India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Raghav K · Post by **Raghav K** » 27 Feb 2010 23:31

deleted. this is not the place for religion inspired pseudo-science.

kshirin · Post by **kshirin** » 02 Mar 2010 18:10

Can we brainstorm on how to transform India into a genuinely productive country for R & D? We are not doing so well, according to the 2010 Science and Engineering Indicators (SEI) Report by the U.S National Science Board - China was no 3 in global R&D outlays of over $1 trillion in 2007. China also had the highest growth rate of 19% or so annually for 10 years in R&D expenditure. Why can South Korea (democracy+ market economy), Germany (same), China (autocracy, qualified market economy) all find ways to do so? Even Brazil has developed aviation technology.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 13 Mar 2010 09:39

Some of who who studied in IIT are in the news (X-post from other threads)

Subra Suresh (IITian and MIT's dean of Engineering) is being picked up by Obama to Replace Bement as the director of NSF. (Not in the mainstream news yet)
Subhash Khot wins NSF award.

NSF Selects Young Theoretical Computer Scientis (Subahsh Khot for its Highest Honor
and

MIT researchers discover new energy source

Dr. Aravind Vijayaraghavan's group:

What this article (and a stories published even in Indian Newspapers today) does not mention is that
one of the researcher in this gorup is ex IITian - Dr. Aravind Vijayaraghavan)

Congrats to all.

Varoon Shekhar · Post by **Varoon Shekhar** » 31 Mar 2010 19:33

Could also go into Alternative energy folder, but it's an indigenous breakthrough in S&T:

India makes thin film solar cell leap
HHV Solar develops technology, equipment for setting up production facility, inks deal with Canadian firm
Seema Singh

Bangalore: It’s rare that scientists in India develop new technologies and see them reach the marketplace, at least during their active career. The barriers are both cultural and scientific. For A.K. Barua, professor emeritus at the 130-year-old Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science in Kolkata, commercialization took long—32 years— but eventually it helped his industry partner HHV Solar Technologies Pvt. Ltd break into the international league where a handful of companies sell turnkey production lines for thin film solar cells.

With the setting up of a 10MW demonstration production facility in Dabaspet, 50km from Bangalore, that will become operational in about three weeks, HHV Solar becomes the first Indian company to have developed the technology as well as the equipment for setting up a production facility for thin film solar photovoltaic (SPV) modules. At $12 million (around Rs54.7 crore) for the plant, HHV says it has cut the hardware cost from the prevailing rate for setting up such a unit of about $30 million.

“That’s very competitive. High capital cost is a major factor in the adoption of thin film technology,” said Amol Kotwal, deputy director, energy and power system, South Asia, Middle East and North Africa, Frost and Sullivan (F&S). Only a few equipment suppliers operate in this space, led by Applied Materials Inc., headquartered in California, and Oerlikon Solar of Swiss industrial group Oerlikon. If domestic users take to HHV’s technology, the competition could get very tough for existing vendors, said Kotwal.

HHV has signed a deal with Solar Source Corp., a Canadian renewable energy holding company, to establish Canada’s first thin film amorphous silicon solar panel manufacturing plant.

“We are in serious negotiations with some Indian companies and intend to close at least four deals very soon,” said Prasanth Sakhamuri, managing director of HHV Solar, a holding company of Hind High Vacuum Co. Pvt. Ltd.

Solar technology is entering the third generation, but first-generation crystalline silicon solar cells dominate the market, accounting for 87.3% of the global 6.3 gigawatts of solar photovoltaic installations, according to F&S estimates for 2009.

Thin solar cells constitute the second generation, where amorphous silicon leads the pack. The latter, though cheaper, lighter and flexible, is less efficient than crystalline cells.

A global race is on to increase the efficiency of thin cells, from the present 6.75-7% to 10% and beyond. From its research stable, supported by the ministry of new and renewable energy, HHV plans to roll out modules with 8% efficiency within a year. Efficiency refers to the rate at which solar power is converted into usable energy.

Thin SPVs are just trickling into India. In February 2009, Moser Baer India Ltd started the first such line of 40MW capacity, set up by Applied Materials Inc.

In October, KSK Surya Photovoltaic Venture signed up Applied Materials for a 150MW capacity thin film line in Hyderabad.

