Finished! Acabado! Fertig! Fini! Rifinito! Terminado!

Off to Jacksonville now!
Will blog if I can figure out the VPN access thingy.
The professed long post is off for now...
Sorry!

Bye now...

Oh BTW, got A in Electrochemistry...

Bye...

Gone!

Really...

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Me~ ~ThisBlog~

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Just won a Hershey's Happiness T-Shirt, when I bought a chcolate bar befor the supposedly 9am Biochem exam. When no one turned up for quite a while, I thought I was in the wrong classroom, so pulled out the schedule sheet to check.
The exam is at 3pm

Doubly lucky today I suppose! :D

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Me~

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All right! Another subject vanquished! Now for Biochem.

Meanwhile, taking inspiration from my roomie I've started collecting the US State Quarters series. I've managed to collect 12, I think, out of the 25 released till now... I was thinking that would be a good list to fill up the space on the left :D So there it is! Will update with numbers soon...
Also, since I'll probaby not be able to post for the next two weeks, I think I'll dig up somehing big and post it to compensate for that ;-)

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Me~ ~ThisBlog~
Edited on: Friday, December 19, 2003 12:28 PM
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Just got back from the Electrochemistry exam... not bad.. should get an A. Now the Electron Microscopy exam tomorrow [I know not at what time] and Biochemistry on Saturday 9:00 am. Then a glorious two week break in Florida!

Haven't had much time to read the latest issue of Nature, but the concept article on the evolution of Gaia Hypothesis is interesting. Plus is alwasy good to know such gems as "even among the beneficiaries of a college education [in USA], only 16.5% are prepared to concede that Homo sapiens is a product of evolution, unaided by the hand of God."
I'm now convinced that I'm in a good place for higher education in Science! :P

Oh BTW, did you know that "there is a great deal of structure in the Universe; the galaxies are not laid out randomly, but form in clusters, and super-clusters; and
these clusters and superclusters are laid out along walls and filaments, with huge empty voids between them." !!!

Just found that out when I was trying to understand what Dark Matter is. [No, it's not the stuff Darth Vader is made of... :-| ]

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Me~ ~Science~
Edited on: Thursday, December 18, 2003 5:07 PM
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Seven memorable News and Views articles from Nature 2003.

The largest book ever is now here - The photo book on Bhutan is a 60 kg behemoth measuring 5' X 7' when opened and costs $ 10,000. The profits will go to Friendly Planet, which builds/runs schools in Bhutan and Combodia.

In Passing: Yesterday I had the weirdest dream ever [while napping on the couch insead of studying...]! I kept 'waking up' from one dream into another, only to realize that I was dreaming and 'wake up' again into another dream! Happened seven times before I actually woke up for - I think - real.

Have you ever had a dream Neo...

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Fun~ ~Science~

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Laughing, chortling, guffawing, cracking up, chuckling, giggling, howling, snickering, tittering etc. are strictly forbidden while viewing this page.

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Fun~

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Interesting article - "our Solar System is surrounded by an expanding 'biosphere' of dormant microbes preserved inside rock fragments" .... and.... "Wherever it started, life could have spread across the Milky Way on timescales that are short compared with the 10-billion-year estimated age of our galaxy."

And on the Cambrian Explosion - "The computer model showed there were two zones of stability for the Earth - with or without higher lifeforms - and that 542 million years ago the planet flipped from one to the other. What caused the flip is not clear. It might have been a continental break-up, or even an asteroid impact."

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Science~

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Apparetly, it's not only in the past couple of centuries that human beings have changed the atmosphere and the climate. According to latest research, "anthropogenic emissions of CO₂ and CH₄ first altered atmospheric concentrations thousands of years ago..... [due to] the start of forest clearance by 8000 years ago and of rice irrigation by 5000 years ago. In recent millennia, the estimated warming caused by these early gas emissions reached a global-mean value of aprox. 0.8 ^oC and roughly 2^oC at high latitudes, large enough to have stopped a glaciation of northeastern Canada predicted by two kinds of climatic models." So apparently, we have staved of the latest Ice age that was supposed to start about 4-5 thousand years ago! Read the NYTimes article and the paper in the journal 'Climatic Change' [req. sub.]

In Passing: For some sadistic reasons known only to Post-Docs, I spent three hours yesterday cutting spinach leaves to little pieces - after first removing the tiny veins on them! [Actually, that's the first step in a long winded procedure for extracting Photosystem I - the protein complex I'm working on.]

Next time I have to do that, I'm going to first invent the transmogrifier, transmogrify myself into a leafcutter ant and then do all the cutting. THAT will be so much easier!

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Science~
Edited on: Thursday, December 11, 2003 9:23 PM
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From this week's Nature [subscription req.]

• "...terms that are the first to be learned by a child, are usually expressed by a single word in most languages, are remembered best and are preferentially used when we 'talk to ourselves'. They are, in the cognitive-sciences jargon, 'basic concepts'" - Interesting article about linguistics, cognition and communication.


• Now anybody can overtake light, because light is not going to move at all! After bringing c down to few meters per second, now it's been bought to a complete standstill. At least, that's what the experiment effectively translates to. Quantum memory anyone?


• And finally, a look at San Diego - the upcoming center for Infotech as well as Biotech/Pharma.

