Monthly Archives: January 2011

What is Responsible for the lack of Scientific Temper in Indian Students? I don’t know.

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Nobel Prize 2009, press conference with the la...

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Read these two facts:

There are 49 billionaires in India.

There are 73 Nobel Laureates in MIT.

I have heard people talking about the quality of education in India. Everyone assumes that it is in poor condition. Then what? Who made this “condition”?

In 2009, V. Ramakrishnan won a chemistry Nobel & he became a superstar.

And

A few days ago, I read a discussion on facebook that Chemistry sucked my friends.

Unconditionaly, it is the matter of tradition. Indians start co-education very soon & they target for an “Aim” of — Doctor, Engineer, Businessmen, IAS etc. As their education progresses, age passes, they distract from their aim. And at an age of 18-21, their aim reduces to a Job. Permanent or even a Temporary Job. Well Only a Job? Are we born for that?

After 110years of the Nobel Awards (since 1901), Indians had won only 8 Nobel prizes! Out of these 8, 4 were of Indian Descent & lived in foreign countries (mainly USA).

Here is the list:

• Rabindranath Tagore -1913 in Literature

• C.V. Raman -1930 in Physics

• Haragobind Khorana – 1968 in Medicine (US citizen)

• Mother Teresa -1979 in Peace

• Amartya Sen – 1998 in Economics

• V.S. Naipaul – 2001 in Literature (British)

• Venkataraman Ramakrishnan -2009 in Chemistry (US Citizen)

So, this is the condition. Where as I know, these awards are favour proof & are distributed on performance.

If, we assume that India have won 8 Nobel Prizes, then compare it with other countries:

•United States: 270

•United Kingdom: 101

• Germany: 67

• France: 57

• Sweeden: 30

On the floor of truth, the highest level of education degree is Research , i.e., PhD.

Let us look at the status of scientific research and higher science education in relation to what prevails in China and elsewhere. India is now producing around 7000-8000 PhDs per year compared to 17000-18000 by China.

In certain subjects we produce very few PhDs — for example: in Computer Science, India hardly produces 25 PhDs per year spite of the Large number of IT companies and personnel in the Country. India produces around 2% or less of the scientific research in the world and our contribution to the top 1% of world research is less than 1%.

ArXiv.ORG is a site with great collection of research papers. But if you ask any internet addicted science student, probably he/she would not know about it. They use Internet for social networking, computer hacks, images and porn.

The year 2011, is International year of Chemistry — even my Chemistry Lectures don’t know it. How shameful. This is the situation of teachers, then what of students?

The question arises– “What is responsible for the lack of Scientific Temper in Indian Students?” I don’t know! But I can appeal to students-

Hey guys! Still nothing has gone wrong. We can do what we planned in our childhood. It needs only one thing- the Inspiration. Be inspired… Be Innovative. Let we delight the world.

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Particle Physics: Learn With Fun : Part III – Quarks

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In last two episodes, we learnt about What is Particle Physics?, Standard Model & Antimatters. Now Our aim is to learn about next step- Quarks. ;) So are you ready?

Quarks?

What are these?

In our earlier classes, we read about charge in such a way that it can’t be rationalised. That meant any charge can only be an integer multiple of electron’s charge i.e., 1.6 x 10-19 Coloumbs. But Quarks deny this concept.
There are six types of quarks, in three pairs:

•The Up quarks & • Down quarks
• The Charm quarks & • Strange quarks
• The Top quarks  & • Bottom quarks

Extras

1. Kindly note that there are also six – antiquarks:

• Anti Up & Anti Down Quarks
• Anti Charm & Anti Strange
• Anti Top & Anti Bottom

2. Top- Bottom are sometimes called Truth- Beauty.
3. You should know that there is no existence possible of a single Quark. Quark extists as Quarks. These form composite particles after combining, called Hadrons.
4. As mentioned, Quarks, like protons and electrons, have electric charge. However, their electric charges are fractional charges, either +2/3 or -1/3 (-2/3 and +1/3 for antiquarks), and they always arrange to form particles with an integer charge (ie. -1, 0, 1, 2…).

