Computers Evolution

       Computers as we all know was invented by Charles Babbage. In the old days the computers used to be very very big a single unit may take up the space of an entire large room and consume power in order of a few thousand kilowatts. But with gradual development in electronics and semiconductor technology the miniaturisation of the computers began. Today a computer can be as small as a credit card and consume electricity in order of 1 watt or less if we exclude the power consumption of the display unit. 

Babbage's Analytical Engine

            Tremendous development happens in the fields of computer processing power it seems to double up every one and half to two years. In the 1960s when one of the co-founders of Intel Gordon Moore was preparing for a speech he noticed that data indicates that the processing power of a computer doubles every two years and that became to be known as Moore's law and it provided a road map to the companies for the future plans of developing the computer processors. Along with the processing power the memory and storage of computers have kept pace today even a smart phone has a Random Access Memory(RAM) of 2Gb or more. A few decades ago even supercomputers did not have that kind of memory and today 1 Tb of computer storage has become common. 

     Now the above discussion was about hardware. What about software ? From simple programmes in the beginning to later on complex operating systems like Unix , Macintosh and MS-Dos , computer software has come a long way. Earlier programmers used to write codes in Assembly Languge mnemonics that were supplied with the processor of the computer. Now that implied that a programmer had to write a separate code for a different machine that may be using another processor. Also assembly language programming was tedious. This problem was solved by the development of high level programming language like ADA, Fortran, BASIC, Simula,Smalltalk, C etc. This higher level programming languages were more similar to natural languages . There was a compiler of each of this programming languages that would be written specifically for a different processor. The compiler's function is to convert the high level programming language code into machine executable binary code. This made the life of programmers somewhat easier and also made it possible to write complex software. 

     With the increase in the power provided by the hardware because of the exponential growth of processing power, memory and storage the software started becoming more and more complex. Now to manage this complexity a new paradigm of programming came into existence Object Oriented Programming(OOP) . Object Oriented Programming made writing software easier.

     Now for the users of computers , earlier computers was considered as something that would be used by geeks and big businesses and that ordinary people and no use of it. The early computers required the users to remember and type in commands that would make computer do tasks for them. However the co-founder of APPLE Computers Steve Jobs when he visited Xerox PARC'S Palo Alto research center and saw the first example of a Graphical User Interface he was so inspired by it, that the designed it into the Macintosh Operating System. The Graphical User Interface(GUI) changed the world of computers it made computing possible for the ordinary people who had never used computers before. 

Macintosh GUI

     Because of the GUI all a user had to do was the to click a button to open a file , click some other tab to save the file. The ordinary user was saved from the difficult task of remembering commands. Because of the GUI users were able to train themselves into using computers rather than depending on anyone. Also the GUI made the computer screen beautiful as compared to earlier green screened computer. The computing from a logical work became something intuitive and creative. The following decades witnessed stupendous growth in computer graphics and animation along with growth of Internet that changed the world. 

Some interesting facts about GNU/LINUX.

1) The GNU/ LINUX operating system is called the Linux operating system by people. Actually it is a mistake. While Linus Trovalds only created the Kernel of the Linux Operating System as his final year project a the University of Helsinki. Much before that in 1985 Dr Richard Stallman started the Free Software Foundation and embarked on a mission to create a completely Free Operating System[Free in terms of Freedom not necessarily in terms of price. ] By the early 90s most of the operating system was complete but it lacked the Kernel. The Hurd Kernal that was being made for the GNU OS was far from completion at this time Linus released the Linux Kernal under Free License  and thus GNU/LINUX came into existence. 

2) GNU/ LINUX has lots of different distributions viz: Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Debian, Kali etc.  The creator of Debian Ian Murdock(there were other developers as well they were all communicating and sharing and delivering code over the internet) actually named it after his the then girlfriend Debra and his name Debra+ Ian = Debian.

