Jignyasu - Curious to learn...: April 2008

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

ISRO Scores again !!

India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has successfully launched 10 mini-satellites (8 of these are for foreign customers) into the space. The payload includes my home institute's, TU Delft, own nanosatellite - Delfi-C3 :)

Surprisingly, the Indian press has been lukewarm in their coverage of this event.

A few articles from the web:

India in multi-satellite launch (includes 40 second video of launch)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7370391.stm

ISRO's press release
http://www.isro.org/pressrelease/April28_2008.htm

Delfi-C3's page (includes a well written blog which covers the progress)
http://www.delfic3.nl/

Editorial from the Hindu
http://www.hindu.com/2008/04/29/stories/2008042952040800.htm

Btw. this is ISRO's 12th consecutive successful launch !!

Saturday, April 26, 2008

On Obesity and Asian diet...

Asian diet with vegetables, fruits and cereals is best for health.

In a sobering 3-minute talk, Dr. Dean Ornish tracks the dramatic spread of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease around the globe -- as people outside the US start to eat, live and die like Americans do. "This may be the first generation in which our kids live a shorter lifespan than we do," Ornish says. The good news? These trends are preventable and even reversible through diet and exercise.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/10

Friday, April 25, 2008

Ideas...

Designer Yves Behar digs up his creative roots to discuss some of the iconic objects he's created (the Leaf lamp, the Jawbone headset). Then he turns to the witty, surprising, elegant objects he's working on now -- including the "$100 laptop."

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/266

Locusts live in colonies of millions...and yet..they don't collide with one-another !! How ?? Because they have phenomenal sensors. Can this be replicated to avoid car-collisions ??
The lobula giant movement detector (LGMD) of locusts is a visual interneuron that responds with an increasing spike frequency to an object approaching on a direct collision course. Recent studies involving the use of LGMD models to detect car collisions showed that it could detect collisions, but the neuron produced collision alerts to non-colliding, translating, stimuli in many cases. This study presents a modified model to address these problems. It shows how the neurons pre-synaptic to the LGMD show a remarkable ability to filter images, and only colliding and translating stimuli produce excitation in the neuron. It then integrates the LGMD network with models based on the elementary movement detector (EMD) neurons from the fly visual system, which are used to analyse directional excitation patterns in the biologically filtered images. Combining the information from the LGMD neuron and four directionally sensitive neurons produces a robust collision detection system for a wide range of automotive test situations.
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/biology/staff/profile/claire.rind

Must watch..must watch..must watch:
12 sustainable design ideas from nature
http://www.ted.com/talks/view?id=18

Evolutionary biologist Paul Ewald drags us into the sewer to discuss germs. Why are some more harmful than others? How could we make the harmful ones benign? Searching for answers, he examines a disgusting, fascinating case: diarrhea.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/259

Why do people succeed? Because they're smart? Or lucky? How about: Neither. Richard St. John compacts more than a decade of research into an unmissable 3-minute slideshow on the real secrets of success. (Hint: Passion, persistence, and pushy mothers help.) Inspired by a chance encounter with a high school student who asked him how to become a success, St. John interviewed more than 500 successful people, then distilled what they told him into eight simple principles.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/70

Paul Rothemund compares his work to "casting a spell" -- and it does seem akin to magic. By writing a set of instructions, he can cause bits of DNA to fold themselves into a smiley face, a star, a triangle. Sure, it's a stunt, but it's also a fascinating window into the possibility of self-assembly at the smallest of scales. In other words: today a smiley face, tomorrow a micro-microprocessor.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/183

Investor Steve Jurvetson talks about his awesome hobby -- shooting off model rockets. With gorgeous photos, infectious glee and just a whiff of danger.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/225

Dutch artist Theo Jansen demonstrates his amazingly lifelike kinetic sculptures, built from plastic tubes and lemonade bottles. His "Strandbeests" (Beach Creatures) are built to move and even survive on their own.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/162

Anand Agarawala presents BumpTop, a fresh user interface that takes the usual desktop metaphor to a glorious, 3D extreme. In this physics-driven universe, important files finally get the weight they deserve via an oddly satisfying resizing feature, and the drudgery of file organization becomes a freewheeling playground full of crumpled documents and clipping-covered "walls." Worried your laptop's desktop will descend into the same disorder as its coffee-mug-strewn real-life equivalent? Fear not: BumpTop has a snappy solution for that messy problem, too.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/131

Using photos of oft-snapped subjects (like Notre Dame) scraped from around the Web, Photosynth (based on Seadragon technology) creates breathtaking multidimensional spaces you can zoom and navigate. Its architect, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, shows it off in this standing-ovation demo. Curious about that speck in corner? Dive into a freefall and watch as the speck becomes a gargoyle. With an unpleasant grimace. And an ant-sized chip in its lower left molar. "Perhaps the most amazing demo I've seen this year," wrote Ethan Zuckerman after TED2007.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129

Hod Lipson demonstrates a few of his cool little robots, which have the ability to learn, understand themselves and even self-replicate. At the root of this uncanny demo is a deep inquiry into the nature of how humans and living beings learn and evolve, and how we might harness these processes to make things that learn and evolve.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/165

The universe on a string.....

In clear, nontechnical language, string theorist Brian Greene explains how our understanding of the universe has evolved from Einstein's notions of gravity and space-time to superstring theory, where minuscule strands of energy vibrating in 11 dimensions create every particle and force in the universe. (This mind-bending theory may soon be put to the test at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva.)

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/251

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

In Pictures - Stories told in Pictures

Birthplace of Silicon Valey
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7342940.stm

Traditional Boxing in Nigeria
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/08/africa_traditional_boxing_in_nigeria/html/1.stm

Women in Northern Iraq
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/05/middle_east_women0s_lives_in_northern_iraq/html/1.stm

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Dog Clones sniff their way to glory !!

S Korea trains sniffer-dog clones

The world's first cloned sniffer dogs have begun training in South Korea. Seven puppies have been created using cells taken from a labrador considered by customs officials to be their best sniffer dog.

The puppies were born last year after the country's customs service paid a biotechnology company to reproduce a Canadian Labrador Retriever.

Their handlers say they are already showing the same high level of skill as the original dog.
Only about 30% of naturally-born sniffer dogs make the grade, but South Korean scientists believe that could rise to 90% using the cloning method.

The puppies were born to three surrogate mothers after scientists used the nuclei of somatic cells from a sniffer dog called Chase. The state-funded project cost about 300m won ($300,000; £150,000).

A spokesman for South Korean customs said the pups have passed the first round of tests for behavioural patterns and genetic qualities and will report for duty in June after completing a second round of training.

Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7359242.stm

Published: 2008/04/21 16:28:40 GMT

Monday, April 21, 2008

Clever Kids learn Music !!

Source - http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/416/1

Music Builds Bridges in the Brain
By Greg MillerScienceNOW Daily News16 April 2008SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA--

Taking music lessons can strengthen connections between the two hemispheres of the brain in children, but only if they practice diligently, according to a study reported here 14 April at the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society. The findings add to a long-running debate about the effects of musical training on the brain.

