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Science at the Sabha - Session 1
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Jyothsna Mani
3:59
Good afternoon and welcome to the first session of "Science at the Sabha 2023" organized by the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), Chennai. The first session features Dr Parameswaran Ajith from the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Bengaluru and Dr Mitali Mukerji, Professor and the Head of Dept. of Bioscience and Bioengineering, IIT Jodhpur.
4:06
Meena Mahajan, Professor, IMSc introduces Dr Parameswaran.
4:07
The session kicks off with a talk on "Black Holes Through Different Windows" by Dr Parameswaran.
4:09
He begins by delving into a broad understanding of black holes, noting that there is a varied range of theoretical and computational studies that look into the evolution of the galaxy and black holes.
4:11
Looking into Albert Einstein's 'Theory of Relativity', he sheds light on the escape velocity of the Earth and describes how light is unable to escape the surface of objects.
4:14
Dr Parameswaran points out the early speculations surrounding the existence of black holes, by referring to ideas proposed by physicist John Michell and Einstein's 1915 general theory of relativity.
"Gravity is the curvature of spacetime, produced by mass/energy," he says, referring to Einstein's theory.
4:16
Throwing light on the concept of 'Einstein's Equations', Dr Parameswaran notes how the orbits of different planets are also influenced by the concept of 'space-time.'
4:17
4:19
He further dives into German physicist Karl Schwarzschild's mathematical solutions to 'Einstein's Equation' and notes that "everything falls into the central singularity, where (known) physical laws break down."
4:22
Dr Parameswaran explores varied ways of looking at the "event horizon" of a black hole, specifically focussing on how light coming from the area of the black hole needs more energy "to climb a gravitational potential well."
4:23
Raising the question of whether black holes could potentially exist in the physical world, he emphasises that when varied thermonuclear sources of energy are exhausted, a heavy star would then collapse which would lead up to the event of a black hole.
4:24
4:26
Dr Parameswaran also explains the historical assumptions made by physicists Robert Oppenheimer and Hartland Snyder, who derived mathematical solutions to calculate how black holes are formed in the universe.
4:28
Jumping to the 1960s, he throws light on how astronomers discovered 'compact, extremely bright and distant sources of matter', which they had denoted as 'supermassive black holes.'
4:31
4:32
Dr Parameswaran also posits that at larger distances, orbits around a black hole are similar to that of orbits around any other massive object in space.
4:33
Drawing an instance from how a group of astronomers observed a group of stars called Sagittarius, he notes that one could measure the mass of a black hole from the orbits of stars.
4:34
4:35
"To see the dramatic effects of the black hole, one has to zoom in further," says Dr Parameswaran. He stresses that one cannot have a stable light ring around any blackhole, when deeply observed.
4:38
Referring to the recent invention of the Event Horizon Telescope, Dr Parameswaran elaborates on how one could view the existence of a black hole, up-close with ease.
4:40
Images of a blackhole from the Event Horizon Telescope
4:41
He further delves into a recent discovery by LIGO & Virgo, who use gravitational waves to find and observe how two black holes orbit around each other, to merge and "create ripples in spacetime, as they receive about over 100 gravitational signals."
4:43
Summing up, Dr Parameswaran emphasises that black holes are "counter-intuitive" in nature and that they have solely three properties that include mass, angular momentum and charge.
4:45
4:47
Dr Parameswaran concludes by noting that there is still no clarity on the astrophysical mechanisms behind how black holes are produced but hopes that astrophysicists are striving to derive an answer for the same, in the coming years.
4:49
While responding to a question from the audience, Dr Parameswaran stresses that only massive stars would collapse to form black holes and that light stars, like the sun, don't necessarily turn into one.
4:50
4:51
Meena Mahajan, Professor at IMSc, introduces Dr Mitali Mukerji, who is delivering a session on Ayurgenomics, which integrates concepts in Ayurveda with modern genetic research.
4:53
Dr Mukerji begins by sharing instances from her personal health journey, explaining the larger "molecular conversation" between Ayurveda and modern medicine.
4:55
Throwing light on how she struggled with severe sweating and acne from a young age and moving on to how she was diagnosed with an AVM bleed in the brain, she denotes that the above issues brought about her first stint at working in Ayurveda.
4:57
Dr Mukerji addresses a larger concern by delving into the global health and disease scenario, which is that of decreased longevity of health.
4:58
5:00
She explores the field of 'genomics' -- the study of a human being's genes and how they all interact with each other -- for individualised medicine from "pre-womb to tomb" to predict any early onsets of diseases and combat them, appropriately.
5:01
5:05
Dr Mukerji elaborates that one cannot determine who is healthy by referring to their genomes as there has been a paradigm shift in conventional medicine from population-based averages to individualised trials.
5:07
Pointing out the initiative of 'precision medicine', she notes that it aids in mapping how interactions between genes and all/any environments could aid in charting out individualised treatments of people.
5:08
Do you think there is an urgent need to intensify research in the field of Ayurgenomics?
Yes, it is vital for our future (75% | 3 votes)
 
No, enough progress is being made (0% | 0 votes)
 
Can't say (25% | 1 vote)
 
Total Votes: 4
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