Discover Issue 2
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Transcript of Discover Issue 2
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Science Gala 2015
The much awaited Annual Science Gala for the academic year 2014-15 organized by Science International
Forum (SIF), Kuwait was conducted on 28th March, 2015, at American International School, Hawally. The
majestic ceremony got inaugurated by Indian Ambassador to Kuwait, H.E. Sri. Sunil Jain. Padmabhooshan
Dr.Vijay Bhatkar, Chairman of the Governing Council,
IIT Delhi, and India's leading IT expert graced the
function as chief guest for the evening. Special guest
from India, National Award winning educational expert
and science books author with more than 50 years of
experience, Prof: S Shivadas, presented the keynote
speech on Mastering Science & Technology for Mas-
tering the Human Brain & Unravel the Immense
Potential.
May, 2015
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The exclusive live chat show with
Dr.Vijay Bhatkar conducted by
Dr.Sreekumar (Scientific Consult-
ant, KFAS) proved the first of its
kind presented in Kuwait, serving
a memorable experience for the
students and parents community.
The grand evening was studded
with the presence of other eminent
academic and scientific personali-
ties from India and Kuwait along
with the SIF coordinators from
other Middle East countries.
Vijnana Bharathi Secretary Gen-
eral Sri.A.Jayakumar inaugurated the online newsletter DISCOVER, published by SIF Kuwait, by releasing
the hard copy. The winners of the Sastra Prathibha Contest 2014-15 and the outstanding performers were hon-
ored with trophies and cer-
tificate jointly by Dr.Vijay
Bhatkar and Prof.Shivdas.
Principal, Sri. Premkumar,
and the students of Indian
Educational School (BVB,
Kuwait) received the pres-
tigious Acharya J. C. Bose
Sastra Puraskar for the
best performing school.
The grand evening was
studded with the presence
of other eminent academic
and scientific personalities from India and Kuwait along with the SIF coordinators from other Middle East
countries. Sri. Prasanth Nair (President, SIF Kuwait) extended a warm welcome to the gathering.
Sri.Arunkumar (Secretary, SIF Kuwait) delivered the word of gratitude.
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Water man of India Rajendra Singh bags
Top Prize !
An award known as "the Nobel Prize for wa-
ter" has been given to an Indian campaigner
who has brought water to 1,000 villages.The
judges of the Stockholm Water Prize say his
methods have also prevented floods, restored
soil and rivers, and brought back wildlife.
The prize-winner, Rajendra Singh, is dubbed
"the Water Man of India".The judges say his
technique is cheap, simple, and that his ideas
should be followed worldwide.Mr Singh uses a mod-
ern version of the ancient Indian technique of rain-
water harvesting.It involves building low-level
banks of earth to hold back the flow of water in the
wet season and allow water to seep into the ground
for future use. He first trained as a medic, but when
he took up a post in a rural village in arid Rajasthan
he was told the greatest need was not health care but
drinking water.Groundwater had been sucked dry by
farmers, and as water disappeared, crops failed, riv-
ers, forests and wildlife disappeared and people left
for the towns. Its director, Torgny Holmgren, said:
"In a world where demand for freshwater is boom-
ing, we will face a severe water crisis within decades
if we do not learn how to better take care of our wa-
ter. Mr Singh is a beacon of hope."
In its citation, the judges say: "Today's water prob-
lems cannot be solved by science or technology
alone. They are human problems of governance, pol-
icy, leadership, and social resilience.
"Rajendra Singh's life work has been in building so-
cial capacity to solve local water problems through
participatory action, empowerment of women, link-
ing indigenous know-how with modern scientific
and technical approaches and upending traditional
patterns of development and resource use."
The award was applauded by Katherine Pygott, a
leading UK water engineer who has drawn on Mr
Singh's work to help prevent flooding in the UK.
Source:BBC
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Amazing Science!!!
