T he Quantum Times

07.09.2011

Volume2, Issue1

"No that's impossible !"

Inside this issue: Wireless Electricity B Schools B 2 3
Sounds familiar? We live now, in a society that abhors questions. Perhaps it was always so and the advancement in science and philosophy that we now cherish and pride ourselves in was the work of social outcasts-but it doesn't matter. What is relevant however, is that questions were asked and answers were sought after with considerable enthusiasm. We live in a strange universe. Some people call it God, some identify with Gaia or karma. Different names notwithstanding, it seems only logical that there is at least some thing (for want of a better term) that permeates our existence and lends a certain mystic touch to creation. Isn't it a bitter loss therefore, if we fail to appreciate the inexplicable beauty with our intellect. 'Who are we?', 'why are we here?'. These are just some of

-Himaghna
the questions that are fundamental to our understanding of nature. So stop, wonder and question. No question is too irrelevant, unimportant or shallow for every question that we ask Nature contribute to out understanding of its Master plan. The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. -Albert Einstein

ACC-For the Stu- 4 dents, Of the Students Martian Odyssey 5 Brainwash 6

byCompiled byAmitvikram Dutta ContributorsContributorsShreya Inamdar, Shreya Jain, Arnav Jain, Ankita Sarda Ashwini Pokle, Ayan Sen, Anurag Nandi byDesigned byChetan Chopra

Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all.

Charles Babbage
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

Winston Churchill

Page 2

Wireless Electricity-Old Physics, Modern Perspective

WiTricity, or wireless electricity, the brainchild of professors from MIT was a long awaited leap toward the wireless age. It is an answer to the challenge of an omni-directional, environment unhindered, "midrange"(30m) wireless electricity transfer with appreciable efficiency (40%). Which in Laymans terms means you can walk into a room and your battery starved laptop which you need oh so-desperately to finish that important project will begin to charge itself. Wireless power transfer is different from information transfer, in that, Omni-directional radiation modes of antennas (which work very well for information transfer) are not suitable for energy transfer, because a vast majority of energy is wasted into free space. The phenomena associated with electromagnetic induction have long been known to be the key to this problem. However, the recent accomplishment is a far from obvious extension of it. The mechanism is based on the well known principle of "Resonant Coupling" - The fact that two same -frequency resonant objects tend to couple, while interacting weakly with other off-resonant environmental objects. The investigated design consists of two copper coils, each a self-resonant system. One of the coils, attached to the power source, is the sending unit. Instead of irradiating the environment with electromagnetic waves, it fills the space around it with a non-radiative magnetic field oscillating at MHz frequencies. The non-radiative field mediates the power exchange with the other coil (the receiving unit), which is specially designed to resonate with the field. The resonant nature of the process ensures the strong interaction between the sending unit and the receiving unit, while the interaction with the rest of the environment is weak. Simply put, the set up consisted of two electromagnetic resonators that coupled through their resonating magnetic fields over a distance larger than the size of the largest object. Other environmental objects were no hindrance as they were not in resonance. One of the key features to this experiment is the use of Non-radiative field. Moffatt, an MIT undergraduate in physics, explains: "The crucial advantage of using the non-radiative field lies in the fact that most of the power not picked up by the receiving coil remains bound to the vicinity of the sending unit, instead of being radiated into the environment and lost." "The fact that magnetic fields interact so weakly with biological organisms is also important for safety considerations," Kurs, a graduate student in physics from MIT, points out. The team is currently working on improving the design and efficiency to upgrade the experimental set-up to a commonplace gadget in our workplaces and at home. So what does the future hold for this fledgling-yet powerful technology? Ones imagination can literally run wild as enthusiastic experts claim the end of the wire and socket technology. Instead of pin connectors for every electrical device, the future might well see us jostling to get into a room full of resonators to charge our Smartphones and electric cars that need only drive into resonant charging sheds to top up their tanks with electrons.

