Category: Featured

Know the Genius – Thomas Alva Edison

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio. In 1854, when he was just seven

years old, the family moved to Michigan where Edison spent the rest of his childhood….

Early life

Edison went to school for a brief period and was not good at studies. In fact, his mother, a former

teacher, had to teach him at home. However, Edison loved reading and also liked to conduct various

experiments at his home.

Edison was quite a hardworking boy. At the age of 12 he sold fruit, snacks and newspapers on a train. He even printed his own newspaper, the Grand Trunk Herald, on a moving train. At 15, Edison roamed the country as a tramp telegrapher; Using a kind of alphabet called Morse Code, he sent and received messages over the telegraph. Even though he was losing his hearing, he could still hear the clicks of the telegraph. In the next seven years, he worked taking messages for trains and even for the Union Army during the Civil War. When he had time on his hand, he would take things apart to see how they worked. Finally, he decided to invent things himself.

The Inventions

Edison moved from Newark to Menlo Park, New Jersey, in 1876. There he built his most famous

laboratory. In fact, Edison is sometimes called the Wizard of Menlo Park; because he created two of his three greatest works there:

• The phonograph was the first machine that was invented by Edison that could record the sound of someonw’s voice and play it back. In 1877, Edison recorded the first words on a piece of tin foil. He recited the nursery rhyme;Mary Had a Little Lamb; and the phonograph played the words back to him.
• It was in 1878, that Edison worked on one of his greatest achievements – the electric light

system. Edison also designed a system of power plants that produce electrical power and the wiring that brings it to peoples homes.

• It was in 1887, Edison built a laboratory in West Orange that was 10 times larger than the one in Menlo Park. In fact, it was one of the largest laboratories in the world, almost as famous as Edison himself. It in West Orange that Edison earned half of his 1,093 patents.

Beyond Inventions

But Edison did more than invent. Not only did Edison improve the phonograph several times, but he

also worked on X-rays, storage batteries, and the first talking doll. At West Orange he also worked on one of his greatest ideas: motion pictures or movies. The inventions made here changed the way we live even today. He worked here until his death on October 18, 1931, at the age of 84.

-Dr Shobha Tawde

FILM REVIEW – Avatar

James Cameroon’s Avatar is not simply a sensational entertainment; it is a technical breakthrough.
The story unfolds sometime around 2154 when the earth is on the threshold of ecological doom. The
only solution is a mineral called Unobtainium, found in abundance in Pandora. To get this mineral, the US Armed Forces’ scientific team works towards creating humanoids (human beings whose DNAs are manipulated to make them hybrids) that resemble the Na’vis—pale blue creatures with thin, elongated bodies, wide-set eyes and a flat nose and let them loose in Na’vi land, to persuade the natives to leave their land.

The film takes us deep into Pandora with Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a former marine who is
crippled by war. As Cameron surges through the creeks, plateaus, fuming water streams and twinkling bushes with Jake, the film gathers momentum and ends in a catastrophic, morally loaded end.

-Team ScienceNow

The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) is a National Centre of the Government of India. Located in Colaba, Mumbai, the TIFR is dedicated to basic research in Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Biological Sciences, Computer Science and Science Education. Sheltered under the Department of Atomic Energy, it is also a Deemed University awarding degree for Master’s and Doctoral programs. It also has a Graduate Programme leading to a PhD in all the major fields of study…

A VISION THAT LED TO THE FOUNDATION

In 1944, Homi J. Bhabha, known for his role in the development of the Indian atomic energy programme, envisioned a better future for the nation.

“It is the duty of people like us to stay in our own country and build up outstanding schools of research such as some other countries are fortunate to possess.”

Dr. Bhabha wrote to the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust requesting financial assistance to set up a scientific research Centre. With the support from J.R.D. Tata, the then Chairman of the Tata Group, TIFR was founded on 1st June, 1945 under the vision of Dr. Homi Bhabha, who was rightly appointed as the first director of the TIFR.

THE HERITAGE INSTITUTION

TIFR’s Bombay campus was designed by Chicago-based architect Helmuth Bartsch and was inaugurated by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on 15 January, 1962. Post India’s independence, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) designated TIFR to be the centre for all large-scale projects in nuclear research in 1949.

