serkan zorba's blog

My spacetime-rotation model of the universe (see my papers in arXiv and blog posts here) proposes, effectively, to replace Big Bang with a more "natural" Big Spin which, although its own origin needs to be dealt with, does capably unify,  and naturally and  physically explain many seemingly unrelated and confusing outstanding cosmological problems: the cosmic inflation, dark energy, dark matter, and the "mysterious" intrinsic spin (angular momentum) of elementary particles, and the physical meaning and origin of Hubble's constant and Planck's constant. Again, please see my original dark energy-dark matter papers on arXiv for details. Here I would like to share with you something very exciting that I came across very recently about one of the founding theoreticians of the Big Bang theory:  George Gamow. After I came up with my rotary model of the universe, without any prior knowledge of the literature, in October 2010, I learned from Wikipedia that Kur

Spin quantum number is the fourth parameter needed to uniquely describe the quantum state of a, say, fermion such as an electron. It was originally postulated by the brilliant, albeit caustic, Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli. Shortly afterwards some physicists interpreted it as self-rotation. Pauli himself was not happy with this interpretation because a quick calculation shows that such a mechanical supposition requires a superluminal rotation of the electron's "surface," which goes counter to the dictates of the special theory of relativity. So how is quantum spin explained then? Is there a physical model for it? The standard answer to these questions is that we are supposed to think of quantum spin as a two-valued intrinsic quantum degree of freedom, corresponding to an "intrinsic" angular momentum, with no classical analog . And the majority of physicists follow this catechism. But I don't! When self-rotation so neatly explains the two-valuedn

As someone originally from Turkey (of Kurdish background) who follows the international news fairly closely, I have been particularly alarmed by the level of unfair and grossly inaccurate journalism vis-a-vis Turkey, post-Arab Spring. Here is a country that----under Erdogan's leadership----managed to turn its past economic and democratic dismal-self around remarkably in the last decade or so, and became, for the last couple of years, perhaps the most humanitarian of all governments, by allowing, and taking care of, some 3 million Syrian and Iraqi (Arabs, Kurds, Yezidis, Christians etc.) refugees  into its territory. But according to the most Western media, Turkey seems to be a horrible place where journalists are jailed and minorities are oppressed.  I urge you to investigate all these claims, looking at the arguments from both sides, not just the smug claims made by some in the Western media. For example, many of the journalists or people in question would face similar, if no

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

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 >>

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>>

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>>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Featured on  islamicity.com  and  iviews.com . Islamic extremism/terrorism is not a purely religiously motivated phenomenon at its roots. Like most human affairs, it is ultimately rooted in socio-political dynamics. In the case of the Islamic extremism: it is the culmination of two socio-political factors that made it to be the powder keg that it is now: A sclerotic (Islamic) civilization and the Western post colonial involvement in the Middle East, i.e., exploitation of the Middle Eastern oil, the plight of Palestinians etc. Continue reading >>

Reporter Con Coughlin wrote a piece on September 14, 2010, in the British Daily Telegraph alleging that the party of the Turkish premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan received $25 million from Iran. Coughlin provides absolutely no proof to support his claim. He just keeps invoking the ambiguous phrase “Western diplomats” as the “source” of his allegations. Continue reading>> Note: A version of this piece ran on Jim Lobe's blog and Islamicity's Iviews website.

Since its inception in 1920s, quantum mechanics has puzzled the philosophically minded by its bizarre philosophical implications. That the debate as to the meaning of quantum mechanics is still going on is an indication of the fact that the dust raised over the world of science by this revolutionary theory of microscopic world at the beginning of the twentieth century is not yet settled. Continue reading >>

First ran on Jim Lobe's blog . Up until the last few years, Turkey has been a democracy only in name. In reality, it has been a military-ruled regime since at least last five decades (there has been a military coup in Turkey almost every decade). Erdogan's government has been making strides in making Turkey more democratic and prosperous... Continue reading >> Reproduced with permission from lobelog.com

Howard Fineman wrote an article on Turkey in Newsweek on August 5, 2010. Overall, it is a nice and insightful article. And as someone who is originally from Turkey, I also found it to be flattering... Nevertheless, he did what many right-wing/neo-conservative pundits are doing these days: while acknowledging the humongous progress the party of Recep Tayyip Erdogan (AK Party), the current Turkish premier, made in the last seven or so years, they keep qualifying/blemishing their compliments by implying that Erdogan's party is (feared) to slowly change Turkey to an Islamic state. Continue reading >>

Featured on  islamicity.com  and  iviews.com . A humble attempt of the peace activists of the Gaza flotilla to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza succeeded what Hamas modus operandi could not have succeeded in a thousand years! Continue reading >> Reproduced with permission from islamicity.com