Forget about the Class, focus on learning

Rame failed in class 3, and had to repeat again.

Harke failed in class 6 twice, he had to go back to the same class while his friends were already in class 8.

Furke did so good in class 5 that he was promoted to class 7.

These are few examples of how we try to manage the student's ability to excel in course structures in school. Since the course structures are reformed once in a blue moon, a generation can suffer if it has not been well constructed.

Forget about the class system. My proposal is to make it in more flexible way.
It can be done in two ways:
1. Letter grade system: A student interested in Economics might not need to excel in another subject that he fails most of the time.
By making it mandatory that people hiring in Economics need students who got at least B in that subject, the competitive edge will evolve so that the students who favors particular subject will go in their desired direction. If you are a competitive company you would not hire an accountant who got E on account courses. (See second point on foucsed learning.)

2. Forget about the class system. As discussed on the opening line, students loose their precious years only because they had bad subject attitudes. We all have different degrees of affinity towards different subject lines. Modify the system it so that a student can take Algebra from class7, arithmetic from class 8 and geometry from class 6. However, in order for him/her to appear in the SLC, s/he must have the certification from all the basics upto "class" 10.  If s/he fails to do so, he can still choose to take CTEVT courses while enrolling part-time to the subject for the certificate of school. That way, the student need not study back in the same class for next year, and yet learn new subjects while refining the weak subject.

We all get ready to talk about the politics, and the next big things to do in #Naya Nepal... while, there are so many short-term things to do (and can be done) in Nepal. The short-term things are the stuffs that need to be done before we can achieve the big thing. Remember the whole is by part theorem?
Education sector is the one of them that needs some change. Your inputs are welcome.
>

Embryonic development of Fruitfly, cell by cell

Embryonic development of fruit flies has been tracked in realtime by using multidirectional imaging technique.

While watching it, ask yourself when does the life enter into the clusters of cell...


More...
Fruitfly development, cell by cell : Nature News & Comment:

"References
Tomer, R., Khairy, K., Amat, F. & Keller, P. Nature Methods http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2062 (2012).
Show context
Krzic, U., Gunthur, S., Saunders, T. E., Streichan, S. J. & Hufnagel, L. Nature Methods http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2064 (2012)."

FBI records of Feynman released to public

Richard Feynman, born on May 11, 1918 @ Far Rockaway, Queens, New York, U.S. was an American physicist.
He is a very well known figure for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics...  [read more here].

At the height of cold war, he was investigated by FBI. Now the FBI records have been released to the public.
Follow the detailed story at:
http://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2012/jun/06/feynman-files-professors-invitation-past-iron-curt/
>

शुक्रलाई ताकेर सूर्यलाई हेर्ने :)

म चाहि यो कुरोको पर्दाफास गर्ने प्रयत्नमा छु ।


नपत्याए यो भिडियो हेर्नुस त! करीब सात घंटा लामो शुक्रगमन को मौक़ा छोपेर खिचिएको यो भिडियोमा  एउटा थोप्लो वारि बाट पारी जान्छ, र त्येसै समयभित्र सूर्यमा कति चलखेल हुन्छ !
बहाना न हो, कुन मौक़ा पाऊ र कनिका बुकाऊ भन्ने दाऊ खोजी रहेका बिश्वभरीका बैज्ञानिकहरुले सुक्र्गमनको मौक़ा छोपेर सूर्यको बारेमा समेत सिक्षा दिए ।  यसैलाई "शुक्रलाई ताकेर सूर्यलाई हेर्ने" भन्ने रणनीति भन्नुपर्ला !
एक-जुगमा एक-दिन भन्थे, अब यो मौक़ा हाम्रो जुनीमा  फेरी फेरी आउदैन ।  


>

=== On June 5-6 2012, SDO is collecting images of one of the rarest predictable solar events: the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This event happens in pairs eight years apart that are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit was in 2004 and the next will not happen until 2117. Credit: NASA/SDO, AIA To read more about the 2012 Venus Transit go to: sunearthday.nasa.gov/transitofvenus

Google drive: a missed opportunity

No, I am not talking about whether launching Google Drive was too late. Nor whether it was up par with available services. Many people have expressed their views.

