The teeth of a tiny mollusk (Patella vulgata), which is a species of sea snails, have been found to be some of the strongest biomaterials in the world. Also known as limpets, these mollusks are a very small crustacean, often around 0.05-2 cm in size with a large cone shell and possess an incredibly complex system of teeth that dazzles the mind.

Research has revealed that the tensile strength of the sea snail’s teeth is higher than that of spider silk and is comparable to only the strongest commercial carbon fibers. It was found that the teeth of sea snails scraping algae off of rocks showed a tensile strength between 3 and 6.5 GPa (gigapascals). Spider silk roughly reaches a tensile strength of about only 1.3 Gpa. Scientists say that the snail’s teeth can even withstand the pressure that turns carbon into diamonds. Studies have determined that, to our current knowledge, there is no other material of this size (roughly 100 μm micrometers) with as much strength and durability.

This exceptional durability has led scientists to do research on the structure and functioning of these teeth, and the studies showed fascinating results.

The role of teeth in nutrition

Sea snails have a special tongue, called a radula, which they use to scrape off food from rocks. The most important feature of the radula is that it contains more than 100 rows of iron-mineral teeth. However, those used for food intake consist of only 10 rows on the outermost part of the teeth. During eating, a tremendous mechanism operates: the teeth are constantly repositioned according to their conditions of maturation and wear. Worn teeth are replaced by newly matured teeth over the course of 12 to 48 hours to ensure that fresh, sharp teeth are used instead of dulled ones.

This wonderful displacement system operates in a similar way to the movement mechanism on a conveyor belt where the teeth begin to grow primarily in the posterior part of the radula. Meanwhile, they are strengthened and matured by iron mineralization. When this mineralization is complete, they are moved towards the front of the radula. In this way, completely matured teeth are permanently retained at the far-front scraping area. During the scraping process, the matured teeth wear out at a rate equal to the growth rate. In the meantime, a new set of teeth begins to grow. By means of this magnificent cycle, new teeth are constantly created and matured so that there are no disruptions in nutrition.

Biomineralization

The structure of the sea snail’s teeth is also a masterpiece of material science. The dazzling durability of its structure provides optimum strength when scraping food off of rock surfaces.

Although the exact process of biomineralization of the teeth is not known, it is believed that it involves reactions of dissolution and re-precipitation. When the non-mineralized matrix is examined, well-arranged and densely packed chitin fibers are observed that are only a few nanometers apart. The matrix is a structure which keeps the reinforcing material together in layers that are composed of different materials. This organic matrix serves as a framework for crystallization in the structure of the teeth. In the mineralization system, the basic macromolecule α-chitin component is created first. The first mineral that then precipitates is the “goethite,” i.e. the aqueous iron-oxide mineral, which crystallizes parallel to the chitin fibers. These crystals are nucleated on the chitin fibers and formed between them by pushing and pulling the fibers. This way, crystals placed in order cause biomineralization of the structure.

It was found that 80% of the overall volume of the structure is composed of these crystals. The gap between the crystals and the chitin matrix is filled with amorphous silica (SiO₂). The iron contained in the aqueous iron-oxide mineral is the metal that constitutes the largest proportion of the composition. Other metals such as sodium, potassium, calcium, and copper are present in different proportions depending on the sea snail’s exact geographic location.

Critical factors in durability

The most important reason that the sea snail’s teeth have such high durability is because the fibers of the aqueous iron-oxide minerals in the teeth are nano-scale. This is due to the fact that materials of this size are not affected by the conditions that reduce strength.

Another critical durability factor is the small length of critical fibers. Critical fiber length is a parameter that defines the length of a material required to transfer strain from the matrix to the fibers at the time of external pressure. To achieve maximum strain, the length must be greater than the critical length. Materials with a large critical fiber length can hardly reinforce the matrix because most of the strain is not transferred to the fibers and remains on the matrix. On the contrary, materials with smaller critical lengths can transfer the strain on the matrix to the fibers. Therefore, they serve as an effective reinforcement for the matrix.

Fibers of aqueous iron-oxide minerals are of a critical length of 420 to 800 nanometers. This is much smaller than the length of the fibers in the teeth of about 3.1 µm (micrometers). This shows that nanofibers are an effective reinforcer for the matrix and contribute greatly to the ability of the teeth to bear loads.

Besides the structure and composition of the snail’s teeth, its morphological shape is also important in providing strength. It ensures that the strain is evenly distributed all over the tooth.

Modeling of biomaterials

All these studies indicate the presence of high-strength composites, which is when a material obtained by combining two or more materials with different physical characteristics, in nature.

Sea snail teeth, which have been created as a highly resistant and strong biomaterial, act as an inspiration for engineering and material science. Their characteristics, such as content and design, are expected to be modeled in areas that require durability and rigidity.

These marvelous systems found in the natural world, sometimes in creatures as tiny as a snail or mollusk, serve as a reminder that nature is filled with wonders for us to explore.

References

· Barber, Asa H., Dun Lu ve Nicola M. Pugno, Extreme Strength Observed in Limpet Teeth,  Journal of The Royal Society Interface, April 2015, DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2014.1326, PubMed.

· World’s Strongest Natural Material Discovered, How It Works, Imagine Publishing, No. 71, p. 11.

· en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limpet
www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/worlds-strongest-natural-material-limpet-teeth/

· www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Limpet

· Barber Asa H., Lu Dun and Pugno Nicola M. “Extreme strength observed in limpet teeth.” 12. J.R. Soc. Interface. http://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2014.1326

A new Artificial Intelligence (AI) approach to translate brain waves into speech

Akbari et al. Towards reconstructing intelligible speech from the human auditory cortex. Scientific Reports January, 2019.

In a recent study, researchers demonstrated that brain signals from the human auditory cortex can be reconstructed into intelligible speech with a high rate of success. In the study, the brain signals from the auditory cortexes of five participants (suffering from epilepsy) were recorded while they were listening to stories and numbers being read. Researchers specifically chose epilepsy patients as they were already undergoing a clinical procedure involving the placement of electrodes into the temporal lobe of their brains. This procedure is called invasive electrocorticography. The researchers then spoke 10 numbers into the ears of the test subjects: zero to nine. Each number produced a unique response in the brain. The sound produced by the vocoder in response to those brain signals was analyzed and cleaned up by neural networks, a type of artificial intelligence that mimics the structure of neurons in the biological brain. Remarkably, the robotic translations were successfully understood by 75% of people enlisted to test the technology. These results suggest a hopeful future for the Brain-Computer Interface. In particular, this new technology has great potential at giving a voice to people who are paralyzed or severely injured. Despite the potential, the path for a practical device is still long. To go beyond simple numbers and access the thoughts that go with speaking, the researchers will have to probe a different part of the brain known as the Broca area. It is found in the frontal lobe and linked to speech production and language processing.

Milky Way is warped and twisted, not flat

Chen, et al. An intuitive 3D map of the Galactic warp’s precession traced by classical Cepheids. Nature Astronomy February, 2019.

