Vrooooommmm.....

Hey check these out. Aren't they cool?

There is something wrong with the "comments" section in blogger. It does not get updated properly. Mine was also showing only 9 comments (while in reality there were 11) a few minutes ago. Now tis ok. This is a problem that I have noticed in quite a few blogs. The point is if you do not want miss any comments do not rely on what the link says. Keep checking regularly.
Regards
K

How I wish!!!

After almost a week, the giant water taps have finally been turned off and the dryer turned on. Well I was alluding to the rain and the sun. It was a nice and pleasant day yesterday. On my way back home from the lab I decided to take the campus bus and as a reward I was dumped unceremoniously in the huge parking lot on campus where the buses are usually refuelled. There is nothing unique about that place. It is infact quite ubiquitous except for the fact that yesterday there were people flying airplanes in the p lot. Ok they were the miniature models. So what one might ask....... anything that flies against gravity amazes me endlessly. I am a person who thinks that the airplanes are one of the most wonderful of human inventions. I love flying. The pleasure I derive when the airplane lifts off, and I feel a familiar pull behind my navel as if somebody were drawing me with a hook, is immense. How I wish I could also fly like a bird....

As I write this post I recall some of the memorable moments that I would like to put down here. I always used to run up to the terrace at my home whenever I heard the familiar thunder of jet engines. I would sit there staring at the trails of white left behind these monstrous birds. I often dreamt of flying a plane once myself. But strangely Iam also afraid of heights, the bundle of contradictions that I am. Days passed by and I still used to gape whenever I heard an airplane.

The incident I mention here is pretty recent. I was working in Hyderabad and I had gone out with a colleague of mine (he was a senior scientist and my boss). There came the usual sound from above and involuntarily my head lifted up and when the plane had passed, each of us was looking at the other with a sheepish grin on our faces. For I realised that day, that we shared a common passion. In fact he had done a lot of research and had even considered taking professional flying lessons, only dropping it when he found that they were too expensive. He realised that I was infatuated with the concept of flying and when I resigned the job to come here, he and another colleague gifted me with two of the best books I have ever read on flying "Biplanes" and " A gift of wings" by Richard Bach. Apparently Bach was a pilot himself. Lucky guy.sigh......

Anyways I never thought I would fly in a plane much less relish every minute of it. I am eagerly waiting for the next time I can fly, which is when I fly back home. A double treat huh ;)...

Coffee mugs and me....

How can such extraordinary incidents not grace the beautiful pages of my blog.I should have decided long ago that coffee mugs (the ceramic ones) were not for me. Me and coffee mugs were not made for each other. But I like the biggest dumbo won't yield to such trivial incidents. Ok I know. I still have to explain the circumstances leading to the mysterious opening statement.

Well it is nothing much. Its just that I seem to have very bad streak of luck with my coffee mugs. One may wonder why anybody would have more than one mug. It is just that I went on buying a new one after each one broke, thinking that atleast that would stay. To tell the truth one of them even was a gift. And it is nobody's fault that the cups broke.

I realised after many painful moments of reconcilation, in which I had to collect the broken shards of an object that had so many memories associated with it, that I simply was not made for it.I should from here onwards resist my urge to buy a new one. I should probably consider a steel cup instead. It would not break you see :)

Accidents and Intellects

I have got this new urge to write short staccato bursts on various topics that all my blogs will be short and simple for some time atleast to come.

I was walking down to my lab and I was contemplating whether scientific discoveries are accidental or are they the results of years and years of intellectual premeditation. I guess you have both kinds. Sir Issac Newton was day dreaming or rather having an afternoon siesta when an apple planted itself on his head with not too less force. Something snapped inside him then that lead to the world famous discovery of gravity. But nobody knows whether he used to think about it prior to that incident.

So why I brought that up was because many a times I stumble on to something important in the lab by sheer accident and that makes me feel guilty. "I should have thought of this before myself", I tell myself. Were all these years of education wasted on me? I don't know. Sometimes I do think and plan out an experiment (not that it always works). But then at those times I feel satisfied that my knowledge has been put to proper use, even if the experiment does not go as I planned. Couple of days ago I read that the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to two Australian doctors who discovered that ulcers were caused by bacteria, partly by accident, the news report said in brackets. So does that make them feel atleast a wee bit more guilty because they cannot take full credit to the invention. I don't know. I should probably find out ;) I should also mention that one of the doctors in the duo swallowed a solution containing the bacteria and infected himself just to prove his point(because prior to this discovery it was widely belived that ulcers were primarily the result of stress). I bow down to his commitment and dedication.

Another post ;)

Two posts in a day!!! wow that must be a miracle. Anyways, this was something which I wrote yesterday and could not publish coz the blogger was down. I felt that it must be sort of an omen, that I was not supposed to write ;) Anyways here it is

I have always had a very fertile imagination. As I read a story, I would conjure up images of the characters, of the places. As I hear somebody speak about something I would attribute faces to the people in question (although I didnot necessarily know them).But when people talk about the past I somehow always end up imagining things in B&W (black and white). I can never imagine the past in color. Their clothes are in various shades of gray, the places are dark and dull.Is it strange? I do not know. I have never bothered finding out.Perhaps it is because Iam used to seeing the photos from the good old days in black and white.Perhaps it is the effect of a lot of old B&W movies. Well the point is that although there is always a face for a person in my mind, there is no color in the past.

Hmm I donot know whether that was mindblowing or complete trash. But thought would just share it with ya all.

Lets talk about it!!!

"I am frustrated. Frustrated at my inability to communicate what it is I do. When meeting people at a party, I struggle after initial pleasantries have turned to the topic of occupations. ‘Doctor’, ‘teacher’, or ‘lawyer’ immediately tell everything about a profession in a single word. The day-to-day routine, the difficulties faced, and the difference they make are all instantly recognizable. I, on the other hand, watch eyes slowly glaze over while I try to explain materials science. In avoiding scientific terms, I am left grasping at half-sensible analogies while making increasingly fraught gestures with my hands.

I am also puzzled. Why is science communication so difficult? Surely, a large part of science is explaining how new findings reinforce or alter our current picture of how things are, how they work, or how they can be made to work? I also believe there is an increasing public appetite for science. Biomedical discoveries or images from the extremities of the solar system are now front-page news, and often the only ‘good’ news. Physics – that notoriously ‘difficult’ science – currently has a high profile with the World Year of Physics. In fact, it is hard to escape Einstein just now, with even comedy shows and dance performances celebrating his famous three papers of 1905.

Not only must researchers confront the barrier of people not bothering to understand, but these fast-paced, media-saturated times mean that only simple messages resonate. Often, reporting concentrates not on the results themselves but what they may lead to in future, as that is what the layperson can appreciate in the available time. So, it is very easy to oversell the science, going too far in ‘sexing up’ a story: fuel cells will solve our clean energy needs; stem cells will cure Parkinson's.

There are difficult debates to be had where science must face wider ethical issues or various personally held values. This includes the potential risks of exposure to free, engineered nanoparticles, balancing security with civil rights in developing ever more pervasive sensing technologies, and the disposal of nuclear waste. Here, societal involvement is absolutely necessary. If science experts are still to be heard and trusted, then open, honest communication is critical. That includes elaborating on the research process, the available evidence, and the inherent uncertainties."

I flicked that article from a magazine called "Materials Today". That was the editorial. I read it and I immediately could connect to it. When people ask me what I do for a living I have to hmmm.....haanhhhh......scratch my head before I can effectively communicate what is it that I do. Communicating in science is very important to bring in to focus such abstract (they are not so abstract to me) topics. Lets talk about it.