Frack on, or frack off?

Diagrammatic representation of the hazardous process

Profits, prices and power has become the priority for most of us, to the extent that we have depleted the natural resources made available to us with no regard for our future generations. Such is the case in “hydraulic fracturing” which has become polarised in recent years; however few people are aware of the process involved. Some have enforced that fracking is a revolutionary way to extract “cleaner” energy such as shale gas. Shale produces even more green house gas emission more than coal and other conventional fossil fuels during combustion. While others believe it is the solution for oil dependency and therefore lower oil prices. Put simply fracking is process to extract fossil fuels, similar to offshore oil rigs. What distinguishes fracking from other methods is the location. Most of us imagine the heavy industrial machinery to be to be planted in the most remote parts of the earth but fracking offers direct access to shale gas in the comfort of your back garden. And it is not only our lush gardens that are under threat, national parks and “protected” heritage sites are also in danger of ceasing to exist. With this ever-increasing threat to private property, can we continue to observe from the side-lines any longer? Fracking Countries strive to become independent oil producers whilst firms create a monopoly of fuel provider in hopes of lowering oil prices for consumers.I will explore the ways that the disadvantages of fracking heavily outweigh the advantages.

Parallel Universes #2 – Greene’s Classification of Multiverse types

In the previous post I introduced the Many World’s hypothesis of Quantum Mechanics which is a possibility of parallel universe. Exploring possibilities of what types of parallel universes could exist may sound like science fiction however like time travel and teleportation, the idea of parallel universes is often the subject of mathematical and experimental investigation. In a recent episode of Star Talk, Michio Kaku mentioned the joy of trying to defy the impossible in his everyday job as a theoretical physicist.

The term parallel universes could seem vague and confusing to some. Exactly what is a parallel universe… Alternate timelines? An entire universe on its own outside the observable universe? Do parallel universes of all possible historical timelines exist? The matter is a little complicated. Physicists often use the words parallel universes to describe several different hypotheses of a number of possible universes outside our own combined to form something called the Multiverse. Hence the idea of parallel universes arises from the multiverse theory itself.

Enigmatic Cryptology

So I want to start off talking about the film “The Imitation Game”. These three words probably brings you back to the moment when you were fangirling over the actor Benedict Cumberbatch who played the role of protagonist Alan Turing. However the film not only depicts Turing as the Mathematical prodigy and war hero who was estimated to have saved the most lives in World War 2, it also demonstrated the manifestation which stemmed from his genius mind, “The Bombe”. It was the decryption device used by the British Army in Bletchley Park to crack the infamous German Enigma machine. Since warfare has less to do with physical killing but rather strategy, communications within both sides of the allies and the axis were encrypted in code.

How Trump’s Presidency is a “disaster” for Science around the globe

A short opinion post about the election results.

Donald Trump is elected the 45th president of the United States

Following the Trump victory of the US Election earlier this week, there is no denial that not only the majority of Americans but a number of people around the world, are worried about the huge changes that will occur throughout his presidency. Some people are fearful of a negative outcome on American’s economy, uncontrolled exploit of military, the encouragement of global division, and so on. While I, myself am extremely concerned about those issues as well, I also behold intense anxiety regarding his (and Pence’s) plans for American Science and research.

Religion in our Modern Scientific Society

Whether we want or not, religion plays a key role in shaping our lives.

Though they are the oldest institutions in the world, religions are the most sluggish to respond to contemporary issues such as science, sexuality and sense of identity. In the process of the world moving into the new century with, it is crucial for us asses the place religion holds in our society today. Do we unquestionably conclude in our acceptance of God’s teachings or are we neglecting our conscience to follow the crowd in their search for god?
Religion has come to be a much stronger force than any material incentives. It is far better at directing positive behaviour towards social betterment than any laws or physical force. For instance, Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr conducted non-violent protests based upon religious beliefs.

My Vision on Four Dimensions

Many of you may have heard of an object called the Tesseract.

Being able to perceive a tesseract is clearly impossible, as we cannot see beyond the number of dimensions we live in. We as humans clearly are and live in a three-dimensional world and there are three coordinate axes x, y and z, so we perceive directions left/right, forwards/backwards and up/down.

For example, this cube

Imagining four spacial dimensions is very difficult so we can try something simpler with three-dimensional objects. Let’s imagine we were a two-dimensional species living in a two-dimensional world called Flat land, named by Edwin Abbott. We walk about in the two-dimensional space unaware of the other dimension which is the z-axis and that’s completely okay, just like how humans can live perfectly without knowing about the fourth dimension.

Climate change and solutions report

Hello, fellow blog viewers! This week I have posted a something a little different from usual but enjoy reading it.

Ah, sun, sea and sand in the Maldives, wouldn’t we all like to live there?

In the climate change and solutions report that follow, I will describe and explain how the disruption of normal weather patterns has an impact on the Maldives and the Himalayas and the geography of them. It will also include the problems and solutions they will have to face and carry out.

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. These effects such as, variations in solar radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions, and human-induced alterations of the natural world; are currently causing global warming, and “climate change” is often used to describe human-specific impacts.In the last few decades, climate change has been taken more seriously as scientists have discovered that our planet is gradually warming up, which is referred as ‘global warming’. Climate change can be observed all over the world right now, whether it is on the news or online . For example the polar ice caps melting, more devastating droughts and wildfires. The main concerning consequence from this, is sea levels rising, it will lead to major adverse impacts on people and wildlife.

5 Myths regarding Evolution

One good subject to write a blog post on is something you’re passionate about. Something you want to exclaim to the world. For me, one of them has to be evolution. Hank Green, a science educator (probably more well-known as half of vlogbrothers) made an excellent and hilarious video on some facts that simply cannot be disproven. Check that out here – Facts are Facts..OK?

I had a substitute teacher for Religious Education class the other day and I was reading The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. Through coincidence the teacher happens to despise Dawkins (probably because he’s an advocate for atheism), and he saw the book on my friend’s desk.

Proteins

The human genome is estimated to contain between 20,000 and 25,ooo protein coding genes, however the number of proteins present within the human body is far greater that this. Within humans and other organisms a variety of proteins must therefore be expresses from the same gene. This is a result of alternative RNA splicing and post translational modification.