Astronomers have been studying the Earth’s home galaxy, the Milky Way, for centuries in efforts to get a better understanding of its size, structure, and place in the universe. While modern instruments have provided invaluable details about our galaxy and others, a truly accurate model of our galaxy has been missing. Researchers have recently built, for the first time, an accurate 3D map of the Milky Way. We often think of spiral galaxies as a flat thin disk of stars that orbit around a central region, where billions of stars provide the massive gravitational force to hold everything together. However, a new study showed that the Milky Way’s gas disk is no longer confined to a thin plane, but is instead organized in an S-like, warped appearance. The researchers determined the Milky Way’s exact shape at high accuracy by measuring the distances to so-called Cepheid variable stars. Cepheids are young stars that can be up to 20 times as massive and 100,000 times as bright as our Sun. These high stellar masses live fast and die young, sometimes after only a few million years. They also show day-to month-long pulsations, which are observed as changes in their brightness. Combined with a Cepheid’s observed brightness, its pulsation period can be used to obtain highly reliable distances.  By using the data of 1,339 Cepheid stars as benchmarks, researchers were able to map out accurate distances between objects in the Milky Way. Interestingly, in the Milky Way’s outer regions, they found that the S-like stellar disk is warped in a progressively twisted spiral pattern. Researchers suggested that the Milky Way’s warped spiral pattern is most likely caused as a result of rotational forcing or “torques” by the massive inner disk. The further stars are from the center of the galaxy, the weaker their gravitational pull is. This new morphology is expected to provide a crucial updated map of our galaxy’s stellar motions and the origins of the Milky Way’s galaxy.

Smart fabric self-cools or self-insulates depending on conditions

Zhang et al. Dynamic gating of infrared radiation in a textile. Science, February 2019

Decades of innovation in fabrics have yielded high-tech materials that react to hot and cold conditions, allowing them to keep marathon runners cool or alpine hikers warm. However, there was never a material that could change the insulating properties of fabric in response to the environment. A recently developed fabric is the first to automatically warm wearers up or cool them down as needed. Infrared radiation is the primary way the body releases heat and is the focus of this new technology. When the condition is warm or moist, like when a body sweats, the fabric allows the infrared radiations to pass through. Conversely, in cool and dry conditions, the fabric traps the surrounding heat that escapes. The fibers are made of two different synthetic materials coated in carbon nanotubes – one absorbs water, and the other repels it. When the material gets hot and wet during sweating, the strands twist and warp. This distortion brings the strands of yarn closer together, which opens the pores in the fabric to allow heat to escape. When a wearer is too cool, this mechanism is blocked, trapping heat close to the skin. The reaction takes place almost instantly. The garment cools people down before they realize that they are getting hot. Athletes perhaps will be the first people to wear clothes made from the material, but it could be useful for infants, people with disabilities, and the elderly. Researchers say it could be in production within months as the base material is easily available and the carbon coating can be effortlessly added during the standard dying process.

he debate over religion’s role in social change has been raging for centuries.

The interpretation and perception of even just a single social action is multi-layered, multi-faceted, complex, and sophisticated. It almost seems impossible to explain a social action entirely through any of our sciences; in fact, it seems unlikely that any science will be developed that fully encompasses all of humanity’s problems.

As human beings our needs, conscious or unconscious, stretch from a tiny atomic particle to nearly the whole universe. It sometimes seems that the whole universe and all that within it are not good enough to satisfy even the smallest need of our unlimited desire. Some have asserted that one day human beings are going to play the role of God. They do this because of their strong and persistent belief that we are merely the product of material existence and it is therefore the material realm that makes us who we are. As such, they believe we will eventually rule over the things that created us.

Others would undoubtedly take a whole different direction and argue that our nature is a complex, interwoven tapestry of the material and immaterial realms; it is imprecise to contend that it is only economic conditions or conditioning that beget all the other elements of our social and individual lives, which includes things such as literature, the fine arts, religion, and the like. Hence, I intend to examine the notions of two influential intellectuals of the recent past: Karl Marx and Max Weber, particularly their notions as to religion.

To begin with, the history of humanity has seen a lot of wars, but the intellectual war that we have experienced over the past two centuries, which split the entire world into two blocks of countries (until recently they were communist and capitalist), should be of the greatest interest to almost everyone; it has been a one-of-a-kind struggle.

Marx, a reductionist, framed his argument as such:

“…the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a single word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.”

He wrote this about the sorry state of the working class, especially in the nineteenth century, when workers were treated almost like machines or animals. This was particularly true in Western Europe. Even from just these few lines, one could easily grasp the sympathy of Marx for the working class of his time, what he called the oppressed, and his animosity and utter disgust toward the elite class, what he called the oppressor. It is no surprise then to see him portray a system in which the rights of the oppressed to a happy life could not be realized as needing to be overthrown through a social upheaval or revolution against the oppressors. For Marx, everything was crystal clear: it was the economic system which made the elites oppress their workers (please see “Karl Marx: the Prophet of Materialism” article in this issue).

Marx frequently turned to the then recent revolutions occurring in Western Europe: the English Civil War of the 1600s and the French Revolution. These struggles cost many lives and were for him just a new chapter in the ever-repeating class struggle between the oppressor and the oppressed.

On the surface, the apparent causes of the infamous conflict could be identified as politics and religion, which were quite intertwined then. A thorough analysis of Marx’s society enabled him to discover the subtle connection between the social class divisions and the stages of economic development, and allowed him to postulate his version of human salvation: communism, in which the superstructure, with all its elements including religion, would perish eternally in the name of a utopian, classless society. He prophesied a future in which the communal life of people would be shaped by a new idealized economic system that negated all private ownership of property, monopolized the political structure, and left no room for religion in social and individual life. As a matter of fact, most of his writings reflect his reactive response to the perceived evils or fatal flaws of capitalism. For instance, while some people enjoyed luxurious lives because of the fact that they were born to a rich family, many others endured the severest conditions just to survive. Witnessing this, one cannot help but wonder, “Is the economic system to be blamed for this?” Or even, “Are the ill-perception, misuse, and exploitation of the system the culprit?” I am completely sure that every sensible human being would appreciate the diagnosis of the diseases of class struggle and the oppression of the poor, but I also think it is hasty to reflexively blame the system – capitalism – as being solely to blame for the wretched conditions of the oppressed. According to Marx, religion was the opiate fed by the oppressors to the oppressed to keep them in line. To realize the revolution that Marx felt was necessary, this opiate had to be eliminated.

His approach to religion was always contemptuous and very similar to the functional and reductionist theories of Freud and Durkheim. In his view, religion is nothing more than a pure illusion – in other words, an entity that has no real existence. Therefore, he did not heed what religious beliefs or holy books taught; rather, he emphasized the function that religion and its fundamental elements played in social life. Even though his portrayal of religion was reduced to a social function, he still maintained that we should discover why people insist on this illusion, arguably since the beginning of human life.

As depicted above, Marx left no room for religion in his imagined world after the envisaged revolution against the oppressor. He saw it as an effect, an expression or a symptom of a deeper reality: material facts of the class struggle and alienation. Religion was the culprit to be annihilated in the name of real human bliss.

On the other hand, almost a half century later, a young and bright social scientist would dare to hold a completely different account of religion and argue that though the economic conditions of an individual or a society could determine the tone of some religious beliefs or practices, history would bear witness otherwise. He stated:

“…the side of the problem which is generally most difficult to grasp: the influence of certain religious ideas on the development of an economic spirit, or the ethos of an economic system. In this case we are dealing with the connection of the spirit of the modern economic life with the rational ethics of ascetic Protestantism. Thus we treat here only one side of the causal chain.”

In “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism,” Max Weber diligently outlined a delicate connection between an attitudinal and doctrinal change in the framework of a religious group of Protestantism and the economic development that followed. Throughout his scholarly treatise, he gave an exquisitely drawn picture of the early Protestants, particularly the pioneers of Protestantism: Martin Luther and John Calvin. In fact, he claimed that the self-constraining ethic of Protestantism that stemmed from the inner-worldly asceticism fostered with frugality, personal discipline, solemnity, thrift, self-denial, hard work, investment, and making the best use of one’s time and resources was the spirit of capitalism. There was, he explained, a sharp difference between the adherents of the then Catholic Church, which regarded the daily chores and business enterprises as petty issues compared to the religious works of monks, nuns, and priests (other-worldly asceticism), and the followers of early Protestantism, who praised any effort to please God, including daily chores and especially the acquisition of wealth (inner-world asceticism).

