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How the physical world works is described with astounding accuracy by abstract and rather incomprehensible rules of quantum mechanics and relativity theory. Rapid advances in molecular biology now also offer a glimpse into the mystery of life. Neuroscience and evolutionary psychology increasingly illuminate human behavior and its cultural, economic, and political impact. Dramatic increase of data transmission is transforming our lives in positive and negative ways.

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The known natural world extends from unmeasurably small elementary particles (whose effects show in experiments) to the end of the known universe, apparently tens of billions of lightyears away (see Macro, Note 1). We don't (and probably never will) know what exists beyond these borders. Our world is a mere speck in space and time of the big window opened by science: if the extension of the known universe is imagined as the diameter of Earth, then Earth would be an invisible dot smaller than an atom; and if the time span of Earth's existence is imagined as one week, then homo sapiens appeared less than a minute ago and left written records of his history only during the last second.

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This site is a hobby project of a retired German/American mining engineer with a layman's interest in science, nature, and technology.

The site provides internal and external links under the following structure:

• six related themes serve as a reference frame;
• the themes include 3 to 5 topics; and
• the topics include 2 to 6 brief sections.

• six related themes serve as a reference frame;
• the themes include 3 to 5 topics;
• the topics include 2 to 6 brief sections;
• popup notes include additional information;
• downloadable Excel workbooks (and some extracted sheets for Macs) show selected tables and calculations; and
• footers provide more external links.

Last modification: 10 July 2024