Feb 2022. Turning two: 2nd Anniversary Edition, Cogito137

Cogito-137 is an entirely student-run science communication platform that tells stories of and around science. Team Cogito137 consists of IISER Kolkata students and alumni in about 15-20 functional positions. Primarily a bi-monthly magazine, we dabble in all things science and in all forms. We create and publish content on our website in the form of articles, artwork, reviews, interviews, along with videos on our YouTube channel.

In this second anniversary issue of the magazine, we have a long lineup of articles spanning varied interest areas. The majority of the pieces have been contributions from participants of the “Scicomm for Scientists (SFS) 2021” Workshop conducted by Cogito137, supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. Delve into this edition to read an array of fresh topics and thought-provoking perspective pieces. The guest editorial of this edition - “A generation of lost researchers”, by Raunak Dey, an IISER Kolkata alumni, discusses problems and predicaments of early career researchers through the pandemic.

Other articles in this issue include- the use of orchids in cancer treatment, the environmental impact of COVID-19, probiotics, smartwatches for diagnostics and more. How do our dog friends perceive us humans and our bonding with them? What drives the peaceful coexistence of humans and wildlife in a changing landscape? Curious to know how coffee affects fat distribution? Or about a device meant for tracking fat burning? Take a journey through our anniversary issue- flip through in one go or several. We have got you covered from dark matter to neurons!

You can find each article in the magazine on our website. Please send us your feedback and mention us on social media channels- Twitter, Linked-IN, Instagram and Facebook. Like all previous ones, this special issue has been the fruit of ongoing relentless efforts from the entire team- our editors, designers, website and publicity team. We thank all contributors for this edition and hope we continue to get future submissions strewn across the spectrum of sciences. This has been a unique learning experience for all team members, gaining experience in scicomm.

This is also a special opportunity to thank our faculty advisor - Prof Subhajit Bandyopadhyay, Prof. Sourav Pal - Director, IISER Kolkata and Dr Anindita Bhadra - Associate Dean of International Relations and Outreach, IISER Kolkata, who have been our pillars of support since the inception of Cogito137, both morally and with their strategic and outreach expertise. We are grateful to the SFS-2021 speakers for sharing their knowledge, and feedback given by Spoorthy Raman for the SFS articles.

We hope you enjoy the magazine.

Sanskruti Biswal
Managing Editor, Cogito137

December 2021

In sync with last year, our December 2021 issue has been curated and themed around Nobel winning sciences of this year. We invited individuals who are pursuing dissertation-oriented research in fields associated with the Nobel-winning sciences, or have researched the topic with due personal interest, to write the articles. We are grateful to the students and alumni of IISER Kolkata and others who contributed articles for our December 2021 issue.

With the hope of broadening our horizons and the scope of Cogito137, we have started venturing into interdisciplinary projects and partnerships. We primarily aim to popularise science and scientific research, but have now begun to holistically tailor our content to encapsulate ‘science and society’ influences into our work. Alongside articles on the basic science categories in which Nobel Prizes are awarded - Physics, Chemistry, Physiology and Medicine; we have also included articles about the Nobel prizes in Economics and Peace categories, in this issue.

The Nobel Prizes 2021 are a reflection of some of the most prominent concerns and solved puzzles of today’s world and it is indeed heartening to see such work receiving recognition of the highest order. The articles in this issue attempt to simplify the complex and state-of-the-art research and processes, which are equally technical and elegant.

This issue also marks Team Cogito’s successful functioning for two years. Since our inception in November 2019, we have strived to maintain credibility in our publications across various formats - text/art/videos. We invite everyone who is enthusiastic about communicating science to submit content of their choice, to our platform. Students and alumni of IISER Kolkata are most welcome to join our dynamic team and work with us. Write to us: scicomm@iiserkol.ac.in with feedback, suggestions, regular column ideas, video podcast ideas, collaboration invites or other content ideas.

We will be back with our 2nd anniversary edition in February 2022.

Wishing all of you a merry christmas and a happy new year!

Stay safe and take care!

