Jokes apart, there is considerable research that has gone into Wootz steel produced in India, and its special properties (reported in the Nature story). My colleague, Prof. Ranganathan (in collaboration with archeometallurgy researcher Dr. Sharada Srinivasan) has written a short article as well as a book (a pre-publication version is available for free: text and figures).
Coming back to the story about the German researcher's suggestion (speculation?) that carbon nanotubes might have been present in Damascus steels, count me among the skeptics. The presence of nano-scale microstructures is a puzzle that was solved quite sometime ago: they are created when hot and cold steel is bashed repeatedly for producing swords. The nanoscale structure is also the reason for its ultra high strength. The presence of nanowires of carbon rich cementite is thus not a 'new' finding.
Finally, to my knowledge, carbon nanotubes have been made only under extremely special circumstances (which also explains why their mass production -- for use, for example, in steels for ship-building -- is still a dream). It's extremely unlikely that the 'ordinary' atmosphere under which Wootz was made would have yielded nanotubes.
Bottomline: Do we need carbon nanotubes to really explain why Damascus swords made with Wootz steel are so special? Use Occam's razor (or, for that matter, the Damascus swords themselves).
Thanks! I am surprised that this was not noticed by the other commenters who seem to have taken it too seriously.
I don't know if this piece appeared in some designated location in the newspaper meant for humor. I remember the same newspaper (Guardian) published a piece about a year ago advocating 'taking out' the President of a country, and it caused a lot of hue and cry, which lasted until someone pointed out that the article appeared in a page meant for humor/sarcasm.
This article on meetings did have a cue at the top ('Improbable Research'), and yet, it looks like it wasn't all that effective.
Re: Compare this with the classic quotes like "640K ought to be enough for anybody".
Well, that was then, and this is now:
Anything that doesn't have zillions of gigs is now dissed away as a 'mere gadget' (see Craig Barrett on the 100 dollar laptop). Clearly, there has been a 180 degree phase shift since the original '640K' gaffe...
The last I heard, the toys are also programmed to grow up from being just needy to becoming utterly demanding. Will they form a union? Will they go on strike?
Re: I suppose the main article here is really about achieving superfluidity at higher temperatures...
I am sorry, but you supposed wrong. The main article states clearly that the temperature of these experiments is "about 30-billionths of a degree above absolute zero. That's far colder than any temperature in nature..."
You are right about the other things, though -- including the fact that helium-3 being fermions. He-3 becomes superfluid at 2.6 milli-Kelvin (source: Wikipedia). The truly special thing in the new experiments is that superfluidity has been achieved in a system in which the number of upspins is different from that of the downspins.
I don't know who came up with this idea first, but I read it in Covey's 'First things first'. He suggests classifying tasks into four quadrants formed by (urgent, not urgent) and (important, not important), and asks you to get yourself more and more into the (important, not urgent) quadrant. If this requires you to say 'no' to a whole bunch of other things, why, it's all the better! To me, what Paul Graham says is quite similar "say no to other junk, make time for important stuff -- stuff that will give you the thrill of fulfillment not immediately, not tomorrow, but many days (weeks, months) later."
Now, if only I can figure out my life's mission...
Re: Google wouldn't put the same pics of US installations would it?
Exactly! This is the argument that has to be made. Frome this recent report (originally from IHT):
But a number of security restrictions apply to those companies. For instance, United States law requires that images of Israel shot by American-licensed commercial satellites be made available only at a relatively low resolution. Also, the companies' operating licenses allow the United States government to put any area off limits in the interests of national security. A 24-hour delay is mandated for images of especially high resolution.
Also, the original report (that started this discussion) quotes the minister as saying, "GoogleEarth has expressed its readiness to have discussions with the Government regarding the issue."
I agree, however, that this can only be a short term measure. I mean, how much of extra time and money does it require for someone to get the exact location of these installations? Couldn't someone just walk by them with a GPS enabled gadget and get this information easily?