In 1995, a study led by neurologist and neuroscientist Gottfried Schlaug found that professional musicians who started playing before the age of 7 have an unusually thick corpus callosum, the bundle of axons that serves as an information superhighway between the left and right sides of the brain. Schlaug and colleagues saw this as evidence that musical training can bolster neural connections, but skeptics pointed to the possibility that the musicians had bigger corpora callosa to begin with. Perhaps their neural wiring had enhanced their musical pursuits instead of the other way around.

To investigate further, Schlaug, now at Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues including Marie Forgeard and Ellen Winner at Boston College, studied 31 children. The researchers collected detailed magnetic resonance images of the children's brains at age 6 and again at 9. Of the original group, six children faithfully practiced at least 2.5 hours a week in the time between the scans. In these budding musicians, a region of the corpus callosum that connects movement-planning regions on the two sides of the brain grew about 25% relative to the overall size of the brain. Children who averaged only an hour or two of weekly practice and those who dropped their instruments entirely showed no such growth. All of the children practiced instruments, such as a piano or a violin, that required two hands.

In every subject, the researchers found that the size of increase in the corpus callosum predicted the improvement on a nonmusical test that required the children to tap out sequences on a computer keyboard. Schlaug says the findings should settle the earlier debate by showing that musical training can enhance neural connections related to planning and coordinating movements between the two hands. His team is now following up with the same children to investigate whether their training had other benefits, such as improved memory or reasoning skills.

"I'm very excited about this," says Steven Swinnen, a neuroscientist who studies movement control at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. "Everyone thinks musical training results in changes in brain structure and function," Swinnen says, but so far the hype has exceeded the evidence. Although he'd like to see the findings replicated in more subjects, Swinnen thinks the study is one of the first to provide a strong suggestion that training of any kind can cause substantial changes to the axon bundles that link together far flung regions of the brain. Whether training later in life can change the brain in a similar manner is a promising topic for future study, he says.

Altruism 'in-built' in humans !!

Altruism 'in-built' in humans
By Helen Briggs BBC News science reporter

Infants as young as 18 months show altruistic behaviour, suggesting humans have a natural tendency to be helpful, German researchers have discovered.

In experiments reported in the journal Science, toddlers helped strangers complete tasks such as stacking books. Young chimps did the same, providing the first direct evidence of altruism in non-human primates. Altruism may have evolved six million years ago in the common ancestor of chimps and humans, the study suggests.

Just rewards

Scientists have long debated what leads people to "act out of the goodness of their hearts" by helping non-relatives regardless of any benefits for themselves. Human society depends on people being able to collaborate with others - donating to charity, paying taxes and so on - and many scientists have argued that altruism is a uniquely human function, hard-wired into our brains.

The latest study suggests it is a strong human trait, perhaps present more than six million years ago in the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans.

"This is the first experiment showing altruistic helping towards goals in any non-human primate," said Felix Warneken, a psychologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

"It's been claimed chimpanzees act mainly for their own ends; but in our experiment, there was no reward and they still helped."

'Astonishing'

Dr Warneken and colleague Professor Michael Tomasello wanted to see whether very young children who had not yet learned social skills were willing to help strangers. The experimenters performed simple tasks like dropping a clothes peg out of reach while hanging clothes on a line, or mis-stacking a pile of books.

Nearly all of the group of 24 18-month-olds helped by picking up the peg or the book, usually in the first 10 seconds of the experiment.

They only did this if they believed the researcher needed the object to complete the task - if it was thrown on the ground deliberately, they didn't pick it up.

"The results were astonishing because these children are so young - they still wear diapers and are barely able to use language, but they already show helping behaviour," said Felix Warneken.

Lost spoon

The pair went on to investigate more complicated tasks, such as retrieving an object from a box with a flap.

Children and chimpanzees are both willing to help, but they appear to differ in their ability to interpret the other's need for help in different situations Warneken at al

When the scientists accidentally dropped a spoon inside, and pretended they did not know about the flap, the children helped retrieve it. They only did this if they believed the spoon had not been dropped deliberately.

The tasks were repeated with three young chimpanzees that had been raised in captivity. The chimps did not help in more complex tasks such as the box experiment, but did assist the human looking after them in simple tasks such as reaching for a lost object.

"Children and chimpanzees are both willing to help, but they appear to differ in their ability to interpret the other's need for help in different situations," the two researchers write in Science.

Ugandan study

Further evidence of chimps' ability to cooperate was revealed in a separate study published in the same edition of the scientific journal.

Alicia Melis, at the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Uganda, found that chimps recognised when collaboration was necessary and chose the best partner to work with.

The chimps had to cooperate in reaching a food tray by pulling two ends of a rope at the same time.

"We've never seen this level of understanding during cooperation in any other animals except humans," she said.

But she said there was still no evidence that chimpanzees communicated with each other about a common goal like children do from an early age.

Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/4766490.stm

Published: 2006/03/03 20:03:06 GMT

Altruism, bird style.

Birds 'can behave like soldiers'

Dr Andy Radford reveals how pied babblers behave just like soldiers

Like soldiers in combat zones, birds operate a sentry system to ensure their comrades are safe from attack. By singing a "watchman's song", the pied babbler tells its group mates they are free to forage for food in Africa's Kalahari desert.

This is a rare example of truly altruistic bird behaviour, said Dr Andy Radford, of Bristol University, UK. "The unselfish behaviour of the sentry is probably rewarded down the line. It's a win-win scenario," he said. These exciting results point to a great example of true cooperation Andy Radford, Bristol University

Pied babblers live in groups of around six or seven, one of whom acts as a sentinel, scanning the desert for predators, such as mongoose, eagles, or even cobras.

Just as soldiers on sentry duty in hostile territory keep in regular radio contact with their colleagues, the sentinel sings a distinctive watchman's song to assure them that all is well. This leaves the rest of the group free to focus on finding food, such as scorpions and small snakes buried beneath the surface of the sand.

Whistle and weigh

Dr Radford's team observed a study population of 12-20 groups living in the Kalahari, southern Africa. They demonstrated that the watchman's song allowed groups to capture more food.
Dr Radford said: "These exciting results point to a great example of true cooperation.
"The unselfish behaviour of the sentry is probably rewarded down the line by the improved survival of group mates, which leads to a larger group size.

"This increases the sentinel's chances of survival when the group is under attack from predators or having to repel rivals from their territory." Though they live in the wild, the groups of pied babblers in the study have been trained to fly in to the researchers in response to a whistle and weigh themselves on a small set of scales. Observers can then walk within a few feet of the birds to observe their behaviour and monitor the prey that they catch.

Their latest research showed that the foragers respond to the watchman's song alone, whether or not they see a sentinel sitting in a tree.

Language use
In response to playbacks of recordings of the call, the foraging individuals spent less time looking out for predators, looked up less often, spread out more widely, and spent more time out in the open.

This means that they have more time for foraging, are less likely to lose track of prey, have more foraging patches to choose from and are less likely to encounter patches that have already been depleted.

As a consequence of these changes in behaviour, the birds had greater foraging success.

The research, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), is published in Current Biology.

