Stardust 2017 Science Fiction Writing - Winning entries

FIRST POSITION:
Soul mate in the multiverse
 
15th August 2071
Augmented Warp Drive Launch Vehicle Complex, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, India (13°43’ N 80°13’ E)

“A severe drought due to devastating human advancements over the decade has left the world’s populace in starvation. The Exoplanet Exploration Organization setup under the aegis of the United Nations has been unsuccessful in finding sustainable alternative for Earth. The future of human race looks bleak with the Multiverse Wormhole Drive System (MUWOS) seeming to be the only option in hand. This launch congregates the efforts of M.S.Vishweshwara , an eminent Indian scientist in proving the existence of parallel universes , possessing exotic new worlds paving the way for existence of the human race” read a digi-news article of the Global Times, as Major Rudra Pratap , the flight commander of the Warp Drive Shuttle TS-42 initiated the countdown for the launch.

A sense of nervousness filled the atmosphere at the ground command as the Program Director Gen.Trivikram Samrat and General Secretary of United Asia Kaldev Narayan gave the nod for the launch. The ion propulsion system of the WOLV-Mk(III) launcher boomed shattering the glasses in the vicinity , propelling the shuttle to heliopause within a hour and half of the launch. A reminiscent Maj. Rudra , radioed the earth station about the successful completion of Phase – 1 , as he looked at his wife Vice Marshal Indumati Pratap seated with Colonel Fujikawa of the Japanese Aviation Corp. A feeling of complexity filled his head as his wife and the Colonel nodded their heads in approval of initiating the warp drive over the event horizon of the supermassive black hole Ghatotkach – which by studies should act as a wormhole(Einstein-Rosen bridge) in providing a singularity of transit to parallel universes . As the system locked on for the jump, the trio experienced dilation of space and time around the continuum. Maj . Rudra turned to his wife and said ,”Dear, no matter what happens in this journey , I will remain in your memory forever “ with a tearful eye. The shuttle warped around the accretion disk , where the true fabric of nature dismantled , engulfing even light and all that the trio could see now was darkness as they experienced
extreme G forces. Monstrous clouds of cosmic radiation and matter from the
nearby neutron star started to rattle the shuttle ,and within a second the
three capsules of the shuttle containing the trio dismantled and Maj. Rudra
stood as the lone survivor after having ejected his pod. Huge trauma
overtook him as he began desperately searching his wife but to no avail. The
individual cells of his body began to pixelate as they began to drift in to the
white hole , which until now contradicted the founding pillars of the universe*
and he was reduced to merely a fragment of a new universe where
indefinite continued progress of existence and events that occur in
irreversible succession abruptly stopped and past, present and future
became one. This new universe ,sustained itself on the realms of the Planck’s
scale , and Maj Rudra now merely a virtuality ,yearned for his lost love.

* The white hole is said to decrease the entropy of the universe. In this context
the other universe allows the possibility of the above, thus redefining the
fundamentals of thermodynamics , which according to Albert Einstein is the
basic pillar of physics which is eternal.
* The parallel universe here is unlimited by time , as the very concept of
change i.e., time(popularly known as the fourth dimension) is non-existent.
By,
Adhitya K
NIT Trichy – B.Tech (I year) Mechanical Engineering


SECOND POSITION:

My name is Albert Brown, and this is my story. 

My father Michael Brown and his colleague were those that had theorised the existence of ‘Planet Nine’.  He worked tirelessly to predict its existence. His effort brought him closer than anyone else, but it sapped his health.  

Around the time I was 12, my father breathed his last. I decide to start where he left off.  Soon I found myself as one of the youngest astrophysicists in a senior position at NASA. 

Then an event occurred that changed my life altogether. Our sensors detected a stream of signals that seemed like absolute garbage. They were reportedly sent from a fast moving metallic object roughly 3 astronomical units from the sun, headed our way. They turned to us for help. 

The signals seemed to mean absolutely nothing. When we on the verge of giving up, I began to notice a pattern in the signal. It was something similar to the patterns in signals we used.

It almost seemed as if those signals were sent by us. Soon the mysterious object emerged from behind the sun and we received visual evidence confirmed that it was quite surprisingly, voyager 1. This seemed odd. Current technology predicted that the probe must be in the Oort cloud. But here it was. 

A question kept nagging me.  Why did voyager 1 turn around? On a whim I skimmed through my dad’s notes and ran some simulations while cross referencing with the NASA databanks. I realised the need for something of immense gravitational field to turn voyager 1 around. Moreover voyager was hurtling towards us as if it had picked up more speed. I realised that it could mean that voyager had taken a slingshot by ‘Planet Nine’. I wanted to publish a paper, but due to lack of evidence I kept my revelations quiet. 

