Religion and Science in the East

Religion, Philosophy

Source : MDPI – Religions

Date : Aug., 2020

Philosophers and scientists have been discussing opposition and intersection between Religion and Science domains for centuries. An anthropologist and ethnographer studied the relationships between the two, using the example of space science and its correlation with Japanese Buddhism. He reached the conclusion that tension or conflict between Science and Religion is a product of Western academic practices, linked to monotheistic religions. This conclusion is not assumed in Japanese discourses on the world. In that Tradition, Buddhism and Science are considered fundamentally compatible, our world being understood in terms of causal relationships and interconnectedness. In that context, potential for extra-terrestrial life is not considered adversarial to Religion.

Read more : MDPI-Religions

Magnetism – A Cosmic Web

Physics, Space Sciences

Source : Quanta Magazine

Date : July 2020

Magnetic fields are present in our Universe, wherever we look at, on the Earth, the Sun, the Milky Way, clusters of galaxies, . . . and even in the interstellar void, connecting clusters of galaxies via gigantic filaments. The origin of these force fields is still unknown. One possibility could be that it was created at the (re)birth of our Universe. Therefore, it would be considered as primordial. Such an hypothesis could explain the current accelerated expansion of the visible Universe. Magnetism, together with gravity are the forces shaping out the large-structure of the cosmos.

Read more : Quantas Magazine, ScienceMag, SSRG, arXiv

The Big Bang Theory : An Origin or Not ?

Physics, Space Sciences

Source : Quanta Magazine

Date : June 2019

The debate around the Big Bang Theory is still very active, due to many unresolved problems around it. Some cosmologists, including Alan Guth and Stephen Hawking have proposed (1981 – Vatican Conference) that there is no end nor beginning at all. The no-boundary proposal (1983 J. B. Hartle and S. W. Hawking paper) describes the universe expanding from a point of zero size. In a recent lecture (S.W. Hawking 2016), Stephen Hawking explained why we cannot talk about ‘Before the Big Bang’ : because, at this time, there is no time ; time cease to exist and is replaced by pure space.

This is one of the most striking parallel with the Wisdom Tradition Teachings : Describing the phase before the (re)creation of the Universe, The Secret Doctrine (Cosmogenesis, Stanza I.2) says : “Time was not, for it lay asleep in the infinite bosom of duration“. This is correlated by the Rig-Veda Book X (verse 10.129.2 – creation) : “Then was neither death nor life, nor any sign of night and day“. Here, the key idea is time (kâla). The Rig Veda states that the first step in the creation is not time.

Read more : Quanta Magazine

Vast Unidentified Structures Near Earth’s Core

Earth Sciences

Source : Vice

Date : June 2020

Using new AI technology – a manifold learning algorithm – a seismologist and another scientist discovered large structures of dense material lying at the boundary between Earth’s core and the lower mantle. These dense patches were located below the Pacific ocean, under Hawaii and the Marquesas Islands. They could be stretching 1,000 kilometers long in a zone 3,000 kilometers below the surface.

These are very deep and ancient structures that date back to a time before the earth had a moon. They may not be relevant to questions of human history.

Read more : Vice

The Genesis of our Moon

Space Sciences

Source : Science Alert

Date : May 2020

New observations of particles emitted from the surface of the moon raise doubts about the mainstream creation model , i.e. a collision between a large body and the Earth. A steady stream of particles (carbon ions) from the entire surface of the moon seems to indicate the moon could not have been created by a collision sometime in the early age of the solar system. The lunar impact formation model may need some revision. Another theory – Michael Woolfson, 2015 – considers the moon as one of the celestial bodies generated together with the earth at the early stages of the solar system creation.

Mme Blavatsky wrote (Collected Writings XIV, p. 142) : “The Theosophists, who alone will be able to take in the meaning, may be told that the Sun is the external manifestation of the Seventh Principle of our Planetary System, while the Moon is its Fourth Principle, shining in the borrowed robes of her master, saturated with and reflecting every passionate impulse and evil desire of her grossly material body, Earth.

Read more : Science Alert, Science Advances, Michael Woolfson

An Unknown Form of Neural Communication

Biology, Medicine

Source : Science Alert

Date : May 2020

Communication between the neurons – the elementary cells of the brain – has been conventionally understood, using mechanisms as synaptic transmission, axonal transport, etc. A team of scientists has identified a new, unknown process of neural communication which seems to leap wirelessly from neurons – even when they are severed. The transportation medium may be a set of electromagnetic waves which have been identified to be active during sleep in the cortex and the hippocampus. It looks like new science.

Read more : Science Alert , The Journal of Physiology