My Science School

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by the country's popular culture, she employed a naïve folk art style to explore questions of identity, postcolonialism, gender, class, and race in Mexican society. Her paintings often had strong autobiographical elements and mixed realism with fantasy. In addition to belonging to the post-revolutionary Mexicayotl movement, which sought to define a Mexican identity, Kahlo has been described as a surrealist or magical realist.

Born to a German father and a mestiza mother, Kahlo spent most of her childhood and adult life at La Casa Azul, her family home in Coyoacán—now publicly accessible as the Frida Kahlo Museum. Although she was disabled by polio as a child, Kahlo had been a promising student headed for medical school until she suffered a bus accident at the age of eighteen, which caused her lifelong pain and medical problems. During her recovery she returned to her childhood hobby of art with the idea of becoming an artist.

Kahlo's work has been celebrated internationally as emblematic of Mexican national and indigenous traditions and by feminists for what is seen as its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form.

 

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How did you spend the COVID-19 lockdown? Making Dalgona coffee, attending Zoom calls endlessly, or simply doing nothing? Well British visual artist Sacha Jafri took a slightly different approach. Jafri spent 18 hours a day painting what is dubbed the world’s largest artwork on canvas, measuring close to 2,000 square metres.

Titled “The Journey of Humanity,” the work is roughly equivalent in size to four basketball courts or two soccer fields combined. It is being painted in the ballroom of the Atlantis The Palm hotel in Dubai, where Jafri has been based for over five months – amid strict COVID-19 restrictions.

Jafri is expected to complete the painting by the end of this month (November), after which it will be displayed on the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. The painting will then be cut into 60 square metres each, and will be auctioned off individually in Dubai this December.

The painting in Jafri’s abstract style also incorporates work by children from around the world on the themes of separation and isolation during the pandemic. As part of his “Humanity Inspired” project, Jafri hopes to raise 30 million USD through the painting to support health and education initiatives for children living in poverty worldwide.

 

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Are you afraid of ghosts? Did you know that ghosts can lurk not only in haunted mansions and dark comers, but also inside dictionaries?

Yes, you read that right. Ghost words are words that have entered into the dictionary by a human error rather than normal linguistic transmission.

They are usually a result of a misprint or an erroneous reading of a manuscript.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a ghost word as “a word recorded in a dictionary or other reference work which is not actually used.”

Here are some ghost words that might be lurking inside your dictionary:

**Abacot is a ghost word that arose through a series of misreadings. The word first appeared in the second edition of “Holisnhed’s Chronicles” in 1587. It found its way into every major dictionary. Only 300 years later was it discovered that the word was a misprint of ‘bycoket’, meaning a cap or head-dress.

**Morse: The word ‘morse’ as a noun became popular after it appeared in  Sir Walter Scott’s 1820 novel, “The Monastery”. However, ‘morse’ mysteriously appeared as a verb in dictionaries. Was it Morse code? Not really, it was just a printing mistake, putting ‘morse’ instead of ‘nurse’.

**Momblishness: Though the word sounds similar to mumble, it turned out that momblish was actually a typographical error. The actual word was ‘ne-m’oublie-pas’. French for “don’t forget me”.

**Cairbow: Cairbow was mentioned in an early 20th century draft of the Oxford English Dictionary. The new word puzzled the editors: What was cairbow? A new type of rainbow or a polar creature? Well, none of the above. It turned out that cairbow was just a misreading of caribou.

 

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Whether it is “Harry Potter” or “Percy Jackson and the Olympians”, book series have their own unique charm. Waiting eagerly for the next instalment in the series, speculating what lies in store for your favourite characters, and binge reading all the books at once are some of the joys associated with reading a series. But did you know that serialised novels were precursors to book series? Or that Charles Dickens is credited for popularising serialised novels? “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club” (popularly known as “The Pickwick Papers”) was published in instalments over 19 issues from March 1836 to October 1837.

