notable south asian americans → Kalpana Chawla
Kalpana Chawla is the 1st Indian American astronaut and 1st Indian woman in space.
Born in Karnal, India, on July 1, 1961, Chawla was the youngest of four children.
Chawla obtained a degree in aeronautical engineering from Punjab Engineering College before immigrating to the United States and becoming a naturalized citizen in the 1980s. She earned a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado in 1988, having previously obtained her masters degree from the University of Texas. She began working at NASA’s Ames Research Center the same year, working on power-lift computational fluid dynamics.
In 1994, Chawla was selected as an astronaut candidate. After a year of training, she became a crew representative for the Astronaut Office EVA/Robotics and Computer Branches, where she worked with Robotic Situational Awareness Displays and tested software for the space shuttles.
Chawla’s first opportunity to fly in space came in November 1997, aboard the space shuttle Columbia on flight STS-87.
In 2000, Chawla was selected for her second voyage into space, serving again as a mission specialist on STS-107 in the Columbia space shuttle. The mission was delayed several times, and finally launched in 2003. Over the course of the 16-day flight, the crew completed more than 80 experiments.
Chawla and the 6 other crew members died on February 1, 2003 while Columbia was attempting to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere.
Over the course of her two missions, Chawla logged 30 days, 14 hours, and 54 minutes in space. After her first launch, she said, “When you look at the stars and the galaxy, you feel that you are not just from any particular piece of land, but from the solar system.”
(via Nola Taylor Redd)
Michael Addition
Nucleophiles and carbanions generally do not add to isolated carbon carbon double bonds. However when an electron withdrawing group like C=O is present in conjugation with carbon-carbon double bond, carbanions add to conjugated system at the site of deficiency, i.e. the β-carbon atom. Such additions are called Michael addition.
Cant wait to land!!
Pelican peeing mid-flight.
The World’s Smallest Movie - “A Boy and his Atom”
This is really, really sick. A movie with atoms as ‘actors’ has been named by the Guinness World Records organization, as the “world’s smallest movie.” Called “A Boy and his Atom”, the stop-action film was produced by IBM to introduce students to the world of mathematics and science, while highlighting IBM’s own history of research.
