So, you're a nerd?

Am I a nerd?

Well, let's first look at what the word means.

The Merriam Webster dictionary says a nerd is an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person; especially one slavishly devoted to intellectual pursuits.

Now, if that was a checklist, I fit the description like a glove. But I believe we should not be limited to the description above.

What I want to talk about, though, is the annoying trend of people pretending to be nerds.

Firstly, brainy is the new sexy. We all know that. But, as with anything else, there are a couple of stereotypes associated with the nerd culture, like horn-rimmed glasses, buck teeth, suspenders, bow-ties and oily hair.

Do I wear horn-rimmed glasses? No. Do I have buck teeth? No. Suspenders? No. Bow-tie? No. Oily hair? No.

So, am I a nerd? Hell, yes!

Now, I look nothing like that. And trust me, 99% of the nerds don't look like that either.

We come in all colours, shapes and sizes.

We are a diverse group. We all look different. We all are unique.

We all have different hobbies and are inclined towards different activities. Some of us like science, some of us like video games, some of us like collecting pokemon cards, some of us like star wars and star trek.

What kind of nerd am I? I'm a science nerd. I basically spend more time than I should on science, and understanding the universe around us.

We cannot and should not be stereotyped. Especially, because we know the difference. When someone puts on horn-rimmed glasses and a bow-tie to "be a nerd", he's only trying to put on an image. But, I can easily see through their masks. So can other nerds.

We are nothing like other cultures, where you can easily fit in by altering your appearance. You can't simply be a nerd by trying to act like one. We can see through it. Easily. So, don't try.

Although, I believe we're all nerds. There's always something you're exceptionally good at. That's what makes you a nerd. It's more to do with your mind, than your appearance. Appearance doesn't matter. Neither does gender. It's just about you being you.

I remember a girl from the UK on omegle, who claimed to like nerds, asked me if I wore big glasses. When I said no, she said "Well, you're not really a nerd, then". Which, in fact, was pretty annoying.


Anyways, there are two awesome twitter accounts dedicated to nerds, that I would like to mention here. They are @BlackGirlNerds and @ThoseNerds. Click on their usernames to go to their twitter pages. Show them some love.

So, are you a nerd? Leave your comments below, or see me on twitter.

Achievement UNLOCKED!

Being the nerd that I am, I recently attended an international conference at Hyderabad, on genome architecture and cell fate regulation. It was held at the University of Hyderabad campus, and was jointly organised by the University, as well as Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.

It was my first international conference. I was really nervous about the event, but it was absolutely amazing. The lectures were excellent, although slightly esoteric in nature.

I learned a lot, probably more than what I would learn in a fortnight at the institute, which made me really happy.

Hyderabad was a happy, lively city with nice people. I arrived at Hyderabad on the morning of November 29th, and attended the conference from 1st December to 4th December.

On the first day, I met a friend from school, Areeb, and we had dinner together at a restaurant called All Seasons, which specialises in Arabic cuisine. Trust me, the food there, was mind-blowing! And I'm not exaggerating. You can find some pictures of the food, here.

The next two days went by like the blink of an eye. After which, I got busy with the conference for the next four days. Someone gave an apt description of what was to follow, calling the conference "four days of science and biryani".

I made a few friends at the conference, and hope to maintain contact with them, and learn as much as I can from them. That is, if I ever e-mail them. I think, I will.

After two days, I got bored of the biryani, but was still eagerly looking forward to the science.

If I had to condense the entire conference into one simple sentence, it would be "chromosome territories are dynamic".

After the conference, I lazed around for the next two days, after which I got back to Aurangabad by train on the 7th of December.

Overall, it was one of the most memorable experiences I've had.

Looking forward to another one. Soon, God willing.

Group photo taken at the conference. (Find me)

Hey! Why are you so shy?

So, I've been asked why I am so shy at college, or why I don't have more friends than the one that I have (shoutout to Parth Vyawahare (I know, it's a fricking tongue-twister)).

First of all, I am not shy, I'm an introvert. Some might say that it's the same thing, but I believe they're really not. Second, I do have friends other than the one you know. People who are interesting, and have been with me through tough times. It takes a lot to be my friend, the rest are acquaintances. I'm a tough nut to crack. (Wait, I'm a nut now?)

See, the fact is that people don't really like me. I don't know why! So, if you really want to know why I'm not around more people more often, ask them, not me.

