Monday, September 30, 2013

Remembering Amar Gopal Bose

The Bengali surname Bose packs rich history. Sir Jagdish Chandra Bose, scientist extraordinaire. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, freedom fighter. Prof Satyendra Nath Bose, after whom is named the boson in particle physics.
And yet, elsewhere in the world, when anyone carrying that surname is asked the question: “Ah, Mr Bose. Any relation…?” he knows they’re talking about just one Bose, the one who was alive until Friday.
Amar Gopal Bose was a pioneer in modern acoustics. He was founder and chairman of the company whose products carry the Bose name into millions of homes and offices across the world. He was that rare combination of scientist, engineer, academic, and star entrepreneur (he made it to the Forbes 2007 list of the world’s 400 richest people). He’s in the US National Inventors Hall of Fame, alongside Thomas Edison, Graham Bell and the Wright Brothers.
Amar Gopal Bose was an Indian American academic and entrepreneur. An electrical engineer and sound engineer, he was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for over 45 years. He was also the founder and chairman of Bose Corporation.
Amar Gopal Bose, Indian-American entrepreneur and academic behind the revolutionary sound systems of Bose Corporation, died on July 12 at the age of 83 in Wayland, Massachusetts.
Dr. Bose was born on November 2, 1929, in Philadelphia, to an American schoolteacher and Noni Gopal Bose, a freedom fighter and Calcutta University physicist who fled to the U.S. in 1920 after being imprisoned for opposing British rule in India.
When his business of importing coconut-fibre doormats from India failed after the U.S. suspended non-military shipping during World War II, Noni Bose came to rely on the early business success of his son’s venture, which offered radio repair services in the basement of their suburban home.
By the end of the war, father Bose had become a firm believer in young Amar’s immense aptitude for practical electronics. In 1947, he was said to have borrowed $10,000 to help his son enter the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), even if he was admitted “by the skin of my teeth,” as Dr. Bose later recalled.
Born: November 2, 1929, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Died: July 12, 2013, Wayland, Massachusetts, United States
Nationality: American
He concluded that it was not just the production of sound but also its perception that made for good listening. As a result, he would incorporate the principles of this field, called psycho-acoustics, into the mantra of Bose Corporation. One of the first products to come out from the company's stable based on psycho-acoustics research, the 1968 Bose 901, is still a mainstay of its product line-up. Throughout Dr. Bose's term as Chairman and Technical Director of the company, Bose Corporation chose to stay private and away from investors who would be concerned mostly with bottom lines. Consequently, the company could pursue long-term research – without immediate deliverables - that saw it become the brand of choice for many carmakers and architectural installations in the 1980s and after. Dr. Bose did not believe in the notion of ‘retirement age’, letting the company he founded enjoy his mentorship, and managerial and technical expertise until his passing. Bose Corporation’s emphasis on sustained original research came at a cost, which was reflected in its price tags for consumers. But the company’s products today enjoy an impeccable reputation that, true to its founder’s spirit, reflects its penchant for innovation and creativity. Dr. Bose is survived by two children, Vanu and Maya, from his first marriage with Prema Bose, his wife, Ursula Boltzhauser, and a grandchild.
  “My father’s 66-year relationship with MIT was an integral part of his life. He would often talk about his mentors, professors Ernst Guillemin, Norbert Wiener, Y. W. Lee and Jerome Wiesner, as having played critical roles in shaping his life and work. It was because of everything that MIT did for him that my father was so pleased to be able to give back to MIT through his gift.”....Vanu G. Bose ’87, SM ’94, PhD ’99, son of Dr. Bose, said,
Amar Bose ’51, SM ’52, ScD ’56, a former member of the MIT faculty and the founder of Bose Corporation, has died. He was 83.

Dr. Bose received his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and doctorate from MIT, all in electrical engineering. He was asked to join the faculty in 1956, and he accepted with the intention of teaching for no more than two years. He continued as a member of the MIT faculty until 2001.

