Search Results

The last stop this summer was Lancaster, UK, for a conference (see if you can find me in the photo) on low temperature physics, which involved fascinating topics like superconductivity and superfluidity, and attendees from Finland to Japan. Main takeaways: Lancaster is in a geographically interesting place. I flew into Manchester, and took the train for an hour to Lancaster. Beautiful English countryside along the way. Lancaster itself has an old town charm, but also some great new construction along the iconic George Quay waterfront . I had three options for the one afternoon off during the conference: Manchester (the soccer stadium), Glasgow ( George Square and other historical buildings around the train station), and the Lake District (the magnificent Lake Windermere , Wordsworth House ). Glasgow won, and it was quite grand. The University of Lancaster has an extensive and verdant campus, set a little apart from the city. The layout is nonintuitive (even the graduate students admitted getting around campus was hard). After four days of practice, I still could not make my way to the breakfast location (just five minutes from my dorm) without getting lost. (Google maps not only did not help, sometimes it hindered). Excitement was added to the process by the fact that some rooms on campus were not numbered, roadside maps often had North pointing downward or to the side, and there were unexpected blocks due to extensive construction happening all over campus taking advantage of the fact that students were away for summer vacation. The physics really kicked in when the visitors were taken for a tour of the labs on site. Lancaster has been a pioneer in the studies of low temperature physics and it was amazing to see the liquid Helium cryostats, which can reach a millionth of a degree above absolute zero (these are the temperatures at which quantum effects such as superconductivity and superfluidity can be observed). Nowadays, these cryostats have many uses, including enabling a quantum computer . The grad student taking us around pointed out that Helium was now being stored in what used to be beer barrels (you can see them up on the wall in this video ). The whole lab reminded me of the interior of a nuclear submarine: full of knobs, dials, gauges and log books. Such a large accumulation of equipment and expertise rarely happens in one fell swoop. A handful of people had the vision a while ago (to make Lancaster a powerhouse in low temperature physics) and it was impressive to hear about the contributions of people past and senior who kept up the mission over generations. Particularly being remembered by all was Prof. George Pickett , who passed away last year. In addition to developing the low temperature laboratories at Lancaster, he had mentored many of the attendees at the conference. Afterword While low temperature was the theme of the conference, there was, in keeping with general European practice, no air conditioning in the dorms. It was a good thing that the weather was pleasant throughout.

This post is a review of the book The Woman Who Ran AIIMS . AIIMS is the All India Institute of Medical Sciences located in Delhi. It is the top hospital and medical research university in India, analogous to Cedars-Sinai or the Mayo Clinic in the United States. The book is a relatively short (245 pages) autobiography of Dr. Sneh Bhargava (SB), the first - and so far only - woman director of AIIMS, and a radiology pioneer in India and worldwide. Rather than following the largely chronological tack of the book, I will present the elements that caught my attention: Political Drama: The book contains some rather dramatic incidents involving political leaders (they usually come, or are brought, to AIIMS so they can receive the best treatment). On the first day SB took over as director of AIIMS, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was brought in with 30 bullets inside her, assassinated by her bodyguards. SB also found a nodule in the lung of President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, diagnosing him with lung cancer (he was a smoker). Earlier, she also did an X ray on Prime MInister Nehru. The History of Radiology : The book touches on the history of development of radiology, starting with Roentgen's discovery of X-rays, then the invention of the CT scan (SB was at the talk in New York where Hounsfield announced his invention of the CT scanner, which eventually won him a Nobel; SB returned home and installed the first CT scan machine in India), ultrasound (which first allowed the visualization of foetuses), MRI and the PET scan. SB's book touches on her multiple training and research contacts with the West, including both Europe and America. Diagnosis Magic : I learnt from the book that a radiologist can make a rather precise diagnosis from the imaging results if the medical history of the patient has been provided (a simple example is knowing the patient is a smoker before looking at the lung X ray). In fact the diagnosis can vary depending on the patient's medical history. SB studied with some of the pioneers of radiology (e.g. Peter Kerley, after whom the Kerley B lines indicative of congestive heart failure in a radiograph are named) and in her own career became rather famous for her almost magical ability to quickly read images and supply diagnoses. Incredible longevity : The book is inspirational, because it displays the precociousness (she used to play doctor with her dolls, then her younger sister), determination and intelligence of the writer. Also remarkable is her longevity: she worked at AIIMS until she was 60, then retired (as per government regulations) and worked at private hospitals until she was 90 (she was forced to stay home during Covid as per regulations for aged people); she finished writing her book when she was 95. What a full life. A peep into the doctors trade : There are many insights into the training and professional duties of doctors: the dissection of cadavers, engineering aspects (like training on CAT scanners and MRI machines), mental health concerns (the books claims that doctors are apparently big time hypochondriacs), etc. Summary Written forthrightly, the book does not hold back on sensitive topics (discrimination against women, racism, political cronyism), gives credit to others (teachers, mentors, colleagues, donors and staff), and provides insights (a reminder that leadership is a crown of thorns; 'do good and forget'). An appendix contains statements by some people who know her (colleagues and students) and reinforce her accomplishments. A short but inspiring read.

