Blog moved!

Yeah sadly I wasn’t dead, just my psyche was. Anyway, the new blog is built from scratch because my degree beat me into learning how to code! :)ೱ

Here’s the link: snigui.github.io

Shower talk: Perpendicular Lines

Perpendicular lines are so important because they're the apex. It's the farthest you can get away from another point no matter WHAT YOUR REFERENCE point is. So if you look at things from a broader perspective, they all come together. Nature always follows orderly randomness. Orderly randomness can be perceived from the apex. That's what gave rise to life. That's what gave rise to a system, a team. The theory of emergence. How things all come together from a broader perspective. That's why perpendicular lines are so important, that's why right angles are so important. That's why a whole topic of math is related to right angled triangles.

Shower talk: Entropy is cool!

Entropy and equilibrium
~
Entropy can also be thought of energy in a system that is clustered in one spot eventually spreading out evenly in the entire system so that every spot has the same amount of energy. However, when viewed outside the system, the energy level will remain the same before "spreading" and after "spreading".

Therefore entropy is increasing the equilibrium while conserving the energy within the system. See how all the laws of thermodynamics relate so beautifully?

For life (high energy systems, high organized systems that do convert energy to work) to exist sounds like a weird thing to happen if the goal of the universe is to acquire equilibrium (through entropy) but maybe life exists as an investment universe made to increase the entropy. Because of the complex processes life does to covert energy to work, the entropy of the universe increases greatly. For any high ordered, energy that can be converted to work (useful energy) filled system, it creates (equal amount of?) high disordered, useless energy (friction etc.) outside the system.

The universe is essentially trying to get to a lower energy state. But that sounds weird considering how some places in a system that never had any energy before acquire energy (through even spreading of energy from a high cluster of energy). Didn't the universe want to have no energy?

The universe wants to expand so much that even if a high cluster of energy spreads, the units (places in the system with no energy before) acquire so little energy that it is almost close to nothing. Universe is expanding and this expansion is fueled by the energy that was present during the big bang.

This leads to so many questions in my mind, so much more research that I need to do to itch my doubts, that I'm currently lowkey overwhelmed right now whoa.

But in a more philosophical sense, just like how the universe started out as a bright cluster full of energy and how it will (might) die turning dark and devoid of energy, humans too start out as little cheerful happy babies full of energy that slowly die with almost no energy left to where everything turns dark. But it's not all this depressing when you think that just like entropy is spreading of energy, we humans in our lifetime spread our energy (happiness, knowledge etc.) everywhere before we die!

Shower Talk: There's a reason why we're here

Here's something big, okay? You are the universe. You are the medium that can unlock the mysteries of the universe. You and the universe are joined to the mind, body, soul and your very own existence. You won't be destroyed for as long as the universe lives on. And here's the simple, straightforward answer to the big question, "what is the meaning of life?": all that you have to do in life is understand your relationship with the universe.

It's like emergence, you know? Actually, it is emergence. "Stupid" things coming together to form something "smart". Or let's put it in a better way: simple things coming together to form something complicated. See the relationship between two polar opposites? "Simple", "Complicated", "Stupid", "Smart"; "You", the insignificant spec in the world, and the "Universe". That's what that old Chinese theory of Yin-Yang goes on about, right?

This makes me wonder, what if the initial stages of life were even more connected to the universe than we are? Are we diverging away from our connection with the cosmos? Or are we getting closer? Where is the universe headed to? Science would say: "down". Down, to a lower energy state, to stability. But that contradicts the concept of entropy which states that everything tends towards disorder. What is the relationship between stability and disorder then? Why does such a contradiction arise?

Here's another way to look at it: if production of life can arise from both splitting of a cell (mitosis, budding) and a combination of cells (meiosis, fertilization), does that mean splitting and combining both can lead to life? Isn't that contradictory? What if it isn't? What if opposites didn't have to be contradictory? What if opposites didn't have to cancel each other out, rather, what if they behaved based on the circumstances? Don’t opposite poles of the magnet attract? What if the concept of opposite and similar is just superficial? Something which is a wave can also be a particle? Why? Maybe because it was both, to begin with? Here's a way to put it simply: there is no positive or negative, there is only both in the beginning. The perceiver is the judge. And the fact that you can perceive it to be "something", rather than "anything", is a proof that you are conscious.

