This is my daughter and me flying high on boat-assisted paragliding, circa June 2023, somewhere near North Goa…was riveting 3 minutes up in the sky…a great experience. The view towards the sun-set was great and so was the view in the opposite direction to the sun, where we could see backwaters from the top.
(G. V. Pavan Kumar, “OMC 2023,” Scatterings, April 21, 2023, https://backscattering.wordpress.com/2023/04/21/omc-2023/)
(G. V. Pavan Kumar, “Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop – History of Optical Manipulation,” Scatterings, April 19, 2023, https://backscattering.wordpress.com/2023/04/19/halina-rubinsztein-dunlop-history-of-optical-manipulation/)
(G. V. Pavan Kumar, “3 Axis Pendulum at Yokohama City : An Introduction,” Scatterings, April 17, 2023, https://backscattering.wordpress.com/2023/04/17/3-axis-pendulum-at-yokohama-city-an-introduction/)
(G. V. Pavan Kumar, “Cup Noodles Museum – Food + Science + Technology + Inspiration,” Scatterings, April 22, 2023, https://backscattering.wordpress.com/2023/04/22/cup-noodles-museum-food-science-technology-inspiration/)
(G. V. Pavan Kumar, “Two Talks in Tokyo,” Scatterings, April 25, 2023, https://backscattering.wordpress.com/2023/04/25/two-talks-in-tokyo/)
(G. V. Pavan Kumar, “Ocean, Okinawa and OIST…,” Scatterings, April 29, 2023, https://backscattering.wordpress.com/2023/04/29/ocean-okinawa-and-oist/)
(G. V. Pavan Kumar, “Osaka and Optical Manipulation,” Scatterings, May 2, 2023, https://backscattering.wordpress.com/2023/05/02/osaka-and-optical-manipulation/)
(“Super-Kamiokande,” Wikipedia, April 18, 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Super-Kamiokande&oldid=1150512078)
(“The University of Tokyo,” The University of Tokyo, n.d., https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/about/museums.html)
(James Poskett, Horizons: A Global History of Science [Penguin UK, 2022])
(“It Matters Who Does Science,” n.d., https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/it-matters-who-does-science)
(Hideki Fujiwara et al., “Optical Selection and Sorting of Nanoparticles According to Quantum Mechanical Properties,” Science Advances 7, no. 3 [January 13, 2021]: eabd9551, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abd9551)
(Yohei Zushi and Kazumasa A. Takeuchi, “Scaling and Spontaneous Symmetry Restoring of Topological Defect Dynamics in Liquid Crystal,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119, no. 41 [October 11, 2022]: e2207349119, https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2207349119)
(Yosuke Minowa et al., “Optical Trapping of Nanoparticles in Superfluid Helium,” Optica 9, no. 1 [January 20, 2022]: 139–144, https://opg.optica.org/optica/abstract.cfm?uri=optica-9-1-139)
(Takuya Iida and Hajime Ishihara, “Theoretical Study of the Optical Manipulation of Semiconductor Nanoparticles under an Excitonic Resonance Condition,” Physical Review Letters 90, no. 5 [February 5, 2003]: 057403, https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.057403)
Thanks to the invitation of Prof. Hajime Ishihara, I visited Osaka from 29th April to 2nd May 2023.
I arrived in Osaka on Saturday (29th Apr). On 30th Apr (Sunday) I headed out to visit the famous Kiyomizudera Temple in Kyoto with 2 PhD students from Ishihara’s group : Hideki Arahari and Takao Horai
Apart from the temple, we had a wonderful time exploring the Nishiki Market and Kamo river.
On 1st May, I visited Osaka University to officially meet Prof Ishihara, his group and other research groups in the university. We had a wonderful discussion on optical manipulation and major projects related to it especially in Japan, and undoubtedly Osaka has emerged as a major center in optical manipulation.
I was delighted to see so many students and research groups interested in optical trapping/manipulation and related science and technology. I learnt about some very interesting applications of optical manipulation. Also, it was great to see such a great sense of humor in this group of researchers. It was truly amazing.
I also visited labs of Prof. Ashida and Prof Ito, and got a very nice overview of their work including optical manipulation in liquid helium and photochemical reactions in an optical trap.
At 4pm, I gave my talk on “Optical Manipulation based on Opto-Thermal Gradients“. I elaborated on the role of absorption and related thermal gradient in optical manipulation. I presented some of our ongoing work on optical manipulation with structured light. The talk was attended by at least 30 to 40 people, and I was informed that students from various groups in Osaka were present (there are a few universities). The quality of questions and the follow up discussion was very good, and really enjoyed it.
Finally, the day ended with a wonderful dinner at a tofu-themed Japanese restaurant. We had wonderful discussion on history and philosophy in our countries, and was very interesting.
My trajectory in Japan has been Yokohama –> Tokyo –> Okinawa –> Osaka. After 16 days, one conference talk and 4 research seminar across Japan, I am now heading back from Osaka to Tokyo (and writing this blog) on Shinkansen – the bullet train. Tomorrow, I will be leaving to India.
In Japanese, the word ‘Osaka’ also means ‘a large hill’. Japan’s geography has many large hills (see a picture of Mt. Fuji I took from the moving Shinkansen), and metaphorically speaking Japanese like to scale complex landscapes of life by bringing culture with science and technology. There is a lot to learn from this approach to life.
