n de ov ce em m b b er er
SCI
some kind of popular science
3D PRINTERS NEW TECHNOLOGIES MARS ONE PROJECT MARIA MONTESSORI ELECTRIC CARS
Author: Elif Koyuncuk Published by: Mladinski center Dravinjske doline Contact: elif.koyuncuk@hotmail.com Žička Cesta 4a 3210 Slovenske Konjice Slovenia Edition: 3/ November-December 2013 Copies: 100
Photo: Carmine delight www.klariart.com
INDEX: Editor’s page
Maria Montessori
Marsone project
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Electric and hybrid cars
New technologies
3D printers
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13
10
Paradoxes & impossible objects
Science fiction
Science pages
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22
24
Nobel prizes 2013
Did you know?
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SCI
some kind of popular science
EDITOR’S PAGE Hello again science lovers! I have good news and bad news for you. Bad news is, this is the last edition. Because my EVS project ends and I will not share my articles with you any more. First good news: with this you got totally 3 SCI magazines which were written during my EVS project, 3 good memories on your shelf. Second good news: In this edition there are also articles of my friends, with whom I work in MCDD. Besides their own personal projects, they contributed to my magazine and it is a big pleasure for me to share their articles with you. Olga Vincente Lorenzo introduces you Maria Montessori, a very succesful female scientist from 19th century. Leonardo Garcia Diaz offers an alternative solution to combustion engine cars by informing you about electric cars. Emre Uysal tickles your brain with paradoxes and surprizes you with impossible objects. Janberk Turan tells you how most of ideas in science fiction books and movies became true altough they were just dreams and fantasies in the past . You will also find interesting articles about 3D printers, Marsone Project, new technologies, popcorn, and more. Enjoy! Special thanks to my host organization, Mladinski center Dravinske doline, for all their support about my personal project. You can reach all SCI editions online by this link: http://issuu.com/elifkynck Elif Koyuncuk Author and Designer of SCI
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‘Within the child lies the fate of the future’
MARIA MONTESSORI Maria Montessori was educator, scientist, doctor, psychiatrist, philosopher, psychologist, feminist and humanist Italian. She was born on 31 August 1870 in Chiaravalle in the province of Ancona, Italy, in a bourgeois Catholic family. She was beyond time which she lived in. She studied engineering when she was just fourteen years old, after biology and finally medicine. In that time the highest aspiration for women was to be a teacher, but she studied medicine at the University of Rome. She became first female doctor in Italy. At those times at University of Rome women were not allowed to study medicine. Still nobody knows how she got her graduation. But she was a doctor with the best qualifications. Shortly after she started to work as an assistant in the department of psychiatry of University of Rome. At this time she was interested in the education of children who had some kind of mental deficiency, and applying experimental methods. She managed to teach those Montessori children how to read and write. with children Disabled children could overcome exams which are for normal children. She thought that if this method worked for disabled children, with "normal" children results would have been amazing. In 1907 in Italy the first House of Children (House for children with social-economic problems) was inaugurated in San Lorenzo, Rome. 3
Scientist of the month Maria Montessori
The Minister of Education pretended that it served to control children, but the House of Children became an important investigation center in very short time. Maria Montessori, as a director, got four or five years old children who has troubles, taught them how to write and read in natural way. At the same time she began to develop her own method by using the observing systematic and by elaborating new philosophy of pedagogy. She was the creator of the Scientific Pedagogy and a new revolutionary way of education. Her educational principles were based on atmosphere-children-love triangle. The minds of children have wonderful and unique ability: the ability to acquire knowledge by absorbing with their psychic life. They learn unconsciously, gradually passing from the unconsciousness to consciousness, moving along a path where all is joy. They were compared to a sponge, with the difference that the sponge has a limited absorption capacity; the child's mind is infinite. Knowledge comes into their head by the simple fact of living. Obviously the first period of human development is the most important. It is the stage of life there is more need of aid. They need aid, not because they are deemed insignificant and weak, because they are endowed with great creative energy and fragile nature. So these valuable features must be protected. The prepared atmosphere allows the child to develop without the constant help and supervision of an adult. The design of this atmosphere is based on the principles of simplicity, beauty and order. There are bright and warm spaces, including language, plants, art, music and books. The living room is organized in work areas equipped with tables adapted to the size of children and open areas for work on the ground. no 4
