Science Panorama

Second largest Volcanic Eruption.

2013-04-23T01:04:00.001-07:00

2nd Largest volcanic eruption of the 20th Century

In June 1991, the second largest volcanic eruption of the twentieth century* took place on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, a mere 90 kilometers (55 miles) northwest of the capital city Manila. Up to 800 people were killed and 100,000 became homeless following the Mount Pinatubo eruption, which climaxed with nine hours of eruption on June 15, 1991. On June 15, millions of tons of sulfur dioxide were discharged into the atmosphere, resulting in a decrease in the temperature worldwide over the next few years.

IMAGE SOURCE: Internet

Mount Pinatubo is part of a chain of composite volcanoes along the Luzon arc on the west coast of the island (area map). The arc of volcanoes is due to the subduction of the Manila trench to the west. The volcano experienced major eruptions approximately 500, 3000, and 5500 years ago.

Feel free to share anything from Science Panorama with credits to true authors in Science Panorama.

This article is Copyright to SCIENCE PANORAMA and its writers.

LED - Light Emitting Diode

2013-02-15T07:21:00.001-08:00

Light Emitting Diode or LED is a heavily doped p-n junction under forward bias, used to convert the biasing electrical energy into optical energy.

Image Source : WIKIPEDIA

Principle: LED works as in the following way. Energy is required to produce an electron –hole pair. Conversely, energy is released when an electron in a hole, recombine, In a crystal like Germanium and Silicon, the recombination energy is absorbed by the material as heat. But in semiconductors like Gallium Arsenide, a photon in the visible spectrum range is emitted on recombination,

thereby producing light. This is the basic principle of a Light Emitting Diode.

Image Source : WIKIPEDIA

In a junction diode, there is an excess of electrons in the conduction band on the n-side and an excess of holes in the valence band on the p-side, with a potential barrier across the junction. When a forward bias is applied across the junctions, current flows from P-->N that is, the holes from the p-side combine into the N-side and electrons from N-side to P-side. Near the junctions, electrons in the conduction band combine with the holes in the valence band and energy is released as a photon of frequency ν (nu) given by:

hν = Ec - Ev
or, λ = hc/Ec-Ev

Therefore, λ= hc/Eg
Where Eg=> Ec – Ev that is Energy of the forbidden gap.

Uses of LED
i) Light Emitting Diodes are used in the manufacture of signal lamps and display devices like Television.
ii) The infrared LED is used in optical fibre communication. The light emitted by LED can be coherent under conditions. In such cases, LED can be used as a Laser.
Therefore, LED is also known as Injection Junction Laser.

That’s it for now, do watch out for the next part of the Same Note, a continuation where I will explain about Transistors, doping and other interesting stuffs!

By Mayukh Saha
(Mayukh is a dolt who is trying to build an open place where knowledge and science can reach to everyone and everywhere possible. He plans to do so with the help of the Internet and Science Panorama. He can be reached here).

How To Make Your Own Particle Detector

2013-02-09T01:55:00.000-08:00

We have been hearing so much about particle accelerators and particle detectors in the last few years. The best known particle accelerator possibly is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN in Switzerland. The particle detectors associated with it are CMS, ALICE, ATLAS etc. I am not going in details about the so called “GOD-particle”, because I believe that a person interested in my article would be well aware of that. So what I want to ask here that can we make our own particle detector? Well yes, it is indeed possible to make a “cloud chamber” at home and view elementary particles like muons and electrons from the cosmic rays incident on earth. For sure that would not be comparable to the LHC, but my friend we will also not spend those millions on it.

WIRE Edition 1

DOWNLOAD THE WIRE MAGAZINE BY SCIENCE PANORAMA CLICK HERE!
Some things for the readers with fewer introductions to Standard model of Particle Physics:- In the standard model there are twelve elementary fermions, six quarks and six leptons. The six leptons are three neutrinos and three electron-like particles. The three electron-like leptons are the electron, the muon and the tau particle. All three have negative charge and their spin is half. Fermions are thus grouped in three generations, each generation consisting of a charged lepton and its associative neutrino.
The cloud chamber is a particle detector invented by British scientist C.T.R. Wilson in the early twentieth century, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927. A cloud chamber consists of a sealed environment containing a super-saturated vapour of water or alcohol. The vapour condenses on the ionizing particle (alpha or beta), thus leaving a trail. The tracks can be seen with the help of a tangential light source. The bottom of the chamber is cooled. This creates a temperature difference between the top and bottom of the chamber.
Now coming back to the topic, We need a transparent plastic container for the body and a metal plate for the bottom surface of the cloud chamber. The metal plate should be black to provide a suitable backdrop for the tracks. However, if you can’t get hold of a black metal plate then just paint it black or wrap it with black tape. Keep some putty or tape at hand to attach the container and plate to each other.
Next, we need a piece of felt. The felt will be used to introduce the alcohol into the chamber. And then you need some dry ice to cool the chamber. The local ice cream vendor parlour can help you out with getting dry ice if you don’t know where to get it. And to keep the dry ice you need an insulating box made from wood or thermocol. Get some ethyl or isopropyl alcohol from your school’s chemistry lab. Find a torch with a strong beam to provide the lightning. And you now have all your raw materials ready.
How do we put together a working cloud chamber from all these things? Stick the felt to the bottom of the plastic box. Soak it with the alcohol using a draper. Remember that the alcohol should not touch your bare skin. Also it is poisonous so do not try to drink it.
Put the box upside down on the metal plate. The felt lined bottom is now on top. Seal the box to the plate using the tape. Make sure the arrangement is airtight; otherwise you won’t get proper tracks. Now take the dry ice and put it below the metal plate. This sets up the temperature gradient and you should be able to see a sort of ‘rain’ at the bottom of the chamber.
Remember to handle the dry ice wearing gloves otherwise you will get a burn from the extremely cold ice. Also, the room should be ventilated because when the dry ice melts carbon dioxide will be formed.
Once you have completed all these steps turn off the lights in the room. Point the flashlight at the chamber from the side and wait for the tracks to appear.

-From the WIRE Magazine (Where Ideas Reach Everyone) CLICK HERE To DOWNLOAD!
Article by Science Panorama Writer, Sushant Rawat.

Female Stars in the Galaxy of Science!

2013-01-09T00:35:00.001-08:00

As a double-winner of the Nobel Prize, Marie Curie brought global prestige to the Nobel institution in the early part of the Twentieth Century.But few names of Women scientists have been noticed, leave alone, celebrated in the annals of Nobel Prize history ever since. For instance, how many have heard of Dorothy Hodgkin who won the Chemistry Nobel in 1964 for determining the structures of important biochemical substances using X-ray techniques, and was a key figure in the famous Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs? And, how many have cared to know who Maria Goeppert-Mayer was? (She was a co-laureate of the Physics Nobel in 1963 tor findings related to nuclear shell structure, and remains the only woman after Marie curie, to have won the Nobel Prize in this category.)

Marie Curie

Similar fundamental, anxious questions could be raised about Gerty Cori, the first Nobel Prize winning woman of America and the first female medical scientist to be inducted into the Nobel hall of fame (for identifying the course of catalytic conversion of glycogen), as well as Rita Levi-Montalcini, the Italian neurologist who co-win the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1986 (for discovery of the Nerve Growth Factor) and is the oldest living, longest-lived Nobel laureate today. (She completed 102 Years in April 2011).

However, the real question here is not about women Nobel scientists being non-celebrities, but about the deeper issue of gender-discrimination in the matter of professional recognition, including the award of top international prizes. Indeed, all through history, virtually all the leading women of science whether they received or missed the Nobel Prize have suffered discouragement and rejection, harassment and humiliation, and torture and persecution in varying degrees at the hands of the ruling male scientists, solely because they happened to be women. It Is little wonder then that only 16 women have so far appeared in the catalogue of science Nobel laureates since the Institution Of the Nobel Science Prize in 1901.