“So far there was no market in India. Companies exported most of their modules. The solar mission has created the critical local demand,” said Madhu Atre, president of Applied Materials India. The feed-in tariff of Rs18.44/kWh under the National Solar Mission (NSM) is a definitive step forward, he adds. The feed-in tariff is a premium, cost-based compensation rate offered to producers of renewable energy.

India’s SPV market had a capacity of 972MW in 2008, which is estimated to increase to 2,575MW in 2015, according to F&S. But this falls short of the NSM target of 20 gigawatts by 2020.

Barua, who is also chairman of research and development in NSM, says the targets are aggressive and difficult to achieve. “But that doesn’t mean we will not work towards it.”

For a long time, India didn’t pay attention to solar technology, Barua said. His own lab, despite being an early starter, faced intermittent funding shortages. Crystalline silicon, with about 15% efficiency, has gained some market share but since temperatures in many parts of the country go very high, thin film is more suitable in those regions, he said. “Beyond a point, a one degree rise in temperature leads to half a percent drop in crystalline cell efficiency.”

At the core of Barua’s team’s work lies the “plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition” technology, which is a method of depositing silicon on glass to turn it into an electricity-generating module. “It’s a proud moment for us to have completely indigenized the technology development as well as the equipment,” said C.S. Solanki, professor of energy science and engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. He says it comes at the right time as this is the focus of the NSM. However, “unless the cost difference (between crystalline and thin film) is substantial, say $1 per watt, thin film adoption will be low,” he cautioned.

The actual cost-benefit ratio, Sakhamuri said, is not efficiency dependent. “Thin film is 35% cheaper than crystalline. For a given 100W module, thin cells produce more power than crystalline as they react to a wider spectrum of sunlight.”

The sleek shop floor, designed by the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, has been built to attract customers, said Sakhamuri. It’s working—from rice mill owners to jewellery exporters, everyone seems to be interested in solar power now, he said.

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 01 Apr 2010 00:40

India a world mathematics power, says professor Raghunathan
http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/01/stories ... 251200.htm

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 01 Apr 2010 06:13

joshvajohn wrote:India a world mathematics power, says professor Raghunathan
http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/01/stories ... 251200.htm

Rumors is that Kiran Kedlaya is in for Fields Medal. (Guys you heard it here first!). He is under 40, and is an invited speaker. People may recall I had talked about him in our math thread. He has won many IMO medals ... for those who don't know him, he is at present a prof at MIT.
(Of course, It is a guarded secret, and no one is suppose to know till the announcement is made)

Other I think may be Ngo or may be Lurie or Manjul Bhargava.. Lets us wait and see.

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 26 May 2010 21:38

http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/20 ... ulture.php

Mashelkar of India's National Chemical Laboratory has a provocative opinion piece in Science on the research culture of his country. And it brings up a point that I don't think anyone could deny: that the attitudes of a society can affect (for better or worse) its ability to participate in scientific research:
Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman believed that creative pursuit in science requires irreverence. Sadly, this spirit is missing from Indian science today. As other nations pursue more innovative approaches to solving problems, India must free itself from a traditional attitude that condemns irreverence, so that it too can address local and global challenges and nurture future leaders in science. But how can the spirit of adventurism come to Indian science?
The situation has deep roots in Indian culture and tradition. The ancient Sanskrit saying "baba vakyam pramanam" means "the words of the elders are the ultimate truth," thus condemning the type of irreverence inspired by the persistent questioning that is necessary for science. The Indian educational system, which is textbook-centered rather than student-centered, discourages inquisitive attitudes at an early age. Rigid unimaginative curricula and examinations based on single correct answers further cement intolerance for creativity. And the bureaucracy inherited from the time of British rule over-rides meritocracy.He points out that India's greatest scientific names (and there are some heavy hitters) got there in spite of such pressures, not because of them. It's not like this issue hasn't been aired out in India before; I've had Indian colleagues say much the same things to me. And these attitudes can be found in many countries, of course - you can find them here in the US. Mediocre researchers the world over keep their heads down, avoid projects that make their bosses (or themselves) nervous, and keep within the bounds of the literature.

Varoon Shekhar · Post by **Varoon Shekhar** » 27 May 2010 23:20

It would be a shame if Indians sacrificed all their graciousness and reverence for some notion of progressing through irreverence. A nice balance is what is required. When looking at some of the achievements by Indians in S&T in the last 60 years, each one of those should be observed to show whether it was a simple case of 'irreverence' or questioning of established authority, that resulted in the specific discovery or innovation.