Arunita Banerjee
Chief Editor, Cogito137

October 2021

An extremely objective portrayal of the Durga Puja pandals, gorgeous idols, and the festivities in general, would perhaps be to perceive them as extravagant art installations, serving as epicentres of joy and togetherness. Scientists and students of science might possibly indulge in introspective reasoning, behind the discrepancies in cultural/religious and scientific expenditures, prevalent in our country. However, being a part of the same society, the festive season brings an equal amount of revelling and merriment in their lives too.

The most interesting and challenging part of a scientist’s life is perhaps balancing their roles as a scientist and a social being and how their ‘id’, ‘ego’ and super-ego’ contain these influences and make them into the individuals they are. What is the role of a scientist in scenarios where religion and religious myths reign supreme? How does a scientist feel about coming across an accidental discovery while pursuing their research? With so many confounding factors in play at all times, who or what runs the grand scheme of things? Is it the chaos itself, which then becomes the natural order of things?

At the base of all philosophical views and musings, lies education.

This ‘online mode of life’ has boosted the spread of disinformation, raised concerns about dwindling infrastructural resources and funding in science and added multiple layers of chaos into each life and livelihood. Widespread education and active participation of educated individuals in policy-decisions and the general state of affairs is probably the most dire need of the world at the moment. On the other hand, it’s ironic to witness how education systems in our country, and the rest of the world, have gone awry and askew.

In this issue, we explore the ‘science and society paradigm’ through perspectives, opinions, reviews and illustrations, surrounding socio-political and mythical influence on science, the trade-off between development and indigenous conservation practices, indigenous rampant pseudoscience, non-apparent mysteries of science, victory of science over cancer, serendipitous discoveries and science education in this post-COVID world.

Greetings and best wishes to everyone for the ‘great Indian festive season’ and Shubho Bijoya!

Arunita Banerjee
Chief Editor, Cogito137

August 2021

After a brief hiatus with regards to the June issue, Cogito137 returns with another ensemble of informative articles.

The interrelations between science and art are a matter of much speculation and obscurity. On the face of it, they appear to be opposites; such extreme opposites, in fact, that we are led to think again, to reconsider if they are, indeed, as far apart as they appear to be. In this issue, we take on various aspects of their relationship head-on with a series of articles which attempt to show the many ways in which they reinforce one another.

Debanuj Chatterjee opens up the floor with an article exploring the nature of beauty as we perceive it, and exhibits a powerful scientific tool (namely, fractals) used to quantify aesthetics. Satwata Hans provides a brief interlude with a short but powerful article tracing out a deep connection between the seemingly disparate fields of geometry & algebra in mathematics. After this, Debanuj once again provides, in a very innovative article, a physics-oriented analytic of another seemingly unquantifiable entity—namely, love.

Following this, Sayak Dasgupta offers a sober overview of the various potential threats to the subjective human experience that the rise of artificial intelligence brings with it; and Swastik Kundu takes stock of the conflicting emotions that technologically-oriented advancements like Genetically Modified Organisms elicit within us in a short but sharp read. Last but not the least, Satyarthi Mishra rounds off the issue by exploring the historical evolution of the distinct-yet-similar ways of expressions of art and science.

Appended to this article as a novelty are also a few short science comics, created by participants of the SciComm for Scientists (SFS) workshop as part of the same. Don’t forget to subscribe to our website and YouTube channel to never miss our new articles and videos. Please keep us posted with your suggestions and content on scicomm@iiserkol.ac.in

Aditya Dwarkesh
Managing Editor, Cogito137

April 2021

After the grand success of Cogito137’s anniversary issue and sending copies of our magazine to over a hundred national institutes across the country, we are back with yet another thoroughly engaging issue.

The issue begins with a discussion of the basics of vaccines and the importance of getting vaccinated. With the vaccination drive going across the country, it is essential to know how important it is to get vaccinated. The editorial also covers the ins and outs of herd immunity and the repercussions of vaccine refusal.

How would you like to know someone who is not a human being but rather a human-like being? Intrigued? Our cover article takes us into the world of AI-powered virtual beings. This article by SciRa, tells us all about Samsung Neons, their creation, and the many ethical and privacy issues surrounding them. The brilliant cover design is an artwork by our designer, Naman Agarwal.

