Aliceland

Migration!

2005-12-16T19:27:00.000+05:30

I am planning to migrate to Wordpress.com (and, thanks Abi for the tip). The main advantage I found with Wordpress is that they allow categorisation of posts. So, I do not need to maintain two different blogs, and it makes easier for people to navigate through the blog based on their topics of interest. In addition, wordpress also allows for private (and password-protected) posts. The new blog is called Entertaining Research--the Alicious adventures of a Malkanthapuragudi-an. It will take a while for the new blog to be customised; in the meanwhile, any comments or suggestions you may have are welcome! See you there!

The new firefox experience!

2005-12-12T20:05:00.000+05:30

Here is an essay from Wired News about the firefox hacks that you must have!

Singing Neanderthals - Yet another review!

2005-12-11T21:42:00.000+05:30

Through PTDR, I learnt about another review of the singing Neanderthals--this time around by Ellen Dissanayake. The book is getting such nice reviews, next time I visit strand, I should check if they have a copy!

Description of computer languages!

2005-12-11T17:46:00.000+05:30

Paul Graham has this nice description of computer languages in terms of the problems that they fix. Worth taking a look

Future of HTML!

2005-12-09T15:37:00.000+05:30

Part 1 of a two part essay on the future of HTML; link via /.

Wanna read about evolution?

2005-12-07T15:14:00.000+05:30

An Update
Here is another humorous post via Pharyngula--Just don't miss it. It is so funny, I have not stopped laughing yet!

The inimitable Pharyngula, who never fails to amuse, is out with a reading list for evolutionists--just in case you might be interested. Even otherwise, bookmark or save the post--might come handy sometime!

Breaking the diffraction barrier!

2005-12-07T08:54:00.000+05:30

I was under the impression that the resolution of any optical microscope would be limited by diffraction; apparently, it is not so. The latest PNAS carries an article about breaking the diffraction barrier in flourescence microscopy using photoswitchable proteins. Here is the abstract. By the way, the paper is classified (also) under the key keyword nanoscopy.

I am yet to understand the concept of how they break the diffraction barrier; that might answer the question as to whether this method can be used for the study of non-biological specimens. The paper does contain micrographs of grooves on a glass specimen obtained using their microscope. However, those are obtained by filling the grooves with fluorescing proteins (by absorption). In that case, absorption of a fluorescing medium will be a necessary condition, and, I do not know if metallurgical samples, for example, absorb any such dyes. Any pointers?

The pleasures and profit of googling!

2005-12-06T15:20:00.000+05:30

I was looking for something else when Google Scholar returned me this review article on electron crystallography. It was published six years ago; so, some of the information might be obsolete. However, for a non-biologist like me, the article read nice--with many "contrary to common intuition" nuggets--and was extremely interesting. Further, since the article tries to answer questions like,

(1) What is the minimum number of molecules that is required to obtain a statistically well-defined, three dimensional density map at 0.3nm resolution? (Yes--It is about nano, after all),

(2) What is the smallest molecule for which data can be merged at 0.3 nm resolution, and,

(3) What is the role of crystals in electron crystallography, etc.,

it might still be relevant. So, in case you have an afternoon free and would like to read something interesting outside your area of specialisation, here you go!

Two links from /.

2005-12-06T03:41:00.000+05:30

Apparently, caffeine prevents liver disease, and, Branden Robinson, one of the maintainers of Debian answers a nice mix of personal and Debian specific questions. So, grab a cuppa and head over to Tux Journal. Here are some of the questions that might interest you: for the answers, of course, you should head to the Tux Journal.

3) Why a person could move to Debian? What are the advantages? What could he do with Debian? And what he couldn't in place of other GNU/Linux distributions?
6) Are there some problems to porting Debian on others architecture?
7) What are your favourite programming languages? Why do you use them?
8) How many hours do you code in your daily life?
12) Could Debian become the premier home-user and desktop operating system?

Would love to watch that!

2005-12-05T06:14:00.000+05:30

Apparently, a movie has been made documenting the process of software creation: link via /.. That reminded me of those wonderful videos of the problem solving sessions of Prof. Knuth (appropriately titled "Aha" sessions) from Stanford Center for Professional Development.

Third revision of GPL!

2005-12-01T19:09:00.000+05:30

According to Boing Boing, the next version of GPL is getting drafted; and, what is more,

The new GPL is pretty controversial, but it could plug some major holes, like the one that allows people to use trusted computing to technically comply with the license by publishing their code, but to subvert its purpose by keeping your computer from running the code if you change it.

All you free software fans might wanna take a look at it!

A bit of futurity!

2005-11-28T17:31:00.000+05:30

Interested in nano-medicine, and knowing why it would be a blessing and a curse? Here is an article published in Salon titled Nanomedicine's brave new world which might interest you. The article has many rather fascinating passages like this one:

A machine that "shreds" a billion bases of DNA a day could burn through the human genome in 72 hours. Yet we fully expect that this phenomenal accomplishment will be eclipsed within a few years by nanoengineering. Around the world, research teams are closing in on single-molecule DNA sequencing technology. One group has published a design for an instrument that could place a million single-molecule sequencers on a device the size of a postage stamp. To accomplish this, each sequencer will have an operating volume of one zeptoliter -- much less than one billionth of one billionth of a liter! There can be no doubt that within a few years, most individuals will have their genome sequenced and encoded as part of their medical record. And this is just the beginning.

Happy reading!

Another update: Melting mechanisms!

2005-11-27T23:46:00.000+05:30

Do you rememeber the earlier post about melting mechanisms? Here is a very interesting letter by Wang et al published in the May 2005 issue of Philosophical Magazine Letters [vol. 85, no. 5, pp. 213-219(7)], in which they propose a vacancy decomposition induced lattice instability to explain melting. Here is the abstract:

Vacancy decomposition kinetics in crystals at elevated temperatures is analysed. It is found that lattice instability is induced by a significantly enhanced vacancy decomposition at a critical temperature ( T *). The critical temperature coincides with the kinetic instability limit (kinetic limit of superheating) of crystals in a variety of metals determined from the homogeneous nucleation catastrophe model.

While we are on the topic, there is also this paper by Mei et al published in the April 2005 issue of Philosophical Magazine Letters [vol. 85, no. 4, pp. 203-211(9)]; this one is about the kinetic limit of supercooling induced by semicoherent interfaces. Here is the abstract:

The superheating behaviour of embedded particles induced by semicoherent interfaces has been observed in many circumstances. In this paper, a phenomeno- logical model for melt nucleation on misfit dislocations at a semicoherent interface is proposed. A kinetic limit for semicoherent-interface-induced superheating, which is in good agreement with the results of experiments and computer simulations, is derived from this model. Calculations and analyses based on the model reveal that melting prefers to initiate at the semicoherent interface and that superheating of embedded particles is possible for a melt nucleation contact angle less than 90°. Among the matrix-dependent parameters, the contact angle and the shear modulus of the matrix are found to be dominant in determining the superheating of embedded particles.

