Well, welcome everybody to St Mary's University for our first talk of our physics cafe series.  You're the first people to attend the very first and very very exciting series which we'll be developing over the coming months and hopefully over the coming years. My name's Claire Taylor, I'm the Pro-Vice Chancellor here at St Mary's. I'm delighted to welcome you, particularly members of our local community, families who've come in a little further apart as well. And we hope that you'll go a little bit of a taste of what we do here at St Mary's, but particularly that to your interest in physics and particularly the area of nanotechnology, our best, grand or worst enemies, and to rising title there, that we're just kind of interested to find out a bit more about. So, without further ado, I'm going to introduce Dr Elisabeth Canneser, who is one of our physics lecturers here at St Mary's. Future physics cafe series sessions will be delivered, not only by Elisabeth, with colleagues from here, but also from colleagues at the National Physical Laboratory with whom we were with our applied physics degree. So plenty of variety to come up, and I hope that you'll look out for the rest of the talks in the series. So, over to you, Elisabeth. Thank you. Thank you, Clare. Well, welcome everybody to this, as Clare said, first talk. So I chose the topic of nanotechnology, first of all because it's one of my expertise as a physicist. But also because I believe it's a topic that interests us as human beings, because we are living nowadays in what is called a nanotechnology era. And I think it's good to understand why we live in a nanotechnology era and what are the pros and cons of living in such an era. So now, the first question that we should ask ourselves is what is nanotechnology after all? We keep hearing this word, but do you really know what it means? Well, nanotechnology, if you just look up nanotechnology in the dictionary, what it will tell you is that it is the engineering of functional system at the molecular scale. It doesn't mean much, does it? Not really. So let us try to understand what it really is. First of all, we have to understand what the nanoscale is. We keep hearing about microscopes, about going to space, a very macro-scale level, but what is the nanoscale? What does it mean? To make the point of what the nanoscale is, I prepared here, I have two of them, so I will split them and you can pass them around. There are three specimens here. One of them is a very macro-scale one. It is a coin, one P coin. Then we go a bit further down. It is a human ear, just one. This is about 50 to 60 microns. One micron is 10 to the minus 6 metres, so it is like one million, one over one million metres. Here I have prepared two specimens of micro bits. One of them is a 30 microns, micrometars bit, the top one, and the bottom one is one micrometars bit. Now you will try to see if you can see them. There are plenty of them because the sample I prepared was extremely concentrated, so there are probably millions of them. But I really want to see if some of you can tell me, yes, I saw one of them because you literally can't, but they are there and that is a nanoscale. You can pass them around and have a look just to start having a feeling. One is here and one I will pass them here. You can just pass them around to try to see the difference. I prepared these two specimens to make you feel what means to work as a nanoscale. You work in the invisible basically, which is what personal fascinated me. I wanted to understand what I couldn't see after all. So now the reason why people are so obsessed with the nanoscale, why people want to have something which is smaller and smaller and smaller, if you think about your mobile phones, your mobile phones become thinner and thinner and thinner. Now they are so thin that they are almost a sheet. But everything is still in there. There are still transistors, there are still batteries, but everything must be miniaturised, so everything must become extremely small. So that's why there is this obsession with nanoscale. But there is another reason, not just because it's handier to carry a mobile phone which is not a massive piece of metal. There is another reason, the physical properties of nanomaterials. Nanomaterials are, I will talk a bit more about nanomaterials, but they are very much with us and I will show you where. But the other thing is that the physical, mechanical, chemical properties of materials at the nanoscale change drastically. So this doesn't mean that they become better, but certainly they change and sometimes they change in a way that they can make the sort of job better than the same material at the macro scale. So the properties will be enhanced. For example, a material which can conduce electricity will conduce electricity much better at the nanoscale, which is for example the reason why you have transistors which are smaller, smaller and smaller and smaller. Now, in order again to show the differences between the properties of a material at the nanoscale and the same material at the macro scale, I have prepared a bit more than two, prepared ten of them so you can play around of these things. You can wonder what on earth is this thing. This one is called non-Newtonian fluid and I've got plenty of them. Now, a Newtonian fluid is usually fluid that follows the third law of Newton, Newton's third law, which means that if you apply, you act basically on the material. The material will respond straight away to you in a quite predictable way. Like for example, if I kick this one, this one will move. A simple as that. This liquid, this material doesn't work that way. Now, if you see and you will feel it, it's quite liquid. But if I compress it very strongly and suddenly, it becomes solid. You can feel it, you can do that and then compress it and you will feel that it becomes solid. So again, I will pass it around, you can play around as much as you want. I have plenty of them, you can have one, whatever. Then, sorry. You can really squeeze it. Oh, thank you Peter. You can squeeze it, try it. Sometimes there is a bit of water inside. You have to excuse if it is a bit, you know, sort of watery. Then I have some more here. Oh, thank you Anne. Thank you so much. So, now, as you can see, if you leave it alone basically, it's liquid. But if you start compressing it or even squeezing it slightly, but suddenly it becomes solid. Yeah? Can you feel that? Now, it sounds strange and you can wonder what on earth is in there. Now, in there, there is only core starch and water. It's made of core starch and water. Nothing more than that. And that is a non-Newtonian fluid. So, what is happening? What is happening is that when core starch and water come together, they start and you compress them so you basically apply a pressure suddenly, the interaction between the two of them changes completely. So, they don't behave anymore as a macro scale. They interact in a different way. Okay? And that concept is used already in, for example, some armors that are used to protect the body. So, there are some forms which are very soft and comfortable if you leave them alone. But if someone is punching you and you are protected by this form and is punching you and the form, obviously, suddenly, then the form will become solid and so your body will be protected. This is used, for example, in army forces, etc. So, these are nanomaterials and core starch and water is a nanomaterial, after all, in his own right. Okay? So, this is just to give you a feeling of what means to work as a nanoscale and what type of changes you can have. Other materials which are non-Newtonian are, for example, ketchup. When you use ketchup, you are using a non-Newtonian fluid and, in fact, sometimes you try to squeeze the ketchup. It doesn't come out and then it comes out all of a sudden for that reason. Or toothpaste in other non-Newtonian fluid. So, as you can see, there are plenty of them. Again, talking about nanomaterials, nanomaterials, some of them exist in nature but some others don't. So, most of the nanomaterials we use nowadays are engineers. So, they are made by us, by scientists. There are two ways to make a nanomaterial. The two ways, the two methods are top-down or bottom-up. The top-down, it means that you have a material, a buck, a very coarse material and you start basically cutting down the material like etching the material chemically or basically creating small, small particles out of it. And this is the way, for example, microchips are created, are made.  So, that's the way they are made. They are made from a very huge buck and then chemically etched in order to get the microchip. The bottom-up is basically the other way around. You have atoms, individual atoms, and you put them together somehow in order to create a material. This is what the method used to make nanoparticles and we will talk about nanoparticles. So, what the scientists do, they move around atom by atom, they put them together and they create nanoparticles. There can be some of the microparticles that are in the samples are one micron, which are huge, they are really huge. Nanoparticles are from 100 nanometers below. One nanometer is one billion of a meter, so you can't set any season. So, now, if we think about history, the development of human beings is very much related to how they use materials. If you think about prehistory, for example, if you think about the stone age, then people during the stone age era, they were using stone to make everything, even beds, furniture, et cetera. There are some very ancient villages and not only the stone range area, but still there are beds, furniture, which are made of stone, that's what they were using, because this is the only thing they had, or they could manage, they could handle. After that we have the bronze age, where they started using bronze and their alloys, and then iron age. For about 2.5, well, in the last 2.5 million years, we went from stone age up to about, well, beginning of probably 19th, 28th century, particularly the 19th century, when we had