MYSTERIES AND EUREKA
X-Rays
Wilhelm Roentgen, Professor of Physics in Wurzburg, Bavaria, discovered X-rays in 1895, accidentally, while testing, whether cathode rays could pass through glass. His cathode tube was covered in heavy black paper, he was surprised when an incandescent green light escaped and projected onto a nearby fluorescent screen. Through experimentation, he found that the mysterious light would pass through most of the substances but leave shadows of solid objects.
Fun Fact:
Artificial Quinine
As he did not know what the rays were, he called them ‘X,’ meaning ‘unknown,’ rays. That is how X rays were invented.
The young adult, William Perkin, a chemistry student was on the hunt for artificial Quinine. Today, the compound is more familiar as an ingredient in tonic water, but it is also used to treat malaria. Perkin’s home experiments with substances like toluene failed. His attempts to turn allyl-toluene into quinine only resulted in “a reddish-black powder, not the medicine he was expecting to see.” Perkin tried again with another by product called aniline, but all he came up with was a test tube filled with black goop, but that goop ended up changing the world. It stained the test tube and Perkin’s clothing into purple. And it wouldn’t wash out. Perkin immediately realized that he had created the first synthetic dye, something that could be an alternative to the natural dyes made of animals and plants that were used in fabric of the day.
Penicillin invention -
Often described as a careless lab technician, Fleming returned from a two-week vacation to find that a mold had developed on an accidentally contaminated staphylococcus culture plate. Upon examination of the mold, he noticed that the culture prevented the growth of staphylococci.
Teflon-
Plunkett took a job with DuPont, in Jackson New Jersey. He was subsequently assigned to work on synthesizing various new forms of refrigerant, trying to find a non-toxic alternative to refrigerants like sulphur dioxide and ammonia. According to DuPont, in 1938, 27 year old Dr Plunkett and his assistant, Jack Rebok, were experimenting with one such potential alternative refrigerant, tetrafluoroethylene (TFE). Dr Plunkett subsequently created around 100 pounds of TFE and stored the gas in small cylinders. On April 6, 1938, upon opening the valve on one of the pressurized cylinders of TFE that had previously been frozen, nothing came out, even though by its weight, it seemed to still be full. Dr Plunkett and Jack Rebok then decided to investigate further by cutting the cylinder open. Once they managed to get it open, they discovered that the TFE gas inside had polymerized into a waxy white powder, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) resin. When Plunkett experimented with the unique substances, he understood that it was non corrosive and durable. He understood that it was best for household and that is how Teflon was invented.
Plastic's Invention-
The first tale starts in the lab of Charles Goodyear, who combined rubber and sulphur and accidentally put it on the stove for a period of time. When he came back, he found a tough and durable material--created through a process eventually called vulcanization.
Plastic was invented in 1907 when Leo Hendrik Baekeland accidentally created Bakelite. His initial quest was to invent a ready replacement for shellac, an expensive product derived from lac beetles. Baekeland combined formaldehyde with phenol, a waste product of coal, and subjected the mixture to heat. Rather than a shellac-like material, he inadvertently created a polymer that was unique in that it didn’t melt under heat and stress. The new thermosetting plastic is used for everything from phones to jewelry to clocks.
Pacemaker-
A pacemaker is a small device that's placed under the skin in your chest to help control your heartbeat.
In 1956, Greatbatch was building an instrument to monitor heart sounds and had accidentally placed a transistor that was 100 times more powerful than the ones he usually used in the instrument. This resulted in electrical pulses that were akin to the pulsed rhythm of the human heart.
Potato chips-
Potato chips were accidentally invented when an annoying customer kept asking a restaurant to make his French fries thinner and crispier. George Crum, the chef, sliced them wafer thin as a joke, but the guy loved them, and thus the potato chips were born!
Cornflakes-
John and Will Kellogg discovered the now world-famous cereal, cornflakes when they accidentally left a pot of boiled grain on the stove for a number of days.
Matchsticks-
British Pharmacist John Walker was stirring his chemicals when he noticed a dried lump on the end of his stirring stick. Trying to scrape it off, it invariably sparked a flame, and the idea struck him to convert these to proper matchsticks.
