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  • Are we next?

    The dino-killing asteroid is hurtling towards our planet earth; but astronomers are yet to ascertain as to which of these big space rocks will hit us head-on…

    An asteroid as big as an Eiffel Tower just missed our planet Earth. The asteroid named 2006 QQ23 was cruising at a speed of 16737 kms per hour missing us just by 4.6 million miles. If this fast moving space rock would have been following a different trajectory it would have hit the Earth with a brutal force of more than 500 times that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.

    Although 2006 QQ23 was not a threat for Earth, it throws a caution: out there in the cosmos there is another giant unseen asteroid that could be on a collision course with our blue planet. Experts are 100% certain that we’re going to be hit but are not 100% sure when. In fact they are working hard to develop a strategy to deflect these large asteroids headed our way.

    Scanning the Skies

    Astronomers have been scanning the skies and they feel there is nothing to panic about as there is no real threat from the giant space rocks. The chance that any big object like the 12 kms wide “impactor” which is said to have hit Earth and wiped out dinosaurs 65 million years ago is highly impossible.

    Strictly speaking at any given time there are hundreds of asteroids in our solar system that cause a threat to our planet. And keeping an eye on them are our space agencies – the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Near Earth Orbit (NEO) Coordination Center and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). They continuously monitor hundreds and thousands of known asteroids and meteoroids, classifying a few hundred as ‘uncertain’ or a ‘risk’ as to know whether they will hit our planet. As of August, the NEO Coordination Center had 20,502 asteroids on its list with 865 on the risk list.

    However, some astronomers believe that we need to scan the skies and find these killer asteroids that could hit us head on. In other words, we should be able to find out all of these asteroids that are a threat to our planet and catalog their orbits precisely so as to calculate them into the future. But the trouble here is that asteroids have been known to catch us off guard!

    Defusing the threat

    Apart from detecting and cataloging asteroids, NASA has put a dedicated team in place which is working on a mission called Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). The mission is to fire a so-called kinetic impactor into a binary asteroid known as Didymos. The so called mission idea is to alter the trajectory of the asteroids which are now most likely to pass by Earth

    Another way to deflect an asteroid is to use a gravity tractor or so called spaceship that will use its own gravity to shift the asteroid’s trajectory – a concept by former astronauts Ed Lu and Stan Love. The idea is to use the gravity between a small spacecraft and the asteroid to gently tug it into another orbit. Then there is nuclear option whereby a nuclear warhead is sent into the space and is detonated in front of the asteroids. By doing so, the asteroid is likely to change its trajectory and take another path. Astronomers say these ideas will only work if we have prior information or data with us that proves that the asteroid is hurtling towards us. Also it will take perhaps decades to come up with missions capable of deflecting these dangerous space rocks.

    -Team ScienceNow

  • Solar Glass Panels: ‘Empowering’ Human Civilisation

    Whether it be glass knives or arrowheads used in the Bronze Age or jewellery and tableware in late Bronze Age or inexpensive windowpanes and pottery in the Iron Age or exotic stained glass artwork used in Churches through the Middle Ages or transparent solar panels in the Modern times, breakthrough glass manufacturing technologies continue to ‘transform’ and ‘mould’ human civilisation….

    “Why pay hefty electric bill every month? Generate your own electricity at home.”

    Don’t be surprised if you happen to see this ad coming up shortly in any newspaper or digital media. Because harvesting solar energy directly from transparent glass windows, rooftops, building walls, smartphones, car roofs… is going to be soon possible. Heliatek GmbH, a German company, has developed partially transparent solar panels which absorbs 60% of the sunlight it receives, and converts it into electricity. The company claims that these panels achieve 7.2% energy efficiency as compared to 12% efficiency delivered by most conventional solar photovoltaic panels. As researchers continue to look for solutions to increase ‘energy efficiency’ and ‘transparency’ of these glass panels, what’s really exciting is the fact that transparent solar panels could soon be mass produced at the cost of regular glass sheets.