what is called the first industrial revolution here in Britain, in the UK, in the middle of 18th century. This was a huge breakthrough when all the steam engines were discovered, where basically industry literally started. People were, for example, waving wool or fabrics, but after the industrial revolution, industry started in order to wave or to make fabrics, materials, et cetera. After that, in the middle of 19th century, we had the second industrial revolution, which was the UK, Germany and America, the US, and was called the technological revolution, where people started building railways, again more industrialisation, more technology, automobiles, cars, et cetera. After that, about in the 28th century, so as you can see, every 100 years, starting from middle of 18th century, we started having more and more revolutions. The last one, which is the revolution we are experiencing, the third revolution, the nanotechnology one, started about in the 19th century, so about 30 years ago, 25, no, 30 years ago, I would say. It was the period when the first mobile phones appeared, which were quite massive, I would say. Remember, my first one was quite a big one, but it was working. It didn't really do what our mobile phones do now, and just about what 30 years have passed. So in the last one, the nanotechnology one, which is the era in which we are living now, people are more and more obsessed with moving atoms and working with individual atoms, basically, to make materials, to make what we use nowadays. So, for example, if you think about... many of you probably have used anti-scratch paint, for your car or for the external walls of your house.  Because there are silver nanoparticles inside, the material becomes very abrasion resistant, so you can scratch it even and it doesn't suffer any damage, which is good for cars and the walls of your house, et cetera. Another application of nanomaterials is in lithium-ion batteries, which are used in some of our pieces, the pieces who have batteries who can last for seven hours or eight hours are lithium batteries. And the reason why they can last for so long is because there is a blend of carbon nanotubes inside to make them last for so long. Another example are carbon nanotubes, which are used in transistors. The transistors that we have in our mobile phones and they can do so many things and they are so tiny. So, now, nanotechnology... Now, you can think that nanotechnology is something that exists only now, started now. Well, it isn't. Nanotechnology started, well, a long, long time ago. If you think about all the glass technologies, the medieval glass technologies, they were nanotechnology. Because most of, not most, all the wonderful color glasses that we have in the churches, et cetera, they are made of glass, of course, but the glass is impinged with the specs of copper or gold, et cetera, to get the different colors, like there are glasses that can be both red or green, according to the light. In some churches, in particular the Gothic churches, these type of glasses are there. And because they are impinged with specs of copper, and according to the sort of oxidization of the copper, you can have red or green, which is something which is triggered by the light. By another example, which is in the British Museum, if you haven't seen it, please go, it's amazing, is what is called the Lycurgus Cup. The Lycurgus Cup is a cup which was made in the fourth century of the here, well, in Italian we call it Annus Domini, which means after basically Christ was died. So that here in the fourth century it was made here in Britain. And his characteristic, that is made of a glass, which is called dichroic glass, and the British Museum is inside a box basically. And you can light the light, switch on the light at a certain angle. When the light is off, you will see the cup as green. If you switch on the light, you will see it as red. And it is a beautiful red. And that was made by people who didn't really know about nanotechnology, but they were nanotechnologists. So nanotechnology is with us since a very, very long time. Another application is on our clothes, for example. There are some clothes nowadays that are water repellent, or they are stain repellent, or they are supposed to. So basically if you stain yourself, nothing is left, which is very good. You don't have to basically try to clean it or try to get rid of that stain. And this is because on the surface, you can't feel it by it's there.  So it's like a sort of fur basically by the nanoscale. That's why they are waterproof or they are stain proof. Then another example, something you use during summer, sunscreens. If you want to buy sunscreens, if you look at the ingredients, you will see all of them, or most of them, they have nanoparticles inside. They have either zinc oxide nanoparticles or titanium oxide nanoparticles. Now the reason why there are these nanoparticles inside is because when you spread the sunscreens on your body, basically you are creating a shield, literally, nanoparticles on your body, which will protect you very well from UV, et cetera, et cetera. Now the previous, the older version of this sunscreen had quite large nanoparticles. Large means 300, 400 nanometres. So when you were spreading them on your body, it was like white.  These were the nanoparticles. Now they are tiny, tiny. So basically they become transparent to light, but they are still there and they are making quite a good protection for us. So as you can see you use nanotechnology without probably knowing it. You are already using it. You are really putting it on your body. Many cosmetics, particularly the laurel ones, they are nanoparticles based, for example. Now these are sort of advantages of nanotechnology. But obviously there are also sort of downsides of nanotechnology. So now let us see which has the downsides. Nanotechnology is good and it is bad. We have just to use it carefully. It is bad because we have to be careful to our health. Nanoparticles are extremely tiny. Obviously they are just few nanometres. So their properties are changing. They change. So well, if a material is behaving in a certain way at the macro scale, this does not mean that it is behaving the same way at the nanoscale. So we have to be careful and be sure that we know how it is behaving as though we are going to make a mess of ourselves and our environment. So health issues are the main issues in nanotechnology and there is a lot of debate going on in the government among the scientists et cetera et cetera. So one of the advantages in health of nanotechnology is what is called nanomedicine. Nanomedicine is still in its infancy after all. It is not really there but we start experiencing it slowly slowly slowly. In particular in cancer research. There is a lot of talking about gold nanoparticles which are already used in cancer treatment and cancer therapy where the patient is injected with gold nanoparticles of about probably 20 nanometers, even smaller than that. They are coated with a certain protein, certain chemical which is attracted by the cancer itself. So when then this nanoparticle finds a cancer cell it will basically well it depends on what the nanoparticle does. Some of them they are uptaked by the cancer and once they are inside they basically release the drug which will kill the cancer. Some others they will just release the the drug being outside the cancer cell. But these are already technology which are there. Some people are saved by nanomedicine, in particular people who are affected by cancer. But again here there is a downside nanotoxicology which is already again something which people talk about, not just scientists, also policy makers, philosophers a lot, social scientists again a lot. So now technology is basically a topic which is not just for scientists it's also for people who work more on the philosophical ethical side of it. Now the reason why again there is so much debating because as I said it can be good but it can also be bad. And not just for us also for the environment. There are already a lot of nanotechnology sort of methods used for example to purify water. Which is good for places where the water is not there is not so much water and most of it is contaminated. So there are techniques now nanotechnology membranes in particular made of nanofibers which can purify the water without leaving any residue. So then people can drink that water. Which is a good thing. But then there is the downside. The downside is the membranes of which well the nanomaterial which these membranes are made can be biocompatible so is basically can nature deal with this material or will be contaminated by the material. Because some of these materials are made of heavy metals. Now if a heavy metals goes into the for example a water stream then can kill fishes which is recognized. And or if a fish basically is living in that water and we eat that fish then the heavy metals will go in our body and will be poisoned. So there are a lot of downsides and we have to be extremely careful to what we use and how. And that's why there is so much debate and so many sort of policies in place. This is called nano pollution. So just the pollution we have in our cities but this is something more dangerous because it is invisible so we can't see it but it's there. Another effect of another impact basically of nano pollution is in plants. There are now new studies of basically type of soil that can be used in order to have plants growing very quickly. This soil is treated with titanium dioxide particles. Now these titanium dioxide particles people don't really understand if they are dangerous or not. But the study are about the uptake of these nano particles from the plant. Because if the plant is uptake of the nano particle and the plant is for example eaten by either an animal or a human being directly then the nano particles will go inside the human being. And if they are toxic the human being will be poisoned. So there is a lot of debate about what to use how and how harmful can be. Maybe it's not going to be harmful