"Decision making in response to vocal cues is an important behaviour in social birds, and by studying it we can discover much about the way that different groups of animals develop language use," said Dr Radford, a BBSRC David Phillips Fellow.
"We are now investigating whether sentinels differ in their reliability and how this might influence the behaviour of their group-mates."

Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/7350610.stm

Brain Atlas !!

Source- http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/dn10695-genomic-atlas-of-the-mouse-brain-revealed.html

Genomic atlas of the mouse brain revealed
6 December 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Peter Aldhous

It is a brain map like no other, has been three years in the making, and promises a revolution in neuroscience: a genomic atlas of the mouse brain has been crafted. For neuroscientists, it is as if the genome project has been melded with Google Earth inside the mind of a mouse.

Unveiled in its full glory today, the Allen Brain Atlas contains 85 million images, and enough data to fill 20,000 iPods. The atlas documents the activity of more than 21,000 genes across the entire mouse brain in such fine detail that it is possible pick out individual cells. Already, the atlas has revealed that the mammalian brain contains “hidden” structures, defined by common patterns of gene activity.

“It is a profound enabling tool that is going to dramatically facilitate and accelerate research,” says Marc Tessier-Lavigne, senior vice-president of the biotech firm Genentech in South San Francisco, US, who is also involved with the company that created the atlas. “By having all of the information collated in one place, you can do all of the searching that would not otherwise be possible.”

Ed Lein and colleagues at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, US, created the atlas using a technique called "in situ hybridisation". This involves bathing thin slices of brain tissue in chemically labelled RNA probes that bind to sequences, called messenger RNA, produced by individual genes.

The process had to be repeated for each gene, and for slices of tissue taken from different parts of the brain, to build a 3D map of gene activity that can be navigated using software available on the web.

Family snapshot

To standardise the results, the researchers used inbred male mice from a strain commonly used in brain research, which were all sacrificed at exactly the same age and time of day. “It’s a snapshot,” says neuroscientist Kelly Overly, who worked on the project.

While factors such as age, sex and daily cycles of biological activity are known to affect gene expression, the researchers are confident that many of the patterns of gene activity they have discovered are common features of the mammalian brain.

The map has already revealed that at least 80% of the genes studied are active in the brain – more than had been predicted. Some are “housekeeping” genes, expressed across most of the brain, but most seem to be active in only subsets of cells.

By studying patterns of activity for these genes, the team has identified structures that are invisible to conventional neuroanatomical methods, and more revelations are expected as neuroscientists get to grips with the atlas.

You can query the Brain Atlas and download the Brain Explorer software at http://www.brain-map.org/.
Journal reference: Nature (DOI: 10.1038/nature05453)

Saturday, April 19, 2008

India adventure ends for runaways

By M Ilyas Khan
BBC News, Karachi

Two Pakistani boys have been reunited with their family days after they strayed into Indian territory after running away from school.

The boys say they were beaten by Indian police, who suspected them of spying.

A Pakistani official said the boys were returned under a deal requiring the two countries to return innocent citizens straying into each other's territory.

In the past, people crossing the border by mistake have been arrested and charged with spying.

Stole money

The two boys, Azhar Ali, 16, and Zohaib, 10, who are cousins, left for school on the morning of 10 April but did not return home.

"We walked for a day, then took a train, and then a bus to the border which we crossed on the third day," Azhar Ali told journalists in the southern city of Hyderabad, where the boys were handed over to their families by the Sindh Rangers, the Pakistani paramilitary border force.

Azhar said he had stolen some money from his father which the boys exchanged for Indian currency.

"We just wanted to go sightseeing," said Zohaib.

Azhar said that once across the border, they gave themselves up to the police and asked to be sent home.

The boys said the Indian police beat them, accusing them of having been sent across the border by the Sindh Rangers.

"They set up a machine before us and said if we lied, the red button would flash. But the button flashed even when we told them our names," Azhar said.

The Sindh Rangers director-general said the Indian border security force had been very co-operative and helped to get the boys back quickly.

The boys' parents said they had lost all hope of ever seeing their children.

"In a way, they have been reborn to us," Zohaib's mother said.

The parents admitted that their constant scolding of the boys over school matters caused them to run away.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7354191.stm

Monday, April 14, 2008

Kenya Sings for India !!

Leading film-makers are seeking to change the way we think about other countries. This is one of a powerful series of films to be shown on Pangea Day, May 10, "the day the world comes together through film". Here, set against the backdrops of Nairobi city and the beautiful landscape of Uhuru Park (Maasai country), a Kenyan choir sings the Indian national anthem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAWarHi0OgE&feature=user
Duration: 2 mins

Find more of these videos here:
http://www.pangeaday.org/

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Lung-less frog breathes through skin...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/sciencebiologyfrogindonesia;_ylt=Ai9nN9Y12fzLlziM5NfjtMQbr7sF
Lungless frog could shed light on evolution: scientist

by Aubrey BelfordFri Apr 11, 10:38 AM ET

The discovery of a rare species of Indonesian frog that breathes without lungs could shed light on how evolution works, a scientist said Friday.Dissection of the frog, which was found on Borneo last August, showed it breathed entirely through its skin, biologist David Bickford told AFP.

While many frogs breathe partially through their skin, the Barbourula kalimantanensis is the first to have entirely evolved away from having lungs, he said.This runs counter to one of the key events in evolution, when animals developed primitive lungs and moved from water to land.

"Here is a frog that has reversed that trend, it has totally turned against the conventional wisdom, if you will, of millions of years of evolution," said Bickford, a biologist at the National University of Singapore.The frog appears to have shed its lungs over millions of years to adapt to its home in the fast-flowing cold water rivers in the island's rainforests, Bickford said.

Cold water contains more oxygen, making it possible to breathe through skin, he added.

Only three other amphibians -- two species of salamander and a worm-like creature called a caecilian -- are known to have evolved to breath without lungs.

"It's like a cookie, it's almost completely flat. So initially when you pick it up in the water you know this thing is strange," said Bickford.

"It's surprisingly cute, you know, like a bulldog is cute. It's one of those things that is so ugly, it's cute."

While many animals have organs they no longer use -- such as the human appendix -- evolution normally works on the principle of "if it's not broke don't fix it," Bickford said.

"Most things we don't use don't get lost... so there had to be a big negative side-effect of having lungs for them to be lost."

Bickford believes lungs may have made the frog's ancestors too buoyant in the fast-flowing water, increasing their risk of being swept away.

The downside, Bickford said, is that the frog cannot survive on land or even in still water.

Indonesian scientist Djoko Iskandar, who accompanied Bickford on the expedition, first heard about the strange-looking creature 30 years ago and had been searching for it ever since.

He said that every time he went to Borneo he found habitats had been destroyed by industry, with pollution to rivers from gold mining apparently making it impossible for the frogs to breathe.

"We think that a little bit of pollution will affect the skin, and the skin is more important than for other species," said Iskandar, a scientist at the Bandung Institute of Technology in Indonesia, adding that even a small amount of pollution could be devastating.

Hundreds of new species of insect, animal and plant have been discovered on Borneo, with a find every month on average, conservation group WWF has said.

Other recent exotic discoveries include poisonous "sticky frogs," "forest walking catfish" able to travel short distances out of water and the transparent "glass catfish".

