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 Before the Summer of Love, the Human Be-In brought between 20-30,000 people to the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, on this day in 1967. Organized by artist Micheal Bowen, he wanted to bring the "tribes" of psychedelic hippies and anti-war activists together, in part to protest California's recent ban of LSD. It was the beginning of "Peace, Love, and Rock & Roll" with a side of civil rights sit-ins and teach-ins. Psychologist Timothy Leary spoke of his advocacy for psychedelic drugs.  This was the first time he used the phrase, "Turn on, tune in, drop out," which was to encourage being aware and detaching from mainstream society to find spiritual rebirth through drug use. The stage was just a flatbed truck and an amp, but bands such as Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Big Brother and the Holding Company performed. The following June would host the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Festival and then the Monterey Pop Festival in July.

  Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on this day in 1948. In 1964, a group in Spain started this day to be celebrated in schools across the globe, with one general message: Universal love is better than egoism.  Non-violence is better than violence.  Peace is better than war. Just 15 days ago was the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr, another proponent of peace and love who was assassinated. A sad reflection on our humanity when our best are beaten. But it is their heart that perseveres, their intentions. "Ideas are bulletproof." For Gandhi, it was Satyagraha, non-violent resistance which translates to "truth force."  His goal was for the India of his dreams, but it's something we can all look to. India of My Dreams

  Physics John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton: "For foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks." They used physics to find patterns in information . Chemistry David Baker: "For computational protein design." Demis Hassabis and John Jumper: "For protein structure prediction." They cracked the code for proteins' amazing structures . Physiology or Medicine Victor Ambrose and Gary Ruvkun: "For the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation." Tiny RNAs with profound physiological importance . Literature Han Kang: "For her immense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life." Biobibliography Peace Nihon Hidankyo: "For its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again." The grassroots movement of atomic ...

  Friendship between peoples, countries, cultures, and individuals can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities. By accumulating bonds of camaraderie and developing strong ties of trust we can contribute to the fundamental shifts that are urgently needed to achieve lasting stability, weave a safety net that will protect us all, and generate passion for a better world where all are united for the greater good. "We can't help everyone, but everyone can help." - Ronald Reagan The Olympics are a decent example of this coming together - yes, there's competition, but there's also sportsmanship and meeting new people who share a similar dedication. Hilary Heron of Panama, Luisa Blanco of Colombia, and Filipa Martins of Portugal. The Olympic Truce calls for global cessation of hostilities that begins seven days before the start of the Games and lasts seven days after the Paralympic Games end.  It was originally established in Ancient Greece to end the P...

  Physics Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, Anne L'Huillier They have demonstrated a way to create extremely short pulses of light that can be used to measure the rapid processes in which electrons move or change energy. Background Chemistry Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus, Alexei Ekimov For the discovery and development of quantum dots.  These tiny particles have unique properties and now spread their light from television screens and LED lamps.  They catalyze chemical reactions and their clear light can illuminate tumor tissue for surgeons. Background Physiology or Medicine Katalin Karikó, Drew Weissman Their discoveries were critical for developing effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. Background Literature Jon Fosse For his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable. Background Economics Claudia Goldin Her research since the 80's has given us new and often surprising insights into women's historical and contemporary roles in the labor market. Peace Narg...

  Physics Awarded to Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger for "experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science." Chemistry Awarded to Carolyn Bertozzi, Morton Meldal, and K. Barry Sharpless "for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry." First, Sharpless coined the concept for click chemistry, where reactions occur quickly and unwanted by-products are avoided.  Then Meldal found the chemical reaction for mapping DNA. Next, Bertozzi applied this to living organisms, to track biomolecules on the surface of cells. Physiology or Medicine Awarded to Svante Paabo, "for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution." Paabo discovered a previously unknown hominin, Denisova.  He determined that gene transfer occurred to homo sapiens  following the migration out of Africa 70,000 years ago, and his work gave rise to a new...

