Sthitapragyan Panigrahi

  The Ancient Roots of Indian Chess Chess traces its lineage to India.    Historical records and literature describe a game called  Chaturanga  (“four limbs”) played in the Gupta Empire around the 6th–7th centuries CE  .    Chaturanga’s name reflects its four armies (infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots), and it is widely regarded as the common ancestor of modern chess (as well as shogi and other Asian chess variants)  .    From India it spread westward: by the early medieval period it became  shatranj  in Persia, and through Arab and European transmission it evolved into today’s chess game  . Over the centuries in India itself, chess remained a learned pastime.    By the Mughal era, finely carved Indian chess sets (like those made of sandalwood) were crafted – evidence of a vibrant chess culture that persisted.    However, when Europeans standardized modern chess, Indians were largely spectat...

Exploring the Quantum Universe Quantum physics  is the study of matter and energy at the most fundamental level. It explores the behavior of the smallest building blocks of nature (like electrons and photons), which often defy our everyday intuition.  Despite its strangeness, quantum science underlies much of modern technology: it has already “given rise to devices such as lasers and transistors” and is enabling progress on quantum computers  .  In the tiny quantum world, particles can act like waves, exist in several states at once, and even become linked across vast distances.  Understanding these surprising phenomena is key to explaining how the universe really works. Particles Can Behave Like Waves         Figure: Overlapping water waves in a ripple tank. The ripples from two sources interfere to form a pattern of peaks and troughs.  Likewise, electrons (and other particles) exhibit similar interference patterns i...