This post is about two recent visits I made to academic campuses in places somewhat exotic. Malta Malta is an archipelago of five islands in the center of the Mediterranean (somehow islands tend to feature prominently in my academic travels: Iceland, Japan, Crete, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia...). It is to the south of Italy and an hour and a half flight from Rome. Malta is very densely populated, a fact that becomes evident as soon as the taxi drives you out of the airport area. I found the number of cars per unit surface area to be quite remarkable. Generally it was easy to get around; everybody follows English; the other official language - Maltese - is descended from Arabic. Of course, the beaches and shoreline are spectacular. I gave a talk at the University of Malta and had time only to visit the capital Valetta . Malta has a long and rich political, cultural and economic history because of its central location in the Mediterranean (it was coveted by the Ottoman Turks as a launching pad for their invasions of Europe; the knights of the Order of St. John repulsed a massive Turkish attack in 1565 and were awarded the island by the Roman emperor in exchange for the yearly tribute of a Maltese Falcon; some may remember the book by Dashiel Hammett and the follow-up movie based on the falcon). Valletta is named after J ean Parisot de la Valette , who was a Grand Master of the Order. In modern times, I saw influences from Italy, Greece, Lebanon, England, Turkey, Egypt, and India (at least). The streets of Valetta, undulating at steep angles, make for great tourism. There are historical buildings, markets and restaurants at every step: tourism is one of the money-makers for Malta. The classical art collections in the museums and churches have some amazing Caravaggios (the big name in Maltese painting is Mattia Preti ); I loved the title of the modern art museum ('Malta's National Centre for Creativity'); I ran into houses where Coleridge and Joseph Conrad stayed; unfortunately the historic Teatru Manoel was closed when I passed by it. Probably the most spectacular sight I came across was the immense armoury in the royal palace museum. Every conceivable weapon of war and defense is displayed there (cannons and cannonballs, cuirasses with bullet marks on the armour plates, shields, daggers, swords, helmets, crossbows, you get the idea). I would love to go back and visit the other inhabited islands: Gozo has prehistoric remains ( Ggantija Temples ) and Comino has the Blue Lagoon . Also, it would be great to taste again the local fish soup (aljotta) and the mahi-mahi entree (lampuki). Mandi The Indian Institute of Technology at Mandi sits nestled between high hills in the state of Himachal Pradesh (HP) in India. I went by car from Delhi, a journey which takes about 10 hours if - and there's the rub - the weather is good. When I went (August) is actually not a good time to go, as it is the rainy season, when there are floods and landslides. The road is flat until one meets the border of HP riding out of the state of Punjab. And that is when the adventure starts. 5 tunnels have to be crossed along the way to Mandi - roads have been blasted through the mountains to make the journey shorter. Two of the tunnels were long and dark enough that I had to breathe systematically to control my claustrophobia. In between, there are spectacular views of mountains, water, and picture-postcard villages on perched on hill slopes. The incline is not arduous until one reaches the town of Mandi. For 15 kilometers after that there is a steep hair-raising climb along a narrow and winding road. Going up, you stay on the left side of the ride, with a deep crevasse only a couple of meters away. My driver was cautious and drove at a moderate speed. But the downhill traffic in the opposite direction, it seemed to me, was driving in hell-for-leather fashion. Maybe they were used to the drive. Things got particularly critical when large buses would come the other way and we had to move over (closer to the drop!) and stop until they passed. Topping the mountain, we climbed down a bit (this was more tolerable as the hill was now on our left and we were the downhill traffic) to reach the Institute campus. Actually there are two nearby campuses, one mainly for the undergrads and faculty residences (North campus), and the other for the graduate students (South campus). It had not rained during our journey, but it started as soon as we reached. This was not good news (one of the local sayings, we learnt, was that if it is raining you should stay home). The campuses are undoubtedly beautiful, surrounded by spectacular mountain landscape, waterfalls at unexpected turns, a big stream flowing through the gorge nearby, wispy clouds resting on the hill slopes. The place felt like a resort. In fact the next stop on the highway is the famous tourist town of Manali . I stayed in the guest house in the North campus. My talk the next day was in the South campus, but a rain-induced landslide delayed my 15 minute hop next morning by 2 hours. Finally, the bulldozers came and cleared the road so my host could drive me over. I learnt that some shops outside the campus kept 2 months of groceries in store, in anticipation of road blockages. On the way back to Delhi we saw rocks from the landslides blocking the opposite lane in several places. Huge nets, nailed into the hillsides were being used to hold back the mountains, so to speak, at other points. After I reached Delhi, it came on the news that one of the tunnels had been flooded with rainwater. Later, I learnt there had been more landslides and it had taken some people 24 hours to drive back from Mandi to Delhi. I guess we got lucky with our timing.