Saturday, April 12, 2008

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/245
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/244

Friday, April 11, 2008

The Inner Life of the Cell.....truly spectacular

Source: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/147

Medical animator David Bolinsky presents 9 minutes of stunning animation that show the bustling life inside a cell. Built by his company, XVIVO, to teach Harvard medical students, the clip features sweeping cinematic values and even a little drama. It communicates not only the facts of life, but life's truth and beauty.

U must watch this:
http://aimediaserver.com/studiodaily/videoplayer/?src=harvard/harvard.swf&width=640&height=520

Thursday, April 10, 2008

The Ascent of Man...

Is science de-humanising ?? Does it rob the beauty of nature by rationalising and hypothising ??
Does it make robots out of humans and convert them into numbers ??

Watch what Jacob Bronowski has to say on it. A powerful clip from Bronowski's The Ascent of Man series. Duration: 2.28 mins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mIfatdNqBA&NR=1

Note:

1. The video is taped besides a pond in Auschwitz which contains the ashes of about 4 million people (that is 40 lakhs !!) sintered alive by Nazi barbarism.

2. Jacob Bronowski (January 18, 1908 - August 22, 1974) was a British mathematician of Polish-Jewish origin, best remembered as the presenter and writer of the BBC television documentary series, The Ascent of Man. (From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Bronowski)

The Ascent of Man was a groundbreaking 13-part series commisioned by BBC in 1973.The title alludes to The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin.

Transcript of the video above:

It is said that science will dehumanise people and turn them into numbers. That is false, tragically false. In the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz, that is where people were turned into numbers. Into its pond were flushed the ashes of four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance. It was done by ignorance. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods. We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power. We have to close the distance between the push-button order and the human act. We have to touch people.

Spectacular Chineese Dance...

Traditional Chineese dance...truly spectacular !!

Duration - about 5.53 minutes
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6N1j-MwDxRs

Note - The lead dancer is deaf...and gets her dancing cues from people sitting in the first row of the audience !!

Carnivorous Plants...

David Attenborough looks at how this well known carnivorous plant captures its prey.

Duration 3.28 mins
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ktIGVtKdgwo&feature=related

The Truth About Climate Change...

The legendary broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough was long unsure about the causes of the observed climate warming. In his documentary, The Truth About Climate Change, he sheds doubt and explains what convinced him.Climate models based on purely natural processes such as solar activity and volcanic eruptions fail to explain the observed change in Earth's climate in the latter part of the 20th century. Models factoring in the human impact, that is, the increase of carbon dioxide in the athmosphere, depict the transpired warming accurately, however.

Watch it here. (Duration 2.43 minutes)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=S9ob9WdbXx0

A non-invasive method to track nerve-cell development in live human brains

Source- http://www.machineslikeus.com/cms/a-non-invasive-method-to-track-nerve-cell-development-in-live-human-brains.html

A non-invasive method to track nerve-cell development in live human brains

A team of scientists including researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have identified and validated the first biomarker that permits neural stem and progenitor cells (NPCs) to be tracked, non-invasively, in the brains of living human subjects. This important advance could lead to significantly better diagnosis and monitoring of brain tumors and a range of serious neurological and psychiatric disorders.

The biomarker is a lipid molecule whose presence the scientists were able consistently to detect in a part of the brain called the hippocampus where new nerve cells are known to be generated. The marker was not detected in the cortex and other parts of the brain where this process, called neurogenesis, does not occur in healthy adults.

As elsewhere in the body, the rise of new cells in the brain is a process that can be traced to stem cells, which, through mechanisms still only partly grasped, give birth to “daughter” progenitor cells that undergo repeated division and maturation into “adult” cells. As recently as a few years ago, most scientists did not believe that new nerve cells were created anywhere in the adult brain.

The newly discovered marker can be detected when NPCs -- stem-like “progenitor” cells -- are actively dividing, a mark that new nerve cells are being created. “Until now, there was no way to identify and track these cells in living people, to get a dynamic picture of neurogenesis,” said Grigori Enikolopov, Ph.D.

A fuller understanding of neural stem and progenitor cells could one day unlock the secret to nervous-system regeneration following stroke or massive trauma. In the nearer-term, discovery of the neural stem-cell biomarker just reported is likely to yield more powerful diagnostics.

“The technique the team has developed is based on MRI technology that is currently in widespread use to perform non-invasive scans of the living brain and can tell us where stem-like cells are dividing,” said Dr. Enikolopov, whose CSHL lab specializes in the study of stem cells, in the brain and in other tissues. “Although we are only just beginning to test applications, it is clear that this biomarker may have promise in identifying cell proliferation in the brain, which can be a sign of cancer. In other patients, it could show us how neurogenesis is related to the course of diseases such as depression, bipolar disorder, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, MS, and post-traumatic stress disorder.”

In 2006, Dr. Enikolopov demonstrated that the antidepressant fluoxetine (Prozac) stimulates the creation of new nerve cells in the hippocampus of depressed patients. He later demonstrated that an even more pronounced effect was brought about by other depression treatments, electroconvulsive therapy and deep-brain stimulation.

“The recent finding that neural progenitor cells exist in adult human brain has opened a whole new field in neuroscience,” said Walter J. Koroshetz, M.D., deputy director of the NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), which helped fund the work. “The ability to track these cells in living people would be a major breakthrough in understanding brain development in children and continued maturation of the adult brain. It could also be a very useful tool for research aimed at influencing NPCs to restore or maintain brain health.”

Discovery of the neural stem cell marker relied heavily upon the development of an ingenious algorithm devised by Dr. Petar M. Djuric of SUNY Stony Brook. That mathematical formula made the marker’s spectroscopic “image” stand out amid a field filled with visual “noise,” in much the same way as algorithms used in submarine sonar equipment filter out all ambient noise save that of other subs. Filtering out “noise” in the brain enabled the team to demonstrate the presence of the biomarker in live animals and in human subjects.

Play Test Cricket and Live Longer !!

Leading cricketers 'live longest'
Research suggests stalwarts of the England cricket team such as Andrew Flintoff and Michael Vaughan can look forward to a long life.

A University of St Andrews study of 418 England cricketers between 1876 and 1963 found the more Tests played, the longer the player was likely to live. Professor Paul Boyle said the finding suggested career success could boost health and longevity.

The study appears in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

SUCCESS AND LONGEVITY
The longevity of successful cricketers is borne out by the famous "Invincibles", the Australian team which went unbeaten during an entire tour of England in 1948
Seven of the 13 members of the squad who have died lived to the age of at least 80, including Sir Donald Bradman (92) and Bill Brown (95)
Only one member, Sid Barnes, died before the age of 65
The remaining four squad members are still alive; the youngest, Neil Harvey, is 79

Professor Boyle analysed data on the 418 cricketers who played Test match cricket for England between 1876 and 1963.

This enabled him to take account of the impact of social background - which is known to influence longevity - by drawing a distinction between amateur "gentlemen" players and professional cricketers, who tended to have more humble roots.

The division between the two was formally scrapped by the cricket authorities in 1963.