Scientist of the month Maria Montessori
In each development area the materials are organized systematically and in sequence of difficulty. The role of teachers is to teach each child individually. The highlight is, it imposes no lessons to anyone; their work is based on guiding and helping each child according to his/her needs, and can not intervene until they need it, to direct their mental activity. The level and type of intelligence is formed primarily during the first years of life. In 5 years, the brain reaches 80% of its adult size. The children's plasticity of education shows that the potential should be exploited starting early. Knowledge should not be introduced into the heads of children. On the contrary, using their own knowledge must be perceived by them as a result of their reasoning. The most important thing is to motivate children to satisfy their curiosity and experience the pleasure of discovering ideas rather than receiving knowledge from others. Allow the child to find the solution of the problems. Unless it is very necessary, don’t bring new knowledge from outside. Allow them to build their knowledge based on their specific experiences. With respect to competences, this behavior should be introduced only after the child has confidence in the use of basic knowledge. As Montessori says: ‘Never leave the child to fail if there isn’t any reasonable chance to succeed’. She believed that they could not create geniuses. But to give opportunity to fulfill their potential would make them independent, secure and balanced human. Another innovative concept was that each child marks their own pace or speed to learn and that time must be respected. Maria Montessori developed a specific educational material that is fundamental for the development and implementation of her method. It is not just a hobby, not a single source of information, it is more than that, it is educational material for teaching. It is designed to capture the curiosity of children. It is a guide for education through the desire of learning. To achieve this goal has to be presented grouped according to their function, according to the innate needs of each student. 5
Scientist of the month Maria Montessori
Educational materials can be used individually or in groups by participating in storytelling, talks, discussions, cooperative work, singing, outdoor games and free play activities. This ensures communication, exchange of ideas, learning the culture, ethics and morality. In general all teaching materials have a degree more or less elaborated of the four values: functionality, experimentation, structure and relationship. Another feature is, almost all equipment is self-correcting, so that no task can be completed without the children realizing their mistakes by themselves. If a task performed incorrectly they find gaps or leftover pieces. The children do things by themselves, use simple devices and see growing things (plants, animals), A sciene from movie about Montessori open their mind to science. The colors, papers of different textures, multiform objects and three dimentional geometric figures encourage creative expression. Since 1926 the Montessori Schools were extended around the world. She continued studying, writing and giving a lot of conferences. For her important works in the education field. University of Amsterdam awarded her with Honoris Causa. She was also proposed for Nobel Peace Prize three times. It is difficult for us to understand the impact of Maria Montessori in the reform of teaching methods in the early twentieth century. Most of her ideas seem now obvious or even too simple. But at those days they were radical innovations, which produced great controversy and important changes. Olga Vincente Lorenzo
Sources http://www.uhu.es/cine.educacion http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori http://mujeres-riot.webcindario.com/Maria_Montessori.htm 6
MARS ONE PROJECT Just a century ago, travelling to outer space was just a fantasy which we could just dream about. Big space adventure started in 1961 when Yuri Gagarin first time went to outer space and reached an incredible point with a fantastic project aims to establish settlement on the red planet Mars. A few entrepreneur scientists in Netherlands established a non profit organisation called Mars One. The big goal is creating a permanent human colony on the planet Mars in 2023. Idea of project has been started in 2011. Founding members of Mars One came together to develop the strategic plan. In 2012 project was declared to community with all details of its mission. For this hard mission brave and eager people were wanted. They made an open call to all around the world with just one condition: people had to be over 18. Just in second week 78,000 candidates were allready applied for project. Now this number reached over 100,000. Selection of volunteers will be completed in 2015 and they will start their 8 years long training to be educated as astronauts. After a tough and long term training, in 2022, they will be ready to start their journey from Earth to Mars. Journey will take 7 months and when they will reach on the surface of Mars great adventure will start. 7
