My day 1 at LG-AUP : The day BIOLOGY won.
May 20, 2026 • 6:04 AM UTC
India
340x Magnification
Plants
Pahal Patel
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If you had met me before LGP 2026 and asked what I loved, the answer would’ve been immediate:
Physics? Absolutely.
Maths? Love it.
Space? Don’t even get me started.
Anything involving rockets exploding successfully.
I’m the type of person who watches rocket launches for fun, randomly searches black hole theories at midnight, and thinks orbital mechanics is somehow relaxing. One of my biggest dreams is studying at Stanford University someday.
Biology, meanwhile, existed in my life like that one group project member who technically matters but doesn’t talk much.
Then Day 1 happened.
And suddenly a fern rhizome changed my entire personality.
Our first " Exploring the microcosm" session at LGP introduced us to the Foldscope created by Manu Prakash and Jim Cybulski which, for anyone who hasn’t used one before, is basically proof that science becomes ten times cooler the moment curiosity is made accessible.
What struck me immediately wasn’t just the microscope itself, but the philosophy behind it.
There’s something powerful about the idea that scientific exploration shouldn’t feel distant or locked away behind giant laboratories. The Foldscope makes discovery feel personal. Suddenly you’re not reading about science.
You’re participating in it.
And that shift changes everything.
Our sample and my first sample for the session was a fern rhizome .
Now, if someone had told me 24 hours earlier that I’d spend part of my day emotionally invested in a microscopic plant structure, I would’ve laughed.
But the second the image came into focus, the classroom transformed.
The reactions around me went from:
“Interesting…”
to:
“WAIT THAT’S INSANE.”
“WHY DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A MAP OF AN ENTIRE PLANET?”
“BRO COME SEE THIS RIGHT NOW.”
And honestly, those reactions made complete sense.
Because under magnification, the fern rhizome didn’t look ordinary anymore. It looked architectural. Intentional. Almost unreal. The patterns, textures, and structures felt less like something hidden inside a plant and more like a carefully designed microscopic universe that had existed around us the whole time without us noticing.
That moment stayed with me.
As someone who usually thinks about exploration in terms of galaxies and space missions, I realized how easy it is to associate discovery only with things that are far away.
But this session challenged that idea completely.
"Sometimes discovery isn’t about looking farther.
Sometimes it’s about looking closer."
And I think that’s what made the experience unforgettable.
Another huge reason the class stood out was Dr. Anupama Harshal W.
Some teachers explain concepts well.
Some teachers create an atmosphere where curiosity becomes unavoidable.
She did the second.
The class never felt like a lecture. It felt like collective exploration. There was energy in the room, excitement in every observation, and this constant feeling that everyone was discovering something together rather than simply “learning a topic.”
And as a student who's from Gujarat , hearing her speak Gujarati at moments genuinely made me happy in the most unexpected way. It instantly made the environment feel warmer, more familiar, and more human.
Science can sometimes feel intimidating.
This class didn’t.
It felt exciting.
By the end of Day 1, I realized something I genuinely did not expect to say:
Biology had managed to surprise me.
Physics and mathematics still remain the subjects closest to my heart. Space is still the dream. That hasn’t changed.
But thanks to one fern rhizome, one Foldscope, and one unforgettable class at LGP 2026…
"I started seeing biology differently too."
Physics? Absolutely.
Maths? Love it.
Space? Don’t even get me started.
Anything involving rockets exploding successfully.
I’m the type of person who watches rocket launches for fun, randomly searches black hole theories at midnight, and thinks orbital mechanics is somehow relaxing. One of my biggest dreams is studying at Stanford University someday.
Biology, meanwhile, existed in my life like that one group project member who technically matters but doesn’t talk much.
Then Day 1 happened.
And suddenly a fern rhizome changed my entire personality.
Our first " Exploring the microcosm" session at LGP introduced us to the Foldscope created by Manu Prakash and Jim Cybulski which, for anyone who hasn’t used one before, is basically proof that science becomes ten times cooler the moment curiosity is made accessible.
What struck me immediately wasn’t just the microscope itself, but the philosophy behind it.
There’s something powerful about the idea that scientific exploration shouldn’t feel distant or locked away behind giant laboratories. The Foldscope makes discovery feel personal. Suddenly you’re not reading about science.
You’re participating in it.
And that shift changes everything.
Our sample and my first sample for the session was a fern rhizome .
Now, if someone had told me 24 hours earlier that I’d spend part of my day emotionally invested in a microscopic plant structure, I would’ve laughed.
But the second the image came into focus, the classroom transformed.
The reactions around me went from:
“Interesting…”
to:
“WAIT THAT’S INSANE.”
“WHY DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A MAP OF AN ENTIRE PLANET?”
“BRO COME SEE THIS RIGHT NOW.”
And honestly, those reactions made complete sense.
Because under magnification, the fern rhizome didn’t look ordinary anymore. It looked architectural. Intentional. Almost unreal. The patterns, textures, and structures felt less like something hidden inside a plant and more like a carefully designed microscopic universe that had existed around us the whole time without us noticing.
That moment stayed with me.
As someone who usually thinks about exploration in terms of galaxies and space missions, I realized how easy it is to associate discovery only with things that are far away.
But this session challenged that idea completely.
"Sometimes discovery isn’t about looking farther.
Sometimes it’s about looking closer."
And I think that’s what made the experience unforgettable.
Another huge reason the class stood out was Dr. Anupama Harshal W.
Some teachers explain concepts well.
Some teachers create an atmosphere where curiosity becomes unavoidable.
She did the second.
The class never felt like a lecture. It felt like collective exploration. There was energy in the room, excitement in every observation, and this constant feeling that everyone was discovering something together rather than simply “learning a topic.”
And as a student who's from Gujarat , hearing her speak Gujarati at moments genuinely made me happy in the most unexpected way. It instantly made the environment feel warmer, more familiar, and more human.
Science can sometimes feel intimidating.
This class didn’t.
It felt exciting.
By the end of Day 1, I realized something I genuinely did not expect to say:
Biology had managed to surprise me.
Physics and mathematics still remain the subjects closest to my heart. Space is still the dream. That hasn’t changed.
But thanks to one fern rhizome, one Foldscope, and one unforgettable class at LGP 2026…
"I started seeing biology differently too."
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