Where the mind is without fear …

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.

BIG BANG

Big Bang Theory -

The Premise

The Big Bang theory is an effort to explain what happened at the very
beginning of our universe. Discoveries in astronomy and physics have
shown beyond a reasonable doubt that our universe did in fact have a
beginning. Prior to that moment there was nothing; during and after that
moment there was something: our universe. The big bang theory is an
effort to explain what happened during and after that moment.
According to the standard theory, our universe sprang into existence as
"singularity" around 13.7 billion years ago. What is a "singularity" and
where does it come from? Well, to be honest, we don't know for sure.
Singularities are zones which defy our current understanding of physics.
They are thought to exist at the core of "black holes." Black holes are
areas of intense gravitational pressure. The pressure is thought to be
so intense that finite matter is actually squished into infinite density
(a mathematical concept which truly boggles the mind). These zones
of infinite density are called "singularities." Our universe is thought to
have begun as an infinitesimally small, infinitely hot, infinitely dense,
something - a singularity. Where did it come from? We don't know.
Why did it appear? We don't know.

After its initial appearance, it apparently inflated (the "Big Bang"), expanded
 and cooled, going from very, very small and very, very hot, to the size and
temperature of our current universe. It continues to expand and cool to this
day and we are inside of it: incredible creatures living on a unique planet,
circling a beautiful star clustered together with several hundred billion other
stars in a galaxy soaring through the cosmos, all of which is inside of an
expanding universe that began as an infinitesimal singularity which appeared
out of nowhere for reasons unknown. This is the Big Bang theory.
Big Bang Theory - Common Misconceptions

There are many misconceptions surrounding the Big Bang theory.
For example, we tend to imagine a giant explosion. Experts however say
that there was no explosion; there was (and continues to be) an expansion.
Rather than imagining a balloon popping and releasing its contents, imagine
a balloon expanding: an infinitesimally small balloon expanding to the size
of our current universe.

Another misconception is that we tend to image the singularity as a little
fireball appearing somewhere in space. According to the many experts
however, space didn't exist prior to the Big Bang. Back in the late '60s and
early '70s, when men first walked upon the moon, "three British astrophysicists,
Steven Hawking, George Ellis, and Roger Penrose turned their attention
to the Theory of Relativity and its implications regarding our notions of time.
In 1968 and 1970, they published papers in which they extended Einstein's
Theory of General Relativity to include measurements of time and space.
1, 2 According to their calculations, time and space had a finite beginning
that corresponded to the origin of matter and energy."3 The singularity didn't
appear in space; rather, space began inside of the singularity. Prior to the
singularity, nothing existed, not space, time, matter, or energy - nothing. So
where and in what did the singularity appear if not in space? We don't know.
We don't know where it came from, why it's here, or even where it is. All we
really know is that we are inside of it and at one time it didn't exist and
neither did we.

Big Bang Theory - Evidence for the Theory

What are the major evidences which support the Big Bang theory?

First of all, we are reasonably certain that the universe had a beginning.
Second, galaxies appear to be moving away from us at speeds proportional to
their distance. This is called "Hubble's Law," named after Edwin Hubble (1889-1953)
who discovered this phenomenon in 1929. This observation supports the
expansion of the universe and suggests that the universe was once compacted.
Third, if the universe was initially very, very hot as the Big Bang suggests,
we should be able to find some remnant of this heat. In 1965, Radioastronomers
Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered a 2.725 degree Kelvin
(-454.765 degree Fahrenheit, -270.425 degree Celsius) Cosmic Microwave
Background radiation (CMB) which pervades the observable universe. This is
thought to be the remnant which scientists were looking for. Penzias and Wilson
shared in the 1978 Nobel Prize for Physics for their discovery.
Finally, the abundance of the "light elements" Hydrogen and Helium found in the
observable universe are thought to support the Big Bang model of origins.

Big Bang Theory - The Only Plausible Theory?

Is the standard Big Bang theory the only model consistent with these evidences?
No, it's just the most popular one. Internationally renown Astrophysicist George F. R.
Ellis explains: "People need to be aware that there is a range of models that could
explain the observations….For instance, I can construct you a spherically symmetrical
universe with Earth at its center, and you cannot disprove it based on observations….
You can only exclude it on philosophical grounds. In my view there is absolutely nothing
wrong in that. What I want to bring into the open is the fact that we are using philosophical
criteria in choosing our models. A lot of cosmology tries to hide that."
In 2003, Physicist Robert Gentry proposed an attractive alternative to the standard
theory, an alternative which also accounts for the evidences listed above.5 Dr. Gentry
claims that the standard Big Bang model is founded upon a faulty paradigm
(the Friedmann-lemaitre expanding-spacetime paradigm) which he claims is
inconsistent with the empirical data. He chooses instead to base his model on
Einstein's static-spacetime paradigm which he claims is the "genuine cosmic
Rosetta." Gentry has published several papers outlining what he considers to be
serious flaws in the standard Big Bang model.6 Other high-profile dissenters
include Nobel laureate Dr. Hannes Alfvén, Professor Geoffrey Burbidge, Dr. Halton Arp,
and the renowned British astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle, who is accredited with first
coining the term "the Big Bang" during a BBC radio broadcast in 1950.