Amar Bose quotes:
At 13, I realized that I could fix anything electronic. It was amazing, I could just do it. I started a business repairing radios. It grew to be one of the largest in Philadelphia.
Amar Bose
I loved music, and in my ninth year at MIT, I decided to buy a hi-fi set. I figured that all I needed to do was look at the specifications. So I bought what looked like the best one, turned it on, and turned it off in five minutes, the sound was so poor.
Amar Bose
I had studied violin from age 7 to 14.
Amar Bose
The excitement level for me working on projects is really not a bit different from when I was 26.
Amar Bose
The prejudice was so bad in the United States at that time that a dark person with a white person would not be served in a restaurant. My father, mother, and I would try it occasionally. We would sit there, and the food would never come.
Amar Bose
The food we ate was Indian, and both my mother and father were very deep into the ancient philosophy of India, so it could well have been an Indian household.
Amar Bose
ray dolby

#thankfully shared and consulted from:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/amar_bose.html
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/obit-amar-bose-0712.html
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/amar-bose-of-sound-is-dead-at-83/article4911652.ece
http://www.bose.com/remember/index.html
http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/1860726/report-remembering-amar-gopal-bose

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Remembering Ray Dolby

Ray Milton Dolby,(January 18, 1933 – September 12, 2013

was an American engineer and inventor of the noise reduction system known as Dolby NR. He was also a co-inventor of video tape recording while at Ampex

He was the founder of Dolby Laboratories. Dolby died of leukemia on September 12, 2013, at his home in San Francisco at the age of 80.

Dr. Ray Dolby founded Dolby Laboratories, Inc. in 1965 and built an environment where scientists and engineers push the limits of sight and sound. Dr. Dolby's pioneering work continues to inspire technologies that fuel the imagination of the entertainment and communications industries and his legacy of innovation will be felt for decades to come.
"Everybody laughed off what we were trying to do in creating a video recorder. You can't imagine the amount of snickering that went on in that late 1952 period when we were trying to build our first video tape recorder. Let's say we'd go into the lunch room or the coffee room to get a cup of coffee, and the other engineers would say, 'he's still working on that stuff? It's never gonna work."...........In his three-and-a-half hour Archive Interview, Ray Dolby (1933-2013) discusses his early interests in technology and music. He describes tinkering with tape recorders and starting to work at Ampex while still in high school (even getting national security clearance at age eighteen to work on classified projects).

Ray Dolby Quotes



On Success:

—"I was never a gold-digger, or an Oscar-digger, or anything like that. I just had an instinct about the right sort of things that should be done in my business. So all these things just fell into place."
—"I think I was both lucky and I was also straightforward with people, and I think they liked that attitude."
—"There is no major next step. It's a matter of constantly being aware of one's environment, of keeping track of what's happening in the various industries that we're operating in and just sort of sensing what's possible and what's not possible, what's needed, what's not needed—just having all your antennae going, sensitized to all the signals that are out there."

On Inventing:

—"I've often thought that I would have made a great 19th century engineer, because I love machinery. I would have liked to have been in a position to make a better steam engine, or to invent the first internal combustion engine; to work on the first car. All my life, I've loved everything that goes; I mean bicycles, motorcycles, cars, jeeps, boats, sail or power, airplanes, helicopters. I love all of these things, and I just regret that I was born in a time when most of those mechanical problems had already been solved and what remained were electronic problems."
—"Remember that most of my life was that of an adventurer, not of somebody who is trying to invent something all the time. I wanted the experience of traveling to many parts of the world. Inventions were part of my life, but they didn't overtake everything that I was doing."
—"To be an inventor, you have to be willing to live with a sense of uncertainty, to work in this darkness and grope towards an answer, to put up with anxiety about whether there is an answer."
some sound related blog post:
sound wave
sound frequency
infrasonic sound
ultrasonic sound
physics of sound
acoustic resonance
wave studio tips

#picture and text thankfully shared from:
http://www.dolby.com/gb/en/about-us/who-we-are/remembering-ray-dolby.html#
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Dolby
http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/ray-dolby