This consciousness that we're given, tells us that the answer to the universe lies within our own selves. A system is nothing without the parts in it. In fact, a system IS the parts together. The set of the Alphabet is nothing without its components: letters. In fact, this paragraph that you're reading itself is a system. It will only be meaningful if I use the words following certain grammar rules. The words do not know that they are being made to follow certain rules to make sense. In fact, the words are not conscious. That is why this system of words will never be considered living. The universe is similar. It would be non-living if it didn't have conscious being such as ourselves in it. Hence, knowing the important role we play in this system of the universe, it is our duty, almost a natural one, to figure out what we are. If we do that, we can figure out what the universe is because we are the universe.

That is why it is so important to figure out who you are. You, just like any other thing in this entire universe, is versatile. You can be positive. You can be negative. But how do you judge you are "something" at a given point in time? With perception. 

• “I think. Therefore, I am” - René Descartes

I cannot stress how immensely great of an ability it is to "perceive". It literally shapes the world. But just like contrasts are prevalent everywhere in the universe, perception can be conscious and unconscious and even subconscious. The three states prevalent everywhere: positive, negative and neutral. This leads to a scope for superposition to exist. You can be anything because you have the base of neutrality. That is why the universe seeks neutrality, equilibrium, because then with it, the universe can branch off however it wants. It has a solid base. But we know there will always be a contrast (yes, I am repeating myself but understand why, because the concept of opposites coexisting is extremely ubiquitous, mutually beneficial relationships are significant for continuity of space-time) and that is the reason for entropy's existence: to counter the neutrality that the universe is trying to seek. In a sense, with entropy, the universe is creating a preventive measure to not "over exceed" equilibrium which will then again offset the entire point of being stable, neutral and equal.
 I just got really deep there, didn’t I? My whole point is that YOU are the point. The point of the universe is itself, it is us. Understanding us, will on a greater scale, mean understanding the universe. It is so simple, the fundamental rule of the universe is so simple, that it looks complicated. That is a lofty statement for someone like me to make but I say it because of the way things have been. You'd say the same too after you realize how even though the planets revolve with quite the speed around the Sun if you were to look at the Solar System right now, it'd appear to be perfectly still. Something moves so fast, it looks still. Something is so big, so very vast that we can't even scale it or perceive it, that it is non-existent to us. Even though it's really big, because it is beyond our limits of perception, it "doesn't exist". But just because we can't see it doesn't mean it isn't there. Just because we don't find the fundamental rule of the universe so easily doesn't mean it's extremely complicated. We have to change the way we're looking at because perception can play tricks on us. Just looking at something and knowing "it is something" is different from looking at something and understanding "why it is something". Knowing and understanding are different and their difference is so significant that it is often overlooked at. Recently physicists are pulling their hair out on the antimatter and matter asymmetry: "If there were equal amounts of antimatter and matter, they'd come in contact and destroy each other. That would mean, life as we know it, shouldn't exist. The universe shouldn't exist". This is true. It is a very weird disparity of the universe but that doesn't mean the universe shouldn't exist. It exists for a reason and that reason might be us (the components that comprise the universe), or within us.

Conscious of the unconscious

Someone I hold dear once asked me, "why do you fantasize about death?".

Dear you,
I don't fantasize about death. I am just intrigued by it. Because death means being liberated into the universe again. We're all organs of the universe. Involuntarily following its orders. But once we die, we lose control over our tiny lives and gain freedom that goes beyond this world.
I am simply enjoying it by marveling at the beauty of death. Not many do it. They think of death to be ominous and evil. But it's the root of life. From death springs life. I am just intrigued by interconnections seen in the universe. Because everything in the world follows a simple rule: achieving equilibrium; flowing to a lower energy state. For this to happen, two contrasting entities must be present. The high and low must exist. To truly understand universe, we must understand both the ends and their connection. That's why I look at both sides of the coin.
Right now, I'm alive.
Everyday I live, I am experiencing life with my conscious and sub-conscious mind. But what about death? How will I ever know about the other half of life while being me? For that, I have to think about it. I don't want to only think of the good but also the bad. That's when someone can REALLY think. It's not one sided anymore. I'll be a whole.

Shower talk: Meme master and Yin Yang

I know what reaching enlightenment feels like.

Because I have mastered the "name a more iconic duo, I'll wait" meme.

I put myself at the risk of sounding silly when I made those statements but it's true. Weird too, actually. It's strange how a meme asked an important question about how the world works.