Soon as word got out, the higher ups decided that Voyager 1 would be examined by specialists at the SkyLab. I pulled some strings and soon I spearheaded the project.

On examining we realised that the transmission system had taken considerable damage due to dust. However the modulation system was on point. It seemed as if the onboard systems on the Voyager had been programmed to calculate the distance from earth by taking into account the time that had passed and the speed that it was reported to travel at, and accommodate for any red shift. However this backfired when Voyager took an unexpected change of course. Due to the system damage, while the on board systems recorded data continuously, the last transmission to earth was churned out over and over again, on a loop. This explained the odd signals we were getting all this time. 

And that was the moment all the colossal implications of that struck me.  If the systems were still recording and storing research data, and were intact, there was a possibility that it may have picked up data on ‘Planet Nine’. I immediately set the process of publishing the paper into motion. As we combed through the endless data, there it was.  Like a pearl in the middle of an oyster, all the data mankind may ever have on ‘Planet Nine’. This made my paper rock solid. My breakthrough was hailed as one of the greatest of this millennium. 

Soon ‘Planet Nine’ would become a full member of the solar system, heck there were even talks about me sharing a Nobel with my dad and his colleague. But none of that mattered, course a Nobel Prize would be awesome, but I was glad to have fulfilled my father’s legacy. 

By 

Harish Ramesh 

EEE

THIRD POSITION:

Voyager I Reborn

By Joy Bhattacharya

23 December 2023

Finally, it had happened, the Voyager I ran out of power. It was a given, and hopefully, we had predicted it on time.

1 June 2018

The pressure from the Voyager I  signaling department was increasing, they had predicted that the Uranium based fission reactor will be going out of order, before 2022. Which had left us with no option but to start a new support project or to abandon our only view beyond the heliosheath.

The committee had taken a big hit, financially as well as morally due to the failure of the launch of Voyager IV, which, as the NASA claimed was running on a "controlled" fusion reactor.

We needed a breakthrough to empower the craft to travel the 15.9 billion km journey.

1 April 2019

The CERN announced that their EM drive projects a success, under the 20-year-old Dr. Shermann. Initially, we thought it was a prank, as the whole world stood confused and the social media went crazy over the infinite scope of research this would enable and of course, finding aliens.

The NASA president called the CERN immediately and confirmed the news. The next step was an increase in budget, it never fails to awe me, how the congress showers money on the NASA at the slightest glimpse of hope only to block it later. But this was a true miracle, and not funding it would be stupid.

1 June 2019

Within 3 months of its invention, a fully tested industry grade prototype was ready. The only thing holding us back was the rocket body. Yes, for the first time, the shell was holding us back.

But the good news was round the corner, the fusion reactor we had been testing had finally succeeded in all safety tests. The secret was the new polymer-like zigzagged and layered graphene, which was extremely heat-resistant and an efficient neutron absorber. The reactor could now be accommodated within a bus.

27 December 2023

Although late by 2 months, the Phoenix I had finally reached the voyager.  Not to mention, we received the message 33 hours after it's attainment of terminal velocity with respect to the Voyager I.

The next step was attachment, followed by disengaging of Phoenix I, into surplus parts and the Autobot (nostalgic, ain't it?), which would then reattach Phoenix to Voyager I.

The attachment went fine and so did disengagement, from our side at least, it would take 33 hours for a confirmation. The air grew tenser with time.

4 June 2019

The discovery of the fusion reactor and the EM drive would engrave 2019 in the history of physics.But with the next new structure, at least a year away, testing was the only thing we could hope to do.

The NASA president, however, had a trick under his sleeve, the model for Voyager I, the one used to train foreign signal catchers. And there we had our support structure.

28 December 2023

The next report came in and was bad. The phoenix parts couldn't be reassembled into the Voyager I, because of the size difference, but we had come far enough to turn back.

The next set of commands asked Autobot to cleverly dismantle the Voyager I and reattach only the comms to the internals of phoenix I.

5 September 2019

Work on project Phoenix I had started immediately. The plan was to have the fission reactor in the middle, with two hydrogen tanks on both the sides. The EM drives will be in the front and the back acting as propulsion or breaks.

The EM drives could only generate power in order on millinewtons per 80W of power supplied. However, the nuclear reactor would solve the problem.

30 December 2023

The next report came in. SUCCESS!!

The comms were working and compatible with the new instruments.

