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

This logo for Eureka has been designed by Shrija Ghosh, our designer

If I may, I would like to start by saying that symbols solve the existential crisis of some of the concepts of science. No one can imagine science without the multitude of symbols it has for various representations. Science and symbols have gone hand in hand since the advent of the time when science started being developed.

Think about how difficult it would have been to distinguish between recycled and reusable products had it not been for the recycling symbol with its numeric codes. When you see two snakes winding around a winged staff, your mind always jumps to ‘hospitals, or maybe something medical-related’.

So, one day not long before, when I was having scrambled eggs with a strong coffee, I pondered upon the idea of one of the content writers for Eureka to work on ‘Science and Symbols’. My neurotransmitters were going haywire: if only Robert Langdon would have been there to approve the idea! As he says, in The Da Vinci Code,

“Telling someone about what a symbol means is like telling someone how music should make them feel.”

Dear me, if we could have had a lecture with him on symbols! But then, since Professor Langdon can ever be with us ony through the words, and works of Dan Brown, we decided to research on some symbols on our own, and present them to you all, here, on Eureka’s blog.

So, let’s get excited, because we’ll be diving into the engaging and exhilarating world of science and symbols. Taking your leave with another of Dan Brown’s quotes from The Lost Symbol:

“Sometimes all it takes is a tiny shift of perspective to see something familiar in a totally new light.”

– Puspangana Singh

SCIENCE AND SYMBOLS- THE INFINITY SYMBOL

                                                       The Infinity Symbol

Ever since the advent of academia and the arts, ‘time’ and ‘love’ have been two of the most recurring concepts in the works of artists worldwide. Be it poets, writers or painters, everyone has dealt with them more than once. So much has been said and written on time and love and yet they don’t lose their significance. Is it their quality of being vast and endless that they are devoured so many times and so deeply? It is often said that time is boundless- you can never catch up to it, you can never run from it and you certainly can never measure it. So is love- endless and limitless. We humans tend to become very practical and rational when it comes to things we can’t see, understand or don’t have proof of. But the world of mathematics gives us a physical entity to relate to on concepts of endlessness and absoluteness.

The infinity symbol, sometimes called the LEMNISCATE, is a mathematical symbol representing the concept of infinity. John Wallis is credited with introducing the infinity symbol with its mathematical meaning and it has been conjectured to be a variant of a Roman numeral for 1000. In areas other than mathematics, the symbol could be used in bookbinding to indicate that a book has been printed on acid-free paper and will therefore be long lasting. In modern mysticism, the symbol has become identified with a variation of ouroboros- an ancient image of a snake biting its own tail. In modern commerce, corporate logos featuring this symbol have been used by many high profile gaming and software companies.

Not only is infinity used in reasoning and problem solving, it is also applied in areas of arts and cognitive sciences. Perspective artwork utilizes the concept of imaginary vanishing points at infinite distances from observer which helps artists to create paintings with realistic spaces, distances and forms.

One thing the infinity symbol has given an average person is the ability to apply it to normal, easily understandable concepts which don’t require one’s brain cells to expand. When used romantically, this symbol represents eternal love and when used for time, it represents its vastness and never ending nature. This symbol has been of great use to different people at different times in different ways. Right from the mathematicians who play with it in their equations to the horologists who can explain time better with modern symbolism to the unrequited lovers who now can prove their immeasurable love to their doubtful beaus.

SOFT DRINKS: KEY TO HAPPINESS?

Long, hot summer days are right around the corner, and they bring along with them our dry, parched throats longing for the cool, sweet wetness that a bottle of that soft drink will bless us with.

The same bottle brings with it a bundle of nasty surprise, a fact that every single one of you surely know. However, it is astounding to know that soft drinks are responsible for more than just our ‘mainstream’ diseases like obesity and diabetes. Let’s look at the after-life of the glass of soft drink you gulped in.

BRAIN: Artificial sweeteners like HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) are far from being sweet to our brains, rather, these have a mean effect on our cranial activity. HFCS, in high amounts, interfere with the brain cell signalling activity. And we know that our brain, in its entirety, is dependent upon these very signals!

TEETH: The high reactive solvents and phosphoric acid react with our tooth enamel. Acid + enamel= no enamel! (Oh, okay, fine! ‘Slightly’ dissolved enamel). The enamel gets eroded, and that is my point. Save the trip to the dentist’s, won’t you?

RESPIRATION: Sodium benzoate, used as a preservative, mixes with our diet and reduces the availability of potassium to our body. Research suggests that this may lead to recurring respiratory problems like asthma.

HEART: The Framingham Heart Study showed that individuals who consume one soft drink per day are 50% more likely to develop Metabolic Syndrome (a group of conditions that increases the risk for developing diabetes, stroke and heart disease).

