Oliver Sacks, Casting Light on the Interconnectedness of Life - the Doctor and the Writer

Science, with its promise of order and logic, provided a refuge for young Oliver from the chaos of his brother’s madness, and medicine promised both family continuity (his father was a general practitioner; his mother, a surgeon) and a way to study and try to understand brain disorders like Michael’s.
In February, Dr. Sacks wrote in an Op-Ed essay in The New York Times about learning that he had terminal cancer and had just months to live.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/31/arts/oliver-sacks-wrote-awakenings-and-cast-light-on-the-interconnectedness-of-life.html?_r=0

400-pound heart of a blue whale: the largest heart that humans have ever preserved

https://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-incredible-first-look-largest-195255681.html

Ajit Babu, who has cerebral palsy, founded three startups in Bengaluru.

He, along with his best friend, Harish Narayan, started Dream Click Concepts in 2009. They also simultaneously founded another startup, Street Light Media, which made TV shows, music videos and advertisements for clients.

“I was sitting outside in my favourite café, where all the smokers sat. There are no power points there for charging. Everybody borrows each other’s power banks to charge their phones. I looked down at the solar lamp in my hand, and it looked like a power bank. So I thought, why not make a solar-powered power bank?” says Ajit.

https://in.news.yahoo.com/ajit-babu-father-asked-job-073014510.html

The off-beat Entrepreneurs

Deepa Kumar, Founder, How to tell your child: 
Founded in May 2013, and based in Bangalore, the website provides educators and parents easy tools to teach children tough topics like sexual abuse and puberty. It uses animated videos, tools and products to make the education fun and positive.

Kalyani Khona, Founder, Wanted Umbrella:
 “I started this venture after I was quite disheartened with the attitude of existing matrimonial websites towards people with disability and felt the need to do something about it,” she states.

Anurag Asati, Founder, The Kabadiwala:
Bhopal based IT engineer Anurag Asati has taken this concept and the idea of Swach Bharat, to launch www.TheKabadiwala.com, an online platform where you can sell your household junk and get paid for it.

Lawrence, Co-Founder and CEO, Ducere Technologies
Lechal was initially conceived as a navigational device for the visually-impaired – today it is the world’s first haptic footwear that allows you to navigate hands-free and also tracks your fitness metrics.

Ish Jindal, Founder, Padhaaro:
Padhaaro, an on-demand marketplace to help travellers discover tours and local experiences on-the-go. Here, all experiences are provided by locals in the destination who have an expertise in to do areas in town and want to share the same with others.
Padhaaro works on a commission based model wherein they get commission on every experience that is booked on the platform. The company is currently in 18 cities and has more than 450 experience providers on the platform.

https://in.news.yahoo.com/off-beat-entrepreneur-132033600.html

Stratolaunch : soon the Largest Plane in the World.

The Stratolaunch is currently in production at California’s Mojave Air and Space Port. Aerospace firm Scaled Composites has headed-up development of the mammoth aircraft.

Stratolaunch, nicknamed “Roc” after the mythical bird of prey, features two fuselages, six Pratt & Whitney jet engines, 28 landing gear wheels, and a whopping 385 foot wingspan.

It is being constructed using pieces of two already quite large planes–a pair of disused Boeing 747s.

The Stratolaunch is designed to carry a three-stage rocket (equipped with a satellite) between its two fuselages. Upon reaching the correct altitude, the rocket will detach, blast off into space, and later release the satellite. The combined weight of “Roc” plus the rocket is estimated to be 1.3 million pounds.

 A setup like the Stratolaunch can allow flexible satellite launches during a range of weather conditions and from anywhere in the world…with a runway big enough, that is. Those are two things a stationary launch pad can’t do.

https://in.news.yahoo.com/stratolaunch-soon-largest-plane-world-133041433.html

Nasima Akter, the Bangladeshi Surf Star living the Push and Pull between Dreams and Traditional Values

Akter married at 16 and her husband and his family have forbidden her from surfing.

“Nasima tries very hard to do the things that are expected of her, but when they have a fight or she just gets to the end of her rope with him she will reconnect with her surfing community.” However, over the years those breaks are frequent, but just that, breaks. “She eventually goes back to her husband, so right now she is not surfing,” Kessinger reveals.

https://in.style.yahoo.com/post/125438462394/the-bangladeshi-surf-star-defying-cultural-taboos