What I was thinking was in a research perspective. Now and then there are research about tracing the social influence map of the internet. While releasing the products like Google Drive, Google/ or any company gets a rare opportunity to map the influence or spread of it.  For example a news splash by techcrunch might be spread much faster than say another site with similar theme.
What Google could have done was incentive-tize the process of referring the Google Drive. For example, Dropbox and Sugarsync (yes they have referral links) give the referral links for people who want to recommend it to their friends/mass. Studying the click through rate via referral link, can be done by enabling invite only through Emails ("Give G-drive to your friend").

This is not only true for Google, but also to any other company who is planning to release a new product, that could go vibrating in the web.
My assumption is that by studying the spread of influence, it might be useful to infer how the news spread in the human network. Or, at the least, who is the most relevant networker to get the point across.

>

Common Student Mistakes in Lab Report

One of the TA duties of graduate students is to instruct in Lab and grade the lab reports. The report writing aspect of lab is very useful skill, which students can learn and also find it useful later in their career.

Here is a list of common mistakes the students make in the lab report (in no particular order):

• Use the wrong date (often use the date they do write-up rather than the date of the lab)
• Forget their lab partners last/name
• Wrong format for name, lab, etc
• Introduce the lab rather than simply state their objective
• Forget to define the equation variable in the theory
• Forget to relate theory to experiment
• Forget to put units (or wrong units)
• Not state general equations
• Error not 1 sig fig or rounded down
• Value corresponding to error has more decimal places than the decimal place of the error
• Forget to put title on the graph or have x vs y instead of y vs x
• max/min lines not encompass all of the points and their error
• Not labeling the y-intercepts and/or the slopes (or labeling incorrectly)
• Majority of the graph space left unused
• Use data points instead of graph points to find the slope
• Forget to compare equation of a line with theory equation
• Not restate results to prove statements in discussion and conclusion
• Use human error such as "I may have calculated wrong" or "human reaction time" in the sources of error.

Would you like to add that you have encountered?

Adopted from
http://www.unbc.ca/assets/physics/labs/phys_labs_common_mistakes.pdf

>

Write your Name with Galaxies: Galaxify

Reach for the stars, write your name with Galaxies!

http://mygalaxies.co.uk/g92oqg/

Note the website above, created by astronomer Steven Bamford, which uses images of galaxies to recreate your message as an image.  The galaxy images are acquired through the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Galaxy Zoo projects.

Well, nabinkm.com appears as:

Did you ask: Which galaxies are used in this image?

Letter

SDSS ID (click for more information)

I

587741821065101540

K

588017627238367250

N

588017948290449585

a

587729782813491982

b

588017719576625235

c

587738574072971384

m

587731681191068026

m

587725471208112391

n

587738617558663207

o

587741708883329169

.

587727942951765078

For the Geeky love birds out there:

Find out which ones were used!
>

Solution to "Newton's Math Problem" by Shouryya Ray

OR,
Analytical solution of two fundamental unsolved problems of particle dynamics

When I heard that "Newton's math puzzle was solved", I searched for the problem. All I could find was the news with variation of the title: Newton math puzzle, a 350 year old problem, solved by an Indian boy who lives in Germany. Everyone is simply running after the boy and his origin. No description of his work. Yahoo, Google, Bing, all of them capturing the same news item! Of course they show what the interest has been.

The main contribution, which mattered to me, was buried in the pages.

Here is the winner abstract (the webpage was translated using Google translator in Chrome):

• Category: Mathematics / computer science 
• Supervisor: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jochen Fröhlich, Dr.-Ing. Tobias Kempe 
• Competition Energy: Youth Research

Awards received:

• Second Place in the national competition
• Regional winner
• Regional winner for the best interdisciplinary project

Two problems in classical mechanics have withstood several centuries of mathematical endeavor. The first problem is to calculate the trajectory of a body thrown at an angle in the Earth's gravitational field and Newtonian flow resistance. The underlying law was discovered by Newton (17th century). The second problem is the objective description of a particle-wall collision under Hertzian collision force and linear damping. The collision energy was derived in 1858 by Hertz, a linear damping force has been known since Stokes (1850).
This paper has so far only the analytical solution of this approximate or numerical targets for the problems solved. First, the two problems are solved fully analytically generalized context, they are then compared with numerical solutions and, finally, on the basis of the analytical solutions derived statements about the physical behavior.