PANCREAS/LIVER: The sudden spike in blood sugar level triggers the pancreas into an overdrive to produce insulin. The liver responds by converting every sugar molecule (that is in plenty) into fat. Number of sugar molecules is directly proportional to the number of fat molecules, so, do the (figurative) math! Also, diet sodas are equally bad, if not worse.

KIDNEY: Research suggests a possible connection between the phosphoric acid and formation of kidney stones. Ladies, diamonds should be the only stones that you’d want to collect!

REPRODUCTION:  Biphenyl-A (BPA) is a carcinogenic and teratogenic chemical compound that is one of the causes of premature puberty in children, and some reproductive anomalies. It is deeply disturbing to know that these perpetrators are present in not just our soft drink bottles, but also in plastic baby bottles, water bottles and the like! [owing to this, many EPA-free water bottles are being manufactured and are currently available in the market.]

BONES:  The high phosphorus content, while being excreted out with urine, takes along with it calcium ions thereby, inducing a calcium deficit environment and consequently, breakdown of our bones. This results in a condition known as osteoporosis, something which was previously only associated with old people, but now also manifests in the young. No milk powder will help in maintaining bone health unless you cut the (soft) drinks.

Carrying a filled water bottle around doesn’t seem like a bad idea after all!

#5 Look and Caption

 

 

Ferrero Rocher isn’t just for Christmas!

Have you ever experienced the luscious flavors of Ferrero Rocher dancing gracefully on your tingling taste buds? I reckon we all have. Don’t you love the way the divine chocolate core trickles down the mouth and makes us believe that we are in heaven? After we devour the luxurious custard, it feels like stars are dancing gracefully on our tongue. In a matter of seconds, which feel like a lifetime, the nutty crust bursts into moments of goodness in our mouth, as our stomach growls impatiently for another bite! What if I tell you that motivated by the ganache center, hard chocolate coating and hazelnut sprinkles of this truffle, there is an actual scientific invention?
Yes, you read it right.
Scientists in the US have mimicked this design to form a layered lithium–sulfur battery cathode with a sulfur–carbon center encapsulated in a multi-layered polymer shell sprinkled with carbon.

During battery cycling,

SULPHUR →(Reduces to) → POLYSULPHIDES → (Dissolves in) →ELECTROLYTE→ (Carries them to)→Cathode

Disadvantage of the above process: The loss of active sulfur affects the battery performance and lifetime.

To prevent this, scientists adopted the following method:

SULFUR + HOLLOW CARBON STRUCTURES → Allows space for polysulphides to congregate.

To stabilize this sulfur–carbon unit, they used a thin, conductive polymer layer to maintain its shape, allow the electrolyte to pass to the sulfur core, and act as a foundation layer. But, this thin polymer layer cannot trap polysuphides in the cathode material on its own. To reinforce the thin foundation and prevent the polysulphides from escaping, a flexible, conductive multi-layered polymer outer membrane was added.

Since the layered outer membrane is ion-selective; singly-charged lithium salts can move easily through the membrane whereas, bulky doubly-charged polysulphide salts cannot. By piling up layers of polymers, some of them cross-link due to the pairing of some charged units in the membrane, but some do not pair, creating a maze of structural defects for ions to negotiate. Carbon nano spheres decorating the outer membrane surface further boost the cathode’s conductivity.

And then comes the most interesting part. If you are from biology background, I would suggest you to hold something firm to provide you support, in case you fall down after reading the next line. These chocolate box batteries have a DNA of their own! Sounds like a joke, right? But it is the truth. Again, what if I tell you that this DNA is made from salmon sperm? I think now I am testing your patience and increasing your curiosity level exponentially. Read on to know more.

Praying for Good Food and Good Health!

I don’t want to write about food because let’s be frank, I have zero interest in it. I only eat to survive. If I could, I’d just soak in some sunlight and photosynthesize some energy for my body but unfortunately I am not that evolved. I did read about a certain lady yogi who was capable of such a feat but how exactly did she do it is a secret well-kept, not to be shared with lesser mortals like us. In case you are interested in reading up about her, do refer to the book “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Swami Paramhansa Yogananda.

So anyway, like I already mentioned, I am not interested in food, but what I am interested in is parapsychology and I’d like to discuss the effect of thoughts on our food and subsequently our bodies.

I studied in a convent school where we were taught to say the following prayer before eating our food:

“Bless us, O lord,

And these your gifts,

Which we are about to receive from your bounty.

Bless the hands that prepared this food.

Give food to those who are poor and hungry.”

While I was still young, I said the prayer in a rote monotony, to please my parents and my teachers. But over the years, this praying became a habit and till today, I never put a single morsel of food in my mouth before mentally blessing the food and the hands that prepared it and praying for those less fortunate than me who haven’t any food to eat. Believers may praise while atheists may disparage me for this action but I firmly believe that this little act of praying and blessing the food we eat goes a long way in maintaining health and well-being in our bodies. Because you see, when you eat any food, it is not just the chemical composition of the food that affects you but it is also your thoughts and feelings towards the food that finally determines how the food is processed by your body.

