Maverick’s Blog

Category: Science

  • How to deliver an academic seminar?

    The delivery of a seminar in academia is one of the most important duties. Following is a guideline to give an accurate and proper seminar.

    1. Make the topic as convoluted as possible :The importance of your research is linked directly to how complex it sounds. Not how complex it really is, but how others perceive it. So use all technical jargons, opaque words and a lot of badly generated plots. In other words, at the end of the talk no one should have a single question to ask!
    2.  Don’t tell a joke: Of course you can’t tell a Dad-joke but you cannot joke about your research as well. Not even a witty joke. This is highly unprofessional behaviour.
    3.  Tone: We at academic seminars keep a very fixed and consistent intonation. This is strategically designed to make the audience fall asleep, which falls very well with our aim of avoiding questions at the end.
    4. Questions: It is your duty, as an elite member of the academic society to judge questions. If a question seems too complex, just call it “interesting”. Any question, that aligns with your bias is a good question and should be called out loudly that it is! (Sorry about the exclamation mark, emotions are not allowed in scientific discourse.) Any question which is a bit deep and “stupid” should be met with awkward silence and gestures so that such stupid people can be kept out of our elite seminars.
    5. Information overload: The best defence is always burying the opposition in paperwork. Same applies in academic seminars. Give so much information and slides that people skip the minutia and don’t have time to process the validity of the work, which is the best way to avoid questions that challenge your work and more importantly, force you to think! (Sorry again for the exclamation).

    These five golden rules are absolutely imperative to survive an academic seminar without being labeled stupid by your peers. As a speaker, you should pontificate, not to build a bridge but trample the curiosity beneath. Keep looking up at the stars and down at other people! 

  • Resonant Minds

    Back and forth goes the oscillating block.
    Having energy abundant in stock.
    Happy in its own periodicity,
    Even though it appears mediocrity.
    Alas, the imperative society,
    An interaction with forces too mighty,
    Makes the block behave strangely.
    Often dampened and stifled to its own nature.

    Einstein says when the phase of the driver,
    matches the natural frequency of the striver,
    resonance is reached, limits breached, yearnings screeched.
    Yet out of phase, if the driver was, the oscillation ceased.

    Divergence: a genetic defect or altruistic advantage?
    The topic needs a better vantage.
    Misunderstood, often portrayed as numinous and gifted,
    Yet the block's frequency remains natural and accreted.

    Resonance, resonates with the resonant mind.
    A mind that is of a different kind.
    Resonance emerges solely by external interaction,
    Since the mere rocking block likes to confide in the humdrum fraction.

  • The Pursuit of Life

    Amidst the vast Universe, are we alone?
    Are we unique to have a Sun which has brightly shone?
    I wonder, ponder, that on a scale grander,
    What it means to be alive?

    Two hundred billion galaxies discovered so far,
    A life like ours, yet none on par.
    There has to be! There has to be! says the insight,
    Yet none appear in sight.

    Entailing less extrospection and more introspection,
    We look for not the answer, but the question.
    What is life?
    One that is rife on Earth, but outside, a mere dearth.

    Our wish to find someone like us or someone entirely different—
    Or are they the same?
    For aliens they are, regardless of the claim,
    Bearing no resemblance to human descent.

    We are eccentric!
    A hyperbole, albeit we travel an orbit elliptic,
    Arrogant and Anthropocentric, a better fit,
    For a thought so impolitic, defended by extremity of the statistic.

    Would they be hostile? Would they be intelligent?
    A reflection of us, or a futile argument?
    A deep curiosity perversely juxtaposed,
    With creatures like us, having minds closed.

    Infinite with our limitless imagination,
    We picture them with fascination—
    Wicked, crooked, and evil,
    Projected onto the abstract.
    With seldom bouts of gracious inspiration,
    A thought deemed a vicious aberration.

    Reason and emotions together characterise this quest,
    A voyage of thought at none’s behest.
    A conscious mind questioning its rarity,
    A search for someone of an equal parity.
    Probability agrees, practicality declines.
    Within gloomy darkness, a silver line shines.

    Peeping in a narrow tube to see a broad Universe,
    An astronomer lays eyes to unveil the mystery,
    With a question living eons and an immortal history.
    The human in him asks the question, or does the scientist?
    Oblivious to the ontology, focused on the gist,
    He seeks to answer whether aliens exist.

    The fleeting timespan of human curiosity
    Is but a mere fluctuation, a jiffy in the cosmic scale,
    What is life? A question so subtle,
    The solution transcends humanity and aliens.
    For a conscious soul is profound,
    And habitable worlds abound.

  • The Call for Scientific Impressionism

    The words scientific impressionism could be oxymoronic for few. However, science is inextricably linked to art. Our research papers are not just about numbers and objective work, but also about making it accessible and comprehensible to the scientific community. This opens room for creativity.

    Credit – Pixabay (Free use license)

    Let’s venture in the past with the discovery of photography and the birth of impressionism in art. After this discovery, the artists lost their value since they could no longer beat an original picture in both landscapes and portraits. So they added their own impressions into their art.

    Coming back to the present. We see the rise of AI and especially publicly accessible AI platforms. It is in principle possible to use AI to convey ideas in a way that is more polished, precise, and prudent. This could be applied to scientific writing

    However, that hugely invalidates the artistic part of science. Originality should take precedence over the accuracy of what is written, to a certain extent. In other words, some accuracy should be compromised to respect originality. This brings us back to the call for scientific impressionism. As AI continues to become prominent, more thought is required by academic journals and scientific writing communities to protect human ingenuity.