We also have a fascinating article by Divyansh Dewan about magnetic monopoles. It revolves around the long-believed fact that magnetic monopoles do not exist and the contradictory theories that predict their existence. Gunjan Misri presents to us a study on heavy metal pollution across Kolkata. It also mentions the health risks pertaining to heavy metal pollution. We have a very thought-provoking article by Dakshesh Vasan that delves into the coronavirus outbreaks seen by the world in all of history and comes to a conclusion if COVID-19 is a case of the evolutionary arms race or not. Shubhangi Antil has created a very interesting comic about ants and pheromones. Last, but not the least, this issue also consists of a beautiful illustration accompanied with an explanation of the rare secretary bird by Sanskruti Biswal and Mukil M.

With the number of COVID-19 cases on the rise again in India, we urge you to stay safe, be vaccinated, and strictly stick to the protocols for our wellbeing. Stay vigilant, stay aware. Don’t forget to subscribe to our website and YouTube channel to never miss our new articles and videos. Please keep us posted with your suggestions and content on scicomm@iiserkol.ac.in

Srujana Mohanty
Managing Editor, Cogito137

February 2021 - Anniversary edition

Cogito137-The Thought Capsule is proud to present to you its 6th issue (February 2021), a celebratory anniversary edition that marks the completion of Cogito137’s one year in effective scicomm.

The issue begins with the cover article and the editorial for this edition, penned down by one of our senior editors and IISER Kolkata Alumnus - Subhayu Bagchi, emphasizing the challenges and necessitations of science and scicomm in our country. Next in line is a perfectly timed piece by our faculty advisor Prof. Subhajit Bandyopadhyay, on the vaccination strategies popping up across the world to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Since we are releasing the issue on National Science Day, the next article briefly touches upon the man we celebrate on this day and goes in-depth about the woman whose life exposes the irony of the celebration.

The other articles in this issue, written by various students of science across the country, cover an entire spectrum of topics of relevance - unsustainable population growth, natural phenomena, conservation strategies, animal systems and their behaviours and the neurological basis of art, among others.

In order to reduce clutter, we have removed the references from the printed edition and retained them on the website. Each article has been uploaded individually to our website (scicomm.iiserkol.ac.in) and scanning the QR codes in the printed edition will take you there. I express my heartfelt gratitude to the content creators of this edition, and congratulate and applaud the Team for their tireless efforts behind putting this edition together. Special thanks to Spoorthy Raman and Arul Ganesh S S, from the Research Matters team who worked as guest editors for two of our vernacular pieces.

I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the efforts of Prof. Subhajit Bandyopadhyay, Dr. Anindita Bhadra, Prof. Prasanta K. Panigrahi and Prof. Sourav Pal, from IISER Kolkata for their constant encouragement and support, which has essentially ensured our successful performance over the last one year.

Happy Reading!

Arunita Banerjee
Chief Editor, Cogito137

Cogito137 - The present and the future

“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin' hot spot Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone They paved paradise and put up a parking lot”

This opening verse of the song "Big Yellow Taxi", written, composed, and originally recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell in 1970, with ‘almost’ dystopian lyrics masked by a cheery rhythm, painted an ugly reality-check picture of the global industrialization during the 20th century. The song goes on to describe an otherworld of some sort where trees were put into museums and people were monetarily charged to see them.

Now howsoever outlandish that might seem, it is sad but true, that we might be heading towards such a world.

The sudden onset of the coronavirus pandemic, its mishandling on scientific and humanitarian grounds alike by governments worldwide, minimal progress towards the United Nations’ sustainable development goals, the influence of religion and superstitions into scientific decision-making involving undertakings of national and international importance, and the absolute mistreatment in both small and massive scales of the resources that ensure our realm of survival on this earth - has not only exposed the lacuna in our societal systems but also made the gross lack of scientific temper in our society very evident.

Perhaps the only solution is “effective scicomm” - engaging stories, de-jargonized and simple language, interesting analogies, and content tailored for a non-specialized readership. We at Cogito137 believe that the primary onus of science communication should be on the practitioners of science – researchers, scientists, and students of science, and have thus been nurturing this scicomm endeavor of ours for the last one year and hope to be a part of a widespread scicomm network one day.

