Stephen William Hawking was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author, and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge. His central exploration was in the areas of theoretical cosmology, focusing on the evolution of the Universe, governed by the laws of general relativity. He is best known for his work on black holes. With the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, a theory called ‘Hawking radiation,’ he became the first to set forth a cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.
Hawking suffered from a rare and life-threatening condition of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a disease he suffered all of his adult life. The illness started when he was 21 and pursuing his Ph.D. at Cambridge University. For a significant part of his later life, he was almost completely paralyzed and communicated through a speech-generating device. Not succumbing to the despair of the disease, Hawking devoted all his life to his work and research. He was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge for around three decades and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. For his contribution to his pioneering work in cosmology, he made Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Hawking suffered from a rare and life-threatening condition of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Hawking became a member of the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge in 1968, and the discoveries of cosmologist Roger Penrose on Black Hole really fascinated him. He started research on the origin of the Universe. In 1970, Hawking discovered the ‘Second Law of Black Hole Dynamics,’ which states that the event horizon of a black hole can never get smaller. Along with James M. Bardeen and Brandon Carter, he proposed the four laws of ‘Black Hole Mechanics.’
Hawking visited Moscow in 1973, and his discussions with Yakov Borisovich Zel and Alexei Starobinsky helped him to come up with ‘Hawking Radiation.’ The following year, he became a ‘Fellow of the Royal Society.’ He started to get more recognition for his research and discoveries through his print and TV interviews. In 1975, he was awarded the Eddington Medal and the Pius XI Gold Medal, followed by the Dannie Heineman Prize and the Maxwell Prize.
Hawking was then appointed as a professor with a chair in gravitational physics in 1977 and received the ‘Albert Einstein Medal’ and an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford. He gradually started losing control over his speech, and it became increasingly difficult to understand him but that this did not stop him from getting appointed as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University in 1979.
In 1982, Hawking and Gary Gibbons organized a Nuffield Workshop on the topic ‘The Very Early Universe’ at Cambridge University, which focused principally on the cosmological inflation theory. He published a model, the ‘Hartle-Hawking state’ with Jim Hartle, which stated that before the Big Bang, time did not exist, and the concept of the beginning of the Universe is meaningless.
Hawking received the ‘Albert Einstein Medal’ and an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford
In 1985, he lost his voice after a tracheotomy. As a result of this, he required 24-hour care. His condition caught the attention of a Californian computer programmer who invented a speaking program that could be directed by the head or eye movement.
Hawking gained international prominence for the first time in 1988 with the publication of ‘A Brief History of Time.’ It was meant to be a simplified version of cosmology for the masses and became an instant bestseller. In 1993, he co-edited a book on Euclidean quantum gravity with Gary Gibbons. A famous collection of essays, interviews, and talk titled ‘Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays’ was published in 1993. It was followed by a six-part television series, ‘Stephen Hawking’s Universe’ and a companion book.
Hawking wrote a bunch of cosmology books and made appearances in popular TV shows as well
He made a constant appearance on television during this period, in documentaries like—‘The Real Stephen Hawking (2001)’, ‘Stephen Hawking: Profile (2002)’, ‘Hawking (2004)’, ‘Stephen Hawking, Master of the Universe (2008)’, etc.
Hawking retired as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 2009, owing to University rules and regulations. He continued to work as a director of research at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics.
Hawking became a ‘Commander of the Order of the British Empire’ in 1982. He was later honored with many prestigious awards like ‘the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society,’ ‘the Paul Dirac Medal,’ etc. Other notable honors bestowed upon Hawking include ‘the Wolf Prize,’ ‘Companion of Honor by Her Highness,’ ‘Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize,’ ‘the Copley Medal,’ ‘the Presidential Medal of Freedom,’ ‘the Russian Fundamental Physics Prize.
Hawking’s physical condition increasingly began to deteriorate. He could no longer drive his wheelchair; he required a ventilator at times and was hospitalized several times since 2009. He was closely working with researchers on systems that could translate his brain patterns into switch activations.
Stephen Hawking died peacefully at his home in Cambridge, England, on March 14, 2018, at the age of 76.
Most of us might have heard about the Tesla electric car, manufactured by the Tesla company, and might have thought it as the invention by the 19th-century scientist Nikola Tesla. But the Tesla Company was founded to honor the legendary scientist, more than sixty years after the death of the genius. Tesla was a great scientist whose inventions like Alternating current (AC), a three-phase electric power transmission system, hydro-electric power plant, and electrical transformer, are still in use in one way or another.
Early Life
Based in Smiljan, a small town of the former Austrian Empire, and in modern-day Croatia, Tesla was born on July 10, 1856. He had four other siblings―Dane, Milka, Angelina, and Marica. His mother, Djuka Mandic, although she was a housewife, but was the person who instilled the quest for inventions in the young genius, while he was growing up, through her own small devices for use in the household, during her leisure time.
Tesla’s father, Milutin Tesla, was an orthodox priest and writer in Serbia. He tried to push the young boy to join the priesthood. But the young Tesla had an interest only in the sciences.
