Thursday, September 20, 2007
A MIRACLE CALLED HUMAN BODY
The speeding impulse of a brain cell racing at 250 miles-per-hour… the quivering dance of hairs in our ear, so small that 10,000 bunched together are thinner than one strand of hair from our head… the 100-mile trek of a red blood cell, only thousandths of an inch in size, through our vast, tangled network of veins, arteries and capillaries… or the miraculous genetic fusion of parental DNA that signals the beginning of a unique new life. All these extraordinary occurrences are routine events for our bodies, yet almost all are hidden from our view. This miracle is called human body.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Biotech Quiz
1) Why was Dolly named so?
Ans: After Dolly Parton. The name "Dolly" came from a suggestion by the stockmen who helped in the process, in honour of Dolly Parton, because the cloned cell was a mammary cell
2) The deadly Marburg Virus killed no human in Marburg. Then why is it named Marburg? Ans: The lab at Marburg isolated the virus
3)Mizaru, Mikazaru and Mazaru are the names of three monkeys famous for _____________?
Ans The three monkeys in "hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil"
4) We all know what LAGAAN is. But what do biologists know LAGAN as? (Google?)
Ans: Limited Area Global Alignment of Nucleotides.
5)Name the largest member of the pig family.
Ans: The Hippo
Ans: After Dolly Parton. The name "Dolly" came from a suggestion by the stockmen who helped in the process, in honour of Dolly Parton, because the cloned cell was a mammary cell
2) The deadly Marburg Virus killed no human in Marburg. Then why is it named Marburg? Ans: The lab at Marburg isolated the virus
3)Mizaru, Mikazaru and Mazaru are the names of three monkeys famous for _____________?
Ans The three monkeys in "hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil"
4) We all know what LAGAAN is. But what do biologists know LAGAN as? (Google?)
Ans: Limited Area Global Alignment of Nucleotides.
5)Name the largest member of the pig family.
Ans: The Hippo
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Anecdote...Ramanujan's Life
The arithmetic class was in progress. The teacher was solving questions on division. On the backboard were drawn three bananas.
"We have three bananas," the teacher said, "and we have three boys. Can you tell me how many each will get?"
A smart boy in the front row replied, "Each will get one."
"Right," the teacher said. "Now, similarly, if 1,000 bananas are distributed among 1,000 boys, each will get one, isn't that so?"
While the teacher was explaining, a boy sitting in one corner raised his hand and stood up. The teacher stopped and waiting for the boy to speak.
"Sir," the boy asked, "if no bananas is distributed among no one, will everyone still get one banana?" There was roar of laughter in the class. What a silly question to ask!
"Quite," the teacher said loudly and thumped the desk. "There is nothing to laugh at. I will just explain what he means to say. For the division of bananas, we divided three by three, saying that each boy will get one banana. Similarly, we divided 1,000 by 1,000 to get one. What he is asking is that if zero banana is divided among zero, will each one get one? The answer is 'no'. Mathematically, each will get an infinite number of bananas!"
Everyone laughed again. The boys understood the trick arithmetic had played upon them. What they could not understand was why the teacher later complimented the boy who had asked that absurd question.
The boy had asked a question that had taken mathematicians several centuries to answer. Some mathematicians claimed that zero divided by zero was zero. Others claimed it to be unity. It was the Indian mathematician Bhaskara who proved that it is infinity. The boy who asked the intriguing question was Srinivasa Ramanujan. Throughout his life, whether in his native Kumbakonam or Cambridge, he was always ahead of his mathematics teachers.
"We have three bananas," the teacher said, "and we have three boys. Can you tell me how many each will get?"
A smart boy in the front row replied, "Each will get one."
"Right," the teacher said. "Now, similarly, if 1,000 bananas are distributed among 1,000 boys, each will get one, isn't that so?"
While the teacher was explaining, a boy sitting in one corner raised his hand and stood up. The teacher stopped and waiting for the boy to speak.
"Sir," the boy asked, "if no bananas is distributed among no one, will everyone still get one banana?" There was roar of laughter in the class. What a silly question to ask!
"Quite," the teacher said loudly and thumped the desk. "There is nothing to laugh at. I will just explain what he means to say. For the division of bananas, we divided three by three, saying that each boy will get one banana. Similarly, we divided 1,000 by 1,000 to get one. What he is asking is that if zero banana is divided among zero, will each one get one? The answer is 'no'. Mathematically, each will get an infinite number of bananas!"
Everyone laughed again. The boys understood the trick arithmetic had played upon them. What they could not understand was why the teacher later complimented the boy who had asked that absurd question.
The boy had asked a question that had taken mathematicians several centuries to answer. Some mathematicians claimed that zero divided by zero was zero. Others claimed it to be unity. It was the Indian mathematician Bhaskara who proved that it is infinity. The boy who asked the intriguing question was Srinivasa Ramanujan. Throughout his life, whether in his native Kumbakonam or Cambridge, he was always ahead of his mathematics teachers.
Sucess through sheer hard work & interest
HI! FRIENDS,
MICHAEL FARADAY WAS AN ENGLISH PHYSICIST & A SON OF A BLACKSMITH. HIS EARLY LIFE WAS SPENT EARNING HIS LIVING AS A BOOK BINDER'S APPERENTICE. FARADAY HAD NO FORMAL EDUCATION & DID NOT HAVE ANY WORKING KNOWLEDGE OF MATHEMATICS.HE WORKED AS AN ASSISTANT IN THE LABORATORY OF SIR HUMPHREY DAVY. HIS PATH BREAKING DISCOVERY, GENERATING ELECTRIC CURRENT USING MAGNETISM, WON FOR HIM THE HONOUR BY THE WHOLE SCIENTIFIC WORLD.SO EVEN WITHOUT FORMAL EQUCATION HE GOT ONLY THROUGH SHEER HARD WORK & INTEREST.
MICHAEL FARADAY WAS AN ENGLISH PHYSICIST & A SON OF A BLACKSMITH. HIS EARLY LIFE WAS SPENT EARNING HIS LIVING AS A BOOK BINDER'S APPERENTICE. FARADAY HAD NO FORMAL EDUCATION & DID NOT HAVE ANY WORKING KNOWLEDGE OF MATHEMATICS.HE WORKED AS AN ASSISTANT IN THE LABORATORY OF SIR HUMPHREY DAVY. HIS PATH BREAKING DISCOVERY, GENERATING ELECTRIC CURRENT USING MAGNETISM, WON FOR HIM THE HONOUR BY THE WHOLE SCIENTIFIC WORLD.SO EVEN WITHOUT FORMAL EQUCATION HE GOT ONLY THROUGH SHEER HARD WORK & INTEREST.
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