Because you get to read this, I shall let you in on my secrets so you too can be a master of my favorite meme.

Yin and Yang.

Yin Yang talks about how two completely opposite things complement each other the most. The south pole of the magnet doesn't attract the north pole for no reason. Protons don't attract electrons for no reason. Opposites aren't the most iconic duo for no reason. It's because that's how the world works. You see, the first law of thermodynamics more or less talks about this phenomenon.

"Energy is neither created not destroyed".

Due to the fact that the above statement is true, the world has been able to maintain it's equilibrium. When stark contrasts meet they create consistency.

In and out.

What goes up comes down because of gravity. Gravity is one of the four fundamental forces of nature and up and down are one of the iconic duos in the world. This relation itself shows how this idea of Yin Yang is deeply rooted into the universe.

North and South.

It's the way of the world. No pain no gain. What goes around, comes around. All of them talk about the same principle. To even get something is to give something first. The world is attached with strings. When you pull something, it pulls something else with it. When you put something at stake, you'll get what you've been working for. Nothing in the world is unbalanced. Something always exists to fill the gap. The electromagnetic waves go up and down. The water flows with crests and troughs. There's just no one straight way to anything. It's a series of highs and lows. It's a series of sacrifices and achievements. It's a series of pitfalls and stepping stones. It's a series that flows; one that is connected.

Black and white.

No one can experience only the good or only the bad. Nothing gets done only with hardwork or only with luck. Even if it does, its consequences balance out the pure luck or pure hardwork. If you win a lottery, you might face hardship further trying to save the money or you might spend it all relentlessly that you'll fill yourself with guilt later. If you have struggled extensively for the outcome, you might suffer from stress and illness.

Success and Failure.

Remember that no matter what happens in this world, it'll always get balanced out. Sometimes this fact will bring happiness. All the time and effort you spent on something shall be balanced out by your success. Sometimes this fact will bring sadness. All time time you've lived shall be balanced out by your death.

Because I realized this, I have mastered the meme and reached enlightenment.

Here's how you can change the world

This is not a shower talk. This is an actual result of my own tiny little research that I did. I will provide the links to my references at the end. I started thinking about why there are no major changes happening related to the degrading environment after watching the video: "The lie we live".

So, how do we change the world for good?

Simple answer: By first changing the way we speak and instruct.

Got you curious, eh? Let me elaborate.

Haven't we all been taught not to throw trash around and not to waste electricity and not to waste water and not to cut trees and what not to do ever since we were kids? The education system thinks by telling children at such a young age about what not to do, the children can be conditioned in a way to not harm the environment. But what the educational system is unaware of is how wrong their methods of conditioning are!

Where we went wrong is the way we've been teaching the new generations or just people in general. We've always been hearing the phrases, "don't throw trash", "don't pollute the earth", "don't cut trees", "don't waste water". But what's wrong with these phrases is that they turn out to be counter-productive. Our brains are wired in a way to dismiss negative sentences and even worse, sometimes, to completely go the opposite way of what's being told in those negative sentences. There are many experiments to back this up. No matter how good the reward might be for "not doing" something, our brain subconsciously believes "not doing" it to be a wrong thing and we all end up doing what we're told to NOT do. Humans should change the way education works. Humans should change the way they phrase their sentences for making a difference that matters. It's as simple as changing the negative sentences into positive ones to bring about a REAL change. "Do it". Those are the magic words. Our minds strangely accept positive things and dismiss negative things. That's how it has always been. So from now on, instead of asking people to not do, ask them to do. To make a difference in the world which could lead to finding the cure of cancer or even end global warming, we have to first learn to speak and instruct the right way. We have to learn to say the sentences the right way. Tell people, "please do plant more trees", "please do care about the hygiene of your surroundings", "please do save water because it's a precious resource", "please do quit smoking because it will improve your health". The words, "please", "do" and "because" are associated with positive thinking and reason. Using these can bring about the change humans NEED to survive in this world. "Change" that can literally end world hunger and bring world peace. The power is all in understanding communication and psychology and using it to make the Earth alive again.

References-
http://www.nlpco.com/2008/08/negative-commands/
Research paper: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jozef_Maciuszek/publication/267337868_Don%27t_pay_attention_to_what_you_see_Negative_commands_and_attention_bias/links/544d75bd0cf24b5d6c42b598/Dont-pay-attention-to-what-you-see-Negative-commands-and-attention-bias.pdf
Video of the experiment (where a person is told to not do something but ends up doing it): Could you kill a kitten?