Young Tesla had an interest only in the sciences
Career
As the young boy grew older, he showed signs of remarkable imagination and ingenious creativity. He started his study for a career in engineering at the Technical University at Graz, Austria. At Graz, he saw many scientific instruments, such as Gramme Dynamo, a generator, which spurred Tesla to conceive ideas, which he later on applied to develop Alternating current motor. During his stay at the University of Prague, he witnessed many other applications which instilled the juices of creativity in the young mind for his future inventions.
Eddison-Tesla Partnership
In 1884, Nikola Tesla left Europe and set sail for America with little more than clothes on his back and a letter of recommendation to a famous scientific and business mogul Thomas Edison. Edison hired Tesla in his well-established company, which manufactured DC-based electronics systems and their distribution in the United States and had become a standard. That kickstarted a short journey of scientific collaboration between the two remarkably genius, yet incompatible personalities. The two scientists began working together and made modifications and improvements to Edison’s inventions, but it lasted only in a few months and they parted their ways.
Tesla’s Solo Career as an Inventor
While Edison was a dominant figure with more focus on business strategies and marketing skills and therefore had financial success, Tesla was a simple man with very little know-how and interest in commercial strategy. Tesla strived to kickstart his solo career and cast around for investors to convert his tentative plans into practical applications. In 1885, he was able to get funding for the Tesla Electric Light Company and started working on to develop an improved arc lighting, and became successful. Unfortunately, he was once again abandoned by his investors and forced out of the joint venture. For a long time, Tesla had to survive by earning his bread through manual labor jobs. Fortunately, he succeeded in getting some funding for his new Tesla Electric company.
Stock certificate for the Tesla Electric Light and Manufacturing Company
Obstacles
Tesla, throughout his career, discovered, designed, and invented ideas for numerous inventions. Unfortunately, most of his ideas, including the dynamos (a generator which worked like batteries) and induction motors, were stolen and officially patented by other inventors. Despite these hardships, throughout his career, Tesla was a pioneer for the discovery of radar technology, X-ray technology, remote control.
He used the AC principle to develope a rotating magnetic field. His most well-known contributions are the Tesla coil and the AC system, which eventually became dominant in the US, and later on, declared as a standardized electric system all over the world. Tesla’s invention caught the attention of an engineer and businessman George Westinghouse, whose company, Westinghouse Corporation, bought the patent for sixty thousand dollars cash and stocks in Westinghouse Corporation.
Tesla invented another remarkable device that would revolutionize the communications systems forever by the end of the 19th century. He developed Tesla coils and laid the foundations for wireless networks, which are still used even today in several radio technologies and wireless radio transmission antennas.
In the early 20th century, Tesla became obsessed with wireless transmission of energy. Around 1900 he began work on one of his bravest but riskiest projects yet: to build a global wireless communication system to transmit information and providing free energy throughout the world utilizing massive electrical towers.
Tesla had an aim to build a global wireless communication system
He started his work by securing funding from a group of prominent investors. However, doubts arose among the investors after a few years of stagnant research with no great achievement. Consequently, Nikola had no choice but to abandon the project and eventually became bankrupt. The staff at his laboratories at Wardenclyffe on Long Island New York was laid off, and the massive tower dismantled and sold for scrap.
Tesla’s legacy
Tesla suffered a nervous breakdown after the failure of this project. His ideas became more and more impractical, and he became an eccentric person spending most of his time with wild pigeons at New York Park. Miserable and antisocial Tesla spent the last years of his life suffering from a coronary thrombosis and died on January 7, 1947, at the age of 86.
However, Tesla’s legacy remains alive with Hollywood movies made in his honor. A street corner identifying “Nikola Tesla Corner” was installed at the site of his former New York City laboratory.
In 2003, a few engineers founded Tesla Motors, a company in the name of Nikola Tesla, in his Memoriam, intending to develop the world’s first fully electric-powered car.
World AIDS Day, designated on 1 December every year since 1988, is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease.
AIDS (Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome) is a pandemic disease caused due to the infection of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which causes damage to the immune system.
A Burundi woman called Jeanne was the first person to disclose that she was living with HIV, Twenty-five years ago. Today, Jeanne is holding leaders accountable and fighting for the right to health care.
Modern-day medical sciences already found treatments for HIV, and there are various formulas have been also taken to fight against discrimination and to safeguard HIV patients with proper treatments.
Still, there are millions of HIV patients, who still do not have access to tests, treatments, and medications for HIV. So it is important to observe the day. It will act as a reminder for all that HIV still exists and we need to fight together to end this the disease. This year the theme for World Aids Day 2019 is “Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic: Community by Community.”
History
World AIDS Day was first observed in 1988. And each year, different organizations across the world bring attention to the HIV epidemic, endeavor to increase HIV awareness and knowledge.
According to World Health Organization, “37.9 million people living with HIV at the end of 2018, 79 percent received testing, 62 percent received treatment, and 53 percent had achieved suppression of the HIV virus with reduced risk of infecting others.”
2.8 million Were children aged 0-18 years. Each day, approximately 980 children became infected with HIV. Nearly 320 children died from AIDS-related causes. Mostly because of inadequate access to HIV prevention, care, and treatment services.
Street children vulnerable to AIDS
There are approximately 100 million street children across the globe. In Pakistan, an estimated 1.5 million children are living on streets in highly vulnerable conditions.