Sunday, September 15, 2013

Epic journey of Voyager 1

Mankind's historic leap into interstellar space.
In the same way that Sputnik carried us out of the Earth's atmosphere in 1957, Voyager has now carried us outside the sun's atmosphere.
"Voyager-1's milestone should cause us all to pause and consider that this tiny spacecraft, now almost 19 billion km from Earth, represents us as a single species - and not as we more often see ourselves - divided by our ideologies, nationalities and religious beliefs." 
Voyager 1 has entered interstellar space. 
The NASA spacecraft, which rose from 
Earth on a September morning 36 years ago, 
has traveled farther than anyone, or anything, in history.
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/profiles_edstone.html
Stone's exploration days began in 1961 
with his first cosmic-ray experiments on 
Discoverer satellites. He has been a principal 
investigator on nine NASA spacecraft missions 
and a co-investigator on five other NASA missions. 
One of his most famous contributions to space 
exploration is his continuing role as project scientist 
for the Voyager mission, whose twin spacecraft 
studied Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune 
between 1979 and 1989.
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/profiles_edstone.html
 Voyager 1 exits solar system in breathtaking achievement, 36 years after launch.
We're in interstellar plasma. In theory, that meant you could tell when Voyager 1 had left the solar system simply by periodically checking the plasma density. The heliopause is relatively hot and low-density, while interstellar space is cold and high-density.
picture shared from: Beth Waltz
This graphic shows the main evidence that 
Voyager 1 has reached interstellar space. 
The blue line shows particle density, 
which dropped as Voyager 1 moved away 
from the sun, and then jumped again after it 
crossed the “termination shock” that is where 
the sun’s solar wind (particles streaming from 
the sun) slows down. 
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
http://www.universetoday.com
Of course, as Carl Sagan pointed out at the time, Voyager is far from any actual planets -- 
and only getting farther. 
It will be 40,000 years before the spacecraft encounters another planetary system. 
If phonographs and 8-tracks seem outdated now, just imagine how they’ll look then.

Given the distance, it takes about 17 hours for Voyager's signals to reach 
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory here.

Voyager 1 launches from the Kennedy Space Center 
on Sept. 5, 1977.  
Credit: NASA

The lonely probe, which is 18.8 billion kms from Earth and hurtling away at 38,000 mph, has long been on the verge of bursting through the heliosphere, a vast, bullet-shaped bubble of particles blown out by the sun. Scientists have spent this year debating whether it had done so, interpreting the data Voyager sent back in different ways.
But now it is official that Voyager 1 passed into the cold, dark and unknown vastness of interstellar space, a place full of dust, plasma and other matter from exploded stars. The article in Science pinpointed a date: August 25, 2012.

People behind the mission: 
Dr. Ed Stone and colleagues 
discuss Voyager findings.
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/profiles_edstone.html 


Finding the Solar System’s Edge
The solar wind flows outward from the sun traveling at one million miles (1.6 million kilometers) an hour, a bath of energetic particles that's blasted off the solar surface and into space, where it surrounds our star like a bubble.
At its edges, the solar wind piles up into the "interstellar wind," a cloud of cooler charged particles that suffuse the thin vacuum of space between stars.
Surprise! Galaxy, Sun's Magnetic Fields Aligned
Scientists were surprised by NASA's finding that the galaxy's magnetic field is apparently aligned in the same direction as the sun's, forming a "magnetic highway." Space scientists had generally assumed that the galaxy's magnetic field would have some other direction.
Pasadena, California: The spacecraft's technology was laughable by today's standards: it carried an eight-track tape recorder and computers with 240,000 times less memory than a low-end iPhone. When it left Earth 36 years ago, it was designed as a four-year mission to Saturn, and everything after that was gravy.
But Voyager I has become - unexpectedly - the Little Spacecraft That Could. On Thursday, scientists declared that it had become the first man-made object to exit the solar system, a breathtaking achievement that NASA could only fantasise about back when it was launched in 1977, the same year that Star Wars was released.
Said Donald Gurnett, a professor of physics at the University of Iowa and the co-author of a paper published Thursday in the journal Science about Voyager's feat. "I mean, consider the distance. It's hard even for scientists to comprehend."
Even among planetary scientists, who tend to dream large, the idea that something they built could travel so far for so long and pierce the sun's reach is an impressive one. Plenty of telescopes gaze at the far parts of the Milky Way, but Voyager 1 can now touch and feel this unexplored region and send back detailed dispatches. Given the distance, it takes about 17 hours for Voyager's signals to reach NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory here.

voyager 1 picture credit

http://en.wikipedia.org
The Voyager 1 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram (1,590 lb) space probe launched by the US space agency, NASA, on September 5, 1977 to study the outer Solar System and interstellar medium. Operating for 36 years and 9 days as of 14 September 2013, the spacecraft communicates with the Deep Space Network to receive routine commands and return data. At a distance of about 125 AU from the Sun as of August 2013, it is the farthest man-made object from Earth.
Voyager under construction in the 1970s. (NASA)
picture credit: http://www.washingtonpost.com
http://en.wikipedia.org

