[crosscap]

Hello fellow BHPians,

I am Jaydeep, aged 35. I am a theoretical physicist by profession. I do research in String Theory. At present, I am an assistant professor in the Dept. of Physics, NIT, Allahabad. I am from Kolkata. I did my Ph.D. from Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad. It was quite amusing that I came to the same old city afetr a gap of almost 7 years.

This post was long overdue. I thought I'd write it up one day, but could not do so, as I got busy with researching about my first car in India. I had been a passive listeners and learners for quite some time in this forum. I learnt a lot from the fellow BHPians during that period. Later on, I started contributing myself and started my own thread in "What Car?" section.

I cherished all along my childhood that I would become a driver one day, rather a train driver. Sounds quite odd, huh? Yes, I am obsessed with all sorts of machines and mechanical systems. This desire secretly pushed me to take up research in physics as my career. But honestly, whenever I see those big engines whistling past me in a station, I start dreaming about it being driven by myself.

I am now inching towards the final stages of my car purchase in India. I would like to thank all of you who helped in all possible way to shape my ideas and help take the correct decision. What a great forum to be a part of!

With best wishes for Holi,
Happy driving,
Jaydeep

[Nitin]

Welcome aboard,Jaydeep..
Better late than never,when it comes to an intro.

Train driver! Now that probably makes you the 1st person on the forum with such an interest.

Have a good time here..

[C6H12O6]

jaydeep bhai,

ki khobor. another kolkatan.

[crosscap]

Originally Posted by Nitin

Welcome aboard,Jaydeep..
Better late than never,when it comes to an intro.

Train driver! Now that probably makes you the 1st person on the forum with such an interest.

Hi Nitin, thanks for your comments. If possible, someday take a ride on the ICE train in Germany, running at 300 km/hr between Nuremberg and Munich. I sat behind the driver's cabin, separated from the passenger's compartment by a transparent glass. I could see all of the dashboard panels with all sophisticated gadgets, his revolving chair and certainly part of the front-view through the windshield glass. I really envied that fellow. I wish, I could be in his place.

[crosscap]

Originally Posted by C6H12O6

jaydeep bhai,

ki khobor. another kolkatan.

Hello C6H1206, namaskar. I am doing fine. How are you doing? kamon achen?

Your nickname is cute : is it the number plate of your car?

[revvedup]

Welcome Jaydeep Sir, you must be first physicist on the forum. Wow you're into research in string theory, it was one of my favourite fields of interest earlier, sadly I do not find time to study much of it nowdays. I had one simple question for you if everything is composed of strings then what are the strings themselves made of ?

Originally Posted by crosscap

Hello C6H1206, namaskar. I am doing fine. How are you doing? kamon achen?

Your nickname is cute : is it the number plate of your car?

The difference between physicists and chemists, they interpret it as a number while chemists end up interpreting it as a chemical formula.

[C6H12O6]

Originally Posted by crosscap

Hello C6H1206, namaskar. I am doing fine. How are you doing? kamon achen?

Your nickname is cute : is it the number plate of your car?

lol, no. My wife just came back from India so i got her to pick me up a custom plates from India. My plates are going to be 78T6 on my car.

Let me see if you guys can figure it out.

ta charra khubi bhalo bhai-jaan. shob kichu chole jacche.

[crosscap]

Originally Posted by revvedup

Welcome Jaydeep Sir, you must be first physicist on the forum. Wow you're into research in string theory, it was one of my favourite fields of interest earlier, sadly I do not find time to study much of it nowdays. I had one simple question for you if everything is composed of strings then what are the strings themselves made of ?

The difference between physicists and chemists, they interpret it as a number while chemists end up interpreting it as a chemical formula.

Ha, ha.. revvedup, I goofed up that simple formula of sugar, right?
I read 'O' as zero.

Going back to serious topic, strings are made of none. It's not a classical object, rather a quantum one. Hard to visualize, but that's what it is.

I am really surprised to find somebody in this forum who heard and read about string theory. What a fantastic forum to be. I spent most of the time in this forum.

Kidnly take a look at my thread. If you have any suggestion, kindly let me know.

[Xehaust]

Hey Jaydeep,
Guess more people have heard of it than you think. I am aged 20 and i have also heard of it. Though im not from a science background, (Commerce & Business, im going to graduate from BMS - Bachelor Of Management Studies) i love intellectual topics like quantum physics and so on. It stimulates the grey cells and is of immense interest to me.

The funny part is, by co-incidence on this thread, ive always hated chemistry. I had taken up science in the 9th & 10th and was very very bad at chemistry as nor would it interest me and hated mugging the formulas. Was pretty bad at it but luckily always just about managed to pass. Found biology and physics pretty easy to cope up with. Finally, in the ICSE board exams after 10th, i passed in science with good marks.