Not surprisingly, both these papers originate from the same group in Shenyang, China, and both are worth taking a look at.

An update: vacancies and stress!

2005-11-27T23:13:00.000+05:30

Svoboda et al have published a paper in the 1st September 2005 issue of Philosophical Magazine Letters [vol. 85, no. 9, pp. 473-479(7)] on the vacancy mediated stress relaxation in misftting precipitates. Here is the abstract, in case you might be interested.

Vacancy diffusion is investigated as a mechanism for relaxation of the elastic strain energy caused by a misfitting inclusion. The kinetics of reduction of the total eigenstrain by the deposition or removal of an atom layer along the interface is derived. The time evolution, as well as an estimate for the characteristic time of the relaxation process, is presented. The relaxation times are compared with recent in situ measurements of stress relaxation times in aluminum with small lead-alloy inclusions after their solidification. Experimentally observed relaxation times and those theoretically predicted agree very well.

The experiments that are being referred to are the same ones that we discussed earlier.

Young-Laplace or Gibbs-Thomson equation

2005-11-27T19:49:00.000+05:30

"Every idea in the study of phase transformations can be traced to Gibbs" is a favourite quote of Abi. The latest American Journal of Physics carries an article about the Young-Laplace equation and its derivation, which, in metallurgical literature goes by the name of Gibbs-Thomson equation. I found the following paragraph about the merits of local derivation quite interesting.

A more important point is the character of Young's and Laplace's equations. Because they are local conditions that apply to any portion of the surfaces, a local derivation is more appropriate. From the global approach, one might think that the total energy of the system must be minimal for these equations to be valid, which is not true. The condition of minimum energy is restrictive. If the contact line moves slowly enough (see Sec. III E), Young's equation is obeyed even if the rest of the system (far from the contact line) is not in equilibrium. In contrast, a rigorous global derivation must minimize the energy at constant entropy or the Helmholtz free energy at constant total volume. These additional constraints to the minimization problem should be irrelevant for the derivation of a local equation. Although necessary in the global approach, they may be a source of confusion about whether sigmai is the surface Helmholtz or Gibbs' free energy. (In this respect, the paper by Tolman is enlightening.) In the local approach, the surfaces move without any constraint. In particular, the local derivations are valid even for a nonequilibrium state where the temperature is not homogeneous.

But the conclusion was far more interesting:

In spite of the merits of the local approach, Gibbs' derivation (global approach) seems aesthetically more appealing because all laws governing equilibrium (thermal, chemical, and mechanical equilibrium) are deduced at once. We conclude that the global approach is more suitable if one is interested in the equilibrium conditions of a fluid system, whereas a local approach is preferred for the derivation of Laplace's and Young's equations.

A pedagogical article; well worth the efforts of reading.

Mystique of physics

2005-11-27T19:25:00.000+05:30

The latest issue of American Journal of Physics carries Millikan Award lecture of John S. Rigden. An extremely interesting essay - here are some sample quotes:

Against this rich background I ask: Could the people of the 21st century reverse the transformation that occurred 200 years ago by rejecting the methods of science in favor of the assertions by authority?

It is not my purpose to examine the challenges that now confront the science instructor and the science classroom. Today, a number of state legislatures, many state departments of education, and many, many local school boards are currently exerting their authorities as they consider actions that would mandate what is taught and how it is taught in the science classroom. Equally troubling, the very definition of science is being challenged with the goal of bringing into the science classroom material that lies outside the scope of the current definition. This could change science as we know it.

I believe these challenges are serious.

The crucial issue is not the belief in a Divine Designer; in fact, to examine the intricacies of Nature and to see evidence of design is thoroughly rational. The Divine Designer belief is, per se no threat to science. If, however, it is denied that physical laws drive natural processes, if it is denied that physical laws initiate chains of cause and effect that culminate in the beautiful world we observe, if it is denied that science is mechanistic and deterministic, and if these denials become part of the science classroom, then science as we know it is dead. Are the delicate filigrees of frost on a cold window pane caused by anything other than natural mechanism driven by physical law? Are the cosmic wonders revealed by the Hubble space telescope anything other than physical laws working over billions of years?

...

Debates pitting faith-based beliefs against empirical-based beliefs, have not worked and, in my judgment, will not work. They have not worked because, as always, debates degenerate into point-counterpoint exchanges that only embolden the debaters. Debates heat emotions, but freeze minds. In the context of passionate belief, debating is a negative strategy.

Finally,

On July 7, 2005, the Roman Catholic cardinal archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Schönborn, laid out the position of the Catholic Church on the subject of evolution. However, the argument the cardinal developed was more general than evolution and implicitly, it embraced all science. In the New York Times the cardinal began by quoting the late John Paul II. "We believe," said the Pope, "that God created the world according to his wisdom. It is not the product of necessity whatever, not blind fate or chance." Cardinal Schönborn concluded: "Scientific theories that try to explain away the appearance of design as the result of `chance and necessity' are not scientific at all, but...an abdication of human intelligence."

Both the Pope and the cardinal denied necessity. Both the Pope and the cardinal are mistaken. If you believe that the physical world is a consequence of physical law, then what we observe is the consequence of necessity. Masses attract out of necessity; energy is conserved out of necessity; the neutron decays out of necessity; and out of necessity, DNA in the gametes determines the characteristics of the resulting organism. There is no choice, there are no alternatives. The laws of physics undergird all science; if the laws of physics, operating out of necessity, are denied in any tributary of science, then the main stream of the entire scientific enterprise is dangerously compromised.

The Enlightenment showed that Reason and the reasoned approach to unlocking the secrets of Nature had enormous appeal to Homo Sapiens, the thinking animal. The physicists of the 19th century brought physics to the forefront of people's thinking and left them with the confidence that the claims of physics could be believed. I suggest we relumine the Enlightenment. I suggest we emulate 19th-century physicists. I suggest we capitalize on the mystique of physics. I suggest we provide students with positive examples that demonstrate what physicists believe and why they believe it.

A nice read; it also contains many ideas to think about and a bit of history, if you are so inclined.

Just can't wait...

2005-11-27T18:53:00.000+05:30

This review is so tempting, I just can not wait to lay my hands on the book.

Mechanical behaviour of metallic glasses

2005-11-26T19:19:00.000+05:30

The latest Scripta Materialia carries a viewpoint set on the mechanical behaviour of metallic glasses. Probably, the preface by Prof. Hufnagel is a nice place to begin. To quote from this preface:

Thus, now seems to be an appropriate time to take stock of what we have learned, and to lay out visions for the future of metallic glasses, in terms of both practical applications and new research directions. These are the goals of this viewpoint set, and the papers have been selected with them in mind.

