I remember when growing up as a kid, my mind was always filled with questions about the mysterious universe. I would be sitting on the sofa or lying in bed just thinking about where the universe came from, how big is it, who created it, is it finite or infinite, are we alone, will it ever end someday and more importantly, why does it even exist? In pondering about these questions which often prevented me from falling asleep at night, I was so fascinated with it and hoping someday I would be able to find answers to all of these mysteries. Once in a great while I would go to my father asking him about these questions, and his response was to advise me not to think that deep but focus more on my school work to improve my grades and not fail mathematics again. He was right about that as my grades were horrific and I never could pass mathematics but that did not stop me from pondering about those questions because I found the subject much more interesting than the boring and robotic school work. I attended a  Catholic school but I was never baptized or got involved with any of the religious beliefs. Regardless of my non-religious nature, it was still a mandatory requirement for me to take religion courses and pass it in order to advance to the next grade level. I found the religion classes very boring and I simply memorized the scripts to pass the exams but continue in failing mathematics miserably. I was more disturbed about the contents in religion as they taught me that the earth is 6000 years old, but my science book taught me that it is about 5 billion. In religion classes, I was told that we were descended from Adam and Eve, and my science books informed us about the theory of evolution. Which one is telling me the truth? I was confused while I continue with my pondering of the universe and I dreamed that maybe someday I would become an astronomer or a cosmologist studying and searching for the answers about the origin of the universe.

It wasn’t until I graduated from college and landed my first teaching job in a Catholic school did I begin to take on a more serious search for the answers between science and religion. Einstein once said ” Religion without science is blind, science without religion is lame”. That quote is still hanging on the wall in my home office. Does science really need religion to tag along? Science is testable knowledge and it is based upon data and observation where religion is about personal faith. To me, these two subjects cannot be mingled together for science has uncovered the truths over the past 500 years and it is still making progress where religion hasn’t. One thing I know for sure is that the Earth is not 6000 years old but around 5 billion, and that we were not descended from Adam and Eve but through variation of genes and evolution. While evolution may not be able to explain everything, the amount of overwhelming evidence gathered from it ranked one of the best theories that we cannot discard so quickly. Teaching evolution over creationism in schools is only logical and we have to educate the young mind of our future the right way and fill them in with the correct information so they can contribute to make a better world tomorrow. Science has come a long way where mysteries from thousand of years ago are now solved and we have the high technologies, modern medicines and effective global communication system to show for. The mysteries of today will someday be explained by science and it is usually done on an incremental basis.

One of the most prominent establishment in modern physics is quantum mechanics which was developed back in the early 1900, just a little over 100 years ago. I must honestly  say that despite how successful quantum theory is, we still don’t understand why it works the way it does. Most physicists have given up hopes in trying to understand quantum mechanics and not even want to talk about it, but applying what we know to particle physics and condensed matter physics, and we certainly have done very well with that. Quantum theory is the most accurate theory we have today in describing physics at the subatomic level. It is solely based on the uncertainty principle which stated that we can do no better than what is set forth by the uncertainty principle meaning we cannot measure position and velocity both at the same time with the same accuracy. At the heart of quantum mechanics is the Schrodinger’s Equation and we can calculate what the wave function is going to do at a later time given the initial condition of the wave. It is done in a deterministic way but the wave function itself will produce a number at each point representing the probability of finding the particle at that position and that is done in a probabilistic way mapping out the probability distribution as the wave travels along. The best thing which quantum mechanics can tell us is the probability rather than the definiteness of finding exactly where the particle is and it is only when we attempt to make a quantum observation will we see the particle but not the wave. This strangeness of quantum mechanics is the most troubling in physics so we are still struggling to understand despite how successful the theory is. One thing quantum mechanics has taught me is that empty space isn’t really empty but filled with energy called quantum fluctuation, bunch of energy vibrating to pop out pairs of particles and antiparticles and we have witnessed these events in experiments according to Einstein’s equation E=mc². I realized something can be created from nothing and that provided me with an answer about the question I posted earlier in the blog as to who created the universe. It seems to me that spontaneous creation is the reason why there is something rather than nothing and how the universe came into existence. There is no need to invoke any divine intervention in this process or the necessity of a God for it is much more complicated otherwise because the next question would have been who created God. If the answer is that He is eternal which is an arrogant one, then why can’t the universe be eternal instead? All the stuffs I learned in those religion classes were wrong and it couldn’t provide me with satisfactory answers about the origin of the universe. It was a relief once I learned about the spontaneous creation from quantum fluctuation and that is much more reliable than having a creative agent started the whole process in just 6 days which sounded very much like a fairy tale to me.

