Wire magazine Issue 2 by Science Panorama Inc.

Physics of the Fruits

How does

Memory Work?

Where Ideas Reach Everyone

Science + Creativity + Ideas + Knowledge + Technology Issue 2 | June 2013

A SciencePanorama Publication

Global Warming

What is it and How it works? Is it really a man-made phenomenon?

Look For :

The SciClick Photography Contest WINNERS

Introducing a new section on technology.

TOAST

ScienceGlobe The best Science articles from around the web. A promotional feature on

YEAR OLD This month

“Your Science Station”

editorial *

The return of the lost.. ere you are, reading the second issue of WIRE and you can imagine on the first look that we have improved in leaps and bounds. Thanks to all you readers for your genuine feedback. We’ve tried our best to eradicate all our flaws and shortcomings considering every single feedback with utmost respect. My dad has always said that “There’s no substitute for hard work” and I’ve realised it completely. Whatever you’re going to read further in this magazine is the outcome of tremendous efforts The SciencePanorama team has put in. We’re just a bunch of enthusiastic students from all over the world. But as they say, when you have great passion for something, you cannot be stopped. We work together with the passion to make Science popular and spark the interest of every single individual we meet into the field of Science. You will not be surprised to notice that most of the articles in this magazine are written in such a simple language that anyone will appreciate the essence of Science and Technology.

WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

And Yes, we’re sorry for taking such a long time to return. We all had to deal with our exams and assignments. Well, now we’ve found a solution to that and we promise to bring you with an amazing issue of WIRE every two months.

Anyways, Thanks again to all of you for your support. This issue is packed with great stuff. We’ve introduced two new columns that will be regularly featured in WIRE from now on. 1. ScienceGlobe - It brings you the best science and technology articles from around the globe. You would not like to miss any of them. They are all completely awesome. 2. TOAST, Technology on a Stunning thought - As the name suggests, its all about what we science geeks can never stay away from. Knowing about the coolest gadgets that are in stores or, are yet to be out is a feeling that something we geeks cannot explain completely. Hope you all enjoy this issue of WIRE. Don’t forget to tell us what you think about us. Just drop in your feedback to editor@sciencepanorama.com

Vidyadhar Sharma Chief- Editor

editor@sciencepanorama.com

“Whatever you’re going to read further in this magazine is the outcome of tremendous efforts The SciencePanorma team has put in.”

CONTENTS ON THE COVER

11 48

Physics of the Fruits

Global Warming Everything you need to know

43 09

Science Globe

How does Memory work?

TOAST technology on a stunning thought

37 SciClick Photography Contest Winners!

CONTENTS Featured

07 17 Advertorial Feature by 34 somersault18:24 Phizy and Picky 46

Changing the we see, OLEDs : The Future A New way to find inspiration : amazers.org

Wired Inn

29 Few Hopes 33 31 A Need for New Keynote

Manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Best Friend Today : Mobile Phones

Global Warming elsewhere in Solar System

Readers’ Views We want to thank all our readers for your valuable feedback. If you have any ideas or constructive opinions regarding the contents of WIRE magazine, then this is a platform for you to express yourself. Please continue to send your opinions, feedback, ideas or comments to editor@sciencepanorama.com.

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May I please have permission to post your information and share your links on facebook and in classrooms for students (USA) 4th - 12th grades? Thanks! I am integrating reading and mathematics into grade level mathematics and beginning Physics lessons. - Tc Maas, USA s Our main aim was to reach as much audience as possible and make Science popular among everyone. We believe teachers are among the greatest powers who can plant seeds of interest into a group of students easily when communicated rightly. So, Please do not hesitate to share our links and content with your students and friends. I want to encourage you to keep up the work. There are those of us who just want to learn but don't know where to start. Your facebook page shows me so many ideas and subjects that I want to learn about. I want to learn just for the sake of learning. I don't need marks in a course or to do research in a lab. I just want to see all that is possible and what the great minds in the human race have created and cultivated, and what these great minds have figured out about our world and the universe that we are a part of. - Janis Simpson, Canada s We really love your attitude towards learning because we’re among the same opinion. Really do share your opinion among your friends and explain them why you think so. We need more people who have this kind of attitude towards learning. We appreciate it. I am very much impressed by this work of you as I am always very keen to know whatever is happening in the world of science, especially in the field of astrophysics and nuclear science. Thanks for providing me the required knowledge through this fantabulous magazine. - Rachit Bansal, India S We’ll try our best to bring what you like to you. It is when people like you who speak for what they like, we get to know what our readers expect from us. Thanks a lot for taking time to write to us. WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

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Featured

Changing the way we see,

OLEDs : The Future By Mayukh Saha mayukh@sciencepanorama.com ou, me and everyone reading this article belong to the Generation Z or the current era in simple words. We are tech savvy and love to be surrounded by latest technology and futuristic gadgets that were once present only in Science Fiction even just 20 years back! Can you imagine a life without your Smart Phone or Tablet? Or would you like to live your life without your favourite program/news in the Television? Will you mind spending days without even seeing your Macbook’s or Ultrabook’s screen? No. That’s the straight and simple answer, isn’t it? Well, now concentrate, take a minute! Imagine. Yeah, just imagine your Smart phone opening up like a book and then it reveals a tablet like screen inside and you get to do all the work, that you would love to do in the same screen size that you get in a PC. Or, your phone drops down from your hand by mistake and to your utter surprise it doesn’t break but gets bent, a little. Is it possible? With the advent of the new innovations and ever improving technology, we are in a world where this has been made possible, courtesy, the OLED or the Organic Light Emitting Diode.

WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

LG Electronics, the world's largest 3D OLED TV size 55 inches unveiled. OLED TV , both in picture quality and design is excellent.

Actually, OLEDs are devices in solid-state that are composed of thin films of organic molecules. And with the application of electricity, they create light. Only a thin layer of OLED chemicals are needed to produce a brighter, crisper and more colourful screen that requires lesser power than conventional light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or liquid crystal displays (LCDs) that are in use today. In-fact they are almost similar to semiconductor device like LEDs but OLEDs are 100 to 500 nanometers thick

or about 200 times smaller than a human hair and consists of Organic material of either two layers or three layers. You may not be aware but these OLEDs are already in use in many Samsung phones. Though most of those phones have glass screens, but for the bendable phone, Samsung has replaced glass and has laid the chemicals over thin plastic. Both LG and Samsung have announced Televisions that are big, curved and consist of OLED Screen.

Featured

So why would you like to have an OLED Screen? 1. Like Plasma screens, OLEDs emit their own light and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why no separate backlight is required. 2. An OLED screen is much more energy efficient and requires less electricity than present day screens. So, that way it saves a lot in electricity bills.

3. OLEDs have wide range of viewing angles. So that means you can sit in the corner of your screen and as well as enjoy the beautiful display.

5. OLEDs are much thinner, more flexible and have brighter and crisper display with excellent picture quality.

4. An OLED Tv screen offers unprecedented blacks and contrast levels which make the colour and the images really pop on the screen. Overall OLEDs are going to be a hit in the coming years and certainly it will make the Science Fictions true. We will be able to have screens which could bend and fold, totally transparent Smart phones, and will have huge curved TV Screens with brilliant picture quality and top class viewing angles that will give a more immersive, panoramic viewing experience and provide an IMAX-like viewing experience at your own home. And the best part is that the screens will be super thin and will consume less power at the same time.

Demonstration of a batterie driven flexible OLED lamp, shown by Thomas Geelhaar CTO of Merck KGaA, during a press conference prior the opening ceremony of Merck's Material Research Center in Darmstadt (Germany). At the right the white OLED luminaire Prioled made by OSRAM. WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

So get set and be ready for the OLED boom.

Featured

BRAINWIRED

How does Memory Work? A brief conceptual understanding on how our memory works. You’ll be astonished to know that is not just the brain that protects your present for future. By Chirag Ramesh chiragramesh@gmail.com

e remember many things in our daily lives. Memory is the process by which we encode, store and retrieve these things. We can also forget about a thing completely. How does this happen? I mean, wouldn’t it be better if all that we see and hear go into our brain and never vanish? In a way we could be a SuperHuman and remember all that we want to.

An Artist’s conception about a Neuron network.

WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

Memory works via the action of neurons in the brain. The structure of a neuron is such that it is a long branched cell. It has a long tail called axon, which has synaptic bulbs at it’s end. It has many short projections called dendrites on the cell body. The neuron conducts information in the brain, from these synaptic bulbs of one cell to the dendrites to axon to synaptic bulbs of the other cell and this goes on. 09

Featured

The brain codes what ever we record and stores it. This coding is nothing but electrical impulses in the neurons. From one cell to another, this information is conducted through certain chemical substances called as neurotransmitters such as Dopamine. The synaptic vesicles present at the end of the synaptic knob, open when the information or electric impulse arrives at it. The chemicals are thus released. This is absorbed by certain substances on the membrane of the next neuron. This is how conduction occurs. The brain stores information not as one part but as many small encrypted parts. A particular feeling or memory triggers the conduction of information in a particular way only. Repeated conduction of impulses in that particular way creates a memory. For example, let us take the memory of the first time you drove a vehicle. Suppose there are a particular number of neurons in a part of your brain, called N1, N2, N3, etc. The first time you drove a vehicle WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

triggers the impulse to be transmitted from N1 to N3 to N4 to N8 to N2 and so on. This path would be just a part of the memory of the time you first drove a vehicle. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s say that this path is the way you held your hands during the driving. Repeated transmission of impulses in this path would make you remember the way to hold your hands the next time you drive. When these signals keep on getting transmitted again and again from one neuron to another in the same pathway, it keeps on telling your hands what to do. When this path is followed again and again, after a time, it will become involuntary. That is, it would keep on getting transmitted and your hands would know what to do, without you thinking about it. Similar to the way your hands were, there would have been a path for which your legs would have been. Hence, repeated transmission of impulses in a particular way or path is what determines memory. This is why people feel things to be easier when

they practice it. This path followed is only a part of the memory though. If I could cut away or take away the part of the brain that holds the memory of what hotness feels like, could the person from whom I have removed it, never know what hotness feels like? The answer is no. As already said, even if I remove the Neurons from that pathway, the whole memory itself cannot be removed. The brain stores the information in many bits and pieces. If I remove the Neurons from that pathway, the whole memory is not itself removed. The brain stores the information in many bits and pieces. If I remove a pathway or network of neurons, I could remove a small part of your memory though. But it indeed would be a very small part because this neural network concerns a very large number of neurons and not 5 or 6 neurons like I just explained. Also, aging affects memory. There are some neurological diseases which affect us, which result from either decreased or no amount of neurotransmitters such as Dopamine and Acetylcholine, which is caused by degeneration due to aging. Parkinsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s is one such disease. Symptoms include shakiness, difficulty in moving and walking, rigidity of the legs and slowing of movement. This is how we remember many things and even people in our life. 10

Featured

Physics of the Fruits Learning the magic of physics and symmetry in Nature. By Navi Rana navirana@rocketmail.com

WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

Featured ature is beautiful. It loves symmetry, symmetry which is quite amazing. Sometimes the beauty of nature lies in it’s simplicity and sometimes in most complex phenomenon. Physics is all about nature, it’s in knowing how nature works and what the beauty beholds. We will make an effort to get little into the workings of nature. We will try to find some beauty if we can, with some tools of physics and logic let’s dig little bit. Fruits! Tasty, Nutritious, Healthy & Sweet. Everybody I know, love fruits of some kind or the other. Don’t you? Well, my favourite fruit is BANANA. Reason? I pick it up mostly from temples for free.

So let's start the Game. APPLE:

Let’s take a simple case of an apple! We will treat our cute, red, tasty Apple as a sphere, of radius “r”. You see sometimes we have to take away the beauty from nature, to understand it. Never mind it’ll come back shortly! Now here is our apple, it became a sphere, a tasteless, colorless sphere. It’ll look like this: In 3D

In 2D

Now come to our main idea, if you ever have seen the packaging of fruits, there is always some space left in the cartons! 2 Dimensionally, it might look like this. (When an Apple is considered to be a perfect sphere).

The used volume here is the volume of sphere and total volume will be of the cube. Now, Volume of Cube = (2r)3 = 8r3 Volume of Sphere = (4/3)πr3 f=

(4/3)πr3 x 100% 8r3

= 52.359%

empty space In this article, we’ll try to find out how much space is occupied and how much space is left empty. NOTE: We will treat our fruits as simple, using our own approximations and assumptions which may be sometimes far from the reality. But the idea here is to simply play. To play the Game of Physics. To know NATURE. A word about packing fraction: Those who have studied Solid-State, must know about Packing Fraction! “It’s simply how much of the given volume is occupied.” Mathematically,

Packing Fraction(f) = 100 x Volume used Total Volume

WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

Which is 52% approximately. It means when we will stack our apples, only a little more than half is used. But the real apples are not spheres, so the true value may be more or less depending upon the actual shapes. Never mind we are just playing. Let’s see which fruit is next!

WATERMELON

What a treat it is to have a watermelon in these hot and sultry days of summer! Sweet, watery and tasty! Anyway let’s not distract ourselves and get back to the game. Soon its taste is going to fade away. Here is what our watermelon looks like. We’ll assume part 1 and 3 to be spheres of radius r again, and part 2 to be a cylinder of radius r and height ‘r’ (just to keep it simple).

1 2 3 12

Featured It’ll finally look like.

Here is the Banana, taddaaa!!!! r

Hemisphere Assuming the outline to be symmetric like the green shade.

And the total volume is a cuboid with dimensions, H = 4r L = b = 2r πr2 x 4r x 100% 4r x (2r)2 = 78.5%

Cylinder

Are you kidding? banana turns out to be smartest of all. f is whooping 78.5%, Wait wait wait!

Hemisphere

Here comes the reason behind its smartness! The used volume is the volume of above figure and the total volume will be a cuboid of height 3r and sides 2r each. (Check it yourself),

No one has ever eaten a banana like this.

Packing fraction will be : f= = =

Vol. of 2 hemispheres + Vol. of Cylinder Volume of Cube

(4/3)πr3 + πr3 3r x 2r x 2r 7π x 100% 36

It’s always like,

x 100%

_ 61% ~ It’s off from our Apple by almost 10%. But wait, note that in real Watermelons the cylindrical portion will be little smaller in height, so the packing fraction will go down. And now we can say that both Apple and Watermelon have almost same packing fraction! Let’s find out what can be done with Bananas.

BANANA: First of all we’ll deal with a simple Banana! A simple, straight Banana. It’ll look like a cylinder. Let it radius be ‘r’ and length 4r (Your Banana may be thick and small or thin and long, it may be of any shape, you can take “r and 3r” or “r or 5r” as its dimensions! Never mind, just concentrate on the game!) WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

And you can clearly see there is empty space which can’t be filled. Clearly, The Packing Fraction will decrease. Our intuition says so. We want to calculate by how much! Any idea? Can you find a similar shape for a Banana? It has curved volume. What can be done? Does it look like we are struck? No way. We are smarter than a Banana! Let’s use our common sense, some simplifications and show our smartness. (NOTE: The above empty space problem of curved volume can be done using polar coordinates. But we’ll not dig into it now. You can try for yourself!!) 13

Featured Here’s our assumed shape of Banana.

And our Banana in two dimensions will look like. 2r

Does it look like a semicircular cross-section of a circular magnet found in speakers?

You can see that the length, (now circumference) of outer curve will increase from 4r, and that of inner will decrease (though slightly). Let us take the circumference of inner curve to be unchanged (assumption again), i.e., 4r. Therefore radius of curvature of inner curve (r’) will be,

r’ = (4r/π)

[Circumference, πr’ = 4r]

And radius of curvature of outer curve(r’’) will be, Is it too much curved? Never mind, it’s just an approximation, just to feed the shape of banana in our brains. (Forget about the roundness of our Banana).

r’’ = 2r + (4r/π) = [(4/π) + 2] r (There is a beauty in mathematics too!)

Let us look at a 2-dimensional simplification also!! As we have seen earlier, The dimensions of Banana were r(radius) and 4r( length). But we assumed that the cross section of banana is not round but a square. Therefore the dimensions of the cross section would be 2r x 2r. The figure below will give a clear idea about it.

Volume used is the volume between two curves. And what is this volume? Skipping some boring calculation it turns out to be 61%. Now comes our banana on track! Further corrections will take care of the circular cross section!

old cross section (the actual one)

Close to real.

new cross section WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

Assumed. 14

Featured Again our ‘f’ will decrease. And now returns the beauty of the nature, the taste the sweetness! Can you feel it?? Well, I can.