17 December 2019

The launch was timed at 1720 hours, with the President and the whole Cabinet as the witness, the Phoenix I successfully launched into the dark oblivion only to burn and rejuvenate.

31 December 2024, 23:59

The final report from Voyager I came over, "Good Bye, Voyager I" we all shouted as tears dripped from everyone's eyes.

1 January 2025, 00:00

The report continued, but this was no more Voyager I, it was the reborn Phoenix II.

We all welcomed this new year with eyes glimmering with tears of farewell and hope for the future.

Beginning With Astrophotography – Star Trails!

- by SIRANJEEVI DAYALAN

For every photographer, capturing daylight images and grabbing every precious frame around boosts up fun. Sometimes, shooting images at night with low light turns out to be a nuisance to you rather than a sweet piece of cake. The dark sky above you at night seems to show very little notable with your naked eye. Contrastingly, there’s not just a whole world, but a whole universe of moments that can be captured by you. It may not be your naked eye, but any basic DSLR can capture the amazing dramatic photos – Welcome to Astrophotography! 

Astrophotograph of a cosmic bubble- Bubble Nebula

As you had just stepped into astrophotography, it grabs a great courage for me to make you understand that you don’t need a space shuttle or a million dollar cash to capture the moments in space. Shuttling thoughts and a presence of mind is far enough to start with the beginner level of Astrophotography. A beginner Astrophotographer kit basically has a DSLR body, a wide lens – preferably 18mm focal length and a tripod. As you are on a 101-course status, the most simple understanding I would expect from you is that the earth keeps rotating on its own axis – this simply implies that your subject is never stationary.

A simple, no expense astrophotograph technique is the star trail. So what is a star trail? Star trail is a technique for capturing the path traced by the stars as the earth rotates on its axes. If you start gazing at stars for longer intervals, you may seem them move across the sky. Stars traverse a circular path of a smaller radius when seen from poles rather when seen from the equator. This is simply due to the shape and size of earth. Stars similar to the sun moves 15° westward each hour relative to earth. Tracing the path traversed by the stars lively with your camera is simply called star trail.

Now let us jump into capturing star trail with your camera!

1. Grab a wide lens – preferably 18mm focal length with a wide aperture (preferably f/3.5 or less)

2. Mount your DSLR onto a tripod and face the lens to the vast and deep sky filled with stars

3. The Manual Setting for star trail you may consider will be

Maintain an ISO of 400 that makes fairly dim stars visible and as well has no significant noise.

Maintain an aperture f/3.5 or less to enable maximum light passage to the camera.

Switch to bulb mode that enables you to capture long exposure shots greater than 30 second shutter time (a recommended ~50 mins for a good star trail).

Focus on infinity using Manual Focus and set the frame.

4. Capture the image of the deep dark star-filled sky with a shutter speed of 50 minutes by using shutter remote and allow post processing.

The trail of star you obtain resembles the below pic. The star trails are nice, curvy arcs or partial circles. The bigger the exposure time, the bigger the arc trails.

Star Trails!

It’s really important for you to understand that capturing a perfect star trail is a challenging task. One significant precaution that gets neglected by most of the beginners is the light noise. While you plan your star trail, make sure you are away from all light sources that can interfere the final image. Have a torch that you can use for placing the camera setup. I suggest you try the android application – Stellarium that can help you in positioning your camera.

So Grab your camera, pick your location, shoot the trails!
Got any questions? Ask us in the comments section below!

This post first appeared here.

Laser Pointers in Stargazing!

Our fingers are great tools. We use them to eat, pick our noses, and of course, point at things. However when pointing at things in the sky, fingers usually aren't long enough. When one beckons at a star overhead to a friend, he/she often meets cries along the lines of "Where? Where? What? That one? WHERE?" Modern laser pointers have changed that situation.

Laser pointers are instruments capable of producing powerful beams of light, which can be seen scattering in the lower atmosphere, and make it easy to point out astronomical objects. Generally, astronomical laser pointers are green and more powerful than standard ones used for presentations and such. Even though red lasers are the standard and can propagate the longest distance without scattering, green lasers are preferred for celestial pointing. This is because the human eye is much more sensitive to green light than red light. These usually use a neodymium diode core as the main component of the instrument.

Generally, the units used by astronomers have a power rating of no more than 5 mW. Nonetheless, these can still be harmful if the beam hits the human eye directly. A standard pointing laser viewed at point blank range will appear brighter than the sun, and since the rays are aligned and coherent, they can cause severe damage to the retina. Industrial class lasers can blind you instantaneously. (Lasers can be pretty darn dangerous!) 

