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A 100-Year-Old Prediction Brought Into Existence: Gravitational Waves

Nirmalya Ganguly, B.Tech Student, Institute of Engineering & Management (IEM)

Extremely tired of hectic schedules of tuitions and school in parallel, Amit decided to have a power nap of thirty minutes as soon as he reached home. When he finally entered his room, he jumped on his sofa-bed for that desired power nap. He was quite amazed to notice the fact that as soon as he jumped onto the sofa-bed, a huge depression appeared on the sofa-bed. Forget about jumping, even sitting on the sofa-bed created a considerable amount of depression. Out of his curiosity, Amit wondered that the heavenly bodies out there in space also should be sitting on something, and therefore to suffice his curiosity he began surfing the net for as much information as he can extract about this matter. Within about five to ten minutes he got to know that space is considered as space and time as a whole and is collectively called “space-time”. Further, he got his answer to his query that space-time acts just like his sofa-bed on which everyone is sitting in space! The discovery of the curvature of space-time is a phenomenal breakthrough in the history of mankind. A piece of cloth can have ripples on it when a suitable disturbance is given to it. From electrodynamics, we know that static charges produce an electric field, moving charges (with uniform velocity) produce a magnetic field, and accelerated charges give rise to electromagnetic waves. If charges can produce waves when accelerated, why not mass?

A renowned mathematician predicted that accelerated masses can produce ripples in space-time which are now popularly known as gravitational waves. That mathematician was none other than Albert Einstein, who gave the theory of general relativity in 1916. After a century of this prediction, the detection of gravitational waves was finally made in the year 2015 with the help of a laser interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detector.

The above picture is of those mighty brains who were behind this entire field-work and were deservingly awarded the Physics Nobel Prize in the year 2017. Gravitational waves are generated through catastrophic astronomical events such as the collision of neutron stars, a supernovae explosion, and also the collision of two black holes. In fact, the LIGO detector can pick up the gravitational waves that traveled 1.3 billion light-years from the region where two black holes collided with each other! This detector is really sensitive enough since the amplitude of those gravitational waves was of the order of 10^-45. The best part is that we are far away from the epicenter of those cataclysmic occurrences otherwise! Well, being curious about the advancements in science like Amit is a requisite for today’s students who are into a drill for all the competitive exams around and need the best guidance from masters who will help them dive deeper into the subject matter for enhanced knowledge.

Hacking the natural evolution: Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018

Dr. Obaidur Rahaman, PhD, Scientist- Covestro, Germany, Alumni-IIT Bombay                                                                                                                                                    

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018 was given in two parts. The first half was given to Frances H. Arnold and the second half was shared by George P. Smith and Sir Gregory P. Winter. All these three scientists used controlled evolution to make chemicals that tremendously benefited humankind.

Enzymes are biological molecules that act as catalysts in biochemical reactions. That means they speed up reactions between other molecules but remain as it is at the end. For example, when you go to the shopping mall, a woman working there can help you to quickly find something that you are looking for and buy it. Without her help, you might take a long time. So the woman acts as a catalyst.

Now, not all these enzymes are very efficient. For example, there could be the fat and lazy boy who might take forever to walk you to the right aisle or a new girl who does not know where it is.

There is a biological process called natural evolution. Small and simple organisms have been continuously evolving to be bigger and more complex organisms. This happens at a molecular level by genetic mutation or change. You can think of a guy working at the mall for many years and getting very good at his job.

Now, these three scientists used interesting engineering methods. They exploited evolution to make more efficient enzymes. They used random mutations to make different variations of the enzymes and selected the ones that performed better. This is a much faster method than natural evolution.

For example, a new guy might take many months to learn about the products that he is in charge of. But if you can test the performances of 10 new candidates and select the best one maybe you can find somebody who worked in another mall before and already knows about some products. The ability to select saves you time and effort.

Then these scientists repeated the process. They took the best performing enzyme, made more variations of it, and tested their performances. After a few rounds like this, they finally got impressively efficient enzymes that increased productivity tremendously.

The enzymes engineered by them were very useful in manufacturing many chemicals like renewable biofuels and medicine that were used to cure many diseases like cancer.

BONE GRAFTING: Boons of Bio-Medical Research

Sudeep Kumar Chakraborty, B. Tech, JIS College of Engineering

Although I completed my B. Tech in Electronics, the field of Bio-Medical-Engineering has always caught my attention. For instance, Bone grafting is one of the most interestingly and commonly used surgical methods to augment bone regeneration!

The potential of living bone grafts to improve the body’s ability to re-grow its own bone is constantly under Bio-Medical research investigation. Scientists are finding more ways to improve the synthetic bone grafts to not only resisting the rigors & strains of life but also quickly help the bone re-grow and repair.

A synthetic bone substitute, however, demands certain necessities to allow blood supply and encourage new bone growth. Of Note, the new generation of synthetic grafts has the potential to be reabsorbed by the body, allowing gradual bone regeneration in the defect site. Care needs to be taken while choosing the biomaterials because on one hand if they degrade too quickly, new bone won’t get enough time to grow, and on the other, if the grafts degrade too slowly can cause mechanical instability to the implantation site. Henceforth, better engineer sophisticated replacement materials is a great deal behind the success of a synthetic graft.

Bio-Medical research is doing a great job as they are examining the strains between bone and graft from various animal models in 3D. It’s the right time that more students of our country pursue a Ph.D. in the Bio-Medical-Engineering field and help mankind!

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