Dickens wrote most of “The Pickwick papers” under the pseudonym Boz, It follows an elderly gentleman named Samuel Pickwick as he journeys around the British countryside. It was through this work that Dickens established his characteristic writing style, which was marked by humour and exaggerated characters. He also highlighted the shortcomings of Victorian society.

Buoyed by the success of “The Pickwick Papers”, Dickens serialised all his work, including classics such as “Great Expectations” and “Little Dorrit”, Soon, scores of other notable Victorian novelists joined the craze,

Today, however, book series are more popular than serialised novels. From “The Lord of the Rings” to “The Chronicles of Narnia” and “Harry Potter”, book series are turned into franchises with spin-offs, films and merchandising.

 

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Sartre postulated that past awarded winners did not represent equally all ideologies and nations, and was concerned that his work would be unjustly and undesirably misinterpreted by rightist circles who would criticize “certain past errors.”  Sartre, himself, disagreed with particular laureates of past awards, including, interestingly enough, Boris Pasternak who also refused the Nobel Prize in literature in 1957, though for different reasons.  

But the refusal was not a theatrical or “impulsive gesture,” Sartre wrote in a statement to the Swedish press, which was later published in Le Monde. It was consistent with his longstanding principles. “I have always declined official honors,” he said, and referred to his rejection of the Legion of Honor in 1945 for similar reasons. 

There was another reason as well, an “objective” one, Sartre wrote. In serving the cause of socialism, he hoped to bring about “the peaceful coexistence of the two cultures, that of the East and the West.” (He refers not only to Asia as “the East,” but also to “the Eastern bloc.”)

Boris Pasternak, the Russian author, said to-day that he had "voluntarily" changed his mind about accepting the Nobel Prize and had done so without having consulted even his friends. He told me at his villa ten miles outside Moscow that he had thought over the reaction to the award and decided fully on his own to renounce it.

This morning he wrote in pencil a brief telegram of explanation to the Swedish Academy, carried it himself to the local post office, and so informed the world. The telegram read:

"Considering the meaning this award has been given in the society to which I belong, I must reject this undeserved prize which has been presented to me. Please do not receive my voluntary rejection with displeasure. - Pasternak."

 

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The Nobel Prize in Literature 2020 was awarded to Louise Glück "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal."

Born in New York City in 1943, Glück grew up on Long Island and from an early age was drawn to reading and writing poetry. Her parents read her classical mythology as bedtime stories, and she was transfixed by the tales of Greek gods and heroes — themes she would later explore in her work. She wrote some of her earliest verses when she was 5, and set her mind to becoming a poet when she was in her early teens. She struggled with anorexia as a teenager, a disease she later attributed to her obsession with purity and achieving control, and almost starved herself to death before eventually recovering through therapy.

She began taking poetry workshops around that time, and attended Sarah Lawrence College and later Columbia University, where she studied with the poet Stanley Kunitz. She supported herself by working as a secretary so that she could write on the side. In 1968, she published her first collection, “Firstborn.” While her debut was well received by critics, she wrestled with writers’ block afterward and took a teaching position at Goddard College in Vermont. Working with students inspired her to start writing again, and she went on to publish a dozen volumes of poetry.

Glück’s verses often reflect her preoccupation with dark themes — isolation, betrayal, fractured family and marital relationships, death. But her spare, distilled language, and her frequent recourse to familiar mythological figures, gives her poetry a universal and timeless feel, said the critic and writer Daniel Mendelsohn, the editor at large for The New York Review of Books.

 

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To date, the youngest Literature Laureate is Rudyard Kipling, best known for The Jungle Book, who was 41 years old when he was awarded the Literature Prize in 1907.

Kipling’s father, John Lockwood Kipling, was an artist and scholar who had considerable influence on his son’s work, became curator of the Lahore Museum, and is described presiding over this “wonder house” in the first chapter of Kim, Rudyard’s most famous novel. His mother was Alice Macdonald, two of whose sisters married the highly successful 19th-century painters Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Sir Edward Poynter, while a third married Alfred Baldwin and became the mother of Stanley Baldwin, later prime minister. These connections were of lifelong importance to Kipling.

