FIBBO..NACHOS!

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, …

If you think I have started hurling random numbers at you, look a little more closely.
Try and observe a pattern.
When you see it, read on. (If you can’t, scroll to the bottom of the article for a hint, for I know curiosity kills the cat.)

Now gather a ruler and a scale and make squares with these widths.
What you will observe is a spiral, appearing as if by magic.

Are you up for one last fun exercise? Take any two successive numbers from this sequence and divide them by each other.
What you get is 1.618034, which is also called the Golden Ratio.
Go on, pick any two numbers from the sequence.

This isn’t just an arbitrary sequence, it lies at a core of many a phenomenon, most of which you must be encountering in your everyday life and overlooking.

Although named after Leonardo Pisano Bogollo, who lived between 1170 and 1250 in Italy, and had the nickname Fibonnaci, it wasn’t first observed by him. The Fibonacci sequence appears in Indian mathematics, in connection with Sanskrit prosody.
 In the Sanskrit tradition of prosody, there was interest in enumerating all patterns of long (L) syllables that are 2 units of duration, and short (S) syllables that are 1 unit of duration. Counting the different patterns of L and S of a given duration results in the Fibonacci numbers: the number of patterns that are m short syllables long is the Fibonacci number F_m + 1.

So let’s get our detective glasses on and discover this amazing pattern in nature, shall we?

Ever looked at a plant and marveled at the way the leaves are arranged in a specific way to receive optimum sunlight?
By dividing a circle into Golden proportions, where the ratio of the arc length is equal to the Golden Ratio, we find the angle of the arcs to be 137.5 degrees. In fact, this is the angle at which adjacent leaves are positioned around the stem.

In the case of tapered pinecones or pineapples, we see a double set of spirals – one going in a clockwise direction and one in the opposite direction. When these spirals are counted, the two sets are found to be adjacent Fibonacci numbers.

Similarly, sunflowers have a Golden Spiral seed arrangement. This provides a biological advantage because it maximizes the number of seeds that can be packed into a seed head.

The inside of fruits, the branching point of stems and the number of petals are all exhibited in Fibonnaci Order. Fibonacci numbers also appear in the pedigrees of idealized honeybees, according to the following rules:

• If an egg is laid by an unmated female, it hatches a male or drone bee.
• If, however, an egg was fertilized by a male, it hatches a female.

Thus, a male bee always has one parent, and a female bee has two.

If one traces the pedigree of any male bee (1 bee), he has 1 parent (1 bee), 2 grandparents, 3 great-grandparents, 5 great-great-grandparents, and so on. This sequence of numbers of parents is the Fibonacci sequence. The number of ancestors at each level, F_n, is the number of female ancestors, which is F_n−1, plus the number of male ancestors, which is F_n−2.^[65] .

 

 

An enthusiast could also arrange nachos in this way!

It is also worthwhile to mention that we humans have 8 fingers in total, 5 digits on each hand, 3 bones in each finger, 2 bones in 1 thumb, and 1 thumb on each hand.

The ratio between the forearm and the hand is the Golden Ratio!

The Golden Ratio is seen in the proportions in the sections of a finger.

Fascinating, isn’t it?
How there is order within what seems like chaos, how symbols and sequences jump out of theories and pages, hiding in plain sight, waiting to be discovered.
How Mathematics interwines with nature to produce the lovechild called Fibonnaci sequence.

This November 23^rd (11/23, get it? Get it?) let everyone know.

(P.S The next number in the sequence is found by adding up the =previous two numbers. Example 1+0=1, 1+1=2, 2+1=3, 3+2=5, you get the drift.)

From the Editor’s Desk…

“Can I have one large fries, a can of coke and the Maharaja burger and the chocolate donut, please?”
I can see the cashier looking around, probably trying to find the large group for which this hefty order is being placed. Our eyes span the almost empty sitting area together and his befuddled face is met with my slightly embarrassed yet trying to be nonchalant face. It’s probably an expression every foodie has mastered.

Just like chocolates work against dementors and ice creams are the cure to a break up (or so the chick flicks tell me) I believe delicious food is the antidote to all problems.
I also believe that calories don’t count if you consume them after an especially terrible day. The aroma of food fills me up with joy…and well, you get the drift.

If there’s anything that I am as passionate about as science, it has got to be food.
All kinds of food.
All the science of food.

