India's Contribution to Science & Technology

[ashish raval]

Well this guy is talking the ultimate truth about Indian Mathematics. Since the modern India is now rediscovering its roots in science and technology. We are now coming out of brainwashed mindset severely suppressed under british rule. I am 'elephantish' about India's future.

[Raj]

Vande mataram..... .....


PROUD TO BE AN INDIAN.

Let the world know what we stand for.


India never invaded any country in her last
100000 years of history.
...
Sanskrit is the mother of all the European
languages.
....
Andrew Theogift Jeyanth S

Engineer

I don't have time to go through all your "facts" . I just checked couple of your "facts" which I know are not true.

The Chola Dynasty of medieval India was a dominant seapower in the Indian Ocean, an avid maritime trader and diplomatic entity with Song China. Rajaraja Chola I (reigned 985 to 1014) and his son Rajendra Chola I (reigned 1014-42), who were from the Dravidian kingdom in southern India, sent out a great naval expedition that occupied parts of Myanmar, Malaya, and Sumatra.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_warfare


There are several non- Indo-european languages in Europe. For example, Hungarian.
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761 ... guage.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uralic_languages

[shyamd]

Unsung Newtons of India
- Researchers trace calculus roots to wizards of Kerala
[quote]New Delhi, Aug. 13: Isaac Newton may have developed one of the most elegant and useful tools of mathematics using ideas that had originated in Kerala more than 200 years before his time, new research suggests.

Science historians have long attributed the origins of calculus — a bedrock of mathematics, physics and even economics — to Newton and other 17th-century European mathematicians.

But researchers in Britain have gathered evidence that a basic component of calculus, developed by mathematicians in Kerala during the 14th and 15th centuries, was passed on to Jesuit scholars who may have carried it to Europe.

George Gheverghese Joseph at the University of Manchester and Dennis Almeida at the University of Exeter analysed mathematical contributions of Madhava, Nilakantha and other mathematicians who lived in Kerala between 1340 and 1540. They also searched through obscure Jesuit documents scattered in archives in Italy, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands.

“We have strong circumstantial evidence that mathematics from the Kerala school influenced the development of modern mathematics in Europe centuries later,â€

[sanjaykumar]

Well it is somewhat suprising Mahadeva did not write in Sanskrit.

BTW this Joseph guy has a superb command of language. no haranguing but makes the point with the required amount of comtempt and even hostility.

[svinayak]

http://www.physorg.com/news106238636.html

Indians predated Newton 'discovery' by 250 years Discussion at PhysOrgForum
Newton
A little known school of scholars in southwest India discovered one of the founding principles of modern mathematics hundreds of years before Newton according to new research.

Dr George Gheverghese Joseph from The University of Manchester says the 'Kerala School' identified the 'infinite series'- one of the basic components of calculus - in about 1350.

The discovery is currently - and wrongly - attributed in books to Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibnitz at the end of the seventeenth centuries.

The team from the Universities of Manchester and Exeter reveal the Kerala School also discovered what amounted to the Pi series and used it to calculate Pi correct to 9, 10 and later 17 decimal places.

And there is strong circumstantial evidence that the Indians passed on their discoveries to mathematically knowledgeable Jesuit missionaries who visited India during the fifteenth century.

That knowledge, they argue, may have eventually been passed on to Newton himself.

Dr Joseph made the revelations while trawling through obscure Indian papers for a yet to be published third edition of his best selling book 'The Crest of the Peacock: the Non-European Roots of Mathematics' by Princeton University Press.

He said: "The beginnings of modern maths is usually seen as a European achievement but the discoveries in medieval India between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries have been ignored or forgotten.

"The brilliance of Newton's work at the end of the seventeenth century stands undiminished - especially when it came to the algorithms of calculus.

"But other names from the Kerala School, notably Madhava and Nilakantha, should stand shoulder to shoulder with him as they discovered the other great component of calculus- infinite series.

"There were many reasons why the contribution of the Kerala school has not been acknowledged - a prime reason is neglect of scientific ideas emanating from the Non-European world - a legacy of European colonialism and beyond.

"But there is also little knowledge of the medieval form of the local language of Kerala, Malayalam, in which some of most seminal texts, such as the Yuktibhasa, from much of the documentation of this remarkable mathematics is written."

He added: "For some unfathomable reasons, the standard of evidence required to claim transmission of knowledge from East to West is greater than the standard of evidence required to knowledge from West to East.

"Certainly it's hard to imagine that the West would abandon a 500-year-old tradition of importing knowledge and books from India and the Islamic world.

"But we've found evidence which goes far beyond that: for example, there was plenty of opportunity to collect the information as European Jesuits were present in the area at that time.

"They were learned with a strong background in maths and were well versed in the local languages.

"And there was strong motivation: Pope Gregory XIII set up a committee to look into modernising the Julian calendar.

"On the committee was the German Jesuit astronomer/mathematician Clavius who repeatedly requested information on how people constructed calendars in other parts of the world. The Kerala School was undoubtedly a leading light in this area.

"Similarly there was a rising need for better navigational methods including keeping accurate time on voyages of exploration and large prizes were offered to mathematicians who specialised in astronomy.

"Again, there were many such requests for information across the world from leading Jesuit researchers in Europe. Kerala mathematicians were hugely skilled in this area."

Go thru the discussion.
They are unable to reconcile that it is different ethnicity

http://forum.physorg.com/index.php?showtopic=17070

Hello I just registered, and I was the one who posted that Newtons achievements is by no means getting diminished. Here are some of my observations,

1. The very post started of this thread posted in a panicking tone, so did many users in the middle as if Newton is losing popularity.

2. Seeing that panick it propelled me to post a report on Indian telegraph where it clearly stated that Newton is where he is, remains undimished.

3. The level of panick like the fellow guest has shown in his arguments reflects the psychological issue of facing facts verificable by scientifical means.

QUOTE

I admit you have defeated me! The Indians invented the toilet, yet today they still *** in the streets (or in Dell sponsored toilet streets), don't eat the cows even at the point of starvation, yet the Greek slaves did the same thing 2000+ years ago, and shame on them! Now you've told me alright!

Forget about who influenced who, since Alexander's Greek/European army never conquered part of India thousands of years before bringing their science/philosophy with them, and the Silk road didn't reach all the way from the Byzantium to China bringing new ideas to an otherwise isolated and backwards people....and by the way don't you guys still bury female newborns alive, and also have a classification of your people according to the darkness of the skin?
Did you even read about what Gandhi called Africans, and how he despised on being put in the same vote as them by the ruling white class?

Forget about "it suits me" revisionist history, and read about the truth once in a while. I'd, too, would love to believe the great conspiracy of a contingent of white scientists stealing the great idea of the door-knob from some poor black man, yet I can't help being reduced to uncontrollable laughter at the thought.


I don't doubt they might have made these discoveries all on their own, yet their very isolation would have precluded much influence on western culture. If a tree falls in the forest...


