Mythemesis: The Human Way of Knowing and Believing

Although science, philosophy, literature, and religion each have a different way of formulating explanations, they are all telling stories of why and how. The author describes how the human propensity to seek explanation through narrative can he understood as the product of an embodied mind. He offers a hypothesis ( \"mythemesis\" ) to explain the process and goes on to show that it may provide an opportunity to reduce scientific-religious conflict by transcending the dichotomy between first- and third-person modes of experience

Probing Red Giant Atmospheres with Gravitational Microlensing

Gravitational microlensing provides a new technique for studying the surfaces of distant stars. Microlensing events are detected in real time and can be followed up with precision photometry and spectroscopy. This method is particularly adequate for studying red giants in the Galactic bulge. Recently we developed an efficient method capable of computing the lensing effect for thousands of frequencies in a high-resolution stellar spectrum. Here we demonstrate the effects of microlensing on synthesized optical spectra of red giant model atmospheres. We show that different properties of the stellar surface can be recovered from time-dependent photometry and spectroscopy of a point-mass microlensing event with a small impact parameter. In this study we concentrate on center-to-limb variation of spectral features. Measuring such variations can reveal the depth structure of the atmosphere of the source star.Comment: 23 pages with 11 Postscript figures, submitted to ApJ; Section 2 expanded, references added, text revise

New Advancements in Pure and Applied Mathematics via Fractals and Fractional Calculus

This reprint focuses on exploring new developments in both pure and applied mathematics as a result of fractional behaviour. It covers the range of ongoing activities in the context of fractional calculus by offering alternate viewpoints, workable solutions, new derivatives, and methods to solve real-world problems. It is impossible to deny that fractional behaviour exists in nature. Any phenomenon that has a pulse, rhythm, or pattern appears to be a fractal. The 17 papers that were published and are part of this volume provide credence to that claim. A variety of topics illustrate the use of fractional calculus in a range of disciplines and offer sufficient coverage to pique every reader's attention

Fractional quantum Hall effect on the two-sphere: a matrix model proposal

We present a Chern-Simons matrix model describing the fractional quantum Hall effect on the two-sphere. We demonstrate the equivalence of our proposal to particular restrictions of the Calogero-Sutherland model, reproduce the quantum states and filling fraction and show the compatibility of our result with the Haldane spherical wavefunctions.Comment: 26 pages, LaTeX, no figures, references adde