ArmenT · Post by **ArmenT** » 01 Jun 2010 11:39

Cross-posting from Agro thread:

Scientists from Chandigarh's Punjab University prove that mobile phones are responsible for disappearance of the honey bee and collapse of their hives.
Link to article

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 01 Jun 2010 23:27

P. C. Vaidya (1918–2010) An eminent astrophysicist but relatively unknown to many.
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/25may2010/1389.pdf

Matthew_H · Post by **Matthew_H** » 03 Jun 2010 11:36

DELETED.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 06 Jun 2010 04:01

http://www.scribd.com/doc/10932365/Indi ... e:facebook

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 06 Jun 2010 22:12

Many of you may know (or may not know) about events being planned in October 2010 to honor Chandrasekhar's birth Centennial in TIFR and other places in India. Anyone planning to attend these events?
For U of Chicago event (Chandrasekhar Centennial Symposium) check out:
Chandrasekhar Centennial Symposium
also check out the event honoring his wife:
Opening Reception Celebrating the 100th birthday of Lalitha Chandrasekhar
Lalitha as some may know, is not only a scholar in Physics but also very good in Tamil, Sanskrit, poetry etc.

Like Chandrasekhar, who was nephew of famous C V Raman, Lalitha was also a niece of a very remarkable woman Subbalakshmi. A good book about her life by M. Felton (A child widows story) is very inspiring.
She married and became widow at the age of 11 (BTW, a very famous astrologer predicted that she will have a long prosperous and happy married life before checking the janm-kundlee before marriage) but due to (this was early 1900's very widows were treated very badly) her courage, and her father's support, she went back to school. Her "first class first" in BA (1911?) was front page news all over India (outshining all the men in that year)..Later she went on to open houses (she actually cooked/cleaned in the beginning like a home mother) , schools (Lady Wellington's college for Women) for widows/women.. was inspiration to Mahatma Gandhi who made it a national goal and highest priority, and force behind the legal changes in India concerning laws against child marriages..

A very remarkable woman, and a source of Inspiration to all.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 28 Jun 2010 20:30

India has joined an international telescope project as an observer, a first step towards full partnership to help develop and use the world’s most advanced astronomy observatory on the top of a volcanic peak in Hawaii.

The Thirty-Meter Telescope at Mauna Kea in Hawaii, is expected to be the most powerful optical telescope in the world when completed by 2018, and help in the search for planets outside the solar system and the study of the earliest galaxies.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100628/j ... 618933.jsp

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 05 Jul 2010 02:59

http://business.in.com/article/real-iss ... en/14572/1

Indian scientists are trying out a new climate model to get monsoon forecasts right. If they can get it to work, expect it to rain when they say it will

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 15 Aug 2010 07:44

Xpost:
Paper at: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ac1 ... ode=ancham
Another nice news, from MIT (and 2 IIT' guys!) and using invention by CV Raman:

(Should hit Indian News papers)
Shining a light — literally — on diabetes
Device from MIT lab could help diabetic patients monitor their blood glucose levels without finger pricks

People with type 1 diabetes must keep a careful eye on their blood glucose levels: Too much sugar can damage organs, while too little deprives the body of necessary fuel. Most patients must prick their fingers several times a day to draw blood for testing.

To minimize that pain and inconvenience, researchers at MIT’s Spectroscopy Laboratory are working on a noninvasive way to measure blood glucose levels using light.

First envisioned by Michael Feld, the late MIT professor of physics and former director of the Spectroscopy Laboratory, the technique uses Raman spectroscopy, a method that identifies chemical compounds based on the frequency of vibrations of the bonds holding the molecule together. The technique can reveal glucose levels by simply scanning a patient’s arm or finger with near-infrared light, eliminating the need to draw blood.

Spectroscopy Lab graduate students Ishan Barman {trained at IIT Kharagpur} and Chae-Ryon Kong are developing a small Raman spectroscopy machine, about the size of a laptop computer, that could be used in a doctor’s office or a patient’s home. Such a device could one day help some of the nearly 1 million people in the United States, and millions more around the world, who suffer from type 1 diabetes.