Kipling returned to India in 1882 and worked for seven years as a journalist. His parents, although not officially important, belonged to the highest Anglo-Indian society, and Rudyard thus had opportunities for exploring the whole range of that life. All the while he had remained keenly observant of the thronging spectacle of native India, which had engaged his interest and affection from earliest childhood. He was quickly filling the journals he worked for with prose sketches and light verse.

In 1907 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first Englishman to be so honoured. In South Africa, where he spent much time, he was given a house by Cecil Rhodes, the diamond magnate and South African statesman. This association fostered Kipling’s imperialist persuasions, which were to grow stronger with the years. 

 

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The Nobel Prize in Literature 1909 was awarded to Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf "in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings."

Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) was born in Östra Emterwik, Värmland, Sweden. She was brought up on Mårbacka, the family estate, which she did not leave until 1881, when she went to a teachers’ college at Stockholm. In 1885 she became a teacher at the girls’ secondary school in Landskrona. She had been writing poetry ever since she was a child, but she did not publish anything until 1890, when a Swedish weekly gave her the first prize in a literary competition and published excerpts from the book which was to be her first, best, and most popular work. Gösta Berlings Saga was published in 1891, but went unnoticed until its Danish translation received wide critical acclaim and paved the way for the book’s lasting success in Sweden and elsewhere. In 1895 financial support from the royal family and the Swedish Academy encouraged her to abandon teaching altogether. She travelled in Italy and wrote Antikrists mirakler (1897) [The Miracles of Antichrist], a novel set in Sicily. After several minor works she published Jerusalem (1901-1902) [The Holy City], a novel about Swedish peasants who emigrated to the Holy Land and whom she had visited in 1900. This work was her first immediate success.

 

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The board of Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore was the first Indian to receive a Nobel Prize, one of the highest honours in the world. He won the prize in the Literature category in 1913 for his poetry collection “Gitanjali”.

Born in 1891 in Calcutta (now Kolkata), Tagore was well known for his poetry, songs, stories, dramas, which included portrayals of people’s lives, philosophy and social issues.

Born in a wealthy family, Tagore was home-schooled, but went to England to study further. A few years later, he returned to India without a formal degree. While managing his family’s estates, he got a closer look at the impoverished rural Bengal. A friend of Mahatma Gandhi, Tagore participated in India’s struggle for independence. In fact, the national anthem that we sing today is one of the many stanzas of hymn composed by Tagore.

While he originally wrote in Bengali, Tagore reached out to a wider audience by translating his works into English. “Gitanjali” is a collection of more than 150 poems, which includes Tagore’s own translations of some of his Bengali poems. It was originally published in Bengali in 1910 and in English in 1912, with a preface by English poet W.B. Yeats. Some of Tagore’s acclaimed works include “Ghare Baire” (“The Home and the World”); “Sesher Kabita” (“Farewell My Friends”). “Kabuliwala”, “Gora”, “My Boyhood Days”, “Gitabitan, “and “The Post Office”.

Following the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in 1919, Tagore returned his Knighthood for Services to Literature, which g=he was awarded in 1915.

Through his ideas of peace and spiritual harmony, the Nobel Laureate paved a new way of life based on his ideals of Brahmo Samaj. His contribution to education too is unparalleled. He founded the Visva Bharti University in Santiniketan, focusing on developing the child’s imagination and promoting stress-free learning.

Tagore passed away in 1941 at the age of 80.

 

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Worlds War II, also known as the Second World War, was fought I many countries between 1939 and 1945. The global war involved two opposing groups: the Allies and the Axis powers, France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and China constituted the Allies. The Allied powers were led by Winston Churchill (the U.K), Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union), Charles de Gaulle (France), and Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman (the U.S). The Axis powers were led by Adolf Hitler (Germany), Benito Mussolini (Italy), and Hideki Tojo (Japan).

What triggered the war?

The Second World War began in Europe on September 1, 1939, when German troops invaded Poland. Was it a continuation of the First World War? In a way, yes. The instability created in Europe and the economic depression worldwide as a result of WWI were major factors leading to WWI. Besides, Hitler had been waiting to regain territory lost after WWI, to unite all German- speaking people into one Teach in Europe. Hitler’s invasion of Poland forced Great Britain and France, which had promised support to Poland, to declare war on Germany.