I hate social events. For me, they're nothing but long awkward interactions with people I'll probably never meet again. Although, sometimes (rarely), I meet someone that interests me, personally. But that ends with an awkward handshake and a goodbye (mostly). With me hoping that our meeting could last just a little longer, just so I could know them better.

I am never included in anyone's best-friend list, and it's been almost two years since I've made a new friend. Okay, to be honest, I might just be a little shy. Also, a little awkward. But that only lasts for the first couple of days that I get to know you. Although I can see why it is often misinterpreted and people take it as a signal to back off.

I might seem like I'm an outgoing, witty guy if you see me on the internet. I'm really not so in real life.

I don't like talking. Except when the conversation is better than silence. That might be another reason why I choose to maintain distance from people. I can't do small talk. And if I do, I'm faking it. Just so you know.

I don't like chatting about the weather, about how cold it is. I know. I read the newspaper every morning, I know what the temperature is. It's cold, I get it.

Don't get me wrong, if I'm okay with you, and consider you among my friends, I'll most certainly end up talking to you about the weirdest stuff (if you don't mind me bringing up nerdy stuff into the conversation, every few minutes).
I've been called arrogant and a narcissist because my introversion can be, and is commonly misinterpreted. It just comes off as odd to people.

Trust me, extroversion is as odd to me, personally.

I don't understand people who get comfortable with strangers easily. I don't understand the loud ones in class. I wonder how they can be so outgoing?

I never feel the need to speak more than I need to. There's only one good thing about this, it makes me a good listener.

I've been advised to be more outspoken, more approachable. I try to be. It doesn't work.

Maybe I should give people a chance, and not strike them off so easily.

But I believe I shouldn't alter my personality to make people happy. Or should I?

Are you an introvert, or an extrovert?

Leave your comment below, or see me on twitter.

Love. ;)

The Pale Blue Dot.

Something beautiful that I wanted to share with you guys.

We are so self-absorbed that we seem to forget how insignificant we are.

To remind yourself of the humbling grandness of the cosmos, we need to take a look around us.

The picture, famously known as the "Pale Blue Dot", is a picture of Earth as taken by the spacecraft Voyager 1, six billion kilometers from Earth.

Can you see it? Me and my crush, in one picture. Yay!

All we can see, is a pale blue dot. It might seem like a dream, to imagine that life exists, in all it's glory, on that tiny speck of dust in the vastness of the cosmos.

The above video has an audio clip from the audio-book version of Carl Sagan's book Pale Blue Dot, published in 1994.

For those who cannot watch the video, I'm providing the text below, although I would suggest that you watch the video.

"From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

—Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, 1997 reprint, pp. xv–xvi

Your mind's fingerprint. (The uniqueness of one's set of belief systems)

First of all, I'm sorry for being away for so long. I was up to my neck in a lot of things. Basically, I did bite off more than I could chew. Also, the cluster headaches only make it worse.

But, I've decided that I'll start blogging regularly, with two posts every week. One on Sunday and one on Wednesday. 

Anyways, this post is not going to be a long explanation about why I was away for so long. 

This post is basically about a conversation I had with a friend of mine. I wanted to know your thoughts regarding the issue.

Well, we started out with a conversation, and with some hot tea and chocolate cake to go with it, it turned into a discussion about human behaviour and how we perceive things.

I suggested that we humans are nothing but a thought. And we are nothing more than a set of biases and preferences. And we're a collection of belief systems. 

All belief systems, combined, give us a unique pattern, something like a fingerprint. Unique for every single being on this planet. No matter how alike two people are, there will be certain differences in their approach to a common subject. Which makes their set of belief systems unique.

These belief systems, I believe are dynamic. But the transition from a set of belief systems to another, will further lead to a unique set of beliefs that is still unique to the person and the same exact set of beliefs does not exist elsewhere, I believe. 

Now, all of these belief systems, although rigid in nature, can be flexible and subject to change over time when subjected to influences. Among these belief systems, there is perhaps no other belief system that is as rigid as religion. 

I believe, for example,  for a non-religious belief system A and religious belief system B, to make an effective change in system A, it is easier to influence change when it is by-passed via system B, implying that religious belief systems hold influence over other belief systems, and the easiest way to alter someone's belief system, is to give your argument a religious edge.

This might seem like a good explanation as to why or how certain terrorist organisations convince people to do ridiculously stupid stuff. They alter their belief systems about life and death, and war, by using religion as a tool.

And we both agreed, that to control the masses, there is no tool that is as effective as religion.