Researchers in the Spectroscopy Lab have been developing this technology for about 15 years. One of the major obstacles they have faced is that near-infrared light penetrates only about half a millimeter below the skin, so it measures the amount of glucose in the fluid that bathes skin cells (known as interstitial fluid), not the amount in the blood. To overcome this, the team came up with an algorithm that relates the two concentrations, allowing them to predict blood glucose levels from the glucose concentration in interstitial fluid.

However, this calibration becomes more difficult immediately after the patient eats or drinks something sugary, because blood glucose soars rapidly, while it takes five to 10 minutes to see a corresponding surge in the interstitial fluid glucose levels. Therefore, interstitial fluid measurements do not give an accurate picture of what’s happening in the bloodstream.

To address that lag time, Barman and Kong developed a new calibration method, called Dynamic Concentration Correction (DCC), which incorporates the rate at which glucose diffuses from the blood into the interstitial fluid. In a study of 10 healthy volunteers, the researchers used DCC-calibrated Raman spectroscopy to significantly boost the accuracy of blood glucose measurements — an average improvement of 15 percent, and up to 30 percent in some subjects.

The researchers described the new calibration method and results in the July 15 issue of the journal Analytical Chemistry. In addition to Feld, Barman and Kong, authors include Ramachandra Rao Dasari { build lasers at IIT/K} , associate director of the Spectroscopy Lab, and former postdoctoral associate Gajendra Pratap Singh.

Michael Morris, professor of chemistry at the University of Michigan, says the group appears to have solved a problem that has long stymied researchers. “Getting optical glucose measurements of any sort is something people have been trying to do since the 1980s,” says Morris, who was not involved in this study. “Usually people report that they can get good measurements one day, but not the next, or that it only works for a few people. They can’t develop a universal calibration system.”

<snip>

In October, Barman will receive the Tomas A. Hirschfeld Award at the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies Conference, for his work on improving spectroscopy-based glucose measurements.

Another interesting tid-bit (wonder any one else will report that): that: Dr. Ramachandra Rao Dasari got M.Sc. from Benares Hindu University and Ph.D. from Aligarh Muslim University and taught (when I was at IIT/K) at IIT Kanpur. ..at IIT/K he built one of the largest laser labs ..many lasers, used for some Indian Industries etc, were actually built at IIT Kanpur .. he worked with companies like BHEL for their laser technology/instrumentation. ..

Congrats to these guys. This will really help common people.

ravar · Post by **ravar** » 11 Dec 2010 21:41

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 20 Jan 2011 06:45

I know this is from TOIlet, but it is a good article that deals with the obstacles faced by Indian researchers.

Indian Crab Syndrome

kmkraoind · Post by **kmkraoind** » 02 May 2011 20:38

ISRO builds India's fastest supercomputer

BANGALORE: Indian Space Research Organisation has built a supercomputer, which is to be India's fastest in terms of theoretical peak performance of 220 TeraFLOPS (220 Trillion Floating Point Operations per second).

The supercomputer "SAGA-220", built by the Satish Dhawan Supercomputing Facility located at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram at a cost of about Rs 14 crore was inaugurated by K Radhakrishnan, Chairman ISRO at VSSC today, ISRO said in a statement.

The new Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) based supercomputer, "SAGA-220" (Supercomputer for Aerospace with GPU Architecture-220 TeraFLOPS) is being used by space scientists for solving complex aerospace problems.

"SAGA-220" is fully designed and built by Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre using commercially available hardware, open source software components and in house developments.

The system uses 400 NVIDIA Tesla 2070 GPUs and 400 Intel Quad Core Xeon CPUs supplied by WIPRO with a high speed interconnect.

With each GPU and CPU providing a performance of 500 GigaFLOPS and 50 GigaFLOPS respectively, the theoretical peak performance of the system amounts to 220 TeraFLOPS, the statement said.

The present GPU system offers significant advantage over the conventional CPU based system in terms of cost, power and space requirements, it said.

The system is environmentally green and consumes a power of only 150 KW. This system can also be easily scaled to many PetaFLOPS (1000 TeraFLOPS).

Vasu · Post by **Vasu** » 19 May 2011 09:32

Theni to house India-based Neutrino Observatory

The India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO), a multi-institutional effort to build a world class underground laboratory, at a cost of Rs. 1,260 crore, to study neutrinos in the atmosphere, will find its home near Pottipuram village in West Bodi Hills of Theni district, 110 km west of Madurai.

