The Nobel Prize in Physics 2006

John C. Mather & George F. Smoot

The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2006 is awarded to John C. Mather and George F. Smoot for their discovery of the basic form of the cosmic microwave background radiation as well as its small variations in different directions. The very detailed observations that the Laureates have carried out from the COBE satellite have played a major role in the development of modern cosmology into a precise science.

Well, im not here to argue about the american bias in the Nobel prize or about the credentials of their research. But didn't i tell you b'fore with a video of Richard Feynman and his passion about finding the truth of the universe and the Big Bang ofcourse ??? But i don't think either that we can compare any normal scientists with such a legend. My views apart.. Just have a look at their research and the prespective with which they've tried to answer the Big Bang... Its truly awesome and if you were not aware of it b'fore, here's some for you...

The blackbody origin of the Universe

According to the Big Bang-scenario, our Universe developed from a state of intense heat. There are as yet no well-established theories about this primordial condition of the Universe, but immediately afterwards it appears to have been filled with an incredibly intensive radiation. Radiation emitted by such a glowing “body” is distributed between different wavelengths (light colours) in a specific manner, where the shape of the spectrum depends only on the temperature. Without knowing anything about the radiation apart from its temperature it is possible to predict exactly what the spectrum is going to look like. The somewhat contradictory term used to describe this kind of radiation is blackbody radiation. Spectra like these can also be created in a lab, and the German Max Planck – who received the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1 918 – was the first to describe their particular shape. Our own sun is in fact a “blackbody”, even though its spectrum is less perfect than that of the cosmic microwave background radiation.

Wanna more details about this ???

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2006/info.pdf

The PCR Method - a DNA Copying Machine

PCR is a method by which a few fragments of DNA can be duplicated into millions in a couple of hours. This makes PCR a very useful method in forensic science, as it means that very small amounts of DNA could be enough to identify a person. PCR was invented by Kary Mullis, one of two Nobel Laureates in Chemistry in 1993. If you play the game below, you will be able to learn more about PCR!

This is a game crated with the support of Aventis for better understanding of the PCR method. Check this out its really breathtaking discovery in chemistry retold in our terms as a story.

http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/chemistry/pcr/game/index.html

Physicists seek to put one thing in two places

Sounds Quizzy isn't it.. But seems to be quite intresting invention to watch... and move objects :-)

Physi­cists say they have made an ob­ject move just by watch­ing it. This is in­spir­ing them to a still bold­er proj­ect: put­ting a small, or­di­nary thing in­to two places at once.

It may be a “fan­ta­sy,” ad­mits Keith Schwab of Cor­nell Uni­ver­si­ty in Ith­a­ca, N.Y., one of the re­search­ers. Then again, the first ef­fect seemed that way not long ago, and the sec­ond is re­lat­ed.

The gray sliv­er reach­ing from top to bot­tom, slanted in the im­age, is a na­no­me­chan­i­cal re­s­o­na­tor, a sub-mi­c­ro­s­co­pic de­vice that can vi­brate like a pia­no string. The im­age was tak­en with a scan­ning el­ec­tron mi­cro­scope and col­or­ized. (Cour­te­sy Cor­nell Uni­ver­si­ty)

The re­search comes from the edge of quan­tum me­chan­ics, the sub­mi­cro­sco­pic realm of fun­da­men­tal par­t­i­cles. There, things be­have with to­tal dis­re­gard for our com­mon sense.

They can show signs of be­ing in two places at once; of be­ing both waves and par­ti­cles; of tak­ing on some cha­r­ac­ter­is­t­ics on­ly at the mo­ment these are meas­ured; and of act­ing syn­chro­nous­ly while far apart, with no ap­par­ent way to com­mu­ni­cate.

Al­though these ti­ny build­ing blocks of our uni­verse do this, the re­l­a­tively huge things we see eve­ry day don’t. The un­can­ny be­hav­ior fades the big­ger a thing be­comes.

This is be­cause when quan­tum en­t­i­ties are com­bined to make or­di­na­ry ob­jects, the rules go­vern­ing each com­po­nen­t’s be­ha­v­ior add up to pro­duce new rules. These in­c­rea­s­ing­ly re­sem­ble the laws of our fa­mi­l­iar re­a­li­ty as more ad­di­tions take place.

But just how big can some­thing be and still show signs of slip­ping back in­to its quan­tum-me­chan­i­cal na­ture?

Schwab and his col­leagues de­cid­ed to find out. In work de­s­cribed in the Sept. 14 is­sue of the re­search jour­nal Na­ture, they built a de­vice co­los­sal by quan­tum stan­dards: about nine thou­sandths of a mil­li­me­ter long, con­tain­ing some 10 tril­lion atoms.

