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Proposal to Establish World Electron Day

It is the mainstay of our electronics technology, from light bulbs to computers. It is also the particle whose dynamics controls all chemical reactions, and our biochemistry and genetics, from the firing of neurons to the information encoding in DNA. A lot of things would not exist if it were not for the electron, one of the main constituents of the atom. It is critical for physics; it is critical for chemistry; it is critical for biology; and it is critical for our civilization. There is no other subatomic particle that is so singularly and pervasively beneficial to our existence and civilization. So, I propound that we celebrate such a prominent entity—in an effort to raise awareness about the critical role it plays in our lives and civilization, and our vital dependence on this seemingly simple (fundamental) but truly versatile particle—by establishing a World Electron Day. This would be a focused opportunity for our youth and general public to appreciate, and raise aw

Math and Irony

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The famous Basel problem is an infinite series of the form: It was first posed by the Italian mathematician Pietro Mengoli in 1644. Read on >>

God is Random

Partly based on my essay:  God is Random: A Novel Argument for the Existence of God , European Journal of Science and Theology (2016). I had the original idea in around 2005 but could not get a chance to present it as an essay until recently. Featured on  islamicity.org  and  iviews.com . The perennial debate between the two camps of Creationism and Evolution is based on a fallacious assumption about chance, randomness, and God. The creationist, by whom I mean the anti-evolution type, shuns the ideas of chance and randomness, as for him/her they are the antithesis of what the concepts of God, order, harmony, and “intelligent design” are all about. Very often when creationists assault Darwin’s theory, they do it by pointing out how it is all based on random chance mutations, and thus an anathema to the notion of God. “How can order of high complexity come out of chance and randomness?” they rhetorically ask. Read on>>

Dark Energy and Dark Matter are Cosmic Centrifugal and Coriolis Forces

Below is my attempt at explaining the problems of dark energy and dark matter that I developed in 2010. The two most outstanding unsolved problems of modern cosmology today are the problems of dark energy and dark matter. Together these two problems imply that about a whopping 96% of the energy content of the universe is simply unaccounted for within the reigning paradigm of modern cosmology. T he dark energy problem has been around only for about two decades, while the dark matter problem has gone unsolved for about 90 years. Various ideas have been put forward, including some fantastic ones such as the presence of ghostly fields and particles. Some ideas even suggest the breakdown of the standard Newton-Einstein gravity for the relevant scales. Although some progress has been made particularly in the area of dark matter with the nonstandard gravity theories, the problems still stand unresolved.   Read on>>

So, Just Who is Dhul-qarnayn?

Featured on  islamicity.com  and  iviews.com . Dhul-qarnayn is a mysterious figure mentioned in the Qur’an whose identity has been a matter of contention and speculation to this day. Many differing theories were proposed on the identity of Dhul-qarnayn by Islamic scholars throughout the ages. This naturally has caused/been causing somewhat of a confusion.  In this article, I am going to offer yet another opinion as to who this mysterious figure is. My goal, of course, is not to add to the confusion but rather to help eliminate it. Read on >>

Muslims and Their Chronic Intellectual Stagnation

Featured on  islamicity.com  and  iviews.com . According to a quotation usually attributed to Einstein, insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again and yet expecting different results. In my view, this describes the state of the understanding and interpretation by Muslims of their way of life, i.e., Islam, for about the last few hundred years. Continue reading >>

Gezi Park Protests in Perspective

Featured on  islamicity.com  and  iviews.com . One has to distinguish between two kinds of protests that emerged from the Gezi Park demonstrations in Istanbul, Turkey: an innocent and legitimate one that took place in the early days of the protests, and a transmogrified version of the latter into a social engineering project to bring down the democratically elected and widely popular government of the AKP, Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party. The latter had been attempted numerous times within the decade-long rule of the AKP.   Continue Reading >>