On Sunday evening, an audience at the Music Academy was treated to a programme with a difference. This was ‘Science at the Sabha’ — four talks on topics in science and math for the general public.
The programme is being conducted for the third year in a row, close to the National Science Day, which falls on February 28. Organised by K.N. Raghavan and Gautam Menon of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences,Chennai (IMSc), the programme featured talks on neurosciences, statistical thermodynamics, materials and math. In the opening talk, Shubha Tole, professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, presented an introduction to how humans perceive the world.
She was followed by R. Rajesh from IMSc, who spoke on ‘Why does time go forward?’. Guru Kumaraswamy of the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, discussed materials – from toothpaste and quicksand to bulletproof vests – and what made them behave the way they did.
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The last talk by Vijay Kodiyalam of IMSc was on the mathematics of knots.
He spoke about the work of mathematician Vaughan Jones, who won the Fields Medal in 1990.
To illustrate the mathematical concept of an invariant, Dr. Kodiyalam used an interesting analogy of chameleons on an island.
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Mannarkoil Balaji, a mridangam artist, was among the audience. “I have always loved science. Math and music always inspired me and I came here to gain some knowledge,” he said.
Exhibition held
February 11 is commemorated as the day of women and girls in science.
In this context, an exhibition about Indian women scientists was organised at the venue for which IMSc partnered with Nandita Jayaraj and Aashima Dogra of The Life of Science.