Being embedded within the academic circle and operating from an institutional level has helped us maintain the two pillars of running such a platform - (i) skilled workforce and content creators and (ii) zero paywalls on outlets. Institutions like ours are thus at the best disposition of initiating such platforms and potentially, inter-linking them in the future at local, regional, national, and finally international levels.

A range of possibilities can thus start snowballing - crosslinked websites, national and international collaborations to create themed and relevant series content, a shared search feature across different websites, and more. Elucidating the prowess of this network - a person looking to understand some scientific concept on a particular platform can potentially be redirected to another platform where the said concept is explained and if this is at a global level, the person can potentially find a translation of the said topic in a language that they understand. Also, there’s huge scope for print-media dissemination and mass-circulation. Through agreements and creative common’s licenses, any kind of scicomm content can be printed in any language for distribution within local communities – where internet access is an issue, in any part of the world.

Cross-platform sharing of content to increase reach, linked databases for widespread dissemination of information, human resource connections to make collaborative scicomm stories across the globe possible – are some of the steps we hope to ascend with – through our future collaborations. Please do get in touch if you’re interested.

Through the resulting scicomm network – with scicommers and researchers joining hands across the world – we hope to bridge the gap between science and society and fend off from becoming a part of a scientific echo-chamber ourselves. We have started small, but we hope to revolutionize the interface between academia and the public.

Arunita Banerjee
Chief Editor, Cogito137

December 2020

Cogito137 brings to you it's first themed issue, centred around: "Inventas vitam juvat excoluisse per artes.” This Swedish inscription on the reverse side of all Nobel Prizes can be loosely translated into, "And they who bettered life on earth by newfound mastery.” A word for word translation of the same means "inventions enhance life which is beautified through art”.

As the cover design suggests, it is an issue themed around explaining the science behind the Nobel Prizes 2020. While we honour the scientists and their contributions in their respective fields, leading to the prizes, we mourn the loss of a scientist who was not a Nobel laureate, but devoted his short lifespan to the popularisation of art and science, through various public engagements - Dr. Alexander ‘Sasha’ Kagansky. Team Cogito137 mourns his sudden demise and as an ode to his memory, we have uploaded an interview of his on our YouTube channel. We had the opportunity to feature an excerpt on the same in our launch event.

In this issue, we have three articles which attempt to simplify the science and their societal impact, of the Nobel Prizes awarded in Physics, Chemistry, and Physiology and Medicine, by Ranadeep Ghosh Dastidar, Debojyoti Ghosh and Maithili Dutta, respectively, who have recently graduated with their BS-MS degrees from IISER Kolkata. In addition, we have a biographical piece in Odia by Barnali Das, about the first Indian to receive a Nobel Prize - Dr. CV Raman, and another article explaining the ‘Raman Effect’ - for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize.

We generally try to tailor our content for a very general readership. However, this issue might prove to be slightly deviant, given that it attempts to simplify Nobel-winning sciences, but is intelligible to people with a higher secondary level background of science. Soon after the Nobel Prizes were announced, we organised a series of public lectures and panel discussions with speakers and panellists based in India and abroad. The entire ‘Nobel in focus’ series, organised in collaboration with the Science Club of IISER Kolkata, is available on our YouTube channel.

2020 has been an eventful year for all of us, to say the least. On one hand we might consider ourselves fortunate in some contrived way to be a part of the generation which survived and is still battling a pandemic that will shape human evolution and history in the years to come. On the other hand, we empathise with the several misfortunes that have befallen on people throughout the year.

From January, to December
This has been a year, to remember

Happy 2021 everyone!

Arunita Banerjee
Chief Editor, Cogito137

October 2020

We are easing into ‘a new normal’.

