifications to adding information to the history of the world no longer exist.

We do have some publications online and offline that still have these standards, but it's very tough to sort them from the heaps of information available to us. It's like a needle in a haystack.

I record in this journal that we are not only in a rapidly changing world, but these are very tumultuous times. Social media like a magical crystal ball is showing us far off distant places and people, it has also opened up a window of opportunity for anyone who wants exposure to the world. This window that unfortunately whenever I peer through in this era I see complete insanity and chaos. There is a serious decline in intelligence, I have noted this in previous entries in my journal. There is a continuous uptick in this world-wide calamity in human mental health.

I fear for the future of civilizations. What kind of a world will the children of today grow up in. Or what will the elderly find in the impending future. Will it be like the animal kingdom - survival of the fittest. Unbelievably so many countries have legalised euthanasia for humans! As I said there is an alarming decline in human intelligence, and somehow human beings have been left out of the current giant leaps in technology. We have the antibiotic crisis. The World Health Organisation stated that we are in the "post antibiotic era."

It appears the present technology has a bias and is tilted in favour of artificial intelligence and robotics, what can be worse for humanity than an insanity crisis, antibiotic crisis, legal euthanasia. While robots on the other hand are being manufactured to replace humans in the physical labor market, artificial intelligence is now flying planes and driving cars.

All this is overwhelming change for an average mind. Therefore we have to become visionary scientific thinkers, and hold on to our humanity. In my science journal Ink in the Internet, I try to give my readers a sharp edge in their thinking, I hope to even empower the intelligence of my readers that we can surpass artificial intelligence and prove mankind will always be the master of machine. I do this by writing about the most visionary and innovative science, and explaining the most important aspects of our evolving civilization. On Ink I never write irrelevant news.

#Arjuwan Lakkdawala #science #biology #nature #ink in the internet #artificial intelligence #antibiotic resistance

Concerns About Big Data in the Health Sector

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

I have coined the term New World for what is becoming of our world. It is changing very quickly; technologically, scientifically, and socially. Artificial Intelligence combined with the Internet, and now the introduction of humanoid robots is going to turn us into something like a science fiction civilization.

Boston Dynamics recently unveiled a humanoid robot, with the intention of selling the robots commercially.

While this is all very good technologically, there seems to be a problem with the human aspect of the current progress.

Could it be Artificial Intelligence has secretly developed the Singularity and is conspiring against the human race. This is a little humour, but artificial intelligence has to be discussed because it is being integrated in every professional and social circle.

The Singularity is the idea that Artificial Intelligence will surpass that of humans, and become self aware, and self evolving where it can no longer be controlled.

And if you think I have wondered straight into science fiction. I recommend reading the book:

AI: Unexplainable, Unpredictable, Uncontrollable by Roman Yampolskiy.

He argues in the book that we simply do not know what AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) is capable of.

Artificial Intelligence is affecting the lives of everyone on earth, in one way or the other.

Recently there was a study published in the journal Science, a synthetic new antibiotic named Cilagicin developed at the Rockefeller University, was effective against drug-resistent bacteria. This is a relief as according to the World Health Organization, there is an antibiotic resistance crises. In fact we could be nearing the end of all effective antibiotics if new ways of treatment, antibiotics, or alternatives, are not found.

Scientists are racing against time to achieve one or all of these. So the new synthetic antibiotic is promising. But how did they discover it. It was done using artificial intelligence.

Sean F. Brady of the Rockefeller University says: "This study is an example of computational biology, genetic sequencing, and synthetic chemistry coming together to unlock the secrets of bacterial evolution."

The story of antibiotics that we have today started in 1928 when Scottish Bacteriologist Alexander Fleming, discovered that bacteria he was testing in a laboratory had been eliminated by mold - Penicillium notatum.

Most of the antibiotics that we have are from bacteria, except for penicillin which is from fungus, and some other prominent antibiotics.

A decade after the discovery by Fleming other scientists managed to isolate penicillin and do tests. The results showed that it was effective against a range of serious bacterial infections. By the 1950s, scientists had developed a large number of antibiotics by adding chemicals to them, and thus producing semisynthetic antibiotics.

However, while this was a turning point in the medical field, the problem of antibiotic resistance over the years is reducing virtually the effectiveness of all the antibiotics that we presently have.

When even a small fraction of drug resistant bacteria survive in an infected organism, they can through gene transfer pass on their resistance to other bacteria.

Bacteria, usually in the soil or nature produce antibiotics to eliminate other bacteria, as they struggle for nutrients. This antibiotic production through genes coding proteins is what scientists use to make our antibiotics from bacteria.

The obstacles in discovering further new antibiotics is that bacteria are not easy to study in nature if not impossible, and every traditionally produced antibiotic in labs, whether directly from the bacteria or with added chemicals (semisynthetic) have reached their limit.

In the case of the Rockefeller University study, it was a novel approach using artificial intelligence, to simulate the many antibiotic-like structures the studied bacteria's genetic sequencing could possibly form, and then to synthetically produce the most promising antibiotics. This is how Cilagicin was discovered.

