Khagol_126_April_2021

National ScienceDayCelebrations The National Science Day celebrations were conducted on February 28, 2021 online, due to the pandemic. The whole IUCAAteamkept no stone unturned to celebrate the day as enthusiastically as every year. The day startedwith short talks of 20minute as follows: (i) Primordial black holes, and black holes from the Big Bang, by SwagatMishra. (ii) Variability in the sky, and what does it tell us, by Yash Bhargava. (iii) Sundial to an atomic clock for accurate time-keeping and fundamental science, by SubhadeepDe. (iv) Science with the Square Kilometer Array, by Neeraj Gupta. (v) The Thirty Meter Telescope project, by A. N. Ramaprakash. These talks were followed by a Special Walkthrough - A virtual visit to the IUCAA Girawali Observatory (IGO), which was nicely explained by Bhushan Joshi (IUCAA). This walkthrough was shot specially for this National ScienceDay celebration by the IUCAASciPoP team. The afternoon session started with everyone's favorite session, 'Ask a Scientist'. The sessionwas hosted by IUCAA scientists SurhudMore andAnupreetaMore. It was a liveQ &Asession with Jayant V. Narlikar, Mangala Narlikar, and Somak Raychaudhury. People from all over India submitted questions for this session. Live questions were also accepted and answered. Questions were also accepted via IUCAA's twitter handle. This session was a great hit as always. The next session was a specially curated session for online programmes: IUCAA Share Science Drive: Insights of scientists were shared for all the people in India inHindi. IUCAA Posters Q & A (Live): Different posters on different topics were explained, and a Q & A session was conducted by the IUCAAResearch Scholars. Telescope Making @ IUCAA: Informative session on telescope making at IUCAA was given by Tushar Purohit. The National Science Day ended with two wonderful Public Lectures: Nobel Prize in Physics 2020: Collapsing stars and spacetime singularities, by Sudipta Sarkar (IIT, Gandhinagar). Weighing the invisible: Profiling the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, by Dipankar Bhattacharya (IUCAA). At the end of each lecture, therewereQ&A, and discussion sessions. · · · · · | KHAG L | No. 126 - APRIL 2021 | 11 National ScienceDayHands-onSession On occasion of National Science Day, Jansons Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, and Galileo Science Club, Tamil Nadu, jointly organised an online hands-on session for teachers and students on February 28, 2021. More than 200 participants attended the session. Tushar Purohit gave a talk on basic Astronomy, and conducted the hands-on activities. A series of videos was launched for 6 days after the National Science Day to compensate for the on ground celebrations as every year. Mar ch 1 , 2021 : Sc i ence Toys Demonstrations: These were given by the school students of different schools in Goa. The event was coordinated by Shivani Pethe. March 2, 2021: IUCAA Share Science Drive Reference: The aim of this initiative was to create short science videos in all possible regional languages of India with the help of schools, and trying to make science interesting for all. This initiative was coordinated by Sonal Thorve. March 3, 2021: Ideas Behind Winning Drawings (Inter-School Competitions): The top 3 drawings were displayed, and the prize winners shared the ideas behind their drawings. March 4, 2021: Ideas Behind Winning Essays (Inter-School Competitions): The top 3 essays were displayed, and the prize winners shared the ideas behind their essays. March 5, 2021: Ideas Behind Winning Poetries (Inter-School Competitions): The top 3 poems were displayed, and the prize winners shared the ideas behind their poems. March 6, 2021: Future of Science- Technology-Innovation in India, expressed through Arts: Selective drawings and poetries in different Indian regional languages submitted as a response to the open call to the public to participate in National Science Day celebrations with IUCAA were featured. National Science Day Celebration Week