Between sports fishing, by-catch from longline fishing and the Chinese penchant for shark’s fin soup, man has devastated the world’s oceans to the point that sharks are becoming endangered. But the fear of sharks remains with us. It is a visceral fear considering that more people die of bee stings than shark bites.

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Searching for seagrape seaweed in Indian waters: a nun-scientist’s tale of passion and perseverance
By poseidonsciences, on January 30th, 2012

This is not your usual techinical article on seaweed biochemistry or biology. This topic is quite different. It is the untold tale of discovery, repeated thousands of times around by world by scientists from all disciplines. It is the chase, the hunt for something new, something useful. Starting with a hunch, proving an idea and fulfilling the passion are all the ingredients that make scientific discovery a unique experience.

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Thoughts on that fateful September 11th from a man who wasn’t there
By poseidonsciences, on September 11th, 2011

There is so much going on in science and technology every day, yet I am compelled instead to write about this singular event of the decade–September 11th. Where were you on 9/11? This is a most often asked question posed to any New Yorker traveling overseas or just going across the State lines. I wish I can say how terrifying that day was. How the acrid smoke and the dust filled my lungs. How much anguish it had been to see the Twin Towers disintegrating right before my very own eyes. I could not say those words. I wasn’t there. I was 6,000 miles away, watching the events of that fateful day unfold in the safety of a hotel lounge far away from home.

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Barbarians at the gate: Reflections on the decline of American innovation while
watching a spectacular sunset at Gantry Park
By poseidonsciences, on August 22nd, 2011

America is hemorrhaging its talents not just from reverse migration. American talents from those born here are also being lured by foreign companies and governments with higher wages, better scientific support and a better life style than they could ever imagine at home. Just simply take the case of Singapore, whose expat communities are bursting at the seams. American innovations are being sucked out of the country year after year. You will see great innovations coming out of Asia in the next decade, innovations that would have originated from America had we been able to keep our scientists happier at home.

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Collapse of dictatorships through people power revolutions expedited by science and technology
By poseidonsciences, on February 24th, 2011

Non-violent civil disobedience is not new. It was happening already in many instances long before and made more widespread by Gandhi against British rule in India. But, it was never in the scale seen in the last 25 years. Why such a phenomenon only in the last 25 years? Repressive regimes have been around for millennia and people suffered through successions of regimes—good and bad—without triggering a massive popular revolt. What made the last 25 years so different?

I suppose dictators can blame it partially on science and technology!

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FRACKING Revisited: What lies ahead (or beneath) and the idea of a FRACKING CHALLENGE
By poseidonsciences, on January 30th, 2011

Human beings are great problem-solving species. That is why we are dominant on Earth. We are also a great problem-making species too—but we have the ability to correct our mistakes. This Fracking problem is no different.

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From Gavrilets et al, 2010, Cliodynamics, 1:59-80. Spatial view of polities.

Mathematical models of emerging and collapsing societies. From Asimov’s fictional futuristic tale to the real science of Gavrilets’ numerical simulations
By poseidonsciences, on January 23rd, 2011

Gavrilets developed a mathematical model, using hundreds of years of human historical data, to predict the rise and fall of complex societies. Through numerical simulations that take into account parameters such the size of the state, political power, length of rule, economic variables, etc, his team was able to explain the dynamic processes that cause kingdoms, states and empires to collapse on the scale of decades and centuries.

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Lunar eclipse, Christopher Columbus and the Teredo worm. A convergence of astronomy, history and biology
By poseidonsciences, on December 26th, 2010

Shipworms have been a bane to ancient mariners until the advent of copper clad ships by the 18th century and modern marine coating on steel hulls. These boring clams weakened the wooden hulls of ships to the point that they break apart in the open sea without any warning.

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Balanghai as a war canoe. Watercolor rendering
from a print by Noe Trayvilla, artist, Miagao.
In the JR Matias collection

Balanghai, Borobudur, Phoenicia and the Morgan: Reconstructing and celebrating our ancient maritime heritage
By poseidonsciences, on December 16th, 2010

The science of reconstructing ancients ships and sailing them to validate myths and legends of the past are passions that are taking hold in recent years. This essay chronicles the reconstructions of several ancient ships: the balanghai, Borobudur, Phoenicia…..

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Animation-from an ancient art form to high science. Cryptic images from Paleolithic cave drawings to Shrek, the movie
By poseidonsciences, on November 7th, 2010

Animation, as we know today as motion picture or video, is an increasingly sophisticated art form. It is the method of creating optical illusion of motion through a rapid display of images in two or three dimensions. This illusion is created in our mind because of the phenomenon called “persistence of vision” in which the retina of our eye retains an afterimage for 1/25th of a second….

It is also a perennial surprise to me that the things we now know often have ancient beginnings. Cave dwellers of the Upper Paleolithic era (40,000-10,000 BC) began creating images of animals in motion….

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