3) Majority of the servers of the world use Linux as their Operating System. The reasons for that being .

   i) Linux is a FREE operating system. People are free to study , modify and distribute the source code of the operating system (both the original and modified versions). Because of this companies have the freedom to change the source code of the operating system as per their needs and requirements. 

   ii) Linux is far more stable than its competitor Windows. While Windows operating systems crash frequently there is hardly anyone who has seen a Linux Operating System crash.

 iii) Linux is far more secure than Windows , primarily because it is a multiuser Unix like Operating System and only the Administrator or the Root User has the administrative privileges and and few users and applications have the privilege to access the kernel . Because of this Linux is modular and well protected. 

     Unlike Windows there are hardly any issues with viruses on GNU/LINUX .

iv) The cost of ownership of Linux even the Enterprise version is far less than that of Windows. 


4) Different distributions of Linux are available for computers with different levels of hardware and again being Free OS it can scaled down to fit the requirements of a lower end computer. Take Raspberry PI for example, for  the lower processing power and RAM of the $ 20 computer, developers have come out with modified version of Debian and Fedora like Raspbian and Pidora operating systems. 

5) The world's most popular smartphone and tablet operating system Android has a kernel that is a modified version of the Linux Kernel. Firefox mobile OS is also a version of Linux. There are other versions of Linux based mobile OS coming up like Jolla Sailfish and Tizen.

Planet Labs - Minisatellite

A few days back I came across a this TED video. Planet Labs is a silicon valley startup that's into space science and exploration. As you would see in this video it has made satellites that relatively less expensive , much smaller and lighter .

     The constellation of Dove satellites that the company is launching are a flock of earth imaging satellites that would take images of different places of the earth everyday. So people will have access to the latest pictures and not use old ones. The satellite maybe small but it has a very high resolution camera that can take images of the earth with a 3-5 meter resolution. 

      There is an advantage of getting real time images for example if there is tsunami or a volcano eruption then we will have access to the latest images taken more frequently. 

       The satellites themselves being small are relatively inexpensive and that is why the company is able to launch some of its satellites just for the sake of testing. Planet Labs has already launched 28 such satellites each one of them orbit the earth in 90 minutes taking pictures of the planet all along. 

   The company is reaping advantage of miniaturising the satellites. Making miniaturised satellites makes them cheaper, easier to transport , test , store and handle.   This satellites being cheap, even if one of them fails the loss is minor as compared to loss caused by the failures  of large satellites.

      In case of every electronic device, we have seen that miniaturisation has brought in a big revolution. Take for example the case of Radio. Once upon a time radios used to be a huge box and very expensive. It got smaller and smaller over time today we have radios that can can be a few millimeter across. The same is true in case of every electronic device. 

     Take example of computer data storage devices . There was a time when storing 1 MB of data would take electronic devices spread over large number of rooms. Today one can easily store 32 gigabytes of data i.e - more than 32000 Mb of data in very small micro SD card. Earlier it would have taken hundreds and thousands of dollars, along with huge electricity and maintenance costs, while a 32 Gb micro SD card today costs less than $ 20 and then energy it will consume over a day's usage may be gauged in a few micro watts or less. 

    Technology will constantly keep evolving making products better , cheaper , easier to use. 

      I wish and hope that in the near future many such private companies launch mini satellites that are small and inexpensive doing all sort of things in addition to imaging . Who knows maybe in the future we may shoot off such small or even smaller satellites to distant planets , even this little satellites maybe given their own propulsion. Maybe in future we can simultaneously shoot off satellites to different planets and asteroids .

