My Science School

Evariste Galois

He was killed in 1832 at age 20 in a duel over “une femme”.

On the night before the duel he wrote a letter containing 60 pages of his math findings. In 1846 Liouville published his results on group theory, but it was only around 1870 that Camille Jordan finally understood it and its implications... Unlike Gauss, whose math works were mostly questions that other persons later discovered on their own, all of Galois’s findings were original and revolutionary.

So we make Galois survive the duel and live five years longer. I assume the near death experience would motivated him to properly expose his ideas. This would accelerate math development of groups theory a whole four decades, but most important, the great math minds that were alive and productive during this time interval will have the chance to work upon it. Imagine Gauss and Riemann having access to Galois’s ideas and tools- it is like giving the minds behind the Manhattan project access to a modern PC to design and calculate his A-Bombs.

One can safely assume that magnetism theory and relativity would be formulated earlier as well- Cantor would achieve his own results earlier and likely expand upon them. Galois’s death delayed math development at least 40 years, in the time frame exactly before math gave birth to relativity and quantum mechanics.

Then we enter the speculation scenario: if between 17y and 20y Galois produced such revolutionary results, what would he do living five years longer? Would he solve Fermat’s last theorem?! Galois’s mind worked in ways alien to most humans minds, the kind of genius we are blessed with once a century, if that much.

 

Credit : Quora

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Anne Frank.

Now, you're probably thinking “Why Anne? I thought we knew a lot about her!” And you’re correct, we know a lot about Anne Frank, but there’s something people don’t get.

Two diaries came from Anne. One was A Diary of a Young Girl and the other was The Diary of Anne Frank: The Critical Edition.

The first edition (A Diary of a Young Girl) is the edited version. Such edits were made by Anne’s father, Otto Frank, and some came from Anne herself.

So, what was left out of The Diary of a Young Girl? Lots of stuff, actually.

For one, Anne’s mother is painted in a very different light, a more positive light. Secondly, Anne made her writing better when she edited her diary. She added things she’d forgotten, reworked some parts, and sometimes cut out whole sections.

Lastly, Anne was much more explicit in her sexuality. In her unedited version, we come to learn Anne likes girls. (Among other things, but that’s what I want to talk about today).

It is speculated that Anne Frank was bisexual. Now, that is a great piece of representation, however, Anne Frank is not a bisexual icon.

She died because she was Jewish. Not because of her sexuality.

When someone says “Anne Frank is a bicon,” they are forgetting why she died. Yes, people who weren’t Jewish died in the holocaust, but you should never say that in replying to Jewish people talking about it.

To be clear: it is okay to talk about the LGBT community (and many other minorities) who were killed in the holocaust. But, you should talk about that separate from talking about the Jews who were killed.

For example, it would be wrong if someone were to say “Jews were killed in the holocaust, but so were other people, so it’s not even that big of a deal.”

Anne Frank should be remembered for being Jewish, not being bisexual.

Credit : Quora 

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Located in the Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh, in the far western Himalaya one can find the Great Himalayan National Park. Initially constituted in 1984, the park was formally notified as a national park in 1999. The park is spread over an area of 1171 sq km at an altitude between 1500 and 6000 metres

The Great Himalayan National Park Conservation Area is characterised by high alpine peaks, alpine meadows and riverine forests. It protects the monsoon-affected forests and alpine meadows of the Himalayan front ranges and is part of the Himalaya biodiversity hotspot.

The site is known as a biodiversity hotspot as it includes twenty five forest types along with a rich assemblage of fauna species, several of which are threatened. The national park lies at the junction of two major biogeographic realms - the Palearctic and Indomalayan. The park includes the Upper Mountain glacial and snow melt water source origins of the Jiwa Nal, Sainj, Thirthan and Parvati rivers which are all tributaries of the River Beas. The park also has several catchments of water supplies which are vital to millions of downstream users.

Flora and Fauna

Due to its diverse climatic conditions, the Great Himalayan National Park is home to many uncommon endemic and endangered species of flora and fauna. The number of plant species in the park is around 840, consisting of 26% of the total flora of Himachal Pradesh. One can find 794 flowering plant species (58% of which are endemic to the Western Himalayas). 11 gymnosperm species (pines, conifers and cypresses) and 27 fem species in the park. Apart from these, one can find spruces and horse chestnuts in the valleys.

When it comes to the fauna in the park, there are more than 375 faunal species. Thus far, 31 mammal species, 209 bird species, 12 reptile species, nine amphibian species and 125 insect species have been identified in the park. At the higher altitudes of the park, one can find animals such as blue sheep, snow leopard. Himalayan brown bear. Himalayan tahr, and musk deer.

The park is home to four globally threatened species of mammals, three globally threatened bird species, and a large number of medicinal plants.

Most of the fauna in the park is given protection under the high priority protection category of Schedule of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act. 1972. The government of Himachal Pradesh has also banned hunting in the state since the last few years.

 

Picture Credit : Google