Elizabeth Blackburn

Particular mention must be made here of four all-time great scientists who, as widely alleged science community were denied their share of the Nobel glory on the mere grounds of their gender. One of the most publicized stories on this subject involves Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958), the English molecular biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer, who was known as "The Dark Lady of DNA”, and who made pioneering contributions to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal and graphite.

The case of Lisa Meitner (1878 -1968), the Austrian-born Swedish physicist, whom Einstein called "Our own Marie Curie" and who co-discovered nuclear fission with Otto Hahn, is no less widely sited as a 'flagrant omission' in Nobel controversy literature. The two other scientists who richly deserved but never received the Nobel Prize were: Chien-Shiung wu (1912 -1997), the Chinese-American Physicist who was halled “The First Lady of Modern Physics" and "Chinese Marie Curie," and who worked on the fabled Manhattan project and altered our very perception of the structure of the universe; and Jocelyn Bell Burnell, the British radio astrophysicists who was associated with her thesis-supervisor Antony-Hewish in the Nobel-prize-winning co-discovery of pulsars (rotating neutron stars).

Ada Yonath

When the prestigious New Scientist magazine, voted Marie Curie "The most inspirational woman scientist of all time” in July 2009 (Marie Curie, in fact, deserved to be proclaimed "The most inspirational scientist," wlthout the gender adjective), several of the above names were in the top-I0 list along with Mathematician Hypatia of Alexandria; Ada King (English mathematician familiar to computer scientists as history's first computer programmer, and a key worker on Babbage's Analytical Engine); Marie- Sophie Germain (French mathematician of "Elasticity Theory" fame), Rachel Carson (American marine biologist who wrote Silent Spring that led to an extensive ban on DDT and certain other pesticides); and the legendary primatologist-ethologist Jane Goodal.

Some other historical figures that spring to one's mind in this context are Emmy Noether (1882-1935), one of the greatest female mathematicians, who made singal contributions to the development of relativity theory as well as abstract algebra; Frieda Robscheit-Robbins (1893-1973), an illustrious pathologist who collaborated with George Whipple on his Nobel-prize-winning endeavour for curing pernicious anaemia ; Ellen Gleditsch (1879-1968), one of Marie Curie's distinguished research associates, who became a leader in chemical radioactivity and an ardent champion of the cause of women in academia and science, and Kathleen Lonsdale (1903-1971), a Davy-Medal-winning crystallographer, who achieved a number of firsts for a female scientist including 'first lady Fellow of the Royal Society' and 'first female president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.'

It certainly strains our credulity to accept that gender-bias of a severe degree was prevalent in advanced countries as well and that even world-renowned scientists were terribly sexist, but fact remains that almost until recently girls were actively discouraged from pursuing science education even at the primary school level in all parts of the world, leave alone anti-feminine prejudice at the Nobel Prize level.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Thankfully, we have come a long way from all that sordid history, and women have now emerged as a force to reckon with across the sphere of science. Women are actually making waves at the very cutting edge of science today as powerfully instanced by the Nobel conquests of three outstanding scientists in 2009: Ada Yonath from Israel (Chemistry Prize for investigation into the structure and function of the ribosome, shared with Thomas Steitz and Indian-born Venkatraman Ramakrishnan); and Elizabeth Blackburn and Carolyn Grieder, both from the U.S. (Physiology or Medicine Prize for research related to chromosomal protection by telomeres and telomerase, shared with Jack Szostak).

It makes great sense to draw inspiration from the lives of yesterday's female giants of science, who rose above formidable roadblocks and made groundbreaking contributions to knowledge and society by virtue of their genius vision and cultivated abilities. There is no doubt that the female stars in the galaxy of science carry enough gravitational pull to effect the "Paradigm Reshift" from high-technology to high-science that is urgently needed in with education and research today.

By Sushant Rawat
Writer and Contributor, Science Panorama
ENJOY SCIENCE! ENJOY SCIENCE PANORAMA!

The Worlds Most Advanced Synchrotron in India!

2013-01-03T06:52:00.000-08:00

From the WIRE MAGAZINE: DOWNLOAD IT HERE!

Another precious feather is about to get attached to the crown of Nuclear Physics Research and Development in India.India will be getting a new Synchrotron which is the 5th High Energy Synchrotron in the world and also the most advanced one according to scientists.
At present there are 4 Synchrotrons Centres, namely APS Argonne near Chicago, US; ESR in Grenoble, France; DESY in Germany and SPring-8 in Japan.
The Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP) based in Kolkata has been given the charge to develop the Synchrotron. Even the scientists at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore were keen to build the Synchrotron but ultimately SINP got the green signal from the Government of India.

So what really is a Synchrotron?
In plain words, a synchrotron is a type of cyclic particle accelerator. That means electrons and other fundamental nuclear particles are made to move in a closed path under magnetic field which bends the particles into a cyclic path, to form a particle beam of increasing kinetic motion which in turn give rise to enormous amount of energy and is useful in different fields of scientific research like High Energy Physics, Particle Physics, Biotechnology, Biochemistry, etc. The very first electron synchrotron was constructed by Edwin McMillan in 1945.

How does a Synchrotron work?
A Synchrotron basically works in the principles of a Cyclotron, where there is a constant magnetic field to guide the particle beam and bend it, along with a constant frequency electric field to give the particle kinetic energy. But a Synchrotron is far more modified and advanced. While a cyclotron follows a spiral path, a Synchrotron follows a closed cyclic path. With variations in the magnetic field at different places with relative time interval, the particle beam is made to follow a total cyclic path.

How is a Synchrotron useful to citizens?
Well, Synchrotron can surely be a great help in research and innovation.A Synchrotron can help in the following ways:
•Treatment of Cancer.
•Finding the compositions of minerals and the different substances that compose it.

CLS Synchrotron: Wikipedia.

•Finding the fundamental source of particles that cause pollution, mainly air and water pollution.
•In discovering new ways of producing modified seeds that are more resistant to harsh climatic conditions.
•Medical Imaging.
•Geological Material Analysis.
•Burning computer chip designs into metal wafers.
•Fluorescence studies.
•Semiconductor material analysis and structural studies.
Moreover, a Synchrotron generates Synchrotron Radiation, that is, emission of light that can be as intense as about what an x-ray source generates. In fact, it can be about 12times stronger in magnitude compared to the x-ray source. Not only that,
the light also spans over a large range from far
infra-red to hard x-rays.

So How is the Synchrotron Radiation Produced?
When the moving charged particle undergoes an acceleration, it emits electromagnetic radiation. Similarly the electrons involved in Synchrotron ring, revolve and undergoes acceleration at the bending magnets of the accelerator and thereby light is produced. If the electron is slow, the radiation emitted is isotropic. Actually, this is a relativistic effect. Suppose you are sitting on the high speed electron, then, you will be able to see the light emitting isotropically. While, for the observer in the laboratory, the light is well collimated!
Properties of Synchrotron Radiation:
•Broad Spectrum from microwaves to X-rays.
•High Flux.
•High Brilliance (spatial coherence)
•High Stability: sub-micron source stability.
•Polarization: both linear and circular.

Synchrotron is a useful instrument in present day world of scientific research development and technology. And India surely will look forward to benefit a lot in research from the new Synchrotron it will have.

By Mayukh Saha (Mayukh is a dolt who is trying to build an open place where knowledge and science can reach to everyone and everywhere possible... He plans to do so with the help of the Internet and Science Panorama. He can be reached here).
From the article inside WIRE MAGAZINE: (DOWNLOAD HERE) named 'India about to get its first and the worlds most advanced Synchrotron!'
Credits: ABP, Wikipedia, The Telegraph, Halliday Resnick Walker, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics.

2012's Awwww!! Photos!!

2012-12-31T02:22:00.000-08:00

Science Panorama brings you a collection of some of the Best Science Photos that were shared at different Social media in 2012. As a memoir to recall the good happenings of the past 366 days here's the best Science photos that we have handpicked from different places to be showcased. :)
We respect the efforts of the creators and owners of these photographs and have tried to mention the sources and Credited the Owners wherever possible. It's a tribute to them. Feel Free to share but do give the necessary credit. And don't forget to tell us how you feel about these! Thanks and Happy New Year to you all from the Whole Science Panorama Team. Cheers!
Follow Us: Facebook. Twitter. Google Plus.