Microwave oven-
Percy Spencer was experimenting with a radar related vacuum tube when a candy bar in his pocket started melting. Utilizing this new knowledge, he patented the microwave. What a lucky accident!
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If we have got a question about the world, there is no better tool than science for answering it. But sometimes even science struggles to explain everything. Let’s have a look at some mysteries that scientists are still trying to solve.
An Age-Old Mystery-
Can we stay younger forever?
Your body is like a car. It needs fuel. It has moving parts. Right now, it's pretty new. But over time, cars wear down. The parts wear out. Things go wrong. The same happens to bodies. How? Muscles get weaker. Bones break more easily. Hair becomes grey. It's happening to you right now. As long as you're alive, your body will be aging. Or will it? Can a person stay young until one hundred—or beyond? Someday the answer might be yes.
Getting Older Slower-
We've already made progress. One hundred years ago an average American didn't live past 50. Today's average American teen can expect to live to be 78.
Why is that? It's because of medical science. New medicines are keeping people alive for long. Calcium helps keep bones strong. That's a mineral found in milk and cheese. Exercise helps keep muscles strong. Arid studies show that if older people are menially active, their memories stay sharp. But even so, our bodies still wear down. Why?
Breakdown! -
The most basic body part is the cell. Your body is made up of tiny cells. It has skin cells, muscle cells, blood cells, and so on. You're young. So, your cells are strong. But cells are always dividing. One cell splits into two. With each split, they get a little weaker. One cell might divide as many as one hundred times. Then the cells start to die off. Dying cells cause aging. Gray hair is an example. The cells that make colour begin to die. So, the hair starts to turn gray. What makes cells die? One theory says that telomeres (TEE-loe-meers) are the problem. Telomeres are little caps. They are found on the ends of your DNA. Almost every cell carries DNA. DNA is a long chain of chemicals. It tells your body how to grow and look. Telomeres help cells divide. But the caps get shorter every time. Eventually, they wear out. Suppose we could keep telomeres from getting shorter. Would cells stop dying? Would they just keep dividing? Strangely enough, cancer cells might hold the answer.
Cancer cells can grow really fast. They keep splitting and making more of themselves. And they don't show any signs of aging. A chemical called telomerase keeps their telomeres long. Telomerase is hard to make. But scientists are testing chemicals like it. Someday, one of them might help keep us young. Eat Less. Live Longer, Scientists are looking for other reasons why we age, too. One answer has to do with eating. It sounds odd. But eating less makes some animals live longer. Normal mice live for about thirty-nine months. But scientists fed some mice half of their normal diet. Those mice lived to be fifty-six months old. Why did that happen? No one knows for sure.
Would eating less help humans live longer too? That's a good question. And how much less would people have to eat? That's another good question. Dieting is not always healthy. The body needs a certain amount of nutrients.
Nutrients are building blocks for the body. It uses nutrients to grow, repair itself, and stay healthy. It's hard to eat less and still get the right amount of nutrients. For now, there are no answers, only questions. Will the secrets of youth be found in a deadly disease? Will the food on your plate help solve the mystery of aging? Maybe. If so, then living to a hundred will be child's play!
Heads Up!
What do we know about aging? What clues are scientists studying?
What's Their Secret?
Jeanne Calment lived to be 122 years and 164 days old. She was still riding her bike at age 100! But she's not the only one who has lived to a ripe old age. Why do some people live so long? What's their secret? See what they have to say. Kamato Hongo, 116 and counting: "I don't worry too much." Marie-Louise Meilleur, lived to age 117: "Hard work could never kill a person." Adelina Domingues, lived to age 114: "I never played cards or went to a beauty parlour." Geneva McDaniel, lived to age 111: "Never say die. Never quit" Pham Quang Giang, lived to age 99: "Always stay happy and be optimistic. You should wipe from your mind all things that may bother you."
