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Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

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Editorial: Drawing Closer

30 April 2014 | The Fountain | Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

"To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, to draw closer, to find each other and to feel. That is the Purpose of LIFE." (from "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty") This past April has been a busy one for The Fountain staff. We have had gatherings with our contributors in se…

Laborers of Thought, Building the Future

30 April 2014 | M. Fethullah Gulen | Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

Those who will shape tomorrow with their ideas will be the guides of generations to come. The way they think and reason will redesign the world, and their messages will brighten the future. They will not act like inheritors who have bequeathed a legacy without any effort or suffering and their beha…

The Psychology of Morality

30 April 2014 | M. Tarik Ozgur | Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

When the captain of a sunken ship commands the lowest ranking crew member among the survivors in the lifeboat to be killed and used to sustain the lives of the others, I wonder: what are his thought processes? When you pass a sickly homeless person sleeping on the street and think you would like to…

A Dialogue of Flowers

30 April 2014 | Meryem Akgun | Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

The wind gently touched my soft petals. They slightly swayed back and forth to the beat of the wind. It was cooler here than in our homeland. But it didn't feel uncomfortable. My leaves reflected the moonlight. I looked up at the moon, and it looked back at me brightly. But even its lights seemed…

Artificial Replacement of the Failing Heart

30 April 2014 | Ali Fethi Toprak | Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

Cardiovascular disease is a progressive, debilitating, and deadly disease affecting over 23 million people worldwide.1 The physiopathology of heart disease is the minimal regeneration capacity of the heart that could eventually lead to heart failure. The only definitive treatment for heart failure…

Reproducibility in Today's Science

30 April 2014 | Ali Fethi Toprak | Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

Recent advances in science have led to longer lives, better health care, and healthier societies. Science develops through trial and error. However, irreproducibility still remains a problem, with issues related to bias, a high level of competition, a lack of appropriate statistical analysis, an…

Consanguineous Marriages Perspectives from Social Taboos, Religion, and Science

30 April 2014 | Mesut Erzurumluoglu | Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

There is a great deal of suspicion about consanguineous unions in the world. Whether this suspicion relies on health issues or not, we still have to be aware of possible genetic effects of consanguinity on heritable disorders and socio-cultural impacts. Consanguinity itself does not make an indivi…

Embrace Mortality

30 April 2014 | Noble Lee | Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

Most of us operate under the assumption that there will always be a tomorrow, that there will always be another chance to buckle down and get serious about the business of living our lives to the best of our ability. We live as if we are immortal, and while that may be true in the broadest view of…

Electricity in the Heart

30 April 2014 | Furkan Osmanoglu | Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

Our heart is like a pump that never rests. The distribution of the dirty blood to the lungs and clean blood all through the body is organized by a system that produces an electrical current. Every second, small electrical currents are created in our hearts in order to start the contractions and mak…

Jefferson's Qur'an

30 April 2014 | Huseyin Senturk | Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

Thomas Jefferson occupies a special space among the Founding Fathers as the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the United States. Denise Spellberg, a scholar of Islamic history and civilization, introduces Jefferson from a different perspective, underlyin…

Dahsha and Hayra (Utter Astonishment and Amazement)

30 April 2014 | M. Fethullah Gulen | Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

Every traveler journeying in the valleys of love and zeal sometimes burns with the fire of love, and sometimes overflows with joy owing to the "wine of immortality" offered by the Beloved. While burning, the lover sighs: O Cupbearer, I have burned away. Give me some water! While looking attentively…

A Personal Journey: Read as You Sail!

30 April 2014 | Ethan Johnson | Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

Facts and knowledge, truth and belief, philosophy and faith, science and religion - these are all about guiding others into what one enjoys oneself. Some are more successful than others in this guidance and, hence, have been known throughout human existence, such as Plato; others are just bound by…

How Is Nature Being Cleaned?

30 April 2014 | Gokhan Halikan | Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

After a long, busy, and exhausting year, he wanted to take a rest in his summer house, which lies under a mountain opposite a nice, blue lake. He deserved this holiday. After parking his car in front of the oak trees, he opened the wooden door of the house. The scene he saw was not good at all. Spi…

In Respect of Nature: The Amazing Nature of Bacterial Bio Plastics

30 April 2014 | Melissa McPen | Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

"Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize we cannot eat money." Cree Indian Proverb The table I have under my laptop while writing this article, the materials used for my laptop, the cover case for my phone, the pe…

You Have Loved Him All Along

30 April 2014 | Amany Shalaby | Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

What do you love in anything or anyone that is not His? In reality, you have loved Him all along! Forms are like pigeons carrying the Beloved's letters. You fall in love with the pigeons And miss reading the letters of the true Lover... You miss a greater Love that pigeons are not capable of provid…

Religion Is Not a Zero Sum Game

30 April 2014 | Allen S. Maller | Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

The Turkish term for "tolerance" is "hosgoru" which means seeing or looking for the good side of another person. Unlike toleration, which is a passive acceptance of the other, hosgoru means actively looking for something good in the other. Tragically, religious communities have not always engaged i…

Light Photography

30 April 2014 | Mesut Mizrak | Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

To be able to see we are in need of two blessings granted to us: the eye and light. We aren't the only creatures who thrive on light; plants are also in need of light to perform photosynthesis. Unfortunately, we sometimes take these blessings for granted. The fact that we have discovered how the ey…

Staff Only!

30 April 2014 | Seth Mette | Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

It was an ordinary day. As usual, I was sleepy. I had not had enough rest, since I was on call the previous night. Right before lunch, I was making plans about how I could sneak into the attractive "staff only" dining room and take a little nap. If there was one thing I learned in the few years of…

Hearts and Minds for a Country Nation and the Construction of Self Identity

30 April 2014 | Donald A. Beecher | Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

The topic is both risky and troubling because nation, per se, as it is defined in traditional ways, is no longer operative in pluralistic societies, at least not without significant adaptation. A redefinition of nation therefore becomes our challenge. We can start with Noam Chomsky's belief "that h…

Constructive Criticism

30 April 2014 | The Fountain | Issue 99 (May - June 2014)

Question: When it comes to administrative and political issues, severe criticism is viewed as the major form of engagement. Are there any other means of engagement on these issues? Destruction is easy. Those who want to destroy something should first know how to construct something. Otherwise, the…

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