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'Miracles are my visiting cards', says Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

Many scientists received his visiting cards.

Dr Bhagavantham was one such scientist.

Dr S Bhagavantham was the Director of All India Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. He also later held the prominent position of Scientific Advisor to the Ministry of Defence in New Delhi.

In 1959, he went for a walk with Sri Sathya Sai Baba on the sands of the Chitravathi river in Puttaparthi. Baba asked him to select a place for sitting down. Bhagavantham selected a place. During the course of the discussion, Bhagavantham told Baba that Oppenheimer, after exploding the atom bomb, quoted the version of Bhagavat Gita to express his reaction. Immediately Baba asked Bhagavantham, "Would you like to have a copy of Gita". Baba suddenly took a handful of sand and gave it to the learned scientist. When the sand reached to Bhagavantham's hands it was no longer the sand of the holy river, but it was a red-covered book. It was Gita printed in Telugu language.

Dr. Bhagavantham says:

"In our laboratories, we scientists may swear by reason, but we know that every time we have added a little to what we know, we have learned of the existence of many other things, the true nature of which we do not know. Thus while adding to knowledge, we add more to our ignorance too.

What we know is becoming a smaller and smaller fraction of what we do not know.

How do I reconcile my background of science with what Sathya Sai Baba does?

I have seen miracles performed by Baba perhaps in the thousands during the fifteen years that I have known him; materializations of an infinite variety of physical objects, healings of every description. I must confess that with the logic I know and the training I have, I cannot accept Sai Baba is like you and me. He can transcend the laws of physics and chemistry. I have therefore to describe and declare that he is a phenomenon, that he is a transcendental being, that he is divine."

Dr Bhagavantham personally experienced thousands of miracles of Baba.

To list the miracles of Baba is a difficult job.

In his thought provoking book, 'Sai Baba -The holy man and the psychiatrist',

Dr Samuel Sandweiss, the famous western psychiatrist, asks:

"Who is Sai Baba ? If his powers are genuine, how can he lead one deeper into the innermost mysteries of our existence?"

With these basic questions in mind he came to India and started his search.

Has he succeeded in his mission? In his exciting journey what did he find out about Baba.

Let us see in the next part.

S. Nagarajan is a vehicle body engineer by profession. He has written more than 1300 articles in 16 magazines and published 18 books. He is revealing Eastern Secret Wisdom through T.V. Programmes, magazine articles, seminars, courses. His website : [http://www.santhanam.com] nagarajan.com His articles on Yoga, laughter, efficacy of mantras and sound, Hypnotism, Tele Kinesis, Power of Prayer, Vastu and Feng Shui, Auto suggestion, Success Formula, Out of Body Experience etc are regularly appearing in http://www.ezinearticles.com So far seventy articles have been published in ezinearticles.com.

Origins of the Words ‘alchemy’ and Chemistry

Alchemy was an early system of thinking about nature that contributed to the development of the modern science of chemistry. It was popular in ancient China, Persia, and Western Europe throughout antiquity and the Middle Ages. A combination of philosophy, metallurgical arts, and magic, alchemy was based on a distinctive world-view that an essential correspondence exists between the microcosm and the macrocosm (the smallest and largest parts of the universe). Its objectives were: (1) to find ways of accelerating the rates at which metals were thought to "grow" within Earth in their development toward perfection (gold) and (2) to accomplish a similar perfection in humans by achieving eternal life. Scholars do not know when or where alchemy originated. However, historians agree that alchemistic ideas and practices flourished in the ancient world within several cultural traditions. Even the term alchemy has remained mysterious; scholars have identified al as an Arabic article and proposed various possible meanings for the word chem, but a clear explanation of the term is still lacking.

The earliest alchemical practices are believed to have arisen in China in the fourth century B.C. The main emphasis in Chinese alchemy, it seems, was not on transmutation (the changing of one metal into another) but on the search for human immortality. In their search for an elixir (special liquid) of immortality, court alchemists experimented with mercury, sulfur, and arsenic. They sometimes created poisonous potions (several emperors died after drinking them). Such spectacular failures eventually led to the disappearance of alchemy in China.

