The Science Blog

The Renaissance and Synergetic Environmental Science

2014-04-02T01:12:00.000-07:00

Buckminster Fuller and Sir C P Snow warned that the existing unbalanced understanding of the second law of thermodynamics was accelerating civilisation toward global disaster. To prevent that disaster, modern science needed to be reunited with the Classical Greek Era's Humanities' life science. A question arises, is it possible for the Arts to construct a Social Cradle to help ensure that this reunification occurs in time to prevent such global chaos? This paper argues that the basis of a relevant environmental science exists to accomplish that task. It can become the foundation to uphold such a cradle and the Western Arts culture is beginning to become aware of the responsibility for its construction.
The concept is that evolution functions as a universal negentropic process, expressing the infinite properties of fractal geometrical logic. The Encyclopaedia of Human Thermodynamics defines life-science energy as synergy, providing a definition in complete contradiction to Einstein's contention that all of science must be governed by the second law of thermodynamics. The NASA High Energy Astrophysics Division library has published papers demonstrating that Classical Greek life-science was based upon fractal logic, in which case all life will not be destroyed by order of the second law of thermodynamics.
Sir Isaac Newton's unpublished papers, discovered last century, specifically balanced the present mechanistic entropic world view with a more profound natural philosophy of science. Newton's balancing principles were not only an expression of fractal logic but were the same principles that once upheld the ancient Greek life-science. It is nonsense for influential relics from the Inquisition to classify Newton's balancing science as an insane criminal heresy. Nonetheless, many eminent Western scientists still believe that all life must be destroyed in accordance with the dictates of Einstein's Premier law of all of science.
Arthur C Clark's televised documentary entitled Factals:Colours of Infinity, presented several eminent scientists, including Benoit Mandelbrot. Mandelbrot's famous fractal equation was justifiably hailed as the greatest mathematical discovery in human history. Arthur Clark then explains that fractal logic really does extend to infinity, adding the comment that fractal logic extends past the death of the universe.
Engineering under the yoke of the Principle of Destruction has long been considered a recipe for social disaster. Plato referred to engineers who were ignorant of optical spiritual engineering principles, as being barbarians only suited for continual warfare. The Parthenon was constructed upon Pythagorean fractal mathematical logic as a spiritual statement concerning the ethics that had been fused into theories of creation belonging to the Nous of Anaxagoras. The use of computers in the reconstruction of the Parthenon program revealed that the temple had been carefully constructed to create an optical illusion by using Golden Mean geometrical principles. Now that Plato's optical spiritual engineering principles have been successfully transferred by Buckminster Fuller into the synergies of a universal holographic chemistry endorsed by the three 1996 Nobel Laureates in Chemistry, the general present understanding of the second law is shown to be inadequate.
Our greatest scientists can be seen to be spiritually hobbled by the entropic yoke, and so are many of our greatest scholars representing the Humanities. Marsilio Ficino during the 15th Century, was head of the revived Academy of Plato in Florence. His work was dedicated to the functioning of Plato's atomic physics of the soul. Plato's engineering evil, associated with an obsession with destructive warfare, was defined in his Timaeus as a property of unformed matter within the physical atom. The Classical Greek Epicurean fractal logic science of universal love was about atomistic physics concepts. On the other hand the concept of Liberty within 18th Century American Democracy was constructed upon the principles of physics and geometry, using Sir Isaac Newton's published physics principles without any knowledge of his unpublished physics principles based upon fractal logic.
The ancient Greek checks and balances associated with Aristotle's ethical science to guide ennobling government can be considered to apply to the futuristic development of a protective technology to balance a barbaric engineering obsession with nuclear fission. Be that as it may, Plato's spiritual engineering principles are now firmly employed at the cutting edge of quantum biological research, in which our materialistic reality is but a very small aspect of a far greater holographic reality. We are now presented with a greater environmental science issue than was previously conceivable and we do need the relevant balanced environmental science.
It is illogical for global climate change life science to be kept separate from the fractal functioning of a rain cloud. Confused inadequate entropic environmental policies can be considered a precursor to potential nightmare scenarios. Princeton University advertises its environmental policies as being associated with the policies of the American President Woodrow Wilson. President Wilson established a Maria Montessori school in the White-house from which the engineering of her Golden Gates to the future might be deduced. The President wanted the American political ethos to move from a materialistic basis to a life science basis, because he considered Democracy to be a living thing. However, his choice of Darwinian life science was not compatible with Montessori's teaching, because Darwin had based his theories upon the second law of thermodynamics, derived from Thomas Mathus' Principles of Population essay. Montessori had classified the second law of thermodynamics as the greed energy law causing warfare and periodic economic collapse.
Montessori had worked with President Wilson, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Eddison and Tielhard de Chardin. De Chardin's electromagnetic key to open the Golden Gates could only function for all people at the same time, in defiance of Darwinian theory in which the civilised races would exterminate the savage races. At the Nuremberg Nazi War Crimes Tribunal, high ranking German prisoners pointed out that Hitler's policies were derived from Darwinian Eugenics of which President Woodrow and Alexander Graham Bell were active proponents, as at that time were many eminent English and American scholars.
The distinction between barbaric and ethical electromagnetic engineering principles can be considered to be relevant to the discovery last century that a physics force governing optimal biological growth and development through space-time exists. This optical discovery was reprinted alongside works by such authors as Louis Pasteur and Sir Francis Crick, as an important discovery from the 20th Century World literature. The discovery demonstrated that entropic Darwinian science is unable to generate rigorous computer simulations of futuristic life-forms across 20 million years of space-time, while fractal life science mathematics can do so. The barbaric aspect of this fact is that Western culture remains governed by the second law of thermodynamics, which forbids the existence of a healthy universal fractal logic life force, even when Fullerene chemistry provides rigorous scientific evidence to the contrary.
The research methodology certainly does exist to generate futuristic human survival simulations across evolutionary periods of space-time. By observing such simulations, the nature of the futuristic survival technology would become obvious. We already can deduce the fact that population numbers present no problem within the environment of holographic reality. On the other hand, unbalanced entropic logic not only prevents the application of Plato's spiritual optical engineering principles, but it also accelerates the destructive chaos we can associate with World War II.
American Plutocracy can be now be seen to be failing to genuinely protect Western culture, however opportunity exists to develop Fullerene technologies from the newly discovered Fullerene medical science. We are becoming aware of the dangers of polluting the greater holographic environment and might investigate further that Platonic ethics was about establishing a science that by harmonising with the fractal universe for its healthy evolution, humans would not become extinct.
At it's Castle on the Hill in Northern New South Wales, the Science-Art Centre conducts workshops and lectures about the importance of worldwide Fullerene technological research. It considers that the life science company C Sixty, based upon Fullerene synergy discoveries by the three 1996 Nobel Laureates in Chemistry, might be frustrated by the limitations imposed by the entropic logic of global economic rationalisation. The Centre seeks to construct a Social Cradle model that might provide the popular support that Buckminster Fuller considered necessary to ensure human survival rather than oblivion.
Following academic exchanges with universities around the world, the Centre follows Kun Huangs' advice to nurture the ideas of independent scientists who present concepts based upon the geometries of Classical Greek fractal life science. In August 2010 the physicist Nassim Haramein delivered a lecture at the Centre and was filmed by Gaia Films, which have made many prize winning documentaries, two of these received human rights awards. A Gaia Films spokesperson stated that Hassim Haramein very beautifully and clearly married the knowledge of ancient Western learning and Eastern philosophy into the cutting edge of modern quantum bio-physics.
Fractal logic spirituality in art within an entropic culture was the theme of a Masters research project at Queensland's Beaudesert Regional Galleries in June 2010. The curator of the Project, Sally Peters receiving a Distinction for her paper, from the University of Tasmania. Buckminster Fuller's proposed intellectual science-art foundations for the Social Cradle needed to protect the rigorous new Fullerene global medical science can now be seen coming into being. At the Southern Cross University in Northern New South Wales, Dr Amanda Reichet-Brusett of the School of Environmental Science and Management is independently organising a September workshop entitled Exploring the synergies between art and science. Although the controversial definition of synergies contradicting the basis of global Western scientific culture might not have been fully taken into account, none the less, the much needed revision of environmental science can be seen to be emerging once again into Western culture. The Fullerene inspiration for human survival has begun to grow wings.
Copyright ? Professor Robert Pope

http://www.science-art.com.au
Professor Robert Pope is the Director of the Science-Art Research Centre of Australia, Uki, NSW, Australia. The Center's objective is to initiate a second Renaissance in science and art, so that the current science will be balanced by a more creative and feminine science. More information is available at the Science-Art Centre website: http://www.science-art.com.au/books.html
Professor Robert Pope is a recipient of the 2009 Gold Medal Laureate, Philosophy of Science, Telesio Galilei Academy of Science, London. He is an Ambassador for the Florentine New Measurement of Humanity Project, University of Florence, is listed in Marquis Who's Who of the World as an Artist-philosopher, and has received a Decree of Recognition from the American Council of the United Nations University Millennium Project, Australasian Node.
As a professional artist, he has held numerous university artist-in-residencies, including Adelaide University, Unversity of Sydney, and the Dorothy Knox Fellowship for Distinguished Persons. His artwork has been featured of the front covers of the art encyclopedia, Artists and Galleries of Australia, Scientific Australian and the Australian Foreign Affairs Record. His artwork can be viewed on the Science-Art Centre's website.

Renaissance Science, Registered 21st Century Rebirth Document

2011-03-27T06:33:00.000-07:00

This essay is the birth certificate of the 21st Century Renaissance. It shows how the life-science of the Classical Greek era's Humanities has been upgraded in order to bring balance into Western technological culture. Many philosophers have warned that the fate of human civilisation depends upon achieving that goal.

The ancient Greek Parthenon represented a Greek life-science culture, symbolising concepts of political government long lost to modern Western science. The Ottoman military once stored gunpowder in the Parthenon and in1687 a Venetian mortar round blew the building into ruin. Recent restoration techniques using computers revealed that strange illusionary optical engineering principles had been used in the building's construction. We know that they were associated with the mathematics of the Music of the Spheres that Pythagoras had brought back from the Egyptian Mystery Schools. We also know that Plato considered that any engineer who did not understand about spiritual optical engineering principles was a barbarian.

Harvard University's Novartis Chair Professor, Amy Edmondson, in her online biography of Buckminster Fuller, The Fuller Explanation, wrote about how Fuller had plagiarised Plato's spiritual engineering discoveries and used them to derive his life-science synergistic theories. Those theories, which completely challenged the basis of the 20th Century Einsteinian world-view are now the basis of a new medical science instigated by the three 1996 Nobel Laureates in Chemistry. During the 21st Century the complex Fullerene geometrical reasoning has brought about the rebirth of the lost ancient Greek optical science of life. This is now rewriting Western technological culture, so there is a need to know why Buckminster Fuller wrote that this reunification provides a choice between Utopia or Oblivion.

After presenting complex geometrical reasoning, Professor Edmondson wrote, "By now familiar with Fuller's underlying assumptions, we shall take time out to introduce some background material. The origins of humanity's fascination with geometry can be traced back four thousand years, to the Babylonian and Egyptian civilisations; two millennia later, geometry flourished in ancient Greece, and its development continues today. Yet most of us know almost nothing about the accumulated findings of this long search. Familiarity with some of these geometric shapes and transformations will ease the rest of the journey into the intricacies of synergetics."

Human survival now depends upon a more general understanding that ethics is not about how science is used but about what is the ethical form of the spiritual, or holographic structure of science itself. There is no need for the reader to become conversant with the complex geometrical equations suggested by Professor Amy Edmondson, in order to follow the journey of ethical logic from ancient Egypt to the 21st Century Renaissance. However, before undertaking that journey we need to realise the nightmare scenario that the unbalanced 20th Century understanding of science has forced global humanity to endure and which Buckminster Fuller warned about.

In 1903, Lord Bertrand Russell's book A Freeman's Worship was published, containing his vision of A Universe in Thermodynamic Ruin. This nightmare mathematical assessment of reality stated that all the most ennobling thoughts of humankind amounted to nothing at all and all life in the universe must be destroyed. Lord Russell wrote that humans must endure, with total despair, the hopelessness of living within a reality that was totally governed by a lifeless energy law that Einstein was to call The Premier law of all science.

The name of the law governing 20th Century technological culture is the Second Law of Thermodynamics. It is also known as the Universal heat death law or, the Law of Universal chaos.

That law demands the total extinction of all life in the universe when all heat is dissipated into cold space. As a result of that law, all life sciences, including global economic rationalism, can only be about species moving toward this imaginary heat death extinction.

Buckminster Fuller's life-science energy does not obey the heat death law. It is based instead upon fractal logic, which exists forever. Einstein's governing death-science law is the correct basis of modern chemistry, but that chemistry is balanced by Plato's spiritual engineering principles, or the functioning of Fullerene holographic 'chemistry'. While mainstream science does indeed accept that fractal logic extends to infinity, no life science within the Western technological culture can possibly be part of its workings. That mindset can be a serious distraction to biologists who seek to associate rain cloud fractal logic with the effects of climate change upon human evolution.

In 1996 within an Open Letter to the Secretariat of the United Nations on behalf of the Science-Art Research Centre of Australia, Australian National Library Canberra Australian Citation RECORD 2645463, a complaint was made that the Australian Government was unintentionally committing a major crime against humanity for endorsing a totally entropic educational system governed by the second law of thermodynamics. At the United Nations University in Washington the complaint was handed to the United Nations University Millennium, Project-Australasian Node, for investigation. Seven years of peer reviewed research ensued, concluding that the complaint was justified. In 2006 a formal Decree of Recognition was issued by the Australasian Division of the United Nations University Millennium Project, attesting to the urgent global importance of this issue.

Having contrasted the 21st Century rebirth of Classical Greek fractal logic life-science - the New Renaissance, with the 20th Century nightmare, we can follow Professor Amy Edmondson's advice to begin our journey of ethical understanding from ancient Egypt. (George Sarton's, A History of Science argues that ancient Kemetic theories of Egypt were scientific and established the foundations of later Hellenistic science).

The ability of the ancient Egyptian Old Kingdom to reason that two geometries existed to balance the workings of the universe was praised by the Greek philosopher Plato, whose fundamental idea was that "All is Geometry". Old Kingdom wall paintings depicted that evil thoughts prevented evolutionary access to a spiritual reality. The geometry used to survey farm boundaries lost each year when the River Nile flooded was quite different from the sacred geometries basic to Egyptian religious ceremonies.

The BBC television program about the collapse of the Egyptian Old Kingdom by Professor Fekri Hassan of the Institute of Archaeology, University College, London, explained that some 4000 years ago, a prolonged drought collapsed the First Kingdom, soon after the death of King Pepy II. Professor Hassan explains that 100 years after the collapse, hieroglyphs record that Egyptian government was restored when the people insisted that the ethics of social justice, mercy and compassion were fused into the fabric of political law. It is rather important to realise that at that point of time in history, ethics associated with fractal geometrical logic had been fused into a political structure.

During the 6th Century BCE the Greek scholar Thales went to Egypt to study the ethics of life-science at the Egyptian Mystery schools and he advised Pythagoras to do the same. Pythagoras learned that evolutionary wisdom was generated by the movement of celestial bodies, which the Greeks called The music of the Spheres. It was thought that this harmonic music could transfer its wisdom to the atomic movement of the soul through the forces of harmonic resonance, such as when a high note shatters a wine glass.

The Platonic tradition of Greek philosophy was to fuse ethics into a model of reality called the Nous, postulated by the scientific thinker Anaxagoras. The Nous was a whirling force that acted upon primordial particles in space to form the worlds and to evolve intelligence. The ancient Greeks decided to invent science by fusing further ethics into the fractal logic structure of the Nous. The harmonic movement of the moon could be thought to influence the female fertility cycle and this science could explain a mother's love and compassion for children. The Classical Greek science was about how humans might establish an ethical life-science to guide ennobling political government. The idea was, that by existing for the health of the universe, human civilisation would avoid extinction.

The Classical Greek life-science was constructed upon the concept of good and evil. Good was For the Health of the Universe. A very precise definition of evil is found in Plato's book, The Timaeus. Evil was classified as a destructive property of unformed matter within the physical atom.

The ancient Greek atom was considered to be physically indivisible and it can be considered that the anti-life properties of nuclear radiation had been classified as evil. Modern chemistry is constructed upon the logic of universal atomic decay, which is governed by the second law of thermodynamics. The Egyptian concept of evil thought processes leading to oblivion echoes Plato's and Buckminster Fuller's concepts of an oblivion brought about through an obsession with an unbalanced geometrical world-view.

The Max Plank Astrophysicist, Professor Peter Kafka, in his six essays entitled The Principle of Creation and the Global Acceleration Crisis, written over a period from 1976 to 1994, predicted the current global financial collapse being brought about by "scientists, technologists and politicians" who had an unbalanced understanding of the second law of thermodynamics. Kafka wrote in chapter four, entitled Ethics from Physics, that the second law of thermodynamics had been known for centuries. Kafka realised that it had various other names throughout history such as Diabolos, the Destroyer of Worlds, the evil god of Plato's Physics of Chaos, now the god of modern Chaos Physics.

The science to explain a mother's love for children involving both celestial and atomic movement became associated with the Science of Universal Love taught in Greece during the 3rd Century BCE.

Julius Caesar's colleague, the Historian Cicero, recorded during the 1st Century BCE, that this science was being taught throughout Italy and across to Turkey by teachers called 'saviours'. He considered that such teaching challenged Roman political stability. During the 5th Century some 1000 years of fractal logic scrolls held in the Great Library of Alexandria were burned. The custodian of the library, the mathematician Hypatia, was brutally murdered by a Christain mob during the rule of Pope Cyril. Hypatia's fractal logic life-science was condemned by St Augustine as the work of the Devil. In his The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon marked Hypatia's murder as the beginning of the Dark Ages.

Encyclopaedia Britannica lists St Augustine as the mind which mostly completely fused the Platonic tradition of Greek philosophy with the religion of the New Testament, influencing both Protestant and Catholic religious belief in modern times. His translation of Plato's atomic evil as female sexuality, influenced the 13th Century Angel Physics of St Thomas Aquinas, known as History's Doctor of Science. During the mid 14th Century until the mid 17th Century, Angel Physics was used to legalise the imprisonment, ritualistic torture and burning alive of countless women and children. The argument that Augustine's banishment of fractal life-science logic in the 5th Century was responsible for Western life-science becoming obsessed with the second law of thermodynamics can be validated.

The Reverend Thomas Malthus derived his famous Principles of Population essay from the writings of St Thomas Aquinas and used it to establish the economic and political policies of the East India Company. Charles Darwin, employed by that company, cited Malthus' essay as the basis of his survival of the fittest life-science. Darwin, in the 18th Century, held the essay as synonymous with the second law of thermodynamics.

Plato's Academy had been closed for being a pagan institution in 529 by the Christian Emperor Justinian, Banished Greek scholars fled to Islamic Spain where their theories were tolerated. The Golden Age of Islamic science, from which Western science emerged, included the Translation School in Toledo. Islamic, Christian and Jewish scholars worked together to translate the lost Greek ideas into Latin. The Franciscan monk, Roger Bacon, during the 13th Century studied work from Jewish scholars familiar with the research undertaken at the Toledo school. Pope Clement IV encouraged Bacon to write his pagan ideas in secret, but after the death of Clement IV, Roger Bacon was imprisoned by the Franciscans.

Roger Bacon developed ideas about flying machines, horseless carriages,submarines and self propelling ships from the same Islamic source that later inspired Leonardo da Vinci. Roger Bacon studied the optics of Plato and the upgrading of Plato's optics by Islamic scholars. Unlike Leonardo, Roger Bacon agreed with Al Haytham, History's Father of Optics, that the eye could not be the source of all knowledge, an erroneous idea of reality that Descartes and Sir Francis Bacon, the Renaissance author and father of inductive reasoning, used to usher in the age of industrial entropic materialism. Thomas Jefferson, inspired by Francis Bacon's vision of a great Empire for All Men based upon all knowledge from the eye, depicted the concept onto the Great Seal Of America.

Cosimo Medici, with the help of Sultan Memhed II, re-established Plato's Academy in Florence during the 15th Century. Cosimo appointed Marcilio Ficino as its manager. Ficino wrote about the Platonic love associated with the Music of the Spheres influencing the atoms of the soul. He carefully avoided serious charges of heresy by placing eminent Christian figures into his writings and paintings associated with the new Platonic Academy. Two famous paintings commissioned by the Medici that survived the Great Burning, instigated by the Christian Monk Savarola, illustrated Ficino's cunning.

In 1480 Botticelli was commissioned to paint a portrait of St Augustine in His Study, in which a book is depicted opened at a page displaying Pythagorean mathematics. Alongside the written formulae is an instrument for observing celestial movement. Augustine is gazing directly at an armillary sphere, an instrument used to calculate data relevant to Pythagoras' Music of the Spheres. The Saint's halo, accepted at that time as representing the consciousness of the soul, upon close examination, has a spherical book-stud within its orbit, depicting Ficino's atom of the soul responding to the Music of the Spheres.

At the same time that Botticelli was commissioned to paint Augustine's portrait, Ghirlandhiao was commissioned to paint a portrait of Augustine's close colleague, St Jerome in His Study. Again, with careful examination, Jerome's halo can be seen to have a spherical bookstud placed into its orbit, demonstrating that Botticelli's depiction of the atom of the soul associated with the Music of the Spheres was not coincidental. Both Botticell and Ghirlandaio were mentors to Leonardo da Vinci.

By realising that Roger Bacon's knowledge of Platonic optics was generally superior to Leonardo's, the Science-Art Research Centre of Australia, in collaboration with a cancer research team at the University of Sydney, during 1986, was able to successfully modify the optical key to Leonardo's da Vinci's Theory of Knowledge. This discovery also corrected the optics understanding of Descates, Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Russell, Emmanuel Kant, Albert Einstein and other scientists who considered Al Haitham's optics as being industrially impractical.

The Science-Art Research Centre's correction to the crucial optics key was published in a Science-Art book launched in Los Angeles in 1989 under the auspices of the Hollywood Thalian Mental Health Organisation. In 1991 the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Peirre de Genes for his theories about liquid crystal optics. In the following year the vast new science and technology, predicted by the Science-Art Centre's correction of da Vinci's work, was discovered The principal discoverer, Professor Barry Ninham of the Australian National University, later to become the Italy's National Chair of Chemistry, wrote that the Centre's work encompassed a revolution of thought, as important to science and society as the Copernican and Newtonian revolutions.