Talk About Animal Smarts
We talk to the animals. Can they talk back? Clever 1 lags was a famous horse. Its owner, Wilhelm Von Osten, spent two years teaching him math. Ile would ask Hans, "How much is two times two?" Hans would stomp his hoof four times. His owner tried other math problems. Each time, Hans would stomp out the right answer. Was Hans clever enough to add? An experiment proved he wasn't. Hans could only "add" when Von Osten was in view. That's because his owner stood a little straighter as soon as Hans stomped the right number. That's when the horse knew when to stop stomping. Von Osten didn't know he was giving Hans a cue. He really thought his horse was a math whiz. But Hans was just conditioned, or trained, to act a certain way. The man stood up straight. Hans stopped stomping. Then Hans got a treat. After a while, Hans knew what to do. Hans was pretty clever. But he didn't know math. Humans use symbols like numbers and language to share ideas. They also make tools to help change the world around them. Most people agree that these are two signs of intelligence. Are they found in the animal world?
Talking Ape Scientist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh works with apes. They're our closest animal relatives. One chimp named Kanzi learned to communicate. Kanzi mesa picture language. He has a keyboard with symbols. Each symbol represents a word. Kanzi can even make simple sentences. "Apple chase" means he wants to play keep away with an apple. Rumbaugh says that Kanzi understands spoken words, too. Rumbaugh once told him: "You can have some cereal if you give Austin your monster mask to play with." That's a lot of words for an animal to understand. But Kanzi gave Austin the mask. Then he asked for the cereal.
Some scientists think Kanzi is just well trained, like Hans. They say he and other talking apes just copy their trainers. Or maybe he reacts to the sounds. But according to Rumbaugh, that's not the case. "If they were copying me," she says, "they would repeat just what I'm saying also, ' But they don't, they answer my questions." Toeing Up Tools are another sign of intelligence. Using a tool isn't easy. Here's an example. Say you want to eat a walnut that's in a shell. You have to see what the problem is. The hard shell needs to be opened or smashed. Then you need the right tool to solve the problem. Finally, you need to use the tool in the right way. We know that some animals use tools. Chimps use stones to open nuts. They even teach their babies how to do it. Monkeys use sticks to get ants out of their nests. Some birds use cactus spines to catch hugs. Finding a tool is smart. But making a tool is even smarter. Can animals do that, too?
In 2002, scientists in England found that they can. They did a study on a crow. Her name was Betty. Scientists gave Betty a straight wire. They also gave her a hooked wire. Betty used the hooked wire to lift a bucket of food. Then scientists took away the hooked wire. Betty bent the straight wire into a hook. Then she used it to lift the bucket. What do you think? Are these animals just performing clever tricks? Or are they intelligent creatures who can think for themselves? It's an unsolved science mystery.
Heads Up!
Can animals think for themselves? List three reasons to back up your answer.
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-Aayush Trakroo-8M
Flying Machines-
People have dreamed about flying for centuries. Early inventors watched birds. They tried to make flapping wings. But no one could do it. Leonardo da Vinci was one of the first to dream about flying. He studied the wings of birds and bats. In 1485, he drew pictures of a flying machine. It had flapping wings. But he never built it. In the 1880s, Lawrence Hargrave did build small flapping machines. They were made of wood and paper. They flew short distances. They were powered by rubber bands. A French inventor built a bigger flapping flier. It carried a man 55 meters. But it flew farther when the wings didn't flap. It worked better as a glider. Finally, in 1903, two brothers got the first plane into the air. But how many flapping parts did it have? None. Orville and Wilbur Wright used fixed wings. After that most inventors followed their example.
Heads Up!
People have copied many things in nature. Think of a spider's web and a fishing net. Can you name other examples?
Fast radio bursts (FRBs)
Since 2007, Astronomers have detected a series of high energy pulses seemingly random directions in space. They are called Fast Radio Bursts or FRBs because each lasts just a few milliseconds. Astronomers have figured out that whatever’s producing them is way outside our Galaxy, Billions of Light years from earth .For them to appear so bright means the source must be astonishingly powerful. Many FRBs have been detected, but their origins remain poorly understood. 'Studies suggest that it might be one of the universe's tortured objects'. Many experts think it’s a neutron star, the dead core of an exploded giant star. One hypothesis suggests that it is in the midst of being devoured by a nearby black hole. Another claim that it caught in the supernova blast of yet another dying star. Either way all trouble is causing it to emit a series of fast radio bursts.