Original page here:

Youth Research 2012 DD Ostsachsen
And the picture of Ray holding the equation:
https://www.jugend-forscht.de/images/1MAT_67_download.jpg
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Dragon Captured in Space

"Houston, looks like we got Dragon by the tail", Don Petit, astronaut in ISS controlling the Canadaarm2, announced.
SpaceX's Space dragon capsule has been roaming around the ISS for about three days. It carries cargo to ISS. After sophisticated tests and affirmation that Dragon will not be harmful to ISS, it has now been captured by a robotic arm. The process known as Berthing.

Credit: NASA TV screenshot.

... and now bolted to ISS...
https://plus.google.com/u/0/102371865054310418159/posts/aRSmBE2ZeYZ
---
On May 22nd, @SpaceX  uccessfully launched the #Dragon capsule into orbit! 
This is the new venture to commute to the international space station (ISS) through private efforts and is the first commercial resupply vehicle to ISS. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18154937)

Here is a tweet linked to the beautiful arc when SpaceX lifted Dragon to space.

RT @SpaceX: Incredible shot of Falcon 9 launch (photo credit: James Fink) twitter.com/SpaceX/status/…
— BloggerDai(@nabinkm) May 23, 2012

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Solar Eclipse in East Asia and North America May 2012

Clouds permitted, we will be observing a solar eclipse this weekend on 20-21st May 2012.

The track of solar eclipse created by NASA. Source

More info at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_May_20,_2012

The Annular Solar Eclipse of 2012 May 20/21

See the interactive Google Map here:
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2012May20Agoogle.html

Update: We came up to higher ground and waited for the Eclipse time. Only to be disappointed. My colleague Marc referenced it as Murphy's law striking.

Screenshot of Eclipse behind the clouds. Credit: Dr. Marc Hairston. 
Yes, there is an app for that! (See my android astronomy here.)

 After about an hour, I gave up and turned towards home. Then the Sun peeked from a space between the clouds! It was just before the sun was setting. I captured the moment with my cell.

 Left: no filter. Right: through the dark glasses.

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Listening to the data by sonification

When you get a good chunk of data, what do you do first?

You probably plot different aspects of the data, trying to identify the patterns and characteristic signatures in it. Well, that is very helpful for visual people. 

What would auditory people do? they listen...
"Shhhh. Listen to the data." A Physics Today article by Toni Feder.
The process of converting the data to streaming sound is called data sonification. Sometimes the visual data is too noisy. Ear may be able to pick out the subtle structures in the data.
A quote from the article:
“When Voyager 1 flew by [Jupiter’s moon] Io in 1979, we detected whistlers”—low-frequency radio waves. “That was first detected by hearing. Your ears are amazing at picking out fine signals. In frequency–time spectra, you can choose the resolution when you process the data. If you choose the wrong resolution, you may not detect anything. You have to match what you are processing to the time resolution. Your ear does that automatically.”
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Student/ J-1 Visa, USA: International students

INSTRUCTIONS FOR NEWLY ADMITTED INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
(Obtaining the U.S. visa and Entry to the United States)

Students who are applying for the *F-1 or the *j-1 visa in their home country;
(*Note: If you have the I-20 form, you will apply for the F-1 visa. If you have the DS-2019 form, you will apply for the J-1 visa.)
Documents needed:
- Valid passport from your home country
-Certificate of eligibility:*I-20 form[3 pages] or *DS-2019[2 pages]
-Letter of admission from the University and any other official letters that may have been sent to you by the University.
-Evidence of financial support (bank statements, letters of assistantship, sponsorship, and any other proof that you have sufficient funds for educational and living expenses)
-Any evidence that you might have to demonstrate that you have strong ties to your home country and that you plan to return to your home country at the conclusion of your study and any period of authorized employment.

After receiving your Certificate of Eligibility (Form I-20 for F-1 students, or Form DS-2019 for J-1 students or scholars) from the University Admissions Office, you must obtain (or already possess) a passport from your own government , and the United States (U.S.) visa from the U.S. Embassy or Consulate nearest your place of residence.

The earliest you can apply for the U.S. visa is 90 days prior to the starting date on the certificate of eligibility (I-20 or DS-2019).

