Sean Carroll's Mindscape Big Picture Scholarship

The complexity of our universe is frequently discussed along with the mechanism of diverse life forms on Earth. Numerous principles of philosophy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology have fascinated scholars for centuries. As a student in the field of molecular cell biology, I have been convinced that the mechanisms of life on this planet resonate with the universe. It has been more than three billion years since the first polypeptide dissolved in the ocean was given life. The biosphere of the Earth, ecosystem, evolution, interspecies community, cellular functions, molecular mechanisms, genetics, and the galactic network of neurons in the brain seem almost too complex for us to fully understand. Just like the sun gives its orbiting planets energy, primary producers provide us with dietary organic matter so that other organisms can thrive. Just like stars die and gases form nebulas, organisms die and spread organic particles for the next generation to re-flourish. Some phenomena are often explained by the same concept of mathematics being aligned with certain patterns. Good examples are the Fibonacci sequence and the logistic map in chaos theory. I shuddered from excitement when I found the graph of atrial fibrillation, an abnormal rhythm of the heartbeat, resembles other graphs of population dynamics, dripping water, and the convection of fluid. The Fibonacci sequence appears in many concepts of biology such as the growing number of branches of a tree, blood vessels, the golden ratio, and so on. The most important thing about philosophy is that we humans always come to these questions: “Why do we exist?” This question is also associated with a question: “Why does our universe exist?” My Iranian mathematics professor once told me that Avicenna, who was an ancient Islamic philosopher, said, “I learned everything to realize that I know nothing.” Through curiosity, we have made no compromises in our quest to unravel the universe we live in. And this will continue in the future. I argue that it is essential for us to work together to understand the nature of the universe to a more excellent degree because it will enrich the underlying philosophy of science that is the strongest source of our motivation and ambition for unknowns. If we were not philosophical beings, I doubt we would have been intelligent or successful in science. I claim that our goal should not be a complete understanding of the nature of the universe but rather an aim at becoming further desperate for unknown truths because that is the driving source of our ambition by which the wisdom of human civilization is then further enhanced as well. Notwithstanding, a better understanding of our universe will lead us to a higher dimension of both science and philosophy. Thus, the second reason for working together to better understand the universe is to find an answer or answers to the questions: “Why do we exist?” “Are we alone?” and “Why does our universe exist?” I believe that this is why the highest academic degree in the world is called the Doctor of Philosophy, and we can never exclude philosophy from academic pursuits of science, literature, culture, religion, or fundamental frameworks thereof. To combine these two justifications, I claim that it is important for us to better understand our universe to better understand what we are. By the same token, I believe so because a better understanding of the universe will provide me with a way to a better understanding of myself as a form of life with metacognitive intelligence. A better understanding of our universe will take us to explorations outside of the solar system. For example, as far as I know, physicists use brilliant expressions of calculus and both the chemical and colligative properties of not only atoms but also smaller compartments such as neutrons, protons, electrons, and positrons. In string theory, each particle is made of string that is constantly vibrating. Furthermore, I see many physicists such as Michio Kaku describing how neutrinos behave in particle colliders. Nowadays, general chemistry even covers quantum mechanics to help students understand the conceptual model. I, as a college student, learned about the motion and energy of photons, quantum numbers, and Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. In recent years, quantum physics has evolved rapidly. I am certain that the prototype of the quantum computer engineered by IBM and the University of California Berkeley is one of the most amazing breakthroughs in modern times as well as superconductors. In chemistry, I experienced that the understanding of equilibrium and energy outline a crucial part of science as I participated in a laboratory at a university. My comprehension of that is that anything always reaches equilibrium because our universe does not like us not following its rules. When science finds an answer to a question, the answer creates more subsequent questions. I strongly believe that a combination of physical chemistry and biology has the closest approach to uncovering the nature of our universe. By physically understanding our universe, we will be able to find a home beyond Earth. Thus, we need a better understanding of our universe to flourish on other planets. Literature takes a different approach to the philosophical questions I mentioned above. Literary contexts reveal both the individual and collectivistic persona and psychology behind our consciousness. Hence, it is necessarily important for us to incorporate not only scientific facts but also