In Lahore, a lecture on Cosmic Dust

On September 2, in an Urdu daily, a small advertisement appeared. It was about a lecture on Cosmic Dust on September 3 under the auspices of the Khwarizmi Science Society in the Ali Institute of Education, Lahore.

I made it a point to attend the lecture.

Dr. Tayyaba Zafar delivered the lecture. She teaches at the Department of Physics, University of the Punjab. I wondered whether University of the Punjab every holds such events!

Dr. Tayyaba was very much conversant with the topic of her lecture. She dwelt at length on Dusty Cool Cosmos.

She explained: 95 % of the universe is invisible; and 4.6 % consists of atoms. The invisible universe is 72 % dark energy, and 23 % dark matter. Through telescope only 5 % of the universe is visible to us.

She told: Cosmic Dust is carbon and silicate grains – sub-micron in size. This Dust gives new life to everything.

At the end, in response to certain questions about the Bing Bang Theory, she said: As Muslims we believe God created the universe. Then someone asked how this Theory fits with this belief, and someone from the staff of the Ali Institute of Education declared: Allah can do the Bing Bang!