If your dependents (spouse or/and children) travel to the U.S. with you, each dependent must have a separate I-20 or DS-2019. Students should budget for at least $4000 per dependent per year for living expenses. If you did not request an I-20 or DS-2019 for your dependents at the time of admission, please contact the appropriate (Graduate or Undergraduate) Admissions office:
How to obtain the U.S. visa:
1. Contact the United States Consulate or Embassy near your residence in your home country to learn the correct procedure and to make an appointment, if necessary.
2. Pay the SEVIS I-901 fee required of all new students and exchange visitors with a form I-20 or DS-2019 issued on or after September 1,2004. (For a general overview of the fee payment process, see http:/www.ice.gov/graphics/sevis/i901/faq4.htm#_Toc81222043.)
3. When you arrive at the consulate/embassy, make sure that you have all of the above documents (including a receipt for the fee) to present to the officer who is processing your visa request.
4. If you are granted the visa, it will be affixed to your passport. It will state the number of entries that you have been granted and an expiration date. If an “M” appears under the number of entries, it means “multiple” entry.

This was one of the document I received with my I-20. Please feel free to share with your friends.
Thanks to my wife for typesetting it.
The information provided here might not be complete. Please use the information with caution. Good Luck!

End of mission for Envisat declared by ESA

Environmental Satellite or Envisat, launched in 2002, is one of the most successful earth observing (remote sensing) missions. With 10 optical and radar instruments onboard, it celebrated 10 great years in orbit. However, on 8th April 2012, it lost communication to its command center.

The last image from the satellite. Credits: ESA

The team had been trying hard to re-establish the communication; no success. Therefore, ESA has declared end of the mission for Envisat. In the press release, they said that they will keep trying for next two months. We would like to wish them a success!

More at ...
ESA Portal - ESA declares end of mission for Envisat:
  ---

@Linkedin App for iPad: Review

TL;DR: I liked it, try!

Here is a longer version:
Well, linkedin has emerged as a useful tool in academic circle. It not only helps one to connect and keep in touch, but also get new connections.

They have recently introduced an iPad app, iPhone app was already there. My first feeling about this app is that it is absolutely good app.

Number one: the "home" layout is as if there are  three cards on a table.
"You", "All updates" and "Inbox".
This helps focus whenever we go to the app.

Number two: I find that "linkedin daily" style of updates section impressively drawn out. They could probably use little bit more contrast over the user's comment versus the web contents. Also, when I was sliding through few news pages, back and forth, it felt slightly slower.
Moreover, there is calendar inside the updates section, which I have not used yet.
To linkedin: Do you use Machine Learning to tune up the news section to people? that could be awesomely awesome! ;)

Number three: the inbox, it brings the latest message. Again, just brings the items in focus.

It is a good app, and thanks to linkedin team for a good app. Keep up the good work.

Few snapshots:

No, you can't "friend" students in NYC

Social Media Rules Limit Student-Teacher Contact - NYTimes.com: "New York City public schoolteachers may not contact students through personal pages on Web sites like Facebook and Twitter, but can communicate via pages set up for classroom use, the city’s Education Department said on Tuesday after it released its first list of guidelines governing the use of social media by employees."

To the fans of Graphene: meet silicene...

Silicene is just one atom thick layer of silicon


  http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21428625.400-move-over-graphene-silicene-is-the-new-star-material.html

The papers:
Physical Review Letters, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.155501
Appl. Phys. Lett. 97, 223109 (2010); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3524215
- --
Graphene is one-atom-thick planar sheets of carbon atoms packed in honeycomb-like structures. It has been of great research interest because of its unique physical properties. We already saw that papers with the term "graphine" was increasing drastically since 2006 [Link ].

Silicene is the silicon equivalent of graphene.
Because it can be integrated more easily into silicon chip production lines, newscientist.com speculates that its integration into electronic devices might help produce cheaper electronic devices.

Final touchdown for the shuttle Discovery

Discovery has made its final touchdown. This time on the back of another aircraft, Boeing 747, specially made for transporting the shuttle.
Discovery was regarded as a leader of the shuttles, making the most flights: 39 missions throughout its life. The era of shuttle came to an end  in 2011.