Flavour Electric Charge
(e)
u up +2/3
d down -1/3
c charm +2/3
s strange -1/3
t top +2/3
b bottom -1/3

Because quarks join with each other to form particles with integer charge, (i.e. HADRON, what earlier mentioned) not every kind of combination of quarks is possible.

There are two basic types of Hadrons:
• Baryons:

These are composed of three quarks

• Mesons:

These are made up of a quark and an antiquark.

Baryons

Examples of baryon are the neutron and the proton.

The proton is composed of two up quarks and one down quark. As you can see, in the image, when the charges from the individual quarks are added up, you arrive at the familiar charge of +1 for the proton.

The neutron is made up of two down quarks and one up quark.

Adding the charges from the quarks up, we arrive at zero.

Mesons

An example of a meson is the pion.

The Pion is composed of an up quark and a down antiquark. Because mesons are a combination of particle and antiparticle, they tend to be very unstable and decay very quickly.

So this was about Quarks!! Next article will be about counter friend of quarks- called Leptons. ;) Enjoy, Share & Comment.

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Environment Initiatives : Few Good Steps for a Happier Future

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Our earth is in a very crusial stage. From this position, only we can make sure that where would our future go? Few Authorities and Initiatives are trying their most to save our earth & environment.

International Year of Forests 2011 logo

INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF FORESTS 2011

The United Nations declared the year 2011 as the International Year of Forests to raise awareness and strengthen the Sustainable forest management, conservation and developement of all types of trees for the benefit of current and future generations.

The UN’s Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that every year about 130,000 km² of the world’s forests are lost due to deforestation.

GreenPeace

GreenPeace was founded in 1971, in Vancouver, Canada, by Jim Bohlem, Irving & Dorothy Stowe and Paul Cote. It stands for opposing environmental abuse, saving endangered species and increasing public awareness through direct action, lobbying, research and innovation.

Members: 3.1 millions in 45+ countries
Volunteers: 15000
HQ: Amsterdam, Netherlands

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY

World Environment Day

World Environment Day (WED) was started by the UN General Assembly in 1972 at the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. WED is commemorated each year on june 5, in a different city.

Through WED, the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action.

Earth Day

Earth Day

Earth Day is celebrated all across New World (America) , where communities honour the environmental holiday by highlighting green issues and commiting themselves to make a difference in their locale.

Earth Hour

Earth Hour

Earth Hour began in Sydney, Australia, in 2007 with about 2 million participants. The voluntary one hour blackout has since grown into an international event as a sign of action against.

Last year, for earth hour 2010, millions of businesses, homes and landmarks around the world switched off their lights on March 27th , between 8:30 to 9:30 on their local time. Thousands of cities in a record 121 countries participated in earth hour 2010.

Other Important International Initiatives and Conventions:

• UN Framework Convention On Climate Change (UNFCCC)
• Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC
• Convention on the Laws of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Water Courses
• Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade
• Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants
• International Tropical Timber Agreement 2006
• UN Convention on the Law of the Sea
• Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks.

© Gaurav Happy Tiwari, 2011

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Cloud Computing – TECHNOLOGY and WWW

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Cloud computing icon

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Intro

The much talked about Cloud Computing promises to change the way Information Technology People look at delivering IT and the way business people perceive it. This one is now a general and important part of IT.

What is “Cloud” & Why it is Connected to Computing?

The name cloud computing was inspired by the cloud symbol that’s often used to represent the Internet in flow charts and diagrams. Cloud Computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet.

Services? What Services?

The services are broadly devided into three catagories:

• Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS):

Infrastructure as a Service involves Infrastructures, like PC, Laptop, Mobile, Notebook, Mini Note etc..