Well, that's how you can get people to change the world for good but how about you? What is something that you can do to make a difference? When people think of "making a difference", they think it's a huge task. A task so huge that only the most powerful can do it but it's false.

Feeling that only the most influential humans can make a difference is a "lazy follower" mentality. IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK FIRST. Change can happen even with the smallest things YOU do in life that might seem insignificant but they aren't because even the smallest things can lead to a huge impact! I'm pretty sure all of us know about the butterfly effect. I'm not here to ramble about "complicated" stuff. If anyone wants to really make a difference and make the world literally a better place to live in but are completely lost, let me help you kickstart your potential. It can be as simple as quitting to eat meat which has the huge potential to end world hunger. It can be as simple as quitting to smoke which has the huge potential to reduce pollution. It can be as simple as using biodegradable bags instead of plastic. It can be as simple as growing a plant and taking care of it. It can be as simple as picking up trash from the neighborhood instead of throwing waste on the streets. It's just THAT simple and yet when people think of change, they think about big politicians and systems and the government and what not. Think about it, without people like us, all the "big guys" are nothing. So let's decide to go the right way, support our own self and vote for our own betterment instead of supporting someone else! It's high time everyone redefines their meaning of "change".

Shower talk: Slow suicide

Slow suicide
We're all in a slow suicide
Because this world is definitely not right
And we don't know
We don't know because it's very slow
Slowly
With every decision we make that goes against our true happiness
With every time we give in to stress
Ignoring our passion is slow suicide
Slow suicide~

Shower talk: Surreal

Do you ever just feel
Completely inferior and useless
Like a bug squished under a heel
For instance, you set yourself definitely doable and practical goals
And you try
But you just can't achieve them
And at nights, you cry
And you are occupied by things that don't matter that much
And they take up so much of your time
Your mind filled with clutter and such
You can't achieve your goals
You just fall into a void
Feeling lost
With guilt, you can't avoid
Like a sore loser
And there are all these other people out there
Much better than you are
And you're wondering just where
You went wrong
And why things are like this
And why you can't reach your goals
And what did you miss
And why your life is filled with unimportant things that are apparently "important"
It's a chaos
Doing something because you're obliged to do it
Not because you want to do it
You're at an utter loss
And that just eats up so much of your life
It makes you feel worthless
That's why, "Only pursue your passion", I'd say but
In this world, it's not possible
You have to do whatever it takes to make the cut
We are forced to go the society's way
We are forced to act a certain way
Our life is forced
A pressure that won't go away
Our life is controlled
Our minds have gone astray
Our life is chained
To think we don't even have control over own lifes is just
Scary
Surreal
In every way

Shower talk: Why death is just as beautiful as life

I'm pretty sure most of you have thought, " ugh I'm so done with life. I just wanna disappear" at some point in your life. If you didn't, kudos to you! Your life must be filled with absolutely no hardship (which is practically impossible) or you must be SUPER optimistic (wow teach me your ways). Anyways, I was wondering why people think of death when faced with so many problems and I think it maybe because we all want to go back to our real Mama, just like how kids want to go to their parents when things go wrong. Our real parent here is the universe. It sounds super surreal but hear me out~

I love how beautiful death is
It's like becoming one with the universe again
Losing all selfishness
Just letting yourself fly away
To a place where everything was born
There's nothing like losing all hope
Because death is always an option
And it's beautiful~
It's like going back to our mother's lap
-x-o-x-o-
Everyone cries when they're born
If they don't, welp it's because they're probably already dead or because they're just an exception (almost everything has an exception)
But not everyone cries when they're dying
People usually appreciate life
But I appreciate death
Not the process
Since some of them are brutal and cruel
But the state and the consequences
Just losing all pain forever and letting it go
Literally becoming free
With the potential to be ANYTHING
You can even turn into a star, literally!
Or a tree, to support life with your death.

Which I plan on doing. I want to be turned into a tree after I die. A star would be pretty rad too but there's no guarantee, it might be like reaching for the stars (pun intended of course) so I wanna give life with my death and turn into a tree.