The ob­ject was a sliv­er of alu­mi­num and a type of ce­ram­ic, fixed at both ends but free to vi­brate like a gui­tar string in be­tween. To meas­ure its move­ments, the sci­en­tists set near­by a ti­ny de­tec­tor called a su­per­con­duct­ing sin­gle elec­tron tran­sis­tor.

They found that ran­dom mo­tions of charge-carrying par­ti­cles, elec­trons, in the de­tec­tor em­a­nat­ed forc­es that af­fect­ed the me­tal­lic sliv­er. When the de­tec­tor was tuned for max­i­mum sen­si­tiv­i­ty, these forc­es slowed down the sliv­er’s shak­ing, cool­ing it as a re­sult. This ef­fect, Schwab said, is a ba­si­cal­ly quan­tum-me­chan­i­cal phe­nom­e­non called back-action, in which the act of ob­serv­ing some­thing ac­tu­al­ly gives it a nudge.

Back-action in quan­tum me­chan­ics al­so makes it im­pos­si­ble to know a par­ti­cle’s ex­act lo­ca­tion and speed si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly. This lim­i­ta­tion is called the un­cer­tain­ty prin­ci­ple. A com­mon ex­am­ple: meas­ur­ing place and speed re­quires some de­tec­tor that can “see” the par­ti­cle. But this in­volves bounc­ing a light wave off it, which gives it a ran­dom push.

“We made meas­urements of po­si­tion that are so in­tense—so strongly cou­pled—that by look­ing at it we can make it move,” said Schwab. Nor­mal­ly, such mo­tion would­n’t cool an ob­ject. But the mo­tion can be such as to op­pose on­go­ing move­ments and slow them down. This re­duces an ob­ject’s heat, which is just the jig­gling of par­ti­cles in it.

If back-action ap­plies such a large item, Schwab rea­sons, may­be that can al­so be true of oth­er quan­tum-me­chan­i­cal rules. Particularly in­tri­guing, he said, is the superpo­si­tion prin­ci­ple, which holds that a par­ti­cle can be in two places at once.

A classic ex­am­ple is the shoot­ing of light par­ti­cles, called pho­tons, through two slits in a bar­rier. Past the slits, they will be­have as if they were waves. This alone is no sur­prise: it’s a well-known quan­tum me­chan­i­cal phe­nom­e­non that par­ti­cles can par­a­dox­i­cal­ly act like waves in some sit­u­a­tions. The pho­tons’ wav­i­ness then makes them “in­ter­fere” with each oth­er. In oth­er words, they make pat­terns like those seen when you toss two peb­bles in a pond, and the rip­ples they make overlap.

When the waves passing the two slits mu­tu­al­ly in­ter­fere, the pat­tern be­comes vi­si­ble if you set up anoth­er wall where the pho­tons can land. There, al­ter­nat­ing bright and dark stripes ap­pear.

But bi­zarre­ly, this works even if you fire just one pho­ton at a time through the slits. You can see the ef­fect then by put­ting pho­to­graph­ic film on the land­ing wall, so each pho­ton leaves a last­ing mark. Keep fir­ing pho­tons, and the marks grad­u­al­ly add up to make the stripes again.

It’s as if each pho­ton is in­ter­fer­ing with it­self—that is, go­ing through both slits si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly. This al­so works for big­ger par­ti­cles, up to a point. But what point? Schwab wants to know. “We’re try­ing to make a me­chan­i­cal de­vice be in two places at one time. What’s real­ly neat is it looks like we should be able to do it,” he said. “The hope, the dream, the fan­ta­sy is that we get that superpo­si­tion and start mak­ing big­ger de­vices and find the break­down.”

In a com­men­tary in the same is­sue of Na­ture, Mi­chael Roukes of the Cal­i­for­nia In­sti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy in Pas­a­de­na, Calif., wrote that Schwab’s work with the cool­ing is part of an emerg­ing field, quan­tum electrome­chan­ics. This, he added, fo­cus­es on sub­mi­cro­scop­ic de­vices called nanome­chan­i­cal sys­tems, “poised mid­way be­tween two seem­ingly an­ti­thet­i­c do­mains” of size: fun­da­men­tal par­ti­cles at one end, the ob­jects of eve­ryday life at the oth­er.

Dude, your Dell is on fire

Although we enjoy ogling mangled electronics as much as the next person, if you should ever find yourself at a conference and someone's laptop happens to burst into flames, kindly seek out a fire extinguisher before reaching for your cameraphone.The first time iam happy not owning a Dell... :-) [or anyother for that matter he he he...]