I think I can challenge you on each of the points raised above based on logic and science, Your hatred and racism triumphs your level of intellect. Social evils as part of cultural evolution has nothing to do with the civilization that once existed.

Regarding revisionist history whose talking of history? We are talking Science!, It proves nothing now ofcourse if you admit of proving your acknowledging the orientalist history, poppy puff theories like bronze age came from Europe to India, your discrediting the very name of this forum because logic and science including genetics says otherwise.

Ofcourse your each point can be challenged but that is not the topic or debacle of this forum nor I want to do that, so instead of touching the broader spectrum (indirectly means failing to argue logically on the right spectrum) and keeping your racist viewpoints on, you should get some REAL education so that you can argue with logic and science and not with myths and fictions. Or perhaps you should simply go to the forums where your viewpoints are accepted triumphing fiction/myth over science/logic.

I say again Newtons achievement remains diminished and he was a great scientist.


QUOTE

Clearly a great theoretical achievement that CLEARLY explains why the first ever airplane flew over , and the first ever car, and train, rolled over, Indian soil.

I'm still kinda confused over how you people ever influenced cultures that didn't even know that you even existed.


No offence but you really need to learn things first other than just flowery English and you need to stop ranting that you knoweth all without proper scientifically verificable proof on the table, The Indian civilization in various forms has cross-influenced many civilizations and got influenced in the process as well, and has had trade with them and there was cross-cultural influences among other civilizations like mesopotamia, roman civilization et al.

I just made that short and simple to understand for you.

[mandrake]

acharya the above reply was by me, I hope I replied and framed the reply properly. It was so weird to see the unnecassary panic among them even after saying tens of times Newtons fame is not getting diminished, why is it hard for someone to accept something verificable by SCIENCE and LOGIC?

Cross posting from two forums,

It is interesting that only now they are discussing these matters. Almost a century ago Brijendranath Seal had shown how bhAskara of the yAdava period had developed the concept of the derivative as in differential calculus. bhAskara had used the term tatkAlika for the derivative. He clear distinguished speed that is sthUlagati and the differential of motion or sUkShma-gati that is velocity and supplies a formula which is essentially the derivative of motion at a point (or slope of the tangent of the curve) to calculate velocity. bhAskara himself clarifies in golAdhyAya that his use of the derivative is an improvement over the approximations of brahmagupta before him. The key point to note is that calculus among the Nambuthiris did not evolve in isolation but is a part of the older mathematical tradition of India. Based on the coeval yAdava kings we can place bhAskara' s birth around 1114 CE, well before Leibniz or Newton.

[durvasa]

Wow! So we Indians should be proud of the fact that we never invaded anyone in 100000000 years but every Tom Mo and Harry invaded and screwed us??

Or we should be proud of the fact that so many scientists, doctors, engineers could not find satisfying and well-paying jobs in India and had to leave their country??

I would be proud when Tiranga gets unfurled on Mecca, Medina, Hindukush renamed as Islamkush/Hankush and top global scholars live in Nalandas and Kanchis, happily pursuing their scientific interests among hundreds of top-class Indian scientists, even though they have to occasionally stave off RM Bhais trying to milch ‘economic rent’ payable to commoners.

That time has not yet come, but it’s not that far off.

[mandrake]

Wow! So we Indians should be proud of the fact that we never invaded anyone in 100000000 years but every Tom Mo and Harry invaded and screwed us??

Or we should be proud of the fact that so many scientists, doctors, engineers could not find satisfying and well-paying jobs in India and had to leave their country??

I would be proud when Tiranga gets unfurled on Mecca, Medina, Hindukush renamed as Islamkush/Hankush and top global scholars live in Nalandas and Kanchis, happily pursuing their scientific interests among hundreds of top-class Indian scientists, even though they have to occasionally stave off RM Bhais trying to milch ‘economic rent’ payable to commoners.

That time has not yet come, but it’s not that far off.

No offence but a part of your post I dont agree with, lets not give the oppurtunists a single chance to raise fingure against this refers to the tiranga stuf, Your first point is what I agree with you completely, We have literally lots of catching up to do.

When the very user posted such post (regarding % of indians working) it should have been deleted, this thread is a excellent thread and should be kept in archives...imho.

Rest Assured we all want India to shine, and we need to do more towards achieving that.

[negi]

The point is all over the world scientific community is very protective and in a state of denial when any new entrant questions the already established conjectures or attributes an achievement or discovery to some other individual.

Aryabhata,Bhaskara,Brahmagupta,Panini,Susruta,Varahamihir (pardon me dont remember all) all are known to have contributed to their respective fields what west/EU claims to be theirs.Problem is if at all their exists a documented thesis of the work of above mentioned greats why not decipher them and put them to use by incorporating in our curricula .Just have a look at the number of foreign universities doing research on areas like vedic mathematics and ayurveda vis a vis India (I wont be surprised if former stumble upon some of this and build upon it further to claim having made a new discovery we will be found wanting again ).

I am sure works like Leelavati and Varahamihir's calculation of nCr deserve to be in our curricula.

[negi]

Just to give a brief idea of advancement in science and technology in India . Varahmihir in his treatise 'Bharat Samhita' describes the types of earthquakes and the ways to predict the occurence of the same

"Varamihir writes that earthquakes occur due to the peculiar tilt of the Prithvi (earth) towards the northern side. Today modern astronomers have proved that the earth is tilted on its axis.

"Varamihir further writes that due to this tilt the Northern Hemisphere of the earth is more likely to be earthquake prone. Historically, research has shown that 80 per cent of the total earthquakes take place in the northern half of the earth."

Varamihir has written that human beings are animals and just like animals, human beings too show signs of an impending earthquake. "But due to ahamkar (pride) about his intellect human beings fail to recognise signs that animals who are much more developed feel." Today, many scientist have found that in earthquake ravaged areas changes in animal and human health are due to certain positively and negative charged ions that are released into the air.

Describing other earthquakes Varamihir has said that the Vayumandal earthquake is preceded by peculiar smoke emissions in the sky, strong winds that uproot trees, and destroy jungles. It is also characterised by blunted rays of sun.

The Agnimandal earthquake can be predicted if indicators like "ulka varsha", ie falling stars, are visible in the sky. If the temperature soars and clouds are reduced, water tables deplete and intensity of the sun increases.

One week before the Varunmandal earthquake strange lights are seen similar to lightening during rains. There is a sudden flow of insects especially bees, writes Varamihir.

link

[Sanjay M]

Okay, I'm posting this here, since I couldn't find a better thread category, but feel that some person(s) from this forum should participate:

An Indian science fiction contest is being held, with a deadline of September 30, 2007:

http://www.thescian.com/?q=node/16

Even though the deadline is not that far away, they're only asking for submissions under 6000 words -- so a short story, in other words.

That could be doable for anybody here who's interested. At least somebody from BR should be able to come up with a Tom Clancy genre of story.

