The Scientific Indian

Road rage in India and Zinc intake

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 09:17:16 -0500

Yesterday's Hindu newspaper I read at our noisy suburb in Bangalore informs thus:

Is there any relationship between road rage in cities, especially during peak hour traffic, and nutrient deficiency? Yes, says the country's renowned soil scientist J.C. Katyal, who is Vice-Chancellor of the Choudhary Charan Singh Agricultural University in Haryana.

Speaking to presspersons on the sidelines of the annual convention of the Indian Society for Soil Science (ISSS) on the campus of the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, Dr. Katyal, who is also president of ISSS, explained that zinc deficiency might contribute to road rage, as lack of this mineral would impair cognitive development and reasoning.

What is interesting is that the root of the problem has been traced to degradation of soil quality.

If the soil lacks nutrients, the agricultural produce grown on it will also suffer from nutrient deficiency and ditto with people who eat these produce, according to him.

An interesting observation, although it may be hard to separate the causes for road rage when there are too many such causes adding generously to the smoldering brain of a Bangalore driver. Inability to eat balanced food is perhaps an indication of the wider problem of mismanagement of resources. In any case, fixing zinc intake is a good start as any other.

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India Calling

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 07:53:49 -0500

I and family will be traveling this week for a long stay in India (two months). I anticipate posts infused with spices, pickles and more in the coming weeks. The plan: Delhi during the first week of December. Bangalore and Namakkal most of the time, a trip to Chennai.

I have been preparing for the trip for some time and have arranged to meet a few men and women of science. That said, there is no detailed plan. I am look forward to meeting as many as I could: scientists, bloggers, readers of TheScian.com, science enthusiasts and anyone who has been wondering if I am bald or I shave my head regularly (both). Leave a message here or drop me an email. I'll get in touch.

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Scifi Contest Stories published

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 04:49:48 -0500

Winning entries are up. More selected stories will go online in the coming weeks. Enjoy.

Update: Comments (moderated) are now open for the winning stories. Share your thoughts with authors and other readers.

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iDesk

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:12:46 -0500

This seems like the future for the truly lazy ones who pile up papers all over their desk.

Impressive. But, can they match this:

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The Arrow of Time

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:11:16 -0500

My 11 month old daughter loves electric lights. If you visit my home, you may often find me standing near the switch and flicking it on and off while the daughter watches and squeals in delight. Today morning we were playing our switching game and I explained to her with much drama how photons are expelled from the atoms in the filament, how they travel down to her eyes, how the arrow of time and principle of least action guides the photons and the whole world, etc. She, of course, giggled watching my mouth make all the funny sounds.

When my hand reached her eyes, I gave a tickle, then traced the photons back to the light and explained to her that Time was now running backwards. The vase she broke was going to be alright, the milk she threw up will be going back in, photons were getting back into the filament.. Wait a minute. That is not how nature works. Or maybe, it does work that way? Perhaps, Time can run any way it well pleases - forwards, backwards, sideways.. I say this because at the atomic level, at the level where the atom ejects or absorbs a photon, there is no way to discern the arrow of time. All interactions are symmetric with respect to time (in other words, energy is conserved). If I had not traced my hand from the filament to my daughter's eyes and thereby had not irreversibly altered her perception of the world, there would be no arrow of time to speak of. Or atleast that's what I think. What is this arrow of time? Does it exist? Does it have a preferred direction?

There's more to this than I originally thought. Nevertheless, it is always startling to find such beguiling things lurking right under the thin surface we call 'mundane reality'.

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TheScian Scifi Contest 2008 - Results!

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 08:45:29 -0500

First prize
Aski's Choice by Rinku Dutta

Second prize
21 Minutes by Rahul Jaisheel

Sponsored prize
Noah's Ark by Narendra Desirazu

Selected stories
Live and Exclusive by Aditya Sudarshan (winner of our first scifi contest in 2006)

Touchstone by J Ramanand (winner of the contest in 2007)

Of Resolutions with Capital R's by Shuchikar

The prize winning stories will be published next week. The selected stories will be published one at a time in the following weeks.

