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Thursday, August 5, 2010

Spinors



The concept of spinor is now important in theoretical physics but it is a difficult topic to gain acquaintance with. Spinors were defined by Elie Cartan, the French mathematician, in terms of three dimensional vectors whose components are complex. The vectors which are of interest are the ones such that their dot product with themselves is zero.
Let X=(x1, x2, x3) be an element of the vector space C3. The dot product of X with itself, X·X, is (x1x1+x2x2+x3x3. Note that if x=a+ib then x·x=x2=a2+b2 + i(2ab), rather that a2+b2, which is x times the conjugate of x.
A vector X is said to be isotropic if X·X=0. Isotropic vectors could be said to be orthogonal to themselves, but that terminology causes mental distress.
It can be shown that the set of isotropic vectors in C3 form a two dimensional surface. This two dimensional surface can be parameterized by two coordinates, z0 and z1 where


z0 = [(x1-ix2)/2]1/2
z1 = i[(x1+ix2)/2]1/2.
 

The complex two dimensional vector Z=(z0, z1) Cartan calls a spinor. But a spinor is not just a two dimensional complex vector; it is a representation of an isotropic three dimensional complex vector.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Endhiran Lyrics







01. Puthiya Manidha…

Singers : S. P. Bala, A. R. Rahman & Khatija Rahman
Lyrics : Vairamuthu


Puthiya manitha

boomiku vaa!

Ehkai vaarthu
silicon serthu
vayarooti uyirooti
hardiskil ninaivooti
azhiyatha udalodu
vadiyatha uyirodu
aaram arivai araithu ootri
ezhan arivai ezhuppum muyarchi

maatram kondu vaa
manithanai menmai sei
unathu aatralal
ulagai maatru
ella uyirkkum
nanmayairu

entha nilayilum
unmaiyai iru

Endhiraa.. Endhiraa..
en endhiraa

Naan kandathu aararivu
nee kondathu perarivu
naan kaatru aarumozhi
nee petrathu nooru mozhi
eeral kanayam thunbamillai
idhaya kolarethumillai
thanthira manithan vaazhvathillai
enthiran veezhvathillai

karuvil pirantha ella marikum
arivil piranthu
maripathe illai

idho
en endhiran
ivan amaran

naan innoru naanmukane
nee enbavan – magane
aan petravan aan magane
aam un peyar endhirane
Naan enbathu arivu mozhi
yen enbathu enathu vazhi
vaan pondrathu enathu veli
naan nalaya gnana oli

nee kondathu udal vadivam
naan kondathu
porul vadivam
nee kandathu oru piravi
naan kaanpathu pala piravi

robo robo panmozhikal katralum
en thanthai mozhi
tamizh allavaa!

robo robo
pala kandam vendralum
en karthaavukku
adimai allava!




02. Kadal Anukkal…

Singers : Vijay Prakash & Shreya Ghoshal
Lyrics : Vairamuthu

Kadhal Anukal

udambil etthanai?
neutron electron – un
neelakannil mottham etthanai?
unnai ninaithal
thisukkal thorum aasai sindhanai
haiyoo

sanaa! sanaa!
ore vina
azhakin otham neeya?
nee
newton newtonin vithiya?
undhan
nesam nesam ethivinaya?
nee
aayiram vinmeen thirattiya punnagayaa
azhagin mottham neeya?

nee
mutrum ariviyal pitthan
aanal mutham ketpathil jitthan

unnal
dheem thom manathil sattham
then then then idhazhil yuttham
roja poovil rattham

hokku baby ho baby
senthenil ossaappi
hokku baby ho baby
megathil pootha gulabi

pattampoochi pattampoochi
kaalgal konduthan rusiyarium
kathal kollum manithapoochi
kangalai konduthan rusiyarium

odigira thanniyil thanniyil
oxygen miga adhigame!
paadugira manasukkul manasukkul
aasaikal miga adhigam!

Aasaiye vaa
aayiram kadhalai aindhe
nodiyil seivom penne vaa vaa

kadhalkara!
nesam valarka oru
neram odhukku endhan
nenjil veengi vidathey!

kadhalkari!
undhan idaiyai pla
endhan pizhaipil kooda
kadhalin neramum ilaithuvittathey!

kathal anukkam
udambil etthanai?
neutron electron – un
kaandhakannil motham etthanai?




03. Irumbile Oru Idhaiyam…

Singers : A. R. Rahman & Kash’n’Krissy
Guesh Vocals : Parthiv Ghil
Lyrics : Kaarki
English Lyrics : Kash’n’Krissy


You want to seal my kiss

boy you can’t touch this
everybody… hypnotic hypnotic…
super sonic…
super star can’t can’t can’t get this

Irumbile or iruthayam mulaikuthey
muthalmurai kathal azhaikutho
poojiyam ondrodu
poovasam indrodu

minmeengal vinnodu
minnalgal kannodu
google-kal kanadha
thedalgal ennodu
kaalangal kaana kathal
pen poove unnodu
iRobo un kathil
I love you sollatta?

I am a super girl
un kathal rapper girl
ennulle ennellam
neethane neethane
un neela kannoram
minsaram paripen
en neela pallale
unnodu siripen
en engine nenjodu
un nenjai anaipen
nee thoongum nerathil
naan ennai anaipen
ennaalum eppodhum
un kayil bommaiyaven

watch me robo shake it
i know you want to break it
thottu pesum podhum
shock adikka koodum kathal seiyum neram
motor vegam koodum
iravil naduvil battery than theerum
memoryil kumariyai
thani sirai pidithen
shutdown-ne seiyyamal
iravinil ellam theya theya
naalum unnai padithen
unnale thane – en

vithikalai maranthen
echil illa endhan mutham
sarchai indrik kolvaya?
rattham illa kathal endru
otthi poga solvaya?
uyiriyal mozhikalil endhiran thanadi
ulaviyil mozhikalil indhiran naanadi
sathal illa saabam vaangi
manmele vandhene
theimaname illa
kathal kondu vandhene

Hey… Robo… mayakathey…
you wanna come and get it boy
Oh are you just a robo toy
I don’t want to break you
even if it takes to
kind of like a break through
you don’t even need a clue
you be my man’s back up
i think you need a checkup
i can melt your heart down
may be if you got one
we doing that for ages
since in time of sages
muttadhey orampo
nee en kaalaisutthum paambo
kathal seiyum robo
nee thevaiyillai po po




04. Arima Arima…

Singers : Hariharan & Sadhana Sargam
Additional Vocals : Benny Dayal & Naresh Iyer
Lyrics : Vairamuthu

Ivan perai sonnathum
perumai sonnathum
kadalum kadalum kai thattum;!
ivan ulagam thandiya
uyaram kondathil
nilavu nilavu thalai muttum!
adi azhage! ulakazhake!
intha
endhiran enbavar padaippin uccham!