Besides, with all the hot air here, you'd think that 6000 words would be a piece of cake.

[ramana]

One more on the infinite series from Pioneer, 20 August 2007

From Kerala to infinity

In their stunning new research, Dennis Francis Almeida and George Gheverghese Joseph show how mathematicians in Kerala developed the infinite series more than 250 years before Isaac Newton is credited to have done so. It was Jesuit missionaries who carried Kerala's knowledge to Europe

According to literature the general methods of the calculus were invented independently by Newton and Leibniz in the late 17th century after exploiting the works of European pioneers such as Fermat, Roberval, Taylor, Gregory, Pascal, and Bernoulli in the preceding half century.

However, what appears to be less well known is that the fundamental elements of the calculus including numerical integration methods and infinite series derivations for 'pi' and for trigonometric functions such as sin x, cos x and tan-1 x (the so-called Gregory series) had already been discovered over 250 years earlier in Kerala.

These developments first occurred in the works of the Kerala mathematician Madhava and were subsequently elaborated on by his followers Nilakantha Somayaji, Jyesthadeva, Sankara Variyar and others between the 14th and 16th centuries. In the latter half of the 20th century there has been some acknowledgement of these facts outside India.

There are several modern European histories of mathematics which acknowledge the work of the Kerala school. However it needs to be pointed out that this acknowledgement is not necessarily universal. For example, in the recent past a paper by Fiegenbaum on the history of the calculus makes no acknowledgement of the work of the Kerala school.

However, prior to the publication of Fiegenbaum's paper, several renowned publications detailing the Keralese calculus had already appeared in the West. Such a viewpoint may have its origins in the Eurocentrism that was formulated during the period colonisation by some European nations.

In the early part of the second millennium evaluations of Indian mathematics or, to be precise, astronomy were generally from Arab commentators. They tended to indicate that Indian science and mathematics was independently derived.

Some, like Said Al-Andalusi, claimed it to be of a high order: "(The Indians) have acquired immense information and reached the zenith in their knowledge of the movements of the stars (astronomy) and the secrets of the skies (astrology) as well as other mathematical studies. After all that, they have surpassed all the other peoples in their knowledge of medical science and the strengths of various drugs, the characteristics of compounds, and the peculiarities of substances."

Others like Al-Biruni were more critical. He asserted that Indian mathematics and astronomy was much like the vast mathematical literature of the 21st century - uneven with a few good quality research papers and a majority of error strewn publications.

Nevertheless a common element in these early evaluations is the uniqueness of the development of Indian mathematics. However by the 19th century and contemporaneous with the establishment of European colonies in the East, the views of European scholars about the supposed superiority of European knowledge was developing racist overtones.

This inclination for ignoring advances in and priority of discovery by non-European mathematicians persisted until even very recent times. For example there is no mention of the work of the Kerala School in Edwards' text on the history of the calculus nor in articles on the history of infinite series by historians of mathematics such as Abeles and Fiegenbaum. A possible reason for such puzzling standards in scholarship may have been the rising Eurocentrism that accompanied European colonisation. With this phenomenon, the assumption of White superiority became dominant over a wide range of activities, including the writing of the history of mathematics.

The rise of nationalism in 19th century Europe and the consequent search for the roots of European civilisation, led to an obsession with Greece and the myth of Greek culture as the cradle of all knowledge and values and Europe becoming heir to Greek learning and values.

While we understand the strength of nationalist pride in the evaluation of the achievements of scientists, we do find difficulty in the qualitative comparison between two developments founded on different epistemological bases. It is worthwhile stating here that the initial development of the calculus in 17th century Europe followed the paradigm of Euclidean geometry in which generalisation was important and in which the infinite was a difficult issue.

On the other hand, from the 15th century onwards the Kerala mathematicians employed computational mathematics with floating point numbers to understand the notion of the infinitesimal and derive infinite series for certain targeted functions.

-- Excerpted from 'Kerala Mathematics and its Possible Transmission to Europe' by Dennis Francis Almeida, University of Exeter & George Gheverghese Joseph, University of Manchester. This was originally published in Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal.

What we need now is research to tie the origin of sauces to French advent in India and the transmission of that knowledge to improve French cooking!

[Vipul]

Bose Einstein feat in India.

Ten days before they got married, physicists Sanjukta Roy and Saptarishi Chaudhuri gave themselves what they consider was their best wedding gift — and physicists across India may have reason to celebrate.

The researchers at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, led by physicist C.S. Unnikrishnan, have produced for the first time in India an exotic state of matter, first predicted 82 years ago by Albert Einstein and Satyendra Nath Bose.

The TIFR scientists used magnetic fields and lasers to cool atoms to an extremely low temperature — a whisker above minus 273.15 C, or absolute zero — and created a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC), sometimes called the fifth state of matter.

Physicists Eric Cornell, Carl Wieman, and Wolfgang Ketterle in the US beat the world to a BEC in 1995 — for which they got the Nobel Prize in 2001. Since then, dozens of laboratories across the world have produced BECs. None in India.

“It’s nice to — finally — have a BEC in the land of Bose,â€

[abhischekcc]

Congratulations to the team producing the BEC!!!

[Rahul M]

This BEC by Prof Unnikrishnan's group is infact the largest in the world till date !!

[sanjaykumar]

admit you have defeated me! The Indians invented the toilet, yet today they still *** in the streets (or in Dell sponsored toilet streets), don't eat the cows even at the point of starvation, yet the Greek slaves did the same thing 2000+ years ago, and shame on them! Now you've told me alright!

Forget about who influenced who, since Alexander's Greek/European army never conquered part of India thousands of years before bringing their science/philosophy with them, and the Silk road didn't reach all the way from the Byzantium to China bringing new ideas to an otherwise isolated and backwards people....and by the way don't you guys still bury female newborns alive, and also have a classification of your people according to the darkness of the skin?

Is it fair to quote some white trash who has taught himself to put hs paws on a keyboard when he should be out lynching Black people?

However this does bring up a point on discrimination against non-Christian, non-White people in science. I visited an institute in Alberta where there was only one Chinese and no Indians from about 30 workers. University of British Columbia was only a few years ago of limits to non-White faculty. Until Michael Smith its biggest affiliation was by Khorana.

Japan is committing $20 billion (IIRC) to claim several tens of Nobels in the next 30 years.

[Vick]

A mountainous heap of Indian science and research articles from the Indian Academy of Sciences.

If one uses the search function, one might even be able to find scintilating articles like:
Indian explosions of 11 May 1998: Analysis of regional Lg and Rayleigh waves

All the above methods consistently gave yield estimates of 58 ± 5 kt (refs 2, 3). This estimate is in agreement with the yield of the thermonuclear device of POK2 obtained as 50 ± 10 kt from the post shot radio-chemical analysis5.