He aptly placed this sharp change of attitude in the disciples of Calvin towards the acquisition of wealth at the very center of the eventual rise of the capitalist economy and the birth of a new civilization. Some monumental maxims like, “A penny saved is a penny earned…”, “Time is money; sloth is sin…”; “Even the humblest tasks are solemn duties assigned by God Himself…”; “All work, not just religious work, was a calling from God; it should not be done but done well, as a faithful service carried out under the great Taskmaster’s eye…” reflect this spirit of capitalism in Protestant countries like the United States and England. For Weber, “an idea in the mind of one human agent (or shared by a group of agents) is as much a real cause of human action as the application of heat to water is the real cause of steam.” Therefore, the backbone of the current capitalism originates in the very change in the belief system of a group of religious people. Such a claim is a consistent proof for social scientists like Weber to argue against the extremely reductionist notions of religion like that of Marx.

The two contrasting views of religion are significantly worth studying. While Marx, with his infamous animosity towards religion, divorced it from his utopian communist society and sentenced it to death forever, he adamantly upheld the necessities of human nature and pointed out the fact that negligence of the material aspect of life would result in absurdities in the name of human salvation. Moreover, his emphasis that history had become an arena of social class struggle urged humans to find lasting resolutions in order to establish projections of heavenly bliss on earth. Humanity undoubtedly owes him a round of applause due to his incessant efforts to vocalize the rights of the oppressed to life, dignity, and freedom. However, it is truly heartbreaking to see that he could not apprehend the real core of religion, which is pure devotion, compassion, self-denial, and other humble traits. If only he had chosen a different path that appreciated the diverse nature of humanity, of which religion is a distinguished component. I have never understood why Marx negated the fact that as material conditions shape ideas, ideas also cause material beings to change. Hence, unlike Marx, Weber approved of the fact that the key cause of the capitalist revolution was not some material circumstance, but a new form of economic behavior that followed logically from a new religious idea: “the self-constraining ethic of Protestantism was the animating spirit of capitalism.”

Has the battle come to an end yet? Honestly, I would assert it is an ongoing process. As we progress in light of the more inspiring notions of contemporary social scientists, we come to realize how wrong it is to reduce a very deeply embedded part of human social and individual life -religion- to something superficial or hypothetical. It is rather to be understood as something “sui generis” and a multi-faceted reality – a reality in and of itself. It is unquestionably inspiring to see several people search for an answer to what religion is and at the same time quite overwhelming to know that a great number of things in religion need an unbiased, pure, and sophisticated mind supported with the sublime emotions or faculties of the (metaphorical) heart. Furthermore, it is absolutely necessary to devise a new, multicolored approach to religious studies that embrace not only the fine-tuned minds but also the purified hearts. It would be wise to heed Kant’s argument against pure reason: “The ultimate truth can never be known through the theoretical mind. Only then can it be perceived partially via the practical mind.” Finally, it wouldn’t be a mere exaggeration to assert that what religion is or what role it plays in social and individual lives is a question of life and death to a certain degree. Hence, is religion a cause, an effect – or both? While many would say it is just an effect, several others would sail to the shore of “a cause”; still others, like me, agree that religion is both, and that every thought or emotion should get the benefit of the doubt.

References

1. Anatomy of the Sacred, an introduction to religion, 5th Ed. by James C. Livingston
2. Introducing Religion, readings from the classic theorist, by Daniel L. Pals
3. Eight Theories of Religion, 2nd Ed., by Daniel L. Pals
4. Gale Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd Ed.
5. Encyclopedia of Quran by Jane Dammen McAuliffe

After the discovery of using steel to reinforce concrete, reinforced concrete buildings became extremely popular and presented a significant solution to the housing needs of urban populations.

The composition of concrete

Concrete is a structural material formed via blending sand, gravel, cement, and water. The specifications and ratios of the materials present in the mix directly determine the quality of the concrete. Generally, this ratio is 31 sand, 46 gravel, 15 cement, and 8 water. These ratios may vary depending on the construction needs.

The mixture of sand and gravel is described as an aggregate. Usually, aggregates up to 7 mm are called sand, and aggregates between 7-70 mm are called gravel. The most important role of the aggregate as a fill material is to reduce the volumetric changes of the concrete. The dough composed of water and cement displays great changes in volume. The introduction of sand and gravel into the cement helps to lessen these changes and also saves resources, since it is cheaper than cement. In order to obtain a concrete of good quality and applicable texture, the sand and gravel grains should be as round as possible and have similar diameters to each other.

Cement is produced from grinding a mixture of clay stones and limestone (CaCO3) that are cured at high temperatures. Cement is very important; when combined with water, it helps concrete to quickly solidify. The time the mix takes to solidify is called the setting time, and it is usually between an hour and an hour and a half, depending on environmental conditions. This time is shorter on warmer days and longer on colder days. Concrete begins to gain endurance (hardening) as it solidifies. It takes 28 days for the concrete to reach an endurance of 60-90 , and a much longer time to reach 100, depending on conditions. The cement amount in a cubic meter of concrete is called the dosage. One common and incorrect perception is that concrete endurance changes with the dosage. However in a mixture of a well adjusted sand and gravel ratio, concrete endurance depends on the water-cement ratio.

The water that can be used in the concrete mixture should be drinkable water that does not contain acids and salts. It is important that the water has a pH value higher than 7 and is free of carbonic acid, manganese compounds, ammonium salts, free chlorine, mineral oils, and industrial waste. Therefore, it should not be forgotten that sea water must not be used in the concrete mixture because of the salt it contains.

The properties of steel

Iron alloys that can be processed mechanically – either through pressing or rolling – are called steel. Iron is the most abundant metal in the Earth’s crust, making up nearly 4.5 of it. The most important element that specifies the property of steel is carbon. The role of carbon in steel’s structure is to harden the iron alloy and prevent the shifting of iron atoms. By adjusting the amount of carbon in the alloy, steel’s hardness, ductility, and endurance can be changed. Both the endurance and hardness of steel increases as the amount of carbon is enriched. However, this application increases steel’s fragility, reducing some of its features, such as ductility. Therefore, a 5 carbon level in the raw iron obtained through the melting of iron ore is decreased to 0.1 0.2, enabling steel to be processed. Iron alloys (steel) composed of elements such as carbon, silicon, manganese, chromium, copper, nickel and molybdenum are utilized in building structures.

The conformity of concrete and steel as reinforced concrete

Reinforced concrete materials are used in the construction of buildings, bridges, dams, and tunnels. The use of reinforced concrete became common at the end of the nineteenth century. For the best final product, the concrete and steel should be well integrated, and both should be of high quality.

Concrete and steel are two substances with very different characteristics. However, an inseparable coupling forms by balancing one’s disadvantages with the other’s advantages. Concrete is a material of high pressure endurance. And even though steel also has high pressure endurance, it still faces the risk of bending. The tensile strength of concrete is weak, but it is high in steel. Concrete is fire resistant; steel is vulnerable. Concrete is durable against external impacts, whereas steel is vulnerable, with a high risk of corrosion. Concrete has a brittle, breakable structure; steel, however, has a higher level of ductility. Even though concrete and steel generally behave the opposite of each other, they compensate for each other when they are together. For example, the tendency of steel to bend disappears after it is surrounded with concrete; concrete also increases steel’s resistance to fire and corrosion. Furthermore, with the steel’s presence inside it, the tensile strength of concrete is enhanced.