The research was conducted by Dr. Faran Emmanuel – Independent Epidemiologist and principal investigator, Farah Iqbal and Naveed Khan – Co-Investigator. After three years of research the report concluded;
In Pakistan, 35% of children just hear about the disease
25% knew that HIV spread through sexual intercourse
17% knew that HIV can also spread through the use of unclean needles and syringes
Only 2% knew that blood and bi product can also be a reason
An overall 71% of the children did not know of any protective measure
06% of the children had incorrect information regarding ways to protect against HIV
Ratodero out Break
Meanwhile, an outbreak of HIV reported in Ratodero, Larkana Sindh this year, and to date, general screening for HIV has been done 37,272 individuals from the general population in Ratodero.
Till now 1,181 have suspected HIV positive during this screening. There are 941 children and 240 adults.
All suspected HIV cases were referred to the HIV Treatment center for confirmation. To date 754 Children have been confirmed positive and linked to HIV Treatment center. Similarly, 141 adults have been declared HIV positive and linked with HIV treatment center.
Aristotle once said, “The True end of a tragedy is to purify the passion.” Perhaps that’s the best way to describe the life of Dr. Abdul Salam. The makers of Salam – The First ****** Nobel Laureate indulge the audiences in the extraordinary life of the boy who was born without even ordinary privileges.
The documentary starts with the childhood stories of Dr. Salam. How his work ethic was build and the struggle his family goes through to nurture the genius. I especially like the part where audiences were told how his parents identified the intellect inside him and gave him privileged treatment within the family, given the financial constraints. In our childhood, we heard these sorts of stories for foreign scientists, but, regrettably, we have buried the same of our own.
Conventional isn’t the word associated with Dr. Salam, the documentary showcased interviews of his students and colleagues who believe his mind is always exploding with ideas. Though 90% of them are full of non-sense, the remaining 10% is worth winning a Nobel Prize. An exciting incident on that matter was also recorded when Salam sent a scientific paper to famous physicist Wolfgang Pauli which he declared absurd and dismissed it completely. Later, two physicists published the same idea and won the Nobel Prize for it. Salam obviously disappointed took it comically and always advised his student to “Never listen to grand old men.” Wolfgang Pauli later did apologize to Salam, and it all becomes a history.
The documentary also shares some personal stories of the Laureate
Eventually, he received Nobel Prize in 1979 for his theory in the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles along with two other scientists. He was an advisor to the Ministry of Science from 1960 till 1974. It was quite surprising to know about his contributions to laying groundworks for the program that build up and lead to the attainment of nuclear deterrence of Pakistan. It is quite unfortunate that such notable work has been systematically removed from the books of history.
A strong force invoked when a populist leader, Z. A Bhutto in a constitutional amendment declared Ahmadiyya’s non-muslims. Later on, Gen. Zia also passed the legislation on that amendment. It was he believe that whole Ahmadiyya’s community had been downgraded to 2nd level citizens at once. This impacted him to the core, and he was pushed to part his ways from the government in 1974. The environment in Pakistan had isolated him and made him moved abroad permanently.
Dr. Salam Founded the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Italy in 1964, He devoted his later life for the development of the ICTP. His passion for Pakistan was no secret, and according to his son, a handful of government officials stayed in touch discreetly with Dr. Salam. Later on, after his Nobel Prize achievement, the Government of Pakistan awarded him the highest Civilian award in his recognition. This reflects the bigotry and hypocrisy of our leaders how distinguished scientist from Pakistan was treated due to intolerance and religious extremism.
A close-up shot of Salam’s tombstone
Abdul Salam remained the champion of science and was the protagonist in the story of theoretical and particle physics. It is a matter of great disenchantment of how his intellectual contributions were made controversial due to his religious belief and presented him as an antagonist to the nation of Pakistan. This is very well elaborated through facts in this documentary, and all praise goes to the makers for portraying it to precision.
I think the only criticism goes to this documentary is I expect more from it on the scientific part, I wish there were more on how his contributions help the scientific community. There is also rather some debatable choice of religious extremism incidents portrayed, which I feel is twisted in reflecting an accurate background of extremism in Pakistan.
All in all, it was a well-rounded documentary that helps us understand why we need to cherish our heroes instead of abandoning them. To this day, I can say this is the most comprehensive documentation of Salam’s life and his passion for the people of Pakistan.
Stephen Hawking, one of the most accomplished scientists of our time for whom we don’t need to scroll social media or follow science news. But what made him the scientists of the twentieth century? His scientific discoveries on the black holes and parallel universes, his dozens of books on challenging scientific topics, or his inspiration for millions of differentially abled people around the globe?
Hawking’s life was a juxtaposition of sparkling intellect and a deceased body. He was like a testament that “disability is not inability” and that differentially abled people could get anything once they hook to. Stephen Hawking caught by a debilitating motor neuron decease at the age of 21, gradually his nerve cease functioning, and he was trapped in the body, but his mind was fully active and functionally till his date on 14th March 2018. He lived around 50 years more as was early diagnosed and estimated by his doctors that he can live only two or three years. Later, Hawking was entirely dependent on a team and electric chair with a speech synthesizer to communicate to the world outside.
One of his significant contributions merely is being visible when the voice of differentially abled persons were missing in popular culture. Despite his severe disability, he made appearances in popular science shows like Star Trek and Big Bang theory, his life dramatized in “Theory of Everything,” a movie based on real-life events and his relationship with his first wife, Jane Hawking. He breathed fully and was an incredible exemplar of there being no boundary to human endeavor.