DISCUSSION: We have, fapple = 53% and fwatermelon = fbanana = 61% and after corrections and comparisions, we can say that : fapple = fwatermelon = fbanana.

THREE DIFFERENT FRUITS, THREE DIFFERENT TASTES, yet the same nature! The same property!! That is the beauty of NATURE. It truly loves symmetry. We only looked after three fruits, what about others? Most of the fruits like oranges, guava, lemon, tomato (yes, it’s a fruit, but don’t put it into a fruit salad), pomegranate, etc. are like apples! Therefore, same treatment. Same packing fraction. A pineapple is like a watermelon!! What about vegetables?? Nothing special, they are like fruits only! Again, same packing fraction. I couldn’t find anything like banana (except cucumber), but some vegetables are like it. What about grapes? They are like watermelons packed in pyramidal volume. So, same again. In short nature treats everyone equally!

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No PARTIALITY!!!! NOTE: Thank you all, but only if you read it completely, and took the pain to check results!! I would like to verify the results experimentally. Find out your ways to do that! I’ll drop a hint: WATER. And try to treat a mango, coz’ it’s the mango season. TILL THEN, KEEP THINKING, KEEP PLAYING!!

WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

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A NEW WAY TO FIND INSPIRATION

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ASPIRE TO INSPIRE How it all started. The story behind the inspiring start-up.

“Connecting amazing individuals, sharing their stories with the world, and inspiring as many as possible”.

ike it always does, it all started with nothing more than a simple idea: “Connecting amazing individuals, sharing their stories with the world, and inspiring as many as possible”. After working on this idea for over 6 month, Danilo Carlucci and his brother Fabio – the co-founders of amazers.org – have built a great team of diverse skill sets, connected with countless extraordinary people, and just recently launched their website. The people featured on the amazers.org site are referred as “Amazers”; a term that the founders coined to describe individuals who “aspire to inspire”. As described by the founders: “We humans all have different kinds of passions, diverging goals, and individual dreams; we are hence all inspired by different kinds of people, different kinds of Amazers. On our website, we have thus decided to feature individuals that do completely different things, come from different areas of expertise, are dedicated to different purposes, but all in all, share the common drive of wanting to inspire others and seeing the world becoming a better place.” The website shares stories of people from the areas of Science, Art, Sport, Conservation, Technology, Entrepreneurship, Adventure, Activism, and Environmentalism. Each featured individual has its own unique page with his attached interview, images and video material. Readers can navigate through the different pages and subsequently discover people that inspire them; amazers.org features new individuals on a weekly basis. When Science Panorama got in touch with the organisation, the people behind the project said that their goal was to “inspire its readers to follow their passions, encourage them to chase their dreams, motivate them to discover their full potential, lead them to take positive actions, and drive them to live a life in which they also aspire inspire”. At Science Panorama we are really in tune with this kind of thinking and since the organization is a strong supporter of science and technology, we really love the idea. Here below you can read the amazing story of Martin Peniak and see pictures of further Amazers who will be featured soon; now go on and read the story, get inspired and let us know what you think.

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"When I look at the stars, I see the past. When I look inside the mind, I paint the future."

Martin Peniak

Cognitive Robotics Researcher/ Artificial Intelligence Phd www.amazers.org/martin-peniak www.martinpeniak.com Martin Peniak was born in Slovakia. He was a child that had a true fascination for technology and always loved to take things apart to see how they worked. Additonally, one of his early favourite practices was inline skating. At the age of 19, Martin accompanied his then girlfriend to England who had secured an au pair job in Plymouth. At their arrival, she was picked up by her family; Martin instead, having no place to go, spent the night on a bench. He spoke little English so it took him a while to find a job but he eventually found one in a fish processing factory. Three months of hard work later, something happened that changed the young man’s life forever. It was the evening of Martin’s twentieth birthday when he struck up a conversation with a man on the street with which he started discussing astronomy. Struck by Martin’s knowledge and personality, the stranger – who was a professor of Biological Sciences – asked him why he didn’t consider going to University. “I began to think that maybe I could study in the day and fund myself by working at night, so I went back to Slovakia to complete my civil service and started to learn English“. A year later, with a reference from that same professor, Martin applied to study computer science in Plymouth. He got accepted and his tough dual life began; studying during the day, working during the night. During his last year of studies, Martin worked on a project that would again drastically impact his career. He developed a program that simulated the artificial evolution of neural network controllers for Mars rovers, and presented a paper on it at the ASTRA European Space Agency conference. His outstanding work led to an official collaboration between his University and ESA. Martin was consequently offered an opportunity to undertake a cognitive robotics PhD at the-

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Promotional Feature University of Plymouth which he went on to happily accept. In 2012 he managed to secure himself an internship at the headquarters of the prestigious semiconductor manufacturer NVIDIA which helped him to further expand his knowledge. Today, Martin is finishing his PhD. His work ethics and exceptional networking skills are taking him to participate in interesting projects across the globe. Martin never forgot where his passion for Astronomy took him; he now believes that anything is possible and continues to aim for the stars.

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Global Warming What is it and How it works?

Cover Story

Global Warming Everything you need to know. By Vidyadhar Sharma editor@sciencepanorama.com

THE START>>

lobal Warming was once an uncommon scientific term used by few scientists who grew concerned over the effects of pollution on long term weather patterns. Global Warming is one of the most discussed and popularly known topics but yet not understood well enough. People toss this term very often in their day to day life like it means a lot. If they read a news about a drying lake or something about the decrease in overall rainfall for a particular place, people suddenly pop the term, "Oh, this is Global Warming, don't know what is yet to be seen.." Are those things really caused by Global Warming? Really? In 1896, The Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius was the first to claim that excessive fossil fuel combustion would eventually result in enhanced Greenhouse effect. He gave a relation between the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and temperature, it was found that the average surface temperature of the earth was about 15째C because of the infrared absorption capacity of water vapor and Carbon dioxide. Before we move any further we need to understand the Greenhouse Effect which is the main cause for Global Warming. Well, judging by the consequences of Greenhouse effect, do not jump to the conclusion that it is a bad thing. Interestingly, it is because of this phenomenon why life exists on earth. Greenhouse effect makes the atmosphere favorably hot for life to exist.

WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

Cover Story

The Greenhouse Effect 1 Reflected Sunlight by Atmosphere.

2 Reflected Heat by surface of Earth

Cover Story

The Greenhouse Effect HOW IT WORKS >>

“all the 70 percent of the heat that is absorbed by earth doesn't stay here forever (otherwise the Earth would have been a blazing fireball). The land masses and oceans eventually radiate heat back out.”

While reading more on Global Warming, I came across an analogy which though not perfectly, but simplifies the explanation for greenhouse effect. It goes like --- "you can think of the Earth sort of like your car sitting out in a parking lot on a sunny day. You've probably noticed that your car is always much hotter inside than the outside temperature if it's been sitting there for a while. The sun's rays enter through your car's windows. Some of the heat from the sun is absorbed by the seats, the dashboard and the carpeting and floor mats. When those objects release this heat, it doesn't all get out through the windows. Some is reflected back in. The heat radiated by the seats is a different wavelength than the light of the sun that made it through the windows in the first place. So a certain amount of energy is going in, and less energy is going out. The result is a gradual increase in the temperature inside your car..." The Greenhouse effect is pretty much the same thing what happened in your car, but a bit more complicated. When the sun's rays hit the Earth's Atmosphere, approximately 30 percent of the heat is reflected back into space by snow fields, clouds and other reflective surfaces. The rest is absorbed by land, oceans, plants, buildings and other things. You've to know that all the 70 percent of the heat that is absorbed by earth doesn't stay here forever (otherwise the Earth would have been a blazing fireball). The land masses and oceans eventually radiate heat back out. Some of this heat makes it into the space and some end up being absorbed by some gases like Carbon dioxide, methane, CFC and water vapour. Anything that absorbs energy has to emit it out, likewise the heat absorbed by these gases is emitted out in the form of the heat and keeps the Earth warm. This works like magic. From all the heat that is absorbed by earth, only a part which is excess is emitted back out, keeping the Earth warm enough to sustain life on Earth. This cycle of absorption and emission has been going on for ages and will continue to no matter what we try.