Overall, "gentleman amateurs" who played in many Test matches lived an average of 79.3 years, while those who played in just a few Tests lived to an average of 75.0 years.

"Professional" players who made many Test appearances lived to an average of 76.6 years, but the average life expectancy of those who played in few Tests was just 71.5 years.

Stress

Previous research has suggested that people in low status jobs may be more likely to suffer from poor health, possibly due to stress and frustration.

Professor Boyle said his findings suggested that the converse may also be true: success in a satisfying job may boost health.

He said: "Playing for the national side is the pinnacle of a cricketing career and is likely to have long-term benefits, both in terms of kudos and future working opportunities.

"It seems reasonable to suppose that reaching such a privileged position would therefore have long-term implications for the person involved."

Professor Boyle said it was possible that the most-capped players were simply stronger and healthier than their colleagues, but he argued that the physical difference between players who played a small or large number of tests was likely to be very small.

However, he found no association between captaining England - which could be defined as the ultimate success - and longevity.

Dr Tarani Chandola, from University College London, has carried out research into the effect of stress in the workplace.

He said: "The workplace, like other social environments, has a strong influence on health and longevity. "Physically hazardous working conditions are well known. Workplace stress is being increasingly recognised as generating poor mental as well as physical health.

"Most studies have investigated the negative health impacts of work stress. There are a few that suggest positive success at work has long-lasting positive health effects - and that it is not simply the lack of work stress that contributes to good health among high status groups."

Professor Cary Cooper, of the University of Lancaster, said: "It's common sense - if you are feeling good you look after yourself because you want to keep on doing good things.

"If you are depressed at work you don't, you probably drink and smoke too much and don't take enough exercise - which are all linked to poor health."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/7338173.stm

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Gandhi's Spin...

Ramachandra Guha weaves a tale on the Mahatma...and his tryst with cricket.

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article3708536.ece

New spin on spell Mahatma Gandhi wove on development of India's game
The great leader's influence extended to the playing field, as revealed in the third of our four exclusive extracts Mahatma Gandhi visiting New Delhi in 1947
Ramachandra Guha

It was in, of all places, the New York Public Library that I came across a connection between the greatest of modern Indians and the greatest of modern Indian sports. This was in the papers of Louis Fischer, who wrote what, in the West, remains the best-known biography of Gandhi.

Through an Indian friend Fischer had sent a list of questions for the Mahatma's only surviving sister. In answer to “What does she remember about her brother Mohandas as a child and as a boy? Did he play games?” she replied: “When Mahatmaji was young he used to play with rubber balloons, tennis, cricket and such other games. He used to have such great interest for those games that he would not remember even his meals ... He would not stay at home in the evenings as he would get engrossed in playing.”

The interview was conducted in December 1948. Ten years later, an Indian journalist met an old classmate of Gandhi's, who remembered a “dashing cricketer” who “evinced a keen interest in the game as a school student”. If these oral testimonies are reliable, Gandhi spun a cricket ball long before he spun khadi, the hand-woven cloth he argued should be worn by all Indians in preference to machine-made textiles.

The thought is appealing, even if the evidence of the printed record runs in the other direction. In his autobiography, which deals extensively with his childhood and schooldays, Gandhi does not mention cricket. In his 90-volume Collected Works there is only one reference, in the context of Hindu-Muslim relations. While other Indian nationalists such as Jawaharlal Nehru and C. Rajagopalachari keenly followed cricket, there is no record of Gandhi, in adult life, ever having attended a match. (Nor did he favour India's other great popular passion: he saw only one Hindi film, and that not in full.)

There is, however, an example of the famed Gandhian humour being applied to cricket. When Laxmi Merchant, the sister of the legendary Indian opening batsman Vijay Merchant, went to get the Mahatma's autograph, he scanned through her book for a suitable page, eventually settling upon one containing the names of the 1933-34 MCC touring party. Captained by Douglas Jardine, the team included the Yorkshire slow left-armer Hedley Verity and the Essex all-rounder Stan Nichols. The party had 16 members. To their list of numbered signatures was now appended: “17. M.K. Gandhi”.

Cricket barely touched Gandhi, yet, by virtue of who he was and what he did, he had a substantial impact on cricket in India. As I argued in A Corner of a Foreign Field, the Mahatma's teachings profoundly influenced the way the game was played and perceived. The first great Indian slow bowler, Palwankar Baloo, was an untouchable by caste, and so never became captain of the Hindus in the annual Quadrangular tournament.

His younger brother Vithal was luckier. His rise to cricketing prominence coincided with Gandhi's assumption of the leadership of the national movement. The Mahatma insisted that swaraj (freedom) would come only when Indians rid themselves of the pernicious practice of untouchability. Quoting this injunction, Vithal's supporters finally succeeded in having him chosen captain of the Hindu team. In the finals of the 1923 Quadrangular, the Hindus defeated the Europeans, with Vithal making a century. A patriot who watched the match later wrote: “The happiest event, the most agreeable upshot of the set of matches was the carrying of Captain Vithal on the shoulders of Hindus belonging to the so-called upper castes. Hurrah! Captain Vithal! Hurrah! Hindus who forget caste prejudice. Mahatma Gandhi Maharaj ki jai! [Glory to Mahatma Gandhi!]”

Vithal retired from first-class cricket in 1929. The next year Gandhi launched his famous Salt Satyagraha, and in May 1930 was thrown into jail, along with some 60,000 other nationalists. (Gandhi, who spent more than six years in British jails, fondly referred to prison as “His Majesty's Hotel”.) Later that year a young Australian named Donald Bradman scored 974 runs in five Tests in England. He became a hero, and not just in his homeland. That fine writer K.N. Prabhu, the long-time chief cricket correspondent of The Times of India, dated his admiration for the Don to that summer. As a boy growing up in Madras, venerating Gandhi, Nehru and their ilk, Prabhu saw Bradman as an avenging angel, punishing the English for putting Indians in jail.

These feelings were apparently widely shared. In later years Bradman got more fan mail from India than all other countries put together. One who expressed his admiration, though not in writing, was a certain Devadas Gandhi, youngest of the Mahatma's four sons. Devadas had also been jailed after the Salt March. He departed from his father in some significant ways. For one thing, he was a cricket nut. After leaving jail he became managing editor of the nationalist newspaper the Hindustan Times. He gave abundant coverage to sport, especially cricket, getting his paper to sponsor the scoreboard at Delhi's Feroz Shah Kotla stadium.

In 1948, with India newly independent, Devadas visited London to attend a meeting of Reuters, on whose board he served. But there was another purpose: to watch Bradman bat. Tickets for the Trent Bridge Test were sold out, but with the help of the grey eminences of Fleet Street a complimentary pass was procured. But all hotel rooms in Nottingham were sold out, too, and journalistic influence carried little weight there. Finally, the younger Gandhi found accommodation in the house of the warden of the Nottingham county jail.

This story was told by Devadas's eldest son, Rajmohan, a historian and biographer of repute. It provides the perfect coda to the story of Gandhi's relations with cricket: that his son, like the father a frequent visitor to Indian branches of His Majesty's Hotel, spent a night in the home of a British prison warden. To watch Bradman bat.

