天國在那裡？

「　神的國來到，不是眼所能見的…因為　神的國就在你們心裡」
路加福音十七：20-21

天國裡誰為大

「我實實在在告訴你們，你們若不回轉，變成小孩子的樣式，斷不得進天國。所以凡自己謙卑像這小孩的，他在天國裡就是最大的。」
馬太福音十八：3-4

什麼是小孩子的樣式？

在我心中，小孩除了是天真可愛的天使，也是自私無理的。不順自己心意的，就哭喊吵鬧以達成自己的慾望；無法用道理說服他，打罵也不是辦法。一場父母與小孩的拉鋸戰，不經意的，通常都是以"順服"小孩收場。舉一個極端的例子，公共場合嬰孩餓得哇哇叫，你不當場餵飽他是不可能的，無論你是在何種場合下。

當然，耶穌說的小孩子的樣式，並不是這個。毫無虛飾，而且完全的信靠(父母)，才是耶穌要我們學習的課題。如同小時候倚靠父母，我們也應該要完全的倚靠我們的天父；而且，假冒為善的人，是遭受耶穌最嚴厲的指責。

做為　神的兒女，就應該有一個身為兒女應該有的樣式。

Aerogel - 01/27/2004

The first time I saw this thing is couple of years ago on TV. They demonstrated it is almost able to float in air and be shaped by your own hands, but it's somehow still solid. How could this happen in reality? It seems you could only see this kind of material in science fiction!

Aerogel, in which 99.8 percent of the volume is empty space, is only about 3 times denser than air. Many people may speculate that aerogel is the recent product of most modern technology. In fact, the first aerogel was produced in 1931 by Steven. S. Kistler in Stanford University. The newest one is lighter than the 1930's version by NASA and it has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the solid with the lowest density.

The ideal of the structure is very simple, removing the liquid from the wet gel without damaging the solid component. Like gelatin, after mixing liquid silicon compound and a fast-evaporating liquid solvent, the gel is dried in a "pressure cooker" and then heating and reducing pressure produces glass-like sponge of silicon. Regarding as a silicon-based solid with porous, it is a new member of glasses family.

"Obviously, if one wishes to produce an aerogel, he must replace the liquid with air by some means in which the surface of the liquid is never permitted to recede within the gel. If a liquid is held under pressure always greater than the vapor pressure, and the temperature is raised, it will be transformed at the critical temperature into a gas without two phases having been present at any time."
(S. S. Kistler, J. Phys. Chem. 34, 52, 1932)

Surprisingly, this seemingly brittle material support up to 1000 times its own weight and efficiently absorbing kinetic energy. Because of its large internal surface area, aerogel also provides 39 times insulating than the best fiberglass insulator. And many other unusual properties.

At present, aerogel is applied in experiments by NASA. One is the famous 2003 Mars Exploration Rover, which Spirit and Opportunity are under their exploring missions on Mars right now. Another is called Stardust. As a collector faced toward Comet Wild 2, aerogel will capture hypervelocity particles from Space. In future, It could be used for computer chips, which may reinvent what we call "processing speed"

Reference:

1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/tech/aerogel.html
2. The Microstructured Materials Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory http://eande.lbl.gov/ECS/aerogels/aerogels.htm