The clock's ticking; 30.6% of my life has passed already :-(

[(Your Age)/(Average Life Expectancy)] x 100

I am 23 years old. Assuming I fit the average Canadian male life expectancy of 75.2 years, I feel a sudden rush of discomfort knowing that 30.6% of my life has already passed without making much strides.

As sad as it may sound, I rather take this pessimistic approach to life to help motivate myself to act. I am not afraid of death as much as I am of reaching 60. In business, a small positive return in revenues is considered progress. In life, as minisicule as it may be, a positive step forward is a change in the right direction. That is what I intend on doing: as long as I work towards my goals, I am making progress, however small it may be.

Lesson from Gita: Consider yourself dead for as long as you breath but no one recognizes you.

"If you dont live for something, you'll die for nothing."

Trust me, CO2 is good for you!

As some of us might already know, Greenhouse gases (i.e. CO2) create a blanket over the atmosphere; consequently, trapping incoming heat, from the sun, that were supposed to bounce back to space. The alarming rate at which these gases are being expelled into the atmosphere is increasing rapidly, thanks to humans. In about 60 more years, the world population is estimated to double, I can only imagine what is going to happen then...knowing that I will be dead by then is the only optimisitic view

I can take.Here, one of the world's largest oil corporation, Exxon is actually promoting Greenhouse gases:



Watch the video. These corporations often hire scientists to reach self fulfilling conclusions. The next time you read a newspaper article that cites a corporate source on a subject like global warming, remember this: Corporations dont care what happens to you or your grandchildren. What they care about are the short term profits (aka quarterly profits).

Consumers don't stand up for action when the issue seems debatable. That's exactly what these corporations are trying to do; keeping us confused so that our minds stay numb. With an army of lawyers, lobbyists and billions in cash, they are wining so far.

'Best consumers and workers from a corporate point of view are mindless consumers and mindless workers. Any corporate power is excessive. Corporations shouldn't have power; people - all of us - should have power.'

Oh this new world of ours.....

Oh what is this new worldof the net
where each fish comes under a fake name
to fish other fish
and finally get into the net of their own imagination !

Oh what is this new world
where everything looks so real
and turns out but an illusion melting in nothingness
as the screen closes one window after another
to a world that exists but resists not to anything !

Oh what is this new world
where an old ugly face becomes Cyndrella at the click of a 'mouse'
and a slave is crowned with Prince's title
and one day both are drowned
in the ocean of fake identities created out of thin air.

Oh what is the new world
Where freindship grows, hatred breeds
love flourishes and nothing is left one day
but a blank screen that keeps from you all reality !
Oh what is this world of the internet?

In The Rain

Here I am, in the rain.
With eyes swollen, due to the tears that rolled,
Your love gave me pains,
And sorrows untold.

Like a candle, I sought no gain.
Melted for you, didn’t think twice...
But it’s all blown out, by this rain,
And I ask myself, why did I sacrifice?

Cz u neither saw the tears in these eyes,
Nor do u remember those days,
Alone, no one can hear these muffled cries,
And here I am, alone in the rain.

U said that easily, u found someone new,
And forgot this boy, like leaves shed off the dew.
U say that we shall walk again,
You walked away for sure,
But here I m, still waiting in the rain...

The pleasure of finding things out - RP Feynman

Excellent short 40 min documentary interview with Dr. RP Feynman- one of the greatest physicist of our times and a Nobel Laureate. Specially uploaded for students of NSIT.

The Corporation

THE CORPORATION explores the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time. Footage from pop culture, advertising, TV news, and corporate propaganda, illuminates the corporation's grip on our lives. Taking its legal status as a "person" to its logical conclusion, the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist's couch to ask "What kind of person is it?" Provoking, witty, sweepingly informative, The Corporation includes forty interviews with corporate insiders and critics - including Milton Friedman, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, and Michael Moore - plus true confessions, case studies and strategies for change.

Richard Feynman - A Video interview

I wish I had the privilege to sit through one of his lectures, but I was only Five when he passed away. The following video illustrates a brief glimpse of his prolific personality.

Excellent short 40 min documentary interview with Dr. RP Feynman- one of the greatest physicist of our times and a Nobel Laureate. Specially uploaded for students of NSIT.