Food and science have always gone hand in hand.
Many centuries ago, when the Native Americans offered cedar tea to a voyager, tackling the rampant spread of Scurvy, it was the foundation of a tie between Europeans which would change the face of North America.
And even now as we advance, the population goes out of hand creating the desperate need to produce more food. Everyday we come across the controversies regarding genetically modified organisms, bizarre dieting fads and on the brighter side,  scientific inventions being centered around food.
It isn’t sufficient that we throw around the words ‘vegan’ and ‘organic’, we need to be fully aware of what we munch on.

So, my dear readers, tighten your seat belt,  as Team Eureka takes you through the food pipe…

Bon Appetit and Happy Reading!

Letters from the man who can’t be seen! – Tavleen Singh

Dear world,

Let me tell you a story.
When I was ten, it was the perfect trick to play during hide and seek. Till date no one has any idea why I could never be found.
When I was fifteen, it became my wingman, helping me sneak into girls rooms and understand the unexplicable creatures.
When I was eighteen, it made me survive those horrible curfews at hostel.
But it was when I started studying calcite in my chemistry class, that it became the boon of my very existance. The driving force.
They started calling me insane, but I knew if I worked hard enough, I’d know from where it emerged. I could explain it and recreate it.
And so I began my work, joining two crystals of calcite in such a way that it would be able to refract light around an object present between the crystals.You see, calcite is an optically anisotropic material since its refractive index depends upon the polarization and direction of propogation of light. Because of multiple refractions, From outside the system the object is not visible for at least 3 orders of magnitude larger than the wavelength of light in all three dimensions, I assure you.
It has taken me a very long time to reach the exact calculations and configuration of each and every piece in my project, I have been waiting for the day I finally get to disclose that I have found Harry Potter’s Invisibility Cloak.
But you, dear muggles, will never know. You have called me the demented scientist, but I have seen through your facade.
You will use science to propagate your wars, to fulfill your selfish needs and I don’t want to live to see that day. For this would replace all your drones, all your spy systems.
No place would be safe. The people rich enough would intrude on any sense of privacy the others have left.
Robbers and theives would spread like a disease.
You’d literally trip ‘over nothing’.
I think about the uses I put to my toy and I realize no productive use was ever given to it.
There’s a reason why there exists only one Invisibility Cloak even in the Wizarding World.
So I shall take this secret with me to my grave.

Yours,
Loony man who shouts Eureka for no reason.

What would you do?

Dr. Barry Marshall, the brain behind the discovery of the causative agent of peptic ulcer.
Source

Have you ever thought that you aren’t able to reach your true potential?
Ever had everything work against you?
Would you give up on your convictions, then?
Or would you rather be termed ‘crazy’ to achieve your goal?

Take a chair and sit, for if you are in the former league of people, this one is going to take you for a ride.
It was the year 1979 and things were going  good for a certain young doctor in Royal Perth hospital, Australia. That was up until he met a man named Robbin Warren and started studying the association of spiral bacteria in association with gastritis. After several biopsies, the two found the presence of an organism close to where the gastric inflammation was seen and were succesful in cultivating a hitherto unknown bacterial species.
Thus they developed a hypothesis stating the bacterial cause of peptic ulcer and gastric cancer.

But that is when the hurdles started piling in. The theory was not just rejected but ridiculed by scientists and doctors who refused to accept a bacteria inhabiting the acidic conditions of the stomach. His attempt at injecting piglets failed and it would have been unethical and illegal to inject humans so he took the only other option he had left.

He had a baseline endocopy done and went on and drank a Petri dish containing the cultured bacteria. That was his level of confidence in his work.
And sure enough, 3 days later, he had nausea and bad breath. Within a week he had severe vomiting and on a repeat endoscopy massive gastric inflammation signs were seen and the bacteria cultured.He began to take antibiotics and he cured himself.

The man’s name was Dr. Barry Marshall and the causative bacterium Helicobacter pylori . Thanks to the pioneering discovery by Marshall and Warren, peptic ulcer disease is no longer a chronic, frequently disabling condition, but a disease that can be cured by a short regimen of antibiotics and acid secretion inhibitors.

Albert Einstein said,

A question that drives me hazy, Am I or are the others crazy?”

 

You see, sometimes the world is blessed with people who think differently and never give up.
Imagine what would happen if all of us chose to believe in ourselves and work hard even in the face of deprivation, skepticism and criticism. Imagine the heights this human civilization would reach.