I believe a basic knowledge of science, the type given to you in 9th & 10th, is a must for anyone and everyone. Helps you a lot to understand things in life later on.

Oops, sorry for hijacking and making it all about me Coming back to the topic, i heard about String theory and lots more through this wonderful series by BBC. It is called BBC Horizon. My best friend is doing engineering and he introduced me to all this. Poor chap is studying in Durgapur though we live in Mumbai. The series is very well presented and makes it very easy for the layman to understand all this. Not to mention fantastic editing and discussions.

Particularly loved the part about gravity in string theory wherein it is observed that we are not losing gravity to another dimension but rather gravity itself is leaking into our dimension!!! Else we would not have gravity!!! Crazy stuff.

I also love the topic of 7 intelligences by Gartner. Absolutely fantastic.

I think ill leave the discussion at that and perhaps we can continue it in a thread created by you later on or something Cheers to joining this wonderful forum.

Now let me see how i can help you, am heading to your thread right away.

EDIT: Also just saw your profile and realised you are interested in Mac OS X. Fantastic, we will get along pretty well. Love Leopard and im using it right now. I think Mac OS X is light years ahead of windows in terms of usability, reliability and creativity. An added bonus is the design of the hardware of all apple products. Almost forgot to mention how much more productive it is than windows. I dont hate windows, but in comparisn, ....what comparisn...haha. Point proven when Vista was launched which is just a copy of Mac features integrated into windows.

[snaronikar]

Welcome to the forum. It really rocks and welcome to our group of 35+.

BTW, have you travelled in Shimkanzen, it also belongs to the same category of ICE train. Only difference was, I was a passenger and I'am also fascinated of the gadgets they use in these kind of trains and aeroplanes. I have to be behind these things someday. But not sure whether this dream will come true...:-)

[dezmo007]

Welcome aboard friend

[hondadude]

Originally Posted by crosscap

I am really surprised to find somebody in this forum who heard and read about string theory. What a fantastic forum to be. I spent most of the time in this forum.

If reading Brian Greene's book (partially) and watching Discovery channel program based on that book qualifies as *heard and read*, then count me as someone who has heard about string theory.

Welcome to this wonderful forum! While everyone on this forum is an automobile enthusiast in a way, you would also find great writers (Sam), Photographers (Rudra) and tons of others talented folks.

[crosscap]

Originally Posted by Xehaust

Hey Jaydeep,
Guess more people have heard of it than you think. I am aged 20 and i have also heard of it. Though im not from a science background, (Commerce & Business, im going to graduate from BMS - Bachelor Of Management Studies) i love intellectual topics like quantum physics and so on. It stimulates the grey cells and is of immense interest to me.

Hey Xehaust, we are going to be good friends. We have so many things on common. I am glad to know that people from very different areas do find the subject of quantum physics very fascinating.

Originally Posted by Xehaust

The funny part is, by co-incidence on this thread, ive always hated chemistry. I had taken up science in the 9th & 10th and was very very bad at chemistry as nor would it interest me and hated mugging the formulas. Was pretty bad at it but luckily always just about managed to pass. Found biology and physics pretty easy to cope up with. Finally, in the ICSE board exams after 10th, i passed in science with good marks.

Same here. My passion for physics was triggerred by the so called "additional" subject which we tok in 9th grade. I chose Mechanics and that did the magic upon me.

Originally Posted by Xehaust

I believe a basic knowledge of science, the type given to you in 9th & 10th, is a must for anyone and everyone. Helps you a lot to understand things in life later on.

I agree.

Originally Posted by Xehaust

Oops, sorry for hijacking and making it all about me Coming back to the topic, i heard about String theory and lots more through this wonderful series by BBC. It is called BBC Horizon. My best friend is doing engineering and he introduced me to all this. Poor chap is studying in Durgapur though we live in Mumbai. The series is very well presented and makes it very easy for the layman to understand all this. Not to mention fantastic editing and discussions.

You have watched one of the most authentic popular series on String Theory. Very often, people, in the name making it simple, turns the subject into a fiction. Common men should be aware of the fact that it's very hard to put all the works of 25-30 years of cumulative research into a very simple and lucid format. BBC did a very good job. Kudos to them.

Originally Posted by Xehaust

Particularly loved the part about gravity in string theory wherein it is observed that we are not losing gravity to another dimension but rather gravity itself is leaking into our dimension!!! Else we would not have gravity!!! Crazy stuff.

Oh, boy! You know a lot many of the latest developments in the field. This is a brilliant idea and need to be tasted. I must add that from the end of this year we, the high energy physicist are going to start a very big experiment at LHC in CERN, Geneva where, we hope a lot many of these new ideas will be verified. So keep an eye on the newspapers/channels. It would take at least 2-3 years at least to analyse the data.

Originally Posted by Xehaust

I also love the topic of 7 intelligences by Gartner. Absolutely fantastic.

