From Transmitter to Receiver

A steaming cup of tea in your hand and a rejuvenating voice of the RJ wishing you a "Good morning!"- what else could start your day in a better way? Be it a teenager or a pensioner, the radio is loved by all! With over 245 private broadcasters, radio rules the air over India. From cricket updates to spicy celebrity gossips, light hearted jokes to foot tapping music, the radio plays it all. To delve into an altogether light-hearted world, all you need to do is to plug in your headphones and tap that radio app. But have you ever cogitated how we metamorphosed from those big old spark gap transmitters to these cool radio apps?

It all began with some science and some innovative minds. Michael Faraday was the one who proposed that electromagnetic forces extended into the empty space around a conductor, but couldn't complete his work. This was the spark which triggered the invention of radio. In 1873, James Maxwell carried the research forward and gave theoretical basis to the proposal. Later, it was Hertz who validated Maxwell's Theory through experimentation. He demonstrated that radio radiation had all the properties of waves and discovered that the electromagnetic equations could be reformulated into a partial differential equation called the wave equation.

Later on physicists like Sir Oliver Lodge and J.C Bose carried out various experiments in this area. Lodge demonstrated the reception of Morse code signaling using radio waves using a "coherer". Indian physicist, Bose ignited gunpowder and rang a bell at a distance using electromagnetic waves, proving that communication signals can be sent without using wires. Finally, it was Marconi who performed the first ever successful radio transmission, and thus was titled the "inventor of radio".

With the turn of the 20th century, the scope of the research expanded from mere experimentalism to setting up commercial broadcasting stations. Charles Herrold constructed the first ever broadcasting station in 1909 in San Jose named "San Jose Calling". A revolutionary change in broadcasting embarked with the invention of FM by Edwin Armstrong. Though initially it took a few decades for setting up commercial FM broadcasting stations, it soon popularized. Your addiction to the radio speaks it all! 

The radio soon became portable in the latter half of the 20th century when Regency introduced the first pocket transistor radio, the TR-1. Later, Sony introduce its first transistorized radio which was small enough to fit in a vest pocket. Further as we time travel towards the present, the GPS constellations of satellites were launched, trailed by application of digital transmissions to broadcasting in the 1990's which came to us in the form of these 'cool' radio apps.

So here you are, back in 2014, switching over radio stations on your smartphones according to your mood, now remotely aware of how it all began! Stay tuned!

Inspired by nature, Inspiring to all

Everything we see today has been possible because somewhere someone was observant and was keen to recreate a better picture of the world with science. Be it the apple that fell on Newton’s head or the streamlined bodies of modern day airplanes, nature has made its impact on science in more ways than we can ever count. When the Wright brothers created their ‘flying machine’ to soar high into the sky, little did they know that they would be unearthing so much potential trapped inside the world around them. The submarines glide through the sea using the streamlining feature of sharks, and other marine animals. All through the human existence, there have been many instances where humans have solved their complex problems by mimicking nature’s simple solutions. Biomimicry today has become a field of study per se. Velcro, the stickybot and the bullet train, are all famous examples.

It’s amazing how much nature can teach us. Everything that the earth has is a trick in disguise. Every second, every part of it is teaches us to innovate to adapt. Be it the colour combinations for the creative minds or scientific traces for the curious ones, nature provides us a lot and it’s up to us how we observe and replicate them in ways that will be useful for mankind.

On one side we talk about Mother Nature being our inspiration and on the other, we are ruining it. Today, we have reached a stage where we only think about moving forward and moving fast. We don’t think about the possible fall-out and the side-effects that our creations can have on nature. In our journey of scaling new heights, we've been leaving behind scars and forgetting why we started it in the very first place.

Nature is beautiful and has infinite stories to tell and lessons to teach. But at the rate we are going we may ruin it before we can even learn quarter of what it has to say. So, next time you're pondering over ways to leave a mark on the world, observe the nature around you, but make sure you don't end up destroying what inspired you.

