Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Raghu Rai’s philosophy of photography
A photograph by Rai (left); Raghu Rai (right). Photo Courtesy: Shehabuddin/ Drik/ Majority WorldJamil Mahmud
"They say a good photograph is worth a thousand words. But a thousand words can be a lot of noise. How about some silence -- a moment in space which is non-negotiable.”--Raghu Rai, Magnum Photos
As part of Drik's 20th anniversary celebration, a solo exhibition titled "India" featuring veteran Indian photographer Raghu Rai's works is being held at the Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts, Dhanmondi.
Noted economist Professor Anu Muhammad inaugurated the exhibition on September 7 via video-conferencing as he is currently hospitalised. Among others, director of Drik, Dr. Shahidul Alam and artist Dhali Al Mamoon were present at the inauguration.
Over 50 photographs -- both colour and black and white -- are on display at the exhibition. The images narrate individual stories, fragments of the vast Indian canvas. Sharing his views on the theme of the exhibition, Rai said, "The experience of India is horizontal, it doesn't begin from anywhere, nor does it end anywhere. It is the panoramic experience that allows me to photograph the throbbing of several energies on one given canvas."
Rai is considered the foremost photographer in India, excelling in social, political and cultural themes. He started professional photography in 1965 at the age of 23 and is a recipient of India's highest civilian award "Padmashree" (1971). He joined Magnum Photos in 1977.
Rai has specialised in extensive coverage of India over the last 18 years. He has produced 20 books, including "Raghu Rai's Delhi," "The Sikhs," "Taj Mahal," "Tibet in Exile," "Indira Gandhi" and "Mother Teresa."
"The emergence of the unseen and revelation of the unknown leaves me amazed! The experience becomes a 'Darshan.' What a country of mine!" said Rai.
The exhibition at Bengal Gallery is a chance to experience Rai's philosophy of photography, in particular aesthetics. It is also an opportunity to witness some spectacular moments immortalised by a master photographer.
Rai's photographs suggest that he has travelled almost every nook and corner of India. His kaleidoscope journey saw a group of wrestlers under the Howrah Bridge in Kolkata, as well as a boisterous Sikh wedding in Punjab. In between Rai's lens has captured moments in Rajasthan, Ahmedabad, Jaisalmer, Delhi, Kashmir and other places. Notably, his photos avoided the hustle and bustle of the metropolis, and depict the tranquil life outside city limits.
"I have tried to portray the multi-cultural India that is rather unfamiliar to viewers in other countries," said Rai at the inaugural of his Dhaka exhibition.
Rai also took part in an open forum on September 7 at Drik Gallery. He discussed on his latest book "Delhi in Contrasts and Confluences" and answered questions from the audience.
Scientists find three new gene links to Alzheimer's REUTERS
LONDON: Scientists have found three new major genetic links to Alzheimer's, affecting up to 20% of people with the brain-wasting disease. They
said it was the most significant such discovery in 15 years.
Two large studies found that the three new genes join the better known APOE4 gene as significant risk factors for the most common cause of dementia.
"If we were able to remove the detrimental effects of these genes through treatments, we could reduce the proportion of people developing Alzheimer's by 20%," said Julie Williams, a professor of Neuropsychological Genetics at Britain's Cardiff University.
Alzheimer's disease affects more than 26 million people globally, and has no cure or good treatment. The need for effective remedies is pressing, with the number of cases forecasted to go beyond 100 million by 2050.
Current drugs can only delay the symptoms endured by patients, who lose their memories, the ability to find their way around and to care for themselves.
Williams, who led one of the two studies published in Nature Genetics, said that in Britain alone, eradicating the effects of the three new genes would mean almost 100,000 people could avoid the disease. She said the findings were the most significant genetic discoveries for Alzheimer's in the 15 years since APOE4 was found to be linked, and said drug companies had shown a keen interest in their research.