Plateform-as-a-Service(PaaS):

This involves Plateforms like Remote Server or Database or Remote Desktop.

Software-as-a-Service(SaaS):

SaaS is most important service. It is an application hosted on a remote server and accessed through the Internet. A simple and concrete example of SaaS are the free email systems offered on the internet such as Hotmail, GMail, Yahoo Mail etc. Each program meets the basic criteria of an SaaS application:
•vendor hosts (Microsoft, Google, Yahoo) all of the programs, logic and data in a central location and provides end users access to this data and the software which is run and used over the world-wide-web (WWW).

Profits of Cloud Computing

A cloud service has three distinct characterstics that differentiate it from the traditional hosting.
• It is sold on demand, typically by the minute or the hour.
• It is elastic – a user can have as much or as little of a service as they want at any given time.
• The Service is fully managed by the provides and the consumer offer nothing but a personal computer or a mobile and Internet access.

Significant innovations in virtualization and distributed computing, improved access to high speed internet and a weak economy, have accelerated interest in cloud computing.

“Women are now equal to the Men” Really? It is so?

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यत्र नार्यस्तु पूज्यंते, रमन्ते तत्र देवता ।
Means: Where women are honoured, There roams God.

The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, (PWDVA) 2005 resulted from years of effort by women’s and other civil society organisations in India. The PWDVA, which came into force in October 2006, is a gender-specific law that recognises that Women are disproportionately affected by domestic violence because of their unequal position in society vis-a-vis men.

Woman Got Violenced

Quick report came in November 2007, after PWDVA’s first year that about 9000 case were filed during the year. By 2008 the number of cases filed under PWDVA had crossed 14000. This number has now crossed 20000 according to the report. But activists say this represents just the tip of the iceberg. The above data are based on only Northern States. The number could be more. This Act is getting failed because of bad deeds of budgetary constraints, inadequate staff & structures, poor coordination between relevant official agencies and, of course, the continuing lack of public awareness.

Looking at the period before the PWDVAct i.e. 2005-06, I found that 37.2% (More than A Third, i.e., 18 milion) women had experienced spousal violence. [SOURCE: 3rd National Family Health Survey 2005-06] So, just a few cases filed out of millions. I accept that the ratio is decreased from 56% (1999) to 37%, but still its very very high.

Stop Violence Against WomenOnly society is not the reason for it, but women self bear the toleration for years before they voice against it. A survey in Delhi (one of the most developed parts in the country) revealed that an average woman had been voilenced for 4.2 year before she could complaint to police. Well this is our country capital, then what should be the situation of other states, specially Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh?

Even though laws against dowry have been made stricter since the early 1980s, the enduring practice is cited as the chief trigger for physical violence by husbands and in-laws.

What I say about other people, I have seen tens of Women being torchered in my child age. Even my mother had been mentally torchered by her in-laws (my big family) . [We leaved our parential home & broke our big family & changed into short & happy family.]

India’s head of State is a woman, the leader of biggest political party is a woman and………blah blah…we say. But the root is below the zero. One is forced to conclude that the position of women is getting improved, but the more things remain the same. Only a woman can tell you the real condition of her “existence”, i.e., the feminism. I am not a woman but I have felt that there are structural inequalities in all spheres– economic, political, cultural, legal, educational etc. Few are trying to keep the feminism up, but maximum are keeping it down.

Tell me in which category you are, by commenting below?

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Particle Physics- Learn With Fun – Part II- The Standard Model and The Antimatter Concept

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We left previously on The Standard Model. So let Start!!

The Standard Model

The Standard Model is a standard in particle physics. It’s a theoretical picture that describes how the different fundamental particles are organized and how they interact with each other along with the different forces.

What is in it?

Briefly it states that: The elementary particles are split up into two families, namely the quarks and the leptons. Both of these families consist of six particles, split into three generations, with the first generation being the lightest, and the third the heaviest. Furthermore, there are four different force carrying particles which lead to the interactions between particles.