    If ever we begin to harness this ‘green energy’ on a large scale in the near future, it wouldn’t be the first time that the wonder substance ‘glass’ would have helped usher in a new revolutionary transformation. Looking back into history, one realises that centuries-after-centuries if there was one substance on earth that has ‘transformed’ and ‘moulded’ the growth and advancement of human civilisation, it was ‘glass’. Ever since mankind accidentally discovered glass some 3600 years ago in Mesopotamia (i.e. coastal north Syria) in the form of glass beads (i.e. a slag by-product during metal work), it has continued to amaze us all through its sheer ‘adaptability’ and ‘versatility’.

    In the Bronze Age…

    Since 30th century BC, the Egyptians obsession for glass led to some rapid growth in glassmaking technology. Coloured glass had grown into a craze and prized possession of the elite class were glass vessels, coloured and shaped glass items, hardglass carvings, ubiquitous beads, etc. This civilisation perfected the art of extracting glass from the ashes (i.e. soda ash) of many seashore plants. Several communities in Western Asia closely guarded their unique manufacturing techniques. Commonly used for production of knives, arrowheads, jewellery and money, by the 15th century BC, glass making grew into being an established industry across Western Asia and Egypt.

    In the late Bronze Age…

    It was around the 9th century (late Bronze Age), the technique of making colourless glass was discovered and craftsmen started using glass to make artistic tableware. By the 6th century the glass making industry started use of moulds for inlays to shape glass and the first glass making ‘manual’ known to mankind dates back to 650 BC.

    In the Iron Age…

    Somewhere in the 4th – 5th century BC, a Roman merchant happened to rediscover a translucent liquid oozing out of the sand while preparing meals on the beach. This led to the discovery of a new manufacturing technique of producing glass using white silica sand. This new source of raw material led to development of the revolutionary ‘glass blowing’ manufacturing technique during the first century BC. Glass vessels were now inexpensive compared to pottery vessels, and it is said that glass became the Roman plastic being used by masses.

    In the Classic Middle Age…

    It was the Romans (around 100AD) who began to use glass for architectural purpose, and cast glass windows of poor opacity appeared in the most important buildings in Rome. Over the next 1000 years, glass making flourished in the Roman Empire and spread from Italy to all countries across Europe. Throughout Europe the churches and cathedral saw the fine art of making stained glass achieve miraculous height till about 14th Century. The first glass factory in the United States was built in Jamestown, Virginia in 1608.

    India was also at the forefront of the glass technology in South Asia since 16th Century. Indian artisans who were masters in glass moulding, decorating and colouring techniques, benefited tremendously from the new manufacturing techniques developed in Western Asia and Europe owing to its Greco-Roman connect.

    Make-up of Transparent Solar Glass Panel

    While the transparent photovoltaic glass allows the visible light to pass through, it captures Ultraviolet (UV) and Near-infrared (NIR) light to generate energy. A series of thin layered photovoltaic coating is deposited on glass or other transparent substrate. These UV and NIR layers absorb the energy which causes current to flow via the two transparent electrodes completing the circuit.

    –Dr Shobha Tawade

  • Bharat – Ek Khoj Acharya Kanad.

    India has been the cradle of many scientific discoveries. Here we profile an Indian Scientist and one ancient Indian Technology…

    Acharya Kanad was the Indian sage who developed Atomic theory 2,600 years ago. One of the most notable scientists of ancient India, Kanad is said to have devised the atomic theory centuries before John Dalton was born. He speculated the existence of anu or a small indestructible particle, much like an atom.

    Kanad was born as Kashyap in 600 B.C. at Dwarka in Gujarat. He was the son of a philosopher named Ulka. From his childhood, Kashyap had a keen sense of observation. Minute things attracted his attention.  Once he went on a pilgrimage, he saw thousands of pilgrims littered the town roads and the banks of river Ganga with flowers and rice grains which they offered at the temple. He started collecting the grains of rice and made the people around him realize the importance of each grain or kan of rice. Since then people started calling him Kanad, as “Kan” in Sanskrit means “Smallest particle“.

