Talk by Prof. K. Shridhar

I set off yesterday morning with my friend from SEDS days, Pranav to the Prithvi Theatre in Juhu. We made our way from Chembur Naka to Matunga, walked to the Western Railway station and caught a train to Vile Parle. From there we caught a rickshaw to Juhu. Google affords quite a wrong idea by providing the address as being in Vile Parle (East) instead of Vile Parle (west). This led to some confusion. Also the lack of directions on the Prithvi Theatre website helped. TIFR website hasn't been useful a bit.

As a result of all of the above, we came into the talk about 15 minutes late. The “Chai and Why?” session titled, “Extra Dimensions”.

While we came in, Prof. Sridhar was explaining Immanuel Kant's explanation of why there should be only 3 dimensions. He says Kant suggested that since most of the theories worked well in 3 dimensions, there should be only three dimensions. I didn't catch this one quite properly.

The talk then went on to the story of Einstein's Theories of Relativity – 1905 and 1915. He went on to say about space-time and the space-time fabric explanation that Einstein provided. This introduced time as an extra fourth dimension. However, this raised questions and the talk was centered on these questions raised by physicists in the 1920s and 1930s. Could there be extra dimensions? Was there a need for these extra dimensions? Why just 4 – why not more?

Prof. Sridhar then slipped into the world of particle physics and spoke about the understanding of the 1920s to the present day understanding including the Standard Model which worked well, he said, with 4 out of the 5 forces. The one force left out of this Model was gravity. Gravity was that one sore thumb which physicists were trying to put in its place. Before this, physicists were working on a theory called the String Theory to explain strong nuclear forces. This theory led to having gravity inherently in the theory considered as a closed string.

String Theory is what most of the rest of the talk was about. Once this topic was raised even the members of the audience to stuck mostly to this area. String Theory had an interesting idea though. It made it imperative to have extra dimensions. Bringing us back to the talk. The theory actually worked well with 10 or 26 dimensions. String Theory has its problems though.

Then we broke for a cup of hot tea (chai) in the Prithvi forecourt and then returned for the question and answer session. The question and answers were mostly clearing up doubts in the area of string theory and its various pitfalls. The talk did seem a bit mixed up about what target audience it was addressing – sometimes going too technical and sometimes being overly simplified. It also appeared as if the time limit led Prof. Sridhar to skip through several areas which led to some confusion.

I really do think that an Indian physicist must attempt to put a simple book together like the Tao of Physics (but more physics) on the topic of string theory and recap the happenings in the world of particle physics in the 20th century and through the first few decades of the twenty first. Certainly there is interest as there was a good turn out yesterday.

Chai and Why? is a public outreach programme conducted by the TIFR along with Prithvi Theatre. The next Chai and Why? is on the first Sunday of March and is on the complete magnetic mapping of the human body.

Note #2: Chai and Why?

This Sunday, I am going to attend a TIFR outreach session called Chai and Why? The programme is jointly organised by Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. For some reason, the TIFR website does not provide any update on what's happening next but the Prithvi Theatre website does.

The Prithvi theatre website tells me the next talk is by Prof. K. Sridhar who works on the Theoretical High Energy Physics department in TIFR. The talk is titled "EXTRA DIMENSIONS".

Talk by Prof. Jean Marie Lehn

I was invited by my friend Srinivas Laxman to attend a talk by a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Prof. Jean Marie Lehn. The talk and interaction was organised by the Observer Research Foundation.

Accordingly, I left home at 8 in the morning and caught a bus to Mantralaya and reached in about time for the talk. The talk was a round table and was completely full.

Let me try and define the field of chemistry that Prof. Lehn is working in. It's called Supramolecular Chemistry. This deals with the interaction between molecules hence supra. One of the impacts of this field is the self organising universe. It is also called as guest host chemistry.

His talk was laced with great examples, good analogies and was fun to hear. Not all questions were fascinating but he managed to bring out some good facets related to the question.

He made some points like "conservation is unnatural", "DDT reducing the cases of malaria in under developed countries" etc. which I found a bit hard to believe but he did back it up scientifically. To clarify the above point, he never claims DDT was good, just that not all molecules/chemicals are risk free. Everything has its own risk and it needs to be balanced out and the risk considered.

He dwelt on the prebiotic evolution of the chemical molecule before the evolution of Man as stated by Charles  Darwin. Speculating on what could be next, he said that we will be moving from random evolution of Man to a controlled evolution of man controlled by man.