Thomas Eddison was the greatest inventor of his time. He is well-known as the ” father of electricity,” caught by the fever that ended on complete deafness of both ears. Eddison converted his medical condition into his greatest strength. He believed that his mostly silent existence helps him to wholly absorbed in his research with no external distraction.
Einstein, the genius of all time, suffered a learning disability, and could not speak appropriately until age four. In school, Einstein was often confronted by his teachers for his inability to grasp the concept. It is widely considered that he suffered through dyslexia. Alone, Einstein, and Stephen Hawking, and Eddison are enough to show that ” Physics is the heritage of the disabled.”
There remains an extensive list of scientists with disabilities includes Gustav Kirchoff, Charles Steinmetz, Edwin Krebs, John Forbes Nash, Jr(an acclaimed mathematician), Ralph Bruan, Geerat Vermeij,Farida Bedwei, and Leonardo Da Vinci. They stand as an inspiration to those who are physically perfect but unable to show enthusiasm toward their career and life.
In the modern era, millions of other scientists have been contributing to high-level scientific research around the globe with their severe disability and health conditions. Only in the United States, half million people serving in STEM have some sort of disability. Their medical conditions challenged them to tackle scientific problems uniquely and differently.
However, scientific research is barely designed to meet the basic necessities of scientists with disabilities. This situation can be understandable in Asian and third world countries like India and Pakistan, where STEM research hardly puts in Government’s’ agenda, but the fact is that differentially abled scientists have been facing hurdles in US and European countries as well. Alone in the United States, 20 percent population and 40 percent worldwide are suffering and the countdown is intensifying each day after growing cases of mental illness.
Despite the obstacles these peoples face daily in their education, research, and career moves, they are incredibly genius, hardworking and devoted to their profession and hundreds of them have demonstrated as successful only because they have access to modern technology, emotional and institutional support, and better health facilities.
In western societies, disable persons are fully getting benefits that come from their differences even a couple of scientists with mental illness have shown that thinking differently was instrumental in playing their role as a researcher. Having said that, they were able to use their creative skills with emotional weight to make case sensitive decisions with their fragile health conditions.
There are a handful of examples in Western societies that disability cannot define a person and his capabilities. The personal problems these scientists encounter daily spur them to tackle technical issues in a novel way and they were able to play their part in making this world a better place.
The contribution of Women has grown in different fields of science, technology, and STEM. Pakistan is a developing country that is striving to accelerate its economic growth and catch up with the pace of the fast-growing economies of the region. Women are about 48.5 % of Pakistan’s total population, they have remained somewhat under-represented in most disciplines, and despite all the challenges at multiple levels, women’s contributions to science and technology are extraordinary in Pakistan. Here, we are highlighting some of the brilliant women working in STEM and making a name for Pakistan.
Tasneem Zehra
Based In Lahore, Tasneem Zehra received her early education here. At the age of 13, she sat for her O Levels privately, through the British Council and went on to take her A-Levels at the age of 15. During these years, Zehra wrote extensively. Her articles were featured in various national newspapers as well as the magazine Newsline. In 1988, she won an international essay competition held by the Children as the Peacemakers Foundation based in California, USA. In 1990, Zehra won First Prize in an essay competition held by the Pakistan Post Office and received the Boswell Medal for excellence, which is awarded to students who excel academically and are also exceptionally well-rounded.
Zehra helped establish the LUMS School of Science and Engineering
Zehra attended Kinnaird College Lahore and obtained her Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Mathematics and Physics. Later on, she attended Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad, where she earned her Master of Science (M.S.) in Physics.
Zehra’s journey got a twist when she went to Trieste, Italy, on a scholarship awarded by the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) for a yearlong post-graduate degree in the field of High-Energy Physics. She completed her Ph.D. in theoretical physics and became the first Pakistani woman String Theorist. After which she went to Harvard University for a two-year-long postdoctoral research position.
Later she moved back to Pakistan and joined the LUMS as an Assistant Professor of Physics. Zehra helped establish the LUMS School of Science and Engineering and was assigned as a founding faculty member. Her academic research focuses on using 11-dimensional supergravity to arrive at a classification of the flux backgrounds that arise when M-branes wrap supersymmetric cycles.
Zehra has been an excellent writer throughout her career, and her debut novel, Only The Longest Threads (Paul Dry Books, 2014), reimagined defining moments of discovery when new scientific theories changed our understanding of the universe, and our place in it. Once she said, “Since no one comes up with better brain teasers than Nature, my love for physics was an inevitable outcome. I gravitate towards fundamental, abstract concepts, so string theory reeled me in. I was fascinated by the idea that all the rich diversity of matter and forces in our universe could be manifested by the flutters and oscillations of infinitesimal strings.”
Mobina Zafar
Mobina Zafar based in Lahore, she is SMEC Senior Programmer and was honored as Young Female Professional of the Year at the Surbana Jurong (S.J.) International Awards held in Brisbane, Australia, in December 2018. She has been working with SMEC, a member of the Surbana Jurong group of companies, since 2012. The annual S.J. International Awards recognize the most outstanding employees, projects, and innovations of the Surbana Jurong Group, which operates in more than 40 countries. From several exceptional nominees, Mobina was chosen for her technical skill, innovation, and dedication.