The first of the three characteristic features of reinforced concrete buildings is the compensation of all tensile forces via steel rods; the second one is the integration of concrete and steel into each other like the adherence of flesh and bone; and finally, concrete and steel have the same thermal expansion coefficients. The thermal expansion coefficient is the value that determines the amount a material will expand or retract when impacted by heat. The thermal expansion coefficients of substances on Earth vary greatly. For instance, aluminum has a coefficient of 2,2×10-5 L/0C, copper of 1,7×10-5 L/0C, gold of 1,4×10-5 L/0C and glass of 0,85×10-5 L/0C (L= Length). It is harder for materials of different thermal expansion coefficients to have conforming movements. The most important reason for the harmonious union of concrete and steel is that their thermal coefficient values are almost the same (1,2×10-5 L/0C). If this was not the case, because of the temperature differences of inside and outside environments, the concrete and steel that make up the reinforced concrete would expand at different speeds, resulting in cracks and fractures of the load bearing elements of the building (columns, beams, flooring).

Though concrete and steel have vastly different properties, their thermal expansion coefficient values are the same and this causes them to move together during temperature changes. A similar system is put to use during the creation of cartilage, bone, and connective tissues in our body. The fibers of the connective tissue resemble the iron and steel, the cells are similar to gravel, and the intercellular matrix resembles the cement. The difference is that this system is renewed dynamically, and is flexible and strong.

Brittlestars form a large group of sea animals that are similar to starfish. There are more than 2,000 species of brittlestars. However, this article will focus on two of them, Ophiocoma pumila (Figure 1a) and Ophiocoma wendtii (Figure 1b). In spite of their similar appearance, these two kinds of brittlestars have one main difference. While O. pumila is insensitive to light, O. wendtii is highly light sensitive. For example, the latter has different colors at day and night, as shown in Figure 1b, left and right respectively. More interestingly, O. wendtii can sense shadows of predators and quickly move into dark areas such as a cave or underneath a rock.

To understand the mechanisms behind the difference in light sensitivities of these two species, Joanna Aizenberg and her colleagues investigated1 the microstructure of both brittlestars’ outer skeletons with an electron microscope and came up with a striking result: The top surface of O. wendtii’s skeleton has very well ordered lens-like hemi spherical elements (Figure 1f). The cross section image of one of those hemispheres actually looks like a compound lens made up from two hemispheres with different diameters (Figure 1g). On the other hand, O. pumila’s skeleton had a typical stereom (sponge-like calcite) structure (Figure 1e). These images strongly suggest that the lenses in O. wendtii’s skeleton are responsible for the relatively high light sensitivity. However, understanding how that really happens require further investigation.

It is well-known that spherical lenses suffer from a problem called “spherical aberration,” which means that the light rays that are closer to the optical axis are focused at a different point than the ones that are away from the axis. A quick solution to this problem is to use two lenses, whose diameters have a certain ratio, back to back; this helps to correct the aberration originating from the first one with the second one. Interestingly, when Aizenberg et. al. calculated1 the optimum compound lens configuration for O. wendtii’s skeleton, which has the minimum aberration, their result matched the original lens structure perfectly (the orange outline in Figure 1e). They were also able to locate the focal point of these lenses (d = 4-7 um* below the lens) with the same method. Their further electron microscopy studies showed optically sensitive nerve bundles exactly at that location. All these results clearly show that O. wendtii’s skeleton has the perfect geometry to collect and focus light to improve its light sensitivity. However, there is one big question about these lenses: their material.

Calcite, a kind of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), is a common ingredient of the shell or the skeleton of marine organisms. Interestingly, the birefringence property of calcite makes it very unfavorable as a lens material. In a birefringent material the speed of the light depends on the direction it travels with respect to the crystallographic axes of the material. As a result, if one looks through it, they will observe a doubly refracted image (Figure 2). Being the most famous example of birefringent crystals, calcite’s refractive index is 1.64 parallel to one crystallographic axis and 1.49 in the perpendicular direction. Therefore a regular calcite lens cannot focus light on a single spot, unless it is oriented along a special crystallographic axis (c-axis to be specific), which would be along the diagonal of the prism in Figure 2.

At this point we are not surprised to learn that the optical axis of the O. wendtii’s lenses, and the c-axis of the calcite crystal that they are made of, indeed overlap. We are not surprised because we already had a strong feeling that these lenses should work. However, it is quite surprising that these little creatures can grow single crystals of calcite with a specific crystallographic orientation. As Kenneth Towe states in the context of a similar study, “This precise orientation of crystals is the big mystery of biomineralization. Organisms know how to do it; we do not yet know how they know.”3

Biomineralization, the controlled deposit of inorganic minerals by living organisms, is a very active research field attracting many scientists from various disciplines, including biology, physics, chemistry, and material science. In general, controlling crystal structures at small length scales is a very challenging task. Scientists spend millions of dollars to build state-of-the-art facilities for single crystal materials synthesis. They work in clean rooms, under an ultra high vacuum and at extremely high temperatures. On the other hand, from brittlestars to large whales, almost all living creatures have biominerals, such as bones and shells, manufactured in chemically dirty environments and at decent temperatures. Organisms are apparently equipped more efficiently than our laboratories are.

A. Ali Eren has a Ph.D. in Physics and lives in the USA. He studies physical chemistry of biological processes.

References

*1 um (micron) is one thousandth of a millimeter. Human hair is approximately 100 micron thick.

1. Aizenberg, Joanna, et al. “Calcitic microlenses as part of the photoreceptor system in brittlestars.” Nature 412.6849 (2001): 819-822.
2. ttp://jademellor.com/blog/2013/6/21/rainbow-rhombus, accessed 4/20/2014
3. Towe, Kenneth M. “Sea urchins as crystallographers.” Science 311.5767 (2006): 1554-1555.

“Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.” Cree Indian Proverb

The table I have under my laptop while writing this article, the materials used for my laptop, the cover case for my phone, the pen I have by my phone, the package for the mail I have received, the dividers I have in my notebook, the hair dryer I have for drying my samples before performing FT-IR on my samples, the FT-IR machine itself … They are all made up of plastics. I could go on and on, giving examples of what I observe in my immediate environment made of plastics. It would not be exaggerated to say that after the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age, we are now living in the “Plastic Age” given the fact that the production of plastics has increased from 1.5 million tons per year in the 1950’s to 260 million tons per year in 2007.1 The majority of plastics we use in our daily life are petroleum-based plastics. What that means is, the starting materials of these plastics are chemicals derived from crude oil. There are some major concerns related with these petroleum based plastics – the Earth may run out of oil one day, or the questionable durability of how these plastics biologically degrade. Further environmental concerns exist, such as the toxic additives these plastics contain, including plasticizers like adipates and phthalate. Burning these plastics can release billions of tons of toxic pollutants every year; moreover, most plastic production reactions are done in toxic solvents, so the disposal of these solvents becomes a problem.2 Reflecting on it, it’s an incredible mercy that we have been able to get away with all the waste we have produced up to this point. But the question is: how much longer can we get away with such wasteful behavior?

One of Paulo Coelho’s passages from his book The Winner Stands Alone exactly describes my attitude and desire to “go green.” My heart pounds as I read the sentences that so touched me:

It seems now that-despite wars, famine in Africa, terrorism, the violation of human rights, and the arrogant attitude of certain developed countries-our main preoccupation is saving poor planet Earth from the many threats created by human society. “Ecology. Save the planet. How ridiculous.”