Ramachandra Guha's books include A Corner of a Foreign Field and India after Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy.

Fish eat away at malaria in India !!

Fish eat away at malaria in India
By Richard Black, BBC science correspondent, Chandigarh

Fish are being used to control malaria in India with remarkable success, according to researchers from the Indian Council for Medical Research. The mosquitoes which transmit malaria have virtually been eradicated from some areas. Scientists presented the results of several pilot projects at the Indian Science Congress in Chandigarh.

Malaria control takes up a substantial slice of India's health budget, largely through buying insecticides.

The theory is simple: find fish which like eating mosquito larvae and put them in ponds, rivers and wells where mosquitoes lay their eggs. The eggs hatch, and the fish eat the larvae.

Dr VP Sharma, a former director of India's Malaria Research Institute who now works with the Council for Medical Research, told the meeting that pilot projects in four states have met with remarkable success.

Introducing fish like guppies, he said, was one of the main reasons why the number of malaria cases each year in India was falling.

"They were more than two million," he said. "Now, actually, they have gone down to 1.8 million. The World Bank has a programme in 100 districts using the fish and it will take another five years before the real impact would be known."

Dr Sharma told the meeting that fish had virtually eliminated malaria-carrying Anopheles mosquitoes from some districts, though he cautioned that the strategy did not work everywhere.

Using fish in this way used to be a standard approach to malaria control, but when insecticides like DDT were introduced during the last century with apparently magical success, it fell into disuse.

Now mosquitoes have become resistant to many of these chemicals and fish are back on the menu.

The other attraction is cost. Supplying ponds with guppies is a cheap alternative to buying insecticides.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/3369341.stm

Termites feast on trader's money !!

Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7334033.stm

Termites feast on trader's money
By Amarnath Tewary Patna

A trader in the Indian state of Bihar has lost his life savings after termites infesting his bank's safe deposit boxes ate them up. Dwarika Prasad had deposited currency notes and investment papers worth hundreds of thousands of rupees in a bank safe in the state capital Patna.
The bank says it put up a notice warning customers of the termites.

Mr Prasad says he did not see it in time as he did not go to the bank for months after the notice went up. Bank officials admit they did not inform the customers individually about the termite problem.

'Shattered' "I'm shattered. I do not know what to do as I had kept the money for my old age," Mr Prasad said.

The trader says he had deposited 450,000 rupees ($11,000) in currency notes, investment papers worth 232,000 rupees ($5,660) and some gold and silver jewellery in a safe deposit box of the government-owned Central Bank of India.

Mr Prasad says that relations with his wife and children were strained and he wanted to put the money in the safe box to keep it safe from them. He started using the safe box in September 2005.

He says when he opened it on 29 January, there was nothing in the safe except termite dust and remains of currency notes and that his investment papers were "badly perforated".

The white ants did not even spare the ornaments and their sheen has vanished, he says.

"I wrote to the head office of the Central Bank of India and the regional offices of the Reserve Bank of India," Mr Prasad says. "Even after two months, I'm waiting for a response from them."
'Not liable' Bank authorities say they put up a notice, dated 8 May 2007, outside the locker room warning customers about the termite infestation.

They advised customers to remove their documents and papers from their safe.

"We received a few complaints of termites in safe deposit boxes so after putting on the notice, we got pesticides sprayed in the bank," said bank manager YP Saha. Mr Saha says the customer cannot blame the bank because he did not find his locker broken or damaged.

"The bank is not liable for the deposits kept inside the safe as it is only when a locker is found broken that the bank is answerable," he said.

Bank authorities say they have forwarded Mr Prasad's complaint to higher authorities but they say he is not entitled to any compensation for his loss.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

The Biology of Pain and Fatigue...

Source - http://www.machineslikeus.com/cms/news/biological-link-found-between-pain-and-fatigue
Biological link found between pain and fatigue

A recent University of Iowa study reveals a biological link between pain and fatigue and may help explain why more women than men are diagnosed with chronic pain and fatigue conditions like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.

Working with mice, the researchers, led by Kathleen Sluka, Ph.D., professor in the Graduate Program in Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science in the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, found that a protein involved in muscle pain works in conjunction with the male hormone testosterone to protect against muscle fatigue.

Chronic pain and fatigue often occur together -- as many as three in four people with chronic, widespread musculoskeletal pain report having fatigue; and as many as 94 percent of people with chronic fatigue syndromes report muscle pain. Women make up the majority of patients with these conditions.

To probe the link between pain and fatigue, and the influence of sex, the UI team compared exercise-induced muscle fatigue in male and female mice with and without ASIC3 -- an acid-activated ion channel protein that the team has shown to be involved in musculoskeletal pain.

A task involving three one-hour runs produced different levels of fatigue in the different groups of mice as measured by the temporary loss of muscle strength caused by the exercise.

Male mice with ASIC3 were less fatigued by the task than female mice. However, male mice without the ASIC3 protein showed levels of fatigue that were similar to the female mice and were greater than for the normal males.

In addition, when female mice with ASIC3 were given testosterone, their muscles became as resistant to fatigue as the normal male mice. In contrast, the muscle strength of female mice without the protein was not boosted by testosterone.

"The differences in fatigue between males and females depends on both the presence of testosterone and the activation of ASIC3 channels, which suggests that they are interacting somehow to protect against fatigue," Sluka said. "These differences may help explain some of the underlying differences we see in chronic pain conditions that include fatigue with respect to the predominance of women over men."

The study, which was published in the Feb. 28 issue of the American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, indicates that muscle pain and fatigue are not independent conditions and may share a common pathway that is disrupted in chronic muscle pain conditions. The team plans to continue their studies and investigate whether pain enhances fatigue more in females than males.

"Our long-term goal is to come up with better treatments for chronic musculoskeletal pain," Sluka said. "But the fatigue that is typically associated with chronic widespread pain is also big clinical problem -- it leaves people unable to work or engage in social activities. If we could find a way to reduce fatigue, we could really improve quality of life for these patients."

Bacterial Signal Processing !!

Source: http://www.machineslikeus.com/cms/news/the-future-digital-signal-processing-isnt-so-digital

The future of digital signal processing isn't so digital

Imagine fungi processing audio signals, E. Coli storing images, and DNA acting as logic circuits. It’s possible, and in some cases, it’s already happened. In any event, performing digital signal processing using organic and chemical materials without electrical currents could be the wave of the future -- or so argue Sotirios Tsaftaris, research professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and Aggelos Katsaggelos, Ameritech Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, in their recently published “point of view” piece in the Proceedings of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.)

Digital signal processing uses mathematics and other techniques to manipulate signals like visual images and sound waves after those signals have been converted to a digital form. This processing can enhance images and compress data for storage and transmission, and such processing chips are found in cell phones, iPods, and HD TVs.

But over the past 10 years, scientists and engineers around the world have experimented with performing signal processing using different materials. In their piece, Tsaftaris and Katsaggelos describe these experiments while stirring the engineering community towards “a possible not-so-electronic future” of digital signal processing.

For example, scientists and engineers have shown that certain chemicals, when mixed in a solution, don’t react until light is projected through them. So if you project light through a transparency image, these chemicals can record the image. When the chemicals are stimulated by light and controlled by the acidity of the mixture, basic image transformations like contour enhancement can happen.