something derived from the inside of us. One thing that makes literature, especially philosophical texts quite different from science is that any scientific facts can be proven wrong and updated as we develop new theories whereas our psychology preserves its capability to perceive the feelings of other people. In the world of literature, a lot of great writers have contributed their work to the world. I define literature as anything that conveys contextual messages; therefore, literature can include scientific books, comic books, religious texts, novels, poems, sonnets, plays, movies, animations, music, photographs, and paintings. Specifically, I believe that religions represent human values and the internal ego most precisely. We have been fascinated and confused by our ability to think; nonetheless, we never have an idea of what we are, still. That is why people call upon a superior almighty existence referred to as God for their understanding of the nature of the universe. In my case, I often feel left in the void of the universe and in a puzzling labyrinth of melancholy when I try to imagine what I am. Therefore, I claim that we must work collaboratively in an effort to better understand our universe because that is going to be a singularity for us to become highly distinguished beings. Being Japanese, I have been aware of the dedication of Japanese biologists to science and how radiation can be incredibly harmful. As a biology student with an interest in physical chemistry, I hope to employ ideas of radioactivity or any electromagnetic waves radiated from isotopes interacting with life at cellular, molecular, and nuclear levels. I would like to advance the Curies' discoveries to cure and protect people from radiation sickness. By investigating the most abundant component of our universe and its relationship with us, I can indeed uncover a small aliquot of the entire soup of unknowns. As I wish our civilization could expand its exploratory range beyond Earth, I am willing to devote my lifetime to a resolution to cosmic-ray exposure from a biological perspective. That being said, I desire to discover something remarkable by which people will no longer suffer. Accordingly, I sincerely hope to become one of the pioneers in the field of molecular research in physical biochemistry to understand how organisms adapt and diversify their physiology to harmful environments in which high-frequency electromagnetic waves can cause mutagenesis. I conclude that it is certainly important for all of us to work together to gain a better understanding of our universe because that is going to give us an answer or a hint at what we are. I recall that philosophical questions referring to the nature of our universe seem easy to comprehend but centuries of science have not given us the answer yet. The simplest question in the world may be the hardest question that has never been answered perfectly. Further to what I highlighted before, we must forge our knowledge and curiosity to combine every piece of information in science, literature, and our psyche to truly understand the nature of our galactic home. In recent years, humans have confronted numerous challenges, discovered resolutions, and established new techniques, which can be the key to an advanced understanding of our universe. For instance, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2023 Nobel Prize to three chemists and three physicists for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots and generating attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics. And a better understanding of our universe will be one of the capstones in the history of science. The underlying passion for unknowns within us will always continue to motivate us to move onward.

adenine cheats on thymine at every chance he gets with the ever-flirtatious, home-wrecking tramp of a nucleotide, uracil. Uracil doesn’t even have a stable career with his missing methyl group. No wonder every time the toxic pair cheats, they produce an RNA molecule that can be instantly degraded, sometimes by itself, hurting every other hardworking nucleotide because they couldn’t keep their hydrogen bonding tips to themselves. This unceasing sin of infidelity that erupted since before the dawn of life contrasts with the boundless beauty of the genome, inspiring me to study its properties and implications in human societies. High school was an entirely new environment I never experienced before; from the thumps of the ceiling raccoons to the laughs at my weight, I immediately felt out of my element. I couldn’t wait until I would be free from the shackles of high school—until I walked into my biology class. I was fascinated by Mrs. Mathew’s enthusiastic demeanor, biology’s central dogma plastered on her wall next to the poster emphasizing that everyone shares 99% of her DNA. After many expeditions to Wikipedia’s wonky website, where a wealth of wisdom only served to deepen my absorption into the world of genetics, I was hooked. Soon after came late rides to the library my father begrudgingly agreed to and massive books piled on my desk, so heavy I needed to wheel them around. I waded through thousands of dense pages, sometimes reading 10 pages before finding a word I recognized. Genetics was its own world, with hundreds of armored locks only opened by these fascinatingly dry books that I could not put down (figuratively, of course, because I couldn’t pick these books up in the first place). As I picked at the shackles of each lock, I understood more and more: the string of adulterous adenines and forsaken thymines married