Garlic- The Invaluable Pearl

My mother who left this world at the age of 88 about 5 years back was a very good cook. She had a special talent in preparing delicious dishes using the minimum possible ingredients in surprisingly limited time. In his famous book ‘Seven Summers’, the well known Indian writer, Mulk Raj Anand often makes references to the wonderful curries his mother used to prepare. Perhaps the dishes prepared by mothers might be the tastiest for their children! In the post world war scenario resources were very limited; but my mother used garlic in many of her ‘wonderful curries’. I believe that this single thing has contributed very much in boosting the health of the members of our ancestral family.

In ashtangahrudaya, the well known treatise on Ayurveda, garlic is described as amruth (elixir of life) on the earth. The health benefits and medicinal properties of garlic were known to the ancient Indian philosophers. Therefore it is an important ingredient in many ayurvedic preparations. Modern research has revealed that garlic has antibacterial, anti-fungal and antioxidant properties. It is found to be a natural blood thinner and has the ability to reduce blood pressure. It renders protection against cancer.

Make a google search on ‘garlic benefits’ and you will be surprised to find the volume of results you obtain.

Some of you may not like the smell of garlic. But once you realise its medicinal value you will love it. I have made it a habit to take two or three raw garlic flakes every day to get the beneficial effects of this wonder food stuff. It will be convenient to take it with your supper.

Voice Changer Software

An idea which was in my mind from the time of development of modern signal processing methods was their use in voice changing. I thought of it not for the possibilities of its misuses, but for recreating the voice of favourite singers like Muhammed Rafi and Mukesh who are no more. There are good singers who are not blessed with good voice. For them good voice changing software will be of great benefit.

If a good singer with an unpleasant voice can sing in front of a microphone and the audience can hear the song reproduced by loud speakers to be in the voice of their favourite singer such as Muhammed Rafi or Mukesh, the system will be very useful.

If you search the web for voice changing software you will find many products. I don’t know whether there are products which will be suitable for the purpose I mentioned above.

What differentiates your voice from mine? Pitch (frequency) and loudness are two important characteristics of any sound, but the quality (timbre) which indicates the overtone content in the sound is much more important in making ones voice unique. If you have a voice changer software specifically developed to create your favourite singer’s voice, how nice it would be!

Merry Christmas!

Microwaves, Lasers and Ultrasonics in Surgery

I have often wondered that the progress in different branches of Medical Science has not been enough compared to that in physics, electronics, communications, computer science etc. Perhaps those working in the field of Medicine may have difference of opinion. I have a strong feeling that the technological progress has not been fully applied in the field of medicine. This may be due to the insufficiency of cooperation among technologists and physicians. Generally physicians are busy with their routine work and they do not get enough opportunities and time for interaction with scientists in other branches. In fact, the really talented physicians are overworked and are unable to look into even their own personal problems properly.

Surgery is the strength of Modern Medicine. Technological progress has been applied to improve surgical procedures, but I feel that the application has not been enough. From long time back itself I have nurtured an idea of using ferromagnetic particles to execute the dilation of constricted blood vessels by injecting a bunch of such particles into the blood stream, subjecting the bunch to an oscillating magnetic field (thereby dilating the blood vessel) and recovering the bunch at a suitable collection point. Medical professionals may think of the feasibility of this in collaboration with engineers and technologists.

The use of laser, microwave and ultra sound in the medical field, especially in surgery, has been steadily on the rise, but the momentum is not enough. International cooperation on a large scale by deploying experts in various fields is a very important need of the world today.

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched; they must be felt with the heart."

– Helen Keller

Atmospheric Noise Reduction in AM Radio Receivers

Compared to FM radio receivers, amplitude modulation (AM) radio receivers are very much susceptible to atmospheric noise interference. This is because of the fact that atmospheric noise is amplitude modulated. Most of the man made electromagnetic interference also is amplitude modulated. The undesirable noise interference in AM radio receivers and the instability along with noise patterns in the picture on a TV receiver connected to an antenna during thunder storms is a common experience. Similar problems encountered because of nearby electrical switching circuits (as for example, automobile ignition systems) also are common.