Arima arima – naano
aayiram arima – unpol
ponmaan kidaithal – yamma
summa viduma?

rajathi – ulogathil
aasaithee – mooluthadi
naan
atlantikkai oottri parthen
akkini anaiyalaye!

un
pachai thenai ootru
en
icchai theeyai aatru

adi
kachai kaniye panthi nadathu
kattil ilai pottu…

sitrinba narambu…
semiha irumbil
sattendru mogam pongitre!
ratchasan vendaam
rasigan vendum
pennullam unnai kenjitre

naan manithan alla
aghrinayin arasan naan
kaamutra kanini naan
sinna sirusin idhayam thinnum
silicon singam naan…

endhira…! endhira…!

megathai uduthum
minnalthan naanendru
isukke isai vaikathey!

vayarellam osai
uyirellam aasai
robovai popovennathe!

ye yezham arive!
ulmoolai thirudukirai
uyirodu unnukirai! nee
undu muditha miccham ethuvo
athuthan naanendrai…




05. Kilimanjaro...

Singers: Javed Ali, Chinmayi
Lyrics: Pa. Vijay
Additional Vocal Arrangements: Clinton Cerejo


Kilimanjaro – malai
kanimanjaro – kannak
kuzhimanjaro
yaro yaro

aaha… aaha…

meganjadharo – unnil
nozhanjatharo payya
kozhanjatharo yaro yaro

aaha… aaha…

kaattuvasi kaattuvasi
pachaiyaga katipaya
muthaththale vega vechu
singapallil uripaya

aaha… aaha…

malaipambu pola vandhu
maankuttiya pudiyya
sukkumilagu thatti yenna
sooppu vacchu kudiyya

evaalukku
thangachiye yengudathan
irukka

aaluyara olive pazham
appadiye ennaka?

akkakko – adi
kinnikozhi
appappo – yenna
pinnikodi
ippappo – mutham
ennikodi!
akkakko – naan kiinikozhi
appappo – enna
pinniko nee
ippappo – mutham
ennikko nee

kodi pachaiye elumichaye
unmel unmel uyir ichhaiye

nooru kodi thasai – ovvondrilum
undhan pero isai!

inisakkere adichakare
manasa renda madichukire

naan oora vaitha
kani – ennai mella
aara vaithu kadi!

vervarai nuzhaiyum
veyillum naan – nee
illathirai yen ittali?

uthataiyum uthataiyum
pootti kondu – oru
yugam mudithu thira anbai!

sunaivaasiye sugavasiye
tholkaruvi enaivasiye

tholkuttha pala – rekkaikatti
kaalkondadum nila

marathegam naan marangotthi nee
vanadesam naan athilvasam nee

nooru grammathan idai – unakku ini
yaru naanthan udai!

aindhadi valarndha aattusedi – ennai
meindhuvidu mottham

pachi pasumpul pasumpul neeyanal
puli pul thinnume enna kutthum?




06. Boom Boom Robo Da…

Singers : Yogi B, Keerthi Sagathia, Swetha Mohan & Tanvi Shah
Lyrics : Kaarki

Boom boom robo-da robo-da robo-da

zoom zoom robo-da robo-da robo-da

isac asimovim velaiyo robo

isac newtonin leelaiyo robo

albert einstein moolaiyo robo

hey robo.. yo robo..
hey inba nanba com-on lets go

robo nee aghrinaiyo…
city nee uyarthinaiyo…

minsaram udalil rattham
naveena ulagathil ariviyal adhisayam

vaayundu aanal vayitrillai
pechundu moochillai
naadi undu iruthayam illai
powerthan undu thimire illai

sikki mukki agni vazhi vazhiye
oruvnin kathalil piranthavano

ye… eghkinile..
poothavano…
engalin kathalai serthavano

thirumathi thirunaal theriyum munne
nee
engal pillaiyo

city city robo – ye
chutti chutti robo
patti thotti ellam – nee
pattu kuutiyo

kutti kutti pattanil vaai moodum
kathali ithupol
kidaiyatho?

ye solvathellam
kettuvidum
kathalan ithupol
amaiyatho?

thavamindri varangal
tharuvathanal
kannano?

auto autokaaraa – ye
automatic kara
kootam kootam paru – un
autograph kkaa

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

The six myths about Engineering you should know

Two incidents drove me to write this article. In the first incident, a woman wished that her son became a “Mechatronics Engineer” (Mechatronics deals with the mechanical and electronics principles applied together). She explained that “Robotics” is the future of the world (guess Steven Spielberg has had some influence over her) and “Mechatronics Engineers” would be in great demand in future. She thought her son could build a robot on graduating.

In the second incident, a student from my school got into an IIT recently. One of my schoolteachers mentioned this and added: “He is a brilliant student who is well-planned. He has started preparations to sit for GMAT after his engineering.” GMAT is an examination to get into management schools (primarily in the U.S. and several other English-speaking nations). My teacher believes that engineering, followed by a management course, is a good option.

In this article, I try to make clear some facts about ‘engineering' — facts which will prove the above (and some other) expectations and beliefs to be far from reality.
Engineers are super-humans

People do not understand the reality of ‘engineering.' For them, engineers are “super-humans” who build rockets, robots, electric vehicles and the like. The reason is that when a person says he works on a satellite project, people jump to the conclusion that he knows every detail of building a satellite. In reality, no engineer can know the entire details of projects. For example, it requires people from various disciplines such as electrical, mechanical, chemical and materials engineering to design an electric car.