now but it can be harmful in a longer term. Which is something people need to think about. Another area in which nano technology is helping us usually is energy. Not just energy storage but also energy saving because there is a new type of thermal insulators materials which are extremely good to do the job of insulating thermically our houses and they are nanofibers based on nanocarbon nanotubes based. And another area where nanotechnology is doing a good job is the area of enhancement of renewable energy sources. Which is good because some of the energy sources we are using we run out very quickly or not very quickly but quite soon I would say. So we have to find other sources. And some of the sources that have been found which are nanotechnology based are very good. But then there is a downside which is sociological downside. If for example we create a wonderful renewable source which is nanotechnology based. That means that all the countries for example use oil or export oil as a source then we experience an economical crash. So the downside is on society. It's good on one side it's bad on the other. It's probably good for one country and bad for the other country. So we must keep a balance somehow which is what is difficult with nanotechnology. So as you can see it's a very complex and articulated subject and it's not just scientific. And it's got a huge impact on us because we use it but also on our society, on our economy, on our market and so on. Now I want just to basically try to wrap up what I'm talking about this way then we can start our discussion about nanotechnology if you have a question talked about if you want to know more about some things I've mentioned. But there are a couple of discoveries which are very recent and people talk quite a lot about it. One is the manipulation of light. Light is a beautiful thing but can be manipulated and there are new lenses which are nanomaterials made of nanomaterials which in future will allow us to see extremely small objects which is good for biology or medicine etc without using enormous microscopes as we are doing at the moment. But the other manipulation is even more intriguing. It's called cloaking device and cloaking means invisibility. So objects can make invisible by manipulating the light which is again something quite amazing. There are future directions in nanotechnology. So one direction is what is called molecular manufacturing which is also called the Star Trek replicator. Now I don't know how many of you are familiar with Star Trek but there was in Star Trek a replicator which is a machine that can make things. If you want a cup of tea and a cup of tea will appear. Now this is possible and people are studying how to make it a reality.  So it is possible and they are working on it in order to make a replicator a reality. Then the other area in which nanotechnology is advancing at a very fast pace is medicine which is what is called nanorobos. Some nanorobos are being developed in order to make surgery inside the body. So the idea is to have the nanorobos injected in the blast stream of the patient with all the tools needed for the surgery and it will be the nanorobos guided obviously by the surgeon outside the body of the patient to perform the surgery. This is still in his infancy but there is quite a lot of research going on in there. And then obviously the environment in order to make our environment cleaner and cleaner if possible. So just to basically conclude as you can see nanotechnology is our friend and can make our life easy comfortable enjoyable we have to be careful how we use it we have to understand what we are using not just to use it because it makes our life easier but to understand if we can use it basically. So because we are living in a nanotechnology era we must understand what nanotechnology is about but not just the scientists even all of us who are using that those gadgets and those materials. So basically I like to use an old saying which is says knowledge is power which is true. It's true for nanotechnology. We must know what we are using in order to make the best use of it without getting basically hard or harmed by what we are using. So I leave you with this one so thank you so much for listening and please ask as many questions as you want and I will be more than happy to have a discussion with you about this topic but thank you so much for your patience and for listening. So is there any sort of burning question or something you want to know more about something I haven't talked about sorry. Is there any question? But what I said yes Peter. Yes. Well to be honest on one side it is because the 3D printing the way it works you have basically a polymer which is the positive polymer layer by layer until you get whatever you want in 3D and some polymers they are basically blended with nanomaterials. So in his own way the technique itself is not nano but the materials used to create what you want to print what you want is nanotechnology so it is a blending of sort of macroscale and nanoscale that's why nanotechnology is a bit anywhere because it fits in whatever we do after all. So yes and they are sending 3D printing from space or to space and there is a lot of nanotechnology going on in the international space station for this reason to understand you know how things work not only here but also a sort of absence of gravity etc to see how the material behave in different conditions so this was a good point Peter. Anyone else? Yes John. Some of the things that can be potentially damaging. Yes. Are there some new hazards because of the nanoscale? Yes. The heavy metals are one problem but it is a problem that is there since quite a while. There are new problems linked to the fact that the material is at the nanoscale because the problems are linked to the fact that many times we do not really understand why a material is changing his behaviour at the nanoscale. We know that he's doing it that's fine but many times we do not understand why. So we can't really control it and we can't really control the effects because we don't know what's going on we know that it's happening but we don't understand why the damage is power because if we keep using something just because it works but we don't understand why it works in that way it can be a dangerous thing we can't just use something basically blindly so the damages are more because we don't understand why it is working in that way why for example the magnetic properties of some materials are better than nanoscale what does this mean is going to be a good thing or a bad thing we can't control it we don't know that it's happening that's it and this is dangerous it's the downside of nanotechnology basically Do you have any words? Yes Anna I have no silly questions My daughter is the biggest Harry Potter fan there is in the world How long will it be before Christmas I can buy her an invisibility cloak Not long because not long at all because there is someone in the US who has discovered a way to make an invisibility cloak basically you have to put your daughter behind the lens and then this particular lens will somehow deviate the light so the light will go around your daughter and your daughter will sit over the head but not the rest so it's possible and there are some materials now they are called metamaterials they are called metamaterials because the properties are between nanoscale and macroscale just like in between people still don't really understand how they work that is the downside but they can deflect the light so whatever is underneath this object with this metamaterials it will be invisible because the light is deflected so it's only what goes through the what the light can go through you can see but not what is shielded somehow from the light so you're almost there you're almost there we will have cloaking devices anywhere but that's a good idea there was a lot of study about the invisibility cloak and in the past it was just theoretical but now it's becoming a material that people can use oh yeah, I was already doing it I think the new metamaterials for Zetton that's a good idea many people will be happy so anyone else has to yes, Trevor well, hopefully not yeah, the grey goo the grey goo is a sort of scenario in nanotechnology where you have something that works as I said but you don't really understand how it works so the thing, the material can be good or bad and it's called grey because in a sort of grey area you don't really know if it is good or bad and it can be a goo or a muddle thing in which you can basically trap yourself somehow is that what you had in mind, Trevor? so we can basically get trapped in something that will harm us quite a lot and it's called grey goo for that reason because we will get trapped in this sort of apocalypse but I don't think that it will happen if we understand what we are doing it's probably going to happen if we keep doing things without really understanding then we will probably be in a grey goo sooner or later but if we understand what we are doing then we can probably avoid to be basically trapped by a big blob of God knows what which is the point of all that so as I said nanotechnology is a wonderful thing but we have to be careful because the problem is that the scale is so tiny and it can really enter anything and it can harm us quite a lot that's why for example personally personally I can't really use something which has got nanoparticle inside even though I know they are safe but still I have the sort of barrier probably because I worked too much with nanoparticles all the sunscreens etc they are good but because I also work with L'Oreal once in checking the nanoparticles I sometimes prefer not to use it just successful we could find the right size but still so it's like that's why we have to be careful not just to use it just because someone is telling you use it is good I want to personally I want to know better and I think that everybody should have a sort of attitude so that's why people should be made more aware of what nanotechnology is Is there any other question? A