SynTalk

Do pilots experience jet lag? Why are there different types of rhythms? What does your heart beat ‘to’? Is all of life periodic (because of the sun)? Is there a master clock to everything, & are all clocks analogous? Does each cell have its own (genetic) clock? Do clocks help us stay in phase with each other? Do ‘autonomous’ (hardware) clocks always drift? How do clocks correct themselves? Are computer network clocks eventually physically anchored (in, say, Caesium clocks)? How are atomic clocks made to keep solar time? How is time served on networks? Is temporal constancy of fundamental constants, even, possible to measure? What makes a clock more accurate and/or robust? Does digital hardware ‘need’ a pulse trigger? Is time an artefact, & less ‘fundamental’ than frequency? Do clocks primarily help manage transitions, & is time keeping, therefore, state keeping? Why do the blind have shorter lifespans? Can causality exist without the notion of time? Will we do more things in the same amount of time in the future? Would our body clocks change – will we sleep well? Will all planes autoland? Is a clock-free paradigm possible? Are we too synchronized…? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using concepts from atomic physics (Dr. Subhadeep De, CSIR-NPL, New Delhi), computer science (Prof. S. Arun-Kumar, IIT Delhi, New Delhi), & chronobiology (Prof. Vinod Kumar, University of Delhi, New Delhi). Listen in...