Since the common man has the “super-human” view in mind, he generally does not accept or appreciate many of the “real” engineering works. For example, a home inverter might not bring about any awe to the common man as does an electric vehicle (though both might be equally challenging to build), because he often finds a technician setting right the problems in a home inverter. The technician just knows by experience what to do, whereas an engineer knows why it has to be done.
Engineering is more valuable than science

First, I will clarify the difference between ‘science' and ‘engineering' through a simple example. The study of optics of materials will fall under science. Scientists (physicists, in this case) will try to explain the optical properties which different materials possess. If someone tries to use the optical properties to make a microscope or a camera, he will be an engineer. Scientists establish facts which engineers exploit to make things useful to society. History would tell you that scientists did a lot of engineering work in the earlier days (between 1700 and 1900 when a lot of development really happened in science and engineering).

Today, with the vastness of the different fields, science and engineering have separated . Now, scientists rarely take up engineering work. Nevertheless, I would say scientists play a greater role as they have to establish the basic facts for engineers to build upon.

Unfortunately, since the result of engineering is the one that fetches money, people have a craze for engineering. It is disheartening to see a Ph.D. student in science getting a lesser stipend than a Ph.D. student in engineering. It should have been the other way round. Any nation that ignores the role of science cannot survive in the long run.

Management studies goes with engineering

A degree in engineering followed by a degree in Management is the much sought-after combination. Again, a ‘myth' that engineering and management are related is at work. Engineering (with science as the basis) has nothing to do with management (which does not involve science). A lucrative salary is what attracts people to management studies.

Furthermore, most institutes do not introduce engineering in a proper way, leaving students without confidence to pursue higher education.
We need more IITs

There are many IITs coming up, ostensibly to help the nation meet the requirement of engineers. Truly speaking, we have enough of engineers. Design, the work of engineers, requires just a few people.

The dearth is not in the number but in the quality of engineers we produce. It is enough if we are able to improve and maintain the quality of our institutes and retain the people graduating from them by creating ample opportunities for them to work in India with a good salary. It is better to improve and maintain the standards of the NITs, the IITs and other government institutes than creating newer ones and diluting the existing standards.

Foreign MNCs do best R&D engineering

Foreign multinationals that claim to have research and development centres in India do not do real engineering work in the country, as it is natural for any company to have real product development on home soil.

Here again, the salary is what attracts people (thanks to the dollar-rupee conversion). This is a case of brain drain, in which the brains are hired not to work. Though many might not accept, the basic aim of the foreign MNCs is to utilise the cheap labour in the developing countries to run their manufacturing units; product development is not their primary goal.

People generally end up doing tasks that are not as challenging as is the work in smaller Indian industries trying to develop products of their own.

A B.E/B.Tech graduate is an “Engineer”

With the vastness of technology, in the present day one cannot call oneself an engineer just on graduating. A B.E./B.Tech. graduate knows just the basics. I would say that post-graduation is a must. Or at least, one needs to work for a few years to understand and build engineering products. A lot of people believe that a B.E. graduate in aerospace would be able to build rockets on graduating. If it were so, there would be rockets flying everywhere!

I would advise people without an engineering background to talk to people who do real engineering work to take decisions before choosing the field for their children. The aim of education is not merely to land a high-paying job. It should empower you to find a suitable work for yourself.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Cell Phones' Radiation Report Card

The amount of radiation emitted by cell phones varies from model to model, but all fall under the FCC-mandated maximum absorption rate of 1.6 watts per kilogram of body tissue. Here's a look at some of the highest and lowest emitters


Top 10 Things You Didn't Know About the Moon

Searching for the Lunar Jackpot — Ice

 

 It may not sound like precision science, but researchers are hopeful that plowing a spacecraft into the moon's surface may reveal a hidden layer of frozen water beneath the surface. On Oct. 9, a NASA satellite will hurl a spent rocket into a dark and frigid lunar crater at 5,600 m.p.h.; the impact will equal the force of 1.5 tons of TNT and kick up a massive, six-mile-high plume of dirt and debris. The satellite — the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS — will then photograph and study the plume for evidence of water or ice from colliding comets. After a few minutes of observation, the space vehicle will plunge into the moon's surface as well. Images taken by an Indian satellite earlier this year suggested there was indeed water on the moon; confirming the discovery would be a major boon for scientists who dream of humans inhabiting the moon, Mars and other planets someday.


Was it something we said? While our two celestial bodies remain locked in orbit, the moon is slowly — very slowly — inching away from Earth, at a rate of about 3.8 cm a year. Right now the moon is more than 238,000 miles from Earth, but when it formed, it was just 14,000 miles away.
How do scientists know? The moon's distance is measured by bouncing laser beams off reflectors on the moon's surface that astronauts from the Apollo missions left behind. Scientists can measure the time it takes for the laser beams to travel there and back and calculate the distance with a high degree of accuracy. Eventually, the moon's distance will substantially weaken the oceans' tides and total eclipses of the sun won't be possible for observers on Earth, since the moon will have moved too far away. But that could still take another billion years.



 What was the first sport played on the moon? That would be golf. In 1971, Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard swung a makeshift 6-iron on the moon's surface — and missed the ball. His second swing, however, connected, and the golf ball went flying "miles and miles and miles," as Shepard put it after his swing. In reality, the ball traveled only a few hundred yards — not bad for a 6-iron. That's not Shepard's fault; while the moon's gravity is only one-sixth Earth's, his space suit was so stiff that he could swing the club with only one hand.



Lunar Souvenirs



The astronauts of NASA's Apollo missions collected some 840 lb. of lunar rocks and debris during the 340 hours they spent tooling around on the moon. Since they were brought to Earth, however, the samples have ended up in some unusual places. During the Nixon Administration, nearly 270 moon rocks were presented as gifts to foreign nations. But when a fake turned up in the Netherlands' national museum in September, the Associated Press launched an independent investigation to track the whereabouts of the rest — only to find that many had disappeared. "NASA turned over the samples to the State Department to distribute," one NASA historian told the AP. "We don't have any records about when and to whom the rocks were given." Apollo astronauts were allowed to keep a few rocks as lunar souvenirs, under the condition that they would never be sold but instead passed down from generation to generation. Today, NASA's remaining samples are kept in Teflon bags and stored in nitrogen-filled steel cabinets at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Any researcher who wishes to handle them must wear three pairs of gloves to prevent contamination.