Yield estimation of Indian nuclear tests of 1998

[emsin]

I had a hilarious time on an American forum a few years back..i went asked the yanks in it..Name me 5 things that Americans have invented totally without using help from India in some way in the scientific, technological arena..and the trailor trash and everyone was first on..hey are you like serious..? I said yes..so one started with baseball and was reminded about scientific and tech..another said computers..i told him computer is not a single invention as many components are in it..so he said Pentium..was reminded about Dham. Another smartass told me he uses AMD k6..but slithered into the background when reminded it was again Dham..then cam wireless..which i claimed was Bose and not Marconi as verified by IEEE..believe me..it was after tremendous difficulty and many hours that they were able to put up 5 items..even then i'd not played the decimal system card..thought i'd leavethat for another day.
But it was great fun..i could make out for some it was changing the thinking as they verified links that it was an Indian who invented wireless and not Marconi..

Yes i forgot they mentioned nukes too...but then i mentioned Photonics and the mass energy work done by S Bose- Einstein and Ramans in photonics which made the A Bomb possible..Also that Oppenheimer along with these people made nukes possible. No contribution of Xian America..

It was really hilarious..

[emsin]

This one can be put up on yank forums..

Over hundred years ago. In 1895, full eight years before the Wright Brothers` first flight at Kitty hawk, North Carolina, USA, Shivkar Bapuji Talpade and his wife gave a thrilling demonstration flight on the Chowpatty beach in Mumbai………The purpose of this article is to let the world know that the first plane in the modern era was made in India.

http://www.ivarta.com/columns/OL_040312.htm

[emsin]

I did'nt know where exactly to post this..but may be of interest to some..

link

[quote]AMSTERDAM: Most of the universe - 96%, to be exact - is made of dark matter and energy whose composition we simply do not fathom, a Nobel laureate told physicists gathered this week to explore the intersection of the infinitely small and the infinitely large.

"We think we understand the universe, but we only understand four per cent of everything," said James Watson Cronin, who won the 1980 Nobel for physics by proving that certain subatomic reactions escape the laws of fundamental symmetry.

According the most recent models, he said, 73% of cosmic energy seems to consist of “dark energyâ€

[sanjaykumar]

In 1895, full eight years before the Wright Brothers` first flight at Kitty hawk, North Carolina, USA, Shivkar Bapuji Talpade and his wife gave a thrilling demonstration flight on the Chowpatty beach in Mumbai With an ion engine.





I think

[Vipul]

Indian physicists trap light in 'nano' soup.

Indian scientists have demonstrated how to trap and retrieve light using a soup of micro and nano sized magnetic spheres - a major milestone in the path toward developing optical computers.

The researchers claim that their unique mixture of tiny particles works at room temperature, holds photons, the particles of light, for far longer than other systems, and can also be tuned with a magnet to store any wavelength of visible light.

The discovery made by a team led by Rasbindu Mehta at Bhavnagar University in Gujarat was first announced in the November issue of the Current Science journal published by the Indian Academy of Science in Bangalore.

Now, a report published in the latest issue of the Royal Chemical Society of London's journal Chemistry World says the discovery could pave the way for photonic 'microchips' that use photons for processing optical information in the same way electrons are manipulated in silicon chips in today's electronic devices and computers.

For over a decade, scientists have been working towards light-based computing that could be many times faster than electronics as light travels at a speed of approximately 300,000 km per second.

Any microchip designed to process optical signals has to store photons, perhaps by slowing or trapping light in carefully designed crystals. Mehta's team coated micron-size magnetite spheres with oleic acid and dispersed them through a ferrofluid, which is a suspension of much smaller magnetic nanoparticles.

When an external magnetic field was applied to the fluid, which was held in a glass cell, laser light passing through the medium was trapped inside. Photons escaped when the field was switched off.

"It is fantastic," said Hema Ramachandran, who heads the photonics unit at the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore, and was one of several physicists who witnessed the demonstration.

"It was a chance discovery," said Mehta's colleague Rajesh Patel.

While investigating the optical properties of their transparent fluid, the researchers noticed that in a certain magnetic field range, light scattering - both forward and backward - became zero.

"We thought the light got trapped inside," said Patel. "So, we switched off the laser (which was shining light through the system) and then the magnetic field, and there it was - a flash of colour lighting up our dark room."

Mehta told IANS that his group is yet to develop a theory to explain this novel phenomenon. He believes that the spheres are aligned by the magnetic field and form micro cavities - filled by the ferrofluid - in which the photons get trapped, resonating back and forth.

Changing the external magnetic field alters the refractive index of the cavities that in turn decides which wavelength of light is trapped by the system.

And what is more, according to Mehta, photons can be stored for as long as the magnetic field is switched on.

"This is the first visual evidence of storage and retrieval of light for a long and controllable duration. In all other reports, storage time of photons is restricted to a few nanoseconds," he said

Experiments by physicists in the US have involved stopping light altogether by using a gas of sodium or rubidium atoms chilled to near absolute zero, though that system is too complex and not practical for microchips.

Although Mehta's team seems to have chanced on a method for taming light that is simple, inexpensive and unsophisticated, its practical application is still years away.

[Rudranathh]

Indian craftsmen, artisans used nanotech 2000 yrs ago : Nobel laureate Robert Curl Jr
January 6, 2008

Visakhapatnam (PTI): Indian craftsmen and artisans used nanotechnology extensively about 2000 years ago to make weapons and long lasting cave paintings, a Nobel laureate of Chemistry said here.

However, the craftsmen were completely unaware that they were practising carbon nano-techniques that are the most sought after in the current age.

Citing examples of the famous Damascus blades used in the famous sword of Tipu Sultan and Ajanta Paintings, Nobel laureate Robert Curl Jr. said studies have found existence of carbon nano particles in both.

On the sword scientists found carbon nanotubes, cylindrical arrangements of carbon atoms first discovered in 1991 and now made in laboratories all over the world.

"Our ancestors have been unwittingly using the technology for over 2,000 years and carbon nano for about 500 years. Carbon nanotechnology is much older than carbon nanoscience," Curl said at the ongoing 95th Indian Science Congress here.

The 74-year-old scientist from the US shared the 1996 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Richard Smalley and Harold Kroto for the discovery of the carbon cage compounds, known as fullerenes.

Indian craftsmen used unique smelting techniques to manufacture the Damascus blades which led to nanotisation giving them a unique long-lasting edge.

They had the technology to make wootz steel, a 'high-grade' steel that was highly prized and much sought after across several regions of the world over nearly two millennia.

Wootz also had a high percentage of carbon, which was introduced by incorporating wood and other organic matter during fabrication.

India, for ages, was a leading exporter of this steel which was used to make Persian daggers which were quite popular in Europe centuries ago.

The technique to manufacture wootz declined steadily and has not been in use since the 17th century, Curl said.

[Dilbu]

Made in Mumbai, wanted by the world

The world’s smallest wearable cardiac monitor, a toffee-sized silicon locket, is almost ready at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B).

