weird title rate to some of you it might
be confusing the some of you it might be
curious but what I would like to attempt
is make it inspiring to all of you I
have also written lessons from
astrobiology and redesigning education
for kids in India very difficult right
how do you take lessons from s to
biology and redesign education for kids
I come from a very beautiful place
called the schmear you might have
visited that place heard about that
place it’s not very different from
ourselves now I see it it was the first
time in module this there’s a very
famous poet Horace Amir Khusro he said
this beautiful Persian couplet once
other for those borrowers roomiest how
many has two Hermia’s tohe mayest which
translates to if there is heaven on
earth it’s here it’s here it’s here
I’m sure if hazard Amir Khusro had come
to Hollywood he would have said the same
so I was growing up in Kashmiri in the
1990s I did my schooling there and our
that’s considered one of the most
difficult phases socio-political in
Kashmir my schooling and the schooling
of my colleagues suffered a lot
they were frequent Bunsen hearth also we
are not able to access the Basic
Education forget about the Basic
Education some of the extracurricular
activities which are really important
for a child to grow they’re missing I
used to visit at Delhi a friend’s in
Delhi and I used to see the schooling
they had they used to have the red X of
course we all studied that but they
would have extracurricular activities
where they would put a lot of effort
behind understanding project could be
done and what could be done out of the
box my parents always encouraged me to
go outside Krrish will explore different
places talk to people learn from them
and invite the knowledge so therefore
with that I keep Bangalore through
National Centre for Biological Sciences
which is India’s one of the most premier
institutes in research and I was working
in the field of neuroscience and here in
Bangalore the culture the environment is
amazing in our Institute if you have an
idea and crazy idea I would say there
are people who gonna say yes it is
possible but you have to do it they will
provide all the resources they will
provide whatever is needed to do the
project but it’s you and maybe a small
team who has to do the project I was
also introduced to Indian Space Research
Organisation quarters in in Bangalore
and I’m sure every one of you is
fascinated by space and as a kid I was
as well I used to think what are these
stars I’m looking at how do you reach
reach those stars is it possible to go
beyond what is beyond earth and my
friends at Israel and other example
Indian Institute of astrophysics they
would introduce me to these amazing
projects they are doing
and I was like okay this is possible and
this is happening right now in India I
used to read about other space agencies
like NASA open space agency and Russian
space agency they are even at a
different completely different level you
might all be knowing about Mongolia
right this was India’s space mission to
Mars and we all are really proud of her
because it was a fourth space agency
after Russian space agency NASA and ESA
to send a successful probe to Mars there
are other reasons to be proud as well it
is it was a first attempt from Israel
and it was successful other space
agencies spent a lot of money lot of
effort to successfully send things to
Mars and the budget of this entire
mission was 450 crores it might seem a
lot but it’s not it was less than the
budget of the movie gravity which you
might all have seen so it was a really
big feat and I was really inspired but
reading about reading about Mongolian
and the space missions before there was
there was something missing from
Mongolian I read about it what is it
basically it was astrobiology so there
hasn’t been a single astrobiology
mission from India from Israel to outer
space why is astrobiology important
because humans asks will inhibit in
habitats other other planets moons of
those planets in in times to come it
could take 20 years it could take 50
years it could take 100 years but it
will eventually happen and the rate at
which we are reproducing iliyan now we
would need some more space so it’s
really important that we study as per
biology in outer space as well taking
examples from from the from ecosystem on
earth there was there was a spectroscope
which was present on the Mongolian but
it was not per se an astrobiology
experiment it would read the temperature
on the surface of Moon
sorry surface of Mars it would take look
for hot spots it would look for
if there is availability of water but it
was not per se an astrobiology
experiment
so therefore with that thought in mind I
came back I was at that point in 2014 I
was doing my PhD in neuroscience in
Switzerland but I came back with that
hope that okay we let’s let’s start this
initial step of studying astrobiology in
space and I along with two other space
enthusiasts at NCBI who are also
biologists wanted to do something in
this field so we approached team Indus
which is India’s first aerospace startup
they will be sending a moon mission in
2018 on the surface of Moon so there
will be a rocket which be flying this
this spacecraft will be flying this
Rover on the surface and landed on the
