Nobel families

Anyone who went online this week would have seen the news about the Nobel Prize announcements. Every year the prize is awarded to the pioneers in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Economics and Literature for their contribution to the collective knowledge of the respective field. A Nobel Peace prize is also awarded to an individual or an organisation for their best efforts for the peace on the world we live on. Even though we hear names of winners from all over the world, there are many Nobel prizes won by members of a same family making themselves a legacy.

Many of these families have two Nobel laureates among themselves. In 1906, J J Thomson was awarded the Physics prize for the discovery of electron particles while his son, George Paget Thomson, received the same prize for showing the wave properties of electron hence bringing the notion of particle - wave duality which is the heart of Quantum Physics. William Henry Bragg and his son William Lawrence Bragg shared the 1915 Physics prize for the invention of X-ray spectrometer, so did Manne Siegbahn and Kai Siegbahn in 1924 and 1981 for their works in spectroscopy. At the time, Lawrence Bragg was only 25 years of age making him the youngest Physics Nobel laureate till date .Niels Bohr and his son Aage Bohr also received their Nobel prizes 53 years apart for their respective contributions to the understanding of atomic structure. 

This trends are not only seen in the history of Physics prize nor for a father-son duo.The husband and wife team of Gerty Cori and Carl Ferdinand Cori shared the Prize in Medicine in 1947, so did May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser in 2014. Economics Prize winner Gunnar Myrdal was the husband of Alva Myrdal who went on to win a Nobel peace Prize in 1982. There are many more laureates who has achieved this feat. An Indian family is also part of this elite group. C V Raman who won the Physics Prize in 1930 was the uncle of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar who won the Prize in 1983. But no family has reached close to the Curie family who currently holds the record for the most Nobel laureates.

Pierre Curie and Marie Curie 

Pierre Curie and his wife Marie Curie was the first ones to win a Nobel Prize in the family. They received their Physics prize for their extraordinary contributions in the field of radioactivity which they shared with Henri Becquerel in 1903. Pierre Curie was also a pioneer in magnetism and crystallography and is the namesake for Curie temperature which is an important characteristics of any material. Marie Curie later won another Nobel prize in 1911, this time in chemistry for the discovery of new elements Radium and Polonium.This was first generation Nobel laureates from the family. Later their elder daughter, Irene Joliot-Curie and her husband Frederic Joliot-Curie shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 for their discovery of artificial radioactivity. Its only appropriate to have these many Nobel laureates in a family who had 10 physicists, 2 doctors and a biologist in the last 200 years. The only exception from this is Marie Curie's younger daughter Eve Curie who became a writer making her the only one in her family who did not choose science as a career and did not win a nobel prize. This is also considering her husband Henry Richardson Labouisse Jr. who accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965 on behalf of UNICEF becoming one of the five Nobel prize winners in the Curie family.

Marie curie and her daughters in 1908

Marie Curie is the most famous among the family being the first woman to be awarded with a Nobel Prize. She died on 4th July 1934, suffering 'aplastic anemia' believed to be contracted from long exposures to radiation in her own lab. In fact even today the doorknob she turned to enter her lab and the chair in which she used to sit and work is highly radioactive and reminiscent of her. But more than that, I believe what she and her family has done to the science community will radiate their names for a long time.

Top 10 Youtube Science Channels

YouTube has grown phenomenally as a platform for people to share videos about anything and everything since its inception.It contains homemade videos of funny cats to high quality narratives of the world. It is now helping millions of students around the world to learn science in ways that is different from that of classrooms or textbooks.

Here are some of the best science channels that YouTube has to offer that you must watch if you are interested in science.

Veritasium

The channel run by a PhD holder in Physics education, Derek Muller offers a wide range of enquiries from the fields of science. The channels not only provides a clear explanations of everyday scientific processes but also features the host's travels around the world for science, making the viewer experience entertaining.The quality of the production and the depth in content guarantee this channel's presence in any top 10 lists. The name Veritasium is derived from 'Veritas' which mean truth in Latin by adding a common chemical element suffix 'ium' making the channel 'An element of Truth' and I have to agree the channel is true to its name.

Smarter Everyday 

Smarter Everyday follows Destin Sandlin's exploration of the world using science. Destin runs a very successful YouTube channel along with his full time job as a rocket engineer and his duties to his family of wife and four kids who also makes an appearance or two in the videos.The channel showcases a personal experiences of sciences rather than full crew productions without compromising on quality or uniqueness. His passion for space and flight is visible in his playlists along with 'backward brain bicycle', 'mystery of Prince Rupert's  drops' and 'tattooing in slow motion'.You don't want to miss out on the journeys of a man whose questions are often answered by astronauts up from the International Space Station.