What is it and How it works? Scientifically, “Global warming is a significant increase in the Earth's climatic temperature over a relatively short period of time as a result of the activities of humans.” In specific terms an increase in overall surface temperature by 10 or more degrees over a period of one hundred or two hundred years would be considered Global Warming. An increase in around 0.4-0.6 degree Celsius over a course of one century is also significant. When we say Earth's Climatic Temperature, it is really a very long time. People often get the difference between Weather and Climate wrong. We need to understand what really Weather and Climate are. WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

Cover Story

Weather is something thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s short-term, like few hours or couple of days. If its raining in your city from few hours or a day, that's weather. Climate is long-term and doesn't relate to one small area or location. The climate of an area is the average weather conditions in a region over a long period of time. You cannot define the climate for just state of Karnataka or say the Climate of Bangalore. To define climate you consider a very large region. For example, The Whole Indian Subcontinent. If the part of the world you live in has hot summers and very few rainfalls that would be the part of climate for the region you live in. The summers there have been hot and the rainfall has been scarce for as long as the weather has been recorded, so we generally know what to expect. It's really important to understand that when we say Climate being long term, we mean really long period of time. Even a few hundred years is pretty small period when it comes to climate. In fact changes in climate take thousands of years. And to make you realize the difference, If your region happens to experience rainy season with heavy rainfall that isn't usual, or even two to three such seasons in a row, that isn't a change in Climate. That's just an Anomaly. Anomaly is an event that just falls outside the usual statistical range but doesn't represent any permanent, long term change. It can take the Earth thousands and hundreds of years to warm up or cool down by 1 degree when it happens naturally. In addition to recurring ice-age cycles, the warming of earth is also natural. Common sense and repeated thought over the statistical data on temperature of earth suggests that Global warming is a naturally occurring phenomenon that will repeat itself every 1,00,000 years or so and will last for about 5000 years. What is also known from the statistical data available readily at http://giss.nasa.gov is that CO2 emissions are not the real cause of Global warming. The date clearly indicates that on the 5000 year global warming cycle, CO2 increase is not apparent for about 800-900 year after the Global warming begins. We have to understand that it was not these greenhouse gases which started the Global Warming but they perpetuated it. However, saying CO2 isn't responsible for Global Warming does not mean that we can start pumping it into the atmosphere. What actually happens during this cycle is that with the increase in Greenhouse effect the absorption of heat increases because more gas can absorb more heat now. Unfortunately since the Industrial Revolution, humans have been pouring large amounts of these greenhouse gases into the air. CO2 is a colorless gas which is a by-product (means one of the things left) of the combustion of organic matter. It made up less than 0.04% of earth's atmosphere, most of which is because of the volcanic activity all over the globe in planet's life. Today, human activities are pumping huge amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, resulting in an overall rise in concentration of Carbon dioxide around the globe. This WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

The graph show the increase in respective Greenhouse gases over the years. The blue and pale green lines depict from where the testing samples were collected.

Cover Story

increase in concentration is a primary factor that perpetuates Global Warming, because it absorbs infrared radiation. Most of the energy that escapes the atmosphere comes in this form, so extra CO2 means more absorption and overall increase in Planet's temperature. I will not try to give you figures on how many billion tons of CO2 has increased and how it has increased the temperature because its simply something with which we cannot understand the big picture. All that we have understood so far by observation is that with increase in these Greenhouse Gases, temperature increases.

Even if people think that global warming isn’t true, Pollution definitely is a problem to worry about.

Almost as much as 38% Americans think that Global Warming is a hoax. To understand that it isn't so, lets just look at the big picture. Technology has been growing since World War II and Industrial Revolution. In earlier decades, only very few cars would be on the streets, only the rich and wealthy could afford the then advanced technology. Also as the technology grew, steam engines came into play and still parts of world use steam engines. As the time has passed, over the years the technology has advanced and buying a car has never been easier. Now we see almost every family has a car and every adult a two-wheeler. Common sense suggests that with the increase in no. of vehicles and population, its use has increased. That means we're simply burning more and more fuel every single day. This means we're pumping more and more Carbon dioxide, Nitrous oxide and other gases into Atmosphere every day. As Science provides us with the truth that Greenhouse Effect is completely true, then this effect must be enhanced with more greenhouse gases in Atmosphere. To further convince you, Vehicles are not the only pollutants that have been pumping these. Industries and Factories that manufacture something or the other, almost everything release carbon dioxide and other harmful gases. And they've increased over the years with increasing demand. So ultimately Scientists are not playing around trying to fix this problem if it didn't make any sense. NItrous Oxide is one another Greenhouse gas to look upon. Although the Nitrous Oxide emissions by human activities is not as much as CO2, but its the one to worry about because it absorbs as much as 270 times more energy than CO2. Because of this reason, the efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions have focused on N2O as well. The use of large amount of nitrogenous fertilizers release N2O in large quantities, and it is also the by-product of combustion.

“Almost as much as 38% Americans think that Global Warming is a hoax." WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

Methane is a combustible gas, which mainly is produced due decomposition of organic material and is often encountered as “swamp-gas.” The man-made processes which produce methane in many ways are : - By extracting it from Coal - From large herds of livestock - From the bacteria in rice paddies - Decomposition of garbage landfills. Methane is more like CO2, absorbs infrared energy keeping heat energy on earth. While there isn't as much methane as carbon dioxide in the atmo27

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Carbon dioxide and methane concentrations in 2005 exceeded their natural ranges of the last 650,000 years. Much of this increase in concentration is due to burning fossil fuels.

What will happen if the entire planet warms up a few more degrees? Looking back into the past, we know that an average drop of just 5 degrees over a period of thousand years can cause ice-age; so what will happen if the Earth's average temperature rises up by few more degrees in the coming few hundred years? Well, we cannot clearly answer that question. Even predicting the short-term weather is difficult and most of the times inaccurate because weather is a complex phenomenon. But when it comes to long-term climate, we can manage few educated guesses based on our study from our knowledge of climate through history.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The most noticeable effects of Global Warming lately have been the Melting of Glaciers and Ice shelves."

The most noticeable effects of Global Warming lately have been the melting of Glaciers and Ice shelves. There has been loss of large areas of ice on the surface of earth. But sadly this again accelerates Global Warming. How? Melting of Ice produces more water and in-turn more water-vapor. Water vapor is also one of the greenhouse gas and can absorb a lot more heat compared to CO2. An immediate result of melting glaciers would be a rise in sea levels. Initially, the rise in sea level would only be an inch or two. Even a modest rise in sea levels can cause huge problems like floods for low-lying areas. And interestingly if the whole Antarctic Ice sheet was to melt and collapse into the sea then it would push sea levels up by 10 meters, and many coastal areas would completely disappear beneath the ocean. With rise in overall temperature and sea level, ocean-borne storms such as tropical storms, hurricanes might increase in numbers. What about the Ice caps at the North Pole?. Yes, the Arctic Ice caps will melt too, but will not make much of a difference in sea level as these ice caps are not as thick compared to Antarctic region. However scientists predict that Greenland will melt faster because its closer to equator and melting of this ice will result in another 7 meters of rise in sea level and this would worsen the condition. Imagining the condition then will be a very bad idea, but its something we'll have to deal with, if right steps are not taken. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s effects are not only related to thism but lives and Eco-systems too. The most devastating and the hardest to predict are on the living Eco-systems. Many Eco-systems are very delicate and even the slightest change in temperature can cause huge problems. This change can kill many species right away. Most Eco-systems are interconnected and the chain reaction this can cause is unimaginable. Many species will adapt to change but not all are adaptable and would eventually get extinct. WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

Melting ice in the Arctic Sea.

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Few Hopes The possible ways to fight Global Warming. By Chirag Ramesh ou might have now known the greatest of the problem we’re facing and might face in future because of Global Warming. Are there any ways to fight these problems? Of course, there are many ways by which we can control Global Warming. Some ways require major corporations investing in such programs. Other ways require a major political backhand. There are yet some other ways, which can only be possible by personal action. Of course these ways do take a lot of time to be put into practice, but it has to be done.