Leonardo da Vinci was certainly a great genius, but he was not really the Man of the Renaissance at all, because he was unable to comprehend the life-energy basis of Plato's spiritual optical engineering principles. He had attempted to develop the relevant optics for several years then reverted back to what Plato had referred to as the engineering practices of a barbarian. On the other hand, Sir Isaac Newton, was a genuine Man of the Renaissance, as his unpublished papers, discovered last century revealed. His certain conviction that "a more profound natural philosophy existed to balance the mechanical description of the universe," was based upon the same physics principles that upheld the lost Classical Greek Era's science of life and they are now at the cutting edge of fractal logic quantum biology.

The 20th Century began with the aforesaid Lord Bertrand Russell's horrific acquiescence to enslavement by the second law of thermodynamics in 1903, followed in 1905 by Einstein's unbalanced E=Mc2. TIME Magazine's Century of Science lists Maria Montessori as the greatest scientist of 1907. Her association with President Woodrow Wilson, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Jefferson and Teildard de Chardin demonstrated how the entropy law embraces Plato's definition of evil. Montessorri called the second law of thermodynamics the energy greed law. Montessori and de Chardin's electromagnetic life-science key to open their Golden Gates of the future were derived from concepts based upon the spiritualisation of matter and humanity evolving with the cosmos. That was in direct contrast to the electromagnetic understanding of Alexander Graham Bell.

President Wilson was genuinely troubled by the loss of life during World War I. He and Alexander Bell chose Darwin's entropic life-science as the electromagnetic key to the future of America rather that Montessori's. After World War II, High Command Nazi prisoners at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal protested that Adolph Hitler had based the policies of the Third Reich upon the the Darwinian Eugenics of which Present Wilson and Alexander Bell had been involved with.

The scientist, Matti Pitkanen, can be considered to have upgraded de Chardin's ethical electromagnetic key to open Montessori's Golden Gates to the future. De Chardin insisted that the gates would only open for all people at the same time and not for any chosen race nor privileged few. Pitkanen noted that the earth's regular deflection of potentially lethal radiation from the sun fulfilled the criteria of an act of consciousness, protecting all life on earth at the same time.

The 1937 Nobel Prize Winner for Medicine, Szent-Gyoergyi, wrote a book about scientists who did not recognise that their understanding of the second law of thermodynamics was balanced by the evolution of consciousness. The title of the book was The Crazy Apes. In his 1959 Rede Lecture at the University of Cambridge in 1959, the Molecular Biologist, Sir C P Snow, argued that the inadequate understanding about the nature and functioning of the second law of thermodynamics by his fellow scientists was scientifically irresponsible. He referred to their thinking as belonging to their neolithic cave dwelling ancestors. The title of Snow's lecture was The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. This book was listed by The Times Literary Supplement as one of 100 books most influencing Western public thinking since World War II and has been systematically denounced ever since.

During the past 15 years, science has developed so rapidly that it has given the Humanities no time to grasp the significance of the social ramifications of the rebirth of Fuller's Platonic spiritual, or holographic, engineering principles from ancient Greece. Organised religious opposition to criticism of the understanding of the second law of thermodynamics from Christian schools, Colleges and Universities has been extremely thorough throughout the world. For example Professor F M Cornford, educated at St Paul's School and Trinity College, Cambridge, was made a Fellow in 1899, becoming the Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy in 1932, and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1937. His grasp of the ancient Greek fractal science of life can be shown to be completely illogical, yet it is the foundation for well organised international academic study courses at the present time.

Since 1932 Cambridge University has produced ten editions of Cornford's book Before and after Socrates. Cornford states in this book that Plato can be considered as one of the greatest fathers of the Christian religion. Encyclopaedia Britannica advises that St Augustine was the mind which mostly completely fused the Platonic tradition of Greek philosophy with the religion of the New Testament. Such pious academic reasoning flies in the face of Plato's spiritual engineering principles being observed functioning within the DNA as a function of a fractal life-science evolutionary function, and is therefore ludicrous.Plato defined that reasoning as being ignorant and barbaric and the language of engineers not fit to be considered philosophers. The Harvard Smithsonian/NASA High Energy Astrophysics Division Library has published papers by the Science Advisor to the Belgrade Institute of Physics, Professor Petar Grujic, arguing that the Classical Greek life-science was based upon fractal logic, a totally incomprehensible concept within the much lauded ancient Greek study courses currently set for post graduate studies.

Having arrived at the destination of Professor Amy Edmondson's journey from ancient Egypt to modern times, in order to be educated about the importance of Buckminster Fuller's geometrical understanding, we are able to grasp the stark reality of the title of his book Utopia or Oblivion. The objective of this essay, to construct the foundations of the Social Cradle to nurture the Florentine New Measurement of Humanity Renaissance, was derived from that book. The following explains the Science-Art Research Centre of Australia's long and arduous struggle to help contribute towards the vital human survival research now being carried out under the auspices of the New Florentine Renaissance.

In 1979 the Science Unit of Australian National Television documented the work of the Science-Art Research Centre into its eight part series The Scientists-Profiles of Discovery. During that year, at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, China's most highly awarded physicist, Kun Huang, proposed a research plan that was put into operation by the Centre. Professor Huang was angry that Einstein and the framers of the 20th Century world-view were unable to discuss the Classical Greek life sciences in infinite biological energy terms. He proposed that by observing the evolutionary patterning changes to species designed upon ancient Greek Golden Mean geometry, it should be possible to deduce the nature of the life-force governing their evolution through space-time.

Huang suggested that the world's seashell fossil record would provide the necessary patterning-change information. The research was assisted by the communities of the six towns comprising the Riverland Region of South Australia. During the 1980s the Centre's several seashell life-energy papers, written by the Centre's mathematician, Chris Illert, were published by Italy's leading scientific journal, il Nuovo Cimento. In 1990 two of the papers were selected as important discoveries of the 20th Century and were reprinted by the world's leading technological research institute, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers in Washington.

By deriving an Art-master optics formula from the Italian Renaissance, which can be considered to be associated with fractal logic, a simulation of a living seashell creature was generated. By lowering the musical harmonics a simulation of the creature's fossil ancestor was obtained. By lowering the musical order by a different amount, the simulation of a strange, grotesque creature was generated. The Smithsonian Institute identified the fossil as being the famous Nipponites Mirabilis that drifted along the coast of Japan 20 million years ago. It was designed to drift along upright in water in order to ensnare its prey. Chris Illert became the first scientist to link its evolution to a living seashell.

In 1995 the discovery won an internationally peer reviewed Biology Prize from the Institute for Basic Research in America. China's most eminent physicist, Kun Huang, was greatly honoured. The work was acclaimed for the discovery of new physics laws governing optimum biological growth and development through space-time. The Research Institute's President, Professor Ruggero Santilli, in collaboration with the Centre's mathematician, made a most important observation. He observed that the accepted scientific world-view could not be used to generate such futuristic simulations. Instead it generated cancer-like biological distortions through space-time.

The Centre's Bio-Aesthetics Researcher, the late Dr George Robert Cockburn, Royal Fellow of Medicine (London), who had worked with the centre's mathematician, became concerned by the scientific community's refusal to challenge its obsolete understanding of the second law of thermodynamics. He published several books about creative consciousness based upon the ancient Greek fractal logic life-science. His correction to Emmanuel Kant's Aesthetics was later found to be validated by the 19th Century's mathematician Bernard Bolzano's Theory of Science. Bolzano's own correction to Emmanuel Kant's ethics had been assessed by Edmund Husserl in his Logical Investigations- vol. I - Prolegomena to a pure logic 61 (Appendix) (1900), as being the work of one of the greatest logicians of all time.

We know that Bolzano corrected the ethical logic of Immanuel Kant by using aspects of fractal logic, as the famous Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem of 1817 is now synonymous with the pioneering of modern fractal logic. The Aesthetics associated with Emmanuel Kant belonging to the destructive entropic world-view are hailed as being of global importance during the 21st Century, when, in fact, they are known to be obsolete. J Alberto Coffa's book The semantic tradition from Kant to Carnap: to the Vienna station, edited by Linda Wessels - Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1991 contains the statement "Kant had not even seen these problems; Bolzano solved them. And his solutions were made possible by, and were the source of, a new approach to the content and character of a priori knowledge." The famous Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem was based upon fractal logic concepts.

In the book The Beauty of Fractals- Images of Complex Dynamical Systems is a chapter entitled Freedom, Science and Aesthetics by Professor Gert Eilenberger, who also corrected an aspect of Kantian Aesthetics in order to upgrade quantum mechanics into quantum biology. Professor Eilenberger wrote about the excitement surrounding pictures of fractal computer art, as demonstrating that "out of research an inner connection, a bridge, can be made between rational scientific insight and emotional aesthetic appeal; these two modes of cognition of the human species are now beginning to concur in their estimation of what constitutes nature".

The Science-Art Centre had discovered that by using special 3-D optical glasses, holographic images emerge from within fractal computer generated artwork. The excitement within the art-work itself extends to the realisation that, over the centuries, certain paintings reveal the same phenomenon, created unconsciously by the artist, indicating the existence of an aspect of evolving creative consciousness associated with Plato's spiritual optical engineering principles now linked to the new Fullerene life-science chemistry.

The electromagnetic evolutionary information properties generated into existence by the liquid crystal optical functioning of the fertilised ovum are transmitted to the first bone created within the human embryo. From the Humanoid fossil record, each time that bone changes its Golden Mean patterning design, a new humanoid species emerges. It is currently altering its shape under the influence of the same physics forces responsible for seashell evolution, as was discovered by the Science-Art Research Centre of Australia during the 1980s. The sphenoid bone is in vibrational contact with the seashell design of the human cochlea.The design of Nipponites Mirabilis was to keep its owner upright in water, the cochlea design is to enable humans to balance so as to keep them upright on land.

The cerebral electromagnetic functioning of creative human consciousness as a Grand Music of the Spheres Composition has been adequately charted by Texas University's Dr Richard Merrick in his book Interference. The Fullerene life-science of the three 1996 Nobel Laureates in Chemistry has found expression within the medical company, C Sixty Inc. The Science-Art Research Centre in Australia considers that Buckminster Fuller's crucial Social Cradle within the Arts, under the auspices of the Florentine New Renassaince Project might be able to bring to the public an understanding for the global betterment of the human condition.

China's most eminent physicist, Hun Huang's research program can now be upgraded to generate healthy sustainable futuristic human simulations through millions of space-time years, and from those human survival blueprints the technologies needed for overpopulated earth to ethically utilise the universal holographic environment are becoming obvious. The 20th Century adage that ethics is how one uses science is as barbaric as Plato's Spiritual engineering classified it. Ethical consciousness has quantum biological properties beyond Einstein's world-view as has been proven by medical research conducted under the auspices of the Florentine New Measurement of Humanity Renaissance.

Dr Candace Pert's Molecule of Emotion, discovered in 1972, referred to in the films What the Bleep, do we know? and Down the Rabbit Hole, has been experimentally extended into further realms of holographic life-science reality. Dr Pert's Molecule of Emotion is the same in humans as in a primitive cell, but has evolved by increasing the speed of its molecular movement. Associated with this emotional evolution is the functioning of endocrine fluids necessary to maintain cellular health. The Florentine life-energy research has established that endocrine fluids evolve within the earth's holographic electromagnetic environment, affecting health in a manner beyond the understanding of an unbalanced 20th Century world-view.

On the 24th of September 2010, on behalf of the President of the Italian Republic, Dr. Giovanna Ferri, awarded the "Giorgio Napolitano Medal" to Professor Massimo Pregnolato, who shared it with Prof. Paolo Manzelli for research conducted in Quantumbionet/Egocreanet by their Florentine New `Renaissance Project.

This essay has explained the primary obstacle that has prevented Sir Isaac Newton's 'more profound natural philosophy to balance the mechanical description of the universe' from being brought about. The knowledge of how to correct this situation has become central to the objectives of the Florentine New Measurement of Humanity Renaissance of the 21st Century. This essay is the Birth Registration Certificate of the New Renaissance.

http://www.science-art.com.au
Professor Robert Pope is the Director of the Science-Art Research Centre of Australia, Uki, NSW, Australia. The Center's objective is to initiate a second Renaissance in science and art, so that the current science will be balanced by a more creative and feminine science. More information is available at the Science-Art Centre website: http://www.science-art.com.au/books.html

Professor Robert Pope is a recipient of the 2009 Gold Medal Laureate for Philosophy of Science, Telesio Galilei Academy of Science, London. He is an Ambassador for the Florentine New Measurement of Humanity Project, University of Florence, is listed in Marquis Who's Who of the World as an Artist-philosopher, and has received a Decree of Recognition from the American Council of the United Nations University Millennium Project, Australasian Node.

As a professional artist, he has held numerous university artist-in-residencies, including Adelaide University, University of Sydney, and the Dorothy Knox Fellowship for Distinguished Persons. His artwork has been featured of the front covers of the art encyclopedia, Artists and Galleries of Australia, Scientific Australian and the Australian Foreign Affairs Record. His artwork can be viewed on the Science-Art Centre's website.

Renaissance Science and the Urgent Need to Readdress Social Economics

2011-03-26T16:25:00.000-07:00

Final draft for 15

Renaissance science and the urgent need to readdress social economics

During the 1930s The Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy at Cambridge University, F M Cornford, the author of Principium Sapientiae: The Origins of Greek Philosophical Thought, was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. His book Before and After Socrates has been continually used to influence academic thinking throughout the entire world for over 80 years. Since 1932 Cambridge University has published 10 editions of this work. Cornford's brilliantly argued scholarly works can be considered to be anchored upon a trite nonsensical religious assumption exposed by Sir Isaac Newton within his unpublished more profound natural philosophy, discovered last century which balanced the mechanical description of the universe.

Tens of millions of pounds were spent by Cambridge University to research the vast new technologies associated with Newton's guidelines, which established a basis for the science of quantum biology. Eminent scientists knew better than to challenge the edict that classified Newton's balanced science as an insane heresy. Nonetheless, that technology is now being researched worldwide and ethical life-science discoveries have been made, making it perfectly obvious that Sir Isaac Newton was not insane when he wrote about his balancing physics principles derived from the Classical Greek life-science. As Sir C P Snow warned the world during his 1959 Rede Lecture at Cambridge University, unless modern science shakes off it present obsession with the totally destructive law that governs it and rebalances itself with with the Classical Greek Humanities, then civilisation will be destroyed.

Francis MacDonald considered that Plato was one of the founding fathers of the Christian Church. This philosophical statement can be considered to be nonsensical, linked to a general British attitude that the Classical Greek life-science, as a pagan phenomenon, did not quite match up to the academic standards of British Christian Academia. Encyclopaedia Britannica advises that in the 5th Century St Augustine was the mind which mostly completely fused the Platonic tradition of Greek philosophy with the religion of the New Testament. That accomplishment may be quite correct but, St Augustine's association of female sexuality with the destructive evil of unformed matter within the atom was indeed insane rather than Sir Isaac Newton's contention that religion has corrupted science.

During that time Pope Cyril presided when a Christian mob burnt scrolls belonging to the Great Library of Alexandria and murdered its custodian, the mathematician Hypatia. If the Classical Greek life-science has been corrupted by the Christian religion it can be considered reasonable to investigate the opinion of the great scientist, Sir Isaac Newton who developed a heretical world view based upon the physics principles that once upheld that lost science.

The NASA Astrophysics High Energy Division Library has published that the Classical Greek life-science was based upon the mathematics of fractal logic. Sir Isaac Newton's unpublished heresy papers, discovered during the 20th Century, contained his certain conviction that a more profound natural philosophy existed to balance the mechanical description of the universe. It is common knowledge that Newton, in opposition to the scientific world view of his time, considered that the universe was infinite. The logic to accommodate that concept is the infinite property of fractal logic.

Newton's balancing physics principles were the same ones that upheld the lost Greek fractal logic life-science and he wrote that both ancient science and spiritual knowledge had been corrupted by religion. One of Newton's specific research interests concerned the generation of wealth within the science of economics. An investigation into Plato's concepts of spiritual reality reveal relevant political and economic concepts which might be used in computer science to make economic models to create new futuristic human survival simulations.

Plato's spiritual reality concepts have been brought into a 21st Century life-science focus. Amy Edmonson, Novatis Professor at Harvard University, in her online book entitled The Fuller Explanation, wrote that Buckminster Fuller had used Plato's spiritual engineering principles to develop life-energy physics concepts that completely challenged the present Western culture's world view. The three 1996 Nobel Laureates in Chemistry, using nano-technology, located the fractal logic of Fullerene phenomena functioning within the DNA. They have established a medical fractal life-science institute associated with Plato's spiritual engineering principles.

During the 15th Century, Cosimo Medici re-established the Platonic Academy in Florence, banished in the 6th Century by the Christian Emperor Justinian, because it was considered pagan. Under the directorship of Marsilio Ficino the Classical Greek life science about the functioning of the atoms of the soul was reintroduced into science. The moon's influence on the female fertility cycle was linked to harmonic resonance within the atomic metabolism as a science to explain a mother's love and compassion for children. Epicurus' Science of universal love was later taught by the scientist, Giordano Bruno, at Oxford University. Lured back to Rome, Bruno was imprisoned, tortured and burnt alive in 1600.

We can assume that Sir Isaac Newton was correct in his assumption that the Christian religion has seriously contaminated science. St Thomas Aquinas' religious wisdom, heralded as an important economic revelation, was used by Thomas Malthus to establish economic policies at the East India Company's College. Charles Darwin cited Malthus' Principles of population essay, which had become synonymous with the second law of thermodynamics, as the basis of the life-science that influenced President Woodrow Wilson and his colleague, Alexander Graham Bell, to advocate Darwinian Eugenics in America, from which Adolph Hitler derived his Nazi policies. Blind obedience to the dictates of the Church's understanding of that law threw Sir Isaac Newton's balanced world view into the scientific rubbish bin.

It is not at all unreasonable to write that the Church managed to inspire a fanatical, unbalanced worship of the second law of thermodynamics, which absolutely prohibits the existence of the fractal life-science from being associated with Plato's now validated spiritual engineering principles. Albert Einstein's religious colleague, Sir Arthur Eddington, referred to the second law as The supreme metaphysical law of the entire universe. Other eminent scientists have classified it in terms from being Diabolical to being insane, but the general public has no idea that Western culture is totally governed by its destructive ethos, in the form of an unbalanced global economic rationalism.

When economic law purports to embrace an aspect of life-science in the form of eternal passions as part of the fabric of Western culture, then the logic upholding Western culture can be considered to be incoherent. The Australian Government's Productivity Commission, 2008, Behavioural Economics and Public Policy, Roundtable Proceedings, Productivity Commission, Canberra, contains reference to eternal passions and reasons affecting long term economic policies. The only logic that allows those words to have any reality is fractal logic, which cannot possibly be reasoned about by the Australian Government. However, the Government report does advise that The views expressed in these papers are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Productivity Commission. Nonetheless, it is obvious that the idea exists within economic parlance. Adam Smith, the author of The Wealth of Nations, fused the concept of the eternal nature of economic law into a spiritual concept.

Having presented argument that the Church contaminated the structure of Classical Greek life-science and as a result allowed Western culture to be governed by an unbalanced global economic rationalism, it follows that Plato's economic and political concepts might be given a brief examination.

The inspiration for Plato's The Republic was Solon's brief governorship of Athens during the 6th century BCE, during which Solon's economic policies prevented all out rebellion in Athens by re distributing wealth and replacing Draco's cruel punishments, used by the aristocracy to terrorise the populace into submission. When Solon restored Athenian economic power as a cultural beacon to other Greek states, the aristocracy had Solon removed from office to pave the way for Pesistratus to take over in Athens to re-establish tyranny, leading to disastrous military adventures. However, Solon's constitution for the republic was to become the idealised model for later Western democracies.

The Platonic tradition of Greek philosophy was about creating a science from the ancient Egyptian use of fractal geometrical logic to place justice, mercy and compassion into the fabric of political government. This fusing of ethics into the fractal logic Nous of Anaxagoras, a whirling god-like force that acted upon primordial particles to form the worlds and evolve intelligence, was described by Aristotle to be an ethical science to guide ennobling government. The reason that Classical Greek fractal life-science has been corrupted by the Christian Church is because the Nous, as a physics phenomenon, challenged the concept of the Christian God, whose law of total destruction became synonymous with the ancient Greek god, Diabolos.

A reason to examine this issue rather carefully is because the objective of Classical Greek life-science was to ensure that civilisation, by becoming part of the health of the universe, would not become extinct. Plato defined those who did not understand the engineering principles of spiritual reality as barbaric engineers, and he considered them to be continually obsessed with warfare. If that is considered to be an evil obsession, then we need to be aware of Plato's definition of evil as defined in his Timaeus, a destructive property of unformed matter within the atom.

Apart from the Platonic spiritual reality now becoming basic to a new rigorous fractal logic life-science, the fractal life-science methodology needed to generate futuristic human survival simulations is well known, its precursor research mathematics for simple life-forms being reprinted in 1990 by the world's largest technological research institution as one of the important discoveries of the 20th Century.

How to Make Science Fun For Children

2011-03-26T02:16:00.000-07:00

Often, kids cringe at the mention of science. Their mind conjures up images of a boring book or lecture that they cannot understand. However, children should and can be made to realize that science can be fun! This is imperative if our country, and the world, wants to make leaps and progress in the scientific world of technology and medicine. What then, is the key to making science more appealing for children? We hope you will get some good suggestions here.

How to add fun to science.

Tip 1. You can begin by purchasing a simple science kit or activity. Science kits usually have an educational angle, but they are packaged as enjoyable activities with a fun spin. Make a trip to the store or do a quick search online and you will find that there is a staggering range of science kits on almost any subject in science.

First, consider what aspect of science does catch your childs fancy. If your child likes some drama and action, then a volcano kit would be a perfect introduction to science. A volcano-construction and demonstration kit is not only a great learning tool, but above all, it is incredible fun for a child to see the lava bubbling out.

For the more serious analytical child, chemistry kits are fun. It can be exciting to see how different chemicals react (in a safe environment, of course!) Later, the little chemist can analyze results find patterns and make inferences.