Moving on, he said that Mendeleev's periodic table is one of the wonders of the modern world - to believe that the whole visible universe be constructed by the elements of one periodic table.

He stated that people who developed something new have the responsibility of sharing it with with the world. This he said could lead to "development shunts". As an example, he said that remote desert area could be given cell phones without developing the copper wire infrastructure and could be shunted directly to the modern world.

He said science education was an important aspect and that people must be educated in science. He also stressed on the role of the media in communicating science stating that many media persons thought that the general public was stupid/not interested in learning about science stories.

He believed that the modern education system should evolve a system of continuing education - wherein an employee can return to the University whenever he wants to update his knowledge while remaining in the payroll of a company. This he said would help the person improve himself and hence work better for the company.

(These are points that I found and liked in his talk and was certainly not the whole talk.)

After the talk and discussion, Srinivas asked him about the lunar mission which he thought was a waste of money and supported robotic missions over human missions. (Thus supporting Obama's stand?)

February 3, 2010

A repeat of what happened yesterday happened today. I have decided to look up somethings to do and then work on them. 

Nothing much to report today.

February 2, 2010

Today is the last day of having to teach my brother. Tomorrow he'll be studying Marathi for which I don't think I can usefully contribute. Hence, I'll spend tomorrow cleaning, catching up with friends and buying books.

Today, I made a start on several projects that I think will hold importance over the next few days.

I am moving to OpenOffice and Inkspace. I have asked my friend Shashwat to get a copy of these for me. Using OpenOffice, one of the first things to do is to make my resume. Also, I wanted to try using Inkspace for doing the logo of the Planetary Society. As soon as he gets them, these projects can be started.

I have also begun the process of clearing up my room - resorting the stuff that has accumulated over 5 years of engineering. The process is going to be slow and long but will be fun.

Another project to begin work on is a technical project for the Moon Society. I have already finished draft 1 of the bye laws and is now in circulation for comments within the Society's Executive Committee. I also have to try and revive its blog to ensure that there is some sign of activity.

A bunch of friends are also visiting India and there is a possibility of being able to go and meet them. A not-to-miss opportunity for most.

The beginning is fun!

Book Review #3: The Diary of a Space Traveller and Other Stories

Long before Martian meteorites falling on Earth and life on Mars being hotly debated in the 1990s, Satyajit Ray wrote about it in The Diary of a Space Traveller and Other Stories. I picked up the book from my local Crossword Store. 

The book begins with the author talking about the famous missing Professor Shonku whose whereabouts are not known. One of his friends brings the author a strange book that he claims to have got from a "stone that fell from space" - an asteroid. This turns out to be the diary of the missing Professor Shonku. Being a publisher, the author, reads through his diary and starts publishing some of his diary entries in the famous Bengali magazine, Sandesh.

What follows for the readers are a bunch of simple, funny and wonderful science fiction stories that follow Professor Shonku through this mysterious diary. The author lays no claim to the validity of these stories and leaves it to the reader to make a decision for himself about the truth. The stories are quite fascinating!

Notes #1: MY FEELINGS ABOUT BEING AN ARCHITECT - LAURIE BAKER

Transcribed from Laurie Baker (in his own hand)website:

1. Only accept a REASONABLE BRIEF and one which you think you are capable of carrying through.

2. DISCOURAGE EXTRAVAGANCE AND SNOBBERY and don't take on a job which is either.

3. Always STUDY YOUR SITE re soil, topography, water, climate and neighbours (nosiy temples, smelly factories etc.)

4. See POTENTIAL SERVICES - water, drainage, access, power, fuel, phone etc. If not possible or available, what will you do?

5. YOU, YOURSELF, GET ACCURATE DETAILS of the site with in-situ facts such as trees, rocks, a well, wind and rain directions.

6. Every building should be UNIQUE. No two people, or families etc. are alike, so why should their houses be all the same?

7. STUDY & KNOW LOCAL MATERIALS - their availability, performance, costs, techniques and workmen who know how to use them.

8. STUDY & KNOW ENERGY used in the manufacture and transport of materials, avoding using energy intensive materials where possible.