One major way of controlling the effect of Carbon Dioxide is a process called CSS that is, Carbon Sequestration and Storage. This requires the investment of a Corporation. In this process, Large coolers are used, which extract the Carbon Dioxide pumped into the air by fossil fuels, and cools it to dry ice. This dry ice, as it is a solid, can be more easily stored. This is stored in underground tanks and old mines. There exists another process of CSS. In this, Carbon Dioxide from the air is precipitated in the form of solid carbonates. These salts can also be easily stored. Scientists have proposed a crazy way of putting this into application. Many ‘artificial’ trees could be planted wherever it is not possible to plant normal trees. These ‘artificial’ trees would actually be these Carbon Dioxide

Carbon Sequestration and Storage

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sucking machines. They would also have a storage unit for it. This method of Carbon Dioxide removal would help fight Global Warming to a very large extent. A second corporation investing method is the Iron Seeding process. In this process, blocks and planks of Iron metal is ‘seeded’ or ‘planted’ in the oceans. Plants require Iron for making their food. Phytoplankton at sea, have less Iron available to them. Planting these iron blocks, will increase the photosynthesis. This would stimulate a phytoplankton bloom. Thus, more plants would exist, thereby, consuming more Carbon Dioxide, which would mean lesser Global Warming. This method has been ruled out, because some test runs have been proved to be toxic.

Some ways require major corporations investing in such programs. Other ways require a major political backhand. There are yet some other ways, which can only be possible by personal action. Then, there exists one more method, where, sulphur is pumped into the air. The sulphur dioxide thus formed, would block the sunlight and thus cool down the Earth. This is similar to a volcanic eruption, where sulphur is thrown into the air. Although the Earth is cooled down by this, there exists many shortcomings of this process. The rainfall is expected to be highly affected. Weather patterns would become unpredictable. So, this too has been ruled out. The next method is called ‘Cloud Seeding’. This, as many would know, is a method to stimulate precipitation, both rainfall and snowfall. But the question is how would this help us fight Global Warming. Global Warming is the heating of the Earth because the sunlight does not go back into outer space because of certain gases. Clouds reflect a major part of the

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sunlight which falls on it. By Cloud Seeding, we would be able to not only create clouds but also fight Global Warming. But, it also has it’s own drawbacks. The chemicals injected, in a large quantity could have many ill effects on human health. Next, is the process of lowering the levels of Methane, which is 25 times a stronger greenhouse gas than Carbon Dioxide. By certain chemical processes, Methane can be converted to Carbon Dioxide. Although, there is the increased production of Carbon Dioxide, there would be lesser Methane. This would imply lesser impact of Global Warming. Also, there are the presence of many international treaties. The Kyoto Protocol may be the most famous of them all. It is a protocol or an agreement signed on by as many as 192 countries. It is a protocol that takes upon the responsibility of lowering of Greenhouse gases. The countries are given some targets and bills to follow. A lot of action has taken place due to it’s implementation. So, many more such Protocols must be signed by countries, to fight Global Warming. The ways which require a political backhand are tough nuts to crack. People, who can actually make a difference are the ones in politics. But, even though they are not interested in all these, it is our job to bring people who can make a difference, to power. Many laws and bills can be passed by them. These people have influence to make the law possible. But, after their work it is our duty to implement it. We can make it possible. The following methods are just some ways that we can follow to do our bit. Exploring alternate fuels: As we know that fossil fuels, when burnt give a lot of Carbon Dioxide. Alternate sources of energy like nuclear, solar, wind and hydro must be used instead of fossil fuels. Using Public Transport: More usage of Public transport would in turn lead to lesser fuel usage. This would again mean the lesser outflow of Carbon Dioxide into the environment. Energy Efficient Products: Higher energy efficiency would mean a higher level of production for same amount of energy, hence more saving of energy and money. Planting trees: There is nothing better than planting trees. Planting trees go a long way in fighting Global Warming.

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The Need for New Thorium - The future of Green Energy By Shriya Prasanna iscoveries and inventions have been a routine way of progress of mankind. Each time there is a need to experiment with new ideas, then correct them or improve them when necessary. This is a process that will never stop. For evidence, we have times when there was no electricity, it was a struggle. The need to extend the hours of work or say to sleep less, we needed light. Hence the discovery of electricity was viable. After the invention of electricity, there was the need for generation of electricity in huge amounts to serve a million purposes. With time, the invention of nuclear reactors took place as a further extension, rather development of the project; that is Generation of more electricity for the never ending demand.

After the invention of electricity, there was the need for generation of electricity in huge amounts to serve a million purposes. Here comes what I am trying to say. Look at it, it’s so innovative and has plenty of advantages. Well, a nuclear reactor is a device to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for generating electricity. Heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid (water or gas), which runs through turbines. These turn in to electrical generators. Nuclear generated steam in principle can be used for industrial process heat or for district heating. Some reactors are used to produce isotopes for medical and industrial use, or for production of plutonium for weapons. Some are run only for research.

WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

Something like this picture. These reactors have been run by an important component, uranium. Today we have the need to change this component which basically causes all the danger to us. As a matter of fact, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki incidents in the Second World War were shear disasters. Why only the past? Think about the latest; the Fukushima Daiichi (Japan) nuclear disaster in 2011. We can sense the trouble, right? I just started to wonder “Isn’t there a good alternative that our scientists have thought of yet?” Yes they have. There is a solution to get rid of this expensive, exhaustible and damaging resource, Uranium. Interestingly Thorium can be a great substitute of it. Yeah, because its way less expensive, and abundantly found in the earth’s crust. Well, it’s also a safe alternative as it does not produce plutonium which is the key component of nuclear weapons. That calls for peace as another benefit. A lot of countries, which includes Canada, China, Germany, India, The Netherlands, The United states and The United Kingdom have been experimenting with Thorium as a substitute nuclear fuel in nuclear reactors. India’s three stage nuclear power program is possibly the most known and well funded of such efforts. As thorium is found 21% in this region, which is the highest in the world, so, it is facilitating this operation. About Thorium, it’s a naturally occurring radioactive element with atomic number 90 and symbol ‘Th’. Thorium was once commonly used as a light source in gas mantle and as an alloying material, but there applications have declined due to concerns about its radioactivity. Thorium is also an alloying element in non consumable TIG welding electrodes. Today, it has found its purpose. Like I said before a lot of research is being done on this element already. This is how it is supposed to work as per the NASA figure below. Have a look at it.

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So beautifully designed isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t it? In simple words, it works just the way I described the working of a nuclear reactor except that here thorium when dissolved in molten Lithium fluoride reacts to form uranium and the process continues. Basically, today the need has come for another change and there is a demand to replace the dangerous uranium to something which is more economical and considerate towards mankind. One good alternative is thorium as I said above, for all the good reasons. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wait for the change to happen soon.

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Global Warming elsewhere in Solar System By Robin Andersson robin.l.andersson@gmail.com During the recent years global warming has been a very hot topic. Studies have shown that the global temperature seems to increase, and a very small increase in the global average temperature can have dramatic effects on our planet in the near future. One major reason for the currently increasing global temperature is due to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions into our atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide and methane. However, it's an interesting thought to expand this question to other planets in our solar system. We are going to take a look at the super hot planet Venus and our colder neighbor Mars.

Venus What's interesting with Venus regarding this thought is the temperature on the planet and the composition of its atmosphere. In fact, Venus is a great example of what happens if you fill your atmosphere full of greenhouse gases. The atmosphere of Venus is mainly composed of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, but due to the very high density of the atmosphere, the pressure at the surface of Venus is about 93 times larger compared to the pressure on the surface of Earth. That amount of pressure is almost equal to the pressure at a depth of nearly 1 kilometer under Earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s oceans! Also due to the atmospheric composition, the average temperature of Venus is about 462 degrees Celsius (equals 864 degrees Fahrenheit). Which in fact is hotter than the surface of planet Mercury. There are even studies who suggests that there once was water on the surface of Venus. But, the water evaporated due to the close distance to the sun which generated a runaway greenhouse effect. This is very interesting, it makes you wonder how the planet looked like earlier back in the history of the solar system. Maybe there was some kind of life back then? An intriguing thought. WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