Osaka, optical manipulation and the perennial ascent towards knowledge. What a memorable trip this has been.
To Japan and to all the people I met here – Doumo Arigatou Gozaimasu !
I had a memorable visit to Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology – OIST (27th and 28th April 2023). Prof. Mahesh Bandi was my host, I had a fabulous time interacting with him and a few other groups. Below are some (of many) highlights.
First, the geography : located in the midst of the ocean(s), away from the mainland Japan, Okinawa is the southern most part of Japan. I took a 2.5 hrs. flight from Tokyo and reached the destination when it was dark.
In the morning, I woke up and opened the window to be pleasantly surprised to see the beautiful ocean in my field of view. Below is a photo I took from the balcony of the room.
At the outset, I had a fabulous discussion. Mahesh and I had a excellent free-wheeling discussion on various topics including science, arts and history. Also, I visited his lab to see very creative experiments on non-equilibrium physics including some fascinating experimental designs to probe dynamics at liquid-air interface. He has a fabulous set of students working on interesting problems. It was both refreshing and stimulating.
In the afternoon, I gave my seminar and below is an interesting announcement (because it spells out my full name :-)). I discussed about some non-equilibrium aspects of our work, and towards the end emphasized some interesting prospects of statistical optics in an optothermal-assembly.
After my talk, I had illuminating discussion with Prof. Pinaki Chakraborty on thermal diffusion, fluid dynamics and history of science. I enjoyed visiting his lab, in which they have built one of the biggest Taylor-Couette flow set up I have ever seen (see the frame behind Pinaki in the picture below).
Next day, I had an elaborate lab tour of Prof. Sile Nic Chormaic, who is an expert in various topics related to optics/photonics including optical trapping. As she was travelling, her post-doc Dr. Souvik Sil, hosted me and took me around to show various aspects of their lab. It was a great learning experience.
On the same day, I visited the cutting-edge lab of Prof. Keshav Dani. Since he was travelling, his team members gave me a brief tour and I was amazed by some of their experiments.
Another major highlight of my trip was to meet many IISER students. Specifically, I met Amit Bhunia (post-doc) and Saurav Raj (PhD student) who are IISER Pune alumnus. I also met many IISER Kolkata students (Souvik being one of them).
Overall, I was mighty impressed by the research infrastructure at OIST and the people working there. It is quite remarkable how they have been able to build such a great facility in such a short time (their campus started around 2010).
Today, I have reached Osaka, and on Monday will be giving a talk and visiting a few groups at Osaka Unviersity. Prof. Hajime Ishihara is my host, and I look forward to plenty of interaction on optical manipulation.
I gave two talks in Tokyo.
First was on 24th April at Department of Applied Physics, Faculty of Advanced Engineering, Tokyo University of Science. My host was Prof. Yutaka Sumino. I spoke about “Soft Matter in Opto-Thermal Gradients“. I gave a short introduction to opto-thermal perturbations and potentials, and discussed some of our work on opto-thermophoretic trapping and Brownian dynamics. The audience contained a few master students too, and I really enjoyed discussing some concepts related to Brownian motion in an optothermal trap, and related experiments. Also, I had a very interesting discussion with Sumino and his students on their experiments on Janus particles.
The second talk was on 25th April at Department of Physics, University of Tokyo. My host was Prof. Kazumasa Takeuchi. I spoke about “Soft Matter in Opto-Thermal Gradients : Evolutionary Dynamics and Pattern Formation“.
This talk was also announced on Japan’s statphys mailing list, and also live-casted over zoom. I discussed about the origins of optothermal effects in a laser trap, and how it can lead to some interesting dynamics and pattern formation in soft-matter system. Specifically, I highlighted the concept of Hot Brownian motion, and how it can be influenced using thermo-plasmons. The talk and discussion went on for almost 2 hours, and I really loved it. Also, Takeuchi and his students gave an overview of their work including a live demonstration on turbulence in liquid crystals, and it was fantastic.
Here is the video blog on the Cup Noodles Museum at Yokohama. I visited this place recently, and was inspiring. Also, has some connections to history of science and scientists. Some notes/references at the end.
Notes & References :
CUPNOODLES MUSEUM YOKOHAMA (no date) CUPNOODLES MUSEUM YOKOHAMA. Available at: https://www.cupnoodles-museum.jp/en/yokohama/ (Accessed: 22 April 2023).
‘Hideki Yukawa’ (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hideki_Yukawa&oldid=1148467040 (Accessed: 22 April 2023).
‘Momofuku Ando’ (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Momofuku_Ando&oldid=1143758937 (Accessed: 22 April 2023).
Space Noodles | Science and Education | Trends in Japan | Web Japan (no date). Available at: https://web-japan.org/trends01/article/020920sci_r.html (Accessed: 22 April 2023).
‘Cup Noodle’s Nissin develops space ramen, space curry rice for astronauts to eat among the stars’ (2020) SoraNews24 -Japan News-, 17 September. Available at: https://soranews24.com/2020/09/17/cup-noodles-nissin-develops-space-ramen-space-curry-rice-for-astronauts-to-eat-among-the-stars/ (Accessed: 22 April 2023).
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1949 (no date) NobelPrize.org. Available at: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1949/yukawa/biographical/ (Accessed: 22 April 2023).
VISMAYA - History & Philosophy of Science 