Hamid knows, however, that there’s no point in fighting the collective unconscious. The colors, the accessories, the fabrics, the so-called charity events attended by the Superclass, the books being published, the music being played on the radio, the documentaries made by ex-politicians, the new films, the material used to make shoes, the new bio-fuels, the petitions handed in to members of parliament and congressmen, the bonds being sold by the largest of the world banks, everything appears to focus on one thing: saving the planet. Fortunes are made overnight; large multinationals are given space in the press because of some completely irrelevant action they are taking; unscrupulous NGOs place advertisements on the major TV channels and receive hundreds of millions of dollars in donations because everyone seems obsessed with the fate of the Earth. Whenever he reads articles in newspapers or magazines written by politicians using global warming or the destruction of the environment as a platform for their electoral campaigns, he thinks:

“How can we be so arrogant? The planet is, was, and always will be stronger than us. We can’t destroy it; if we overstep the mark, the planet will simply erase us from its surface and carry on existing. Why don’t they start talking about not letting the planet destroy us? Because ‘saving the planet’ gives a sense of power, action, and nobility. Whereas ‘not letting the planet destroy us’ might lead to feelings of despair and impotence, and to a realization of just how very limited our capabilities are.” 3

On that note I would like to share some amazing facts I found while searching articles written on bacterial biopolymers, but first of all I would like to introduce some definitions on the concepts I will be writing about.

Plastics have many definitions, but usually, in a daily conversation, plastics mean “anything that can be molded or shaped.” Scientifically, a plastic is a sub category of a polymer. Poly- meaning “more than one” and -mer meaning “member of a particular group.”[4] Basically, a polymer is a naturally occurring or synthetic compound made of many relatively simple repeating units that are linked together in the same fashion, forming a carbon rich backbone in most cases. For example, PVC is a well known synthetic polymer, in which the monomer (the repeating unit) as seen in Figure 1 is repeated several times. A well known natural polymer is cellulose, in which the monomer as seen in Figure 2 is repeated several times.

Here it is important to note the difference between a polymer and a plastic. All plastics are polymers, as in the example of PVC, whereas not all polymers are plastics, as in the example of cellulose. The combination of the chemicals, and the type of bonds these chemicals are linked to each other by, determines the properties and applications of the polymers. The molecular weight of the polymer depends on how many times the monomer repeats itself. The molecular weight of polymers can be controlled during production with chemical techniques. One significant difference between natural vs. synthetic polymers is the molecular weight distribution. When the polymer is synthesized in the lab, the polymer product is a combination of different molecular weight chains. In other words, when a polymerization reaction takes place, lots of polymer chains are produced and one chain is never the same length or weight as another. Instead, there is a molecular weight distribution as seen in Figure 3, where most of the polymer chains in the solution have a molecular weight close to the value of Mw. So in the solution, we will have polymer chains that have molecular weights close to each other, and some extreme short or long polymer chains. It is impossible to synthesize a polymeric solution where all the polymer chains are of identical length and weight; therefore, we speak about the average molecular weight when the case is synthetic polymers. However, when we look at any polymer produced in nature, we see that the polymer chain length and molecular weight are the same every time the polymer is produced. So instead of a molecular weight distribution, natural polymers have a molecular weight value. This is important because the narrower the molecular weight distribution is, the better.

When talking about bio plastics, it is important to make the differentiation between bio-derived plastics and bio-based plastics. As Dr. R. Narayan explained in his talk at Johnson County Community College[5] , bio-derived plastics means that the plastic is isolated from a living organism, meaning that the living organism performs the polymerization reaction and then you extract the polymer from the organism.

On the other hand, bio-based plastics mean that the starting material of the plastic is derived from a living organism instead of a petroleum-based material, but it is polymerized into a plastic by humans. Therefore, not all bio-based plastics are biodegradable; however, the fact that the starting material is from a plant that can be replaced in a couple of years rather than a petroleum-based product which can only be replaced after a couple million years, drives motivation for their usage. There is the ethical concern that bio-based plastics are usually made from food sources, such as corn, however Dr. R. Narayan, who is one of the leaders in the field, argues that if the situation is handled appropriately, this should not be a problem. He argues that one up-side of the situation would be to increase values of crops and the prevention of mass migration to big cities. It’s your call to decide which side you favor more.

What is more interesting to me is the polymers being created in nature. A chemistry doctorate, Dr. Lon J. Mathias, writes that “We humans make nylons in tons per day in huge chemical plants where simple molecules are joined together in large quantities to give products that we need or want. Nature is much more careful and concise in how she does things. For a living organism to make an enzyme, another enzyme or active species must be involved. The synthesis always involves a template, or recording, of how the individual amino acids are to be joined together to give the final polymer. The enzyme adds a single amino acid, one at a time, as indicated by the mRNA. This is a slow and tedious process and takes a long time. Sometimes the enzyme gets frustrated, waiting for the right amino acid to come along, and slaps a wrong one on instead. To compensate for this, the enzyme is made to back up occasionally to check its work. If it has made a mistake, it has a process for clipping out the wrong amino acid and inserting the right one. We humans never do this. If we make a mistake, we simply grind it up and throw it away.”6

Dr. Mathias goes on, comparing the manufacturing conditions between nature’s form of polymerization and humanity’s. He says polypeptides in nature are synthesized in water, whereas we synthesize our polypeptides in toxic organic solvents. “This leads us to a problem: what do we do with the organic solvents when we’re through? Sometimes we burn them, but more commonly we try to recycle these materials, which not only are getting more expensive to buy in the first place (compared to cheap water, which is everywhere, or almost everywhere) but are also a responsibility for their recycling, purification, and final disposal. An example of how nature uses water in this way, and one which we still haven’t figured out, is the production of spider silk. Spiders spin their webs from solutions of polypeptides in water. These solutions are squeezed through the spider’s tiny spinneret and elongated quickly to form the spider webs which we’ve all seen and sometimes become tangled in. What’s really weird is that, once these spider webs form, they are no longer soluble in water. If we could just figure out how spiders first make spider silk in water and then spin their webs from it, we could make nylon the same way. This might save us a lot of waste disposal problems, and money.”6

Another spectacular creation in nature is polymers produced in bacteria which can be used as plastics once isolated from the bacteria. A wide range of biopolymers that are synthesized in bacteria serve diverse biological functions and have material properties suitable for numerous industrial and medical applications.7 Different carbon sources are efficiently converted into a diverse range of polymers with varying chemical and material properties.7 To be a little more specific, four major classes of polymers are produced by bacteria: polysaccharides, polyesters, polyamides and inorganic polyanhydrides (such as polyphosphates).7 These polymers serve various biological functions, for example, as reserve material or as part of a protective structure, and can provide a substantial advantage for bacteria under certain environmental conditions.7 Some of these biopolymers can be isolated from bacteria and can be used as plastic. Biopolymers are, by definition, biodegradable, and so their application as commodity products becomes increasingly attractive in view of the desire to avoid the use of recalcitrant oil based polymers that will accumulate in the environment.7 Biodegradable means that when exposed to the microbial flora present in a given environment (for example, in soil or water), biopolymers are fully degraded and mineralized to CO2 and H2O.5 The reason biopolymers are 100% degradable is, as they are produced in bacteria as storage material, they have sites where bacterial enzymes could attack to break them down when they search for nutrients. Whereas other polymers – even bio based polymers – will not have these enzymatic sites, so they are not always biodegradable.

One popular class of polymers produced by bacteria which can be used as plastics is called polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA’s). PHA’s are a class of polymers produced in nature by the bacterial fermentation of sugar or lipids. They are produced by bacteria to store carbon and energy when there is a nutrient lacking from the environment. Many kinds of bacteria are able to produce PHA’s, such as soil inhabiting bacteria, and many bacteria in activated sludge, high seas, or extreme environments. 8 As we store fats in our bodies, the bacterium store PHA’s. In an environment that contains all of the necessary nutrients, bacteria grow and reproduce – in other words they produce biomass. However, when subjected to specific nutrient depletion (nutrients such as nitrogen or phosphorus) and excess amount of carbon resources, the bacterium starts storing PHA granules (Picture 3). The moment the missing nutrient is introduced back into the environment, the bacterium starts degrading the PHA granules and continues to produce biomass. Therefore, by manipulating the nutrient resources in the environment and providing optimum conditions, bacterium can be pushed to produce PHA’s.[9]

There are metabolic pathways involving various enzymes for the conversion of carbon sources to polymers. Scientists have been trying to genetically engineer bacteria for the increased production of these polymers. In some cases it is possible to over-express the key enzymes in the pathways to achieve increased production of PHA. However, this kind of research takes a lot of time and effort because altering biological activity is a very complicated process and in most cases, cells give unpredictable responses to alterations. By feeding the bacterium with different carbon sources at different conditions, it is also possible to alter the composition of the polymers. Moreover, different strains of bacterium produce different types of polymers; therefore, the range of biopolymer research is very wide. With over 150 different PHA monomers (the repeating unit of polymers) being reported, PHA with flexible thermal and mechanical properties have been developed. 7 Such diversity has allowed the development of various applications.