Not Clear?

The table below shows this all a little bit more clearly.

Standard Model

Standard Model

 

All particles come under these two categories: Quarks & Leptons.

So, is everything in the world made up of quarks and leptons?

Well, ;) not quite. Let we learn about AntiMatter!!

What’s Antimatter?

An interesting thing that has been discovered about matter particles, is that each one has a corresponding antiparticle.
The term “anti” may be a bit decieving, as it is still real matter. The only difference between a particle and it’s antiparticle is that an antiparticle has the opposite electrical charge.

Think of it as a mirror image. In our experience left and right are the only things to reverse when looking in the mirror. Similarly, in the particle world, charge is what reverses when looking in the “mirror”. This has mass, spin, and most other (quarks have something called colour charge which is also changed in the “mirror”) properties the same.

In general, an antiparticle is the particles name with “anti” in front of it. For example, the antiparticle of the proton is the antiproton. An exception to this rule is the electron, whose antiparticle is known as the positron, not anti-electron.

At the End

An interesting fact about antimatter is that All of the universe is made up of matter as opposed to antimatter. This is somewhat of a mystery.

Now We’re ready to go for Quarks in a few days. :) :)

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Clean Technology – Why it is the time to be Green?

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What is the ‘Need’ of this Clean Technology?

Why Not? There is a desperate need to meet the challenges caused by climate change and environmental degradation. In the past, it was the entrepreneurial spirit that contributed most to the innovations with far reaching benefits. Besides, scientists from outside the industry innovated technologies like steam power, the railways, telegraph, radios and telephone, petroleum, the automobile, computer, internet etc. etc. Yet the role of entrepreneurial innovation in addressing environmental problems has recieved relatively little attention. In this context, presently, the clean technologies have emerged.

Why is this Techology Clean?

Clean Technologies are technologies that use energy, water, raw materials and other inputs more efficiently and productively, create less waste or toxicity, deliver equal or superior performance, and improve customer profitability, through cost reduction and/or increased revenues. Such technologies are found in a broad range of industries, including energy, water, manufacturing, advanced materials and transportation.

As ?

A few examples of clean technologies are-
Wind Energy, Solar Energy, Water Filtration, Industrial Process Controls, Hybrid Electric Vehicles, etc.

Why We Should Use It?

With the decrease of available energy sources; like, petroleum, coal etc., demand for energy worldwide going through the roof and after poor effects of global warming, manufactures realise that alternatives are serious business.

Convergence of environmental, technological, economic and social factors will produce more resource-efficient technologies that will be less reliant on obsolete, polluting technologies.

Progress ?

Clean technology is an intrinsic part of a sustainable economy. Over the past few years, the importance of developing clean technologies has grown significantly and has driven the growth of what are now multi-billion dollar markets. Globally wind energy market was valued at $5 billion in the begining of 21st century, are expected to grow to $550 billion by next year, while solar energy is expected to note from $3.5 billion to $28 billion by the same timeperiod.

The measure share of the climate change in the outlook towards clean technologies has been due to the increasing realisation that this is not merely a social responsibility requirement, but also yield amazing profits.


The result of this awareness is steadily evolving into a sustainable new economy, which is based on premises of clean energy, transportation, water and materials that embody the emerging principles of industrial ecology, resource productivity and natural capitalism. Industrial houses, corporates, as well as goverments are now investing in research and developement on environment-friendly technologies.

Last Lines

There is a need in developing countries to have easy access to the technologies and cheaply. For any major change, changing political understanding on such issues, government support and prospects for business involvement is critical. For the advance of clean technologies require adequate and reliable R&D budgets, better incentive systems to promote and support clean-tech purchases by businesses and competitive price for consumers. A robust economy is as much required for encouraging clean tech investments. And That’s All. :)

Dedicated to Blogadda.com for their Blogger’s Social Responsibility Program & mother Earth. GO GREEN.