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Science~
Edited on: Thursday, December 11, 2003 1:07 PM
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...TESTS BY X-RAY PLANNED
Check out this archived news from the NYTimes.

In another NYTimes news piece, a NY University film student made a film showing a conversation between two people - with every word bleeped out - when the university wouldn't allow her to go through with her original - and rather risque - idea for a class project.

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Fun~ ~Science~
Edited on: Monday, December 08, 2003 5:35 PM
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For those who don't know how the game Angband got it's name, here goes...
And Melkor made also a fortress and armoury not far from the north-western shores of the sea, to resist any assault theat might come form Aman. That stronghold was commanded bu Sauron, lieutenannt of Melkor; and it was named Angband.
...and...
But of those unhappy ones [elves] who were ensnared by Melkor little is known of a certainty. For who of the living has descended into the pits of Utumno [Angband], or has explored the darkness of the counsels of Melkor? Yet this is held true by the wise of Eressea, that all those of the Quendi [elves] who came into the hands of Melkorn ere Utumno was broken, were put there in prison, and by slow arts of cruelty were corrupted and enslaved; and thus did Melkor breed the hideous race of Orcs in envy and mockery of the Elves, of whom they were afterwards the bitterest foes.

--- The Silmarillion, J. R. R. Tolkein

BTW, watched "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb". Awesome dark comedy about the cold war and the bomb. A must see! Plan to watch more Kubrick ...and Tarantino.

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Fun~ ~GeekStuff~
Edited on: Sunday, December 07, 2003 4:02 PM
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Two articles in NYTimes:
The latest one: India's Political Women: Progress or Window Dressing? - a frank view of role of women in Indian politics, although the RSS is bashed for being male chauvanistic. Don't know what RSS actually says, but the writer holds that "The Hindu nationalist movement ... holds largely traditional views about the role of women." and the author of "The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India.", Christophe Jaffrelot is quoted saying "Woman is first of all mother" for the Hindu nationalist movement.

The older one,- Hindu Nationalists Are Enrolling, and Enlisting, India's Poor - archived on a site for Islam Awareness [haven't read much of it, but seems like they're projecting Islam to be a benevolent relegion]. This one is really ranting, more or less, about RSS organisations taking in poor kids and kids from tribal areas into schools that have a RSS viewpoint on everything. RSS and the people involved in it are frequently described to be fascist, militant, crusaders, and having missionary's zeal! :LOL: The tone of the article is as if to say that they are doing some great injustice - esp. by taking young impressionable minds and 'educating' them to suite their purpose

So when Christian charities and missionaries do the same thing, it's delivering the message of the Lord [no, not Lord Kelvin ;-)], and saving pagan souls [I doubt they use those phrases publically anymore!] but when people of other religions/nationalities do it, that's injustice? Interesting...

If on the other hand, if you watch TV in US, [and also the president invoking god in each and every speech!] you would think that most Americans are religious fanatics! And you would probably be right. A recent article in NYTimes featured poll results which said that more than 60% of the people in US said religion was "very important" in their lives, as opposed to only 30% in Europe.

God Bless America! :LOL:

And one on BBC:
New directions? - Mark Tully asks if India's era of Hindu nationalism is over. - This one is pretty good. Compares the BJP and Cong campaigns, and wonders whether Indian politics and governance is changing..... I wonder too!

UPDATE:
I'd pointed to the State of the Planet series in the previous post, but I'd like to specifically point to a component of it - The Tragedy of the Commons - "It is our considered professional judgment that this dilemma has no technical solution." During the cold war, this was the conclusion about the arms race. This article transfers that to the debate over the right to use resources i.e. freedom to do as you please vs. survival of the species and planet as a whole. Long and scholarly [as opposed to simplistic] and highly recommended reading.

- Chinmay

Categories - ~India~ ~World~
Edited on: Thursday, December 04, 2003 4:29 PM
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Quotes from Lord Kelvin. You must have read some of them here and there, but this is a big compilation. Interesting.

Also, some news from this weeks Nature -

• United States and India forge military research deal [NEW DELHI] India and the United States are set to sign an agreement that will allow their defence scientists to share classified military research.
• Balloon adventurer seeks to broaden horizons [MUNICH] Engineers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne are due to begin work on the Solar Impulse — a solar-powered aircraft that they hope will complete a non-stop flight around the world.

Cool article: Liquid on liquid microfluidics system. Watch the nice movies too!

In Science magazine: A thought provoking series - State of the Planet. [This one would also require subscription methinks.]

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Fun~ ~Science~
Edited on: Wednesday, December 03, 2003 6:34 PM
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Very interesting! -
The mammalian diving reflex may allow victims of near drowning to survive long periods of submersion in cold water. First identified in seagoing mammals, this reflex slows the heartbeat and constricts the peripheral arteries, shunting oxygenated blood away from the extremities and the gut to the heart and brain. Also, in cold water, the oxygen needs of the tissues are reduced, extending the possible time of survival.^[1]

[1]The Merck Manual, 2003 [also see the Home Edition - for light reading ;-)]

More detailed information on numerous seagoing websites, e.g. here and a neat experiment you can do. Residents of Duluth can directly jump into Lake Superior - through a suitably carved hole in the ice of course! ;-)

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Science~
Edited on: Monday, December 01, 2003 4:15 PM
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