TED Tuesday: String theory November 24, 2009

Physicist Brian Greene explains superstring theory, the idea that minscule strands of energy vibrating in 11 dimensions create every particle and force in the universe.

Too mundane for space travel? October 22, 2009

Who would have thought that a nickel and titanium “memory metal” known as Nitinol, recently popular for use in dental braces, would have been originally developed by NASA for aerospace uses! This new alloy does not crimp when bent and returns to its original shape as teeth shift! But that’s not the only invention that fascinates you with the fact that it was originally invented for space travel. A few days back I came across this article from Radaronline.com that shares with its readers 13 such items that we use in our daily lives which were originally invented for space travel. They range from handheld video cameras to Zen perfume. Check it out!

Sunday Spotlight: CPAK 2009 August 16, 2009

CPAK (Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge) began in 2004 as a means of bringing together scientists from various disciplines together; scientists who were truly open-minded and were ready to think unconventionally; scientists who didn’t believe all of what the text books tell us and wanted to consider what the so called legends and myths of cultures worldwide say; scientists who wanted to know what really happened on this planet in the past. According to CPAK website,

“Over the last five years CPAK has become the premiere gathering place for those interested in ancient cultures, lost knowledge and the cycle of the ages. Leading explorers, authors, professors and scientists make presentations and examine the latest archaeological finds, astronomical research and new interpretations of structures, myth and folklore that shed light on the true history of mankind. The result is an epiphany of awareness as we collectively begin to understand where we came from and where we are going in this ascending age.”

I thought of sharing this event with my readers as I feel at least some of you will find it interesting like I do. This year’s conference is on October 10th at the University of California’s Irvine campus in CA, USA. If you are truly interested, I’ll leave it up to you to visit the website, read, watch and listen more. There are some samples of past presentations at the conference to whet your appetite. Happy “knowledging”!

Sunday Spotlight: Devavision Productions July 19, 2009

Some time back I came across and watched the video Scientific Verification of Vedic Knowledge on Google videos. This video is made by a group of people who call themselves Devavision Productions. The website homepage spells out their moto to be “Revealing the hidden treasure of India’s ancient Vedic wisdom and culture”.

I was really impressed with the research these people have done and the efforts they are putting in to get the word out there. I believe that there is a lot of ancient knowledge (not just in India but in other cultures as well) which is still “hidden” from us because we infact haven’t reached the spiritual, scientific and cultural maturity that is needed to comprehend it. So I’m delighted to see someone put in some serious effort towards “uncovering” that knowledge. Hence I thought I would do my bit of “publicising” this commendable effort and write a blog entry about them. Check them out if you are interested in ancient Indian knowledge!

Sci-tech goes arty June 11, 2009

I have written quite a few posts before which showcase the merger of science/technology and art. The endeavours have ranged from fascinating micro-photography to Frizions to high-speed captures of shattering objects. Today I’m sharing with you one more spectacular example of science/technology and artistic inspiration combining. The source of this art-work is the ‘Glowing animals: Pictures of Beasts Shining for Science’ photogallery.

How does it glow?

Multiple colors of fluorescent protein, introduced into its DNA (2008)

What can we learn?

One of the team of scientists that won a 2008 Nobel Prize for green fluorescent protein–Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Y. Tsien–couldn’t resist showing off their creation a bit. From Tsien’s lab comes this artful plate with selectively swabbed fluorescent bacteria. The discovery of green fluorescent protein by Shimomura in 1956 was the result of crushing countless jellyfish. After publishing his findings in 1962, Shimomura studied GFP in detail and realized that no extra fuel was needed to make it glow–other glowing substances need chemical additives to shine. GFP, by contrast, just needed to be exposed to ultraviolet light.Chalfie, the third of the GFP Nobel winners, realized the maintenance-free protein could be used to literally watch how creatures work. He proved with the intestinal bacterium E.
coli that GFP alone–with no fuel–glowed, and promptly started putting it into roundworms.Roger Tsien kicked it up a notch by reengineering GFP to be cyan, blue, and yellow. Yet more colors were found in fluorescent coral. He remixed these materials into glowing proteins such as “mPlum,” “mStrawberry,” and “mOrange.”Though their inventions may have revolutionized the fields of medicine, biology, and chemistry, the fluorescent proteins also have creative applications, as shown above. Fluorescent proteins have also been used in the name of art to make sculptures out of glowing beakers and live glowing rabbits.
— Photograph courtesy UC San Diego via AP