We Found Love

My current favourite song. Rather, favourite tune, since its quite repetitive.

Term exam on Saturday. I may go see Hunger Games with Priyanka <3

So my ideas for Google Science Fair didn't really work out. Oh well. I'll send in my project anyway.

Why did I go to IISc?

I suddenly felt the urge to see the premier research Institute in Bangalore. I missed the open day as I was writing my Sanskrit PU exam. How was it?

Nothing like I had imagined. I was lucky to see the famed labs. I, a random stranger (no, a 11th grade science enthusiast, actually) could walk around the campus. What did I see?

The MBU department which requires knowledge of Ubuntu, MicroB. They take a protein (say myosin) and analyze its structure which can help understand its function and how it can help man (in medicine and pharma). 

Then I visited Prof. Dipshika's lab. Here they are currently studying Salmonella Typhi and trying to develop a more effective vaccine. One way to study these organims is to analyze their DNA, use Biotechnology (PCR and Recombination Technology) to remove a gene and study its implications. Using this data they develop a vaccine. Also they study Anti Microbial Proteins which have different mechanisms of attack.

Next I met Dr. Vijayalakshmi Ravindranath (Centre for Neuroscience, IISc and also founder of NBRC). Obviously my request was turned down although I tried my best. Still, I met her, I spoke to her and one 'no' cannot change my goals.

The Idea behind the visit was try and 'volunteer' at any of the ongoing research projects there. But this did not materialize because IISc has its own criteria for selection of students (KVPY, Integrated PhD, PhD, Summer Fellowship, etc). And a 11th grader does not figure among them. Yes, I was disappointed, but then again, I must be happy that I could see the place, observe and meet a few PhD students who gladly explained about their research projects. In fact, on my second visit, some students were willing to have me 'help around' or rather observe, but that wasn't meant to be.

Oh and I spoke in the assembly. About? I spoke on Pi day (Hint Hint: Tim the Beaver :P) , Capgras Syndrome and I ended it with a RD joke.

Consecutive All-nighters ARE possible. I'm the proof.

Btw I some one in the assembly read about the record 'for going without sleep for the longest period'

Randy Gardner holds the scientifically documented record for the longest period a human being has intentionally gone without sleep not using stimulants of any kind. In 1964—as a 17-year-old high school student in San Diego, California—Gardner stayed awake for 264 hours (eleven days)

It is often claimed that Gardner's experiment demonstrated that extreme sleep deprivation has little effect, other than the mood changes associated with tiredness (mood swings, short temper, loss of concentration).^[6] This is primarily due to a report by researcher William Dement, who stated that on the tenth day of the experiment, Gardner had been, among other things, able to beat Dement at pinball.

However, Lt. Cmdr. John J. Ross, who monitored his health, reported serious cognitive and behavioral changes. These included moodiness, problems with concentration and short term memory, paranoia, and hallucinations. On the fourth day he had a delusion that he was Paul Lowe winning the Rose Bowl, and that a street sign was a person. On the eleventh day, when he was asked to subtract seven repeatedly, starting with 100, he stopped at 65. When asked why he had stopped, he replied that he had forgotten what he was doing.^[1]

On his final day, Gardner presided over a press conference where he spoke without slurring or stumbling his words and in general appeared to be in excellent health. "I wanted to prove that bad things didn't happen if you went without sleep," said Gardner. "I thought, 'I can break that (Peter Tripp's 1959) record and I don't think it would be a negative experience.'"

I think the most interesting article was about Jesus being a superhuman with 'triple helix DNA' (How does that look??).

Triple-stranded DNA was a common hypothesis in the 1950s when scientists were struggling to discover DNA's true structural from. Watson and Crick (who later won the Nobel Prize for their double-helix model) originally considered a triple-helix model, as did Pauling and Corey, who published a proposal for their triple-helix model in the 1953 scientific journal Nature, as well as fellow scientist Fraser. However, Watson and Crick soon identified several problems with these models:

1. Negatively charged phosphates near the axis will repel each other, leaving the question as to how the three-chain structure would stay together.
2. In a triple-helix model (specifically Pauling and Corey's model), some of the van der Waals distances appear to be too small.

His species possesses phenomenal supernatural abilities, including telekinesis, levitation (walking on water), telepathy (knowing people’s thoughts), healing, etc.

But it could all be mere speculation for all I know.