Assignments for "The Philosophy of Chemistry"

The Philosophy of Chemistry

From my understanding, the philosophy of chemistry tries to answer questions such as why can't we put our hands through walls if 99.9% of an atom is space?

It is necessary to unite theory and application. Or else, what is theory good for?

I think it is important to proceed scientific investigations within a philosophical framework. That would help scientists keep the big picture in mind while looking into all the little details.


Aspartame
Here is an excerpt from the FDA website:
"FDA calls aspartame, sold under trade names such as NutraSweet and Equal, one of the most thoroughly tested and studied food additives the agency has ever approved. The agency says the more than 100 toxicological and clinical studies it has reviewed confirm that aspartame is safe for the general population."

It is disgusting that FDA will stand by the likes of aspartame and many other harmful drugs with severe side-effects or known to be have high health risk, while banning herbs like Ephedra (ma huang)--which has been safely used in China for more than 4,000 years--because it was a possible cause for death due to misuse*.

*Ephedra was used for thousands of years in China to treat asthma. Just before it was banned by FDA, it was mainly used in the west for weight loss and energy boost by athletes.


The Healing Power of Chocolate
How can we rationalize about chocolate? Chocolate is a something that if you like it, you would eat it no matter what. If you don't like it (probably only Ashley), then you probably won't eat it just for health reason.

Memory and Magic

It is a topic I think about from time to time and this articles just reinforces my thoughts on the fallicy of perception.

memory and magic...underneath them there is always desire --the wanting of something so badly that even if it is not real, you still want to live it, even if only in your mind.

To live is to know

What does it mean to know something? Most living organism know things by intuition. For example, animals can sense when an earthquake is coming. Baby birds that fell on the ground learned how to fly and how to survive in the wild.

The Tao Teh Ching says,
Learning consists in daily accuulating;
The practice of Tao consists in daily diminishing.

We human beings are the only ones who learns things by the book, and we accumulate a lot of second-hand knowledge that we only know by our intellect instead of our intuition.

Not saying that book knowledge is worthless. But we have to be careful to not let it replace our intuition.