Raj Agrawal

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We Are Inconsequential In The Cosmos

June 14, 2015 by Raj Agrawal Leave a Comment

We are inconsequential in the cosmos. That’s what I believe when I see stars in the sky. The universe is so big that even if we settle on other planets, it will take us millions of years to even occupy an area of space, no greater than a single drop of water. Even after inhabiting the Earth for so many years, the bigger canvas is still empty. And this is what gives us the rush to venture out into space. One colony on Mars, and you’ll have your next door neighbour’s descendants living in another galaxy someday. But where did this all start? When did someone realise of being so small inspite of being trillions strong?

Messier_78_reflection_nebula_in_Orion
One of the bazillion wonders of our existence – Messier 78 reflection nebula in Orion. Credits to commons.wikimedia.org

The telescope is attributed as an important discovery in human history. Galileo has been more or less credited with its discovery. I’ve always wondered what his muse must have been for coming up with such an idea. The world, with all of its nuances, was still relatively untamed at that period in time. There were a lot many things left to discover on our planet, enough to have still kept us busy after all these centuries. The stars were just mere shining dots back then. It’s easier to admire the beauty of a night sky full of shining stars than to be interrogative about it. It’s difficult to come up with questions about something you can’t even fully understand. So what really piqued our interest?

The Moon is supposed to be the weirdest anomaly known to man. Nobody knows how it came to be, why it exists, why it revolves around the earth, why it has water on its surface. In the many years that we have known of the moon’s existence, we have not been able to make any use of it being there. But, as with all things that seem inconsequential but have a great importance on human history, the moon might be the muse we needed to understand the natural evolution of human kind. Had it not been for the moon, there would be no landing, no proof that we can take ships to other planets. An initial mission to Mars would have been a complete disaster for us, as we would not have had any experience of sustaining ships into outer space for long distances. In any experiment, testing a small sample always proves that the solution works, and had the moon not been there, it would be been a monumental waste of resources trying to land ships on planets months away with conditions much harsher to support a landing.

Even to Galileo, who must have surely slept overlooking the night sky, the moon must have been a wonder to behold. In his intrigued mind, he must have felt a tingling fear, which arises when you see something which drives you crazy because you cannot fathom it, yet is tantalisingly close to understandable. He would have wanted to have a closer look. An “Invention” is a fancy word; it’s merely an alternative for a solution to a problem, and clearly Galileo must have found his problem then and there. The solution naturally followed.

We are inconsequential in the cosmos. But yet we stand for something. We’re a pale blue dot, but one that looks beautiful when viewed from the surface of the Moon. The Moon landing proves one thing above anything else; we have wars to fight, religious beliefs to argue over, governments to revolt against, civil wars to fight, classes to go to on weekdays, churches or temples to go to on weekends, but most of all, accept the fact the all these things are nothing compared to whats out there. That the moon helped make the planet habitable, is just one of the reasons for which it might be more important to us than we care to appreciate.

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: moon, nebula, orion, telescope

Wrike – Quintessential Tool For The Task Oriented

February 11, 2015 by Raj Agrawal Leave a Comment

To improve the odds of project success, it’s important to have a task-oriented team on board. And it’s even more important for such teams to have the right tools to communicate and manage their workflow. Wrike is a Software as a Service (SaaS)-based project management solution that improves your collaborative efforts, so you can get the job done leaner and smarter.

Wrike offers a comprehensive list of features to enhance your workflow. Here are a few notable features:

  •    Real-time Activity Stream
  •    Subtasks
  •    Progress reports
  •    Branded workspace
  •    Email-to-task syncing
  •    Interactive Gantt charts
  •    Custom calendars for events like sick leaves and vacations
  •    Recurring tasks and projects

And here’s how the Gantt Chart on Wrike looks like.

Timeline wrike
Timeline on Wrike

With over 33 integrations, connecting Wrike with your other favorite web tools is easy. From convenient cloud storage with Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive to automating tasks with Zapier, Evernote, Wufoo and Zendesk, check out the full list of Wrike integrations to see all the possibilities.

Wrike was founded in 2006 and has gone through many iterations and improvements since then. It has won several awards since its inception, and was named a 2014 “Cool Vendor” in Social Software and Collaboration by Gartner.

Filed Under: Technology

‘Regenerate’ Lost Or Damaged Body Parts, Organs and Bones

July 21, 2014 by Raj Agrawal 1 Comment

UPCOMING TECHNOLOGY – In biology, regeneration is expressed as the ability to heal back from a physical damage. Think of it as the body’s self-repairing mechanism. A perfect form of regeneration will grow back lost body parts, bones and other organs to it’s original form and function. Sounds fictional, right?

All living beings can regenerate to varying limits. And we have no control or command over achieving this perfect regeneration process. To further establish the context, let us understand the types of animals by generalising them into two main categories. On one hand we have animals (for instance, a tape worm or a Mexican salamander) that possess perfect regeneration capabilities, and on the other hand we have animals that can regenerate to a limited extent. Humans and most other animals fall in the latter type.

Our body has some ability to heal it’s parts, organs and bones. Our hair and nails regrow. Our skin can recover from minor damages. Without any conscious effort, children under the age of 12 may regrow their sliced finger tips. A foetus inside of a human womb can “regrow” most of the damaged parts of it’s own body. So there should be a way to extend this regenerative capability of ours, while we age.

So let’s take a brief look at the ongoing researches and upcoming technologies that promise enhanced regeneration in humans.

Reversing physical injuries and damages

regenerate upcoming technology
One of the many successful trials by Dr. Rongxiang Xu (Image Credit: mebo-international.com)

Severed fingers, bodies with burns, signs of ageing on skin, gastro-duodenal ulcers, coronary heart disease, facial scars, shortened life span due to cancer – All of these damages have been undone in numerous trials on humans by a technology invented by Dr. Rongxiang Xu. He has been honored with Golden Biatec 2013 International award for this remarkable research. I encourage you to learn more on this through the link below.

Via [Mebo-International]

Regrowing lost limbs

Michael Levin has dedicated his life to the study of tissue regeneration in animals, and eventually enable humans to regenerate lost limbs. Among many other successful experiments back in the year 2005, he has successfully triggered regeneration in an elderly Tadpole to perfectly regrow it’s tail (an animal that loses it’s regenerative ability after the first seven days of it’s life). Michael believes animal bodies store information about it’s shape like a language, and such information may be found in the electrics singles that transmitted among the cells. So one of the major challenges that remain now is to decipher this language.

Via [Medium]

A painless and cost effective way to heal decayed teeth. No drills and fills required

teeth dentist
A visual illustration of oral health examination.

The technique focuses on remineralising the defective areas in teeth. This is done by triggering the natural healing process. This technique may be out in the market as late as 2017.

Via [King’s College London]

Using low powered lasers to regenerate body parts

A visual illustration of a laser point. (May not represent the actual procedure)
A visual illustration of a laser point. (May not represent the actual procedure)

The idea is to persuade tissues to regenerate themselves, using a low powered laser. The tests have shown positive results for growing back an important component of teeth. Researchers have expressed the possibility of using this technique for regenerating body parts too.

Via [TechnologyReview]

Accelerated healing of physical injuries

Human embryonic stem cell colony phase
Human embryonic stem cell colony phase

A group of researchers have identified an important gene that triggers stem cell renewal. Learn more about stem cells at stemcells.nih.gov.

Via [EurekaAlert]

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: regeneration

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