Dr Rajiv Desai

An Educational Blog

Extraterrestrial Life (Life Beyond Earth)

Extraterrestrial Life (Life Beyond Earth): _ Figure above shows Earth, as seen by NASA’s Voyager 1. In this image, taken from 4 billion miles away 33 years ago, Earth appears as a “pale blue dot” representing less than a pixel’s worth of light. Would this light reveal Earth as a habitable and inhabited world? Our search for life on exoplanets will depend on an ability to extract information about life from the faint light of faraway worlds. _ “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” -Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction author and former Planetary Society board member _____ Section-1  Prologue: Is mankind alone in the universe? Or are there somewhere other intelligent beings looking up into their night sky from very different worlds and asking the same kind of question? Are there civilizations more advanced than ours, civilizations that […]

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Is artificial intelligence (AI) an existential threat?  

Is artificial intelligence (AI) an existential threat?    _ _ Section-1 Prologue:   On September 26, 2022, without most of us noticing, humanity’s long-term odds of survival became ever so slightly better. Some 11,000,000 km away, a NASA spacecraft was deliberately smashed into the minor planet-moon, Dimorphos, and successfully changed its direction of travel. It was an important proof of concept that showed that if we’re ever in danger of being wiped out by an asteroid, we might be able to stop it from hitting the Earth. But what if the existential threat we need to worry about isn’t Deep Impact but Terminator? Despite years of efforts from professionals and researchers to quash any and all comparisons with apocalyptic science fiction and real-world artificial intelligence (AI), the threat of this technology going rogue and posing a serious threat to survival isn’t just for Hollywood movies. As crazy as it sounds, […]

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Mirage of Fusion Power

Mirage of Fusion Power:    _ “We say that we will put the Sun into a box. The idea is pretty. The problem is, we don’t know how to make the box”.  Pierre-Gilles de Gennes _ Figure above shows ITER fusion reactor tokamak. A tokamak is a device used in nuclear fusion research for magnetic confinement of plasma. It consists of a complex system of magnetic fields that confine the plasma of reactive charged particles in a hollow, doughnut-shaped container. The tokamak (an acronym from the Russian words for toroidal magnetic confinement) was developed in the mid-1960s by Soviet plasma physicists. It produces the highest plasma temperatures, densities, and confinement durations of any confinement device. Fusion energy scientists believe that tokamaks are the leading plasma confinement concept for future fusion power plants. _____   Section-1   Prologue:    The demand for energy is ever growing, as more people around the […]

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What Causes Cancer

What Causes Cancer:  _ Figure above shows squamous cell carcinoma of the left anterior floor of mouth.   _ Section-1 Prologue: International Cancer Institute has defined Cancer as a term used for diseases in which abnormal cells divide without control and can invade nearby tissues. Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide. Globally annually, there were an estimated 20 million new cases of cancer and 10 million deaths from cancer or nearly one in six deaths. The cancer burden will increase by approximately 60% over the next two decades, further straining health systems, people and communities.  It’s often said that cancer is not one, but many diseases. In fact, there are more than 200 forms of cancer, and all of these are caused by cells in the body acquiring the ability to grow and proliferate uncontrollably. Deaths from cancer are usually caused by secondary tumours, which form when cancer […]

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Digital Twin

Digital Twin:  Above is an image from the digital twin (DT) of BMW’s factory in Regensburg, Bavaria, created in NVIDIA’s Omniverse. There are two versions of a BMW factory in the medieval town of Regensburg, Germany. One is a physical plant that cranks out thousands of cars a year. The other is a virtual 3-D replica, accessed by screen or VR headset, in which every surface and every bit of machinery looks exactly the same as in real life. Soon, whatever is happening in the physical factory will be reflected inside the virtual one in real time: frames being dipped in paint; doors being sealed onto hinges; avatars of workers carrying machinery to its next destination. The latter factory is an example of a “digital twin”: an exact digital re-creation of an object or environment. The concept might at first seem like sci-fi babble or even a frivolous experiment: Why […]

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