Bill Bryson’s top 10 Science Quotes

1. It isn’t easy to become a fossil

“It isn’t easy to become a fossil… Only about one bone in a billion, it is thought, becomes fossilized. If that is so, it means that the complete fossil legacy of all the Americans alive today – that’s 270 million people with 206 bones each – will only be about 50 bones, one-quarter of a complete skeleton. That’s not to say, of course, that any of these bones will ever actually be found. Bearing in mind that they can be buried anywhere within an area of slighly over 9.3 million square kilometres, little of which will ever be turned over, much less examined, it would be something of a miracle if they ever were”

2. There is more life under the Earth than on top of it

“We now know that there are a lot of microbes living deep within the Earth… Some scientist now think that there could be as 100 trillion tons of bacteria living beneath our feet in what are known as subsurface lithoautotrophic microbial ecosystems… Thomas Gold of Cornell has estimated that if you took all the bacteria out of the Earth’s interior and dumped it on the surface, it would cover the planet to a depth of five feet. If the estimates are correct, there could be more life under the Earth than on top of it.”

3. The most striking thing about our atmosphere

“The most striking thing about our atmosphere is that there isn’t very much of it. It extends upward for about 120 miles, which might seem reasonably bounteous when viewed from ground level, but if you shrank the Earth to the size of a standard desktop globe it would only be about the thickness of a couple of coats of varnish”

4. Men will never reach the edge of the solar system

“Pluto may be the last object marked on schoolroom charts but the solar system doesn’t end there. In fact, it isn’t even close to ending there. We won’t get to the solar system’s edge until we have passed through the Oort cloud, a vast celestial realm of drifting comets… Far from marking the outer edge of the solar system, as those schoolroom maps so cavalierly imply, Pluto is barely one 50,000th of the way. Of course we have no prospect of such a journey. Based on what we know now and can reasonably imagine, there is absolutely no prospect that any human being will ever visit the edge of our own solar system — ever. It is just too far”.

5. There is no point trying to hide from your bacteria

“There is no point trying to hide from your bacteria, for they are on you and around you always, in numbers you can’t conceive of. If you are in good health and averagely diligent about your hygiene, you will have a herd of about one trillion bacteria grazing on your fleshy plains – about one hundred thousand of them on every square centimetre of skin. And those are just the bacteria that inhabit your skin… Every human body consists of about ten quadrillion cells, but it is host to about a hundred quadrillion bacterial cells. They are, in short, a big part of us. From the bacteria’s point of view, of course, we are a rather small part of them… This is their planet, and we are only on it because they allow us to be”.

6. There is nothing we can do about asteroids

“Oh, probably none,” said Anderson breezily. “It wouldn’t be visible to the naked eye until it warmed up, and that wouldn’t happen until it hit the atmosphere, which would be about one second before it hit the Earth. You’re talking about something moving many tens of times faster than the fastest bullet. Unless it had been seen by someone with a telescope, and that’s by no means a certainty, it would take us completely by surprise.”

7. We are energy

“You may not feel outstandingly robust, but if you are an average-sized adult you will contain within your modest frame no less than 7 x 10^18 joules of potential energy — enough to explode with the force of thirty very large hydrogen bombs, assuming you knew how to liberate it and really wished to make a point. We’re just not very good at taking it out. Even a uranium bomb –the most energetic thing we have produced yet- releases less than 1 percent of the energy it could release if only we were more cunning”.

8. Atom’s nucleus

“Neutrons and protons occupy the atom’s nucleus. The nucleus of an atom is tiny — only one-millionth of a billionth of the full volume of the atom — but fantastically dense, since it contains virtually all the atom’s mass. As Cropper has put it, if an atom were expanded to the size of a cathedral, the nucleus would be only about the size of a fly — but a fly many times heavier than the cathedral”.

9. The center of the Earth

“The distance from the surface of Earth to the center is 3,959 miles, which isn’t so very far. It has been calculated that if you sunk a well to the center and dropped a brick into it, it would take only forty-five minutes for it to hit the bottom… Our own attempts to penetrate toward the middle have been modest indeed. One or two South African gold mines reach to a depth of two miles, but most mines on Earth go no more than about a quarter of a mile beneath the surface. If the planet were an apple, we wouldn’t yet have broken through the skin”.

10. Is there life out there?

“Still, statistically the probability that there are other thinking beings out there is good… Under Drake’s equation you divide the number of stars in a selected portion of the universe by the number of stars that are likely to have planetary systems; divide that by the number of planetary systems that could theoretically support life; divide that by the number on which life, having arisen, advances to a state of intelligence; and so on. At each such division, the number shrinks colossally—yet even with the most conservative inputs the number of advanced civilizations just in the Milky Way always works out to be somewhere in the millions”.

