Some people have negative opinions of Falun Gong because they find certain passages in the Falun Gong books hard to understand or difficult to accept. A genuine scientist would tolerate other scientists’ theories even if they contradict with his own, because he knows that the purpose of developing science is not to prove others wrong, but to search for the truth.

Seventeen years ago, astronomers spotted the brightest stellar explosion ever seen since the one observed by Johannes Kepler 400 years ago. Called SN 1987A, the titanic supernova explosion blazed with the power of 100,000,000 suns for several months following its discovery on Feb. 23, 1987. Although the supernova itself is now a million times fainter than seventeen years ago, a new light show in the space surrounding it is just beginning.

Telescopes are not yet powerful enough to see planets orbiting distant stars, so astronomers must infer their presence. They have done this by noting a disturbance in a star's movement, a very slight, almost imperceptible wobble, meaning that the gravity of a planet was pulling on it. This technique has led to the discovery of 120 planets in distant solar systems since 1995.

In a cave in a mountainous region of South Africa, an international team of archaeologists discovered 41 objects they originally thought were tiny teeth. After closer inspection, the scientists concluded the teeth were actually very small beads made out of snail shells, with holes pierced through one side of them.

The research team also tested whether the meditation group had better immune function than the control group did. All the study participants received a flu vaccine at the end of the eight-week meditation group. Then, at four and eight weeks after vaccine administration, both groups had blood tests to measure the level of antibodies they had produced against the flu vaccine. While both groups had developed increased antibodies, as expected, the meditation group had a significantly larger increase than the controls, at both periods.

German physicist Albert Einstein predicted gravitational lensing in his General Theory of Relativity. Thirteen years ago, Polish-born astronomer Bohdan Paczynski of Princeton University in New Jersey proposed using the method to detect planets outside our solar system. Now the group of astronomers of which Mr. Paczynski is a member has used the technique to observe a star-planet system 17,000 light years away.

Earlier research has shown that, in people who are generally positive and optimistic and during times of positive emotion, the left side of this frontal area becomes more active than the right side does. The findings confirmed the researchers' hypothesis: the meditation group showed an increase of activation in the left-side part of the frontal region. This suggests that the meditation itself produced more activity in this region of the brain. This activity is associated with lower anxiety and a more positive emotional state.

Generally, scientists of our era believe that petroleum was produced from decomposed vegetation and animal matter that existed during a remote pre-historical time, which was then buried and subjected, through a slow process over a long period of time, to high heat and pressure. However more and more of today’s scientists question this assertion and find the mystery surrounding this premise rather intriguing, given that the quantity of “living matter” required to produce the volume of petroleum found today could not have existed in pre-historic times.

It is exciting for astronomers who study white dwarf stars because it is the first empirical test of a theory that we have been using for more than 40 years. Other astronomers may also find it interesting because it affects the ages of the coolest white dwarf stars -- and these provide one method of determining the age of our Galaxy. Some physicists who study high density matter might also be interested.

In the January 9, 2004 issue of Science magazine, another report points out that “farmed salmon have significantly higher contaminant burdens than wild salmon”. In fact, the concentrations of organochlorine contaminants that pose cancer risks for humans are about ten times higher in farmed salmon than in wild salmon. The study focuses on the following persistent industrial pollutants, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins, toxaphene and dieldrin. The consumption of farmed salmon may result in exposure to a variety of persistent bioaccumulative contaminants with the potential for an elevation in attendant health risks.

Associate professor Dr. Hu Yu-Whuei from the Economics Department of National Taiwan University published a research report today showing that 72% of Falun Gong practitioners use only one health insurance card per year after practicing Falun Gong, a reduction in usage of almost 50%. Cultivating in Falun Gong has a powerful effect in eliminating destructive and addictive habits and in improving emotional heath. For those who have visited hospitals frequently for years, these results are a great blessing.

The so-called Lynx arc is one million times brighter than the well-known Orion Nebula, a nearby prototypical star-birth region visible with small telescopes. The newly identified supercluster contains a million blue-white stars that are twice as hot as similar stars found in our Milky Way galaxy. It is a rarely seen example of the early days of the universe where furious firestorms of star birth blazed across the skies. The spectacular cluster's opulence is dimmed when seen from Earth only because it is twelve billion light-years away.