An intellectual, said Aldous Huxley, is someone who has found something more interesting than sex. I would like to revise that opinion: I think an intellectual is someone who has found something more interesting than money. This is not to denigrate money. I think money is a wonderful and necessary tool. I am also in awe of its unifying properties: when the question is of money, as Voltaire said, everybody is of the same religion. Neither do I think that intellectuals are obligated to be poor. Indeed, Voltaire himself invested so wisely that he became very rich. Rather, my thoughts are about two different categories of individuals which have been appearing more and more starkly to me as I go through life. The-Money-Comes-First-Type The first, more common type, is the person whose primary interest is in making money. Everything they do is geared towards this purpose, and nothing else makes sense or is worth their time. Interestingly, very poor people I have met are not really rabid examples of this type. These people are usually looking to make a decent living, not endlessly searching for fabulous riches. It is the people with a decent living who are dreaming of finding Aladin's lamp. It is this type which I meet quite often and find fascinating. A person from this category looks upon education as a punishment to be endured for the acquisition of a job, and at a job as a punishment to be endured for the acquisition of a salary. The ideal scenario, for such a person, is one where they would not have to go to school or do a job. In practical terms, since some schooling is almost unavoidable, this translates to becoming financially independent, and being able to retire as soon as possible ('escape the 9 to 5 trap'). This is a very popular life-goal for a large number of people and the reading market is flooded with (self-help) books on the topic. The typical goal of this person is to own a lot of real estate, companies, cars, yachts, etc. The-Money-Comes-Later-Type This, rarer, type is the person whose primary interest is in something other than money. That something could be a passion (e.g. for singing), a cause (e.g. eradicating disease), a great ability they have (e.g. mathematical talent). They may or may not end up turning this interest into money, but even if they do, the acquisition of money always remains secondary to the indulgence in the cause. Their defining characteristic is that they love what they do. They think of a job, not as a punishment, but instead as a showcase for their abilities, as an opportunity for growth, as a way to give back to society, as a way to advance human knowledge and capabilities, as a way of taking pleasure in coordinating with their fellow human beings, etc. etc.. This type is by no means financially incompetent. Some of them are millionaires (and still keep working their jobs). Many of those who are not save well, invest wisely, and do not experience undue hardship since they make enough for their modest wants and needs. Some even forego more lucrative positions because they love the one they already have (some very famous people fall into this category; I just finished reading a biography of Madonna who gave up a very lucrative gig in France at the beginning of her career and went back to a relatively poor life in New York because she was more interested in developing her own artistic vision and personality). I sometimes suspect they would even be willing to pay their employers to let them do their jobs. They are often the ones dreading retirement; some of them avoid it successfully by working until they die. When the Twain Meet Interesting things happen when the two types of people described above meet. Because the first type is in a majority, it tends to assume that it is the only type. When it meets the second type, it assumes immediately that the only worthwhile topic of conversation is making money and 'achieving retirement'. The person of the second type is faced with - the almost impossible - task of disabusing the first person that their assumptions are not universal. In fact, the person of the first type begins to look upon the second with pity and patronage and begins to offer various suggestions for how they can retire early and raise their standard of living (buy beach houses and fancy cars). This is, of course, the fate dreaded by type two. Sometimes, for fun, and for curiosity, type two injects topics about things like books into the conversation. The response is often a question about where the book sells for the least price, or how many copies it has sold, or how much money it made the author. No questions about what the book is actually about are asked. Concluding Thoughts I like to think of the first type as people who are interested in the art of life, and of the second type as those who are interested in the life of art (there are often overlaps, of course). I think both types are required to run the world. The world would be a boring place if everyone became a shopkeeper, and it would be a dysfunctional place if everyone became a poet. I am also fascinated by what roles nature and nurture play in determining an individual person's mindset in this regard. I have seen several examples where artistically-minded children have rebelled against being sucked into the family business, as well as business-minded youth emerge from highly intellectual families. I rather suspect that there is an evolutionary process at work here, which regulates the ratio of the two types for some survival advantage to society as a whole.