Mobina has been working with SMEC, a member of the Surbana Jurong group of companies, since 2012
She played a crucial role in pioneering the development of a Project Management and Monitoring Information System (PMIS) for our water resources projects here in Pakistan. Mobina raised in a family that values female education, with both parents working in Pakistan’s education sector. Her mother has worked as a secondary school principal and education development officer. Her siblings opted to study engineering and information technology, and she recalls being excited by the digital transformation from a young age.
Once Mobina said, “Information technology has changed our world, and this fascinates me! It’s why I chose to do my graduate degree in Computer Sciences and later completed a Master of Science in Software Engineering.” Training to be a female programmer in a traditionally male-dominated industry has not been without its challenges. There are specific perceived barriers for females in STEM fields, mostly based on stereotypes and cultural ethos, and She was not an exception. She accepted and overcame these challenges with the encouragement and support of her parents, husband, friends, and colleagues at SMEC. There are indeed barriers, but she feels the way to break them down is to demonstrate our true potential and quality contribution to our fields. She is keen to see more females study for and take up careers in STEM.
Mobina believed that “We should support and motivate more females in Pakistan to enter STEM fields. Information technology is such an exciting sector with tremendous opportunity for innovation and learning.”
Zartaj Waseem
Zartaj Waseem was born in Karachi and belonged to a middle-class family. Her father is a Mechanical & Electrical Engineer (retired), and she studied Science/Computer Science, and she ended up doing Software Engineering. Her favorite subject was English and Science. She didn’t like Math during her schooling, but in college, her math teachers helped her to nurture an interest in mathematics.
Zartaj founded the Robotics & STEM Studio at Haque Academy
She said, “I firmly believe that teaching strategies and engagingly imparting subject knowledge are a vital element for inspiring students. Many people have content/subject knowledge, but not all of them can teach.” Presently, Zartaj is serving as STEM Education Professional, CEO & Co-Founder of Pakistan Space Science Education Centre (PSSEC). Nahyan Farooq, Chief Design Officer (CDO), came up with the idea of introducing Space Science Education in Pakistan, and together they founded PSSEC. He confided in her capabilities to join hands with him in inspiring and educating our young generation and present them with the quality STEM Education opportunities available to the children in the developed countries.
In addition to her corporate experience in the field of I.T., Zartaj has enjoyed being in the STEM Education field since 2010. STEM Education was quite a novel idea back then, and she has always wanted to do something different, something unique, and not just follow the trends. She finds herself as more of a leader and trendsetter, somebody who confidently spearheads initiatives.
She founded the Robotics & STEM Studio at Haque Academy, followed by a leading role in establishing Pakistan’s first STEM Education organization, Robotics Labs. Becoming a coach/trainer for school kids Robotics teams and representing Pakistan at International Robotics Competitions with her team, like FIRST Lego League and Destination Imagination and as International Judge at FIRST Global.
This experience has led her to enjoy facing challenges when she tries to execute and implement a new idea. She realized that Computer Science is a very diverse field, be it in the education or the corporate sector, it gives one the autonomy and flexibility to make almost everything possible. Yet, Software Engineering is a male-dominated field. Although the team members she has worked with have always been very supportive and respectful, she realizes that people do not have enough faith in a woman’s capabilities, but Zartaj stood as a symbol that women can handle matters independently in such fields.
STEM Education has been quite a game-changer for her. She has been on a roller coaster ride all these years, struggling to strike a balance between home/family and work. At the same time, she has been blessed with opportunities that she had never thought would come her way. Her family has been quite understanding and supportive, particularly her kids. As far as where she derives inspiration from, Bill Gates has been her role model. His character trait of being innovative in ideas and introducing newer and better technology to the world has always inspired her.
“I consider barriers as challenges to overcome, just like in a game you progress by overcoming obstacles, and you keep trying until you succeed. I don’t think that these challenges are meant to stop us. I feel that barriers are there to make us change our strategy about approaching something and becoming better at it.”
Zartaj is a true inspiration for girls who dream of something big. She said, “Girls are a miraculous creation of Allah, we have a compelling role, be it at home or in the field as a professional. First of all, it is imperative to get an education, and then something that I have assimilated and found very useful is the skill of self-learning. If you are good at self-learning and you are self-motivated, you are unstoppable. Our girls should be adaptable, assertive, and committed to what they dream of achieving.”
Nargis Mawalwala
Nergis Mavalvala is a Pakistani-American astrophysicist well-known for her role in the first observation of gravitational waves back in 2015. She is the Curtis and Kathleen Marble Professor of Astrophysics and the Associate Head of the Department of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Nergis Mavalvala was born in Lahore but primarily raised in Karachi, Pakistan.
Quantum Astrophysicist Nergis Mavalvala in an MIT lab (Photo by Darren McCollester/for MacArthur Foundation)
Nargis attended the Convent of Jesus and Mary, Karachi, for her O-Level and A-Level. She moved to the United States in 1986 and enrolled at Wellesley College and got a bachelor’s degree in physics and astronomy in 1990. As a graduate student at MIT, she conducted her doctoral work under Dr. Rainer Weiss and developed a prototype laser interferometer for detecting gravitational waves. Before graduation, Nargis with her physics professor, Robert Berg, co-authored a paper in Physical Review B: Condensed Matter.
