World DNA Day 2018 Celebration in Nepal

On the occaisson of the World DNA Day, Biotechnology Society of Nepal (BSN) organised a two day Conference cum Exhibition during April 24-25, 2018 at Nepal Academy of Science And Technology (NAST), Khumaltar, Lalitpur. We had an opportunity to be one of the supporters of the celebration. We had one invited talk and  solar observation session for the organizers, exhibitors, participants and visitors during April 24-25, 2018.

Photo: Prof. Dr. Jibraj Pokhrel, Vice-Chancellor at Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) observing the sun during Solar Observation session at World DNA Day Celebration 2018.

The invited talk/presentation was given by Mr. Suresh Bhattarai, Chairman at Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO) on the topic "The Role of Biotechnology in Human Space Exploration" which was hugely appericiated and liked by the participants, distinguished guests and senior professionals presented in the conference. Solar Observation session was available at the premises of NAST.

The conference had four thematic sessions: Plant and Agriculture Bioscience, Medical and Pharmaceutical Bioscience, Environmental Bioscience and Food and Industry Bioscience. During the sessions university students and young professionals shared their respective works with the participants.

The celebration was formally concluded on 25th of April with a Prizes, token of love and certificate distributions by Prof. Dr. Jibraj Pokhrel, Vice-Chancellor and Dr. Buddhi Ratna Khadge, Secretary at Nepal Academy of Science and Technolgy (NAST).

Astrofest Nepal 2018: Look upward to unravel the mistery!

On the occasion of Global Astronomy Month (GAM), Central Department of Physics (CDP) organized AstroFest Nepal 2018 at Department premises, Kirtipur on April 22, 2018. The event was supported by B.P. Koirala Memorial Planetarium, Observatory and Science Museum Development Board, Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO), Pokhara Astronomical Society (PAS) and Beyond Apogee.

Photo: NASO volunteers conducting lunar observation sessions during AstroFest Nepal 2018 at Central Department of Physics, Tribhuvan University (TU) on April 22, 2018.

During this event students got chance to know about cosmology studies from Dr Uday Raj Khanal.  His speech on the topic of cosmology and astronomy gave new insight to the world of astronomy. Also the talk session of Dr Binil Aryal (Head of Central Department of Physics) helped student to know about current condition of physics and astronomy in Nepal. The presentation of Mr Suresh Bhattarai (Chairman of NASO) helped student to know about astronomy, engineering and outreach projects handled by NASO team for promotion and implementation of science and technology. Sabin Gautam (Treasurer of PAS) presented the ideas and activities of Pokhara Astronomical Society. Sudip Vikram Adhikari (Chairman of Beyond Apogee) presented the idea of CAN Satellite which could be easily programmed by school level students too which they termed as Sajilo Satellite.

For recreational and talent exposure purpose many student of department of physics presented their poems related to universe and astronomy. Various posters and quotes of scientific minds could be seen on the premise of the college too. The event was attended by around hundred students and visitors. After 5:00 PM observation session was jointly organized by CDP, NASO and PAS in which visitors got chance to observe the Moon and Venus. Also visitors were informed about the types of telescopes used for the observation.

This event thus helped the student and visitors to know about the astronomy, cosmology, physics study in Nepal and the activities related to these topics done by various organizations for promoting and implementing science in Nepal.

The Global Astronomy Month (GAM) is the largest global celebration of astronomy, celebrated every year in April by organizing different astronomical events like Astro-art, Astro-star party, Astro-poetry, Astro-concert etc. The motto of the GAM is to bring interested people together to encourage participation in programs related to astronomy and astrophysics. The main aim of conducting this event is to bring new opportunities for interested and enthusiastic persons to celebrate the Global Astronomy Month. 

Gravity Spy: How you can contribute to LIGO’s discoveries, from the other side of the globe?

LIGO is designed to detect gravitational waves which produces a length change of 10E-18 metres in its 4 km long arm. This also makes it sensitive to a great deal of instrumental and environmental sources of noise. Among these the one that are of most concern are transient, poorly modeled artifacts known by the LIGO community as glitches. Gravity Spy is a program designed to involve citizen scientists in identifying those glitches, which are not ofastrophysical origin. These identified glitches makes a dataset that is used to train a machine learning algorithm to enhance its ability to separate the noise from the gravitational wave signals.

This program was initially launched as a beta version on June of 2016. The full implementation of the program was launched on October of 2016. It has close to 12,000 registered users and has achieved about 3,000,000 different classifications by now. You can signup at the following link and help LIGO find glitches that are already known or even find a new kind of glitch.

Gravity Spy: https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/zooniverse/gravity-spy

You can also get new updates about the gravity spy by following the blog linked below:

https://blog.gravityspy.org

Enjoy and happy glitch hunting!

(Prepared by Sudarshan Karki, Graduate Research Assistant at University of Oregon)