During his speech at the “2nd International PLASTiCE Conference Trends in Bioplastics” in Slovenia, 9 Dr. Martin Koller explained that there are two types of PHA’s that a microorganism produces. The first type are short length PHA’s (3-5 carbons in the backbone) and the second type are medium chain length PA’s (6-12 carbons in the backbone). While the medium chain length PHA’s can be used for biodiesel production, the short chain length PHA’s can be used as thermoplastics (plastics that can melt with heat, and can therefore be processed with the help of heat). These thermoplastics can be isolated from the organisms they are produced in by solvent extraction, mechanical disruption, or by using hypotonic media (having the lower osmotic pressure of two fluids) for cells that have high intracellular osmotic pressure.9 In the last case, the cells will explode due to the pressure difference and release the PHA’s; deionized water can be used as the hypotonic media. However, only specific strains can be treated with this method. At the moment, the most common technique used for extraction is solvent extraction. These solvents – such as chloroform or dichloromethane – are generally toxic, therefore creating a contradiction with the point of producing biopolymers.

Although not mainstream, some of these bacterial plastics are produced in the industrial world.8 The simplest and widest application for bacterial plastics is for packaging purposes. They can also be used in therapeutic applications, as they are generally biocompatible. Drugs can be incorporated into them, therefore as they biodegrade, they release the drug in a controlled time frame.9 For example, Dr. Martin Koller and his group have just finalized a project called “BRIC – BioResorbable Implants for Children,” funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG).10 Their purpose was to isolate a biocompatible polymer produced from bacterium which could be degraded and removed from the body within a certain time. The point of this project is based on the fact that in contrast to the traditional implants that need to be removed from the body after a certain amount of time, such as plates, screws or pins, the newly developed implants could be degraded and removed from the body naturally, preventing the need for a second surgery. This is a great advantage, especially for children, who would suffer greatly from additional surgeries.

Bacterial bioplastics have many other applications; however the biggest obstacle for their usage is the cost of production. During his speech, Dr. Keller stated the production of bacterial bioplastics is around five times more costly than petroleum based plastics. Most of the cost is related with the bioreactors needed to grow the bacterium and the solvents used to extract the polymers. The scientists are hoping to develop new techniques to reduce the cost of the polymers.

It is breathtaking that these creatures we cannot even see with the naked eye have been synthesizing polymers as well as we do, if not even better, and for a lot longer than us. The polymers they synthesize are completely biodegradable, have a constant molecular weight, and do not require toxic chemicals for their production, unlike the synthetic polymers we produce in the lab. They don’t harm nature as we do. And THAT is powerful.

References

1- Simon, Tristan (2007). “Experience Curves in the World Polymer Industry” Utrecht University, Netherlands.

2- Lei Pei, Markus Schmidt and Wei Wei (2011). “Conversion of Biomass into Bioplastics and Their Potential Environmental Impacts, Biotechnology of Biopolymers.” InTech.

3- Coelho Paulo(2008), “The Winner Stands Alone.” pg: 139.

4- http://dictionary.reference.com/

5- Narayan, Ramani (2013)”Bioplastics and Reducing Carbon Footprint.” JCCC Video. Johnson County Community College, USA.

6- Mathias, Lon J. (2005).”Natural Polymers.” Polymer Science Learning Center. The University of Southern Mississippi, USA.

7- Rehm, Bernd H.A.(2010). “Bacterial polymers: biosynthesis, modifications and applications” Nature Reviews Microbiology. Massey University, New Zealand.

8- Chen, Guo-Qiang (2010). “Plastics Completely Synthesized by Bacteria: Polyhydroxyalkanoates”. Plastics from Bacteria: Natural Functions and Applications, Microbiology Monographs, Springer. Tsinghua University, China.

9- Koller, Martin (2012). “Polyhydroxyalkanoates: Biodegradable polymeric materials from renewable resources” Plastice Project Video. 2nd International PLASTiCE Conference Trends in Bioplastics, Slovenia.

10- No name (2013).”Plastics from Renewable Raw Materials:Body automatically breaks down implants” Graz University of Technology, Austria.

11- Nishiyama, Yoshiharu; Langan, Paul; Chanzy, Henri (2002). “Crystal Structure and Hydrogen-Bonding System in Cellulose Iβ from Synchrotron X-ray and Neutron Fiber Diffraction”. J. Am. Chem.The University of Tokyo, Japan.

12- Ritter, Stephen(2005). “Green Success.” Science and Technology. pg: 40-43.

13- Waters Co. (2013). “GPC-Gel Permeation Chromatography”. Web.

Worship is essentially categorized into two sections: worship through financial/material means and physical/bodily worship. This categorization does not mean they are totally unrelated; in many ways, they are interconnected. For example, the daily prayers that we perform with our bodies certainly have material aspects, like time and place. As a matter of fact, the inner and outer conditions that are required for a proper prayer (like cleanliness, washing, dressing, etc.) are also related to the material world, too.

Alms is a kind of fiscal worship, but it also requires one to labor in a job or be physically present in the marketplace, so as to achieve a certain degree of wealth from which to give charity. The Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to the holy lands of Mecca and Medina, is a financial worship, in one aspect, and a physical form of worship, in another: a Muslim has to be financially able to afford the travel to the holy lands, where he or she has to endure physical difficulties, like the long trip and certain rituals, like circumambulation around the Ka’ba, standing vigil all day, etc. Fasting, too, may be considered within this frame. Four of the five essential principles of Islam have a considerable association with the material world as well as the spiritual one.

In today’s world, it is important to contribute to good religious services by alms, charity, and donations. But such financial contributions do not absolve one from other forms of worship and good work that need to be performed physically. For example, Abu Bakr had been among the well-to-do of Mecca when he met the Prophet. Bu he spent all his wealth for the sake of Islam and he had nothing to leave behind when he died. He also physically participated in the emigration to Medina and he also fought in many battles.

Financial worship may be more important at certain times. But, this is not an absolute truth. It varies depending on time, place, and the respective conditions of people.

We can assess the issue from two perspectives: 1) Giving less or more charity depending on wealth; 2) giving within certain parameters. There exists a distorted and incorrect understanding among some believers. They say: “My financial situation is not high enough, I do not own a fortune; so, I am not obliged to observe any financial worship.” No; this thought is absolutely wrong. Every single person is obliged to observe his or her responsibilities within the capacity bestowed upon him or her by God Almighty. However much or little one earns, believers should always seek God’s good pleasure by giving in charity as much as they can, for God considers sincerity, rather than the amount given. In the words of Bediuzzaman, “An ounce of sincere worship may sometimes be superior to the one that weighs pounds but is not practiced in sincerity.” As a consequence, every single person is obliged to mobilize on the divine path to God’s contentment.

It is very difficult for a person to both give away in charity and maintain his or her sincerity. Those who can manage this will surely be rewarded beyond measure. If one can overcome the welfare and comfort that come with wealth, can avoid ostentation, and can keep their sincerity and connection with God strong, their rewards will surely be abundant in proportion to the difficulties they face.