The Big Bang model is the cornerstone of cosmology and it has stood up against new discoveries as well as competing theories for the better part of a century. Edwin Hubble back in 1929 discovered that the universe is more than just the Milky Way Galaxy and there are many more galaxies out there like ours receding away from us at a very high velocity indicating that the universe is expanding. The universe has no center and every part of the cosmos is expanding which means if we run the time backward, we can figure out exactly when everything was packed together some 13.7 billion years ago. This expansion happened everywhere simultaneously. Scientists use this term to describe a moment in time when everything was packed into a single point called singularity which is the starting point of the universe we observe. The Big Bang model is greatly supported by many successful predictions such as ” Big Bang nucleosynthesis” which predicted the light elements such as hydrogen, lithium, helium and deuterium filling the universe as what we observed today. The best evidence for the Big Bang model is in the form of microwaves which occurred some 380000 years after the Big Bang when the expansion has stretched the radiation to much longer wavelength in the form of microwave to make the universe transparent. The light released from this transition is known as cosmic  microwave background and it cemented the Big Bang model as the best description of the universe. While the religious side was happy about the discovery of the Big Bang model for it inferred that the universe had a beginning moment in time pointing to the creation event by God, but there is no such correlation as the Big Bang simply was an event referring to that spontaneous creation out of nothing according to quantum fluctuation. I am nowhere close to accepting any divine intervention as there is no evidence of it and not necessary to invoke God into this creation event. Spontaneous creation is a much better explanation than a creator as the latter requires another creator and eventually it will lead to the brute fact meaning this is the way it is. So why not introduce the spontaneous creation out of nothingness because that is the brute fact. While this cornerstone of cosmology isn’t the whole picture, scientists keep refining the theory of the universe motivated by our observation of all the other strange things happening out there such as dark matter which holds galaxies together and dark energy which makes the universe expanding at an accelerated rate. These strange phenomena cannot be accounted for by the Big Bang model. However, the model provided me with the answer as to how the universe came about and be at the current state without invoking God in the process. This has given me great comfort and a better understanding of the universe although there are far more mysteries to explore.

These days I spend most of my time focusing on dark matter and dark energy as they are the hottest topics in cosmology. Most of my friends know that I am a strong supporter for dark energy and dark matter as I have written many paper on those topics. There are four reasons I think dark matter really exists. 1) Galaxy Clusters: In 1933, Fritz Zwicky who was a physicist at Cal tech studying very large cluster of galaxies, the Coma cluster. He calculated the gravitational mass of the cluster based upon the movements of the galaxies around the center under the force of gravity, and the mass of the luminous matter that he inferred which should be the same assuming the luminous matter constituted all of the mass in each galaxy. But to his biggest surprise, the mass of the luminous matter was much smaller than the inferred gravitational mass and it wasn’t enough to keep the cluster together and they should have been flown apart long ago. He dubbed it “dark matter” for we couldn’t see it and it does not emit radiation. The only way we can sense is by the gravitational effect.  2) Galactic Rotation Curves: Similar observations were made within galaxies. Stars should slow down when they move from near the center of mass of a galaxy to its outer edges according to Newtonian dynamics, but Vera Rubin discovered something totally different and not what anyone would have expected, and that is the velocity of the stars remained about the same regardless of how far they were from the galactic center. The rotational curves that she mapped out when studying the Andromeda galaxy in the 1960s clearly showed the departure of Newtonian dynamics when these stars were far away from the center of the galaxy. The only obvious conclusion was that the mass of the galaxy must not be entirely due to the bright luminous matter and a large fraction of the mass within the galaxy resided in a diffuse dark matter “halo” which extended well beyond the edges of the luminous matter. These galactic rotational curves provided strong evidence for the existence of dark matter.  3) The Cosmic Microwave Background ( CMB): These are the relic radiation left over from the Big Bang as the universe expanded and the temperature cooled down when the wavelength had been stretched much longer to microwave spectrum. The CMB seems to be fairly uniform and when we examined the patterns, we discovered tiny fluctuation in the temperature which is exactly what we expected if the universe consists of dark matter in addition to normal matter. The existence of dark matter left an imprint on CMB observations. The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe ( WMAP) measured the tiny fluctuations back in 1992 and showed that the existence of dark matter is favored.  4) The Bullet Cluster: This is two galaxy clusters colliding at a very high speed and through the use of X-ray astronomy, we observed an extremely hot gas of particles from these clusters crashing into each other created X-ray emission. We knew the location of it from gravitational lensing which means a massive object can act as a lens , a background source that emits light in all directions will have some of the light focused if it passes by a massive object. We can then infer the location and mass of the lens between us and the source. The Bullet Cluster is strong evidence supporting the existence of dark matter and that dark matter interacts with its surroundings significantly less frequently than ordinary matter. During the collision of the Bullet Cluster, the dark matter of one cluster would have slipped through all of the objects in the other cluster with relative ease. High velocity collisions between galaxy cluster should have the majority of their mass in the form of dark matter passing through each other unimpeded while the normal matter heats up , collided , slows down and emitting X-rays. This is exactly what we observed from the Bullet Cluster. These four pieces of evidence have provided a compelling reason for me to believe that dark matter must exist. Of all the conferences and seminars I attended at SLAC, physicists speak about dark matter as if it is almost a certainty that it exists although the evidence we gathered so far are indirect based upon gravitational interactions, I personally don’t think modifying gravity is even necessary for the General Theory of Relativity has  surpassed every test there is and the precise measurement of gravity on objects throughout the solar system fits perfectly well within the theory, and the fact that it underpins the precision of modern GPS is very impressive.