Williams and colleagues at Cardiff's Medical Research Council Center for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics carried out a genome wide association study - a scan of the entire genetic map - involving more than 16,000 people from eight countries. They identified two new genes: Clusterin and PICALM - that increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's.
A second genome wide study conducted by Philippe Amouyel and colleagues at the Institut Pasteur de Lille in France, studied more than 6,000 people with Alzheimer's and nearly 9,000 healthy people in France, Belgium, Finland, Italy and Spain. They identified Clusterin and a third gene called CR1.
Amouyel said the disease risks associated with each gene were difficult to quantify, and said all three genes were relatively common. The scientists also stressed that a yet unknown combination of many genetic and other environmental factors also cause Alzheimer's.
The researchers said Clusterin may explain 10% of Alzheimer's cases, PICALM around 9% and CR1 4%. By comparison, 20 to 25% of Alzheimer's cases are linked to APOE.Three gene variations have also been associated with rare, early-onset forms of Alzheimer's that run in families. Identifying the genes can help researchers understand the underlying causes of a disease and design drugs to fight them.
Michael Owen, director of the Cardiff center, said their study also found evidence that other genes could play a role in the risk of developing Alzheimer's. "It's a bit like we have been fishing with a fishing net and we've pulled out some fish. We know there are more fish there, and with a finer mesh net we can catch them," he said.
The Cardiff team now plans a further study involving 60,000 participants to look deeper into genetic causes of Alzheimer's.
Planets have to be about the size of Earth to be conducive for life
LONDON: In a new research, it has been determined that rocky worlds have to be about the size of Earth to be conducive for life.
According to a report in the New Scientist, the discovery of extra solar 'super-Earths' - rocky planets about five to ten times the mass of Earth - has raised hopes that some may harbor life.
Life is comfortable on Earth in part because of its relatively stable climate and its magnetic field, which deflects cosmic radiation capable of damaging organic molecules as well as producing amazing auroras.
The long term stability of Earth's climate depends on the way the planet's crust is broken up into plates, which continually slide over and under one another in a process called plate tectonics. Carbon scrubbed from the atmosphere by natural chemical reactions gets buried and recycled within the Earth because of plate tectonics, part of a cycle that stabilizes atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.
Now, it seems rocky worlds have to be about the size of Earth to have both plate tectonics and magnetic fields, according to Lade Stamenkovic of the German Aerospace Center in Berlin.
Heat from Earth's core creates the convection currents needed for plate tectonics. Such currents generate the force to tear the crust, produce multiple plates and move those plates around.
Stamenkovic's team found that the pressure and viscosity inside a 'super-Earth' would be so high that a stagnant, insulating layer would form outside the core, weakening the convective currents needed to drive plate tectonics thus making the process unlikely.
The researchers also found that the slow transfer of heat out of the core in 'super-Earths' would prevent a sufficiently rapid circulation of their molten cores, robbing them of a magnetic field.
Planets about 0.5 to 2.5 times the mass of Earth are most likely to support plate tectonics. The limits are fuzzier for magnetic field generation, but also favour Earth-sized planets.
"Earth is special," said Stamenkovic.
But astrobiologist David Grinspoon of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in Colorado points out that Venus seems to have recycled its crust in volcanic outbursts despite a lack of plate tectonics.
While this has not stabilized Venus's climate, the possibility that other forms of crustal recycling on super-Earths might do so should not be ruled out.
Baby chimps better at controlling emotions than human babies
LONDON: When it comes to controlling emotions, baby chimps do it better than human babies, says a new
study.
The research, which investigated the facial expressions of young chimpanzees, may explain why some babies cry so much and are so inconsolable.
In the study, scientists found that baby chimps almost always cry for a reason, in contrast to some of the crying of human babies.
Scientists reckon the finding may result from difference in brain development between the two species, with human babies being born with slightly less developed brains than chimps.
"If you pick up a baby chimp when it's fussing (crying), it calms down and stays calm. "Anybody who has had a fussy child knows it is well within the range of the human norm that if you pick them up then they are still fussy," said Professor Kim Bard of Portsmouth University.