The general enthusiasm for any new class of materials sometimes leads to grandiose claims for the potential of the materials in question. By now, however, enough data has been gathered on a variety of amorphous alloys that we can attempt to replace the hyperbole with more reasoned speculation.

...

In summary, I believe that this viewpoint set provides a useful snapshot of the current state of knowledge of mechanical behavior of metallic glasses. I fully expect that the future will see continued advances both in our understanding of fundamental aspects of mechanical behavior, as well as new applications of metallic glasses and metallic-glass-matrix composites.

An issue worth taking a look at if your interests are mechanical behaviour and/or metallic glasses.

Pope and mathematician!

2005-11-26T18:59:00.000+05:30

Here is a very interesting profile of a Pope who was also a mathematician. Reminded me of what Prof. N. Mukunda used to say about Riesz (I think); a fine mountaineer who also happended to be an analyst!

Return of the singing Neanderthal

2005-11-26T18:28:00.000+05:30

Nature reviews The Singing Neanderthals; here is an earlier post about the book.

Institute colloquium of Prof. KC!

2005-11-23T17:34:00.000+05:30

At the Institute, three to four faculty members are asked to give the Institute Colloquium every year; and, it is considered an honour to be asked. Today, Prof. Kamanio Chattopadhyay, Tata Chem Chair Professor and Chairman of the Department of Metallurgy gave the colloquium.

Prof. KC's talk was about forms, patterns, and crystal structures (or, in short, microstructures) as a result of ordering and repulsion at the atomic level. It was one of the nicest lectures that I have heard. The micrographs that were flashed were of very high quality. Prof. KC also brought out many of the issues and their resolution in microstructural evolution in a simple and easy-to-understand manner. Probably the overcast skies and the rainy weather was the reason for the relatively thin attendance; but, I would not have missed the lecture for anything.

One long argument...

2005-11-21T18:41:00.000+05:30

Here is Prof. EO Wilson on Darwin's one long argument, namely, Intelligent Evolution. The essay is wonderful with some extrordinary drawings; a not-to-be-missed piece. You can also download the pdf version of the article, if you are so inclined. Not surprisingly, the essay discusses (and ends with a reference to) evolution and religion:

In any case, the dilemma to be solved is truly profound. On the one side the input of religion on human history has been beneficent in many ways. It has generated much of which is best in culture, including the ideals of altruism and public service. From the beginning of history it has inspired the arts. Creation myths were in a sense the beginning of science itself. Fabricating them was the best the early scribes could do to explain the universe and human existence.

Yet the high risk is the ease with which alliances between religions and tribalism are made. Then comes bigotry and the dehumanization of infidels. Our gods, the true believer asserts, stand against your false idols, our spiritual purity against your corruption, our divinely sanctioned knowledge against your errancy. In past ages the posture provided an advantage. It united each tribe during life-and-death struggles with other tribes. It buoyed the devotees with a sense of superiority. It sacralized tribal laws and mores, and encouraged altruistic behaviors. Through sacred rites it lent solemnity to the passages of life. And it comforted the anxious and afflicted. For all this and more it gave people an identity and purpose, and vouchsafed tribal fitness — yet, unfortunately, at the expense of less united or otherwise less fortunate tribes.

Religions continue both to render their special services and to exact their heavy costs. Can scientific humanism do as well or better, at a lower cost? Surely that ranks as one of the great unanswered questions of philosophy. It is the noble yet troubling legacy that Charles Darwin left us.

Link via PTDR.

I got into computers...

2005-11-21T17:46:00.000+05:30

because I was forced to; and, here are some geeks telling how they got into computers. At least one of the stories (by Karl Fogel) is really cool; link via BoingBoing.

Physics Nobel 2005 controversy

2005-11-19T18:33:00.000+05:30

I did not know about this Physics Nobel prize 2005 controversy; Frontline discusses the contributions of Prof. ECG Sudarshan, and Prof. Sudarshan's response.

Bed-time (technical) reading

2005-11-18T20:20:00.000+05:30

Your interests might be in knowing the mathematics behind voting models; Einstein's theory of Brownian motion; materials, spintronics and smart structures; the contributions of Hans Bethe to solid state theory; ancient Indian mathematics and astronomy; biology, John Maynard Smith, and evolution. Whatever it be, this is the place to go! And, do not miss this gem of a review by Prof. R. Gadagkar.

Such pleasures, sister... only Resonance can offer!

Thoughts from NMD-ATM

2005-11-18T18:58:00.000+05:30

I spent the beginning of this week in Madras attending NMD-ATM. I made a presentation titled Rafting; are elastic stresses alone sufficient to explain it? in the conference. I attended several interesting talks. Among them, the talk of GF Vander Voort on ASTM E1245 standards and Balamuralikrishnan (of DMRL) on AFM deserve a special mention.

I also liked a talk on by Swe-Kai Chen on, hold your breath, Cu-Ni-Al-Co-Cr-Fe-Ti-Mo alloy series, the so-called high entropy alloys (HEA). Apparently, the elemental alloying sequence in such alloys depends primarily on the melting point and the effects of atomic size and crystal structure are secondary. That makes sense since mechanical alloying was used to produce these alloys, and, we know that mechanical alloying is a result of chemical mixing. The bond strength and hence the melting point thus would play a role in deciding the alloying sequence. That gave rise to the question, namely, whether the alloying sequence would depend on the mechanism used to produce the alloys. In other words, are there methods of preparation where the alloying sequence would be determined by atomic size or crystal structure? For example, would radiation induced alloying produce a different sequence?

At the end of Chen's talk, Prof. BS Murty also indicated that the mechanism behind the alloying sequence selection could be the particle size induced reduction in the melting temperature (which is in turn related to the chemical bonding).

Tim O'Reilly on open source!

2005-11-08T23:46:00.000+05:30

An interview with Tim O'Reilly from BBC about open source - as a podcast or transcript; link via boing boing.

May be I was sleeping!

2005-11-07T23:23:00.000+05:30

I did not notice that last week's issue of Nature ran a special edition on sleep; some of the articles were also titled neat; Sleep is of the brain, by the brain and for the brain, one of them said, for example.

The same issue of nature also carries an article by Lindsay Greer and Neil Mathur on the need for an unified approach to the study of chalcogenides, which the materials scientists among you might be interested in taking a look at.

Finally, the essay on this acerbic aphorist is an interesting (and light) read.

A bit of romance in a star' s life!

2005-11-02T21:29:00.000+05:30

I saw a bright star proposing to another
He was a red giant and she a white dwarf
A million years passed in a while
She still cold at ten thousand degrees Celsius
Not a single kiss in a million years,
And that does not speak well of a star dear
He grew more and more red
She was not willing to go to bed
Then he used his final trick
And exploded as a supernova
And now he and she are together,
And will remain so forever.
-- The proposing star, Dr. V.S.Venkatavardan

Apparently, massive star has a hot partner (at least, according to Science blog); that news brought the above poem to my mind.

