SPECTRUM

Job Shortage in US: Problems due to Technology

2011-10-24T15:57:00.000+05:30

Researchers at MIT analyzed that machines have a significant role in job losses than normally understood. They say, "Many workers are losing the race against the machine" in “Race Against the Machine,” an e-book to be published on Monday.

This reminds me of an old argument in India during the nineties that introducing computers in the workplace would take away jobs from the people. However, as it is evident that the argument proved false as India's economic surge largely was due to the computer based industries and related services.

The reality about the present state of technology is that although people may fear that technology would one day replace almost all aspects of human social life, there is still a long way to go in reaching the stage. Marketing is still an area where people to people contact wins the deal rather than computers. Computers are at their best, at the moment, provide a means for information. People-to-people connection can help you make decisions.

May be, in future, we might see computers interacting with us as effectively as other humans, but at present this seems unlikely for another 5-10 years or so.

As the authors at MIT put in

"...computers tend to be narrow and literal-minded, good at assigned tasks but at a loss when a solution requires intuition and creativity — human traits. A partnership, they assert, is the path to job creation in the future.
In medicine, law, finance, retailing, manufacturing and even scientific discovery, the key to winning the race is not to compete against machines but to compete with machines."

With the help of computers and humans, once can take informed decisions. The key is to anticipate the future and prepare for it.

Read complete article at the NYT.

No evidence for Cell Phone linked Risk of Brain Tumor

2011-10-24T14:56:00.000+05:30

A recent study claimed that there is no link between cell phone radio frequency emission and the risk of Brain Tumors. The biggest study ever to examine the possible connection between cellphones and cancer found no evidence of any link, suggesting that billions of people who are rarely more than a few inches from their phones have no special health concerns.

Powerful Antibody to Neutralize HIV Virus

2011-10-15T08:24:00.002+05:30

Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute have found new insight about how a capable antibody grabs hold of the virus. The antibody was found to attach to the sugar as well as the virus’ envelope protein. This study shows potential in the design of new, more potent molecules against HIV. Read more

Difficulty Learning History? Try Ancient History Encyclopedia

2011-10-10T08:00:00.000+05:30

Understanding historical events can be tedious for some who can’t remember dates and specially those who find it boring going through traditional textbooks. Ancient History Encyclopedia (AHE) can help you understand history. The encyclopedia is free for all and its run by the community of historians and history enthusiasts. The need for this website is felt because the lack of reliable source of information on ancient history on the internet. As the website points out:

“The goal is to make quality ancient history information freely available on the internet, which is something that is clearly missing: Books are expensive, Wikipedia is comprehensive but unreliable, and many other sites are either amateurish, with a nationalist agenda, or their presentation is so bad that it nearly makes them useless.”

AHE contains topics in alphabetical index containing articles with suggestions of useful books. You can use most of the website material freely as they are under the creative commons license. However, examine the license policy before using the articles as some might be protected under copyright.

An excellent tool provided in AHE is the ‘Timeline’ search for a specific period of history. You can find historical events during a defined period. For example in my search of events related to Greece during 1600 BC to 300 BC, I got 69 results nicely arranged in two forms of timeline as shown below. This site can be a great tool for young students and scholars who wish to explore history in an interactive way from an authentic source.

Ancient History Encyclopedia can be accessed from here.

Learn Science and Engineering from Home: Free online course content from IIT

2011-10-07T12:25:00.000+05:30

If you want to learn science and engineering but do not have enough time and resources to attend college, then Government of India's (Ministry of Human Resource Development) initiative called NPTEL is for you. With the increase in the internet connectivity to the masses, it is now easy to learn whatever you want online sitting at home.

NPTEL (National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning) is a great step towards providing free and easy learning to everyone. NPTEL provides free video lectures and other course content online. The videos can be downloaded for offline viewing and their quality is excellent. The videos are available in different sizes for easy download. These lectures are prepared by distinguished faculties from Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institute of Science, etc.