Shower talk: What's good now might be bad later

So I was just wondering, what if everyone bad: the murderers, the rapists, the wrong-doers (according to the law) were wiped out from the Earth? I know it sounds morbid but I wanted to know if Earth would really be a better place if all the "bad" was wiped out. Then somehow I came up with the answer myself, so hear me out~

Truth is, no. It's not that I'm being pessimistic or negative but even if all the "bad" (again depends on a reference point but let's assume bad things according to the law) were to be wiped out, bad would be born again since life here on Earth is "flowing". From once being "evolutionarily" fit to being extinct and new, better species evolving to continue the "flow" of life on Earth. Let me put it this way: bad things once were good. Like how killing others for food was fine in a primitive way and how now murder isn't fine. Even if everyone bad were wiped out from the earth, eventually what is considered right will be considered wrong in the future. It's a flow of "bad to good". A species once fit enough to live on earth being unfit and going extinct is just one example of good turning to bad and a new species being born from the "once bad" would be an example of good enough to even better. So, what might be good now can turn into bad later and be replaced by something even better, with the good and bad still flowing. Just like there's darkness and light (yin and yang), there will always be good and bad no matter what. I think evolution is a flow of bad to good, not exactly but it's a flow of good to better. Also, in the end, everything depends on your perspective. Just like how Physics problems don't make sense if you don't have a reference point, things in life won't make sense if you don't have a clear perspective.

Shower talk: Breaking rules shouldn't break you

I'm sorry this shower talk is in caps, I was super ecstatic when I wrote it.

Usually, we fear breaking rules because we think its consequences might break us, break our emotional state of well being, break our acceptance in society etc. But, hear me out~

IT'S ALMOST NORMAL TO BREAK PETTY RULES AS LONG AS THE MAJOR RULES AREN'T BROKEN JUST LIKE IN THE UNIVERSE WHERE THE PARTICLES GO ACCORDING TO THE FOUR FUNDAMENTAL FORCES AND IT'S SO NORMAL (it's not like something that would almost make you "not supposed to exist" in the universe) TO BREAK THE OTHER INSIGNIFICANT RULES AND IF YOU DO YOU'RE JUST DIFFERENT FROM THE REST. For instance, when the nitrogenous bases are paired in the DNA, the DNA polymerase might break the conventional pairing rule of A to T and G to C. These "variations" could cause a mutation which could probably even lead to speciation! It's thanks to these "rules being broken", species have evolved. I DON'T EVEN THINK IT'S CALLED "BREAKING A RULE" IT'S JUST DIFFERENT IN THE WAY IT IS BECAUSE IT DOESN'T FOLLOW THE SAME STUFF AS its kind and that's what makes it what it is but I'm not here to say "break the rules", I'm just here to say "it's okay to break the rules" and sometimes breaking rules can make you stand out, be different. Be EXCEPTional.

Shower talk: Alien life depends on your perspective

If anyone asked me: "Do you think aliens exist?", I'd reply saying yes. If anyone asked me: "Do aliens exist?", I'd reply saying "Maybe they do, it depends..." because hear me out~

Alien life: it exists.
It might exist in the strangest way we couldn't even have imagined of. Life itself is a broad notion, according to our reference point, it's stuff that can breathe or reproduce. But, something is defined as "living" if there's emergence in play. That's the basic foundation of life.
Emergence: things (either living or non-living but since we're trying to define life, let's assume non-living things) coming together as a group to perform one function. That is life. Just like how proteins came together to turn into the first living cell, on a whole new different planet, a whole new compound might have come together to perform a whole new function (it might not be breathing or reproduction, since that's our current reference point for living things) and it'd be a whole new living thing; something we couldn't even have imagined of since our perspective is in a whole other world or even dimension. So, aliens exist. But again, it depends on what "alien" means to you and what scientists mean when they say they're "looking for alien life out there".

Shower talk

I have found myself having very deep conversations (with myself of course) in the shower. I kept noting them down on my phone just so that I don't forget what I talked about for almost an hour with myself but then I kind of wanted to share it around, maybe pick up some critics or people that agree with me because why not since things like blogs and internet do exist. My usual shower talk is about philosophy and science; the relation between them. Sometimes they can get very "sciencey" or just "deep".

だから、よろしく お願いします〜

Sciencey stuff? Remineralization of land for better plant growth!

Here's the other one of the topics I talked about for my breakthrough junior challenge! This is the one I felt wasn't "sciencey" enough. Psst... go ahead, please don't hesitate to cringe at how bad it is!