Science of water management!

2005-11-02T01:38:00.000+05:30

The title says it all: The role of science in solving the world's emerging water problems from the latest PNAS.

Would curd rice before operations help?

2005-10-31T21:41:00.000+05:30

Take a look at this story about soap, probiotics could best hospital bugs from the science blog:

At the same time we could trial the benefits of using 'good' bacteria to saturate the skin on doctors' hands and even patients' wounds prior to surgery, to see if this would prevent the settling of pathogenic, antibiotic-resistant bacteria. For instance, a surgeon who has spent the morning repeatedly scrubbing his or her hands in an operating theatre may well have got rid of many harmless skin commensals. When the surgeon then goes to the wards, the more virulent bacteria may settle into the areas left vacant. As a first step, the surgeon could use probiotics to try and prevent this sequence of events, for example by dipping their hands into a probiotic substance such as yoghurt.

So, I am not the missing link!

2005-10-31T11:02:00.000+05:30

Descended from the apes! My dear, let us hope that it is not true, but if it is, let us pray that it will not become generally known.
- The wife of the Bishop of Worcester upon hearing of 'Origins', quoted by Patricia G. Horan, Foreword, The origin of species, Avenel Books, New York, Edition 1979.

That is my favourite evolution-intelligent design quote from the editorial of Prof. Balaram. Apparently, the missing link (dashing the hopes of the wife of Bishop of Worcester) between apes and modern man has been found; he is known as 'The Turkana Boy' (And, I heaved a sigh of relief). Here is an informative interview with paleontologist Richard Leakey; link via John Hawks.

Darwin, the human!

2005-10-30T19:07:00.000+05:30

Thanks to Pharyngula, I learnt about this special issue on evolution in the magazine Natural History. I found this passage from the article Darwinism today: evolution in action,

Charles Darwin’s wife, Emma, was terrified that they would be separated for eternity, because she would go to heaven and he would not. Emma confessed her fears in a letter that Charles kept and treasured, with his reply to her scribbled in the margin: “When I am dead, know that many times, I have kissed and cryed over this.”

and this description of Darwin of his daughter Annie (who passed away when she was ten),

Her dear face now rises before me, as she used sometimes to come running down stairs with a stolen pinch of snuff for me, her whole form radiant with the pleasure of giving pleasure. . . . She would at almost anytime spend half-an-hour in arranging my hair, “making it,” as she called it, “beautiful,” or in smoothing, the poor dear darling, my collar or cuffs, in short in fondling me. She liked being kissed; indeed every expression in her countenance beamed with affection & kindness, & all her habits were influenced by her loving disposition. . . .

All her movements were vigorous, active, & unusually graceful: when going round the sand-walk with me, although I walked fast, yet she often used to go before pirouetting in the most elegant way, her dear face bright all the time, with the sweetest smiles. . . . [In the last days of her illness,] when so exhausted that she could hardly speak, she praised everything that was given her, & said some tea “was beautifully good.” When I gave her some water, she said “I quite thank you”; & these, I believe were the last precious words ever addressed by her dear lips to me. . . . We have lost the joy of the Household, and the solace of our old age.

from Darwin's shrink moving.

Thanks to MR, I now know that...

2005-10-28T01:34:00.000+05:30

My blog is worth $1,693.62.
How much is your blog worth?

An evolutionist's heaven?

2005-10-27T14:34:00.000+05:30

Nature news says that the complete works of Charles Darwin would be made available online; the archives include 42 volumes written/edited by him, his journal articles, and his private notebooks. Looks to me the vision of an evolutionist's heaven!

Really...

2005-10-27T13:58:00.000+05:30

According to Boing Boing,

At last, mathematical proof that you can make tables stop wobbling simply by rotating them until all feet are flat on the ground.

Here is the note published in Nature.

Smart, agile, cute, clever, and bug eating...

2005-10-26T01:01:00.000+05:30

Here is a post by Phoenix about the release of Minix 3 by Andrew Tanenbaum. The post also tells about the mascot of Minix, and has a pointer to the Linus and Tanenbaum debate, which is fun to read!

Biology, physics, chemistry, and, stamp collecting!

2005-10-25T19:55:00.000+05:30

Recently, Nature published an essay about Schroedinger's book What is life? and how researchers are still looking towards quantum theory to solve the mystery of how life started. And, here is Pharyngula on the futility of the attempts to reduce biological processes to physics and chemistry. Unfortunately, the comments in Pharyngula's post are more about evolution than about the origins of life; or, so it seems to me. Wouldn't it be interesting to know what biologists think about looking for the origins of life in quantum theories? Any pointers to the relevant literature?

The great hybrid way!

2005-10-22T22:54:00.000+05:30

Prof. M.F. Ashby, that master of materials-property charts, has written an extremely accessible and interesting paper on some aspects of the design of engineering materials:

Hybrids to fill holes in materials property space, M.F. Ashby, Philosophical magazine, Vol. 85, Nos. 26-27, 11-21 September 2005, 3235-3257.

So, what is the idea? Here it goes:

...the idea of hybrid materials -- combinations of two or more materials assembled in such a way as to have attributes not offered by either one alone.

Much like mules, the hybrid of horses and donkeys (An analogy used by Prof. Ashby himself). In short, to exploit the `hybrid vigour'. A cool idea, wouldn't you say?

Energies in materials science: a gem!

2005-10-22T21:38:00.000+05:30

Stop everything. Go get this paper:

A survey of energies in materials science, F Spaepen, Philosophical magazine, Vol. 85, Nos. 26-27, 11-21 September 2005, 2979-2987.

(Unfortunately, the Taylor & Francis Ingenta system does not give me a html page to bookmark and share the same with you all).

The paper tabulates the thermal, structural, chemical, defect energies, and energies associated with externally applied stresses, strains, magnetic fields, or supersaturation; what emerges from such a tabulation is some truly startling insights (which, at least I haven't seen anywhere else). Here are some samples for you:

Chemistry always wins - Attributed to WD Nix

Ion-induced amorphization, occurs by the direct displacement of atoms (rather than via defect creation), while, mechanical alloying induced amorphization is a result of chemical mixing (and, not due to the storage of mechanical energy).

A simple argument, based on the polytetrahedral nature of the structure of liquids, to explain why the configurational part of the entropy of melting for many elements is close to 1k, where k is the Boltzmann constant.

On the whole, a not-to-be-missed paper; and more than that, a paper to ponder, to savour, and to internalise and extend.

Happy birthdy Email...