Since this is the new initiative, the courses provided at present are only few. However, the list is soon going to be large covering all course types.

Initially in the first phase, there are 260 courses available while in the next phase it is expected to include 1016 courses.

You can access the NPTEL website to explore courses and download the content as shown below.

How mosquitos find humans and cause deadly diseases

2011-10-04T12:00:00.004+05:30

Aedes aegypti mosquito.[by USDA]

The carbon dioxide we exhale and the odors our skins emanate serve as crucial cues to female mosquitoes on the hunt for human hosts to bite and spread diseases such as malaria, dengue and yellow fever.

This interesting study points out that Carbon dioxide alone attracts these mosquitoes and does not require assistance from other odors. Skin odors, however, become important when the mosquito is near the host, selecting biting sites.

Details can be found here.

Even slightly above-normal blood pressure may cause stroke

2011-09-30T08:12:00.000+05:30

Elevated blood pressure is a common cause for stroke. A recent study shows that people with slightly above-normal blood pressure are at increased risk of stroke. The condition known as pre-hypertension can cause stroke in young people.
The findings result from 12 studies with an impressive sample size consisting of 518,520 participants. Read the original paper here doi:10.1212/WNL.0b013e3182315234.
It is needless to say that normalizing the lifestyle and adopting a balanced approach to life can greatly help reduce high blood pressure and associated life threatening risks.

Diclofenac may increase the risk of heart disease: study

2011-09-29T12:17:00.000+05:30

A recent study conducted by scientists at University of Toronto, Canada and University of Newcastle, Australia suggests that a popular painkiller Diclofenac can increase the risk of heart diseases. They compared other well studied non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like Rofecoxib, Ibuprofen, and Naproxen viz-a-viz Diclofenac. The findings suggest that the highest risk of cardiac disease was seen with Rofecoxib, followed closely by Diclofenac. On the other hand, Ibuprofen and Naproxen were found to be safer.
The effects were investigated based on dosages of each drug. Interestingly Naproxen was found to be risk-neutral at all doses and Ibuprofen risk was seen only with higher doses.
This study is published in PLoS Medicine.

Fatherhood promotes long life: says study

2011-09-28T12:36:00.000+05:30

Fatherhood may be a kick in the old testosterone, but it may also help keep a man alive. New research suggests that dads are a little less likely to die of heart-related problems than childless men are. Read more.

See the original paper below.

Mendeley 1.0 has finally arrived!

2011-08-02T10:00:00.000+05:30

Mendeley, an excellent software for reference library management has finally come out of beta. The new version includes significant improvements in duplicate reference detection. However, this release still doesn't offer portability to the application which is an equally important tool these days. So those who work on different computers have to install Mendeley on each machine and access the documents via Mendeley's online library interface. This seems good but the catch is that the free version of Mendeley Web offers 'only' 1GB of space. Althoug if you wish you can always pay and get some decent webspace for your files.
Read more about the latest release here and download the application from here.

Are cancers newly evolved species?

2011-08-01T12:04:00.001+05:30

A molecular biologists has long believed that cancer results from chromosome disruption rather than a handful of gene mutations, which is the dominant theory today. That idea has led him to propose that cancers have actually evolved new chromosomal karyotypes that qualify them as autonomous species, akin to parasites and much different from their human hosts. Read more...

Pearl Harbor Bombing: Latest released pictures

2010-12-12T14:12:00.001+05:30

These pictures were taken by a soldier using a brownie camera. 14 in total, they reveal the incredible devastation that took place. The world changed thereafter…

More pictures

Serbian Film is 'most cut' movie with four minutes and 11 seconds removed!

2010-11-28T14:20:00.001+05:30

Controversial movie A Serbian Film has become the most cut film in 16 years, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has said.

