Department of English is sad to say that Mr.Subramani, Lecturer in English has got a transfer to Vellore. A committed teacher, caring warden and a supportive colleague - he is Vellore's gain and Salem's loss.

I attended the first day of a Faculty Development Programme on 'Nanotechnology-An Introduction'. The presentation by Dr.Arivuoli of Anna University was very interesting. The talk covered nano characterisation, nano effects in Nature and Technology (Lotus-Leaf Effect, Sandfish Effect, Beetle Effect, Gecko Effect), Nano crystals etc.and was so interesting that I was glad I had registered for the programme, though initially I had had misgivings about being a misfit among the engineering faculty. Isn't it an exciting new field? but, as Crichton points out in his latest book, it could turn out to be an unwitting companion in crime to greedy individuals because of the undependable nature of nano materials. That frightens me a bit, but then , so did the telephone, lights, turbines etc in the beginning. Seems to have been a week of science fiction and facts, as I have just finished an old Crichton novel, "Timeline", a novel based on quantum theory and teleportation.