Big Bang Theory - What About God?

Any discussion of the Big Bang theory would be incomplete without asking the question,
what about God? This is because cosmogony (the study of the origin of the universe) is
an area where science and theology meet. Creation was a supernatural event. That is, it
took place outside of the natural realm. This fact begs the question: is there anything else
which exists outside of the natural realm? Specifically, is there a master Architect out there?
We know that this universe had a beginning. Was God the "First Cause"? We won't attempt
to answer that question in this short article. We just ask the question:
Does God Exist?

     ------------- the decision is up to u to say whether god exists or not ....................

Footnotes:
wikipedia
Steven W. Hawking, George F.R. Ellis, "The Cosmic Black-Body"

GRAND UNIFIED THEORY

GUT

The term Grand Unified Theory or GUT, refers to any of several
similar models in particle physics in which at high energy scales,
the three gauge interactions of the Standard Model which define
the electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions, are merged
into one single interaction characterized by a larger gauge
symmetry and one unified coupling constant rather than three
independent ones
History :
Historically, the first true GUT which was based on the simple
Lie group SU(5), was proposed by Howard Georgi and Sheldon Glashow
in 1974.The Georgi–Glashow model was preceded by the Semisimple Lie
algebra Pati–Salam model by Abdus Salam and Jogesh Pati,who pioneered
the idea to unify gauge interactions.

Unification of forces and the role of supersymmetry :
The renormalization group running of the three-gauge couplings has been
found to nearly, but not quite, meet at the same point if the hypercharge
is normalized so that it is consistent with SU(5) or SO(10) GUTs, which
are precisely the GUT groups which lead to a simple fermion unification.
This is a significant result, as other Lie groups lead to different
normalizations. However, if the supersymmetric extension MSSM is used
instead of the Standard Model, the match becomes much more accurate.
It is commonly believed that this matching is unlikely to be a coincidence.
Also, most model builders simply assume supersymmetry (SUSY) because it
solves the hierarchy problem—i.e., it stabilizes the electroweak Higgs mass
against radiative corrections. And the Majorana mass of the right-handed
neutrino SO(10) theories with its mass set to the gauge unification scale
is examined, values for the left-handed neutrino masses (see neutrino oscillation)
are produced via the seesaw mechanism. These values are 10–100 times
smaller than the GUT scale, but still relatively close.
(For a more elementary introduction to how Lie algebras are related to
particle physics, see the article Particle physics and representation theory.)

Current status :

As of 2009, there is still no hard evidence that nature is described by a Grand
Unified Theory. Moreover, since the Higgs particle has not yet been observed,
the smaller electroweak unification is still pending.The discovery of
neutrino oscillations indicates that the Standard Model is incomplete and
has led to renewed interest toward certain GUT such as SO(10). One of the few
possible experimental tests of certain GUT is proton decay and also fermion
masses. There are a few more special tests for supersymmetric GUT.
The gauge coupling strengths of QCD, the weak interaction and hypercharge
seem to meet at a common length scale called the GUT scale and equal
approximately to 1016 GeV, which is slightly suggestive. This interesting
numerical observation is called the gauge coupling unification, and it works
particularly well if one assumes the existence of superpartners of the
Standard Model particles. Still it is possible to achieve the same by postulating,
for instance, that ordinary (non supersymmetric) SO(10) models break with
an intermediate gauge scale, such as the one of Pati-Salam group

The research still continues...........................

superconductivity - Jihin

Superconductivity: So simple, yet so hard to explain!

For half a century the world's most brilliant physics theorists tried
scribbling equations, only to crumple the paper and hurl it at a
wastebasket. Bend a metal wire into a circle, make it as cold as
 you possibly can, and set an electric current moving around it.
The current can persist. Put the circle of wire above a magnet,
and it will float there until the end of the world.
In the decades after this strange discovery, physicists figured
 out the laws of relativity and quantum mechanics. They worked
out equations to calculate all the colors and chemistry of the
natural world, they cracked open the atomic nucleus, they
uncovered the forces that light the stars... and still nobody had
explained that little floating wire.

This exhibit tells how three extraordinary minds worked together
 to finally solve the puzzle. You will see that getting to a new theory
may take not just one "Moment of Discovery" but a string of dozens
 of such moments among many people. For a personal account,
listen to Bob Schrieffer, the youngest of the team, tell what happened
in his own words. To get the full background, you can read or listen
to how a noted physicist saw the story from an outside perspective.
You can also read a detailed account by a historian of physics, and
explore other supplementary materials.