"I think the film is tragic, sickening, disturbing, twisted, absurd, infuriated, and actually quite intelligent”

Scott Weinberg. Film critic

This is one of those rare examples where BBFC has to remove some content of the movie to be released for 18+ certificate. The BBFC has mostly tolerated wide variety of contents in movies, however this time, things changed due to severely ‘disturbed feel’, the scenes give.

Great Message for the humankind.

2010-06-27T13:02:00.001+05:30

Sayings of Hazrat Ali
There's no companion better than good character and no legacy better than courteous behaviour.

Do not be ashamed if the amount of charity is small because to turn away the needy empty-handed is an act of greater shame.

Be merciful towards the poor for their lack of patience; and towards the rich for their lack of gratitude; and be merciful towards all of them, for all their carelessness.

in reference to:

"There's no companion better than good character and no legacy better than courteous behaviour."
- Today is Hazrat Ali's Birthday - Edit Page - Opinion - Home - The Times of India (view on Google Sidewiki)

Save Tigers: This is our last chance

2010-02-05T11:24:00.003+05:30

I have been quite busy with my research activities over the last few months and hence was not able to write on this blog.
Today, i received an email from my friend with a link to a campaign website for saving tigers in India.
In spite of my busy schedule, i take this opportunity to urge you all to contribute in whatever way you can, to save this wonderful animal.
i had the opportunity to see a beautiful tigress few years back in Kanha national park in MP, India. I was told that she had delivered two cubs recently. It was one of the greatest experience i have ever had. I bet, if you ever see this animal in its true wild habitat, its the most thrilling experience you'll never forget.

Please! save this animal.. There are only 1411 Tigers left in the wild.
Go and find out how you can contribute.
GO and see the tiger in a nearby sanctuary or reserve... read, write or donate... do whatever you can.

Hoping for the better future for Tiger.

Swine-Flu: Useful Information.

2009-05-02T15:21:00.005+05:30

Influenza spreads mainly person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people.
Cover your nose & mouth with a tissue while sneezing. Discard the tissue in trash.
Wash your hands with water & soap.
AVOID contact of your hand with EYES, NOSE, MOUTH.
After coming back home, wash your hands thoroughly. One can get infected by touching an infected object like lift handle, etc and then touching your nose, mouth or eyes.
Any symptom, if appear, should immediately be reported to medical authorities.
The patient should remain at home or hospitalized. He/she should never try to mingle with others as long as he is ill.
Keep track of the latest news and advice from authenticated sources like CDC and other news platforms.

Those who wish to research the topic may as well go to this interactive map available at BBC website. The interactive timeline of Flu outbreak wonderfully describes the date-wise pattern of outbreak.

U.S. Obesity Epidemic Continues to Grow

2008-07-19T10:00:00.002+05:30

From Yahoo

The very latest from yahoo health. Some interesting statistical analysis on obersity in the US. The study is authentic since it has been carried out by CDC.

…….The number of U.S. adults who are obese increased almost 2 percent between 2005 and 2007, a new report found.

In 2007, 25.6 percent of adults reported being obese, compared to 23.9 percent in 2005, according to the finding in the July 18 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

"The epidemic of adult obesity continues to rise in the United States, …………," Dr. William Dietz, director of CDC's Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, said in a news release. "We need to encourage people to eat more fruits and vegetables, engage in more physical activity and reduce the consumption of high-calorie foods and sugar-sweetened beverages in order to maintain a healthy weight."

Obesity was most prevalent in the South, with 27 percent of residents classified as obese. In the Midwest, the number was 25.3 percent; in the Northeast, 23.3 percent; and in the West, 22.1 percent, according to the report.

In terms of age, among those 50 to 59 years old, 31.7 percent of men and 30.2 percent of women were obese. For those 19 to 29, 19.1 percent of men and women were obese.

Breaking the numbers down by race/ethnicity and sex, obesity prevalence was highest for non-Hispanic black women (39.0 percent), followed by non-Hispanic black men (32.1 percent).