Peace is the breath of our spirit. It wells up from within the depths of our being to refresh, to heal, to inspire. Peace is our birthright. Its eternal presence exists within us as a memory of where we have come from and as a vision of where we yearn to go. Our world is in the midst of change. For millennia, we have contemplated, reasoned, and practiced the idea of peace. Yet the capacity to sustain peace eludes us. To transcend the limits of our own thinking we must acknowledge that peace is more than the cessation of conflict. For peace to move across the face of the earth we must realize, as the great philosophers and leaders before us, that all people desire peace. We hereby acknowledge this truth that is universal. Now humanity must desire those things that make for peace. We affirm that peace is an idea whose time has come. We call upon humanity to stand united, responding to the need for peace. We call upon each individual to create and foster a personal vision for peace. We ca...

  These came out earlier this month, but I got distracted by other things going on, so we'll just recap them now. Physics Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann - "for the physical modelling of Earth's climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming." Georgio Parisi - "for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales." Our Understanding of Complex Physical Systems Chemistry Benjamin List and David MacMillan - "for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis." This is a precise new tool for molecular construction and will have an impact on pharmaceutical research, making chemistry greener. Enamine and iminium ion–mediated organocatalysis   Physiology/Medicine David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian - "for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch." They were able to explain the molecular basis for sensing heat, cold, and mechanical force. Di...

 The Nobel Prizes have been awarded in all but Economics at this point, so let's go over the winners. Physics One half awarded to Roger Penrose "for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity," with the other half jointly awarded to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy." Read More Chemistry Awarded to Emmanuelle Carpenter and Jennifer Doudna "for the development of a method for genome editing," known as the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors. Read More Physiology or Medicine Awarded to Harvey Alter, Michael Houghton, and Charles Rice "for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus."  Highly sensitive blood tests are now available and have essentially eliminated post-transfusion hepatitis in many parts of the world. Read More Literature Awarded to American poet Louise Glück "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with a...

Global Beatles Day - Celebrating harmony and peace. On this date in 1967, The Beatles participated in Our World, a BBC event that aired in 30 countries. The most successful Beatles song spent 19 weeks on the charts in the US - 9 weeks at number one. The Beatles were one of my dad's favorite bands.  On his Fandalism page, it asked which album he would take on a deserted island - he chose The White Album, which happens to include my favorite Beatles song. This day was started in 2009 by a fan who wrote a thank you letter to the band, not just for their music, but for "the values they professed and believed in."  They've always promoted living in a peaceful world built on love. This is most clearly presented in John Lennon's "Imagine" but I wanted to share a cover instead. This is speaking from 2004, but much of the imagery still applies. My aunt said this version is more depressing than John's, that it seems t...

While Martin Luther King Jr Day is officially observed on Monday the 20th this year, the 15th is his date of birth - 1929. Born in Atlanta to a Baptist minister, King obtained a doctorate degree in theology. Following the teachings of Mohandas Ghandi, King advocated peaceful protests and nonviolent resistance. He organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott in December 1955 following Rosa Parks' personal stand against giving up her seat for a white man.  Approximately 40,000 African Americans refused to ride, demanding courtesy and a first-come-first-serve seating policy.  Ultimately the system was desegregated. In 1963 he participated in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom - the event ended with King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech. When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, King said it was nothing less than a "second emancipation."  Later that year, he became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. His p...

PEACE Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali "In the wake of the peace process with Eritrea, [he] has engaged in other peace and reconciliation processes in East and Northeast Africa." LITERATURE Peter Handke "For an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and specificity of human experience." Also, because the 2018 announcement was cancelled due to allegations within the Swedish Academy, Olga Tokarczuk was awarded this year. "For a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life." CHEMISTRY John B. Goodenough M. Stanley Whittingham Akira Yoshino "For the development of lithium-ion batteries." PHYSICS James Peebles "For theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology." Michael Mayor and Didier Queloz "For the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star." PHYSIOLOGY ...