TED Tuesday: String theory

Physicist Brian Greene explains superstring theory, the idea that minscule strands of energy vibrating in 11 dimensions create every particle and force in the universe.

Too mundane for space travel?

Who would have thought that a nickel and titanium “memory metal” known as Nitinol, recently popular for use in dental braces, would have been originally developed by NASA for aerospace uses! This new alloy does not crimp when bent and returns to its original shape as teeth shift! But that’s not the only invention that fascinates you with the fact that it was originally invented for space travel. A few days back I came across this article from Radaronline.com that shares with its readers 13 such items that we use in our daily lives which were originally invented for space travel. They range from handheld video cameras to Zen perfume. Check it out!

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Sunday Spotlight: CPAK 2009

CPAK (Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge) began in 2004 as a means of bringing together scientists from various disciplines together; scientists who were truly open-minded and were ready to think unconventionally; scientists who didn’t believe all of what the text books tell us and wanted to consider what the so called legends and myths of cultures worldwide say; scientists who wanted to know what really happened on this planet in the past. According to CPAK website, “Over the last five years CPAK has become the premiere gathering place for those interested in ancient cultures, lost knowledge and the cycle of the ages. Leading explorers, authors, professors and scientists make presentations and examine the latest archaeological finds, astronomical research and new interpretations of structures, myth and folklore that shed light on the true history of mankind. The result is an epiphany of awareness as we collectively begin to understand where we came from and where we are going in this ascending age.”

I thought of sharing this event with my readers as I feel at least some of you will find it interesting like I do. This year’s conference is on October 10th at the University of California’s Irvine campus in CA, USA. If you are truly interested, I’ll leave it up to you to visit the website, read, watch and listen more. There are some samples of past presentations at the conference to whet your appetite. Happy “knowledging”!

Sunday Spotlight: Devavision Productions

Some time back I came across and watched the video Scientific Verification of Vedic Knowledge on Google videos. This video is made by a group of people who call themselves Devavision Productions. The website homepage spells out their moto to be “Revealing the hidden treasure of India‘s ancient Vedic wisdom and culture“.

I was really impressed with the research these people have done and the efforts they are putting in to get the word out there. I believe that there is a lot of ancient knowledge (not just in India but in other cultures as well) which is still “hidden” from us because we infact haven’t reached the spiritual, scientific and cultural maturity that is needed to comprehend it. So I’m delighted to see someone put in some serious effort towards “uncovering” that knowledge. Hence I thought I would do my bit of “publicising” this commendable effort and write a blog entry about them. Check them out if you are interested in ancient Indian knowledge!

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Sci-tech goes arty

I have written quite a few posts before which showcase the merger of science/technology and art. The endeavours have ranged from fascinating micro-photography to Frizions to high-speed captures of shattering objects. Today I’m sharing with you one more spectacular example of science/technology and artistic inspiration combining. The source of this art-work is the ‘Glowing animals: Pictures of Beasts Shining for Science’ photogallery.

How does it glow?

Multiple colors of fluorescent protein, introduced into its DNA (2008)

What can we learn?

One of the team of scientists that won a 2008 Nobel Prize for green fluorescent protein—Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Y. Tsien–couldn’t resist showing off their creation a bit. From Tsien’s lab comes this artful plate with selectively swabbed fluorescent bacteria. The discovery of green fluorescent protein by Shimomura in 1956 was the result of crushing countless jellyfish. After publishing his findings in 1962, Shimomura studied GFP in detail and realized that no extra fuel was needed to make it glow–other glowing substances need chemical additives to shine. GFP, by contrast, just needed to be exposed to ultraviolet light.Chalfie, the third of the GFP Nobel winners, realized the maintenance-free protein could be used to literally watch how creatures work. He proved with the intestinal bacterium E.
coli that GFP alone–with no fuel–glowed, and promptly started putting it into roundworms.Roger Tsien kicked it up a notch by reengineering GFP to be cyan, blue, and yellow. Yet more colors were found in fluorescent coral. He remixed these materials into glowing proteins such as “mPlum,” “mStrawberry,” and “mOrange.”Though their inventions may have revolutionized the fields of medicine, biology, and chemistry, the fluorescent proteins also have creative applications, as shown above. Fluorescent proteins have also been used in the name of art to make sculptures out of glowing beakers and live glowing rabbits.
— Photograph courtesy UC San Diego via AP

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TED Tuesday: Homo Evolutis

….. the species that takes control of the evolution of his/her own species ….. and the others’.

This 17.5 minute talk by Juan Enriquez is another of the fascinating ones from the TED talks. The idea of how our species could evolve in near future is mind-boggling. The ability of our descendents to see, hear and talk would cover a much wider range of light and sound spectrum. They would have all the sensory capabilities of all the other creatures on this planet that fascinate us today. And may be, there would be no other species left on this planet either …..

