Kaapi with Kuriosity

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Kaapi with Kuriosity is a monthly public lecture series organised by the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS-TIFR), in collaboration with the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium and other educational institutions in Bengaluru.

The aim of the talks in this series is to stimulate the curiosity of the public towards the myriad aspects of science. The setting for these talks will be informal with a lot of scope for open discussions. The scientific background assumed will not be beyond the school level. As such, they are easily accessible to school/college students, families and working professionals interested in science.

Contact: outreach @ icts . res . in

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Upcoming Talks
New Frontiers for Statistical Physics
Rahul Nandkishore (University of Colorado Boulder)
4:00 pm to 5:30 pm Sunday, 14 December 2025
Mini Auditorium, U R Rao Bhavana, Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bangalore
Abstract: Traditional statistical physics assumes that systems go to equilibrium at long times. This leads to concepts like entropy and thermodynamics. But what if this assumption fails? When can (quantum) systems robustly fail to go to equilibrium, and what happens in that case? This question has...more
Past Talks
Flexible Solutions: Lessons from Nature’s Rubber Proteins
Namrata Gundiah (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore)
4:00 pm to 5:30 pm Sunday, 23 November 2025
Mini Auditorium, U R Rao Bhavana, Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bangalore
Abstract: Survival in the natural world places many demands on animals – they have to grow, hunt, reproduce, and escape predators or harsh environments. These constant pressures have profoundly shaped the mechanical properties and material composition of their tissues. Across habitats, from the...more
Neutron Stars: Natural Laboratories for the Universe’s Smallest and Largest Scales
Sukanta Bose (Washington State University, Pullman, USA)
4:00 pm to 5:30 pm Sunday, 26 October 2025
Mini Auditorium, U R Rao Bhavana, Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bangalore
Abstract: Neutron stars are nature’s ultimate physics laboratories — cosmic remnants where matter is crushed beyond atomic limits and gravity warps space-time itself. Inside them, the rules of quantum mechanics unfold on a stellar scale: particles are packed so tightly that electrons and protons...more
Why Strings?
Rajesh Gopakumar (International Centre for Theoretical Sciences-TIFR, Bengaluru)
4:00 pm to 5:30 pm Sunday, 28 September 2025
Mini Auditorium, U R Rao Bhavana, Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bangalore
Abstract: String theory is the leading theoretical framework for describing a quantum theory of the gravitational force. In this talk, I will try to motivate, from a somewhat different perspective, why string theory is a natural framework to describe nature. This goes back to the works of Maxwell...more
The Mathematics of Soap Bubbles
Franz Pedit (University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA)
4:00 pm to 5:30 pm Sunday, 24 August 2025
Mini Auditorium, U R Rao Bhavana, Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bangalore
Abstract: If you blow a soap bubble it is perfectly round. That this has to be the case was understood mathematically about 80 years ago by the German mathematician Heinz Hopf. The question then arose whether there exist "soap bubbles" of Medu Vada type? This problem was solved about 40 years ago...more
How to Read a Genome
Michael Desai (Harvard University, Cambridge, USA)
4:00 pm to 5:30 pm Sunday, 27 July 2025
Mini Auditorium, U R Rao Bhavana, Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bangalore
Abstract: It has now become cheap and easy to sequence genomes – we can sequence a microbe almost for free, or a human for a few hundred dollars. But what do these genomes say? We know that they contain the information necessary to make us who we are, but we don’t yet understand exactly how. I will...more
What's in your DNA? Tales from the human genome
Shweta Ramdas (Centre for Brain Research, IISc campus, Bangalore)
4:00 pm to 5:30 pm Sunday, 22 June 2025
Mini Auditorium, U R Rao Bhavana, Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium
Abstract: The term DNA has become a part of our cultural vocabulary, but what can it actually tell us? In this talk, we will travel through the world of human genetics, learning about what DNA can tell us about the history of our species, human evolution, and our predispositions to diseases. We...more
Coding Theory: Error-Resilience via Judicious Redundancy
Venkatesan Guruswami (University of California, Berkeley)
4:00 pm to 5:30 pm Saturday, 10 May 2025
Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium
Abstract: When we communicate or store large volumes of data, that information is inevitably subject to errors introduced by various forms of noise and interference. Yet, remarkably, we routinely take seamless and reliable digital communication for granted, a foundation without which modern society...more
Three Puzzles from the First Billion Years
Girish Kulkarni (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai)
4:00 pm to 5:30 pm Sunday, 13 April 2025
Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium
Abstract: Cosmology is the study of the Universe as a whole—its birth, its evolution, and its large-scale structure. In many ways, cosmology is like a form of archaeology: instead of digging into the Earth, we dig into the deep sky. Every photon that reaches us carries a whisper from the past, and...more
Curation as Misinformation
Cailin O’Connor (University of California, Irvine) and James Owen Weatherall (University of California, Irvine)
4:00 pm to 5:30 pm Saturday, 22 March 2025
Livestream via the ICTS YouTube channel
Abstract: Everyday we see information about the world - but all this information is filtered, shaped, and curated through a myriad of processes. Journalists decide what is interesting or important enough to report on. Industry propagandists and politicians try to influence our understandings of the...more
A History of Time
Spenta R. Wadia (ICTS-TIFR, Bengaluru)
4:00 pm to 5:30 pm Sunday, 23 February 2025
Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium
Abstract: This talk will provide a brief overview of the history of the concept of "time," tracing its evolution from antiquity to the present day. We will explore how revolutions in physics have influenced and reshaped our understanding of time, examining the shift from Newtonian physics to...more

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