After years of negotiations with the State government, the Forest department and activists and the rejection of two sites, first at Singara in the Nilgiris and then near Suruli falls in Theni district, the INO's full-fledged underground science laboratory will be created in West Bodi Hills, as the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has recommended an environmental clearance for the site.

It sought details of excavated earth for the construction of a two-km-long tunnel for building and housing a large magnetised iron calorimeter detector to study naturally produced neutrinos in the Earth's atmosphere.

GuruPrabhu · Post by **GuruPrabhu** » 21 May 2011 05:27

^^^ count the zeroes folks. That is Rs. 1,260,00,00,000 !!

The biggest pure science project in the history of India. I doubt anyone on BRF can point out exactly what this project will investigate.

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 21 May 2011 05:29

if you bet on it, you will lose it at least thrice over, if not more.

GuruPrabhu · Post by **GuruPrabhu** » 21 May 2011 05:45

You're on! Name the bet!

Note I said "exactly". Generic answers like "neutrino oscillations" do not count. In the generic race INO is an also ran before it is even built.

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 21 May 2011 05:50

I will not because I do not know if the said members want to reveal this side of their persona. sorry about that. you can try the physics thread though.

GuruPrabhu · Post by **GuruPrabhu** » 21 May 2011 05:51

But for some reason you are sure that I will "lose thrice over". I do not make light statements. I also don't reveal my persona.

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 21 May 2011 05:54

ok, I saw your subsequent rejoinder in the earlier post. understand where you are coming from. that is why it has a rather protracted history, isn't it ?

GuruPrabhu · Post by **GuruPrabhu** » 21 May 2011 05:58

I don't want to spam the thread with OT. However, I am deeply skeptical about the utility of INO to science. It is being touted as a project that will invigorate the culture of big science in India, train young scientists, get industry involved and what not. All that remains to be seen. However, the fact that the science case is weak, a day late and rupee short, is acknowledged even by the doyens of Indian scientific establishment. At this point it it is on auto-pilot for one simple reason: There is no better idea on how to spend >1,000 crores on a big basic science project.

I would put my money on a Rs 10,000 crore material science project, but no one in India has come up with a proposal that will leave Massa and Panda behind.

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 21 May 2011 06:12

unfortunately, a lot of money has been invested in material science but for very little VFM IMHO. you are right about the lack of good ideas or perhaps we just don't hear about them ?

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 21 May 2011 23:24

Rahul_M, I think what GP is saying is that as it stands INO has no USP for discovery potential in the big league, till someone shoots a long baseline neutrino beam at it as it sits at the magical distance from a potential source in Chicago to be able to say something about the mass hierarchy. I am rusty on that, you can google for Fermi theory group doing phenomenology, like Stephen Parke to learn more.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 22 May 2011 19:32

GMRT telescope near Pune. A good documentary by National Geographic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVmo3iQq ... re=related

edited wrong link.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 22 May 2011 19:52

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGeh35kP ... re=related

On the Himalayan Chandra telescope at Hanle.

Varoon Shekhar · Post by **Varoon Shekhar** » 22 May 2011 21:42

India seems to have pretty good facilities. However, it would be nice to hear of some of the more impressive Indian discoveries in astronomy using these telescopes. I do know that Indians were among the first to discover the rings around Uranus, a secondary ring system around Saturn itself, 8 Pulsars and many theoretical discoveries- and these were before the advent of the Chandra and the GMRT.

What is missing are those really spectacular discoveries that grab the public's attention- namely, a new Earth like planet, or planets in general. Why haven't Indians been able to announce the discovery of a planet or planet like body in outer space, as yet?

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 22 May 2011 22:57

It takes established leaders like Prof Swaroop to build a GMRT, but a lot more young hungry 20 and 30 yr olds in the peak years of their productive and creative lives to make use of them to create history. Even in case of a more recent discovery of water on the moon by an Indian Satellite Mission the story is never told like they do in massa with each discovery. A lot of attention can be gained proper story telling on science subjects to the general public.

kmkraoind · Post by **kmkraoind** » 23 May 2011 10:09

US DoE to study cool-roofing solutions of Vadodara-based firm

Aesthetic Solutions' Coolwrap keeps buildings 14 degrees cooler

The US Department of Energy (DoE) is all set to study the eco-friendly roofing solutions developed by a Vadodara based firm Aesthetic Solutions that uses nano-technology and infrared reflective technology to keep a building cooler without using any solvents.