First an apology for missing last week: the piece was ready, but I was in a place with spotty internet, so I could not upload. For this post, I am going to carry on from my last article, which I thought set the stage nicely for my gripes about technology. Here are some more: 1.  Taps, soaps and hand dryers : These have now been automated at airports at other places, and, in my experience, rarely work. It is very hard to find, if at all possible, the exact place where my hands need to be for the water to flow from the tap. And as soon as I start rubbing my hands together, the water stops flowing altogether, or begins to flow erratically. Sometimes the overhang is so big, it is a double-guessing game as to where to put your hand to get the soap and/or blow dryer.   All this is supposed to elevate hygiene (no touching the faucet), reduce water wastage and help forest conservation (no paper towels), but these good intentions have turned the process inconvenient for the user. Let’s recall how simple the process used to be: turn the tap, out comes water; push the tab, out comes soap; pull the towel, out comes paper. End of story. No guesswork involved.   2.  QR codes at restaurants : So they can save money by minimizing the number of waiters ('streamlining operations'), eateries have outsourced the ordering and payment process to the customers. You sit down, scan in the QR code, order and pay. Sounds simple, but is often not. Recently in Rome I walked out of the restaurant after I found I had to login in Italian, upload my credit card details, and wait for a confirmation which never arrived…in a conventional restaurant, I would have finished my entrée by that time.   My additional gripe is that this process also does not allow me to ask about the details of the dish (there may be ingredients I might like to skip, like cheese) or anything like the secret menu (e.g. some Mexican restaurants have flan but do not advertise it). Usually I do not even sit down at restaurants which do this (and I walk out even if I realize it late). But now this has become guesswork, since you don’t know right off the bat who uses QR codes and who doesn’t. Some in fact offer both options (ordering online or through the waiter). Recently in Singapore I was wrestling at my table with my phone when the waiter showed up and made my life easy. 3. Apps and Passwords : Now everybody and their grandmother has an app. Imagine traveling to 4 countries in one summer, having to download and eventually delete all the local apps and passwords [for taxis, trains, museums, historical monuments (to download the audioguides) , food, etc.]. What a chore. Somebody needs to simplify this.   4.   Ride-hailing apps : If your phone charge is dwindling, net connection is slow, and/or there is a lot of traffic, these apps make life a lot harder. I have often had my pick-up point switched (to someplace a minute’s walk away) at the last moment (the maps are so crude sometimes it is hard to tell ahead of time where exactly the point is).   In Singapore, the local app gives you 3 minutes to find your ride once it arrives. If you do not succeed in boarding by then the ride is canceled, but you pay the full charge anyway. Try this when the boarding point receives 30 taxis at the same time since they were all waiting together at the red light.   In India, it is very hard to read the plate number of the ride in the midst of the usual chaos of the traffic, with pedestrians, oxcarts, auto rickshaws (they are also on the app!), trucks, vans, and now monstrous air-conditioned tour buses getting in the way.   What happened to the good old days where there was a taxi stand usually nearby and you could go up to one and negotiate your ride with a real person? Afterword I am not even griping about the amount of time I spend babysitting my electronic devices - this one is losing charge, that one is suddenly not opening pdfs any more, the phone content can no longer be downloaded into the laptop, the laptop has had its facial recognition scrambled...who's going to fix all this? Is AI listening?

Like most of us - maybe more than most of us - I often have gripes about technology. This post reproduces a piece that I wrote many years ago for a now-defunct online magazine called Praxis . It complains about goods packaging (how it is often not good packaging) in a - hopefully - humorous way. I thought it was just me until one day a few years ago I heard a full blown discussion about this on Connections , the PBS radio show hosted by Evan Dawson. Following up, I learnt that there is actually a Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (in New York) which addresses some of the concerns voiced in my piece. Almost ten years after the piece was written, I find some of the humor infantile, but I hope you enjoy it: As an ardent devotee of the market economy, I am justifiably upset by any unnecessary obstacles that come between me and the products that I intend to consume. For example, I don’t understand why a bag of potato chips needs to be sealed tightly enough to deter a burglar. Or why getting the wrapper off a rice crispy should require as many tactical moves as a chess match. Or why it sometimes takes longer to get inside a can of soup than it would to make chowder directly from the clam. Clearly, the packaging of food items needs to be made more consumer-friendly. If that is not possible, at least the nutrition labels on the food products should start listing the number of calories required for opening the container. Another class of goods whose packaging requires some rethinking, in my opinion, is electronics (cell phones, adaptors, power banks, you get the idea). The typical electronics item, as Churchill said about Russia, is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. In other words, there is usually enough protection around the device to keep out a horde of barbarians. A brute force method for extracting the product requires some kind of a power tool (provided we can get that out of the box it came in!). Using this direct technique, by the time the process is finished, although the electronic item will have been accessed, the scene will typically resemble a chainsaw massacre, and the gadget might have sustained some – hopefully only cosmetic - damage. If a less violent and more methodical approach is taken, then the consumer has to beware of the cardboard corners, plastic edges, metal tacks, springs and other unpleasant surprises which will progressively appear as the layers of packaging are peeled back. However, this method is guaranteed to deliver the item of desire in pristine shape. The only downside is that the packet needs to be handled throughout like a parcel received by Batman from the Joker. Not having packaging around an item does not automatically imply that it is ready for consumption, as anybody who has spent time removing security tags, adhesive information labels and price stickers knows. If the salesperson forgets to remove the ink tag before putting the garment in the shopping bag, it may mean choosing between Mission Impossible and a return trip to the clothing store. Likewise, sales labels are nowadays affixed with such determination that their removal requires the outbreak of an impromptu tug of war in the family. Even eventual success may only represent a Pyrrhic victory: once, by the time I got the price sticker off my expensive new Ray Bans, they had gone on sale. I think we can try to look to Mother Nature for some pointers on packaging. The examples she provides tell us that not having any packaging or labeling is not a good idea. This has been particularly noted by anyone who has ended up (sic) picking the wrong kind of mushroom. She also informs us that making a very hard packing case may not be good design. This can be confirmed by people who have dawdled under a coconut tree for too long. In my opinion, Nature's pinnacle of packaging evolution is the banana: In this case if the item is not ready for consumption, it is possible to tell from the cover. If the product has gone past its expiry date, that too is evident from the wrapping. A key is not required for opening the package [a mon key will do -:)]. Finally, there is even an incentive for disposing of the packaging appropriately, as anyone who has walked on a peel lying around on the ground is aware.