2005-10-22T16:48:00.000+05:30

According to this blog post from googleblog, Email turns 34 this month. Happy birthday Email, and I cannot imagine a world without you, though I lived in one such universe upon a time.

Intelligent apes: a continuing saga!

2005-10-22T15:43:00.000+05:30

Here is the latest update on tool use in gorillas; via John Hawks. Did you notice that Itebero is also a female gorilla?

Nice in parts!

2005-10-20T20:10:00.000+05:30

Might be worth taking a look at this article on nanotechnology for some of the interesting descriptions about quantum-dots, electron tunneling, wave-particle duality, and all such geeky stuff. However, I do not understand why such a nice educational piece should end on such a dismal note. Compared to the effort invested in explaining the technical stuff, very little thoughtful discussion, if any, is there in the final ethico-socio-political doomsaying!

The Taylor fest!

2005-10-19T17:33:00.000+05:30

The two-day Taylor fest came to an end just now. The day started with a discussion in the Department with Prof. Taylor; Dr. Eric Lord made a wonderful presentation about his work on periodic minimal surfaces, surface tiling, and such stuff. This was followed by a round table discussion on Women in Science in CCS under the aegis of the academy committee on women in science; the discussions were presided over by Prof. Rohini Godbole, who also made a half-an-hour presentation on women in Indian physical sciences. The last program of the fest was the public lecture given by Prof. Taylor on "Soap bubbles and crystals". It was a more popular version of her mathematical talk in TIFR yesterday. After her talk, M \epsilon \delta sounds so cool; but that doesn't rule out it popping up in my nightmares though. And, the soap bubble pictures from her July 1977 paper were just lovely.

On a more personal note, I managed to get the reprint of her paper from the Bulletin of American Mathematical Society autographed. I asked her about Atiyah looking towards physics for inspiration, while she herself is looking more towards materials science. She feels that there are two modes in which mathematicians work; the inward looking and the outward looking. She feels her own PhD times, it was more inward looking. Now, mathematicians are reaching out to other fields looking for problems. And, she feels that this alternation between modes is the way the field actually evolves. On the whole, a very stimulating two days; and, for the next few days, our coffee house discussions will undoubtedly revolve around soap bubbles, minimal energy surfaces, and the like!

Electron microscopy with a difference!

2005-10-18T23:32:00.000+05:30

Once, a friend of mine told me why I should not call myself a physical metallurgist: I have never done electron microscopy. Another recently told me why I am not even a metallurgist; I have never been taught Iron-Carbon phase diagram (with friends like this...sigh). Undoubtedly, electron microscopes and Fe-C phase diagram are to metallurgists what the magic wand and spells are to Harry Potter.

The latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, carries this article and this profile, both of which are worth taking a look at. The article is about electron microscopy with specific emphasis on the phase information (which is not usual in our circles); but, all those interference patterns, vortices and magnetic domains are too lovely to be missed. The profile is about Dr. Akira Tonomura who had developed this type of electron microscopy; it is very well written and might make a good bed-time reading.

Prof. Taylor and mathematisation of materials science!

2005-10-18T18:47:00.000+05:30

Prof. Jean Taylor gave a talk today in TIFR-Mathematics centre on "Some mathematical challenges in materials science". For those of you, who have seen this, the addition was the grain rotation stuff that was published recently. A nice, albeit a bit too mathematical, talk. The talk was pitched for mathematicians and ended with the moral that materials science is the place where mathematicians should be looking for problems to solve. Reminded me of this talk of Michael Atiyah, where the emphasis was on the role that physics may play in mathematics research.

Jumping-flea polymer?

2005-10-13T23:17:00.000+05:30

Some researchers have synthesized a highly resilient polymer with extraordinary mechanical properties. Here is a report.

h-index and Sir Arthur Adding-one!

2005-10-13T22:57:00.000+05:30

Remember this post about the h-index? There is a letter in the latest issue of Nature which claims that the idea of such an index can be traced to Sir Arthur Eddington. The name of Eddington reminded me of this Eddington story: Apparently, Eddington thought that the fine structure constant was 1/136 and gave a numerological explanation as to why the number is 136. Later, more accurate measurements showed this to be 1/137. Eddington came up with the modified explanation as to why it should only be 137, which earned him the name "Sir Arthur Adding-one" from Punch.

Connecting fiction and science!

2005-10-13T15:11:00.000+05:30

Take a look at this opinion column published in the October 2005 issue of Materials Today; here is project SciTalk page. So, if you want to interact with fiction writers, go make yourself a page at SciTalk.

What about scientists who want to write fiction? Well, the idea of fiction is not new to scientists. That venerable Dada of computer science Knuth, for example, wrote Surreal numbers: How two ex-students turned on to pure mathematics and found total happiness. ET Bell and Isaac Asimov wrote memorable science fiction. Further, the best scientific communication, be it a talk or paper, happens when it is (almost always) structured like a mystery novel. In fact, in my opinion, good mystery novels approximate scientific writing. So, if you have that irresistible urge to write fiction, why not start today?

The voice of Einstein!

2005-10-10T20:03:00.000+05:30

Go here, and listen to Einstein on mass-energy equivalence; link via cosmic variance.

Some good news from Nature!

2005-10-06T23:05:00.000+05:30

Nature has started a weekly (free) podcast service: the first issue is here. Go here for further information.

After materials, it is time for Physics now: the first issue of Nature Physics is here!

Vacancies and stress relaxation!

2005-10-05T01:01:00.000+05:30

Zhang, Johnson and Dahmen have recently published a paper in Acta Materialia on vacancy mediated elastic stress relaxation. Zhang et al use in-situ transmission electron microscopy to study the solidification of lead, lead-cadmium, and lead-indium particles embedded in aluminum. The elastic stresses that develop due to the shape and volume changes during the solidification are relaxed by ferrying vacancies to the precipitate-matrix interface from the bulk. The experiments are done on inclusions well inside the matrix; that would mean transmission electron microscopy on samples of thickness of the order 100-200 nm. I found no explicit mention of that information in the paper, though, I understand that with microscopes that operate at higher voltages, it indeed is possible to study specimens that thick. The experiments are isothermal and hence the thermal strains are ruled out. The micrographs in Figures 2 and 4, and the (schematic in) Figure 4 are sort of neat; a paper worth taking a look at.

Tool use and gender!

2005-09-30T18:21:00.000+05:30

Here is an update on tool use, this time around in chimpanzees.The article also has a comment on my observation about gender differences:

...and that young males are relatively delayed in the social learning of termite fishing, our results show that both sexes can show strong social learning and continue to do so into adulthood.

Long back, I read about Betty and her (lazy and exploitative) partner Abel. Now, from here, I learn about two female gorillas who are adept at tool use. Makes me wonder if females are better innovators; or, is it too stereotypical (and sexist) a comment to make?

Mechanisms of melting!