While the tiny computer that can store a week’s electrocardiogram (ECG) data awaits a manufacturer, it is already in demand. IIT engineers borrow it, rig some adjustments and the locket meant to monitor a heart without hospital visits measures tremors in buildings instead.

[ShibaPJ]

A great development, if claims are true.

Global eye on start-up converting garbage into fuel

T Raghavendra Rao, director, Sustainable Technologies and Environmental Projects (STEPS) filed for a global patent last year for his technique of converting waste — think plastic, sewage, slaughterhouse waste, hospital waste, petroleum byproducts — into liquid fuel and gas. And it’s easy on the environment, for the process does not emit heat-trapping gases that contribute to global warming.
...
The technology is winning rave reviews.

“We would like to see this powerful innovation commercialised around the world, not just Texas,’’ James Vance, business development manager of the global commercialisation group, IC2 Institute, told HT from the University of Texas. “We believe it should be able to convert most, and perhaps all types of hydrocarbon-based waste to fuel.â€

[Rudranathh]

Pioneer, Op-Ed, 7 Feb., 2008
India taught Arabs science
Second Opinion: Priyadarsi Dutta

Under the Abassid Caliphate in Baghdad (750-1258), the efflorescence of Islam's scientific genius was not as indigenous a development as Jim Al-Khalili claims in "Islam's forgotten geniuses" (February 3). "There is a certain analogy between civilisations and infectious disease. Both pass from one community to another, and whenever one breaks out, one of our first thoughts is, where did the infection come from?" said De Lacy O'Leary (How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs).

O'Leary reminds us that West Asia had long been exposed to Greek science and scholarship. Following Alexander's victory, the region became a part of the Seleucid empire. Greek science passed on to Arab hands through Christian Syriacs: "The Christian Church in its earliest period was essentially a Hellenising force. Its language was Greek and its first outspread was amongst those who were Greek in speech and culture, if not in race."

O'Leary has dealt with the influence of Indian scholarship and science on Arabs. He, however, believed that Indian influence was actually a rehash of fundamental Greek science developed in the University of Alexandria. Contemporary researcher and accomplished doctor Premendra Priyadarshi, in his book Zero is Not the Only Story, argues that Alexandria's science resulted from transmission of Indian knowledge through Alexander's conquest. The transmission of Hindu knowledge to Baghdad was still well known.

Mohammed bin Qasim led the Arab conquest of Sindh in 712. They set up several Junûd and Amsâr (military and civil colonies) in Sindh like Mansura, Kuzdar, Kandabel, Baiza, etc. Arab scholars who had migrated to Baghdad during the Caliphate of Mansur (753-774) carried with them two Sanskrit books Brahmasphutasiddhanta and Khanda-khadyaka. Arabs learnt the first principles of scientific astronomy from these.

Arabs also learnt Hindu numerals and hence these were called Hindsâs. During the Caliphate of Harun Al-Rashid (786-808), Arab scholars came to India to study science. Hindu physicians were invited to occupy top positions in Baghdadi hospitals.

"It was India, not Greece" says EB Havell in Aryan Rule in India, "that taught Islam... its philosophy, esoteric religious ideals and... most characteristic expressions in literature, art and architecture."

[Rudranathh]

IAS officer patents bi-piston combustion engine

Anupam Rana | Ranchi
February 08, 2008

Scientists works day in and day out to 'patent' their inventions, but a senior IAS officer of Jharkhand has also patented a product.

Principal secretary of Civil Aviation department AK Pandey has patented a rotary bi-piston internal combustion engine and compression, mainly used in automobile engines. The bi-piston engine can also be used in aircraft as well as railway engines.

The invention is aimed at revolutionising automobile industry all over the world.

In a traditional engine, the piston moves to and fro inside a cylinder and generates power for movement of vehicles. They are also very heavy. But Pandey's bi-piston will rotate and the engine made of it will be lighter.

After the invention of steam engine and later petrol and diesel engines, much development has taken place to increase the efficiency of engines. But the basic movement of piston remained to and fro inside the machine, says Pandey.

Pandey pointed out his bi-piston engine would reduce the weight of engines of vehicles like automobiles, aircraft and trains and ultimately revolutionise the industry. "Bi-piston engine will consume less fuel too. And it would be cost effective for the consumer to buy vehicles having bi-piston engine," Pandey said.

Pandey said his bi-piston engine is the advanced form as movement of pistons within the engines will be simple and reliable.

Pandey, who has done MSc physics and PHd in Nuclear Physics, used most of the Government holidays and weekends to design the piston for commercial use. However, he has not taken special holidays from the concerned department to complete his pet project.

Principal Secretary of department of science and technology, Jharkhand, AK Basu handed over the plaque of patent to Pandey at a regional seminar on Intellectual Property Rights organised by National Research Development Corporation (NDMC) in association with the Department of Science and Technology at a hotel in Ranchi on Thursday.

Basu applauded the efforts of Pandey for his dedication in inventing the 'engine' while performing jobs in the Government department in a different capacity. "I am sure this will inspire other Government officials as well as scientists to patent their inventions," said Basu.

NDMC Regional manager V Raghuram said that the Government undertaking was promoting the Government officials as well as scientists to patent their products. "And Jharkhand has become pioneer in areas of patenting. The dedicated senior IAS officer has patented his work, which is not so easy in the competitive world," Raghuram said.

---
Seminar on patent begins

Pioneer News Service | Ranchi
February 08, 2008

National Research Development Corporation (NDMC) in association with the department of science and technology, Jharkhand, has organised a two-day workshop to focus on the significance of Intellectual Property Right and innovation management mega event.

And to inform the scientists, academicians, industry professionals, technocrats about the nitty-gritty of the intellectual property rights. Around 100 delegates from Jharkhand, Bihar, North-Eastern and north-western States have assembled to take part in the workshop.

[Omar]

Xposted from Indian Education Thread:

Indian Scientific Output

Here is how India ranks compared to the rest of the world in terms of publications output in peer-reviewed journals over a 10 year period. (This data was obtained from the ISI Web of Knowledge Essential Science Indicators.)

Chemistry-11th
Physics-15th
Clinical Medicine-27th
Biochemistry-22th
Material Sciences-8th
Engineering-16th
Plant & Animal Science-21st
Geosciences-18th
Pharmacology & Toxicology-17th
Space Science-23rd
Molecular Biology and Genetics-28th

[sanjaykumar]

Molecular Biology and Genetics-28th

That would put it likely below Netherlands.

I don't understand why the Indians aren't at #2 or 3. This is not a very capital or equipment intensive field, although it is exceptionally fast moving.

[Vipul]

India's first permanent research station in the Arctic inaugurated.

[Vipul]

The Indian who made the Big Bang test necessary.