Imagine a barren land and scorching sun above the horizon. Suddenly, you walk in! With every step you take, the land transforms into a beautiful forest. Rain clouds gather atop and shower down happiness! Sounds like something that's straight off a fairy tale, doesn't it? But what if I told you that you can be that wonderful magician, in real life, who can transform barren lands into beautiful forests? You'd definitely be interested to know how to be a heroic wizard! Let me tell you how to cast the right spell then.

The answer lies in the land itself! The earth has a diverse distribution of land, the deserts, the swamps, the coasts etc. Out of all these the only land that's not cultivable is of the desert. Putting that aside, there's a ton of barren land around, which if used to grow trees, can benefit the earth and the ones that live on earth.

Usually soil loses its fertility due to natural processes such as soil erosion. We've been hearing about this term since our childhood but what exactly is it? When wind blows over land, it carries away a little of the top layer of the soil with it. When such a process occurs on and on, much of the top layer of soil is lost and this results in loss of fertility as the top layer, which is also called humus, has most of the mineral and organic content in the soil. Erosion can also cause change in texture of the soil, making it loose and unable to sustain plant growth. Soil erosion can occur due to water, too. Water, similar to wind, washes away the top layer of the soil causing texture change and infertility. The lost minerals get deposited into other lands, where they might be not useful. These are naturally occurring processes but human induced soil erosion has worse effects. Over tilling of land can lead to permanent loss of fertility. Deforestation is a major cause too since trees play an important role in reducing soil erosion. When trees are cut down for artifical agriculture, the soil's fertility is destroyed. Due to these reasons, land might lose its minerals.

The first step to take towards turning a barren land into a beautiful forest is to know the demands of a plant. It's important to know what plants require to proliferate.

Since our childhood we've been told plants require sun, water and air to grow but this is super vague.

Plants need a mineral rich and moist soil to grow. Indeed every plant needs different requirements to grow but in general they need H2O, CO2, sunlight, phytohormones and some minerals for healthy growth. They are nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, sulfur, calcium, manganese, iron, copper, zinc, boron, molybdenum, colbalt, vanadium, sodium, silicon and chloride. Oof! That's a long list but fortunately only three of these elements are considered to play a significant role in healthy plant growth. They are Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium also called NPK.

Mineral absorption takes place in the roots that are seated in the soil. The ions of minerals enter the apparent free space of the plant. Apparent free space is the fraction of root volume in which an external solution diffuses into. When no minerals are available in the soil to be diffused into the plant, the plant starts to lose energy and die. To prevent such a thing from happening, we have to ensure that the land is mineral rich and moist. Several minerals have different roles in the plant's growth. Phosphorus helps in energy transfer through ATP. When there's a deficiency of Phosphorus, there is reduction in plant size, there might also be a failure in seed formation. H2PO4- is generally a source of Phosphorus for plants that's present in the soil.

Plants also take up K+ ions to use as a catalyst in reactions that help form carbohydrates. Potassium also helps in increasing the quality of fruits and vegetables by activating enzymes in the process of photosynthesis.

Calcium is also one of the minerals required for plants. They take up C++ which helps in cell walls and helps in plant root and tip elongation.

Out of the all the minerals, nitrogen plays a major role since it's the most absorbed mineral. It is a part of the chlorophyll molecule and amino acids in plants. Without nitrogen, plants can become weak and stunted. Plants usually take in nitrogen with the help of nitrogen fixation done by bacteria that produce NH4+ and NO3- from atmospheric N2. These are diffused into the roots and used up by the plant.

Since now we know about the important minerals for plant growth, how do we use this information to turn a barren land into a forest? The answer is pretty straightforward. Make the soil mineral rich! Sounds pretty easy, but how do we do that? This is where we cast our spell "Abra kadabra REMINERALIZATION!".

Remineralization, as the name itself states, is the process of adding minerals back into the soil. There are many ways in which this can be done!