This April, two very different telescopes spotted a rare but considerably weaker burst from inside our own Milky Way galaxy. Those two telescopes: one a California doctoral student’s and other a Canadian observatory. They tracked that fast radio burst to a magnetar that’s 32,000 light-years from Earth. It was the first FRB traced to a source- emanating from our galaxy. The occurrence of FRBs outside the Milky Way is frequent, but astronomers don’t have any idea how often these bursts happen inside our galaxy.
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Ball Lightning
Mysterious floating orbs of light have puzzled scientists for centuries, inspiring no end of creative explanation. Survey shows about 5% of people have seen these strange, growing orbs of light. They have appearance of lightning instead of a quick flash each ball last from seconds to minutes. Most of them are not bigger than our head, but the largest can be more than a meter across. Some observers have even reported that the orbs entering building through windows or travelling along the ground. Outside ball lightning seems to appear along thunderstorms. But during World War 2, it was often observed by pilots and even in the engine of submarines.
Over the years scientist have proposed a lot of ideas to explain about this phenomenon. One idea is that when lightning strikes during a thunderstorm, it vaporizes some of the silicon found in everyday soil and releases it into the air. As the vapor condenses into flecks of silicon dust, it picks up an electric charge and clumps together into loose balls. Individual silicon molecules then combine with oxygen from the air to form silicon dioxide, which releases energy that causes the ball to glow like lightning. And there’s some support for this idea as researchers have succeeded in creating smaller short lived glowing balls in a lab by vaporizing silicon. But no explanation of how it occurs has been universally accepted by science.
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Star Jelly
People have always written about star jelly, a gooey substance that appears after meteor showers or sightings of comets. It’s often found near water bodies. Explanations have ranged from the materials being the remains of frogs, toads, or worms, to the by-products of cyanobacteria, to the paranormal. Reports of the substance date back to the 14th century and have continued to the present day. There are also no shortage of strange gel forming creatures, from slime molds and fungi to bacteria and blue-green algae. At least one case was determined to be simply chemical in nature, a purple gel found in Texas in 1979 turned out to be a cleaning agent from a nearby battery factory. A lot of time and money spent by scientists to find what is star jelly, but an exact explanation is not found yet.
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Forest Rings
It is a strange phenomenon: thousands of large, perfectly round "forest rings" dot the boreal landscape of northern Ontario. From the air, these mysterious light- coloured rings of stunted tree growth are clearly visible, but on the ground, you could walk right through them without noticing them. They range in diameter from 30 meters to 2 kilometres, with the average ring measuring about 91 meters across and are pretty much only visible from air. Over 2,000 of these forest rings have been documented, but scientists estimate the actual number is more than 8,000. It was not created by humans. 'In the past, scientists thought that they were the result of a harmful fungus.'. Soil samples taken in some rings reveal an unusually high concentration of Methane. Other measurements showed the potential for underground metal deposits. Either one can create a negative electric charge that acidifies the soil and harms tree growth. Bacteria may play an important role when it comes to Methane. Geologists and biologists are still trying to find out the reason behind it.
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Desert Varnish
Desert varnish is the thin red-to-black coating found on exposed rock surfaces in arid regions. Varnish is composed of clay minerals, oxides and hydroxides of manganese and/or iron, as well as other particles such as sand grains and trace elements. The most distinctive elements are manganese (Mn) and iron (Fe). Scientist can generally detect microbes in the stuff, but that doesn’t mean they are the source of it. Some have proposed desert varnish might be most visible sign of the so-called shadow biosphere.
But it is an important warning as we begin to look for life beyond earth. The universe may be full of creatures, but if they work fundamentally different than anything we know, how will we find them? In a way that is the value of unsolved mysteries. They force scientists to consider our own, well studied world in new and surprising ways.
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-Aenon Gustin Chalissery
6M
RECENT DISCOVERIES AND INVENTIONS
The Indestructible Beetle:
The Diabolical Ironclad Beetle, Nosoderma diabolicum, truly does live up to its name. This beetle can withstand 39,000 times its weight, without dying. In fact, even after being run over by a car, it can still live, an engineer from the University of California, David
Kisailus along with his team piled in a Toyota Camry and ran one over twice, and
it still lived. Due to its skeleton being so sturdy, it has a lifespan of 8 years, while other beetles generally have a lifespan of a few weeks only, which would be similar to a human who may start living for thousands of years.