$6 solar cooker to save the world!

Just came across this amazing story on Discover magazine‘s blog!

“The Kyoto Box, a $6 solar cooker made from cardboard, has won the Financial Times-sponsored Climate Change Challenge contest for innovative ways to decrease the human impact on the environment. Its capacity to not only cook food but also sterilize water could help three billion people reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The Kenya-based Norwegian creator of the cooker, Jon Bøhmer, has been awarded $75,000 to put the idea into production.“

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What would you un-invent?

[Image source: http://www.sonic.net/]

Today I had decided not to write any blog post, just take a break. But when surfing the internet, I came across a very short and simple yet very interesting article. It is written by Paul Marks on the New Scientist blog, Short sharp science. The author puts forth a very simple scenario and a question for his readers: If you were able to use a time-machine and go back in time, which invention would you un-invent to make the world a better place (in your view, of course)? And this post has recieved 183 comments. I didn’t read all of them but the first 30 odd I read gave some interesting and amazing answers, ranging from God to internet to roundabouts. So I HAD TO sign in to my blog and share this with my readers!

As for me, I’d un-invent the first ever steam-machine that began the industrialisation and I’d also un-invent religion. In my view, the world would be a much better place without both these. The former has brought the world too close for comfort and yet managed to isolate every human. The latter has brought a subgroup of the populace together but alienated it from the rest of the human race.

So, what would YOU un-invent?

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Making science fun

This is going to be a quick little post about something interesting I found on Twitter. Spangler Science’s Twitter profile describes itself as “The coolest educational toys, science kits and hands-on science activities that make learning science fun.” It is an endeavour started by Steve Spangler from Englewood, CO in the US that is a great resource of apparatus and ideas for kids to perform some really cool science experiments. Spangler takes the science out of the confines of a lab and makes in outdoor, fun activity. There are even field trips arranged such as ‘Science at the sea’. Steve also has a blog that keeps his fans / users updated with new ideas. There is even an “experiment of the week” widget that anyone can install. The blog also gives links to his presence on other social networks, fun videos of experiments amongst other things. A website/service that has won the 2008 award from Edublog for ‘best use of video/visual’ is definitely worth a look. Whether you do or do not have kids, it is bound to make science fun for you!

And just as I finished writing this post, I came across this blog post by BadAstronomer Phil Plait about an artist who incorporates science in her paintings for kids! Tiffany Ard had been an artist and an award-winning designer for over 14 years, mostly creating corporate web sites and print pieces for giant faceless corporations. But now she draws pictures of microscopes and laws of planetary motion, to name only few, and conveys scientific concepts through them. They’re sold to parents all over the world who want to make education of their kids creative and entertaining. Besides ‘science art’, she also does some other art work like Plexiglass paintings. Check her out!

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… how I wonder what you are!

I was first going to title this blog “twinkle twinkle little star”. But as I repeated the old nursery rhyme to myself I realised the second line more appropriately captured the essence of astronomy; how I wonder what you are! For eons, we humans have looked up in the night sky I wondered about what the little twinkling wonders were. Depending on our level of scientific and technological advancement it could be simply gazing upward with naked eye and trying to join the dots making imaginary creatures or it could be focusing a humongous telescope array on colliding galaxies to learn about how the universe came about. But the heavenly bodies never stop intriguing us. The branch of science that studies the celestial objects is called ‘astronomy’, from the Greek words astron meaning “star” and nomos meaning “law”. 2009 has been declared the International year of astronomy (IYA 2009).

I have wanted to write about IYA 2009 for a while but today was a good day to do so. The RTR09 campaign for which I’ve been volunteer blogging lately has nothing scheduled for the next three days so it is a good time for me to get back to my science writing. Also, one of the cornerstone projects for IYA 2009, 100 hours of astronomy, began yesterday. This is a worldwide marathon event that goes on for 100 hours straight and astronomers and lovers of astronomy organise and participate in various events around the globe dedicated to astronomy for these 100 hours. A special 24 hour-long webcast is going to be broadcasted that will take you on the tour around the world in 80 telescopes starting 9am UT today. It will include interviews of scientist at these facilities, their overview and some views of what one can see from these on-land and in-orbit telescopes. It starts in about 30 minutes so tune in fast!

There is a treasure-trove of information on the website (link above) for those interested so I recommend you have a look for yourself. You will find events in your area or information about how to organise one, projects you can participate in from anywhere in the world and also grants being awarded to promote the interest of general public in astronomy. So go out in the open and start observing those “twinkle twinkle little stars” that “up above the world so high” shine and glitter “like a diamond in the sky” and make you exclaim “how I wonder what you are!”

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