First of all, my condolences to all people who have lost someone directly or indirectly due to pandemic. Second, my salutations to all the health and essential workers who are striving hard to keep the world breathing. Third, my sympathies to all the free-willing minds who have been locked down. This outbreak has indeed changed our lives and life-style, and has confined most of the humankind spatially, and has metaphorically frozen us in time. Also, it has given us some time for self-introspection on what it is to be an individual in a society, and how actions of individuals and local community can affect the globe. In an essence, what we may be witnessing is a classic case of butterfly effect.
So, what am I up to in the past month or so ?
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Research work: Now that all my research-group members are away from the institute, it has had an effect on our research. Although online platforms have kept us connected, and we are making slow progress in writing some papers and performing some computer simulations, it can never substitute two important things: experimental work in a lab, and the in-person interaction during research. On personal research front, I have been studying some interesting concepts on liquid crystals, and their related meso-photonics effects. That will be a topic of another blog in future.
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COVID-related research: For the past year of so, I have been informally interacting with some researchers at Bharat Electronics Limited, Pune on topics related to nanphotonics and optofluidics. Thanks to the recent developments, we have initiated collaboration on research related to COVID. We will be exploring some on-chip optical microscopy and plasmonic methods to detect and interrogate pathogens in our local environment (including virus and virus-like particles). I will update you as we make some progress.
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An interesting book: Over the past fortnight or so, I have been reading an interesting book titled : Fizzics – The Science of Bubbles, Droplets and Foams. It is a semi-technical/popular science book written by F. Roland Young, who has done considerable research on bubble cavitation and sonoluminescence. This book has some fascinating discussion on questions such as:
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What is the origin of the sound when we crack our knuckles ?
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Why and how do bubbles rise in a bottle of champagne ?
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How to compute a math puzzle using a soap film ?
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and many more…
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My posts going further – Henceforth, I wish to post short blogs more frequently. Once in a while, I will post longer essays.
cheers and stay safe !
Scatterings 