Another hazard of lasers arises from a rather ironic reason - pointing them at the sky. Celestial objects aren't the only thing you can see above you. The sky is 'inhabited' by aircraft flying overhead frequently. The risk of the laser beam hitting the eyes of a pilot or messing with instruments is extremely worrying, and could potentially lead to a disaster. Because of this, several countries have regulations regarding laser pointers, even requiring the people owning the higher power lasers to register with government authorities. There are cases of people who have pointed lasers at airplanes, been reported by the pilots, and subsequently been arrested. This is a serious issue. Clearly, with great power comes great responsibility.

Laser pointers are a wonderful thing. When used right, they can be extremely handy astronomical aids and help bring to the joy of astronomy to everyone.

THIS IS A 5mW GREEN LASER POINTER PRESENTED TO US BY ONE OF OUR CLUB FOUNDER, CEE!

Content writer: Venkatraman Srikanth (1st year, Nakshatra)

String Theory 2015 - Science Fiction Writing Contest

So String Theory is back for Pragyan 2015 better than ever!

String Theory is a science fiction writing contest that's a held yearly as a part of Pragyan - the technical festival of our college NIT Trichy.

This time, the contest will have two rounds. In the first round you have to submit a short 150 word 'teaser' for a story based on one of the two themes mentioned in the poster. If you're selected for the first round, you'll be invited to write a longer, more elaborate 600 word story that expands on your teaser.

Your entries will be judged by Anil Menon.

If you win, you'll be given an opportunity to write an entry for Penumbra, an online magazine! A brilliant opportunity for all budding sci fi writers out there.

For more details on the competition and finer details on rules and judging, visit the contest site at http://www.pragyan.org/15/home/events/out_of_the_box/string_theory/

String Theory - winning sci fi entries

This is part of the online event called string theory, a science fiction story writing competition conducted as part of Pragyan 2014. The 2 winning entries are shown below.

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(1st prize) THE LIMITS OF INFINITY

(3.2.2015    INTERNATIONAL  SPACE  STATION)