    Kanad was the first person in the world to discuss atoms and molecules. He was the one who first propounded that the Parmanu (Atoms) was an indestructible particle of matter. The theory occurred to Kanad while he was walking with food in his hand and he was breaking it into small pieces. He nibbled at the food in his hand until he was no longer able to break it down into smaller pieces. It was then that he realized that he could not divide the food into further parts and conceptualized the idea of a particle that could not be divided any further. He called that indivisible particle “Parmanu,” or “Anu,” which literally means atom. Though his theory of the atom was abstract and leaned towards philosophy and logic than experimentation, it is still considered even in modern times as a brilliant and imaginative explanation of the physical structure of the world and for largely agreeing with the discoveries of modern physics.

    -Team ScienceNow

  • Bharat – Ek Khoj Ship building

    India has been the cradle of many scientific discoveries. Here we profile an Indian Scientist and one ancient Indian Technology…

    When Portuguese sailor, Vasco de Gama’s ship was about to collapse when it reached India, it was the Indian marine engineers who repaired that ship and made it worthy again for sea travel. The skill of the Indians in ship-building has been seen from centuries. The timber used by the Indians was so strong that it would not ‘crack’ even by the force of a bullet.

    The Rig Veda mentions ships with 100 oars. Such ships sailed over seven oceans and returned to India. Visitors to India from Greece and Rome during the pre-Christian times wrote that the Brahmins of India knew that the earth is in the form of a globe and one can reach the same place after sailing through the seven oceans. The Buddhist Jataka stories wrote about large Indian ships carrying seven hundred people. The second item exported by the erst while British East India Company was Indian ship. A few of these ships are still in service, and are used for training cadets of the British Navy. During World War II, Maharajas of India have lent some hundreds of their ships to the British for use as hospital ships!

    -Team ScienceNow

  • Start-up Ecosystem

    How to select a Business Idea?

    Identifying a successful business idea for a start-up venture may require budding entrepreneurs to harness their creative energies, leverage their hands-on experiences/skills and turn their passion into a profession. Here’s how you can do it?….    

    Call it an after-effect of the ‘Make in India’ and ‘Start-up India’ campaigns or the rise of a new breed of app-based techpreneur teens who have easy access to digital online tools, entrepreneurship seems to have caught the fancy of many-a-school and college going youth. Setting breaks on the post-colonial euphoria of chasing government and high-profile corporate jobs, youth look to be at home discussing entrepreneurial issues, market dynamics, business opportunities and the challenges accompanying it. So also, B-schools and engineering colleges across the country are witnessing rising incidents of students opting out of the placement routines, at times even turning down hi-profile/high-paying job offers, only to pursue their deep inner entrepreneurial calling. In schools and colleges, ‘entrepreneurship’ is the new buzzword!

    Now for all those youngsters who have already decided to be an entrepreneur and are guessing as to what goes on to make businesses successful, whether it’s a right product, a smart business plan, adequate finances, a team of sharp and committed staff, world-wide digital footprints…, don’t be surprised if you ever hear management gurus emphasise on selection of a ‘right business idea’. It may set the alarm bells ringing for most people who are seriously considering to start a business based on one of the two personal biases:

      • It’s a business I am already aware of: “I love food and know all about it, so I should start a restaurant,” if you feel so, better think again. Just because you are a foodie or a good chef doesn’t necessarily mean that you would successfully run a restaurant. Choosing to do so, could be a huge mistake!

     

      • It’s a product/service I am in love with: Again, just because you like the product or services, doesn’t necessarily make it profitable. Especially, first-time entrepreneurs ought to be conscious of the fact that running a business is a tough ask, and that things could become all the more difficult if one gets passionately attached with the product/service.

     

    So how does one really go about selecting a business idea that in the long-run would not only be profitable, but also yield rich dividends on scaling it up? Here’s a step-by-step approach to do so:

      1. Picking up an idea: Look for something business that fits your passion, life goals, personal strengths, real-life experiences… While you do so, look at it as a possible business idea, and don’t fall in love with it just yet.

     

      1. Think 3600: Evaluate the business idea as an investor would otherwise do. How big is the opportunity? Is the timing right? What will it take to execute it? Do you have adequate finances? What are the risks involved? Is the product/service marketable? How long would it take to make the venture profitable?