 ACADEMICS AND RESEARCH

The first academic physics group was set up by Bhabha’s students B.M. Udgaonkar and K.S. Singhvi. In December 1950, Bhabha organized an international conference at TIFR on elementary particle physics. Renowned scientists from across the globe attended the conference, including Rudolf Peierls, Léon Rosenfeld, William Fowler as well as Meghnad Saha, Vikram Sarabhai and others providing expertise from India.

TIFR – A Deemed University

 In the 1950s, TIFR was a significant institute that played a key role in the field of cosmic ray physics. In June 2002, TIFR attained the official deemed university status. With the rising demand of space for research and accommodation, TIFR set up centres at Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Today, TIFR is considered as one of India’s most outstanding research centres.

Dr Siddhi Barve

ScienceNow Digital

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Automatic Calculator or TIFRAC was the first digital electronic computer to be designed and built in India. It was developed by the scientists at the TIFR and was formally commissioned in 1960 and was named so by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru….

DESIGN AND ASSEMBLY OF A SUPER COMPUTER

In 1995, scientists designed a pilot machine. By late 1956, the machine was operational. It was in 1959 that the machine was developed into a digital computer. TIFRAC had numerous vacuum tubes which were covered within a huge steel rack that measured approximately 18 ft X 2.5 ft X 8 ft. it was developed from modules of 4 ft X 2.5 ft X 8 ft, where each module had steel doors on either side for accessing the circuits. The magnetic core memory of TIFRAC had a capacity of 1024 words, and was later expanded to 2048 words.

WORKING OF TIFRAC

The software of TIFRAC were written in a series of commands of 1’s and 0’s. A punched paper tape was used to print the data from TIFRAC. The output would either be printed out directly or punched on paper tape. A cathode ray tube display system served as an auxiliary output to the computer for analogue and digital display of both graphs and alphanumeric symbols.

BUDDING COMPUTING OPPORTUNITIES

TIFRAC played a key role in understanding of the infrastructural needs and requirement of computing experts needed for establishing the computer industry in India. It created ample opportunities for technical personnel and helped them in the advancement of computer science skills required for operation and maintenance. With the rising demand for TIFRAC, it was operated in two shifts per day so as to cope with the computational requirements of TIFR.

ACQUIRING COMPUTING EXCELLENCE

TIFR scientists required expertise in the maintenance of TIFRAC’s complex electronic system and the hundreds of inter-connected parts inside it. A few scientists who had helped design and build the TIFRAC travelled to American universities. On returning, TIFR set up a committee to supervise more research into large-scale computing. This led to further research using systems like CDC and OLDAP. This made TIFR a major asset for computing excellence in India.

Dr Siddhi Barve

ScienceNow Digital

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio. In 1854, when he was just seven years old, the family moved to Michigan where Edison spent the rest of his childhood…..

Early life

Edison went to school for a brief period and was not good at studies. In fact, his mother, a former teacher, had to teach him at home. However, Edison loved reading and also liked to conduct various experiments at his home. He even printed his own newspaper, the Grand Trunk Herald, on a moving train. At 15, Edison roamed the country as a “tramp telegrapher.” Using a kind of alphabet called Morse Code, he sent and received messages over the telegraph. Even though he was losing his hearing, he could still hear the clicks of the telegraph.

Some Inventions

Edison moved from Newark to Menlo Park, New Jersey, in 1876. There he built his most famous laboratory because he created two of his three greatest works there:

• The phonograph was the first machine that was invented by Edison that could record the sound of someone’s voice and play it back. In 1877, Edison recorded the first words on a piece of tin foil. He recited the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” and the phonograph played the words back to him.
• It was in 1878, that Edison worked on one of his greatest achievements – the electric light system. Edison also designed a system of power plants that produce electrical power and the wiring that brings it to people’s homes.
• It was in 1887 that Edison built a laboratory in West Orange that was 10 times larger than the one in Menlo Park. This was the place where Edison earned half of his 1,093 patents.

Beyond Inventions But Edison did more than invent. Not only did Edison improve the phonograph several times, but he also worked on X-rays, storage batteries, and the first talking doll. At West Orange he also worked on one of his greatest ideas: motion pictures or movies. He worked here until his death on October 18, 1931, at the age of 84.