Slow and Steady Wins the (Space) Race

The first creature to orbit the moon was neither man nor monkey, but a pair of Soviet turtles. The tortoises — along with a passenger list of mealworms, wine flies, seeds and bacteria — were part of a biological payload launched by the Soviet Union in September 1968.
After the Zond 5 spacecraft returned to Earth, the animal comrades were retrieved from the Indian Ocean and found not to have a scratch on them; the shells probably helped. They had, however, lost 10% of their weight, although researchers didn't observe a permanent decrease in appetite.



Seas on the Moon?

 The massive lava plains on the lunar service, dubbed seas by Earth-bound observers, were created by the violent impacts of meteors. Interestingly, most of these lava seas are on the side facing Earth; the force of Earth's gravity pulls the moon's molten interior closer to the surface, making it more susceptible to seeping out during a meteor strike.



Easier Than Peace on Earth

The U.S. joined with the Soviet Union in 1967 to create the Outer Space Treaty, declaring the moon subject to a similar set of rules as those used to govern international waters on Earth. The treaty, which 97 other countries are now party to, makes the moon off-limits for military purposes, keeping countries from ever constructing bases or weaponry on the lunar surface.

Weather in Moon

Talk about extreme weather changes. The moon's surface temperature varies by nearly 500°F, from -240°F when it is dark to 220°F in the sun. And once those extreme temps set in, they stick around for a while — a spot on the moon spends about 13 days in frigid darkness, followed by 13 days in water-boiling sunlight. The lack of atmosphere, which on Earth helps trap heat so it doesn't all dissipate at night, accounts for the wild temperature swings. However, if you dig a meter below the moon's surface, the temperature evens out to a nearly constant -31°F.


The moon doesn't have a dark side, although there's always part of it in the dark — just as there's always a part of Earth that's experiencing night. There is a far side of the moon that we can't see from Earth: because of the way the moon orbits, it always keeps the same side facing us. But the far side is light just as often as it is dark.


Everlasting Footprints


No atmosphere on the moon means no wind or weather — and that, luckily, means no erosion of mankind's historic tracks and prints that still dot the lunar surface. To prove it, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) sent back photos in July of the still visible tracks from five of the six Apollo landing sites. While on the moon in 1971, Apollo 14 astronauts Edgar Mitchell and Alan Shepard left behind an Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package, or ALSEP, along with sampling equipment and a small cart. The LRO photos were able to clearly show the footpath the astronauts had worn between the two artifacts, and future images are expected to have two to three times the resolution. "The images are fantastic, and so is the focus," says LRO principal investigator Mark Robinson. "It's great to see the hardware on the surface, waiting for us to return."

Thursday, April 15, 2010

"Definition of Love" by Swami Vivekananda















I once had a friend who grew to be very close to me. Once when we were sitting at the edge of a swimming pool, she filled the palm of her hand with some water and held it before me, and said this: "You see this water carefully contained on my hand? It symbolizes Love."

This was how I saw it: As long as you keep your hand caringly open and allow it to remain there, it will always be there. However, if you attempt to close your fingers round it and try to possess it, it will spill through the first cracks it finds.This is the greatest mistake that people do when they meet love...they try to possess it, they demand, they expect... and just like the latter spilling out of your hand, love will retrace from you .

For love is meant to be free, you cannot change its nature. If there are people you love, allow them to be free beings.

1. Give and don't expect.

2. Advise, but don't order.

3. Ask, but never demand.

It might sound simple, but it is a lesson that may take a lifetime to truly practice. It is the secret to true love. To truly practice it, you must sincerely feel no expectations from those who you love, and yet an unconditional caring."

Passing thought... Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take; but by the moments that take our breath away....

Saturday, April 10, 2010

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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Tata Motors to introduce Air Car - Is it the next big thing?

 
Tata Motors is taking giant strides and making history for itself. First the Landrover-Jaguar deal, then the world's cheapest car and now it is also set to introduce the car that runs on air, compressed air.



With spiralling fuel prices it is about time we heard some breakthrough!
India's largest automaker Tata Motors is set to start producing the world's first commercial air-powered vehicle.
 
The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre for Luxembourg-based MDI, uses compressed air, as opposed to the gas-and-oxygen explosions of internal-combustion models, to push its engine's pistons. Some 6000 zero-emissions Air Cars are scheduled to hit Indian streets by August 2010.  
 
The Air Car, called the MiniCAT could cost around Rs. 3,50,000 ($ 8177) in India and would have a range of around 300 km between refuels.
The cost of a refill would be about Rs. 85 ($ 2).
The MiniCAT which is a simple, light urban car, with a tubular chassis that is glued not welded and a body of fiberglass powered by compressed air. Microcontrollers are used in every device in the car, so one tiny radio transmitter sends instructions to the lights, indicators etc.
There are no keys - just an access card which can be read by the car from your pocket. According to the designers, it costs less than 50 rupees per 100Km (about a tenth that of a petrol car). Its mileage is about double that of the most advanced electric car (200 to 300 km or 10 hours of driving), a factor which makes a perfect choice in cities where the 80% of motorists drive at less than 60Km. The car has a top speed of 105 kmph. Refilling the car will, once the market develops, take place at adapted petrol stations to administer compressed air. In two or three minutes, and at a cost of approximately 100 rupees, the car will be ready to go another 200-300 kilometers. 


As a viable alternative, the car carries a small compressor which can be connected to the mains (220V or 380V) and refill the tank in 3-4 hours. Due to the absence of combustion and, consequently, of residues, changing the oil (1 litre of vegetable oil) is necessary only every 50,000Km).
 
The temperature of the clean air expelled by the exhaust pipe is between 0-15 degrees below zero, which makes it suitable for use by the internal air conditioning system with no need for gases or loss of power.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

DO ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS?





To answer this question one can look within and, as Nietzsche famously suggested, ask “what does my conscience tell me?” Or such a one can look at the greatest thinkers and their body of work in respect to the philosophical problematic of “means and ends.” In my view, one towering figure stands alone in this regard. And that is Mahatma Gandhi. For Gandhi there were no boundary demarcations between ends and means. Where some dialectical materialists steadfastly cling to the thesis of ends justifying the means, thereby excusing violent methods via which they and their followers sometimes achieve their goals, Gandhi always stood in a moral space diametrically opposed to such a view, never accepting it.