Great space adventure Mars One Project
After arrival, new inhabitants of red planet will need to face a big challenge. At least first 6 months they will have to accomplish a lot of construction work. They will build structures for themselves to live in and to make research. Step by step they will start to create a new stable life on the planet. Candidates who are chosen to achieve this mission have to make the hardest decision in their lifes. They won't see their family again, won't pet their cats at least once again, won't taste a warm pizza ever again... Because it is a one way trip and there is no turn back! For the first time 4 people will be sent, consist of 2 women and 2 men. Each year 4 more people will be added. For sure there must be a huge preparation process and there are a lot of obstacles and limitations to be achieved. Howewer, each step was allready planned. In 2016 SpaceX-Dragon module will be prepared it must have 2,5 tons of food capacity. In 2018, an explorer vehicle will start to work on Mars to detect the place for settlement. 1 discovery vehicle, 2 life units, 2 life support units and 2 support units will be launched by Dragon Module in 2021. After all preparations, conditions will be approppriate to support human life on the planet. As we know from previous experiences, less than half of modules could reach Mars surface which were sent. This information lets us think how risky sending human-carrying modules is. While there can be a big danger during travel from Earth to Mars, it is also possible that they can have various safety problems after arrival. First of all, surface temperature is -55oC and there are powerful radiation which they always have to be protected. In addition, lack of food or water can be a big problem.
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Great space adventure Mars One Project
They can also have some serious psychological problems because they will be all the time under pressure because of hard life conditions. From the beginning of their life on Mars, daily life of astronauts will be recorded all the time and their adventure will be a reality show on TV. Income from this reality show will be reused for finances of Mars One project. Actually, if we think about feasibility of the project, it looks impossible. They need a lot of money, too much hard work and high technology equipment to achieve everyhthing. Most of people don’t believe that project owners can manage it or not. Anyway, most of us will live until 2023 and we will see that they accomplish or not. More or less you know the details now. So you still have time to be a candidate for the project. Good luck!
Sources http://www.uzaycobanlari.com http://www.mars-one.com https://applicants.mars-one.com www.space.com
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3D PRINTERS This morning you may drink your coffee from special cup which you designed last day. You may give a tiny copy of your friend for her birthday. It is possible to print a new piece for your car. Girls can use their own designed jewelery or shoes whenewer they want... These are not dreams, they happened and are happening. Also we don't need to wait to have them in our daily lifes. In my opinion, they are one of the best devices invented in last 50 year. Story of 3D printers started with idea of Charles Hull. In 1984 he produced first 3D object by using digital data. In 90's a lot of companies invested in 3D printing technology and some interpreneurs established new companies to produce their new developed 3D printers. Today this technology is very common. I think you don't have to wait too much to have one for your home.
What are 3D printers? They are devices which produce 3D objects that are converted from computer designed drawings to real solid objects without need for extra mold or fixture by using different kind of materials. 3D printing is an additive technology in which objects are built up in many thin layers. They work at the same principle as prototyping devices. It is also possible to find some prototyping devices which are faster and have better quality. They are usually used for producing pieces in automotive and aerospace industy. On the contrary, 3D printers are smaller, cheaper and they are more appropriate for home use. That's why A ho me they are chosen for daily use. ty pe
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Today & future 3D printers
How is possible to print? First of all, you need a drawn 3D model of your object in your computer. Some softwares which can be used for this purpose are AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Google Sketchup, Rhino3D Autodesk 123D... Models which are designed by these programs sould be converted to STL document and exported to printed to be produced. A wide range of materials can be used to produce your model such as polimers, ceramics, stainless steel, brass, bronze, poliamide, resin, titanium, silver, gold, even chocholade or cheese! Different kind of technologies can be used for 3D printing. Difference between technologies is related to method how they generate layers of object. Some common technologies which are used for 3D printing are selective laser sintering, fused deposition modelling and stereolithography.