Other videos of Richard Feynman:


Explaining Refraction in water

• Strong Force
• Richard Feynman on UFO's

A Briefing about my Favourite Scientist in Wiki

Richard Phillips Feynman (May 11, 1918 in Queens, New York – February 15, 1988 in Los Angeles, California) was an influential American physicist known for expanding greatly on the theory of quantum electrodynamics, particle theory, and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium. For his work on quantum electrodynamics, Feynman was one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965, along with Julian Schwinger and Shin-Ichiro Tomonaga; in this work, he developed a way to understand the behavior of subatomic particles using pictorial tools now called Feynman diagrams.

He helped in the development of the atomic bomb and was later a member of the panel that investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. For all his prolific contributions, Feynman wrote only 37 research papers in his career. Apart from pure physics, Feynman is also credited with the revolutionary concept and early exploration of quantum computing, and publicly envisioning nanotechnology, the ability to create devices at the molecular scale. He held the Richard Chace Tolman professorship in theoretical physics at Caltech.

Feynman was a keen and influential popularizer of physics in both his books and lectures, notably a seminal 1959 talk on top-down nanotechnology called There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom and The Feynman Lectures on Physics, a three-volume set which has become a classic text. In his lifetime as well as in the years after his death, he became one of the most publicly known scientists of the century. Known for his insatiable curiosity, gentle wit, brilliant mind and playful temperament [1], he is also famous for his many adventures, detailed in the books Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, What Do You Care What Other People Think? and Tuva or Bust!. As well as being an inspiring lecturer, bongo player, notorious practical joker, and decipherer of Mayan hieroglyphics, Richard Feynman was, in many respects, an eccentric and a free spirit. He liked to pursue many independent paths, such as biology, art, percussion, and lockbreaking. Freeman Dyson once wrote that Feynman was "half-genius, half-buffoon", but later changed this to "all-genius, all-buffoon".

Quotations

"Dear Mrs. Chown, Ignore your son's attempts to teach you physics. Physics isn't the most important thing. Love is. Best wishes, Richard Feynman."

"Physics is to math what sex is to masturbation."

"Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it."

"Mathematics is not real, but it feels real. Where is this place?"

"The same equations have the same solutions."

(Thus when you have solved a mathematical problem, you can re-use the solution in another physical situation. Feynman was skilled in transforming a problem into one that he could solve.)

"When you are solving a problem, don't worry. Now, after you have solved the problem, then that's the time to worry."

"The wonderful thing about science is that it's alive."

"All fundamental processes are reversible."

"What does it mean, to understand? ... I don't know."

"What I cannot create, I do not understand." (Taken from his chalkboard after his death.)

"Know how to solve every problem that has ever been solved." (Taken from his chalkboard after his death.)

"But I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without having any purpose—which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell, possibly. It doesn't frighten me."

"To those who do not know mathematics it is difficult to get across a real feeling as to the beauty, the deepest beauty, of nature ... If you want to learn about nature, to appreciate nature, it is necessary to understand the language that she speaks in."

"I cannot define the real problem, therefore I suspect there's no real problem, but I'm not sure there's no real problem." (about Quantum Mechanics)

"When playing Russian roullete the fact that the first shot got off safely is little comfort for the next" (about the Challenger disaster)

"I'd hate to die twice. It's so boring" (last words)

Quotations about Feynman

The "Feynman Problem Solving Algorithm", as facetiously observed by a colleague, Murray Gell-Mann in the NY Times, was:

Write down the problem;

Think very hard;

Write down the answer.

The Nobel laureate physicist and mathematician E.P. Wigner said about Feynman, "He is a second Dirac. Only this time human".

Richard Feynman, He was not a simple simon.

Golden Ratio on Numb3rs

If you haven’t seen it already, NUMB3RS is a drama on FBI agents using mathematics as a tool to help solve crimes. I decided that some of the mathematics mentioned in it warranted further exploration. So, I am adding three extracts from the show with a brief explanation expanding on each.

The Golden Ratio

"The good, of course, is always beautiful, and the beautiful never lacks proportion"- Plato

Golden Ratios... Not just the Davinci's works...

The Greek's referred to it as the "Divine Proportion". And many mathematicians describe the Fibonacci sequence and Golden ratio as the most beautiful set of numbers in mathematics. It is a number common to the entire Universe; from sea shells to galaxies, we come across it everyday in one form or another. Its elegance can be witnessed in Leonardo Da Vinci’s infamous sketch, the Vitruvian man. Even best seller novelist, Dan Brown, carefully incorporated it in Da Vinci Code, wherein it plays a vital role in developing the overall plot.

Research has shown that living organisms subliminally prefer objects that are proportioned according to the golden ratio. The thought that a simple set of numbers (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8…) dictate the perceived beauty of the entire Universe has inspired generations of philosophers and mathematicians.