A Beautiful Mind ! !

This book draws very sharp divisions between movies that are about a life, based on a life, or in this case, inspired by a life. Whether you have scene the movie or even the trailer, once you read this book it become immediately apparent Dr. Nash’s life would not fit into any single film. To a degree this is simply an instance of practicality, for the work this man and his peers did, is intelligible to a small handful of people. Even while reading the book, unless your math skills are somewhat extraordinary, the lexicon of pure math will be completely new, and the concepts these men and women developed are fascinating, however they are almost unimaginably complex.

To those who have read material that may have touched on Game Theory, The Prisoner’s Dilemma, and The Mobius Band, the book will allow for moments when the inquisitive can participate. In most cases the concepts are mind bending, and in some cases they could not even be verbalized by some of the brilliant minds that Dr. Nash worked amongst. Ms. Sylvia Nasar does an excellent job of explaining why Dr. Nash was so different from his peers, and how he approached complex issues in fundamentally different manners than others.

The remarkable story is of this brilliant man who was considered one of the greatest thinkers of his time who fell gradually, though fairly quickly, into a mental state that caused his family to commit him more than once. The decades he spent living under the most bizarre and destructive delusions, his moments of clarity, and then his highly unusual recovery makes for an incredible tale. This is one of those stories that had it been written as fiction, it would not have been taken seriously.

The other parts of the book were very revealing as they pertained to Dr. Nash and his peers at Princeton, MIT, and elsewhere. The fields they work in are intensely competitive, however when he began his decline, and then continued to have false starts at normality, for the most part he was not abandoned. The author touches on why his peers may have felt the need to help a man who routinely demonstrated the most hurtful personal behavior to anyone he came in contact with. There were exceptions, but they are very few in number, and not for the people you might suppose. All of these great minds share at least one commonality, and that is their ability to think at extremely high levels that few can even imagine. Many of these people seem to constantly fear the loss of whatever unique gifts they have. They also tend to be people that have been marginalized until they find their place in the academic world, for what they think of, and the eccentricities they often have, single them out for ridicule not praise.

A very readable biography, a profession that is understood by few.

“A Beautiful Mind ” is one my favorite book and movie.. Its very inspiring and real pleasure to mind. (Sir)Dr. John Nash (the protagonist ) is a Nobel Prize Winner for Economics in 1995 and a great mathematician .The book is an account of his life,his struggle with Schizophrenia for 37 years and recovery. The author Sylvia Nasar has writing style tht u will feel like experiencing the book rather than just reading.
One thing more ,I have a thing for Nobel Prize winners, I have read Gitanjali , Surely you are Joking Mr. Feynman by Richard P. Feynman , Argumentatice Indian by Amartya Sen, The Double By Jose Saramago so no surprise i like this book so much.

Four Weddings and A Funeral ! ! !

 

Just few hours ago i saw this movie and liked these lines … The context is a very good friend of Matthew has died and he is speaking on his funeral.

Matthew: Gareth used to prefer funerals to weddings. He said it was easier to get enthusiastic about a ceremony one had an outside chance of eventually being involved in. In order to prepare this speech, I rang a few people, to get a general picture of how Gareth was regarded by those who met him. Fat seems to be a word people most connected with him. Terribly rude also rang a lot of bells. So very fat and very rude seems to have been a stranger’s viewpoint. On the other hand, some of you have been kind enough to ring me to tell me that you loved him, which I know he’d be thrilled to hear. You remember his fabulous hospitality… his strange experimental cooking. The recipe for “Duck à la Banana” fortunately goes with him to his grave. Most of all, you tell me of his enormous capacity for joy. When joyful, when joyful for highly vocal drunkenness. But joyful is how I hope you’ll remember him. Not stuck in a box in a church. Pick your favorite of his waistcoats and remember him that way. The most splendid, replete, big-hearted, weak-hearted as it turned out, and jolly bugger most of us ever met. As for me, you may ask how I’ll remember him, what I thought of him. Unfortunately there I run out of words. Perhaps you will forgive me if I turn from my own feelings to the words of another splendid bugger:

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let the aero-planes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message: He Is Dead.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West.
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: Put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

This has become one of the most touching poem i ever read!!

Thich Quang Duc : The Monk who burnt himself ! !