sort of burning one? Yes Can your students actually do any work with nanoparticles? What do you do in the studies or generally? In the ethnography in the studies yes Yes they can when you work with nanoparticles there are procedures that need to be followed so then we go into what is called occupational health or health in the workplace so when they work they have for example our year one students they do an experiments in nanoparticles they have to make gold nanoparticles so different sizes so in that case we made a point that because they are making literally making gold nanoparticles of different sizes they have to be careful of for example wearing gloves because if they can control the size and some liquid containing nanoparticles touches their skin if they are small enough to enter the pores that's not a very nice thing and then well you can't really inhale them but there are some processes where you are in particular for the top down when you start either etching or you start literally pulverizing a material in order to get the nanoparticles you can inhale it so you have to wear masks so that's the point we do with our students so when they do the nanotechnology module with me for example I made the point and then they have to do the experiment with nanoparticles I always made the point you use them but be aware that what you are using is something you can't see but can harm you if you don't handle them properly so there are sort of safety rules that needs to be followed very strictly in order to well work safely so it's possible and we do that but be aware of that Is there any other question you want to ask or curiosity sort of burning question you have Yes Ali as the conductor of the gauge of the gauge of the gauge but how do you think the process are being very often done at the events The defects in carbon nanotubes so how to control them well that is one of the points is carbon nanotubes are a wonderful thing but they are also quite dangerous so in the past for example carbon nanotubes and also now well you have to be careful when you made them as Ali said you can have defects in the carbon nanotubes or that means that if they are not made properly rather than doing the job they are supposed to do they do another one which can be harmful the other problem with carbon nanotubes they are sharp roads now if you made them too sharp like needles literally needles and you wear something which is made of carbon nanotubes if it is not made perfectly well some of the carbon nanotubes could potentially enter your body so they have to be therefore well made and also the material like clothes or anything made with carbon nanotubes must be made at perfection in order to avoid the downside of basically being poisoned by carbon nanotubes just because you come into contact with them and then yes also the defects so when you manufacture them then you have to be careful to how you do it because carbon nanotubes they are made they don't exist in nature so human beings make them and there are different methods that you can use so the methodology is well controlled and well known and there are sort of grey areas in the manufacturing of carbon nanotubes that need to be explored a bit more so yes with carbon nanotubes we need to be careful there are a lot of things made of carbon nanotubes even tennis rackets for example because they are light a lot of bicycles, mountain bikes they are made of carbon nanotubes but a lot of clothing also so people need to be aware of that that there are carbon nanotubes inside also to the manufacturer who is making it so as you can see the downside nanotechnology is very useful but you have to be aware of potential dangers of it which are we are not going to die on nanotechnology but hopefully not at least but being careful is a good thing because it is helping us after all means making our life quite easy any more to that? yes Peter the government is taking into account a lot of the effort into graphene taking into account all your concerns are those concerns being mitigated if you like but not into graphene well graphene is is a great material it is because the material are so wondrous because well one just one layer of carbon atom thick so it is extremely thin extremely flexible and graphene has so far it seems that it is not harmful it is not dangerous which is the reason why is basically used so heavily because graphite from which graphene comes well graphite is dangerous after all graphite is the pencil we use is graphite so we can really have graphite anytime in our life and we use it but graphene is a material so wondrous because it's not harmful it doesn't really harm after all it's not toxic or people didn't find any toxicity in graphene that's why graphene is heavily used nowadays in making micro chips and in fact rather than the silicon valley they want to call it the graphene valley because silicon slowly slowly is not used well slowly slowly is going to be not used in making micro chips or nano chips now because it would be made of graphene graphene has got wonderful mechanical and chemical and electrical and magnetic properties and yes it's not harmful to human beings so that's why people use it quite safely and it is a wonderful material because it's got all the properties that the material should have in order to again make our gadgets et cetera so yeah there I don't have any concern I'm happy there with graphene any other question you want to ask are you curious about no well in that case so we can you know just try to wrap up this session so thank you so much really for coming for attending hopefully you have enjoyed it as Claire was saying this is the first one of the series so the next one will be in January 2015 if I'm not mistaken it will be 26th of January and it will be one of our colleagues from the National Physical Abort which is our partner in the applied physical degree we have here and he will be talking if I'm not mistaken about very low temperatures and so there will be sort of liquid nitrogen type of event and you are more than welcome obviously to attend that one or the others the next one after the next one will be in April and it will be on bubbles again it will be our colleague from MPL and the last one will be Ali which is sitting there wave come on another of our colleagues working with us on the degree another physicist and he will be talking about what Ali gravity he is a cosmologist so I am more the experimental side he is more the theoretical side so and he will be basically concluding our first series of physics cafe talks so I hope you have enjoyed it you have learned hopefully something more questions you can just drop me an email anytime but thank you so much for being with us this evening thank you


Well, my dear students, the course is Labour Policy Pakistan and the topic is Section 20, 21 and 22 of the Factories Act 1934. Let's move on to discuss Section 20 and that relates with drinking water. In every factory, effective arrangements shall be made to provide and maintain at suitable points conveniently situated for all workers employed therein a sufficient supply of wholesome drinking water. Wholesome drinking water is very important to provide in the factory because this is a statutory civilisation that is being said by Section 20 of the Factories Act. Furthermore, my dear students, Section 20 and Subsection 2 are saying that all such points shall be legibly marked drinking water. As a point where wholesome drinking water will be available for workers, it will be marked as drinking water in a language understood by the majority of the workers and no such point shall be situated within 20 feet of any washing place, urinal or latrine, unless a shorter distance is approved in writing by the chief inspector. This is a civilisation with regards to drinking water in factory as a matter of fact. Now, let's move on to Section 21, Latrines and Urinals in Factories. This is again the civilisation part of civilisation rather statutory civilisation, my dear students. In every factory, sufficient latrines and urinals of prescribed types shall be provided conveniently situated and accessible to workers at all times while they are in the factory. Very plain language, my dear students. In every factory, enclosed latrines and urinals shall be provided separately for male and female workers. Such latrines and urinals shall be adequately lighted and ventilated and no latrine and urinals shall unless specially exempted in writing by the chief inspector communicate with any workmen except through an intervening open space or ventilated passage. All such latrines and urinals shall be maintained in a clean and sanitary condition at all times with suitable detergents or disinfectants or with both my dear students. The floors and internal walls of the latrines and urinals and the sanitary blocks shall up to a height of three feet be finished to provide a smooth polished impervious surface and, my dear students, washing facilities shall be provided near every sanitary convenience. Very plain language, my dear students. Very easily understandable. Section 22. Heading has spittoons. Subsection 1. In every factory, there shall be provided at convenient places a sufficient number of spittoons which shall be maintained in a clean and hygienic condition. Section 22, subsection 2. The provincial government may make rules prescribing the type and the number of spittoons to be provided and their location in any factory and such further matters as may be deemed necessary relating to their maintenance in a clean and hygienic condition, my dear students. This is all the statutory civilization with regards to the spittoons in the factory, my dear students. Section 22, subsection 3. No person shall spit within the premises of a factory except in the spittoons provided for the purpose and notice containing this provian and the penalty for this violation. Violation means going against the law shall be prominently displayed at suitable places in the premises, my dear students. Hope you have understood the topic. Thank you very much.