Now, to test my idea, I sent out ridiculous random occurrences cloaked as miracles to religious friends on social media, and I didn't even need to convince them, many of them readily accepted the validity of my claim and praised God for the supposed miracle. 

Anyhow, I should also mention that many of my friends were smart enough to see through the whole thing, and instead explain to me why the claims I made were not miracles at all.

 This further strengthened my belief in the idea.

Anyways, I'd love to know what you guys think about it.

Does a unique fingerprint of the mind exist, although dynamic?

Why do religious beliefs have such influence over our other belief systems?

What are your thoughts about using religion as a tool to influence people effectively?

What other belief systems do you think have influence over other belief systems?

I would love to know your thoughts on the subject, and I'm waiting for your responses. 

You can reply here, in the comments section, or tweet me on twitter.

I'm also on instagram, ask.fm, kik and snapchat.

My username on all platforms is SyedAsif93.

See ya! 

Mathematics is beautiful?

Don't we all love equations?

I mean, don't you like the image of a blackboard covered with unintelligible equations, that seem more like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs?

Now, when you ask someone to give their opinion about mathematics, in one word. The answers will cover almost all the negative adjectives out there.
If we have "Mathematics is ______?" as a question, answers will be something like: boring, confusing, weird, incomprehensible.

But, wait! Maths is BEAUTIFUL?

An article from BBC says that researchers have found that our brain perceives mathematical equations as beautiful. The areas in our brain, that light up when we see a mathematical equation, are the same areas that light up when we appreciate art, or music.

Perhaps, it's the mystery of mathematics that makes us think so.

To me, mathematics is magic. It's the language of the universe.

When I read the article, I felt I should try asking my friends what they think about equations.

I scribbled a few equations (Schrodinger's wave equation, Euler's identity, equation for correlation between two variables), and showed them to my friends.
I asked them how they feel when they see those equations. While some of them gave expected responses, most of them did agree that they found it pleasing to the eye.

Consider the following: You are not a physicist or a mathematician, and you're watching an episode of the popular sitcom 'The Big Bang Theory' or an episode of 'NUMB3RS'.
Or maybe, you're watching the 2001 movie 'A Beautiful Mind'.

Now, there are plenty of occasions in these series, and the movie, where you see blackboards covered, end to end, with equations.

My question is, do these equations, even if they don't make sense to you, stimulate your brain?

Do you perceive them as beautiful? Or do you just skim through them, without a thought?

One of my friends said that the equations make him 'think'. He wants to know the meaning behind the equation, and understand it fully to appreciate it's beauty.
But it does make him wonder how the equation came into being. What great minds could have formulated a concoction of scribbles that define reality.

Mathematics is logic. But, do we appreciate logic?
Or do we appreciate the aesthetics of the equations? Those meaningless scribbles, given meaning by great minds?

To find out, I asked my friends another question.
And, I'll skip to the results. Although, mathematicians find Euler's identity to be the most beautiful.
Non-mathematicians, like myself, will find Ramanujan's infinite series to be more beautiful. Whereas mathematicians find the equation to be the ugliest.

Euler's identity

Only after knowing the logic behind Euler's identity, are we able to appreciate it's beauty.

So, to the untrained eye, complexity means beauty. Interesting

Anyways, if you want to read the full BBC article, click here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26151062

So, do you find mathematics beautiful? Leave your answers in the comments below.

Why science?

"Science is a way of thinking; more than it is, a body of knowledge." -Carl Sagan

Ever since we're born, we have the inquisitive nature to question everything we see, everything we hear, everything we taste, everything we feel. Everything we observe seems like a question.

Somewhere along the way, growing up, we lose the ability to question what we observe around us.

Whether or not we're interested in science, we're intrigued by the great minds science has given us.

These great minds, are now lost in the pages of history.

Carl Sagan says: 

"We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows about science and technology"

"Why?" I wonder.

And people often ask me "Why science?" Because I love science. Simple as that.

My journey with science began when I was six. My father bought me a set of four books from a series of books titled "I wonder why?" These books are amazing for kids, and I personally recommend them for kids, age 4+.

These books are still out there, if you want to gift your kid something interesting,.

These books answered some basic questions like "I wonder why I sleep?" to "I wonder why penguins can't fly?" and "I wonder why stars twinkle?".  Other topics included planets, the human body, black holes, animals and dinosaurs.

The next few years, I kept asking for more and more, and my parents kept buying me books on science. By the time I was 11, I had a book shelf full of books on science, encyclopedias, fact books, atlases, books on wildlife, and many more.