Does it look like black dots appear and disappear
at the intersections of this grid? If you focus on
any one intersection, youll see there are only
white dots. This illusion, called the scintillating
grid, The scintillating grid illusion is an optical
illusion, discovered by E. Lingelbach in 1994,
that is usually considered a variation of the Her-
mann grid illusion. It is constructed by superim-
posing white discs on the intersections of orthog-
onal gray bars on a black background. Dark dots
seem to appear and disappear rapidly at random intersections, hence the label "scintillating". When a
person keeps his or her eyes directly on a single intersection, the dark dot does not appear. The dark
dots disappear if one is too close to or too far from the image,is caused when your brain tries to make
up for the 0.1 second pause it takes to translate light hitting your retina into an image. In effect, your
brain is trying to predict the future - but getting it slightly wrong.
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Nano-tech is the Science of Future : Experts
A world congress on green nano-technology and its role in sustainable agriculture was held at Jacob School
of Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences
(SHIATS). During the celebrations, the experts claimed that nano-technology was the science of the future
and elaborated upon its many uses, including in modern farming. The event was organised in collaboration
with the University of Missouri, Columbia, US.
The technical session of the congress was chaired by Prof Newman Fernandes wherein Prof Florian F Bauer
of the Institute for Wine Biotechnology, University of Stellenbosch, Cape Town, South Africa, delivered a
lecture on nano-technology in the wine industry. Stating that it was the science of the future, he highlighted
the numerous potential applications of nanotechnology in diverse wine industry, and suggested various ways
in which fields such as synthetic biology and nanotechnology, or combinations thereof, may revolutionize
the making of wine. Prof Christofora Hanny Wijaya, Head of food chemistry division, Faculty of agriculture
technology, Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia, talked on implementation of nano-technology in
herbal-based functional drink and carotenoid rich functional ingredient.
In the second technical session, founder director of IIT-Kanpur Dr Sandip Patil talked about use of nano-
fibre technology in agriculture application and elaborated upon electro-spinning nano-fibre technology for
agricultural applications. Associate professor, faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Beni-Seuf University, Egypt,
Dr Saber Mohamed Abd-Allah, expressed his views on applications of nano-particles on animal reproduc-
tive cells. He gave a historic prospective of nano-material application to animal reproductive biology and
the most recent developments in this field. He also focused on effect of nano-particles on antioxidant activi-
ty and spermatogenesis process in testicular tissues and emphasized on the potential benefits, threats, and
challenges of nano-particles in animal reproductive organs.
Professor of pharmaceutical technology at the department of pharmacy and pharmaceutical technology,
School of Pharmacy, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, Prof Juan M Irache, delivered a lecture on
food protein-based nano-particles for oral delivery of bioactives. He showed some of the capabilities of
nano-particles, based on either casein or zein, as carriers for BACs (Biologically active compounds) and
their potential use for food (functional), nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical purposes.
Source:Times of India
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Newly Discovered Spider Named After Indian State Telangana
A new species of crab spiders, Telangana
crab spider (Thomisus telanganensis), has
been named after the Telangana state in
India. Two taxonomy and wildlife scien-
tists from the Zoology Division at Osma-
nia University stumbled upon female crab
spiders during a scientific expedition at
Nagnur, located in the district of Ka-
rimnagar.
In the newly published copy of an interna-
tional journal on taxonomy and conserva-
tion known as the Journal of Threatened
Taxa (JoTT), junior researcher G.B.
Pravalikha, together with Assistant Pro-
fessor C. Srinivasulu, described how the
Telangana crab spider is biologically dif-
ferent from other crab spiders by illustrating its female genital structure along with other distinguishing
characters.
This type of spiders from the Thomisidae family, resemble crabs morphologically, and thus, they are com-
monly known as crab spiders. This Telangana species has an affinity to move sideways, similarly to crabs,
but they had been also called flower crab spiders because these creatures hunt their prey on mostly flowering
plants. The species are closely related to Thomisus labefactus, crab spiders originating from Japan. Both sci-
entists are dedicating this new line of species to honor all the students and people who had given up their
own lives for Telangana's cause.
Unlike Telangana crab spiders, most traditional spiders weave webs to trap other insects. Although they fab-
ricate silk for drop-lines and sundry reproductive purposes, Telangana crab spiders are more aggressive in
attacking, using their powerful front legs to grab and hold onto their prey while paralyzing it with venomous
bites, Dr. Srinivasulu noted. "They are important to the ecosystem as they act as bio-controlling agents to
keep the insect population under control. They are between 3 mm and 23 mm in size with their colour vary-
ing from bright and colourful to dull.