From Sydney, Australia!

WIRE Magazine by Science Panorama

Paris, France, City night view in Christmas.

Great Word by Da Vinci.

*Hawaii at Sunset*

The weather here in Hawaii has been rather dour and dismal for most of my trip. I only caught one sunset while here, so I decided to try to make the most of it.
This lone paddleboarder was skating across the surface of the ocean while I was walking along the beach. Although this photo looks fairly serene and calm, I was not. You only get one chance for this shot, unless you are willing to take a shot, sprint, take a shot, sprint, take a shot, SPRINT, etc. I'm sure people on the beach thought I was a loon, but I couldn't think of any other way to get it done!
Credit: Trey Ratcliff.

Water Play!
Image credit: Michael Durham

Get Inspired with Carl Sagan!

Bubble-o-graphy!

Photo Credit: Rashmi Rekha.

Journey Into The Mountains! Mt. Hua---China.

Electron Microscope Image of an Artery.

Credit: Emmet Smith.

A Railway station in China.

The Man of the Year: Sir Peter Higgs. The Standard Model.

Photographer Tore Heggelund set out to capture images of the Milky Way the night of Dec. 19 near Hardangerfjord, Norway. Unusual light conditions gave a nearby waterfall a bright white glow. After carefully positioning his camera, Heggelund created a shot in which the waterfall looks like a continuation of the Milky Way cascading down from the sky.
Credit: Tore Heggelund/Caters News

The Flying Man: Felix Baumgartner:

When Laws of Physics meet with Photography!

The Full Moon Rising Over Pécs, Hungary. December 27, 2012
Credit: Róbert Jakab

Absolutely True Words... by Eleanor Roosevelt.

Image Credit : Gurbir Singh Brar
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gurbirsinghbrar/4967936339/
The Mosi-oa-Tunya (or Victoria) falls are formed as the full width of the river plummets in a single vertical drop into a transverse chasm 1708 meters (5604 ft) wide, carved by its waters along a fracture zone in the basalt plateau. The depth of the chasm, called the First Gorge, varies from 80 meters (262 ft) at its western end to 108 meters (360 ft) in the center. The only outlet to the First Gorge is a 110-meter-wide (360 ft) gap about two-thirds of the way across the width of the falls from the western end, through which the whole volume of the river pours into the Victoria Falls gorges.
European settlement of the Victoria Falls area started around 1900 in response to the desire of Cecil Rhodes' British South Africa Company for mineral rights and imperial rule north of the Zambezi, and the exploitation of other natural resources such as timber forests north-east of the falls, and ivory and animal skins. Before 1905, the river was crossed above the falls at the Old Drift, by dugout canoe or a barge towed across with a steel cable. Rhodes' vision of a Cape-Cairo railway drove plans for the first bridge across the Zambezi and he insisted it be built where the spray from the falls would fall on passing trains, so the site at the Second Gorge was chosen. From 1905 the railway offered accessible travel to whites from as far as the Cape in the south and from 1909, as far as the Belgian Congo in the north. The falls became an increasingly popular attraction during British colonial rule of Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), with the town of Victoria Falls becoming the main tourist center.

Remembering The Man Behind Apple Corp.

Atomic Spectrum of each element

The one who left us. Salute to Neil Armstrong!

Creative Snow art by Simon Beck.

A tip to remember, for all!

Milky Way Over Quiver Tree Forest!
Image Credit & Copyright: Florian Breuer
In front of a famous background of stars and galaxies lies some of Earth's more unusual trees. Known as quiver trees, they are actually succulent aloe plants that can grow to tree-like proportions. The quiver tree name is derived from the historical usefulness of their hollowed branches as dart holders.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013!!

CREDIT: Google, IFLS, Milky way Scientist, Science Fact, Physics Page, Rashmi Rekha Photography, Physics de Pristine, and a few other facebook pages!

NOTE: All Images belong to their respective owners/Creators. Please Share but do give necessary credits.

Compiled by Mayukh!

Wire Magazine Issue 1

2012-12-26T00:44:00.000-08:00

This is what you've been waiting for:
WIRE Magazine (Where Ideas Reach Everyone) is here! Trying the best to spread science and knowledge and encourage creativity. We have done our part, its your turn to read, review and share this magazine with as many people you can. Its free to share! All you have to do is Download it from here, read and share it with your friends. And ya!! Don't forget to tell us what you feel about it?

DOWNLOAD

Click on the Link above and open. You can read it there or select File on top left corner, a drop down menu appears and select DOWNLOAD thus it gets saved on your PC or Mobile to be read later. Feel Free to Share it with your friends!

Subscribe for the NEXT Version of Wire Magazine
Follow Us On: Facebook.|Twitter.|Google Plus.

Straight from WIRE Magazine!

2012-12-24T12:40:00.000-08:00

IMPORTANT UPDATE THE WIRE MAGAZINE HAS BEEN PUBLISHED: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD!

Here's is a list of photos of the Five Hand Picked Articles straight from inside the WIRE Magazine (Where Ideas Reach Everyone) by Science Panorama that releases Tomorrow, December 25th (23:00 PST).
It is a magazine to help spread knowledge, education and science to anyone and everyone possible. And most importantly, it is absolutely free to read, view, download and share. Hope you like the effort of the Science Panorama Team. We have tried our very best to bring out a magazine that is creative on one hand as well as informative and interesting on the other, It's the equal mixture of science, photography, ideas, information and fun.
Kindly let your friend know about The Wire Magazine and Science Panorama and do come back tomorrow to Download the free Wire Magazine. It's the Best Christmas Gift we can give you!
Cheers! Merry Christmas and an advanced Happy New Year 2013 to all of you from the whole Science Panorama Team. :-)

Join Us: Facebook. Twitter. Google Plus.

Become a Mathematician: Top Links PartII

2012-12-14T12:23:00.000-08:00

These is the second list of the most sophisticated and incredible links that we have collected from different sources all over the web. If you study these important links properly that include pure mathematics, You can become a really great Mathematician. For all those who had been searching for important and great lectures and links on Mathematics, Science Panorama brings out to you all these awesome stuffs after rigorous scouring of the web. Feel Free to learn and share! :)For PART I, Please REFER To : 50 Important Links: How to become a Mathematician?

N Is a Number: A Portrait of Paul Erdős

Paul Erdős (26 March 1913 -- 20 September 1996) was a Hungarian mathematician. Erdős published more papers than any other mathematician in history, working with hundreds of collaborators. He worked on problems in combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, classical analysis, approximation theory, set theory, and probability theory. He is also known for his "legendarily eccentric" personality.

: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnCrUroeVlI&feature=related

The Story of Maths

Marcus du Sautoy's The Story of Maths is a total of four hours attempting to give an overview of the history of mathematics from ancient to modern time, spending 5-10 minutes each on the life and work of some of the most famous mathematicians. While one could quibble with some of the selections, the project is overall a fantastic production.

: http://www.infocobuild.com/books-and-films/science/story-of-math.html

Fermat's Last Theorem

At the age of ten, browsing through his public library, Andrew Wiles stumbled across the world's greatest mathematical puzzle. Fermat's Last Theorem had baffled mathematicians for over 300 years. But from that day, little Andrew dreamed of solving it. Tonight's HORIZON tells the story of his obsession, and how, thirty years later, he gave up everything to achieve his childhood dream.
Deep in our classroom memories lies the enduring notion that "the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides": Pythagoras's Theorem for right-angled triangles. Written down, it is also the simplest of mathematical equations: x^ 2+ y^2 = z^2

: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FnXgprKgSE

Alan Turing: Codebreaker and AI Pioneer

The code-breaking work at Bletchley Park, which helped save Britain from Nazi Germany, qualifies as one of the greatest stories of World War II, and the misunderstood genius, Alan Turing, stands at the center of this tale. Perhaps no one understands Turing's role during this period -- and his larger impact on mathematics and computing -- like B. Jack Copeland. In this lecture, Copeland contends that Turing should be celebrated as the father of artificial intelligence.