Then came along science's worst enemy; high school and junior college.

If you're from India, you must be familiar with the cut-throat competitive exams, and pressure to succeed. It crushes the life out of you. During this brief academic nightmare, I hated science.

Then, I took a year's break, and I re-discovered the joys of science. My nemesis in junior college, physics, was now my best friend. And mathematics became a dear friend, albeit an annoying one.

I then, joined MGM Institute Of Biosciences & Technology, to pursue a degree in biotechnology.
And I fell in love, all over again.

I began to read, and read, and read. Gather as much as I could, for as long as I could.
In my free time, I read physics, and tried to teach myself advanced calculus (I failed).

Physics was a joyride, though. The simplest of observations, understood through mind-bending equations.

Even an inch-long equation such as E=mc^2 can have profound implications, and amazing applications. If that doesn't excite you, I don't know what will.

To think, is human. To wonder, is science.

For science lovers, I'll suggest a few links where you'll find the most amazing science-y stuff

On facebook, there are plenty of amazing pages on science, some of them are:
The Scientist
Wired Science
From Quarks to Quasars
ScienceDump
Physics Today
I F**king Love Science

There are some amazing youtube channels, as well. Some of them are:
minutephysics
Vsauce
SmarterEveryDay
Veritasium
AsapSCIENCE
Sixty Symbols
Nottingham Science
Periodic Videos
Numberphile

And there's my favourite science blog: It's Okay To Be Smart

Enjoy, fellow nerds! *fist bump*

And I hope that one day, people will say "Yeah, SCIENCE!" instead of "Why science?".
(Jesse Pinkman reference, LIKE A BOSS!)

Cluster headaches: NOT your ordinary headache

So, I've been diagnosed with cluster headaches.

Considering that this might be the most painful condition known to medical science, the word "headache" seems more of a misnomer.

It fails to convey the severity of the pain. I believe only those suffering from the condition have an idea of the pain experienced. The rest shrug it off as an exaggerated version of the common headache.

Although the name suggests that someone suffering from CH only has headaches, there are variety of symptoms accompanying the excruciating pain. This is due to pressure building up on the trigeminal nerve due to vasodilation. Although, the underlying cause for CH is still unknown to medical science.

Apart from the obvious headache, other symptoms associated with the condition are: swollen eye, lacrimation (tearing of the eye), phonophobia, photophobia, stuffy nose, confusion, depression and others.

Another feature of this condition is that it is strictly unilateral. The left side of my head, and face are affected. The right side has no effect.

I'm consulting a neurologist, and I'm having prophylactic medicine, along with painkillers to manage the pain, when needed.

The neurologist asked me to identify triggers. So far, I've identified three: stress (physical & mental), change in weather, change in sleep pattern.

Note that triggers may differ from person to person.

For those who are unfamiliar with the intensity of the pain, here's a video of Tom having an attack:

If you've seen the movie Pi (1998), you must remember Max having bouts of severe headache? 

Max had cluster headache. 

Remember him drilling a hole in his head? 

People who suffer from the condition can go to extreme lengths to get relief from the pain. Some have also committed suicide, thus giving the condition it's nickname, suicide headaches.

Why am I writing about this? Because it affects me, and has a far greater impact on my life than you may think. It affects work, my ability to think, affects me as a whole.

Recently, on twitter, I came across a few accounts dedicated to raising awareness about the condition.

You may follow them here:
 @drunkitty2000, @PhilipBagLowe, @ClusterHead, @Clusterheads, @ClusterHeadTom (from the video) 

I'll be updating this post with more twitter accounts, as I get to know more people. But, if you suffer from CH, you should definitely follow the above mentioned. (Hope they don't mind me mentioning them, here. Without consent.)

Anyways, to anyone with CH, my heart goes out to you. I wish you relief and comfort.

Also, share your experiences with CH in the comments below. Or, follow me on twitter. God bless. 

About my Samsung Note 3: Why I love the device, and hate the company.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is perfection, from every angle. In, and out. Perfection.

Anyways, during my last visit to Jeddah, my parents decided to buy me a cell phone of my choice. And I chose the Note 3. Why? Because it's perfect.

And so, we bought the phone from a reputed electronics store, and got home.
We were admiring the device when a tiny brown paper fell from the box, on which was written that the device would work with sim cards issued from certain regions only, along with a list of countries where the phone would work.