Chaos Theory on NUMB3RS

A Video on CHAOS THEORY

"It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world" - Butterfly Effect

Chaos theory dictates that any set of complex situations are, in fact, a sum of ordered circumstances; therefore, making the chaos conceivable through mathematical analysis. Chaos theory has been applied for predicting varying systems such as tropical storms and terrorist attacks. It is an elegant branch of mathematics in a sense that it makes the seemingly unpredictable complexities predictable.

Chaos theory holds that the sum of a series of seemingly random coincidences follows a calculable pattern. People we meet, where we live, what we believe in, or why we are still alive; these are extensions of a system that appears chaotic to us. But at scale grandeur enough, there is order to it. Lines and Dots remain to be connected.

As a final note, I would like to state that any model we come up with does not describe the Universe but rather what the brain is capable of so far. Following is a source from WIKI...

Chaos theory is among the youngest of the sciences, and has rocketed from its obscure roots in the seventies to become one of the most fascinating fields in existence. At the forefront of much research on physical systems, and already being implemented in fields covering as diverse matter as arrhythmic pacemakers, image compression, and fluid dynamics, chaos science promises to continue to yield absorbing scientific information which may shape the face of science in the future.

Chaos Overview

What is chaos theory?

Formally, chaos theory is defined as the study of complex nonlinear dynamic systems. Complex implies just that, nonlinear implies recursion and higher mathematical algorithms, and dynamic implies nonconstant and nonperiodic. Thus chaos theory is, very generally, the study of forever changing complex systems based on mathematical concepts of recursion, whether in the form of a recursive process or a set of differential equations modeling a physical system. For a more rigorous definition of chaos theory, it is advisable to visit the much more scientific, much more broad-reaching chaos network definition, in their excellent HTML document, What Is Chaos Theory?, also available in a text only version.

Misconceptions about chaos theory

Chaos theory has received some attention, beginning with its popularity in movies such as Jurassic Park; public awareness of a science of chaos has been steadily increasing. However, as with any media covered item, many misconceptions have arisen concerning chaos theory. The most commonly held misconception about chaos theory is that chaos theory is about disorder. Nothing could be further from the truth! Chaos theory is not about disorder! It does not disprove determinism or dictate that ordered systems are impossible; it does not invalidate experimental evidence or claim that modelling complex systems is useless. The "chaos" in chaos theory is order--not simply order, but the very ESSENCE of order.

It is true that chaos theory dictates that minor changes can cause huge fluctuations. But one of the central concepts of chaos theory is that while it is impossible to exactly predict the state of a system, it is generally quite possible, even easy, to model the overall behavior of a system. Thus, chaos theory lays emphasis not on the disorder of the system--the inherent unpredictability of a system--but on the order inherent in the system--the universal behavior of similar systems.

Thus, it is incorrect to say that chaos theory is about disorder. To take an example, consider Lorenz's Attractor. The Lorenz Attractor is based on three differential equations, three constants, and three initial conditions. The attractor represents the behavior of gas at any given time, and its condition at any given time depends upon its condition at a previous time. If the initial conditions are changed by even a tiny amount, say as tiny as the inverse of Avogadro's number (a heinously small number with an order of 1E-24), checking the attractor at a later time will yield numbers totally different. This is because small differences will propagate themselves recursively until numbers are entirely dissimilar to the original system with the original initial conditions.

However, the plot of the attractor will look very much the same.
Both systems will have totally different values at any given time, and yet the plot of the attractor--the overall behavior of the system--will be the same. Chaos theory predicts that complex nonlinear systems are inherently unpredictable--but, at the same time, chaos theory also insures that often, the way to express such an unpredictable system lies not in exact equations, but in representations of the behavior of a system--in plots of strange attractors or in fractals. Thus, chaos theory, which many think is about unpredictability, is at the same time about predictability in even the most unstable systems.

How is chaos theory applicable to the real world?

Everyone always wants to know one thing about new discoveries--what good are they? So what good is chaos theory? First and foremost, chaos theory is a theory. As such, much of it is of use more as scientific background than as direct applicable knowledge. Chaos theory is great as a way of looking at events which happen in the world differently from the more traditional strictly deterministic view which has dominated science from Newtonian times. Moviegoers who watched Jurassic Park are surely aware that chaos theory can profoundly affect the way someone thinks about the world; and indeed, chaos theory is useful as a tool with which to interpret scientific data in new ways. Instead of a traditional X-Y plot, scientists can now interpret phase-space diagrams which--rather than describing the exact position of some variable with respect to time--represents the overall behavior of a system. Instead of looking for strict equations conforming to statistical data, we can now look for dynamic systems with behavior similar in nature to the statistical data--systems, that is, with similar attractors. Chaos theory provides a sound framework with which to develop scientific knowledge.

