Book Review - Uncertainity: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr and the struggle for the soul of science

Completed this wonderful book on the history of quantum science by David Lindley. A gripping read which charts the history of quantum physics from the early decades of the 20th century till the years after the conclusion of the Second World War. The book starts with Robert Brown and his Brownian Motion, ending with the Uncertainty Principle of Heisenberg.

Reading this book I got to know more closely each of the characters involved in this journey chief among them being Bohr and Heisenberg; Bohr was the god while Heisenberg was his prophet.

Understanding the personality of the geniuses like Bohr, Heisenberg, Pauli, Schrodinger and others is an enriching journey. We have all read about the concepts like Uncertainty principle,  Schrodinger wave equation or the wave-particle duality of matter in our high school physics but to know how these theories evolved over decades of brainstorming discussions is a different experience.

Playing with God's own creation

• Ladakh, 2010 - officially more than 250
• Uttarakhand, 2013 - officially more than 5700
• Kerala, 2018 - officially more than 1000 so far and counting, estimated damages in the order of $3 billion

As the fight rages on social media as to who should give the money for aid / relief and who should be taking that, let's take a moment to retrospect on what caused this deluge in Kerala. A crisp answer to this question would be simple: 'unprecedented heavy rainfall' which is way more than the expected average. But was that all? It is no doubt excessive rainfall is the reason for Kerala as was for Ladakh and Uttarakhand but there is something more to the tragic story every time.

For Ladakh the amount of water the cloudburst dumped on 6th August, 2017 was truly exceptional. The region is a cold desert and on an average receives around 100 mm of rainfall all through the year. However in that one night within a few hours time span it received more than 250 mm rainfall.

A tribute to Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee..

When I think of Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee (ABV) as a Prime Minister, I remember him along with PV Narasimha Rao as the two stalwarts who provided stability to the seat from the early 90s, from after the death of Rajiv Gandhi, till the last decade of the last century. They both led the country during very similar and tumultuous periods.
Their tenures brought an end to the instability which was making a mockery of Indian democracy. Vajpayee came at a time when dirty coalition politics was creating havoc and prime ministers were getting changed at whims and fancies of hitherto irrelevant policians.

During his first tenure Vajpayee and his cabinet resigned just after being 13 days in power. His speech at the end of this first premiership is yet another display of his masterly oratory skills and teaches how to look for hope in defeat as well. The same number 13 turned out to be lucky for him when he stitched a strong NDA alliance to truly become the 10th Prime Minister winning a majority in the 13th Lok Sabha elections. After having sat for decades on the opposition side he ushered an eventful second tenure as Prime Minister of India.

Even now in present time we have BJP in power at the center but differences can't go unnoticed between now and then. There was less of hatred and religious mongering all around; notwithstanding the fact Vajpayee had to keep under control a radical Deputy Prime Minister.

How far unbiased are the competitive examinations in India?

When it comes to education few countries in the world are as close to India in terms of competition; well on second thoughts China would be one. Considering the population of either of these countries it's not surprising that competition to get entry into one of the top institutions would be so cut throat. After all the students know getting entry into a good college is the assured way to secure a good future for themselves and their families. Thousands of students appear for entrance examinations every year at the culmination of a journey which involves a lot of sacrifices in both monetary and emotional terms.

Thus it is important that tests organized for admission to these institutes are unbiased to the maximum extent possible; any bias could provide an undue advantage to one group of students over the other. In India there are a number of entrance examinations conducted some at an all India level and some at State levels. And for each of them we have quite often heard how one section of students is at disadvantage over the other. For example, it is widely known that students pursuing plus 2 in CBSE board are more at advantage (because of the syllabus content and coverage) than the students pursuing a State board for plus 2 study. And hence to counter this the State level competitive examinations are tuned to the State board syllabus.

Book Review | Numbers Rule Your World - Kaiser Fung

Numbers present a fascinating view of the world. In every day working we knowingly or unknowingly engage with numbers and probability in different forms. When we open our daily newspaper in the morning we are bombarded with a deluge of numbers which are scattered across all the pages; cricket scores, match statistics, player analysis, stock market performance, social and human development indicators just to name.

Numbers, their statistical analysis and visual representation is a wide field of study with application in almost every field of study. The title of this 'Numbers Rule Your World' is more than appropriate. This is a wonderful read on how number and statistics are prevalent in the world we live.
A book on statistics generally tends to be boring for a layman if it is more academic oriented and involves usage of a lot of technical jargon. However this book is not one of that type. In this book the author establishes relationship between statistical concepts and how they have come to influence events in modern times.

The book is segregated into 5 chapters each dealing with one fundamental concept from the world of statistics followed by a concluding section and a most important section on 'notes'.

Indians with Nobel in Mathematics | Part 1 - Abel Prize

It is often asked, answered and debated why Alfred Nobel didn't include Mathematics as one of the subjects along with Physics, Chemistry and Physiology or Medicine when he first instituted the first five Nobel Prizes; Literature and Peace being the other two.

There are multiple explanations for the exclusion of Mathematics. Some say Mathematics was not considered as a fundamental science which could directly human well being. Some say that there were plans of a prize being instituted by the King of Norway and Sweden, who himself was also a mathematician, for excellence in Mathematics. While some other points out to personal angle wherein it is said that the woman he proposed to rejected his proposal in favor of a Swedish mathematician of the period, Gösta Mittag-Leffler, and hence he despised of mathematicians and mathematics.

Movie Ratings | The Program, Race

Biopics are a very interesting genre of films and anything on the lives of sporting legends evokes special interest. Recently I watched two of this type each of quite different nature.

First one is Race on the life of Jesse Owens. Actually his name was J. C. Owens but his teacher in school had some problem in understanding his pronunciation and so he became 'Jesse'. Jesse Ownes was a born genius and he was quite destined to scale great heights notwithstanding the massive racial discrimination still prevalent in American society.

The movie tracks his life from being spotted by Ohio University coach Larry Snyder played by Jason Sudeikis. The movie depicts close and important relationship Jesse shared with his coach without whom there were chances the great talent would have been lost.