After graduate school, she served a postdoctoral researcher and a research scientist at the California Institute of Technology, kickstarted her work with cosmic microwave background, and then eventually indulge the LIGO project. Mawalwala mainly focuses on two fields of physics: Gravitational Waves Astrophysics and quantum measurement science. She went on to do her Ph.D. in physics from MIT in 1997.
Dr. Mavalvala joined the MIT physics faculty in 2002 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2017. Born to a Parsi family, she was the younger of the two children. Her parents highly valued their daughters’ educational experiences and encouraged her to pursue higher education overseas. She was always interested in math and science and believed that she was intrinsically good at it.
Mawalwal frequently questioned for gender discrimination and how she was able to break down this barrier. In an interview with the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, she states, “I grew up in a family where the stereotypical gender roles were not really observed. Everyone is capable, and I set benchmarks for all these women willing to pursue a career in STEM. Mawalwala is often viewed as a role model for aspiring female scientists of South Asian descent. In her childhood, she involved in handy work and was not bound to stereotypical gender roles in South Asian culture.
In a television interview in 2016, She stated that “When everyone has access to education, that’s when all the other things come into place. You’ve got to do what gives you pleasure, got to find a way to do it. People should just do what they enjoy most, and I think for all of society whether it’s in Pakistan or elsewhere we have to create opportunities for young girls to do what they’re good at and do what they love to do must cultivate the sense of wonder in a child.”
Nergis Mavalvala was among the team of scientists who, for the first time, observed ripples in the fabric of spacetime called gravitational waves. On February 11, 2016, the detection of gravitational waves confirmed a major prediction of Albert Einstein’s 1915 general theory of relativity. After the announcement of the observation, she became an instant celebrity scientist in her birthplace of Pakistan. Talking to the press, she claimed that “we are really witnessing the opening of a new tool for doing astronomy.”
During an interview with Pakistani newspaper Dawn, after the detection of gravitational waves, she claimed that she was baffled by the public interest in her research in Pakistan. She said, “I really thought of what I want people to know in Pakistan as I have garnered some attention there. Anybody should be able to succeed — whether you’re a woman, a religious minority, or whether you’re gay. It just doesn’t matter.”
She has also worked on the development of exotic quantum states of light, and in particular, the generation of light in squeezed coherent states. By injecting such states into the kilometer-scale Michelson interferometer of the LIGO detectors, her group significantly improved the sensitivity of the detector by reducing quantum noise such squeezed states also have many other applications in experimental physics.
She also worked on laser cooling, where the Optical cooling of mirrors to nearly absolute zero can help eliminate measurement noise arising from thermal vibrations. Part of her work focused on the extension of laser-cooling techniques to optically cool and trap more and more massive objects, both for the LIGO project and for other applications, such as to enable observation of quantum phenomena in macroscopic objects. Prominent results from her group in this area included cooling of a centimeter-scale object to a temperature of 0.8 kelvins and inspection of a 2.7-kilogram pendulum near its quantum ground state. These experiments lay the foundations for observing quantum behavior in human-scale objects.
On February 20, 2016, Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States, Jalil Abbas Jilani, conveyed the Government of Pakistan’s message of felicitation to Nergis Mavalvala for her outstanding achievement in the field of astrophysics. She won the first Lahore Technology Award launched by Information Technology University on December 17, 2017. In 2017, the Carnegie Corporation of New York honored Mavalvala as one of its Great Immigrants awards recipients. The awards go to “naturalized citizens who have made notable contributions to the progress of American society.” In 2014, NOGLSTP recognized Nergis Mavalvala as the LGBTQ Scientist of the Year. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2010.
Hiba Rehmani
Hibah Rahmani was born in Pakistan, and her family moved to Kuwait when she was one month old. Since she was a child, she has been fascinated by the beautiful night sky. Her fondest memories are walking with her family at nights in desert and sidewalk by the Arabian Gulf, looking up at the sky to admire the moon and stars, and thinking about astronaut Neil Armstrong.
In 2008, Hiba accepted a position with NASA at KSC as an Avionics & Flight Control Engineer
It is around this time when Hiba developed a passion for space and astronomy. In 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, her family had to evacuate and then flew to Pakistan. She moved back to Kuwait with her family in 1992. Her parents always emphasized the value of high education and hard work. When she was in the 8th grade, she wished to become an engineer. After completing high school in Kuwait, Hiba moved to the USA in 1997 to pursue a B.S. degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Central Florida (UCF). This was her first time away from my family, and she had to learn how to live by herself at just 17 years old.
After graduating from UCF, she joined the Boeing Company at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) as a Systems Engineer working on International Space Station (ISS) processing. She was involved with integrated testing of the ISS components, and sometimes astronauts would stop by to either view or participate in the examination. It is during this time that she developed a strong desire to become an astronaut and started taking steps towards this goal. She obtained an M.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Georgia Tech while working full-time.