However, this is not to say that chaos theory has no applications in real life. Chaos theory techniques have been used to model biological systems, which are of course some of the most chaotic systems imaginable. Systems of dynamic equations have been used to modeleverything from population growth to epidemics to arrhythmic heart palpitations. In fact, almost any chaotic system can be readily modeled--the stock market provides trends which can be analyzed with strange attractors more readily than with conventional explicit equations; a dripping faucet seems random to the untrained ear, but when plotted as a strange attractor, reveals an eerie order unexpected by conventional means. Fractals have cropped up everywhere, most notably in graphic applications like the highly successful Fractal Design Painter series of products. Fractal image compression techniques are still under research, but promise such amazing results as 600:1 graphic compression ratios. The movie special effects industry would have much less realistic clouds, rocks, and shadows without fractal graphic technology. And of course, chaos theory gives people a wonderfully interesting way to become more interested in mathematics, one of the more unpopular pursuits of the day.

Uncertainty Principle on NUMB3RS

Nature in Numbers...

I think it is safe to say that no one understands quantum mechanics" - Richard Feynman

It seems that each century brings about a radical model revising the then standard view of the Universe. Heisenberg's Uncertainty principle was part of the revolution, in the first half of the 20th century, which redefined the constructs of the Universe. Heisenberg’s proposal happened to be so drastic that it made Quantum mechanics unacceptable for Albert Einstein. It states that the more certain “we” are of an electron’s position around the atom, the less certain our knowledge of its momentum becomes. Einstein believed in a Universe of finite possibilities; in other words, a Universe wherein anything can be calculated with absolute precision using mathematical equations. As it turned out, this was not the case with Quantum mechanics.

According to the Uncertainty Principle, it is theoretically impossible to calculate with certainty any quantity at the Quantum scale. Mathematically speaking, a single electron is everywhere in the Universe, except for the rare case where it comes in physical contact with a photon. Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle gave rise to the chaotic and complex world of elementary particles, superposition, entanglement, parallel universes, and double digit dimensions. A simple four letter equation drew a new picture of the atom, one in which probability, not determinism, dictates the state of the Universe.

It is a perplexing thought that the chaos and uncertainty at the Quantum scale somehow adds up to yield a stable ordered world that we have come to known. The Universe has absolutely no reason to be in such perfect symphony.

All About Bryan Adams

Step right up, folks. It's time to see the sole Canadian musician capable of writing a tear-jerking chart-topper, flirting with royalty and saving the whales -- all while sweatily thrashing around a stage like it's the summer of '69. Call him a man of many talents -- we'll just call him Bryan Adams. Juggling a multitude of roles is all in a day's work for the 46-year-old Vancouver-bred CanRock songster you've known and loved for decades. Want him to sing? He can sing. Want him to rock? He can rock. Want him to photograph the Queen for a postage stamp? He can do that, too. We know it's true -- everything Adams does, he does for you. And because he's a ...

HOPELESS ROMANTIC A Bryan Adams song without the words "love" and "baby" is almost as rare as a wedding reception void of his mushy ballads. And like a gentleman, Adams keeps his love life out of tabloids, with the exception of an alleged royal fling in 2003 (see Sugar Daddy). Until then, the balladeer serenaded long-term supermodel girlfriend/Bond girl Cecilie Thomsen, who also starred in videos for Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman? and Let's Make a Night to Remember .
TELLING LYRIC: You know it's true, everything I do -- I do it for you.

ROCK 'N' ROLLER Lovey-dovey crap aside, Adams can rock. Not in that bat-decapitating Ozzy Osbourne way, but in that wholesome dude-next-door way. Superstar producer Robert John (Mutt) Lange (Def Leppard, Shania Twain) gave him a mid-career lesson in Stardom 101 and had a hand in the 1991 smash Waking Up the Neighbours. Party-hearty anthems like Summer of '69 and 18 Til I Die reveal Adams' rockin' side -- if the guitar permanently attached to his hip weren't enough.
TELLING LYRIC: I got my first real six string / Bought it at the five and dime / Played it 'till my fingers bled / It was the summer of '69.

HUMANITARIAN Adams passes on the Canadian bacon, but don't bug him for being unpatriotic. He's vegan -- and voted one of PETA's sexiest at that. Elephants and whales also top his list of animals to save. Adams co-wrote 1985 charity tune Tears Are Not Enough for Ethiopian famine relief, played at the Philadelphia Live Aid concert and at last July's Live 8 gig in Barrie, Ont. Since losing a close friend to breast cancer, the strummer's supported research for the disease with profits from his photography books, Made in Canada and American Women.
TELLING LYRIC: On a day like today the whole world could change / The sun's gonna shine shine through the rain.