The reason for its indestructibility is its exoskeleton. One of the reasons is that its exoskeleton is flat, not rounded like a ladybug’s. So, it’s able to withstand more pressure than a ladybug and we can’t squish it with our feet. Also, the exoskeleton contains many protein-rich layers which can shift without the whole skeleton breaking, along with puzzle- like joints between them, which helps it become sturdy. Scientists could possibly use this newly discovered species of beetles to make sturdier airplanes and in other engineering applications, by using the properties of the shell which help it become indestructible.
This picture shows a Diabolical Ironclad Beetle, along with its remarkable exoskeleton.
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Oldest Material Found on Earth:
A few decades ago, a meteorite headed towards the Earth and hit it. Recently, scientists decided to do an analysis of it and its contents, to see if there was anything interesting on it. They found a shocking discovery. A few grains of stardust were found on the meteorite, which was from a star that died out about 4.6 billion to 7 billion years ago. To put it in perspective, our Sun has been around for about 4.5 billion years, which means that the star was probably formed about 14 billion to 17 billion years ago, making these grains older than the whole solar system, and the oldest object ever discovered by us.
According to scientists, what probably happened was that a few billion years before our Sun was formed, a dying star’s dust was flung out into space. Some of this dust ended up on a meteorite, which collided with Earth a few decades ago, which led to us discovering the dust that’s older than the Solar System.
This picture shows a grain of the stardust. The stardust is about 8 micrometers long, which is shorter than the width of human hair.
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Tyrannosaur Embryos:
Recently, a new discovery was found at 2 archaeological sites. The remains of young tyrannosaurs were found in a foot claw unearthed from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation in Alberta, Canada and in a lower jaw recovered from the Two Medicine Formation of Montana. These remains were from tyrannosaurs so young that they haven’t even broken out of their shell.
Scientists analyzed these remains a little more and found out that it was from about 71 million to 75 million years ago and the tyrannosaur remains were about three feet long, a little less than a meter, which is around the size of a Chihuahua. These young tyrannosaurs would have grown to be about thirty feet long.
This discovery helped scientists find out why they weren’t able to find baby dinosaur remains, because they had been trying to find bigger remains.
This picture shows what the tyrannosaur probably looked like. These new fossils aren’t from Tyrannosaur Rex, it’s from an older species.
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A Reef Taller Than The Empire State Building:
A team of Australian scientists found a coral which was more than 1,640 feet (500 meters) tall, taller than the Empire State Building, the Sydney Tower and the Petronas Twin Towers, while mapping out the Great Barrier Reef seafloor. The base of the blade-like reef is 1.5km-wide, then rises 500m to its shallowest depth of only 40m below the sea surface. This
natural structure is a home to many aquatic creatures like turtles and sharks and has a variety of lifeforms thriving in it. This structure is among the ones that haven’t been discovered in 120 years.
“This unexpected discovery affirms that we continue to find unknown structures and new species in our Ocean,” said Wendy Schmidt, co-founder of Schmidt Ocean Institute. “The state of our knowledge about what’s in the Ocean has long been so limited. Thanks to new technologies that work as our eyes, ears and hands in the deep ocean, we have the capacity to explore like never before. New oceans capes are opening to us, revealing the ecosystems and diverse life forms that share the planet with us.”
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Levitating Light Bulb:
A new light bulb has been built in Sweden, one that has never been seen by people before, namely FLYTE. The most notable and remarkable quality of this new light bulb is that it hovers in the air. It uses magnetic levitating to hover and gets its power through the air, it also provides a soft, warm glow.
Another notable quality is its energy efficiency. This new light bulb uses highly efficient LEDs that are rated at around 50,000 hours, which means that you can use it for 12 hours a day for 11 years continuously. The light bulb is also durable. It’s made of oak, ash and wood, which helps it become durable to last as long as it’s LEDs do.
This shows that this new light bulb is highly energy efficient and durable as well as levitating, making it one of a kind.