But such processing tasks extend beyond chemicals to organic materials. Artist/scientist Cameron Jones found that out after he used audio CDs as substrates to grow fungi. He put the fungi-laced CDs in a CD player and found that the optically recorded sound was distorted by the fungi -- and the fungi growth patterns were dependent on the optical grooves recorded on the CD.

“The bacteria reacted to the recorded information, and the audio track was ‘processed’ by the grown fungus,” Tsaftaris says. “That is essentially bacteria signal processing.”

Using bacteria to process signals has even spurred a competition -- the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where undergraduate students compete to design biological systems that can perform simple computations. In 2005, a group modified E. coli cells to react to light, and the students created a layer of that bacteria that could perform edge detection of an image -- a basic processing task.

Tsaftaris’s and Katsaggelos’s research includes studying the use of DNA for digital signal processing. DNA strands can be used as input and processing elements, and, it turns out, DNA is an excellent data storage medium. Digital samples can be recorded onto DNA, which can be kept in a liquid form in test tubes to save space. That DNA can also be easily replicated using common laboratory techniques, and such a database could be easily searchable, no matter how large it is.
“It becomes a very attractive solution,” Tsaftaris says.

Though science is still years away from this possibility, engineers have created useful algorithms in their pursuit of the technology. Such algorithms have been used, for example, to better detect disease. But Tsaftaris hopes for a day when organic digital signal processing will allow for the implementation of the so-called “fast Fourier transform” -- a widely-used method of extracting useful information from sampled signals that Tsaftaris calls the “holy grail” of DNA signal processing.

“The cost and delivery time of DNA synthesis is being reduced exponentially, this making data input elegant and economical,” Tsaftaris and Katsaggelos write in the paper. But in the meantime, “don’t forget to feed the bacteria that nurture your precious jazz collection.”

Science Express Train Chugs across India..

Source: http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7335967.stm

Science Express train draws the crowds
By Prachi Pinglay BBC News, Mumbai

Jostling and rushing and pushing are characteristic features on trains in the overcrowded city of Mumbai. And it was no different on platform number 13 at the city's main railway station Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) except that the visitors here were school students. They were waiting to board "The Science Express", an Indo-German mobile science exhibition set on a train.

Twelve of the train's coaches display exhibits while the 13th coach has been turned into a "kids' lab" where children can participate in basic chemical experiments. The train was flagged off from the Indian capital Delhi in October last year. So far, it has travelled through 41 cities, Mumbai (Bombay) being its 42nd destination.

'Mentors'

It has covered far flung areas like Nagaland in the north-east and Jammu as well as many prominent cities. At the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, more than 20,000 guests were expected each day on the sparkling white train. Once on board, they can look at different aspects of science - from global warming to evolution of man, from potential sensors in cars to functions of human brain to the biggest bacteria in the world.

Organisers say they expect more than 200 children will participate in lab experiments everyday. Deployed on the train are science educators and "mentors" who assist the children in their experiments. And students on board seemed to be enjoying the attention.
Wearing gloves, aprons, glasses and holding tubes and containers at eye level, the children performed experiments for about half an hour.

"We have not done something like this before. Some experiments are part of our syllabus and it is fun to do this stuff," Pratik Kubal, a 16-year-old student of Gurukul School from north Mumbai said. Puja Singh, one of the "mentors" said, "I love interacting with children. Sometimes I make chemical compounds sound like characters from a story. I tell them this chemical is a hero and that one is a villain.

"They will first fight and then make up and then it would be a new compound. It is great fun when you see a happy, surprised look on their faces."

Huge response

Viral Makwana - a science educator from the western state of Gujarat - who has travelled with the train since its inception says this has been a rare experience. "No matter where you go, children are the same. They ask similar questions and express similar emotions. They may look different but their curiosity is the same."

Mr Makwana says in smaller towns, children are also curious about the city life. "They asked me questions like how is Delhi or Mumbai? Do you live like us, they ask? And I have to tell them about our lives here."

RY Vaidya, one of the sponsors of the exhibition, says, "More than 1.2 million visitors have already been aboard. This will make students interested in science and chemistry. Most of the schools do not have such facilities like interactive displays and models."

Mr Vaidya says the train has generated tremendous response at all the places where they have stopped. In Patna, capital of the eastern Bihar state, a record 350,000 visitors turned up in one single day.

"We were travelling in an auto rickshaw in Patna and we asked our driver what were the places to visit. He took us to the Science Express train. It was a heart warming experience to know that it was reaching the masses."

The Roma Journeys...

Source: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Joakim-Eskildsen-Roma-Journeys/dp/3865213715

The Roma, Sinti, Cale and other ethnic groups collectively referred to as Gypsies form the largest minority in Europe. Scattered across the globe they live in almost every part of the world, each group marked by a distinct language, culture and situation. Throughout their history, the Roma have been subjected to persecution, expulsions across Europe, slavery in Romania, prohibition on the use of the Romany language, and other creative attempts to misuse, assimilate or extinguish their people. Many Roma still have to deal with discrimination on various levels, and in all European countries, the general attitude towards them is at least suspicious.Cia Rinne and Joakim Eskildsen travelled to meet Roma in seven different countries (including India) between 2000 and 2006, often staying with families for long periods in order to learn about their life, their culture, and their situation. "The Roma Journeys" is a very personal document of these encounters, giving a contemporary view of the lives of the Roma people and their situation today.

A few of the photos taken in India:
http://www.joakimeskildsen.com/default.asp?Action=Menu&Item=100

Photographer Joakim Eskildsen's website: http://www.joakimeskildsen.com/Default.asp

Stranded in Airport for 16 years !!

Claim: A man has been living at a Paris airport since 1988.

Status: True.

Origins: Mehran Karimi Nasseri born 1942 in Masjed Soleiman, Iran, also known as Sir Alfred Mehran, is an Iranian refugee who lived in the departure lounge of Terminal One in Charles de Gaulle Airport from 8 August 1988 until August 2006, when he was hospitalized for an unspecified ailment.

Nasseri was reportedly the inspiration behind the 2004 movie The Terminal.

Read more about him here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mehran_Karimi_Nasseri&printable=yes
http://www.snopes.com/travel/airline/airport.asp
http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,1298104,00.html

Monday, April 7, 2008

Teaching Evolution

The Complete guide to Evolution...
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/evohome.html

Mobile Phones on Aeroplanes !!

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7334372.stm

Europe clears mobiles on aircraft

Mobile phone calls will be allowed on planes flying in European airspace under new European Commission rules. The decision means that mobiles could be used once a plane has reached an altitude of 3,000m or more. It follows six months of consultation by the European regulator and the first services could launch next month.

Viviane Reding, the EU telecoms commissioner, has warned operators to keep the cost of calls made on planes at a reasonable level. "If consumers receive shock phone bills, the service will not take-off. "I also call on airlines and operators to create the right conditions on board aircraft to ensure that those who want to use in-flight communication services do not disturb other passengers," she said.