: http://video.mit.edu/watch/alan-turing-codebreaker-and-ai-pioneer-9212/

Dangerous Knowledge

In this one-off documentary, David Malone looks at four brilliant mathematicians - Georg Cantor, Ludwig Boltzmann, Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing - whose genius has profoundly affected us, but which tragically drove them insane and eventually led to them all committing suicide.
The film also talks to the latest in the line of thinkers who have continued to pursue the question of whether there are things that mathematics and the human mind cannot know. They include Greg Chaitin, mathematician at the IBM TJ Watson Research Center, New York, and Roger Penrose.
Dangerous Knowledge tackles some of the profound questions about the true nature of reality that mathematical thinkers are still trying to answer today.

: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/dangerous-knowledge/

Taking the Long View: The Life of Shiing-shen Chern

The Life of Shiing-shen Chern (2010) examines the life of a remarkable mathematician whose formidable mathematical contributions were matched by an approach and vision that helped build bridges between China and the West. Shiing-shen Chern is portrayed as a man who dedicated his life to pure mathematics with the style of a classical Chinese sage.

: http://vimeo.com/16185312

Science Lives

The Simons Foundation presents a series of extended interviews with some of the giants of 20th-century mathematics and science. This collection, organized in collaboration with Hugo Rossi of the University of Utah, provides an opportunity to watch these great men and women discuss their lives and their thinking about science and our world.

: http://simonsfoundation.org/category/features/science-lives/

The Memoirs and Legacy of Évariste Galois

Évariste Galois was born 200 years ago and died aged 20, shot in a mysterious early-morning duel in 1832. He left contributions to the theory of equations that changed the direction of mathematics and led directly to what is now broadly described as 'modern' or 'abstract' algebra. In this lecture, designed for a general audience, Dr Peter Neumann will explain Galois' discoveries and place them in their historical context. Little knowledge of mathematics is assumed - the only prerequisite is sympathy for mathematics and its history.

: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfJ4vwQ3vpo

Achieving the Unachievable

It features many mathematicians discussing M.C. Escher's Print Gallery

: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6iJ_U59ZwI

John Forbes Nash (A Brilliant Madness)

A Brilliant Madness is the story of a mathematical genius whose career was cut short by a descent into madness. At the age of 30, John Nash, a stunningly original and famously eccentric MIT mathematician, suddenly began claiming that aliens were communicating with him and that he was a special messenger.
Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Nash spent the next three decades in and out of mental hospitals, all but forgotten. During that time, a proof he had written at the age of 20 became a foundation of modern economic theory. In 1994, as Nash began to show signs of emerging from his delusions, he was awarded a Nobel Prize in Economics.

: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chXIfhJ36Iw

Some ACE Talks from CMI

: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEFzul7s9-4&feature=list_other&playnext=1&list=SP0767A09CF0864F8A

Mathematical Mystery Tour

Nova's Mathematical Mystery Tour is a really nice one

: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbOyXO-JFX8&feature=related

RAMANUJAN: Letters from an Indian Clerk

The extraordinary story of how in 1914 the self-taught maths genius SRINIVASA RAMANUJAN was brought from Madras to Trinity College, Cambridge, by the great English pure mathematician GH Hardy, who called their relationship 'the one truly romantic episode of my life'.

: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OARGZ1xXCxs

A walk through mathematics!

A film for a wide audience! Nine chapters, two hours of maths, that take you gradually up to the fourth dimension. Mathematical vertigo guaranteed!

: http://www.dimensions-math.org/Dim_E.htm

To Infinity and Beyond - BBC Horizon (HD)

Mathematicians have discovered there are infinitely many infinities, each one infinitely bigger than the last. And if the universe goes on forever, the consequences are even more bizarre. In an infinite universe, there are infinitely many copies of the Earth and infinitely many copies of you. Older than time, bigger than the universe and stranger than fiction. This is the story of infinity.

: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBsywDWmwyA

How to make better decisions - BBC Horizon

According to science: We are bad at making decisions. Our decisions are based on oversimplification, laziness and prejudice. And that's assuming that we haven't already been hijacked by our surroundings or led astray by our subconscious!
Featuring exclusive footage of experiments that show how our choices can be confounded by temperature, warped by post-rationalisation and even manipulated by the future, Horizon presents a guide to better decision making, and introduces you to Mathematician Garth Sundem, who is convinced that conclusions can best be reached using simple maths and a pencil!

: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHSzAqiIl_M

A Nice collection of videos in VI Hart's Blog : http://vihart.com/

Some More Mathematical Documentaries you MUST watch : http://www.cosmolearning.com/mathematics/documentaries/

These are copious amount of Lecture Note and URLs to study Mathematics at graduate level left in the WWW domain for students. Whatsoever be the number of lecture note URLs, students are advised to buy and study from standard text books as prescribed by their Lecturers/Professors or as prescribed by university course and they should also study via these lecture notes parallely. If you have any idea or suggestion to improve this NOTE then you are most welcome to let us know through comment or via emailing us at the given address below.

info.sciencepanorama@gmail.com

ALSO REFER TO:

50 Important Links: How to become a Mathematician?

CREDITS FOR CREATING THIS NOTE GOES TO :

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/
http://science-documentaries.com/
Google / Youtube
https://www.facebook.com/PHMATH
Nature is Awesome x∞
Physics de Pristine

20 Incredible Science Photos that make you Awe!

2012-12-08T07:15:00.001-08:00

Science Panorama brings to you a collection of some of the most incredible Science Photos. Scouring the web and other social media, Science Panorama have found some 20 awesome Science Photos that are worth sharing. We respect the efforts of the creators and owners of these photographs and it's a tribute to them. Feel Free to share but do give the necessary credit. And don't forget to tell us how you feel about these!

01. Rainbow Leaf Beetle. (Chrysolina cerealis)

02. Light Science: Taiwanese Fishermen using fire to attract fish at night

03. Appearing in random order : Satyendra Nath Bose, Werner Heisenberg, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Max Planck, Richard P. Feynman, Albert Einstein, Ashoke Sen, Brian Cox, V. Balakrishnan, Meghnad Saha, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Niels Bohr, Edward Witten, Wolfgang Pauli, Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri, Leonard Susskind, Brian Greene, Stephen William Hawking, Erwin Schrödinger, Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, Paul Dirac.

04. If you tie a rope with burning steel wool at the end, then hold the other end of the rope and swing the wool around, (while having someone film it with a camera set to long time exposure), this is what you get. If you want to try it, just be smart like this guy and make sure you do it somewhere you wont start any fire.

05. Leaves... Surface Tension. Credit: Nat Geo.

06. A head-on collision between two water droplets just twice the thickness of a human hair results in this flattened pancake of fluid. Simulating such collisions allows researchers to understand how this sheet of liquid expands and contracts and how droplets splinter off its rim.

Credit: Xiaodong Chen and Vigor Yang (School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

07. Flying frog!
A "flying" frog is a frog that has the ability to achieve gliding flight. That is, it can descend at an angle of less than 45° relative to the horizontal. Other (non-flying) arboreal frogs can also descend vertically, but only at angles greater than 45°, which is referred to as parachuting.
via: weird world.

08. Science is all about understanding Nature!
Credit: IM-Fotography.

09. Airplane view of a place where rainfall is occuring.. Amazing Nature! Science Panorama

10. Physics + Photography!

IMPORTANT UPDATE THE WIRE MAGAZINE HAS BEEN PUBLISHED: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD!
11. Reflection of a Rainbow on the sea near Sicily, Italy.

12. Real Iceberg in Antarctica!

13. Dutch artist Berndnaut smilde has developed a way to create clouds indoors by carefully regulating the space’s humidity, temperature and light. This intersection of science and art was recently named one of TIME magazine’s
“Best inventions of the year 2012.”
The fluffy white clouds are summoned up temporarily using a fog machine, creating a surreal experience in the middle of a room. Smilde has

created his clouds inside different types of locations, ranging from corridors and hallways, to bedrooms and common spaces.