-Team ScienceNow Digital

Authored by India’s missile man, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and his associate Y. S. Rajan, ‘The Scientific Indian’ delves deep into the realization of the vision for the country’s better future. This realization will need a keen understanding of our needs and can be achieved only by modifying our research and innovations with the aim to achieve national development….

The book is divided in three sections – space, earth and life.  the book answers several questions on space including how difficult it is to place satellite in orbit, how it is injected into an orbit and how satellites help to give us real-time data of natural calamities and disasters, aiding space security and defence forces. About earth, the book explains how our blue planet is unique and is located perfectly so as to use sun’s energy in order to nurture life. The book also explains the origin and evolution of Earth. The book concludes with dealing with life on Earth with the importance of food, crop production, and irrigation systems and fertilizers which can boost produce and fetch resources. The section also aims at the need for better technology, energy, electricity and water for a better India.

–Team ScienceNow

“Research reactors are the backbone of the Nuclear Programme…” – Dr. Homi J. Bhabha

Located in the hustling-bustling city of Mumbai, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is the country’s leading nuclear research facility initiated by Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha. The centre’s huge infrastructure is a perfect platform for R&D (research and development) offering an entire gamut of nuclear science, engineering and related areas….

BARC’s ideology is to use nuclear energy, basically for generation of power. The centre accomplishes all facts of nuclear power generation, from theoretical design of reactors to computerised modelling and simulation, risk analysis, development and testing of new reactor fuel materials to name a few. BARC also does research in spent fuel processing, and safe disposal of nuclear waste. Other research areas for BARC are applications for isotopes in industries, medicine, agriculture, etc. The centre also operates a number of reactors across India.

Creation of BARC

It was on 3 January1954 that the Government of India created the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET). The idea behind creating AEET was to unite all the R&D activity for nuclear reactors and technology under the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). All scientists and engineers who were involved in various areas of reactor designing and development, instrumentation, metallurgy and material science etc., were transferred with their respective programmes from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) to AEET; with TIFR retaining its original focus for fundamental research in the sciences. After Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha’s death in 1966, the centre was renamed as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre on 22 January 1967.

Mega Research Hub

At the Gamma Gardens, BARC conducts research in biotechnology, and has developed a number of disease resistant and high-yielding crop varieties, especially groundnuts. It also conducts research in Liquid Metal Magnetohydrodynamics for power generation.

On 4 June 2005, the centre started the Homi Bhabha National Institute with the goal of encouraging research in basic sciences. Research institutions affiliated to BARC include IGCAR (Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research), RRCAT (Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology), and VECC (Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre). Power projects that have benefited from BARC expertise but which fall under the NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd) are KAPP (Kakrapar Atomic Power Project), RAPP (Rajasthan Atomic Power Project), and TAPP (Tarapur Atomic Power Project).

The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in addition to its nuclear research ideology also conducts research in other state-of-the-art technology areas like accelerators, micro electron beams, materials design, supercomputers, and computer vision etc. BARC has designed and developed for its own use a series of supercomputers – ‘Anupam’ using latest technology.

-Team ScienceNow

After the war against Pakistan in 1971, the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi who was touring the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in September of 1972 approved of a nuclear test. Without any hesitation, Physicist Raja Ramanna and chief of BARC at that time, took a team of around 75 scientists to design and build the plutonium implosion device. The test was kept as secret as possible and all the work on the project was carried under great secrecy…

Successful test

The Indian Army was given the work to dig a test shaft of about 330 feet underground at the Pokhran test site, Rajasthan. On May 18, 1974, the 1360 kilograms device exploded with a force equivalent to 8 kilotons of TNT. Immediately after the test was conducted, Ramanna reportedly informed Indira Gandhi of the successful test through a coded message: “The Buddha is smiling.” Although officially known as Pokhran I, the 1974 test was informally named ‘Smiling Buddha.’ A number of countries condemned India’s nuclear test. While Canada pulled its support for the Indian nuclear program shortly afterwards; United States considered the test a violation of the Atoms for Peace program and responded with sanctions against India.