2005-09-27T16:04:00.000+05:30

Melting and solidification are probably the most ubiquitous temperature driven phase transformations. As we increase the temperature of a solid, at a particular temperature known as the melting temperature, the solid becomes a liquid. On the other hand, if we keep decreasing the temperature of a liquid, at a particular temperature known as the freezing temperature, the liquid becomes a solid. However, under some circumstances, it is possible to keep a solid above its melting temperature in the solid state: this is known as superheating. Similarly, keeping a liquid below its freezing temperature in the liquid state is known as supercooling.

The assumption that melting starts at the interior amounts to assuming homogeneous nucleation of melting; surfaces, or grain boundaries, if present will be spots of easy melting, and in such cases the melting is said to nucleate heterogeneously. In fact, the fact that the surface melts easily is what leads to a size dependence of the melting temperature, which is being widely studied by the nanomaterials community these days.

Thanks to Deep for pointing out that (a) what Born and Lindemann proposed are criteria; and, (b) unless extreme care is taked to avoid it, melting nucleates, almost always, heterogeneously.

The mechanism of melting, however, is yet to be clearly understood. Consider a crystalline solid and assume that the melting starts in its interior. As temperature of the crystal increases, its shear modulus (and hence its ability to withstand non-hydrostatic stresses) decreases. Melting could then be that point where the shear modulus becomes zero. This shear-induced melting criterion was proposed by Born. As the temperature increases, the atoms in their lattice positions start vibrating more and more violently. Finally, at the melting temperature the vibrations are so violent that the crystalline lattice structure breaks down leading to melting; this criterion was proposed by Lindemann. The third criterion involves the production of defects in a solid with increasing temperatures. At the melting point, the defect concentration is so large that it leads to the destruction of the crystalline lattice, and hence to melting. Over the years, there had been several studies which discuss these different mechanisms. Deep referred me to this recent article in the May, 2005 issue of Nature Materials on some molecular dynamics studies of melting in superheated crystals. Here are some pointers to some of the earlier literature on these different mechanisms of melting. Finally, here is a nice post by Santonu on defects in solids, albeit with an emphasis on segregation.

Junta like nano and nanoparticles jump (with joy?)!

2005-09-23T13:43:00.000+05:30

So, here is the good news: junta do not perceive nano-technology as a threat, though there are concerens about lack of information and regulation. This reminded me of this article in the August 2004 issue of PhysicsWeb. But, how does the scientific community itself perceive nano? Take a look at this editorial in the February 2005 issue of Materials Today. And, go here to learn about jumping gold nanoparticles!

A quick Resonance update!

2005-09-21T09:32:00.000+05:30

The fluid dynamics feast continues: the second part of Prof. Roddam Narasimha's fluid dynamics article - subtitled 'what one can and can not do' is out in the latest issue of Resonance. Did I tell you about a bit of geometry in everybody's life?. The September 2005 issue of Resonance also carries an article by Kamala Datta on 'The early life of Albert Einstein' where we read:

When Einstein was twelve he got hold of a 'small book on geometry' at the beginning of the school year which he studied on his own and which, in Einstein's own words"made an indescribable impression" on him.

I got my print copy of resonance this morning by snail mail - hope the online version will soon be uploaded here. But why wait? Why not grab a print copy for yourself? Better still, why not subscribe?

A birds, bees, wasps, and ants talk!

2005-09-21T08:26:00.000+05:30

Apparently, eusocial means 'truly social'; and, it is not a classification of political leanings but that of the behaviour of insect communities. There are a few short articles here by Prof. Raghavendra Gadagkar about eusociology (and many other things besides - when fathers harass their sons is my particular favourite). In fact, his book Survival strategies is a must read for anybody interested in biology (in general, and, animal behaviour, in particular. Here is a very accesible summary of the book). A more technical article on eusociality by Prof. E.O. Wilson and Hoelldobler, is published in the latest PNAS.

Googling as research!

2005-09-20T08:00:00.000+05:30

More things are wrought by Google than the academe dreams of!
-With due apologies to Tennyson

I understand that a computer programmer, with the help of Google Maps and Google Earth 'has stumbled upon the remains of an ancient villa': for the complete story, go here. Gone are the days of serendipity favouring the prepared mind, my boy - nowadays, it favours just the googling mind;-)

A bit of geometry in everybody's life!

2005-09-19T15:35:00.000+05:30

Euclid is credited with the famous remark, namely, that there is no royal road to geometry. Royal road or common road, geometry has played a crucial role in the development of twentieth century physics; the role of geometry in the theory of relativity is well known (See this wonderful article in Resonance, for example). Apparently, PAM Dirac, who believed in a deeper connection between mathematics and nature, insisted that his approach to quantum mechanics was geometric and not algebraic: take a look at this essay. While we are on the topic of geometry, here is a delightful essay on the evolution of Riemann's geometric ideas published in the January, 2005 issue of American Mathematical Monthly. The final geometry link (I just couldn't resist it): here is a song about that other geometry guy, Lobachevsky by Tom Lehrer. And, hey, have you visited this page anytime?!

India, genomically speaking!

2005-09-14T23:20:00.000+05:30

We have heard time and again about the diversity that is India, and the unity that makes us Indians. Here is a review of a project called Indian Genome Variation database from the IGV Consortium. From their review article, I understand that the four major morphological types of the Indian population is Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Australoid, and Negrito; and, linguistically, the four major language families are, apparently Indo-European, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman, and Astro-Asiatic. The two maps of India delineating the regions of these different morphological and linguistic types are worth taking a look at. The ultimate aim of this project is

'to create a DNA variation database of the people of India and make it available to researchers for understanding human biology with respect to disease predisposition, adverse drug reaction, population migration etc'.

The review also discusses some of the ethical issued involved and the data release policy. An article worth taking a look at.

Medium, message, and meaning!

2005-09-13T04:19:00.000+05:30

Friends, after the previous post about nano-bio, it is time to talk about info, isn't it? I found this paper in the Journal of the American Society for Information sciences, thanks to CiteULike. The paper, enigmatically titled 'What is a "document"?', discusses several descriptions, and the 'confusions between medium, message, and meaning'. Apparently,

The Indian theorist S.R. Ranganathan, usually so metaphysical, took a curiously narrow and pragmatic position on the definition of the "document",...

A good read on the whole, which tells you, why it is no longer 'documentation' but 'information management'!

Crooks fluctuation theorem?

2005-09-13T04:00:00.000+05:30

There are several reasons why you should read this article about the experimental verification of Crooks fluctuation theorem. For starters, the article begins with stirring a cup of coffee - though I do not agree with the conclusion, viz, 'Stir a cup of coffee with a small enough spoon, and the coffee might just stir you' - A cup of coffee always stirs me, irrespective of whether I stir it or not (By the way, that link to Wiki-coffee is just for the photograph and entry of the Madras filter coffee on that page). Second, it is about a nano-bio - as hot (and I hope, as wonderful) as coffee these days. Finally, it is about that classic science of thermodynamics, and the verification of a fluctuation theorem called Crooks fluctuation theorem - The experiments are sort of cute, and I understand that the technique that is used in the experiment might be valid for most biological molecules.

