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TSU - the first university in the Caucasus. The century-old tradition of research and teaching. Established in 1918.

Journal Number: 6

Natural forms affect all of us, not only for their beauty but also for their diversity. It is still not known whether forms define the essence of the phenomena associated with them, or vice versa--that forms are natural consequences of the phenomena.

Since ancient times, scientists have tried different methods to study forms and their properties. In mathematics, the study of form has often used geometric approaches. Over time research has led researchers in beautiful as well as interesting and challenging directions. Plato and his school emphasized the study of pure geometric shapes (νοηtά – mental) and their properties, while Archimedes, Apollonius of Perga, Euclid, Heron and their followers used geometric methods to explain phenomena (αiσθητα – Observable, classification of Geminus of Rhode I B.C).

Nanoscience and its component, bionanoscience, are modern interdisciplinary research “super-domains”, compulsory conceptual platforms for the development of the related domains of nanotechnology and bionanotechnology. These fields began to emerge in the 1960s, however they developed as essential constituents of well-funded strategic policies only at the beginning of the 21st c, and especially in highly developed and/or rapidly developing countries such as the USA, EU, Japan, Israel, China and India. The prefix “nano” and the abbreviation “nm” are the shortened variants of the term “nanometer”, indicating one-billionth part of a meter (109m). At the beginning of the development of these disciplines the terms “nanoscopic matter” or “mesoscopic matter” were used for categories of matter with dimensions of 100 nm or less. Subsequently, however, it was discovered that the borderline between “nano” and “normal” matter could be calculated much lower at around 10, or even 1 nm!

Bolnisi is one of the most significant agricultural regions in Georgia. It supplies most of the country with vegetables, thus its ecological condition is of great important for the entire Georgian population. TSU researchers, working with German colleagues, studied the situation and have raised serious concerns about environmental contamination in the Bolnisi region.

On September 22-26, 2014 Tbilisi State University (TSU) hosted a workshop with the international group COMET: COherent Muon to Electron Transition, on the particle physics experiment at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC). The Workshop was organized by the TSU High Energy Physics Institute (HEPI) with support from the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation. Fifty representatives from eight member countries took part. The experiment sheds light on a longstanding problem of particle physics, which is to understand the interplay between two very similar fundamental particles-electrons and muons. Why are there muons in addition to electrons? “Who ordered that?” exclaimed Nobel Prize laureate, theoretical physicist, I. Rabi, when the muon was identified.