Thích Quảng Ðức was protesting against the way the administration of the President Ngô Đình Diệm was oppressing the Buddhist religion.His monastery was just outside of Huế in central Vietnam. The light blue Austin in which he drove to Saigon to commit his act can still be seen there (along with a picture showing his self-immolation, with his car in the background). After his death, his body was cremated. During the cremation, his shrunken heart still remained intact. It was henceforth considered holy and placed in the care of the Reserve Bank of Vietnam.Madame Nhu, the first lady of Vietnam at the time, commented with regard to this that she would “clap hands at seeing another monk barbecue show”. This supposedly resulted in her receiving the alias of “Dragon Lady”.Before Thay Thích Quảng Ðức self immolated himself, someone told me that he said to his followers that if his body falls forward, they should keep on protesting, and if his body falls backward, then they should stop protesting, his body fell forward after he died , so his followers still protesting, and Phat Giao VN Thong Nhat — Thay Thich Huyen Quang, Thay Thich Quang Do — still protesting for rights today from VN’s government VC today. His facial expressions looked calm and peaceful, not many people have the guts to self-immolate themselves like that and keeping themselves calm, and his heart is special, a Buddhism relic. I want to see his heart someday. I had no respect for President Ngo Dinh Diem or anyone that go with this oppression, eventhough some Vietnam people still commemorated his death, in fact he was assassinated because some people didn’t like his presidential actions, especially this oppression, he was a Catholic, I heard that his brother was a priest or something high in the Catholic church, but he was also assassinated ; his wife had no respect for Buddhism, she should have some respect, does she have the guts to righteous sacrifice to what she believes in, what an ignorant person, if she didn’t like Buddhism so what but have some respect. She was a Catholic, too. At this time because of a Catholic president, other religions — Buddhism PGVNTN, Phat Giao Hoa Hao, Cao Dai, were oppressed, Buddhism PGVNTN was the strongest, I guess that why this president and his followers wanted VN to have only one religion — Catholic, but too bad, Buddhism PGVNTN still remain strong and have a big influence today……see how Buddhism is not poison, as someone that mentioned in War of Words, but have moved to Culture Shock, in fact an Indian king, Asoka, followed Buddhism after he had acknowledged of what he had done, research on him for more information , Buddhists in this oppression protested in a peaceful way…..this is one of VN’s shameful piece of history, I hope there will be no repetition like this again, if one don’t like what others believe, then fine, but don’t do evil like what happened in this opppression, or he/her had sinned………

   It is so amazing that some monks in Buddhism have special relics after they were cremated, they must have reach to the some high level. This is true, more information, click here http://www.maitreyaproject.com/en/relic.html. There are many things in this world that remained unsolved, undiscovered, unpredictable, etc…..

The last words of Thich Quang Duc before his self-immolation were documented in a letter he had left::

“

Before closing my eyes and moving towards the vision of the Buddha, I respectfully plead to President Ngo Dinh Diem to take a mind of compassion towards the people of the nation and implement religious equality to maintain the strength of the homeland eternally. I call the venerables, reverends, members of the sangha and the lay Buddhists to organise in solidarity to make sacrifices to protect Buddhism.

”

I just found out that Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu was First Lady of South Vietnam from 1955-1963 eventhough President Ngo Dinh Diem was the president and also her brother in law. She was born as Tran Le Xuan; she converted from Mahayana Buddhism to Roman Catholicism; her parents disowned her because of her role in the persecution of Buddhists (her parents must have thought what have we done to have one disobedient and disrespectful daugther, converting to another religion, but also mocking her born religion, Buddhism). Her husband was assassinated with President Ngo Dinh Diem, during this assassination she was in California with her daugther Ngo Le Thuy…after this assassination, it was a downfall for the Dinh families….she was not allowed to return back to South Vietnam, her daughter died in a car accident in France, she was robbed of more than $132,000 worth of jewelry in Italy, her brother Tran Van Khiem was charged in the strangling deaths of their parents (if this was true, empathy to her parents for having impious children). She clearly doesn’t understand Buddhism, what she had said about the self-immolation of Buddhist monks were from plain ignorance…..again does she has the bravery to self-immolate herself for what she believes or if her belief was oppressed. Self-immolating yourself isn’t a laughable matter, very painful in which one must have the guts, audacity, etc. This self-immolation was the reponse back from Buddhishts in the oppression in a peaceful way not in a violent way to let others know how serious this oppression was, how Buddhism in Vietnam was oppressed, like if one entitled rights were oppressed, one will not be subdued to any authority, one would rather die in honor like how the samurai, they would rather kill themselves before their enemies have the chance to do so……about Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu…..it is probably what she had done that lead to her misfortune (KARMA).

Regards, 

“Tarun.Reflex”