Nobel laureates exhibit drawing skills!
Washington: An exhibition titled “Sketches of Science: Photo Sessions with Nobel Laureates” that opened at the University of California – Davis campus recently featured some crayon drawings done hastily by some of the most esteemed scientists in the world.Photographer Volker Steger decided to put the Nobel laureates’ colouring skills to the test in order to capture something “spontaneous”.
Each laureate was provided with a handful of crayons and a large sheet of paper and was asked to sketch out his or her Nobel Prize-winning discovery, LiveScience reported. “All the laureates I met for a photo shoot were quite surprised by my exceptional request because I did not inform them beforehand,” Steger said.
The laureates’ approach to Steger’s request varied widely. Carlo Rubbia – winner of the 1984 Nobel Prize for physics for work that led to the discovery of W and Z bosons – drew himself cooking up atoms in a frying pan.Virologist Christiane Nusslein-Volhard drew a swarm of fruit flies.Nusslein-Volhard won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1995 for her research on the role of genetics in embryonic development.
“But all of the photos do have at least one thing in common: they all feature ‘playful people’,” Olov Amelin, director of the Nobel Museum in Stockholm, was quoted as saying. (IANS)
In China, Liao becomes ‘Lorraine’, Mukesh becomes ‘Matt’
Beijing: “Hi. I am Liao Liang. But, you can call me Lorraine. That is my English name.” This is how 25-year-old Liao, a broadcast journalist working for Beijing-based China Radio International (CRI) introduces herself to people who are not native to China. But, she is not the only one who has a “bilingual identity” as people across the country have adopted English monikers to “ease cross-cultural connectivity”. “Chinese names are difficult to pronounce, remember and write. And, so, besides our Chinese names, we also keep an English name for ourselves, and use it especially while meeting people from other countries, especially during business meeting and other professional interactions,” Liao said. English is an important international language and such English names are a key for the native Chinese people to connect to that global world in the information age, as language sometimes becomes a barrier to communication, she said. The English names, unlike their Chinese (traditional) names, which are given by their parents, are assumed by a person as per his or her wish.
But, it is not just Chinese people adopting English names, as Indians living in China are also switching to “easy pronouncing” names to tide over the linguistic barrier. So, Chandigarh-born Mukesh, who works as a partner in the marketing and sales division of Shenzhen-based technology firm Dianming in Guangdong Province, introduces himself as ‘Matt’. Moreso, his bilingual business card, printed in English and Mandarin on each side, does not say Mukesh at all.
“There were many reasons for choosing an English name, the primary among them being people finding it hard to get my name right or pronouncing it in a way that created communication gaps. Sometimes, they would be calling me and I wouldn’t respond because of wrong pronunciation,” Mukesh said.
“So, I decided to become Matt, just single, neutral identifier, no confusion. But, yes sometimes I myself don’t respond to being called as Matt. I guess it will take time,” he said with a smile. Mukesh said that most of his Chinese colleagues, including the company’s chairman have English names. So, Chairman Wang Yunfeng goes by the name of ‘Hill’, including on his business card and Sales Director Fang Linsong uses ‘Chris’.
“One of our engineers Zhung Jun Han uses the name ‘Hansen’, we call him handsome,” Mukesh said. Journalist Liao (Lorraine) said, “A friend of his who works as an editor in a publishing house kept his name as Jason from Zhang Chang.” She said that people also change their English names later if they wish to. “I know I did. I use to call myself Angel earlier before I became Lorraine.” (PTI)
China moves closer to land spacecraft on Moon and return
Beijing: China’s ambitious plan to land an unmanned spacecraft on the Moon before returning to Earth moved a step closer as its test orbiter entered the lunar orbit today for further tests. The service module of China’s unmanned test lunar orbiter successfully decelerated which allowed it to enter an 8-hour orbit, the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre said.
The module conducted the braking and entered the 8-hour elliptical moon orbit, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The spacecraft has sustained balanced energy and is in a sound condition, the centre said, adding that it exercised timely and stable control and tracing of the service module and relevant tests had been carried out smoothly. The module will make its second and third braking in the early hours of January 12 and 13 respectively to enable it to enter the target 127-minute orbit for tests to prepare for the next lunar probe mission, Chang’e-5, center’s chief engineer Zhou Jianliang said. The test lunar orbiter was launched on October 24. The service module was separated from the orbiter’s return capsule on November 1, and the capsule returned to Earth after circling the moon on the same day during its eight-day mission. (PTI)