In the words of Shonda Rhimes,

They take pictures of the mountain climbers at the top of the mountain. They are smiling, ecstatic, triumphant. They don’t take pictures along the way cause who wants to remember the rest of it? We push ourselves because we have to not because we like it. The relentless climb, the pain and anguish of taking it to the next level – nobody takes pictures of that, nobody wants to remember, we just want to remember the view from the top, the breathtaking moment at the edge of the world. That’s what keeps us climbing and it’s worth the pain, that’s the crazy part. It’s worth anything.”

 

The world as we know it – Tavleen Singh

Let’s go back in time, shall we?
Let’s tweak our history a bit.
Let’s obliterate the existence of certain men named Joseph Lister and Robert Koch.

A very obvious consequence of this is that you are deprived of the famous mouth wash, Listerine.
But it doesn’t end there.
As you enter the hospital, you see a doctor who isn’t in a white coat. Well, maybe it was white originally, but now it has been stained to showcase the doctor’s expertise containing little memoirs of previous work, as it hasn’t been washed.
The common term used by doctors getting involved in a surgery, ‘scrubbing in’ is not relevant for no actual ‘scrubbing’ is done on the doctor’s part.
The expectancy of survival even after basic surgeries or even child birth are very low due to reasons unclear.
A disease’s origins are hazy, thus finding the cure next to impossible.
People can’t throw around words like ‘viral’ and ‘antibiotic’ as soon as they fall sick as these concepts are foreign too.
You see in this world where Koch wasn’t able to put forth his postulates, disease was never linked with micro-organisms. And we all know that without knowing the cause, treatment is out of question.
The face of medical science as we know it, is different.
You and I know that from a diseased individual can be extracted the micro-organism behind it. We also know that infection can be better prevented by avoiding the attack of a bacteria into an open wound in the first place.
What we don’t know probably is that we have Robert Koch to thank for his Postulates of Germ Theory and Lister for introducing the aseptic technique using bandages swathed in carbolic acid which saved many a thousand lives post operation and continues to do so causing him to be called the ‘Father of Modern surgery’.
Nikola Tesla famously said and I quote, ‘I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the scientist as he sees some idea of his brain unfolding to success.
Such emotions make a man forget everything.’
But in this day and age, it is you and I who are forgetting.
We are forgetting the names and the work of the people who have made the world around us, as it is. We forget their dedication, perseverance and hard work in overcoming all odds, not being grateful for their contributions.
How then will we embody their spirit to further reach higher scientific feats?

Sleep is for the weak or sleep for a week? – Tavleen Singh

‘I’ve pulled all nighters one too many times and it has given me enough confidence, I think, to carry forward with this experiment. For a person who sleeps for hours on end, I am quite intrigued and want to find out the results of extreme sleep deprivation. “For science”, I tell myself to calm down my nerves.
I walk into the sealed room where I can see my oxygen is being monitored, so that the gas stimulant doesn’t reach toxic levels high enough to kill me. There is running water, dried food, a toilet and best of all, books. I can do this. I’ll be free in no time.
Slowly, four other people, expressions mimicking my own, enter the room. This is going to be fine.
We start chatting and time went by. Minutes? Hours? Days? I have no idea.
I don’t feel so good anymore. I am reminded of all those horrible incidents in my life, the thoughts won’t leave me alone.
I want to leave. I don’t want to talk anymore. I whisper into the microphone. Maybe if I tell them about myself, they’ll have mercy.
God, what have I got myself into?
I hear screams, now. It is that 35 year old scientist. Don’t make this harder for me, I think. I open a book to distract myself but it has the opposite effect. The letters are dancing and nothing makes sense. I want to tear apart the book and throw it at the mirror. No one should be able to see me. I just want to be alone.
Aah, peace at last. There is no screaming. No talking.
Exactly what I wanted.
I wanted something else too, I think. Find out about sleep..depreciation..no..depri..
I can’t remember and the strain is giving me a head ache. Something disrupts the peace.
“Step away from the door, compliance will lead you to your freedom.”
I don’t want to be free. I don’t want anything but silence. Time passes and I can feel sleep coming.
The gas has gone. I look around myself. There’s that man who tore apart his abdomens, lying in a pool of bloody water.
The lady who closed her eyes and didn’t open them again. They too wanted peace, I guess.
But now they’re taking us out.
Did I ever want to go back? I am not sure. There are monsters coming at me, in uniform.
No, I..must..remain..awake. My friend has ruptured his spleen and is losing blood.
The soldier is asking him, “Who are you?”
“I am you. I am the insanity that you bury into the deep crevices of your mind. That which you fight away by sleeping at night. I am the…”

I open my eyes with a startle. 0745 by the clock. Never have I been so thrilled to hear my alarm.
I remember what I read about the 1940 Russian Sleep Experiment last night.
Never again am I reading scary stuff which ends with a “based on a true experiment”, I vow.
“Don’t get too close, its dark inside. Its where my demons hide” blares my alarm.
Ironically, not so daredevil me, changes it to the default tone.

