The Story of India
I loved History in school. A new textbook each year giving a perspective on different national and international events from the more recent past to times when the country wasn’t even defined. However, I feel that the yearly system and individual disconnected textbooks never gave a picture of India’s history which could be grasped and admired entirely. Fortunately, I came across the documentary by Michael Wood called “The Story of India” and just finished watching the whole series a couple of days back. Spread over six episodes it is the ideal source of getting a picture of the entire birth of civilization on the subcontinent. From thousands of years in the past to the end of British Raj it clearly depicts all the changes that took place in the region - how new rulers came to power, how cultures and cities rose and then perished, how are they linked to each other.
Even more fascinating are the accounts of personal characteristics of famous names in Indian history. For e.g. Baber’s goal to find the common denominator in all religions. Something I am still trying to Google my head around. I am not sure this information was included in the textbooks of my schooling days. I thought they were too factual.
I specially liked the way the documentary was picturized (I guess I could call it cinematography). Even though the narration in the background would be about history the pictures would be of present times in the same location or events that the narrator is talking about. The effect I found to be really moving.
On a more philosophical note - How individual events can completely change the course of future events that are to follow is simply amazing. This is not only applicable in the birth of a civilization (as evident from this documentary) but on even larger time scales. For e.g. the evolution of modern humans. And I don’t even need to mention how the same is applicable to individual lives as well.
Understanding Genetics
The Personal Genome Project Study Guide locate here is a great source for understanding the fundamentals of genetics. If it arouses more curiosity consider participating in the project. The next phase of enrollment has just opened up
My talk at the Erlang Factory
My talk at the erlang factory
Sleep & Dreams
Read an interesting book called ‘101 questions about Sleep & Dreams’. Its not entirely convincing scientifically but gives somewhat plausible answers to most questions. The author is not an expert on the topic but has assembled the information from credible sources.
Did not gain much insight from this book though, but it has inspired me to do one thing. I am monitoring my sleep from now on.. every night …recording time etc and noting down how the following day goes. Since I sleep variable hours day to day I have a feeling something interesting might show up. Can’t gather a large number of subjects so I am the only one.
Biography of a Germ - Arno Karlen
A very interesting read this one. Its about Borellia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes lyme desease. Although the title says this is a biography of Bb the author digresses into a number of other topics. Some of which are fascinating, like his description of the life of a tick. Thats how the whole book is. In parts it is absolutely fascinating, in other parts it is simply informative. But overall it is thoroughly enjoyable. Organisms like bacteria might seem trivial to many but this book certainly takes a step towards altering that perception
The Fabric of the Cosmos - Brian Greene
This is probably the best book I have read so far on Cosmology. I can’t write on what the book is about since it covers a wide range of topics from Relativity to Quantum Physics to String Theory.
What was impressive about the style of writing was that it is almost like reading a novel. The flow of things with respect to time is commendable. Everything builds up as a story, which was kind of unexpected to me when I picked it up.
It is like reading the story of the ‘Study of Cosmology’.
The examples given in the book to explain various concepts are plenty, clear & descriptive - which makes them interesting to follow.
I would recommend this to anyone interested in knowing ‘what is known’ in this field.
The only minor negative aspect would be that at time I found it too verbose, especially towards the end.
Coming to life - Christiane Nusslen Volhard
I had left this one half-read so thought I will complete it tonight. Actually I found this book to be a bit too technical. It is a good book, no doubt about that but contains too many details which I won’t remember in any case - so reading them does not make much fun. I had skimmed through a text book on molecular biology on my last trip to India and at times I felt I was reading short summaries from that one.
The highlight of the book for me was the following few lines towards the end. I list them here verbatim
“There is more variation (genetic) between people within a given population than between different populations. This is surprising because superficially, people from different parts of the world can look rather different in terms of body size or skin color. However, their overall difference in the genes is tiny compared to the differences between individuals within one ethnic group. Thus, there is no real genetic basis for the idea of human races.”
And like any good technical book it lists some very interesting facts
- Humans have approximately 10^13 cells
- Life came into being more that 3 billion years ago
- Multicellular organisms first appeared about 600 million years ago
- More that 99% of all species that ever existed are extinct today
My new toy…
I have posted the first pictures from the microscope here and will use this page from now on…
There is another thing I do not like about it - There needs to be a remote mechanism to instruct the microscope to take a picture. The only available way is to push a button just below the LCD screen. The problem with this is that at high magnification (400x) even the slightest vibration gets hugely amplified and the picture comes out hazy. The trick I am using is to not release the button immediately but keep it pressed until the image is taken. However for this to work I have to try a few times to get an image.
My new toy!
I got this microscope last month - thought it is pretty cool. It is not lab quality or proffesional grade but fun to play with. Should be great for kids (and me). The cool thing about it is that it has an 3.5 inch LCD screen in place of an eyepiece. I am not an expert at microscopes but I think that makes it a lot easier to use and the best part is that several people can take a look at the same time.
Oh! and it also has a 2 megapixel camera for taking pictures and video
I have not spend too much time with it so far. I learnt that the real key in using a compound microscope is the preparation of the specimens. I have obtained some basic kit for that purpose too and will try and learn slowly.
I will later post a couple of cursory pictures that I took
Actually Celestron has released a bunch of cool microscopes in 2009, unfortunately I already bought this one towards the end of December.
What I don’t like about it
- The LED light at the top is in the worng place. The light from it completely gets blocked by the 10x and 40x objectives. This makes it impossible to see specimens that are not transparent. I will go to a hardware store sometime and find another light source that I can use. Anyways this is not supposed to be a stereo microscope so I guess I should not be complaining too much over this.
Continuing Education
One of the items on my long list of this year’s resolutions is to get some form of education in areas other than computer science. I have been looking around for opportunities in this regard for quite a while now. Finally! I found something worthwhile.
Stanford is offering some really interesting courses as part of their Continuing Studies Program. I have enrolled for the following courses in this winter quarter (Jan - Apr 2009)
1. Cosmology (PHY 28) taught by Prof Leonard Susskind
2. The Math Behind Technological Innovation (SCI 19) taught by Prof Margot Gerritsen
I don’t have cycles for graduate studies at the moment (not just because of work) so this looks like a great option. Interestingly the median student age for these courses is 46.
I thought this would be a great way to learn in a more serious manner without the grueling efforts of being a full time student. Lets see how it goes. Each course has about 10-12 lectures with each lecture being about 2 hrs in duration. I have enrolled for the grade option so I guess I will get to test myself a little bit.
Combined with the following talks at SLAC & the Physics department that I have been attending since the last semester I think this resolution of mine should be covered
- SLAC Colloquim and Public Lecture Series
- ACKS Seminar
My goal has been to attend one talk per week and so far I have managed to keep it up.
Stanford has also made some of the lectures (in video) from the Continuing Studies Program available here on ITunes. But I prefer the in class option.