While scientists continue to drive themselves to exertion, in search of a cure, and the doctors and healthcare workers continue their toil to save lives, the festive season beckons us. The upcoming Durga Pujo celebrations are centred around a mythological “homecoming” of the goddess and her departure into heaven after a brief stay of about ten days. Now, since there is still a pandemic raging on earth this year, and although we might be willing to make travel exceptions for the goddess, she definitely has an obligation to wear a mask. When all else fails, and science takes too long to answer, mortals have a tendency to take refuge in their faith of an almighty. Our cover design is a portrayal of this abstraction in the form of a humanistic caricature and is an original artwork by our designer, Shreyash Borkar.

The issue begins with an editorial by one of our youngest editors, Aditya Dwarkesh, about the anticipation of and speculations around the COVID19 vaccine. This issue is our first multilingual edition. An author who wishes to remain “Anonymous” has penned down an extremely relevant piece in Bangla - opining on why the upcoming festivities may cause a severe blow to the social distancing norms which are preventive measures against the pandemic.

The diversity of submissions that we receive are increasing and we are grateful to our writers for that. This issue consists of a photostory about the biodiversity of the Simlipal National park, an autobiographical story about field work (also in bangla), a biographical piece on D. R. Kaprekar - a mathematical genius and an interview of Prof. Somnath Dasgupta - a senior geologist from IISER Kolkata.

The issue also includes a pertinent piece aiming to spread awareness about the menstrual cycle, using scientific understanding as a tool. Alongside the article, we have published a survey form, which Arpita Pal from IISER Kolkata has designed to collect information about the prevailing awareness about menstruation in our society. Please share the survey with friends and family.

Cogito137 just launched it’s YouTube channel with a grand launch event covering various topics around science and scicomm - the need for scientific temper, scicomm challenges in India, going global in scicomm, inclusivity challenges in STEM and more. This marks the beginning of our video segment, as we are now open to video submissions as well.

We have started small, but we have a mighty vision of creating a national presence in being a multimedia and multilingual scicomm platform that invites content contribution from all. Our audience reach is increasing by the day. We are thankful to our well-wishers and content creators, who support us with feedback and submissions. Please subscribe to our website and youtube channel so that you never miss any of our publications or video uploads and keep us posted with your suggestions and content on scicomm@iiserkol.ac.in

Arunita Banerjee
Chief Editor, Cogito137

August 2020

Cogito137 - The thought capsule is perhaps the youngest students' initiative in IISER Kolkata. Shortly after we released our first issue, a nationwide lockdown was declared. The better part of our lives has since shifted to online platforms, and that has stalled the bustling campus life at IISER Kolkata.

However, Team Cogito137 used it to their advantage. As we grow, we are still in the process of expanding our team and the scope of our platform. I thank all our writers and contributors of the August issue, who decided to use some idle lockdown hours to write for us and extend a warm welcome to all the new members of our team.

This issue begins with a cardinal opinion piece about the perception of science and scientists in our society and how distant it is from reality, by Varun Srivastava from batch '16. Magare Sourabh Suryakant, a recent graduate, gives you a simplistic sneak-peek into the ‘quantum world’. Next is a piece by another recent graduate, Simli Mishra, about ‘absolute zero’ - the lowest theoretically possible temperature. In her piece, she also writes about an anecdotal moment when she had the chance of witnessing this 'theoretical temperature' being attained within research equipment. Dr. Debottam Bhattacharjee who just defended his PhD thesis, writes about one of his studies which proves that love paves the way for the age-old dog-human bonding. Debmalya Bandyopadhyay from batch '17 takes you through a thought experiment of building a quarantine centre, containing infinite number of rooms, in his very lucid piece about a certain infinity paradox.

This issue also contains a section from “Comictious” - a series of sci-art and sci-illustrations themed around the COVID19 pandemic. The deadline for submission to this series has been extended till the 15th of September.

Alongside, our August issue has brought some good tidings with it. We had promised to open up submissions to other languages with availability of editors. It is a great pleasure to announce that Cogito137 will now be accepting written content in three languages and video content in eight languages. Also, we are open to submissions from anyone and everyone who wants to communicate science and engage with the scientific community and the public at large.

In our effort to be a platform for researchers and scientists to engage in fruitful conversations with the society, we have added a ‘Forum’ to our website. We invite all faculty and students from IISER Kolkata and beyond, to initiate and participate in conversations related to science, society and scientific research in general.