In 2008, Hiba accepted a position with NASA at KSC as an Avionics & Flight Control Engineer. After Kickstarted work at NASA, she felt that a bit closer to her dream to be an astronaut. Currently, she is in the Engineering and Technology Directorate, supporting the NASA Launch Services Program (LSP), working on expendable launch vehicles like Pegasus XL and Falcon 9. Hiba’s role is to provide technical expertise, follow launch vehicle testing, perform data reviews, and provide functional assessments of engineering issues. She has the privilege of working with a fantastic team.
NASA has provided her all the opportunities for professional development, and she obtained a Graduate Certificate in Space Systems Engineering from Stevens Tech and participated in the 2012 Space Studies Program offered by the International Space University. In addition to her engineering work, she often volunteers for outreach and public affairs activities because she loves to inspire others as a woman in STEM. She speaks to students at local schools about her career and has volunteered as a science fair judge. She also provides real-time updates to the NASA LSP Twitter and Facebook accounts during LSP launch countdowns when she is not directly providing engineering support for the mission itself.
She asks the youth, especially girls, to “stay focused and dream big and give up, you can achieve whatever you want if you work hard.”
Get ready stargazers! A rare meteor shower i.e. Alpha Monocerotids, is expected this week (between the nights of Nov 21-22).
The prediction has been shared by scientists from the SETI Institute and NASA’s Ames Research Center who along with other fellows calculated the estimated time and distance of the outburst. The provided time is 11:50 pm ET (or 04:50 UT) and the shower will be the brightest at 15 minutes. The total expected time is 40 minutes. The best views will be in South America, Western Europe, etc.
The first time the Alpha Monocerotids was
observed in 1925 in Virginia. Witnesses saw “three bright meteors” within a
minute and noticed and marked its location around the Orion constellation. It
was later observed in 1935 in India and almost 100 meteors were counted in a
span of around half an hour. And they have observed quite sometimes in the skies
around the world.
The original source of Alpha
Monocerotids is relatively unknown but their orbital period has been found to
be of around 600 years. It might have left a trail and some of it is thought to
be completing its first revolution around the sun.
What makes it so rare is the fact that
the torrent only goes around the orbit of the Earth sometimes and this year,
the conditions are similar to those of 1995 when it occurred, igniting hope in
scientists that maybe we can witness it in 2019 as well.
To enjoy the expected Alpha Monocerotids shower, pick out an open location where you can have a good view of the sky to increase your chances. Don’t forget to prepare for the winter breeze, if you live in an area that has welcomed the season. One might be lucky even if one doesn’t own a telescope because this expected show is so bright, there is no need for any special equipment to marvel at it.
Even after being the most efficient existing species in this world, our communication system is still not up to the mark. We face hurdles while communicating our thoughts -as simple as giving directions to someone while driving or sharing any experience, but what if we surpass this barrier where we don’t need words for effective communication, but our brain does all the work. For years, this digital medium of communication using brain was restricted to the fiction movies only but embraced yourselves, now it’s making its way to the real world.
A recent study published in Scientific Reports highlighted the work of such researchers at Washington University, who developed a device named “Brain Net,” which is “the first multi-person non-invasive direct brain-to-brain interface for collaborative problem-solving.” Brain net involves the collaboration of three human brains that communicate directly via their thought system.
It isn’t the first example of brain-to-brain communication. In 2014, a team from Spain made a setup that allowed two participants that were located 2,000 miles apart, to play a game, and the winning percentage was 80%.
For the research, led by Dr. Rajesh P.D. Rao, three participants were hooked up. Two senders with the EEG (electroencephalographs) and one receiver with TMS (transcranial magnetic simulations). EEG reads and decodes the neural activity of the sender, and TMS encodes that useful information back into the brain of the Receiver.
Linxingg Preston Jiang sets up Savannah Cassis as a sender for this experiment. (credit: Mark Stone/ U. Washington)
The team led the three people to play a Tetris-like-game, where the only sender could see the screen, and the Receiver has to play the game by interpreting the information received from the sender through TMS. For rotating a block appeared on the screen, the sender would focus on a high-frequency light source of 17hz and would stare on a low-frequency light source of 15hz, if the block didn’t need to be rotated. The Receiver would interpret what kind of light they are focusing on and would rotate the block accordingly.
Brain to brain interface
In 13 out of 16 trials, Receiver correctly rotated the block and cracked the game with 81 percent accuracy. Andrea Stocco, an assistant professor of psychology at UW, explained the experiment in a statement.
“To deliver the message to the Receiver, we used a cable that ends with a wand that looks like a tiny racket behind the Receiver’s head. This coil stimulates the part of the brain that translates signals from the eyes,” Stocco said. “We essentially ‘trick’ the neurons in the back of the brain to spread around the message that they have received signals from the eyes. Then participants have the sensation that bright arcs or objects suddenly appear in front of their eyes.”
In the second round, after the Receiver makes the decision, both the sender and receiver can see the output of the Receiver’s action, and the sender can check if the block has placed correctly; if not, Receiver has given a chance to rectify the error.
The researchers also check the sender’s learning ability to rely on a more reliable sender. They purposely tricked Receiver by flipping one of the sender’s response in 10 out of the 16 trial- so that a “Yes, rotate the block” suggestion would be given to the Receiver as “No, don’t rotate the block,” and vice versa; representing it as a bad sender. With time, the Receiver learned to rely only on the information of the excellent sender instead of being neutral.
