Kaapi with Kuriosity


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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Past Talks
Fluids everywhere: flows on all scales
Julia Mary Yeomans (St Hilda's College, University of Oxford, UK)
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm Sunday, 06 August 2017
Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bengaluru
Liquids and gases are moving all around us; the wind, rain, drops of dew on a spider’s web. But what happens on microscopic lengths – how do bacteria swim? Or at large scales in planetary atmospheres – fasten your seat belts, here comes turbulence. We will take a tour through the world of fluids...more
The Arrow of Time in Quantum Measurement
Kater Murch (Washington University, St. Louis)
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm Sunday, 23 July 2017
Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bengaluru
What can quantum measurement tell us about the arrow of time? To answer this question, we use cutting edge techniques involving superconducting circuits cooled to near absolute zero to capture “movies” of quantum behaviour. When we press rewind on an ordinary movie of everyday life, the movie looks...more
ASTROSAT: A multiwavelength view of the Universe
S. Seetha (Programme Director at Space Science Program Office, ISRO (HQ))
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm Sunday, 11 June 2017
Christ University , Main Auditorium, Hosur Road, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560029
AstroSat is the first dedicated astronomy mission of ISRO. Launched on 28 September, 2015, it has onboard experiments to view the sky in optical, UV, and X-ray bands. The sources in the dark sky appear very different in different bands and in order to comprehend the processes in and around these...more
The Visions of Shamans and Saints: Dynamic instabilities in Neuroscience
Bard Ermentrout (University of Pittsburgh, USA)
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm Sunday, 14 May 2017
Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bengaluru
Patterns are ubiquitous in the nervous system. These range from the temporal patterns of locomotion (e.g. gaits such as the trot, walk, and gallop) and other motor activity (head bobbing, scratching, tail wagging) to spatio-temporal patterns of neural activity seen during imaging of human brains...more
Random Walks in Science
Mustansir Barma (TIFR Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Hyderabad)
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm Sunday, 09 April 2017
St. Joseph’s College, 36, Lal Bagh Main Road, Langford Gardens, Bengaluru 27
The element of chance enters in a crucial way not only in our daily affairs, but also in practically every branch of science. In describing the outcomes of chance, a central role is played by the Random Walker, a spirited individual who takes successive steps in random directions. The resulting...more
Work, Progress and Prosperity in the Time of Exponential Technologies
Vijay Chandru (Centre for Biosystems Science and Engineering (BSSE), Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru)
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm Sunday, 19 March 2017
Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bengaluru
We are in an exceptional era in which we have the confluence of at least three technologies (mechanical automation, computing & communications and molecular biology) that have reached steep exponential scale. We call them second half technologies invoking the metaphor of exponential growth...more
Footloose on a tiled trail - Exploring repeating patterns
C S Aravinda (TIFR - Center for Applicable Mathematics, Bengaluru)
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm Sunday, 19 February 2017
Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bengaluru
Regularly repeating patterns are commonplace around us, on tile-laid pavements, on tapestry designs, on window grills, on rangolis and so on. Exploring newer and newer basic patterns to create novel designs has fascinated mankind for centuries. This talk begins by looking at the seemingly simple...more
My Life in Physics: From Quarks to Strings
David Gross (KITP, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm Saturday, 14 January 2017
Christ University, Kuriakose Elias Auditorium, Bengaluru 29
This talk will describe the developments in theoretical high energy physics of the last five decades as seen from the perspective of someone who has contributed seminally to our current understanding of the fundamental building blocks of nature. Contact Us : outreach @ icts . res . inmore
Insects as Architects - How insects engineer their ecosystems
Sanjay Sane (National Centre for Biological Sciences)
11:00 am to 1:00 pm Sunday, 11 December 2016
Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bengaluru
Engineering is not a uniquely human trait. Even a cursory look at our backyard can reveal a staggering variety of structures engineered by insects and other animals. These structures emerge from the coordinated activity of many individuals, or sometimes even a solitary individual. Like human-built...more
Vagaries of the monsoon
Sulochana Gadgil (Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (CAOS), Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru)
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm Saturday, 26 November 2016
Visvesvaraya Industrial & Technological Museum, Bengaluru
The monsoon visits us, without fail, year after year, but not always with the same gusto. So, every summer, the question uppermost in the minds of not only meteorologists and farmers but economists as well, is how will the monsoon behave this year? Over centuries, the monsoon has captured the...more

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