On the recent trip to Italy, talk arose of Ettore Majorana, the Italian scientist whose contributions are now considered fundamental in physics and valuable for applications like quantum computing. Ettore vanished without a trace at an early age (see below). I became curious about scientists whose career was cut short at an early age. One might wonder how much they would have contributed if they had lived longer - but there is also the caveat that physics and mathematics are said to be young people's games. An incomplete list below to browse through...(note the role played by the then incurable tuberculosis): Niels Henrik Abel (26): In the work of about 7 years Abel made profound contributions to many areas of mathematics. His legacy ranges from the proof of the impossibility of solution of polynomial equations of degree 5, to elliptic functions. About 20 mathematical objects (e.g. theorems, equations, groups, functions, etc.) carry his name. The Abel prize in mathematics is named after him. Abel died from tuberculosis. Sadi Carnot (36): One of the pioneers of thermodynamics. The maximum efficiency of a heat engine is named the Carnot limit. Carnot died of cholera. William Clifford (33): The originator of Clifford algebras. These are a powerful framework for describing geometric transformations. They have applications in differential geometry, quantum mechanics and image processing. He died of tuberculosis. Paul Ehrenfest (53): Ehrenfest's Theorem links quantum mechanics to classical mechanics (for some cases) and can be used as a starting point for the derivation of Schrodinger's equation. He was a student of Boltzmann. Ehrenfest died by his own hand. Rosalind Franklin (37): She pioneered X-ray diffraction studies of DNA, resulting in the elucidation of its structure, and later of the tobacco mosaic virus. Franklin died of ovarian cancer. Augustin Fresnel (39): A giant of optics. His work led to establishment of the wave theory. Fresnel died of tuberculosis. Evariste Galois (20): He came up with a technique to determine whether any polynomial is solvable by radicals. This was a seminal contribution to the start of group theory. Gaois was killed in a duel. Heinrich Hertz (36): Hertz famously experimentally proved the existence of electromagnetic waves predicted by Maxwell. He died from complications arising from surgery. Ada Lovelace (36): She is credited with writing the first computer program (for the computer built by Charles Babbage). The programming language Ada was named after her. She died of cancer. Ettore Majorana (32): Perhaps currently best known for his work on Majorana fermions, named after him, which are their own anti-particles, and are relevant to neutrino physics and quantum computation. He disappeared after writing a farewell note. There is a prize named after him. Miriam Mirzakhani (40): She was a mathematician at Stanford, and the first woman to be awarded the Fields Medal, the equivalent of the Nobel prize in mathematics. Her main contributions were in geometry. She died of cancer. James Clerk Maxwell (48): Maxwell united electricity and magnetism, and contributed greatly to statistical mechanics. I have heard people say he would have found special relativity if he had lived longer. He died of cancer. Blaise Pascal (39): His contributions were to probability theory, hydrostatics, and mechanical calculation. He died, probably, of tuberculosis. Srinivasa Ramanujam (32): A mathematical genius whose contributions were mainly in number theory. He died of amoebiasis. Bernhard Riemann (39): Another genius whose mathematical contributions range over a number of fields; his work provides the mathematical structure underlying the general theory of relativity. He died of tuberculosis.