Don't fret if you think your child will be disinclined to try either of these above-mentioned activities. Science covers a breadth of topics from biology, botany, earth sciences, to forensics. The good news is, there is a kit for almost every field you want to explore. The conveniences of science exploration kits are many. The fact that they come with all the things you need for your scientific investigations, means that you don't have to scramble to find the necessary tools. Thus, a science kit is time-saving and often, economical.

Other than the ubiquitous items of stationery that you require for almost any educational activity, science kits come with all the essentials for the activity. The greatest benefit of science kits are that their interesting packaging, tools, and approach, generate a child's interest in science. The results of the experiment or the science activity are immediate and tangible with a science kit. This instant gratification of an experiment encourages further exploration. Thus, it's a great idea to buy a science kit if you are trying to get your child interested in science.

Tip 2. It also helps to have the entire family join in on the science activity. Your science exploration doesn't always have to be indoors. There's plenty to learn from nature. A study of botany (leaves, flowers, plants) could be a simple science activity as you enjoy a hike. Call attention to the variety of fauna you see, and get your child involved in identifying them.

You can study different kinds of rocks together, and maybe, collect a few. With a reference book or the internet as a resource, you can try to identify and label your rock collection. Although the rocks may not consist of spectacular pieces of earth, a rock collection is a great way to study how different rocks are made, and how it affects their properties. Having a rock collection will turn your child into an unwitting geologist.

What we have discussed here are several good suggestions that can help your child see science in an interesting and fun light. Instead of bombarding your child with dull workbooks, introduce small measures of science into daily regular activities. This will enable your child to be an explorer without the conscious stress of "studying" science. Learning will always take place if you keep it fun and engaging.

There's no reason you should be embarrassed about science kits. Click here to get the information you need to get a great kit that will help you and your child learn about nanotechnology. Students will be able to watch their own silica nanospheres drop gently (settle) in beakers that will form into the opal crystals over a period of weeks. Visit our science kits site to learn more. Join the thousands we have already helped by visiting us now.

Writing Science Poetry

2011-03-25T14:52:00.000-07:00

Science poetry or scientific poetry is a specialized poetic genre that makes use of science as its subject. Written by scientists and nonscientists, science poets are generally avid readers and appreciators of science and "science matters." Science poetry may be found in anthologies, in collections, in science fiction magazines that sometimes include poetry, in other magazines and journals. Many science fiction magazines, including online magazines, such as Strange Horizons, often publish science fiction poetry, another form of science poetry. Of course science fiction poetry is a somewhat different genre. Online there is the Science Poetry Center for those interested in science poetry, and for those interested in science fiction poetry The Science Fiction Poetry Association. In addition, there's Science Fiction Poetry Handbook and Ultimate Science Fiction Poetry Guide, all found online. Strange Horizons has published the science fiction poetry of Joanne Merriam, Gary Lehmann and Mike Allen.

As for science poetry, science or scientific poets like science fiction poets may also publish collections of poetry in almost any stylistic format. Science or scientific poets, like other poets, must know the "art and craft" of poetry, and science or scientific poetry appears in all the poetic forms: free verse, blank verse, metrical, rhymed, unrhymed, abstract and concrete, ballad, dramatic monologue, narrative, lyrical, etc. All the poetic devices are in use also, from alliteration to apostrophe to pun to irony and understatement, to every poetic diction, figures of speech and rhythm, etc. Even metaphysical scientific poetry is possible. In his anthology, The World Treasury of Physics, Astronomy, and Mathematics, editor Timothy Ferris aptly includes a section entitled "The Poetry of Science." Says Ferris in the introduction to this section, "Science (or the 'natural philosophy' from which science evolved) has long provided poets with raw material, inspiring some to praise scientific ideas and others to react against them."

Such greats as Milton, Blake, Wordsworth, Goethe either praised or "excoriated" science and/or a combination of both. This continued into the twentieth century with such poets as Marianne Moore, T. S. Eliot, Robinson Jeffers, Robert Frost and Robert Hayden (e.g. "Full Moon"--"the brilliant challenger of rocket experts") not to mention many of the lesser known poets, who nevertheless maintain a poetic response to scientific matters. Says Ferris, "This is not to say that scientists should try to emulate poets, or that poets should turn proselytes for science....But they need each other, and the world needs both." Included in his anthology along with the best scientific prose/essays are the poets Walt Whitman ("When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"), Gerard Manley Hopkins "("I am Like a Slip of Comet..."), Emily Dickinson ("Arcturus"), Robinson Jeffers ("Star-Swirls"), Richard Ryan ("Galaxy"), James Clerk Maxwell ("Molecular Evolution"), John Updike ("Cosmic Gall"), Diane Ackerman ("Space Shuttle") and others.

Certainly those writing scientific poetry like those writing science fiction need not praise all of science, but science nevertheless the subject matter, and there is often a greater relationship between poetry and science than either poets and/or scientists admit. Creativity and romance can be in both, as can the intellectual and the mathematical. Both can be aesthetic and logical. Or both can be nonaesthetic and nonlogical, depending on the type of science and the type of poetry.

Science poetry takes it subject from scientific measurements to scientific symbols to time & space to biology to chemistry to physics to astronomy to earth science/geology to meteorology to environmental science to computer science to engineering/technical science. It may also take its subject from scientists themselves, from Brahmagypta to Einstein, from Galileo to Annie Cannon. It may speak to specific types of scientists in general as Goethe "True Enough: To the Physicist" in the Ferris anthology. (Subsequent poets mentioned are also from this anthology.)

Science poetry may make use of many forms or any form from lyrical to narrative to sonnet to dramatic monologue to free verse to light verse to haiku to villanelle, from poetry for children or adults or both, for the scientist for the nonscientist or both. John Frederick Nims has written for example, "The Observatory Ode." ("The Universe: We'd like to understand.") There are poems that rhyme, poems that don't rhythme. There's "concrete poetry" such as Annie Dillard's "The Windy Planet" in which the poem in in the shape of a planet, from "pole" to "pole," an inventive poem. "Chaos Theory" even becomes the subject of poetry as in Wallace Stevens' "The Connoisseur of Chaos."

And what of your science and/or scientific poem? Think of all the techniques of poetry and all the techniques of science. What point of view should you use? Third person? First person, a dramatic monologue? Does a star speak? Or the universe itself? Does a sound wave speak? Or a micrometer? Can you personify radio astronomy?

What are the main themes, the rhythms? What figures of speech, metaphors, similes, metaphor, can be derived from science. What is your attitude toward science and these scientific matters?

Read. Revise. Think. Proofread. Revise again. Shall you write of evolution, of the atom, of magnetism? Of quanta, of the galaxies, of the speed of sound, of the speed of light? Of Kepler's laws? Shall you write of the history of science? Of scientific news?

Read all the science you can.

Read all the poetry you can.

You are a poet.

You are a scientist.

What have you to say of the astronomer, the comet, of arcturus, of star-sirls, of galaxies, of molecular evolution, of atomic architecture, of "planck time" to allude to other poetic titles.

What does poetry say to science?

What does science say to poetry?

Susan Shaw is a freelance writer and web content writer. Her articles and web content appear online. Susan Shaw is an affiliate of The Book Store/The Science Library, [http://thebookstore.vstoremarket.com/index.htm] (For The Science Library, put "Science" in their search engine.)

Why Science Is So Fun For Kids

2011-03-25T03:33:00.000-07:00

Science is a fun and interesting subject for kids because it is all around us. Some people do not realize that science is involved when in almost everything you do such as cooking, cleaning, and playing. When these people think of science they probably remember the classroom and the teachers boring lectures, but the good news is that method is becoming a thing of the past. Science is being brought onto television with police dramas such as CSI.

Most children at an elementary school age want to grow up and be a policeman because policeman help people and they always catch the bad guy. To kids this is the best thing in the world, and for us as parents we can not think of a better role model for our children than a police officer. CSI shows kids how science is used to solve crimes and catch the bad guys. While kids might not understand the exact techniques involved with DNA and others, every kid knows about fingerprints. Teachers can set up a mock crime scene and let children lift fingerprints and other crime lab techniques. At the end the children can solve the crime and write a report on who they think did it, how they figured out who did it, etc. This is a fun exercise for children to do and it is all hands on.

Another reason why kids love science is because what other subject do you get to learn about outer space. Children of all ages are fascinated with the idea about outer space and aliens. Outer space is also interesting because it involves flying in rockets and going places that nobody has gone before. The whole idea about what if lets children use their imagination and learn at the same time.

Science is also fun because you can mix stuff together and make new things. Children from a young age learn that if you take dirt and mix water to it you get mud. And the learning does not stop there, as they get older the learn more about combining ingredients to make new things. Science allows children to make play dough, cookies, slime and all sorts of other gross and fun things. Besides the fact kids can just experiment on their own to see what they can come up with.

Another part of science is animals. Almost all kids love to learn about animals. Basic science about animals involves ant farms, which kids can build themselves with a jar, some dirt and ants. The best part about ant farms is digging in the dirt and trying to find the ants. But as kids get older they can take this type of science to another level, which can include biology and anatomy.

For kids science is fun because what other subject do you get to have all of your questions answered and use your imagination to create things. Science is also filled with wonders about other worlds, such as dinosaurs and why they became extinct, outer space and walking on the moon, and solving crimes. Science involves experimenting and most kids love to try things to see if they work. For example physical science can involve dropping an egg from a roof top to see if it will break, or what will drop faster a pound of feathers or a pound of bricks. By getting hands-on kids can figure out these answers and numerous other answers, the hands-on experiments make science even more fun and exciting.

Just Science Projects is one of the most popular science project websites for kids of elementary and middle school ages. Just Science Projects features dozens of highly interactive, fun science projects and science experiments for kids. Visit JustScienceProjects.com or call 206-498-6502 for more information on how Just Science Projects can help you teach science to your kids.

Science Fiction DVD

2011-03-24T14:19:00.000-07:00

The world of Science fiction is a vast one. Millions of fans enjoy their science fiction collection for many different reasons. For example, a science fiction DVD may have tremendous monetary value, sentimental value, or just the value of enjoyment. Whatever the reasons science fiction fans have raised the popularity of owning their own science fiction DVD.

One extremely popular reason of watching science fiction DVD's is that they can be watched over and over again. Some of your favorite television show episodes have now arrived on DVD, which means you can watch your favorite show as many times as you want to, commercial free. Furthermore, fans of science fiction take great pride in owning every science fiction DVD available in a certain category, movie, of a specific actor, or of a television series. They make for great bragging rights when you attend your next sci-fi convention.

What is great about a science fiction collection is that it can be steadily built, with very little monetary investment for the most part. Now do not get me wrong, some specific science fiction DVD may cost you quite a bit of cash. However, for the most part, you can build an extremely vast collection without much of a dent in your wallet. For example, if you are looking to build your science fiction collection or start one for the first time, you could consider looking online to find a cheap science fiction DVD.

There are many places you can look, for example, there are complete websites available to you on the internet that caters only to science fiction fans and movies. Furthermore, you can save even more money by visiting auction sites such as eBay or find a wholesale distributor to save money on a science fiction DVD. Some other places you may be able to save big money on your science fiction collection is in general merchandise stores such as Wal-Mart or K-Mart.

You do have the option of shopping at specialize movie stores; however, you should expect to pay a little more money at these places. You could also find a cheap science fiction DVD in a video rental store. It may be a previously viewed movie, but it will still be cheaper than buying elsewhere.

Many fans looking to buy a science fiction DVD, may not even watch the DVD at all. It may be a special part of their collection. After all, many things are worth more when still in the original packaging, in mint condition, and has never been opened or used. This gives the science fiction more trading and selling power. Trading a science fiction DVD is a popular activity in the collecting world. Perhaps one person has a real desire to have a DVD that is in your science fiction collection, while they may have something of equal value that you have been looking so hard for. This again, gives you trading power, especially if the science fiction DVD is in good to mint condition.

David Evermon has been involved in many environment related projects, writing on many subjects including his science fiction hobby, David writes articles about Science Fiction DVD

Science Education - Making Science Fun

2011-03-23T13:43:00.000-07:00

Every school in America is required to teach science. This is because science and scientific learning is a fundamental part of our existence. Most everything that we encounter on a day-to-day basis is, in some way, related to science. Even when we are sleeping, science is there to explain why we need to sleep and what takes place while we are sleeping. Because of this, science education is essential to life as we know it. Of course there will be many people who are happy to go through life without knowing how a bird can fly. Even given this fact, there will always be something that they will need to know and understand that is grounded in science. Even if it is something as simple as 'fire is hot' or 'getting punched hurts. Science is there to explain these simple things too.

A good foundation in science through science education is required for all children, but the way that this education takes place is not strictly defined. With that said, many schools will take to science experiments using hands-on science products and supplies. This is an excellent way for students to 'see' the science around them. Often times learning from a book can be tedious and will cause students to become uninterested in the subject matter. A science experiment, however, is interactive and forces the students to take part in science learning. These projects don't have to be complicated and will usually result in a much higher level of learning retention.

There are a few reasons why children better retain knowledge gained through scientific experimentation. One is it allows you to appeal to those children who are visual learners. These students are the ones who need pictures or demonstrations to remember things. Words just don't stick in their minds as well, but when they can see a science demonstration or visualize an experiment, they can comprehend and retain the subject matter with much better success. Many students tend to thrive in science because it offers the visual aspect that many other subject matters do not.

Another reason that knowledge gained through science experimentation is retained longer by students is because they are actively engaged. They can't simply skim through the experiment, they have to make sure that they are doing things correctly, and the only way to ensure that is by understanding what is going on. It forces students to understand the science behind what they are doing, and if they don't, often times the experiment won't turn out right.

Finally, hands-on science experimentation gives the student a sense of accomplishment. It is a reward of sorts, to have the experiment turn out correctly. That reassurance and sense of achievement at the end of each experiment will cause them to want to do more. It will also give them more confidence in what they are doing and possibly cause them to take up more science projects on their own. They will already be comfortable with the process they need to follow and will merely need their own ideas and theories to start their own projects. Even their own small science projects will increase their knowledge of how the world around them works and functions.

Find unique and innovative Science toys and Science Supplies for Physics and Physical Science. A wonderful resource for science teachers for teaching electrostatics, magnetism, electricity, force, motion, sound, light, color, waves, gas laws, alternative energy, pressure, fluid dynamics and elementary science. For details visit http://www.sci-supply.com

From God to Newton and The Reconcilation of Science and Theology

2011-03-23T01:22:00.000-07:00

It is common sense that in the so-called Dark Ages of the medieval Europe, theology predominated in all the area from theocracy to regalia and became the absolute authority in the spiritual world of European. Science was left no space in the magnificent palace ruled by theology and was seen as heterodoxy. At that time, the conflict in relations between science and theology was serious, or more exactly, the oppression theology put on science was cruel. For instance, Italian philosopher and scientist Bruno because of his insistence on scientific truth was burned at the stake by the Inquisition in Rome in 1600. Great physicist Galileo, for believing in and publicizing Copernicus heliocentricism, was put into prison for life.1 Under the great pressure and in the context of Western European fanaticism, there was hardly possibility and space for science to emerge. Up to 17th and 18th centuries, science began to advance rapidly and defeat theology eventually. God became master not at home and Newton became chamberlaine in the world. Why did it happen in Europe? The key is to find out the origins for the rise of modern science. To see it, we first look into Western traditional weltanschauung.

Western traditional weltanschauung is a kind of dualism. Toward no matter what in nature, morality or religion, Western people often has a dualistic attitude. For example, the classical two-valued logic based on true or false duality founded by Aristotle continued to use today. Moreover, the dualism of mind and body, subject and object, noumenon and phenomenon, ideal and reality, collective and individual and so on, could easily be found here and there in Western history and culture. Especially in religious beliefs and metaphysics, Western people adhered to a dualistic position so obstinately that the transcendent world and the real world were departed completely and heaven and earth were separated absolutely.2 No matter in significance or value, the former is always higher than the latter. Probing into the origins of the dualistic worldview, we could retrospect to ancient Greek philosophy (especially metaphysics) and Christian theology.

Platos theory of Forms asserted that the realm of Forms and the realm of things are opposed.3 The Forms are those changeless, eternal, and nonmaterial essences or patterns of which the actual visible objects we see are only poor copies.4 Although Aristotle tried to overcome Platos system of the dualism of Forms and actual things, he didnt give up the dualistic idea of reality and phenomenon5, e.g. the distinction between matter and form.

Another element of Western traditional dualistic worldview is Christian theology. It is obvious that the city of God and the city of the world as well as faith and reason are resolvedly distinct in the Bible. Christian theology assured that any values and ideals that could not be fulfilled in the world could be achieved in paradise only if you affirm the existence of God and believe in God piously. If compared to the absolute Christian beliefs, any ethical or moral value or temporal ideal shows immediately insignificance in itself. For instance, Jesus response to the questions about paying tax - Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperors, and to God the things that are Gods.(Matthew 22: 22) typically represented the dualism of Christian theology.

The Christian theological thought above mixed with Platos theory of Forms and Aristotles metaphysics latter constructed the voluminous system of scholasticism. In more than a thousand year of the medieval ecclesiastic system, the Christian theology was the dominant ideology of Western European.

In this context, although the scientific researches were never stopping completely, the scientific seeking and the exploring of nature and even all the secular concerns confronted with such a perfect, pure and transcendental realm constructed by Christian theology were suffering despisal, neglect and oppression. Christian theology became the unique absolute standard of Western people and persecuted those disobedient. Despite that theology nearly held all the power over all the secular and holy affairs and science seldom had space to develop, the theological worldview could not be necessarily ever-victorious and ever-valid. Once coming across holistic changes or encountering the assault of heterodox thought, the faiths of Western people would be lax, which would shake and even destroy the whole Christian theological worldview.

Renaissance in the 15th and 16th century first revolted. The sense of self-awakening catalyzed by humanism and the revival of ancient Greek and Roman cultures broke down the unified complexion under the reign of theology. Man as a scientific master instead of God in the theological world became the center of social life and academic researches so that science gained a valuable chance to grow.6 Then Reformation, against the moral corruption of the Catholic Church and the sham of the dualistic opposite of soul and body, advocated justification by faith and religious tolerance and rejected the absolute authority of and the spiritual control by the Church.7 Therefore, science got rid of the spiritual restriction of theology. Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th century in Europe further fulfilled the ideological liberation of Western European.8 Reason replaced faith and theology receded into the background. Modern science emerged as the times require.

The intellectual revolutions above are the main causes for the rise of modern science, but in the final analysis, the origins are from the collapse of Christian theological worldview and the rise of the scientific worldview. It is obvious that the collapse of Christian theological worldview was going with a series of the intellectual revolutions-Renaissance, Reformation and Enlightenment. But generally speaking, it could be explained in terms of the inherent problems of Christian theological worldview within and the assault of heterodox thoughts from outside.

First, the system of medieval scholasticism that wholly made a stand for Christian theology, although it tried to shorten the huge gap between reason and faith, yet because of its insistence on faith superior to reason, finally could not keep the balance and harmony between faith and reason. On the one hand, J. D. Scotus theory of double truth accelerated the departure of faith and reason.9 On the other hand, mysticism contended a direct encounter and mystical union with God, such as J. Eckhart said God and soul were neither unaquainted nor far away, so soul was not only consistent with God, but identical with God.10 Mysticism distained all secular affairs, consequently, theological dualistic worldview was transformed into a transcendental monistic worldview which refused any intervention of human reason. W. Ockhams nominalism argued against the doctrines made up by scholasticism and the arguments of Gods existence. His principle of simplicity known as Ockhams razor contended that what can be explained on fewer principles is explained needlessly by more11, which became a prodder putting medieval theological system into disintegration.12 Consequently, Western European in the late Middle Ages lost their confidence in Christian theological worldview and began to resort to reason.

Secondly, Copernicus heliocentricism affected the worldview of the current scientists and philosophers in Renaissance and geocentricism of the theological worldview was seriously challenged. Human lost the superiority constructed by Christian theology in the cosmos and the dualistic relation between heaven and the world was loose. Scientists at that time e.g. Galileo only regarded God as prime efficient cause of the physical world and deprived God of the title of final cause. Therefore, the power and the omnipotence of God were questioned. Other scientists such as Bruno because of the influence of scientific explore, mostly adopted a pantheistic position as a substitute of the theological dualistic worldview. Meanwhile, a tendency in modern philosophy gradually emerged to cooperate with science to rationalize the world. For example, Descartes first made use of Gods existence for the objectivity and actuality of the physical world and then locked God into coffer and explained the structure of the world in a scientific view.13 As for the problem of the transcendental world in theology was hanged and became a pseudo-problem. The pantheistic metaphysics of Spinoza excluded the existence of the transcendental world, which also gave a deathblow to the dualistic theological worldview. On the other hand, the empiricism initiated by Locke developed to Hume became a radical positivism of skepticism, which ultimately denied spiritual substance and the existence of causal necessity and denied all the attempts of the arguments of Gods existence through human reason and empirical facts, which greatly fluctuated the basis of theology. Kants theory of the antinomies and critical rational theology contended that the transcendental world or noumenal world, the existence of God and the immortality of soul could not be proved, consequently, theology was excluded from human knowledge. Hegels rationalistic dialectic metaphysics regarded the variational process of the real world as the self-unfolding of absolute spirit and transformed the dualistic worldview into absolute idealism. The dualistic worldview was eventually discarded and Christian theological beliefs were evanesced in Hegels system. Thus, reason won the advantage over faith and the scientistic worldview instead of the theological dualistic worldview became the dominant ideology of Western European.

The rise of modern science could not begin until the traditional dualistic worldview was transformed, because weltanschauung is the ultimate understanding of the world or human life of people, which is able to potentially predominate the ultimate attitude toward and activities in life of thinkers, social workers and even the masses in a region. That is, only if the traditional theological worldview was replaced by a new reason-based worldview viz. the scientistic worldview, the rise of modern science could have ultimate assurance. In a word, the origins for the rise of modern science were the collapse of the theological dualistic worldview and the predominance of the scientific worldview.

The conversion from theology to science has both positive and negative impacts on Western history. After walking up on the fast lane of scientific development, the realistic life of Western European was greatly improved, the material civilization was rapidly progressed, the explore of nature and geography was continuously advanced and technology was dramatically reformed. Thence, Western countries made a continuous progress whereas Eastern countries fell far behind. The influence of the conversion from theology to science is unmeasurable, just as historian H. Butterfield pointed out on this problem: The impact on the world culture of the rise of modern science in the 17th century could only be mentioned in the same breath with the rise of Christianity in the first century.14 However, it does not mean that this conversion doesnt have any negative impact on Western European. Weltanschauung can be thought as a sort of comprehensive experience that most potentially affects the cultural atmosphere e.g. academic ideas, life styles, living attitudes and so on of any country and sociaty.15 Accordingly, when the weltanschauung of the people in a region undergoes a right-about or fundamental conversion, the academic culture and life attitudes and behaviors will have holistic changes.