MAN'S MAN Transportation of choice: motorcycle. Outfit of choice: Well-worn jeans, T-shirt and sneakers. No. of bike accidents: One known. No. of gunshot wounds: One, from an air rifle, received while riding a bike through London. 'Nuff said.
TELLING LYRIC: Yeah, we can get some beer / Yeah, let's get outta here.

SUGAR DADDY Adams sometimes crosses the line between romantic and erotic in his lyrics, and supposedly elsewhere. That is, if we are to believe rumours that he turned a boyish crush on Princess Diana into a full-blown affair shortly after her divorce from Prince Charles in 1996. And if we buy more rumours of a thing with Pamela Anderson and a drunken fling with Kate Moss. While Adams is a pro at keeping mum about his endeavors, he'll admit to having pictures of Cindy Crawford, Christie Brinkley and Scarlett Johansson -- but only because he took their photos for Made in America.
TELLING LYRIC: From your feet up to your hair, more than anything I swear / I wanna be your underwear.

POP SCENESTER Between the Hollywood soundtracks and radio-friendly tunes, Adams is a regular Britney Spears. OK, maybe that's pushing it. However, his first single was a'79 disco track called, Let Me Take You Dancing (which he has since denied exists). There's his nine No. 1 singles and trademark gushy flick hits. And the fact that he went to high school with Michael J. Fox and sang bubblegummy collaborations with Rod Stewart, Sting and Spice Girl Mel C. give him enough pop potential to host MTV's TRL
TELLING LYRIC: Baby when you're gone (when you're gone) / I realize I'm in love (so in love) / Days go on and on / And the nights just seem so long

Technology is for wiping tears
31/Jan/2004 : New Delhi

Rockets and Missiles are there only for deterring enemy not to harm our country? Technology is universal by nature. The technology that goes into making missiles can also help a polio affected child as real leg support.

The light metal used in missiles help to lift off bearing so much heat, the same light metal helps the polio affected child to walk and play like a butterfly. There are spin off from the Defence, Nuclear and Space Technologies from which solutions for cost effective medical devices could be developed.

Why our people should be forced to buy expensive foreign products during his distress with diseases? Can our indigenous technology provide a solution to common man shielding him from the threat of financial disaster in saving life in an emergency health situation ?

The answer to such questions led to the adaptation of indigenous technologies from all sectors into creation of an organisation called Society for Biomedical Technology (SBMT). It was created in 1993 bringing together various Government Departments and Medical Institutes. For the first time Engineers and Doctors were brought together to work in a hospital environment to develop affordable solutions for financially crippled patients with their healthcare problems. The efforts of inter-disciplinary teams cutting across organizational boundaries have fructified in the form of ` A light weight limb support for polio affected patients called Floor Reaction Orthosis (FRO). The application of ultra-strong fiber reinforced plastic used to make missile nose cones led to the replacement of a 4 Kg conventional caliper into a 400 g FRO.

Courtesy: http://www.abdulkalam.com

குருடர்களின் யானை

குருடர்கள் யானையை அறிவார்களா?
அறிவார்கள்...
குருடர்கள் அறிவதைப் போல

உண்மை என்பது யானை
தத்துவங்கள் எல்லாம் குருடர்கள்

யானை உரல் போன்றது என்றவன் பொய் சொல்லவில்லை
அவனுக்கு அகப்பட்டது யானையின் கால்
உரல் போன்ற ஒன்று யானையில் உண்டு

யானை உலக்கை போன்றது என்றவனும் பொய் சொல்லவில்லை
அவனுக்கு அகப்பட்டது யானையின் துதிக்கை
உலக்கை போன்ற ஒன்று யானையில் உண்டு

யானை முறம் போன்றது என்ட்றவனும் பொய் சொல்லவில்லை
அவனுக்கு அகப்பட்டது யானையின் காது
முறம் போன்ற ஒன்று யானையில் உண்டு

யானை துடைப்பம் போன்றது என்றவனும் பொய் சொல்லவில்லை
அவனுக்கு அகப்பட்டது யானையின் வால்
துடைப்பம் போன்ற ஒன்று யானையில் உண்டு

ஒவ்வொரு குருடனுக்கும் ஏதாவது ஒன்று அகப்படுகிறது
நிற்கும் இடத்தை பொறுத்து...
அகப்படுவது கைகளுக்குத்தான்...கண்களுக்கு அல்ல
ஏனெனில் அவர்கள் காண முடியாதவர்கள்

அவர்கள் அறிந்ததை கொண்டு அறியாததை சொல்லுகிறார்கள்
அவர்களால் அப்படித்தான் சொல்ல முடியும்
அந்த அறியாதது அறிந்ததை போன்றதுதான்
ஆனால் அறிந்ததே அல்ல!!!