For which purposes 3D printers can be used? Today, 3D printers are used for wide range of purposes. Besides producing objects for hobby or for your daily life, they are also used for producing prototypes before industrial manifacturing. Also in medical science implants are printed by 3D printers. It is possible to print very complicated objects or moving pieces as you can see in the picture. Some companies offer you to print your personal designed object and send it to your home. If you have a computer program that you can design your own 3D object with and if you are good at designing, you can design your favorite object by yourself and order it as a real object on internet. For example you may be interested in this web page http://i.materialise.com which belongs to Materialize Company. no 25 11
Today & future 3D printers
When you prepare your design and choose material it shows you how it will look like and how much will it cost. If you want to purchase it, they send it to you by post. There are 17 different material choices and there are information about materials. Besides this, you can see and buy other objecs which designed before. In the near future, women will design their own shoes and print them out at home or they will be able to send their designs to print shops and let them be produced there. There are no limits about 3D printing. Blizzdent Company produced a tooth cleaner by 3D printing. According to your mouth shape you get your personal cleaner. They claim that it makes perfect cleaning just in 6 seconds. An engineering company Solid Concepts could produce a gun by 3D printing but they had trouble with Disarmament and international law in USA. Of course, non of us wants 3D printers to be used for weapon production. Nowadays, medical and biotechnological applications of 3D printers are rising. A lot of applications are allready started from producing arm implants to periodontic applications. In addition scientists started to Bio printed ear work on producing artificial organs, tissues, muscle fibrilles and vascular systems. They call this method 'bioprinting'. There are different kinds of 3D printers which you can find on internet. Their prices changes according to their properties. Maybe it is time to buy one and start to print your ideas!
Sources http://www.elektrikport.com http://explainingthefuture.com http://i.materialise.com http://3dprintingindustry.com http://www.3byazici.com 12
NEW TECHNOLOGIES Google Glasses Meet the newest technology of Google Company. With this new technologic device you will carry your mini computer all the time right in front of your eyes. When you are dancing, celebrating your child's birthday, visiting a museum, this glasses will be always with you. You just need to say 'OK glass, record!' or 'glass, take photo!' When you travel to a new city and you want to have more information about architecture, you can google it instantly. During your travel in another country, it will be your best helper to translate all signs and information around you. All of these, you will do hands-free! Poperties of google glass are: The display is the equivalent of a 25-inch high definition screen. From around 2.5 meters away 5 megapixels camera that can capture video at 720p resolution. The rechargeable battery last for roughly a day. There's 16GB of flash memory built into the device, although only 12GB is currently available for user storage. Bluetooth and WiFi will be built in, but there is no GPS chip, so the Glass will probably work best alongside an Android phone for full Google Maps functionality. You can however pair it with any Bluetooth enabled phone and would expect some support for IOS at least. Sound will be produced through bone conduction transfer - vibrating your skull to transmit to your eardrum. Google recently revealed a new version of the Glass headset that can take an optional mono earbud if you need to wear Glass in a noisy environment where bone conduction just can't give the volume you require. 13 24
Innovated & produced New technologies
Wireless Chargers Electricity converted to electromagnetic field with an induction coil by wireless charger. This electromagnetic field is transferred to cell phone's battery. A secondary coil in mobile phone receives electromagnetic field and again converts it to electric current to use in mobile phone. Actually this technology has been used from 90's. For example Oral-B rechargeable toothbrushes by the Braun company have used inductive charging since the early 1990s . We will discuss about the most famous companies which produce wireless charging technology: Nokia, Samsung and Google. Nokia Lumia 920 has wireless charging built-in. And you can charge Nokia Lumia 820 wirelessly by adding on a wireless charging shell . Nexus wireless charger by Google company is compatible for any device which has inductive charging property. Nexus Wireless Charger is officially supported by the Nexus 5, Nexus 7 and Nexus 4, since each has wireless charging built-in. It has a glass-like top that is a fingerprint magnet, soft-touch sides, and a super sticky bottom that helps it adhere to your desk. Samsung Company has produced very elegant wireless charger and developed Galaxy S4. You can use this smart phone with its normal back cover or special cover which has wireless apparatus. The charger is also compatible for other smartphones.