Because the traditional dualistic worldview was the dominant ideology from the Aristotle to the late Middle Ages, in which Western European soaked themselves and took it for granted all the time, the spiritual crisis of Western European was coming on the just day the theological worldview collapsed. In the context that the theological worldview nodded to its fall and nihilism was widespread around, Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky and Nietzsche etc. in 19th century inaugurated the philosophical ideas of existentialism in coincidence to save the spiritual crisis and get back the lost psychic home of Western European.

Danish philosopher Kierkegaards existentialistic thought was a critical reaction to Hegels rationalism, which rejected Hegels neglect of theology and the problem of faith and contended that theological knowledge and Christian beliefs are subjective truth that can not be evanesced in universal objective knowledge. He thought that rationalist Hegel and the like holded the position of the supremacy of reason and reduced the transcendental world into abstract idea, which obliterated the paradoxicality (truth as subjectivity) of theology and the non-rationality (not congruent with reason but with feelings and faith) of the dualistic worldview. Russian novelist Dostoevsky discovered the problem of fate of existence after the collapse of the theological worldview. In his novels from Crime and Punishment to The Brothers Karamazov, he discussed how to seek the spiritual way out after the comedown of faith in God. He implied that except Christian theology and beliefs, Western people could not find a savior for their spiritual crisis. Another initiator of existentialism and also a representative figure of philosophy of Will Nietzsche, though likewise criticizing rationalism, pushed the theological dualistic worldview into collapse at the same time. From the assumption of God is dead (Nietzsche really believed that Western European had lost the theological worldview.), he claimed that all traditional morality, philosophies and theologies must be revalued with the collapse of the dualistic worldview. New values and ideals should be established by the Superperson who can harmonize the animal nature with the intellect and keep a balance between Dionysian and Apollonian elements. His theory of the Will to Power is the foundation of his philosophy of the Superperson.16

From the argument above, it is obvious that the conversion from theology to science, though brought high material civilization to the Western world, yet also produced deep spiritual crisis for Western people. The scientistic worldview in the extreme would regard reason as the unique standard to evaluate all values and exclude any other unscientistic worldviews, which would further reject the value and meaning of faith and affection and completely alienate people from the consciousness of existence. Furthermore, the development of scientific theories would have stimulated the improvement of productive technologies, which would increasingly enhance the danger of the scientific technicalization. And the maximum danger of the scientific technicalization is to eliminate reason of value by value of instrument and let people to forget the problem of existence of themselves and become the average massman or the common herd degenerated from the true and individual existence in the mathematically mechanical process. In the context of religious externalization and secularization, the true Christian beliefs disappeared while the theological dualistic worldview lost its original meaning.

It is undoubted that there exist some incompatibilities between theology and science. Science (in narrow sense natural science) is the knowledge of the physical world, which mainly explains phenomena and laws of things; while theology is the knowledge of the immaterial world, which chiefly resolves the problem of faith and the transcendental world (God and heaven). Since the late Middle Ages especially modern times, the contradiction and conflicts in relations between science and theology have been so serious that people always oppose them with each other that apparently cannot coexist.17 We do not deny the cruel oppression on science exerted by theology in the Middle Ages and the tremendous impact on theology made by science in modern times, however, science and theology are not always oil and vinegar and not capable of being conciliated. In fact, a number of eminent scientists- Isaac Newton, M. Faraday, C. Maxwell, Albert Einstein and many academicians of the Royal Society etc. all have deep faith in Christian belief or interest in theology. Some scientists even consider that science and theology are coherent and they fulfill the same mission through distinct approaches.18 In recent years, the dialogue between science and theology have been paid increasing attention to both by scientists and theologians or philosophers of religion and various theories of the relations between science and theology or religion have been presented successively. Wang Pisheng of Hong Kong Baptist University claims that the dialogue between science and theology in recent years is not a new and rare phenomenon but a long and continuous tradition.19 He also indicated that many top scientists today are aware of the importance to learn from philosophy and theology, not only to have a deeper insight into the significance of the scientific work, but also to seek a breakthrough in their scientific research. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that science and theology have a basis of coexistence and harmonization. If the two both understand their limits and the conjunct significance to human existence, a phase of science and theology in harmony is hopefully to come.

After experiencing the tragedies of the two World Wars and the spread of nihilism and hedonism after the Wars, people in the New Century can still not enjoy the peaceful life from the flying development of science. The threats of the weapons of massive destruction and nuclear warfare and the crime of terrorists who killed the innocent through modern scientific technology, all of these have strengthened the uneasiness, insecurity and anxiety of people directly or indirectly. And that the tsunami aroused by the earthquake on the Indian Ocean devitalized thousands of lives at the end of last year and a trail of disasters-Pakistani earthquake, hurricanes in North America, hog cholera and birds flu and so on latter, have made it clear that science is not omnipotent confronted with those fearful disasters; while the global humanitarian succors unprecedented since the beginning of this year have just indicated that faith and affection are the spiritual springs of human peace and solidarity. It gives us a profound revelation: the tensions and conflicts between science and theology are not beneficial to human peace and development while the mutual-complement and reconciliation between them are probably the best salvation to help people above water. Just as Paul Tillich says in his Culture of Theology, They should not be separated from each other; they should be aware that their isolated existence is dangerous.20

A. N. Whitehead thinks that religious symbols endow human with the meaning of life; scientific modes endue people with the capability to reform nature. The influences of religion and science are so tremendous that the orientation of human history in the future is decided by how modern people look on the relations between science and religion. It shows clearly that theology and science are both the spiritual pillars indispensable of human development. We need God, as well as Newton. Both of them are rooted in the basis of human inner world and point to the ultimate concern for human beings. Been aware of this, conflicts between science and theology would be overcome and science and theology both would rediscover their true existence in the mental life of human and endow man with ultimate meaning, creative wisdom and courage to love.

Note:

1 F. Engels in Dialectic of Nature(zi ran bian zheng fa): Natural science sent its martyrs to the stake and the prison of Inquisition. Exactly speaking, it is Christian church that sent scientific martyrs to the stake and jail.

2 Fu Weixun, From Western Philosophy to Zen Buddhism, 1989, p158.

3 As Bertrand Russell says in A History of Western Philosophy: Platos philosophy is based on the distinction between reality and phenomenon.

4 Sammuel Enoch Stumpf & James Fieser, Socrates to Sartre and Beyond A History of Philosophy, Seventh Edition, 2003, p55.

5 Aristotle believed that God as pure idea, happiness and complete self-actualization is eternal and doesnt have any purpose that is not fulfilled; contrarily, the sensible world is unperfect, has life and desire, and belongs to the impure idea. The idea as well represents his dualistic outlook.

6 It is asserted in A History of Europe written by 11 European historians that God and heaven were seen as the center of thought in the Middle Ages, but Renaissance drew the attention of people to man and the real world. This conversion had an impact on science. Since then, theology lost its superiority and the interest in human and nature prevailed.

7 Luther says: Each Christian can interpret the Bible in his own way, which is against ecclesiastical authority, because only the Church has the power to interpret the Bible and its interpretation is the unique right one.

8 It is claimed in A History of Europe that nature according to its own law of development will result in a perfect world, so the religious and political interventions of human should be minimumreason requests man to develop in nature, which shows the importance of reason in the research of nature.

9 Wollf comments on Scotus theory of double truth that it undoubtedly promoted the worldly research enterprise.

10 Paul Tillich, Theology of Culture, 1988.

11 Samuel Enoch Stumpf & James Fieser, Socrates to Sartre and Beyond A History of Philosophy, 7th Edit., 1966, 2003, p. 185.

12 Fu Weixun, From Western Philsophy to Zen Buddhism, 1989, p.161.

13 idem, p. 162.

14 Wang Pisheng, Science seeks God: the new phenomena of the dialogue between science and theology, Report of the Research Center of Chinese Christian Religions, Second Issue, 2002.

15 Said by Fu Weixun.

16 Nietzsche writes, I regard Christianity as the most fatal and seductive lie that has ever yet existed as the greatest and most impious lie, which is a fatal blame on the slavish morality of Christianity.

17 Dong Xiaochuan, Science and theology: the two pillars of Modern American Civilization, [http://xueshu.newyouth.beida-online.com/data/data.ph3]

18 idem.

19 Wang Pisheng, Science seeks God: the new phenomena of the dialogue between science and theology.

20 Paul Tillich, Theology of Culture.

Alex Mingchuan Tu, Postgraduate of Research Institute of Chinese Intellectual and Cultual History, Wuhan, China P.R. 430062

4 Reasons Your Child Should Do Science Projects All Year, Not Just For

2011-03-22T12:24:00.000-07:00

There are many things out there that your children can be doing like watching T.V. or listening to music. But these things do not enhance your child's thinking. You want to challenge your child's mind, help them build thinking skills that they will need for there lives. Here are 4 reasons your child should do science projects all year, not just for the science fair.

The 1st reason your child should do science projects all year, not just for the science fair is because it gets your child off the couch and using their mind. Make sure to help your child find things to do that they are interested in. Make sure to act interested in science yourself. If you do not act interested there is a big chance your child won't be interested. So find activities that you and your child can do together.

Then 2nd reason your child should do science projects all year, not just for the science fairs is because it helps your child with their problem solving skills. Problem solving skills are very important to have in their lives. Your child will learn problem solving skills through science projects because they will have to find solutions to different problems. For instance they might be curious how a current charge is made. You can help them research out what makes current charge and then using problem solving find an experiment where you can test out the theory. Problem solving can help your children in future jobs and relationships between other people. When you do science projects all year and not just for the science fair it will help increase the times your child is learning how to problem solve.

The 3rd reason your child should do science projects all year, not just for the science fair is because it will help your child to be more interested in science as a whole. Your child might just try to get through science right now by doing the bare minimum, But with your help you can do science projects all year long and get them to have a bigger interested in science. So not only does it help them to achieve more in there science class it also increases your child's love for science.

The 4th reason your child should do science projects all year, not just for the science fair is because it will make your child more knowledgeable. You child will start to learn things from science that they did not know before. This will help them to be more interested in there surroundings. It will also help them to pay attention to things around them. For instance it might make your child more out to think on a higher level about how things work. And if they can't figure out how they work they will be excited to go find out because they know that you will help them do a science project on the things that they are having trouble understanding.

These are all reasons to do science projects all year, not just for the science fair. Doing science projects with your child will help you to find a bond that will help your child in their future. Encourage your child to find solutions and different ways to get things to work. By doing this you are helping your child to learn and grow while having fun. So make sure to do science projects all year.

Just Science Projects is a well-known source for science projects and science experiments for kids. Just Science Projects features dozens of fun experiments and projects that teach science principles while showing them that science is fun! To get science projects and science fair ideas for your kids, visit us or call us at 206-498-6502.

Hands on Science for Kids-Learn by Doing

2011-03-22T02:08:00.000-07:00

You're eating dinner and your child excitedly describes how his teacher took a bucket of water and swung it around without spilling a drop. Your child is talking about centrifugal force! Your child is talking to you! Your child is amazed about this great experience he had! Good lessons provide good opportunities for children to talk! Children who can express themselves verbally to reinforce what they are learning can increase their understanding and memory. Current research indicates that providing children with exciting experiences apart from the traditional "lecture and listen" method can electrify their imagination, providing memorable experiences and opportunities to discuss! As parents, we already understand the importance of "learning by doing," having provided our children with hands on experiences preparing them to walk and talk, playing a game or learning how to behave.

Making careful decisions about what we teach our children has benefits well past childhood. Parents want what is best for their kids and with the increase in technology based industries today our children's understanding and expertise must also evolve. Fostering and supporting our children's interest in the field of science can help to balance their learning and curiosity. Activities that can provide a foundation, further enhance what children are learning day to day and strengthen their confidence.

In grades 2, 3 and 4 children are expected to demonstrate an understanding of magnetism, gravity and light. Using one of several science kits avaiaklable, like ScienceWiz's ElectroWiz Magnetism, Newton's Wizard and WaveWiz Light provides a great opportunity for parents to enhance their kid's comprehension of basic scientific principles.

What is in your child's future? Perhaps he will participate in discovering or perfecting a cleaner fuel source that will propel us into a more sustainable future! Thames & Kosmos Fuel Cell Car Science Experiment Kit is a unique science toy. Your child will learn how to build an environmentally friendly car and learn how it uses the power of water to propel itself across the floor! Children can read and participate in activities included in the Energy Wiz science kit by ScienceWiz. This kit teaches children about potential energy (energy that is stored waiting to be used) and kinetic energy (energy used while an object is in motion). Explore these concepts by building a solar racer to test the differences between potential and kinetic energy. Elenco's Solar Deluxe Educational Kit provides hands on science instruction helping children learn how to build solar models and generate clean energy to power a radio or a calculator.

Encouraging children to investigate and challenge themselves is always a difficult task. Entice your child with a top secret investigation. The Mystery Detective Forensic Science Kit is a sure way to make this a fun and exciting way to think outside of the box. Children can solve several mysteries by examining DNA prints, analyzing motives as well as other clues in order to narrow down suspects and solve a mystery. Children who might also enjoy the mechanics of developing the technology to investigate and solve crimes would benefit from the Go Detective Science Kit. Among 65 activities, kids can make ink, learn Morse code and analyze evidence using a microscope. Detecting tiny clues is made easier with one of several choices of magnifying glasses and binoculars - a great way to top off one of these unique science kits!

Electronics is a subject that permeates every area of our lives. Elenco's series of Snap circuits starts with 100 building circuits (Junior) to Snap Circuits 300 and Snap Circuits 500 Pro. These unique science toys are great tools that can help both children and adults decipher the world of electronics by introducing some basic knowledge. Modules containing resistors, capacitors and transistors help to simplify the connections to integrate circuits and produce different effects. However, if your child is ready for a more tangible electronic experience try Elenco's Build Your Own Telephone or Talking Clock Building Kit, both great ideas to integrate kids further into science.

Try a unique science toy that can help launch any aspiring astronaut or astronomer. Illuminate your child's imagination with a Motorized Solar System. This dynamic science toy lights up and moves to demonstrate the workings of the solar system. Great for the classroom, teachers can create their own planetarium. Another cool science kit is the Solar System 3D Mobile Making Kit. Assemble the plastic planets, use the paint included to color your system and attach to the mobile - a great activity for the home or the classroom. All these science kits include instructions and facts about our solar system.

For more in depth knowledge of the universe, try the Usborne Book of Astronomy & Space, a great introduction to the wonders of space. Exploring the Night Sky by Terence Dickinson is a great book to help your kids learn about the universe and also includes an introduction into star gazing. To encourage the star gazer in your family, Mastermind also offers several durable telescopes with which to view the night sky!

If your child is curious and enthusiastic but is not inspired by science, perhaps you can persuade them with some unusual science kits and toys! Consider Oobleck Gooey Chemistry. Already used as a teaching resource around the world, your child can conduct slimy experiments and start a slime ooze contest. Does your child's interest in animals command their full attention? The Fun With Your Dog Science Kit might tempt their curiosity by testing a dog's hearing, determining a dog's personality or creating dog bone cookies. Take fun science into the bathroom with Scientific Explorer's Spa Science Kit! Kids can mix fragrances, make foaming baths and create smelling potions. Determine how smells affect family members and friends differently - the ultimate test of the senses!

Science is a subject that permeates every area of our lives and making it fun and interesting is what it takes to promote excitement- and learning!

Lisa Bronart is feelamce writer and writes for mastermindtoys.com. For more suggestions for science kits and science toys please visit mastermindtoys.com. Science is essential for kids and Mastermindtoys.com makes it easy to follow the "learn by doing" concept, the natural way in which we all learned. Get in touch with one of the great kid?s science kits and toys available on line at mastermindtoys.com.

5 Tips For Choosing The Right Science Project For Your Child

2011-03-21T12:18:00.000-07:00

There are many different ways you can choose a science project for your child. The question is how do you even know how to choose a science project? What are things that you need to know that will help your child get the right science project? Here are 5 tips for choosing the right science project for your child.

Tip 1 for choosing the right science project for your child is to ask questions. Ask you child what they want to learn more about. Ask your child what they are interested in. Ask you child what they have been learning in school that they don't understand and would like to know more about. This will help you get an idea of what your child's interests. Knowing what your child's interests are will help you get an idea what they would want to do for a science project.

Tip 2 for choosing the right science project for your child is finding out what they don't understand. Find something that your child is interested in but does not understand certain aspects of. This will help you be able to find something that will intrigue your child. If your child has been turning the wheels in there head about something but just can't find a solution to it, doing a science project on it would be a great thing. It will help your child be excited because they are so excited to find out about what they have been so curious about.

Tip 3 for choosing the right science project for your child is finding something that you both can do together. You want to find a science project that you can help your child on. You don't want something that is too complicate that you are not going to be able to help your child with it. You want something that you can research and get the help you need in order to help your child do their science project. You being able to help your child will also help your child enjoy their science project more. Your child will enjoy it because they won't be frustrated trying out different solutions to get things to work by themselves. They will feel like they have help and support. This will make all of the difference.

Tip 4 for choosing the right science project for your child is having all of the information you need. Only having partial information will not make it easy to do a science project. You want to make sure the science project you choose has enough information that you can discover new things.

Tip 5 for choosing the right science project for your child is being able to perform the science project. You want to make sure that your child can perform a science project on the subject your child chooses and that your child can show how it works. It needs to be age appropriate. Also, make sure that your child has enough time to do a science project and the experiments that are involved. For example, if your child is going to do a science project on plants and the different environment they grown in. You need to make sure that your child has enough time to grow all of the plants, and make sure that you have all of the different equipment that you and your child will need to provide different environments for the plants.

These are all tips for choosing the right science project for your child. Make sure that you take all of these tips into consideration when you are planning a science project. You want to make sure to choose the best science project you can for your child with the most information. So go out there and choosing the right science project for your child.

Just Science Projects is a popular science fair projects and elementary and middle school science experiments site. Whether you're looking for great science experiments for kids, science projects, or science fair ideas, Just Science Projects is your source. To get great, fun projects visit our website or call us at 206-498-6502.

The Value of a Science Fair Project

2011-03-20T23:41:00.000-07:00

With the jam-packed schedules of today's families, why would either a student or a parent want to add one more major activity? Clearly, any school project assigned to a student should meet a stringent test for usefulness. Surprising to some, a science fair project is one of the best learning experiences a student can undertake. And, if it is taken seriously, it can be an excellent way to earn significant prizes, qualify for scholarships, and distinguish a college application.

Conceptually, a science fair project is very straightforward. A student chooses a scientific question he or she would like to answer. Then, library and Web research on the question gives the student the background information he or she needs to formulate a hypothesis and design an experiment. After writing a report to summarize this research, the student performs the experiment, draws his or her conclusions, and presents the results to teachers and classmates using a display board. Most students do their projects for a school science fair, but in many cases students can enter that same project in fairs at the city or county level. This is the first step in competitions that lead up to the international level, where prizes total over $3,000,000 and the top winners take home $50,000 scholarships.

What makes a science fair project such a great learning experience is that it involves so much more than science. If the student is in middle school, the research report will most likely be the longest paper the student has ever written. The bibliography for the report will also be the first ever for some students. And, while library research is still important, these reports are a great way to hone computer research skills as well as learn the ins and outs of common office programs such as word processors and spreadsheets. Most projects involve a good deal of math, and all students get an opportunity to enhance their presentation skills when they prepare their display board and discuss the project with judges.

A science fair project will also have a longer duration than any other assignment a student has done. In contrast to the typical school homework due the next day or perhaps a week hence, a science fair project requires a student to learn to plan over two or three months, a skill of immense importance in adulthood. Procrastination is definitely not rewarded.

Savvy students, especially those who work their way up to higher levels of competition, learn even more about communications skills. They learn the importance of marketing--picking topics and tuning their presentations in ways that will make them most likely to impress a science fair judge. While some may bemoan this lack of purity in the pursuit of science, the fact is that even a professional scientist must compete for funds to continue his or her research. When better to learn how to persuade others than before your livelihood depends on it?

A science fair project even provides an opportunity for the discussion of ethical issues such as plagiarism and falsification of data. Indeed, such a discussion is highly recommended. The ease of copying information from the Internet is hard to resist, and many students are far ahead of their teachers in understanding what is possible.

Preparing a science fair project is an excellent example of what education experts call active learning or inquiry (also "hands-on" learning). It is a very effective instructional method; indeed, it is recommended as a cornerstone of successful science teaching. Yet, according to the National Research Council, active learning is not employed often enough in the classroom and its absence is seen as one of the key factors behind kids losing interest in science and not performing to their potential.

Colleges want to see what students have done with the opportunities they have available to them, and science competitions are a fantastic opportunity. Typically, from two to four percent of science fair entrants at the high school level move on to the top level of science fair competition, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. While the competition is stiff, those odds are a lot better than the lottery.

Of course, learning about science is at the heart of a science fair project. Our society relies more on science every day, and science fairs are a great way for students to become more knowledgeable about how the world around them works. Every citizen needs sufficient science literacy to make educated decisions about what they see or read in the media, about their own health care, and about other every-day problems.

A science project is a great way to improve your child's academic and communication skills, not to mention help their college resume. If your child's teacher doesn't assign a science project, ask him to.

Kenneth L. Hess is the founder of Science Buddies, a non-profit organization that is focused on developing free online science fair project resources for serious K-12 students and teachers.

The Wages of Science

2011-03-20T11:52:00.000-07:00

In the United States, Congress approved, last month, increases in the 2003 budgets of both the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation. America is not alone in - vainly - trying to compensate for imploding capital markets and risk-averse financiers.

In 1999, chancellor Gordon Brown inaugurated a $1.6 billion program of "upgrading British science" and commercializing its products. This was on top of $1 billion invested between 1998-2002. The budgets of the Medical Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council were quadrupled overnight.

The University Challenge Fund was set to provide $100 million in seed money to cover costs related to the hiring of managerial skills, securing intellectual property, constructing a prototype or preparing a business plan. Another $30 million went to start-up funding of high-tech, high-risk companies in the UK.