Astronomers believe a doomed star came too close to a giant black hole after being thrown off course by a close encounter with another star. As it neared the enormous gravity of the black hole, the star was stretched by tidal forces until it was torn apart. This discovery provides crucial information about how these black holes grow and affect surrounding stars and gas.

The nearby dwarf galaxy NGC 1569 is a hotbed of vigorous star birth activity which blows huge bubbles that riddle the main body of the galaxy. The galaxy's "star factories" are also manufacturing brilliant blue star clusters. This galaxy had a sudden onset of star birth about 25 million years ago, which subsided about the time the very earliest human ancestors appeared on Earth.

In 1972, a French company imported some uranium ore from Oklo in the Gabon Republic in Africa. Surprisingly the uranium concentration in the ore was as low as spent uranium fuel from a nuclear reactor. The finding led scientists to believe that the uranium had already been used for energy production. This discovery shocked the world and attracted scientists from many countries to go to Oklo for further investigation. The results showed that the uranium mine was an ancient nuclear reactor. The ancient reactor consisted of five hundred tons of utilised uranium ore in six different areas. Its output power was estimated to be approximately one hundred kilowatts. The reactor was perfectly preserved and its layout was very rational. It is estimated that the reactor had been in operation for around 500,000 years.

A January 12, 2004 report in Science Daily Telegraph, entitled “Mystery Particle May Hold Clues To Universe,” discusses how fourteen physicists at the University of Melbourne “have recently discovered a sub-atomic particle that they are having difficulty explaining and difficulty fitting with any current theory that attempts to describe matter. Their research will be published in Physical Review Letters (in press).”

What should we call this ability to read with the hands? Those who are familiar with exceptional abilities call it a supernormal ability. In countries such as China, research has been performed to verify the existence of supernormal abilities. Reading with the hands is believed to be one such ability. Professor Sicen Li of Taiwan University has been active in researching this ability since 1993. His friend brought an 11-year-old girl named Qiaowu Gao to him as a subject.

Atoms, sub-atoms, light and radiation stem from electromagnetic waves. Without its own waveform, matter ceases to exist. Like ripples on water, when vibration stops, waveform disappears, and all that remains is water. If the vibration of a matter ceases, it will go back tostillness. Ancient people in the East referred to this mysterious matter as “qi” [vital enegy], and ancient people in the West called it “ether.” This concept was abandoned around the dawn of the 20th century. Now it appears that modern science has returned to the doorstep of our ancient forefathers after a roundabout. Although scientific terms might be used to describe the phenomenon, the inner meaning is still the same.

"Many details of subsequent human evolution over the period of the ice ages remain unclear, but one certain finding from both anthropological and genetic data is that there was no later time when the size of the human species became small again," says Hawks. "So the 'Eve theory' of modern human origins, which states that modern human populations very recently arose as a new African species that replaced all other indigenous peoples such as Neanderthals, can be put to rest."

The archaeological team, under the direction of Dr. Tim White from the University of California, found that the fossilised partial skulls were dated to be 160,000 years old. They were found in what is today central Ethiopia, and include the skulls of two adults and one 6 or 7 year old child. The fossilised partial skulls look very similar to those of modern human beings. The facial character of the skulls looks almost the same as modern humans, especially the skull of a child, which has no visible difference from that of a modern child. It was determined the skulls date back to 154,000 to 160,000 years ago.

ESA's X-ray observatory, XMM-Newton, has returned tantalising new data about the nature of the Universe. In a survey of distant clusters of galaxies, XMM-Newton has found puzzling differences between today's clusters of galaxies and those present in the Universe around seven thousand million years ago. Some scientists claim that this can be interpreted to mean that the 'dark energy' which most astronomers now believe dominates the Universe simply does not exist…

"We've discovered that our magnetic shield is drafty, like a house with a window stuck open during a storm," says Harald Frey of the University of California, Berkeley, lead author of a paper on this research published Dec. 4 in Nature. "The house deflects most of the storm, but the couch is ruined. Similarly, our magnetic shield takes the brunt of space storms, but some energy slips through its cracks, sometimes enough to cause problems with satellites, radio communication, and power systems."