Mars

How about Mars though? Do we see anything related to global warming? Actually we do, if you look far ahead into the future! There are actually some very interesting ideas about producing (yes, producing) a global warming on Mars. This might sound very weird for you, but let me explain. Mars is a tiny planet with a very thin atmosphere. Mars is also very cold - one factor being the thin atmosphere. However, the idea is about producing greenhouse gases and other gas emissions on the planet, making the atmosphere much thicker and on the same time increasing the amount of gases that have the ability to trap heat very well. Why is this good? Mars has a lot of ice on it, but unfortunately very low pressure (also one factor being due to the thick atmosphere). So if we could make the atmosphere more thick, we will increase the atmospheric pressure on the planet, therefore increasing the temperature which makes it possible for ice to melt into liquid water. Currently, if you melt ice on Mars it will evaporate due to the low pressure. How could this be done? Well just look at planet Earth, imagine if we could move lots of industrial emissions to Mars. That'd be great. Even it's not just greenhouse gases since it's important to increase the atmospheric density so the atmospheric pressure increases on the surface of Mars. This might sound very fascinating. It does indeed but there's a "problem" with it. It will take a very long time (maybe millions of years), and even more time before plants will be able to settle down on the planet for a life like here on Earth. Nonetheless I don't consider that to be an argument to hesitate from making Mars habitable. Consider the future if we are capable of moving people to Mars. For example consider the case of an immense asteroid heading towards Earth and it's too late to deflect it from planet. The human species might be able to survive of such catastrophes just because we have managed to settle down beyond planet Earth. Isn't that fascinating? Maybe your neighbors in the near future will live on the planet next door. 33

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How I improved my science communication in one evening? "Uh, this is Houston. Uh, say again, please? Houston, we have a problem. We have a main bus B under volt." And the rest of the story is history, the crew of Apollo 13 returned safely to Earth. Effective communication was an indispensable factor in this rescue operation. As a matter of fact, effective communication often makes the difference between life and death. Just imagine an emergency room in a hospital without communication. That's right… disastrous. It doesn't have to be life threatening all the time, but if you think about it… Without effective communication you'll never be able to go from good to… great. You'll never be able to spread a fantastic idea or insight. You'll never be able to convince your fellow researchers about your new findings. Let alone to educate students. Of course, to communicate effectively is easier said than done. I could tell you to communicate better to be a successful scientist or teacher... but that is lame. I don't give you anything, but poor advice. It is not actionable at all. This is the tactic you don't want to follow. See it as a bad example. What you need are specific (small) steps and actionable tasks that result in a progressive improvement. These steps can be focused on writing, presenting, preparation, structuring, visual display, etc. To construct the perfect scientific message like all the faces that you will need to polish to get a shiny diamond. In this article I'll focus on a big one. One aspect that will improve your science communication substantially… Over night. This is a no brainer, but still so many scientists and teachers fail to do it. Many studies have shown that people remember 10% of what they hear and 20% of what they read, but about 80 percent of what they see and do. You see the potential? If you complement your writing or your science slides with effective visuals, much more of your messages will be remembered. Use different channels like voice and visuals to glue your message in your audience’s brain. As a side effect, your audience will also remember you and you will be seen as a better scientist or teacher That's great… but how? You can hire a designer, but these people have no idea about (your) science. That is difficult to work with. You can buy stock images, but this is rather expensive and never exactly what you need.

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Advertorial Feature In fact there is only 1 solution: you will have to make your own illustrations and images.

A look at somersault18:24 Illustrations' Collection

If you can, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s great and I highly recommend it. But not everybody is a great designer or artist and can make the illustrations that complement the story. Moreover, most scientists don't have or make enough time to create effective visuals. I faced the same problem before. But on an evening some years ago I decided to make my own images. And I went even further. I did not stop with a couple of images but I made a complete library of science illustrations. I use these illustrations individually or in combination in every science presentation I make. Simple, but still visually attractive and scientifically correct. And you know what? Now, this library is accessible for you too. Currently it contains more than 1400 illustrations and it is growing every week. You may wonder why this could be beneficial for you, because it sounds like another stock illustration site. Well, you can suggest the images you need. That's right, you can tailor the library to your own specific needs. It is like a custom service. If this is for you, just visit http://www.somersault1824.com/science-illustrations/ and try it out for free. You will love it.

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K C I L SCIC y h p a r g o ot

t s e t n o C

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Some have wives like a shady chinar, let us go under it and cool ourselves. Some have wives like the bit*h at the door, let us go and get our legs bitten. Some have wives always in confusion, and some have wives like bad thatch upon the roof.â&#x20AC;?

About the Winner Name: Anwaar Khalid I live in Kashmir which is also know as "The Paradise On Earth". I study in Delhi Public School, Srinagar. My school is where my interest for photography grew. I joined the Photography Club of my school and learned the basics there. I started clicking everyday and I got more and more fascinated by the beauty of nature. My friend told me about the online competitions, so I started posting pictures on a lot of websites. So I'm just a beginner trying to see and capture things differently & trying real hard to improve my skills. WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

SCICLICK PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST

“Salticid spider that lives by my window.”

About the Winner Name: Diego Galárraga Sugoniaev I am a musician (classical guitarist) and amateur self-taught photographer. I am Russian-Ecuadorian and live in Quito, Ecuador. Photography has become for me a bridge between art and science because of my lifelong interest in Entomology. So my favourite photographic theme is insect macro photography.

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SCICLICK PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST

"We are part of this universe; we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts, is that the universe is in us," - Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson

About the Winner

Name: Jorge Alvarez Pensabene IÂ´m an Architect, who believes that everything is connected; in the universe. I live in Guatemala, CA, an area with great places to go hiking. That's why I love mountain climbing. To connect with nature and be able to see a clearer night sky and feel like I'm watching myself on those stars. WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

SCICLICK PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST

Name: Doris G. Auer Caption: This shot is called “Hunters and Chased”. Name: McKaylin Gamel Caption: Candid photo of my friend on a recent trip to Colorado.

Name: Duaa Raja Caption: Mates for life

Name: Peter Pihlmann Pedersen Caption: This poor spider has only got 7 legs

Caption: A page from a fairytale on a walk up Blencathra (in the Northern English Lake District) The countryside that inspired a generation of Romantics...

“A hearty thanks to Dr. Mayur Davda for agreeing to judge this contest on such a short notice.We still have a lot to learn about photography from you” - Vidyadhar Sharma, Chief Editor

About the Judge Name : Dr. Mayur Davda

Dental Surgeon by profession, He is a part of Photopia which is a private company concerned with product shoot, fashion portfolios, events, wildlife tourism for understanding behaviour of the wild, education for budding photographers and innovations in photography.

SCICLICK PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST

Name: Maya Katrina

He got into photography 3 years ago due to dentistry for which he got his first camera which was a DSLR. After getting introduced to nature by a friend there was no looking back for him and today he is pursuing professional courses in ornithology and botany to understand nature better. He started off as an avid photographer of wildlife but now takes a lot of precautions while photographing them. He has a great presence of mind while photographing wildlife and makes it a point to explain that even when we photograph any kind of wildlife … we are in fact disturbing some event that is going on in their lives which we will understand only by observing and not just clicking in haste. WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

ScienceGlobe

Our pick of the best science articles, illustrations, videos, etc., from around the globe! Compiled by Sri Harsha P S

You can't miss this stuff!

The Scientific American Editorial think that the best science transforms our conception of the universe and our place in it and helps us to understand and cope with changes beyond our control. They put together the 12 possible events and rated their likelihood of happening by 2050. This web only rich-media will make you awe on whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in store for us. They all have the power to forever reshape how we think about ourselves and how we live our lives. Read here : http://bit.ly/12etwc WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

ScienceGlobe Massive Black holes were found Lurking among galaxies.

Erasing Time Data from History.

Astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley have observed the largest black holes to date with masses equivalent to 10 billion suns. Which are potential to consume any amount of matter and energy around! http://bit.ly/11LqPoQ

Time cloaks are better than invisibility cloaks because they use freaking time to hide things. This new method of using a time cloak is the first that can cloak data at rapid rates. It can change the phase of security! http://bit.ly/13jZOLR

Aerogel - The new supportive platform for physics!

Making Speed breakers Intelligent and useful.

Aerogel is a real strong material that has incredible low density. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1000 times less dense than glass and 99.8% of air constitutes. http://bit.ly/128tsaj

A new design from Jae-yun Kim & Jong-Su Lee allows a speed breaker to flatten when a vehicle moves over it within a speed of 30kmph. The device is based on make retractors that open if the impact with them is small enough. http://bit.ly/18UXM8v

The new sulphur battery! The new sulphur battery is much safer, cheaper, more powerful than lithium-ion. Scientists at the DoEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have struck the battery mother lode: They have created an all-solid lithium-sulfur battery that is cheaper, less flammable, and has four times the energy density of conventional lithium-ion batteries. http://bit.ly/18UUTol WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

ScienceGlobe Titanium ring, whose jewels glow through induction.