Education levels play a role, too. For men, obesity prevalence was lowest among college graduates (22.1 percent) and highest among those with some college (29.5 percent) and a high school diploma (29.1 percent). For women, obesity prevalence was lowest among college graduates (17.9 percent) and highest among those with less than a high school diploma (32.6 percent).

None of the states or the District of Columbia has met the "Healthy People 2010" goal of reducing the prevalence of obesity to 15 percent or less, the CDC said.

"Obesity is a major risk factor for a number of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke. These diseases can be very costly for states and the country as a whole," Deb Galuska, associate director for science at the CDC's Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, said in a news release.

The CDC defines obesity as a body mass index (BMI, a ratio of weight to height) of 30 or above. An adult who is 5-feet, 9-inches tall is considered obese if he or she weighs 203 pounds……

Clearly, a thing to watch out for.

In the coming days, i’ll be giving you some really helpful tips to reduce body weight and the risk of other associated illnesses. So, keep checking.

Which Are Worse: Calories from Carbs or Fat?

2008-07-18T14:44:00.000+05:30

From TIME magazine

Diet is a BIG headache for many and a matter for earning money for some. Its a fact that a large part of the population in developed countries as well as the population in the fastest growing "developing" countries face this challenge of over weight and obesity.

Hundreds of articles related to obesity are available on the Internet as well as in print. Consequently our understanding of the problem has increased significantly over the years. In fact, there is a separate branch of science which deals with this kind of problems, the obesity research, and it is not surprising to see millions of dollars have been spent on this subject.

Well, to the general audience, low carb diets are essential to curb obesity. This statement is true. An article published in TIMES magazine throws some light on some of the myths associated with carbohydrate diets and FAT.

“……And if you're wondering whether Dean Ornish's low-fat diet will help you shed pounds better than Dr. Atkins' low-carb menu, the answer is simple: it doesn't matter…..”

They describe the issue….

“…

Q:Will eating a calorie of fat make you fatter than eating a calorie of carbohydrate?

A: From many kinds of studies conducted over years, we are quite confident now that a calorie from fat will cause a similar amount of weight gain as a calorie from carbohydrate. There are some interesting questions about whether eating carbohydrate calories versus fat calories will make you eat more calories, but based on what you put into your mouth, it's pretty clear that the source of the calories is really not important.

[Whether fats or carbohydrates are more filling] is one issue that's been raised — but it's been raised on both sides. The best way to get to the bottom line is to look at long-term studies where we randomize people to a high-fat/low-carb diet or to a low-fat/high-carb diet and follow them for at least a year or more. That kind of study takes into account the possibility that one kind of diet provides more satiety; so, over the long run you would see more weight loss on that diet. But those studies — half a dozen or more have been done — show quite clearly that the percentage of calories from fat has very little effect on long-term weight loss….”

Quite Significant, isn’t it?

Clean Energy Economy

2008-05-05T10:44:00.005+05:30

Clean Energy Economy From
wecansolveit.org

Thousands of new companies, millions of new jobs, and billions in revenue generated by solutions to the climate crisis -- this is the clean energy economy we can adopt with today's technologies, resources, know-how, and leadership from our elected officials. Although our reliance on fossil fuels has created global warming, we now have the opportunity and obligation to begin a transformation towards a robust clean energy economy -- one that is supported by highly efficient industries, fueled by clean, renewable resources (like wind, solar and geothermal energy), and based on modern infrastructure and smart transportation planning.

A clean energy economy is a win for American jobs. A recent report showed that investment in a clean and efficient economy would "lead to over 3 million new green-collar jobs, stimulate $1.4 trillion in new GDP, add billions in personal income and retail sales, produce $284 billion in net energy savings, all while generating sufficient returns to the U.S. treasury to pay for itself over ten years."

