Extra-terrestrial life:Are we being too narrow minded?

Erich Von Daniken and Carl Sagan are two of my favourite writers.One is extremely unscientific;jumping to conclusions at the press of a button and the other is extremely strait-jacketed;never ever ready to violate our laws of physics,chemistry and biology.Both have one thing in common;their belief that alien life does exist somewhere in the vast massiveness of the universe.

The only problem is,why do they look for aliens which are like us?Why should aliens always be the 'little green men?'Von Daniken criticises Sagan for this reason;but I think he is no way better;for him aliens are always superior and 'in the image of God'.But,what is good about him is that at least he ventures to explain some impossible phenomena on the basis of extra-terrestrial life.His methods and conclusions may be faulty,but nothing can deny the fact that at least he has given a new dimension to our thinking.

By sheer probability it is certain that alien life must exist somewhere.Scientists however are hell bent on discovering a carbon based life form sustained by water.Why this obsession with carbon and water?Why not nitrogen or hydrogen?You may scoff but think about it;why do we need to believe that carbon is the only thing that can create life?Why do you believe that water is the primary thing that any life needs for survival?Is it because the scientists say so?Well,200 hundred years ago light was a wave;in newton's time it was a particle and now it is both.See the progress.Today's knowledge might be tomorrow's scientific history.What we need to do is question what we see and perceive.True;some laws are impeachable,they cannot be violated.These laws are like traffic signals;they are needed for order of science.When these laws break down then there will be chaos.Today,Einstein's relativity is the de facto law of physics.The day we discover Tachyons(particles faster than light)relativity is going to go for a toss;the traffic signals will break down.Then it will become a situation of installing new signals;in this case formulating new theories.

Our research on alien life must go on in the same direction.Chances are we are always looking at the wrong places.Like recently,the Huygens space probe touched down on Titan simply because it has a large abundance of methane and hence carbon and hence a chance of some life form.Nothing wrong with the hypothesis;but if this is the way we look at alien life(only carbon and water),chances are we may never ever find it.Then it will be a situation of them finding us.

Ind-WI:second ODI,a great win,or a great loss

2 tight matches against the windies and India have emerged the triumphant side in both situations.The pitches were different,the situation was different.Defending a paltry total is a big challenge and the Indians did it with elan.But,my question is:Why the small total in the first place?

Consider this:We have 4 batsmen averaging over 40,their combined centuries exceeds any other in the world and still they all met with the same fate.It took a young turk like Dinesh Kaarthick to show the method to bat for the old boys.

The very first problem was the approach of the Indians;which has been a major problem since a long time now.They fail to identify the nature of the wicket and are hell bent on posting 300+ totals whatever be the situation.The cuttack wicket was such a bad turner that a total of around 230 would have been equivalent to 320.But Ganguly's tentative shot on the leg side,Sachin's lofted shot showed that the Indians were in too much of a hurry.The world's greatest batting line-up collapsed to 90 for 7 and we were staring at a rather embarassing scenario before Dinesh Kaarthick rescued the team out of a real black hole.

Kaarthick's innings was the perfect balance of caution and aggression.63 out of 87 deliveries with a strike rate in the late seventies showed that he had understood the true nature of the wicket.The idea was simple;defend the good balls and put away the bad ones,but more importantly all that the batsmen had to do was to stay at the wicket.None of them except Dinesh showed this frame of mind.

Accepted that in the WI innings,the Indians bowled well and all that;but why is it that we only click in one department at a time?Greg Chappel can go on bantering about his process,but has he ever tried to convince the players to look at each match differently?This point will be of great importace in the carribean where each and every pitch is drastically different.The Indians would have to work out targets depending on the nature of the pitch and then plan a course of action.Dravid commented that 200 was a good enough total,but never in the innings were they putting this thought into action,until the important partnership between Kaarthick and Agarkar.

In the end,it was a thrilling match;India might have fixed a berth for Dinesh Kaarthick in the world cup squad;but questions still remain unanswered.Will the Indian team be able to adapt to changing pitch conditions in the West Indies?Only time can tell,when the first few matches in the carribean will be played during the league stages.

Introduction

Dear bloggers,
I'd like to introduce myself as an 18 year old student from Mumbai, first time entering into the exciting world of blogging.My 3 main topics of discussion will be Science,Cricket and Movies.

Science is and will always be my passion.It's iike water and air for me and really we can discuss anything related to science.

Cricket?Well, I am an Indian and so excpect some cricketing blogs from me(mostly to do with indian cricket obviously).

Movies are something which I study as a hobby.I like to dissect movies and also like to discuss the pros and cons of any movie and analysing alternative storylines and stuff like that