Archives February 2007

Here is a recipe for those who do not want to spend all their lives wearing long lab-coats, thick- rimmed glasses and shaking a beaker or test tube in hand. If any one of you is interested, but allergic to physics and mathematics, one need not worry. Anti-allergic pills in the form of tailor-made courses in physics and mathematics are available. In course of time, the barriers between disciplines will vanish and one will start liking them. Here is the list of things, which you have to handle in a modern laboratory. Atomic emission, atomic absorption, x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, Electron spectroscopy, and mass spectrographs are used for elemental analysis. To study molecules, infrared and ultra violet molecular spectrometers (emission and absorption), microwaves, nuclear magnetic resonance, chromatography and many others are, used depending on the nature of the laboratory and the funds available. To study the structure of materials, X-ray and electron more...

Theoretical models/ experimentation, remodeling the theories to explain the experiments is a cycle. This cycle is repeated many times before a sound theory is developed and application to the unknown fields attempted. This is the law of science. Of all sciences, now it is biology that is expanding so fast from being a purely descriptive science to a science with vanishing barriers. While most of the Indians as well as many all over the world are very religious with strong beliefs/ and certainly with tolerance towards all, we have been overtaken in our own field (?) by the Americans. Yoga is good. Any proof ? To be religious is good. Any proof ? This is what is provided by the scientists of the university of Pennsylvania under the leadership of Dr. Andrew Newberg, director of the new centre for spirituality and the mind, investigating how spiritual and secular beliefs affect more...