     

      1. Get Feedback: Always be conscious of the fact that the selected business idea is your baby, and it’s your gut feeling that it will work fine. Playing it safe, look for people who know the market, who understands the business model, competition, market dynamics… and try getting first-hand feedback on your business idea. Also try talking to some of the probable customers as to: whether they would buy it? If so, at what cost? What value additions they would like? How much would they be ready to pay for it? and so on.

     

      1. Business Plan: You should have a well thought out ‘Business Plan’ in hand prior to launch of the business. Try incorporating all your recent learnings, opinions of business experts, feedback of probable customers, learnings from market research, financial plan, marketing tools and their usage… Importantly, the business plan ought to be implementable, and it should have clearly set goals and target month-wise and year-wise.

     

      1. Develop a prototype: its high-time you have a market-ready product/service in place. Thereafter, consider a soft launch or pilot run of the product/service to plan to launch, just prior to the final business launch. Keep the ultimate vision and business goals in mind, and look out for feelers during the trial runs as to how you can achieve it.

     

      1. Test the waters: During this phase try to engage with your future customers and suppliers to figure out how to match your offerings with customer needs. To do that, test elements like pricing, branding, product/service features, customer experience, marketing strategy, etc. Measure the results and draw conclusions.

     

      1. Make necessary adjustments: Once you have gathered wealth of information on your product/service, market challenges, customers, competition, etc., try figuring out as to what things you got wrong and promptly fix them. The process may warrant making small or significant changes to your proposed product/service or business plan, ensure that necessary corrective steps are taken to prevent any future eventualities.

     

      1. Market ready: Having undergone the above mentioned process, you can be rest assured that your selected business idea is ready for a formal market launch.

     

    -Noel Fernandes

  • Breeding Science Capital – SciCom Style

    Living without a mobile phone is unthinkable. Science and technology of communication have phenomenally developed and transformed our daily lives. Paradoxically, communication of science and technology has not proportionately developed or transformed our daily lives….

    Science and society are abominably out of joint. A brave new communication revolution within knowledge revolution is indispensable. The future of society and the society of the future we are aspiring to create will be critically dependent on the present inspired generation of science communicators. Scientific discoveries, inventions, innovations and information explosion have made science communication a critical variable of knowledge economy.

    Science communication is the fine art and practice of informing, informating, educating and raising awareness of science and technology related topics among all its stakeholders.  52 years ago when I was serving as the country head of science and technology communication at the Indian pavilion at Expo-70 Osaka, Japan, I had interacted with my Japanese counterparts who used an expression Johoko Shakai. My translator friend, Keiko Tashiro, introduced me to with the less familiar word informate which carried meaning and significance contextually. A lovely semantic vector dear to scicomers!

    Science is a too serious a matter and science communication is more  grave a matter to be left to scientists or even failed scientists. Innovation and technology originating from science are the sinews of societal strength. The harm that scientists do by communicating and not communicating can be disastrous. India has three robustly drafted policies on Science, Science and Technology and Science, Technology and Innovation. Of course the country also has the overarching paradigm of scientific temper built into the very fabric of its constitution. That is the Scientific India.

    Two models, at once historical and historic, spring to my mind. The Russell Model. Sir Bertrand Arthur William Russell was a distinguished mathematician-philosopher-pacifist, who also won the 1957 UNESCO-Kalinga award for science communication. His conceptual clarity of complex phenomena and his charming linguistic mastery make him a peerless scicomer model. His classic description that science enables us to know and do things is scicomer’s master class room delight.

    The second one is the MP model. This was designed, developed, demonstrated and deployed by Dr. M.P. Parameswaran. He is an electric engineer of the first batch of AEET Training School who later did his doctoral work in Russia. He was fascinated by the sputnik spirit and the massive science popularization efforts in Russian language. He promised his Russian peers that he would nucleate science communication endeavors in regional languages Marathi and Malayalam.