As promised - this post is about Florence. Galileo The city houses the Villa Galileo , where the scientist was imprisoned and spent the last years of his life. I walked the 45 minutes from the river [from the Ponte Vecchio ('old bridge') that has a statue of Cellini ] to the villa. The road is not flat, to say the least. There are inclines of about 20-25 degrees right at the beginning for a small stretch and also for a long while towards the end. The climb was a toil, but I thought I could do at least that much for Galileo, considering what he had done for physics (!). There isn't always a pavement, especially along the sharp slope near the house, where big cars pass by, squashing you flat against the wall. But the neighborhood is quite swanky (and probably was, in Galileo's day as well), so maybe not the worst place to be house-prisoner (great view of the hills around Florence!). And his scientific associates, like Toricelli, could visit him. These days there is a bust of the man displayed in an inset on the wall facing the street, on the second floor. I'm not sure if there is a museum inside, but the house closes at 6pm, and I was late. There is an astrophysical organization of some sort down the road. I also did not make it to the Museo Galilei in Florence that houses the right hand middle finger of Galileo , although the museum is close to the Uffizi (see below). This part (among others) was separated from his body when it was exhumed in 1737 when his grave was moved. Both the index and middle fingers and the thumb were taken off as relics by the anatomist Antonio Cochhi, with the justification that Galileo wrote great things with these fingers. For those who might encounter it, the thumb is apparently kept in a glass egg. Others Two other highlights of my visit to Florence both involved physics indirectly. First, I went and saw the famous dome of Brunelleschi on the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (a cathedral is a church which is the seat of a bishop). I had seen the climb to the top of the dome on YouTube and thought it was too claustrophobic for me. So I restricted myself to a ground level view, and even that was very impressive. The dome (there are two actually, the outer dome provides protection and the inner one provides support - the same design is used by the United States Capitol) is clearly an amazing exercise in statics, especially at the time it was built (early 15th century). I should note Ghiberti's incredible bronze doors (completed in 1452 and called The Gates of Paradise by Michelangelo) - a copy hangs off the baptistery of the cathedral and the originals are in the museum next door. I must have spent 45 minutes staring at the amazing and realistic details - how did someone do this with metal?! Second, I went to the Galleria Uffizi, which has many outstanding paintings. The most impressive of these I found to be the two Botticelli's: the Birth of Venus and Spring. A painter that knows that much about colors and lines may be called a physicist -:). Afterword I gave my talk at LENS (Laboratorio Europeo Spettroscopie Non Lineari) and also visited a number of research groups. Very impressive to see the number of groups working on atomic physics (about 15). Also, these labs are typically helmed by 1-3 students each, which is very impressive (in most universities producing world class work the number is a bit higher). Galileo would have been proud.

This post is about my visit to Pisa, where I gave a talk on Friday at the university. My next commitment is a visit today to the VIRGO facility for detecting gravitational waves. In the intervening time I went around the town, mainly paying attention to the historical places associated with Pisa's native son Galileo , who carried out pioneering experiments on motion and astronomy, and is counted as one of the fathers of modern science. First some words about Pisa: It is much smaller than Rome (population 90,000 versus 2.5 million). Basically a university town, with about 50,000 students. The land is flat (my host pointed out that that is why there are so many bicyclists). It is close to the sea and almost at sea level; the beautiful river Arno flows through it. The patron saint of Pisa (and of travellers!) is San Ranieri; I will be able to catch a local festival of lights in his honor (the Luminara ) tonight before I leave for Florence tomorrow. Main highlights: The Leaning Tower : This is where Galileo supposedly conducted his experiments on the motion of objects under gravity, dropping them from the leaning tower to see when they landed on the ground. The tower leans at about 5 degrees and climbing the steps is a bit disorienting due to the inclination (also the steps are quite eroded in the middle from centuries of climbing). The bells on top are apparently the original ones and I heard them ring. I found it interesting how a little bit of imperfection or breaking of symmetry (5 degrees from the vertical) can have such a great effect. If the tower had been perfectly vertical, it would still be well known as a beautiful edifice, but one of many. Because it leans, it is now an icon, features in films (in an amusing scene from Superman III ), and people from all over the world come to see it. Btw this is not the only leaning structure in Pisa, though it is certainly the most impressive. I saw two others: namely the bell towers of the Church of San Nicola and the Church of San Michele delgi Scalzi . The Duomo di Pisa : This is the cathedral where Galileo apocryphally found that the frequency of the church lamp oscillation was independent of its amplitude [only a genius would notice this-:)]. The outside (sculpture) and inside (paintings, sculpture, woodwork) are both impressive. The Baptistery : This is where Galileo was baptized. Extensive in diameter, high in dome, with lovely acoustics. Wikipedia says it is the largest baptistery in Italy. I should mention that these three buildings are all part of the Piazza dei Miracolei , which also contains The Camposanto Monumentale : A covered cemetery with multiple sarcophagi and gigantic frescoes, which does not contain Galileo's grave, but does have a statue commemorating Fibonacci. I noticed that a lot of professors are buried there (the professions of the dead are inscribed on the graves). Ammanati House : Named after his mother, who was believed to have returned to it to give Galileo birth. Statue: There's at least one in Pisa, which I came across, on the Largo Ciro Menotti. Probably there are more. Lungarno Galileo Galilei: Lungo means "along"; this is a street along the river Arno, named after Galileo. (In Rome there is the Lungotevere - along the Tiber) Of course, Galileo taught at the University (in the department of mathematics, from where I got picked up for my VIRGO tour). Summary A small (I walked to my hotel from the airport) and quiet but very historical and fascinating town. Some of the original town walls are preserved. The presence of so many students brings energy and bustle to the place. Afterword Next week- Florence!