So, what is it all about? WP Wong and E Evans write about the experiments of Collin et al with RNA molecules using atomic force microscopes and optical tweezers. The aim: to verify the Crooks fluctuation theorem, which, I understand, posits the likelihood of 'dissipation-free' processes in small enough systems. The verdict: Crooks fluctuation theorem does hold in the case of unfolding and refolding of single RNA molecules.

One of the authors, Carlos Bustamante is interviewed by Nature, and he says that they did 35 drafts before submitting the paper. 35 drafts... for Chrissake. That killed me. I only hope Abi is not listening!

A Gardner update!

2005-09-06T20:15:00.000+05:30

The second part of the interview with Gardner is out in the September 2005 issue of College Mathematics Journal . Don't miss the photograph of Martin with Alice in the Central Park (And, what do you think Gardner's Erdos number is? - All I can tell you is that it is a prime!!)

An update on the update: meta-update if you will
Here is a link to GK Chesterton 's The Man who was Thursday that Gardner strongly recommends. Margaret Mead believed in UFOs! Truth is stranger than fiction. Or, is it yet another Mead hoax ?

Blogging as a scientific activity!

2005-09-06T03:00:00.000+05:30

Blogging is known to be a social activity. But is it also a scientific activity? I today saw this site, meant specifically for blogging science oriented stuff: the topics include geoscience, nano science, physics, space, computer science, and, anthropology among others!

Woodpeckers, civilization, and programming!

2005-09-05T13:29:00.000+05:30

According to Eric Raymond , Gerald Weinberg , is the one who made the observation (in 1971 - Boy! Were I born then?) that "If architects built houses the way programmers built programmers, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization". So, bugs, reproducibility, and reliability are issues, probably, as old as programming itself.

The January, 2005 issue of Physics Today carries an article (by Post and Votta) on the need of verifying and validating complex codes. After noting that

The existing peer review process for computational science is not effective. Seldom can a referee reproduce a paper's result.

Post and Votta go on to say

One has to validate the entire calculational system-- including user, computer system, problem setup, running, and results analysis.

As we noted earlier , the measures suggested here would help in making sure that not just the referee but every reader can reproduce the computations. Not surprisingly, the article of Post and Votta received lots of feedback, which are published in the August, 2005 issue of Physics Today : however, I have to wait at least for three months before they would be available online. Till then, you can take a look at the September/October, 2004 issue (Volume 6, Issue 5) of IEEE Computing in Science and Engineering which is a special issue on validation and verification (and also has a provocative editorial about the predictive powers of computers).

Noble aspirations!

2005-09-03T09:30:00.000+05:30

Frankly, which one of us have not dreamt of it? Here is how to win a Nobel prize : a link that I got from here .

Movie of a "super"b material!

2005-09-01T04:00:00.000+05:30

Helium-4 becomes a superfluid at temperatures below 2 K or so; it is also possible to prepare a Helium-4 crystals by the application of pressure to a cell that contains liquid Helium-4 (which, apparently, is done using piezo-electric cells). I am reading at present about some experiments on the Helium-4 crystals: here is a review by Prof. Balibar and his co-workers (You can also get the review from Prof. Baliabar's personal page). Do not miss the superb movie on the roughening transition and crystallization waves in Helium-4. Till now I only knew about the flow properties of Helium-4. After this movie (and the review), I feel, if liquid Helium-4 is "super", the solid form of Helium-4 is "superb": wouldn't you agree?

Ecotechnology, food security and Prof. MSS!

2005-08-26T20:20:00.000+05:30

A few days after the Tsunami, there was this news item in the Hindu : it was about a village that survived Tsunami thanks to M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation's `Information Village Research Project'. A typical case of what one might call the collateral benefit. And, apart from the Sudhakar 'Thaths' Chandrasekharan story that I heard long back in a Banglinux conference about how computers made a difference to the lives of some college students in Kenya, in my opinion, this was the second human interest story where technology did make a real difference. So, that is Prof. MS Swaminathan for you - touching lives of people in ways that one might never have imagined.

In honour of Prof. Swaminathan turning 80 this August, the July 25th issue of Current Science has brought out a special section titled Chromosomes to food security : before I happened to see this special section, I knew Prof. MSS only as an agricultural scientist. Some of the articles in this issue disabused me of that notion - apparently, Prof. MSS also contributed to areas like cytogenetics, mutagenesis, and radiation biology. If not the entire special section, the MS Swaminathan I know by Bruce Alberts , President, National Academy of Sciences , USA, and the book review are worth giving a try.

Sharing life's little pleasures!

2005-08-25T20:00:00.000+05:30

yaan petra inbam peruga iv vaiyagam

So wrote the siddar Thirumoolar , may be some fourteen hundred years ago. Translated, it means, 'Let the world experience the happiness that I got' - The link above has an alternative translation (of the entire verse). You can join the club of Thirumoolar by allowing others access to your bookmarks . As the linked article in Nature indicates there are many sites that allow such 'social' bookmarking, and so, choose one, and bookmark away - for yourself, as well as others!

A fluid dynamics feast!

2005-08-24T11:30:00.000+05:30

Long back, I heard Prof. Roddam Narasimha in a looking around talk (if I remember correct): it was a talk about ancient Indian mathematics, and it was a remarkably impartial, deeply technical, and wonderfully stimulating lecture. I decided not to miss another talk of his, irrespective of what the topic might be.

I heard Prof. JH Arakeri in a colloquium in the Mathematics Department on fluid dynamics: the talk was titled (if I remember correct) as Fluid dynamics by pictures. His talk was one of its kind- I have never heard anything like it either before or after.

Both Prof. Narasimha, and Prof. Arakeri write in Resonance regularly. And in the, August 2005 issue of Resonance, in which Theodore von Karman is featured, Prof. Arakeri has written the article-in-a-box about Karman, and Prof. Narasimha an article titled "The Challenge of fluid flow". Also, you should not miss the adventure of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the Classics section (where Karman describes his wind tunnel testing of bridge structures), and the stroll down the Karman street with Govardhan and Ramesh.

So, in this monsoon weather, if there is heaven on earth, it is with Resonance, it is with Resonance, it is with Resonance (and few hot cups of coffee at the coffee house)!

What the 'h' is that index?

2005-08-19T06:41:00.000+05:30

Apparently, a physicist at the University of California, San Diego has come up with an index called h-index to help judge the performance of researchers - and, h-index is the highest number of papers that a scientist has written each of which has received at least that number of citations. Thus, h-index of 50 means 50 papers each of which have at least 50 citations. For more information, go here , here and here: Go here for the paper.