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Innovated & produced New technologies
Keyboard revolution Everybody knows that it is hard to type on the screen of mobile phones. To write your messages or mails more comfortable, iPhone has an application which you can download from iTunes for free. You just need to print out its special keyboard and put your iPhone to the right place. You can do everything like it is a real keyboard, such as chatting with your friends, playing games, typing texts. It is also practical because you just carry a piece of paper in your pocket and use it anywhere you want. The phone's camera detects your fingers with state of art algorithms.
The fastest DNA sequencer DNA sequencing has revolutionized medicine and biomedical research. For example, DNA analysis can tell doctors which drug might work best against a particular cancer. But current technology usually sequences only short stretches of DNA and can take hours or days. But with this new sequencer, it is much faster than you can imagine. There are 5 steps which you can follow and than your DNA strands will be sequenced. First of all you drop pure DNA or blood on the chip. DNA is divided into two single strands by an enzyme. Due to amount of nucleotides, electrical currency interrupted in nanopores and a sensor records this electrical disturbance. In next step electric signals are recorded by a software. After all you need to do is to check errors of your information. 70,000 base pairs can be sequenced with this device.
Sources http://www.techradar.com http://www.google.com/glass/start/ http://www.droid-life.com https://itunes.apple.com http://www.popsci.com 15
Present or future? Unfortunately for environment the answer is future. Why? From my point of view there are two main answers. First one is: this technology is more or less new and still is not very good developed. There is problem about batteries: how many kilometers you can run with one full battery? At the moment the longest distance is between one hundred fifty and two hundred An electric car on charging kilometers (With electric car, hybrid is different). That’s why people who think to buy electric car aren’t still convinced. Also there is other one more problem: There aren’t any ‘charge points’ in all cities, so if you want to buy an electric car, first you must check if there is one of this points close to you or not. Second problem is about economic interest. As you know big petrol companies are so rich and they can control even car companies with the aim of avoiding them to sell good and really usefull ellectric cars. I think, big petrol companies pay to owners of cars companies to be silent about new electric car technologies. Now I would like to tell you what are the different kinds of electric cars that already are developed. Electric powered vehicles (E.V.) are powered by electricity and they need to be connected to an external power source for 24 16 charging.
Present or future? Electric cars
Actually inside of this group there are three kinds: Electric Battery Vehicles (E.B.V.): The battery electric vehicles or E.B.V. have a battery as a power supply. They can be plugged into a charger or in some cases, depleted battery can be replaced with charged one. The E.B.V. hasn’t got a fuel tank, exhaust pipe like conventional engine or any integrated electricity generation source.They usually can travel from 100 to 160 km. H.E.V. plug-in: Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles have two power systems. In some H.E.V. plug-in cars, the main power source is a battery, a secondary engine generates additional electricity from gasoline when the battery If you can find some charging runs out. These cars usually can points in your city, you’re lucky! travel from 40 to 80 km by battery power, which extends hundreds of km with fuel generated electricity. Other H.E.V. plug-in cars use a conventional gasoline engine as the main power source and supplemented with a battery that can be recharged by plugging. This type of hybrid vehicles usually have an electrical path from 16 to 24 km, which extends hundreds of kilometers when the gasoline engine is being used. Hybrid Electric Vehicle (H.E.V.): Hybrid or H.E.V. electric vehicles have two or more power systems, usually a battery and a conventional engine. In H.E.V. regenerative braking generates electricity to charge the battery, which provides a secondary power source to the conventional engine. These vehicles can only travel short distances (5-6 km) with battery and can’t be plugged in a power grid. Now in the automotive market you can find many car companies that sell electric cars. For example Toyota was the first company which developed an hybrid car that really works well: Toyota Prius Hybrid. 17
Present or future? Electric cars