Ben Kokes wanted to give a ring to his sweetheart. Therefore, to make it interesting he designed a ring with an inductive loop that would cause the stones to light up when they were close to a power source. http://bit.ly/11rBpa8

The new source of energy '' Nano-Energy''. MIT recognized a new source of energy. MIT Researchers built tiny wires out of carbon nano tubes. Then they coated these wires with a fuel and discovered it generated electricity. It is believed they will be able to use this technology to create batteries at least 10 times smaller than current batteries, but produce the same amount of electricity. http://bit.ly/ZvtwhK

Can cities float on the air? Yes cities may

rise up in the air someday in the future. Chinese architect Wei Zhao has proposed

this plan to the world. Which enables a massive island to be supported by magnets lifts; the whole platform repelling earth's magnetic field.

http://bit.ly/11nhHb4

RNA- The new Doctor.

Wounds heal faster than before when bandages have RNA in it. Bandages having RNA can have great use. It has huge potential to treat diseases at the genetic level, including tumors and chronic wounds. http://bit.ly/13kdbfi

Did you know? â&#x20AC;&#x153;The first colour photograph was created by the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, with the help of the English photographer Thomas Sutton, in the year 1861." Liked or hated this column, write to editor@sciencepanorama about your views/comments about this section

WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

Phizy and Picky Phizy and Picky are two brothers, Phizy is the elder one. He is some sort of a geek on the other hand Picky the younger one is a newcomer to the world of physics here is a conversation going on between them.

Scenario 1

e(5s1): Hurray!

Phizy: Hey Picky, stop putting sodium pellets in to the water beaker; it can harm you.

(Every electron of 4d says): Hey Mr. Lonely why are you shouting like this? Can't you see that we are busy with our partners?

Location: Phizy's home made lab.

Picky: Brother, look how it’s dancing and spinning. Isn’t it fun? By the way from spin, I remember those freaky travellers. I am wondering that they make the best rockets in the world coz’ there asses are always on fire! :D

e(5s1): It’s an invitation.

Phizy: Always being funny, eh! Do you want to hear more about your freaky travellers?

e(4d10): Oh my god!!! We need to go we need to go.

Picky: Yes of course. They are interesting indeed. What are we going to talk about? Phizy: Remember the last talk on electron spin? Well, today, we are going to talk; rather watch interaction of electron spin with inhomogeneous magnetic field. I have made an animated film in your way. Let’s see what’s happening in the world of atoms and electrons. Picky: Ok, let’s see.

Scenario 2

e(4d10): So what? e(5s1): Ms. Magnetic field is coming

e(5s1): Who will talk to Mr. Nucleus? e(4d10): We will manage that. We can threat to leave him in an ionised state. e(5s1): Remember only the ones in vapour state can have an entry. No one is allowed singly or in ionised state, e(4d10): How cruel! Ok, we will manage it. e(5s1): Also, there is an event in which Magnetic Field will be talking to us.

Location: Inside the vaporized silver atoms.

e(4d10): Wow! That will be great.

Knock knock!! Rang the bell at the valence orbit of silver atoms

e(5s1): But there is a condition, She will interact with bachelors like me only. That is, electrons having there spin. Not with like you, who ended up canceling their spin with their partners. Hehe! :D

e(5s1):just coming Oh! There is an invitation. It reads Dear silver atoms, You all are invited to the party at the Stern Gerlach’s Location: Stern Gerlach Apparatus. Chief Guest: Our beloved Ms. Inhomogeneous Magnetic Field. State code: All guest are requested to come in vapour state. Entry is allowed after passing through a collimeter. RSVP: Entire physics laboratory.

WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

e(4d10):Ahhh. What a shit!!! e(5s1): That's why it’s sometime better to be lonely. Back to Phizy and Picky Picky: Wow! Brother, it’s amazing. How did you do it? ha ha ha e(5s1) is too witty Phizy: Did you like it???

Picky: Of course. Where's the next part, I mean what happened at the party? Phizy: It was in a funny way. Now I’m going to tell you the next part in totally physics way. Picky: Ok. I am eager to know how those vapour state silver atoms react in the presence of inhomogeneous magnetic field. Phizy: Actually, what happens in the Stern Gerlach Experiment is that when vapourised silver atoms pass through the magnetic field whose gradient is along z axis and the direction of atoms is along x axis, then due to the interaction of the electron spin with Magnetic Field, the atomic beam gets split into two beams. Picky: Wait a minute. Why does the beam get split into two beams? It should get deviated, no? Phizy: Remember, electron spin can take two values up and down. Hence, beam gets split into two. One beam contains the electrons with up spin and other with down spin. Stern Gerlach’s experiment proves the quantization of spin angular momentum and it demonstrates that it can take two values. Picky: Ok I got it. So much for those freaky travellers, whom we can’t even see. Anyway it’s interesting; I would like to hear more someday. Phizy: Yeah! So much for them. Do know that without them, you can’t exist. And that’s what physics is all about... Fun, Nature and Yourself.

Your Future Starts here.

Phizy and Picky

{Note for the readers: I have named electrons on the basis of their quantum number e5s1 means electron of 5s}

www.myscienceacademy.org WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

TOAST technology on a stunning thought

TOAST technology on a stunning thought They say, “Life is a dress rehearsal for a show that will never happen!” It’s true, philosophically! But, literally, to make our life a lot more easy, we need latest the latest technology. Admit it or not, we all are too obsessed with gadgets. From Science geeks to the common man & even kids, we all crave to know more about the latest innovation & tech stuff; that are in store for us. We at Science Panorama have been sticking to core science; but now we thought of stepping ahead into technology and feature high-end potentially perfect gadgets that can change our world. We hope you enjoy this section & look forward to hear back from you at mayukh@sciencepanorama.com

By Mayukh Saha

LIMBO With almost everyone in the social media talking about the alleged Apple iWatch, one can clearly imagine how our future is going to be like. The future of smart phone design is really going to have a drastic change and designers are looking for a wearable smart phone. Yes, you got it right, a smart phone that you can wear at your wrist! Off late, this particular future smartphone, Limbo has been occupying my mind. LIMBO might look like a science fiction gadget, but it’s actually a plausible future smart phone design. This concept design was conceived by Jeabyun Yeon, a South Korean designer. Limbo measures 125.07mm x 58.20mm x 6.10mm and includes a fantastic touch screen display (4.3” / 16:9 WSVGA AMOLED) that can be transformed into a watch and can be worn in your wrist. It boasts of a smothering flexible gorilla glass display, 8mp rear and 1.3mp front cameras; along with all top notch features that you get in high end smart phones in the market today. So, it doesn’t need much to say about it, coz’ we all will be waiting eagerly to get a gadget like this, maybe soon enough!

WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

TOAST technology on a stunning thought

The Cube 3D Printer Textile, Engineering, Medicine, Food, you name it. 3D printing is already in use and is causing big waves in different fields of study and is set to change our lives! With the technology being used in not a couple but dozens of industries across the world, this is really going to set a trend. These 3D printers, use technology that maps out an object, then the printers layer thin slices of plastic or other materials, on top of each other to create a 3D object just like the real. An appreciable effort by a leading global provider of 3D content-to-print solutions has made it possible to give common people like you and me the experience of the apt 3D printing technology in form of a user-friendly, plug-and-play 3D printer for your home.

The Cube 3D Printer with decent spec; 10 x 10 x 13 inches and weighing only 9.5 lbs, can easily fit on your table. The Cubeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main features include touch screen controls, wifi connectivity, and the ability to print in both ABS and recyclable PLA plastics. A starting price of $ 1099.99 (available at amazon) enables the designers to be sure that the new device will find a wide range of applications in every household and office work. Experts hope that 3D printers will provide cheaper and quicker production, and even possibly provide solutions to problems such as forensic investigations. Finally, it can be said that the 3D printing technology will set a boom and will change the way we work and will make our lives much easier in future. Get set for life using 3D printing.

WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

TOAST technology on a stunning thought

Oculus Rift Fantasy is fantastic! Every gamer likes to play games, we all know that; but it’s really a gamer’s dream to have the experience of playing games in VR that is Virtual Reality! Thanks to the Oculus Rift VR headset that it is possible from now and that too with a not so big hole in your pocket. The Oculus Rift when connected to a PC, presents in front of you, a full 3D environment. With a magnificent 110° field of view, this gadget can track your head movements. So that means, you can look around virtual worlds and feel as if it’s totally real. Unprecedented, as it may seem, for the kind of technology that the Oculus Rift offers, the price tag has been set to less than 300 Dollars by the makers. This fabulous device has also been trialed by some leading figures of the gaming industry, like John Carmack the creator of Doom and Quake, and has received their seal of approval. So, it’s not necessary to say anything more about the Oculus Rift. Get Set for Gaming!