அவர்கள் பொய் சொல்லவில்லை
யாரும் பொய் சொல்ல முடியாது
ஏனெனில்.... இல்லாததை எவரும் சொல்ல முடியாது

பொய்யிலும் உண்டு உண்மை
ஒவ்வரு குருடனும் யானையின் ஒரு பகுதியையே அறிகிறான்
குருடர்களால் முழுமையை அறிய முடியாது

நான்கு பேர் சொல்லிலும் உண்டு உண்மை
ஆனால் நான்கிலும் இல்லை முழு உண்மை
அதனால் தான் நடக்கிறது சர்ச்சை

'உண்டு' என்பவனும் உண்மையே சொல்கிறான்
'இல்லை' என்பவனும் உண்மையே சொல்கிறான்
இரண்டும் முரணானவை அல்ல
இரண்டும் உண்மையின் வெவ்வேறு தரிசனங்களே

முன் பக்கம் நிற்பவன் முகத்தை பார்க்கிறான்
பின் பக்கம் நிற்பவன் முதுகை பார்க்கிறான்
தெரிவது மட்டுமல்ல உண்மை
பார்வைக்கு அப்பாலும் இருக்கிறது உண்மை

'உண்டு'ம் 'இல்லை'யும் சேர்ந்ததே முழு உண்மை
எல்லாப்பக்கமும் நின்று பார்ப்பவனே
உண்மையை முழுமையாக தரிசிக்கிரான்

யானையிடம் உரல் போன்றதும் உண்டு என்றால் பிரச்சனை இல்லை'
யானை என்பது உரலே உலக்கை அல்ல 'என்றான் ஒருவன் ...பிரச்சனை பிற்ந்தது
உரலும் உலக்கையும் மோதிக்கொண்டன

இன்னொருவன் வந்தான்'யானை நெல் குத்துவதற்கே' என்றான்
இன்னொருவன் வந்தான்அவன் உரலையே யானை என்றான்

தொடங்கியது இருளின் சகாப்தம்இது தான் மூட மதங்களின் கதை...

------------------------------------------- கவிக்கோ அப்துல் ரகுமான்

Many Happy Returns
By Swami Vivekananda, Written on September 22, 1900, to Alberta Sturges for her twenty-third birthday. It was sent to her to Paris from Perros-Guirec in Brittany. The Poem “A Benediction” was also presented to Sister Nivedita on the same date. It is also significant that the first few lines of both the poems are identical. After presenting the poem to Alberta, Swamiji wrote below: “This little poem is for your birthday. It is not good, but it has all my love. I am sure, therefore, you will like it.” The poem is reproduced from CW 7:526.

The mother's heart, the hero's will,
The softest flower's sweetest feel;
The charm and force that ever sway
The altar fire's flaming play;
The strength that leads, in love obeys;
Far-reaching dreams, and patient ways,
Eternal faith in Self, in all
The sight Divine in great in small;
All these, and more than I could see
Today may "Mother" grant to thee.

Ode to the Automan Empire

discovered this when deleting old backups, and put quick gauge. Don't even remember ever writing this . . .

All these blokes who drive an Auto
seem to be completely blotto.
They never drive you anywhere
without demanding excess fare.

And worst of all, they sometimes will
talk politics to you until
you find their views so unappealing
they give you a queasy feeling.

Wouldn’t life be so much better
if someone put them through a shredder?
Then they’d all be good and dead
and we could take the bus instead.

To My Own Soul

Written by Swami Vivekananda, Composed @ Ridgely Manor in upstate New York in November 1899 and it is reproduced from CW 8:170.


Hold yet a while, Strong Heart,
Not part a lifelong yoke
Though blighted looks the present, future gloom.

And age it seems since you and I began our
March up hill or down. Sailing smooth o'er
Seas that are so rare--
Thou nearer unto me, than oft-times I myself--
Proclaiming mental moves before they were!

Reflector true--Thy pulse so timed to mine,
Thou perfect note of thoughts, however fine--
Shall we now part, Recorder, say?

In thee is friendship, faith,
For thou didst warn when evil thoughts were brewing--
And though, alas, thy warning thrown away,
Went on the same as ever--good and true.