- Shreya Inamdar

Page 3

B Schools B
The Global Factor The dream of an education is business management accompanied by the allcoveted MBA degree has taken wings and flown. If the past decade is any indication, business education is globalizing more rapidly than business itself. The worlds best schools are globalizing their intake. In 2008 some 34% of the students on Americas leading 55 MBA programmes (as ranked by the Financial Times) were foreign, as were 85% of those on the top 55 courses in European countries. The UNESCO Institute of Statistics calculates that in 2007 almost a quarter of students who studied abroad studied businessfar more than any other subject did. Mutual Benefit With the global economy staring at the dark bottomless pit of recession, most foreign universities lack the inclination to set up campuses in foreign shores. Instead, Ivy League colleges and their British counterparts are moving increasingly towards a series of agreements on collaboration with domestic institutions or twining programmes where part of a course will be taught in the collaborating institute and part in the parent institution. The Anderson School of Management at the University of California at Los Angeles and the National University of Singapore are two excellent cases in point . Both of these institutions have programs in which students in the executive master's of business administration program are awarded degrees from both universities after 15 months of taking classes in Singapore and Los Angeles, and also in Shanghai and Bangalore, India. The Indian Panorama Given the popularity of business education in India, one would expect that several foreign institutions have already entered this highly lucrative market. However, such, sadly, is not the case. India's so called open door policy comes with a variety of conditions and limitations. These conditions may well deter many foreign institutions from involvement in India. With the proposed legislation requiring an investment of $11 million upfront by a foreign provider in the operation and, the foreign provider being restricted from making any profit on the Indian branch these conditions may well deter many foreign institutions from involvement . The Bottom Line The sudden globalization of business education has drawbacks. The most obvious is quality control: the market is infested with snake-oil salesmen, and they are harder to spot from half a world away. Globalization is also pushing up the already exorbitant cost of business education. It is expensive to send students abroad, conduct international research and compete for the best academics in a borderless labour market. A global super league of business schools is emerging, which includes several in Europe and Asia as well as America. All compete ruthlessly for students and staff everywhere. (The leading gurus fly anywhere at the behest of the highest bidder.) The cult of the MBA is going global: from Boston to Beijing to Bangalore. - Arnav Jain

ACC-For the Students, Of the Students

Page 4

Among the plethora of changes that are giving the educational experience at BITS Pilani a whole new face, the Academic Counseling Cell (ACC) is one which reaches out to the students and reminds them, that they, are not alone. Mr. Manoj Kannan of the Biological Sciences Faculty is one of the core members of the ACC and in an interview last week; he elucidated the aims and functions that are a part of this new initiative. Embryo Club (EC): When was the ACC set up and what was the initial motivation behind its foundation? Mr. Kannan: The ACC was founded last year when it was felt by the institute that there was a need for a body that would interact with the student in a more personal manner than the existing counseling structure did. The principal motivation was to address the academic and personal counseling needs of the students. EC: The word counseling has many different connotations for many people. When the ACC refers to this word, what exactly does it mean? Mr. Kannan: We all take counseling everyday in our lives. Whether it be in the form of advice from parents or suggestions from friends, we constantly seek the opinions of other people when we are unsure about a decision or a particular course of action we are about to undertake. College life, offers a great variety of choices, which have an important bearing on any students future. The ACC is always ready to offer such advice and guidance to students who feel they have a need for it. EC: How does the interaction between the ACC and Students take place? Mr. Kannan: The interaction is purely informal and conducted on a one-to-one basis. It may best described as a chat, where the student explains his difficulties while the ACC member offers his opinion on them. Students are always free to drop by the office of cell members and fix an appointment with them. Complete discretion on all conversations is maintained as a matter of course. EC: In your past year of operations what are the principal areas of advice that students have sought from the ACC? Mr. Kannan: The flexibilities in the course structure that BITS offers is myriad. Students often wish to seek advice on what courses to take so they can pursue their careers in their chosen fields. The ACC has fielded many requests for advice on such matters. Anxieties over academic performance as well as advice on personal problems are some of the areas in which students need reassurance frequently. EC: It is an oft-heard cry these days that the academic standards of students at BITS are on the downslide. As an ACC member, you have frequent interactions with students, what is your opinion on this? Mr. Kannan: In my experience, the single factor that is most often responsible for falling academic performance is a lack of focus on part of the students. The drive to succeed in that was found in previous generations has been replaced by a desire to find ones own way in the world. Students often feel that they can achieve their goals even without a good academic performance and thus lose their motivation for all matters related to academia. A resulting fall in grades is inevitable EC: Any final words for BITSians? Mr. Kannan: One must always be accountable to someone, whether it be your parents, your professors or even a trusted friend. It is this feeling of accountability that helps us to perform at our best and set the highest of standards. The door of the ACC is always open to achieve your goals, and the students should feel free to contact us whenever they feel the need to do so.