Then Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, but soon found itself crippled by the Russian Winter. The war in the Pacific broke out in December 1941, when Japan, annoyed by the U.S. trade bans, attacked Pearl harbor, the American naval base in Hawaii, and other Dutch and British military installations throughout Asia.

When the war ended…

The war came to a close on September 2, 1945, when Japan formally surrendered. With Hitler’s death in April, Germany signed an unconditional surrender document. Mussolini was captured and hanged by Italian partisans.

With millions of soldiers and civilians losing their lives on account of the war, it was considered the largest and bloodiest war in history. The war saw the use of blitzkrieg tactics (a method of offensive warfare blending land and air action to achieve quick victory over adversaries), initially by Germany and later by the Allies, and devastating weaponry such as U-boat subs and atom bombs as a result of technological advancements.

The Holocaust

The deadliest conflict witnessed the Holocaust, the killing of almost six million Jews by the Nazis, and the Allied atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The U.S, the Soviet Union, France and China emerged victors of the war, while Germany, Italy and Japan embraced defeat.

The war brought about a major shift of power in the world, with the United States and the Soviet Union emerging as superpowers. It also resulted in the end of colonialism in Asia and Africa. One of the significant developments in the port-war worlds was the formation of the United Nations to maintain international peace and security.

 

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Google, Apple, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard (HP) and Amazon are names that are synonymous with the word tech giant. But could you ever imagine that these billion-dollar American companies started their journey from a garage?

HP was the first company among the giants to have commenced its journey from a rented garage in Palo Alto, California. In 1938, Bill Hewlett and David Packard began part-time work at a rented garage with their mentor Frederick Terman, a professor at Stanford University. In 1939, they formalised their partnership, and the rest is history.

Google, co-founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, started its journey from the garage of Susan Wojcicki in Menlo Park, California in September 1998. Susan Wojcicki is currently the Chief Executive Officer of YouTube.

Apple too started out in the garage of co-founder Steve Jobs’ parents in Los Altos, California. Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne worked on the first Apple Computer in the garage in 1976.

Microsoft meanwhile saw its ideas come to life in a garage at Albuquerque, New Mexico. Co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote a version of the BASIC programming while working out of the garage. During their garage stint, the two stayed at a most nearby.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos rented out a house with a garage in Bellevue, Washington and developed the company’s online bookstore website there in 1995.

 

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Vitamins are substances our body needs to grow, function properly, and to fight off disease. But our body cannot produce all the required vitamins nits own. So we turn to food sources and sometimes supplements to get them. All 13 vitamins play a crucial role in our well-being.

Vitamins are of two types: fat soluble and water soluble. Some vitamins that form part of our daily diet get stored in the fatty tissues of our body and in the liver. They remain there for about six months, ready to be used by the body whenever required. Vitamins A, D, E and K fall under this category. In contrast, water –soluble vitamins do not get stored anywhere and are carried in the bloodstream throughout the body. Some of these that do not get used up get excreted in urine. Hence it is important to constantly replenish them, vitamins C and the big group of B vitamins (B1 – thiamine, B2 – Riboflavin, B3- Niacin, B5 – pantothenic acid, B6-pyridoxine, B7-niotin, B9-folate and B12 – cobalamin) fall in this category.

Vitamin A: if you want keen eyesight, then this is the vitamins you need to take. A great immune booster, it also protects the body from infections diseases. It promotes cell development and growth, besides healthy hair, skin, bones and teeth. So, milk fortified with Vitamin A, liver, turna and cod liver oil, orange and yellow fruits and vegetables (carrots, sweet potato, red bell peppers) and leafy greens such as spinach are the foods you need to take to get this vitamin.

Vitamin B: This group, comprising B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9 and B12, provides your body with the energy it needs to get its metabolism going. Besides, B vitamins play a role in producing red blood cells that carry oxygen to all parts of the body as well as boost nerve health. So turn to dairy products, whole grains, wheat, oats, fish, poultry, meat, eggs, leafy greens and legumes to get your dose of Vitamin B.