I told you that we are glad that today we will have Santosh Jibbali and Somya Tota who are going to be our presenter today. I just want to just let you know about Santosh. So Santosh has six years experience of nursing, working with the government of Telangana, and she is currently undergoing a next practitioner in midwifery training with the support of the government of Telangana and Fernandez Foundation. Her vision is to become a midwife and support women in birthing, while Somya is a public health specialist with four years of experience working in the area of public health policy and research. And she has special interest in maternal and child health, and she joined Fernandez Foundation to support next practitioners in midwifery program for the government of India and Telangana. Her vision is to educate, empower, and support women to have a positive child birth experience. Thank you very much, Somya and Santosh, and you're welcome, and I'll just hand over to you to go ahead and present. Somya. Thank you very much, Goodson, for your kind introduction. Maybe before Somya and Santosh can begin, we'll ask everyone to just keep your video off, so that we just allow our speakers to have their videos on, okay. Goodson, I think you need to give us access to further slides. I'm just doing that, I'm just doing that, thank you. Thank you, thank you. Just give me a minute, I'm just doing that. Okay, thank you, you can go ahead. Yeah, thank you, Goodson. Good afternoon and good evening, everyone. My name is Santoshi, I'm a nurse practitioner midwife trainee of Telangana state, undergoing clinical training with the support of Fernandez midwives. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, everyone. My name is Somya, with a background in public health and research, I'm currently working with Fernandez Foundation to support midwifery program for the government of India and Telangana. Thank you, VIDM, for giving us this opportunity to share our experience and evidence from public health facilities of Telangana. The topic for the discussion is women choice of birth companion. More than a decade, the promotion of facility-based births has been at the forefront to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality. But now, the government of India is focusing more towards quality of maternal and newborn healthcare. And the efforts from the international organizations to India in this regard is commendable. The World Health Organization, WHO recommends that every woman is offered the option to experience labor and childbirth with a companion of her choice. Encouraging women to have a companion of choice during labor and childbirth is one of the low cost and effective intervention to improve the quality of maternity care. The government of India strongly recommends encouraging birth companion during birthing in all the public health facilities in India since 2016.  Across the globe, a childbirth companion is considered as a person who provides continuous support to women during labor and childbirth. A birth companion must be of women's choice. They can be either husband or partner, mother, friend, or any family member or any healthcare profession of her choice. In 2017, the government of India included the continuous presence of birth companion as one of the quality standard in the Laksh guidelines for improving quality of maternal and newborn care. The Laksh guidelines are the labor room quality improvement initiative standards to assess the quality of labor rooms and maternity duties. However, many healthcare facilities do not encourage birth companion, especially partner, and often women preferences are not respected. Now, let us see the common elements of support provided by a birth companion. They include informational support. A birth companion can give information about labor progress and can advise the mother regarding coping techniques. A birth companion can provide comfort measures such as comforting touch, massage, warm baths or showers, encouraging mobility, and promoting fluid intake and output. There are many situations where a woman hesitate to talk about her birth preferences. In such situations, companion can support her as an advocate by building confidence in her and making her feel that she is not alone. Sometimes tragedies may happen. A companion can help the mother deal with very difficult situation and support in her time of grief or bereavement, thereby helping the mother to cope up with the emotional baggage that she is carrying on. The literature review has helped us to understand that a child-bearing woman can cope up with the pain better if she has a companion of her choice by her side. The other benefits include shorter labor with increased rates of spontaneous vaginal birth, less likely to experience mistreatment during labor and childbirth, decreased usage of intrapartum analgesia or any pain medication and caesarean section and increased satisfaction with her childbirth experience. The studies also reported that women supported in this way have less fear and distress during labor, which also appeared as a buffer against adverse aspects of medical interventions. Finally, the babies of these women are less likely to have low-upgar scores. The objective of our study was to look at the choice of birth companion, among primal and multigravada women, accessing maternity services in public health facilities of Telangana. During our clinical posting, we have collected data from 104 antenatal mothers and the sample was taken randomly from antenatal mothers instead public health facilities in the month of December 2020. The variables considered for the preliminary research are age, parity and choice of birth companion by women. The analysis shows that 62% of the women belong to the age group of 22 to 25 years followed by 23% women belong to 26 to 30 years, while 56% women are primae and 44% women are multigravada. When we tried to understand who is the first choice of companion for women in their first pregnancy, we found that the 41% of the primae women wanted their husband as their birth companion, while 50% of multivomins said that their mother has their birth companion in first pregnancy. This raises a question for further research on why do multivomins were supported by mothers? Do they have an idea that husband can be a companion? When we asked women about whether the hospital permitting to have a companion, 70% women said that they were encouraged to have a birth companion and 30% said not encouraged. When we asked what was the reason for not having a birth companion, all the women said it was due to COVID-19 restrictions. As we conducted this study as preliminary research to understand the choice of birth companion, we identified that husband is the first choice in the primae whereas multi-had mother has first choice. These findings raises a question like is there is a lack of awareness regarding having their husband as their birth companion or is it due to hospital policy for not encouraging the husband in the birthing room or is it due to the cultural norms? This gives us scope for future research and we will continue to research on these parameters. Though they are challenging in providing privacy to each and every women in public health facilities, a carton and chafer companion will important to understand that the active presence of husband or partner can help in improving the birth outcomes. Despite the recommendations given by the World Health Organization and National Guidelines, majority of healthcare facilities do not encourage women to have a birth companion of their choice. Healthcare provides must strictly commit to luck standards by ensuring curtains or partitions for privacy as this will help facilitate the presence of husband or partner as it is women's first choice of preference. We want to conclude this presentation by reading the recommendation from W H O clinical management of COVID-19 which states that the guidelines strongly recommended that all pregnant women including those with suspected, probable or confirmed COVID-19 have access to a companion of choice during labor and childbirth. We want to take this opportunity to acknowledge our friends, mentors and health care staff who supported us in conducting the public health facilities of Telangana. So the picture you are looking at is taken in one of the public health facility where the first batch of midwives in India are encouraging women to have a companion of their choice. And this is so encouraging for all of us as they are setting ground for the future midwives. Finally, we look forward to an India where the professional midwife advocate and offer midwifery care to every pregnant women across this country by encouraging a companion of her choice regardless of her socioeconomic status or the medical complications that her pregnancy is surrounded with. Thank you everyone for giving us this opportunity. Thank you. Thank you very much Somya and Santosh for that wonderful presentation and would like to now just ask if you could take some questions. Yeah, if we could take some questions. If you do have any questions, please, we will be glad to. You ask, you unmute yourself or you can type in the chat box. So this is the time. Issa, good morning. You could at some point or ask you to read some of the questions or the comments in the chat box. Any questions, you can unmute yourself and ask. Issa, are you about, okay. Velpula Anush, you want to ask a question? Okay, thank you. Issa, are you about to read some of the comments in the chat window? Okay, does that mean that the presentation was very... Okay, so one of the questions for you, Somya, is from John. He says, have you thought about a qualitative study on why they prefer husbands or mothers? Have you thought about a qualitative study on why they prefer husbands or mothers? Then the other question, I'll read about five and then you will respond. It's a comments, congratulations to mentors and midwifery trainees for bringing this change and implementing evidence-based practice in the country. The other one was just nice explained great presentation for you. What are the challenges not to allow both companions? What are the challenges not to allow both companions? Maybe those are the two questions that you'd like to respond to. Somya and Sandosh. Thank you, Goodson. So first, I think Joanne asked regarding the qualitative study. Thank you, Jo, for asking that question. We actually started this preliminary research to understand what women wanted. So when we got to know that women's first choice is their husband or even partner, then we immediately thought of doing a qualitative study to understand why women need husband compared to mother or mother-in-law or any family member. So we'll definitely do that in phase two and we will publish that results also as soon as possible. Second. Thank you, I have a question.  