Playing with electrons

Human mind always seeks to know the unknown. That’s called ‘curiosity’, and that’s probably the most important characteristic of human which made not only made us different from all other creatures on this planet but also has enabled us to achieve the present status of science and technology. The immediate ‘profit’ or application or ‘curiosity’ may not be obvious, and so critics might argue about ‘waste’ of taxpayers’ money being pumped into sending a rover to Mars which isn’t going to solve the pressing needs of the society like unemployment, poor economy, poverty, energy problem, etc. But if you kill curiosity, you kill everything – you kill the progress of human civilization, you kill the very quality which has made us achieve all these. You simply make our society stagnate and saturate. Thus, if we completely stop pumping money into the effort towards knowing the unknown and instead divert all those money towards solving basic human problems like poverty, illiteracy, etc., then ...

My writings are always from a technological/scientific perspective. So my understanding and comments on human lifestyle and civilization or on anything for that matter have NOTHING to do with philosophical, literary, societal, religious, poetic, political and economic changes that have happened to human civilization. It’s all about how science & technology changes our lives. As a matter of fact, science & technology bring change to societal, political, economic, literary, poetic, religious and philosophical ways of our lives, and not the other way round. Challenge me with data, statistics, logical analyses and concrete examples if I need to be proven wrong.  As I had written in my preceding blog, there’s only one human civilization on this planet (as far as history goes) and so there’s only a singular path of progress from its dawn till 2012 AD. Put it simply, human species have evolved in only one way, and there’s only one known planet which is earth where we kn...

[I do not own rights to any of the images below. They are obtained by randomly 'Google' searching.] One thousand years ago, a horse would eat grass, reproduce and sleep, and would be used for pulling carriages or for riding. Even today, a horse would eat grass, reproduce and sleep but probably would not be used so much for pulling carriages or for riding except for special occasions like horse races, etc. However, human beings a thousand years ago and human beings today are unbelievably different in what we do and how we do. It’s a simple conclusion: on this planet, only human beings have used intelligence to progress and develop. Only human beings are the problem solving animals, and hence every other creature has remained the same over thousands of years (except for some evolution-induced physical changes). Only we, humans have been able to master all other animals and harness many forces and energy of nature to our own use. All these are ubiquitously known and it d...

 [Disclaimer: I do not own the copyright of the images below. They are obtained by randomly 'google searching'.] It’s another Friday night of the month, late night actually. It’s almost 1:30 am (and so it’s actually Saturday). And I am sober. Friday night, to most people, is the most awaited moment of the week. Why? Of course man! It’s the threshold of the highly anticipated weekend of relaxation, of spending more time with friends and family and of course of not having to deal with words like ‘boss’ or managers! Besides, who loves Monday mornings? Monday mornings are the gateways to a long week of work! And that sucks, doesn’t it? Hence, Friday nights are the times when undergrads party hard with beer, girls (for straight guys) and loud music that will probably crack the sky! Friday nights are when typical grad students seep a beer or two at a bar complaining how frustrating PhD life can be.  And I am sitting in my apartment, having finished watching ‘Love Aaj ...

[Disclaimer: I do not own rights to the pictures and images below. They are taken from links directed to by Google search when I searched 'cup of coffee'.] Declaration: I am still unable to play with electrons and so I am enjoying plenty of free time which is unfortunately going to come to an end next or next to next week, although yesterday I was squeezed into a sudden tight deadline by a person fond of 'last-minute' notice. Hilariously, I'm more 'last-minute' guy than he is :D Venue : Starbucks Coffee, N. High St. & 14 th Ave., Columbus, OH Time : Early evening, June 30, 2012 SK: So does this kind of power failure extending to a few days happen in your country? I mean, what would be the worst case delay in fixing a power failure? PSP: No, no…I would say maximum 30 mins…the power will be restored by then. It’s getting terrible here. A couple of days without power is very disappointing…we can’t do anything at home – can’t charge laptop...

[I am getting aggressive on posting blogs these days, and that's primarily because the equipment using which I do most of my research work has been down for repair, giving me plenty of idle and jobless time. Incidentally, the same equipment allows me to manipulate behavior of electrons (and thus my blog's name Playing with electrons .). So I am no longer playing with electrons for the last one month.] “ Axomi aai rupohi, Gunoru nai hekh; Bharatore purbo dekhot huruz uthaar dekh. ” [“ Mother Assam is beautiful, with glory unbounded; ‘Tis Land of rising sun, to India’s east. ”] Thus sang the legendary balladeer Dr. Bhupen Hazarika in praise of his native state, Assam. The following few pictures from some of the Assamese newspapers published in the last few days depict Assam in all its glory and beauty. We can see how gloriously people are living in this enchanting state which boasts of a majestic Brahmaputra and a rich heritage. With more than a million people ren...