Gargi’s Canteen Call

 

 

Ever since I knew that I had to shift to a new city after I finalized my college, my mind kept pondering about things that gave me goose bumps. One of them was the kind of food I will be provided. I am a person who immediately gets cheered up when the strong flavors grace my taste buds. The food quality matters to me a lot. And when we think about a college canteen or a mess, generally we don’t associate the word “hygiene” with it.  Well, my college didn’t give me a chance to do that. Thanks to the college’s maintenance team, the canteen staff and all other related people for giving me tasty and hygienic food to eat during a long, hectic college day.

Just another day, I and my friend happened to discuss about the working of the canteen, listening to which took off most of the worries and suspicions we had about the food that the canteen provides us. The canteen staff works well coordinately yet differently. The division of labor is clearly seen for different people are allotted different sections of working ranging from cleaning to cooking to serving.

Believe me when I say that the food is in good hands. All the dishes are prepared beforehand but are prepared fresh every day. Not just this, even the leftovers are not carried forward for most of the times for now they know the demand of each particular dish on the menu and therefore, appropriate quantity is cooked.

We all were ecstatic when we came to know about the new fresh fruit juice corner being set up in our canteen but parallel to it, we were all the some point  tensed about whether the fruits that were used are fresh or not. You can unshackle yourselves from those tensions because most of the fruits are fresh or rarely a day old.  One thing that was most interesting for us to know was that the not -used and old fruits were being sold to a place near a metro station!

Being a biology student, the first time I stood at the counter, shouting at my loudest pitch to grab bhaiya’s attention to my order, I noticed the food kept there on a corner. Not many people, who come there, stand there at the counter shouting; realize that their close vicinity with the food can spoil it with all the germs being shed on it. Before I could trigger my thoughts to all the not-so-hygienic standards of this canteen, I saw that most of it was covered with cling film. Only the immediate servings or sometimes, more than that is open.

Here’s another interesting tit bit about the breads, lassis and chips we have in our canteen. You can breathe a sigh of relief as their expiry dates are checked regularly and those which cross their ‘use by’ dates are thrown away. However, to be doubly sure you can also check the dates on the cans and packets you purchase as conscious customer. Don’t worry, if you inform them they will instantly replace it and won’t hold a grudge against you.

I know all of us would be very delighted to know all these facts, but did anybody wonder where all the leftovers are taken? While it is important that we aren’t served this food the next day, wouldn’t it be nice if we as the college students could get together and maybe, find an organization or a group of people we could give this food to? After all, there’s nothing wrong with the food apart from the fact that it didn’t get picked to be eaten during the day?

We all know that statistics of people who die of hunger in this country and if this could help bring down those statistics, would there be anything better than that?

These two things, of my hygiene and distributing foods to the needy, are definitely going to make me ecstatic like never before.

#KRITIKA BANSAL AND TAVLEEN SINGH

The Love Story of Tubelight and LED

It is 2 a.m. at Gargi College, Siri Fort road and the street tubelight is chating with an adjacent street LED light. Both of them discuss their innovations to illuminate the beautiful roads of Gargi college.