A robot that can take decisions
LYON (FRANCE): Robots that can make their own decisions have so far been confined to science fiction movies, but a child sized figure with big
iCub robot
CNRS director of research with the 'iCub' robot. Scientists believe this intelligent class of robot will help in understanding the development of human consciousness. (Reuters Photo)
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eyes and a white face is trying hard to turn fiction into reality.
Its name is iCub and scientists are hoping it will learn how to adapt its behavior to changing circumstances, offering new insights into the development of human consciousness.
Six versions of the iCub exist in laboratories across Europe, where scientists are painstakingly tweaking its electronic brain to make it capable of learning, just like a human child.
"Our goal is to really understand something that is very human - the ability to cooperate, to understand what somebody else wants us to do, to be able to get aligned with them and work together," said research director Peter Ford Dominey.
iCub is about 1 meter high, with an articulated trunk, arms and legs made up of intricate electronic circuits. It has a white face with the hint of a nose and big round eyes that can see and follow moving objects.
"Shall we play the old game or play a new one?" iCub asked Dominey during a recent experiment at a laboratory in Lyon, in southeastern France. Its voice was robotic, unsurprisingly, though it did have the intonation of a person asking a question. The "game" consisted of one person picking up a box, revealing a toy that was placed underneath. Then another person picked up the toy, before putting it down again. Finally, the first person put the box back down, on top of the toy.
Having watched two humans perform this action, iCub was able to join in the fun.
"The robot is demonstrating that it can change roles. It can play the role of either the first person in the interaction or the second," said Dominey, who receives European Union funding for his work with iCub.
"These robots will be a huge tool for analytical philosophy and philosophy of mind," said Dominey, whose background is in computational neuroscience - in layman's terms, building computer models for different brain functions.
Dominey said after years of research he had understood that such models needed to be "unleashed into the world" and given vision and motor control in order to interact with humans. "Is perception consciousness? The ability to understand that somebody has a goal, is that consciousness?" he asked. "These kinds of questions, we will be able to ask with much more precision because we can have a test bed, this robot, or zombie, that we can use to implement things," he said, describing working with iCub as "an outstanding pleasure."
In the short term, iCub could be used in hospitals to help patients in need of physiotherapy by playing games with them. In the longer term, iCub could gain enough autonomy to help around the house, making its own assessments of needs.
"People have their habits, loading their dishwasher, putting away their dishes. The goal is that the robot can become like a helper, just like a polite apprentice visitor would come into your house and begin to help you," said Dominey.
Anyone looking to cut down on their household chores will need to be patient, however. "It won't be for tomorrow. It's maybe in the next decade we will begin to see this kind of thing," said the scientist.
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Bacteria can help convert waste to power
WASHINGTON: Bacteria that generate power could be used in microbial fuel cells to convert waste into electricity, according to the latest
research.
University of Massachusetts researchers isolated bacteria with large numbers of tiny projections called pili which transfer electrons to generate power in fuel cells, more efficiently than counterparts with a smooth surface.
The researchers isolated a strain of Geobacter sulfurreducens which they called KN400 that grew prolifically on the graphite anodes of fuel cells.
The bacteria formed a thick bio-film on the anode surface, which conducted electricity. The researchers found large quantities of pilin, a protein that makes the tiny fibres that conduct electricity through the sticky bio-film.
"The filaments form microscopic projections called pili that act as microbial nanowires," said Derek Lovley, U-M professor. "Using this bacterial strain in a fuel cell to generate electricity would greatly increase the cell's power output."
Microbial fuel cells can be used in monitoring devices in environments where it is difficult to replace batteries if they fail but to be successful they need to have an efficient and long lasting source of power.
Lovley described how KN400 might be used in sensors placed on the ocean floor to monitor migration of turtles.
These findings were reported at the Society for General Microbiology's meeting at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, on Monday.
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