They are usually found in plants, shrubs, grasses, flowering plants, leaf litter and sometimes under stones,"
Dr. Srinivasulu added. he spiders of Thomisidae family are not known to be harmful to humans at least
the known ones. Both scientists prove that it is still a big, big world out there, and there are more species yet
to be discovered, and hopefully, more governments and agencies will support their endeavor and research.
The researchers also noted that these crab spiders, as of the moment, had been found locally at Nagnur on-
ly.The study was funded by grants from the Government of India, the Science and Engineering Research
Board (SERB), University Grants Commission, New Delhi and the Department of Science and Technology.
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Ranbaxy Research Awards in the field
of pharmaceutical sciences was
bagged by Santanu Bhattacharya
Ranbaxy Science Foundation (RSF), a
non-profit organisation set-up by
Ranbaxy Laboratories awarded the
Ranbaxy Research Awards in the field of
pharmaceutical sciences to Santanu
Bhattacharya, of Indian Institute of Sci-
ence, Bangalore, for his work promoting
gene therapy.
The Science Scholar Awards, given to
upcoming new generation of scientists in
the Biomedical Sciences category went
to Anuj Kumar, Indian Institute of Sci-
ence, Bangalore for his research work in
understanding hepatitis C virus replica-
tion.
The award in medical category was
bagged by Dr Amit Sharma, Internation-
al Centre for Genetic Engineering and
Biotechnology, New Delhi for excellence
in original research work in Medical and
Pharmaceutical Sciences on Monday.
The foundation also announced the Sci-
ence Scholar Awards to the young and
brilliant new generation of scientists.
Dr Sharma got the award for his pioneer-
ing work in understanding function of
malaria parasite proteins. The award was
also given to Dr Balram Bhargava, All
India Institute of Medical Sciences, New
Delhi for his work on developing the
indigenous low cost platinum iridium
coronary stent, to Dr Gagandeep Kang,
Christian Medical College, Vellore for his
comprehensive research on diarrhoeal
disease that led to important advances in
Indian public health and Dr V Mohan,
Dr. Mohan's Diabetes Specialities Cen-
tre, Chennai for his research work on
pancreatic diabetes that led to develop-
ment of "Mohan's criteria".
The awards were presented by interna-
tionally acclaimed scientist, Prof Rudi
Balling Director, Luxembourg Centre for
Systems Biomedicine (LCSB),University
of Luxembourg in presence of Dr. Tsuto-
mu Une, Chairman, Ranbaxy, Dr Nitya
Anand, Chairman of RSF, Arun Sawhney,
Chief Executive Officer and Managing
Director, Ranbaxy and Dr Rajinder K.
Jalali, Member, Governing Council, RSF.
Physicist Tests the Science of James Bond
The Quartermaster of MI6 would love Dr Metin Tolan. For him, the most interesting part about James Bond is that Ian Fleming wrote him to weigh 76 kilograms (mass) and be 1.83 metres tall (height). An experi-mental physicist from the Tech-nical University of Dortmund, Germany, Tolan has picked some of the more improbable stunts and gadgets from James Bond movies and explained the physics be-hind themor, at least, exactly where they fall short of being plausible. For instance, he's found, that Bond has to be 20 times more "streamlined" than the airplane and capable of solving "coupled non-linear system of dif-ferential equations" in his head in three seconds while riding a motorcycle toward an aircraft falling off a precipice to catch that planemid-airas he does in Golden Eye (1995).