Well, thank you very much for this presentation. Please, I'd like to know is that a policy in India that Allah bet companion during labor? That allow or do not allow? That allow best companion. Is this a policy in India that allow best companion during labor? Yeah. So I have mentioned in the presentation about the luxury standards. So it is actually Labour Room Qualitative Improvement Initiative, clearly states that the number of births conducted in the presence of companion is considered as one of the quality standard. So based on the number of births conducted in the presence of a companion will be given a rank and based on that a facility will be assessed. So that is one of the important criteria in this quality standards. So like that even government of India given guidelines regarding this, even I have shown in the presentation since 2016, like there are many, even if we take globally the wide ribbon alliance which released the RMC Charter. It also says that women's, I mean birth companion is women's choice and it is also women's right. So there are many guidelines and there are many policies which I mean which clearly states and encourages women to have birth companion. So at the same time it is also responsibility of the health facilities as well to encourage and advocate regarding the birth companion. Thank you so much. Yeah, there's a question that you did not answer which was saying what are the challenges not to allow best companions. Let me just add another one which is from Gutham, forgive me for the pronunciation. What if the birth giving woman doesn't want the husband as the companion? In that case how would the midwives help the mother in the process of birthing? What if the birth giving woman doesn't want the husband as the companion? In that case how would the midwives help the mother in the process of birth giving? Please you can take those two questions. Thank you for asking this question. I think we have heard stories like this in the not only in public health facilities even in private where women don't want their partners or husbands to be as companions. So first we need to understand maybe this will be also one of the indicator in our research that we are going to do in phase 2. But for now what we have understood is like there are some situations. For example a woman might face domestic violence or she might have she might not have good relation with the partner. So that is one of the main challenge for women for not wanting husband or partner to be as companion. And also there are some cultural norms that we have come across. Like usually men in the birthing room is I mean many women do not know about that. So that is something we need to bring awareness. If the mother or if the mother do not want her husband to be as a companion then the next option can be she can choose friend or any of her family even if she doesn't want her family member to be as a companion then she can choose straight away midwife or even doula sometimes. Doula is a non-medical person who provides physical emotional support. The same way partner provides support to the women a doula can provide. So she has every right to choose whomever she wants so she can choose midwife, doula and even I think in the question they asked how a midwife can be as a companion. So they can provide all the coping strategies, massage techniques which we have mentioned in the presentation. So midwives can be also a companion to the mother. And one more thing provides psychological support also during labour and charitable. Thank you so much for taking those questions. Those questions would allow two more questions before we go into concluding. If there are any two more questions I think what we're seeing now is just comments. I think Mooche is agreeing with the earlier comment that it would be better if translated by qualitative one which you have commented about. And Fentow says thank you so much presenter for your wonderful presentation and Ramadhevi also says good presentation. Somya.


We're here inshaAllah on the Eid al-Adha and this is a great blessing in a time of difficulty for our community and for the larger human community for many, many reasons. The Eid is a time of joy but there's also because of so much of what's going on in the world it's also a time where we should be thinking deeply about the human condition about where we are as a species, about where our ummah is as a community, many, many things to think about. Allah SWT made this a day of remembrance, a day of joy. The Prophet ﷺ said in his Irofa hadith, Musal sal, he said that It's a time of eating and drinking and remembering Allah. We tend to forget in this cornucopia of the modern world that people actually did not have a lot to eat in the past. Many places they had famines were quite common and this is why today was a day when the Prophet ﷺ, the sunnah, is to sacrifice and the Prophet ﷺ told us that the most beloved action to Allah on this day is Ihraqu d-damm, is actually to sacrifice. And what do we do with the sacrifice? When he prayed they brought the kibsh after the prayer and he sacrificed it in his own hands, Allah SWT and he said, I'm doing the sacrifice for myself and for my ummah because many people are poor, they can't afford to do this. Unfortunately many of us are able to do this. Now is a time though to really send it overseas to the places where they really need it because we don't need meat here, you know. But there are many places where people really are having difficult time. But he sacrificed for himself and for his ummah and this is a reminder of the great gift Ibrahim ﷺ, who's our father and the father of our Prophet ﷺ. He's our spiritual father because this is his millah, it's called the millah Ibrahimiyah. And even though the sun is the Afqal, the father is always honored. Ibrahim ﷺ said that we still follow today. But the most important thing about Ibrahim ﷺ that I see is his absolute tawheed and tawakkur. And Imam al-Ghazali in his book, the Ihiyaah, he put tawheed and tawakkur together. And this is the foundation of our ummah and our teaching is tawheed and tawakkur. That we unify Allah SWT and we trust in Allah SWT. And this is why the when if you look at the the amazing story when the Prophet ﷺ Ibrahim took his wife and his and she was she was a legitimate wife of Ibrahim ﷺ and he is a legitimate son despite what some of the other traditions say about Ismail. It's not true. Ismail was legitimate son of Ibrahim. He's the first born and the Ahad is with him as well as with Ishaq. He went to he took Hajar to a place when you look at it it's a complete trust in Allah SWT. A place that has Wajal Ghairi di Zara'in. There's nothing there. And so he took him and she asked him as he was leaving is this you or did Allah tell you to do this? He said no, Allah told me to do this. She said then I'm a Rabbi. I mean she was content. She raised Ismail there and the the Arabs that were there these are the original Arabs and Arab and Arba'i they taught him Arabic. Ibrahim when he came they married him because they were very impressed with him great archer even the Bible mentions about him. They were very impressed with him as a man and so despite the fact that was not their ad their norm they married him to one of their daughters. Ibrahim alaihi salam visited from Sham. When he came there he saw the woman and and he asked where's your husband? She said he's out hunting and he said how are things here for you? How are things here? And she said terrible. They're horrible. And the Prophet ﷺ in Sahih Bukhari said she complained to him about their conditions. So then he said when your husband comes back, give him my salam and tell him to change the the ataba of his Bab, like the when you come into a house the ataba is the thing before the before the door the door mat. He said change that. So then Ismail came back and he noticed Anas the had he says like he noticed something and he asked her what happened today? She said she came sheikhun kada wa kada. He just said sheikh old man came and he said well what happened? He said he asked about our aish and I told him and then he he said did he alfaki bishay did he tell you to do anything? He said he said to give you salam and to say to change the door trust the trestle of your door and he said that was my father and he told me to separate from you so ilhaqi bi ahliki. Go and join your family. He divorced her. Why did he do that? Because Ibrahim was going he made a dua with Ismail when they built the house. Send a messenger from them and then he said that you alamuhum il kitab wal hikma, send a messenger from them who will recite to them your signs and he will So teach them the book and the wisdom and he will purify them because you are al-Aziz al-Hakim. So he knew that the source had to be pure, the Prophet ﷺ said, تخيروا من نطفكم like make sure that the one you marry is the right one because you're going to plant seeds so the earth has to be good earth. So he married another woman from them, Ibrahim came again visiting them and what did he say? He said, كيف عيشوكي because his Ismail was out hunting, he said, كيف عيشوكي? She said, oh we're in blessing. Nothing changed except the understanding, the mentality changed. Same conditions, but the woman she didn't complain, جهن احنو في نعمة, we're in blessings. في ساعة, she said the opposite of the other woman, the