The reasons/rewards for being in academia...

by Salman Hameed I think if someone were to ask for the justification for being in academia, I can point to the last 10 days in the 5-college area. These days have been non-stop intellectually stimulating and phenomenally rewarding. Here are the highlights - starting from Thursday, April 19th. Thursday...

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Too much 'Heart over Head' in Luhrmann's new book on Evangelicals

by Salman Hameed A few weeks ago I had a post about T.M. Luhrmann's book When God Talks Back. The book is a study of Vineyard Church, an experiential Evangelical church. After listening to her Fresh Air interview, I could not figure the exact thing that troubled me about the author. I think the book is valuable and it is on my reading list - but what's the issue. Well, today's review of the book...

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Saturday Video: Searching for the Higgs Boson

by Salman Hameed This is a pretty nifty video that explains why scientists are searching for the Higgs boson and the process behind the search (tip from Open Culture). Here is a 10 minute primer on this cutting edge physics and now you can also impress your friends :)  The Higgs Boson Explained from PHD Comics on Vim...

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Colbert takes on a young earth creationist...

by Salman Hameed The issue of Young Earth Creationism (the idea that the world was created in the last 6-10 thousand years) is specific to the US. It didn't really exist at the time of the Scopes Trial. In fact, the main proponent of creationism at the trial, the colorful William Jennings Bryan, was an old earth creationist. The idea of a young earth took hold after the publication of a couple...

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Rosetta Stone back to Egypt?

by Salman Hameed The Rosetta Stone should be back in Egypt. I had a chance to visit Luxor in late 2010 and was completely blown away by the remains of the temples there as well as the Valley of the Kings. You have to really be there to appreciate the richness of the ancient Egyptian civilization. The museum in Cairo is also great and has some spectacular objects older than four thousand years. However,...

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Leonardo's Anatomy

by Salman Hameed We only get bits and pieces of Leonardo da Vinci. Now Eighty-seven of his anatomical drawings are going on display in London. But much of it was possible because of human dissection - which was allowed by the Church as early as 1482! From this week's Nature: Leonardo had come to...

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A French Imam versus John Templeton Jr. on the issue of gays

by Salman Hameed Issues of freedom of speech and religion are linked to modernity and are thus close to some of the themes discussed on this blog. These issues provide us with a window into how people are thinking about religious authorities. There are a number of reform groups out there that are presenting their own versions of Islam and are trying to answer some of the challenges posed by the...

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Saturday Video: Asimov on faith, reason and the concern for future

This is from 1988 - but American politics still seems the same. In any case, here is a clip of a Bill Moyer conversation with Isaac Asimov: ...

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Some Floyd at Pompeii

by Salman Hameed Last couple of days have been quite busy and I'm backed up on posts. So we can all use from music. Here is some Pink Floyd playing in the middle of the Amphitheater at Pompeii in 1971. No audience. Just them and the ruins. Actually this is quite awesome! By the way, Pink Floyd (Wish you were here) and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Night Song) were my two constant companions...

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Meaningful collaboration between academics from India and Pakistan?

by Salman Hameed I hope so. Here is an excellent article by Pervez Hoodbhoy suggesting some practical steps between Pakistan and India following a surprising - may still be ephemeral - relative thawing of tensions between the two countries (I know one of our regular physician readers from Australia gets an apoplectic reaction on the mention of Hoodbhoy - so please be careful reading this post :)...

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On the origins of Shariah Law...

by Salman Hameed In our interviews with Muslim physicians about biological evolution, we have found an enormous range of responses. For example, some use Islam to accept it and some reject evolution because they feel that it is against Islam. Since there is a no pope-like figure in Islam, there have...

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Does the Arab world (not) need basic science?

This is a weekly post by Nidhal Guessoum (see his earlier posts here). Nidhal is an astrophysicist and Professor of Physics at American University of Sharjah and is the author of Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science. Nature Middle East is a Cairo-based...

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Learning from India's learning curve on science

by Salman Hameed A few decades ago, there was a sense that Pakistan and India were relatively - and I mean this quite loosely - closer in some scientific fields (for example, nuclear physics - for obvious reasons). However, now it is quite clear that Indian science is playing at a completely different level than Pakistan's. One of the many reasons has to with the continuity and the excellence of...

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Saturday Video: On Cosmology, Big Bang and Cosmic Chickens

by Salman Hameed Since there is some discussion going on about cosmology after Nidhal's post last Monday, I thought I will also post this talk by Sean Carroll. The key thing to note is how scientists deal with the questions at the boundaries of knowledge. For example, look at the way Sean uses the principle of entropy to seek a plausible explanation for the Big Bang. In fact, the key lies in his...

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The hedonist northeast versus the pious south

by Salman Hameed Well, not too much of a surprise. According to Gallup, the New England states are some of the least religious in the US and the Bible-belt lives up to its name and contains the most religious states in 2011. Mississippi, it turns out, is the most religious, with about 59% declaring...

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A Film Autopsy of "The Hunger Games"

by Salman Hameed A dystopian future has always been a rich terrain for science fiction. Here we go with a future with reality shows and a reference to the Occupy movements. This movie is not amazing - but still a reasonably good film. Here is our video film review (of course, you can find other film autopsies here)...

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April 12th: Science and Religion Lecture on Astrobiology

by Salman Hameed Our next Science and Religion lecture at Hampshire College is tomorrow (April 12th) by Margaret Race. She will be talking about Astrobiology, Life, and Planetary Protection. Join us at the talk if  you are in the area. [P.S. I will also be talking about astrobiology and science...

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A new book on having a two-way conversation with God

by Salman Hameed Here is a Fresh Air interview with T.M. Luhrmann, author of When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Understanding with God. Luhrmann is an anthropologist and the book is based on her study of The Vineyard, an Evangelical Church with 600 branches across the US. The...

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A Close-up of the Moon from Lahore

by Salman Hameed Once again, Umair Asim's photograph has made it as the Lunar Photo of the Day (LPOD). Here is his image of the Lunar south pole (left) that was yesterday's LPOD. The image on the right is from a NASA spacecraft and provides a nice context to Umair's image. Nice job. Congrats! Also...

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‘Cosmology and Qur’an’ panel at the University of Iowa

This is a weekly post by Nidhal Guessoum (see his earlier posts here). Nidhal is an astrophysicist and Professor of Physics at American University of Sharjah and is the author of Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science.A panel event titled “Creation of the...

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Seeing signs for "End Times" in everyday events...

by Salman Hameed Today's NYT has a review of a new book Revelation: Visions, Prophecy and Politics in the book of Revelation. It looks like a fascinating read. One of the key points of the book is that not only do people have found signs for the End Times in their respective lifetimes, but that these...

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