The second aspect of the matter relates to the parameters and guidelines for such donations. There are certain minimum degrees for financial obligations in charity. In the case of Islam, for instance, it is compulsory for wealthy Muslims to give a minimum of 2.5 per cent of their annual wealth in charity. There are other rules for wealth in gold, silver, commercial goods, crops, etc.

But we have to remember that these are minimum figures and many lofty goals and good services cannot be attained through merely giving these minimums. Therefore, every single individual should work hard to donate beyond the minimum amount of obligatory alms. We wholeheartedly believe that whatever is given today in the name of God will be multiplied by the thousands in the next life. Yes, everybody is obliged to serve on the way to God with his or her self and goods. But there are no limiting criteria; everything is relative.

Even if we gave away all we own on the path to God, we should still see it as a very minor sacrifice when compared to the ideal we have been wishing to construct.

Concepts like the number zero, negative numbers, complex numbers, matrices, and spatial geometry are inventions of mathematicians which were studied earlier and presented especially for the use of physicists. When mathematicians theorized the “Group Theory,” they were reported to have said, “Finally we have developed something that physicists cannot use.” However, this theory, which stemmed from intangible algebra, was found to be useful in investigating the symmetry of physical systems and had serious applications in particle physics.

If there were no mathematical advances, would physics and other sciences have developed as far as they have? What does it mean that sciences are found in such an interrelated state, and thus support each other?

The perfect relationship between physics and mathematics, as in the expression of many physical laws via simple mathematical equations, is truly amazing. The laws that describe the physical world – from equations expressing the laws of motion (like X=V.t, V=a.t, F=m.a h= (gt2)/2), to basic electrical equations (like V=I.R, P=I.V, E=V/d), going all the way to the equations that define gravitational forces and the expansion of the universe (like F=G.m1.m2/d2, V=H.d) – can easily be expressed through mathematics. Furthermore, this simplicity and plainness in creation of the universe fascinates many scientists. Einstein expressed this fascination when he said, “The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.”

One of the most important relations between mathematics and physics is that the independent study of intangible works of mathematics unexpectedly became one of the best tools to describe the physical world. Numbers, for example, are one of the greatest inventions of humanity. Humans have used them to quantify their properties. For thousands of years, people used numbers, but then the concept of negative numbers developed for seemingly no reason. For centuries, negative numbers were seen as nonsense. Of course there is not a square with a negative side length, a circle with a negative value area, or a classroom with negative number of students. However, negative numbers were found to be applicable in many areas of physics; they are now accepted as being as real as positive numbers. For instance, it is almost impossible to graph position-time, speed-time, acceleration-time, and the momentum-speed relation of objects without negative numbers.

Ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas (plane sections of cones cut in different shapes) were studied by Apollonius (BC 262-200), who was a contemporary of Archimedes. Interestingly these shapes were one day used by Kepler and Newton to describe the orbits of heavenly bodies like planets. Three dimensional pentagonal and hexagonal patterns, like those on the surface of a soccer ball, were also investigated by Archimedes. This shape has been found to be in exact configuration of a special carbon molecule composed of 60 atoms.

Likewise, the number zero, which was introduced by Muhammad bin Ahmad, in 967, led to many innovations in mathematics, as well as physics. Did al-Khwarizmi (780-850) know, when he found and utilized 1st and 2nd degree equations, that he was working on something mathematicians and physicists could one day never do without?

Imaginary numbers, as proposed against the main principles of arithmetic, also provides a very good example for this topic. We cannot think of a number whose square is negative in normal conditions. In other words, when a number is multiplied with itself, the resulting number is always a positive number. But mathematicians thought of a number that is negative when squared and continued various studies accordingly. Again, these studies have proven to be an important tool, especially in understanding electrical circuits by physicists.

Let’s finish our examples with ones from modern physics. Riemann (1826) was a mathematician who studied spatial geometry and proposed the concept of space curves. Mathematical equations designed by Riemann, pertaining to spatial geometry, were used by Einstein in 1908 to describe and formulate the concept of general relativity. Einstein also used Minkowski’s four dimensional geo-spatial continuum when developing his theory of general relativity.

There are many more examples. The famous Russian mathematician Friedman established a mathematical model that allows the expansion of the universe by improving Einstein’s model of universal geometry. This model was also later confirmed by the physicist De Sitter in discovering universal expansion and by Hubble in formulating the expansion. In addition, well before the discovery of quantum mechanics, Davit Hilbert proposed the complex vector space with a very different mathematical purpose known as “Hilbert Space.” This concept of space with an infinite number of dimensions is today used by quantum mechanics.

Sometimes physical realities can be foreseen via these invented equations. For example, Dirac proposed the existence of a particle known as the positron (or as we call it, the twin of the electron; it just differs by the charge) through his mathematical equation that he wrote in 1928. Four years later this particle was discovered by Carl D. Anderson, as predicted. To name, James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879), a famous physicist and mathematician, predicted the presence and speed of electromagnetic waves mathematically via his own equations. Later, these waves were detected by Hertz (1886) through experiments. Again, Maxwell calculated the speed of electromagnetic waves via his equations, and by revealing that it was equal to the speed of light, it was understood that light was also a type of electromagnetic wave. Nowadays, the particle called the “graviton,” which is supposed to be in charge of gravitational forces, and the “Higgs” particle, that theoretically fills space according to quantum theory, are waiting to be discovered.

The book of nature is written in such a way that it is expressible by mathematical language. Famous physicist Sir James Jeans (d. 1946) expressed this situation as follows: “From the intrinsic evidence of his creation, the Great Architect of the Universe now begins to appear as a pure mathematician.” Yes, the level of knowledge that is at play in the universe encompasses both physics and mathematics. The overall interconnectedness of sciences and the interdisciplinary character physics and mathematics point to an owner of this knowledge.

As a conclusion we can deduce that physics and mathematics, just like material and non-material worlds, are in fact intertwined with each other’s various dimensions. The physical face of the universe is the place where records are kept and concepts of matter like heavy or light, big or small, and soft or hard, exist. The mathematical face of the universe (as if spiritual) is the unseen side of events or materials that are hidden and intangible. In a way, this relation between physics and mathematics is a display of the material and spiritual sides of universe.

Nuri Balta is the Head of Physics department at Samanyolu Schools in Turkey. He is also pursuing a PhD degree in Physics at Middle Eastern Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.

With his new book, Insights from the Risale-i Nur, Thomas Michel sets out to answer some of these questions. Michel states his goal very early in the book: as a Jesuit priest, he wants to know where, if at all, he can find “points of convergence” between Christianity and Islam within Bediüzzaman Said Nursi’s (d. 1960) seminal “Risale-i Nur.”

It turns out there aren’t just a few points, but many. And throughout Michel’s book – which is a collection of essays, speeches, and presentations the priest has delivered over the last two decades – he lays the groundwork for a healthy, constructive dialogue between not just Christians and Muslims, but peoples of all faith.

Nursi wrote the “Risale-i Nur” in the wake of two world wars. He’d watched as the secular advances of Western civilization had led to the near total destruction of Europe – not once, but twice. The collateral damage had deeply affected his home, Turkey, and its neighbors. And he endured the ill effects of Turkey’s own modernization efforts, as he was repeatedly persecuted and imprisoned for his faith.

Under such circumstances, it would have been understandable if his book had been rife with anger. Instead, as Michel astutely shows throughout his own thoughtful book, Nursi’s commentary is remarkably hopeful. He sought these “points of convergence” while also stressing what he believed as the truth of his own faith. Michel adeptly uses Nursi’s words to draw out the common ground between different faiths, and looks at how these similarities can be applied in our equally fraught contemporary age.