Of the three main past and present physicists behind the landmark proton-smashing quantum physics experiment in Geneva on Wednesday, one has a Nobel Prize, the other is waiting to find out if he has one, and the third never got one. The third man is the Bose of the ‘Higgs boson’ experiment — Satyendra Nath Bose. It is Bose after whom the sub-atomic particle ‘boson’ is named — probably the only noun in the English language named after an Indian (hence never capitalised).

The Large Hadron Collider experiment in Switzerland on Wednesday could not have happened without Bose and Albert Einstein.

In 1924, Bose sent a paper to Einstein describing a statistical model that eventually led to the discovery of the Bose-Einstein condensate phenomenon.

The paper laid the basis for describing one of the two categories of the elementary particles that make up an atom — one was boson, and the other came to be known as fermion, after the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi.

Einstein had already won the Nobel in 1921 for services to theoretical physics and the discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect, and Fermi won it in 1938.Decades later, in 1964, the British scientist Peter Higgs returned from a walk in the Scottish mountains to tell his colleagues that he had just experienced his “one big idea”, which could hold a clue to how matter in the universe got its mass in the billionth of a second after the Big Bang.

Higgs eventually came up with his theory of the Higgs boson, a boson that gives mass to all other subatomic particles that happen to interact with it in a ‘Higgs field’. The more they interact, the heavier they become. And the ones that don’t interact don’t gather mass.The theory could not only throw further light on the creation of the universe, but also help explain the shape of it.

Wednesday’s experiment at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland, where protons will be smashed against each other at great speed, will be the first attempt to actually observe the Higgs boson - nicknamed the ‘God particle’. So far, it is the last undetected elementary particle, also called a fundamental particle, going by the standard theory of particle physics.

Higgs, who is professor emeritus at Edinburgh University, is now widely tipped to win the Nobel, particularly if the Higgs boson is detected.

The first Nobels for physics in the 21st century went jointly to three Americans — Eric Cornell, Carl Wieman and Wolfgang Ketterle. The won it for creating the ‘condensate’ — a new type of matter — that Bose and Einstein had postulated.

According to Bose’s grandson Falguni Sarkar, six other physicists have won the Nobel for work in the area of Bose statistics. However, 34 years after his death, the Nobel continues to elude Satyendra Nath Bose himself.

Sharon Ann Holgate, a British science writer and broadcaster who made an acclaimed radio documentary on Bose for the BBC some years ago, said she had no doubt the Indian deserved a Nobel.

“I certainly do think he deserved the Nobel. When I was researching my documentary I was outraged that this man was so brilliant, yet so overlooked, perhaps because of institutionalised racism. No one gave a damn because he was an Indian,” she told IANS.

“I was really angry, and wanted to make him a bit more widely known.” Holgate added.

[Vipul]

Indian connection in Big Bang experiment.

The world's most powerful physics experiment that completed its first major test today in Europe breathes an Indian link with 30 scientists from India including a couple also behind the attempt to replicate the "Big Bang" that created the Universe 13.7 billion years ago.

The Indian flag flew high when the world's largest particle collider successfully fired a beam of protons all the way around a 27-km tunnel on the France-Switzerland border near Geneva in an attempt to unlock the secrets of the universe and study its formation.

Around 200 of the 2,000 scientists involved in the ten billion dollar multi-nation 'mother of all experiments' are of Indian origin.

India has made major scientific and technological contribution to this new atom smasher also called the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), according to scientists of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). LHC is expected to answer several facts of fundamental nature of the universe that remains a mystery after the World's costliest experiment.

Indian laboratories, led by Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT) at Indore, have contributed substantially towards construction of the accelerator (LHC) itself, with many components being fabricated by Indian industry and supplied to CERN, Prof Atul Gurtu, senior scientist, department of high energy physics, TIFR told PTI.

In the scientific side, two Indian teams are involved in different experiments. They included a scientist couple -- Sudhir Raniwala and his wife Rashmi-- from Jaipur. They are Associate Professors.

Sudhir Ranawala allayed safety fears about the high-speed collisions in the tunnel. "Cosmic rays in the universe send particles with much greater energies than those being achieved in the lab. So there is nothing to worry about," he said.

[Amber G.]

To add to Vipul's post - x post from Nukkad:
The LHC is ON!
Check out this picture
The leader of CMS experiment guy is Indian origin - T. Virdee.

[Amber G.]

Speaking about Bose, a funny anecdote (as told by his student, in a not-that-old issue of Physics today)

When Dirac (Famous Noble prize winning physicist - antimatter / Fermi-Dirac Statistics) was visiting Calcutta, after his lecture they got in a car for a drive to hotel. Prof Dirac and His wife got in the back seat, while the driver, Prof Bose, and one student got in the front.. another person was there and Prof Bose and this student started making room for him in the front too (They were trying to be polite to the guest and his wife and not crowd them) .. at this point Dirac was trying to tell this person to come in the back (as front seat was already crowded). Bose, without missing a beat said:
"No, You in the back follow Fermi-Dirac, and we in the front - Bose Einstein (statistics)." and everyone erupted in laughter..
(For those who are not familiar - Dirac statistics (eg followed by, fermions - eg electrons etc) allows only one particle per quantum state while Bose statistics (followed by bosons) allows many. Bose Einstein condensation is for bosons only )

Added later: Thanks to google : I can find this story here
Another well know anecdote about him (copied from wiki article)

Once the great scientist, Niels Bohr, was delivering a lecture. Bose presided. At one stage the lecturer had some difficulty in explaining a point. He had been writing on the blackboard; he stopped and, turning to Bose, said, "Can Professor Bose help me?" All the while Satyendranath had been sitting with his eyes shut. The audience could not help smiling at Professor Bohr's words. But to their great surprise, Bose opened his eyes; in an instant he solved the lecturer's difficulty. Then he sat down and once again closed his eyes

[SaraLax]

Indian connection in Big Bang experiment.

The world's most powerful physics experiment that completed its first major test today in Europe breathes an Indian link with 30 scientists from India including a couple also behind the attempt to replicate the "Big Bang" that created the Universe 13.7 billion years ago.

Indian laboratories, led by Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT) at Indore, have contributed substantially towards construction of the accelerator (LHC) itself, with many components being fabricated by Indian industry and supplied to CERN, Prof Atul Gurtu, senior scientist, department of high energy physics, TIFR told PTI.

Hope below is not a repost.
Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology's Newsletter from 2004 that gives Info on the Indian work with respect to the Precision magnet positioning system jacks for large hadron collider project of CERN

The LHC is housed in a tunnel having a circumference of 27km about 100 meters below the ground. It has more than 1600 superconducting magnets along its circumference for bending and focusing the beams. These huge magnet assemblies, each weighing more than 32 tons with a length of 15 meters, need to be positioned with a precision of 50 micrometer all along the 27km length. CAT, has conceptualized, designed & developed precision-positioning devices that allow precise positioning of these huge magnets in the tunnel and maintenance of these devices. These devices called precision magnet positioning system (PMPS) jacks enable one person to move the huge magnet and position it with a very high setting resolution. The jacks have to maintain these positions for a long time under the action of variable transverse forces. In fact the set position should remain within 100 micrometer when the transverse force reaches a value of 0.5 ton and within 1mm under a very severe transverse load of 8 tons.

