Parth's blog

Where does the universe end? Is there really a boundary? Nobody knows if by boundary you mean some sort of a wall that can’t be jumped across. But there is another kind of a boundary. A point beyond which we can’t see or interact. In that sense, the boundary is set by our ability—or rather, inability—to look beyond. Imagine a monkey on an island surrounded by an ocean that nobody can cross. If it can see up to 10 kilometers, the boundary of its universe is its horizon that far. Whatever lies beyond is practically non-existent for the monkey. We know how far our horizon in the universe is. Here’s a law of our universe: Light travels at around 300,000 kilometers per second, and nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. When light from any object reaches our eyes—directly, or after being processed by machines—we can see that object. We can see objects laying far away— very far away . Light from any object should reach us someday, although that ‘someday’ would be billions of ye...

A living being is most vulnerable to the innumerable dangers in its surroundings while it is asleep. Further, a sleeping creature cannot hunt, eat or indulge in reproduction. In spite of that every species studied to date sleeps. Why is that so? Has evolution made a blunder by incorporating sleep in living organisms? Obviously not. Benefits of sleep outweigh, by wide margins, the obvious hazards caused by it. Sleep does vast variety of functions, without which it is not possible for brain and body to work. Not surprisingly, humans are the only species that intentionally deprive itself of sleep. In the book ' Why We Sleep ', Dr. Matthew Walker , a sleep researcher for two decades, explains innumerable functions of sleep and detrimental effects of lack of it. He unravels the underlying science along with description of numerous experiments supporting these findings. The brilliance of the author is reflected in his ability to explain the complex science of sleep witho...