The ‘Oriented’ Tower of Hanoi

Address for Correspondence
Shailesh A Shirali
Rishi Valley School
Rishi Valley 517 352
Andhra Pradesh, India

The two essays which, we carry below were both written by research students working towards a PhD in physics. They were originally submitted to a competition (where they received honourable mention) in which the aim was to convey, to a non specialist and perhaps even non scientist reader, the motives and spirit of carrying out doctoral research. Although both have some technical details of the research area, our aim is to take particularly the student reader ‘behind the scenes’ of a PhD thesis. Merely by looking at the final product, or even by sitting in a seminar, the human side of scientific research may not be apparent. But research – and teaching – and learning – are all human activities, and we at Resonance do plan to carry the occasional piece focussing on the aspect of science education.

Rajaram Nityananda NCRA, Pune

Stranger in a Strange Land

Almost everything on Earth is made up of tiny atoms in which electrons go round tinier balls of neutrons and protons.

Address for Correspondence
Sushan Konar
Raman Research Institute
Bangalore 560 080, India

Just Shear Luck

Entropy is the number of ways you can do things – like you can stand on two legs in only own way, but there are two ways of standing one legged, so the latter state has a larger entropy.

Address for Correspondence
Rangan Lahiri
Department of Physics
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore 560 012, India.