Quantum physics

By now you most likely have come across the video about Joseph Kony produced by KONY2012. The narration is quite moving, the movie well produced, the story ... yes, very sad and troublesome. And yes, I am totally ignorant about this story.

One of the topics we tackled at our SKWID training was that of "the single story" - keeping to one perspective of our world, rather than searching and understanding other alternatives of the story. Chimamanda Adichie has an excellent TED talk describing what this is and its impact.

Chemistry, like the real world, has a lot of unknowns. A professor once told me that we probably know at best, about 10% of what's to know about chemistry. Of that there's like 1% of the reactions that are so well known that you can effectively predict the outcome of the reaction, and more importantly, repeat the experiment reliably. Discovering new reactions, creating new compounds and materials requires lots of resources and time to properly investigate. Why? Because we cannot rely on one source of information. We have to constantly test our hypothesis, always asking "are these results real? or are they a phantom of our imagination?"

Look at the hot discussion in physics today: 1) The mounting evidence supporting the observation of the Higgs-Boson particle, and 2) The hint that the speed of light is not the absolute - it could be broken.

These are quite important experiments as they have great ramifications on our understanding of this universe as well as our technologies. How so? The discovery and verification of the former - also referred to in the media as the "God particle" (physicist really dislike this term) - would complete an important physics model called the Standard Model. By doing so, we begin to understand how particles get their mass. Implications? We have particles for light called photons. We are taught that atoms are composed of electrons, neutrons and photons. However, there is one observation of our physical world that we have yet to verify the particle responsible for it: gravity. According to theory, there should be a particle - a graviton. Its validation would in turn help in our understanding of String Theory - perhaps you've seen What the bleep do we know

While the latter, if found true would have meant the dismantling our understanding of physics - particularly quantum physics. As it turns out, by looking at multiple aspects, and "checking in" with other scientists you'll be happy to know that the speed of light remains absolute!

So, back to Kony. There's got to be more to this story than just the Jedi vs. the Sith, or good vs. bad. Where did he come from? Why is he doing this? What are his motivations? Why hasn't the Ugandan army been able to do something about it? Why hasn't the UN done something about it long time ago? Wait, the war ended like six years ago? Well what about the reports of the behaviour of the Ugandan army?

While all are valid questions, I do not understand the issue enough to discuss it here. All I can do is look deeper into this topic with an open mind ... avoid a single story. I encourage you to do the same.

To get started here is the TED talk I mentioned earlier:

And here are some links that I just came across:

1. Grant Oyston's post on his Visible Children blog
2. The Telegraph - outrage over KONY2012 movie

So you are in a car ...

Your good friend was driving the car, you were the passenger ... he/she was driving too fast for the posted speed limit when you hit a pedestrian. Later, the lawyer is asking you to help out your friend by testifying in court that they were driving within the speed limit. Do you agree? Yes or No

I'd be interested to read your opinions and answers.

So what's with this question anyway? It's part of our training ... Dealing with other groups cultures. Learning how to be an intercultural effective person.

There are three parts of our training as we get set to travel to Mozambique. One is your own research about the country, your placement, and technical resources you'll need to fulfill your duties in your placement. The other is online training that Cuso and VSO had setup. The third is the SKWID training in Ottawa about a month prior to our departure.

Yeah ok, but get back to the question. How would you answer it. Well as you may have guessed ... It depends. It's all about context - I need more information. Such as how much in excess was my friend speeding, what time of day, what happened to the pedestrian, was the pedestrian talking on the phone when they got into the street/ got hit, etc. It would be perfectly ok to side with your friend in some parts of this planet, while others it would absolutely not be acceptable nor expected. But these are the kind of questions you'll be dealing with, all the time asking yourself what's the real story behind what I'm observing.

Now, no matter how well trained you are, or how much you've traveled I suspect you'll fall once in a while: fail to recognise the cultural context of your actions or those of others around you. For example nodding of the head while saying no. Or placing your palm of your hand in someone's face trying to tell them to stop, but in reality your cursing them!

I'm sure you've got your own stories... So by all means please share them in the comments below.