Category: Misc

What If?

Ocean Currents Stops?

Ocean currents play a significant role in controlling climate around the globe. These currents act like a giant conveyor belt, warming and cooling parts of the Earth as water circulates. Melting ice caps, which can happen due to global warming, can cause ocean waters to circulate and have a drastic effect on climate.

What are Ocean Currents?

Around the world, there are a number of ocean currents which have a serious impact on climate. For instance: The Gulf Stream in the Atlantic transports warm water with a high level of salinity and low density from equatorial regions further north on the ocean’s surface, warming countries such as the United Kingdom. The further north the water travels, the cooler it gets. Cold water becomes denser, falls further towards the bottom of the ocean and is carried back further south. This causes a continual ocean current in the North Atlantic.

Global Warming

Polar ice caps are beginning to melt due to global warming. Since ice caps are composed of freshwater, and if they continue to melt, it would bring down the level of salinity in the surrounding ocean waters. Changes in salinity levels could affect thermohaline currents by preventing water from achieving enough density to sink to the bottom of the ocean. More seriously, ocean currents could stop completely.

Effects of Ocean Currents

If ocean currents were to stop, climate could change drastically, especially in Europe and countries in the North Atlantic. In these countries, temperatures would drop, affecting humans as well as plants and animals. In turn, economies could also be affected, particularly those that involve agriculture. If these effects were to continue, Europe, North Atlantic countries and parts of North America could experience long periods of freezing conditions. Also, if ocean currents stopped because of climate change it will have many other affects associated with the global-warming phenomenon.

Earlier Phenomena

Earlier evidence of rocks and ice have shown that ocean currents have indeed stopped for periods of time in history. One example can be found around 13,000 years ago when the warmth experienced at end of an ice age caused large masses of ice to melt into the sea. The resulting changes in water density stopped ocean currents from flowing and caused freezing conditions in some parts of the world for over 1,000 years.

-Dr Siddhivinayak Barve

Editor, ScienceNow Digital

 

Ancient Science : Vigyan

Charm of Charminar

Built in 1591 CE in Hyderabad by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, the fifth Sultan of the Qutub Shahi Dynasty, the iconic Charminar has been standing tall for more than four centuries. Studies on all the ingredients that could have been used to make the lime mortar is considered to be the secret to its longevity.

Researchers have revealed that the key component used was water fermented with plant extracts. This fermented plant extract, which was used to mix the lime mortar, contained alcohol which slowed down the process of carbonation. Additionally, the lime mortar was also found to have carbohydrates from plant extracts, which acted as a perfect binding agent that controlled the breaking of the mortar.

Additionally, they also knew the correct lime to sand ratio, which is 1:3. This ratio has been proved to have better mechanical properties, reduce pores and boost carbonisation (the process of making solid carbon).

Do you know?

Charminar is built on a square structure and has four grand arches and four minarets on each corner that are built into the main structure. It is interesting to note that the number ‘char’ or four and its multiples can be figured in at least 22 spots in the design of the structure.

-Dr Shobha Tawade

Team ScienceNow

 

Ancient Science : Vaigyanik

Acharya Nagarjuna

Acharaya Nagarjuna was the Head of Nalanda University, writer of many treatises on Rasayana alchemy and developer of the philosophy of the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras. He was the great Buddhist philosopher

Nagarjuna was born in Andhra Pradesh Centuries after his death his biographies were written in Chinese and Tibetan. It is expected that he lived between 150-250 CE.

The most important contribution of Nagarjuna is the concept of śūnyatā, or “emptiness. Nagarjuna taught the concept of relativity. He explained that shortness is only possible because of long length relative to it. He wrote many writings, sutras and responsible for spreading Mahayana Buddhism. He was a teacher at Nalanda University and because of his preaching he later came to be known as Acharaya.

-Dr Shobha Tawde

Team ScienceNow

 

Ancient Vaidnyanik

Baudhayana

Boudhayana was a mathematician who lived around 800 BCE. He is the author of Baudhayana Sulbasutra which was more like a pocket dictionary, full of formulae and results for quick references. He is credited with calculating pi, and the square root of 2.

The most creditable achievement is that Baudhayana introduced the “Pythagoras theorem” 1000 years before Pythagoras had developed it!

In Baudhayana Sulbasutra, there are several mathematical formulae or results that told how to precisely construct an altar. He was a man of very considerable learning and probably wrote the Sulbasutra to provide rules for religious rites.