Dnews 

This channel is aimed at answering the everyday questions through scientific methods. Dnews which stands for 'Discovery News' creates contents that lead the viewers to discover something new every week. The videos include "Why do humans have big brains?","Is there a Formula behind good music?","what makes aeroplanes light enough to fly?" and much more.The short and quick answer to the burning questions makes the channel different than many others in this list.

Khan Academy

The mission of this channel being part of the non profit organisation by the same name is to provide a world-class education for anyone, anywhere. The channel contains thousands of video lectures from a wide spectrum of academic subjects. This channel unlike the many in the list do not provide a popularized version of science but clear and concise introduction to complex concepts and feature full subject series as well.Khan academy was responsible for putting its creator Sal Khan in the "100 most influential people" list by Time magazine in 2012.

AsapSCIENCE

The creators Mitchell Moffit and Gregory Brown brings out the science behind a variety of topics through colourful drawings and animations on a white board.There videos often contains relevant and entertaining take on popular misconceptions and what science has to offer. Their video 'What colour is that dress(SOLVED with SCIENCE)" was highly viewed during the the viral internet phenomenon "The dress". The fact that a same-sex couple having a successful science channel in YouTube is not only an inspiration for the minorities but also shed light on the fact that science is not biased on the grounds of gender, age , nationality or sexual orientation.

Periodic Videos

This University of Nottingham channel is about all things chemistry from chemical elements to cool experiments that will blow your mind.They also have videos about each of the elements on the periodic table.Most of times they feature the opinions and explanations of Sir Martyn Poliakoff and other professors of the university.The videos are by Brady Haran who also have other channels like 'Sixty Symbols', 'Numberphile' and 'Deep sky videos' with emphasis on physics , mathematics and astronomy respectively. All of them are equally brilliant and exciting to watch.

Vsauce

Vsauce provide a very interesting mix of science, philosophy, existentialism and everyday trivia that puts a train of thoughts in the viewer's mind that lasts longer than the videos.The host Michael Stevens usually starts off with a fact or a question and diverge into a wide aspects of the subject matter, which is supported by a very thorough research that has been put into each of his videos.The topics are sometimes simple but very profound. 

TED-Ed

This extension of the TED mission to spread great ideas, utilizes the expertise of scientists,artists,animators and story tellers into making amazing animated videos on literally everything under the sun. The short videos are simple and understandable even to young audiences due to its narrative style. The channel also have a playlist of logical riddles that you can solve at your free time on internet making them fun and educating.

SciShow

Scishow is one of the many channels curated by the very successful YouTube personalities, Green Brothers. The channel puts up a video everyday for your daily dose of science.The channel features quick questions, count downs, science news, interviews and much more making the channel a mix bag of treats. SciShow is definitely one of the famous science channels on YouTube.

MIT OpenCourseWare

This Initiative of Massachusetts Institute of Technology puts all its educational contents from undergraduate , postgraduate online courses free and openly available to the internet and MIT was one of the first universities to do that.The channel provides interested students a gateway to more rigorous method of learning the science through its chronologically arranged lecture series on subjects of STEM(Science, Technology,Engineering and Mathematics).This provides world class education from some of the best minds on the planet , accessible for anyone with a decent internet connection.

The world is a big place full of interesting stuff to be explored and learned but not everyone can travel and have a first hand experience of them. But that limitation can be overcome by a willingness to learn as there are many a ways you can do that through internet.

NASA and the Egyptian God

The American space agency has always named their missions with acronyms which are often easy to remember or are those of names of the famous scientists making them part of the everyday vocabulary. The recent space probe launched towards an asteroid  that might potentially wipe out humans from the face of the earth  is named uncommonly after an ancient Egyptian god king and they have good reasons to do it .

OSIRIS-REx

The OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) mission was successfully launched on 8th September 2016. The mission would go to the asteroid 101955 Bennu and return to earth in 2023 with surface samples for detailed analysis. It is very important for NASA to study Bennu for its carbon rich chemical composition which might foster life and for the 1 in 2700 probability of it destroying the world as we know it. The mission is named after the Egyptian god of the afterlife, the underworld and also of resurrection and regeneration, Osiris.

According to the earliest mentions of the Osiris myth, he was murdered by his brother Set and his body was cut into pieces and thrown across Egypt. His wife Isis later found all the missing pieces and resurrected him back to life allowing him to posthumously conceive a son with her. The myth then follows the son Horus and his rivalry with Set for the throne of Egypt. But most importantly the gods' efforts to bring Osiris back to life made him the first mummy and this is the mystical basis for the Egyptian embalming practices and mummification.

