Science Is Beautiful

Science Is Beautiful: Season 2- From New Location

pdiwakar — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 04:47:25 +0000

Time to restart my blog now! Time to analyze and discuss numerous scientific stories, share some pictures, videos. While the web address of this blog remains same, my physical location has changed. I have moved to Purdue University at West Lafayette, Indiana where I will be be doing ultra-fast spectroscopy to understand laser and matter interaction. This week, for the first time I operated femtosecond laser and was able to create a plasma Now just thinking of creative ways to use this new scientific tool I am learning. So, Science Is Beautiful-Season 2 starts from today with pictures from Purdue University after weekend snowfall.

Day of 7 Billion

pdiwakar — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 04:29:29 +0000

The day of 7 billion is here. As per United Nations predictions, world population is estimated to reach 7 billion in coming months. UN is going to announce the projected world population of 7 billion on Oct 31 which is also being referred to as “day of seven billion”. The day is more of symbolic in nature as the seven billionth baby is not going to be born until next March 2012. By taking into account 1-2% margin of error in the projection model, 7 billionth baby could be born anytime between March 2012 and July 2014. As per Lutz et al., there is a 60% probability that the 7 billionth baby will be born between March 2012-Jul 2014 (source). The figure here shows uncertainty distribution of the time at which the world’s population reaches 7 billion.As a symbolic gesture, NGO Plan International is going to issue a birth certificate on Oct 31, marking an Indian baby girl in Uttar Pradesh as the 7 billionth child.

Well, if you want to know where you fit in this crowd of 7 billion, you can visit BBC page or 7 billionandme page. I was 4,372,720,343rd person alive on earth when I was born, while I was 78,916,646,853rd person ever born since history began. So What’s your number? The most astonishing number I got from the data was that since the day I was born 767,963 species have become extinct; that’s a mind boggling number! Another interesting number is the ratio of population under 15 vs population over 60. We are one of the youngest generation in history; majority of this younger generation lives in developing countries with scarce resources and opportunities.

The concern here should not be the exact date when the seven billionth child will be born but rather what steps need to be taken in coming years to handle the issues which are already looming upon us–scarcity of natural resources, food insecurity, fresh water scarcity, lack of sanitation and health care, imbalance in wealth distribution, imbalance in population distribution across different ages and so on. It’s a complicated issue and is going to affect all of us around the globe. Collective action would be required and hopefully the number 7 billion will result in 7 billion ideas, 7 billion steps forward…

Top image credit: Boston.com/Bigpicture|Edgard Garrido/Reuters

Picture of the Day: Rescued Baby Gorilla

pdiwakar — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:44:54 +0000

There are roughly 900 mountain Gorillas remaining on earth and baby Shamavu (shown above) is one of them. Baby Shumavu was recued from the hands of poachers by a team from Virunga National Park in Congo led by Christian Shumavu. The team busted a poaching racket and were able to rescue this baby Gorilla, He was then named after the man who rescued him. As you can see from picture, Shumavu looks confused and scared. The rescue team found him stuffed inside a small backpack. He is about one and half years old and it is not sure if his mother survived from the hands of poachers. The baby was so terrfied from the whole experience that he would not leave the arms of his recuer or let any doctor treat him. It took a while until he earned the confdence of other humans.

For more pictures visit this facebook page or website of Virunga National Park.

Science is Scamming and Confusing America, How?

pdiwakar — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:56:29 +0000

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Last night’s The Daily Show was awesome as always. Take a look at the video and here is a word of caution: don’t let any scientist con you into believing in evolution or global warming or vaccination or any other “science junk”.

Do You Know What Nano Means?

pdiwakar — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:22:01 +0000

If not, then this video might help you in understanding what nano is. Beautiful video by Daniel Geis.

R.I.P. Mr. Jobs

pdiwakar — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:06:41 +0000

Rest in Peace Steve Jobs and thanks for bringing together innovation, design and aesthetics. There might have been other innovators who must have thought of laptops, tablets and phones without any keys and buttons, but you thought about it, designed it and brought those ideas to life.

Comicstrip credit: Abstrusegoose.com

Beautiful Aurora Display

pdiwakar — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:45:11 +0000

It’s been a while I posted something, consider this a semi-hiatus from blogging. I will try to post something from time to time. I have posted several posts on Auroras. Here is another one with video and pictures taken by astronauts on ISS while passing over Indian Ocean on Sep 17th 2011. They took several images and compiled a video which shows spectacular Aurora display. This particular Aurora display was a result of Coronal Mass Ejection event which occurred in the Sun on Sep 14th 2011, leading to stirring of the earth’s magnetic field and excitation of nitrogen and oxygen molecules in earth’s atmosphere. Greenish part of the Aurora glow is contributed by emission from excited oxygen molecule while blue or purple glow is from nitrogen molecule. Enjoy the Video. Towards the end of the video you can notice some specks and bright glows on earth’s surface which are infact forest wild fires and agricultural fires in Australia.

Image and video credit: NASA

Symphony of Science: The Quantum World

pdiwakar — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:19:45 +0000

Enjoy the symphony of quantum world featuring Morgan Freeman, Stephen Hawking, Michio Kaku, Brian Cox, Richard Feynman, and Frank Close.

Video credit: http://symphonyofscience.com

Picture of The Day: Baby Elephant in Orange Raincoat

pdiwakar — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:33:16 +0000

In the picture you can see baby elephant Shukuru wearing a custom made raincoat in order to protect him from cold and rain. Baby Shukuru is a victim of incessant poaching and human-wildlife conflict occurring in the jungles of Kenya. Elephants who used to walk free in the jungles are now endangered. Like many other baby elephants in these jungles, Shukuru is an orphan and is being taken care at David Sheldrick Wildlife trust in Nairobi where he is being fed, protected and rehabilitated. Once they are no longer milk-dependent they are moved from this elephant nursery to other centers. Slowly they are moved to their natural habitat, but this can take few years (8-10) before they are ready to move in the wild. Baby elephants are dependent on their mother’s milk for about 2-4 years and that causes serious problems in raising young orphan elephants. You can read more about Shukura and many other baby elephants in NatGeo article. These beautiful pictures have been taken by Michael Nichols and if you are interested in some good Nature pictures, you might consider getting his App for your iPad.

Image Credit: Michale Nichols | National Geographic

Picture of The Day: Simultaneous Sunset And Moonset

pdiwakar — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 07:16:55 +0000

This incredible image of simultaneous sunset and moonset was taken by astronaut Ron Garan on Jul 31 from the International Space Station. ISS orbits around the earth every 90 minutes so the astronauts aboard ISS get a chance to witness this amazing event about 16 times a day!! Ron also took picture of one of the 16 sunrises, here it is:

Image Credit: NASA