Even though I have not done any research in this field, I think the modulation envelope of the amplitude modulated noise signal may be more or less the same over a wide range of frequencies. If that is the case, it will be possible to extract this noise signal and phase shift it through the required angle so that it has a phase shift of 180 degrees with the noise signal appearing along with the received useful signal. After amplifying this phase shifted noise signal to the required extent so as to have the same amplitude as that of the noise signal appearing along with the useful signal, they are to be superimposed so that the net noise signal is canceled. The separate noise signal may be received from the lower or upper end of the transmission band. For the medium wave band, the required noise signal can be extracted using a separate tuned circuit at a frequency around 500 kHz or 1600 kHz. The phase shifting and the controlled amplification of the separate noise signal are to be done after demodulation. The superimposition of the signals also is evidently to be done after demodulation.

With modern operational amplifiers the above tasks may be simple.

So, Attention Electronics Engineers!

Role of Probability in Simplifying Elections

I have often wondered why even poor countries spend prohibitively large amount of money for conducting elections. India being the largest democracy in the world, the amount spent on elections is enormous. The election to the House of People (Lok Sabha) which is supposed to be conducted every five years incurs an expenditure of over ten thousand million rupees. In addition, there are the elections to the Legislative Assemblies (of the states) and numerous bodies at the Village, Block and District levels. Often, these democratic bodies do not live through the stipulated term (of five years in the case of Parliament and Legislative Assemblies) and mid term elections become necessary. You can very well imagine how prohibitive the cost of all these elections is.
Apart from the cost factor, how much time and energy is spent on these elections also is a matter of concern.
Probability plays a vital role in all phenomena in nature. Any Physics student knows that the electron in the hydrogen atom is normally found at a distance of almost 0.53×10^–10 metre from the nucleus. This is the most probable distance and not the exact distance. [In fact, according to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, nothing in nature can be measured with cent per cent accuracy and this uncertainty principle also plays a very important role in the very constitution of matter].
Since probability plays a crucial role in nature, it is logical to apply it in all situations, especially in cases where large numbers are involved. So why not use it in making the election process simple and economical?
Why should all electors vote in an election? If you take the case of a typical Lok Sabha (Parliament) constituency in India, with one million voters, hundred thousand or ten thousand voters picked out at random by a computer will be sufficient to determine the acceptable candidate. You can imagine the significant saving in the cost, time and energy.
If the majority of voters in a constituency support the candidate ‘A’, then the probability for the inclusion of voters supporting ‘A’ in the randomly picked voters’ group (who are thus qualified to vote) is definitely high, especially when the number involved is high. This is a basic principle in probability theory, as many of you might know.
I will call this system of election the reduced voter system. In this system of adult franchise, all those who have attained the stipulated age will be electors as usual, but only the reduced voters (randomly picked out by a computer) will be allowed to vote. There will be no restriction to anybody in the electoral roll in contesting the election as a candidate, but he will be allowed to vote only if he happens to be included among the reduced voters.
In the extreme case, when all voters are ‘equal’ (with nobody ‘more equal’), the system will become a no cost system when a computer picks out the members of parliament and the legislative assembly and may be even the President!

A Mashing Attachment to Mixer Grinder

In cooking one often finds the need for garlic-ginger paste. Garlic and ginger have high medicinal value and the importance of garlic-ginger paste in cooking cannot be over emphasized. How do you prepare garlic-ginger paste? You cannot use a table top wet grinder since the quantity of the garlic-ginger paste required is usually small, except when you require it for a big feast for hundreds of guests. Usually the paste is prepared using a small ‘chutney’ attachment available with the mixer grinder. But you cannot get the thing mashed to the consistency you would like it to have. The good old grinding stone might have been in use right from the stone age, but it is used even today in many Kerala homes to prepare garlic-ginger paste and the like. Modern house wives will not touch the hand operated grinding stone and will prefer the chutney attachment with the mixer grinder, sacrificing the consistency of the paste to some extent.
An idea that came to my mind some time back on improving the mashing capability of the chutney attachment is here: Instead of using the stainless steel blade, why not use an eccentrically rotating sphere as the rotor? The stainless steel jar inside which the rotor rotates (and which holds the things to be mashed) should be corrugated inside (or made rough) so that when the sphere rotates eccentrically within the jar, the contents get mashed to your heart’s contentment! (The rotor also can be made with a rough surface if you want). Certain high vacuum pumps have eccentrically rotating rotors. Mixer grinder manufacturers may think of cheaper alternatives to be used in their new chutney attachment. So, Attention Mixer Grinder Manufacturers!

