Starchips!

Finally advances in technology is making it possible for big minds like Stephen Hawking to achieve their big dreams, not by building larger and larger instruments, but by fitting as much technology as possible into smaller and smaller gadgets. For the first time, it is becoming plausible to consider interstellar travel that can happen during one's lifetime not thousands of years. The approach sounds simple: build thousands of small smart chip instruments. starchips, and set them on their way.  Do not worry if many gets lost or do not reach the destination, you can afford this risk. But if only one succeeds, you are unlocking mysteries never known before. And that makes all the difference. Learn more here:

Forget Starships: New Proposal Would Use 'Starchips' To Visit Alpha Centauri

Moral equivalence

Thanks to Facebook discussions, today I learned a new term "moral equivalency":

1. "Moral equivalence is a term used in political debate, usually to criticize any denial that a moral hierarchy can be assessed of two sides in a conflict, or in the actions or tactics of two sides."
   
   
   Reference:
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_equivalence

What is ALS?

These days social media is full of #IceBucketChallenge videos, aiming to raise awareness about ALS disease.  Eventually, I was challenged by a good friend of mine.  If it was not during such a busy time for me, I probably would have also joined the fun and would have a video of ice water poured on me, in addition to donating for the cause.  I did donate to ALSA for the cause, and I encourage you to do the same for ALS or other research areas related to human body and health.  Instead of pouring ice bucket on me, I decided to do something from behind my desk, like I mostly do.  I thought to myself, how much do I really know about ALS? Not much, I realized.  So, I figured let that be my lesson of the day today and help raise awareness and spread the word.   Here are a few things I learned by a quick search.  Would you like to add anything?

ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.  It is also referred to as Motor Neuron Disease (MND).  However, there are five different motor neuron diseases.  ALS is the most common among the five.  In the United States it is also called the Lou Gehrig's disease.  Lou Gehrig was a major league baseball player who died of ALS in 1941, and his fame made the public learn about this disease.

ALS is a neurodegenerative disease, causing  "progressive loss of structure or function of neurons functions".  Initial symptoms include weakness of muscles where neurons are damaged.  75% of people with this disease experience muscle weakness in their arms and legs.  Other symptoms may include difficulty swallowing or cramping. "Over time, patients experience increasing difficulty moving, swallowing (dysphagia), and speaking or forming words (dysarthria). "[2]

The average survival time of this disease is 39 months.  Only 4% of the patients survive more than 10 years.  The exceptional case is that of Stephen Hawking who has lived with the disease over 50 years!  His survival seems as exceptional as his science!

 References:

[1]http://www.alsa.org
[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyotrophic_lateral_sclerosis
[3]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Gehrig
[4]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking

Business communication

Would not it be nice if people acknowledged receipt of emails, even if they do not yet have answers to them? Would not it be nicer if they actually read the text of work emails, without quickly hitting reply and answering an unrelated assumed question?  Sometimes I find myself repeating the same thing five different times and ways before the message is really received and understood by the other side.  Do you have the same experiences? Do you find yourself in unnecessary email chains that could have been avoided if the initial recipient had first carefully read the text of the email?  What are your solutions? I think sending short emails, with one question and a different subject line for each, make it harder for recipients to get confused.  At the very end, it seems to boil down to how responsible is the recipient, and how much s/he cares to take care of business.  I understand scientists and engineers not being the best communicators.  However, when someone's job is to provide customer service, especially for life changing matters,  I cannot grasp their non responsiveness.  Change your job for God's sake if you do not want to provide service to customers and answer their questions.

Being green

Today I learned an English term. Someone said in an email that someone is "too green". Considering the context of the message, it did not make sense to me. What did caring about environment and nature have to do with her message? So, I searched for the term. When you say someone is too green, it means they are inexperienced, new to their job, not able to navigate and handle issues as good as an experienced person would. It all makes sense now.

Ocean inside Saturn's Moon

"NASA's Cassini spacecraft and Deep Space Network have uncovered evidence Saturn's moon Enceladus harbors a large underground ocean of liquid water, furthering scientific interest in the moon as a potential home to extraterrestrial microbes."

"Gravity measurements by NASA's Cassini spacecraft and Deep Space Network suggest that Saturn's moon Enceladus, which has jets of water vapor and ice gushing from its south pole, also harbors a large interior ocean beneath an ice shell, as this illustration depicts." 
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Reference:

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/april/nasa-space-assets-detect-ocean-inside-saturn-moon/#.U0b1cV6xG3F

Empathy vs Sympathy

Here is a nice short clip demonstrating the difference between sympathy and empathy, and how sympathy can be destructive.  

The great take away lesson:

“The truth is, rarely can a response make something better — what makes something better is connection.”

It seems to me that the requirement for emphasizing is feeling the hurt person's feelings and placing ourselves in their shoes.  However, what if we cannot emotionally handle experiencing and feeling that pain, or rather not to?  Does it mean we will be incapable of emphasizing with and helping the person in need?