Akshat Jiwan Sharma

Posts

The twisted fairy tales of blasphemous —stories of religious devotion, sadism and surrender

I had never played a souls-like game before,so when I saw that blasphemous was on sale earlier this summer I decided to buy and give it a try. I had heard a lot of good things about this game but it still managed to surprise me with the depth of its world. The entire game takes place in a small town of cvstodia but the amount of lore it manages to pack is simply amazing. Rooted in Spanish christian mythology weaving together themes of religious devotion,inquisition,fanaticism, penitence and authority , the main story in the game is very unsettling. Those who like fairy tales will find the narration familiar with each segment concluding with a moral lesson — but that lesson is entirely twisted and almost nightmarish. Exactly the opposite of a happy ending in a classic fairy tale. The 'miracle’, a god-like entity, grants people's wishes in the most ironic ,punishing manner possible and people bear these tortures without complaining, thinking of it as a blessing. Cv...

The African Century

Over the past 5 years I have been advocating unification and industrialisation of Africa. During this time I have had the pleasure of interacting with several African business and political leaders from Tanzania,Kenya,Nigeria, South Africa,Uganda,Egypt,Sudan,Malawi,Liberia and more who share this vision. Africa is one of the largest contiguous land masses on the planet,with one of the world's youngest populations, an immense coastline ,deserts, mineral resources and arable land. Its location provides it with supreme geopolitical advantage that can potentially project it's influence over all of Asia and the EU. Yet historical factors combined with present economic conditions has not only prevented Africa from actualising its potential but has also made it entirely dependent upon developed nations to satisfy the demands of modern nation states. Predictably what we have seen in Africa is a continuation of extractive economics where African states supply raw ma...

Engineered composites from carbonised biomass — looking beyond nanocellulose

Lignocellulose has emerged as one of the most important material systems of recent times. It is a promising green platform that can be used in structural and functional applications. Wood has millennia of engineering history behind it—lignocellulose based materials are a natural evolution of wood engineered after extracting the raw material from wood/woody biomass itself. Researchers have been able to tune the properties at the cellular level and learnt how to fibrillate wood into its constituents or apply steam and pressure to mold it like plastics. The paper and pulp industry has played a prominent role in helping us understand lignocellulose chemically and develop chemical tools to manipulate it. Lignin, largely a byproduct of paper and pulp , has been receiving a lot of attention by chemists not only because it constitutes 30% of mass of the plant materials but also because of its unique chemical properties —ring like structures and hydroxyl groups that can be func...

Workforce development isn't enough for innovation

Being one of the fastest growing regions in the world, Asia Pacific’s stature in the scientific community is growing as is the region's ambition to play a greater role in shaping research through science diplomacy. I have had the good fortune of connecting with delegates from Singapore and South Korea in conferences last year. Similarly I had the opportunity to engage virtually with researchers from Australia during Australian Academy of Science’s flagship event ‘ Science at the shine dome ’ in 2025. A few days ago I attended the International Science Council’s ( Asia Pacific chapter) quarterly meeting. Three things that stood out during my interactions were : focus on workforce development, democratization of science for greater public participation and emphasis on sustainability. All three issues are highly relevant but for Asia Pacific in particular workforce development takes special priority as STEM courses are often viewed as a path to a prosperous f...

If you like RPGs you should play Knights of The Old Republic

This summer on star wars day I decided to give Knights of the old Republic (KOTOR) a try. I like star wars franchise but I'm not too deep into the lore ,so initially , I was a bit undecided about the game but took a chance since I had heard from so many people that it's one of the best RPGs ever made. After finishing the game I've got to say that it's reputation is definitely well deserved. The game leans heavily towards narration and your choices can have long lasting impact on how the story plays out. Combat is real time action but you don't control characters directly rather issue commands via a pause menu. It takes a while to get used to but works very well especially on mobile touch screens. I felt that some abilities are way overpowered. Especially the light side ones that buff your characters and grant them extra turns.Even a dark ability' like destroy droid can clear out some of the toughest opponents in a few turns. From what I understand this game is b...

Why does thermal insulation still rely so heavily on thickness? Is there a fundamental physical limit?

Quite an interesting discussion on materials sub-reddit today regarding the thickness of insulation and whether it relies upon material properties. Can we make insulating materials thinner? Exactly what physics is in play here? Making insulation thick is inexpensive and does not add much weight either. Most of it is just air. And since air has very low thermal conductivity (.026 W/mK) it makes for an effective insulation. Aerogels work on the same principle: it's just a material frame for trapping lots of air ,of course with nano-scale pores suppressing conduction even further due to the knudsen effect. But they are more difficult to manufacture , as compared to say thermal blankets which can be prepared by simple weaving. Regarding physical limits — yes there is one. If we look at Fourier's law of thermal conductivity, it scales inversely with length. So a thinner insulation transfers more power than a thicker one of the same material. And actually this pr...