Basis Band Featuring a heart rate monitor that has no chest strap, the basis band is an admirable piece of health monitor device. Most health monitors available in the market today rely on pedometer technology and has no accuracy when it comes to regular exercise, cycling, rowing, etc. But the Basis band is just too precise in its work; courtesy, the heart rate monitor and other detectors that are loaded in it. You can wear the basis band all the time, do whatever you like and still get accurate readings of your health and fitness. The band boasts of a galvanic skin response sensor which monitors sweat levels and also an accelerometer so that you can correlate your exercise habits with you heart rate and also can see the changes. These and other high end detectors present inside the device makes sure that you get a precisely perfect picture of your health than any other gadget available until today.

WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

TOAST technology on a stunning thought

Canon EOS 100D A Stunner! World’s smallest and lightest DSLR is here. The Canon EOS 100D measures a mere 117mm x 91mm x 69mm and weighs only 407g. Can you imagine that for a DSLR? In spite of the small size, the EOS 100D has a brilliant 18-megapixels, CMOS sensor and features almost all the same manual controls that you get in the comparatively more popular, semi-professional EOS 600D. Canon has tweaked the auto focus feature courtesy the “Hybrid CMOS AF II” system that offers 80 per cent of frame coverage; resulting is super swift auto focus in the EOS 100D with no compromise to image quality at all. It shoots video in full-HD. The 100-12800 ISO range enhances and helps make great light work of shooting even in murky conditions. Even battery life lasts well. Although it falls back in some aspects when compared to bigger and more advanced models like the 700D, still this spectacular device is really an Engineering marvel in many respects! Price: £699 | Canon |

WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

TOAST SPOTLIGHT technology on a stunning thought

Glass : Is it good enough? Google Glass is really an uber cool gadget that features incredible act of genius. All the reviews, the amid proclamations that you have read over the internet or social media and the hype surrounding Google Glass has certainly made you aspire to be the proud owner of Glass! You become James Bond when you have Glass with you. It’s certainly one of the decade’s most innovative products. But as some of you may think and wonder whether it is truly that awesome? Can an electronic device like Glass be flawless? Well, I have tried a bit to tell you the flip side of such big hype surrounding Glass and this only tells you about ‘not’ the stunning features that Glass offers but the other side of it. When you pay $1631 and get hold of a unique device, you will not really feel like telling the negatives of it especially when you know that you were hand picked from a hell lot of people and gadget freaks to try and experiment with Glass. But unfortunately, truth never remains hidden. Some big problems that need to be corrected and modified to make Glass really that worthy.

Humph! Talking about Sound… There is a speaker that Google Glass boasts of. It’s a little bone-vibrating speaker that sits over your right ear. But given its small size, it’s not really loud enough. Even in a room; where there are some people talking or gossiping, it becomes difficult for the speaker to overpower them. So, forget Glass when you are in public or are walking through a busy street during rush hours.

WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

‘Not’ Okay Glass! Ok Glass, send an email to Mike! That’s what you tell Glass in order to interact with it. You have to add the ‘Ok Glass’ phrase in the preface, to give commands. There is also a touchpad on the arm-piece from where you can swipe or tap and thus navigate the timeline that the Glass UI offers. But sadly, it’s a tad easy for you to misspeak or give the wrong command… And then Glass will be performing it and all will lead to an ultimate mess! If you thought the Voice command feature is not easy to use, then I will say that the touchpad outcries it and becomes a real, ‘pain in the neck’! It’s damn easy to accidentally tap and share a photo and that too with

SPOTLIGHT

TOAST technology on a stunning thought

Wink and it’s done! Unfortunately, the Google Glass Camera lacks some of the basic functionalities that you normally get in any cheap smart-phone of today. You have to say “Ok Glass, take a picture!” and then glass will be executing the command. There’s also an interesting app by a designer which works when you wink. You wink and you get a snap! But all the photos are blindly taken because, there is no live preview, nor there are any settings of any kind available. “The camera shoots at a downward angle meaning you point your nose at what you want in the center (if that makes sense).” That’s what Chris Chavez of Phandroid who has been using glass for sometime now, says.

Overload Yeah! There are not many apps available as of now in Glass but the released apps do one thing very nicely that is overload you with a ton of information. It has been all about featuring everything to the person wearing glass, from news, to updates from friends to tweets and facebook posts, you have it all to jam-pack your head! It just becomes really annoying and irritating if the updates are not properly filtered. Literally, the notification, Sucks!

WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

Love you Glass! Glass is magnificent, Glass is handsome, Glass is not flawless; Yet it’s certainly awesome! Glass has limitations, we agree with that. But you can’t be expecting everything from it right? It can’t be completely precise and flawless with the very first model. You have to consider the size, how many features it packs in that small size and how light it is. Trust me, it’s lighter than any regular spectacle that you wear and is comfortable too. From the innovation and genius point of view, Glass is undoubtedly a Winner! But, to make this available for the common man and at the same time make it worthy of what it really is, Glass needs to have some radical changes and improvement. Then only you will be happy to use it and be a proud owner of Glass. It’s a big deal but I am sure Google will figure out the flaws and ways to correct them. And ultimately, within a few years time from now, you will be watching everyone through Glass!

Keynote Manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Best Friend Today : Mobile Phones By Dr. M G Janaki Cell phone was first used in Sweden around fifteen years back. It was mainly used by professionals for their accessibility where as practically there is nobody that does not use a cell phone now. It has almost replaced the regular landline phones. There are more than 4.5 lakh mobile towers and ore than 800 million people using cell phone in India and the figure is growing day by day. A cell phone uses non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range. It essentially connects to the service provider through towers installed for the purpose. A cell phone can be used over a wider area as opposed to a cordless, which has a shorter range. The effects of longtime usage of cell phone are mainly attributed to the thermal effects of radiation. Specific absorption rate (SAR) is the amount of radiation that is absorbed by the body per unit mass and is given by Watts per kilo gram (W/Kg). A cell phone on an average gives out 1-2 W/Kg over a period of six minutes. Long-term usage of cell phone has a great impact on the environment, society and health. We hardly see small birds like sparrows these days. The effects are much more on birds as they have more volume per mass and hence get easily heated up. These birds are essential components of cycle and so have their own implications. Coming to implications on society, we are spending more time on time on the cell phone and indirectly less time with each other especially the close relationships get seriously affected. These are expected to deteriorate further if we do not take it seriously and do some thing about it. Its effects on health have more implications and are extensively studied, debated and analyzed. There are enough evidences for and against with less importance given to them as we are so much addicted and can not live without the cell phone. Theoretically, many serious health issues can be explained and so are observed over the last one and half decades. WIRE June 2013 | www.sciencepanorama.com

Most important side effects which are subtle and go unnoticed but potentially have a long term implications are headache, altered levels of concentration and memory, depression, fatigue, sleep disturbances, dizziness, buzzing in the head and these are mostly linked to changes in the electrical signals of the brain. Cases of brain tumors, ear tumors, leukaemia, sarcoma and other cancers have also been reported in the vicinity of towers. Although robust evidence is not available, these can happen and hence it would be preferable to strictly reduce the usage, as totally its use cannot be stopped. Things, which each one of us should consciously do, are : 1) Use cell phone as less as possible. 2) Use landline whenever possible. 3) Keep the cell phone at least 25 mm away from the body. 4) Use speakers/hands free sets as much as possible. 5) Use the cell phone only when there is a strong signal, as the cell makes a greater effort when the signal is weak and hence more radiation comes out of the instrument. 6) Do not allow children to use cell phone. 7) When entire duration of a call is considered radiation involved is maximum at the beginning and at the end, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s preferable to answer after a couple of rings disconnect once its taken away from the body. 8) Text messages as far as possible instead of making calls. 9) Use both the ears so that the radiation effects get distributed. 10) Avoid residing in a house, which is exactly in the vicinity of a tower. 11) Teens should not keep the cell phone near the abdomen. 12) Pregnant ladies should use the cell phone as less often as possible. Finally, the take home message is this; every technology has its own advantages as well as limitations. Its left to us to apply this in our day-to-day life judiciously to get the maximum benefit and to avoid the potential long-term hazards for a healthy living on this beautiful Earth. 55

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