Departmental Café Session

The Department of Science and Humanities had its fourth Departmental Café Sessions on the 10^th of August 2019. The resource persons for the afternoon were Prof. Deziy D’Souza who spoke on Chemistry of Foods and Prof. Ulpa Waingankar who enlightened us on the importance of Fractals.

Beginning the Café, Prof. Deziy gave insight into the chemistry that is involved in  favorite foods and beverages. She began by informing the audience that coffee keeps us awake due to its molecular structure of caffeine. Caffeine, she said, blocks the adenosine receptors and prevents the binding of adenosine molecules. She then spoke about chocolate saying that it contains phenylethylamine, a chemical which releases endorphins into the brain which decrease levels of stress and pain. Chemicals in chocolate also make us alert and are a good mood stabilizer. Talking about tea, she informed that tea contains more caffeine than coffee itself. Tea also contains polyphenols, which are antioxidants that prevent and repair the damage caused to cells and also helps to prevent cancer and heart diseases. Besides these, she touched upon how baking soda makes cakes rise. She explained why fruit sugar is better than free sugar and also mentioned about the benefits of eating on a banana leaf. She ended her insightful session by saying that knowing the chemistry of food is very important for a healthy lifestyle.

Taking over in the second half, Prof. Ulpa Waingankar introduced the world of fractals.  Fractals, which mean, fragmented dimensions are seen almost everywhere in nature and in human bodies too. These fragmented dimensions when spilt into parts and reduced in size will still have the same shape as that of the whole. This property of fractals is known as self-similarity. Giving a brief history about fractals she then, through images, showed where all fractals can be noticed , not just nature but medicine and engineering too, saying that  lungs, sea shells, snowflakes, broccoli, ferns and many other objects have the fractal make up. Movies like Independence Day have made use of Fractals to create their landscape. She fascinated the audience by showing how the tiniest part of a whole can still hold perfect and intricate designs. She ended her session with a quote by Stanislaw Lem, “The universe is a labyrinth made of labyrinths. Each leads to another. And wherever we cannot go ourselves, we reach with mathematics.”