When the Mind is Clean

The concept of mind has been a subject of a lot of debate. Feelings of love, hatred, anger, sympathy and so on come from the heart, we usually say. We don’t mean the physical heart (which is just a very efficient machine for pumping blood) but a different entity called the mind. Well, where is the mind? Scientists will point to the brain, which is equipped with the operating system and many complicated software along with the marvelous hardware elements that perform unimaginably sophisticated functions.
Memory locations are extremely vital in the operation of the brain, as in the case of a computer and it is here that we humans store data which we interpret as of probably three types: desirable, harmful and good for nothing. There may be difference of opinion about the third type. I am leaving it to your own interpretation!
I have heard that when one is in the death bed, the mind becomes clean. I think the random access memory (RAM) in the brain becomes devoid of the harmful software and data and the read only memory (ROM) continues its function to the extent possible. The man in the death bed therefore behaves like a child or, may be, like the foetus in the mother’s womb. The feeling of love and concern for others is a lasting trait and nature probably is very reluctant to obliterate it from the memory locations of the brain. Probably these are part of the ‘operating system’ itself.
If you compare your life span with the cosmic standard, you will realize where you stand. If you compare your size with the cosmic standard you will realize how insignificant you are. Such thoughts will help in deleting undesirable software and data from the memory locations in your brain. You will then love others and will be loved by others.

Zeeman Effect and Metallic reflection

This post is aimed at Physicists interested in fundamental research.
Zeeman effect is the splitting of spectral lines when the source of spectrum (usually a discharge tube) is placed in a magnetic field. An idea that has been in my mind for some time is to check whether you can observe Zeeman effect if you place a mirror strip (instead of the light source) in a magnetic field and direct a beam of monochromatic light towards the mirror strip.
As usual, you will require the entire set up for Zeeman effect (electromagnet, high resolution instrument such as Fabri-Perot interferometer or Lummer-Gehrcke plate, Spectrometer etc.) but instead of the spectral source you will use a mirror strip or any polished metal surface and you will observe the light reflected from it. I have certain ideas about the experiment and its consequences, but I don’t want to distract you at the moment. I don’t know whether somebody has done this type of an experiment before. I think the result of this experiment, whether positive or negative, will have an influence on our explanation of metallic reflection. I thought of mercury green line for this experiment, but a suitable laser also can be considered. So, Attention Physicists!

Why not a Floor Paint?

About two decades back, ‘loose marble chips’ (mosaic) floor was very popular in Kerala. Marble slabs and ceramic tiles were also used, but they were not very popular. Marble slabs were very costly then. The cost of marble slab has come down but people prefer tiles, especially vitrified tiles, because of the convenience and the saving in time. Loose marble chips floors are being dug out and tiles of choice are being laid by most house owners who can afford the cost. I too have an inclination towards the modern tiles and it is now only a question of time for effecting the change.

Meanwhile, I have been thinking of the feasibility of a suitable floor paint. Why should one waste so much time and money in replacing the loose marble chips floor with one of vitrified tiles? If you have a durable coating (on the existing floor) that will give the look and neatness of floor tiles, you can save quite a lot of labour and cost. A matty finish will be practicable and sufficient. Even if the coating can last for five years, the method will definitely prove convenient. Paints similar to those used in glass painting (with suitable modifications) can be considered I think. With modern manufacturing techniques, it will not be a big problem to make this idea practicable. So, attention paint manufacturers!