While I and the authors prepare the stories for publication, I invite young writers to visit TheScian Writer's Kit, a compendium of observations I made over the course of three years while reading the contest submissions. It is aimed at writers who have just begun to explore creative writing with scientific themes. Corrections and additional suggestions for the list are welcome. A blurb to tempt you:

Essay, story, poetry, or nothing
To begin at the beginning: ask yourself why write at all. Every writer who aims high will quite early in their pursuit address this all important question. If you are convinced that you must write for whatever reason, then the next important question must be addressed before every story, essay or poem you write: is my choice of the literary form suitable for this task? Essays, stories, novels, poetry - these established structures should be studied. The creative process may soar or sink depending on the choice of the formal structure. Do not write an essay as a story, a poem as an essay or a short story as a novel. Choose wisely.

Resources
Resources for a writer are too vast and too varied to list or even attempt to list. To write is to explore oneself within and without, and to be driven by the overarching desire to tell stories and be remembered for it. You will have to find your own way to do this. However, you can learn how to pursue your creative goals from the masters. Study all the Paris Review Interviews; study great ideas - historical, scientific, political, philosophical and cultural; and study the classics for inspiration . Good luck.

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A piece of India on the moon

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:34:43 -0500

The realization of a dream. I believe we still need an inspiring campaign to create awareness and thereby generate enthusiasm among the taxpayers. Whatever lies ahead, this is a great day for the thousands of scientists and engineers who have made this possible.

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Future of Scifi

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:32:15 -0500

The latest New Scientist magazine has soundbites from writers like Gibson and Atwood and much else. Give it a read.

E M Forster in Aspects of The Novel, asks a pertinent question: Will the mirror get a new coat of quicksilver? Will the creative process itself alter? (By mirror he means novels, and the creative process is story telling - through words, paint, clay...).

This is the kind of meta question about art that only those who engage in speculative fiction can address, IMO. Science, of course, is the best possible vehicle for speculation because it is more consistent than most other quicksilver coatings.

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Burma Blogger Nay Phone Latt jailed for 20 years

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 04:16:38 -0500

via BBC.

Learn more:
at Reporters Without Borders

at Committee to protect bloggers

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Scifi Contest Update

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 08:50:56 -0500

The winners have been decided. We have an exceptional story as a winner this year. Picking it as the winner was not hard.

I have been mulling over five stories for the past week - any of them could be chosen for the second prize. These stories are all excellent and I loathe to choose. In the end, I have decided on a story where the author has courageously pitted his head again a classic scifi theme. That said, we will publish all the good stories. Winners, authors of stories we will publish and all other participants can expect an email in the next few days with substantial feedback.

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Chandrayaan-1 is almost there

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 06:10:48 -0500

Chandrayaan-1 has entered the phase where in two days it'll start circling the moon. ISRO Press release here. Feels good to finally have a piece of India around the moon, is it not!

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The American Transformation

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 07:44:26 -0500

Rebecca Traister writes at Spiegel

How could Jesse Jackson not cry, standing in that crowd, realizing that whatever hurt time and generational difference might have inflicted on his project and his legacy, he was witnessing the dawn of a world that his work made possible, but which he had not been able to make possible himself.

And then he began to wave a small American flag on a wooden stick, like a kid at a Fourth of July parade. Elsewhere in the crowd, Oprah Winfrey, that most almighty American who, like Jackson, helped launch Obama's dream, but who on the night it was made manifest was simply a member of a throng that could only look on and weep, watched as the uneven ground on which America was built became slightly more level beneath their feet.

The president elect in his speech said, the genius of America is that it can change. It can and it did. Rev. Jesse Jackson waving the flag for Obama captures it perfectly. What an extraordinary day.

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Tears For Obama Supporters

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:36:45 -0500

Wife and I looked at this slideshow a few minutes ago and tears started rolling down our eyes. Through the hopeful and tearful eyes of these men and women, we glimpsed history. Our own spontaneous tears seems to be how our lives - a couple from India - has been deeply touched by the people of United States, by this extraordinary political groundswell.

Weekend music

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 05:24:49 -0500

Vivaldi - The Four Seasons (Spring, Allegro, Nigel Kennedy). I am nostalgic today.

Beirut - St Apollonia. A haunting melody. What are they singing about?

'Nantes' , the take away show. This is how music happens.

Rodrigo y Gabriela - Tamacun. Full of life.

Coldplay - Viva la vida. Not many sing about the french revolution these days (and from a fallen king's point of view). Great beats.

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TheScian.com (was) down

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:12:28 -0500

I'll holler when it's up. (The site message is courtesy of Shakespeare, Henry the Eighth.)

Update: It's up!

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