"But it's the British Secret Service. They can't tell us how they do it," he tells the crowd at The German House in Delhi where he delivered a lecture on the physics behind the Bond stunts, organized by the German Research Foundation, on Wednesday. Q would've been flattered. Tolan has a book on the subject; he also has tendency to look at entertainmentfootball, Star Trekthrough the lens of physics and make it all look incredibly easy. While most viewers would simply regard the magnetic watch in Live and Let Die (Roger Moore, 1973) as cool (or lame, depending on the gen-eration), Tolan was just excited to find that the spoon zings across to Roger Moore in exactly three seconds, thereby, satisfying Lenz's Law. "I'm sure it was obeyed by accident but physicists got excited." Tolan's derived the title of his lecture"Shaken, Not Stirred"from Bond's fastidious instruc-tions on the preparation of his vodka martini. Tolan looked at it "on the molecular level". Shaking causes the large molecules responsible for taste rise to the topto be taken in a single mouthful, pretty much the most Bond has time forand the smaller ones for their effect sink to the bottom.
Another stuntthis one from The Man with the Golden Gun (Moore, 1974)depicting Bond making his car jump over a river and spinning once mid-air, is, apparently, easily achieved "if you prepare your car a lit-tle bit". The "little bit" of preparation involves slicing the car in half, rear-ranging the rigging inside to ensure all mass is evenly distributed around an axis and then strapping the driver in the centre with the steering wheel. For those who were dying to know, the speed at which the car has to take off from the ramp to reach the other bank is 64.4kmph. Seeing the reflec-tion of the attacker in the eye of the Bond Girl in Goldfinger (1964) is im-possible unless she's blind; she's patently not.
Source: Times of India
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The Indian pharmaceutical sector would soon be
showcasing new drugs for malaria, osteoporosis
and diabetes: Harsh Vardhan
The candidate drugs are currently undergoing clini-cal trials, he said.The pharmaceutical sector would soon be showcasing new drugs for malaria, osteopo-rosis and diabetes, Vardhan said. He announced that simultaneously Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI) is carrying out Investigational New Drug (IND) studies on lead molecules for fracture-healing, cancers, thrombosis, malaria and hyperglycemia. I am confident that the drug laboratories under CSIR are capable of backing up the Swasth Bharat Mis-sion. Our scientists are focusing on both infectious and life-style diseases. We are developing next-generation drugs, biologics, biosimilars, gene thera-peutics, stem cell therapeutics, personalised medi-cine and multi functional nano medicine, the minis-ter said. It would strive to build a new generation of enterprises in the healthcare sector, he said.He also announced that government would soon set up the Biopharma Industry Incubator (BII) under the um-brella of CDRI Lucknow.Talking to reporters after a visit to the CDRI, he said that Indian research and development efforts in government laboratories un-der the wing of the Council of Scientific and Indus-trial Research (CSIR) have a track record in making drugs for kalaazar, filaria, leprosy and tuberculosis available at affordable rates to the common man. He said that recently IMTECH Chandigarh has devel-oped a clot specific streptokinase, IIIM, Jammu has discovered natural product-based potential medicine for rheumatoid arthritis, IICB Kolkata has developed an herbal extract for the treatment of benign prostate hyperplasia. I am certain that India has the potential of becoming a global pharmaceutical powerhouse and am in the process of putting some key enablers in place. These include giving the right incentives for R&D, forging alliances with the private sector and keeping an open mind on suggestions for fiscal relief to the private sector so that its role in R&D is enhanced, Vardhan said.Strengthening of the R&D
ecosystem is the priority, he said.
Vardhan also emphasised that the people were ex-pecting that CSIR laboratories would be able to pro-
duce therapeutic and preventive measures for re-emerged infectious diseases like dengue, chikungu-niya, encephalitis, swine flu as well as conditions like cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, hypertension, de-
pression and ulcers.
Today India ranks third in terms of volume of pro-duction with 10 percent share of the global market by volume and 14th largest by value. India is often dubbed the pharmacy of developing world, he said. He, however, pointed out that India still has a long way to go in pharmaceutical research and de-velopment and needs to move from a phase of manu-facturing to innovation. He expressed concern over the fact that currently new drug research and devel-opment in India was mostly an affair of government
organisations.
I request industry representatives to collaborate with CSIR laboratories in new drug R&D. The PM has given a call for Make in India. We need to gen-erate millions of jobs in a couple of years because this country has a youth bulge. Seamless partnership will help develop products and technologies for the benefit of the common man, he said.He said that this ministry was also considering setting up Gov-ernment Laboratory Practices (GLP) certified labs in CDRI for complete range of Investigational New
Drug (IND) studies.