    With the slogan ‘Let a hundred flowers bloom’ he got one hundred scientists and engineers who speak Malayalam and alphabetized scicom language and transmitted it to the home state. Today, with the slogan Science for Social Revolution, a massive People’s Science Movement   is a historical reality in Kerala with 62,000 science activists including 25,000 women. Across the globe, waves of scicom renaissance are visible.

    With a view to augmenting a multiplier strategy for rapid expansion, NCSC is holding hands with institutions of higher learning, back to colleges tactically operationalizing scicom as subspecialty of mass and Media communication. Of course we have many a kilometer to go….

    –Dr.A.P.Jayaraman

    Nuclear Scientist

    Principal Scientific Advisor, HSNC University

    Chairperson, NCSC

    President, STEAM Academy

  • LIGHTER MOMENTS

    The Science Smiles when you add fun to it…

    Q: Which university does a hippopotamus go to?

    A: Hippocampus

    Q: What’s the difference between a dog and a marine biologist?

    A: One wags a tail and the other tags a whale.

    Q: What did Abacus say to the students?

    A: You can count on me!

    Q: What gas never cries? 

    A: Nitrous Oxide (Laughing Gas)

    Q: How many software engineers does it take to change a light bulb?

    A: None. That’s a hardware issue.

    -Team ScienceNow

  • SCIENCE QUIZ

    Now get ready and Test Yourself….

     

     

    1. The BrahMos Missile was developed by which country?
    A. India
    B. India & China
    C. Russia
    D. India & Russia

     

    2. What is the purest form of Iron?
    A. Wrought iron
    B. Pig iron
    C. Cast iron
    D. None of the above

     

    3. Which is the most abundant gas in the earth’s atmosphere?
    A. Oxygen
    B. Nitrogen
    C. Methane
    D. Hydrogen

     

    4. Which type of plastics can be recycled?
    A. Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)
    B. Styrofoam
    C. Thermoplastics
    D. All of the above

     

    5. Which metal is a liquid at room temperature?
    A. Mercury
    B. Tin
    C. Lead
    D. Brass

     

    6. Which gas is found in soda water?
    A. Oxygen
    B. Argon
    C. Carbon dioxide
    D. Helium

     

    7. What is the speed of Earth around sun?
    A. 60 km/sec
    B. 90 km/sec
    C. 10 km/sec
    D. 30 km/sec

     

    8. Splitting of light into its constituent colours is known as what?
    A. Refraction
    B. Dispersion
    C. Frequency
    D. Prism

     

    9. Cotton fibres are made of ______.
    A. Cellulose
    B. Wax
    C. Fur
    D. Seeds

     

    10. Which historical victory achieved by a Spacecraft got Mars on its First try?
    A. Astrosat
    B. Chandrayaan
    C. Manglayaan
    D. Aryabhata

     

    11. Rate of growth of plant is measured by which instrument?
    A. Barometer
    B. Hygrometer
    C. Udometer
    D. Auxanometer

     

    12. The Ozone layer lies in the _______.
    A. Troposphere
    B. Biosphere
    C. Stratosphere
    D. Mesosphere

     

    13. Celsius and Fahrenheit show the same temperature at ______.
    A. 40
    B. 39
    C. 37
    D. 41

     

    14. ‘White Revolution’ is related to what?
    A. Cotton
    B. Milk
    C. Water
    D. Ice

     

    15. Hypertension is the term used for _______.
    A. Increase in heart rate
    B. Decrease in heart rate
    C. Decrease in blood pressure
    D. Increase in blood pressure

     

    16. What is the physical phase of life called?
    A. Protoplasm
    B. Cytoplasm
    C. Organelles
    D. None of the above

     

    17. Which among the following was first human-made plastic?
    A. Bakelite
    B. Polyethene
    C. Celluloid
    D. Nylon

     

    18. Amalgam’ is a term used for an alloy of a metal with ______.
    A. Copper
    B. Mercury
    C. Lead
    D. Aluminium

     

    19. Which is the largest blood vessel in the body?
    A. Alveoli
    B. Artery
    C. Vein
    D. Aorta

     