       

Events that lead to great Innovations

        It’s amazing how sometimes the most simplest tinkering with materials can lead to great innovations. A very simple example of this is Barbed Wire. Now when people from Europe started settling in North America their main profession was farming and cattle rearing. It’s amazing how sometimes the most simplest tinkering with materials can lead to great innovations. A very simple example of this is Barbed Wire. Now when people from Europe started settling in North A issue with cattle rearing is that the cattle may trespass into other farms and eat up crops or wild animals may enter cattle shed and eat up the animals. To overcome this problem fencing of the cattle farm was a must now creating a fence using Brick and Mortar or Wood was very expensive . So in 1867 Lucien Smith invented a basic form of barbed wire which he got patented. The invention of barbed wire lead to 10 – 100 time reduction in fencing costs . It stopped animals from running away from a farm and also protected the crops of other farms from being eaten up by stray animals.  When any cattle tried to enter a field it would get pricked by barbed wire and go away.

The design of the barbed wire was subsequently improved the below figure shows the patent application by Joseph Glidden. The barbed wires used today are mostly similar to the one Glidden invented.

In 1874 an Illinois farmer Joseph Glidden patented and improved the design which held wire barbs in place.

Another such innovation is the the skyscraper. Today all major cities of the world have multistoried skyscrapers many of them streching over hundread floors. Now with the traditional brick and mortar technique the number of floors that could be added to a building is limited however sometime in 1879 or earlier American architect and engineer William Le Baron Jenney who was thinking about this problem came across an amazing solution. He went to his home early his wife was reading a book when he arrived , she put the heavy book on a bird’s cage made of steel wire mesh. Jenny noted that hes strode across the room and dropped the book on the steel cage two or three times and exclaimed : “It works! It works! Don’t you see? If this little cage can hold this heavy book, why can’t an iron or steel cage be the framework for a whole building?”

In 1885 Jenny designed the Home Insurance Building in Chicago . The building was the first fully metal framed building and it is considered the first skyscraper. The steel frame technique is used in all skyscrapers till date. Skyscrapers were important for cities as large cities have very little ground space and skyscraper by rising vertically can solve this problem. Many skyscrapers have become symbolical to their respective cities.

Home insurance building Chicago.

Mind, Brain , Computers

Why we the human beings are so much different from other animals on earth . We are the only beings on the planet who have made the best use of the brain and using the brain has lead to further evolutionary development of the brain and mind.

         The difference between brain and mind has to be understood . If we take the analogy of a computer then the mind is the is the software and the brain is the hardware. Even today scientists understand very little about the brain and its functions and as we know our brains are far better than any other computer or supercomputers that are built till today. 

      We have mental abilities and capacities that we are simply not able to inculcate into the computer. Now the computer is essentially a computing device . The microprocessor of the computer does trillions of arithmetical and logical operations per second. In case of supercomputers it can be in order of quadrillions of operations per second or beyond. 

      However we have the capacity of intuition ie understanding something without any analysis . The knowledge simply transcends. Just like the Graphical User Interface of a computer makes computing so much more intuitive there are many things that users learn without having been told how exactly those things should be done. 

      This can happen while studying physics or geometry . While in the process of studying something and understanding the subject images creeps up in the mind that helps the student visualize what he is studying. Many a times one finds alternative solutions of problems just as a flash in the mind. 

      There have been events where great discoveries are made in dreams : Like Kekule discovering the structure of Benzene. Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan claimed that he got solutions of his mathematical problems in dreams. A god appeared and drew figures and wrote the equations. 

    Again computers never goes to sleep like we do. So how does one inculcate the ability to dream in a computer? 

     Humans and even some animals have some inbuilt emotions. Humans control emotions the best as compared to other animals. Humans have emotions like Love, hate, anger , happiness , fear etc. No computer in the world has emotions. 

      One can only build computer that mimics humans only if humans understand themselves perfectly and lot remains to be learnt about the human mind and brain. 

Wonder Herbs

Qualities of NEEM  

 Neem in Ayurveda is regarded as the medicine for all the diseases .  Neem is a natural pesticide , fungicide, antibiotic, antiviral. My        personal experience shows that having some neem leaves            properly washed in hot water at the beginning of lunch results in good digestion and helps keeping the bowls clean. 