Dark energy is real and there’s clear evidence claimed by International team of Astronomers. Edwin Hubble discovered back in 1927 that Milky way galaxy isn’t the only galaxy but there are many other galaxies out there like our’s ( approximately 100 billion) within the visible part of the universe, and they are receding away at very high velocities; in fact, the farther out they recede, the faster the velocity of recession meaning the universe is expanding. That was a revolutionary discovery in the early 20th century world of astronomy, and even Albert Einstein was shocked to find out that his model of a static universe failed miserably and that he had to discard a term from his equation ( the Cosmological Constant in the Field Equation of General Relativity), and that constant was supposed to be in the equation to balance the gravitational attraction so that the universe would never collapse and remained relatively constant meaning a static universe,but Hubble’s discovery of an expanding universe changes everything. Then in the year 1998, another big surprise about the expanding universe was discovered. According to Newtonian dynamics, the universe should be slowing down on its expansion due to gravitational attraction, but instead it was found to be accelerating and has been doing so for the last 5 billion years. The universe isn’t only expanding but the rate of expansion is increasing to demonstrate an accelerated expanding universe which is absolutely mind blowing. Scientists were making use of standard candle to measure distances with a very special type of supernova called Type I A supernova where the brightness is relatively constant and it turns out that the farther it is away from us, the dimmer it gets. Putting the data together and we measured the expansion rate to be accelerating. The results were confirmed and the Nobel Prizes were given to the three scientists who made the discovery back in 2011. So now we know the universe is constantly accelerating on its expansion and we have no idea what is behind it. It is dubbed as ” dark energy”, some kind of negative pressure and some form of anti-gravity causing the universe to expand, pushing everything farther and farther apart meaning space is getting bigger and emptier all the time. Type 1A supernovas are observed to be systematically dimmer and the evidence is significant to indicate that the expansion is speeding up and a series of supernova surveys in the past decade  have measured hundreds of distant supernovas to strengthen the case for cosmic acceleration and by implication, dark energy.

The study of X-ray emission from clusters of galaxies is another powerful technique for gathering evidence to support the existence of dark energy. ” Growth of structure” method relies on observing how the number of clusters changes over time. Chandra data provide high-quality estimates of cluster mass as a function of time and use it to compare the models of the universe with and without dark energy. In the end the results are in compliance with the conclusions coming from the supernova data.

Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation which is the afterglow of the Big Bang, is observed to be extremely uniform. However, the Wilkinson Microwave  Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) back in 1992 detected tiny variations in the temperature or fluctuations ( at the part per million level). These fluctuations are due to the clumps of matter that have slightly higher or lower density than the average  and the growth of these clumps depends on the expansion rate of the universe and the speed at which sound wave travel, which in turn depend on the mass-energy density and composition of the universe. These sound wave oscillations show up in the scale of the fluctuations in the CMB and the measurements of the fluctuations by WMAP indicate the amount of dark energy required is consistent with the supernova data and cluster studies. This sound wave pattern remains imprinted on the distribution of matter and show up in the distribution of galaxies formed hundred of millions of years later served as another substantial evidence for the existence of dark energy.