Port Solar Charger:
A new compact, portable battery which charges your device using solar power has been invented. The charger can be attached to windows in the house, car or even a plane with the help of a suction cup and will be able to charge your phone.
A new type of battery was made recently. It uses sustainable energy, i.e. solar energy to charge devices.
This new compact, portable battery can be attached to a window in a house, a car or even a plane to charge a device. It converts solar energy to electrical energy to charge devices. It’s a great invention, making use of sustainable energy to charge devices, and using suction cups to attach to windows.
This is a picture of the Port Solar Charger, when it’s connected to windows and being used to charge phones.
Facts about Science you need to know!!
SCIENCE AROUND US!
Science is a wonderful subject to talk about. Most of our problems can be solved using the powerful tool, science. You can find it anywhere, anytime and anyhow. For example, if our mom cooks curry or if our dad walks home from work every day, that’s science! You cannot imagine a world without it because science is necessary and is really fun if you learn more about it. It is divided into three main sections, that is Biology, Chemistry and Physics. People who study science in detail are called scientists. They experiment with everything to find out something new which people had never heard of or seen before.
Application of science can help us to do many things. Making stuff also includes science! There are many remarkable and well-known scientists. Some of them are Sir Isaac Newton, who discovered that there is an invisible force that keeps us and other things on Earth known as GRAVITY. Lord Kelvin, was honoured for this with the name of the Kelvin temperature scale. On the Kelvin scale, absolute zero is found at 0 kelvin. Albert Einstein, introduced the concept of Photon, also known as light quantum. It is a tiny energy packet of electromagnetic radiation. Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen, produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known as the X-rays, etc. There is not only science on our planet Earth but also in space! As you see, science is very important in our daily life, so we must know more about it. Science is not only important, but also very interesting and fun!
Reference links :
-Abhijith Kannan 7Q
Great Conjunction
Sky watchers are in for an end-of-year treat. The Great Conjunction is a
magnificent planetary conjunction easily visible in the evening sky as the bright planets Jupiter and Saturn come together, culminating on the night of December 21. On December 21, Jupiter and Saturn will meet in a “Great Conjunction,” the closest they could be seen in the sky together for nearly 800 years. There is something more special about the date “21 December”. It is the day with the longest night of the year.
In 1610, Italian astronomer, Galileo Galilei, discovered the four moons of Jupiter- Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. In the same year, he also discovered the rings of planet Saturn. Thirteen years later, in 1623, the solar system’s two giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, travelled together across the sky. Jupiter caught up to and passed Saturn, in an astronomical event known as a “Great Conjunction.” What makes this year’s spectacle so rare? It has been nearly 400 years since the planets passed this close to each other in the sky, and nearly 800 years since the alignment of Saturn and Jupiter occurred at night, as it will for 2020, allowing nearly everyone around the world to witness this “great conjunction.” The Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions happen every 20 years. But these conjunctions are not all created equal. The 2020 great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn will be the closest since 1623 and the closest observable since 1226!
It is also known as The Christmas Star. The phenomenon has been named the Christmas Star because of its closeness to the Christmas this year. This Great Conjunction is also known as The Star of Bethlehem. This can be seen with naked eyes. The next Great Conjunction between the two planets — though not nearly as close together — comes in November 2040, with the following close conjunction 337 years later in August 2417. It is believed that the Bethlehem star was seen when Jesus was born. Let us be eagerly waiting for the next conjunction in 2040!
Reference Links :
-Adithya Sanjay Poduval
8M
THE DUBAI LAMP
The bulb that saved people money by a lot
The Dubai lamp was created by a company that had paired with Philips which is the biggest lighting company in UAE and Middle East. The Philips owner felt that the increase in the electrical bills in the houses affected citizen’s economy and finance thereby causing people to move out of the country. To solve this problem, he created a team that created a bulb that saved people 30% of electricity used by any buildings and helped save up to400M$ in money which helped the citizenship. The project was show cased to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and it was found to be a splendid success.