Have you met Ms. Lia? She is a real bright kid!

2005-08-18T21:10:00.000+05:30

TMS , the minerals, metals, and materials society is a professional organization meant for educators, students, industrialists, researchers, scientists, and science administrators who are interested in materials science and engineering. JOM , is a publication of TMS, which carries many items of interest for scientists with non-material specializations: In fact, features like "In the final analysis" editorials of James J. Robinson (Editor, JOM), feature articles on archeometallurgy, and on materials science issues in popular science fiction and fantasy films, which are extremely readable, can be read even by those who have had no exposure to materials technologies.

I met Lia in the End Notes column of May 2005 issue of JOM: Lia (Light In Action) is a 14-year-old science-savvy (Hispanic) girl: apparently, she will be the central character for a multimedia project that will include a television show, book series, web site, traveling museum exhibit, mall show, and classroom experimental kit. And, Lia is a creation of the Boston University's Photonics Center and starts her first official job in September at the website of U.S. National Academy of Sciences . So, find some time to go meet Lia - She is a real bright and cool kid!

Computing rumours!

2005-08-07T16:10:00.000+05:30

Prithee, listen well ;
I heard a bustling rumour, like a fray,
And the wind brings it from Capitol.
Shakespeare (Julius Ceaser)

American scientist runs a regular computing science column: in the May-June 2005 issue, Brian Hayes , in his essay titled "Rumours and Errours" discusses the modelling of rumour propagation and the close relationship between rumour models and models of epidemic diseases. Apparently, if there is one spreader initially, the fraction of population that would fail to hear the rumour is 20% (No wonder Lucius heard nothing when Portia heard 'bustling rumour, like a fray'). On the other hand, if the number of spreaders are more, more people fail to hear it (the upper limit being 36.8%). Why is this so? To know the answer to that question, or to write a code that would help you solve the mystery yourself, turn to 'Rumours and Errours'. And, forget not to spread the news!

Fuelling the nano-express!

2005-08-05T11:50:00.000+05:30

Nano is fast becoming the magic password to unlock the secret passages in the academia and research: As Abi notes here , today's Hindu carries two nice articles on nanotechnology and nanoscience. While we are at it, I must also mention this Speaking of Science column of Prof. D Balasubramaniam (published a few months ago in the Hindu) where he calles the nanoparticles the Maxwell's demon of biology. Shankara referred me to a recent editorial titled "Nano-express from New Delhi?" in Nature materials . The editorial makes a reference to inverse Hall-Petch effect (though it does not refer to the work of Chokshi et al - Scripta Metallurgica, October 1989, Volume 23, Number 10, pp. 1679-1684). Prof. Chokshi and his colleagues (like Kotts who recently wrote a review on the deformation characteristics of the nanocrystalline materials for the Transactions of the Indian Institute of Metals and published a letter in Scripta Materialia - Volume 53, Issue 8, pp. 887-892 - about the creep deformation in Nano-nickel) continue to fuel the nano-express, and the 8th International conference on Nanostructured materials will be held in Bangalore: See here .

Coffee, computations, and reproducibility!

2005-08-05T11:35:00.000+05:30

A cup of coffee in the Coffee House is always refreshing: Everytime, I wonder at the consistency with which they produce such good quality coffee all through the week - I do not know if the Coffee House coffee will live up to the exacting standards of RK Narayan , but it might make to his top ten list, given the fact that it is neither black nor white but brown. To meet Sai in the coffee house is another pleasure (especially, if Saswata is with you): today at around 6:00 in the evening, I had this triple pleasure: I was with Sai, Saswata, and my cup of coffee. The moment we settled with our cups of hot, brown brew, the talk turned to the MIT open courseware , Prof. Trefethen and his book on finite difference and spectral methods which is available online (and, believe me, Saswata has already read the Fourier sections of the book), and many other things besides - I sometimes feel more literature survey is done with a cup of coffee in the Coffee house than in a few hours with Google Scholar . In any case, after the coffee I came back and promptly made it to Prof. Trefethen's page: it is a pity I missed his page all these days. He has a huge number of links on his page apart from his books and essays: one of them about the SIAM 100$, 100-digit Challenge caught my attention, which in turn lead to a quote on the problem of reproducibility (this time around, not of the quality of coffee, but of scientific computations): if this quote interests you, you might want to read the Wavelab and the reproducible research booklet and Making scientific computations reproducible article. The moral of the story is: be it coffee or computation. reproducibility is the key. So long, and Thanks for all the Coffee!

Cluster computing!

2005-08-05T07:15:00.000+05:30

Computing in Science and Engineering (published as Computational Science and Engineering prior to 1999) is a joint publication of IEEE Computer Society and American Institute of Physics. In my opinion, it is the computing equivalent of American Journal of Physics (for physics) and American Mathematical Monthly (for mathematics): a journal that addresses issues related to the culture and pedagogy of scientific computing. A recent issue - Volume 7, Issue 2, Year 2005 - of this journal carries several interesting articles on cluster computing: the articles are extremely accessible. Questions like "What is a cluster?", "Is Linux the operating system of choice for cluster computing?" are answered in the guest editorial. Apparently, the articles for this special issue were solicited with the aim of instructing (a) how to get started with cluster computing (especially a novice, who had never done it before), (b) how to get the most out of cluster computing, and (c) how to develop serious applications that scale well. There are four articles: one on Beowulf clusters, one on plug-and-play cluster computing, one on the use of Java for cluster computing, and finally, one on resource-aware scientific computation on a heterogeneous cluster. While you are at it, you may also want to take a look at their "Perspectives in Computational Science" column on high-performance computing.

Alice, Carroll, and Gardner!

2005-08-04T10:25:00.000+05:30

I am a great fan of Lewis Carroll and his Alice books . The pleasure of reading Alice was n-tupled when I came across The annotated Alice by Martin Gardner and I became a Gardner fan almost instantaneously. Apparently, Gardner turned ninety on October 21, 2004. The May 2005 issue of the College Mathematics Journal carries the first part of an interview with Gardner; Don Albers of the Mathematical people and More mathematical people is the interviewer. The article also contains some wonderful photographs. If you are a Gardner fan (and, on second thoughts, even if your aren't one) you might want to take a look at the interview and the accompanying photographs.

Welcome to Aliceland!

2005-08-04T08:05:00.000+05:30

Welcome to Aliceland - The wonderland of research, science and technology!

In this blog, I hope to post (mostly) links, pointers, and reviews to articles and books (related to science and technology, in general, and to my research, in particular) that I happen to notice, read, or peruse at any given point in space-time. Come, walk into the mirror, or, if you feel like it, take a leap into the rabbit hole!