Studies by leading research institutions have shown that if we invest in clean energy over fossil fuels, we will create more American jobs. A report released by the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club, for example, found that thanks to the growth of wind energy, approximately 5,200 manufacturing jobs could be created in Iowa alone over the next decade. Additional studies have found that thousands more jobs could be created in other states that have suffered industry job losses and that welcome the opportunity to train workers for the new energy economy.

Even without strong U.S. leadership, clean energy is catching on around the world. Global investment in renewable energy climbed 25% in 2006 (from $80 billion to $100 billion). Three clean-energy industries—biofuels, wind, and solar photovoltaics—each surpassed $20 billion in revenue in 2007. Just last year, clean energy received $2.7 billion in US venture capital investment.

But, in order to fully transition to a clean energy economy, we need our elected officials to take action. Absent policies from government, the private sector may continue to invest in old-fashioned, polluting technologies. More than 80 coal plants without technology to capture carbon pollution are now being considered. If these projects go ahead, this will be billions of dollars invested in technology that is outdated and not "clean coal." We need effective policies that unleash American ingenuity and innovation to propel growing clean energy industries forward.

America is up for the challenge. In the past two decades, the United States took the lead in the high-tech revolution, exporting trillions of dollars worth of products around the world and employing millions of American workers. We can do it again, this time with clean energy technologies, from solar panels to hybrid vehicles.

Each of us can play a role in bringing about this much-needed transition. Tell your business and elected leaders that the next generation deserves to grow up in a world powered by clean energy. Tell your mayor that you want city planning that encourages more efficient new buildings and sidewalks and bike paths that make it easy to walk or ride a bike. Tell your state and national officials to invest in energy grids that can deliver renewable energy to everyone. Tell your utility company that instead of old-style coal power you want to buy solar, wind, or geothermal energy. And tell your elected officials that you want national policies that encourage investors to make long-term commitments to clean energy.

This is the opportunity of our generation— to lead the transformation to an economy that is robust without causing environmental harm. Please get involved today.

Ten Rules to Attain True Happiness

2008-03-30T18:04:00.001+05:30

1.
Make a List of things you are blessed with and feel grateful and be thankful to the giver.
2.
Be a part of Good Social Network – sense of happiness increases with good time spent even with strangers.
3.
Try to remember the memories of good times, events, functions and occasions which you enjoyed in the past.
4.
Choose memories not materials or objects when given a choice - like choose a vacation / visit instead of buying some article of interest.
5.
Try to always smile even at the absurdities. Enjoy more and more humor as it amplifies your happiness – like classic shows that never fail to make you laugh openly.
6.
Escape to some memorable place, mentally, where you always want to enjoy the moments with nature or friends – Just play the video in your mind and enjoy the place where you listen to water falling or sea waves or smell the fragrance of flowers chirping of birds or sitting at a calm and comfortable place with full concentration towards the Supreme LORD.

7.
Be positive in every situation and find what is good in that instead of finding errors and faults to be angry and depressed. Try to be content with what you are and what you have been given by the Creator. - Try to enjoy every moment of life by looking at positive side.
8.
Always try to find some time to enjoy the creative person in yourself – by singing or listening music, writing poetry this will enable you forget the sorrow or pain you may be suffering from.
9.
Always try to do some good to others without looking for any return – help some needful person with words of knowledge and wisdom, an object he need or some money. Give a gift to some one you love and say few good words about him.
10.
Celebrate some event without waiting for its real day (like Birth day etc.) Call all your close relatives and friends and enjoy the event.
______________________________ _____
The happiest people don't have the best of everything.
They just make the best of everything.
True Happiness

Ratan Saini. http://ratansaini.googlepages.com/home

Illicit Drugs and their effects

2008-02-20T12:22:00.000+05:30

drugs and their effects

Annals of Terrorism

2008-02-13T20:35:00.001+05:30

How Rita Katz got into the spying business.

