Steel seems to occupy a special place and purpose in our civilisation. Even though other materials exist, both metallic and non-metallic, they're not as utilised as much as steel. What special properties does it have that these others don't? Certainly there are other materials that are stronger, lighter, less prone to corrosion, or just plain less costly to make.

Or maybe steel is just the jack-of-all-trades that has all those properties in balance?

The current alarm about the coronavirus outbreak in China had again shown us how vulnerable we are to the humblest of creatures. Their success lies in their simplicity: invade, replicate, propagate; and from that leaves a trail of misery in their wake.

Maybe one day we can harness their abilities. But for now, they are not our friend.

If there is one definitive mystery out there, it would be the black hole. We don't really know what it is, we don't know whats going on inside it, and what happens to things that fall into it.

Keith McLachlan's Black Hole Theory may be closer to science fantasy than science fiction, but unlike the black holes in our real world, his gives us closure.

In Part I we tackled the origins of arithmetic, the most basic and fundamental form of mathematics. Now we look at the more abstract world of geometry brought by the Greeks. It's no coincidence that at the same time they formulate mathematical theorems, they also ponder on philosophical paradoxes.

As we shall see, the Greeks idea of mathematics has more to do with attaining perfection than practical solutions.

Science doesn't just pop out of nowhere. The first person to ask for evidence on an unproven yet widely held idea applied reason to the physical world. But before that, reason was applied mostly on ideas.

Philosophy might not be as celebrated these days, but in the beginnings of science, it bridged the gap between what we believe and what we know.