This post is a review of The Infamous Boundary: Seven Decades of Controversy in Quantum Physics by David Wick. The book is intended to be a relatively popular exposition; for those who are experts/practitioners there is a mathematical appendix by William Farris. The booked is dated (published in 1995) but since quantum mechanics is still controversial, worth looking into. The boundary refers to that between classical and quantum physics. I was attracted to the book because it is a relatively slim volume (244 pages) and on flipping through, seemed well arranged. On reading, it largely did not disappoint. Though I can hardly say the topic is lucidly clear to me (if anything the total opposite), I did gain some interesting insights, historical knowledge and anecdotal material from the text. Wick, who is a mathematician by trade (sometimes I feel this gives the book, which is on physics, a refreshing slant) writes with clarity (except where it is simply not possible) and humor. The book is divided into crisp short chapters (each about 8 pages long). Content The book picks the story up with Mach who claimed there is no reality except for our sensations; Mach did not believe in atoms. The developments of Rutherford's experiments and Bohr's model follow, along with the work of Heisenberg and Schrodinger. The conceptual struggles of these pioneers are described succinctly and with authority, including Einstein's disapproval of the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics, culminating in the titanic Bohr-Einstein debates. These, as is well known, were won by Bohr. Nonetheless, Einstein was not happy with the idea that quantum mechanics did not refer to an underlying reality - hidden variables - which was not statistical. Von Neumann's incorrect theorem 'proving' that there could be no hidden variables is described in the book; followed by the famous EPR paper, and the work of David Bohm. Then the book comes to the work of John Bell, who devised a quantitative test for hidden variables; and Clauser and Aspect who implemented it experimentally. The observation of single atoms (rebutting Mach) and quantum jumps (rebutting Schrodinger who had refused to believe in them) is dramatically described. So far the historical facts and scientific advances have kept the philosophical discussion in check. From this point on the book became increasingly opaque to me. There are discussions on linguistics, philosophy, psychology, mysticism and their links (or not) to quantum mechanics. A bunch is said about the double-slit experiment, which Feynman epitomized as the central mystery of quantum mechanics. Summary I felt this book was a useful resource. I might go back to it later just to figure out what the issues in the debate were. It has a wealth of painstakingly gathered information, including visits to labs and interviews with the relevant physicists (those that were still around). The short chapters keep the author honest and away from too much philosophizing (except for those chapters entirely devoted to it). There is the best explanation I have seen, of why spooky-action-at-a-distance does not transmit any signals that violate special relativity (apparently originally due to Mermin). The book maybe too much for a single read, but is definitely worth sampling repeatedly over time.

This is a post mainly for postdocs joining my group, but may be useful for hires in any organization. I have mentored about 10 postdocs by now, so I feel I have enough data to make some generalizations. The rules stated are of course my own and specific to my research group. Beginner's enthusiasm : One of the mistakes new postdocs commit in my group is to show up and start suggesting or demanding things on the first day. For example, I don't have group meetings. This might be unusual, as most groups I have seen have them. But I have very specific and well examined reasons for my action - I find group meetings to be very inefficient, since all but a few people are engaged at a time. Also students/postdocs get lulled into the false complacency that if they get by at the group meeting then they feel they have done enough work for the week. So I instead meet only with members when they have work to report and then only one-on-one so we can discuss the results at depth and meaningfully. However, postdocs often show up in my group on the first day and start suggesting that I should have group meetings (probably because they come from groups which do), or even try to start them without my knowledge. This is entirely inappropriate for a fresh hire. The people who do the hiring usually have far more experience and have thought in much greater depth about such things as how to run the group. Moral: Avoid making jerky movements right at the beginning. Get a lay of the land before you start suggesting/making changes. Conferences : Some postdocs treat conferences as paid vacation or travel. They start jockeying for going to conferences without even being asked to go. I have had postdocs come and 'tell' me that they will be going to such and such conference. My rule is the postdocs do not get to decide if and when they go to which conference. I do. My decision is based on several considerations. Generally, I do not send a postdoc or student to a conference unless they have substantial results to disseminate, which means preferably a paper which has been published, or submitted to a journal, or at least submitted to the arxiv. But there may be other considerations as well. When a postdoc goes to a conference, they are not there just in their personal capacity, they are representing my group. I may wish for my group to be represented in a certain way at a certain conference. That may even change with time - just because a postdoc was sent to a certain conference in one year doesn't mean they get to go next year. Moral: If the postdoc wants to attend a particular meeting, they can always ask the supervisor. Talks during vacations : Postdocs sometime feel they can present the research they have been performing in my group at certain institutions (often their alma maters ) while they are on vacation, without asking me for permission. This is not appropriate. While they are in my group, again since they are still representing my group, they need to ask me for permission to present our work since I am the principal investigator for the grant that