other one said نحنو في ضيق وشده. She said نحنو في ساعة, we're in blessing. He said, what food are you eating? She said اللحم والماء, meat and he said وشرابكي, she said water and he said, اللهم بارك في لحمكي وفي ماءكي. May Allah bless that meat and bless that water. The Prophet ﷺ said لم يكن عندهم حب. They didn't have seeds, had they had seeds you would have blessed the seeds. All they were eating was meat and water. The Prophet ﷺ said ليس الابني آدم حقم إلا من هذه الخصان. The son of Adam that has no rights except for these, بيتون يسكنه وثوبون يوارع عورته وجلف الخبز والماء. That's the only thing we're entitled to as a human being, as a creation of Allah is a house that protects you and for some it's just a tent. Close that you cover your nakedness with and then bread and water. This is basically somebody in prison. That's what a prisoner has. He has a roof over his head. They give him prison outfit and they give him bread and water in some places. Here they get other things but traditionally bread and water was what you gave the prisoner. In the Qarou'een and Tass, where the student studied, they were given just one loaf of bread every day and water as that was their sustenance for like going to college. When you go to college you get that's what they got. A loaf of bread and water and whatever else they had ate was from their own source. So the Prophet ﷺ said, that's all you deserve and the humans are feel so entitled to things. This woman was a pure woman and then she said, when she also said, جان الشيخ حسن الهيئة وأثنت عليه. She saw Ibrahim. She said a beautiful sheikh came to us today and then she praised him. The other one just said, شيخ ون كدر وكدر. So old man came. This is the difference between world views of how you view the world and this is what our religion teaches to change your mentality. Change the way you think about things. Change all this entitlement that modern people have. The crisis on this planet is one thing and one thing alone.  They think they can do it on their own. All of the things that are happening right now are because people no longer call on Allah when they have tribulations. Ibn al-Afa'ilah says, الفاقاته بسط المواهب. Calamities are the spreads of divine gifts. Allah sends calamities to take people back to Him. That's why He sends them. Ibn al-Afa'ilah says that sometimes you will find in calamities what you cannot find in prayer and fasting because prayer and fasting always has the possibility of usur. But when you have a calamity you know that you're nothing.  And this is why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, a man came to him and said, اِمِيُوَ حِبُكَ. And he said, اَنْضَ مَنْتَرْقُوا. He said, I love you. He said, think about what you're saying. He said, I love you. He said it three times. او قال له مراراً. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, اِنْ كُلتَ تُحِبُونِي فَأَعِدَّ لِلْفَقْرِ تِجْفَافًا. Then get ready for tribulation. Get ready for things that are going to break you. SubhanAllah. اشدوا الناس. بَلَأَنْ الْاَمْبِيَاتُ مَلْأَمْتَرْ فَلْأَمْتَرْ. The people that have the most tribulation in dunya are the Prophets and then those like the Prophets. But we don't like to think about this. People want ease. This is human nature. People want ease.  To have Ma'adifah of Allah SWT. So all of these tribulations that Allah sends to this species is for the benefit. And this is what people don't realize. This is a completely different way of viewing the world. When I was in Mauritania, a man asked me, in Mauritania when they eat, there's so many flies because it's a desert environment. There's so many flies that they will literally pour sugar in the corner to bring the flies there so they can eat without the flies. This, that's how many flies. And a very old sheikh, he was a scholar, a new and he said to me, do they have flies in America? And I said, we rarely get bothered by flies. He said, they're only with the stajal and ni'mah. He said, oh, I seek refuge in Allah. Maybe they're getting their blessings here in the dunya. You think about life, you know. This is a short time. All these tribulations is a short time. Now here, just in conclusion, the Prophet SWT said something that struck me as so extraordinary. And everything he said is amazing, SWT. You know, I have two cats and these cats, they walk around all the time. Like I pray, they come, they do qawaf. And then you see them walking around the house. They're always going in circles. The Prophet SWT, he called them awafoon wa qawafat, the animals that circle you. This is his mulahawa, SWT. I don't think I would have thought of that except because of the hadith that made me think about it. But this is the beauty of the guidance that he gave us. He saw everything, he said, Allahumma ar-deenim asha kama hiya. Show me things as they are. He saw things as they are. So he said something so extraordinary to me. And everything he said is extraordinary. He said, Badru is a hadith that Abu Hurayra relates. He said, Badru bil-A'man is haba'an. Pason, preempt with actions seven things. Preempt with actions seven things. Initiate your deeds, your good deeds before one or more of seven things will afflict you. And what I realize is, he covered everything in those seven things. Every single thing that is going to come to us is in one or more of these seven things. And you can't exhaust it. He said, Badru bil-A'mali is haba'an. Are you waiting for? Waiting. It's going to come. Poverty that makes you forget everything because people lose everything in the dunya. And once you lost everything, all you can think about is your situation because it's dire. And so the Prophet said, I'm called it farimunsiya. It's a poverty that makes you forget everything because you can't think straight. All you can think about is where your basic needs are going to come from. And there's so many people on this planet right now in this situation. Many of the Muslim countries that had beautiful lives, they had good lives, the vast majority of people have good.  And this can come to anybody, anywhere, any time. Fakran munsiya. And then he said, Or, well, that preoccupies you. A man told me, SubhanAllah, I got a letter from a man the other day who said to me that for 10 years he was working to get this money. And he said he had all these plans to help the Muslims and do all these things. He said, it finally came.  He said, I just, I was spending all this money. I got into all these horrible things. Inna linsana laya ta'a al-wa'ahu staghna. Man will transgress because he deems himself rich. You see, we know from social studies, people that are wealthy, they drive arrogantly, they treat people with arrogance. This is well known. Studies have been done on this because they get a sense of entitlement. They also think, like Qarun, that somehow that I was given this because of something I did, because I'm so clever, because I'm so important. This is what, so he said, Reena mutgiyan, al-maradan mufsida, or a sickness that will incapacitate you. People are healthy and suddenly they have a stroke and they can't function. They need people to take care of them or they get some disease, chronic disease. Suddenly they're in pain all the time. Now they can't think of anything except their problem. al-maradan mufsida. This happens to people. Or you begin to forget things, doting old age, dementia, you can't even remember some people, may Allah protect all of you, the best way to protect yourself from these things, they don't get khara, the people of Quran. Real, you have to take the book, take it seriously. But dementia, all these diseases that come to the mind, people forget, they come into a room, they can't remember why they're there. This happens when you age. So the Prophet said, you're waiting for khara, Reena, sickness, dementia. And then he said, al-moutan mujhiza, or sudden death. Everything's fine. People, young people, suddenly a heart attack and they literally drop dead, they don't even know what's happening to them. These are all things that the Prophet said, we're waiting for. Like hasten to deeds, hasten to deeds. People have money now. What are you doing with your money? Saving it for something or other? The Prophet said, when they asked, what should we spend the Quran replied, al-afu. Just whatever excess you have. Allah's not asking for what you need. He's asking you for what you don't need. But the dunya tells you, oh, I need this, I need that. You don't, we don't need anything. I live with Bedouin. I know how much a human being needs to live. We don't need a lot to live. And then he said, oh, ad-dajjana, tasharru ghayibi yutthabbar, or the Antichrist. And this is the most evil of things that people are waiting for, ad-dajjad. The Prophet said, the ad-dajjad won't come until people start lynching among the mimba. They'll forget. And you can see the preparation everywhere. People, you look at people now, they don't think for themselves anymore. They can't think. They just follow what they're told. They don't think about anything. It's amazing the raqla that this species is in. Deep raqla. And this is important too because the Prophet warned us about these latter days that we're in. And one of the things you see many Muslims now, they're deviating grossly from the Bukhanda Sunnah. I mean, talking about things now, we would never in a million years think our community would have been talked about or accepting things that are so unacceptable in our religion. And you know what I'm talking about. You see this now and then also adapting all of these things that have nothing to do with our religion. We don't collectivize people. We don't talk about white people or black people or any other group. Some, as if they're a collective. The Qur'an says, laat is, you know, wa adhanatun wizur ukhrat. No soul bears the sins of another soul. Whatever the past happened, those people have it on themselves. The children don't inherit their sins. They don't inherit their sins. We don't think about these things. We just adopt all these materialists now. We send our children to these universities where they're going to be indoctrinated. They're not going to be taught. They're going to be indoctrinated into things totally antithetical to the Muslim community. Every religious community that came to this country that was serious about their religion built religious schools and colleges.  