“Rudh,come here…take a look at our beautiful EARTH”exclaimed Juka.’’See how magnificiant she looks from space.Its breath taking”.
“Quiet  Ju.I am trying to work here.Stop your admirations and try to help me”said Rudh.
“This is our first time in space Rudh.Not everybody on this earth gets a chance to see such wonders.Come here.Enjoy the view”.
“Ju remember we are on this space station on a mission to investigate the extraterrestrial and dark matter,not on a holiday.Remember we are astrophysicists.I don’t know what interests you people on this planet”.
“Show a little concern towards our planet.”
“How can I be concerned about a planet when I have infinite space ahead of me fully buried with mysteries waiting to be explored”.
“But in this infinite space all we have is OUR EARTH”.
“We will sort it out soon.That is why we are here aren’t we?Provided a chance,Ju,I would spend rest of my life here in this vast space”.
Suddenly they were able to hear an alarm.”Rudh  I think its the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.Something has gone wrong.”
“Ju,the meter shows sudden hike in the reading.This must be some kind of cosmic radiation”.
“Rudh,………….uh ….i see something.Turn to your 9ó clock.it looks like …………….uh”.
“A BLACK HOLE.We are doomed.”.
Within a fraction of a second their spaceshuttle was engulfed sideways into that opening that came out of no where.Their spaceshuttle landed on an unknown planet.
“Rudh we are still alive.Its impossible to pass through a black hole…………. sideways and survive.This seems to be some kind of  a strange land “.
“Yes it is.See I told you earth is not the only one out here.”.
“Rudh…..uh…….something is coming towards our shuttle.”
That something managed to open the shuttles’ door and entered.
It removed its mask. It did look more like a human but skinny.It looked at them as if it was happy on their arrival.
“I mean no harm to you.come with me.”.Telling this,the thing turned and started walking.
“Rudh I don’t think this is wise.May be we should find a way back”.
“Ju did you listen.He was speaking as though he was expecting us.Something is not right.Maybe he can help us find our way back home.”
They got out and all the three started walking.
It continued.”We live below the surface”.Suddenly a door opened near their feet and all the three entered below.
Rudh and Juka looked around the room and stared at each other.
“Rudh it looks like some kind of ……………….”.
“Yes……. Laboratory”.
The room was filled with advanced equipments that was far beyond their understanding.The two walked through the room awe-struck.In the corner of the room they saw few men standing.
“You two look surprised.why is that?”.
“Your place ……..this  is marvellous.We have not seen anything of such sort.Highly advanced….”said Rudh.
It stared at them for a while.”Are you not familiar with such things?”.
“No.Not to this extent.This is all like ……..beyond our imagination”.
It looked as if it was not expecting this kind of reply from them.
“What is this place.This……….is.weird?”asked Ju.
”This is our planet htrae.We are called namuh.I am hdur”.
“Why are there no people here.Has it always been like this?”.
Hdur then continued.”Our htrae was once a flourishing planet.We were unmatched in intelligence to other species.We developed space probes that was capable of deep space study,developed quantum communication,created high end military equipments,investigated atoms to their core,were able to manipulate sub-atomic particles,developed  life saving medicines……we used all the resources in htrae to the maximum extent possible.We almost thought we had complete control over the nature.But all that lasted only for a short time.we realized that we had depleted almost everything we had.We looked back only to see no green plants,no food,ultimately no air to breath. Couldn’t eat circuit boards instead of bread huh?We created hunger suppression drugs,produced oxygen at extreme conditions,tried to recreate oxygen and hydrogen bonding to produce water,but produced only few droplets.It was sufficient only for the rich and powerful.These men here are few among them.Poor people died of hunger and thirst.We depleted the protective layer covering our planet,obviously started living underground.The electronic waste piled up that it almost covered the entire surface of the planet.To produce water droplets for those who remained we had to look for a new source of energy.We chose gravitational energy,and to use graviton.Using quantum and celestial relativity,we energized the graviton.Gravitons responded to mass and energy,and because they respond to energy they respond to themselves.They self-gravitate. Unexpectedly,the point-like gravitons called mother gravitons started generating daughter gravitons and they inturn produced gravitons like a chain reaction.We could not keep track of them.They entered low energy state and became uncontrollable.They turned NON-RENORMALIZABLE.Our planet was about to become extinct,then we used the D-branes of the hydogen atom that acted as anti-gravitons and stabilized them temporarily.With no  more hydrogen no more stabilization and the whole process would turn into a massive blackhole and destroy our planet.When hydrogen depletes in few quantum seconds our planet will be destroyed.We tried our best but all in vain.I thought may be someone else could save us.It was I who opened the portal when I saw your shuttle.I thought may be you could save our planet,but ……….all this seems to be beyond your knowledge”.
“I cannot stand the thought of my planet getting destroyed,and me standing here helpless” hdur added.
“Why don’t you come with us.we will save you.You can live in our planet”,said Rudh.
Hdur smiled. “How can I live after seeing my planet destroy in front of my eyes.Life in htrae or NO LIFE at all.My last few breath should be in my planet and………….for my planet”.
Rudh and Juka looked at each other moved by the love for his planet.
“Leave this place before things get any worse.I will open the portal.GO SAVE YOUR MOTHER PLANET”hdur said.
 Telling those last words he left.
  Within a few minutes they left the portal a flash of lightning occurred in that direction.They were able to realize what happened.
“I now realize Ju.You were right.our earth is a place worth dying for and did you notice htrae was the……………. MIRROR IMAGE of our earth,human-namuh,and………uh-oh……Rudh-hdur.It was our PARALLEL UNIVERSE…………. He looked at earth with so much love this time that he wanted to hug it. Lets go home…. change our projectile to earth”,said Rudh.’I will never let such things happen to earth.Earth is not only our mother planet but also our GOD’he thought.
‘ We feed robots with programs but forget cattle, invest in armed weapons not in green farming,we develop quantum imaging techniques but fail to look at the scenic beauty of earth, fuel the rockets forget to water plants,use our brain not our heart’.Everything has got its limit so is the patience of our MOTHER EARTH. Mathematicians sometimes say’A function exists only if it is within its limits’.

2nd prize:
TO PLAY GOD AND THE HERO

Mindy blinked.

The bright lights of The stargrazer had blinded her eyes with their brilliance. Slowly, as her eyes adjusted to the multitude of colours she began to see the cruise shuttle more clearly. But the spectacle was merely reflected dully in her eyes. Her thoughts were far away elsewhere.

It was her 16th birthday today and since St. Jupiter (Yes , you guessed it, it’s on Jupiter) was off for the vacations, she and her dad were off on a cruise to the Andromeda colonies.

Except that her father never seemed to find time for her.

All she knew was that he would always turn up for dinner apologising profusely and promising to spend the next day with her, after spending the day in come corner of the shuttle.

So, she decided to track her father using a fabric recorder which could provide a audio/video feed from any surface it was stuck on. Switching on the screen, Mindy began to observe.

“Yes, yes I’ve already told you the deterioration doesn’t affect her, No, no not at all. I’m telling you gentlemen our answer has finally arrived”, her father was saying.