According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the top 29 industrialized nations invest in R&D more than $600 billion a year. The bulk of this capital is provided by the private sector. In the United Kingdom, for instance, government funds are dwarfed by private financing, according to the British Venture Capital Association. More than $80 billion have been ploughed into 23,000 companies since 1983, about half of them in the hi-tech sector. Three million people are employed in these firms. Investments surged by 36 percent in 2001 to $18 billion.

But this British exuberance is a global exception.

Even the - white hot - life sciences field suffered an 11 percent drop in venture capital investments last year, reports the MoneyTree Survey. According to the Ernst & Young 2002 Alberta Technology Report released on Wednesday, the Canadian hi-tech sector is languishing with less than $3 billion invested in 2002 in seed capital - this despite generous matching funds and tax credits proffered by many of the provinces as well as the federal government.

In Israel, venture capital plunged to $600 million last year - one fifth its level in 2000. Aware of this cataclysmic reversal in investor sentiment, the Israeli government set up 24 hi-tech incubators. But these are able merely to partly cater to the pecuniary needs of less than 20 percent of the projects submitted.

As governments pick up the monumental slack created by the withdrawal of private funding, they attempt to rationalize and economize.

The New Jersey Commission of Health Science Education and Training recently proposed to merge the state's three public research universities. Soaring federal and state budget deficits are likely to exert added pressure on the already strained relationship between academe and state - especially with regards to research priorities and the allocation of ever-scarcer resources.

This friction is inevitable because the interaction between technology and science is complex and ill-understood. Some technological advances spawn new scientific fields - the steel industry gave birth to metallurgy, computers to computer science and the transistor to solid state physics. The discoveries of science also lead, though usually circuitously, to technological breakthroughs - consider the examples of semiconductors and biotechnology.

Thus, it is safe to generalize and say that the technology sector is only the more visible and alluring tip of the drabber iceberg of research and development. The military, universities, institutes and industry all over the world plough hundreds of billions annually into both basic and applied studies. But governments are the most important sponsors of pure scientific pursuits by a long shot.

Science is widely perceived as a public good - its benefits are shared. Rational individuals would do well to sit back and copy the outcomes of research - rather than produce widely replicated discoveries themselves. The government has to step in to provide them with incentives to innovate.

Thus, in the minds of most laymen and many economists, science is associated exclusively with publicly-funded universities and the defense establishment. Inventions such as the jet aircraft and the Internet are often touted as examples of the civilian benefits of publicly funded military research. The pharmaceutical, biomedical, information technology and space industries, for instance - though largely private - rely heavily on the fruits of nonrivalrous (i.e. public domain) science sponsored by the state.

The majority of 501 corporations surveyed by the Department of Finance and Revenue Canada in 1995-6 reported that government funding improved their internal cash flow - an important consideration in the decision to undertake research and development. Most beneficiaries claimed the tax incentives for seven years and recorded employment growth.

In the absence of efficient capital markets and adventuresome capitalists, some developing countries have taken this propensity to extremes. In the Philippines, close to 100 percent of all R&D is government-financed. The meltdown of foreign direct investment flows - they declined by nearly three fifths since 2000 - only rendered state involvement more indispensable.

But this is not a universal trend. South Korea, for instance, effected a successful transition to private venture capital which now - even after the Asian turmoil of 1997 and the global downturn of 2001 - amounts to four fifths of all spending on R&D.

Thus, supporting ubiquitous government entanglement in science is overdoing it. Most applied R&D is still conducted by privately owned industrial outfits. Even "pure" science - unadulterated by greed and commerce - is sometimes bankrolled by private endowments and foundations.

Moreover, the conduits of government involvement in research, the universities, are only weakly correlated with growing prosperity. As Alison Wolf, professor of education at the University of London elucidates in her seminal tome "Does Education Matter? Myths about Education and Economic Growth", published last year, extra years of schooling and wider access to university do not necessarily translate to enhanced growth (though technological innovation clearly does).

Terence Kealey, a clinical biochemist, vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham in England and author of "The Economic Laws of Scientific Research", is one of a growing band of scholars who dispute the intuitive linkage between state-propped science and economic progress. In an interview published last week by Scientific American, he recounted how he discovered that:

"Of all the lead industrial countries, Japan - the country investing least in science - was growing fastest. Japanese science grew spectacularly under laissez-faire. Its science was actually purer than that of the U.K. or the U.S. The countries with the next least investment were France and Germany, and were growing next fastest. And the countries with the maximum investment were the U.S., Canada and U.K., all of which were doing very badly at the time."

The Economist concurs: "it is hard for governments to pick winners in technology." Innovation and science sprout in - or migrate to - locations with tough laws regarding intellectual property rights, a functioning financial system, a culture of "thinking outside the box" and a tradition of excellence.

Government can only remove obstacles - especially red tape and trade tariffs - and nudge things in the right direction by investing in infrastructure and institutions. Tax incentives are essential initially. But if the authorities meddle, they are bound to ruin science and be rued by scientists.

Still, all forms of science funding - both public and private - are lacking.

State largesse is ideologically constrained, oft-misallocated, inefficient and erratic. In the United States, mega projects, such as the Superconducting Super Collider, with billions already sunk in, have been abruptly discontinued as were numerous other defense-related schemes. Additionally, some knowledge gleaned in government-funded research is barred from the public domain.

But industrial money can be worse. It comes with strings attached. The commercially detrimental results of drug studies have been suppressed by corporate donors on more than one occasion, for instance. Commercial entities are unlikely to support basic research as a public good, ultimately made available to their competitors as a "spillover benefit". This understandable reluctance stifles innovation.

There is no lack of suggestions on how to square this circle.

Quoted in the Philadelphia Business Journal, Donald Drakeman, CEO of the Princeton biotech company Medarex, proposed last month to encourage pharmaceutical companies to shed technologies they have chosen to shelve: "Just like you see little companies coming out of the research being conducted at Harvard and MIT in Massachusetts and Stanford and Berkley in California, we could do it out of Johnson & Johnson and Merck."

This would be the corporate equivalent of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980. The statute made both academic institutions and researchers the owners of inventions or discoveries financed by government agencies. This unleashed a wave of unprecedented self-financing entrepreneurship.

In the two decades that followed, the number of patents registered to universities increased tenfold and they spun off more than 2200 firms to commercialize the fruits of research. In the process, they generated $40 billion in gross national product and created 260,000 jobs.

None of this was government financed - though, according to The Economist's Technology Quarterly, $1 in research usually requires up to $10,000 in capital to get to market. This suggests a clear and mutually profitable division of labor - governments should picks up the tab for basic research, private capital should do the rest, stimulated by the transfer of intellectual property from state to entrepreneurs.

But this raises a host of contentious issues.

Such a scheme may condition industry to depend on the state for advances in pure science, as a kind of hidden subsidy. Research priorities are bound to be politicized and lead to massive misallocation of scarce economic resources through pork barrel politics and the imposition of "national goals". NASA, with its "let's put a man on the moon (before the Soviets do)" and the inane International Space Station is a sad manifestation of such dangers.

Science is the only public good that is produced by individuals rather than collectives. This inner conflict is difficult to resolve. On the one hand, why should the public purse enrich entrepreneurs? On the other hand, profit-driven investors seek temporary monopolies in the form of intellectual property rights. Why would they share this cornucopia with others, as pure scientists are compelled to do?

The partnership between basic research and applied science has always been an uneasy one. It has grown more so as monetary returns on scientific insight have soared and as capital available for commercialization multiplied. The future of science itself is at stake.

Were governments to exit the field, basic research would likely crumble. Were they to micromanage it - applied science and entrepreneurship would suffer. It is a fine balancing act and, judging by the state of both universities and startups, a precarious one as well.

About The Author

Sam Vaknin is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He is a columnist for Central Europe Review, PopMatters, and eBookWeb , a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory Bellaonline, and Suite101 .

Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.

Visit Sam's Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com; palma@unet.com.mk

Getting Started in Science Writing

2011-03-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

Science writing is one of the most exciting niches in journalism--science writers get to travel, meet intelligent and interesting people and report on new developments from the dramatic and groundbreaking to the quirky and peculiar. Science writers may specialize in one of the traditional natural and physical sciences--biology, geology, physics, and chemistry--or write about anthropology, archeology, medicine and health, engineering, space and planetary science, mathematics or the environment.

Breaking into the science writing field can be daunting due to the scarcity of mid- to low-range markets, but the field is rewarding. You don't have to have a science background to be a successful science writer. John McPhee, famous for his lyrical geology articles in The New Yorker (some of which are collected in the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Annals of the Former World), studied English, not geology. If you do have a science background, that can help you, but overcoming your training to use technical language may be an obstacle.

Education

While almost every writers' organization seems to offer travel writing courses, science writing courses are rare. Health and medical writing courses are most commonly taught, but colleges and universities occasionally offer more general science or environmental writing courses. Be sure to look carefully at the instructor's publications before deciding whether to take the course. Seminars on science, environmental and medical writing are sometimes offered at regional or national conferences. These courses and seminars can be a great introduction to the field or help you polish your skills.

Some science writers, particularly those aiming at a staff position, may find a graduate degree is the way to go. Graduate degrees are expensive, however, so consider your options carefully. Some respected science and medical writing graduate programs are offered at MIT, Columbia, University of California--Santa Cruz and Boston University.

Professional Organizations

Several professional organizations provide networking opportunities and resources for science writers. Many offer discounted student membership, and some resources are available to nonmembers.

National Association of Science Writers
American Medical Writers Association
Society of Environmental Journalism

Joining local and regional organizations can also be a great way to network.

Read All About It

In addition to the basic freelance writing books, these books for science writers provide more specific information about everything from finding stories and markets to tips for conveying complex technical information clearly.

Ideas Into Words: Mastering the Craft of Science Writing, by Elise Hancock (2003)

This slim book leans more towards craft than marketing, and provides a solid and enjoyable introduction to how to write about science.

A Field Guide for Science Writers (1st ed.), eds. Deborah Blum and Mary Knudson (out of print)

A Field Guide for Science Writers (2nd ed.), eds. Deborah Blum, Mary Knudson and Robin Marantz Henig

These two editions have very different content, and both are a mine of information for the aspiring science writer. They cover different markets and types of writing in detail, with contributions from leading science writers.

Finding Markets

Everyone knows about the big general science magazines like Discover and National Geographic, which are prestigious and pay well, but are also hard to break into. Mid-range specialized magazines like Archaeology and Astronomy may be better targets for some, but they don't have equivalents in all science disciplines.

Fortunately, many magazines accept science stories with the right angle. A forestry magazine might be interested in an article on how a study on bird ecology impacts forest management. Alumni magazines frequently publish articles about science by professors or alumni of the institution. Ecotravel is a booming trend frequently covered by travel magazines.

Don't discount other ways to make ends meet--writing about science for nonprofit organizations, private labs, and businesses is the bread and butter of many science writers, if less glamorous than being a staff writer for Discover.

Break In!

As with any other writing niche, science writers can break in with good, timely writing and perseverance. So research those markets, start sending queries and don't give up!

Melissa Barton is a freelance writer and editor, specializing in science and travel writing. She's written about science and health for magazines like Geotimes, Student Health 101, the Colorado College Alumni Bulletin and for nonprofit and government organizations. Visit her online at Rosetta Stones Freelancing (http://www.rosettastones.net).

Race To The Top, The Need For Science Assessment Kits

2011-03-19T10:51:00.000-07:00

States are in varying stages of developing their NCLB science assessments. Typically, states contract with assessment companies which have a history of producing standardized, norm referenced tests, e.g., the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS), the Tera Nova, the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT-9, SAT-10).

These new NCLB science tests must include either criterion-referenced assessments or augmented norm-referenced assessments, or both. The world of the standardized, multiple-choice, norm referenced test is disappearing as standards-aligned, criterion-referenced tests emerge.

Because many states' science standards include science inquiry and science process skills that are difficult to assess with conventional multiple-choice questions, more and more science assessments are taking on a different format and look. To assess a student's skills, students must "perform".

Performance assessment is moving us "beyond the bubble" of Scantron forms. When students are asked to perform, they are better able to utilize their unique learning styles (kinesthetic, visual, aural, etc.) as they tap into their own content knowledge of science. Student work from performance assessments better informs the teacher (and student) of what the student understands versus what bubble he may have guessed to be right.

Performance assessment in science requires students to perform various science skills (observation, data collection, organizing data, data analysis, drawing conclusions, etc.) as they manipulate equipment. Science equipment, typically organized in classroom sets, is delivered as science kits.

As the need for criterion-referenced science assessment of inquiry skills takes hold, the demand for science kits will continue to increase. States, districts, and schools are realizing that to assess science inquiry adequately, kits are a necessary, essential part of the assessment program. Educators also realize that if they are to meet the NCLB requirements for science assessment, i.e., to use up-to-date measures to assess mastery of science standards, and the states' science content standards include science inquiry, then the tests themselves need to include student performance tasks. And since "what gets tested gets taught," we will see an increasing number of science inquiry learning activities in classroom curriculum throughout the school year.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) program has been using science kits as part of its science program for over 10 years. These science tests are administered every four years to a small sample of students across the nation. Although this national assessment program advocates the use of performance assessment requiring hands-on manipulation of science equipment, it is limited in scope. The more powerful influences that are changing science assessment nationally stem from the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

EDUCATIONAL SERVICES

Assessment Services, Inc., http://www.assessmentservices-edu.com, designs and develops materials for performance-based assessments and specializes in custom kits for science and math curriculum. We also manufacture and distribute science kits and math kits.

The founder of Assessment Services Inc., has over twenty-five years of experience in the education industry developing and producing science and math materials. The company was created: (1) from a desire to continue a long term, successful partnership in the science assessment industry; (2) to meet a growing need for science assessment kits created in response to the requirements of federal education legislation; (3) to provide the highest quality classroom materials to schools and teachers at the best possible price.

Dream World Science: We Will Need to Discard Materialism to Find a Theory of Everything

2011-03-18T20:29:00.000-07:00

The hallmark of science is its willingness to discard outmoded theories when a better, more explanatory model comes along. But today, science practices this principle only within the paradigm of materialism. By this term I mean a model of the universe based upon the assumption that matter came before mind, that the universe and all living things are nothing but particles in motion, and that the world we see, from the tips of our fingers to the farthest galaxy, exists independently of the mind and operates beyond its control.

This materialistic model brings us the Big Bang theory, dark matter, dark energy, reductive materialism, and the search for the "God" particle in atom smashers and for the origin of life in test tubes.

Modern scientists use the model of materialism because they believe it is necessary to practice science. For example, in a classic article on quantum physics, entitled, "Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?" the authors, Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen, write, "Any serious consideration of a physical theory must take into account the distinction between the objective reality, which is independent of any theory, and the physical concepts with which the theory operates."

The late Ernst Mayr, one of history's leading biologists, expressed the subject this way:

"Despite the openness of science to new facts and hypotheses, it must be said that virtually all scientists-somewhat like theologians-bring a set of what we call "first principles" with them to the study of the natural world. One of these axiomatic assumptions is that there is real world independent of human perceptions. This might be called the principle of objectivity (as opposed to subjectivity) or common-sense realism. This does not mean that individual scientists are always "objective" or even that objectivity among human beings is possible in any absolute sense. What it does mean is that an objective world exists outside of the influence of subjective perception. Most scientists-though not all-believe in this axiom."

Even though the objective-world model is a popular viewpoint -- since everyone wants there to be a "real world independent of human perceptions" -- it does suffer from one notable flaw: no one has ever shown it is either true or necessary. Indeed, no one has shown that science cannot be practiced within a different conceptual model. If there is one criticism modern scientists deserve is that they have convinced the public at large that only within the materialistic model is the practice of science possible; using any other approach, they announce, veers off the road into unscientific religious dogma and new-age hocus-pocus.

Another drawback of the materialistic model is that it has forced modern science down a series of dead-end streets as it attempts to piece together a complete theory of the cosmos while being shackled by its own model. Here is a short list of the conundrums material science now faces:

The origin of the matter and energy that exploded in the Big Bang
The mechanism for inflation
The source of the laws of nature
The character and existence of dark matter and dark energy
The difficulty of reconciling the particle/wave duality of quantum physics with objective reality
The incompatibility between quantum physics and gravity
The origin of life and the DNA molecule
The origin of consciousness
The manner in which nature's laws appear fine-tuned just so life can exist.

Despite these deep quandaries, modern theorists give no thought to the notion that the source of the problem might not be their incomplete understanding of a mind-independent material world, but rather the very model of materialism.

Would scientists be willing to try a new model of the universe if it explained more but made them discard many of their materialistic-based theories? Or, are modern scientists so wedded to the model of materialism that they would rather practice science within this comforting -- but ultimately false -- model rather than try something different that might ultimately explain more and lead to a better theoretical framework?

Suppose we took the view that matter emerged from mind rather than the other way around? If this alternative viewpoint is in fact true, should we ignore the world's make-up and go on practicing science only within the materialist model, or should we at least determine whether science can be practiced in this mind-generated, dream world and see where that leads us?

What is Science?

Science is commonly defined as "any system of knowledge that is concerned with the physical world and its phenomena and that entails unbiased observations and systematic experimentation. In general, a science involves a "pursuit of knowledge covering general truths or the operations of fundamental laws." Empirical science,

"seeks to explore, to describe, to explain, and to predict the occurrences in the world we live in. [Scientific] statements, therefore, must be checked against the facts of our experience, and they are acceptable only if they are properly supported by empirical evidence. Such evidence is obtained in many different ways: by experimentation, by systematic observations, by interviews, surveys, by psychological or clinical testing, by careful examination of documents, inscriptions, coins, archeological relics, and so forth."

Another feature of science is that seeks to furnish natural explanations for physical phenomena, as opposed to supernatural or immeasurable, untestable, or unverifiable explanations. This feature helps explain why scientists generally prefer Darwin over Genesis for accounting for the variety of life-forms present on the Earth: Darwin offered an explanation verifiable by observation; Genesis simply says God did it, without explaining how. As we will, we will not need to discard any of these features of science if we change to a mind-created or dream model of the cosmos.

Why the Independent World Assumption is False

There are several critical problems with materialism's assumption of a mind-independent world. But while modern scientists show no hesitation in questioning theories and ideas framed within the materialist model (such as string theory, multi-universes, or the many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics), they never once question the underlying assumption of their own materialistic model. This is the critical error of modern science.

The materialistic model is implausible for three fundamental reasons:

First, the history of philosophy teaches us a threshold fact about the mind that most people either ignore or have never thought about. This fact is that the mind is only capable of knowing about itself. Even under the tenets of modern science images of the (assumed) external world ultimately form in the mind; since we can only know the mind, we must assume that an independent world exists outside of the mind that is the cause of the mental ideas and images that form in the mind. Some view this question as a matter of sanity: how can someone actually question whether a world outside the brain exists? But this framing of the question mis-states the issue: We may not be able to tell the difference if the mind, instead of passively receiving images of an external world as in Locke's famous blank tablet, actively projects the external world like a grand, 3-D movie projector.

This particular question -- can the mind know anything other than itself -- was the subject of one of the great philosophical debates of all time, starting with the British empiricist John Locke and ending with the metaphysics of David Hume, Immanuel Kant, G.W.F. Hegel, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrich W.J. Schelling, and others. Even though the analytical inquiry ended with virtually all of these thinkers concluding that the mind can only know itself, the project ended with either solipsism (the world is all in my head) or some form of mysticism. Idealism was unable to solve the problem of the multiple dreamers: if the world is a dream, then do we each live in our own dream world?

If our entire scientific worldview is based upon knowing about a mind-independent world, when it is also true we cannot in fact know that world, then should not scientists at least exhibit a bit more humility when pronouncing their latest versions of the "theory of everything?" If, indeed, it is unalterably true that the mind can only know itself, then we might want to develop a science -- a methodological system of thought -- that accepts this principle as given?j

The second reason we should doubt materialism is a matter of common sense and leads many people to believe in a supernatural power: where did all this supposed "mind-independent" stuff come from? This very basic question is most directly presented in the Big Bang theory, materialism's version of a creation story. Under that theory, what we now perceive as the universe of stars began in a fiery blast of matter, space, and time roughly 14 billion years ago. To account for the trillions upon trillions of stars in the sky, scientists assume that at one time all of this matter was condensed into a primordial seed, also known as a "singularity. " To ask where all the stuff that makes up the universe comes from is the same as asking where the primordial seed came from since both contain the same amount of matter and energy.

Material scientists have done an impressive job of avoiding this critical weakness to the very foundation of the scientific enterprise. When pushed, some scientists talk about "quantum fluctuations" -- "vacuum energy"-- but these theories themselves also assume some sort of energy field, and most likely an observing mind. Some scientists, such as Nobel prize-winning physicist, Leon Lederman, are more candid on the topic:

"A story logically begins at the beginning. But this story is about the universe, and unfortunately there are no data for the Very Beginning. None, zero. We don't know anything about the universe until it reaches the mature age of a billionth of a trillionth of a second, that is, some very short time after creation in the Big Bang. When you read or hear anything abut the birth of the universe, someone is making it up. We are in the realm of philosophy. Only God knows what happened at the Very Beginning[.]"

Coming up with a logical, credible explanation for how enough matter to decorate the heavens sprang from the dark void is no simple task, and close enough to impossible to in fact be impossible. And again, that material scientists have no explanation for how this miracle happened should create more humility on their part than it has.

The third reason to doubt seriously the independent-world assumption of material science concerns the laws of nature. The material world, as we know, follows precise and predictable laws, such as gravity, the laws of motion, electricity, gases, and chemistry, which are describable in the language of mathematics, constant and regular. But once science disconnects mind from matter, this mind, the only intelligent force in the universe over which we have direct knowledge, can give matter no help in arranging itself into the laws of nature. The quest for the source to the laws of nature -- or the source of mathematical constancy -- remains one of science's greatest challenges.

The Independent World Assumption Leads Scientists Astray

It can be seen that many of science's more bizarre theories result from its adherence to a materialistic conception of reality. It is as if any twist or contortion to a theory is permissible so long as it is framed within the material science worldview. This practice simply perpetuates a foundational error.