The two basic models for dark energy are: 1) ( Vacuum energy) energy associated with empty space and it is constant throughout  space and time, the so called ” cosmological constant” , the term which Einstein ended up discarding from his field equation saying it was the greatest blunder of his life. However, it may not be a blunder anymore as it is still the leading candidate for dark energy. 2) ” quintessence”, an energy scalar field which varies over space and time, isn’t so popular and successful as a model compare to ” vacuum energy”. While vacuum energy is the most straightforward explanation for dark energy, the physical basis for it is a mystery. Attempts to estimate the energy density associated with the quantum vacuum lead to an absurd result that it should be 10^120 orders of magnitude larger than what we observed and we have not been able to offer an explanation for this enormous discrepancy. Quintessence or scalar field can do no better than vacuum energy in explaining  why the strength of the scalar field is so small. Hopefully in the near future, we’ll be able to narrow it down to which model is better and to distinguish between scalar field and vacuum energy which in turn the relationship between pressure and density for dark energy

Does dark energy have an impact on the fate of the universe? This is one question I had when I was a kid and now knowing these two models of dark energy, the answer seems to be quite clear to me. If dark energy is vacuum energy, then the cosmic acceleration will continue and the universe will keep expanding at an ever increasing rate and in about 100 billion years, not much will be visible to us in the sky anymore except for those galaxies that are relatively close to us ( less than a few million light years away). If dark energy is a scalar field, then the future of the universe really depends on the nature of the varying field. The expansion could halt and the universe will collapse ( Big Crunch) or it can expand without limit, and the universe will end in a ” Big Rip” where it will be torn apart by dark energy and even all the black holes will eventually evaporate. This then will be the ultimate ending of the universe. Now I come to realize that not only human lives including all the humanly constructed items don’t last forever, the universe itself will not last forever. Somehow that doesn’t provide me with any sense of comfort, only to realize nothing lasts forever.

By now I know science is a much more reliable source in providing me with the answers to most of my questions I raised when I was growing up and I continue to seek truths through the techniques developed in modern science. All the things they taught me in religion classes were wrong or just simply not reliable. The Earth is more than 5 billion years old, the universe is about 14 billion years old since the Big Bang and it is still expanding at an accelerated rate when someday it will just be torn apart by the ultimate dominant force out there dubbed ” dark energy”. The answers from natural science just make more sense to me compare to what religion has to provide. So why are there so many people cling onto religion? The answer is obvious as religion seems to provide people with a sense of meaning and purposes for living and therefore a sense of comfort to overcome all the fears including death. As a kid growing up, I was wondering about: 1) why are we here 2) is there any meaning to life 3) what are the purposes for us to live 4) what happen to us after we die. I have been trying to seek answers to these questions ever since I was a child and now as a scientist, I have a pretty good idea how to address those questions with the use of available scientific data.

Most people speculate on reasons for everything that happened and thinking that those reasons are the explanations, so called “causality”, but we have no way of knowing whether or not those reasons are correct. According to the standard model of particle physics, we are all made up of up, down quarks and electrons; in fact, all matters in the universe are made up of those three particles and they are fundamental particles. Fundamental simply means indivisible and these particles have no structures internally or they wouldn’t be fundamental to begin with. As far as we know based upon the standard model, quarks and leptons are truly fundamental. There are 6 types of quarks: up, down, charm, strange, top, bottom while there are also 6 types of leptons: electron, muon, Tau, electron neutrino, muon neutrino, Tau neutrino. Matters are made up of up, down quarks, and electrons to form protons and neutrons which form nuclei and atoms and molecules. These fundamental particles do not have a mind of their own. They are mindless, emotionless, fearless, thoughtless and careless. At the most fundamental level of understanding natural science, there are no meanings or purposes for us to be here or even the universe itself as we are all made up of these mindless fundamental particles which themselves are vibration energy from quantum fields. In science, we formulated mathematical models to give the best descriptions about how these particles operate and we come to discover that the particles and fields are completely operated by these mindless equations and there are no real meanings or any purposes for anything that come into existence including the universe. Another idea is that the universe that we live in is but one of many universes, each is subject to a Big Bang, accelerated expansion, black holes formation, stars and galaxies, and perhaps even with different laws of physics  and different values of the vacuum energy. Only those universes with with similar values of the vacuum density would allow the formation of the kind of life form that we have here. With that many universes out there, very much like soap bubbles in the bathtub where each bubble representing a universe, it is not too surprising that there is at least one such bubble ( universe) that has those right conditions and values for life to come into existence, so the fact that we are here and worrying about what it all means is that we shouldn’t have to worry, it is what it is. This multiverse theory helps me to understand the fact about law of large number which allows anything to happen and if we can live forever, we would be able to observe and accomplish anything so there will be no such things called miracles. But as I said earlier that nothing lasts forever, we have to look at things from a very different perspective.