We are striving to rise to a national level multimedia science communication platform and we require maximum support from our home institution. I hope that you will stand by us in the process, through your valuable feedback and consider submitting content of your choice to Cogito137.

Arunita Banerjee
Chief Editor, Cogito137

February 2020

The show must go on
-Arunita Banerjee

We are living through dismal days, among political wars, while the earth is steadily running a fever and life-forms are being pushed to a biological annihilation.

About three decades ago, while the world leaders battled to prove their worth in terms of nuclear power and space travel, quite similarly like today; Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson, attributed the existence of human beings to ‘lower animals’ - animals without a spinal cord - invertebrates. In a journal article titled ‘The Little Things That Run the World’, he wrote, “If invertebrates were to disappear, I doubt that the human species could live more than a few months.”

A callous human-ego has led to this nomenclature, in which humans and other vertebrates - animals with a spinal cord - are referred to as ‘higher animals’. And although this nomenclature pertains to intelligence among animals, the higher ones - humans - are not acting quite like it.

We live in the Anthropocene - the human dominated era of natural history. And we have been shaping and sizing the world to suit ourselves. The cost is the immense damage we have been doing to nature and natural systems. What started off as pollution of land, air and water, has led to a profound problem - climate change.

Three global agencies – NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the UK Meteorological office, have confirmed that the warmest cardinal decade ended with 2019, among records dating back to the mid-19th century, and the warming trend will continue in 2020. While we may not feel the temperature rise very much, we have been surrounded by marked examples of climate change in action – Unpredictable cyclones in South East Asia, snowfalls in hot deserts, devastating floods in South America and parts of Asia, ice-caps melting in the poles and the most recent Australian bush fires due to extreme drying of land, to name a few.

Seventeen year-old Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, successfully managed to provide a world stage to the climate crisis campaign, by her sudden rise to international prominence. The last year witnessed an unprecedented number of climate strikes across the globe. Greta received humongous support globally, especially from the youth and children, alongside general public. In the ‘global climate strike’ week of September, 2019 alone, over 7.6 million people, across 185 countries, took to the streets demanding governments and other organisations to take action and implement policy changes to save the planet we live on.

And while the last few months saw climate change movement gain momentum, socio-political turmoil equivalently paced up in different parts of the world. Hostility between Saudi Arabia and Iran, along with the US involvement, is empowering the humanitarian crisis in the entire Middle-east: from Yemen to Lebanon. The Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria, civil war in Sudan and increasing tensions in Cameroon, have piled up on to the already existing economic crises that the African countries struggle with. Political violence in Hong-Kong and India are steadily reaching proportions of becoming a global concern.

We are thus, moving towards a dystopian world of hate mongering, civil wars, unbreathable air, water shortage, natural calamities, poverty, hunger, all at once – ‘The Uninhabitable Earth’, that David Wallace-Wells described. Consequences of climate change will wreak havoc in social, economic and political terms, by creating an indispensable refugee crisis, when people start fleeing from uninhabitable areas.

With the rise of political turmoil all over the world, the worldwide ‘climate-strike’ has taken a back-foot. Although 2019 gave us hope of having spread enough awareness among the public and the leading nations of the world joining hands in comprehensive action; ‘climate change denial’ was surely defeated. But the real battle still awaits.

With each passing day we spend, still trying to raise awareness about the climate crisis and implementing measures to contain the havoc, we also continue to add to our respective carbon footprints. However, the UNDP website holds that “Climate change is running faster than we are, but this is still a race we can win.”

At this point, it is imperative that we realise, this is a race we ‘have to’ win. Species extinction rates are higher than ever now. Life-forms are being wiped out from the face of this earth in the ongoing ‘sixth mass-extinction’, which is being referred to as a process of ‘biological annihilation’, by the scientific community. And even though if this may take you by surprise, the progress of the climate crisis has the potential to wipe out human beings as well, just as any other obscure species about whose existence or extinction, you didn’t care.

While humans fight each other and superpowers continue to become more powerful, the nemesis of mankind, which they themselves gave rise to, might just play a masterstroke and put an end to all wars and conflicts, by putting an end to the human race itself.