Three jacks in a tripod configuration with proper layout are used under one magnet, which yield the required freedom as well as control for the alignment. A total of 6800 numbers of these devices are being made in Indian industry and being supplied to CERN under this agreement. More than 2400 jacks have been shipped to CERN, after successful manufacture and testing from Indo-German Tool Room, Indore and Avasarala Automation Limited, Bangalore. All 6800 PMPS jacks will be supplied by the mid of 2005.

[Rahul M]

RRCAT's is just the biggest contribution. numerous other Indian institutes have their own contribution to LHC. I know for example that a chip (used in ALICE IIRC) has been designed at SINP/VECC and made in India by SCL. many other DAE institutes are probably involved in similar projects.

ha, I found a paper on this very subject
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/aug252004/441.pdf

the LHC official page lists the India among participating nations but the names of individual institutes is yet to appear. (same with japan and russia)
http://lhc.web.cern.ch/lhc/Organization.htm

[ashish raval]

Higgs-Boson - Satyendra Nath Bose connection

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Bos ... 467548.cms

[SRay]

Another article on the Indian wootz steel used in Damascus swords. And an explanation of the distinct patterns and strength of the steel, and why the art died out.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+Myste ... 1611003676

[Vikramaditya]

Woaah what a fantastic thread !! .... I have been reading this for hours soo much I did not know ...

[svinayak]

http://satyameva-jayate.org/2007/01/12/ ... echnology/

Does no one remember the Indian contribution to Technology?

I came across this excellent, very powerful and well-researched article by �karigar�: Karnataki Karbon Nanotube Swords- forget S Indian Wootz!���

Please read in full and circulate widely. It is a shame that widespread ignorance still persists about our achievements in Sciences, Mathematics and various disciplines of technology.

While on the subject, please also have a look at one of my earlier articles: �Does no one remember the Hindu contribution to Mathematics?�

Some excerpts:

****************************�

Just got done reading the NY times article attached below. Apparently, “Cutting edge Technology” of Carbon Nanotubes & nanoscale wires of cementite, can be found in “Damascene swords” made out of “Wootz” steel, whose technology was perfected in ancient
India.

Oh the great Western (& Westernized Indian) media, & us, its uninformed, unsuspecting, & uncritical consumers!
Not many of us have been taught the solid base Ancient India had in the metallurgical Sciences/Arts (until the Western world swooped in to “civilize” us).��

�The Mehrauli pillar in Delhi, made in the Magadhan times, & rustless till today, is just dismissed as a “wonder” by us Western Educated Indians, in line with the rest of the world that doesn’t have time for Indian thought. Research , if any, is done by Westerners, who will of course, package it into their own systems (as seen in article below). And given time, the Indian element will be forgotten, as it has so often happened in the past & present.

Thus “Our” modern Metallurgy books can boast in typical fashion-“As a science, metallurgy has yet to celebrate its centenary, yet in its brief history it has amassed a tremendous store of knowledge. The ceremonial swords of the Sumarai (sic), the warrior aristocrats of
Japan, were the works of beauty & art a thousand years ago. The sword makers of Toledo & Damascus made their cities famous by their craftsmanship & the quality of their steel. These men knew nothing of the science of metallurgy though well practised in its art.”

[Ref: Preface for "Heat Treatment Fundamentals" By S Collard Churchill, first Pub. 1958 in UK by The Machinery Publishing Co Ltd.]

Now if “Wootz” steel is known to be the origin of the excellence of the “Damascus” & “Toledo” blades, and seemingly, an early example of that “cutting edge western innovation” of “NANOTECHNOLOGY”, wouldn’t the credit go to this steel & people who perfected it, rather than the swordmakers who after all were just using an “imported technology” ? But no.��

The author, in typical fashion, “Hail”s the “user” as the Nano technologist (�”All hail the great 17th-century nanotechnologist Assad Ullah!“) , and only mentions�in passing the “Technology” of “Wootz” steel he’s using. Guess one should be thankful for “Wootz” even being mentioned!
For more details on Wootz and Indian Metallurgy, etc, in general, refer to the following.�

Karigar has painstakingly compiled the evidence and references here�He deserves our gratitude for the work.�REF 1.

LINGUISTIC AVATARS OF WOOTZ: THE ANCINET INDIAN STEEL �(summarized by respected Historian DP Agrawal, Original By J. Le Coze ) Excerpt-This steel making process was practiced in peninsular India since great antiquity. The ancient Indian steel was known as Damascene steel in
Persia and was in great demand in the Persian courts of the First Millennium BC. Even Alexander was presented a sword made of such steel. Coze studied the etymology of the terms denoting steel. �Taking into account the fact that the names given to steel in different languages have always a technical content (hardness, resistance, etc.), Le Coze traced the transformation of the term Wootz, denoting the Indian crucible steel, through the Arab texts of the 9-12th centuries AD describing the preparation of the crucible steel named fulad. He discovered that fulad had an Indian origin of the word as transformed by Arab travellers.

Wootzis the name given to a crucible steel prepared in India. Coze informs that it first occurred in printed form in the 1795 Pearson’s report. This steel was abundantly studied in Western Europe during the 19th century AD because of its special characteristics: high hardness, difficulty in forging, unknown procedures, etc. However, the origin of the name itself is unclear even if it has been proposed by Yule and Burnell in the Hobson-Jobson Dictionary that the word Wootz could come from ukku in the Kannada language.

It must be noticed that, according to Hammer- Purgstall, there was no Arab word for steel, which explain the use of Persian words.
Fuladh prepared by melting in small crucibles can be considered as a steel in our modem classification, due to its properties (hardness, quench hardened ability, etc.). The word fuladh means “the purified” as explained by Al-Kindi. This word can be found as puladh, for instance in Chardin (1711 AD) who called this product; poulad jauherder, acier onde, which means “watering steel”, a characteristic of what was called Damascene steel in
Europe. In Russian the corresponding word is bulat and in Mongol bolot. In the 19th century AD, it was accepted as evident by European metallurgists that the ancient word bulat / fuladh and the newly introduced one Wootz represented the same kind of high carbon crucible steel (1-2wt % C) which should have been used by Muslim blacksmiths to forge the so called Damascene blades, the secret of which had been lost as was said by Russian and European metallurgists of that time.