The story is also the influence for the kingship and succession rituals in ancient Egypt. The death king was embalmed and his mummy was associated with Osiris and his successor was to become Horus. Osiris is the god who make the land fertile and life possible and for that reason NASA decided to name the mission after him. In a similar manner, the mission seeks to find samples from the asteroid which may contain organic material bringing the knowledge of life elsewhere.

The name of the asteroid, Bennu also has its fare share in the Egyptian mythology. Bennu is the cosmic bird of regeneration and rebirth who visits the benben stone ( also known as pyramidion and inspiration for the capstones of pyramids and obelisks) of Heliopolis and is associated with Osiris.Of its many references in the ancient hieroglyphics, Bennu is often shown as a grey heron  with atef crown that Osiris wears. The phoenix is believed to be inspired from the descriptions of Bennu by famous Greek traveler of 5th century BC, Herodotus.The name was selected through a competition that NASA organised back in 2013.The winner, then 9 year old Michael Puzio suggested the name for its connection with Osiris and that the probe with its solar panels and long neck like instrument to obtain samples reminds of a heron.

Bennu on top of the Benben stone

The Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale on which the asteroid Bennu is currently the second most probable Near Earth Object (NEO) that can have an earth impact estimates our doomsday as early as the year 2175. If it occurs, it can change the history of earth and humanity for ever. Ancient Egyptian surprisingly has a similar view of their Bennu. It is believed to come down to the lands of Egypt only at the turn of a new age marking the start of a new cycle in time. It is hard not to see these parallels that human beings incorporate into smallest of things which makes it more relatable in the grand scheme of life. 

References:
1. NASA Near Earth Object Program - http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/a101955.html
2.The planetary society, Michael Puzio's Entry - http://www.planetary.org/get-involved/contests/osirisrex/finalists/michael-puzio.html
3.NASA OSIRIS-REx mission page - http://www.asteroidmission.org/
4. The Orion Mystery , Robert Bauval & Adrian Gilbert ,Arrow Books

Underwater Killer Clown

The world is filled with people who have coulrophobia , the fear of clowns. These fears has been attributed to exaggerated facial and body features. But the clown I am talking about is a colourful looking brutal killer by the name of Mantis shrimp.This little creature at the depths of the ocean taunts and smashes its victims to their quick deaths.

Peacock mantis shrimp shown here in the picture uses its club like limbs to smash open crab shells to aquarium glass and can pack a punch of about 1500 N force.To put that into perspective, a human punch that can split a concrete slab about an inch and a half will have a force of 1900 N. These species are aptly classified as smashers whereas some other relative species ,classified as spearers have sharp spiny appendages that stabs its prey. But what makes these clubs so strong that it does not break on impact ? A video made by the YouTube Channel  Smarter Every Day provides a good explanation for this paradox.

Mantis Shrimps are not only one of the strongest punchers but also are the fastest in doing so. Their punch release is so fast that the sudden pressure difference create  air bubbles called cavitation bubbles which on bursting produces shock waves that further can impact its prey. So even if it misses its mark the shock wave will surely kill its prey. If that was not enough of its punch , these air bubbles burst very rapidly producing heat and light through a phenomenon known as sonoluminescence,which itself is of great interest as nobody in the world have a clear idea on how sonoluminescence works !!! 

To sum it up , Mantis shrimp is a funny looking boxing hero who can even puzzle scientists with what it can do. But they have many more surprises up their sleeves.For instance, their eyes are the most complex and elegant in the entire animal kingdom. They have 2 eyes which can independently move in different directions providing a wide angle vision.Humans have binocular vision with each eye creating a single image each whereas mantis shrimp's eyes produces 3 images each . It can sense a wide range of wavelengths with its 16 colour receptive cones compared to 3 cones humans have that allows us to see our world in Red,Blue and Green. And yes, it can even see polarized light which is a big deal of its own.

Mantis shrimps have a very different view of the world than us, literally. But do they have better vision than us ? The answer is no according to the research conducted by Hanne Thoen at University of Queensland, Brisbane.She and her colleagues showed that they could distinguish not better than colours separated by about 25 nanometers (colours are described in terms of the wavelength associated with it, which are measured in nanometers).In comparison, humans can distinguish even the smallest difference of 1 nanometer. This poor colour perception of these creatures despite the advance photo receptors they possess is pushing science to find better ways of explaining vision itself.

Science is in complete awe in front of this humble being. We still have not found answers for the tonnes of questions posed by these creatures.Why is that these species evolved with the most complex eyes? what is its purpose? why the variable composite club like limbs? and many more questions. Only the future research will unravel the mysteries of the mantis shrimp. 