       While bacteria tends to build resistance against antibiotics after a certain period of time, Neem has been there for thousands of years but bacteria have failed to build any resistance against Neem. 

     Scratching an area of the skin that is itchy with fingers may result in that part getting infected , however scratching the same area with Neem leaves not only relives the person but also cures the itch because of its antimicrobial properties. 

      The Neem twigs have been traditionally used in India to brush teeth. The antimicrobial properties of Neem kills the worms in the teeth. 

       Paste made from Neem leaves or other parts of the Neem tree are used in skin creams. 

      Neem oil is said to be good for skin. 

      Neem helps in purification of blood. 

      People who practice yoga are adviced to have Neem on a daily basis. 

    One can find a range of trustworthy sites on the Internet to get to know more about the qualities of Neem. Almost every part of the plant is useful. Including it in our dial diet and daily uses makes sense since Neem indeed has tremendous benefits . 

     My suggestion to all readers is have some(5 or 6) Neem leaves daily along with your diet. Having neem leaves with rice reduces the bitterness of the neem. You can have it right at the beginning of lunch . Since Neem is bitter having the bitter stuff at the beginning of the lunch would clear your tongue and you will find rest of the lunch very tasty. 

     In Ayurveda the system of ancient Indian medicine as mentioned above - Neem has been mentioned as a medicine for all diseases. Now Ayurveda is a system of Indian medicine that belives in proactive prevention of diseases . Herbs like Neem, tulsi, palak etc spices like haldi, dalchine(Cumin) , ginger etc are actually Ayurvedic medicines that were included in the diets of common Indian people in ancient times. 

     "Prevention is better than cure" by including healthy food in our diet we need prevent diseases.
[Will include more herbs in this post itslef very soon]        

Wonderful things done through Dreams

Srinivasa Ramanujan 

Srinivasa Ramanujan a great Indian mathematician was devout follower  Namagiri Thayar the deity of Namakkal temple. Ramanujan used to get the solutions of the mathematical problems in his dreams. When GH Hardy asked him to come to England, he being an orthodox Brahmin went to his mother to ask for permission. But the superstitious people of India in those time were religiously barred from crossing the sea. However Ramanujan's mother had a dream where the goddess of Namakkal temple asked her to let her son cross the sea.

Sensei who can make animals go to sleep 

     Below I have inserted a Youtube link of a video that shows how this Chi master from Japan can make animals go to sleep without touching them. He says that he got the knowledge of this power while he was asleep. 

The structure of Benzene

Benzene structure

        Fedrich Augustine Kekule' the scientist who discovered the structure of Benzene' , had a dream while working on the subject. In his own words :

"...I was sitting writing on my textbook, but the work did not progress; my thoughts were elsewhere. I turned my chair to the fire and dozed. Again the atoms were gamboling before my eyes. This time the smaller groups kept modestly in the background. My mental eye, rendered more acute by the repeated visions of the kind, could now distinguish larger structures of manifold conformation; long rows sometimes more closely fitted together all twining and twisting in snake-like motion. But look! What was that? One of the snakes had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled mockingly before my eyes. As if by a flash of lightning I awoke; and this time also I spent the rest of the night in working out the consequences of the hypothesis"

Dr Otto Lowei

Dr Otto Lowei

    Dr Otto Lowei won Noble prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Earlier it was unknown whether nerve impulses are transmitted electrically or chemically. He dissected the beating hearts of two frogs one with vagus nerve(the vagus nerve controls the heart rate) another heart was on its own. Both the hearts were bathed in Ringer's solution and then the vagus nerve of the first heart was electrically simulated , the heart beat slower. Lowei took some of the liquid form the first heart and then applied it to the second heart. On applying the liquid the second heart beat slower . Thus it became clear that some chemical from the vagus nerve was controlling the rate of heart beats. The chemical was initially called Vagusstoff which was later found to acetylcholine.

