Monthly Archives: June 2014
Studying our primal horizons at the Kuiper belt
In August this year, the New Horizons spacecraft will cross into the region of space beyond Neptune’s orbit. It won’t be the first human object to go this far: the two Voyager space probes have already done that, and then Pioneer … Continue reading
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Tagged Grand Tack Model, Kuiper Belt, New Horizons, Nice Model, Pioneer 10, planetary migration, Solar System, Trans-Neptunian objects, Voyager space probes
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R&D in China and India
“A great deal of the debate over globalization of knowledge economies has focused on China and India. One reason has been their rapid, sustained economic growth. The Chinese economy has averaged a growth rate of 9-10 percent for nearly two … Continue reading
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Tagged China, Current Science, decentralization, GDP, India, peer review, plagiarism, private sector investment, publish or perish, R&D, scientific misconduct, scientific publishing, scientific research
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Better to have been a mammal in India
The Copernican April 10, 2014 Studies of fossils and soil samples collected at a site in South India have revealed unique attributes of the ecosystem not found in many parts of the world. In particular, an international team of scientists … Continue reading
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Tagged Billasurgam cave complex, chronobiology, climate change, evolution, Indian subcontinent, mammalian taxa, mosaic habitat, urbanization, words: mammals
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Elon Musk’s altruism powertrain is just good business
In 1907, the Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla sold all his patents to Westinghouse, Inc., for a heavily discounted $216,000, including one for alternating current. In 1943, he died penniless. In 2014, another Tesla has given away its patents but signs … Continue reading
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Tagged battery swapping, Beter Place, Big Cars, electric vehicles, Elon Musk, Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, lithium-ion battery cells, patents, Shai Agassi, Tesla Motors
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What life on Earth tells us about life ‘elsewhere’
In 1950, the physicist Enrico Fermi asked a question not many could forget for a long time: “Where is everybody?” He was referring to the notion that, given the age and size of the universe, advanced civilizations ought to have arisen in … Continue reading
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Tagged astrobiology, Carl Sagan, Enceladus, Enrico Fermi, exoplanets, extrasolar systems, hydrocarbons, life, Saturn, starstuff, Titan
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After-math of the IPL
Yes, we all know the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won the Indian Premier League 2014, but who among all the teams’ many players really did well? And were they awarded for it? The former is a decidedly subjective question based … Continue reading
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Tagged Ashes 2013, betweenness, closeness, cricket, graph theory, Indian Premier League, network analysis, network centrality, PageRank, sabermetrics
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As the ripples in space-time blow through dust…
The last time a big announcement in science was followed by an at least partly successful furor to invalidate it was when physicists at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory, Italy, claimed to have recorded a few neutrinos travelling at faster … Continue reading
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Tagged B-mode, BICEP2, Chennai Mathematical Institute, cosmology, gravitational waves, inflationary paradigm, multiverse
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Gerald Guralnik (1936-2014)
Of the six scientists who came up with the idea of a Higgs boson in the mid-1960s, independently or in collaboration with others, I’ve met all of one. Tom Kibble was at the Institute of Mathematical Science, Chennai, in January 2013 … Continue reading
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Tagged Francois Englert, Gerald Guralnik, Higgs boson, Nobel Prize for physics, Peter Higgs, Physical Review Letters, primacy, Satyendra Nath Bose, theoretical physics, Tom Kibble
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Hey, is anybody watching Facebook?
The Boston Marathon bombings in April 2013 kicked off a flurry of social media activity that was equal parts well-meaning and counterproductive. Users on Facebook and Twitter shared reports, updates and photos of victims, spending little time on verifying them … Continue reading
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Tagged Facebook, Graph Search, machine learning, Patrick Meier, Ponnurangam Kumaraguru, situational awareness, social media, Twitter
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Brazuca over Jabulani for better football, say physicists
Say hello to Brazuca, the official football of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Brazuca is a ball designed and produced by sportswear manufacturer Adidas, which also produced the Jabulani used in the 2010 World Cup. Both balls are part of … Continue reading
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Tagged 2014 FIFA World Cup, aerodynamics, Brazuca, Jabulani, knuckle ball, wind tunnel, wobbling
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