We went back to the store, and it turned out, the store's management had no idea about it. Samsung never informed any of the stores about this ridiculous move. And that's not what's annoying. What's annoying is their customer service. Worst customer service. EVER.

Now, anyhow, the guy at the desk asked us to take the device to India, and assured us that it will be unlocked at any Samsung service center. So, we wanted to confirm that.

We went to the main Samsung service center, where we were greeted by neatly dressed gentlemen who were good at one thing: nodding. So this guy at the counter just nods, and nods. Pretending he understood whatever we said.

He goes in, and comes back after about 5 minutes. He asks us to speak to another guy at another counter. Now, this guy supposedly had a PhD in being an obnoxious arsehole whose genius solution for us was to buy a second Note 3 for use in India.

"Sir, this is for use in Saudi. This is Saudi product." In my mind, I'm like "No, bitch! This is not a Saudi product. And I paid 2,799 SAR for this thing. I expect you to work out a solution."

So, the second genius solution from this guy was "You want to unlock phone? Give 200 SAR, I unlock phone. After, no warranty. KHALAAS."

So, we left, muttering to ourselves.

Anyways, I got back to India. And I brought the Note 3 with me.

By this time, I was pretty irritated. I went to the local service center, and asked them to provide an unlock code to deactivate the region lock. They'd never heard of it before. And, they asked me to try unlocking it somewhere else.

My uncle said he knew a guy who could unlock the phone for 1,000 INR.

Now, this guy was also a PhD in being an obnoxious arsehole.

With his face shriveled like a roasted eggplant, he began hitting keys on random on his laptop. Although, all he was doing was trying to buy an unlock code from a website. Turns out, Mr. Obnoxious Arsehole #2 had mistaken region lock for carrier lock.

So, he said he couldn't unlock the phone.

It's been 5 months now, and my phone is lying in it's box. Unused.

Samsung has planned to apply region lock to it's previous devices, along with the Android 4.4 (KitKat) update. And if someone has, somehow, managed to bypass the region lock, it will be reactivated with every firmware update.

I tried contacting Samsung India, and was asked to contact Samsung UAE. While, they also mentioned that they cannot do anything as my phone is carrier locked. I tried explaining to the guy that it's a region lock, but he kept insisting otherwise.

Now I'm going to take the phone back to KSA, and give the Note 3 to my parents.
And I'm thinking of getting a Sony Xperia Z1 as my  Nokia C7 is being a pain (NOTE: it's been 3 long years with my C7!).

I end my rant with "Screw you, Samsung!" 

Where have I been?

Where have I been? I don't know.

A lot has changed since my last blog post, and things have moved from one state to another so damn fast. When I look back at the past 6-8 months, it's nothing but a blur. No actual memories.

I'm attending college, yes.

I'm pursuing my Bachelor's degree in biotechnology.

 I'm done with my first of six semesters. I'm at one of the best colleges, here.  And I'm enjoying every moment of my academic life at MGM's Institute For Biosciences & Technology, Aurangabad.

 I don't know what else to say.

I may have lost my ability to express myself.

It's been long since I last wrote, and I felt like writing. And now I feel stupid for doing this.

Expect nothing from this post, I have nothing to offer.

Ah, anyways. I'm thinking of a facebook page, or blog about science (suggestions are always welcome). I had a twitter science account, but I'm too lazy to log in and tweet daily.

Even this blog. it's gone rusty. It's dying.

My twitter account's practically non-existent. Don't be fooled by the number of followers, I've been at 420 for the past year, maybe. Or maybe more than a year, it seems.

I miss family, yes. I miss them, A LOT! Love my mother's warm smile, my father's reassurances, my brother's hugs.

Ah, sweet memories. I try to re-enact them in my mind, just to make myself comfortable whenever I feel lonely and home-sick. (Hmmm... Home-sick, is that an actual sickness?)

Friends, yes. I've made my acquaintances at my college, young lads. They're good people,they just need a little push in their lives. (So do I)

I've been reading books. Popular science, mostly. Ordered Brian Greene's "The Fabric Of The Cosmos" about a week ago. Next on the list are Brian Greene's "The Hidden Reality", and a book on psychology would be good. (Suggest a few good ones, please)

What else?

I've lost contact with more friends than I've made contact with. So, I guess it's not long before I'm running out of friends. Anyways, quality over quantity. So that doesn't really bother me. (It does bother me a little, though)

Anyways, Granny's calling so I need to go.

Hugs are always welcome. Hope you weren't bored reading this.