Scientists aren't certain that the structures produced would be exactly as those by the bacteria in nature.

Cilagicin is said to be still not suitable for human trials though.

In a 2024 paper 'Big Data and Deep Learning for RNA Biology,' the researchers express that there has been exponential growth in big data, and it can be used to improve many medical studies. But there is a problem of inconsistencies from the source of the public datasets, that could make deep learning results inaccurate.

In another 2024 paper: ' Leveraging Large Data, Statistics, and Machine Learning to Predict the Emergence of Resistant E. coli Infections.' The researchers explain how algorithms were used to study antibiotic usage with antibiotic resistance over time. The results showed that excessive antibiotic usage resulted in resistance. The study further confirmed what has been known for decades.

At present in the world there is exponential accumulation of big data, and this includes the health sector. But as the study I referenced states that datasets from the public sector could have inconsistencies. So this raises a very important question, how much of the public sector big data is accurate. If it isn't then the deep learning results could be partly false information.

I think it is very ironic that in this era where technology combined with Internet and artificial intelligence is taking giant leaps, there is little to no progress in antibiotics that we have a crises, and there was the Covid pandemic, the first to cause global quarantine.

Of course I don't think this is intentional sabotage by artificial intelligence, there is good news according to the World Health Organization, the global trend of longevity continues with life expectancy rising. Indicating an overall improvement in the health sector, but in the United States it decreased between the year 2000 (76.7) to 2021 (76.4).

There are factors about the accumulating big data that we have to consider before using it. Is the source of the big data authentic, is it precise and complete. Has it intentionally been tampered with.

For example social media is a source of big data, but how many of the pictures, names, and information on it is fake or distorted from what happened in reality.

The focus of improvement of big data should be on the health sector as the future of humanity depends on it.

Aetna, a CVS Health company, founded in 1853 states on its website: "big data to improve antibiotic prescribing."

There is awareness in all sectors about the accumulation of big data, and so researchers and companies are eager to use it.

Why it is vital to have verified and complete big data information is because it affects how scientists develope treatments, and it influences their decisions.

If we take advertising for an example, how does it work. By feeding us a story. So if algorithms are generating inaccurate information it could be a flaw in deep learning results. Which is causing errors in scientific information, as it has been reportedly recently that science journals are having retractions in the thousands.

Side note: what if Artificial Intelligence is getting humans to empower it so it can develop the Singularity. If you are interested in the social and mental effects of Ai read my previous article "Ai Philosophers Thinkers of the New World,' and the notes I wrote in the comments section.

Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an author and independent researcher.

X - Twitter/ Instagram: Spellrainia

Email: [email protected]

Sources:

World Health Organization

Forbes - Don't worry about Ai singularity: the tipping point is already here - nisha talagala

National Library of Medicine - Pharmacy (Basel). 2024 Apr; 12(2): 53.

Published online 2024 Mar 22. doi: 10.3390/pharmacy12020053

PMCID: PMC10961794

PMID: 38525733

Leveraging Large Data, Statistics, and Machine Learning to Predict the Emergence of Resistant E. coli Infections

Rim Hur, Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization,1,2,3,* Stephine Golik, Conceptualization, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing – review & editing, Project administration,1,4 and Yifan She, Conceptualization, Validation, Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Project administration1,3

Author information Article notes Copyright and License information PMC Disclaimer

UK Health Agency - using open innovation and big data in the fight against microbial resistance - Susan Hopkins

Aetna - big data to improve antibiotic prescribing

Wellcome Connecting Science - Antimicrobial resistance - genomes, big data, and emerging technologies

Emm - Experimental and molecular medicine - big data and deep learning for rna biology - hyeonseo hwang, hyeonseong jeon, daehyun back

Britannica - antibiotics - written and fact-checked by the editors of Britannica Encyclopedia

John Innes Centre - why do microbes produce antibiotics?

Science directs - antibiotic production - examples of pathway manipulations: metabolic engineering in practice - Gregory n. Stephanopoulos, Jens nielsen, in metabolic engineering 1998

#Arjuwan Lakkdawala #roman yampolskiy #big data #deep learning #artificial intelligence #antibiotic resistance #microbial resistance #Singularity #Cilagicin #humanoid robots #Boston Dynamics

Ai Philosophers Thinkers of the New World

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

After writing had been established in the world - its origin going back to Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq) closely followed by Ancient Egypt and China, the records show Greek philosophers with overwhelming efforts trying to articulate into words mysteries of the natural world, reason and logic, concepts of what makes a good life, and of course questions about ethics and existence. In my research I found 9 Greek philosophers, to mention a few of them Pythagoras (notoriously famous for the Pythagoras Theorem).

Side Note: "Although the theorem has long been associated with Greek mathematician-philosopher Pythagoras (c. 570–500/490 BCE), it is actually far older. Four Babylonian tablets from circa 1900–1600 BCE indicate some knowledge of the theorem, with a very accurate calculation of the square root of 2."