14. A stunning iceberg washed ashore on the coast of Alaska.

15. Gravity in Action!

16. Being Creative is Simply Incredible!

17. Long Exposure Shot of a Bottle Rocket Fire!!

18. From below the Eiffel Tower!

19. Nanofibers — strands of material only a couple hundred nanometers in diameter — have a huge range of possible applications: scaffolds for bioengineered organs, ultrafine air and water filters, and lightweight Kevlar body armor, to name just a few. But so far, the expense of producing them has consigned them to a few high-end, niche applications

20. Solar Powdered LED s light a tunnel in Japan.

NOTE: All Images belong to their respective owners/Creators. Please Share but do give necessary credits.

Compiled by Mayukh!

Application of Electronics & Musical fields in daily life.

2012-12-06T00:01:00.000-08:00

How Development of Electronics changed the World of Music

Dear readers of Science Panorama , in our last article, The Evolution of Electronics we have discussed that electronics can be applied through out the life.

But now I am going to tell you the its applications in musical field.

Music has been a very important part of our lives, We are tired we listen to music to beat our stress to create recreation, to enhance us to concentrate better and now its has become a part of our lives. Right from our mobile ringtones to the beep sounds of medical gadgets.

When we hear music, we do it from a tape recorder or through the speakers.

How a microphone works :

Electronic circuits and instruments operate only with inputs that are currents and voltages. But many of the physical variables (Pressure, sound, heat, speed ,mechanical force ,etc) are non electrical. They do not help users to be comfortable for handling. Hence these parameters are converted into a proportional voltage or current using Transducers.

Image Source : Internet

A transducer is a device that converts non electrical physical parameters into proportional electrical signals(Either voltage or current).

There are two kinds of transducers,

Pressure Transducers : It works on change in pressure which in turn changes the resistance and current. Eg: Loudspeakers and Microphones.

Temperature Transducers : It works on change in temperature which again causes a change in resistance and which in turn creates a micro-change in voltages.

For music the most important thing is working of a microphone.

Microphone is the device that converts sound or acoustic energy into electrical signal. There are many types of microphones.

Carbon Microphone:

Carbon microphone consists of an insulated cup (called button) loosely filled with carbon granules.

By P S SRI HARSHA

(Sri Harsha is a part of Science Panorama and is now working hard on Science breaking the socio-economic barrier for reaching people. You can reach him here)

Feel free to share anything from Science Panorama with credits to true authors in Science Panorama.

A Rare Astronomical Event!

2012-12-03T00:31:00.000-08:00

December 3,2012 : 3 Alignments!

1) Is the Giza pyramid planetary alignment real or fake?

The cosmos is an awe-inspiring, unbelievable, and wondrous thing — which makes it easy to be spoofed.

But is the planetary alignment with the pyramids at Giza, alleged to take take place on December 3rd, 2012, a hoax or a truly rare astronomical event.

Well, both — sort of...follow the link. Sources: http://ecosnobberysucks.com/2012/11/giza-pyramid-alignment/

http://earthsky.org/space/earthsky-22-see-jupiter-at-opposition

http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2012/08/december-3rd-2012-planets-align-with-giza-pyramids-for-the-1st-time-in-2737-years-2454374.html

2) Another beautiful alignment of planets is happening right now, when Earth, Jupiter and the Sun are all in a line. The Earth passes between the Sun and Jupiter, placing Jupiter in opposition to the Sun. Jupiter stands in the constellation of the Taurus, and will reach its highest point in the sky at around midnight, when it will make its closest approach to the point in the sky directly opposite to the Sun. At the same time, Jupiter will make its nearest approach to Earth, appearing as the brightest and largest “star” in the night sky, shining at magnitude -2.8.

3) Mercury, Venus and Saturn align in the morning sky.

On December 3rd, in the early morning hours, just before sunrise, we will be witnessing a very beautiful planetary alignment, when Mercury, Venus and Saturn will be equidistant from each other. While Venus and Saturn will be easy to spot, for Mercury, the closest planet to out star, you might need binoculars.

Mercury will reach its greatest western elongation point, meaning that it will be furthest from the rising Sun, on December 4, 2012, and this is the best time to observe it in the sky.
SO FINAL VERDICT: THE ABOVE PHOTO IS FAKE AND MADE TO CREATE A HOAX!

Sources: http://earthsky.org/tonight/earth-passes-between-jupiter-and-sun-on-december-2-3-2012

And Beyond The Science & Universe FbPage.

Free WIRE Magazine by Science Panorama.

2012-12-02T11:14:00.001-08:00

IMPORTANT UPDATE THE WIRE MAGAZINE HAS BEEN PUBLISHED: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD!

Science Panorama brings you the combination of Science and Creativity. The WIRE Magazine. Where Ideas Reach Everyone.
Coming This Christmas!
Here's the first look of the cover photo of the WIRE Magazine. It's a free online magazine for everyone to download and share.
Our main aim is to spread Science and Knowledge to everyone, everywhere possible so we have come up with this new initiative of spreading knowledge through the magazine in association with Physics de Pristine.
Anyone and Everyone can view, read, download and share the Magazine. And that too for free.
Spread the word and stay tuned at Science Panorama (www.fb.comSciencePanorama) for more updates.

Excited, are you? Let us know how you feel and also let your friends know about the Magazine :-)

Classical Electrodynamics.

2012-11-28T00:30:00.000-08:00

Classical Electrodynamics

Electromagnetism is the branch of science concerned with the forces that occur between electrically charged particles. In electromagnetic theory these forces are explained using electromagnetic fields. Electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature, the other three being the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation.

Classical electromagnetism (or classical electrodynamics) is a branch of theoretical phy

sics that studies consequences of the electromagnetic forces between electric charges and currents. It provides an excellent description of electromagnetic phenomena whenever the relevant length scales and field strengths are large enough that quantum mechanical effects are negligible. It was developed by various physicists over the course of the 19th century, culminating in the work of James Clerk Maxwell, who unified the preceding developments into a single theory and discovered the electromagnetic nature of light. In classical electromagnetism, the electromagnetic field obeys a set of equations known as Maxwell's equations, and the electromagnetic force is given by the Lorentz force law.

Below are few URLs of lecture notes for Classical Electromagnetism.. Enjoy :)

http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/316/316.pdf

http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/em/em.html

http://monopole.ph.qmw.ac.uk/~bill/emt/LecNotes.html

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/teach/module_home/px436/notes

http://www-solar.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/~alan/MT3601/Fundamentals/Fundamentals.html

http://teacher.nsrl.rochester.edu/phy122/Lecture_Notes/Index.html

Video Lectures of Landau Level : http://vubeam.pa.msu.edu/lectures/phy962/962d/electrodynamics/

http://www4.wittenberg.edu/maxwell/

http://www.plasma.uu.se/CED/Book/

E.M notes of Jackson level - http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/grad/504/lects.shtml

http://physweb.bgu.ac.il/COURSES/Electro1_Gedalin/electro1_notes.html

Credit: With Permission from Science and Mathematics.

Origin of life : How Biology sees it!

2012-11-23T10:17:00.000-08:00

Importance of Origin of life

Ever since man appeared on the earth, he developed the curiosity to know how life came into existence. Many philosophers, scientists and religious minds have put forth their views regarding this. The first one is the Theory of Special Creation by which says “Everything was created by God or a supernatural power”. But science cannot prove or disprove the existence of God. The next theory put forth is the Panspermia Theory or better known as the Alien theory, supported by even Stephen Hawking, which tells that “Life originated in distant galaxies and arrived on the earth in meteorites.” Greek philosophers put forward the concept of Abiogenesis, which talks about spontaneous creation, around 600 BC. They believed “Vital Forces” like human sweat, morning dew and fruits, gave rise to life forms. But the most accepted theory of all is the theory of Biogenesis, which tells that life gives life. which was proved by great scientists like Spallanzani and Louis Pasteur. Louis Pasteur took some broth in a round bottomed swan shaped flask and boiled it so as to kill the micro organisms in the broth, and the Swan Neck to prevent the inflow of dust. The broth has still not deteriorated and is still present in Pasteur’s Institute in Paris. So Pasteur’s experiment highlights an intriguing question as to how the first form of life came into existence.