The mathematics given in the Sulbasutras enables the accurate construction of altars needed for sacrifices. It is clear from the writing that Baudhayana, as well as being a Vedic priest, must have been a skilled craftsman. He was skilled in the practical use of the mathematics and construction of sacrificial altars of the highest quality.

-Dr Shobha Tawde

ScienceNow

Ancient Vidnyan

Gol Gumbaz

Gol Gumbaz, situated in Bijapur district of Karnataka, is the largest dome in India built by Sultan Muhammad Adil Shah in the year 1656. About 20 years were spent for the complete construction of this large tomb.

The unique thing about the Gol Gumbaz is that ‘even the softest sound can be heard on the other side of the tomb due to the acoustics of the space’. This circular whispering gallery of the tomb is a great combination of sound and civil engineering.

The tomb is built in such a way that a small whisper gets amplified and is carried across a distance of more than 40 meters in the vast dome and can be heard clearly. Even the slightest whisper is heard from side to side; and a conversation can be most easily carried on across the full diameter of the dome in the lowest undertone. Even if you are 110 meters apart, on the far end of the floor, each whisper, each clap and each shift of your garment will be heard at the other end, as if they were speaking to you over your shoulders.

-Dr Shobha Tawde

ScienceNow

Mysteries…

Great Pyramids

The Great Pyramid of Giza is not only the oldest monument on the list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but also the only one still standing. The building of these extraordinary structures created in Egypt some 4,500 years ago are a source of speculation and debate. Let us decode the making of the Pyramid…

HOW WERE THE PYRAMIDS ALIGNED?

The Egyptians used astronomy to guide construction of the pyramids. According to a British Egyptologist, the stars were a guiding force in how the pyramids were aligned. Another research published in 2000 demonstrates how the Big Dipper and Little Dipper were used to align the pyramids in a north-south direction. So accurate were their measurements that they only have a margin of error of up to 0.05 degrees!

WHAT WERE THE MATERIALS USED TO BUILD THE PYRAMIDS?

When the pyramids were originally finished, they were plated in an outer layer of white “casing stones”. These casing stones were cut with astounding precision to give a smooth slope to the pyramids.

Why limestones?

The original casing stones were made of highly polished Tura limestone that fitted together so perfectly, giving the pyramid, smooth, flawless sides. This would have made the giant structures brightly reflect the sun’s rays like a mirror. It also would have made the inside of the structure perfectly insulated.

Why dolomite?

The material dolomite was used on the inner surfaces of the pyramid. Dolomite is known to increase electrical conductivity, directly relative to the amount of pressure on it, which means high pressure creates more electrical current.

Why granite?

Lining the passageways and underground tunnels of the pyramid is granite, which is slightly radioactive. Granite contains high amounts of quartz crystal with metal, and it’s a well-known conductor of piezo electricity (the ability of certain materials like quartz to generate electricity when subjected to mechanical stress or vibration).

How were the pyramids used to generate electricity?

Piezo electricity occurs as a result of stress or pressure on the quartz. The granite in the pyramids actually ionises the air inside the pyramid, creating a chemical reaction, which again, increases the conductivity of electricity. When such electrons are given the chance to bypass sections of rock via metal wire, quite large currents can flow.

Geographically located

An energy generator requires a catalyst from another source. And so the pyramids are geographically located over a powerful natural generator: underground rivers and aquifers. Piezo electricity could be harnessed from the power of the current as the water flows, and it has been proven that thousands of years ago, the Nile River ran straight past the pyramids.

From water to electricity

With water as the source of power, it would have travelled up the limestone based on the principle of capillary action, which happens when a small area of a substance that gets wet, absorbs into the entire area of that substance. The tunnel leading down from the bottom of the pyramid, could’ve tapped into an aquifer, channelling the water up into the pyramid, through a series of tunnels. So, water flowing near or underneath the pyramid could have been absorbed as it passed over the limestone, even travelling upward to the top of the structure. The quartz and the tunnels of the pyramids would be subject to the stress or vibration creating piezo electricity.

-Noel Farnades

Team ScienceNow

Science & Superstitions

Many buildings around the world don’t have the 13th Floor. Instead the elevator may be a label 12B or 14A. So also in some airlines like Air France and Lufthansa, don’t be surprised if the 13th row or 17th row happen to be missing, because people of countries like Italy and Brazil considered them as unlucky….