References:

1.http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp

2.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis_shrimp

3.http://www.popsci.com/blog-network/ladybits/mantis-shrimp-vision-not-mindblowing-     you've-been-told

4.http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/05/01/mantis-shrimp

Shape of Earth : Flat or Round

Edward Abbott Abbott's novella "Flatland: A romance of many dimensions" talks about a 2D dimensional world where women are simple line segments and men are polygons  narrated by the protagonist, a square. All though it was a satirical novella on hierarchy and class systems in the society, we recognize it as a classic piece of fictional writing. But it would be shocking to know that there is still a group of people in the world who believe in a real flat earth.They do not consider themselves as polygons or line segments but they strongly consider the notion of our earth being a flat disc rather than a spherical object.

International Flat Earth Research Society, first of it's kind was founded by Samuel Shenton in 1956,but the hypothesis of a flat earth was put forward by a English writer Samuel Rowbotham based on his calculation from Bedfort Level Experiment. Even though the experiment later concluded the shape of the earth to be spherical, the society is still active with theory. These 'Flat Earthers' claim that earth is a flat disc centered at north pole with Antarctica lying at the egde. 

The society even uses the UN flag to support their claim.Most of the early evidences put forward by the flat earthers where literal Interpretation of the Bible.You can find the website hosted by the group and they have a rather different way of explaining everything from circumnavigation to theory of gravity in their FAQ page.This is inspite of the scientific evidences proving the curvature of earth by the famous Eratosthenes in 1st century BC  to satellite images taken of the earth few years back. The fact that you can see two sunsets when you lie down and observe and then later stand and observe is in consistent with curvature of earth.

To be complete, I have to mention that earth is not a perfect sphere but a geoid due to variations in radius' at different latitudes. But still why do people believe in flat earth in this age where men like Felix Baumgartner have jumped to the earth from the edge of space. Clearly he would have seen that earth is indeed curvy. A description from one of the society pages have pushed me thinking this might also be an attempted satire  on the contemporary world politics just like the 'Flatland', and i quote 

"The Flat Earth Society mans the guns against oppression of thought and the Globularist lies of a new age."
   
Is this only about shape of the earth? In a world where most governments are secretive in their action and are ready to create a new reality for its citizens, we must  be ready to question what is being presented to us. It is necessary to keep our senses open and be ready to think beyond while respecting the common knowledge provided by science.

check out :
http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/home/index.php/faq
https://www.tfes.org/

Giving away too much in a trailer is a bad thing?

Did you see the new Batman V Superman movie? its trailer gave too much away, from wonder women to doomsday to creepy Lex Luthor. Definitely its not good to give away everything. But what about in the scientific education? Is it good to give an overview of the vastness of science in a systematic way starting from school?

The kind of education  which i have gone through is somewhat summarized in this image :

The system tends to emphasis on something for so long and then just talk against it, let it be whether sun rises or not , or whether light is made up of particles or waves. I get  that it is necessary to go through the whole process of learning the way our past generation understood the phenomena in order to put us into right track to pursue our future.But its not difficult to put a little more of continuity into it.

Here is the thing, i am a physics student, so i can only pull examples from the subject.But i suspect it is different in other fields. One of the basics of classical mechanics and in turn most of the modern theories in physics is the concept of Lagrangian and yet i was only introduced to it in my master's course. It maybe likely that the people who decides what to go in the syllabus think its too much for a bachelor's course, but it would not hurt to mention that there exist a more general theory for describing motion than Newtonian mechanics which was taught from 6th grade.Same goes with Tensors and its significance in physics.And then when you reach the next level of the system they throw this things at you as if we know it all.

One of the main reasons for this discontinuity is the dumbing down of these concepts  in order to create a college level course in which  everyone enrolled in the course to have a degree at the end of it.Here in India taking up basic science is a tricky business.In 11th grade,people around you are so excited and happy that you took science over commerce or humanities. then you go join for a bachelors programme, the same people will frown upon you.The whole situation changes when you are doing your masters course,then they treat you will respect and look up to you. It is a funny situation if you think of it , but what is special about bachelors ?The root cause for it is that the majority believes that basic science courses are alternatives for people who could not get into engineering ( I think the logic is " I cannot understand engineering textbooks nor the ones for science", then it must be the next best thing!") or it being a intermediate for some other profession which requires a minimum qualification degree.

This has to be changed and it is changing in a slow but steady pace as it is evident from the number of  people who are genuinely interested in these courses. But the dumbing down still continues and education fails to present the subject in its full rigor and beauty.

Ultimately do we have to completely establish a new system? No. Changing the trend of "Do engineering , think what you want to do after that " should change and the students who end up taking these courses should be interested in it. The work is not done with that , it is also important to show them what it takes to be a scientist and encourage them to pursue science for its beauty and not for the degrees that decorate your walls.

After all , In Thomas Huxley's  words , "Science is simply common sense at its best".