On September 12, 2013, NASA announced that Voyager 1 had entered interstellar space on August 25, 2012, making it the first man-made object to do so. As of 2013, the probe was moving with a relative velocity to the Sun of 17 kilometres per second (11 mi/s). The amount of power available to the probe has decreased over time and will no longer be able to power any single instrument by 2025. http://en.wikipedia.org

#For latest updates on Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/

  
To mark the occasion, NASA unveiled the first Voyager 1 recording of the sound of interstellar space, offering the probe's strange, otherworldly take on its new frontier. The sounds are produced by the vibration of dense plasma, or ionized gas; they were captured by the probe's plasma wave instrument, NASA officials wrote in a video description. [Voyager 1's Journey to Interstellar Space: A Photo Tour]
"When you hear this recording, please recognize that this is an historic event. It's the first time that we've ever made a recording of sounds in interstellar space," Don Gurnett, principle investigator for the Voyager plasma wave investigation, said in a news conference.

Voyager 1 is expected to keep sending back data - with a 23-watt transmitter, about the equivalent of a refrigerator light bulb - until roughly 2025.



Historic moments in Voyager 1 journey
Capturing the earth and moon for the first time
On Sept. 18, 1977, Voyager 1 took three images 
of the Earth and Moon that were combined into 
this one image. The moon is artificially brightened 
to make it show up better. Credit: NASA 
http://www.universetoday.com

Voyager 1 pale blue dot. 
Image credit: NASA/JPL
http://www.universetoday.com
Prometheus, a small potato-shaped moon of Saturn, 
shown in this Voyager 1 picture interacting with 
the planet’s F ring. Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI 
http://www.universetoday.com
Encaladus, a moon of Saturn, 
as shown in this Voyager 1 image. 
Credit: NASA 
http://www.universetoday.com
Saturn’s moon Titan lies under a thick 
blanket of orange haze in this Voyager 1 picture. 
Credit: NASA
http://www.universetoday.com
Io’s blotchy volcanoes are clearly visible 
in this image from Voyager 1. Credit: NASA 
http://www.universetoday.com

Thankfully consulted/shared from:
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/profiles_edstone.html
http://www.universetoday.com/104729/10-historic-moments-in-voyagers-journey-to-interstellar-space/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24068221
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/09/12/
http://www.theverge.com
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130911
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci-tech/

Monday, September 9, 2013

Emergence of life style diseases in India

Hospital Based EMTs project launched by 108 Sanjeevani Express - See more at: http://www.odishaeye.com/hospital-based-emts-project-launched-by-108-sanjeevani-express/#sthash.HEgE5CrH.dpuf
Hospital Based EMTs project launched by 108 Sanjeevani Express - See more at: http://www.odishaeye.com/hospital-based-emts-project-launched-by-108-sanjeevani-express/#sthash.HEgE5CrH.dpuf
Hospital Based EMTs project launched by 108 Sanjeevani Express - See more at: http://www.odishaeye.com/hospital-based-emts-project-launched-by-108-sanjeevani-express/#sthash.HEgE5CrH.dpuf
Raipur,Chattisgarh, June 23: Health Department of Chhattisgarh Government has formally launched the Hospital Based EMTs project. These projects will be undertaken by the EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians) of GVK EMRI 108 Sanjeevani Express. - See more at: http://www.odishaeye.com/hospital-based-emts-project-launched-by-108-sanjeevani-express/#sthash.HEgE5CrH.dpuf
Young generation is becoming soft target of paralytic attack..!!
'Tension' and 'life style' is a big causal factor..!!

survey report/dainik bhaskar/27.8.2013

Career tension, less sleep, high blood pressure, blood sugar, increasing cholesterol level, wine, cigarette....are the reasons behind this fast emerging ailment..!!
not only city-dwellers, even village youths are the sufferers..!!


This analysis is based on phone calls received and patients admitted then after by *108 Sanjeevani Express mobile unit services, from all over the Chhattisgarh state of India.


Age group (in years)           April 2013             May 2013            June 2013
                                          (No. of patients)    (No. of patients)   (No. of patients)

15-25                                          15                         15                       14
26-35                                          20                         16                       17
Out of all these numbers of patients, 75% are brain hemorrhage cases and 16% is epilepsy cases.



