Biogenetics

There has been 7 lectures so far but I only attended 3 lectures for this module, "Genes and Society". Ok, so far, I dunno if the contents taught had anything got to do with the societial issue other than some touches on the ethical issues here and there. Not to mention if it has anything got to do with sociology, which I thought there was when I was deciding which modules to take. It turns out to be a revision of A levels biology. Ok, maybe it is my advantage too, since this is like the THIRD lecture that I have attended. Thank God there isn't any projects for this.

Realised some things that I did not thought of when I was studying Biology in JC, because I did not know many things about the Bible yet. Some stuff that I realised as I attended the lectures which seemed like a revision to me:

1) All organisms have almost 50% genetic makeup that is similar to one another. No wonder God could have made all living things in just one day, because basically He only had to vary half of the DNA to make different animals. (No, don't tell me anything about how life came about without God. I think it is totally a whole load of crap. Tell me nobody created the intricate process of transcription and translation of DNA, ribosomes that do all the splicing and annealing, and the make-up of proteins using amino acids. They all just happened even when single-celled organisms came about? The process is already too complicated to even just happen at the single-cell level. That is rubbish.)

2) 97% of the human genome does not code for any genes, i.e., they are just junk information that are not being expressed. I thought, there might be a high possibility that the whole genome is being expressed in Adam, since he named every beast of the earth, every bird of the air, and everything that creeps on the earth, he must have been very developed such that he could run, fly and swim deep into the sea too. With that 100% of the genome expressed. Well, just a guess, there must be some origins to the existence of the 97% unexpressed genome right?

3) As I have learnt in quantum physics, vacuum is not nothing, it is in fact everything! Because of the creation of matter and antimatter when high speed particles collide or something like that haha. It meant to me that it is indeed evidence that God created the universe out of nothing, vacuum! Simplistically that is.

Indeed science has alot of evidences about God. There is really something at work to stop people from reading the messages presented even in the much perceived anti-God science. God did not only leave evidences in China in its literature, calligraphy and language, but it has also done the same in Science. I believe those who have insight in the field of Science will agree with me in the existence of a higher order being, which theory gave rise to the idea of Determinism.

We are indeed in the era of transformation and revival.

I have to say I enjoyed the last lecture of the module "Einstein's Universe and Quantum Weirdness" about the Schrodinger Cat and the Parallel Universes. Maybe because I have indeed been intrigued by quantum physics and it weirdness, which we are supposed to be? As Neils Bohr puts it: "Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it."

I agree increasingly with Einstein that "Science without Religion is lame, Religion without Science is blind". Parallel universes...isn't that intriguing? In Religion we learn about the universe, its creation, the viewpoints of life, and the ways we as humans should live in it. In Science we explore out of this universe, the dimensions, and all the possibilities of the existence of anything in and out of this universe, aren't science and philosophy complements of each other as such?

Increasingly too, I realised that indeed all great scientists are great philosophers. Just look at Bohr, Schrodinger, Lorentz, Dirac and Einstein, wouldn't you agree with me? Without the philosophy behind science, science is very much indeed nothing, and very unlikely there will be no motivation at all behind the contributions these great people have made to science, making science an empty nutshell.

It is unlike the idea that we Singaporean children have about Science, that it is all about hard facts and application, and marks. It is sad that it continues to be so even up to the JC level. I am very much pleased that in this module, or maybe science at the highest level, is much more than that. Therefore I will like to say that this module has really caused us as arts students to appreciate better the art of science.

In my understanding nutshell, Science to me is all about "why", engineering is all about "why not", and philosophy and religion is about "why and why not because".

Indeed there are no limits to thinking, whether in space travel or in words, or sometimes as Einstein puts it, in non-words too. Just some thoughts that I will like to share.

"I hardly think in words at all." - Albert Einstein.



My knee have been hurting on and off since that accident and I hate it.