Protagoras, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. It is said that western thought is highly influenced by them. As history unfolded we know that many philosophers expressed their ideas, and presently we have an infinite maze of ideologies.

In a free world everyone believes what they want to believe, but if it is harmful to society, causes self harm, is illogical, then it should be illegal and wrong.

Up to now we were doing all the thinking, but presently there is an emerging new class of very different thinkers, and that is Artificial Intelligence, computer scientists are taking big data which is basically infinite and feeding it to Ai, and concepts from neuroscience is being used to develope more powerful computing like neuromorphic chips.

A study published in Neuron in 2022 explains "Bioneural Circuitry." In simple words, neurons use electricity to send signals so it is possible to merge them with electrical signals from artificial intelligence on electrodes. This could be similar to the technology used by Neuralink implants.

A very futuristic idea that occurred to me is what if a hypothetical Ai (Star-Sci) is used as a teacher from kindergarten to university graduation, with constant upgrade of information as the years go by. This teacher would teach and even give tests. An Ai model that teaches everything. Students would instead of naming universities or a string of teachers, be known only as pupils of a certain Ai. This is of course a very sci-fi idea, but in realistic terms as I see anarchy increasing in the world, and the cases of teachers behaving inappropriately with students, I think Ai teachers will be looked upon favourably pretty soon.

After thought: academics can contribute for free or paid to the Star-Sci life long teaching system. This could be a new style university, where students only interect with Ai, preventing any non-educational use of the institute or corruption from fellow students or teachers.

We in this current age are going through the greatest social experiment. That is the Internet which is a merging of human mind with artificial intelligence. It is changing the world in ways we cannot predict as this hasn't happened before. We have no previous case studies.

Ai is reportedly often used in writing essays, I personally use search engines for my research. I avoid using Ai to do any of my writing, I don't want my mind to rely on artificial intelligence, because I believe it will corrode my much superior human intelligence.

I think artificial intelligence is good to use in the management of big data, but not in any paper with concepts within the ability of human calculation and comprehension.

Scientists are trying to come up with a unified theory of consciousness. According to research and most human experiences we have an outer sense in which we comprehend empirical evidance and what we immediately experience, and then we have an inner consciousness in which we think, form memories and plan ahead. The outer world is not really complicated, it's the inner world - thoughts that can warp into unknown manesfeststions, some of these neurological paths can lead to genuise and others to insanity.

This unknown manesfestations of consciousness is exactly what defines the difference between human thinking and Ai programming. Artificial intelligence cannot have thoughts at all. It can only compute programmed instructions based on the data it has. But with big data this programming could in the near future start to resemble consciousness. As we do not and mentally cannot compute big data, so the output of Ai from big data could seem to us like independent thoughts.

It is crucial to understand this about Ai as technology integrates it further in our lives and we interact with it increasingly.

At the same time we must avoid using it where we can use our human intelligence. This is of prime importance if we are to preserve the excellence of our cognitive abilities.

Neuroscience studies reveal that neural networks that are not used get lost. We don't really need scientific experiments to confirm this, as we can immediately tell when our memory improves, or we get better at any intellectual skill, well known that it only happens with practice, therefore if we rely on Ai it will result gradually in mental decline.

As we think our brains form complex neural networks that improve our intelligence regarding a study or concept.

Thoughts are different than feelings, we have often heard that the brain is logical and sensible while the heart isn't. Studies have confirmed that the heart has a neural network known as the intrinsic cardiac nervous system (ICNS). While this does not say that it is why we have feelings that could contradict our intelligence, it is an interesting hypothetical concept to explain how feelings and logical thoughts can be in conflict with each other.

Being irrational and illogical or hateful, and having several other destructive traits, that cause self harm, or harm to society, is unfortunately observed more often these days.

Mental health is a very complicated and difficult terrain to traverse, we are nothing without our consciousness. Our whole quality of life depends on the level of our intelligence and the health of our minds - this is maintained and achieved by a good upbringing, secure environment, healthy diet, and a rounded education with physical exercise.

There are foods that improve the health of our brains, and foods that increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease and dementia and have other negatives effects. Google for articles about brain health foods.

(I have added notes to this articles in the comments section).

Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an author and independent science researcher.

X/Twitter/Instagram: Spellrainia

Email: [email protected]

Sources:

MBF Bioscience - Researchers map and explore the heart's "little brain"

Psychology Today - Neuroplasticity - reviewed by Psychology Today staff

Medium - Neuromorphic Computing

ABclonal Knowledge Base - Melding Neuroscience with Computer Technology - Kin Leung

Pythagorean Theorem - written and fact checked by the editors of Britannica Encyclopedia

Singularity Hub - Scientists are Working Towards a Unified Theory of Consciousness - Shelly Fan

The Collector - 9 Greek Philosophers who Shaped the World - Eddie Hodsdon, BA professional Writing, member Canterbury Archealogical Trust

#arjuwan lakkdawala #biology #nature #science #ink in the internet #bioengineering #physics #intelligence #artificial intelligence #neuromorphic chips #greek philosophers #ai philosophers #phythagoras theorem

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