The most widely accepted theory of formation of life is the Chemical Evolution of Life, by which, life originated from chemical substances over a period of time. The theory says-

'The Big Bang happened around 5 billion years ago resulting in a cloud of hot gases called nebulous which consisted of all the elements in gaseous form. As the earth started to cool, heavier metals formed the core of the earth and lighter metals formed the crust. As the earth gradually cooled, simple gases like Ammonia, Methane and water were formed. But the temperature of the crust was still very high. So as soon as the water cooled to liquid form and fell to the crust, it got vaporized and again went back into the atmosphere. This process of falling and vaporizing went on again and gain for millions of years, thus creating the ridges, furrows, mountains and water bodies.'

Black smoker at a mid-ocean ridge hydrothermal vent.
Via: wikipedia

The atmosphere was reducing, i.e., no oxygen was present in the atmosphere. The simple gases combined together with the help of energy from lightning and geothermal heat to form simple sugars, fatty acids and amino acids. As these organic compounds are Hydrophobic, they were present in water as colloids, which was called a Primitive Soup. These combined to give polypeptides, polysaccharides, nitrogen bases, nucleotides and phosphates, which are the basic building blocks of DNA or Deoxyribonucleic acid. These DNA molecules gave rise to the first form of life. These DNA molecules self replicated and synthesized proteins. This resulted in the first form of life, which were heterotrophs.

Gradually, due to mutation, which depends only on chance factor, autotrophs were formed. They started fermenting the oxygen dissolved in the ocean and transformed the atmosphere from 0.00% Oxygen to what we currently have, 21% Oxygen, without which we cannot live. This was how the first form of life originated.

By : Chirag RS. (Associate Writer at Science Panorama)
Feel free to share anything from Science Panorama with credits to true authors in Science Panorama.©∞

50 Important Links: How to become a Mathematician?

2012-11-22T00:11:00.000-08:00

These are a collection of the most sophisticated and incredible links that we have collected from different sources all over the web. If you study these important links properly that include pure mathematics, You can become a really great Mathematician. For all those who had been searching for important and great lectures and links on Mathematics, Science Panorama brings out to you all these awesome stuffs after rigorous scouring of the web. Feel Free to learn and share! :)

http://tgd.wippiespace.com/public_html/tgdclass/tgdclass.html#rgflow
http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~hb3/notes.html
http://maths.mq.edu.au/~wchen/ln.html
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/
http://www.math.cmu.edu/~ploh/olympiad.shtml
http://www.math.tifr.res.in/~publ/ln/index.html
http://www.scribd.com/doc/39062851/9814293547-Olympiad-Courses-1
http://olympiads.win.tue.nl/imo/
http://www.paultaylor.eu/tripos/
http://www.math.wisc.edu/~angenent/Free-Lecture-Notes/
http://math.mit.edu/classes/18.095/
http://www.math.psu.edu/simpson/courses/
http://www.mathematicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=842
http://www.math.ucla.edu/~tao/tags.html
http://educhoices.org/articles/Applied_Mathematics_OpenCourseWare_MITs_Free_Online_Undergraduate_Course_on_Applied_Mathematics.html
http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/CalcI/CalcI.aspx
http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~gln22/Lecture%20Notes%20on%20Calculus.htm
http://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-18-001-calculus-online-textbook-spring-2005/textbook/
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-022-calculus-of-several-variables-fall-2010/
http://euclid.ucc.ie/pages/staff/Mckay/calculus/Rossi/
http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/~sean/applied_math.pdf
http://www.understandingcalculus.com/
http://www.math.wisc.edu/~keisler/calc.html
http://www.lightandmatter.com/calc/calc.pdf
http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.0174
http://www.math.miami.edu/~dsolis/notes.html
http://www.maths.cam.ac.uk/studentreps/res/notes.html
http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/examples/
http://www.puremaths.info/video-lectures-in-mathematics/
http://freescienceonline.blogspot.in/2006/06/free-mathematics-video-courses.html
http://freescienceonline.blogspot.in/2008/10/more-free-mathematics-video-courses.html
http://freescienceonline.blogspot.in/2009/10/mathematics-video-lectures.html
http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative/abstract-algebra
http://archim.org.uk/index.php
http://press.princeton.edu/video/banner/
http://hbpms.blogspot.in/
http://bengtmn.wordpress.com/?blogsub=confirming#subscribe-blog
http://www.nptel.iitm.ac.in/courses.php?disciplineId=115
http://www.math.harvard.edu/~mazur/
http://www.e-booksdirectory.com/listing.php?category=32
http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/courses/material/
http://v5o5jotqkgfu3btr91t7w5fhzedjaoaz8igl.unbsj.ca/~tim/UWOnotes/notes.htm
http://maths.dur.ac.uk/pure/preprint.html
http://www.e-booksdirectory.com/mathematics.php
http://www.e-booksdirectory.com/listing.php?category=3
http://web.itu.edu.tr/~delidumanc/math.html
http://www.learnerstv.com/
http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=554150
http://john.fremlin.de/schoolwork/graph/index.html
http://people.uncw.edu/hermanr/phy311/MathPhysBook/index.htm

Do come back at Science Panorama for the next part of this article where we categorically share lectures and links about Linear Algebra, Abstract Algebra, Symmetries, Topology, Tensors, etc.

These are copious amount of Lecture Note and URLs to study Mathematics at graduate level left in the WWW domain for students. Whatsoever be the number of lecture note URLs, students are advised to buy and study from standard text books as prescribed by their Lecturers/Professors or as prescribed by university course and they should also study via these lecture notes parallely. If you have any idea or suggestion to improve this NOTE then you are most welcome to let us know through comment or via emailing us at the given address below.

info.sciencepanorama@gmail.com

Credit: All the people associated with Physics de Pristine, Science & Mathematics and Science Panorama.

Introduction to Special Relativity

2012-11-21T00:02:00.000-08:00

Special Theory of Relativity is a fundamental theory concerning space and time, developed by Albert Einstein in 1905 as a modification of Galilean relativity. The theory was able to explain some pressing theoretical and experimental issues in the physics of the time involving light and electrodynamics, such as the failure of the 1887 Michelson–Morley experiment, which aimed to measure differences in the relative speed of light due to the Earth's motion through the hypothetical, and now discredited, luminiferous aether. The aether was then considered to be the medium of propagation of electromagnetic waves such as light.

Einstein postulated that the speed of light in free space is the same for all observers, regardless of their motion relative to the light source, where we may think of an observer as an imaginary entity with a sophisticated set of measurement devices, at rest with respect to itself, that perfectly record the positions and times of all events in space and time. This postulate stemmed from the assumption that Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism, which predict a specific speed of light in a vacuum, hold in any inertial frame of reference rather than, as was previously believed, just in the frame of the aether. This prediction contradicted the laws of classical mechanics, which had been accepted for centuries, by arguing that time and space are not fixed and in fact change to maintain a constant speed of light regardless of the relative motions of sources and observers. Einstein's approach was based on thought experiments, calculations, and the principle of relativity, which is the notion that all physical laws should appear the same (that is, take the same basic form) to all inertial observers. Today, scientists are so comfortable with the idea that the speed of light is always the same that the metre is now defined as "the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second." This means that the speed of light is by convention 299 792 458 m/s (approximately 1.079 billion kilometers per hour, or 671 million miles per hour).