    20. The first synthetic fibre made by man was ______.
    A. Nylon
    B. Terycott
    C. Polyester
    D. Rayon

    21. Which of the below is water soluble vitamin?
    A. Vitamin C
    B. Niacin
    C. Riboflavin
    D. All of the above

     

    22. Radio Carbon Dating is use to estimate the age of ______.
    A. Monuments
    B. Fossils
    C. Rocks
    D. Soil

     

    23. The fastest growing plant is ______.
    A. Ashoka
    B. Banyan
    C. Eucalyptus
    D. Coconut

     

    24. Energy is measured in units called ______.
    A. Joules
    B. Newton
    C. Watts
    D. Ohm/mtr

     

    25. Ozone holes are more pronounced at the ______.
    A. Tropic of cancer
    B. Poles
    C. Equator
    D. Tropic of Capricorn

     

    -Team ScienceNow

     

    Answers

     

    1 D, 2 A, 3 B, 4 C, 5 A, 6 C, 7 D, 8 B, 9 A, 10 C, 11 D, 12 C, 13 A

     

    14 B, 15 D, 16 A, 17 C, 18 B, 19 D, 20 A, 21 D, 22B, 23 C, 24 A, 25 B

  • SCIENCE QUESTIONS

    Understand the facts in Science which we often miss…

    What’s the Colour of Mirror?

    It’s actually green. A human eye can distinguish between 10 million different colours. But to identify the colour of mirror, whether it is white or silver is very difficult. Mirror reflects the colour that is seen in it. It reflects all the images in the exact opposite direction due to angle of reflection and distance. But every mirror absorbs a very tiny amount of light within the 510 nanometre range. So, as the spectrum of visible light is green, the colour of the mirror is technically little green.

    Where Do Permanently Deleted Files Go in Computers?

    Actually the computer doesn’t delete anything. When we delete a file, we just put it into a new address or a pointer on the hard disk where it is stored. Large files are stored in multiple locations. When we open a file, the hard drive follows the pointer to identify the data. Thus any file is never erased and is always physically present on the hard disk. The files can be retrieved using special software. The data can only be erased when the hard disk is destroyed.

    Where is the Centre of Universe?

    The universe started with a “Big Bang” about 13.7 billion years ago and it has been expanding ever since. The centre of this expansion is everywhere. No matter where you are in the universe, everything will seem to be expanding or moving away from you at the same rate. Everything looks the same in every direction. So, there’s no one particular centre of Universe, rather the Centre of Universe is everywhere.

    Why does fish smell so strongly?

    In order to maintain fluid balance, fishes must fill their cells with amino acids and amines to remain safe from the saltiness of seawater. Ocean fish have trimethylamine oxide (TMAO) for this purpose. However once the fish is killed and bacteria and fish enzymes convert TMAO into trimethylamine, it gives off the characteristic fishy odour.

    Why do taste buds change over time?

    As we age, our taste buds actually change. Most of what we think of as taste comes from our noses’ smell receptors. As we age, it gets harder for our body to replace those receptors when they die off. As a result, people in old age are sometimes less sensitive to taste and so they gravitate toward things that have stronger, more detectable flavours.

    -Team ScienceNow

  • 75 Year Ago….

    India became Independent on 15th Aug 1947. The new born nation with aspirations to progress and lead as Independent nation. The journey towards excellence with initial steps to be self-reliant began

    The Year saw remarkable Scientific Developments…

    20th Feb 1947

    First Space Flight The first living things sent into space and returned safe are fruit flies. They were sent with Rye and Cotton seeds, aboard a V-2 rocket which was launched by the US Army and reached an altitude of 68 miles

    February 23, 1947

    ISO the International Standards Organisation is founded

    Finches of Darwin David Lack Published the book on Darwin’s Finches

    Virus Isolated Deadly Zika Virus was first isolated from the Rhesus Monkeys from the forest in Uganda

    July 29, 1947

    First RAM Installed World’s first Computer ENIAC is turned on after the computer’s memory was upgraded at Maryland

    November 17, 1947

    Transistor Discovered John Bardeen and Walter Brattain with William Shockley at Bells Labs in USA demonstrated the Transistor

    -Team ScienceNow