It suffices to say that Gandhi—correctly, I shall argue –believed in a direct moral connection between means and ends. Given the commitment he had to truth and nonviolence and their interdependence, it follows that one ought not employ immoral acts to gain social justice, as these acts will transform one from a moral agent to an immoral agent. In one of his early writings in Young India journal he wrote, “The means may be likened to a seed, the end to a tree; and there is just the same inviolable connection between the means and the end as there is between the seed and the tree.”  

To follow Gandhi’s duty-ethics of truth and nonviolence is to pursue what Rousseau called “civilization.” No civilization can be achieved by violent means. Dropping the atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima may have led to an early surrender of Japanese imperial forces (one that many historians argue was inevitable without the bomb), but it destroyed hundreds of thousands of innocent lives and led to the nuclear proliferation, which is a major planetary concern. The means transformed the world in this case into a more violent place where smaller wars in tandem with potential nuclear annihilation are not farfetched realities. To be ethical human beings we must think in holographic ways and see the means as part of any end. In other words, ends do not justify the means. We must commit to the morally correct philosophy of truth and nonviolence if we seek planetary peace.
 References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consequentialism
2. http://www.tonykashani.com/?p=84

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Few Interesting things about Large Hadron Collider(LHC)

Any way you look at it, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the biggest scientific experiment of all time.

It's essentially an expensive ($10 billion) tunnel that runs for 17 circular miles deep underneath the Franco-Swiss border. Within this tunnel, 10,000 scientists and engineers from almost 100 countries have built a machine that will accelerate two beams of protons in opposite directions, then smash them into each other in the hopes that the results will give them a glimpse of the universe less than a billionth of one second after the Big Bang.

Since September 2008, the LHC -- and by extension, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) that runs it -- has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, ever since damage from a helium leak delayed the machine's planned launch. There was also that news of a scientist employed by an outside institute to work on the LHC being arrested on suspicion of having ties to al-Qaeda. Allegedly, the man had only progressed to the point of wanting to blow up something; he hadn't actually collected his supplies yet.

The LHC was fired up in November 2009 and on November 23rd, the first proton-proton collision was recorded. On March 30, 2010, the first planned collision occurred creating the highest energy reached by a particle accelerator.

Here are five things you didn't know about the Large Hadron Collider.

1- The Large Hadron Collider is kept colder than outer space

The first thing you didn’t know about the LHC is that it's the world’s largest fridge.

Accelerating charged particles like protons requires a powerful magnetic field, one that can only be produced by using magnets that are first cooled with liquid hydrogen and then supercooled with superfluid helium. Together, this cryogenic distribution system lowers the magnets to an astonishingly cold -456.34F (-271.3C), a temperature slightly colder than that of deep outer space (-454F/-270C). The niobium-titanium cables in the magnets are so cold that they lose all their electrical resistance and become superconducting magnets.

These superconducting magnets create a magnetic field with the force necessary to accelerate the proton beams to 99.9999991% of the speed of light -- the speed at which they collide.

2- The Large Hadron Collider may be trying to sabotage itself

Particle physicists can be divided into two groups: theoretical physicists and experimental physicists. One thinks while the other does, and each figures the other for a chump. Nobel laureate and experimental physicist Leon Lederman once wrote: “If I occasionally neglect to cite a theorist, it’s not because I’ve forgotten, it’s probably because I hate him.”

This disdain is easy to understand after reading the recent work of Holger Nielsen and Masao Ninomiya. As physicists work around the clock to fix the LHC, these two theoretical physicists have offered, as their primary contribution, the following reason for why the LHC is not working: From the moment of the Big Bang, God/nature has hated the fundamental particle researchers hope to create with the LHC -- the so-called Higgs Boson -- with a passion. In fact, it hates it so much that it has sent a Higgs particle into the future in order to kill the machine intent on discovering it.

3- The Large Hadron Collider could win Stephen Hawking his Nobel Prize

For years, celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking has suffered from a severe impediment, one that almost never strikes his peers: Hawking is a best-selling author.

His 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, introduced millions to the basics behind black holes, those astro-toilets with gravitational fields so mighty not even light can avoid the flush. Such unbridled commercial success arrested his credibility in the scientific community the way ALS has paralyzed his body; however, with some luck the LHC could change all that.

In 1974, Hawking published a paper in Nature called "Black Hole Explosions?" predicting that the death of a black hole would produce a burst of thermal radiation (now called Hawking radiation). Should the LHC, as some fear, create a mini black hole (the odds aren't very good) and it dies according to prediction, many agree that it would earn Hawking the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Curiously, Hawking radiation is so widely accepted that scientists at CERN actually used it in a 2003 safety report to dismiss the danger of mini black holes, writing "any microscopic black holes produced at the LHC are expected to decay by Hawking radiation before they reach the detector walls."

4- The Large Hadron Collider contained the hottest spot in the solar system

The superfluid helium within the LHC's superconducting magnets lowers the temperature inside the beam pipes to a chilly -456.34F (-271.3C), but there will be moments within those pipes when the weather changes -- drastically.

Prior to March 2010, officials expected two proton beams to collide 600 million times every second; each collision was expected to create temperatures estimated to be about 100,000 times hotter than the temperature at the core of our sun, which normally runs at around 15,000,000 Kelvin. That equates to a scorching 27 trillion F (1.5 trillion C), so it's fortunate that those moments won't last more than about one trillionth of one second.

5- The Large Hadron Collider relies on Einstein's famous equation

The last thing you didn't know about the LHC is that it won't violate the laws of nature.

Albert Einstein's famous 1905 mass-energy equivalence, E=mc2, revolutionized the way we see the world. Its applications are everywhere including nuclear weapons, in which a mass, such as a lump of Plutonium, is converted into energy. The LHC relies on the same equation, though inverted to m=E/c2 .

