On October 28th, at the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City, The World Cultural Council will present the 2006 Albert Einstein World Award of Science to –our pride and joy– Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail, the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Physics and professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology.

Prof. Ahmed Zewail’s contribution has literally changed the view of the dynamics of matter and created new femtoscience disciplines, with applications in many areas, including the potential for molecular control with atomic precision.

Over the past seven years, Prof. Zewail has established a new field of research and founded the multi-disciplinary Center of Physical Biology at Caltech. This is a new integrated science of structure and dynamics, with the aim of deciphering the fundamental physics of chemical and biological behaviour, from atoms to cells. Prof Zewail is thus breaking ground at the interface of physics, chemistry and biology. The genesis of these accomplishments was his breakthrough development of 4D imaging, or visualization, of molecular and cellular systems, directly in the four dimensions of space and time, and this seminal work of ultrafast electron microscopy and diffraction has already been published.

On a humane level, Prof. Zewail’s contributions are equally impressive. He is renowned for his tireless efforts to help the less fortunate, for his determination to help his native country, Egypt, and region, for his public lectures on world affairs and for his endeavour to inspire young people in matters of science and technology as well as to put forward peaceful solutions to complex world problems. He is also fully involved with his own home institution, Caltech, and serves on many national and international boards and advisory committees.

Ok, so we all know it is bad, but just how bad? … Dr. Loffredo, you are the Director of the Cancer Genetics and Epidemiology program at Georgetown University Medical Center, and you have been studying tobacco use in Egypt since 1997, surely you can tell us?

People who use these devices don’t realize that they could be inhaling what is believed to be the equivalent of a pack of cigarettes in one typical 30-60 minute session with a waterpipe, because such a large quantity of pure, shredded tobacco is used.

Holy! But … at least the water absorbs the toxins, no?

… that is true to some extent if the toxins are water soluble, but tar isn’t, and tar contains the carcinogens. We believe that, compared to the typical cigarette smoker, waterpipe smokers are exposed to larger total amounts of nicotine, carbon monoxide and certain other toxins. And…

There’s an and?

because the tobacco is burning at a lower temperature, it is more tolerable to inhale deeply, and in fact you need more force to pull air through the high resistance of the water pathway. That means the tobacco smoke can be penetrating deeper in a person’s respiratory tract than cigarette smoke does. The damage could be even worse than seen in cigarette smokers, but we haven’t done studies long enough to quantify the true cancer risk.

Oh, so you haven’t really quantified the risk …

Even so, the incidence of lung cancer is increasing rapidly in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries, comparable to lung cancer rates in the U.S. after cigarette smoking became newly fashionable

But… but… but… it’s sooo good.

DNA, over at mindbleed, points to a conversation between Chomsky and Trivers about (self-)deception, politics, and sociology. Here is a video of that conversation:

I love the fact that one can do experiments to test such ideas. Trivers talks about a few such experiments (towards the end of the conversation.) How I didn’t go into sociology, I don’t know.

Nuestro español bosteza.
Es hambre? Sueño? Hastío?
Doctor, tendrá el estómago vacío?
El vacío es más bien en la cabeza.

(*This is an adaptation of a translation of Antonio Machado’s poem–#50 from Proverbs and Songs–the original talks about Spaniards.)

This is not criticism–vaccuum in the head doesn’t imply brainless, just as hunger doesn’t imply no-stomach. Rather, this is a diagnosis. In that sense, the doctor’s presensce is appropriate (if not called for.) You surely don’t need a doctor to tell you if a stomach is empty or not, but you need one to diagnose the ailment causing the symptoms–hunger, daydreaming, and boredom. The ailment is, as Machado explains: underfed brains. The medicine?