9. BUILDING CODES ARE ADVISORY & NOT MANDATORY! Read the first chapters of our National Building Code.

10. DON'T ROB NATIONAL RESOURCES and do not use them extravagently or unnecessarily.

11. Be HONEST & TRUTHFUL in design and material usage, construction, costs and about your own mistakes.

12. Avoid OPULENCE AND SHOWING OFF and don't use currently fashionable gimmicks.

13. Get your CONSCIENCE out of deep-freeze and USE it. Let ALL YOU DO be honest & truthful - not only your buildings.

14. Look closely at YOUR OWN PREJUDICES. Question them and see that if they are still justifiable.

15. HAVE FAITH IN YOUR OWN CONVICTIONS & have courage to stick to them - but respect those of other people.

16. Make COST EFFICIENCY your WAY OF LIFE - not merely "low cost for the poor". Practice what you preach.

17. Keep your INFORMATION & KNOWLEDGE UP-TO-DATE but make sure the latest 'fashions' are better than established ways before changing.

18. DON'T DO THAT WHICH IS NOT NECESSARY. Explain this to your clients when you think their demands are NOT necessary.

19. Above all use "COMMON SENSE" (I think you had better not ask ME what COMMON SENSE is) & have FUN in designing.

20. TRIM your drawings, staff, equipment, travel & transport, paper and expenses.

Book Review #2: Rendezvous with Rama

I got this book when I went to town to collect the passes for the National Science Seminar 2009. I bought two books - Rendezvous with Rama and Destination Moon. I will shortly add a brief account of Destination Moon but here is the brief on Rendezvous with Rama. The edition that I got was Gollancz's SF Masterworks edition no. 65. This is the first book of Arthur C. Clarke that I am reading.

The book begins rather oddly with the catastrophic end of Venice and Padua because of a meteroite strike. I guess he was drawing a line from Serbia of 1908 to Vladivostok of 1947 and the rather progression ended up with Venice. The creation of the SpaceGuard is something that is still being debated and although there are various mechanisms in place to spot such a rogue asteroid, there is no established defence mechanism against one. The book goes on through the detection of a strange object outside the orbit of Jupiter. A thing perhaps that is necessary to establish is that this book was written in 1972. Well, the object was caught by SpaceGuard and labelled as an asteroid. Turns out the asteroid was of quite a size and was named Rama (of the Hindu Pantheon and since they had exhausted Greek and Roman mythology). There is not quite an explanation for why this object should be named Rama. This is a question that I had when people refered to it as "the Rama Series".

Anyway, carrying on with the story, people were now sure that this was not an ordinary object and that it was geometrically perfect to be naturally made. A space probe renamed Sita (Rama's consort in the Hindu Mythology) was sent to study Rama. As the two objects passed each other in high velocities Sita returned images of Rama which said a human investigation was warranted. This series of events is rather questionable but lets give the author the benefit of the doubt here. As Rama hurtles through the Solar System and reaches near the orbit of Venus, humans are sent into Rama.

How they manage to open it was quite a bit of a blur but then after this section I quite enjoyed the book. The inner exploration of an alien object/spacecraft with its own unique space drive is quite fascinating read and by then I managed to keep my engineering mind out of it and the book became a more fluid read. The book ends quite mysteriously with a lot left un said and I think that's a great way to begin a series of books. I won't take to Rama II very quickly. I want to give some time before I do that.

Book: Rendezvous with Rama
Author: Arthur C. Clarke
Publisher: Gollancz, Imprint of Orion Publishing Group
Edition: 2006 (original: 1972)
ISBN: 13: 9 780 57507 733 1, 10: 0 575 07733 6
Category: Science Fiction

Book Review #1: The Last Man on the Moon

This is one of the books that I got from journalist of the Times of India, Srinivas Laxman with a message "From one space addict to another" on August 18, 2009.The book came to me at such a great time in the Indian Space Programme. We were bang in the middle of India's first moon mission, Chandrayaan-I, two days away from performing a bi-static experiment with NASA. We didn't know it then but hardly 12 days later, the spacecraft would be lost because of a communication link failure. We are also hearing about ISRO wanting to recruit people for its human spaceflight programme just like Cernan does in the beginning of this book. And then we're going to move into a Gemini like capsule for the first flight in about 7 years from now. It is definitely a great book to read of such times even if it was 40 years ago.