In some theories, such as the Big Bang theory, material scientists simply assume the necessary (near-infinite) amount of matter and energy to fill out the theory. But other theories show how scientists encounter multi-layered puzzles when, after having made the independent-world assumption, they then use it to explain other phenomena. For example, one outcome of the standard Big Bang model is that scientists have no credible explanation -- other than plain coincidence -- for why the wildly chaotic Big Bang led to a universe that is almost completely flat; specifically a universe in which the repulsive force from the Big Bang precisely cancels out the attractive force of the exploding stellar debris (the "flatness problem"). Nor does the standard Big Bang model explain why vastly separate regions of outer space have exactly the same temperature, when there is no physical means for the separate regions to have shared information. (the "horizon problem.") Rather than view these two critical problems in their theories as rooted in the unnecessary independent-world assumption, material scientists use them as reasons to devise more complicated theories requiring more ad-hoc assumptions.

Thus, their solution to the critical problems in the standard Big Bang model is the inflationary Big Bang theory. With this convenient modification, the universe just so happened to inflate by a factor of 10E51(the number 10 with 51 zeros after it) in 10E-36 seconds -- and then paused to track the normal expansion of the universe predicted by the Big Bang. This wild expansion occurred in an unimaginably brief time -- one-billionth of the time it takes light to cross the distance of an atomic nucleus. Inflation allows scientists to maintain the materialist model by using a wildly speculative, ad hoc concept as the solution for the flatness and horizon problems.

Of course if scientists did not make the independent world assumption in the first place they would have no need to make matters worse by resorting to the unrestrained speculation of the inflationary universe model.

A remarkable feature of nature is that its laws appear finely tuned just so life can exist. This observation, known generally as the anthropic principle, strongly suggests that "something is going on:" the deeper scientists delve into the fundamental constants of the physical world, the more it appears as if some force turned the dials to the precise settings just so life can exist.

To escape the mystical overtones of the anthropic principle, some scientists (most notably Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow in their book, The Grand Design) have advanced theories which predict that inflation caused not one but 10E500 universes to spring from the void. (Of, course, so far we have found firm evidence for only one of these many universes, which seems to be enough.) In one of these multiple universes, the authors explain, the laws of nature would have turned out just so life can exist. But, again, if the one universe we see is in fact mind-created, we would have no need to postulate the existence of 10E500 other ones to explain the odd fit between humans and the universe.

Another example of how the independent-world assumption creates untold difficulties for material science theory comes from the field of biology and concerns the origin of life. Having disconnected mind from matter in their theories, material scientists are left to speculate how mindless residue from the Big Bang arranged itself into intricate workings of living cell, including the codes of the DNA molecule.

According to Occam's razor, the fewer assumptions in a theory the better the theory. Would not then a theory that explained the world without making the independent world assumption be a better theory than one which does make the assumption?

Science is supposed to be the emotionally detached search for truth. If a better theory came along that managed to explain the physical phenomena of the world without the independent world assumption of material science, would not this theory at least deserve a look? In different words, if the metaphysical assumption of material science is not true, it would be necessary to re-work many of its theories, but it would not eliminate the field of science. Instead it would re-orient science upon a stronger footing, while also joining the field of science with philosophy and religion.

Material science is like an extremely slow, diligent portrait artist who insists that his model remain perfectly still throughout the lengthy session; to capture the moment, the artist, like material science, must assume the model is independent of the artist's creative powers; he is painting a figure of the natural world; fixed, self-sustaining; independent. In the same way, scientists objectify the physical world because they believe doing so is necessary to study it.

In summary, material scientists assume the independence and objectivity of the natural world (e.g., stars, planets, living bodies) to study its composition, movements, and history, and their test results indeed show the unchanging nature of the physical world.

Science Remains the Best Approach for Finding Truth in a Mind-Generated World.

But both of these elements of scientific knowledge remain in place if the source of the external world is the united mind as opposed to some mysterious, energy-generating external force (whatever caused the Big Bang per the creation theory of material science.) Scientists can still assume the independent existence of external objects in order to study them. They can still calculate the regularity of the planetary orbits; falling projectiles; spiraling galaxies; electrical forces; gas pressures; chemical reactions; quantum mechanics; and virtually every other physical force or life process. But in the end the picture they draw is a self-portrait. What changes is simply our perspective and the depth of our understanding.

Of course, viewing the world as a dream or mind-created will alter certain theories of modern science but it will not change the fundamental purpose of science which is to describe the workings of the physical world according to coherent theories. In the end, explanations of the existence and regularity of the external world lead to the mind as the ultimate cause, but it does not change the fundamental task of cataloguing the regularities of nature.

Science in a Dream

If the universe we live in is indeed a dream, then there is no doubt that some theories of modern science will need to be overturned, and others overhauled, while some remain unchanged.

Among the theories that must be overturned completely are those dealing with what might be called quasi-creative processes, such as the Big Bang theory (including the inflationary theory), galaxy formation, dark matter and dark energy. Why each of these theories will need to be overturned outright may be self-explanatory.

For example, the Big Bang would be false because the universe of stars would not have originated from a mind-independent force, but as a projection of the mind. Accordingly, science would have no need to resort to the radical inflationary Big Bang theory in order to account for the present universe of stars. Note here, by the way, that science does not end by simply saying "well it's all in the mind, so who cares about anything else?" Rather, we look at the stars and wonder how this particular arrangement appeared in the form it did: why did the Mind create this particular universe, rather than another one?

Dark matter, another peculiar theory, also goes by the wayside. Dark matter is an add-on assumption used to account for the observed lack of the necessary gravitational mass to hold galaxies -- and thus the universe -- together. Dark energy, another unobservable force, would also be unnecessary. This mysterious force has been presented as a means to account for the observed accelerated expansion of the universe. The problem with dark energy, like dark matter, is that scientists cannot observe a physical source for the repulsive force. But again, if the universe is mind-created, the fact that far-away galaxies appear to be drifting away at an accelerated speed may show, among other things, the mind in a constant state of creation, or in fact nothing at all.

Now the point here, it must be remembered, is not (yet) to prove that in fact the world is a dream, but to remove any resistance against "dream-theory" based on a fear that science can no longer be practiced. No such thing happens. Instead, viewing the world as a dream simply eliminates many of the unnecessary assumptions of modern science and dispenses with its most bizarre theories.

In addition to eliminating materialism's beginning-of-the-world theories, dream-theory also eliminates materialism's end-of-the world theories. These theories are based upon the sun running out of fuel and dying, the universe reversing its expansion and retracting into a Big Crunch, or some other theory modeled after an aging machine. Now, if the world is instead mind-created, the "out-of-fuel" scenario is no longer valid because the sun and other stars in the sky are ultimately fueled by the mind's desire to live and dream, not by the quantity of hydrogen in the star's core.

Medical science is another field of material science that will have to undergo dramatic modification if the world turns out to be a dream. This one we should rejoice over. As noted, the underlying assumption of material science is that the physical world exists outside of the mind and operates beyond its control. This supposed independent physical world includes the human body. As most of us know, medical science, contrary to quite a lot of evidence, assumes that the human body operates on its own accord and is unaffected by any positive or negative thought in the mind. This is why science tells us that no matter how much we believe otherwise, we are doomed to wrinkle and die; and, of course, if the human body is a machine independent of the mind, this thinking is likely true.

But if the world is a dream, then the entire physical world, including the human body, would be a projection of the mind, and therefore controlled ultimately by the mind. This simple fact would explain the workings of the "powerful placebo," and the long history -- though mostly anecdotal -- of how strong belief heals.

Now on this point, one would need to question why a material scientist, and for that matter anyone, would at least not consider the truth of dream theory. Like Pascal's famous wager that it is better to believe in God than not, just in case one really exists, so one might want to place a few chips on the space marked "dream theory" just in case the world really is a dream. Upon further thought, it might even be wiser to go "all in" on dream theory, as the rewards may very well be limited only by the imagination.

So science can indeed still be practiced if the world is really a dream. Therefore, if the main (perhaps unspoken) reason you have rejected the thought that this world may be a dream is because science would cease to exist, then some reconsideration is necessary. It seems better to build a worldview upon the correct metaphysics and then carry out science, rather than to assume one must believe in an erroneous world model as the price for carrying out a logical, systematic, objective study of the world.

What is a Science Kit?

2011-03-18T05:40:00.000-07:00

A science kit is basically a toy or collection of toys for kids, but scientific! What do we mean by that? Well, as opposed to a doll or toy car, for example, a science kit is a science project or group of projects consisting of hands-on experiments that often result in a fun science toy. Science kits, such as the ones sold by Science Store for the Stars, are presented in an easy-to-understand and interesting way and are intended to teach kids facts about various science subjects. For example, Crystal Radio kits are very popular and consist of one project; build a crystal radio. While they work on this project, kids learn about electronics and electricity, and how radios function.

When they're done they have a cool toy that really works! Or take "The How's and Whys of Science" kit by Educational Insights, which has many experiments in various subjects including biology, ecology, astronomy, and others. Kids can learn why the sky is blue, why it rains, how you can bend light, and conduct experiments similar to those real scientists would to discover many of the Earth's secrets. As you can see, a science kit is infinitely better for children than a regular toy. Not only do kids use their imaginations, but they learn real science which will help them in both school and the real world. When you start to understand how the world around you actually works, you start to think in a different way. Instead of just accepting things as they are, you become curious about them, begin to ask questions, and realize that there is reason and logic to world around us.

It's never too early for a child to start learning science and parents are the best teachers! If your child asks you about the Moon, will you simply reply, "It's the Moon?" Or would you rather say, "The moon is bound to the Earth by gravity, causes waves in the ocean, and reflects light from the Sun?" Kids have amazing memories and retain information presented by their parents better than anyone else and if you give them a science kit to learn these things, they will eat it up with a spoon. The more they learn at an early age, the easier it will be in school and as they get older. Science kits and science experiment books are the absolute best way for kids to learn science.

It's well known that kids learn concepts and skills more quickly, retain in memory longer, and have more fun, when they learn with hands-on experiments rather than simply reading about them in books. Science kits are designed specifically for these experiments and can make an otherwise boring subject fresh and exciting. There is real educational value built right into a science kit. They are designed, created, and written by teachers, scientists, and other professionals in various fields of science and they incorporate appropriate national teaching standards. Science kits are also a great source for science fair project ideas.

Science kits can be used at home as activities for one or more children. They are an excellent way for teachers to explain certain science concepts to their students and are great for parents who home-school their children and want to spice-up the curriculum. How much do adults love crossword puzzles, Soduko, and other mind challenging games? Well, kids want to be active problem solvers as well, and the design of science kits caters to their big imaginations and creativity by involving them in direct experimentation. And if your child is falling behind in one area of science, you will be sure to find a science kit covering it. It's a great way to get a child interested in a science subject!

Science kits tend to use real life investigations, so kids will think about what they've learned and apply it when they go outside to explore, or while they are in the classroom. If the kit doesn't already include what's necessary to perform the 'investigations', all you'll need are some common household materials and occasionally some batteries. Overall, a science kit will teach a child science concepts that they can apply to the world around them, and help them think "outside the box".

It's a fact that science is becoming more and more neglected in our schools and American kids are falling farther and farther behind the rest of the world in science knowledge. Most schools, public and private, now have suggested reading lists for summer break. Look at science kits and experiment books the same way and give your kids a boost in the subject of science. They're prefect for birthdays, holidays, or when you're feeling generous any time of the year. It's science-learning-fun!

http://www.sciencestoreforthestars.com

Integrating Language and Science Instruction

2011-03-17T17:48:00.000-07:00

Introduction

In the traditional teaching instruction, students with poor English are normally placed in low-ability groups, because it is believed it difficult for them to learn how to respond to the higher level classes with more complex demands. Integrating language skills with science instruction has become an alternative to traditional instruction. In the integrated approach, teachers held high expectations for their students and deliberately promote critical thinking skills which help them succeed in academic courses.

The science process skills-including observing, predicting, communicating, classifying, and analyzing-are similar to language learning skills-seeking information, comparing, ordering, synthesizing, and evaluating (Short, 1991). These skills are important keys to integrating science instruction with language acquisition. Motivating and engaging students to speak, ask questions, learn new vocabulary, and write down their thoughts comes easily when they are curious, exploring and engaged in science or science inquiry. Integrating literacy activities within teaching of science helps clarify science concept and can make science and more meaningful and interesting to the student.

Research suggests that increased student participation and peer interaction enhances the students' language better that teacher-directed activities (Ruddell, 2004). For instance, teacher can use cooperative learning jigsaws where students become experts on topics through texts that they read or listen to, take notes on, and teach to peers. Using cooperative learning method gives integrated teachers an opportunity to encourage interdependency among group members, assisting students to work together in small groups so that all participate in sharing data and in developing group reports.

Instructional Strategy

Unfortunately, today many classroom teachers who teach either science or language do not think science and language are interdependent (Short, 1991). Language teachers do not address the language needs of the students within the framework of the subject matter's objectives. They may think teaching content subject matter is not essential. Similarly, the content teachers may not understand language issues, nor be prepared to use English as a Second Language (ELL) methods for which they might have little or no experience.

The integrated approach is required for both language and science classrooms to bridge the gap that has often separated these two disciplines. Students can improve language proficiency through science instruction as either the background or theme of lessons. For example, once a science topic has been discussed and students have shared their knowledge of it, pertinent vocabulary may be taught. Later, certain concepts such as grammar rules or writing processes can be examined through the vocabulary or the application activities that are planned (Sherris, 2008).

Reading and writing activities and content-area instruction can be integrated in one lesson or unit, or the approach can form the basis for an entire curriculum. Even though the extent of implementation may vary widely, the underlying principles and procedures remain the same. An instructor takes first an objective from a content area curriculum, such as science, and determines the kind of language students need in order to be able to accomplish that objective. As a teacher helps students develop the science process skills of inquiry, language process skills or language learning strategies are simultaneously being developed. Two fundamental characteristics of the learning process, transfer and language dependence, frame our understanding of critical issues in teaching and assessing English learners in the science classroom (Short, 2002).

The integrated approach focuses on the fostering of thinking skills and the student-centered method of the instruction. Integrated teachers utilize a variety of teaching methods such as inquiry-based learning, cooperative learning, brainstorming, cooperative learning, hands-on, interactive activity etc.

Instructional strategies that can be used in an integrated classroom include increased use of visuals, demonstrations, and graphic organizers; the development of thinking and study skills; and the use of pre-reading and pre-writing activities. By providing opportunities to use language in meaningful contexts, teachers can facilitate their students' transition into mainstream courses (Crandall and Peyton, 1993).

Integrated teachers need to pay attention to the science to be learned, the language skills required to learn it, and the reasoning abilities needed to be manipulated. When necessary, for example, they should provide explicit vocabulary instructions or model activities to the whole class before breaking into small groups. Teachers should encourage students to conduct independent research, but provide support students solicit assistance from each other. Through this approach, science teachers become sensitive to language problems that exist in their current textbooks, supplementary materials and teacher talk, and recognize other potential problem that their students may experience. The approach also helps language teachers as well, through a variety of methods used to introduce authentic and relevant science into classroom (Short, 2002).

Integrated lesson planning skills

Each integrated lesson should have a language and science component and the goal for the teacher should be to develop academic achievement and language proficiency simultaneously. To prepare clear science and language outcomes, teachers should draw on a variety of resources that include standards of knowledge and skills in a science area, language proficiency standards, prior student performance assessments, and available course materials. For example, a science teacher would prepare an integrated science and language lesson by first examining the science standards to determine the concept and skill to be learned, then selecting learning objectives, tasks, and materials appropriate to the students as determined by assessments of student performance.

To address the practice of integrating reading, writing, listening, and speaking, teachers must identify and work with students on two sets of discourse skills-one specific to a subject area, the other more generalized. Teachers then provide opportunities for students to improve all four language components-reading, writing, listening, and speaking-across a variety of text types, including some specific to their subject area and others that are generic (Aronson, et al 1978). Some examples of discourse that are content-area specific are experimental studies, community surveys, and interviews. Those that are generic include summary, comparison, and outlining.

For instance, in planning to teach motion, a teacher might construct the following possible outcome statements:

Students will be able to observe and calculate speed and acceleration of a moving object, discuss different methods of measuring the distance, and write a summary of each method. Calculate, discuss, and write are the descriptive verbs that determine whether a particular outcome addresses the knowledge and skill of a science area or specific language functions. Observing and calculating the speed and acceleration describe science outcomes, whereas discussing and writing about the methods used to compare types of distance measurement describe language outcomes related to the science. Integrated teachers should consciously attempt to sort the descriptive verbs used in standards documents and course materials into separately identified language and content outcomes.

According to Sherris (2008), the integrated lesson plans have at least two key benefits. First, the teachers clarify for themselves the separate content and language objectives of the lesson, which can improve their delivery of the instruction. Second, if these objectives are both explicitly presented and subsequently reviewed within each lesson, students become aware of the separate content and language goals, which may help them direct and monitor their own learning.

Students also develop the ability to carry out other content related tasks, such as lab experiments, creative scientific calculations, and historical inquiry. They solve problems, evaluate solutions, and collaborate effectively with one another in these activities through the use of appropriate academic language.

Integrated Lesson Plan

Lesson planning is critical to both a student's and a teacher's success. For maximum learning to occur, planning must produce lessons that enable students to make connections between their own knowledge and experiences, and the new information being taught (Rummelhart, 1995). In effective instruction, concrete content objectives that identify what students should know and be able to do must guide teaching and learning. For English learners, however, content objectives for each lesson need to be stated simply, orally and in writing, and they need to be tied to specific grade-level content standards (Echevarria and Graves, 2004). As with content objectives, language objectives should be stated clearly and simply, and students should be informed of them, both orally and in writing.

The integrated science lesson plan guidelines ( see attached table) describes the teaching phases in integrated lesson plans and the most effective science lessons for ELL are those have language and content objectives. As students gain both science process and English language skills, they will be able to examine independently scientific explanations and use logical reasoning to communicate. Higher-order thinking skills, such as articulating predictions or hypotheses, stating conclusions, summarizing information, and making comparisons, can be tied to language objectives.

Reference
Aronson, E., Blaney, N., Stephin, C., Sikes, J., & Snapp, M. (1978). The jigsaw classroom.

Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Barton, M. L. & Jordan, D. (2001). Teaching reading in science. Aurora, CO: Mid-continent

Research for Education and Learning.
Crandall, J. A. & Peyton, J. K. (1993). Approaches to adult ELL literacy instruction. Washington, DC & McHenry, IL: Center for Applied Linguistics and Delta Systems. ED 364 127.

Echevarria, J., Vogt, E., and Short, D. (2004): Making content comprehensible for English

learners: the SIOP model, 2nd ed. Boston; Allyn & Bacon.

Science As a Media Event

2011-03-17T03:51:00.000-07:00

One need not make any extensive surveys of different media to provide evidence for this failure. It is enough to see how sports has managed to gain more coverage in various media over the last few decades vis-a-vis science. One may argue that this is so because there are always some sports events occurring all over the world which naturally draw the attention of media. But contention here is that scientific activity, scientific community and laboratories all over the world can also be turned into what are called 'media events' if enough pains are taken by science communicators to achieve this status for science. First and foremost it will require the maximum cooperation of scientists.

For instance, anniversaries of scientists, institutes, organisations and societies, including the World Health Day, etc., can be celebrated; discussions and debates with the concerned scientists organised; and doors of concerned laboratories and organisations thrown open to masses and media.

Be that as it may, intention through this paper is to highlight the essentials and limitations of science popularisation so that there appears a fundamental change in the way of looking at this subject. Hopefully, it will lead to more effective strategies to popularise science among the masses.

Science writing is an art

Science popularisation is mostly done by science- trained persons and professional scientists. It is therefore looked upon more as a scientific activity rather than anything else. But science writing is more of an art rather than a science. It is scientific only in the sense one should have scientific knowledge but all the writing abilities are required to make a good presentation of science. It is due to the present lack of emphasis on the art aspect of science popularisation that this field of activity has suffered to date. Those few scientists or science-trained persons who have consciously or unconsciously known the art of science writing and have practised it, have only been successful in popularising science.

Science is a human activity

The second reason why popular science does not tick with the masses is because it is not projected as a human activity but an activity of scientists who simply believe in the search for truth - and nothing but truth! The human side of science is totally neglected in all popular science presentations. The follies and prejudices of scientists, the emotional life of scientists, the irrational circumstances in which scientific work is often undertaken and discoveries and inventions made, etc., are quite often deliberately not highlighted fearing that it would give bad name to science and scientific research. In short, the human face of science or scientific research is often neglected in popular science presentations. There is therefore a strong need to give science a human face. It would not only mean adding human stories to popular science presentations but also talking about realities in scientific research.

Tip of the iceberg presentation

The third reason why popular science presentations often go wide off the mark and make the audience yawn and go for something else is the inability of science communicators to distinguish between technical report writing and popular science writing, thanks to their scientific training or background. They try to cram into a popular science presentation as much as they know or find out about a subject.

Actually, popular science presentation should be like the tip of the iceberg. It should however make one not only familiar with the tip of the iceberg but also aware of the unseen larger part of the iceberg floating under the water. In other words, it should reveal little about science but enough to make one realise the existence of that science with its entire ramification. It should excite one's curiosity enough so that one would like to probe further into that science. It should not necessarily tell everything about a science but at the same time it should not miss science.

Some important observations

The author's experience with popularising science over the years has forced him to arrive at some postulates. They are merely based on experience and intuition. Any research has not been conducted to back them up with facts and figures. In fact, much research is required to prove or disprove them. If in case they are proved, they can easily be called the 'Laws of Science Popularisation' because despite the best of our efforts we have not been able to popularise science the way we want among the masses. There must be some hidden laws governing our efforts to popularise science. These postulates are stated as follows:

Postulates of science popularisation

1st: Only those elements of science receive attention in a society, which suit its goals or which inspire awe.

2nd: A science communicator tends to impose his or her limited ideas of science, scientists and scientific research upon the audience.

3rd: The amount of space allotted to science in different media of a country is the index of the quality of life of its average citizen.

4th: The quality of science communication or presentation in a country is directly proportional to the quality of science produced in it.

5th: To popularise science is to humanise science.

One can deduce certain things from these postulates. The first postulate indicates that people at large read science because it serves their purpose or because the subject is topical, sensational or controversial or simply excites their curiosity. A handful only read science for the sake of knowledge per se. Much research is required to identify those subjects so that science could be more effectively popularised. For instance, health science and environment interest people at large, astronomy and space fascinate them, Nobel Laureates, UFOs, etc., are held in awe by them.

The Second postulate is dangerous for science itself. Consciously or unconsciously, the layman imbibes the limited or narrow image of science, scientists and culture of science from the communicator, whether he be Jacob Bronowski or Peter Medawar. Notions such as scientists are mad individuals or scientific research is yet another profession are creations of science communicators. That makes science communicator a very responsible person.