Reference Links:
-Zayan Salahudeen
7P
Aerographene – A Material of the Future
Have you heard of the material Aerographene? It is an amazing material that is very light and strong. Aerographene, as the name suggests, consists of Graphene and Aerogel. Graphene is an allotrope of carbon. Allotropes mean a different physical form of an element that exists. When the form changes, the atomic structure also changes. In this case, Graphene is a single layer of atoms arranged in a two- dimensional Honeycomb Lattice like the image below.
You have most probably heard of Graphite. Graphite is the black material used in pencil lead that makes a mark on the paper. Well… Graphite is just stacked layers of Graphene. This way you can remove the layers of graphite with tape and get small layers of graphene also. Graphene looks like this:
Next let us talk about Aerogel. Aerogel is a light material with very low THERMAL conductivity. In this material, the liquid content of a gel is replaced with a gas without collapsing the gel structure. They are produced by first replacing the liquid with alcohol and then replacing the alcohol with liquid carbon dioxide and pressurizing it (at this point there is no boundary between the gas and liquid in the gel) and then reducing the pressure. This allows the liquid to dry without collapsing the gel through capillary action. Capillary action is the tendency of a liquid to rise or fall because of surface tension.
Aerogel looks like this:
When you put these 2 together, you would expect some sort of transparent thin material that insulates a lot and is also very light.
The last 2 properties are correct while the first 2 are wrong. Aero graphene is a grey material that has a lot of thermal insulation and is very light.
The Aero graphene is so light that it can balance the spine of this plant! Previously, Aero graphene production used to be a long process that took a maximum of 7 days to complete. A Scientist whose name is Pauzauskie and his team adapted the standard RF (resorcinol and formaldehyde) approach, using an acid-catalyzed route, they produced a graphene-oxide (GO) laden aerogel in just two hours! Aero graphene can absorb 900 times its own weight in oil and can therefore be used to clean up oil spills. Scientists hope that one day the aero graphene production process will be more cost-effective and easier to produce.
Reference Links :
Nathan – 6P
Robotics
Robotics is the intersection of science, engineering and technology that produces machines, called robots. Robotics develops machines that can substitute for humans and replicate human actions. Robots can be used in many situations and for many purposes, but today many are used in dangerous environments.
The concept of creating robots that can operate autonomously dates to classical times, but research into the functionality and potential uses of robots did not grow until the 20th century. Throughout history, it has been often assumed by various scholars, inventors, engineers, and technicians that robots will one day be able to mimic human behaviors and manage tasks in a human-like fashion. Today, robotics is a rapidly growing field, as technological advances continue; researching, designing, and building new robots serve various practical purposes, whether domestically, commercially, or militarily. Many robots are built to do jobs that are hazardous to people, such as defusing bombs, finding survivors in unstable ruins, and exploring mines and shipwrecks. Robotics is also used in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) as a teaching aid.
Reference Links :
-Shyamantak Sushil
6-P
Interesting Facts About the Life of a Sea Turtle
Sea turtles are miraculous, first, they have been around since the late Jurassic roughly 150 million years ago. Sea turtles have survived through challenges of eons, existing still today where many others have ended their evolutionary run.
Second, throughout the centuries and up till today every living sea turtle has overcome the odds existing because of chance, skill, and capability the gauntlet each sea turtle faces goes as thus: First deposited as a clutch of leathery ping-pong ball-sized eggs. Of the 50 to 200 eggs laid roughly 20% will never hatch. Roughly a month and a half after being laid the surviving eggs hatch and the young turtles each small enough to fit in the palm of your hand squirm to the surface emerging from the sand in massive numbers and making their desperate dash for the sea, along the way debris, pitfalls, crabs, gulls, raccoons, and other threats, will claim 50% of those who rose from the sand. For those who reach the surf, they trade one set of threats for another, as they first face the repelling force of the waves and then find a whole new host of predators awaiting them various fish, dolphins, sharks, and sea birds as they come up to the surface for air. For the first few days of their life, the vulnerable turtles swim frantically forward. Ultimately, they will often look to settle in a patch of flotsam, preferably a patch of floating seaweed. Now for the next several months, they will seek to avoid those that would eat them and not fall to the pressures of challenging weather or unfortunate currents in this phase roughly 50% of those who will reach the surf will perish. Ultimately with the passage of years, the survivors will increase in size. With size comes some measure of protection, the only truly worrisome predators now are the larger shark species Bull's tigers and whites to name a few of them, and the occasional killer whale at approximately two decades of age the survivors will be old enough themselves to breed and continue the cycle which their very existence heralds. Of those that began as eggs on a distant beach now less than 10 % remain, at least those were the odds before significant human interference. Over the last century and in particular, in the last decade's human endeavors from beach development to plastic, long lines nets and even noxious chemicals including oil have caused their survival rate to drop around 1% or less from each nesting cycle. This is also the reason why all of the turtles are in a threatened or endangered state. Let's quickly recap this cycle of odds using a hypothetical nesting season of 1000 eggs for the sake of ease: 1000 Eggs are laid; 800 hatches; 400 make it to the water; 200 progress towards adulthood; About 20 survive to breeding age that is without human interference; And only 2 survive to breeding age with human interference. So, breeding an adult sea turtle is the very embodiment of a miracle.