The product called 'Coolwrap' is expected to keep a building 14 degrees cooler and hence is an useful technology in the age of global warming.

Aesthetic Solutions will administer roofing solutions to two buildings identified by the US DoE in the cities of Nainital and Pantnagar in Uttarakhand. A team from the US department will come down to study 'Coolwrap' and see whether the product can be used as a technology to combat global warming.

'Coolwrap' was developed by a Jodhpur-based innovator D S Mittal who wanted to find cooling solutions for his house in the sweltering heat of Rajasthan. Mittal later passed on the technology to his daughter who founded Aesthetic Solutions in 2008.

While the product has been tested at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and PUT laboratories in Singapore, the company, as of now, has no plans to patent the technology. "We formalised the contract with the US DoE this month and will soon begin work on the rooftop solutions at two buildings identified by the department. They will then study the installations.We also plan to set up a bigger production unit. By patenting we might expose the formula. hence, we are first looking to expand our management and production skills for which we are looking to incubate at the Centre of Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A)," said Neetu Sharad Jain, founder of Aesthetic Solutions.

The company that is into insulation, roofing solutions, water-proofing, reflective cooling technology was awarded the best start-up firm at a 15-day workshop at CIIE in October 2010.

At present, Aesthetic Solutions has offices in Vadodara, Bhopal and Jodhpur is looking to expand internationally as well. Mumbai-based Akruti City Limited, Kohinoor Constructions and Alstom's hydro equipment manufacturing facility at Vadodara are some of firms who have already utilised the eco-friendly roofing solutions for their buildings.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 17 Jun 2011 20:01

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/scienc ... 112390.ece

Gamma ray telescope getting ready at Hanle

Known as the Major Atmospheric Cerenkov Experiment (MACE) facility, the Observatory here will be the only such facility in the eastern hemisphere, and at an altitude of 4,300 m above the mean sea level.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 22 Jun 2011 06:00

MIT appoints Anant Agarwal (IITian) as director of its Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)

GuruPrabhu · Post by **GuruPrabhu** » 23 Jun 2011 09:24

Bade wrote:http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/scienc ... 112390.ece
Gamma ray telescope getting ready at Hanle

Known as the Major Atmospheric Cerenkov Experiment (MACE) facility, the Observatory here will be the only such facility in the eastern hemisphere, and at an altitude of 4,300 m above the mean sea level.

Bade Saar, another paper tiger, useless before it is commissioned. "eastern hemisphere" is an H&D saving exercise. Every nanha mujahid knows that astronomy/astrophysics only cares about northern and southern hemispheres as distinct observational regions.

[because earth rotates around the N-S axis, what is "eastern" is "western" 12 hours later onlee

]

MACE is obsolete in both hemispheres that *matter* -- HESS in sounthern and VERITAS in northern rule the roost. Google them. Then check out MAGIC in the Canary Islands. MACE is a Xerox Khan (but legal copy, not photochor) effort of MAGIC.

Alas, reality sucks. But trust DDM to save H&D by swallowing "eastern hemisphere" in astrophysical context.

MACE would be a northern hemisphere gamma-ray cherenkov telescope that will have minor advantage in term of lower energy threshold because of its unprecedented height of more than 13,000 feet (4300 m). The proposed 5x5 project in Chile of 5 telescopes at 5,000 m will take that away also.

Indian science needs better ideas than INO and MACE which are "also ran" before they start running.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 23 Jun 2011 22:45

Sirji, is there shame in being an "also ran" when compared to a "never ran" ?

GuruPrabhu · Post by **GuruPrabhu** » 24 Jun 2011 00:58

No shame -- just no bang for buck.

Sort of like Bangladesh being last in the test cricket ratings is better than BDesh not playing tests at all.

If there is improvement upwards, then it is all worth it. I don't see signs of that - at least not yet, when it comes to Mega Science in India. Lower budget items like GMRT do much better - even though bang is low, buck is low also, and the ratio is more reasonable.

I hate to compare to Pands, but they have launched Daya Bay project which will be the best in the world and are now furiously working on making a world class Jie Ping underground lab.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 24 Jun 2011 01:18

The underground lab cavern is already ready is what I had read in PhysToday a while back in record time. Aren't they also at the South Pole establishing a research station for physics experiments.