The third and fourth postulates are intuitive relationships between two unrelated things or activities. Further research is needed to prove or disprove these two laws by taking data from different countries. However, one must add here that in India we raise a hullabaloo to increase science coverage in our media at the first available opportunity but it often comes to nothing. Also, while writing a popular science article on a subject one often needs the assistance of a scientist doing research in that very subject. But in India the scientist of the concerned subject is often not available for consultation and as a result our writings lack the necessary quality, verve and colour.

The fifth, the last but not the least important postulate, though obvious, reminds us that we must give science a human face so that masses are not afraid of it. It is the basic aim of science popularisation.

Christmas tree of science popularisation

The aim of drawing the 'Christmas tree of science popularisation' is to illustrate the importance of various media that take science to the masses, though every medium has its own significance and a vital role to play in communication. But unless a person climbs up the tree, as his or her interest in science is aroused or increased - in other words, unless one begins to read newspapers, magazines and then books - he or she would not have become fully science literate.

Necessarily, the percentage of people reading books would be very small as the top of a Christmas tree indicates. But it is a must to know this tree because the role of any medium should not be underestimated and every medium should be given equal importance simultaneously. For instance, if a student's interest in science is aroused by science fair or 'Jatha' held in the town, it has to be sustained and maintained by wallpapers, newspapers and even books; otherwise, one's interest would flag and eventually die. Other supplementing media should be made available to the student in form of public libraries, for instance. So, the Christmas tree of science popularisation needs to be watered and tended carefully to produce a science literate society.

Conclusion

According to the postulates forwarded here there are (as yet unknown) limits to the extent science can be popularised among the masses. It is not possible to have a fully science literate society. Moreover, science communicators need to take into account aforementioned aspects about science popularisation for more effective communication of science to the masses.

Teaching Earth Science - Its Challenges and Rewards

2011-03-16T13:32:00.000-07:00

Introduction

Knowledge in earth science is very vital in nation building. Almost everything we do each day is connected in some way to Earth: to its land, oceans, atmosphere, plants, and animals. The food we eat, the water we drink, our homes and offices, the clothes we wear, the energy we use, and the air we breathe are all grown in, taken from, surround, or move through the planet. According to American Geological Institute (AGI) Foundation, by 2025, eight billion people will live on Earth. This number of people will undoubtedly continue extracting resources to maintain a high quality of life. As we benefit from all the resources we get from the Earth, then we, as individuals and citizens, need to know more about our planet - its processes, its resources, and its environment. And only through Earth Science education can students understand and appreciate our complex planet. In this present time, the old and the young must join hands and help one another in the serious task of nation-building, the young to learn from the wisdom and experience of the elders, the elders to recognize the impatience of the youth. In contrast, not all young students are willing to cooperate in order to acquire the needed knowledge, attitudes and skills essential for a secure future. It is then a burgeoning task for the teacher to facilitate learning so that quality education will be acquired by the students. This paper will discuss the different challenges faced by the teacher in imparting knowledge about Earth Science in public secondary school, likewise it will also discuss the positive aspects in learning the subject.

THE CHALLENGES

Motivation

My first experience in teaching earth science was on September 2005 in one of the public secondary schools in Davao Oriental, specifically in District 1. I can still remember the first day when I entered the class of more than fifty (50) students crowded in a classroom. Some of them were busy chatting with their classmates, some were busy doing different tasks in their seats, etc. The first question that popped into my mind during that moment was: how can I get the attention of the students? As I introduced myself to them as their new science teacher, I saw different emotions reflecting on their faces. There were emotions of excitement, worries, anxieties, happiness, etc. I am not really sure if they were prepared to take new lessons in earth science. What I did was to let them get a piece of paper and let them write in there: their names, favorite subject, subject they hate most and why they love/hate a certain subject, and their expectation/s of the subject. I did this just to know whether they have interest in the subject or to know what subjects they liked best and the reasons why they love the subject. From that, I learned that out of more than fifty (50) students, only four (4) said that they like science subject. When I asked them why they do not like science as a subject, the common answer was: "Science is a difficult subject". From that experience alone, I got an insight that students will have difficulty in learning a subject if they do not like the subject. Indeed, teaching Earth Science to undergraduates or high school students could be difficult "if the students are not motivated or if they are not interested in the subject".

There are several ways of motivating the students to be interested in Earth Science. In my own experience, I used songs as part of my lessons - songs which are easy to learn and frequently heard by the students. I used the tune of a particular song and changed the lyrics so that it will fit with the topic I am discussing. There are also songs introduced to us during seminars that are very helpful because students would find it easier to memorize certain science concepts by just singing the songs over and over again. Example of these songs are: "We're the Scientist" - in the tune of "Ako'y Isang Pinoy"; "Sistemang Harana" - in the tune of "Harana" as popularized by Parokya ni Edgar, this emphasizes the importance of scientific method in solving problem; "Super Science" - in the tune of "Superman", stressed on the contributions of science in enhancing our lives; and a jolly song - "Youngsters Love Science". After introducing these songs, I found them useful in memorizing scientific terms, concepts, and processes. With this, I feel happy when I heard some of my students singing those songs and sharing them with their friends.

There are different ways of motivating students to learn Earth Science. Teachers should bear in their mind that flexible approaches and connections to other subjects is the key to success in a classroom for motivating student interest. It was proven true with my personal teaching experiences. One should not stick to one option if it doesn't work. Here are the motivating techniques which have been proven to work well with most students:

1. Relate local or national or international news items to some aspect of Earth Science. One may choose from a variety of items from the news. Some of the older news items and their impact on social/political life may also be of interest to students. Any news items relating to the following are generally welcomed by most students for class discussion: Earthquakes; Volcanoes; Tsunamis; Floods; Meteor Showers; and news items related to disasters - present or from past.

2. Pick a topic of common interest to most of the students, such as social or political problem that they are familiar with: nuclear power plants, illegal logging, global warming, consequences of urbanization; and mining. In my case, I used illegal logging, illegal fishing and mining as my point of focus because these issues are really happening in our locality.

3. Historical or biblical or religious locations and the geology associated with it: the Chasm at Delphi and the Apollo Temple in Greece and the vapors that emanates from the location; the geology of biblical areas such as the ones in Middle East; the Taj Mahal in India; the Pyramids in Egypt; the Great Wall of China; Niagara Falls and Grand Canyon in USA; Stories of Precious stones and gems; and any other similar ones.

4. Anecdotes from the scientific discoveries/contributions of great men/women of the past and present: Aristotle; Eratosthenes (measurement of the circumference of the earth); Ptolemy; Copernicus; Tycho Brahe; Johannes Kepler; Archimedes; Newton; Einstein; James Hutton; Charles Lyell; N. L. Bowen; Alfred Wegener; Harry Hess; and many more names that are worth mentioning in Earth Sciences.

5. Space exploration always fascinates students: anecdotes of Lunar exploration; Mars missions and life on Mars; Jupiter and its clouds and moons; discovery of new stars and other galaxies outside our own; and other similar explorations.

6. There are several facts that intrigue and fascinate most Earth Science students: a. Deepest mine in the world b. Deepest bore hole in the world c. Comparison of the above numbers with the radius of the Earth This can show them how little we know about the earth through direct observation. d. Compare these distances with the distance to the Moon These numbers can raise questions like "how come we did not go too far down inside the earth" and "how come we went almost quarter of a million miles to the moon". e. Latitude and longitude and their use in navigation and the time zones f. Deep sea drilling and the mid-fifties project to drill past Moho into the mantle g. The election of President John F. Kennedy and his pledge to land a man on the moon h. The theory of continental drift and the evidence for it i. The fascinating new theory of Plate Tectonics and its development

I used some of the items stated above and they worked for me in classrooms. Good general knowledge coupled with interest and knowledge of a variety of items in Earth Sciences "can help the teacher in getting the students enthused in the subject". As teacher, we should always bear in mind that Earth Science poses questions that are exciting as well as practical to children and adults alike.

Comprehension of the English Language

Provided that the students are well motivated in learning the subject, another problem comes in - how they will understand the instruction with the use of English language? It is an inevitable fact that most of my freshmen (first year) students do not understand spoken or written English. Those that can fairly understand belong to the first section but there are also students in the first section that cannot speak or write in English language correctly. This is really a problem because teaching Earth Science should be in English and all the references are written or published in English. It is also a known fact that English is the "Universal language of Science". Therefore, in imparting knowledge to students, teachers should use English as a medium of instruction. I must also admit that I am not perfect in terms of elaborating concepts with the use of English so what I did was use the vernacular in some part of my discussion. To maximize understanding of a certain concept, I translated some scientific terms into the students' vernacular so that they can fully understand what am I talking or explaining about.

In our school it was really noted that non-readers or readers with poor comprehension pull down the performance of the school during achievement test (Division, Regional or National). To partly solve the problem, if not totally eradicate, an Informal Reading Inventory (IRI) was conducted. This will gauge the reading level of the First Year students so that the school, especially the teachers can identify who among the students are non-readers or has poor reading comprehension. After the inventory it was found out that there are students with reading ability that is of Grade I level and there are really non-readers. So another burden is given to English teachers because aside from teaching their usual subject loads, they will do remedial classes for those students identified as non-readers or with poor reading comprehension. It is not only a burden for the English teachers but for other teachers as well who taught subjects with English as a medium of instruction. It should also be noted that poor or substantive English background slows down the process of scientific development because it is hard to understand scientific concepts while at the same time learning English language - this is learning two things simultaneously.

Discipline Inside the Classroom

In a classroom of more than fifty students or in some classroom sixty students, it is really important that discipline should always reign for maximum learning. In my first year of teaching, classroom discipline is really an issue for me. I easily got irritated by students who were noisy, always going outside the classroom without valid reasons, and students yelling or fighting with each other. But through reading books and attending seminars about classroom discipline, this problem was slowly been elucidated.

A well managed classroom will give the students rich opportunities for mental growth and development. Good classroom discipline produces favorable working conditions conducive to good learning and makes school work enjoyable and interesting. One aspect of the teacher's role under the concept of discipline is to help students practice self-control and to develop standards of individual values and activities that will be carried on regardless of whether the teacher or parent or someone else in authority is around or not.

The concept of discipline when I was still in my elementary years is really different as compared with modern concept of discipline which is based on democratic principles. A good discipline is one that develops self-direction and self-discipline rather than discipline based on compulsion and obedience. In addition, he laid emphasis on becoming familiar with the cause of violation of discipline in order that such causes may be minimized, if not prevented, and offenses may be more satisfactorily diagnosed and treated.

As facilitator of students' learning in Earth Science I should always bear in mind that classroom discipline is really one of the vital tools so that learning could be attained. It is an inevitable fact that the teacher can be an effective facilitator of learning only when there is discipline and proper classroom management in teaching-learning.

Making Use of Technology

The use of textbooks alone in imparting science concepts and processes is not enough. Any ordinary classroom on Earth is not the best place to observe interactions ranging in scale from solar system to the components of a cell. With just pure lectures, often learners are forced to create their own mental images to understand situations they cannot view directly. In many instances the result has been a misconception that takes on a reality of its own inside the students mind. Standard textbooks have been ineffective in changing these deeply rooted misconceptions. Students remain confused about topics involving basic spatial relationships such as the reason for the seasons. To solve this problem, there is persistent call for a teacher to be creative in his teaching and maximize the technology present.

To keep pace with the advancement of Science and Technology, teachers need to have creative and inquiring minds. Such thoughts and ideas "conceived by the inquiring minds" inspire and challenge the teacher to be creative. In connection with the call of being creative and to equate myself with the evolving technology, I constantly visit the World Wide Web so that I can make my lessons updated. This was not easy for me because the place where I've been teaching has no internet connection and only during weekends that I can browse the Internet for topics that need further elaboration through videos or flash animations. In addition, I used PowerPoint in order to make my lessons interactive to the students and I've found out that their interest in my lessons was elevated with the use of computers. Moreover, I was happy because our Principal really encouraged the use of PowerPoint in classroom instruction. In fact he proposed and spearheaded the implementation of Computer Aided Instruction (CAI) in the Division of Davao Oriental.

THE REWARDS

Students' Achievement

The first person that would feel happy in the achievement of students in terms of learning Earth Science is the teacher. I personally beam with pride when my students perform well during exams or on the top rank during contest related to Earth Science. It was remarkable for me when my two contestants for the 2008 Division Science Quiz held in San Isidro National High School ranked second and third respectively. I felt that this is my reward for exerting effort in reviewing students about science concepts not only through books but also from the information retrieved from the internet and by helping and teaching them how to use the computer in exploring the Encarta Encyclopedia. I also felt fulfilled when I see my students embraced positive attitudes in learning the subject. With this, I established in students' heart the love for Earth Science that could be very helpful in learning other sciences like Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. A course in earth sciences can provide to students an introduction to subject matter in all other sciences that illustrates their relevance and connections. With a strong foundation in Earth Science, students will no longer find difficulty in learning other sciences.

My Contribution in Nation-Building and for the Future

As a teacher in Earth Science, I can say that I have a great role in building a nation -- a nation that maximizes its resources but does not sacrifice the future. Our lives and civilization depend upon how we understand and manage our planet. Earth processes affect us all. Weather patterns influence the availability of water resources and the potential for earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, typhoons, and floods can kill large numbers of people and cause millions or even billions of pesos in property damage. If our students are well informed about those processes affecting our lives then they would be cautious in every actions they will do like cutting trees, burning too much fossil fuels, the use of aerosol sprays, etc. Every lesson in Earth science will somehow connect students to the past, as well as challenging them to think about the future.

Conclusion

Teaching Earth science in secondary school is not an easy task. A lot of challenges must be surmounted so that teaching-learning could be a pleasant experience for both the teachers and students. My first three years experiences in teaching the subject have really shaped my knowledge and attitudes towards the subject. Since my elementary years as a student, I still bring the passion and love in understanding the complex world of science. And now that I'm in the field, then it is my turn to permeate my enthusiasm in learning science subjects to my students especially during their first science subject in secondary education which is the earth science.

The earth sciences provide the best all-around introduction to science. The earth sciences integrate concepts from all other major disciplines of science, including biology, chemistry and physics. Thus, teaching of earth sciences throughout the elementary and secondary schools will promote scientific literacy in general.

As teachers we should always keep abreast of the technology so that our knowledge in the subject matter will be updated from time to time. We should always let our students view science as part of their everyday lives so that they will not feel alienated from it.

Lastly, we should always bear in our minds that an understanding of the earth sciences is critical for a secure future. When we emphasize Earth science education, everyone benefits.

For more articles and essays like this, you can check my blog: Scolex Portal

You can also check our school blog: 21st Century Education

Scientific Research Studies On Spiritual Science And Philosophy

2011-03-16T01:28:00.000-07:00

Today's era predominates with a high intellect. Every aspect of our life is fully influenced by the modern scientific principle of proof and sound logic. As a result world humanity requires both proof and logic as far as philosophy is concerned too. Only after testing it thus will they deign to accept its usefulness. Truth and Reality will be imbibed only after it is tested via logic and scientific proof. This insistence of 'proof' has greatly challenged the very existence of Spiritual Sciences. Man's glory and social arrangement has its roots in high leveled faith that encompasses both sacred ideals and principles. Sheer intellectualism with its emphasis on direct proof has truly harmed man's faith potential. Logic and proof says that faith is 'blind'. Hence today's need of the hour is to test Spiritual Values like faith, trust, ideals etc on the basis of scientific logic and principles along with its utility and proof of its very existence. For this those very scientific research need to be deployed which are today being used by Modern Material Science.

Today everyone fully accepts the importance of Material Science. Its utility and importance have always remained in vogue because it tests itself on the basis of logic, experimentation and research. In addition to this it never wavers when it is required to give up beliefs that are not scientifically sound and rational. Of course it is a well known fact that scientific findings do tend to change every now and then. If for the first time some proof is found it is not necessary that it will remain eternally correct. This is because when newer discoveries and inventions unfold the previous conclusions are renounced. Thus scientific findings at a particular point in time are accepted as true only until new findings later disprove their veracity. Hence the previous finding henceforth does not hold true as it did previously. It is this yearning for truth that helps Modern Science retain its importance and utility.

The attainments of Spiritual Science are infinitely more than those of Material Science. Hence its importance too is n-fold more than modern science. Thus it is most required that greater attention be paid to it. Since in ancient times Spiritual Science was given a lot of importance man's overall glory too reached high peaks. But later the more man's soul force weakened the more he headed towards both a material and spiritual degradation. Hence if we wish to herald in a radiant future in the 21st century optimum usage of soul principles are the need of the hour. Thus keeping this in mind it is most required that Spiritual Sciences be researched in a modern scientific manner and place them in front of all so as to imbibe them in their pristine purity.

It is Spiritual Philosophy that is the foundation stone of human thought/viewpoint. It is the very life force of spirituality. Man's wholesome thinking or otherwise is totally dependent on the beliefs of social norm that are in vogue at a particular time. The basis of high leveled thought flow during the Rishi Era was Spiritual Philosophy that was in vogue. It ceaselessly inspired human beings to strive for supremacy as far as wholesome thought and activity was concerned. As a result heavenly situations manifested and divinely human beings took birth. Serious questions regarding the soul, God's existence, God's glory, fruits of ones past/present/future actions, creation of this world and the aim behind it can only be answered by Spiritual Philosophy.

During varying times and circumstances great Rishis of yore gave us philosophical tenets to suit those times and requirements. As long as the Rishi Yuga existed, this tradition continued thus creating heavenly situations for world beings. But later during the Middle Age a fairly long time span of darkness and gloom prevailed. Since in this dark period unruliness and anarchy took over philosophy, righteousness and spirituality were totally ignored by one and all. During such dire times it is most required that one is alert enough to gauge what is apt and what is not apt. Thus we should develop an intellect which leans towards research so as to understand what is true and what is its day to day usefulness.

Ancient and very useful spiritual principles need to be put forth to world humanity in such a way wherein there remains no room for doubt as far as its utility and veracity is concerned especially in today's Jet Age.

Great Rishis elucidated various behavioral depending on each circumstance and its requirement. Smritis clearly depict such differences in norms laid down. The different norms laid down by great seers during various points in world history were not because there was hatred, differences etc amongst these seers. In fact they were forced to lay down different social norms simply because the requirements during various phases of world history required specific norms for each and every phase.

The basis of past progress, analysis of downfall and goal setting for the future is an intellect which yearns for facts and reality. In spiritual parlance it is called Ritambhara. According to Brahman scriptures this is what Prajapati says while elucidating Divine Wisdom or Self Realization: When during cosmic annihilation (Pralaya) everything in this world is destroyed at that time too one Rishi remains alive to reveal the truth. His name is 'Tarka'. Over here Tarka is not some dry and superficial argument but it is a divine intellect full of profound wisdom. It is with its help that one can attain Self Realization. An intellect that is open to accept truth shies away from prejudiced fanatical beliefs. The wheel of time is such that situations faced by us all are bound to change again and again. And it is because of this that the methods of solving various problems too change when situations change. No doubt we revere saints and seers of the past and the spiritual endeavors demarcated by them. And yet it is not necessary that these endeavors can help in today's times since situations of those times and today differ a great deal. Hence it is most required that spiritual practices of those times that can be used today be imbibed wholeheartedly and renounce those which are not suitable for modern times (but were apt for past times).

As mentioned previously in the Middle Age of darkness and ignorance a lot of distortions plagued the spiritual arena. Such disparity was seen in the principles, methods and social execution of Spiritual Philosophy that even a common thinking intellect would refuse to trust its veracity and utility. In the dark Middle Age sacred scriptures got 'adulterated' so as to say. This resulted in the degradation of the lives of so called religious and spiritual "leaders". Thus majority of world humanity rightly refused to trust them and follow in their footsteps.

There was a time many centuries back when Rishis' speech and the sacred gospel of our scriptures were thought to be beyond doubt. Today because intellectualism and logic/proof is the in thing, scriptural precepts will not be gulped down solely on the basis of faith. The philosophy of faith can only be reinstated today on the firm foundation of its utility, proof and veracity. Today the need of the hour is that the principles and day to day execution of Spiritual Science be put forth in a form that is wholesome and acceptable to this present generation of the Computer Age. Those very spiritual tenets faithfully and wholeheartedly imbibed by seers of yore must be presented today in a manner that is acceptable to the highly intellectual human beings of modern times. The gist of the teachings of great thinkers and sages of ancient times is unanimous wherein human beings love each other selflessly, imbibe the wealth of sacred thinking, grow the flowers of wholesome actions and develop a great character. How will al this happen? The answer is one without a second and that is faith towards Spiritual Sciences be imbibed deeply in ones psyche.

For this a 2-pronged effort has been designed wherein distortions that have entered Spiritual Science are being rooted out and to prove with sound scientific arguments the futility to pursue materialism that does not have a firm substratum of spiritual values. For this in the gigantic library of the Brahmavarchas Research Institute's highly experienced scholars are re-analyzing every religious scripture in a scientific manner. Every scripture is scrutinized minutely for its useful tenets and without any prejudice or bias renounce all precepts that are not useful/applicable in today's 21st century. We must have deep faith that just as when the mythological churning of the ocean took place and 14 jewels emerged from it so too our scientific research will definitely unearth those spiritual jewels that will be acceptable the world over.

It is also the need of the hour to combat the rat race like material pursuits (one could say it is a by product of Modern Science) devoid of spiritual and human values. The very foundation of ethics has been shattered because of laying emphasis solely on direct visible proof and material utility. Die hard materialists refuse to accept the existence of the soul and God. As a result the attitude of 'why even deign to think about good deeds/merits, spiritual goals, renunciation, sacrifice etc'? Charvak said: Rinam Kritvaa Gridham Pibait. It means keep borrowing money and thus eat, drink and be merry. He also said: Yena Kena Prakaarena, Yaavajjeevait Sukham Jeevait. It means beg, borrow or steal and continue to live a life of sense merriment. If one looks around and analyzes the life style of the highly materialistic intellectual class it certainly appears as though they are hell bent on proving Charvak right. When scientific research proves everything on the basis of proof collected from ones sense organs, mind and intellect why should not life's philosophy be erected on the foundation stone of selfishness? The results of such erroneous thinking stares starkly in our face wherein every area of our life predominates with narrow minded selfishness, lack of magnanimity and generosity and hard heartedness. There is no other cause for this apart from our lack of faith in the importance of spiritual values and tenets. How can it be warded off? The answer is unanimous in that faith in spiritual values must be reinstated in the psyche of world humanity on a firm footing. And this is possible only by imbibing the sacred precepts of Spiritual Sciences.

