Inner Nature: Forces of Nature
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
The story so far: The hot, dense singularity that was the source of the Big Bang exploded about 13.8 billion years ago (bya) and the energy in the explosion spread, cooled and became lumpy. The lumps were matter (~5%), dark matter (~25%), and dark energy (~70%).
To break it up into timelines after the instant of the Big Bang (A.B.B.):
Send...
ReFirement at Any Age: Pay attention
By Gail Supplee Tatum, Columnist, The Times
We live in a world where, now more than ever, we need to be alert and pay close attention to what we are doing, what we are saying, who we interact with and who we speak with.
We must be aware of the activity around us and of the people around us who are not paying attention. It could be a dangerous combination if we all were unaware of our surroundings!...
Inner Nature: Matter matters
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
In this article, I will extend the topic begun last month on the constitution of the universe as we currently understand it and simplify (or at least try!) the simply overwhelming vocabulary that attends this topic. And just to be clear about what the universe’s composition has to do with biology or bees…it has everything to do with biology and bees. Living...
Becoming the Best U: Lessons cancer taught me
By Nancy Plummer, Columnist, The Times
I am one of the lone survivors of ovarian cancer stage 4 and metastatic brain cancer. As we all just celebrated World Ovarian Cancer Awareness Day and Brain Cancer Awareness Month, I thought it best to bring more attention to it and do what I could to help others learn more about this deadly disease. I recognize that ovarian cancer is hard to diagnose since its...
Inner Nature: The current understanding of the nature of our universe
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
The Big Bang was an explosion of immense power at a point in space about 13.7 billion years ago; the singularity from which everything in this universe – energy, space, time, matter – originated. Consensus on the universe’s origins from a fiery explosion emerged because of one incontrovertible signature that it left behind: a little bit of the heat from the...
ReFirement at Any Age: Turn the Lights Back On
By Gail Supplee Tatum, Columnist, The Times
The title of this article is from a song that Billy Joel wrote after not having written an original song in seventeen years! After years of writing amazing songs that spoke to the world in so many ways, he just wasn’t able to honestly and humbly express something real and authentic.
When I heard that and then listened to the song, it brought tears to my...
Inner Nature: Cooperation versus Competition
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
Nobel Laureate William Golding’s book, Lord of the Flies, tells of a group of young boys accidentally marooned on an island, who lost every smidgin of “civilization” and reverted to clannism, competition, and eventually to savagery: they kill the boys who show thoughtfulness. The book’s title became shorthand for the beast inside us all which needs to be...
Inner Nature: Time — reality or illusion?
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
When his dear friend Michele Besso passed away, Einstein wrote a condolence letter: “Michele has left this strange world a little before me. This means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction made between past, present and future is nothing more than a persistent, stubborn illusion.” Whether time is real, or whether it is “nothing...
Smart ways to use your tax refund
By Joe Oliver, Columnist, The Times
It’s almost that time of year when many people start receiving their tax refunds. If you get one, what will you do with it?
Of course, the answer will depend somewhat on how big your refund is. Last year, the average refund amount was about $2,750, according to the Internal Revenue Service’s Filing Season Statistics report.
Whatever the size of your refund,...
Inner Nature: Merde!
By Vidya Rajan. Columnist, The Times
Merde. In other words, s**t, p**p, d**g, number 2, BMs, excreta, droppings, stools, feces. This is not a really pleasant subject of conversation, or even a polite one (unless you lived back in the eighteenth century when everyone was apparently fascinated by it as an indicator of health). But it’s an important part of life. If you’ve ever been constipated or...