       Now Lowei said the motivation for the experiment came to him in a dream in his own words :

"The night before Easter Sunday of that year I awoke, turned on the light, and jotted down a few notes on a tiny slip of paper. Then I fell asleep again. It occurred to me at 6 o'clock in the morning that during the night I had written down something most important, but I was unable to decipher the scrawl. The next night, at 3 o'clock, the idea returned. It was the design of an experiment to determine whether or not the hypothesis of chemical transmission that I had uttered 17 years ago was correct. I got up immediately, went to the laboratory, and performed a single experiment on a frog's heart according to the nocturnal design."

[I will include more wonderful things that happened being inspired by dreams on this post very soon.]

[Updating this post with more wonderful dreams]

 I live in a state of India called West Bengal and I am a great fan and follower of Swami Vivekananda. So when I think about great dreams how do I forget great dreams associated with this man. So I will put some dreams that are associated with Swami Vivekananda his guru Ramakrishna Paramhamsa. 

   Swami Vivekananda's guru Ramakrishna Paramhamsa was a priest of the Dakshineshwar Kali temple . Now there is a divine dream connection to the Dakshineswar Kali temple. Rani Rashmoni was preparing to leave for Kashi to express her devotions to the divine mother , the night before she had a dream in which the Divine Mother appeared in front for her and said 

"There is no need to go to Banaras. Install my statue in a beautiful temple on the banks of the Ganges river and arrange for my worship there. Then I shall manifest myself in the image and accept worship at that place."

Rani Rashmoni

Dakshineshwar Temple

    Rani Rashmoni followed the instructions bought 20 acres of land on the banks of the Ganga River and got a temple built there. Ramkumar Chattopadhay was the chief priest in time he brought in his younger brother Gadadhar Chattopadhay(Gadai) to assist him, Ramkumar died in some after that Gadai who later went on to become Ramakrishna Paramhamsa became the chief priest. Ramakrishna stayed there as a priest till his death. Dakshineshwar is the same temple when Swami Vivekanda(then Narendranath Dutta) and other boys were trained by Ramakrishna Paramhamsa who later on went ahead to build the Ramakrishna Mission. 

Swami Vivekananda

     Swami Vivekananda was adviced by many people including Maharaja Ajay Singh of Kehtri to visit US to attain the Parliament of Religions. While in an uncertain state of mind one night he had a dream:

(The following is an excerpt from Swami Nikhilananda's biography of Swami Vivekananda)

"The Swami one day had a symbolic dream, in which he saw Sri Ramakrishna walking into the water of the ocean and beckoning him to follow. He also heard the authoritative word 'Go!' In response to a letter that he had written to Sarada Devi, the Holy Mother, she gave him her blessings for the fulfilment of his desire, knowing that it was Ramakrishna's wish that he should undertake thejourney to America. And now, at last, he felt sure of his call."

    

Space Travel Future

From Einstein's special theory of relativity we learn that time is not uniform. For different observers in space time passes differently depending upon their relative speeds. 

The following is the expression for time dilation:

Where T= change in time of a body moving with velocity v 

           Tr = change in time of a body at rest 

             c= velocity of light in vacuum

Now for small values of v the time passing in both the mediums is same, that's why here on earth we find that there is hardly any difference between the time passing for a man standing in a bus stop as compared to a man travelling in a car. 

But if we build a spacecraft which has some kind of fuel that can constantly accelerate it and gain speeds upto 99.9999% , in that case 1 day (24 hours) in the spaceship would be equivalent to 707 days on earth. Such space ships can reach distant stars and for the astronauts on board very little time would passed in the entire travel . But when they come back to earth thousands of years would have passed. 

      NASA's Kepler mission is observing 150000 stars with earth like planets in their orbit. Maybe in the future a 100 ,200 years from now we would send batches of humans to those planets , to start a human colony over there. A few hundred years from now when we have the technology . Human civilizations main target would be to travel explore and spread around the universe. 