We tend to think there is a reason and a purpose as to why we are here, but in fact, at the deepest level of understanding natural science, there aren’t any. Given the right ingredients and the proper conditions with plenty of time available, life is bound to arise and probably very abundant in the universe. Since our lifespan is so short ( cosmically speaking), we might as well create a meaningful purpose and make the best of it to contribute to the next generation. This is the humanistic way of looking at it and we are not bunch of prescriptions written up by some highly intellectuals or a Supreme Being, but rather a natural byproduct of stardust and heavy elements from supernovae. Yes, we are all superstars in that sense, however, we are also very insignificant within this vast universe. Human beings aren’t all that smart for we are subject to all sorts of biases such as false hopes and wishful thinking. In order to seek truths, we need to go make observations and formulate mathematical models, and then we need to set up various experimentation to collect real data to see if they fit into the models instead of speculating about reasons for everything that happened. According to statistics, approximately 60% of the population in U.S believe in fairies over the theory of evolution and it is very discouraging. While evolution cannot account for everything that we see today, there is overwhelming evidence which makes it difficult to be discarded. It isn’t about proofs in science as we don’t prove anything but fitting data into our mathematical models is the key element. Science is about reliability of claims in terms of data matching our theories, not about creating a permanent doctrine to declare power. As a scientist, I observe, write mathematical equations, collect data and draw a meaningful conclusion about how reliable the theory is to make predictions. In addition, I need to update on the results as new information comes in. One of the most unique features of science is that it is falsifiable and scientists are their own harsh critics. We often search for a better model almost immediately following a major discovery. Science is always making flawless progress while it isn’t about a quick fix to everything that we don’t understand. Scientific discoveries are often made on an incremental basis. When X ray was discovered back in the late 1800’s, nobody realized the importance of it. Nowadays it is inevitable to observe the tremendous applications and beneficial factors involved with the x ray technologies. This is also true for quantum mechanics developed back in the early 1900’s and without it, we would never have lasers, microchips, semiconductors and definitely no silicon valley.

Should science even need to talk to religion? This is one question asked of me very often and my response is definitely no. The answers from science about the natural world are correct while religion is not. Science has changed the way we look at the world today and we can make use of this testable knowledge to eliminate the necessity of God and remove Him from the picture. But when it comes to providing answers about questions that are simply out of the domain of science such as meaning, purposes and morality, this is where religion is thought to be able to accomplish in explaining those issues, but it doesn’t. The laws of physics evolve on their own without any meanings or purposes and it provides no such things to us either. We simply have to do it on our own terms to create meanings and purposes based on how we want to live our lives. It is self- created meanings and purposes instead of being dictated by a supreme being as if we are bunch of prescriptions. Religion assumes these forms of dictation and it leaves no room for us to make choices but we do. I believe we all have the power to make choices and we do so based upon various conditions and the amount of information that is available to us which means we don’t have 100% free will. That free will appears as an illusion due to the lack of information present but once the information is here, it comes down to a limited number of options we can take and we usually select those choices which optimize our self-created goals and purposes in fulfilling the meanings of our continual existence which is simply to survive at our best. Human species have been surviving like this since the dawn of history and as the society gets ever more complex, our desires of survival to be at the best only become more intense. We prey on our own kind to gain power and wealth and this is certainly one of the purposes we have created for ourselves and not the intent from the Almighty. ” Intelligence” which evolved over a long period of time, is truly our own “evil” within mankind. We made use of all the developed technologies for our own benefits to gain control over others and fulfilling our greed. Human species are not meant to embrace each other, only to do whatever it takes to survive at our very best and that’s the way to be strong, powerful, and respectable. We were made to be hunters and we continue to hunt more intellectually and despicably than ever before and with our advanced sophisticated technological inventions, we can only execute our actions for survival ever more efficient. Being the most intellectual species on this planet, we are meant to be dominant within all living things and even among our own kind for survival purposes. We enjoy being strong and powerful, we thrive for winning and dominating but none of these were what the Creator had in mind. The world under the Creator should be peaceful, all living things should be showing unity, there should only be one religion, one God and free from suffering. But as we take a quick tour about what’s been happening in this world such as chaos, conflicted doctrines of different religions, wars, killings, diseases, prejudice, hatred, it is only clear that the world was not designed by a Creator and all of these are pointing to Naturalism rather than Theism. Sure enough, it is conceivable that there might be a God who brought this world into existence and I can’t disprove it, but science isn’t about that because anything is conceivable. Science is about being reliable and based on the data that we have gathered, Theism isn’t reliable but everything is supporting Naturalism. Under Naturalism, we expect to observe a variety of different religions, inconsistency among the different beliefs, chaotic wars, random killings, inexplicable suffering and that is exactly what we observed. The world isn’t getting any better today while all of these chaotic events are ongoing.