surface of moon so we we had a meeting
with them and it’s an idea okay we have
this biological experiment why don’t we
send it either with this this moon
mission it will be amazing to study they
were super excited about it so what what
is this what is this biological payload
I am talking about it’s basically
creating an ecosystem right we are alive
right now at the present moment because
Earth is a sustainable ecosystem what is
an ecosystem ecosystem is something
where you have a source and you have a
sink you have all these things working
together in tandem to create something
which is livable which is functional so
just because you’re law because all of
you are engineers
let me ask you a question is it easy to
create an ecosystem because we are
already living in one right the answer
is no scientists have been trying it for
the last 50 years to study ecosystems
what is the basic requirement for an
ecosystem its organism you need an
organism if you’re about if you want to
build an ecosystem you need an test
subject an organism which will sustain
that right so I I put an idea I could go
to the surface of the Moon they could
use me as a test subject but I’m sure
in less than a second there so yeah
that’s that’s the cartoon over human he
he’ll be dead by now but but we need an
organism which has been extensively
studied on on the surface of earth and
we need we need a chamber we need an
environment where there’s ample amount
of oxygen there’s ample amount of carbon
dioxide and there is a way to remove the
waste which are generated in this
ecosystem if the waste from this
ecosystem are not taken out properly it
will it will create toxins and the
entire ecosystem will fail this is an
example if the temperature of the earth
just increases by two degrees you can
see what have work it will create we
already seen what global warming is
causing it’s causing floods the right
the waters are increasing so just by a
change in two degrees you can see what
what could happen to it and there are
other factors which are important for
example temperature humidity pH these
need to be regulated in this ecosystem
so the point is that the ecosystems are
very hard to create so we need an
organism as I started and we are using
Drosophila as an organism you might have
seen it flying on the banana peel that
is about one millimeters in size the
size is really small but don’t
underestimate inside size its stature is
really big it has been studied for the
past 100 years by scientists scientists
know about its development its how its
neurobiology its courtship its behavior
everything is known in detail it has
been there have been six Nobel prizes
won by scientists by studying flies it
also shares 60% of DNA with us so
results obtained from Drosophila for the
past 100 years can be extrapolated to
humans as well because we share a lot of
DNA material so with that idea in mind
we are using Drosophila as an organism
we are building a small mini ecosystem
in which there will be ample amount
oxygen ample amount of co2 waste a waste
removal system and will be used sending
it to the moon and simultaneously an
experiment will be running on earth as
well as which we call as controls so
this this mini ecosystem will be flying
during the flight and when it lands on
the moon it will be sending these images
in videos over months and we’ll be
comparing that data with the experiment
which is running on the surface of Earth
I imagine the Flies will be born on the
first time on the surface of Moon how
cool is that
the first time a life-form is will be
born on the surface of moon that is
amazing right so what do we do with that
data when we receive it we compare it
using machine learning algorithms using
different parameters we look for any
changes for example in the development
of the Drosophila in their behavior for
example when they are love it they crawl
we see the adrenaline crawling or
defects are there any crawling changes
the flight patterns the courtship
patterns so all these will be analyzed
to the my new test of the details my
question is what next after this I’m
sure there will be other missions to
Mars and other planets but what do we do
with all this data we have well in any
research environment what you do is you
analyze it and you publish it but how
many people go and read a paper on their
own right and this is also these are
very high level high level Sciences and
a person from one might not want to
study science from under on the field so
these results will be present in the
open domain so any of you will be able
to access all the details of the mission
right from the rocket building right
from the flight and landing on the moon
right from creating this mini ecosystem
and when it landed on the moon
all the data of comparison of fly
is on the surface of moon and comparison
with a control on earth so all this data
is is will be available but my question
is is that enough is that enough to
engage the children the youth for
example you guys of the country I would
say no you need you need to create that
curiosity that that drive which drives
you to this project and beyond because
this is just a first step right we had
this is the first step we have taken do
an astrobiology project but you guys
have to take it further to the extremely