Humans and sex

Life began on earth starting form the phase of amoeba and then evolved to higher and higher organisms, it further got subdivided into plant and animal kingdom. The animal kingdom varied from single cell beings to complex multi cellular organisms as big as Dinosaurs in the past and Blue Whales today.

     The single cell organisms reproduced asexually by growing and dividing itself, the cells of our body divide like that. But as the single cell organisms later evolved into multi cellular organisms that were more complex genetically, for these organisms, asexual reproduction was replaced by sexual reproduction. The same organisms were divided into two sexes male and female. 

       For sexual reproduction the male and female mated and then a new organism of the same species came into existence. The male has a reproductive organ called the penis, in the testicles sperm is produced. During sexual intercourse the penis penetrates into the vagina of the female ultimately ejaculating the seamen which contains millions of sperms that would move towards egg .

So what we call sex is actually a process that  is designed by nature so that life continues on earth. The sexual enjoyment is the incentive that is given by nature so that animals get into the act of sexual intercourse.

Sexual reproduction leads to mixing of genes of two different animals of the same species, as a result the defects in the genes of one organism are corrected by the genes of other organism. The rate of population growth becomes slower but the rate of evolution becomes faster, since there is mixing of genes of two organisms involved.  

That's why in animals there exists the instinct of mating between males and females of the species. On sexual intercourse there is a transfer of male semen that contains the sperm that fuses with the female egg. The same is true in case of us Humans.

What we feel as lust is nothing but the same natural urge to copulate with the opposite sex of our species. The penetrative sexual intercourse that involves the penetration of male penis into the vagina of female ultimately results in the male ejaculating the seamen inside the vagina of the female. The sperms contained in the seamen move ahead in an attempt to fuse with the egg.

       As humans we are higher creatures , living beings who can think higher and control nature. Man has become what he is by controlling nature and also our basic sexual instinct.  The pleasure that animals feel is the incentive given by nature to get into the act of sexual intercourse. However humans can control this by raising above lust.

              Men have been there who gave up lust in thought , word and action. This is called Bramhacharya and the practice of bramhacharya for a long period of time is said to result in tremendous spiritual energy. In this context I will quote Swami Vivekananda from Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda in his explanation of Patanjali Yogasutras  he says:

ब्रह्मचर्यप्रतिष्ठायां वीर्यलाभः ॥३८॥

38. By the establishment of continence energy is gained.

The chaste brain has tremendous energy and gigantic will-power. Without chastity there can be no spiritual strength. Continence gives wonderful control over mankind. The spiritual leaders of men have been very continent, and this is what gave them power. Therefore the Yogi must be continent.

On another occasion he says 

"Is there a greater strength than that of Brahmacharya—purity, my boy?"

         However the ideal of Bramhacharya is practiced only by few. Most men marry get a wife for themselves and she is the one who remains the sex partner of the man for the rest of his life, this is the best level of sexual control for most men. 

     But there remains people who are taught wrongly that they would get sick without sexual intercourse. That they are being fools not having sex or simply out of ignorance give into their basic instincts.  Even in humans some men and women get so addicted to their sexual urge that they end up having sexual intercourse outside their marriage or having multiple sex partners.

        The above problem is more in case of human males. There are women who work as sex workers (prostitutes) whose work is to have sexual intercourse with men in return of money . In India by government statistics there were about 2.8 million  female sex workers in the year 2007 and the sad part about it is that the number actually doubled in a decade.  Again the numbers are from 2007 the numbers now are surely above 3 million. Out of this 3 million 1.2 million are children. 

         This means that at least 8-9 million men visit brothels each day a big proportion of them are married men. Thus it is very much possible that half of India's adult male population have sex with prostitutes. 

      Most of the sex workers work out of dire need, either because of poverty or they are forced to work as sex workers by some of their family members. Many of the girls are trafficked from Nepal and Bangladesh who work in India as sex workers, some of the sex workers are daughters of prostitutes and work in this profession because the society will not accept them back. 