Spirituality can be imbued with new vigor only by 1) destroying distortions that have entered spirituality and 2) reinstating the philosophy of aspiring for greatness which is being ignored today by those who pursue rank materialism devoid of spiritual and human values. It is hence that the gigantic Research Institute called Brahmavarchas has been established. The highly intellectual class of this Computer Age can only be convinced by giving philosophical answers to philosophy, scientific answers to science and logical answers to logic. Atheism is ruling the roost today simply because spiritual principles have not been presented via sound scientific proof and logic. One can safely say that Modern Sciences' principles that rely on proof only is not the major cause of people scoffing the existence of the soul, God, fruits of ones actions, spiritual goals etc. Instead the root cause is that till today we have failed to present Spiritual Sciences laced with ample scientific proof and logic.

In order to fulfill this all important goal Brahmavarchas Research Institute has been set up as a all round centre of scientific research. No doubt our beginning is dwarfish yet the potential of it becoming gigantic and all pervasive is very high. We have sown a powerful seed and without doubt it is not the end. It is a gigantic task to test Spiritual Science's principle on the basis of sound scientific logic and proof. And hence gigantic means that include a well equipped high profiled laboratory are most required. Over here there are 2 options. The first one wherein wait for high leveled means and then start research activities. The second is make-do with the limited means available at present and commence research studies on a war like footing. We realized that it is not possible to stop research just because all the required means are not available. A delay would mean not helping in the obstruction of world humanity's imminent spiritual and material downfall. Hence it is important that without delay we prove the authentic nature of spiritual values via scientific research and only then will the highly intellectual class of the world accept it and imbibe it to the fullest. Brahmavarchas Research Institute's wheels are on a roll and the train of research studies has started moving slowly but surely.

Research studies have 2 aspects viz. literature based research and experimentation in a well equipped laboratory. A gigantic collection of literature in our high profile library that includes religions of all nations of the world, books of great thinkers and philosophers of the world covering areas of Science, Philosophy, Psychology, Parapsychology, Sociology etc will help fulfill our requirement of scientific as well as a philosophic method of scientific analysis. Further spiritual practices will be scientifically tested in our laboratory that is equipped with advanced scientific apparatus and technology. We are analyzing the effect of Mantras, Japa and Yajna on human beings, other creatures and plants. It is no secret that today man's bodily, mental and spiritual health is fast deteriorating. Various medical therapies like Allopathy, Homeopathy and Ayurveda are not weeding out diseases from their very roots. Under such dire circumstances what is required is that we unearth a mode of therapy which gives us sound bodily, mental and spiritual health for keeps.

The Science of Yajna or Yajnopathy is being given a firm and strong foundation. We are constantly in touch with well known scientists and medical specialists so as to reap rich dividends from our research. We must all have faith that in the near future Yajnopathy will bloom forth in its total healthy and all encompassing form. Thus it will serve entire world humanity both materially and spiritually.

Literature based research study has many aspects. And yet chief amongst them are Science and Philosophy. This era demands that spiritual and human values be given prime importance. Hence 4 main topics with reference to them have been taken up for research studies. They are: 1) Inter Faith Understanding and Equality, 2) Cosmic Consciousness and Cosmic Nature, 3) Science of True Thinking and 4) Yajna based therapy. In the subsequent phase of our research other topics too will be studied minutely.

1) Inter Faith Understanding and Equality: In order that every world religion is given utmost honor and respect 14 golden aphorisms have been elucidated that are accepted by all religions. They will encompass the religious discourses, rites/rituals and traditions of religions like Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Parsi, Christianity, Jainism, Buddhism, Jew and Taoism. In order to make individuals and world society great and pious in character ethics, human/spiritual values, discipline and wholesome social behavior have been taken up for study purposes.

2) Cosmic Consciousness and Cosmic Nature: We are deeply studying material nature, the subtle atom, special qualities of the gigantic cosmos and the mysterious layers of human (microcosm) and cosmic (macrocosm) consciousness. Serious research is being carried out into the scientific basis of the awakening of Extrasensory Potential (ESP). In addition the question of how could one 'contact' cosmic consciousness and imbibe their Divine Powers is being researched into. Within this topic the various branches of Modern Science are being studied and on its basis soul scientific principles will be put forth.

3) Science of True Thinking: All those principles and theories of Psychology and Philosophy are being studied deeply that are strongly related to man's very thinking process. The Science of Thinking includes research studies on reflection, faith, trust, sensitivity etc that designs man's inner personality and character. A psychological study of devotion, meditation, prayer and mental focus/concentration too has been taken up by us.

4) Yajna based therapy: It encompasses the scientific application and utility of Yajna, its influence on our body and psyche and what is its philosophical basis.

We must imbibe deep faith that soul based principles stand on the firm foundation of spirituality. In addition they are omnipotent enough to ward off all attacks made by atheistic units. What can we achieve by 'defeating' that path which has yet to be imbibed totally and which yet has no followers or propagators? In the court of intellectualism theism tasted defeat simply because theistic propagators did not take up the challenges thrown by their modern intellectual counterparts and instead insisted on saving theism with the slogan: Have faith in God! If only they had answered logic with counter logic, precepts with counter precepts, proof with counter proof etc theism would have succeeded in defeating hard core intellectuals in their own court. But alas this was not to be and theism was relegated to an ethical downfall and psychic inertia. This is the reason why Spiritual Science over the years beat a hasty retreat to its downfall. And yet there is no need to despair because today scientific research on Spiritual Sciences will help regain eternally its lost glory.

In reality Spiritual Principles are such that the basis of human joy, peace, progress and prosperity remain on a solid footing. The problem is only one wherein the complexity of what is true and false is so enormous that it is very difficult to understand the true meaning of their precepts along with its application in day to day life. Gold is purified via a blazing fire. Similarly spiritual teachings too will be heated in such a manner so as to transform them into that form which can be understood easily by even a layman and thus will be conducive to imbibe in ones daily professional, social etc life. The probability to achieve this goal via a positive transformation of Spiritual Philosophy indeed is very high. We must have faith via the research endeavor of Brahmavarchas Research Institute that all encompassing form of Spiritual Philosophy will be presented to the world wherein there will be no room for differences and doubts. Only modern scientific research can ward off obstacles faced by theism and reinstating of spiritual values in our day to day life. Only those principles that are heated in the furnace of research and tested for sound proof and logic will prove to be true and useful both materially and spiritually. Without this the highly intellectual class of the world cannot be wooed to imbibe spiritual tenets.

AUTHOR: Shriram Sharma Acharya: founder of the International Gayatri Family: was a great Yogi: seer and incarnation of God who wrote volumes of scientific literature mainly on spiritual subjects for world welfare and peace. For more scientific e-books visit: http://www.shriramsharma.com (GOOGLE PR 4) and http://www.awgp.org (Google 5) KEYWORDS: Kundalini Yoga Gayatri e-books biography Guru world peace mind psyche god nerve subtle consciousness soul divine trance endocrine glands ESP Chakras plexus meditation concentration intellect prophecy thought thinking Cheiro Nostradamus Aurobindo bliss brain Vedas solar sun energy sacred pure sense organs Prana Avatar Upanishad light cell hypothalamus pituitary transformation futurist prediction serpent power life human ethics integrity character vagus Tantra Mooladhar atom neutron proton DESCRIPTION: Free e-books on Future Scientific Religion: Gayatri Science & Kundalini Yoga correlated to Neurosciences-ESP, Endocrinology, Anatomy, Psychology & Sociology for 1) material & spiritual prosperity & 2) uniting the world peacefully as a family.

5 Ways To Increase Your Child's Love Of Science

2011-03-15T15:15:00.000-07:00

There are many things that you can do to make your children do their science homework. But wouldn't you rather have your child love to do science and want to do things that involve science? Here are 5 ways to increase your child's love of science.

The 1st way that you can increase your child's love of science is to take interest in science yourself. Your child will want to learn more about science if they know that you are interested in science too. You are your child's best teacher. Your child looks up to you. You child wants to be able to communicate with you on your level and not feel like they are below you. So showing a love of science will help increase your child's love of science.

The 2nd way that you can increase your child's love of science is to find ways to make science fun for your child. The more fun your child can have with science the more your child will increase their love of science. Your child will increase their love of science because they will start to understand what science is all about. If a child can understand things in science and grasp certain concepts in science it will increase their love because they won't be frustrated because they don't understand what they need to learn. So, try doing science projects that really interest them.

The 3rd way that you can increase your child's love of science is to do science projects with your child. Doing science projects with your child will help them see how things work. For instance spend some time talking about something as simple as the weather. Then do some research on the weather and how it changes. Then do a science project on it and make predictions and make charts and see how accurate you and your child are. This will help your child to learn about the weather and have fun while doing it Finding something like this that you can spend time together discussing and interacting together to find solutions to different situations will help increase your child's love of science.

The 4th way that you can increase your child's love of science is to think out side of the box. Find something that you enjoy doing like flying a kite. Then you and your child go research what makes a kite fly. Find out the shape and different materials you can use and then make a kite out of materials that you wouldn't usually use. Be innovative with your science projects make them fun so you will increase your child's love of science.

The 5th way that you can increase your child's love of science is to have discussions with them. Having discussions help you to communicate with your child about something that you can both relate too. This will help your child feel like you are on the same level with each other and both have something in common with each other.

These are all ways that you can increase your child's love of science. You want to help your child as much as possible to make sure that they succeed. Helping increase your child's love in science will help them in the long run. It will help them think on a higher level on how things work and what they can do to make something work better. Science can help your child when they grow up and are in the real working world. They will be able to problem solve and to be able to offer ideas to the company they work for on how to make things work better. So take the time and help increase your child's love of science.

Just Science Projects is a powerful science fair projects and elementary and middle school science experiments site. Whether you're looking for great science experiments for kids, science projects, or science fair ideas, Just Science Projects is your source. To get great, fun projects visit JustScienceProjects.com or call us at 206-498-6502.

All These Worlds Are Yours - The Appeal of Science Fiction

2011-03-15T01:42:00.000-07:00

I've been fascinated with science fiction stories for as long as I can remember, although, I must confess, I never thought of science fiction as being mainstream literature. I, like many readers, pursued science fiction as a form of escapism, a way to keep up with speculation on recent scientific discoveries, or just a way to pass the time.

It wasn't until I met with my thesis adviser to celebrate the approval of my paper that I had to think about science fiction in a new light. My adviser works for a large, well-known literary foundation that is considered to be very "canonical" in its tastes. When he asked me if I liked science fiction, and if I would be willing to select about one hundred stories for possible inclusion in an anthology that they were thinking about producing, I was somewhat surprised. When he told me it might lead to a paying gig, I became even more astounded. I went home that afternoon feeling very content: my paper had been approved, and I might get a paying job to select science fiction, of all things.

Then it hit me: I'd actually have to seriously think about some sort of a method to select from the thousands of science fiction short stories that had been written in the past century. When I considered that the ideals of the foundation would have to be reflected in the stories which I selected, something near panic set in: science fiction was not part of the "cannon."

"While I pondered weak and weary, over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore," I reached a decision: I'd first try to figure out what science fiction "was," and then I'd develop a set of themes that related to the essence of science fiction. So, armed with this battle plan, I proceeded to read what several famous authors had to say about science fiction. This seemed simple enough, until I discovered that no two authors thought science fiction meant quite the same thing. Oh, great, thought I: "nevermore." (Sorry, Edgar, I couldn't resist).

Having failed to discover the essence of science fiction, I selected four authors whose work I liked to try to determine what they contributed to the art of science fiction. The authors were: Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg, Orson Scott Card, and Arthur C Clarke. At the time, I didn't realize that two of the authors, Asimov and Clarke were considered "hard" science fiction writers, and the other two, Silverberg and Card, were considered "soft" science fiction writers.

So, you might ask: what is the difference between "hard" and "soft" science fiction. I'm glad you asked, else I would have to stop writing right about now. "Hard" science fiction is concerned with an understanding of quantitative sciences, such as astronomy, physics, chemistry, etc. "Soft" science fiction is often associated with the humanities or social sciences, such as sociology, psychology or economics. Of course, some writers blend "hard" and "soft" science fiction into their work, as Asimov did in the Foundation trilogy.

So, having selected the authors, I was ready to proceed to my next challenge, which you can read about in the next installment of the series. "All these worlds are yours:" the Appeal of Science Fiction, Part II

In the first part of the series, I mentioned that I'd been given an assignment to select approximately one hundred science fiction short stories for inclusion in an anthology that was being considered by a literary foundation. Originally, I'd intended to find the "essence" of science fiction, and then select stories that reflected this essence. Unfortunately, this turned out to be nearly impossible, since different authors had different ideas about what constituted science fiction.

So, I took the easy way out, I selected four authors whose works appealed to me, and hoped that I could make selection based upon my familiarity with their works. My selection process resulted in four authors who have been writing science fiction for thirty years or more: Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg, Orson Scott Card, and Arthur C Clarke. As it turned out, two authors were considered "hard" science fiction writers, and two were considered "soft" science fiction writers.

Well, I finally had a plan. And then the wheels fell off. I still needed some sort of selection criteria, or I'd have to develop one as I read. So, I did what anyone in my place would have done. I started reading. I read, and read some more, and then... I read some more. Over three thousand pages and three hundred short stories, in fact. I was almost ready to make a stab at a selection process; almost, but not quite.

What, three thousand pages, and still can't figure out how to start? How could this be? Okay, so I'm exaggerating a little bit. I started to break the stories up into groupings around general themes-it helps when I organize things into groups, so I can apply some sort of selection criteria for seemingly unrelated data points (who says that thirty years in business doesn't have its rewards)? Gradually, I began grouping the stories into several broad headings: scientific discoveries; life-forms (which included aliens, man-made life and artificial life); the search for meaning (which includes the search for God or the gods); the death of a group of men, a nation, race, or system; the meaning of morality.

Now I admit, these groupings may be arbitrary, and may in fact reflect my perspective on things, but I had to start somewhere. The strange thing was that these grouping tended to repeat, no matter who the author was. When I thought about it, these same types of concerns are mirrored in the more "canonical" texts that are taught in school. So, what makes science fiction different from the mainstream texts taught in colleges and universities across the country?

Once again, I'm glad you asked that, because it is a perfect lead-in to the next part of the series. "All these worlds are yours:" the Appeal of Science Fiction, Part III

I guess that the main difference between science fiction and the more acceptable or "canonical" type of fiction must arise either from the themes employed, or the subject matter. In part two of this series, I mentioned that the themes employed by science fiction, namely: the search for life, identity, the gods, and morality are similar to those themes employed in "canonical" literature. By the process of subtraction, that leaves subject matter as the primary difference between the two genres.

So, by subject matter, we must mean science, since we've already covered fiction ("when you has eliminate the impossible, whatever is left, no matter how improbable, must be the truth," as Sherlock Holmes would say). So, we must infer that science is the factor which differentiates science fiction from traditional fiction. By this definition, several traditional pieces of fiction must be considered science fiction. As an example, The Tempest, by William Shakespeare has often been cited as a type of science fiction if we expand the category to include those works which incorporate current science into their works. But wait, you say, The Tempest does not incorporate science into its construction. Oh really, I reply, the English were just beginning to settle the New World in earnest when the play was written ("Oh, brave new world that has such people in't.") Besides, you reply, if anything, it is more fantasy than science fiction. Splitting hairs, I reply.

What then of John Milton, I ask? John Milton... why, he's so boring and well, unread these days, you reply. Of course he is, but that's beside the point. What about Paradise Lost, I rejoin? What about it, you reply (and then in a very low voice... I've never read it). The scene where Satan leaves hell and takes a cosmic tour before alighting on Earth and Paradise has been described by many critics as being the first instance of an author providing a cosmological view of the heavens. In fact, Milton scholars point to the fact that Milton, in the Aereopagitica claims to have visited Galileo Galilei at his home in Italy. These same critics also refer to the fact that Milton taught his nephews astronomy, using several texts that were considered progressive in their day. Still, most critics would fall on their pens (swords being so messy and difficult to come by these days), rather than admit to Paradise Lost being... gasp, science fiction.

Still not convinced; what do you say about Frankenstein? You say it made for several interesting movies, but really, the creature was overdone; bad make-up and all that. I reply: the make-up is irrelevant; for that matter, so are many of the films, which don't do justice to Mary Shelley's novel. She didn't even write the novel, you reply. Oh no, not another apologist for Percy Bysshe Shelley writing the novel. Let me state unequivocally that I don't care whether Mary or Percy wrote the novel: it is often cited as the first instance of science fiction. But where is the science, you ask: it is only alluded-to. That's' why it's also fiction, I retort.

So, where are we? I think we've managed to muddle the waters somewhat. It appears that the element of science is needed for science fiction, but the precedents for science being contained in a fictional work, are somewhat troubling. Maybe in the next section, we should examine "modern" science fiction and try to determine how science plays a part in works of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

"All these worlds are yours:" the Appeal of Science Fiction, Part IV

Up till now, we've defined science fiction as part science, and part fiction. No real revolutionary concept there. I've tried to show how earlier works could be considered science fiction, with mixed results. I've also said that works of the twentieth century would be easier to classify as science fiction, because they incorporate more elements of leading-edge science into their writing.

To use two brief examples, the Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov is often considered a "soft" science fiction work, relying more on the social sciences than the physical sciences in the plot line. In the story, Asimov posits the creation of a foundation that relies on psychohistory, a kind of melding of group psychology and economics that is useful in predicting and ultimately molding, human behavior. Anyone who has been following the stock and financial markets over the past year can attest to the element of herd mentality which permeates any large scale human interaction. The theme of shaping human dynamics through psychohistory, while somewhat far-fetched is not beyond the realm of possibility (and would, no doubt, be welcomed by market bulls right about now).

A second example from Asimov, that of the three laws of robotics, has taken on a life of its own. Asimov began developing the laws of robotics to explain how a robot might work. The three laws were postulated as a mechanism to protect humans and robots. He did not expect the laws to become so ingrained into the literature on robots; in fact, the laws have become something of a de facto standard in any story or novel written about artificial life, as Asimov has noted in several essays.

The case of Asimov's three laws of robotics influencing other writers is not unusual. In the case of Arthur C. Clarke, his influence is felt beyond writing and extends to science as well. Clarke is the person responsible for postulating the use of geo-synchronous orbit for satellites, and the makers of weather, communications, entertainment and spy satellites owe him a debt of gratitude for developing this theory. He anticipated the manned landing on the moon, and many discoveries made on Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and their many moons.

Consider also, Orson Scott Card, whose novel Speaker for the Dead, postulates a world-wide communication network that is uncannily similar to the world-wide-web and predated the commercial internet by some fifteen to twenty years.

It appears then, that science fiction writers popularize science, provide their readers with a glimpse of the possibilities of new inventions and theories, and sometimes, anticipate or even discover new uses for technology. But there's still an element missing in our definition of science fiction, that of the fiction side of the equation. We'll explore the fiction side of science fiction in the next installment. "All these worlds are yours:" the Appeal of Science Fiction, Part V

Good literature requires a successful plot, character development, and an emotional appeal in order to be successful. Science fiction is no different than traditional forms of fiction in this regard. We've talked about plot and content (science) in earlier installments. In this installment, I'd like to talk about the emotional reactions generated by science fiction.

Broadly speaking, I think science fiction appeals to the following emotional responses: terror, the joy of discovery, awe and wonder, a lassitude born of too many space flights or too many worlds, and a sense of accomplishment. The instances of terror in science fiction are well documented: for anyone who has seen Alien for the first time, terror is a very real emotion. Many science fiction and horror writers as well, make good use of the emotion of terror. An effective use of terror is important, however. Slasher movies use terror, but they sometimes degenerate into an almost parodic exercise of who can generate the most gore per minute. True terror is a case of timing and the unexpected. That's why Arthur C Clarke's story entitled "A Walk in the Dark" is so effective. The author sets-up the BEM (bug-eyed monster, from Orson Scott Card) as a pursuing agent; the protagonist has no idea that the monster will actually wind-up in front of him.

As to the joy of discovery, this emotion can work in reverse. In Orson Scott Card's brilliant short story and novel, Ender's Game, the child protagonist learns that the war games he was practicing for were actually the real thing. His surprise, remorse and confusion have profound effects on his psyche, and set the stage for his attempts later in life to attain some sort of recompense for the race which he and his cohorts destroyed.

Robert Silverberg's works evoke a feeling of dj-vu, a sense of being on too many worlds or too many travels; a moral ennui not found in many writers. Yet somehow, he transcends this eternal boredom to reveal with startling clarity that something lies beyond; if only a sought after end.

Perhaps no other science fiction author offers a sense of wonder and discovery, a sense of joy de vivre, as does Arthur C Clarke. In story after story, Clarke expounds on new worlds, new discoveries, new possibilities ("all these worlds are yours..."). His love of the cosmos is rooted in his love of astronomy and physics, and is bundled together with a love of mankind that makes his work so inspiring and evergreen.

But what of our final category, that of a sense of accomplishment? Each of these writers talks in some way to the human experience. In bridging the worlds of science and fiction, in writing to our fears, hopes, joys and sorrows, each of these authors stakes a claim to be included among the list of canonical authors. In "Nightfall," Arthur C Clarke writes of the effects of an atomic war, and thinks back to an earlier time. He is staking his claim to posterity when he writes:

Good freed for Iesvs sake forbeare,

To dig the dvst enclosed heare

Blest be ye man yt spares thes stones,

And cvrst be he yt moves my bones.

Undisturbed through all eternity the poet could sleep in safety now: in the silence and darkness above his head, the Avon was seeking its new outlet to the sea.

For Sir Arthur was paying his respects to the Bard, and claiming his place in the pantheon of the great English writers.

Author Biography

Peter Ponzio, the author of Children of the Night, is a CPA with over 30 years experience in Corporate Finance, holding positions as divergent as Treasurer, VP of Sales Administration, Vice President of IT, and General Manager of an internet start-up company in the late 1990s, and CFO at a subsidiary of a Fortune 100 company.

Mr. Ponzio graduated with a degree in English literature from Loyola University of Chicago, and an MA in Literature from Northwestern University.

Peter's website can be reached at http://www.peterjponzio.com