I was in sixth grade when I learnt that water has the strength to lift boulders. A miniature hydraulic model was my first attempt at building a machine. I used syringes, cardboard, pipes and water to build a simple system, far from perfect; valves leaked and the system broke down often. I was learning Pascal's law with every clumsy step. It was magical to see water move through pipes to lift solids. Physics was revealing its powers, giving life to the objects around me.
I was always curious about the way the world works. Why is it easier to lift a see-saw from its ends? How do sparks form when two stones are rubbed together? Why is the sky blue? I began finding answers through the well-worn pages of my father’s copies of "Feynman’s Lectures on Physics" that I spent hours trying to understand during my homeschooling years. Once I started attending school, science classes became the highlight of my day. I would stay back after class to solve more problems or discuss experiments.
The Tinkering Lab my father built at home became my playground. I built volcanoes that erupted, flying paper bag rockets, and countless other interesting projects. In senior school, my curiosity expanded to research articles and papers. In tenth grade, I came across Schrodinger’s cat, a thought experiment that opened up the quantum world for me. I wrote an article simplifying the theories and even taught a beginner’s class on quantum mechanics for my school teachers. That’s also how I discovered my love for communicating science.
I began giving talks at school on topics I researched. Some of my most cherished presentations were on "The Nature of Reality," "The Mathematical Power of Perspective," and "The Purpose of Life According to Chemistry". I simplified theories and told them like stories.
I spent the longest time researching and thinking about “The Purpose of Life According to Chemistry”. I read about the laws of thermodynamics, the theories on the origin of life and tried to get closer to understanding the transition from a chemical reaction to life. Where could we draw the line? What could have happened? I spent almost all my day reading about different experiments along the lines of origin of life research, and thermodynamics, and eventually decided to recreate the Miller-Urey experiment at my school’s chemistry lab.
Using knowledge from my science and fine arts courses, I designed a revised Miller-Urey Spark Discharge Experiment to simulate lightning and primordial Earth’s atmospheric conditions. After much trial and error, I made the set-up work without human intervention. Though the experiment couldn’t continue due to safety constraints, it became one of my biggest scientific achievements.
Lacking resources, I found creative ways to circulate gases with desired pressures in the "primordial soup," and designed a system to simulate lightning. I learnt to code and worked with Arduino, to control the spark discharge aspect of the experiment allowing the setup to introduce an electrical spark of 30 KV, in a medium-sized glass beaker filled with a potential primordial earth mixture of gases, and sterilized water. This experiment taught me to think critically, solve problems creatively, be patient and collaborate with an open mind; I have a long way to go in my research journey, and a lot to learn, but getting the opportunity to move forward with work along the origin of life is what truly excites me.
Although I struggled to find expected results, the experiment taught me a lot about labwork and the uncertainties that come along with research whether in the field of Physics or Biology. Whether from people, experiences, or mistakes, one can always find an opportunity to learn. Hence, I remain curious and determined to understand the origin and persistence of life using thermodynamics and it would truly be a dream for me to work with the Loos Group to learn more and contribute to research on statistical physics beyond equilibrium.
As I pursue Physics, and eventually interdisciplinary research in life science, I wish to find a connection between the fundamental laws of physics and the purpose of life. As Richard Feynman famously wrote in The Feynman Lectures on Physics (Volume I, Lecture 3: "The Relation of Physics to Other Sciences"),
“If our small minds, for some convenience, divide this glass of wine, this universe, into parts—physics, biology, geology, astronomy, psychology, and so on—remember that nature does not know it!”
Maybe the answer lies in the link between thermodynamic properties and active matter behaviour, or maybe an unknown research direction that the Loos group or any-group researching statistical physics may take.
I wish to study the energy and entropy flows that are associated with molecular scale self-organizational activity and the collective phenomena that evidently arise from non-equilibrium microscopic dynamics. Although I am only in my second year of university pursuing a BS (Honours) in Physics, I am ready to conduct external research and contribute in any way possible, even if I have to go an extra mile on my own.
My love for science and the world, with everyone in it, has only grown with me ever since I began pursuing my love for the universe and life. Now, I see life as a beautiful consequence of the laws of physics, and I seek an education that can empower me to look beyond the walls that have been built between physics and biology, and transform curiosity into discoveries for a more harmonious, better understood, and appreciated world.