I also like his idea very much.

Originally Posted by Xehaust

I think ill leave the discussion at that and perhaps we can continue it in a thread created by you later on or something Cheers to joining this wonderful forum.

Okay, I shall try to do so one day.

Originally Posted by Xehaust

Now let me see how i can help you, am heading to your thread right away.

I have already read your feedack. Those were truly informative. Thanks a ton!

Originally Posted by Xehaust

EDIT: Also just saw your profile and realised you are interested in Mac OS X. Fantastic, we will get along pretty well. Love Leopard and im using it right now. I think Mac OS X is light years ahead of windows in terms of usability, reliability and creativity. An added bonus is the design of the hardware of all apple products. Almost forgot to mention how much more productive it is than windows. I dont hate windows, but in comparisn, ....what comparisn...haha. Point proven when Vista was launched which is just a copy of Mac features integrated into windows.

I just can not believe it. I thought it would be very difficult to find somebody in India outisde the scientific community who have some interest in Mac OS X : Windows, windows... everywhere.... I love to work with Leopard. I can not think of my professional life without it. Did you try Tiger? It was quite an innovative OS to work with. You are absolutely right! Mac is miles ahead of Windows; simply no comaprison. Vista had blatantly copy-n-paste the ideas from OS X. It's so intuitive. I never read its manual or help, yet I could decipher how some new thing can be done. Users thought process match so well with the creators'. It's difficult to explain in words. Those who have hands on experience, can understand what I am trying to get at. I hope, someday Indians would learn that pc or laptop is not synonymous with ms windows. There are something else in the world to be explored, like Mac or linux.

Originally Posted by snaronikar

Welcome to the forum. It really rocks and welcome to our group of 35+.

Oh! What a relief! I thought I am the eldest person in this forum.

Originally Posted by snaronikar

BTW, have you travelled in Shimkanzen, it also belongs to the same category of ICE train. Only difference was, I was a passenger and I'am also fascinated of the gadgets they use in these kind of trains and aeroplanes. I have to be behind these things someday. But not sure whether this dream will come true...:-)

No I never travelled there; saronikar, you are right. Those gadgets look so fascinating. I always wonder if I have a chance to try those at least once in my lifetime.

Originally Posted by hondadude

If reading Brian Greene's book (partially) and watching Discovery channel program based on that book qualifies as *heard and read*, then count me as someone who has heard about string theory.

Oh my god! I can not believe it. People here have even read and watched the series "Elegant Universe"? It's fantastic. There should be some awareness in the common people about what we are doing. After all, it's public money that we are using to do these kind of researches. I must add that we have very bright and active string theorists from India who in the recent past had made invaluable contributions to the developments to this subject.

Originally Posted by hondadude

Welcome to this wonderful forum! While everyone on this forum is an automobile enthusiast in a way, you would also find great writers (Sam), Photographers (Rudra) and tons of others talented folks.

No doubt about that. Certainly, I shall check their posts. Thank you for giving me the names.

[revvedup]

Actually I too had an oppurtunity to watch Brian Green's series. Very nicely explained I must say. And keep on doing the good work Sir, it would be exciting to to know exactly how our universe started and how all the forces would be united one day and we won't have to learn all of them by different names and learn lots of formulas for each one of them. In fact this same question drove me to atleast partially reading Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time. At one point of time all I wanted to do this was do reaserch on this topic, but sanity prevailed and I got back to doing my usual mundane coursework. Ok I will stop here, we must discuss all this in seperate thread of course started by you with an excellent writeup.

And MAC OS X, how did you come to experience this amazing piece of software, considering that you do not have a computer background ? Must say you must be one geeky professor .

[crosscap]

Originally Posted by revvedup

Actually I too had an oppurtunity to watch Brian Green's series. Very nicely explained I must say. And keep on doing the good work Sir, it would be exciting to to know exactly how our universe started and how all the forces would be united one day and we won't have to learn all of them by different names and learn lots of formulas for each one of them. In fact this same question drove me to atleast partially reading Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time. At one point of time all I wanted to do this was do reaserch on this topic, but sanity prevailed and I got back to doing my usual mundane coursework. Ok I will stop here, we must discuss all this in seperate thread of course started by you with an excellent writeup.

Thank you. I shall try to start a separate thread on this topic. Time is a big constraint for me.

Originally Posted by revvedup

And MAC OS X, how did you come to experience this amazing piece of software, considering that you do not have a computer background ? Must say you must be one geeky professor .

Hey revvedup, don't underestimate us. During the time of our Ph.D. we do all our job on linux. Saves a lot of money for the govt. Moreover, most of the scientific programs in high energy and condensed matetr communities are unix-friendly. So you may say we become geeky even before we earn the doctorate degree. Most of the scientists are very computer-savvy.