Spiritual Physics of Light

 Listened to a wonderful podcast this week on All In.
Aaron Franklin is a professor of computer and electrical engineering at Duke with a Ph.D. from Purdue. He was interviewed about his book, The Spiritual Physics of Light -- the transcript is here.

Dr. Franklin made the point that information can be extracted from light. Did you know radio waves are actually light waves? I didn't. Light travels around the world in seconds and the idea that light carries data provided an a-ha moment for me. 

I've often wondered about the concept of praying for others.
For instance when someone is sick or hurting, we say we'll pray for them. 

I believe its an important act, but I've never understood why. 

Because God doesn't use a formula, for instance, that if 100 people pray for someone,

that person's prayers will be answered. So what then is the point?

It's pretty common to hear someone claim they can feel prayers on their behalf.

How?

What I'm thinking is that by praying, we're accessing God's light.

That light can literally hold our prayer and positive thoughts and travel to the person they're intended for. 

Our prayer won't change God's plan for that person, 

but they can positively influence them to feel peace, comfort, 

even positively influence the decisions they make.

So when a person says they've felt the prayers of others, what they're recognizing is the power we have as individuals to love and support each other by using God's power, or light.

Bio: Dr. Aaron Franklin received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University in 2008 then six years on the research staff at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY.  His work at IBM focused on low-dimensional nanoelectronics with specific emphasis on carbon nanotube (CNT) transistors, including device scaling, transport studies, and diverse integration approaches.  While at IBM, Dr. Franklin was awarded an Outstanding Technical Achievement recognition for his work on nanoscale CNT transistors. He was also involved in many other projects with applications including photovoltaics, thin-film transistors, and supercapacitors.  Dr. Franklin joined the Duke faculty in 2014.

Research in the Franklin group is focused on improving the performance and functionality of nanomaterial-enabled electronic devices.  This includes high-performance devices from low-dimensional materials, such as 2D semiconductors, 1D carbon nanotubes, and nanowires. Also included is the low-cost realm of printed electronics, which benefits from the incorporation of nanomaterials to enhance electrical transport over large printed features, along with other application-specific advantages. The primary drive of the Franklin group's research is to improve performance of, and expand applications for, electronic devices, including those with more custom form factors and/or functionality (e.g., flexibility, transparency, biocompatibility, recyclability).  A growing thrust in the lab is the application of ultrasensitive, inexpensively processed nanomaterials to electronic biosensing applications.  There is an increasing variety of new electronics applications that nanomaterials are uniquely capable of enabling -- the Franklin group works to make such applications possible.