next level so what we are doing is we
are creating common knowledge platforms
imagine we go to imagine when you were
young and I was young what was what is
the best thing you liked I would say
games right all of you must have played
Nintendo and other games I still have it
and we used to spend hours playing it
and how how will reverse studies behind
we love food food everything but we will
keep playing these games so imagine if
you put these details about these
experiments about these subjects into
these games how amazing would that be a
child who’s basically using this game
for pleasure for fun is actually
learning there have been psychological
studies from scientists who say that
gaming creates less stress and it kind
of elevates your brain to think about
different things you have to maneuver in
a game right you have to go from one
level next you have been you have to use
all your cognitive abilities and when
when children use use the senses for
example their hands to touch their eyes
to see the ears to listen it creates
memories in their brains there are
short-term memories if they do it once
but there are long-term memories which
stay with them for a long time so our
motto is to create these long-term
memories in these kids so when they
learn about gaming from a space
perspective from an astral
perspective it stays with them for a
long time when they are at your age and
Beyond they already have learned what we
are doing now what I am doing now right
so basically all this mission will be
put in terms of a game a space game so a
kid basically has a lesson he learned
about building the PSLV the rocket
itself how is it built he learned about
how to launch rockets how to maintain it
how to land the spacecraft right all
these details now you’d be there ok this
is just a game how does a kid learn from
all this works according to the laws of
science according to the laws of physics
according to the laws of biology
so basically when he builds a rocket
it’s not able to fly there’s a hint
mm-maybe do you do you need a propellant
you need fuel do you need thrusters
he adds those thrusters it’s still not
able to fly hmm did you put enough fuel
in it he puts no fuel
it flies to a certain extent drops again
oh how much fuel did you put where are
you exactly going where do you want to
go this is the amount of fuel you need
and for example if he wants to create an
ecosystem these are the things you need
organism he already starts learning
board Drosophila he already starts
learning what organism have been sent to
space earlier so this is a learning
curve room for him which is very simple
but it will just take his mind set to
the very next level so there the this
gaming modules of any new or our Indian
system we still we still are not able to
compete with other countries right
we still have that traditional approach
of getting high marks and becoming
engineers and doctors which is not bad
right we need engineers and doctors but
we need good engineers and doctors we
need engineers who can think right who
can compete with places like MIT Harvard
Stanford ray and there are people who
have done that so you need these games
for example we took an example from the
Finland schoolish system which is
considered
as the best in the world right now so
that system does not have the general
bookish approach where you read you get
marks up to 15 years there is there are
no classes what they do they use these
gaming platforms to teach any subject
you want you want to beat physics yes
there’s a gaming module you want you
want a piece about botany you go to the
garden and in basically interact with
the plants you want to want to learn
about so we are introducing these gaming
modules here in India for the first time
and this is the space Kerbal is only the
first step towards said we want to
enhance and increase it in every subject
possible just to add India is a
developing country right we don’t have
internet systems available in all the
schools we still lack it it’s but it’s
developing so we are using card cards as
well so basically I do gaming card flop
platforms so the entire mission entire a
mission to the moon creating an
ecosystem will be present in the cards
which will be available to create an
audience crater child children greatest
foods and we have done pilot experiments
and des experiments and you should see
the enthusiasm in kids when we tell them
okay do you want to go to space do you
okay last point I want to add is it’s
not just the children and the youth we
have to teach we have to teach the
parents as well so parents need to know
what kind of information that children
are imbibing by playing these games they
need to be educated about these games as
well they need to know okay if a child
is spending a bit more extra time games
it’s okay let them play and lastly I
would like to finish that you should I
took you from a journey from my school
and it’s back to school again right but
I think the journey is not complete it’s
the only first step towards what we are
doing and you as the youth of this
country need to take the next left
I would say to all of you that you
should think out of the box but I will
so also like to say that don’t think
about boxes at all thank you
[Applause]
[Music] [Applause]