Vitamin C: This vitamin keeps gums and blood vessels in good health. A powerful antioxidant, it helps wounds heal fast and builds the body’s resistance to disease and aids in iron absorption. Citrus fruits, strawberries, tomatoes, green and red peppers, broccoli and cabbage are rich in this vitamin.

Vitamin D: Make sure your body gets enough of this vitamin if you want strong bones and teeth. This vitamin also helps your body absorb calcium, an essential mineral.

Did you know the body produces vitamin D in response to sun exposure? It is also available in foods such as egg yolk, fish, liver and cereals fortified with it.

Vitamin E: An antioxidant, it protects body tissue from damage caused by free radicals which are compounds that form when our body converts food into energy. It helps cells fight off infections. Almost and peanuts are good sources of vitamin E. Besides, you can get it from wheat, oats, egg yolk and green veggies.

Vitamin K: This vitamin plays a critical role in making the blood clot in case of injury, thereby preventing excessive blood loss. This vitamin is largely present in leafy green veggies and Brussels sprouts and also in milk, yoghurt and cheese.

 

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When someone mentions heritage, grand monuments is what often comes to front of the mind. But heritage is beyond that. It includes traditions or living expressions inherited from ancestors and passed on through generations. These may be in the form of performing arts, oral traditions, social practices, rituals knowledge, festive events and crafts among others.

Intangible cultural heritage plays an important role in maintaining cultural diversity in the times of globalisation. Understanding the heritage of different communities helps with intercultural dialogues and encourages mutual respect. It is especially relevant to minority groups and mainstream social groups within a State, and is as important for developing countries as for developed ones.

In 2003, UNESCO drafted the Conversation for the safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage for the protection and promotion of intangible cultural heritage. As of 2020, 180 countries have either ratified, approved or accepted the Convention. Every year, the intergovernmental committee for safeguarding intangible heritage meets to evaluate nominations proposed by States and decide whether or not to include a certain element to the list.

Thus far, 549 cultural elements from 127 countries have been added to the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. These include the Kumbh Mela, Yoga, Chhau dance, Kutiyaattan, and Ramlila among others from India.

 

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Geographical Indication (GI), according to the World Intellectual Property Organization, is a sign which identifies good as origination from a particular geographical region and possessing qualities associated with that origin. It is similar to the protection a Trademarks or Copyright offers, however it does not restrict the creation of the good to only the geographical location that has the tag for the good. For example: Banglar Rasogolla is a food item that originates in West Bengal and has a GI tag that identifies it as originating in the state. The Rasogolla can be made by anyone, anywhere in the world, but the one that comes from Bengal will have a GI tag attached to it and cannot be replicated.

In India, GI sign is granted by the Geographical  Indications Registry in Chennai for Agricultural products, foodstuffs, handicrafts and industrial products among others. It can be applied for by any association of persons, producers and organisations. Only after a though study and clarification, will the GI tag be awarded to a product.

The Darjeeling Tea was the first product in India to be awarded the GI tag in 2004. Today, nearly 360 products from around the country have the GI tag.

 

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The Taj Mahal was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 for being “the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage”. Described by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore as “the tear-drop on the cheek of time”, it is regarded by many as the best example of Mughal architecture and a symbol of India’s rich history. The Taj Mahal attracts 7–8 million visitors a year.

It was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan (reigned 1628–1658), to house the tomb of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The tomb is the centrepiece of a 42-acre complex, which includes a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded on three sides by a crenellated wall.

Construction of the mausoleum was essentially completed in 1643 but work continued on other phases of the project for another 10 years. The Taj Mahal complex is believed to have been completed in its entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time to be around 32 million rupees, which in 2015 would be approximately 52.8 billion rupees (US$827 million). The construction project employed some 20,000 artisans under the guidance of a board of architects led by the court architect to the emperor, Ustad Ahmad Lahauri.

 

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