Private Jihad

How Rita Katz got into the spying business.

by Benjamin Wallace-Wells May 29, 2006

Keywords
Katz, Rita;
Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE);

Rita Katz is tiny and dark, with volatile brown eyes, and when she is nervous or excited she can’t sit still. She speaks in torrents, ten minutes at a stretch. Everybody who works in intelligence calls her Rita, even people who don’t know her well. She sometimes telephones people she hasn’t met—important people in the government—to tell them things that she thinks they ought to know. She keeps copies of letters from officials whose investigations into terrorism she has assisted. “You and your staff . . . were invaluable additions to the investigative team,” the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Salt Lake City Division wrote; the Assistant U.S. Attorney in Boise said, “You are a rare and extraordinary gem that has appeared too infrequently throughout the course of history.” The letters come in handy, she told me, when she meets with skepticism or lack of interest; they are her establishment bona fides.
Katz, who was born in Iraq and speaks fluent Arabic, spends hours each day monitoring the password-protected online chat rooms in which Islamic terrorists discuss politics and trade tips: how to disperse botulinum toxin or transfer funds, which suicide vests work best. Occasionally, a chat-room member will announce that he is turning in his user name and password and going to Iraq to become a martyr, a shaheed. Several weeks later, his friends will post a report of the young man blowing himself up. Katz usually logs on at six in the morning. When she has guests for dinner, she leaves a laptop open on the kitchen counter, so she can check for updates. “It is completely addicting,” she says. “You wake up thinking, I’ve been offline for seven hours, but the terrorists have been making plans.”
Traditionally, intelligence has been filtered through government agencies, such as the C.I.A. and the N.S.A., which gather raw data and analyze it, and the government decides who sees the product of their work and when. Katz, who is the head of an organization called the Search for International Terrorist Entities, or SITE Institute, has made it her business to upset that monopoly. She and her researchers mine online sources for intelligence, which her staff translates and sends out by e-mail to a list of about a hundred subscribers.
Katz’s client list includes people in the government who are presumably frustrated by how long it takes to get information through official channels; it also includes people in corporate security and in the media, who rarely get much useful material from the C.I.A. She has worked with prosecutors on more than a dozen terrorism investigations, and many American officers in Iraq rely on Katz’s e-mails to, for example, brief their troops on the designs for explosives that are passed around terrorist Web sites. “You’re thrown into Baghdad, and there are a million different groups out there you’ve never heard of claiming responsibility for attacks,” Robert Worth, a Times reporter who used Katz’s service during the eighteen months he spent in Iraq, told me. “Rita really knows what she’s talking about—who’s responsible for attacks, what’s a legitimate terrorist organization and what’s not.” Because many reporters rebroadcast her information, it can reach the public before people in the government have had a chance to evaluate it; her organization’s work is cited in the Times and the Washington Post about twice a month.

Katz has many critics, who believe that she is giving terrorists a bigger platform than they would otherwise have, and that the certainty and obsession that make her a dedicated archivist also make her too eager to find plots where they don’t exist; she publicized a manual for using botulinum in terror attacks, for example, which experts later concluded was not linked to any serious threat. It’s possible that her immersion in the world of terrorism has removed whatever skepticism or doubts she may have had. “Much as Al Jazeera underplays terrorist threats, the SITE Institute at times overhypes them,” Michael Scheuer, the former head of the C.I.A.’s bin Laden unit, said.
More fundamentally, some people involved in counterterrorism do not think that a private group with limited resources can do as good or as prudent a job as government agencies can. “Intelligence analysis is a set of skills that you learn, not just something that anyone can walk in off the street and pick up,” Steven Aftergood, who monitors the intelligence community for the Federation of American Scientists, told me. Katz, however, pointed out that, for example, the professionals consistently missed signals about Al Qaeda before September 11, 2001, and said that she was simply filling a gap. (A 2004 audit showed that the F.B.I. alone had thousands of hours of untranslated intercepts.) Indeed, Katz has received outsourcing contracts from the government.
Before the September 11, 2001, attacks, the official counterterrorism agencies paid relatively little attention to the jihadis’ online presence. But in the past few years that has changed, in large measure because of changes in the way terror networks operate. “Nearly everything about Al Qaeda that matters is happening online right now,” Peter Bergen, a journalist and terrorism expert, said. Some analysts believe that Al Qaeda today is a model of what is called “leaderless resistance”: self-appointed cells operating with help and inspiration from materials that they find online. Traffic rose dramatically after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of Al Qaeda in Iraq, posted a video of the beheading of the American contractor Nicholas Berg.
“It’s not as if Al Qaeda were inventing this,” Jessica Stern, a terrorism specialist who served on the National Security Council under President Clinton, said. What’s unique about Islamic terror and the Internet is that there is up-to-the-minute access to what terrorists are thinking. Rita Katz is, in a sense, the natural complement, the engineer of a leaderless counter-resistance to the terrorist groups. “Some people think that she’s a zealot,” Stern said when I asked her about Katz, “but only a zealot would provide this kind of service.”
the story continues here...................