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Aaditya Mamgain
6N
FACTS ABOUT WHALES
The whale group, known as the cetaceans, contain about 83 kinds of whale, dolphins and porpoise. About 12 of these are baleen whales, whose long strips (whale bone) in the mouth filter sea water for small creatures such as krill. The rest are toothed whales, who catch prey such as fish and squid.
The humpback grows to 15m in length and weighs 30 tones. It has the longest flippers of any whale, at 4m.
Baby beluga, or white whale, is dark grey or grey pink when born. It gradually becomes paler over about 5years.
Pilot whales are also called ‘black fish’, although they are not fish.
Cuvier’s beaked whale is one of the most numerous and widespread of the beaked whale group.
The Blue whale is the longest and heaviest whale, and lives in oceans all around the world.
A baby whale like this grey whale calf is born in the tail first. Its mother helps it to breathe.
Pygmy sperm whales or lesser cachalots tend to lie on the surface when resting. They are about 3m long.
Right whales have a large head and bow – shaped lower jaw. They are easily recognized because of the presence of light-coloured warts – like growths called callosities.
The killer whale or orca is not a true whale, but the largest kind of dolphin. It reaches 9m in length and 10 tones in weight.
The northern bottlenose whale can reach up to 9m in length and 7tonnes in weight. It can hold breath up to 2 hours under water.
Sowerby’s beaked whale lives in the North Atlantic, roaming as far as Iceland and the Southern tip of Greenland
The sperm whale is the biggest toothed whale. It ventures into waters around the Arctic and Antarctic, which are cold even in summer.
Reference Links :
Divjot Debense
6R
THE ERA OF DRONES
What are the drones?
Drones are flying robots formally known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is an aircraft without a human pilot on board. UAV’s are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS); which includes a UAV, a ground-based controller, and a system of communications between the two. The flight of UAV’s may operate with various degrees of autonomy: either under remote control by a human operator or autonomously by onboard computers referred to as an autopilot.
What is the purpose of drones? Drones are used by Professionals for commercial purposes and Hobbyists for sports and entertainment. The common usages of drones are:
Defense and Warfare
Aerial photography and filming
Agriculture and farming
Product delivery
Sports and entertainment
Multi Rotor Drones
Multi Rotor Drones are UAV’s that use more than two rotors with spinning blades that generate lift. Quadcopters (4 rotors) are the most popular variant. Multi Rotor have simple rotor mechanics for flight control and rotors for propulsion and control.
Fixed Wing Drone
Fixed wing drones have ‘wings’ like the normal airplanes. They need forward momentum and air flow over the Wing to take off. They can fly higher altitudes and longer distance than other drones but fixed wing drones cannot hover in the air.
Single Rotor Helicopter
Single rotor drones are:
Similar to helicopters
Have one big sized rotor
Has a small rotor on the tail to control its heading
Fixed Wing Hybrid VTOL
Fixed wing hybrid VTOLs can;
Lift of vertically in the absence of runway
Hover like a rotor drone
Fly long duration, distance and higher altitudes.
More efficient than multi rotor versions
Longer flight time
Higher payload capacity
Harder to fly and more expensive than multi rotor drones
Stay tuned for more discoveries ...