He said the step would foster new drug development as well as shore up the financial bottom line of the laboratory.The minister also announced the for-mation of a National Centre for Laboratory Animals in the CDRI new campus conforming to national and
international guidelines.
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The life sciences sector is undergoing a huge trans-formation fueled largely by collaborations with the information technology industry, Ravi Mistry, presi-dent of EPPIC, a 17-year-old organization that aims to provide mentorship, collaborations and entrepre-neurship to Indian Americans working in the life sci-ences industry, told India-West this week. The or-ganization is hosting the Ninth Annual EPPICon Mar. 28 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Northern California with the theme: Digital Disrup-
tion in Life Sciences.
Speakers and panelists at the conference will explore how innovations in technology are helping life sci-ences companies to more rapidly bring new products to the marketplace. Keynote speakers include Stan-ford Universitys Vivek Wadhwa, who will discuss how technologies are transforming health care; and Kim Bush of the Gates Foundation, who will talk about the importance of innovative science and tech-nology in addressing health crises throughout the
developing world.
The day-long event will also feature an investor pan-el and a speed pitch session which allows entre-preneurs to showcase their emerging companies to potential investors. Mistry, a veteran of both tech and life sciences sectors, told India-West that he de-veloped an interest in the Human Genome Project, the largest, multi-country DNA sequencing initiative in the world. The project started up in 1990, and was completed in 2003, presenting scientists with mas-sive amounts of information that could lead to the development of new pharmaceuticals and treatments. I thought then: if I have to make a choice between my smart phone and a drug I had to have, I would choose the drug. Life science always wins, said Mistry. It is a passion for people, improving so that
people can lead better lives.
Mistry was mentored by Bay Area Indian American life sciences pioneer Nagesh Mhatre, who co-founded EPPIC in 1998. At last years EPPICon, Mhatre received the Best Mentor award, which recognized his role in mentoring young scientists for more than 50 years. The serial entrepreneur died lat-
er that year.
Technology has completely impacted life sciences, said Mistry, noting that big data analytics tools have made genome sequencing much faster. Large storage capacities and better processing power have also dra-matically impacted the efficiency with which drug companies can develop new pharmaceuticals and
diagnostic tools, he said.
David Persing, chief technology officer at the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Cepheid, will showcase the companys newest innovation, RemoteXpert, a cloud-based software that allows health agencies around the world to collect data on emerging infections with the aim of predicting and preventing epidemics. The company has also developed GeneXpert, a cartridge-based system that can predict tuberculosis. Ten mil-lion GeneXpert cartridges have been distributed
throughout the developing world.
Jared Heyman, CEO of CrowdMed, will introduce the new platform which allows patients from around the world to upload their medical tests and symp-toms, and receive a diagnosis from volunteer experts
from around the globe.
Scientist Raji Pillai, co-chair of this years EPPICon, told India-West: Increasingly, there is a huge amount of interdisciplinary work going on. The Hu-man Genome Project, for example, has released enormous amounts of useful data, said Pillai. How do you actually analyze all this information? que-ried Pillai, noting that there must be collaborations between physicists, scientists and IT professionals to
make best use of the data.
Previously, scientists used in-vivo and in-vitro test-ing in animals. But a new technology-based ap-proach allows data to become available even before scientists hit the lab, she said. Ancillary patient data, wearable data and call-center medical data all be-
come available in real time, explained Pillai.
The new institution would serve as a referral centre for lab animal breeding and experimentation for new
drug development.
Ninth Annual EPPICon to Feature Synergy in Tech, Life Sciences
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Modern science unrecognizable without contribu-tion of Indians, Prof.Alok Kumar, Professor of physics at the State University of New York at
Oswego
Asserting that modern science would be unrecog-nizable without the contributions of ancient Indian scientists like Aryabhata and Sushruta, noted Indian- American scientist has rued that there is a concert-ed effort to ignore these figures, whose contributions to science is at par, if not more than those of Pythag-oras and Aristotle. "Just imagine erasing the name of Pythagoras, Aristotle, and Plato from the current phi-losophy texts because it is an old past. Will it be just and fair? The answer is no.?However, this is exactly the case when we ignore our own heroes, Aryabhata, Kanada, Varahmihir, Brahmgupta, Charaka, and
Sushruta, in India unjustly,"
A professor of physics at the State University of New York at Oswego, Kumar, who was born and educated in India, is author of two books that docu-ments the contribution of ancient Indian scientist to the modern day science including 'Sciences of the
Ancient Hindus' which was released last year.