Usually in nature, glaciers crush down mineral rocks turning them into dust. Now that's some power! Anyways, such rock mineral dust gets deposited at the end of glaciers and are called "moraines". A fancy name forsooth! Later on winds blow this dust, which is called "loess", and deposits it on land making them mineralized. The same wind which is responsible for soil erosion can also be responsible for soil mineralization, strange isn't? But anyways this is a time consuming process and wind mostly likes to erode soil than to add minerals in it. So it's for us to take matters into our own hands since we, the humans, are responsible for most of the infertility of land on earth! One source of abundant minerals are igneous rocks. They pack in up to 100 minerals and trace elements. By turning these rocks into fine dust, we can use it as rock manure to make the soil sustain plant life. One research showed that basalt (basalt rock is the most common type of igneous rock) dust application at the rate of 150 tons per hectare to forest soils resulted in four times greater tree wood volume! Such rock dusts provide a natural way to replenish soil fertility in an efficient way than any other manure. You might be thinking this is all well and good. Now we made our barren land into a mineral rich land by manually adding rock dust. Finally trees have started to grow. But what about pests that can affect plant growth? Should we resort to the deadly pesticides? The obvious answer is a big no. What we're doing also accounts for pest control. It is surprising indeed but rock dust can also prevent pests that can be a threat to plants. The rock dust fits into the category of so called "inert dusts". Inert dusts are insecticides that dry out the moisture present on the pests' skin and thus killing them due to extreme dryness. But the usual inert dusts might be hazardous to the environment, rock salt on the other hand, contains only the dust of minerals which is capable of drying out pests and also causing mechanical discomfort to the insects. Hard silicate rocks, which are very abundant on the earth, can be ground into dust and used as a cheap rock dust.

Another way to make remineralization more efficient is to use biochar. Biochar is a mixture of agricultural wastes such as wood or straw. It mainly has high charcoal levels which causes increase in the organic content of soil. Biochar increases the cation exchange capacity of the soil which is nothing but the soil's ability to hold minerals. Hence rock dust and biochar complement each other and can be used as an effective method to transform barren lands into forests.

One last measure to take is to plant legumes that have nitrogen fixing bacteria living in their root nodules. By doing so, we can increase the amount of inorganic nitrogen in the soil which can lead to good plant growth. So planting plants leads to growth of more plants!

By turning barren lands to forests, we can cause at least a tiny decrease in global warming--a major threat to the new world. You can also be a part of saving the earth from climate change by planning to plant trees instead of just planting trees. People say "plant trees". It is pretty clear that it's a vague sentence. Science is all about efficiency so we must efficiently plan how to plant trees in such a way that it has huge benefits to the earth. Planting nitrogen fixing trees such as soybeans, alfalfa, loopine, peanuts etc can cause to increase the nitrogen content in the soil which not only benefits that plant but also plants that are nearby to it. Next time you hear someone say "plant trees" don't just plant a random tree at a random place but maybe instead add in some rock dust and biochar into the soil of a barren land and then plant a lucky clover (also a legume) surrounded with your favorite plants, water it and watch the magic happen: a barren land turning into a beautiful forest!

Sciencey stuff: Reaction-diffusion equation, animal patterns and limbs!

A while ago I took part in the breakthrough junior challenge and before I settled on one topic (about brain and meditation). I tried to explain two other topics and later understood I myself didn't understand one topic and the other one was not so "sciencey". I didn't want them to go to waste so here's one (the one I didn't quite understand myself) for you to read and laugh at how dumb my science articles are.

Cats: the internet is filled with their videos. Dogs: more like man is dog's best friend.
Animals are cute and loved. Also admired (tiger picture) or even feared (hyena). They all do have something bizarre in common, they are related because of their fur patterns! "How?! You're nuts" might me the first thought to pop up in your mind since there are myriad animal patterns in the world that seem nowhere to be related but trust me, they're all related. All the beautiful and intricate patterns on the animals boil down to one equally beautiful and elegant equation in math: the reaction-diffusion equation. Not only does this equation predict the fur pattern on animals but also tells us how our fingers are the way they are: divided into five. It can also explain brain tumors to the ecology of a predator-pray population! But since we can't cover everything that this versatile equation can predict, let's cover the basics of two prominent ones: animal fur pattern and the formation of limb digits in tetrapods (whoa getting fancy there) it just means how fingers and toes are formed in four legged animals!
Basically this is the overview of the reaction-diffusion equation:

In a plane with a certain boundary, either homogeneous or not, based on the levels of producers or activators and degraders or inhibitors and the rate diffusion that's occurring, a pattern can be predicted. The area of the plane is also a factor of the pattern produced.

This simple equation can lead to the prediction of all kinds of intriguing patterns on the animals!

Let's look at how the reaction-diffusion equation explains a spotted pattern.

