thescian

This is the last blip before Scienceblogs.com/thescian fades into the background. I am no more a blogger. The past few years has been a memorable journey and your company was wonderful. A big thank you to you, the readers, and to Scienceblogs who made this a great experience for me. Please visit…

So, wife asked me what's with connectedness of the stuff in this world, synchronicity and such. Well, there is much to say. Let's take this, for instance: Place the picture of a BZ reaction snapshot and a CMB picture side by side. One is a chemical reaction in a small dish, the other is a seven…

I find myself scrubbing (my own person, that is, please read on) vigorously without being aware only to realize later that I am listening to a fast-paced music while bathing. Most of you would have experienced the connection between music and pace of physical action. Amateur observations made while…

Go here. There's a search box to look for organs. Quite neat.

A remarkable and inspiring presentation of data. Dr Rosling, of course, has been pioneering this for a while now. There is a recent piece in the Economist which I found informative as well. More vidoes linked here.

The thing is, it is dark, but wait, actually, it is not. I mean...

That's Narayanan Krishnan, who has dedicated his life to feeding the poor in Madurai. You can vote for him at CNN Heroes 2010. He could use the prize money.

So, there's a new heavier neutron star that has been found. Here's a question: How close can we physically get to it while still keeping most of the atoms in our body intact? We seem to be OK at 3000 light years. Would we be fine at 10 light years, 1 light year, 5000 miles? I suppose if we figure…

NYT should be ashamed of itself. The readers know a shit piece when they see it and they make it known in no uncertain terms. Here's a recent interview with John Le Carré at Writers & Company where he discusses the backdrop (Deep State, as he calls it) and the strangling effect it has on…

Ed Witten, the physicist whom many consider a man of genius, has had remarkable early years. Below was linked at Hacker News. How long will you need to find your truest, most productive niche? This I cannot predict, for, sadly, access to a podium confers no gift of prophecy. But I can say that…

Man can only have a certain quantity of hair, teeth and ideas. There comes a time when he necessarily loses his teeth, his hair and his ideas. -Voltaire.

Real High Definition as it is called [link]. Allows you to see Leonardo da Vinci's genius at close range. At this range the canvas appears to be quite like human skin--the colors, shadows and cracks on the canvas, extraordinary. Looking at this, I had one of those moments inside my head when the…

In cases of unclear legal grounds, a proper court judgement is one that leaves all parties mildly dissatisfied. The Ayodhya verdict may be one such judgement and that is a good thing.

There much ado about like at Beebs after actress Thompson was, like, very upset by, like, words and such. This comment by a reader named Colin was very clever. Comparing "like" to "um" and "ah" as a filler/thought pause is okay, but there's one major difference. The listener can easily filter out…

What does it mean to me? Mostly, I am annoyed. There are more annoyed people commenting at beebs. This is a state visit. If you are wondering which state the Pope hails from, it's the state of Vatican and it's a monarchy. The Pope is the monarch of Vatican. Seriously. What should we do in UK,…

Audio at The Guardian. Great fun listening to them talk so freely, especially the last minute when Attenborough shares a good laugh with Dawkins.

So, I was taking a trip down memory lane (via a data backup CD created 8 years ago) and found this poem saved up for later reading. Not sure why I had this particular one saved. Anyho, here it is. My young son asks me Bertolt Brecht My young son asks me: Must I learn mathematics? What is the use,…

Here's the thing about Google Instant: it's a rather nifty thing but that's not what is important. What is crucial is the introduction of 'a new kind of "conversational" search interaction'. So, now you can talk to the search engine. Microsoft tried this paradigm some years ago, I think, with some…

A NY Times article on the remarkable and inspiring response of two women who lost their husbands in the September 11 attacks. The woman, Susan Retik, has pursued perhaps the most unexpected and inspiring American response to the 9/11 attacks. This anniversary of Sept. 11 feels a little ugly to me,…

This recent research is a significant finding on what could be the cause and potential cures.

A carnival about shit. So grab a...stool....sez Mike.

A seemingly simple question. It's what a hot or cold body--any body, for that matter--has. And, the perfectly valid answer. But, Nature, as we have learnt over the course of humanity's scientific discoveries, is like an onion without a core, it's layers all the way. So, after we peel the question…

Plug Computer Every hackers dream (certainly my dream, in any case) is a dozen of these chugging away quietly in the basement, in the living room, in the bathroom, in the car, in the bike... providing all the services that make living a thrill. What services, you ask. Let's see. Here's a few I can…

are acute especially when those carrying it are active in sports like running. Some recent updates at NY Times.

The story so far: We really don't know much. This being from a very very smart person (she's the most cited physicist?), I look forward to an exciting future in physics.

This is inspiring stuff. From Economist: SANTOSH OSTWAL, husband and father of two, lost his apartment in 2001 after quitting his job in Pune to solve an engineering problem he'd been thinking about for twenty years. Today his solution - a mobile-phone adaptation that triggers irrigation pumps…

Am sure many of you are following the latest developments [Geomblog , Lipton] with interest. P vs NP is one of The Millennium Problems. Here's a neat explanation of the problem with the use of Minesweeper game.

Recently saw Laura Barrett (Canadian Indie musician) playing the Kalimba. Great sound and so compact. Tenori-on. On the other side of Kalimba in simplicity. But, very cool. And, Vuvuzela. :-)

Al Jazeera coverage. BBC reports on how when the government is inept, militant groups fill the gap.

Alfred Russel Wallace was a great traveller, observer, collector and naturalist who lived at the same time as Darwin. He sent Darwin his thoughts on evolution of species after extensive observations around the world, especially in and around Borneo. This accelarated Darwin to publish his…