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Friday, February 26, 2010

Homi Bhabha's Letter to his father when he was at Cambridge(1928)



"Physics is my line. I know I shall do great things here. For, each man can de best and excel in only that thing of which he is passionately fond, in which he believes, as I do, that he has the ability to do it, that he is in fact born and destined to do it.. I am burning with a desire to do physics. I will and must do it sometime. It is my only ambition. I have no desire to be a 'successful' man or the head of a big firm. There are intelligent people who like that and let them do it.... It is no use saying to Beethoven 'You must be a scientist for it is great thing' When he did not care two hoots for science; or to Socrates 'Be an engineer; it is work of intelligent man.' It is not in the nature of things. I therefore earnestly implore you to let me do physics."

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Mahatma Gandhi, the Missing Laureate

by Øyvind Tønnesson
Nobelprize.org Peace Editor, 1998-2000
1 December 1999
intro
Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) has become the strongest symbol of non-violence in the 20th century. It is widely held – in retrospect – that the Indian national leader should have been the very man to be selected for the Nobel Peace Prize. He was nominated several times, but was never awarded the prize. Why?
These questions have been asked frequently: Was the horizon of the Norwegian Nobel Committee too narrow? Were the committee members unable to appreciate the struggle for freedom among non-European peoples?" Or were the Norwegian committee members perhaps afraid to make a prize award which might be detrimental to the relationship between their own country and Great Britain?
Gandhi on stamp
When still alive, Mohandas Gandhi had many admirers, both in India and abroad. But his martyrdom in 1948 made him an even greater symbol of peace. Twenty-one years later, he was commemorated on this double-sized United Kingdom postage stamp.
Photo: Copyright © Scanpix   
Gandhi was nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and, finally, a few days before he was murdered in January 1948. The omission has been publicly regretted by later members of the Nobel Committee; when the Dalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi". However, the committee has never commented on the speculations as to why Gandhi was not awarded the prize, and until recently the sources which might shed some light on the matter were unavailable.

Mahatma Gandhi – Who Was He?

Mohandas Karamchand – known as Mahatma or "Great-Souled" – Gandhi was born in Porbandar, the capital of a small principality in what is today the state of Gujarat in Western India, where his father was prime minister. His mother was a profoundly religious Hindu. She and the rest of the Gandhi family belonged to a branch of Hinduism in which non-violence and tolerance between religious groups were considered very important. His family background has later been seen as a very important explanation of why Mohandas Gandhi was able to achieve the position he held in Indian society. In the second half of the 1880s, Mohandas went to London where he studied law. After having finished his studies, he first went back to India to work as a barrister, and then, in 1893, to Natal in South Africa, where he was employed by an Indian trading company.
In South Africa Gandhi worked to improve living conditions for the Indian minority. This work, which was especially directed against increasingly racist legislation, made him develop a strong Indian and religious commitment, and a will to self-sacrifice. With a great deal of success he introduced a method of non-violence in the Indian struggle for basic human rights. The method, satyagraha – "truth force" – was highly idealistic; without rejecting the rule of law as a principle, the Indians should break those laws which were unreasonable or suppressive. Each individual would have to accept punishment for having violated the law. However, he should, calmly, yet with determination, reject the legitimacy of the law in question. This would, hopefully, make the adversaries – first the South African authorities, later the British in India – recognise the unlawfulness of their legislation.
When Gandhi came back to India in 1915, news of his achievements in South Africa had already spread to his home country. In only a few years, during the First World War, he became a leading figure in the Indian National Congress. Through the interwar period he initiated a series of non-violent campaigns against the British authorities. At the same time he made strong efforts to unite the Indian Hindus, Muslims and Christians, and struggled for the emancipation of the 'untouchables' in Hindu society. While many of his fellow Indian nationalists preferred the use of non-violent methods against the British primarily for tactical reasons, Gandhi's non-violence was a matter of principle. His firmness on that point made people respect him regardless of their attitude towards Indian nationalism or religion. Even the British judges who sentenced him to imprisonment recognised Gandhi as an exceptional personality.


The First Nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize

Among those who strongly admired Gandhi were the members of a network of pro-Gandhi "Friends of India" associations which had been established in Europe and the USA in the early 1930s. The Friends of India represented different lines of thought. The religious among them admired Gandhi for his piety. Others, anti-militarists and political radicals, were sympathetic to his philosophy of non-violence and supported him as an opponent of imperialism.
In 1937 a member of the Norwegian Storting (Parliament), Ole Colbjørnsen (Labour Party), nominated Gandhi for that year's Nobel Peace Prize, and he was duly selected as one of thirteen candidates on the Norwegian Nobel Committee's short list. Colbjørnsen did not himself write the motivation for Gandhi’s nomination; it was written by leading women of the Norwegian branch of "Friends of India", and its wording was of course as positive as could be expected.
Gandhi
An ordinary politician or a Christ? In this photo Gandhi listens to Muslims during the height of the warfare which followed the partition of India in 1947.
Photo: Copyright © Scanpix
The committee's adviser, professor Jacob Worm-Müller, who wrote a report on Gandhi, was much more critical. On the one hand, he fully understood the general admiration for Gandhi as a person: "He is, undoubtedly, a good, noble and ascetic person – a prominent man who is deservedly honoured and loved by the masses of India." On the other hand, when considering Gandhi as a political leader, the Norwegian professor's description was less favourable. There are, he wrote, "sharp turns in his policies, which can hardly be satisfactorily explained by his followers. (...) He is a freedom fighter and a dictator, an idealist and a nationalist. He is frequently a Christ, but then, suddenly, an ordinary politician."
Gandhi had many critics in the international peace movement. The Nobel Committee adviser referred to these critics in maintaining that he was not consistently pacifist, that he should have known that some of his non-violent campaigns towards the British would degenerate into violence and terror. This was something that had happened during the first Non-Cooperation Campaign in 1920-1921, e.g. when a crowd in Chauri Chaura, the United Provinces, attacked a police station, killed many of the policemen and then set fire to the police station.
A frequent criticism from non-Indians was also that Gandhi was too much of an Indian nationalist. In his report, Professor Worm-Müller expressed his own doubts as to whether Gandhi's ideals were meant to be universal or primarily Indian: "One might say that it is significant that his well-known struggle in South Africa was on behalf of the Indians only, and not of the blacks whose living conditions were even worse."
The name of the 1937 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate was to be Lord Cecil of Chelwood. We do not know whether the Norwegian Nobel Committee seriously considered awarding the Peace Prize to Gandhi that year, but it seems rather unlikely. Ole Colbjørnsen renominated him both in 1938 and in 1939, but ten years were to pass before Gandhi made the committee's short list again.