 “Well I, for one have no objections since the blood seems to be capable of all that Dr.Winston claims it can do, in fact, I already tested it on Susan and the symptoms cleared up almost overnight!!” , a soft voiced woman spoke up. Instantaneously there was a huge uproar “How dare you!!, after all the caution we vowed to take, you just waltz in and do as you like do you Dorothy”, a visibly agitated Asian man was saying. And in the midst of all that, a dark faced man sat in the middle, stony faced. Mindy saw him as he slowly raised his hand and his lips moved, seemingly giving out orders.

Suddenly, crewmen barged in, armed with EMP rifles and other weapons. The room went silent immediately and before any one could protest, the dark-skinned man moved to the centre. One of the crew handed a microphone to him, and when he spoke, Mindy knew that it was being transmitted to the whole shuttle. “Attention, clones I have captured your creators; they may call themselves your friends or family, but in my eyes and in gods eyes they’re nothing but heretics. So, if you wish to meet them when they die, I would advise you to come to the diner now”

“Markus ? but you were the most determined of us all, you lost your sister Kate remember? Mark- oof” Mindy gasped as Markus sent her father Dr.Winston sprawling with a swift kick “Of all of us gathered here, under the pretense of a ‘vacation’ you deserve to die the most, Frank. Death is something beyond us, something we can’t violate; absolute. You hear that clones?”Markus called out,” This man claims to have cured all the side effects of the cloning, but I think his reward for  that should be death.”

Mindy turned pale, if her father was with those people, then ... was she a clone too? She wasn’t your ordinary run-of –the-mill kid?

Before she knew it she was running to the diner.

Except that before she could get out of the room, she bumped into someone else, “Ow!!”, said a soft voice, from someone shorter than her.

Mindy’s breathing quickened and she scrambled about looking for a weapon, when the voice came again “Hey wait, you’re Mindy right? I’m Susan.”

The two of the girls snuck out to the upper deck and hid in the janitor robot’s closet. “First of all I want to thank you”, gushed Susan.”Why?-First of all, are you a clone?”Asked Mindy, afraid to hear the answer.

“Yes, I am a clone, and you’re one too”, Susan replied, answering before I could speak.

“My mom, Dr.White, never hid anything from me and she even told me about the side effects of the cloning process, like the cancer and the accelerated ageing”.”She told me that you died in an accident in your father’s – Dr. Winston’s lab, when you fell into a vat of raw nanoplasm.”

“It seems that the nanoplasm formed a symbiotic binding with your cells, or what was left of them, just like the mitochondria did as intracellular parasites aeons ago, So your dad used the cells to regenerate your body.” Susan explained seeing my expression with alarm.

“Ok, so what do we do now?”Mindy simply asked. 

Susan smiled “Oh, we just break in there and rescue them all. Using this of course”, She added holding out a green syringe.

“The nanoplasts in your cells are in their inactive form, they’ve been keeping you healthy all this time, but their potential is even higher, so to excite them, Dr.White made this formula.”Okay....”, Mindy said, feeling unsure of  herself.

But the moment the syringe was empty, Mindy felt different, like a switch had been flipped on in her. She could perceive everything and her senses had been heightened to another level. Feeling invincible suddenly, Mindy stepped out to face Markus.

Before Markus could say another word, Mindy launched herself at the man and his villains.Mindy had played a lot of video games before and this was strangely like one. Everyone moved slowly and she used her bare fists to break their bones and rip apart their armour like it was paper. She suddenly felt searing pain on her left shoulder and realized that she had been hit, but when she turned to see the damage, the wound was already closing indicating the power of the activated nanoplasts. Mindy couldn’t fight, but the sheer powers of her blows were enough to destroy the entire diner. She felt incredibly overpowered and unstoppable. She could see the approach of everyone of Markus’ henchmen from a mile away and easily dodged or finished them with a knee to the head or a punch to the gut. When it was over, Markus lay on the floor, his eyes rolled up in his head.

EPILOGUE

School was out for the day and Mindy headed slowly back to her dorms, as she walked by an alley, she saw two Peloponnesian girls being accosted by some of the locals.”As a great man once said ‘with great power comes great responsiblilty’”She thought as she reached into her bag for her green syringes.

***

The entries were judged by Dr. Vinod from the humanities department of NIT Trichy, on the basis of how speculative and creative the authors were. This factor was given much more weightage than others (such as literary, grammar etc). We thank all those who participated and hope the participants continue to have enthusiasm for sci fi.