Marc David, Founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, explains in an article how the “brain eats”.  When we prepare to eat any food, its idea occurs in our cerebral cortex from where it is relayed to the limbic system and subsequently to the hypothalamus, which integrates the activities of the mind with the biology of the body. In other words, it takes sensory, emotional, and thought input and transduces this information into physiological responses. If one eats the food with full delight and satisfaction, the hypothalamus modulates this positive input by sending activation signals via parasympathetic nerve fibers to the salivary glands, esophagus, stomach, intestines, pancreas, liver, and gallbladder. Digestion is stimulated and the full metabolic breakdown of the food occurs efficiently. However on creating negative thoughts such as guilt, the hypothalamus sends signals down the sympathetic fibers of the autonomic nervous system to initiate inhibitory responses in the digestive organs which can decrease your calorie-burning efficiency via increased insulin and cortisol. Any guilt about food, shame about the body, or judgment about health are considered stressors by the brain and are immediately transduced into their electrochemical equivalents in the body.

During Durga Puja, special “bhog” is prepared in pandals. The bhog usually comprises of khichdi, some vegetable curry and kheer or some other sweetmeat. Now I am not particularly fond of khichdi but I have always found the bhog especially delicious. Of course this has no scientific proof, but it is believed by many that even the thoughts with which you cook food affects the taste and the nutrient value of the food. Also eating food cooked in a clean and healthy environment has a positive effect on your body and mind, which is quite reasonable and logical. Same goes for food cooked in langars in Gurudwaras. Entire communities participate in the preparation of the food with predominant feelings of harmony and goodwill. No wonder the outcome is unexceptionally mouth watering and spectacular.

The Brahma Kumaris, a religious organization, encourage followers to practice a concept called “Cooking With Consciousness” which involves creating feelings of joy and abundance right from the moment you buy the food materials to while you cook and finally consume it. The idea behind this is that cooking and eating with awareness improves the health of mind, body and spirit, which makes sense. A lot of sense actually. They correlate this with Masaru Emoto’s findings that emotional energy or vibrations can change the physical structure of water crystals. Since a large percentage of the food that we eat has a high water content or  is otherwise cooked in aqueous medium, this theory could actually account for the above idea. Also, keep in mind that our bodies are made up of 70% water. Imagine the kind of power our thoughts can have over the physical health of our bodies!

For those who eat non-veg, keep in mind that the slaughter of the animal should be done in such a way that the stress levels of the animals are at a minimum. Studies made of domestic farm animals and of laboratory animals show in all cases elevated levels of steroid hormones, generally associated with adrenocortical secretions during slaughter. All these secretions are especially harmful to us humans and result in poor vitality. Ancient humans would obtain a substantial amount of their meat supply from domestic animals, which were generally calm on slaughter until unconscious from loss of blood. Modern slaughter techniques which cause fear in animals defeat this mechanism. This results in animals whose meat has unnaturally high amounts of hormones. Fear in animals during slaughter causes dramatic reduction of vitality and sexual potency in humans who eat the meat.

So yeah, that’s about all the food talk that I can do for a day. Remember to remember the feelings of abundance and amazement as you eat your daily bowl of cereal. Bless the hands that prepare the food and I will pray that you stay healthy, wealthy and wise!

-Purvi Asthana

References:

1)Animal Stress Results in Meat Causing Disease, Irwin H. Putzkoff, Cho Byung-Ho, Oh Jin-Hwan

2)http://omshantiretreat.org/self-healing/cooking-with-consciousness-aruna-ladva/

(Accessed on March 6, 2016)

3)http://psychologyofeating.com/mind-over-food/#

(Accessed on March 6, 2016)

 

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.

From the Editor’s Desk.

Image courtesy: google.com

A little snoop into my life and one can successfully gather that I am not an active person on regular basis. There are times when I prefer being a couch potato and immerse myself into the bounties of a good book. And you know what the perfect companion along with it is? A sofa/comfy chair to lean on. (Isn’t coffee too mainstream?) In these moments of solitude I always reminisce the article I read long ago about the concept of a cloud sofa. This elegant idea is created by D.K. Wei. The Cloud sofa is supposed to give one the illusion of floating on their own personal cloud. A magnet in the base is supposed to generate enough magnetic force to hold the sofa aloft, where the cloud is made of plexiglass mold. Had this idea been a real invention rather than a concept, wouldn’t this be the best gift by science to every librocubicularist? Forget about books. One could relax while watching their favorite television series, Doctor Who for instance! Oh wait, that reminded me of the episode “Blink” where we meet quantum-locked villains based on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Isn’t it a great idea to make fascinating science fiction villains? In simpler words, there are plenty of scientific concepts that would make for terrific real life inventions. Thus, this week, team Eureka would explore some similar theories which could change how we perceive the world, if brought down into practice. Hence the theme – Computronium: If Sci-fi concepts were real.