The Eternal Spark

The next time you are waiting for a bus, imagine how difficult your life would be without them. The next time you buy a plastic, come up with an alternative to it in less than a minute. The next time you find yourself on the business end of a food plate, imagine the plate if all the ingredients were raw. Everything that connects our lives and transcends boundaries can be traced back to one basic discovery- the discovery of fire.

Fire has been one of the most sacred items in the history of mankind. Name a culture and you would find tons of rituals that are connected to fire. Think about how different our life would be if we could not harness the true potential of fire. Every invention or discovery that man has made can be traced back to that one moment when someone had noticed two tree branches rubbing against each other, and tried replicating it with two stones. Little did he know that he would be contributing so much to the way humans would look at the world around themselves - then, now and forever.

With this discovery, we would like to demonstrate that innovation is not about complex equations in physics and mathematics. It is also about observing the little things around you and applying them in your life.

From the huge cranes that are used to lift heavier items to the tiny processor chips that modern day computers use, fire, in one form or another, is used in manufacturing everything.

So, the next time you see something that may seem insignificant to you, remember that it was a moment similar to this one that went on to become a monumental landmark in the human history.

Imagine, Innovate, Inspire.

Go ahead. Ignite your world!

Behind the Lens and on the Screen

As we all know, the likes on Facebook are the new cool. Those blue little thumbs-up totally make our day. The Facebook library contains 140 billion photos while Instagram plays host to 60 billion uploads every day! Everyone loves clicking photos or getting clicked. Social networking sites are flooded with all kinds of pictures, from memorable events in someone’s life to people staring intensely into their bathroom mirrors! But have you ever pondered over how we walked this distance from pinhole cameras to the DSLRs? Don’t forget the front cameras in our cell phones which help us take the ‘cool’ ‘duck-face’ 

selfies!

There’s no doubt that the camera is one of the most revolutionary inventions. It all started with camera obscure - a device that used a pinhole to project images upside down. It was used by a mathematician, Reiners Gemma Frisius to view a solar eclipse way back in 1544. Further, it was Alexander Wolcott who made it possible to click photos which didn't fade away. Later, Joseph Nicéphore Nicépce used a sliding wooden box to take pictures, and thus the first portable camera came into existence. 

The most remarkable innovation in the history of camera was the introduction of photographic films by George Eastman in 1885. A high school dropout, a messenger, an office boy at an insurance company and a book keeper at a bank. This was the job profile of Eastman, who had absolutely no clue about cameras! And yes, it was this very man who launched his own, one-of-its-kind company - KODAK! Their slogan read, “You press the button, we do the rest." He further went on to develop a type of flexible film. And this film was then adapted by Thomas Edison for use in motion picture camera, thus propelling Eastman's success further more. His Brownie camera (which was worth just $1!) went viral as soon as it hit the market. This Brownie camera was a dream come true for all amateur photographers and the craze still continues. (Scroll up to the "duck faced selfies" part for confirmation). 

So now, every time you upload pictures on the Internet, you'll know that along with them tags along a very interesting story. Click!

Ushering the era of Innovation!

As MindSpark steps into its 8^th edition, it comes with a theme that aims to nurture the spark behind every creation. “Innovation Beyond Boundaries”, as the name suggests, comes with the need to tackle the most mundane problems with the simplest of ideas. It captures the uniqueness and beauty of transcending not just geographical but also intellectual boundaries.

This blog will take you down a journey through the minds of those who let their imagination conquer the essence of mankind. This is an initiative to reach out to all those who think out-of-the-box, and have the urge to find the key to unleash the next big level of excellence.

In the forthcoming month we’ll bring to you the innovations that since their inception continue to enhance our lives. These seldom heard stories will enrapture your mind, make you believe that anything is possible and usher the very spirit of innovation into you. So, go Ignite Your World!