Although astrobiologists disagree whether advanced life is common or rare in our universe, a new study suggests there may be many Earthlike candidate planets. The University of Washington study involved 44 computer simulations of planet formation near a sun. Astronomers found each simulation produced one to four Earthlike planets.

LONDON - British astronomers believe they have discovered another solar system only 25 light years away that bears a remarkable likeness to ours. The scientists said they found evidence that planets circling the star Vega have some similarities to Earth, the BBC reported. The report by astronomers from the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, is published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Using the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope and aided by a gigantic cosmic lens conveniently provided by nature, an international team of astronomers has discovered that a young galaxy had a central disk of gas in which hundreds of new stars were being born every year -- at a time when the Universe was only a fraction of its current age.

It has been nearly six months since the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak emerged and more than six weeks since the illness spread from its birthplace in southern China to put the world on alert. Yet with more than 4,800 cases in at least 26 countries to date, SARS has rocked Asian markets, ruined the tourist trade of an entire region, nearly bankrupted airlines, and spread panic through some of the world's largest cities. Hospitals and schools were shut down last week in Beijing, thousands of people were put under quarantine, and rumors flew through the capital that martial law was about to be imposed. In other countries, including the U.S. with zero SARS deaths, fear is spreading faster than SARS.

In order to completely resolve the problem of environmental pollution, the fundamental reason that leads to environmental pollution has to be discovered. Through the analysis of several reasons that people now consider to be the main causes for environmental pollution, the author demonstrates that human beings’ improper ways of living and manufacturing are the fundamental causes of environmental pollution. The reason why the actions of human beings can lead to environmental pollution is that the moral standard that discerns whether certain human behavior is right or wrong has deteriorated. Therefore, in order to solve the environmental problems fundamentally, people have to improve their moral standards.

Behind a thick cocoon of cold gas, scientists have discovered what might be a new class of astronomical objects in our galaxy. Made up of a very massive star and a compact object such as a neutron star or a black hole, the binary system is unique because it remained hidden behind a cloud of obscuring material for so long.

Astronomers from Case Western Reserve University say they have discovered a new galaxy, a collection of stars hovering undetected just outside the huge Andromeda spiral.
Researchers said the newest known resident of the celestial neighbourhood, dubbed Andromeda VIII, was unmasked when they realised that some stars thought to be part of the big spiral galaxy were moving at a different velocity.

Theoretically, at the atomic level, energy currents form when electrons move between atoms. An atom contains protons with a positive charge, neutrons with a neutral charge and electrons with a negative charge. All three form an uncharged atom. Many things in nature tend to reach a neutral state. Equilibrium within an atom is very similar to the balance between “Yin” and “Yang,” a theory already known in ancient China. An electron carries a negative Yin charge.

The finding offers an explanation into how chronic stress can be inhibited, or curbed. While the body's acute response to stress -- say to being cut off in traffic by a speeding car -- diminishes through a naturally occurring inhibitory feedback mechanism of the adrenal stress system, its chronic response to stress -- in which a barrage of threats, scares or frustrations occur over days, weeks or months -- becomes chronically excited. Over time, the elevated stress level can initiate a host of deleterious effects on the body -- a loss or gain of weight, depression, obesity and a loss of brain tissue.

Scientists probing the paranormal said on Wednesday they hoped to set up a major experiment in Britain trying to find out once and for all whether the mind can step outside the body at the brink of death. The proposed study would involve interviewing people who had survived cardiac arrest to see if they had had an out of body experience while on the operating table.

By monitoring activity levels in the human brain's prefrontal cortex, the researchers demonstrate for the first time that people who have more activity in the left side of this area also have a stronger immune response against disease. The findings, soon to be published in the on-line edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pinpoint one of the mechanisms underlying the link between mental and physical well-being.

The team, from the Medicinal Plant Research Centre (MPRC) at the Universities of Newcastle and Northumbria, UK, have provided scientific evidence for claims dating back centuries. They studied texts by well-known herbalists such as John Gerard, who wrote about sage in 1597, saying that ‘It is singularly good for the head and brain and quickeneth the nerves and memory”, and Nicholas Culpeper, whose 1652 text says “It also heals the memory, warming and quickening the senses”.