      Somehow mother nature has hit back at human lust by coming out with a virus called Human Immuno Virus(HIV) which leads to a syndrome called AIDS(Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome) . A person suffering with AIDS has no effect of medicines on him. AIDS spread through 1) Unprotected sexual intercourse 2) Blood transfusion from an AIDS affected individual to someone else 3) From a HIV affected pregnant mother to her baby in the womb. 

     Millions of people in the world are affected by AIDS and millions have died. It is a fact that most sex workers have unprotected sexual intercourse with their clients and therefore have a very high probability of contracting AIDS. 

     Currently there is no vaccine to prevent HIV. 

The human lust can be controlled through willpower also yoga and meditation helps.

        

Understanding Relativistic Mass

Do you know that the mass of a body increases with increase in its speed. From Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity we get

where M = mass of a body moving with velocity v.
           Mo= mass of the body at rest(ie v=0)
            c   = velocity of light in vacuum

     Now we do not observe it in our daily lives since the fastest we move here on earth is maybe at 100 , 200 or at the most 300 km per hr . If you substitute this velocities in the above equations the differences in mass is negligible. However as the speed approaches the speed of light the difference becomes more and more pronounced.  

     So what does it imply :
1) As a body moves faster it gets heavier. 

-If a body becomes as fast as half the speed of light its mass increases by just 50% of the rest mass. 

-If a body attains 90% of the speed of light its mass becomes 2.29 times more than the rest mass.

-If a body attains 99% of the speed of light its mass becomes more than 7.1 times the rest mass.

-If a body attains 99.9% of the speed of light its mass becomes 22.366 times the rest mass. 

-If a body attains 99.99% of the speed of light its mass becomes 70.71 times the rest mass.

-If a body attains 99.999999999% of the speed of light its mass becomes 22360.67 times the rest mass.

-If a body attains 99.999999999999% of the speed of light its mass becomes 707114.60 times the rest mass of the body.

      So from the above data it is clear that at very high velocities approaching the speeds of light a small increase in velocity leads to big increase in mass. Also it would require lot more kinetic energy at high speeds to accelerate the body since the mass is constantly increasing. 

      We do not come across such speeds in normal life except for certain high energy labs like CERN's  Large Hadron Collider and only subatomic particles which have extremely low mass can be accelerated to this speeds with the technology that we have today. 

      
            

Stan Lee's superhumans.

I am a fan of History TV18 's programme Stan Lee Superhumans. Its amazing the number of people they have found who can do amazing things . Some martial art expert can make his opponents faint without touching their body just by the power of Chi. They showed another Sensei who can actually make any animal go to sleep using the power of Chi(the term in Sanskrit for CHI is Prana) .

      Blind man who can see with his mind's eye. A knifethrower throwing knives with unbelievable accuracy, an American Football quarterback who can throw the football to a catcher who is travelling in a car at a great distance with perfect accuracy. People who can break steel with their head. People who can balance their bodies head first on a nail and do many many many kinds of freakish things.

    Every time one watches the show one thinks how little we know about the human body and mind. How can someone swim in ice cold water for hours without being affected while ordinary person will die in a matter of minutes. Most of the  moves shown by the people in the show are so dangerous that if ordinary people try it they will end up doing considerable damages to their bodies. 

    But watching the show has actually made me curious about how much really we know about our body and mind. There is lot about nature that is left to be discovered. Especially amazing moves made by the monks like hanging heavy weight from their eyelids which biology or physics would tell us that will destroy the eyes. They claim that they have a hidden power called Chi that they have mastered by years of meditation and martial arts practice. 

      Just a few days ago saw an episode in which a person was shown who is able to move a 140 ton truck by the power of his arms ordinary people would struggle to move even a 1 ton vehicle with their hands. 

       The list in endless but among us live people who can do amazing things with their bodies and minds.