If someone dear to you sneezes, immediately you respond saying “bless you”. You don’t want the devil lurking around to steal their soul after the sneeze, just as your ancestors believed. Else If you are about to start a new venture or undertake an auspicious activity you wouldn’t want to see a black cat cross your path or see a mirror suddenly break or walk underneath a ladder

In each of the above cases, there appears to be a general belief that some supernatural forces are at work and that they are just about to influence something really undesirable, and one ought to best avoid it before things really go haywire.

While most people prefer calling it their ‘gut feeling’, universally believers of pure logic and science would without mincing any words blatantly call it a ‘superstition’. Decisions that appear to be grossly irrational on the part of the decision maker, and entirely based on one’s belief of an eventual ‘good luck’ and ‘destiny’. And to top it all, one may resort to carrying of charms, wearing certain clothes, visiting places associated with good fortune, preferring specific colours or using of a particular number/sign…

Though most of the listed choices and actions appear to be ‘trivial’ in nature, yet the conviction with which one goes about doing it may surprise one and all. Now at a time when science is making life easy and contributing to much of mankind’s progress and advancement, people have begun questioning one’s blind faith on ‘superstitions’, especially those that have been passed onto us by our ancestors.

While it may not be prudent to junk everything that out-rightly appears to be superstitious, instead one should try to follow the ones which have a scientific and logical basis and not let fear and anxiety push us to accept or do something forcibly. But before calling a spade, a ‘spade’, it is critical that one first develops the requisite scientific outlook and temper to identify a prevailing practice as being a ‘superstition’ and only then do away with it.

While taking a decision, one ought to be conscious of the fact that when ancient Indian scriptures and Aryabhatta put forth the assumption that Earth was round and it revolved around the Sun, the entire western world believed otherwise terming it ‘superstition’.

So also, whenever people in India suffered from communicable or infectious disease, traditionally householders performed some rituals using neem leaves on the affected person, which again was considered to be ‘superstition’ by the elite and learned. However, later when the same people who questioned these practices began discovering the amazing medicinal values of neem plant, they found some sense and logic in these age-old practices. In short, ‘superstitions’ are time tested assumptions – some passed down from generation to generation.

While it is true that unless these so called ‘assumptions’ are empirically found to be correct and eventually explained using some theory or principle, one need not accept them as ‘logical’ or ‘scientific’. But there exist many superstitions which may not have been proved scientifically, yet we cannot call these practices as ‘unscientific’ simply because there is every possibility of mankind not having evolved with as much knowledge to reason its veracity or we may not have the requisite technology to debunk them scientifically.

Though some of the superstitions appear to be quite hilarious, there are a few that are really very interesting and connect to heritage and ethos. In such a scenario, it’s best to do away with those which appear out-rightly ridiculous, but as for those where decision making is very tricky, leave it alone. With the passage of time, as the reasoning behind its origin gradually erodes, the truth will appear all by itself. What is scientific will remain, and what’s superstition will fade out into history. So let’s not try to reason out every superstition, at least for now!

 

-Dr Shobha Tawde

Team ScienceNow

 

Bharat – Ek Khoj : Vigyanik

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.

-Dr Shobha Tawade

Team ScienceNow Digital

Bharat – Ek Khoj : Ancient Vigyan

Portraying ancient science of shipbuilding…

Ships

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!

-Dr Shobha Tawade

Team ScienceNow Digital

 

Bharat Ek Khoj – Vaigyanik

Acharya Nagarjuna

Nagarjuna was a well-known metallurgist and alchemist of the 10th century. His dedicated research for twelve years produced maiden discoveries and inventions in the faculties of chemistry and metallurgy. The main aim of his experiments was to transform base elements into gold. But even though he was not successful in his goal, he succeeded in making an element with gold-like shine. Till date, this technology is used in making imitation jewellery.

In his research book, Rasaratnakara, he has discussed methods for the extraction of metals like gold, silver, tin and copper. Nagarjuna was the first to use mercury and Kharpar (antimony) as medicine, making them insoluble. He found five types of mercury. As the author of medical books like “Arogyamanjari” and “Yogasar,” he also made significant contributions to the field of curative medicine. Because of his versatile knowledge, he was appointed as Chancellor of the famous University of Nalanda.

-Dr Shobha Tawade

Team, ScienceNow Digital