Vitamin C

Ever since I came to know about the beneficial effects of vitamin C as advocated by Linus Pauling, I have tried to include this vitamin in my diet. Linus Pauling was a very rare scientist who won the prestigious Nobel Prize twice, the first one (in Chemistry in 1954) for his work on the nature of chemical bonds and the second one (for peace in 1962) for his efforts to stem nuclear weapons proliferation.
I believe that a scientist of his caliber should be correct. My trust in his findings had the additional support from ayurveda, the ancient system of medicine that has been popular in India from time immemorial. In ashtangahridaya, one of the authoritative books on ayurveda, there is a chapter on rasayanas (tonics) which discusses the preparation of chyavanaprasha (chyavanprash), the famous tonic that restored the health of Chyavana Maharshi. (This preparation is very popular in India even today. In fact, its popularity is so great that you can find many companies in India manufacturing and marketing this tonic on gigantic scale). A very significant ingredient in chyavanaprasha is gooseberry which is rich in vitamin C.
Ayurveda requires that one should consume a suitable rasayana for physical and mental health. Interestingly, the converse also is true according to ayurveda: A person who has good physical and mental health might be taking some suitable rasayana!
My personal experience is that a 500mg vitamin C tablet per day in the chewable form is good for preventing the common cold and such viral diseases when the likelihood of catching such diseases is suspected. When you consume such a tablet, you will be getting a total quantity of more than 500mg since your food items will contain additional quantity of vitamin C. Since vitamin C is ascorbic acid, I never take the tablet in an empty stomach and I consume a lot of water. You can get more interesting information on vitamin C here.

A Bed with Adjustable Width

An idea which came to my mind long time back was about a bed of adjustable width. Perhaps many of you might have longed for such a bed at some point of time. To be frank, I thought of it when my first baby was born.
In Kerala couples usually allow their babies to sleep with them in the same bed up to the age of one year. There might be variations, but all couples here surely might have slept in the same bed with their baby in between them. The necessity of a broader bed then is relevant, especially on account of the tropical summer coupled with the frequent electric power failure in those days. (Occasional power failure is not uncommon in Kerala even today. I thought of uploading this post some three hours back, but there was no power supply then!).
When you want to adjust the width of a bed, the main problem is the adjustment of the width of the cot (the piece of wooden furniture used for arranging the bed on it). Double cots with width 4 feet and 5 feet are common here. Whatever the width, how to make the width of the cot adjustable? You can have a wooden (or plastic) plank hinged at the side of the cot. The plank could be fitted with legs of adjustable height. These legs should be easily removable and re-attachable so that the plank can be conveniently folded down whenever required, to restore the original width of the cot. You can make it foldable upwards also so that the plank will serve as a barrier for the safety of your baby. These things are quite simple to design, once you are up to make such an adjustable cot.
Once you make such a multipurpose cot of adjustable width, you can arrange your bed on it in accordance with your requirement.
I am just giving you the idea of the bed of adjustable width. You can make your own original design and market the product. If you want any more suggestions in this regard, please let me know through your comments.
One final point at the moment: You can think of a universal attachment that can be fixed to any cot.

Introductory Remarks

This blog is meant for giving useful ideas to you . You may be a scientist, a teacher, a student, an administrator, a politician, an industrialist or an ordinary citizen. But all of you will definitely like to have useful ideas. As far as possible, new ideas will be posted here. Let me have your comments on them. And don’t hesitate to make critical comments.

Attention Toilet Soap Manufacturers!

The following idea has been in my mind for quite a long time. Manufacturers of toilet soaps may see whether this idea is of use to them.
One problem with the current method of packing toilet soaps is that by the time you use half of the soap, it loses a good share of its perfume and sometimes even its shape. Why not pack it as a two-in one soap? What I mean is this:
Instead of packing the soap as a single continuous homogeneous block, you make an inner block, cover it with thin polythene and then make an outer block, covering the inner one with the outer block. Finally the outer block carrying the polythene covered block of soap inside it, is to be packed as usual. This two-in-one soap can be made with the same perfume or, you may use two different perfumes for the inner and outer blocks.
The benefit of this type of packing is that once you finish off the outer soap block within a few days, you arrive at the inner block (inside polythene cover). On tearing off the polythene cover, you have a fresh piece at your disposal (with the same perfume or a different perfume if you want).
The soap will last longer, since the waste may be reduced. I don’t know whether this last point is agreeable from a business point of view!