The predictions of special relativity are almost identical to those of Galilean relativity for most everyday phenomena, in which speeds are much lower than the speed of light, but it makes different, non-obvious predictions for objects moving at very high speeds. These predictions have been experimentally tested on numerous occasions since the theory's inception and were confirmed by those experiments. The first such prediction described by Einstein is the relativity of simultaneity; observers who are in motion with respect to each other may disagree on whether two events occurred at the same time or one occurred before the other. The other major predictions of special relativity are time dilation (an observer watching two identical clocks, one moving and one at rest, will measure the moving clock to tick more slowly), length contraction (along the direction of motion, a rod moving with respect to an observer will be measured to be shorter than an identical rod at rest), and the equivalence of mass and energy (written as E = mc^2). Special relativity predicts a non-linear velocity addition formula which prevents speeds greater than that of light from being observed. In 1908, Hermann Minkowski reformulated the theory based on different postulates of a more geometrical nature. This approach considers space and time as being different components of a single entity, the spacetime, which is "divided" in different ways by observers in relative motion. Likewise, energy and momentum are the components of the four-momentum, and the electric and magnetic field are the components of the electromagnetic tensor.

Here are some Nice websites at your disposal, please go through them so as to have a nice grasp on the proceedings of special relativity. Also (Those who don't have a good grasp in special relativity) Please go through ALL THE URLs as given in the REFERENCE section of the second URL of this post.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_special_relativity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_special_relativity

http://conduit9sr.tripod.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpJ-LPOuvPc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL3DC83C388E06CF5E&v=tnQnAaVGPK0&feature=player_embedded

http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/kenny/papers/relativity.html

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-20-introduction-to-special-relativity-january-iap-2005/

The schematic below shows the "plane of simultaneity" or "surface of simultaneity" contains all those events that happen at the same instant for a given observer. Events that are simultaneous for one observer are not simultaneous for another observer in relative motion.( Image Courtesy - WIKIPEDIA.)

Via: Science and Mathematics.

Spread Science through the Magazine: Our Next Movement

2012-11-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

There have been a lot of discussion at our facebook page whether Knowledge should be free or not? And things regarding spreading of Science.

We received comments and critiques that if we really want to spread Science and Knowledge, then we must write our own Books and then distribute them.

Some even commented that the people who work hard to edit, design, type write and do things that make the book and publish it, also have to eat and hence buying a book online and then giving it away to some Science lovers or some needy Science Enthusiasts is wrong.

But Science Panorama is not going to Stop!

To answer all those who doubted us for making money by getting traffic to our website, doing Publicity stunts and things like that,Please keep your eyes open. Just wait and See how we're gonna do it our way.

Spreading knowledge is not a shame nor a crime!

So we have decided to release our own Magazine which will be free for everyone to read, download, distribute, use articles from the Magazine in anything, be it School projects, Papers, Theoretical works, anything which will Spread Science. We will design the layout, we will write and edit the articles and we will publish it Online for you all. And still show that we can eat and wear the same clothes despite not having earned a penny by selling the magazine.

Keep supporting us and we'll keep bringing you awesome stuffs. Cheers! :)

Merging Black Holes!

2012-11-14T01:56:00.000-08:00

Most of us know about black holes. So, I am not writing this article about what black holes are and what are their characteristics. What I am gonna discuss here is what happens when black holes merge…

Have you ever heard of black holes mergers? How, Where And Why do black holes merge and what effects do these mergers have on us, i.e, on earth. Astrophysicists see a lot of possibilities of black hole mergers in the universe. The only means of “seeing” black hole mergers is through a “gravitational wave” eye.

Black holes radiate too little electromagnetic radiation of their own to be seen through electromagnetic wave detectors. But when two black holes merge, they radiate lots of gravitational waves. These gravitational waves can be detected once the sensitive gravitational wave detectors that are being built at various places in the world become functional. So far, observation of gravitational wave emission by compact stars has been indirect. Direct detection of the gravitational waves will be a big breakthrough, as this will open a new window to the universe. Besides giving one more direct test of Einstien’s general relativity, gravitational wave detection will lead to observations of many frontier astrophysical phenomena.

Black Hole Mergers: Where and How?

Black hole is generally a companion in a double star revolving in a circular orbit, accreting matter from the companion star and thereby causing the falling matter to emit X-rays (such X-rays sources in the sky in fact make the best candidates for ‘stellar’ black holes). Now, why do two black holes come closer and merge?

More than half of the stars in the galaxy are double stars (two stars revolving round their common centre of mass.) ‘Double stars are rather the ‘rule’ than exception’, goes the saying!

And there is every possibility that both the stars in a binary(or double star) would become black holes! According to classical electrodynamics, accelerated electric charges radiate electromagnetic waves and thereby lose energy. Similarly, accelerated gravitational bodies radiate gravitational waves and lose energy. This is an important consequence of general relativity.

The stars in a binary, being in accelerated motion, radiate gravitational waves and thereby lose energy (remember that every curved path motion is an accelerated motion). The loss of energy causes the decrease in the separation of the companions. The bigger the acceleration, the bigger is the rate of radiation and the rate of decrease in their separation.

Every binary, thus radiates gravitational waves but not appreciably. By the times the stars in a binary reach the stage of becoming a white dwarf, neutron stars or black holes, they come close, their accelerations are now bigger and radiation of gravitational waves from them becomes appreciable.

The radiation of gravitational waves by a binary ultimately causes the merger of the two stars it constitutes. Astrophysicists did see this possibility, but did not know until recently the details of how this phenomenon would occur; As two black holes merge, how much energy is radiated as gravitational waves? What is the shape of the gravitational waves radiated?

Stages in Black hole merger:

The final merger of two black holes can be divided into three stages

Inspiral

Merger

Ringdown

Inspiral:

In this stage, the holes are relatively far apart and can be considered as point masses. As these go on radiating gravitational waves, their orbits go on contracting and, in accordance with Kepler’s third law of planetary motion, the frequency of the gravitational waves emitted goes on increasing. Their paths are not circulars but spiral in shape as their separation is decreasing. The inspiral stage is a relatively long-lived one and continues for a million years. However the gravitational waves emitted by them are so feeble that these will be detected by our detectors only during the last year of this stage.

Merger stage:

When the two holes come very close and only a few final orbits are left, the holes leave their orbits and plunge together in a rapidly shrinking spiral. The event horizons of the two merge to form a single highly distorted black hole.

Ringdown stage:

The distorted single black hole that has resulted from the merger radiates away all its distortions in the form of gravitational waves and becomes a smooth, symmetrical, rotating black hole. The process is similar to what happens when a bell is struck by a hammer: the bell radiates all its distortions as sound waves and rings down and so the name ‘ringdown’.

The merger and the ringdown stages are very brief and last for only 10 minutes. But the energy radiated in the form of gravitational waves is colossus. Calculations indicate that energy radiated by these is more than the total energy radiated by all the stars of the observable universe at that time!

My Question:

Now one thing what I was thinking and it took my 3 weeks research was that:

In any case of a binary, the total linear momentum of the binary is zero in the centre of mass frame of binary. Suppose two black holes of equal mass are revolving round each other. These two vlack holes will radiate gravitational waves equally in opposite directions. So the total linear momentum carried by these gravitational waves will be zero two equal and opposite vectors give a zero result). The law of conservation of linear momentum then implies that the final single black hole that will be formed due to the merger will also have zero momentum in the CM frame as earlier. This means that the new black hole formed will move in the parent galaxy on the same path as the centre of mass of the original binary.

But if the masses are equal, they will radiate energy unequally, and the net momentum of the gravitational radiation will not be zero. So to conserve momentum, the newly formed black hole will acquirean equal and opposite momentum and recoil.

But what will be the total momentum emitted during a merger and what will be the corresponding speed of the merged black holes?

Well, I attended a conference on physics and asked a professor, searched on internet and also asked my friend’s brother (he’s interested in astrophysics) then I finally got my answer that:

It has been found that the velocity acquired by the newly formed black hole due to recoil will be much bigger than the escape velocity of the parent galaxy. Thus, these will be ejected out from the parent galaxy!

By Sushant Rawat (Writer and Contributor of Science Panorama)

The Real Price of Energy!

