Issue 143 (Sep - Oct 2021)

Our world is more connected than ever before, yet at the same time we often remain strikingly distant from one another. Technology, careers, education, or other pursuits could all be to blame. The Pandemic only exacerbated this problem when it consequently forced all of us to shelter inside for ove…

Our inner soul is not bound by time. Just as we consciously experience the present moment, we can also feel and live in the past or in the future. Since we don’t want to be hemmed in by the narrow measures of the present, and since we know that many inner and outer dynamics may ensure a future as w…

One of my most beautiful childhood memories was stone skipping with my dad. It always seemed mysterious to me when the rocks bounced smoothly on a calm sea on a warm summer day. Skipping stones is a worldwide phenomenon. Eskimos skip rocks on ice and Bedouins on smooth sand. In England, stone skip…

It was YOU – 2006 Person of the Year according to Time magazine. You – meaning user who contributes to the Internet. Homo Interneticus, in other words. You could even see your face in the glossy mirror surface on a magazine cover. And, here’s the trick – YOU should have been chosen as 2020 Person o…

It was December 31st, 2019 when Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, China, reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia seen in Wuhan, Hubei Province. Later, we’ve learned that it was due to a new virus initially found in a seafood bazaar within the city. The virus was a type of coronavirus, a category…

Until recently, the human brain was thought to complete its development to a great extent when the child is 5 or 6 years old. This was mostly theoretical, for we did not have the technology to visualize the brain of a living person in order to observe its development. This changed with the magnetic…

Great explosions similar to those of pistol sounds are sometimes heard underwater. These loud sounds come from pistol shrimps, measuring only 3-5 cm in length. The “bullets” used by this animal consist of bubbles. The entire process is called sonoluminescence, in which water is energized with speci…

Tawhid, derived from wahda (oneness), means unifying, regarding as one, believing in God’s Oneness or Unity, and sincerely accepting the reality that there is no deity but God. The Sufis add to these meanings the ideas of seeing only He Who is the One, and knowing, mentioning, desiring, and calling…

Postpartum psychosis is a rare mental health condition that affects one or two in every 1,000 new mothers. Research suggests it is an overt presentation of bipolar disorder that coincides with hormonal shifts soon after delivery. Onset can be sudden and usually occurs 7-14 days after birth. ‘We ca…

It’s a land of tundra and toil; sacrifice and secrecy; fallacy and fight. They say Russia is a cold place in more ways than one. It’s no wonder given its tumultuous history. Maybe the cold is a means of survival because, sometimes, being numb is the only way to go on. No one remains unscathed by th…

A day thinking about what could happen, should happen, or what might have been is a day missed. #mindfulmoments @Headspace Think of the present hour; your power of patient endurance is enough for this hour. Mobilize all your strength for [it], and think of divine mercy, reward in the hereafter…

Between the ages of six and ten, I stayed up every night waiting for the sound of my parents closing their bedroom door. Then I stayed up for an extra 20-30 minutes to make sure it didn’t reopen. I was convinced that they planned to leave me in the middle of the night, driven mad by my autistic bro…

Being trouble-free is the biggest trouble of all. I’d rather wish people felt so troubled for others that their hearts felt burning in embers, rather than being trouble-free. Troubled as to why people are in so miserable condition because they do not believe, because they choose to stray from the s…

Dreams keep brain refreshed Tsai et al. Cerebral capillary blood flow upsurge during REM sleep is mediated by A2a receptors. Cell Reports, August 2021 New research has provided some fresh insights into why dreams are biologically so important. Scientists showed that capillary blood flow within th…