Textures of ‘Wootz’: Techno-cultural insights on steel, cast iron & ferrous metals in South Indian antiquity�
by Dr.(Ms.) Sharada Srinivasan. (B.Tech, IIT, Mumbai, MA, SOAS, Ph.D., Archaeometallurgy,
Institute of Archaeology, London) National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bangalore, 560012Excerpt-�.the intriguing high-carbon ‘wootz’ steel for which India has been famed in antiquity and which forms an important part of its scientific heritage, from the point of view of exploring its antiquity and properties (with special emphasis on investigations on material from previously undocumented old production sites that were uncovered by the author in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in southern India.) ��European travellers and geologists such as Buchanan, Percy and Voysey from the seventeenth century onwards have described the production of ‘wootz’ steel ingots by crucible processes over large parts of southern India including Golconda in Andhra Pradesh, the former Mysore state (in Karnataka) and Salem district in Tamil Nadu. Cyril Stanley Smith (1980) has given an account of the European fascination with ‘wootz’ steel ingots from southern India and attempts to replicate it for industrial production which spurred the development of metallurgy and metallography in the 18 th-19th centuries, inviting the attention of scientists of the repute of Michael Faraday, inventor of electricity. Studies on some late medieval ‘wootz’ ingots have shown them to be of high-carbon steel (1-1.5% C), which was a novelty in Europe where only low-carbon steels (less than 0.8% C) had been in vogue.
Wootz ingots were also reputed to have been used to make the artistically patterned ‘ Damascus’ swords.

Indeed, ancient India deserves a special niche in the annals of western science not only for pioneering the semi-industrial production of metallic zinc and high-carbon steel, but also for indirectly spurring their modern metallurgical advances and metallurgical study in Europe leading to the Industrial Revolution , as pointed out in overviews by the author with S. Ranganathan on metallurgical heritage of mankind and on wootz steel (Srinivasan and Ranganathan 1997, 1998, 2003 in press).

As such, more studies have been made on iron in Indian antiquity than on steel. D. P. Agrawal, Bhanu Prakash, V. Tripathi and D. K. Chakrabarti have written on the development of iron metallurgy in ancient India while studies on the famed iron pillar have been made by T.R. Anantharaman, A. K. Lahiri and R. Balasubramanium.

As far as wootz steel is concerned, Thelma Lowe has extensively surveyed and technically studied crucible steel production sites in Konasamudram, while Martha Goodway, Paul Craddock and K.N.P Rao have made studies on the late medieval site of Gatihosahalli recorded by the European travellers. J. D. Verhoeven has simulated the production of Damascus sword blades of high-carbon steel and studied the formation of patterns, while O. Sherby has written on properties observed in ultra-high carbon steels produced under laboratory conditions such as superplasticity. � REF 3.NYT Article Below- (this caused my above piece)�

Damascus sabers contain carbon nanotubes, as well as nanoscale wires of cementite, giving them a moir� pattern. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/28/science/28observ.html
By HENRY FOUNTAIN Published: November 28, 2006All hail the great 17th-century nanotechnologist Assad Ullah!
Web Links: Carbon Nanotubes in an Ancient Damascus Sabre (Nature) �Actually, he was a swordmaker, one in a long line of smiths who forged the legendary weapons known as
Damascus sabers. They were strong yet flexible and supremely sharp, which European warriors first discovered, much to their misfortune, at the hands of Muslims during the Crusades. �The recipe for making Damascus steel was lost at the end of the 18th century, so no one knew the reasons for its remarkable qualities. But an analysis by 21st-century researchers in Germany provides a clue:Damascus sabers, they report in Nature, contain carbon nanotubes. �Using a transmission electron microscope, Peter Paufler of the Technical University of Dresden and colleagues looked at a very thin sample of steel from a saber made by Assad Ullah, who worked in what is now
Iran. What they saw seemed for all the world like carbon nanotubes, cylindrical arrangements of carbon atoms first discovered in 1991 and now made in laboratories all over the world. Further analysis confirmed that that was what they were.

“If you look at the spacing of the atomic layers in these nanotubes,” Dr. Paufler said, “the spacing is the same as reported by others studying mass-produced nanotubes.”The steel also contains nanoscale wires of cementite, an extremely hard carbon-iron compound, that were probably formed inside the nanotubes, like the filling in a cannoli. These nanowires give Damascus sabers another distinctive characteristic: a moir� pattern of banding on the steel.

Swordmakers used special high-carbon steel cakes, called wootz, which were made in India from iron ore that contained vanadium and other impurities. �Wootz also had a high percentage of carbon, which was introduced by incorporating wood and other organic matter during fabrication. Dr. Paufler said the vanadium and other impurities could have acted as catalysts to turn some of the carbon atoms in the steel into nanotubes during the heating and reheating of forging.

Of course, Assad Ullah and other swordsmiths would have had no idea that they were creating carbon nanotubes. “They just did tremendous empirical work,” Dr. Paufler said. “They optimized the procedure over centuries in order to get the most strength.”

—————- Paper cited in the article above-

At http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v4 ... htmlNature 444, 286 (16 November 2006) | doi:10.1038/444286a; Received 24 July 2006; Accepted 25 October 2006; Published online 15 November 2006 Materials: Carbon nanotubes in an ancient Damascus sabre M. Reibold1, 2, P. Paufler1, A. A. Levin 1, W. Kochmann1, N. P�tzke 1 and D. C. Meyer1

The steel of Damascus blades, which were first encountered by the Crusaders when fighting against Muslims, had features not found in European steels � a characteristic wavy banding pattern known as damask, extraordinary mechanical properties, and an exceptionally sharp cutting edge.

Here we use high-resolution transmission electron microscopy to examine a sample of Damascus sabre steel from the seventeenth century and find that it contains carbon nanotubes as well as cementite nanowires. This microstructure may offer insight into the beautiful banding pattern of the ultrahigh-carbon steel created from an ancient recipe that was lost long ago.

1. Institut fur Strukturphysik, Technische Universit�t Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany
2. Triebenberg Laboratory, Technische Universit�t Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany
3. Kr�llsstrasse 4b, 06766 Wolfen, Germany

Correspondence to: P. Paufler (Email): paufler@physik.tu-dresden.de�


--


Sometime ago, I had written a speech on behalf of L.N Mittal to Arcelor shareholders - amidst all the fuss.
Link at http://www.theglobalist.com/DBWeb/story ... oryId=5114

A quote from there:
“My name is Lakshmi Mittal. Many of you may only recently have heard of me. But what is going on right now, in fact, will become a familiar challenge of the 21st century � where far-away forces and people will increasingly impact, unexpectedly, upon our everyday lives.
“I am from India, where we have sought to cope with such forces for centuries. In our own industry, steel, I would like to note a statement by Sir Thomas Holland, the (British) Chairman of the Industrial Commission (in India), who in 1908 admired the ‘high quality’ of Indian iron. He even gave Indians credit for ‘the early anticipation of the process now employed in Europe for the manufacture of high-class steels”.”
….
The European Union’s Economic and Social Committee republished this “speech” as part of a debate on relocation.
I am sure it will be harder to get such facts into our school curriculum in India than into an EU official site.

Comment by Tosh Sheshabalaya | January 15, 2007