2012-11-13T00:01:00.000-08:00

This is the first article of our new Section, "Life on a Rock floating through Space" that will feature philosophical content along with science that makes our daily life, prosper. Some words of wisdom and philosophy that will have a potential to change the way you think! Hope you like our effort. Cheers! :)

Every-time we start our cars, turn on our lights, cook a meal or heat our homes, we're relying on some form of fuel to make it happen. Until now its inevitable been a fossil fuel, part of the carbon chain. And just as inevitable, that will have to change. Long before we decided to stop using fossil fuels, costs will have already made the decision for us. Not just the monetary costs, but the human costs, the cultural costs, the environmental costs. We will quite rightly, demand that our future energy is both sustainable and renewable. We will expect a lot from the likes of solar power, wind power, geothermal power and hydrogen fuel cells. Various estimates suggest that by 2050, nearly one third of the world's energy needs could come from just such sources. Which leaves the other two thirds to come from conventional fuels, such as oil and natural gas.

To make that happen we have to strike a balance, between the need to protect people's way of living and their environment and the need to provide them with affordable energy. So this is why we need to hear from and listen to everyone who has an interest in the world, which is pretty much everyone in the world. This is the real price of energy and its worth it if only to make sure our children have a chance to buy it, and a world worth buying it in.

By Anjan Babu (Writer and Contributor of Science Panorama)

Feel free to share anything from Science Panorama with credits to true authors in Science Panorama.

Introduction to Kinematics!

2012-11-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

Basic Requirement: Knowledge of scalars and vectors (only for quantitative analysis of situations). This is only a summary of Introduction to Kinematics and it is presumed that the reader already knows the topic under study and this paper will only be a concept strengthener and a last minute preparation sheet.

The origin and complete analysis of Kinematics starts from a very small source, “Point Mass”. Without defining point mass its like talking to a person you don't know. Point mass is the where we assume the mass of the object is concentrated. In other words its a point which has the mass of object whose motion is under study. Generally it is called as Particle. We will be using the word particle frequently in this summary.
•“Displacement is the shortest distance between the particle's Initial and Final Position”
•“Speed is defined as the distance covered by a particle in a definite time. Mathematically, It is defined as the ratio of the distance to the time taken to cover 'that' distance.”
•"Instantaneous Velocity and Average Velocity : “Average Velocity is the ratio of total displacement to the total time taken. Since its a vector quantity, the direction of velocity is given by the direction of displacement vector.” “Instantaneous Velocity is the velocity of a particle at a given instant of time”.
•“Acceleration is the rate at which velocity varies. Average Acceleration is given by the ratio of the change in velocity to the total time taken for that change.”
•“When there is an equal change in velocity in equal intervals of time then the acceleration is said to be Uniform or called Uniform Acceleration.

The study of Kinematics is playing with the Kinematic Equations and Mathematical calculations. The whole Kinematic Calculations stand on the base of “Reference Frame”. It is something with which a distance or any other quantity related to particle may be defined. A reference frame can be at rest or in motion. The most exclusively used reference frame is the Cartesian Reference Frame which you would have probably studied in your Higher Secondary School in Mathematics. A particle changes its position continuously when its in motion. Distance and Displacement are two quantities that tell us about the relative position and path traveled.

•“Distance is the total length traveled by the particle along its journey or motion.”

Quantitatively and mathematically, Displacement can be defined as a vector starting from initial position and terminating at final position. It is to be noticed that the Displacement fails to give us the information about the path of the motion of a particle. “Distance and Displacement both are measured in meters”

Many Quantities are used to analyze the motion of a particle. Some of them are Velocity, Speed, Acceleration, Momentum etc. Velocity of the particle plays the most important role in the analysis of a particle's motion.

By Vidyadhar Sharma.

© Feel Free to Share anything from Science Panorama that you like but make sure you credit it to the true author and Science Panorama.

Topology

2012-11-07T00:28:00.000-08:00

Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing, although the notion of stretching employed in mathematics is not quite the everyday notion: see below and the definition of homeomorphism for details of the mathematical notion. Topology emerged through the development of concepts from geometry and set theory, such as space, dimension, and transformation. A more layman idea is presented in the picture given below. Here are some fabulous links of lecture notes to study topology. Please check out these links :

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/08/crumpled-paper-physics/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topology

Algebraic Topology :

http://www.math.uchicago.edu/~may/CONCISE/ConciseRevised.pdf

http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~dwilkins/Courses/421/

http://www.math.muni.cz/~cadek/at/at.pdf

http://arxiv.org/list/math.AT/current

Geometric Topology

http://www.maths.ed.ac.uk/~aar/books/gtop.pdf

http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.co.uk/pdf/0-19-851597-9.pdf

http://arxiv.org/list/math.GT/current

http://www.math.harvard.edu/~ctm/home/text/class/harvard/99r/03/html/home/course/course.pdf

Via Science and Mathematics.

The Three Awesome E Books!

2012-11-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

THIS NOTE HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH THE LINKS BEING REMOVED DUE TO SOME SERIOUS ISSUES!
COSMOS by Carl Sagan: Cosmos (1980) is a popular science book by astronomer and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carl Sagan. Its 13 illustrated chapters, corresponding to the 13 episodes of the Cosmos TV series on which the book was based, explore the mutual development of science and civilization. Spurred in part by the popularity of the TV series, Cosmos spent 50 weeks on the Publishers Weekly best-sellers list and 70 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list to become the best-selling science book ever published at the time. In 1981, it received the Hugo Award for Best Non-Fiction Book. The book's unprecedented success ushered in a dramatic increase in visibility for science-themed literature. The sequel to Cosmos is Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994). More...

Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration Into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel is a book by theoretical physicist Michio Kaku. Kaku uses discussion of speculative technologies to introduce topics of fundamental physics to the reader. The topic of invisibility becomes a discussion on why the speed of light is slower in water than a vacuum, that electromagnetism is similar to ripples in a pond, and Kaku discusses newly developed composite materials. The topic of Star Trek "phasers" becomes a lesson on how lasers work and how laser-based research is conducted. The cover of his book depicts a TARDIS, a device used in the British science fiction television show Doctor Who to travel in space and time, in its disguise as a police box, continuously passing through a time loop. With each discussion of science fiction technology topics he also "explains the hurdles to realizing these science fiction concepts as reality" More..

The Hidden Reality is a book by Brian Greene published in 2011 which explores the concept of the multiverse and the possibility of parallel universes. It has been nominated for the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books for 2012. More...

IMPORTANT UPDATE: This Note has been revised due to some unavoidable circumstances!

Quotes by Albert Einstein.

2012-11-02T06:38:00.002-07:00

Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.

Feel Free to Share anything from Science Panorama that you like but Please Give Credit to us and the link. Cheers! :)

Science Panorama

Second largest Volcanic Eruption.

LED - Light Emitting Diode

How To Make Your Own Particle Detector

Female Stars in the Galaxy of Science!

The Worlds Most Advanced Synchrotron in India!

2012's Awwww!! Photos!!

WIRE Magazine by Science Panorama

Wire Magazine Issue 1

Click on the Link above and open. You can read it there or select File on top left corner, a drop down menu appears and select DOWNLOAD thus it gets saved on your PC or Mobile to be read later. Feel Free to Share it with your friends!

Straight from WIRE Magazine!

IMPORTANT UPDATE THE WIRE MAGAZINE HAS BEEN PUBLISHED: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD!

Become a Mathematician: Top Links PartII

50 Important Links: How to become a Mathematician?

20 Incredible Science Photos that make you Awe!

Top links: How to become a Physicist?

ALSO CHECK:

50 Important Links: How to become a Mathematician?

Application of Electronics & Musical fields in daily life.

A Rare Astronomical Event!

Free WIRE Magazine by Science Panorama.

IMPORTANT UPDATE THE WIRE MAGAZINE HAS BEEN PUBLISHED: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD!

Classical Electrodynamics.

Origin of life : How Biology sees it!

50 Important Links: How to become a Mathematician?

Introduction to Special Relativity

Spread Science through the Magazine: Our Next Movement

Merging Black Holes!

Black Hole Mergers: Where and How?

Stages in Black hole merger:

The Real Price of Energy!

Introduction to Kinematics!

Topology

The Three Awesome E Books!

Quotes by Albert Einstein.