Martian Odyssey
William Whewell of Trinity College speculated that Mars had seas, land and maybe even life forms. Later on speculations were further fuelled when some observers reported spotting canals on mars using telescopes. Even though this was later found to be an optical illusion, it spawned a number of books and films in the late 19th and early 20th century that explored the theme of life on Mars. The most famous among those was obviously The War of the Worlds by H.G Wells. The chilling portrayal of Martians invading Earth in a bid to flee the desiccation of their planet caught the imagination of millions. Since NASAs venture to the moon, finding of life or the suitability of life on Mars has been one of their biggest projects. In ongoing explorations, evidences have been found of possible river valleys in many areas along with soil erosion. Although initial probes suggested that Marss atmospheric pressure is too low (0.6 KPa) for water to exist on the surface, and that it has no global magnetic field to deflect harmful cosmic rays, the presence of bound water, CO2 and more or less suitable pH and salinity levels have resulted in the disputes of whether life exists or can exist on Mars or not to rage on even today. In 1996 two meteorites originating from Mars - Two of the meteorites - ALH84001 and Yamato 593 was found in Antarctica. In them were found miniscule mineralized structures, which many scientists proclaimed were terrestrial magneto-tactic bacteria. Magneto-tactic organisms use a string of magnetic crystals inside their bodies to navigate, much like an internal compass. Now with new powerful microscopes and other instruments, NASA is working on proving whether these structures found in the meteorites are of biological or geological origin. Scientists have also suggested that if it is ever to be proved that life had existed on Mars, the evidence might be found in the vast fields of gypsum on the Red Planet's surface. The claim had been made at a NASA conference in Houston, Structures which resemble micro Texas .They have suggested that if fossils trapped in gypsum organisms found on Mars rock. can last on Earth for millions of years, they might also be found on the dried up sea beds of Mars as well. Images of the Martian surface taken from space by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter indicate the existence of gypsum dunes in the northern polar region of the Red Planet. US scientist Craig Venter successfully created the worlds first synthetic organism named Synthia . It was created by synthesizing a DNA code and injecting it into a single bacteria cell. The cell containing the man-made DNA then grew and divided to give the synthetic organism. The next step for Dr. Venter is the synthesizing of cells which would grow by consuming carbon dioxide. He said the technology could also be used to build a new civilization on Mars, as its thin atmosphere is 95 per cent carbon dioxide. 'These kinds of processes will allow us to make almost anything needed there from that carbon dioxide environment,' Dr. Venter said. His team is currently working on genetically engineering synthetic cells to use carbon dioxide to make food, fuel and plastics. The ball has started rolling , and its finally a matter of time, before we get to know if there is or had ever been life on the Red Planet.

-Ayan Sen, Ashwini Pokle, Anurag Nandi

Suppose you have a jar of one or more marbles, each of which is either RED or BLUE in color. You also have an unlimited supply of RED marbles off to the side. You then execute the following "procedure":

"Brainwash"

while (# of marbles in the jar > 1) { choose (any) two marbles from the jar; if (the two marbles are of the same color) { toss them aside; place a RED marble into the jar; } else { // one marble of each color was chosen toss the chosen RED marble aside; place the chosen BLUE marble back into the jar; } } By examining the procedure, you can easily verify that the number of marbles in the jar decreases by exactly one on each iteration of the loop. Thus, if initially the jar contained N marbles, then after N-1 iterations of the loop, exactly one marble will remain. Suppose we know how many RED and BLUE marbles were in the jar, initially. Armed with that information, can we predict, with certainty, the color of the last marble remaining in the jar? (Note that, by virtue of the assumption that the jar was initially non-empty and the fact that the number of marbles decreases by exactly one on each iteration, it is not possible to end up with an empty jar.) Look out for solution in the next issue -Shreya Inamdar

If you have any suggestions regarding possible topics that you would like to see in this newsletter, feel free to mail us at embryoclub@gmail.com www.bitsembryo.org