After that the automotive giants started to sell their own electric and hybrid cars: Renault Kangoo Electric, BMW i3, Peugeot iOn, Nisan Leaf... Now let’s talk about advantages of electrics cars. The use of an electric vehicle represents a significant saving to the consumer's pocket. Its main economic advantage comes from the type of energy use: electricity. It is much cheaper to recharge an electric car than fill the tank of internal combustion car with gasoline. So that, the initial expense of buying an electric car is amortized over several years through savings in fuel. Especially when you consider about gasoline prices, they increase in short and medium term. Aside from fuel, electric cars have significant maintenance savings, because they don’t use oil or other lubricants. They have a little brake wear and they don’t have mechanical transmissions. Furthermore, energy efficiency of the electric vehicle is almost double times more than internal combustion car. According to the European Commission, an electric car has an efficiency of 60%, when conventional engine cars have 20%. Finally, we must not forget the important advantages of electric cars for the environment which also has economic benefits, particularly for the society. The most important thing: the exhaust of these vehicles don’t emit carbon dioxide. So they help to reduce greenhouse gases and air pollution caused by emissions from conventional cars. Moreover, their engines are virtually silent and have no vibration, which helps reducing noise pollution. Leonardo Garcia Diaz
Source: http://www.gepowercontrols.com
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PARADOXES AND IMPOSSIBLE OBJECTS Here is not written ‘Paradox’ What is paradox? As you can see in title, it confuses you. There is written, 'there is not written paradox' but in fact, there is written paradox! That is a paradox. Paradoxes are interesting, surprising and they tickle your brain. Description of paradox from wikipedia: ‘A paradox is a statement that apparently contradicts itself and yet might be true. Most logical paradoxes are known to be invalid arguments but are still valuable in promoting critical thinking.’
Liar paradox (Epimenides) Cretan phylosopher Epimenides created first paradoxes. His most famous paradox is 'liar paradox'. He made confuse people around him when he said ' All Cretans are liars'. Thomas Fowler (1869) states the paradox as follows: Epimenides the Cretan says 'all the Cretans are liars' but Liar Pinocchio paradox Epimenides is himself a Cretan; therefore he is himself a liar. But if he is a liar, what he says is untrue, and consequently the Cretans are veracious; but Epimenides is a Cretan, and therefore what he says is true; saying the Cretans are liars, Epimenides is himself a liar, and what he says is untrue. Thus we may go on alternately proving that Epimenides and the Cretans are truthful and untruthful.'
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Brain tickling Paradoxes & impossible objects
The twin paradox One of the most famous paradox is Einstein's twin paradox. One of the twins is staying on Earth while his twin was moving in space. After 39 years twin on the Earth became 72 years old and then his twin returned suddenly. He couldn't recognize him. The other twin was moving in space at almost speed of light. When he came back to earth after 39 years, he remained almost the same while his twin became old. So, he couldn't recognize him.
Impossible Objects An impossible object (also known as an impossible figure or an undecidable figure) is a type of optical illusion consisting of a two-dimensional figure which is instantly and subconsciously interpreted by the visual system as representing a projection of a three-dimensional object although it is not geometrically possible for such an object to exist (at least not in the form interpreted by the visual system). In most cases the impossibility becomes apparent after viewing the figure for a few seconds. However, the initial impression of a three-dimentional object remains even after it has been contradicted. There are also more subtle examples of impossible objects where the impossibility does not become apparent spontaneously and it is necessary to consciously examine the geometry of the implied object to determine that it is impossible. 20
Brain tickling Paradoxes & impossible objects
Swedish artist Oscar Reutersvärd was the first to deliberately design many impossible objects. He has been called ‘the father of impossible figures’. In 1934 he drew the Penrose triangle, some years before the Penroses. In Reutersvärd's version the sides of the triangle are broken up into cubes. In 1956, British psychiatrist Lionel Penrose and his son, mathematician Roger Penrose, submitted a short article to the British Journal of Psychology titled "Impossible Objects: ‘A Special Type of Visual Illusion’. This was illustrated with the Penrose triangle and Penrose stairs. The article referred to Escher, whose work had sparked their interest in the subject, but not Reutersvärd, of whom they were unaware. The article was published in 1958.