The news report said that the rock was determined to be several million years old, but a product of modern technology was found within the rock. The report also indicated that the picture of the rock showed that objects resembling a nut and a bolt were embedded in the rock. The rock is estimated to be from the Paleozoic period, a time when, according to evolutionists, modern humans did not yet exist.

However, the dust particles move very fast, and produce large numbers of fragments when they impact asteroids or comets. It is therefore conceivable that an increase in the amount of interstellar dust in the Solar System will create more cosmic dust by collisions with asteroids and comets.

Once, while writing to a friend about some things I had come to understand about painting, I paused when I got to the three primary colours of Red - Yellow - Blue to ponder this question: What should be the correlation of these 3 basic colours to the three cosmic characteristics, Zhen - Shan – Ren (Truthfulness – Compassion – Forbearance)?

I asked, “Where did you get your epilepsy, your mother’s side or father’s side?” She replied, “From my mother’s side, my grandmother.” She looked heavyhearted. “When I was bullied and abused, I would wish I was sick. Afterwards I could control when I wanted to be sick, which was a form of protection. The outcome was unexpected and I gradually got weaker and weaker. Finally I had difficulty walking.

I took out a set of acupuncture needles and quickly acupunctured her Ren Zhong point (located between the nose and the mouth). Before she realised what was going on, the needle had already gone in about three centimetres. I asked her to breathe deeply, while I gently moved the needle in and out. One minute later, the pain had greatly subsided and she could stand upright. I asked her to walk a few steps with the needle in, and watched her face transform from pain to relief.

The evolution theory is just a theory. It should not be considered unquestionable dogma. We should develop new and more reasonable theories along with the accumulation of new findings. If we simply hold onto a theory that is more than one hundred years old and refuse to let it evolve, our understanding of the nature of life will forever be a myth.

This is another case in which the wisdom of traditional Chinese culture rises to humanity’s attention. In this case, it is a compound from traditional Chinese medicine that shows great promise in helping people from all cultures with a debilitating disease at a low cost, high effectiveness, and very few, if any, side effects. One wonders what a great blessing to humankind it would be if only the theories and principles of this ancient practise were applied more broadly in the world.

In addition, the new portrait precisely pegs the age of the Universe at 13.7 billion years old, with a remarkably small one percent margin of error. The WMAP team found that the Big Bang and Inflation theories continue to ring true. The contents of the Universe include 4% atoms (ordinary matter), 23% of an unknown type of dark matter, and 73% of a mysterious dark energy. The new measurements even shed light on the nature of the dark energy, which acts as a sort of an anti-gravity

The distortion of human moral standards contributed to the trends of sexual liberation and casual sex. Those who follow this trend are more subject to STD and, now, in China, SARS. In contrast, those who conduct themselves with a high moral standard in this regard are less subject to SARS. Ancient Chinese medicine also believed in the cause and effect correlation between man’s high moral standards and his self-healing ability.

As a pathologist, my profession makes me very concerned about “SARS” (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). Because of my professional habit, I have persistently collected the pathological information on SARS. The available information indicates that corona virus has something to do with SARS. The major pathological change in seriously ill SARS patients is the pervasive damage to their pulmonary alveoli. On clinical manifestation, the failure of respiratory function and their X-ray images are similar to “ARDS--Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome.” Here I would like to address the issue from the perspective of the impact of practising Falun Gong on human immune system.

Being a junior scientist, I will just respectfully present my experience with Falun Dafa, try to let you know how it objectively approaches the truth, and why, as a young atheistic person and an everlasting sceptic, I have found deep rationality and truth in this teaching.

Article from Cambridge Future Science and Culture Congress 2002 - The influence of the mind (also referred to as “spirit” or “consciousness”) on the physical body is an open field in modern medicine. Recently, more and more pieces of evidence have demonstrated that the mind can alter the physical body in various ways, particularly through the endocrine and immune systems. However, there have been no efforts to try to understand how the mind alters gene expression.

When we speak of the relationship between Falun and our cultivation of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance, many practitioners believe that the Tai Chi picture represents Truthfulness, the wan symbol represents Compassion, while the outer circle around Falun represents Tolerance.

So what is real science? Real science should dig out the nature of an object; investigate the reasons behind the phenomena. It is to advance to a deeper level, a more microscopic level, rather than argue about the superficial phenomena.