We dedicate this issue to Srinivasan Ramachandran, fondly called as Ramu sir. Many of the younger researchers at the institute would not know that he was the one who started the IGIB digital magazine – Pulse. His student Firdaus Fatima has talked about him in her heartfelt message – Srinivasan Ramachandran: A source of Ray.
Celebrations around Earth Day in the last month had us talking about the real change that we need to save our planet. After two days of existential crisis, I was back to the regular normal. Discussions around policy changes were still happening on campus. To me, clean, green, and sustainable technology seems to be the solution (because we are too comfortable in our bubbles to mold our ways until another pandemic strikes). What gave me hope was the recent breakthrough in energy generation using fusion. The breakthrough happened at the National Ignition Facility in California. The reaction involves heating and compressing hydrogen atoms using a powerful laser beam and this reaches a temperature 100 million degrees Celsius; this temperature is higher than the temperature at the core of the Sun). As the hydrogen atoms fuse Helium, neutrons, and a large amount of energy is released. The major challenge was to generate more energy than the input energy supplied. The breakthrough came when the output energy generated was more than the input supplied. We may still be decades away from building a fusion power plant, before we figure out how to increase and contain the fusion reaction but it still is a hope that technology is a potential solution to saving the planet.
[This by no means negates or belittles the efforts that we as a society are undertaking to reverse climate change.]
Another technology that has taken the world by storm is AI and large language models. Most of us have tried out ChatGPT, and Dall E2. Our 2023 calendar which – with all the awareness days included – used DallE2-generated illustrations for different months. The popularity and opening up of AI tools to the general public has raised multiple questions. Would AI replace the human workforce? Should we proceed with caution? What kind of regulatory bodies would be required to oversee AI powered research? Would the announcement of the 6 months moratorium on development of AI be helpful? We do not have answers to these questions but we do have a history of AI – ‘From Enigma to ChatGPT’.
I hope we will have more conversations around technologies in biological sciences (in addition to AI) on 11th May, which is the National Technology Day. So, send us your thoughts and suggestions for this year’s Technology Day.
Poorti Kathpalia, a scientist by training, is now pursuing her passion for making science fun and accessible through her sci-comm activities.