When a certain compound that is an activator exists, there also exists an inhibitor to control it. Just like the predator-pray relationship in nature. Excess of any can lead to disparities or a complete collapse. Let's represent our activators with letter A and inhibitors with letter I. Logically, when there are a lot of mice, there would be cats around to pray on them. The mice population would generally be in a larger ratio to the cat population. For the weaker animals-here the mice-to defend themselves against the stronger ones(the cats), they exist in large groups. The cats try to spread throughout the region in which the mice are around to get more access of eating them. This is the case of inhibitors and activators too, expect no one is trying to eat anyone here. Activators usually form a cluster with inhibitors around them. The pigments, when arranged according to this in a larger area, result in a spot. For stripes to form, a narrower area us usually needed. The pattern formation only extends on the x-axis and results in stripes. You can see this is quote evident in a cheetah. Now you know how a cheetah gets its spots! During instances when clusters of activators and inhibitors are close enough for the activators in one cluster to leak out and connect with the ones in another one, such kind of a pattern is witnessed. "The reaction-diffusion equation efficiently explains how different levels of morphogens result in different, well, results but how on earth does it explain why we have five fingers?!" You might be thinking. Well the answer is definitely not simple.

In the tetrapod's embryo, let's just consider humans here, during the developmental stages in the womb, there's so much stuff going on. Chemicals reacting with each other everywhere and changes happening all the time. During such a chaotic process, the development of fingers relies on the reaction-diffusion equation. First the limbs start of as a blob of cells called limb bud mesenchyme. Here is where proteins such as BMP cause apoptosis or controlled cell death. When BMP is blocked, no cell death occurs. Using the reaction-diffusion equation, a pattern can be made in which there occurs both BMP secretion and blockage causing the blob limb to have a striped pattern, eventually leading to columns of live cells and dead cells. The dead cells leave spaces in between, divding the limb bud into 5 strips and volia! They are the fingers!

The simple equation can connect many fields of science together and help predict the various possibilities of patterns out there in our world, all developed by one ingenious man named Alan Turing. For such a positive contribution to the world, the world didn't positively respond back to him and lead to his death by punishing him for being gay. Let's not forget his work and let's try to carry forward the ideas he put forth by testing out the turing reaction-diffusion equation in various fields of science!

How to be the best like no one ever was

A few days ago I wanted to Go out at 12am. Bushi was very concerned.

And the other day I ventured out on the dangerous, life threatening passage ways made by a certain evolved and intelligent species on the earth (achievement unlocked! "Proof of your courage"), ahem.. I mean I went out for a walk on the road.

Never have I ever gone out for a walk alone just to join a gym. A pokemon gym, of course. Thanks to pokemon Go!

But I'm here to tell you the secret to be the very best like no one ever was, to catch them is my real test, to train them is my cause, I will tr- oopsie, got a little carried away there. Anyways, here's how you can be the best at pokemon go:

JOIN TEAM INSTINCT! -Bushi says so because he and I are a part of it.

Or just follow your Instinct.

A song!

Bushi wants me to present you a song that I made! Yes, I wrote the lyrics, made the music (using garageband of course because I'm not capable of playing an instrument, it's a tall order for me) and the picture is also by me. Oh by the way, I did the vocals too, if that wasn't obvious already.

How to choose your life! (a.k.a your career)

Hey peeps! Bushi wanted to me get serious about what I was doing with my life (because what I ever do is just loaf around) so I've thought of becoming serious along with you guys! I'll tell you how to choose your life career (in my way).

P.S- I'm going to implement a new thing on this blog: adding pictures I drew of a cat who'll be your guide!

Step 1: First think of all the possible career options out there.

Step 2: Think of your hobbies.

Step 3: Are you rich? Can you stay rich?

Step 4: If you answered "yes" to the previous question, turn your hobby into your career (hoping it isn't watching TV or listening to music because those aren't legit hobbies, if in case those are you hobbies, mate, can you make a movie or music?). If you answered "no", pursue science or information technology for your career and struggle (struggle is implied to those who dislike science and information technology).

Step 5: Yeah yeah I know there's law, finance, blah blah but Bushi personally thinks scientists are cool so become a scientist! Or an artist, because Bushi likes people that can draw/color him.

And that's how, folks, money pops out of thin air.

DISCLAIMER- THIS IS OBVIOUSLY A JOKE.

I'm back, again?

I'm sorry for never posting again after telling you all that I was finally back. A lot of things went down and it took me time to recover. But here I am again and I've decided to change things up. From now on I'll try to post whenever I can (I know I've said this already and never followed it, I promise to try my best). School is always exhausting so I'll post a new post whenever school let's me be free which is once in a blue moon!