Here is the second episode of "Your Inner Fish"

by Salman Hameed I know I know Cosmos is going on these days, and its last episode about stellar lives and deaths was excellent. But you should definitely check out the recently concluded 3-part series, Your Inner Fish (here is the link to the PBS site where you can watch all three episodes, and here is an earlier post about the first episode). I have embedded here the second episode titled, Your...

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Carl Sagan's daughter on lessons about life and death

by Salman Hameed In Carl Sagan's last book, Billions and Billions, he had an amazingly powerful article titled In the Valley of Shadows. He wrote the article when the doctors had told him that he had 3-months to live. And yet, the chapter is honest about his desire to have an afterlife and the reason...

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This is fantastic! Here is the first episode of "Your Inner Fish"

by Salman Hameed When it comes to science documentaries, all of the attention is currently focused on the new Cosmos. This is good. But in all this, people might be missing a superb series on PBS called Your Inner Fish. It is based on the excellent book of the same title, and the show is hosted by its author, Neil Shubin. What I like about the show is that there is an enormous emphasis on "how"...

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Public astronomy flourishing in Pakistan

by Salman Hameed I have posted many times about astronomy in Pakistan (see links below), which I think is maturing nicely. There still aren't that many professional astronomers, but the amateur astronomy scene seems to have attained a critical mass. I know that there are active groups both in Lahore...

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Video: Quasicrystals in Medieval Islamic Architecture

by Salman Hameed Back in 2007 I had posted about the discovery of a particularly complex mathematical pattern (quasi-crystalline Penrose patterns) in 15th century tiles in Isfahan, Iran (see Islamic Tiles and Modern Mathematics). Actually the discovery is indeed quite stunning! Here is a lecture on this topic by one of the original authors of the study, Peter Lu (tip from 3quarksdaily): ...

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A look at the anti-vaccination movements in the US and in Pakistan

by Salman Hameed Here is an excellent article that looks at the deeply problematic anti-vaccination movement in the US (yes, measles is back and the cases are on the rise in the US) and the physical attacks in Pakistan on polio vaccination teams: Someone should introduce anti-vaxxers to children with...

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A multiverse suggestion from the 13th century?

by Salman Hameed It is generally a good practice to be highly skeptical of people claiming to find ideas from modern science in literature written centuries or millennia before. However, here is an interesting inter-The Ordered Universe Project, that deserves more attention. It deals with a 13th century...

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Bunch of Postdoctoral Positions in Science & Religion at Coventry University

by Salman Hameed If you are looking for a postdoctoral position in science & religion, check out this fantastic opportunity at Coventry University. There are also some opportunities for doctoral studies as well. All of this is part of an interesting and promising project. I have worked (and still working) with some of the individuals spearheading the project, and I think this will be a great...

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Just for giggles, Saudi Arabia considers spreading atheism as an act of terror

by Salman Hameed Here is the headline from the Independent (and many other news papers and websites): "Saudi Arabia declares all atheists are terrorists in new law to crack down on political dissidents". My immediate thought was that well Saudi Arabia indeed has the potential to pass this kind of...

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Back to earth and a short story about a heavenly corporation

by Salman Hameed Posts are back. I was away on a break and then it took me a bit to catch-up on things. And yes, I was away to a warmer place (Hawai'i - the Big Island) to escape from the awful winter that that we have been having here in Massachusetts (though today was  finally a bit nice)...

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