His third book 'A History of Science in World Cul-tures: Voices of Knowledge' is due this year. "Modern science and medicine would be unrecog-nizable, and far more primitive, without the immense contribution of the ancient Indians. They invented everyday essentials such as our base-ten number sys-tem and zero as a numeral," he said. "The ancient Indians also developed a sophisticated system of medicine with its mind-body approach known as Ayurveda; detailed anatomical and surgical knowledge of the human body, including cataract surgery and the so-called plastic surgery; metallurgi-cal methods of extraction and purification of metals, knowledge of various constellations and planetary motions that was good enough to assign motion to
the Earth; and the science yoga," Kumar said.
In his book, Kumar said he has provided a powerful and comprehensive insight into the extraordinary intellectual contributions of the ancient Indians, the full story of which had hitherto remained largely un-known and unappreciated throughout millennia of neglect. Kumar said when he compiled scientific
achievements from the ac-counts of Aristotle, Arrian, Megasthenes, Clement of Alexandria, and Apollonius of Tyana among the Greeks; Al-Biruni, Al-Khwarizmi, Ibn Labban, al-Fazari, al-Masudi, and Al-Uqlidisi among the Islamic scholars; Fa-Hien, Hiuen Tsang, and I-tsing among the Chi-nese; Leonardo Fibbonacci, Pope Sylvester II, Roger Bacon, Voltaire and Copernicus from Europe, a much different picture emerged as against the gen-eral impression about India. "With further research, I found that, in the modern era,thinkers and scientists as diverse as Goethe, Emerson, Jung, Thoreau, Op-penheimer, Herder and Schrodinger, to name a few, have acknowledged their debt to ancient Hindu achievements in science, technology and philoso-phy," Kumar said. "The first nation (to have cultivat-ed science) is India. This is a powerful nation having a large population, and a rich kingdom (possessions)?India is known for the wisdom of its people. Over many centuries, all the kings of the past have recognised the ability of the Indians in all branches of knowledge," he said, citing a book writ-ten by Said al-Andalusi (1029-1070 A.D.), a natural
philosopher from Muslim Spain.
Responding to questions about the recent controver-sy surrounding Pythagoras theorem, Kumar said in the absence of existing documents, it is difficult to conclude that the theorem was discovered in one cul-ture and passed on to others or independently dis-covered in different cultures. "Such are the challeng-es in the history of science where evidence based on a document is crucial in making such assertions. Nonetheless, the connection of Pythagoras to India is
an intriguing corollary to this theorem," he said.
"We do not have even a single manuscript that was written by Pythagoras. All we know about Pythago-ras is based on the following writers who wrote about him? This is where the story becomes interest-ing.? For two millennia, scholars have connected Pythagoras and his teachings to India, including the Pythagorean Theorem.?This was ignored by ex-
perts," he said.
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Events
Sastra Prathibha Contest, 2016
Science International Forum (SIF) Kuwait announced January 14, 2016, Thursday, as the exam date for the prestigious Sastra Prathibha
Contest for the academic year 2015-2016.
My scientific studies have afford-
ed me great gratification; and I
am convinced that it will not be
long before the whole world
acknowledges the results of my
work
Gregor Mendel
Discover ISSUE 01 MAY, 2015
Compiled & Edited by
Prasanth Nair
Reshmy Krishnakumar
Science International Forum, Kuwait
facebook.com/sifkuwait
Corporate Partner :
Do You Know!!!
1. What planet is famous for its red spot on it?
2. When do we celebrate Earth Day?
3. An anemometer is used to measure what?
4. What is the sweet substance made by bees?
5. How many points are there on a pentagram?
You have time till next edition