1947: Victory and Defeat

In 1947 the nominations of Gandhi came by telegram from India, via the Norwegian Foreign Office. The nominators were B.G. Kher, Prime Minister of Bombay, Govindh Bhallabh Panth, Premier of United Provinces, and Mavalankar, the President of the Indian Legislative Assembly. Their arguments in support of his candidacy were written in telegram style, like the one from Govind Bhallabh Panth: "Recommend for this year Nobel Prize Mahatma Gandhi architect of the Indian nation the greatest living exponent of the moral order and the most effective champion of world peace today." There were to be six names on the Nobel Committee's short list, Mohandas Gandhi was one of them.
The Nobel Committee's adviser, the historian Jens Arup Seip, wrote a new report which is primarily an account of Gandhi's role in Indian political history after 1937. "The following ten years," Seip wrote, "from 1937 up to 1947, led to the event which for Gandhi and his movement was at the same time the greatest victory and the worst defeat – India's independence and India's partition." The report describes how Gandhi acted in the three different, but mutually related conflicts which the Indian National Congress had to handle in the last decade before independence: the struggle between the Indians and the British; the question of India's participation in the Second World War; and, finally, the conflict between Hindu and Muslim communities. In all these matters, Gandhi had consistently followed his own principles of non-violence.
The Seip report was not critical towards Gandhi in the same way as the report written by Worm-Müller ten years earlier. It was rather favourable, yet not explicitly supportive. Seip also wrote briefly on the ongoing separation of India and the new Muslim state, Pakistan, and concluded – rather prematurely it would seem today: "It is generally considered, as expressed for example in The Times of 15 August 1947, that if 'the gigantic surgical operation' constituted by the partition of India, has not led to bloodshed of much larger dimensions, Gandhi's teachings, the efforts of his followers and his own presence, should get a substantial part of the credit."
crowd
The partition of India in 1947 led to a process which we today probably would describe as "ethnic cleansing". Hundreds of thousands of people were massacred and millions had to move; Muslims from India to Pakistan, Hindus in the opposite direction. Photo shows part of the crowds of refugees which poured into the city of New Delhi.
Photo: Copyright © Scanpix
Having read the report, the members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee must have felt rather updated on the last phase of the Indian struggle for independence. However, the Nobel Peace Prize had never been awarded for that sort of struggle. The committee members also had to consider the following issues: Should Gandhi be selected for being a symbol of non-violence, and what political effects could be expected if the Peace Prize was awarded to the most prominent Indian leader – relations between India and Pakistan were far from developing peacefully during the autumn of 1947?
From the diary of committee chairman Gunnar Jahn, we now know that when the members were to make their decision on October 30, 1947, two acting committee members, the Christian conservative Herman Smitt Ingebretsen and the Christian liberal Christian Oftedal spoke in favour of Gandhi. One year earlier, they had strongly favoured John Mott, the YMCA leader. It seems that they generally preferred candidates who could serve as moral and religious symbols in a world threatened by social and ideological conflicts. However, in 1947 they were not able to convince the three other members. The Labour politician Martin Tranmæl was very reluctant to award the Prize to Gandhi in the midst of the Indian-Pakistani conflict, and former Foreign Minister Birger Braadland agreed with Tranmæl. Gandhi was, they thought, too strongly committed to one of the belligerents. In addition both Tranmæl and Jahn had learnt that, one month earlier, at a prayer-meeting, Gandhi had made a statement which indicated that he had given up his consistent rejection of war. Based on a telegram from Reuters, The Times, on September 27, 1947, under the headline "Mr. Gandhi on 'war' with Pakistan" reported:

"Mr. Gandhi told his prayer meeting to-night that, though he had always opposed all warfare, if there was no other way of securing justice from Pakistan and if Pakistan persistently refused to see its proved error and continued to minimise it, the Indian Union Government would have to go to war against it. No one wanted war, but he could never advise anyone to put up with injustice. If all Hindus were annihilated for a just cause he would not mind. If there was war, the Hindus in Pakistan could not be fifth columnists. If their loyalty lay not with Pakistan they should leave it. Similarly Muslims whose loyalty was with Pakistan should not stay in the Indian Union."
Nehru
Gandhi saw "no place for him in a new order where they wanted an army, a navy, an air force and what not". In the picture, Gandhi's spiritual heir, Prime Minister Pandit Nehru, Defense Minister Sardar Baldev Singh, and the Commanders-in-Chief of the three Services, are inspecting a Guard of Honour at the Red Fort, Delhi, in August, 1948. Fifty years later, both India and Pakistan had developed and tested their own nuclear weapons.
Photo: Copyright © Scanpix
Gandhi had immediately stated that the report was correct, but incomplete. At the meeting he had added that he himself had not changed his mind and that "he had no place in a new order where they wanted an army, a navy, an air force and what not".
Both Jahn and Tranmæl knew that the first report had not been complete, but they had become very doubtful. Jahn in his diary quoted himself as saying: "While it is true that he (Gandhi) is the greatest personality among the nominees – plenty of good things could be said about him – we should remember that he is not only an apostle for peace; he is first and foremost a patriot. (...) Moreover, we have to bear in mind that Gandhi is not naive. He is an excellent jurist and a lawyer." It seems that the Committee Chairman suspected Gandhi's statement one month earlier to be a deliberate step to deter Pakistani aggression. Three of five members thus being against awarding the 1947 Prize to Gandhi, the Committee unanimously decided to award it to the Quakers.