The European Commission has introduced new rules to harmonise the technical requirements for the safe in-flight use of mobile phones. The commission is also making it possible to enable the national licences granted to individual airlines by a member state to be recognised throughout the EU.

The decision to offer the services now falls to individual airlines. However, there are other regulatory hurdles to overcome before the technology is considered to be fully approved.

The European Aviation Safety Agency still needs to approve any hardware that would be installed in aircraft to ensure that it did not interfere with other flight systems.

The plan is to install small mobile phone base stations, called pico cells, in aircraft that will be switched on after take-off. The base station generates a bubble of coverage in and around the aircraft.

Calls made via the pico cell will be routed to terrestrial networks via satellite link. Across Europe radio spectrum has been set aside for the technology. The services could stop working once aircraft leave European airspace.

Martin Selmayr, spokesman for Ms Reding's office, said that flight captains would be able to switch off the on-board service if they felt it necessary.

Initially, only second generation networks will be offered but growing interest would mean that third generation, or 3G, services will follow. The first flights offering calls could start as early as next month.

Air France is believed to be ready to deploy the technology while Ryanair is expected to submit an application. The cost of making a mobile phone call from a plane will be higher than making one from the ground.

In the UK, regulator Ofcom said it would investigate and address any evidence of "excessive charges and abuses of competition" if prices were set unfairly by airlines and mobile networks.
Ms Redding has said the EC had no plans to cap the cost of calls made on planes.

The European Commission backing means planes registered in one country would be able to offer mobile communications services to passengers when flying over other EU countries without having to apply for additional national licences.

Friday, April 4, 2008

PotPourri....

Unorganised bunch of videos/articles that I like. Will be updated time-to-time.

Al Seckel, a cognitive neuroscientist and master of visual illusions, explores some of the perceptual illusions that fool our eyes and our brains. Running through example after example of images that buck our expectations, he asks why such tricks make us so happy (The Pursuit of Happiness was the theme of the 2004 TED conference). He even creates some of his own illusions, challenging our notion of what's true.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/78

To date, there hasn't been an overarching theory of how the human brain really works, Jeff Hawkins argues in this compelling talk. That's because we still haven't defined intelligence accurately. But one thing's for sure, he says: The brain isn't like a powerful computer processor. It's more like a memory system that records everything we experience and helps us predict, intelligently, what will happen next. Bringing this new brain science to computer devices will enable powerful new applications -- and it will happen sooner than you think.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/125

P.S - When I first watched this, I was clueless on what he was saying. But second time around I got a hang of the talk and found it truely spectacular !!

Leonardo Da-Vinci has a face !!

Leonardo Da Vinci's life and work is well known -- but his own face is not. Illustrator and activist Siegfried Woldhek used some thoughtful image-analysis techniques to find what he believes is the true face of Leonardo.

Here, he walks viewers through exactly how he did it.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/235

Even Japaneese Crows are smart...

Many birds adapt to metropolitan life, in this clip you can see how crows in Japan have integrated city life into their behaviour.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BGPGknpq3e0&feature=related

And here's one more where crows are pictured using tools !!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xwVhrrDvwPM&feature=related

Underwater astonishments - TED Talk by David Gallo !!

David Gallo shows jaw-dropping footage of amazing sea creatures, including a shape-shifting cuttlefish, a pair of fighting squid, and a mesmerizing gallery of bioluminescent fish that light up the blackest depths of the ocean. He focuses on the work of two scientists: Edith Widder at the Ocean Research & Conservation Association, and Roger Hanlon at the Marine Biological Lab.

Watch it here:
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/206

Thursday, April 3, 2008

The Great Dictator...

The Great Dictator...

My all time favorite movie. The movie is based in the early 1940s when World war-2 was about to start. Charlie chaplin plays a dual role..as a demonic dictator called Henkel (spoof of Hitler) and as a Jewish barber in Germany. In his own satarical tone Charlie chaplin neatly portrays the 2 characters, their activities, their trials....all really funny but heavily loaded with political realities of that time. At the end of the movie by a quirk of fate Henkel is taken to be the Jewish barber and the Jewish barber is mistaken to be Henkel. The barber (mistaken to be Hitler) is alofted into a podium and is asked to address a large gathering of Nazi soldiers. What does the barber do ?? He comes out with one of the most memorable lines ever delivered in an English movie. Genuinely poignant !! A true master piece of Charlie chaplin. Curious ones may find the speech (video and text) in the following link:http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechthegreatdictator.html

The Boy with the Incredible Brain...

The Boy with the Incredible Brain...

Here's something I would urge one and all to have a look. It is a truly spectacular BBC documentary on a few "special" individuals with extraordinary mental capabilities.The story revolves around Daniel Tammet who can "recite" the decimals of Pi to the 22,500 th point or calculate products of 3-digit numbers and also learn a new language within 1 week. It also features Kim Peek who has a 98 % photographic memory ..i.e...he can read a book and remember at least 98% of its contents. The movie "Rain man" was based on Kim Peek.

Here is the link:http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2351172331453380070&q=bbc+duration%3Along

P.S - All the individuals featured in the story are inflicted with a condition called "Savant Syndrome".

From Wikipedia:Savant Syndrome describes a person having both a severe developmental or mental handicap and extraordinary mental abilities not found in most people. The Savant Syndrome skills involve striking feats of memory and often include arithmetic calculation and sometimes unusual abilities in art or music.

The Pale Blue Dot....Carl Sagan

Source: http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/voyager/pale_blue_dot.html

This excerpt from A Pale Blue Dot was inspired by an image taken, at Sagan's suggestion, by Voyager 1 on February 14, 1990. As the spacecraft left our planetary neighborhood for the fringes of the solar system, engineers turned it around for one last look at its home planet. Voyager 1 was about 6.4 billion kilometers (4 billion miles) away, and approximately 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane, when it captured this portrait of our world. Caught in the center of scattered light rays (a result of taking the picture so close to the Sun), Earth appears as a tiny point of light, a crescent only 0.12 pixel in size.

You can listen to the excerpt narrated by Carl Sagan here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=p86BPM1GV8M

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

-- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994

Its a woman's world !!

Be it humans..or birds, the female species captures all attention and it is the male who has to woo her.

Here's the Lyre Bird wooing his lady love !!

David Attenborough presents the amazing lyre bird, which mimics the calls of other birds - and chainsaws and camera shutters - in this video clip from The Life of Birds. This clever creature is one of the most impressive and funny in nature, with unbelievable sounds to match the beautiful pictures. This is live animal photography at its very best!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y

And here you can find how other birds use there plumes to attract their dames -

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gqsMTZQ-pmE&feature=related

And how to attract human females ?? Check it out here !!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fSvqYdTkeB4

Introducing the Marco Polo of Neuroscience...

In a wide-ranging talk, Vilayanur Ramachandran explores how brain damage can reveal the connection between the internal structures of the brain and the corresponding functions of the mind. He talks about phantom limb pain, synesthesia (when people hear color or smell sounds), and the Capgras delusion, when brain-damaged people believe their closest friends and family have been replaced with imposters.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/184

More on his profile and background here -
http://www.ted.com/speakers/view/id/164

And a link to his very fine lecture series on neuroscience
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2003/lecturer.shtml