Hariharan

got nothing to brag about...

[Sam Rodriques @SGRodriques]

In light of the progress in mathematics, we at Edison Scientific and FutureHouse have assembled a set of Millennium Problems for Biology. They are chosen to be very hard to solve but very easy to validate in a simple laboratory environment. Any of these, if solved, would mark a major advance in biotechnology, and most of them would contribute materially towards curing disease. These are, in some sense, the “last reasonable eval” for AI in biology. This was work primarily by @MichaelaThinks and myself, with contributions from many others.

Short descriptions below. The full descriptions of the problems with acceptance criteria are at the Bio Millennium Problems website, linked in the next post. Share more if you have ideas. If they meet our criteria, we’ll add them to our list (with attribution and permission).

[Malay Krishna @Malay4Product]

I taught JEE physics for years. That paper breaks strong kids in three hours.

This exam is five hours of theory and five hours of lab work, and these five did close to perfect scores on it.

Let me tell you what actually happened.

The International Physics Olympiad is the world championship of school physics. It was the 56th edition. Held in Bucaramanga, Colombia, from July 5 to 12.

381 students. More than 85 countries. Every one of them the best physics student their country could find.

India sent five kids.

All five came back with gold.

Their names are Kanishk Jain from Pune. Riddhesh Anant Bendale from Indore. Rishit Garg from Dwarka in Delhi. Shresth Suraiya from Mumbai. Svarit Joshi from Ahmedabad.

We know a hundred cricketers by their nickname and not one of these boys. :)

That clean sweep put India at joint World Number One. Tied with China, Russia, Kazakhstan, South Korea and Taiwan.

Those are countries that pour serious money and national pride into science education. We are standing level with them.

Now here is what the exam actually was.

Two papers. Each five hours long.

The theory paper had three problems. One on the thermodynamics of paramagnetic cooling. One on the photoionisation of ozone. One on the dynamics of electron positron pairs.

The experimental paper was another five hours in a lab, working through heat transfer and thermodynamic processes in fluids.

That means you get given equipment you have never seen, and you have to design your own experiment, take your own readings, handle the errors, and reach a real answer.

Not multiple choice. No shortcuts. No pattern recognition. You either understand physics or you sit there for five hours.

HBCSE says the Indian students were near perfect on theory and excellent on the practical too.

Now, this was India's 27th appearance at the IPhO.

Across all those years, about 44 percent of Indian students have won gold, 41 percent silver, 10 percent bronze.

In the last ten years, every single Indian student has come home with a medal. 62 percent gold, 38 percent silver.

Not one kid has gone and come back empty handed in a decade.

Five golds in one year has happened only twice. This year, and in 2018.

So who built this.

The programme is run by HBCSE, the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education. It sits under TIFR, which sits under the Department of Atomic Energy.

They run the whole funnel. A national exam, then a national olympiad, then a brutal selection and training camp, and out of everyone in the country, five kids get on a plane.

The team was led by Professor Anwesh Mazumdar of HBCSE-TIFR and Dr Leena Joshi from St Xavier's College, Mumbai.

The scientific observers were Professor Ananda Dasgupta from IISER Kolkata and Nisha Kelkar from Gogate-Joglekar College in Ratnagiri.

Yes. Ratnagiri. A college in a small coastal town in Maharashtra.

This is public education doing something the private coaching industry could never do on its own.

The coaching industry is very good at one thing. Teaching you to solve a known problem fast.

That is what JEE and NEET reward, and I say that with love because I was part of that world.

But an olympiad paper does not have a known type. There is no shortcut chapter. There is no formula sheet that saves you. You have to sit with a problem you have never seen and think.

That is a completely different muscle. And a government funded centre has been quietly building it in Indian teenagers for 27 years.

So yes, be proud. Loudly.

HBCSE also shared that around 64 percent of India's olympiad medallists go on to do a PhD.

But only about 32 percent of medallists end up settling in India.

I do not say that to spoil the moment. These kids owe the country nothing. They earned every option they have.

But it should tell us something. We are excellent at finding this talent. We are excellent at training it. We are still not great at giving it somewhere worth staying.

Congratulations Kanishk, Riddhesh, Rishit, Shresth and Svarit. This is one of the best things an Indian did this year and most of the country will never hear about it.

[Cell Biology J-Club @cell_club]

Happy Golgi day

[Asimov Press @AsimovPress]

For years, researchers have claimed that a Chilean vine called Bosquila trifoliolata can mimic the leaves of a plastic houseplant by using a form of vision (!).

In our latest article, Martin Boudrev weighs the evidence — and finds serious flaws. Read & subscribe 🔻

[Hariharan @hariharan_algia]

@AdhesionLab @IISERPune @inaturalist Never realised how the stamens in Callistemon coil inside the floral tube before popping out 🤩🤩🤩

[World of Engineering @engineers_feed]

Humans vs ants' problem solving

Source: Wizeman Institute of Science
https://t.co/69lrsvA7T2

[Hariharan @hariharan_algia]

I think this is Nomad Jelly (Rhopilema nomadica), what do you think ?

#Biologist #marine #invertebrate

[Hariharan @hariharan_algia]

@NickDesnoyer Thank you!!!!☺️

[Hariharan @hariharan_algia]

Time flies like an arrow, Fruit flies like Banana. Iykyk
#genetics #ncbs

[Hariharan @hariharan_algia]

@DanielRigden @rborza_ @NIAIDNews @NAR_Open @DanielRigden is biogdp free ?

[Hariharan @hariharan_algia]

So annoying they are when they wake up… 😤

[National Centre for Biological Sciences @NCBS_Bangalore]

#CampusVisit
Post graduate students from Dept. of Life Sciences, Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru recently visited our campus.
They visited the Central Imaging and Flow Cytometry facility), EM and Cryo-EM facilities and gained insights into these cutting-edge imaging technologies.

[Hariharan @hariharan_algia]

@GemsOfBrominism *enough internet for one day* …..

[Hariharan @hariharan_algia]

@mumumouse2

[Hariharan @hariharan_algia]

@SutirthDey One of the best Workshops I've ever attended.
The practice problems were very scintillating,
would recommend the next edition to my peers.
Thank you!!!

[Hariharan @hariharan_algia]

@Godparticle___ @the_sapio_nerd Not the “Rat King” reference 💀 ikyk!!!