Annals of Terrorism

Newton, the smartest....

2007-10-29T19:19:00.001+05:30

Once all the scientists die and go to heaven. They decide to play hide-n-seek

Unfortunately Einstein is the one who has the den......... ..He is supposed to count upto 100...and then start searching... ..

Everyone starts hiding except Newton...... ...

Newton just draws a square of 1 meter and stands in it right in front of Einstein.

Einstein's counting 1,2,3......97, 98,99.... .100..... ... He opens his eyes and finds Newton standing in front....... .

Einstein says " newton's out..newton's out....."

Newton denies and says "I am not out........I am not Newton...... "

All the scientists come out to see how he proves that he is not Newton.

Newton says "I am standing in a square of area 1m squared..... That makes me Newton per meter squared..... . Since one Newton per meter squared is one Pascal, I'm Pascal, Therefore Pascal is OUT.......!

LSU professor resolves Einstein's twin paradox

2007-10-29T07:53:00.000+05:30

BATON ROUGE � Subhash Kak, Delaune Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at LSU, recently resolved the twin paradox, known as one of the most enduring puzzles of modern-day physics.

First suggested by Albert Einstein more than 100 years ago, the paradox deals with the effects of time in the context of travel at near the speed of light. Einstein originally used the example of two clocks � one motionless, one in transit. He stated that, due to the laws of physics, clocks being transported near the speed of light would move more slowly than clocks that remained stationary. In more recent times, the paradox has been described using the analogy of twins. If one twin is placed on a space shuttle and travels near the speed of light while the remaining twin remains earthbound, the unmoved twin would have aged dramatically compared to his interstellar sibling, according to the paradox.

�If the twin aboard the spaceship went to the nearest star, which is 4.45 light years away at 86 percent of the speed of light, when he returned, he would have aged 5 years. But the earthbound twin would have aged more than 10 years!� said Kak.

The fact that time slows down on moving objects has been documented and verified over the years through repeated experimentation. But, in the previous scenario, the paradox is that the earthbound twin is the one who would be considered to be in motion � in relation to the sibling � and therefore should be the one aging more slowly. Einstein and other scientists have attempted to resolve this problem before, but none of the formulas they presented proved satisfactory.

Kak�s findings were published online in the International Journal of Theoretical Science, and will appear in the upcoming print version of the publication. �I solved the paradox by incorporating a new principle within the relativity framework that defines motion not in relation to individual objects, such as the two twins with respect to each other, but in relation to distant stars,� said Kak. Using probabilistic relationships, Kak�s solution assumes that the universe has the same general properties no matter where one might be within it.

The implications of this resolution will be widespread, generally enhancing the scientific community�s comprehension of relativity. It may eventually even have some impact on quantum communications and computers, potentially making it possible to design more efficient and reliable communication systems for space applications.

For more information, please contact Subhash Kak at 225-578-5552 or kak@ece.lsu.edu.

2007-10-29T07:38:00.000+05:30