Helium in superfluidic state has been known for a long time, and studied quite extensively. So, superfluidity is not the issue here.
This achievement, it seems to me, is about getting superfluidity in a bunch of fermions (such as electrons, or, in this case, 'fermionic' lithium-6), and that too in a system in which the up-spins are not the same as the 'down-spins'.
Re: Well, 65% of the British public want to know what's going on back home.
Oops, I guesss I didn't make myself clear enough on this. My surprise is not about the BBC's actions. It is really about its highlighting of computers and the internet, instead of the mobile phone revolution. IMHO, the latter is the real story.
I am surprised BBC has chosen to highlight the computer and internet technology in India. To me, the real story is the mobile phones (which just gets an honourable mention). It has been the big story for the last several years; and I am sure it will be so for the next several too.
The early nineties saw the rise of manned pay phone booths. It was seen as a big deal, simply because it made telephones accessible to everyone (amd also gave employment opportunities to a lot of people). For the first time, those in government realized (from this live 'experiment') that poor people may not be able to afford a phone, but they certainly can afford phone calls. Still, it was mostly an urban or semi-urban phenomenon.
Then the mobile revolution started. It invaded regions that had never seen a phone. With greater competition, the price of phone calls kept falling, and at about 3 cents a minute for local calls (we are being told that our rates are the cheapest in the world. is it true?), they are affordable to large sections of people: fisherfolks, maid servantss, sales people, smalltime shopowners, taxi drivers, et al. So much so that cellphone subscribers now outnumber those with landline connections.
The revolution is getting deepened with the falling price of the handset. Just today, Motorola unveiled its cheap mobiles for Rs. 1,700 (just below $40).
Even though we have seen scorching growth rates in the telecom industry of over 50% in the recent past, this revolution is quite young; only 10-15 percent of the population is connected even now. Investors are clued into this huge potential; the stock prices of telecom companies are zooming up, up and away.
Given this scenario, I would still say the mobile revolution is far, far bigger than the 'rural internet cafe' that the Beeb seems to want to highlight.
Slashdot Mirror
Jokes apart, there is considerable research that has gone into Wootz steel produced in India, and its special properties (reported in the Nature story). My colleague, Prof. Ranganathan (in collaboration with archeometallurgy researcher Dr. Sharada Srinivasan) has written a short article as well as a book (a pre-publication version is available for free: text and figures).
Coming back to the story about the German researcher's suggestion (speculation?) that carbon nanotubes might have been present in Damascus steels, count me among the skeptics. The presence of nano-scale microstructures is a puzzle that was solved quite sometime ago: they are created when hot and cold steel is bashed repeatedly for producing swords. The nanoscale structure is also the reason for its ultra high strength. The presence of nanowires of carbon rich cementite is thus not a 'new' finding.
Finally, to my knowledge, carbon nanotubes have been made only under extremely special circumstances (which also explains why their mass production -- for use, for example, in steels for ship-building -- is still a dream). It's extremely unlikely that the 'ordinary' atmosphere under which Wootz was made would have yielded nanotubes.
Bottomline: Do we need carbon nanotubes to really explain why Damascus swords made with Wootz steel are so special? Use Occam's razor (or, for that matter, the Damascus swords themselves).
Thanks! I am surprised that this was not noticed by the other commenters who seem to have taken it too seriously. I don't know if this piece appeared in some designated location in the newspaper meant for humor. I remember the same newspaper (Guardian) published a piece about a year ago advocating 'taking out' the President of a country, and it caused a lot of hue and cry, which lasted until someone pointed out that the article appeared in a page meant for humor/sarcasm. This article on meetings did have a cue at the top ('Improbable Research'), and yet, it looks like it wasn't all that effective.
Re: Compare this with the classic quotes like "640K ought to be enough for anybody".
Well, that was then, and this is now:
Anything that doesn't have zillions of gigs is now dissed away as a 'mere gadget' (see Craig Barrett on the 100 dollar laptop). Clearly, there has been a 180 degree phase shift since the original '640K' gaffe ...