All these results point in the direction of a progressive future where human brains can collaborate digitally for a common cause and open gate of enormous possibilities for researchers.
Future of Brain Net Technology
The neuroscientist is aiming for a future of more developed human beings who don’t need a physical medium for communication, but electrical impulses can do the work. However, the level of complexity of information is still the same binary i-e simple yes or no. Still, scientists are working towards the advancement of a system from binary to stochastic using functional MRI to deal with more complex statements.
Scientists aim to use functional MRI to deal with more complex statements
The ultimate goal of this technology is the development of “Internet of Brains that can solve a common problem,”; collaborating human brains using a social network for a common cause.
But not everyone is the advocate of this technology, as it has come with a price to be paid. We-the humans of this evolving digital era will pay this price by the trade of our privacy. This new technology will open the way to breach the data even present in one’s mind, compromising individual autonomy, which can turn into an alarming situation if not dealt properly.
Researchers must consult with the Neuroethics team first to discuss all the preventive measures that should be taken to ensure that people’s privacy is respected before introducing this technology in the market.
“But for now, this is just a baby step. Our equipment is still expensive and very bulky, and the task is a game,” Rao says. “We’re in the ‘Kitty Hawk’ days of brain interface technologies: We’re just getting off the ground.”
Now, it is time for us to decide the dimensions where we want humanity to go. Are we ready to pay such a heavy price for just a fancy way to communicate?
The same medicine may react differently to different people. Some people recover quickly while some need a bit higher dose or sometimes longer time for effective results. The reason is that medicine does not respond the same way to every individual. There are a lot of factors involved that can enhance or suppress the activity of medicine in one’s body. Sometimes the pathogens show resistance to the same medicine which means they cannot be treated with the same antibiotic for a long time, which is called Multi-Drug Resistance (MDR).
Precision medicine may be the answer
To overcome this ambiguity, scientists have come up with the idea of ‘Precision Medicine’. Which is a new field combining pharmacology (study of medicine) and genomics (study of genes and their function).
Precision medicine deals with the prescription of medicine to patients that are solely designed for one genetic group taking into account the variation in their genes, environmental factors, lifestyle, and even the normal microbial flora living inside the body.
Medicines may react differently to different people
With the evolution of this new field, it is now important to better understand and study the patient’s pharmacogenomics before prescribing any dose of medicine. The pharmacogenomics will help us understand how the genes of an individual can affect the response of a particular drug in his/her body. Studying a patient’s pharmacogenomics before prescribing any drug can help the physicians and scientists prescribe and develop more effective, precise and safe medication for each particular individual.
According to Jia Ruan, MD, Ph.D., a scientist working on precision medicine from the USA, “If we could know ahead of time, we could have the treatment designed and tailored to maximize treatment effectiveness and minimize adverse events.”
Another scientist from a leading team of scientists from the USA added: “Precision medicine means to find the root cause of each patient’s unique condition and apply the best, most precise treatment.”
Looking into the future, the precision medicine for each individual is dependent on one’s genome and a few other factors but nowadays everybody can get their sequenced genome for just $1000, which can be then followed by their own personalized pills/drugs.
Pakistan has no doubt amazing potential in the
technology sector, and this just got proven at TechWomen 2019, where a team
from Pakistan, consisting solely of energetic females, was declared among the
top 5 seed-grant winners.
TechWomen is an exchange program that aims to connect, bring together and empower females that are the potential leaders of the future, especially those working in the field of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (referred to as STEM). The target regions are Africa, Middle East, Central and South Asia where such women are recognized who have big goals like helping their communities and serve as a symbol of inspiration for others. It was launched in 2011 by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is managed by the Institute of International Education.
Team Pakistan was one of the seed-grant winners at TechWomen 2019
The team from Pakistan included Asmara Rahat, Ayesha Mumtaz Khan, Farhat Yasmeen, Asna Javed, and Zeenat Anjum who work in and came from different domains such as IT and digital media. Their plan comprised of creating an online portal called Bacha-O.org which will aid in promoting the awareness of the issue of child abuse, which is a grave problem in Pakistan, and of Mera Bacha, that is an already established platform created by the government where child sexual abuse cases can be reported.
In a statement provided on the website, the team
said,” Our mission is to reduce child sexual abuse in Pakistan by raising
awareness and providing child protection tools, using a new digital platform
called Bacha-O. Our objective is to make every child safe by activating the
community and engaging all the stakeholders to reduce the number of incidents.
A recent report by the Pakistani government depicts an alarming rise in the
number of cases of child abuse. Children need a safe environment for societal growth.
Our plan is to create a portal, Bacha-O.org, to promote awareness of the issue
and of Mera Bacha, an existing government portal for reporting child sexual
abuse cases. As awareness increases, we will manufacture wristbands for child
protection, create community hubs and an AI chatbot for children, and deliver
training for parents and teachers on recognizing and reporting child abuse.”
The TechWomen community just got stronger: after an incredible five weeks of exchange and learning, our 106 Emerging Leaders are now fellows. Welcome to the powerful TechWomen alumnae community! #twimpactpic.twitter.com/I0kYiIzf02
TechWomen provides mentorship to the teams with the best pitches and especially focuses on enhancing the professional capacity and developing more interest in STEM careers. The grant helps them to apply and work on the prophets in their home countries.
