More Slides

A great presentation should hold your attention from the very first word . It should convey the contents to the audience presuming they know little but not take them for granted at the same time. It should make you think, raise questions in your head, try to answer them yourself and then look forward to the next slide.Having been to hundreds of and delivering a few of them, the thin line of demarcation between grades of presentations actually becomes much clearer. I sat through one of the best talks of my life this afternoon. Suddenly the grass seemed greener, the skies bluer and the science more familiar.

Behind fantastic presentations lie minimal words, simple explanations, visual representation, eye contact, acknowledgement, punctuality, sincerity and a smile on the face. Practice does make a lot perfect.

Sad Eyes

On a lonely bus ride back home via Dorchester, the Ipod's shuffle program chanced upon a song which I had all the while thought to be one of the better works of a musician whose music I did not particularly enjoy. To my surprise, it was being crooned by one of my most revered artistes.

I come back home to do some research only to find out that the song in question sad eyes was originally composed by Bruce Springsteen as part of his 1990 album tracks. Enrique Iglesias, citing himself to be a major fan of the boss, covered the track in both spanish and english.

The original version of the song:

and when Enrique Iglesias takes over:

Dynamite Division

More reason to be proud of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School, as Dr. Jack W. Szostak, who is faculty shares the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2009 along with Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn of the University of California, San Francisco and Dr. Carol Greider of the Johns Hopkins University.

Their work mainly concerns the enzyme that build Telomeres- Telomerase. What are telomeres? Chromosomes are now an integral part of our vocabulary and their importance in genetics is the equivalent of the importance of alphabets in this sentence. Telomeres are essentially repetitive DNA strands which are formed on the edges of dividing chromosomes, preventing damage to the chromosome during duplication. Telomeres play a part in controlling cellular division. Their function and action is regulated by the enzyme Telomerase. The works of these scientists also show that the activity of the telomeres, which is controlled by telomerase, plays an important role in limiting the number of cell divisions to a fixed number, thereby effecting the aging process and limiting life span. Cancerous cells produce telomerase in abundance, which causes them to constantly replicate.

Bapu

We may not always agree with him.
We may not always pay heed to his words.
We may not follow his path.

Where we are today, is because he was there then.
Where we will be henceforth is because he was there then.

Bole to, Happy Birthday!!

(pic courtesy: herosworkshop.wordpress.com)