My best experience in astronomy

Posted this is in a facebook astronomy group, in which someone had asked which was my most beautiful experience in astronomy:

Some 6 years ago, I just bought my first telescope (which I am still using). I was looking for the Andromeda Galaxy and could not at all find it. But eventually I did! It looked grey and spherical and got darker away from the center. It was so beautiful... I showed it to mom and she said it looked heavenly! 

When I later fired up Stellarium, I slowly realized that what I saw was not in the Andromeda constellation at all! I could not explain it. The object turned out to be in the constellation Perseus, because I recognized the stars around the object. But Stellarium showed nothing where the object was supposed to be! Finally, I realized that it was the comet I read about in astronomy blogs that had suddenly and mysteriously brightened by a factor of almost a million (the comet was at mag ~3 when I saw it). I was so happy I saw a comet, that too just a few weeks after I bought my first telescope! 

More about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Holmes

Almost everyone I have met had some story or the other they just had to share about the night they first saw the Milky Way, the time they woke up early and saw dozens of shooting stars, the first time they ever looked through a telescope...which was your most beautiful experience in astronomy? 

Life on asteroids : Is it Possimpible?

"The surface area of Elsevere is only three quarters that of the State of New York, but that’s irrelevant. Remember, we can occupy, if we wish, the entire interior of Elsevere. A sphere of 50 miles radius has a volume of well over half a million cubic miles. If all of Elsevere were occupied by levels 50 feet apart, the total surface area within the planetoid would be 56,000,000 square miles, and that is equal to the total land area of Earth. And none of these square miles, Doctor, would be unproductive.” 

-Councillor Elvis Blei, 

"Strikebreaker", by Isaac Asimov

In the year 1957, Asimov not only gave humanity an idea of how it is possible to terraform asteroids, but also how to exist in them. That was not the only story in SF towards the colonization of asteroids during that time. In fact, from around 1960's these ideas have been cropping up in many famous stories and movies. For example, in the adventures of Lucky Starr and Pirates of the Asteroids, Uncle Scrooge (Island in the sky, March 1960), X-Men comics (Asteroid M in X-Men #5,1964), and of course, Futurama, the humans(or intelligent life-forms) have managed to create a habitat on/in asteroids.

So, scientifically speaking, is it possible to exist on/in asteroids? Well, it does have its own advantages, and disadvantages.

Advantages :

• Low gravity - Any construction work, equipment, and movement will be a lot more easier to handle than here on earth, or even moon. That means, everything that needs to be manufactured for supporting life on an asteroid, can be structurally weak(cheap) and still be good.
• High-quality minerals - Minerals which are quite difficult to obtain on earth, like platinum, tungsten, etc. might be easily available on asteroids. The occupation pays for itself!
• Large number of sites - If a base is created on one large asteroid, all you need to do is travel to nearby asteroids and collect minerals or establish a base, which, frankly, is the easiest part.
• Scientific Research - The need of low gravity environments for research in areas like Materials engineering would be very easy.
• Adventure - There are always people volunteering to do dangerous stuff for the thrill of it. Adrenaline pumping adventure would be the first thing on the list for any human being brave(or mental) enough to volunteer for helping establish a base on an asteroid. Of course, he/she would also need to scientifically and technologically sound.

Disadvantages :

• Low gravity - Humans are not(yet) adapted to live in low gravity conditions. So, either artificial gravity, or adaptation is necessary, to survive for extended periods on an asteroid.
• Fuel - Even in the asteroid belt, the Sun is too far to provide adequate energy for extraction of minerals, let alone conducting scientific research. Unless a way is found to harness energy efficiently from the Sun, or Laser power beaming (Wireless Electricity) becomes advanced enough to transfer energy to large distances, fuel(the lack of it) remains a big drawback.
• Radiation Hazards - A permanent colony on any asteroid would definitely need to perfect a technology to mimic Earth's Ozone Layer, magnetosphere, and ionosphere, to survive outside space suits. 
• Spatial Hazards - Moon's distinct markings and craters reminds us that even though it looks beautiful when you see it 384,400 km from there, being on the receiving end is actually quite hazardous for health. This is when the moon is literally a planet away from the asteroid belt. Being on the asteroid belt then, would obviously be even more dangerous.
• Food and Water - Organic life forms would definitely need sustenance to perform optimally. Of course, with studies showing that 5% water is present in an asteroid's crust, it might actually sound hopeful, but then, Earth is 71% water, and look where it has got us now. It would be possible to ship food and water from Earth or a Martian base, but the best bet would be recycling.

