Science

Bill Cosby and Malaria

American comedian Bill Cosby, now more famous for his cases of sexual assault, used to sedate his victims using a drug called quaalude. Quaalude is a brand name for Methaqualone, a hypnotic sedative first synthesised in India in 1951 by Indra Kishore Kacker and Syed Husain Zaheer, who were conducting research on finding new antimalarial medications. It became popular as a recreational drug in the late 60s and 70s, known variously as "ludes", "sopers" ("soaps") "mandrakes", "mandies", "disco biscuits", etc. It is now banned.

A Nobel within 5 years

I'm not flattered by the honour done to me. This is a small achievement. If there is anything that I aspire for, it is the Nobel Prize. You will find that I get that in five years.

Ganga and Kurma

In the early 90s, the Indian government released specially-raised flesh-eating turtles into the Ganga to eat and clear the river of partly-burned corpses from the Varanasi ghats. The programme failed as poachers captured and wiped out the turtle population (again).

The principle of position and the unknown Hindu

When viewed in this light, the achievement of the unknown Hindu who some time in the first centuries of our era discovered the principle of position assumes the proportions of a world-event. Not only did this principle constitute a radical departure in method, but we know now that without it no progress in arithmetic was possible.

Zero and the positional decimal notation

It is [in India] that the ingenious manner of expressing all numbers in ten characters originated, by assigning to them at once an absolute and a local [positional] value. a subtle and important conception, of which the simplicity is such that we can [only] with difficulty, appreciate its merit.

Knives, Pistols, and Sambar

The most sought after knife-handles and pistol-grips are made from the antlers of Sambar stags. The antlers are made of bone and shed annually.

Science