Classification of affected:
Self employed    46 %
Daily wages       17 %
Employed          14 %
House wife        10 %
Unemployed        8 %


In earlier times, these stroke cases were only common to the age 60, now the age factor has come to the half. Tension, high blood pressure, sugar, cholesterol, smoking and vine are the major factor for these cases in youth. (Dr.Chandra Mohan Singh, Neuro physician, Ambedkar Hospital, Raipur, Chhattisgarh)


 *notes on '108 Sanjeevani express in Chhattisgarh' state of India:
GVK Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) fondly known as ‘Sanjivani Express or 108 Ambulance service. The service was launched in Chhattisgarh on 25th Jan 2011.
sanjeevani express 
picture courtesy:dprcg.gov.in
The service is available 24x7 and is absolutely free of cost to everyone. For medical emergency, the 108 ambulance are equipped with all the requires medicines and medical equipments ranging from Suction machine, Oxygen Cylinder, Nebulizers, Glucometer, Electronic B.P. instrument, Pulse Oximeter to extrication tools, to handle almost any emergency situation.
When a caller dials 108 to report an emergency, the call lands at the 108 Emergency Response Center where the call taker will gather all the necessary information regarding type of emergency and the location of the emergency scene - where you are calling from i.e. District/Taluka /City/Town/exact location/landmark. After gathering the information either the 108 Ambulance, Fire vehicle or the Police is dispatched depending on the type of emergency. The Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) in the ambulance and Emergency Response Centre Physicians (ERCP) at the call center will provide professional pre-hospital care free of cost while transporting the victim in the ambulance to the nearest hospital of his choice.
108 Emergency Response Center has been set up in Raipur where all the calls to 108 lands up. The ambulances are strategically located in the districts for emergency handling and the service is available round the clock.  Right from making a call to rendering the necessary pre-hospital care in the ambulance and taking the victim to the nearest hospital, the entire service is free to everyone in Chhattisgarh.

#a related post link:
http://sciencedoing.blogspot.in/2013/09/medicine-sale-trend-and-shifting.html
 

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Medicine sale trend and shifting pattern of diseases in India

The last decade has seen a shifting pattern of diseases in India. 

 Diseases due to infections 
have dropped down from 57 to 41%. 

But percentage of life style diseases 
like various bone ailment and diabetes have gone up from 9 to 14%.
(report based on health sector research firm IMS-Health and market research firm Water House Cooper's study)



Medicines with highest sale, some indications for health of Indians:
Antibiotic are highly consumed medicines
Augmentin
Rs 2.942 billion

Most common cough and cold
Corex
Rs 2.862 billion
Phensedyl
Rs 2.826 billion

Analgesics and antipyretics are on third ladder
Voveran
Rs 2.63 billion

Diabetes: Increasing number of sickness
Highest number of diabetic patients of all the world are in India. At present we have 41 million diabetic patients, which will grow up to 73 million by 2025. Last one year has seen 29% sale rate of diabetic drugs.
Human Mixtard
Rs 2.611 billion
Glycomet-GP
Rs 1.708 billion
Typhoid
Monocef
Rs 2.374 billion
Infection threat is still looming large in our country


Indians purchased many medicines without consulting physician,
like as:  
Liver tonic
Liv.52
Rs 2.193 billion

Antiseptic
Betadine
Rs 2.001 billion 

Iron tonic
Dexorange
Rs 1.831 billion 

Dabur Chyavnprash
Rs 2.50 billion
Vicks
Rs 5.27 billion

Zandu balm
Rs 2 billion


Some interesting facts of Indian drug market,
which is of 740 billion:
#Medicines of Heart diseases and Neuro disorders were sold with a 22% growth rate in last one year.
#83% medicines are consumed in cities, only 17% in villages; while 67% of all the population lives in villages.
#We spend 8% on medicines of all our earning, it will go up to 13% by 2025.
#90% medicines are branded in India, only 10% medicines are generic and cheaper.

Medicine comprising percentage in Indian drug market:
Anti infections-17
Cardiac-12
Gastro-intestinal-11
Respiratory related-9
Analgesics-9
Vitamins/Nutrients-8
Anti diabetic-6
Gynaecoloy-6
Skin related-5
Neuro-5
Others-12.

#thankfully shared the dainik bhaskar/dated 25 August 2013, Sunday for the report based on health sector research firm IMS-Health and market research firm Water House Cooper's study.



Pineal gland, the mystical third eye

Pineal gland   It is a very small unpaired midline brain structure of endocrine gland, tiny as a rice grain size, situated laterally (anatom...