Tubelight – Hey Ms. LED! What’s up with your energy?
LED – Hey Mr. Tubelight! My secret is the power of the sun that illuminates my beautiful glass. You see, I am run by the solar energy. What is your source of energy?
Tubelight – My source of energy is coal. It is burnt and its vapor is used to run turbines that generate electricity! Ain’t that so innovative?
LED – Yes, it “was” innovative. Now, that it is making the Earth polluted, we need alternative sources of energy. Something whose energy stays on Earth forever. Like, the sun or the wind. You see, coal is limited.
Tubelight – Oh pleaseeee! That cannot be true. You need to know how cool is coal. It has been used for centuries and has been available worldwide. Humans can easily use its magnificent power to run anything and everything efficiently.
LED – Even if I consider coal’s existence since ages, you need to realize how fast it is being overused by humans. Thus, the resources are now declining at a  disastrous speed. In these situations, we need something like my source.
I’ll tell you something awesome. The solar panels on the roof of this college store energy in the battery near the B.El. Ed. room. This energy is used to operate me and my siblings during the night! Isn’t that the coolest thing ever? You see, no pollution and free energy!
Tubelight – Woah! That sounds amazing! Storing the Sun’s energy to use it at night. If this is used everywhere, I’m sure all the humans’ energy problems will be sorted within a few years! Then, why is the human government not promoting your use?
LED – They’re promoting my use. However, as this technology is more expensive, it’ll take some time to implement! Till then, you should light the world with your might!
Tubelight – Oh yes, I am hoping to be operated by your technology someday! Till then, I’m happy to just stay by your side!

Both of them smile at each other and go off as the daylight illuminates the horizon!

# TAVLEEN SINGH AND PRAPTI

Are bats our biggest enemy? – TAVLEEN SINGH

Viruses are popular for being the cause behind some of the modern world’s deadliest diseases.
Ebola, HIV AIDS, Rabies, Marburg hemorrhagic fever, SARS. The names strike fear in the hearts of many.
SARS has a low mortality rate but spreads through a population swiftly while hemorrhagic fevers, such Ebola are fatal killing upto 90 percent of its victims.
On a time line, most of these viruses are quite new to the world, having been discovered in just a span of fifty years.
But they also have another unique trait in common.
They’re all traced back to bats.
But before we launch a mission to get rid of the poor animal, let’s get our facts straight.
As population explodes, our civilizations creep more and more into the forests and habitats of various animals, destroying their safe havens.
A case study in Malaysia proves this point as Nipah virus was first detected in humans there, transmitted through the pigs farms that had worked their way into bat territories.
These activities force the bats to feed in suburban and human occupied areas, thus coming in closer contact.
But why do bats carry so many human killing diseases?
Researchers have pointed out the main reason to be their constant close proximity to each other which helps viruses to spread even between different species. Most bats don’t die due to the virus and hence further help in propagating the virus.
Flight might be the reason behind a bat’s immunity towards the virus. Along with all the energy that a mammal needs to produce to be able to fly, it also produces a lot of waste products that damage their own DNA. That’s why bats have higher level of DNA repair mechanisms like specialized cells which even keep viral invaders at bay.
But how do the viruses survive bats? Viruses are extremely specific about their growth conditions, requiring specific temperatures and environments found on mammals.
But as a bat spreads its wings to fly, its internal temperature shoots a little higher, making it too hot for an average virus. But adaption and survival of the fittest applies here as well, as there are viruses which are hardy enough to survive the sauna-like conditions inside the flying bat.
This poses another problem as the virus can now easily survive a human fever.
Basically, flight has given bats the ability to resist a virus and trained it to become more dangerous for humans.
Damn flying.
However, getting rid of bats isn’t the solution because they are necessary to maintain the ecological balance in the environment and maybe further research will help us implement ways used by bats into our human systems to save ourselves from diseases.
So what’s our solution?
“Never tickle the sleeping dragon.”
We stop intruding into their areas and they keep us away from all the harmful viruses we aren’t equipped to destroy.

Changing the Indian Mindset towards Research based study-TAVLEEN SINGH

“How were your exams?” asks Aunty, “which engineering college have you chosen?”
“I am not pursuing that.” he says, “Theoretical physics  is where my heart lies”
A questioning look crosses her face as she stands there frozen
“Work hard, try again next year and child, you shall rise.”

Why is it so hard for us to break loose of these chains?
Why are our minds so restricted about research based study?
Does the concept of long laborious lab hours scare our brain?
Or is it the lack of sponsorship and huge amounts of money?

But where would the world be if all the scientists thought this way?
There wouldn’t be an uncertainty principle against Heisenberg’s name
Computers, wireless, microchips and the internet wouldn’t see this day.
Safe to say that the world as we know it wouldn’t be the same

As scientists fight growing diseases with new techniques like genetic engineering
Work hard for developing tools in support of sustainable development
As the young minds combine scientific knowledge, creativity and zing
The average Indian continues to scoff and express discontent

In the 69^th year of our freedom, let’s vow to make a change
To encourage each other to think different, find answers and ascend
To not think of different scientific career paths as strange
Only then will India move forward and shine bright in the world map of advancement