I have come to the conclusion that the universe does not need a designer nor was it designed at all. Spontaneous creation out of nothingness based on quantum mechanics provided me with adequate answers about how the universe has come into its own existence without invoking divine intervention. Moreover, the universe never planted any seed of hope, love and care into our atoms. On the contrary, it is up to us to create meaningful purposes while we are alive because our life span is short and we need to make it worth living. Life is precious for three reasons. 1) it is short. 2) it is unpredictable. 3) it happens only once. As far as what science tells us is that there are no substantial evidence that life can survive death. There is no afterlife to the best of our knowledge and dwelling on it thinking we will have a much better life in case we messed up on this current one is just wishful thinking. But humans aren’t all that smart because like I mentioned earlier, we are subject to all sorts of such biases and majority of us are bunch of wishful thinkers. Unfortunately the universe does not care about us and the laws of physics are simply heartless, careless, fearless, mindless and unforgiving in nature. It does not pass judgement and no rewards will be handed down either. The laws of physics evolve mindlessly on its own without any purposes and we are here to discover the laws bits at a time to get better acquainted with the universe. However, we will never understand why the universe came into existence for it is out of the realm of science. It isn’t necessary to provide explanations to spontaneous creation out of nothingness because there are none and we know it happened at least 13.7 billion years ago because that’s how far light could take us back to confirm the event but we don’t understand why the big bang event or what triggered the event to occur. According to the latest data and findings, it seems like the universe is infinitely big and constantly expanding at an accelerated rate when someday it will be torn apart with nothing left to glow but cold and darkness remaining. We are so insignificant in the vast universe and our existence is so infinitesimally small compare to the age of the universe and that we are here only once. I consider we are fortunate to be able to live this life where we can create our own meanings and purposes. This is the only one time show which we need to perform at our best to contribute something beneficial for the next generation. We leave fond memories for others to remember us when we are gone without wasting time to speculate reasons for everything that happened. I have been searching for answers about the truth behind our existence and the origin of the universe ever since I was a child, wondering what it all means at the end. One thing I realize is that nothing lasts forever. All living things will come to an end and the show will be over. The best we can do is to live our lives to the fullest every day and while we are here, don’t dwell in the past but only learn from it and we are not capable of having any control over the future for tomorrow may never come. What we have is the present moment for it is the most meaningful and realistic experience there is. Live at the moment before it becomes history and enjoy every bit of it. We all have different lives, some are happy and comfortable while many other face major hardship and suffering that we have no experience of. We are brought up differently and therefore we don’t share the same quality of lives, but we all share the same universe and subject to the same laws of physics. Therefore we share the same responsibilities to take care of each other and our planet as well. In addition, we share the same kind of curiosity about the universe and try to understand it better. Science is descriptive while religion is prescriptive. As a scientist, my job is to give the best descriptions of the universe as we see it, not to force the universe to bend to our preconception. If we can come to accept the universe for what it is and do our best to cherish this one time living deal that we have to make our lives worth living, then I would say we have succeeded our survival in the context of humanistic value.  As I am writing this blog and coming to the end of it, I hear a sound from what it seems to be hanging on the wall in my home office, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.  Ah, I realize the clock is ticking away continuously similar to my heartbeats. Life is as precious as the universe is to me.