supports the work. Of course, I usually have no objections to such dissemination, but on some occasions I might. This might be due to previous history with the institution, or if I know some severe critic of the work might be present and pose problems for the speaker, etc. Moral: Always ask. Conflicts with other postdocs and students : Where there are human beings there will be conflict. I have sometimes had postdocs schedule meetings with me to complain about other students and postdocs. My policy has consequently evolved to explain to the postdocs right at the beginning of their stint that if they end up creating a disruption with another colleague, I will likely remove both of them from my group. Unfortunately, I have to use such deterrents as I have no bandwidth for disruptions. More to the point, I explain to them that as human beings we are almost programmed to disagree and it is part of their professional duty to learn to get along with their colleagues in a productive manner (i.e. handle disagreements in a professional manner). Moral: Keep the drama for your mama. Academic credit : Postdocs are usually under tremendous pressure to publish, so they can be competitive. Unfortunately, this sometimes takes the form of political haggling for academic credit. I have seen postdocs quarrel for the right to be first author on a paper, or even presenting a graduate student's work as their own. My rule is to explain to them that if everyone in my group performs their job well, there will be enough of the academic pie to go around. We can generate more research and more papers for everyone. Moral: Stand up for your rights, but be generous. Post-postdoc : Some postdocs continue to collaborate with me after they leave my group. This is wonderful, but after having worked extensively with me on a topic, one day they suddenly declare they are going to write a grant on it by themselves. This is certainly not forbidden, but they need to know it comes with certain implications. If they want to continue collaborating with me then they need to discuss the contents of their proposal with me so we can ensure there is no overlap or conflict. This ensures we will not be producing the same results in parallel, or asking for money for the same physics from two different agencies while collaborating. On the other hand, if they want to work independently, and not discuss their grant plans with me, then they become a competitor. They no longer have access to collaborate or consult with me. Moral: You can't have your cake and eat it. Summary Postdocs should work closely with their advisors to figure out the rules of the academic game and not make decisions that could hurt their own careers, and possibly those of others.

This post is a review of A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J. B. S. Haldane by Samanth Subramanian. Haldane was a giant of population genetics and evolutionary biology, a prolific science popularizer, and intimately involved in the politics of his time. I will stick mostly to the science, but since biology is not my expertise, everything I say must be given a license. I will mostly stay away from the politics, since I know even less about it than I do about biology. In fact, let's get the politics out of the way right away. The book describes Haldane's birth in Edinburgh to a liberal father and conservative mother; Haldane eventually became a communist. The book considers in detail the impact of his politics on his science, his membership in the CPGB (Communist Party of Great Britain), and especially his support of Lysenko , the Soviet biologist who opposed Mendelian genetics. Haldane's childhood manifestations - his mathematical leanings; his contempt for easy assignments; the bullying he endured at school; his hatred of sports and his frail health; a large number of experiments (some of them involving mildly electrocuting other people, others included drinking hydrochloric acid) at home inspired by his father (who was an expert on respiration and found himself called up when the Germans started using poison gas in the war); his many academic prizes and scholarships; his phenomenal memory - offer many clues to his adult behavior. It's a little unsettling to see Haldane confessedly enjoy war and killing (he was involved in WWI, where he was wounded by a bomb, and in the Spanish civil war). Haldane also had a fraught relationship with the topic of eugenics. On the positive side, he was generous, promoting books by rival academics even when they did not cite his work. And only a brave man could have written a comic poem, reproduced in full in the book, about his bout with colorectal cancer. Aldous Huxley, a friend (his brother Julian Huxley was a biologist), used Haldane's colorful character and his ideas about eugenics in writing his famous book Brave New World. Haldane's disappointment on not fathering children, his academic rivalries, his opinion of America (and the linguistic liberties taken by the residents of that country with English), and his eventual renunciation of England to become an Indian citizen (a busy avenue in Kolkata was named after him) are all in the book. His many scientific accomplishments are discussed in some detail (in places I did not have the expertise to follow the technical exposition closely). The depth of his contributions can be gauged by the fact that several of them carry his name: the Briggs-Haldane equation ; Haldane's rule ; Haldane's dilemma ; the Oparin- Haldane hypothesis ; the Haldane shelter. My specifically favorite Haldane scientific discovery is his mapping of the location of the color blindness gene (I am color blind). Overall, I found myself pleasantly surprised by his persistent introduction of mathematics into biology; in the early days things were generally less quantitative. He was definitely a pioneer. Haldane realized my death wish - that of having his skeleton displayed in an anatomy museum. Summary The book is fairly extensive (379 pages). The research seems solid and painstaking. The prose quality is high and the subject is treated with impressive scholarship, though I found it a bit strange that the book does not have an index. The picture that emerges of Haldane might be described in his own words (said originally about the universe) as 'not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.' A good and informative read, overall.