Eugene Cernan was one of America's famous astronauts of his time. He flew thrice, twice to the Moon and once to the lunar surface. He served on the Gemini 9, Apollo 10 and Apollo 17 missions while serving as back-up crew in several others. Gene Cernan, for short was living an American dream shown by President Kennedy with the words, "to put a Man on the Moon and return him safely before this decade (1970) is out". America's Human Spaceflight Mission in the 1970s was powered by this critical goal leading to three programs - Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. The programs reached their fevered pitch in 1969 when they just managed to fulfill Kennedy's dream seven years after his death.

The book begins with the Eugene Cernan and his team learning of the launch pad fire that threatened to bring the Apollo programme to a screeching halt and which killed the 3 astronauts who were not able to get out of the capsule and died of asphyxiation. The book then winds back into Eugene's past taking us through his college and naval aviator days, his draft into NASA as an astronaut before he had even landed a plane on the deck of an aircraft carrier. The story shoots through the Gemini programme and the first great part in the book is the description of his first flight - the constant tear between operating the instruments on board and having a glance through the window at a sight which very few people in the world had had so far. His longest space walk or extra vehicular activity and one of his most biggest advices of having grapples on the spacecraft to hold onto while walking/floating in space. Between the pages, he also provides insight (although he doesn't dig too deep) into the life of astronaut's wives. This important human angle is an important one. Our astronauts flying to space should not return home to find wives who're having a tough time physiologically and psychologically. An important lesson, I believe for the Indian space programme.
He talks of his encounter with von Braun who assures him that he'd put Gene Cernan on a car like vehicle on the Moon. This was at the time of before human spaceflight on Gemini programme. This did happen eventually in Apollo 17 when Gene Cernan drove a lunar rover on the Moon! I also particularily enjoyed the description of the rockets that carried him. First of the Gemini and then of the Apollo programs. Gemini 9, a two manned spacecraft flew for the longest time in orbit and proved some vital technology that helped demonstrate that a lunar module could fly back into lunar orbit and mate with the command module which was how most of the Apollo missions worked. Although done in Earth orbit, it wasn't any less dangerous and is believed to be a significant milestone in realising vital technology.

As the Gemini series ran out, astronauts on the team looked out for places on the Apollo mission. Here there are some revealations on the process by which astronauts are picked. Of course that brought us to the burning of the Apollo 1 spacecraft during a mock launch. After some serious design re-workings Apollo was ready to fly again beginning with the designation Apollo 7. In the Apollo series, Gene Cernan flew again on Apollo 10, a vital mission before the actual landing that was carried out by Apollo 11.
Imagine going all the way to lunar orbit, descending reasonably close to the lunar surface and then not landing at all. Well, that's what Gene Cernan did and revealed his feelings about this. His lunar module went reasonably close to the lunar surface, took pictures of prospective Apollo 11 landing sites and returned back to the command module where they were then slingshot back to the Earth only to let Neil Armstrong become the first man to step on the Moon on July 20, 1969. On the famous words that Neil Armstrong spoke, Gene Cernan comments that no one among the astronauts were surprised by the words they were just surprised that he spoke at all!

Apollo 17 was finally made the last mission of the Apollo series which were to have missions right through Apollo 20. NASA budget cuts led to the shortening of the Apollo programme. For the first and the last time (till date), a scientist walked on the Moon in the mission. Jack Schmidt, a geologist was the person chosen to ride along with Gene Cernan on the surface of the Moon and do their experiments. By then, it was proved that the Apollo 11 missions were not flukes and that NASA had the capability to send men to the Moon. Neil Armstrong's famous words pushed Gene Cernan to think hard about what he'd say as he stepped off the lunar surface. As he did step off though, there was one thing that stayed with him, a tag which still remains to his name till this day - The Last Man on the Moon!

Book: The Last Man on the Moon
Author: Eugene Cernan with Don Davis
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Edition: 1999
ISBN: 0 312 19906 6
Category: Science Non Fiction

February 1, 2010

The daily grind brings to a grinding halt any attempt at humour that one may attempt in this period.

My daily grind involves getting up in the morning, getting worried about space news, reading space blogs and stories, reading a novel or two, writing and ending the day in trying to figure out what did I accomplish today. Everday, I end with the desire to do the next day better than today.

Before I go to sleep, I turn philosophical and I end up wondering, by thinking about doing the next day better than the next, I am awakening a desire. The Buddha has warned us that desire is the root of pain. So, I pack up the desire and end up doing the same next day.

There is a hang up that is somehow difficult to point at.