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Sources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox http://www.biltek.tubitak.gov.tr http://karavi.wordpress.com/category/puzzles http://physicaplus.org.il/ 21
SCIENCE FICTION: SCIENCE PAGES PRE-FUTURE Everybody knows what is science fiction, but most of people think that science fiction is just space, spaceships, aliens, monsters. But it is not true. Mainly science fiction movies or books try to answer where humanity is going. This is really good question, because it never ends. During existence of mankind in the world, this question will be with us and we will wonder about the answer. To be a science fiction writer is one of the most amazing jobs in the world. You need to have wide scientific knowlegde and also you need to have a crazy mind. If you don't have it, please don't try to write something about science fiction. In my opinion, science fiction writers live in the future in their minds. Maybe physicaly they are here with us but mentally they are many years ahead. Most of invention ideas comes from science fiction books or movies. When Jules Verne wrote ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea’, there wasn't this much submarine technology. After, our technology has progressed and we have similar technologies as written in his book. Also when Mary Shelly wrote ‘Frankenstein’ people didn't know anything about the transplantations. These are just some examples. So many ideas which we use now in daily life, comes from science fiction books. If we talk about science fiction history, it stared at 2nd century with Lucian's ‘True History’ and some stories of ‘Tales of 1001 Nights’. They are kind of science fiction. But in my opinion, gods of science fiction are Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Hugo Gernsback. Also most of people have the same idea. When Jule Verne was a little child, he lived in a town near the see and he always interested in sea, ships and travelling.
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Science fiction Pre-future When he was 12 years old, he ran away from home and joined a ship crew. But his father caught him and brought him back. It is said that after that moment Jules promised his father that he will just travel in his mind. Maybe it is true maybe not. But the truth is, he had great imagination. 'From Earth to the Moon', 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea', 'Journey to the Center of The Earth' and more of them are books that were beyond the current time when they were written. H.G. Wells was also one of the pioneers of the science fiction. His books are different than Jules Verne's books. Because he mostly didn't write about technology. He mostly wrote about the impact of technology on society. Hugo Gernsback was the owner of the first science fiction magazine in history, 'Amazing Stories'. If I talk about movies, I can say that Star Wars and Star Trek series are two of the best science fiction examples. Some people don't think like that but in my opinion both of them have stories beyond the time. Robots, lightsabers, spaceships, teleportation devices and most of the ideas are great. In my opinion, especially Star Wars is important for laser technology. Lightsabers are kind of lasers and in those time we didn't use it for some purposes yet. Also we watched a lot of movies about robots and computers and most of them came true. As everybody knows, most popular theory in science fiction movies is taking control of the world by computers. Maybe Matrix is more imaginary story but computer technology is getting better and better. Every year scientists invent more sensitive robots and much more people become to be addicted to this technology. Maybe in the future, maybe in a shorter time than we guess, technology can take the control. Who knows? Janberk Turan
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SCIENCE PAGES www.engineerguy.com This web page was created by Bill Hammack, chemical engineer. He explains working principles of a lot of devices with engineering details and gives technical information under this slogan: 'The engineering details of all the stuff you wanna know about'. He offers videos and articles about many topics such as structure of fiberoptic cables, how transistors work, what is the working principle of open ring of soda cans... As you can find all of these in webpage, you can also search for them in Youtube by using keywords. If you are impressed by ideas and explanations of this 'Engineer Guy', you may have his book '8 Amazing Engineering Stories'. This book is available as hardcopy and e-book.