That's why the Catholics have schools all over, parochial, secondary school and colleges because they took their religion seriously. Where are the Muslim, we've been here so long. Where are our colleges? Where are our hospitals? Where are the things that we define our values? We define what we believe in. We don't let them define them for us. This is a materialistic culture. The whole planet is becoming this way. But we have a community where we actually believe in goodness and decency and virtue and chastity and justice and forgiveness and mercy and honor. These are the things that our Prophet taught us. I was sent to teach people, to purify them. In the commentaries they say to teach them all of the virtuous behavior and to warn them of all of the vicious behavior. This is our Prophet's will. I said the most generous of people, the most honorable of people. The Prophet's will, I said him, said he never swore. Every time he spoke about anything sensitive, he used what's called kinaya. He didn't ever speak crudely or obscenely. This is our Prophet. He said one of the signs at the end of time is foul language would become widespread. People would just use foul language. The tongue was a gift from Allah to speak. The Prophet was the most eloquent of people.  He said it's teaching our young people foul lyrics. That's what he said.  These are all the things that we have to be aware of the environment we're in and protect our young people because Allah, their hearts are pure. Their hearts are pure. They're inculturated into foulness. The fitrah is natural. Even all of this talk about racism. Racism is not the natural state of human beings. The natural state of human beings is accepting one another. Children do not have racism. They'll play with any color of child. That's inculturated into people. And so this whole talk about people are racist by nature. It's not true. This is a lie from release to make people despair. Or people say that, oh, racism is the cause of oppression. No, racism is used as a mechanism of oppression. It's not the cause. It's used as a mechanism to divide and conquer. Divida at impera. The Romans knew this. We can't be fooled. We're a people that bring people together. We don't separate them. Shaytan, Shaytan Ya'isa an yu'bad fi jizirat al-Arab. He's desperate of being worshiped. Wa-rakin at-tahrisha baynukum. But he was content with creating division amongst you. Today is a day of joining. Today is a day of setting aside your all of your anger, whatever's happened with your family. This is a day silu al-hamakum, like call up people that you're related to. If there's something between you, ask forgiveness. Bring people together. This is our umma. It's an umma. Umma is a collective of people that have the same purpose. And our purpose is worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and service to His creation. That's the whole raison d'etre of this umma. The purpose of this umma is to worship Allah and to serve Allah's creation. Whether they're black, white, red, yellow, whether they're Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, whether they're Jew, it doesn't matter. We are here to serve. This is our purpose. We are here to serve. One of the things we've forgotten is feeding the homeless, feeding the hungry. They don't enjoy people to feed the hungry. That's one of the signs of people that are in shakawa that are wretched with Allah, is that they don't encourage others to help. We have people all over in need now. And many of the Muslims we've been blessed. And you don't have to give all your money away. You don't have to take one family. This is what Qadi Abu Bakr al-A'rbi said the Prophet was not somebody who was saying, give all your wealth away. Never. And there's nothing wrong with being wealthy in Islam. We're not socialists. Our religion is against this idea. There's, if Allah is blessed you with wealth, you pay your zakat and then you give suraqah on top of that. And that's all Allah's asking. Take one family that's in need and help them. If you can do two, then do two. This is what Qadi Abu Bakr al-A'rbi says. So these are things to think about on this day of Eid. The seventh thing that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told us, health and tabiruna, is a sa'ata wa sa'atu adha wa amar. That's the seventh thing, which is the hour. There's three hours. What's called sa'at al-sughra, sa'at al-wusta, wa sa'at al-kubra. Sa'at al-sughra is your death. There is a door from the finite to the infinite. It's the door of infinity. It's the door of infinity. And that door is waiting. Each one of us, if you could see your ajal, because your ajal was written in the fi baqmi umi, it was written in the womb of our mothers. When we were in a womb, You raised me in the womb of my parents. And you were before me, before my parents.   It's there. And we don't think about it, but it's real. And this is what the Prophet ﷺ was somebody, he said, اكثر من دكري ها them in the death. Remind yourselves of death, not in a morbid way, in a way that makes you بادر بالعمال سبعاً, hasten to actions. We have little time. We're here for a short period of time. We have things to do. Each one of you has the gifts that Allah has given you. Some of you have wealth, you can support good things. Some of you have muscles, you can labor in good things. Some of you have, Allah has gifted you with intellectual brilliance. You can do that for making things to better our human condition. Everybody has their gifts. And we don't have any hip-hop for any human being. Every human being has the potential to know Allah. The street sweeper has the potential to know Allah. There were people in Medina that nobody took seriously and they were beloved of Allah ﷺ and his messenger. Like the black woman who used to sweep the masjid, and when she died, they didn't think anything of it. He's, why didn't you tell me? He was upset for a while because he knew who she was. He knew who she was. So this is a time for us to think about just changing the trajectory of our lives. Every day is an opportunity to make the you turn. Every single day. With Allah, there's no sign that says no you turn. We can always turn back. If we make Tawba, Allah makes Tawba to us, to love. And he will forgive.  If you ask forgiveness, I would forgive you. And Shaitan hates Tawba. He wants to put you in a state of forgiveness. So in Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, inshallah, bless all the people, wherever they are, that are having a difficult time. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, make it easy for them, give them solace in their hearts. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, make us people that remember the gifts that we've been given and share them with others. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, forgive us, bless us, increase us, elevate us. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, inshallah, protect this community. Protect the Qa'i min alayh. Bless all the people that set all these things up for us and did all this work. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, bless all the volunteers in the masjid. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, take you to your homesadimin, Qanimin. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, accept all the prayers on Arafah that happened yesterday. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, inshallah, give us some portion of those prayers. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, remove this blight, this plague that's on our species right now. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, remove ad-wadah, ad-balaa, all these terrible things that have afflicted our species. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, wake people up to their sinfulness and their need to make Toba to Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, to recognize that nothing afflicts us except what our own hands have wrought. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, remind us of this. May He remove the drought from this community. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, give us good rain, give the parts to earth, what it deserves. And may all of these creatures forgive us and these trees and all these things that don't deserve anything, but they suffer with us because of us. We see the trees and so many places are dying. You look at their leaves from the sinfulness of people, not from anything they did. And the Prophet ﷺ said, had it not been for the trees and for the animals, that the sinfulness of people would prevent rain from coming. So may Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, insha'Allah, give us rain, give us good rain. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, protect all of our children, protect our women, anybody who all these women who are wearing hijab, bravely in this environment, may Allah protect them and keep them safe and sound. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala bless all of you. The sunnah is to do the obhiya for anybody that's going to do the obhiya. It's after the prayer and you go, you have the days of these days of Eid. You can do it in any of the days of Eid. Now the best thing is obviously the ram. And you should, the sunnah is to eat a third, to give a third to your friend and then to give a third to poor people. But we have now agencies that will do this for you and distribute it amongst the refugees. So I think it's good, insha'Allah, to support our Syrian refugees, our Yemeni refugees, the Libyan. There's so many places where Muslims, Kashmiris, may Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, make it easy for our brothers and sisters in Kashmir and Palestine, obviously. I mean it's an ongoing, long, long struggle. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, insha'Allah, wake our community up.