The last I heard, the toys are also programmed to grow up from being just needy to becoming utterly demanding. Will they form a union? Will they go on strike?
...
Watch this space
Re: I suppose the main article here is really about achieving superfluidity at higher temperatures ...
I am sorry, but you supposed wrong. The main article states clearly that the temperature of these experiments is "about 30-billionths of a degree above absolute zero. That's far colder than any temperature in nature..."
You are right about the other things, though -- including the fact that helium-3 being fermions. He-3 becomes superfluid at 2.6 milli-Kelvin (source: Wikipedia). The truly special thing in the new experiments is that superfluidity has been achieved in a system in which the number of upspins is different from that of the downspins.
I don't know who came up with this idea first, but I read it in Covey's
...
'First things first'. He suggests classifying tasks into four quadrants formed by (urgent, not urgent) and (important, not important), and asks you to get yourself more and more into the (important, not urgent) quadrant. If this requires you to say 'no' to a whole bunch of other things, why, it's all the better! To me, what Paul Graham says is quite similar "say no to other junk, make time for important stuff -- stuff that will give you the thrill of fulfillment not immediately, not tomorrow, but many days (weeks, months) later."
Now, if only I can figure out my life's mission
Oops! I just realized the error in my comment: the up-spins are not the same as the 'down-spins'.
That, of course, is self-evident. It should read "the number of upspins is different from that of downspins.
Re: Google wouldn't put the same pics of US installations would it?
Exactly! This is the argument that has to be made. Frome this recent report (originally from IHT):
Also, the original report (that started this discussion) quotes the minister as saying, "GoogleEarth has expressed its readiness to have discussions with the Government regarding the issue."
I agree, however, that this can only be a short term measure. I mean, how much of extra time and money does it require for someone to get the exact location of these installations? Couldn't someone just walk by them with a GPS enabled gadget and get this information easily?
Helium in superfluidic state has been known for a long time, and studied quite extensively. So, superfluidity is not the issue here.
This achievement, it seems to me, is about getting superfluidity in a bunch of fermions (such as electrons, or, in this case, 'fermionic' lithium-6), and that too in a system in which the up-spins are not the same as the 'down-spins'.
Re: Well, 65% of the British public want to know what's going on back home.
Oops, I guesss I didn't make myself clear enough on this. My surprise is not about the BBC's actions. It is really about its highlighting of computers and the internet, instead of the mobile phone revolution. IMHO, the latter is the real story.
I am surprised BBC has chosen to highlight the computer and internet technology in India. To me, the real story is the mobile phones (which just gets an honourable mention). It has been the big story for the last several years; and I am sure it will be so for the next several too.
The early nineties saw the rise of manned pay phone booths. It was seen as a big deal, simply because it made telephones accessible to everyone (amd also gave employment opportunities to a lot of people). For the first time, those in government realized (from this live 'experiment') that poor people may not be able to afford a phone, but they certainly can afford phone calls. Still, it was mostly an urban or semi-urban phenomenon.
Then the mobile revolution started. It invaded regions that had never seen a phone. With greater competition, the price of phone calls kept falling, and at about 3 cents a minute for local calls (we are being told that our rates are the cheapest in the world. is it true?), they are affordable to large sections of people: fisherfolks, maid servantss, sales people, smalltime shopowners, taxi drivers, et al. So much so that cellphone subscribers now outnumber those with landline connections.
The revolution is getting deepened with the falling price of the handset. Just today, Motorola unveiled its cheap mobiles for Rs. 1,700 (just below $40).
Even though we have seen scorching growth rates in the telecom industry of over 50% in the recent past, this revolution is quite young; only 10-15 percent of the population is connected even now. Investors are clued into this huge potential; the stock prices of telecom companies are zooming up, up and away.
Given this scenario, I would still say the mobile revolution is far, far bigger than the 'rural internet cafe' that the Beeb seems to want to highlight.