http://thedailydish2013.blogspot.com/ You will be very surprised when you see how bacteria became an artwork as they are growing in petry dish and you will appreciate how beautiful results can happen when science and art come together. Artist-scientist Klari Reis, creator of this blog calls this kind of art 'Petri Eye of the tiger Painting'. 24
Editor’s suggestion Science pages
Actually I have seen different kind of petri arts on internet before, but this one is very proffessional and impressed Shades of blue me a lot. Klari everyday adds a new on tv static petri painting. This artworks can be followed day by day. She creates names for each work according to her inspiration arising from their beauty, such as Lemonade slushy, Lychee coctail, Jelly belly bowl... If you are interested about other artworks of her, you can also visit www.klariart.com. There is online shop link which can be clicked for ordering her artworks. She is also reachable on Facebook and Twitter.
www.sciencebob.com Perfect source for children and families! Children can find opoortunity to understand some scientific facts better by watching videos. How lava lamp can be made? How can your hair be funny with static electricity? How does Van de Graaff generator work? There are videos to answer such kind of interesting questions. Experiments can be done easily at home or at school with friends. This is a good way to discover fun part of science. Materials for experiments and methods are explained very detailed. Also you can order some science kits or book from bobstore link.
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Editor’s suggestion Science pages
www.scaleofuniverse.com Just push the start button and explore all universe from microcosmos to macrocosmos. Creators of the webpage prepared beautiful images which are helpful when comparing sizes. When you start your travel through dimentions, you can adjust sizes by sliding the bar below the image to left or right. During your travel you will have fun and learn size of different objects in the universe from width of DNA to diameter of a star which is ten times bigger than our sun. The window which appears when you click on an object, offers you more detailed information. In observable universe link there are photos which shows you location of Earth in the Solar System, Solar System in Milky Way, Milky May in local galactic groups, local galactic groups in local superclusters... On each map you will realize how small is the previous map. When you look at observable universe map, the last one, it can make you feel so small and insignificant in whole universe. But don't take it so seriously and enjoy your short life!
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DID YOU KNOW? How popcorn pops? Popcorn is one of the most common snacks in the world. It is usually with us when we have a party with our friends, when we watch a movie in cinema. But do we know what is going on when you put corn kernels in the pan or microwave? First of all you need to know that there are 4 different corn species and just one of them has popping property. Because, corn kernels must have some main physical characteristics. Popcorn differs from other types of corn in that its hull has just the right thickness to allow it to burst open. A popcorn kernel consists of 3 main components: germ, endosperm and pericarp. Endosperm has starch inside and there must be between 13-14% of water in the starch to be able to make the kernel explode. Pericarp must be hard and resistant enough to withstand the pressure inside during cooking process. Because the counter force must be kept until moisture reaches the limit pressure. When kernel is heated up, moisture inside of endosperm starts to expand. Around 212oC, water-starch mix becomes gelatinous form. When heat increases, water vaporizes and very high pressure is created inside of kernel. As it explodes, steam inside the kernel is released. The soft starch inside the popcorn becomes inflated and spills out, cooling immediately and forming into the odd shape we know and love. A kernel will swell 40-50 times its original size. Now you know the adventure of a corn kernel which you can tell your friends in a party!
Sources http://xenophilius.wordpress.com/category/physics/ http://www.popcorn.org/ 24
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NOBEL PRIZES 2013 Nobel prizes are awarded every year since 1901, as Alfred Nobel bequeathed in 1871. According to Nobel’s will, each year Nobel prices are given to best invention or project that have most benefits for humanity and that make humanity takes steps further. In this edition of SCI, we present you Nobel winners of 2013, in physics, chemistry and physiology or medicine.
In physics The Nobel Prize in Physics 2013 was awarded jointly to François Englert and Peter W. Higgs ‘for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider’.
In chemistry The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2013 was awarded jointly to Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel ‘for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems’. In Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013 was awarded jointly to James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Südhof ‘for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells’.
Source http://www.nobelprize.org
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Photo: Helicobacter pylori http://education.denniskunkel.com/