Both Christianity and Islam pinpoint the destruction wrought by war and poverty as having germinated not from faith, but from rampant materialism run to its natural conclusion. In a quote that Michel returns to, time and again, Nursi writes:

Europe is two. One follows the sciences which serve justice and right
And the industries beneficial for the life of society it has received from
True Christianity; this first Europe I am not addressing. I am rather
Addressing the second, corrupt Europe which, through the darkness of
The philosophy of naturalism, supposing the evils of civilization to be
Its virtues, has driven mankind to vice and misguidance.

Michel routinely connects Nursi’s, and Islam’s, distress about materialism and greed with Christianity and Judaism’s distress about the same things. The book’s second essay charts the overlaps between Nursi and Pope John Paul II in their approaches to forgiveness. Both men believed that materialism, and the selfishness it fosters, are antithetical to healthy, fulfilled communities. People of faith, no matter their belief systems, believe that a truly rich life involves more than the simple acquisition of transient materials. This common desire – for communities based on mutual love and respect instead of self-interest – is a major point of convergence. As Nursi writes, “Our enemy, that which is destroying us, is Lord Ignorance, his son [Master] Poverty Efendi, and grandson, [Mr] Enmity Bey.”

Michel shows that, although Nursi believed adamantly in the truth of his faith, he also believed that true followers of the other “revealed religions” were friends and allies of Islam. Writing after the Second World War, Nursi stated that innocents who had died “were martyrs of a sort, whatever religion they belonged to.” In the aftermath of an invasion that mostly destroyed the city of Van, Nursi “…wept without distinction for both the Christian and Muslim victims, who had been his ‘friends and acquaintances.’” In these acts of kindness, Michel finds common ground with Nursi – both of their faiths value the dignity of every human life.

In a world in which the pursuit of wealth and immediate satisfaction guides so many human interactions, this value is not always present. All too often, people from different walks of life are viewed as obstacles to a person attaining the material satisfaction they’ve come to believe is rightfully theirs.

Michel sums up this perspective succinctly in one of the most important essays in the book, “Dialogue among Believers.” He writes, “Instead of fostering fellowship and mutual aid among nations, social values are too often oriented toward providing the populace with amusements, distractions, and opportunities for instant gratification.”

Such striving for material rewards – the pursuit of which lies at the heart of capitalism, which often functions as a “secular” religion – has resulted in the debasement and poverty of a large portion of the world’s population. This dehumanization and desacralizing of human life is at the root of most religious concerns about contemporary culture. Instead of working towards a “higher good” – community, peace, or God – people are focused on self-actualization through consumption. But as Jesus says in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 4, verse 4, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” The Qur’an echoes this when it says, in chapter 63, verse 9, “Let not your properties … divert you from the remembrance of God.” It’s not difficult to interpret these quotes to mean that humanity should not simply honor and respect God, but should also honor and respect God’s creations through reverence and peace. Material possessions alone cannot fill a person’s spirit; this is a belief almost all religions share.

Both Nursi and Michel feel that the absence of religion – and not the differences between faiths – has led to the wars and poverties of the last century. This is a belief that many, many people of faith share. The essays in the book continually return to these themes of common interest. By having a dialogue with Nursi’s text, and by viewing that text in its best possible context, Michel establishes a space for further dialogue between people of all faiths to occur. Both men express their adamant belief that faith – be it Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or something else – has an important, vital role to play in establishing a broad, lasting peace. Michel, like Nursi before him, remains hopeful about the future role faith will play in a more peaceful, tolerant world. This book serves as a dialogue between two religions, and it builds a foundation for future dialogues. It is a foundation built of respect, devoted faith, and a deep commitment to the dignity of every life. These are not Christian, Muslim, or Jewish values – they are universal values.

Virtue, succinctly, is being distinguished with the most exalted ethical and moral values, and beholding the whole of existence with love. A truly virtuous person has a kind of connection with all things. In the sight of such an individual the flow of events passes like breezes of spring. Life itself relieves the soul and brings it a feeling of bliss, filling the heart with joys. They are enraptured in the constant flood of things and events, savoring fresh scenes in them. Neither the rising and setting of the sun, nor the continuous cycle of night and day can spoil their delight or fill their heart with gloom. They keep living moments of serenity and happiness, viewing different and ever-renewed sights with wisdom.

On the one hand, being virtuous does not mean an extreme rejection of all human desires and leading a life of extreme austerity by turning our back against the material world. Such an understanding, which detaches people from the world they live in, is a cause of pessimism and a source of hopelessness. And this, as Ibsen puts it, means destroying happiness. At the same time, such extreme and groundless worries imply that the individual only thinks about one’s self. Such a person shows signs of being preoccupied with self-concern, and can be deprived of the feeling of benevolence. This kind of thought implies a wrong understanding of ethical standards, and is devoid of the merit of altruism.

On the other hand, it is not correct to claim that virtue is a guarantor of all material and spiritual felicities. A virtuous person can be ill, poor, or in a wretched condition. Such a person may suffer the oppression, insults, and betrayals of other people, and may even undergo torture, convictions, and exiles. Jesus was betrayed, Socrates was convicted, and Epictetus was oppressed-but they all remained happy in a deep sense. In this respect, we believe that happiness resides in the heart, in the form of the breezes of an inner paradise, reinforced by the practice of virtue that cannot be shaken. As faith contains the seed of a spiritual paradise, unbelief likewise bears the stone of a spiritual hell.

Virtue is when people realize their own limitedness, and let go of their pettiness in the infinity of the universe. Virtue means not valuing their person more than they should. We lose felicity when we experience the distress of insatiable and worthless ambition. Then we are beset by little miseries such as material disappointments, or wounds to dignity and pride. A virtuous person is one with sound thinking. Such people “do not wait passively when there is a solution, and do not start wailing at what there is no solution for.” On the contrary, they do their best and seek ways against the avoidable and on behalf of the possible. In the face of events beyond their power they submit to the divine will.

People of virtue do not violate their happiness with such things as self-oriented thoughts, greed for fortune, and love of worldly status, which are sought after by many others. Since sound thinking people are ready to welcome insurmountable troubles and inevitable misfortunes from the beginning, their felicity and happiness is never spoiled. In terms of their consciousness and feelings, such individuals can always have their share of pure and lofty joys or delights. They can always take pleasure in loving others, in familial compassion, in brotherhood, sisterhood, and friendship. Such people will not commit oppression, will not be traitors and will always keep away from thoughts based on revenge, grudges, hatred, and envy. Therefore, they can always feel a breeze composed of respect and love blowing around them and will always be happy. With the connectedness they feel for their family, country, nation, and all of creation they swim in a coastless sea of love. They actually feel infinite delights and feel the pleasures of Paradise before they enter there.

These pleasures stem from beauties like sharing others’ joys, feeling others’ delights in their own soul, and even facing grief and suffering in order to pave the way for greater happiness. Being virtuous means establishing a contact with the past and future just like the present time. Being virtuous means being spiritually connected to the most distinguished personalities of the past and future; feeling their approval and appreciation deep in one’s heart. Being virtuous means sharing the same life with the most distinguished persons in human history, uniting and merging with our ancestors and with all future generations. Thus, through living in such a close connection with the entire humanity and universe, the heart attains eternal happiness while in this world and reaches a dimension where external occurrences cannot violate its happiness.

We have learned this deep relation of virtue with true happiness from the most honorable figures of humanity. This is the very felicity which makes hearts find contentment, and which sets minds at rest. This felicity is based on the soundest pillars of virtue such as having no arrogance, being mature and tolerant, overlooking faults, and holding no grudges or hatred. To put it directly: this felicity is in the heart and spirit. It is so deep-rooted as never to be replaced by anything else. It is related to the essence of humanity. Materialistic pleasures in the superficial, selfish, ambitious sense can add nothing to this type of felicity, nor can they substitute for it. How fortunate are those who exalt their souls with belief and refine their hearts with virtue!