Superpower

After its successful nuclear test of 1974, India took more than 20 years to build a nuclear arsenal and delivery system capable of military deployment. In the years after Smiling Buddha, India had significant difficulty procuring nuclear materials after international market refused to support its stand. Despite these challenges, the BARC leadership managed to construct their biggest nuclear plant to date—the Dhruva reactor at Trombay in 1977, which would produce most of the plutonium for India’s nuclear weapons program. The Indian government also approved a ballistic missile program in 1983. Over the next decade, the Defense Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) built the short-range Prithvi missile and the long-range Agni missile. Both were eventually equipped with nuclear warheads.

Operation Shakti also known as Pokhran II took place on May 11, 1998. India tested five nuclear devices, although not all of them detonated. Indian officials claimed that the bombs had a yield equivalent to 45 kilotons of TNT, but independent estimates put the number closer to 16 kilotons. “India is now a nuclear weapons state,” declared Prime Minister Vajpayee days after the tests, adding that “we have the capability of making big bombs for peaceful purpose.”

-Team ScienceNow

Albert Einstein is known as the greatest genius, mathematician and physicist. But how many of you know that as a toddler, he struggled with speech and needed therapy for the same? Taking you through some interesting episodes from the life of the genius scientist…

Making of a Prodigy

When Albert was four, his mother learnt that he was gifted with the understanding of mechanics. She introduced him to the world of music that helped him broaden his mind. When Einstein was 10 years old, he started educating himself under the guidance of his uncle Jakob Einstein, who bought the boy books for his school years much in advance. This way Albert managed to read them before the classes started and get good grades without active participation in classroom sessions. By the age of 12, much to his mother’s wonder, he was considered to be a Maths and Science prodigy and before he was 15 he had mastered differential and integral calculus.

From a Clerk to a Professor

Though Einstein was good in his academics,
his rebellious personality and bunking
classes, made his professors give him low recommendations for his graduation. He spent two years searching for an academic position
but had to settle for the job of a clerk at the
Swiss patent office in Bern. But this job gave
him enough of time for writing and conducting research. In 1905, he published four revolutionary articles that introduced his famous equation E=mc2 and the theory of special relativity. Despite this distinction, he got a full professorship job only in 1909.

Genius of Albert Einstein

In 1915, Einstein published his theory of general relativity, which stated that gravitational fields cause distortions in the fabric of space and time. But it remained controversial until May 1919, when a total solar eclipse provided the proper conditions to test its claim that a supermassive object—in this case the sun would cause a measurable curve in the starlight passing by it. English astronomer Arthur Eddington journeyed to the coast of West Africa and photographed
the eclipse, to confirm that the sun’s gravity had deflected the light by roughly 1.7 arc-seconds, exactly as predicted by general relativity. The news made Einstein an overnight celebrity.

The Genius Brain for Research

Einstein died in April 1955 from an abdominal aortic aneurysm. After his death, pathologist Thomas Harvey removed his famous brain during his autopsy and kept it aside for research. Harvey had the brain cut into pieces and sent to various scientists for research. Though a handful of studies were done, most have either been dismissed or discredited. The only one study that became famous was done by a team from a Canadian university which published a controversial paper in 1999 claiming Einstein possessed unusual folds on his parietal lobe – a part of the brain associated with mathematical and spatial ability.

-Team ScienceNow

Authored by India’s missile man, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and his associate Y. S. Rajan, ‘The Scientific Indian’ delves deep into the realization of the vision for the country’s better future. This realization will need a keen understanding of our needs and can be achieved only by modifying our research and innovations with the aim to achieve national development….

The book is Divided in three sections – space, earth and life.  the book answers several questions on space including how difficult it is to place satellite in orbit, how it is injected into an orbit and how satellites help to give us real-time data of natural calamities and disasters, aiding space security and defence forces. About earth, the book explains how our blue planet is unique and is located perfectly so as to use sun’s energy in order to nurture life. The book also explains the origin and evolution of Earth. The book concludes with dealing with life on Earth with the importance of food, crop production, and irrigation systems and fertilizers which can boost produce and fetch resources. The section also aims at the need for better technology, energy, electricity and water for a better India.

-Team ScienceNow