Sayan’s BlogWorld

Optical nanowires hold the promise of bringing optical processors to see the light of the day.

ISRO has embarked on an ambitious distance-learning programme using a dedicated satellite. This project aims to bring quality education to even the remotest corners of the country.

The good news from the world of condensed-matter physics just keeps coming. This is a new variant of the Bose-Einstein condensate a little more explaination here. Inspite of the rapid advances, this field of physics is relatively new (though Dr. S.N. Bose and Dr. Albert Einstein proposed it in 1924). In this case experimental physics has lagged the theoretical physics by more than 70 years. So it is not surprising that Dr. Bose didnt get the Nobel prize but there have been several Nobel recognitions for experimentally proving his results. Nonetheless, its cool to have a class of particles (Bosons) named after you.

Nature still has a host of hidden marvels and copying nature often gives great results. This what biomimetics is all about. In this case it has helped make black paints more blacker. It may not sound much but good optics often depends on how well you can cut/ absorb light.

This is an interesting insight into the working of Wikipedia- the biggest free reference site. I am a regular user of Wikipedia and really love the way it integrates into the search bar of Mozilla Firebird.

That said, what makes Wikipedia unique is that is probably the largest peer review system. Any one can post/edit an article and even moderate it. Read Dan Gillmor’s account of how inspite of this openess it avoids being abused by malicious users.

I have been deeply impressed by the book I am currently reading, The Future of Life (see the side panel). What is surprising is that little is known even about the more well species. Alas, as Edward O Wilson says in his book - we don’t even what we are losing because science has given a name to maybe 1% of the species on this planet.

This looks like a new business idea… why didn’t the record companies first think of this as a viable revenue stream.

Leaves appear to regulate their ‘breathing’ by conducting simple calculations.The fact that plants respond readily to physiological stimuli may be acceptable now but when Dr. J. C. Bose suggested it almost 100 years ago it was dismissed. Read about Prof. Bose multi-disciplinary work here and was not given his due credit for inventing the radio.

Humans may be using Bayesian analysis more than previously thought. New research published in Nature shows how the Bayesian thought process works, showing the point when uncertainty becomes great enough to give past experience an edge over current observation.

This is a EU-funded project to develop broadband capability from aerial platforms like airships, solar-powered aircraft, etc. Sounds good but I wonder what happens in case of adverse weather like storms in case of low-altitude platforms or the jet streams in case of high-altitude platforms? I couldn’t find the answer in the site.

I had read about this earlier while writing a research paper sometime back but I thought that Meteor-burst or packet-radio communication is better bet than a technology subject to the vagaries of high-altitude weather.

Onions in space? Vegetarianism may be an ‘universal’ phenomenon. Scientists may have peeled away another layer of mystery about materials floating in deep space. Tiny multilayered balls called “carbon onions,” produced in laboratory studies, appear to have the same light-absorption characteristics as dust particles in the regions between the stars.

Information technology for development is an area which is close to me personally. The pressure of my job restrains me from doing active work now but as a student I did undertake some research on this topic (refer to ‘My Writings’ section in the right pane). However, I still keenly follow developments in this arena.

I have just added Babelfish translation and RSS feed. Quite a few readers requested for RSS feed. I hope these features are useful and love to get feedback from my regulars.

As a child I knew science is fun but it was Feynman’s writings which opened a whole new universe at my feet. (I have been wanting his videos and video of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos for a long time but that is a different matter). Our society sorely needs the scientific temperament to be inculcated in every child and in deed the child in everyone of us, IMHO this is the only way to solve all the problems that plague our Pale Blue Dot.

Agriculture epidemics may hold clues to Net viruses. Is this inadvertent biomimickry ?