Virtual Therapeutics
The itch that cannot be scratched? Have you felt that? Even worse is feeling pain in a missing limb. It is a maddening sensation and for some amputees, the feeling is very real. Called Phantom…
Physician to the Bronze Gods
“Archaeological Chemist, temporary … at a cost of Rs 1,500 for the year 1929–’30 … required for work connected with the treatment of bronze images in the Museum,” read a job description in the…
pic credit: Pratham Books
Anna Mani, Indian weather scientist
Anna Mani, student of CV Raman, made independent India self-reliant in measuring aspects of the weather, and helped lay the ground for harnessing solar and wind power as alternative sources of energy.
pic credit: MIT
Making ketchup glide, pesticides stick
pic credit: MIT Drops of water bead up or roll right off the leaves of the lotus, making for that metaphysical metaphor – live like a lotus in the water. But the leaves of plants…
Dilip Kumar, Improbable Tamil Anthologist
Dilip Kumar, Booksellers and Exporters, was the name of the Tamil literary bookstore he ran in Mylapore, Chennai. For over a quarter century, till 2016, research scholars and avid readers dropped in here to discuss…
The Bohrs in Mylapore -- pic courtesy Alladi Krishasami
When Niels Bohr came to Mylapore
In the summer of 1958, Alladi Ramakrishnan returned to his elegant bungalow, Ekamra Nivas, in Madras after an unpaid sabbatical in the United States. The young Reader from the University of Madras had spent a…