together by phosphodiester bonds promoting transcription, and thus adultery, of coding sequences and the half of the genome made of transposons, repetitive elements of the genome normally suppressed that can move between the 3 billion nucleotide pairs of the DNA double helix. Later came my summer of 18-hour days spent studying thousands of gigabytes of RNA sequences, massive lists of unfaithful As, hideous Us, and tranquil Gs and Cs found in a cell. I joined the Ge Laboratory at MD Anderson to study these transposable elements of the genome that were found to be expressed in cancer and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, representing an issue in gene regulation. The research I work on focuses on identifying how proteins regulate the expression of transposons and the circumstances and extent to which transposons are expressed in RNA, which may shed light on the coevolution of humans with microbes. Time passed differently in the lab; I was surrounded by interesting personalities and captivated by research I’d never done before, spending my nights with my lab mates and joking about our obsession with pumpkin spice lattes. Genetics is an endless world that we learn more about every day. Just today (December 15th) we learned that an allele common in people of African ancestry can introduce a PAM sequence which can lead to two dangerous diseases: sickle cell disease and β-thalassemia. Yesterday scientists identified 867 genes that can promote the survival of specific pancreatic cells. Not only is genetics fascinating, but is increasingly applicable to nearly everything, whether that be creating genetically modified tomato plants that have a higher yield or even using ancient genetic remnants of prehistoric viral infections (endogenous retroviruses) to create immunotherapy treatments for cancer. Genetics could be the key to conquering cancer, understanding the development of humanity, or even creating an artificial uterus. Genetics tells us secrets of identity, humanity, evolution, and development that could otherwise never be deduced. Although my current way to understand the nature of our universe is through genetics, there are many other ways to understand our universe whether that be quantum mechanics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, environmental science, or anthropology. Understanding the universe is not only important because it may allow us to conquer many of our world’s challenges such as global warming (which can hopefully be accomplished through technologies like the newly developed solar-collecting fabric or the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s recent ability to successfully use nuclear fission to produce energy), but also because understanding the universe is simply understanding. Learning about topics such as quantum entanglement or the multiverse is simply interesting and a way to break free from the monotony of daily life. The work of countless scientists every day helps us recognize the intricacies of the universe and better understand how these intricacies may influence us. Science tells us a story that is too enthralling for us to ever put down, bringing joy during tough times and defining how we view ourselves as well as the world around us. Through a university education, I hope to continue to learn more about the world around me. To better learn about the intricacies of the world, I hope to continue my research on transposons, especially in analyzing transposon expression during the first stages of development. I hope that my research looking at how transposons are reorganized during development can shed light on the story of human and mouse evolution, similar to Nobel Laureate Dr. Svante Pääbo’s research connecting genetics to anthropology. I hope to understand how humans can change over time and the factors that have led to many of the unique characteristics of humans. I am especially interested in understanding the development of a human’s seemingly smaller-sized corpus callosum (a connective complex between the hemispheres of the brain) even though evolution has favored a larger number of connection fibers between parts of the brain. I also hope to understand how the process of transposon reprogramming has led to the development of new alleles while keeping other important alleles intact. Beyond biology and anthropology, I hope to use my university education as a time to explore new ideas and subjects, especially quantum mechanics. I hope to work on new research on quantum computing and learn more about randomness, combining philosophy with physics. I feel that learning about quantum mechanics would reveal so much about the universe, especially when considering its implications for how we interact with the world and how we view ourselves in relation to the universe. Moreover, quantum mechanics, especially when it comes to quantum computing, could be key to understanding some major points of contention within our universe whether that be something as simple as answering the traveling salesman problem or something as complex as positioning telescopes to visualize ancient stars, galaxies, black holes, and planets. Our world is so complex and constantly fills me with new questions about myself and the universe at large. I hope to constantly question our universe and learn as much as I can. I doubt that I will know everything about the many secrets of our universe, but that is just something that I will have to come to terms with just as I have come to terms with the fact that 22% of my 223,200,000,000,000,000,000,000 nucleotides are cheating bastards.