So the big question really is whether human technology is ready for getting human beings to an asteroid and getting them back alive. Well, that would depend on whether humans do actually have the spirit of cooperation to pool their resources on a scientific space odyssey for their own good and science's advancement or rather squabble meaninglessly over everyday issues on who gets to loot more oil, and who plays the big brother. If we do come to our collective senses, then yes, it would be very much possible.
And if this becomes a reality, the biggest winner would be us.

P.S: Wondering about the title, just click here!

Timekeeping in Astronomy

"Captian's log, stardate 1513.1. Our position: Orbiting planet M-113. Onboard the Enterprise: Mr. Spock temporarily in command. On the planet: the ruins of an ancient and long dead civilization. Ship surgeon McCoy and myself are now beaming down to the planet's surface. Our mission: routine medical examination of archaeologist Robert Crater and his wife, Nancy. Routine, but for the fact that Nancy Crater is that one woman in Dr. McCoy's past."

 - Opening of Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 1, Episode 1; "The Man Trap"

If you're curious like me, you'd have noticed that the Captain's log from Star Trek used some form of strange new system of measuring time. What does stardate 1513.1 represent? It turns out, it doesn't really mean much. It was just another way of making the show look futuristic. From Wikipedia:

"We invented "Stardate" to avoid continually mentioning Star Trek's century (actually, about two hundred years from now), and getting into arguments about whether this or that would have developed by then. Pick any combination of four numbers plus a percentage point and use it as your story's stardate."

But interestingly, the convention used by astronomers to keep time is very similar sounding to the stardate system seen in Star Trek. Astronomers use what is called a Julian Date whenever the time and date of a measurement needs to be mentioned.

Calendars have a long and messy history. The calendar system that is in use around the world today is called the Gregorian Calendar. People only started using this calendar in the late 1500s. Before that there was something called the Julian Calendar which was introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC. These are two big calendars. But there were also a lot of other calendars in use by different countries and cultures. A look at calendar systems in wikipedia shows a mind boggling and confusing list of widely varying systems. Some are similar, some are wildly incompatible. Also, due to the fact that the time taken by the earth to go around the sun is not an exact integer multiple of a day, errors inevitably arise when measuring time in years or months. Astronomers needed a standardized method of referring to time for astronomical observations. This was the motivation behind the adoption of the Julian Date.

A Julian Day Number is an integer that represents the number of days that have passed since 1st January 4713 BC in the proleptic Julian Calendar or 24th November 4714 BC in the proleptic Gregorian Calendar. (NOTE: A preleptic calendar is a calendar obtained by extending a calendar system backwards in time to date before AD 4)

The Julian Date of any point in time is the Julian Day Number of the previous day along with a decimal number that represents the fraction of the next day that has passed.

For example, the 1st of January, 2014 1800 hrs is represented by a Julian Date of $2456659.25$

I hope everyone has a wonderful time celebrating another complete revolution of the Earth around the Sun. An exciting year lies ahead!

Richard Feynman on Education

Feynman, a robust and awe-inspiring physicist who won the Nobel Prize for his work on Quantum Electrodynamics, once went as a visiting Professor to one of the universities in Rio, Brazil. He was able to get an inside view of how the system worked there, and with characteristic wit delivers a talk pointing to the many flaws - the over emphasis on memorization, the lack of emphasis on actual hands on experience and empirical evidence, and how the system is loaded against the people who truly do have an idea of what it means to be a scientist - and how they sadly end up discouraged and instead conform to the prevailing "wisdom". In the following excerpt from "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!", he gives a first hand account of how the event transpired and eventually ended.

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In regard to education in Brazil, I had a very interesting experience. I was teaching a group of students who would ultimately become teachers, since at that time there were not many opportunities in Brazil for a highly trained person in science. These students had already had many courses, and this was to be their most advanced course in electricity and magnetism – Maxwell’s equations, and so on.

The university was located in various office buildings throughout the city, and the course I taught met in a building which overlooked the bay.

I discovered a very strange phenomenon: I could ask a question, which the students would answer immediately. But the next time I would ask the question – the same subject, and the same question, as far as I could tell – they couldn’t answer it at all! For instance, one time I was talking about polarized light, and I gave them all some strips of polaroid.

Polaroid passes only light whose electric vector is in a certain direction, so I explained how you could tell which way the light is polarized from whether the polaroid is dark or light.

We first took two strips of polaroid and rotated them until they let the most light through. From doing that we could tell that the two strips were now admitting light polarized in the same direction – what passed through one piece of polaroid could also pass through the other. But then I asked them how one could tell the absolute direction of polarization, for a single piece of polaroid.

They hadn’t any idea.