Transcripts
EPISODE 027 SPACE, SCIENTISTS AND COMPETITION RESULTS
[0.01] {Background Music}
[0.09] Siyona: Hi Again. Hope you’re all doing very well. Welcome to my podcast little mind chats. Minds are little, not our thoughts. I’m your host Siyona.
[0.19] Well, it’s that time of the month where our competition winners will be announced. I believe we would never have such lovely space movies if scientists had not done their discoveries and inventions, learnt so much about space and taught the rest of the world.
[0.40] I got to do some research about the scientists. In our blissful world of childhood, we would never realize the kind of effort that went into bringing space exploration to where it is in now!
[0.56] Who would know that though Galileo Galilei, popularly known as the inventor of telescope, was not the first person to apply for patent. The first person to apply for a patent for a telescope was a Dutch eyeglass maker named Hans Lipperhey (or Lippershey). In 1608, Lippershey laid claim to a device that could magnify objects three times. So, why did Galileo steal the show? It’s because he improvised the telescope, it could now magnify things to 20 times instead. Not just that! Galileo did what nobody could think of in those days. He turned his telescope TO THE SKY. By doing that, He was able to make out mountains and craters on the moon, as well as a ribbon of diffuse light arching across the sky — the Milky Way. He also discovered the rings of Saturn, sunspots and four of Jupiter’s moons. Wow! For those times, that’s such out of the box thinking. What’s in it for us to learn? Look high, look far and look above! There is always an opportunity.
[2.19] Fast forward things by approximately 300 years, The Hooker 100-inch (2.5 m) reflecting telescope opened in 1917 at Mount Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, California. It was there that the astronomer Edwin Hubble created history when he determined that the Andromeda Nebula was indeed a galaxy far, far away from the Milky Way.
[2.50] Oh Wow! Edwin Hubble… How can anyone ever discuss something about space without his mention? Hubble measured distances and velocities in deep space, finding that the further apart galaxies are from each other, the faster they move away from one another. This is exactly what helped Albert Einstein. Albert Einstein personally thanked Hubble for the support his findings gave to his theory of relativity.
[3.21] While many are aware of Hubble’s achievements as an astronomer, did you know that he was a gifted Athlete? That’s so cool! He broke the state record in the high jump and ran track at the University of Chicago. An accomplished boxer, he once even knocked out the German heavyweight champion. So, what could we learn from him? Being a scientist is not all that boring. You could still pursue your hobbies and excel in them too.
[3.58] While there are numerous more scientists in the west, like the 16th Century Poland Astronomer – Nicolaus Copernicus, Danish Astronomer – Johannes Kepler, Italian astronomer – Giovanni Cassini, English Astronomer – Sir Isaac Newton, Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking and most recently, Neil De Gress Tyson, I began to wonder if there ever have been any Indian scientists too.
[4.36] Yes, you bet we do! We have numerous scientists who have inspired the world just as much as the scientists from western countries. We have Aryabhata who lived between 476 AD and 550 AD, He was an astronomer and earliest Indian Mathematician who used Pi in his calculations even before it was named as Pi by the Greek mathematicians much later in 1700s. In honour of this great Astronomer, the first Indian satellite was launched in 1975 and named after him by the Indian Space Research Organisation also called ISRO.
[5.25] Not to forget Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai who is known as father of the Indian Space program. He was responsible for setting up the Indian Space Research Organisation in India in 1969. He had a supremely dynamic and Inspiring personality.
[5.47] We have so many other inspiring space scientists here in the past and present like Abdul Kalam, Professor Satish Dhawan, Prof U R Rao, Dr K Kasturi Rangan and so many more.
[6.03] There are many other space research organisations across the world. Just like we have ISRO here in India, America has NASA, Russia’s ROSCOSMOS, Europe’s European Space Agency and many others. Out of these, India stands as the 6th most advanced in Space technology. The first 5 being United States, China, Russia, Japan and UK in that order.
[6.35] Well, I can’t stop speaking of space and scientists. But coming back to today’s topic, here’s to the space movies.
[6.45] I’ve watched a lot of space related movies myself, like Wall-E, Martian, Capture the flag, Interstellar, Tomorrowland and one of India’s own… Mission Mangalyaan. While Wall-E and Tomorrowland are my favourites in Hollywood, I just loved Mission Mangalyaan from Bollywood. I’m sure there are very few Indians across the world who haven’t watched this movie. I like it because it’s a true story of India’s Mars Mission famously called as MOM, executed by ISRO. I also like it because it’s very engaging, educative and interesting till the end. What’s more inspiring is that there are loads of Women scientists who pave the way to one of the cheapest missions to Mars. A mission that loads of other countries couldn’t achieve in the first attempt. If you haven’t watched it yet, I highly recommend you do please watch it!
[7.49] Ok ok…. I understand you don’t want to wait any longer to hear to the results. For this month’s competition judge, we were looking for a person who knew a lot about space and was still interested in movies. We spent a significant amount of time to ensure the judge is able to even understand the mind of children so he/ she could give a fair judgement.
[8.15] Finally, we found a perfect judge. Shh… this person couldn’t give away gender, name or country. So, for now, we’ll call this judge from the cosmos with the Instagram account, which is Astronomy For Me. If any of your parents have an Instagram account, I’d suggest you do visit AstronomyForMe and even follow it. The related website is www.astronomyforme.com. It has a whole lot of information for budding scientists amongst us.
[8.53] Here are some movies suggested for us by our Judge. If you haven’t watched it yet.
- Wall-E
- Fly me to the moon
- Tomorrowland
- Space Chimps
- Hubble 3D
[9.08] And last but not the least. Mars needs MOMS. I’m certainly watching these movies soon.
[9.15] Thanks for all of you who participated in this month’s competition. We had very few entries due to the mid-term exams happening here in India. So, this month, we’re having only one winner. Our judge Astronomy For Me had a tough choice between 2 entrants. But, finally chose Dyuthi!!
[9.39] (Claps) Congratulations Dyuthi, here’s what you said in your voice message.
[9.45] Dyuthi: Good evening. I am Dyuthi Dushyant. My favourite movie is ‘The Martian’. I liked this movie because, the way the character Watney survived on Mars. His strong survival instinct made him overcome all the obstacles. His will power kept him alive for a few years. He was a botanist. He improvised a garden using Martian soil fertilized with cruise bio waste and manufactured water from water from left over fuel. Later, NASA identified and moved equipment and realised Watney is still alive and they brought him back to Earth is another big adventure. Thank You.
[10.42] Siyona: I agree, I love The Martian movie too. It’s a movie released in 2015. It beautifully depicts possible life and challenges on Mars. Matt Damon played a very inspiring role to perfection.
[10.59] Well Done Dyuthi. Congratulations!!! You deserve the prize you’re about to get. I’m super happy for you. Certificates for all participants are zooming across to you as we speak!
[11.13] Thank you Astronomy For me, for taking time to decide the winner. You are an amazing person. I love the way you want to encourage more and more children towards Science and Space in particular.
[11.27] Hope you all enjoyed listening to this episode. Our next episode will be a special episode on Friday, the 2nd of October. As it is Gandhi Jayanthi, the Birth day of the father of our nation.
[11.42] I really hope you are able to share my podcast with your friends and family. Please do follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Do visit my website www.littlemindchats.com. Send in your suggestions to Siyona@Littlemindchats.com.
[12.04] Thanks a ton for listening. Bye!