It will be in display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
I have taken few screenshots from the NASA broadcast. Enjoy! ...

Counting arguments fail, think better!

Here is a puzzle (the answer is below, do not scroll unless you want to see it!):

8809=6            5555=0
7111=0            8193=3
2172=0            8096=5
6666=4            1012=1
1111=0            7777=0   
3213=0            9999=4
7662=2            7756=1
9313=1            6855=3
0000=4            9881=5
2222=0            5531=0
3333=0            2581=?

This one was posted in Lifehacker, the author took it from a flying Facebook post.
The clue provided was that the kids could get the answer faster than the educated thinkers who tend to think in more complex ways.  I can  imagine if your brain is going round the world to solve the problem.
I would urge you to try and guess the answer, which is much fun! Please still do not scroll.
I will even put a youtube video of Simon's cat just to avoid the answer to be seen.





 Please scroll down for the answer.



:)







:)

The answer is
2581=2.

The answer is arrived once you realize that there are two "o" in 8. Go back and check the other answers in the list counting the "o"s in the numbers on the left hand side of the puzzle.

However, this counting argument fails miserably when the numbers are written in another script.
Here, the same example is being provided in coded form of Devanagari numbers. Suppose the left hand side is the code, and right hand is the answer to the code):
८८०९ =6            5555=0
७१११ =0            8193=3
२१७२ =0            ८०९६ =5
६६६६ =4            १०१२ =1
११११ =0            ७७७७ =0   
३२१३ =0            ९९९९ =4
७६६२ =2            ७७५६ =1
९३१३ =1            ६८५५ =3
०००० =4            ९८८१ =5
२२२२ =0            ५५३१ =0
३३३३ =0            २५८१ =?
In this case, You can not count the "o" on the left hand side to arrive at the (same) answer!

 >

--> ---
Symbols: compute the values of the symbols.
Well,  think of the numbers as "variable" So that
०  ०  ०  ०  = 4 means: "०"+"० "+"० "+"० " = ४
 ie 4 of "० " = 4
=> "० " = 1
Similarly,
 ६६६६  = 4
 => "६ " = 1.
9999=4
=> "९ " = 1
and, २२२२ =0 gave: "२ " = 0
 ११११ =0 => "१ " = 0
 ३३३३  = 0 => "३ " = 0
५५५५  = 0 => "५ " = 0
७७७७  = 0 => "७ " = 0
Now do a test case: २१७२  = 0
LHS= "२ "+"१ "+"७ "+"२ " = 0+0+0+0 = 0 = RHS
proved!
Now, to solve, ८८०९  = 6
Suppose, "८ "=y
Substitute values
 y+y+1+1 = 6
 2y+2 = 6,
 => 2y = 4
 =>y=2
Therefore, y="८ "=2

 We tested it for all the examples.
Therefore, we can say:
2581 = "२ "+"५ "+"८ "+"१ " after substitution:
= 0+0+2+0 =2

The answer is 2. The method is more general


The addition is still the counting argument isn't it?
:P

(Thanks to my wife for bringing this solution to my attention.)

Bookworm @ Arxiv visualizing trends #physics

Arxiv.org is a great place to put your papers, which is in waiting for the journal line.
This is also useful to get the time stamp on your work too. Moreover, by putting the pre-print in arxiv, you will be doing a favor to many readers who wants to read your paper off the campus/institution.

They have a tool called bookworm which can search for particular words/terms that you might be interested. It is very handy to visualize how the terms are being used in the published papers.
For example, I searched for the use of "entropy", and mutual information in physics, to get the following graph.

You can use bookworm to visualize interesting trend in the use of terms for the papers submitted to arxiv. Source

See how the use of graphene has "exploded", while qubit is kind of saturated, while superluminal neutrinos spiked recently

As you can see, the  graph is very useful to see the trends of certain terms being used. Please feel free to comment whether it helps to visualize anything about the scientific field.

 

Matlab's Plot Gallery with codes

Matlab is one of the popular software for technical computing.

Everyone has his/her own stories of learning curve with programming. Nevertheless, references and galleries are always helpful when you are at it. 

I would like to suggest you to browse the MATLAB Plot Gallery[Link]. It is a bunch of File Exchange entries from which one can view and download the MATLAB codes.