1948: A Posthumous Award Considered

Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948, two days before the closing date for that year's Nobel Peace Prize nominations. The Committee received six letters of nomination naming Gandhi; among the nominators were the Quakers and Emily Greene Balch, former Laureates. For the third time Gandhi came on the Committee's short list – this time the list only included three names – and Committee adviser Seip wrote a report on Gandhi's activities during the last five months of his life. He concluded that Gandhi, through his course of life, had put his profound mark on an ethical and political attitude which would prevail as a norm for a large number of people both inside and outside India: "In this respect Gandhi can only be compared to the founders of religions."
Nobody had ever been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously. But according to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation in force at that time, the Nobel Prizes could, under certain circumstances, be awarded posthumously. Thus it was possible to give Gandhi the prize. However, Gandhi did not belong to an organisation, he left no property behind and no will; who should receive the Prize money? The Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, August Schou, asked another of the Committee's advisers, lawyer Ole Torleif Røed, to consider the practical consequences if the Committee were to award the Prize posthumously. Røed suggested a number of possible solutions for general application. Subsequently, he asked the Swedish prize-awarding institutions for their opinion. The answers were negative; posthumous awards, they thought, should not take place unless the laureate died after the Committee's decision had been made.
On November 18, 1948, the Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to make no award that year on the grounds that "there was no suitable living candidate". Chairman Gunnar Jahn wrote in his diary: "To me it seems beyond doubt that a posthumous award would be contrary to the intentions of the testator." According to the chairman, three of his colleagues agreed in the end, only Mr. Oftedal was in favour of a posthumous award to Gandhi.
Later, there have been speculations that the committee members could have had another deceased peace worker than Gandhi in mind when they declared that there was "no suitable living candidate", namely the Swedish UN envoy to Palestine, Count Bernadotte, who was murdered in September 1948. Today, this can be ruled out; Bernadotte had not been nominated in 1948. Thus it seems reasonable to assume that Gandhi would have been invited to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize had he been alive one more year.

Why Was Gandhi Never Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?

Up to 1960, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded almost exclusively to Europeans and Americans. In retrospect, the horizon of the Norwegian Nobel Committee may seem too narrow. Gandhi was very different from earlier Laureates. He was no real politician or proponent of international law, not primarily a humanitarian relief worker and not an organiser of international peace congresses. He would have belonged to a new breed of Laureates.

There is no hint in the archives that the Norwegian Nobel Committee ever took into consideration the possibility of an adverse British reaction to an award to Gandhi. Thus it seems that the hypothesis that the Committee's omission of Gandhi was due to its members' not wanting to provoke British authorities, may be rejected.

In 1947 the conflict between India and Pakistan and Gandhi's prayer-meeting statement, which made people wonder whether he was about to abandon his consistent pacifism, seem to have been the primary reasons why he was not selected by the committee's majority. Unlike the situation today, there was no tradition for the Norwegian Nobel Committee to try to use the Peace Prize as a stimulus for peaceful settlement of regional conflicts.

During the last months of his life, Gandhi worked hard to end the violence between Hindus and Muslims which followed the partition of India. We know little about the Norwegian Nobel Committee's discussions on Gandhi's candidature in 1948 – other than the above quoted entry of November 18 in Gunnar Jahn's diary – but it seems clear that they seriously considered a posthumous award. When the committee, for formal reasons, ended up not making such an award, they decided to reserve the prize, and then, one year later, not to spend the prize money for 1948 at all. What many thought should have been Mahatma Gandhi's place on the list of Laureates was silently but respectfully left open.

Flightless females combat dengue


mosquito Aedes aegypti
Using genetics to render female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes flightless could halt dengue fever in its tracks.
The finding is reported in a paper in this week's PNAS on work led by Luke Alphey of Oxford University's Department of Zoology and Oxford spin-out firm Oxitec.
We've previously reported on how the Oxford team investigated inserting a 'dominant lethal' gene into mosquitoes that, when passed on by males, would see the larvae die before they could develop and spread the disease.
As reported in BBC News Online and elsewhere the team's new approach targets females - whose bite is what actually passes on the infection that affects millions of people a year. Their work suggests that male mozzies can be genetically altered to carry a gene that limits wing growth in their female offspring - rendering their daughters flightless.
Not only does it stop these females from infecting humans but, as the researchers write in the paper: 'Flightless females also are effectively sterile, being unable to attract and mate males as courtship and mating depend on the wing oscillations 'song''.
Luke told BBC Online: 'The technology is completely species-specific, as the released males will mate only with females of the same species.'
'Another attractive feature of this method is that it's egalitarian - all people in the treated areas are equally protected, regardless of their wealth, power or education.'
The researchers believe their approach could be extended to other species of mosquito that spread human disease.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Chaitén Volcano Erupts after 6500 years - Scientific Event


Scientists Pierce Veil of Clouds to 'See' Lightning Inside a Volcanic Plume

  Scientists Pierce Veil of Clouds to 'See' Lightning Inside a Volcanic Plume
Researchers hit the jackpot in late March, when, for the first time, they began recording data on lightning in a volcanic eruption--right from the start of the eruption.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/the_year_2008_in_photographs_p.html 
Using a multi-station, ground-based Lightning Mapping Array, the scientists advanced our understanding of electrical activity during a volcanic eruption.
Portable Lightning Mapping Arrays are now set up in several areas of the country, and are becoming increasingly used by meteorologists to issue weather warnings.
The arrays have been deployed at volcanoes only twice before.
Thousands of individual segments of a single lightning stroke can be mapped with the Lightning Mapping Array, and later analyzed to reveal how lightning initiates and spreads through a thunderstorm, or in a volcanic plume.
When Alaska's Redoubt started rumbling in January, a team of researchers hurried to set up a series of the arrays.
When the volcano erupted on March 22 and 23, 2009, the arrays returned dramatic information about the electricity created within volcanic plumes, and the resulting lightning.
"For the first time, we had the Lightning Mapping Array on site before the initial eruption," said scientist Sonja Behnke of New Mexico Tech.
"The data will allow us to better understand the structure inside a volcanic plume," said scientist Ron Thomas of New Mexico Tech. "That should help us learn how the plume is becoming electrified, and how it evolves over time."
Bradley Smull, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Atmospheric Sciences, which funded the research, said the information will give scientists insights into the electrical mechanisms in both plumes above active volcanoes, and in lightning spawned in thunderstorms.
NSF awarded New Mexico Tech a grant to study volcanic lightning in 2007, with the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and the as collaborators.

"With data from the Lightning Mapping Array, new details of volcanic plume lightning will emerge," Smull said. "The opportunity for stand-alone analysis, and comparisons with last year's similar observations of Chaiten Volcano in Chile, will tell us much more about this phenomenon."