Alchemy flourished in parts of Islam in the eighth and ninth centuries. Court scientists, encouraged by their rulers, began studying and translating Greek philosophical and scientific works to aid them in their quest. The greatest practitioner of Arabic alchemy was Al-Razi (also known as Rhazes; c. 850–c. 925), who worked in Baghdad. This dogged pursuit of a recipe for gold led Arabic alchemists to study and classify chemical elements and chemicals. Al-Razi speculated about the possibility of using "strong waters," which were in reality corrosive salt solutions, as the critical ingredient for the creation of gold. Experimentation with salt solutions led to the discovery of mineral acids, but scholars are not sure if Arabic alchemy should be credited with this discovery.

The history of Western alchemy probably begins in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. Among the most prominent Alexandrian alchemists was Zosimos of Panopolis, Egypt, who may have lived in the third or fourth century A.D. In accordance with older traditions, Zosimos believed that a magical ingredient was needed for the creation of gold. Greek alchemists called this ingredient xerion, which is Greek for "powder." This word came into Latin and modern European languages as elixir and later became known as the elusive philosopher's stone. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century, Greek science and philosophy as well as alchemy sank into oblivion. In was not until the eleventh century that scholars rediscovered Greek learning, translating Greek scientific and philosophical works into Latin. The pioneers of medieval science, such as Roger Bacon (c. 1219–c. 1292), viewed alchemy as a worthwhile intellectual pursuit, and alchemy continued to exert a powerful influence on intellectual life throughout the Middle Ages. However, as in ancient China, alchemists' continued failure to produce gold eventually provoked skepticism and led to its decline.

In the sixteenth century, alchemists turned to more practical matters, such as the use of alchemy to create medicines. The greatest practitioner of this type of alchemy was Swiss physician and alchemist Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus (1493–1541), who successfully used chemical drugs to treat disease. Although a believer in magic, astrology, and alchemy, Paracelsus was also an empirical scientist (one who relies on observation and experimental methods); he contributed significantly to the development of medicine. While alchemy is often considered to be unscientific, some great scientists, including Isaac Newton (1643–1727), took the subject seriously enough to conduct alchemical experiments. In addition, alchemy is credited with laying the foundation for the study of chemistry. Not only did alchemists systematize and classify the knowledge of elements and chemicals, they also made a number of important discoveries, including sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride), saltpeter (potassium nitrate), alcohol, and mineral acids. In addition, they developed a number of laboratory techniques, including distillation and crystallization.

Many recipes for transmutation were based on reasonably careful observations of nature, which led to some less reasonable assumptions. One such assumption held that when a living thing dies, the body leaves a seed that, impelled by the spirit, undergoes many changes to become, ultimately, perfect. The metal equivalent of perfection has been taken Gold since antiquity. Therefore, it was first necessary to kill the starting metal so that it would lose its metallic properties. Since the most visible metallic property is color, killing the metal meant making it black so that it could then be made into gold. The Egyptian word for black is khem; hence this may be one possible origin of the word chemistry. However, the Greek word for casting or pouring metals is cheo, which may be considered another possibility. The Chinese word chin-I meaning “gold-making juice†may also be yet another possibility.

 

About the Author

Dr.Badruddin Khan teaches Chemistry in the University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India.

What additional subjects to take to become forensic scientist?

What subjects should I take for GCSE in order to help me become a forensic scientist?
I know to take Chemistry and Biology.
We have to take chemistry, biology, physics, english and maths.
But there are the other subjects such as; history, art, ICT, geography, languages, tec, music etc.

John's answer is good. Make sure you know how to use all those computer programs like excel, power point, etc. Database programs are good too.
You need good grammar/ vocabulary in your language. Learn how to speak clearly and with a good volume.
I would advise to take a couple of library science courses, learn how to do research, specially science research. Anything that will help you learn how to write papers, do research and make you think.
Among your chemistries, make sure you have organic, analytical and instrumental analysis. If you have a good backgroung on analytical instruments you will have a good basic understanding before you start your training. Very helpful.
Take a couple of fun courses too! What do you like? Most colleges let you pick a couple of "free" classes. Pick something you will enjoy. Have some fun!

New Research Sheds Light On Antarctic Ice Melting
There may be no polar bears at the South Pole, but there sure is a lot of ice. In fact, more than 90 percent of the Earth's glacial ice is in Antarctica. Now, new research shows the continent's ice is melting in more places than previously known. Host Guy Raz speaks to scientist Jane Ferrigno of the U.S. Geological Survey about the Antarctic Peninsula's ice retreat.

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