Happy Coding!

What does pi taste like to the ear?

The number is pi (π). Approximated mostly as 3.14, the march of 14th is celebrated many as pi day. There are arguments whether 22/7 i.e. 22nd of July shall be the real pi day. Moreover, people are also saying that it is merely a half tau day (let me google that for you!)

Anyways, you probably know how pi tastes like. Well, it tastes like a pi. But have you heard how pi sounds like?

Here are couple of videos trying to play the sound of pi (or half tau, if you wish).


You can also go to http://pi.highsign.de/ to compose the pi music.
One more thing: pi-music can not be copyrighted!
>

Grackles fly, merge and cluster in North TX

The Grackle(s) look like crows with extra feathers, little longer.
With the arrival of the Spring, these guys migrate through North Texas. They travel in huge numbers as a group, and can be source of nuisance to some [Link].

As a physicist, it would be interesting to learn about their flocking behavior.
There are statistical physics papers about such behaviors... and Physics Today had a cover story about it 2/3 years(?) ago... Please point the article if you could.

In this post, I present you the flocking swarm of Grackles as they settle down for the night. Please feel free to share.

NASA Mars Orbiter Catches Twister in Action - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

"Dust devils occur on Earth as well as on Mars. They are spinning columns of air, made visible by the dust they pull off the ground. Unlike a tornado, a dust devil typically forms on a clear day when the ground is heated by the sun, warming the air just above the ground. As heated air near the surface rises quickly through a small pocket of cooler air above it, the air may begin to rotate, if conditions are just right."

High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the image on Feb. 16, 2012, while the orbiter passed over the Amazonis Planitia region of northern Mars. In the area observed, paths of many previous whirlwinds, or dust devils, are visible as streaks on the dusty surface.

Read more ...
NASA Mars Orbiter Catches Twister in Action - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Boston Dynamics and Cheetah, the running robot

Boston Dynamics has produced a bio-inspired running prototype, called Cheetah, which I am sure will be running outdoors soon.
Funded by DARPA's Maximum Mobility and Manipulation program, it might be the fastest running 4-legged robot to date running at 18 miles per hour. (Homework: convert it into km/hr :P)

You probably remember their alpha dog:

which could stand up in couple of seconds, and their field robot called big dog, and little dog.

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Detecting life by reflected, polarized light

Is There Life on Earth?: "...the light reflected by a planet is polarized, while the light from the host star is not. So polarimetric techniques help us to pick out the faint reflected light of an exoplanet from the dazzling starlight."

More:
ESO website: http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1210/
Research paper: Nature paper

>

Swarm of Helicopters playing James Bond and other neat tricks

In this post, I will be presenting two interesting videos. These two nice examples illustrate how one could automate the process by assigning the task to the individuals, and allow them to act as a swarm.

1. In the video shown, small fleet of flying robot quadrotors perform the James Bond Theme. Each of them are assigned tasks such as playing keyboard, drums and maracas etc.  These flying quadrotors are completely autonomous, meaning humans are not controlling them; rather they are controlled by a computer programed with instructions to play the instruments.

2. Second is an example of swarm of nano robots performing some neat tricks. Courtesy of GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania.

The TED talk:

Planets, Sun and Moon Align

Feb 25th, as I came out of my office I looked into the sky.
Previously, I had read about the alignment of the brightest objects in the night sky in the wired (http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/02/live-feed-planets).

I could see the moon and the Jupiter, bright and clear. Mercury was already below the horizon. So, I pulled out my Google-sky in the cell. And there was the surprise!!!

 Not only three, there were seven members of the solar system:  Jupiter, Venus, Moon,  Uranus, Mercury, Sun and Neptune; aligned nearly on a straight line.  I took the screenshot.
Yes, when you do not have a telescope, this is probably how you do your share of astronomical observation. It was  fun, nonetheless.
See the picture below:

GoogleSky screeshot in android cm7 showing
Jupiter, Venus, (Moon),  Uranus, Mercury, Sun and Neptune are aligned nearly on a straight line.
Please click on the image for bigger picture.

Moreover, Saturn was on the same line... somewhere in the direction below my feet...

I think you may be able to watch the same thing on Feb 26th, just after the sun sets.Try!