The SciTech Journal

Good-bye The SciTech Journal - Welcome Here Be Answers!

2009-10-02T12:22:00.003+05:30

Dear readers and subscribers of The SciTech Journal,

We are happy to announce that The SciTech Journal is now evolving beyond science and technology to serve you answers. As a result, we have come up with a new blog called Here Be Answers!

In a short while The SciTech Journal will be taken offline.

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Hope to see you all on the new blog. Your support is solicited in this fruitful transition.

Thank you.

Reason why ants touch each other’s heads when they meet

2009-03-31T20:42:00.001+05:30

Q. Why do ants touch each other with their heads when they meet? Why do they walk in a file one behind another?

A. All the work is done by smell in an anthill. As shown in the picture, the first thing an ant does when it finds food like larvae is to sprinkle a smell on it. Thereafter as it rushes back to inform other ants about the discovery, it goes on sprinkling smell at various places on the way so that all the ants coming for the food can take the same route. An amazing arrangement of Nature is that the ants of each colony have distinctive smell. That is why when two ants meet they never fail to ascertain whether they belong to the same anthill by means of sniffing each other. If the smell differs, the interloper is immediately attacked and chased away. The importance of distinct smell for an ant can not be exaggerated because devoid of that peculiar odor the ant will run the risk of attack by other ants of its own colony!

In short, each ant must carry its ID in the form of the colony’s smell all the time.

More reading:
Ant (Wikipedia)

Reason why birds don’t fall down from its perch during the sleep

2009-03-01T20:32:00.001+05:30

Q. Why doesn’t a bird fall down from its perch during the sleep in the night?

A. Nature has given to many birds distinctive toes that help in maintaining upright pose even when asleep on a tree branch where as a man would have to strive hard to keep a firm grip on the branch with his arms around it (and remain wide awake too!). The rule regarding the grip applicable to the birds is diametrically opposite to the rule applicable to the human beings. Having perched on a branch the bird has to make an effort to loosen its grip and until it has made the necessary effort it can not let go of the branch. The muscles of a perching bird’s toes – three on the front and one on the back – are like automatic hinges. As the bird alights on a branch the hinges are pressed by its weight. The pressure locks the toes around the branch effortlessly. The effort will be required to relax the grip when the bird wants to move on the branch or wants to fly away.

Nature has made this anatomical arrangement only for those birds that perch on the trees (as well as on telephone/electric lines). For example, the birds that spend all the time on the ground like the flightless ostrich, emu and kiwi do not have the hind or the first toe at all. There are nice different types of feet observed among the birds. Running birds such as courser, plover, and curlew also do not have hind toe. Some birds like duck, quail, partridge, gull etc that have short hind toe do not find it convenient to perch so they spend the night on the ground.

Inventor of ‘smiley’ face symbol and story of its creation

2009-01-17T09:40:00.005+05:30

Q. Who created the famous ‘smiley’ symbol? And what was the purpose for creating it?

A. Graphic symbols known as ‘smiley’ are used today in Netspeak (the email and SMS lingo). Here a personal message is conveyed not in a combination of shortened words and numerals like the SMS, but in the form of symbols which can be understood by the receiver.

An advertising professional named Harvey Ball (first photo), a graphic designer, created symbol of ‘smiley’ in 1963 which has become a ‘world language’ today – meaning thereby that the barrier of the ‘wall of language’ has been surmounted. For which purpose had Harvey Ball created that symbol is not known by many though.

When two American insurance companies entered into a business alliance, the workers’ union of the bigger company started a non-cooperation agitation to oppose that alliance. While the work was carried on, the atmosphere in the office remained tense. In order to soften hard attitude of confrontation, the company decided to respond with a ‘friendship drive’. The responsibility for easing the tension was entrusted to advertising and public relations specialist Harvey Ball who created ‘keep smiling’ symbol. Taking a cue from this symbol another American genius Scott Fahlman (second photo) created ‘smiley’ in 1981-82 by using various keys of the computer keyboard.

More reading:
Smiley (Wikipedia)
Harvey Ball (Wikipedia)
Scott Fahlman (Wikipedia)

Most dangerous creature in the world

2008-12-26T09:58:00.007+05:30

Q. Which is the most dangerous creature in the world?

A. Not sharks or snakes, but the malarial parasites carried by anopheles mosquitoes. Worldwide, they have killed more people since the Stone Age than those who have perished in wars and natural disasters.

Malaria has been virtually eradicated in the developed countries, but it is still a major killer in tropical regions. Every year the disease causes as many as 2.7 million deaths throughout the world. Almost 75% of those who die are African children.

More reading:
Malaria (Wikipedia)
Mosquito (Wikipedia)

Inventor of modern type mobile phone - Martin Cooper

2008-12-11T09:45:00.000+05:30

Q. Who is the inventor of modern type mobile phone? Who said and heard ‘hello’ in the world’s first portable handset?

A. Blueprint of mobile telephone technology was already drawn up by Bell Laboratories of USA way back in 1947. It was based on cellular telephone technology, under which the area to be networked is divided into smaller areas called cells; each cell having a transmitter and transmitters of all the cells being connected with a central exchange. However, Bell Laboratories had not been successful in making a mobile handset which could be called ‘portable’ in true sense of the word. Mobile phones prior to the decade of 1970s were like briefcases weighing four and a half kilograms.

After the invention of the chip, it became possible to miniaturize the size of electronic gadgets. Bell Laboratories assigned the task of making a small sized handset to their electronics expert Joel Engel and allocated millions of dollars for research. Simultaneously Martin Cooper, a researcher of Motorola Company was also struggling to make a small handset. Ultimately, he was to become successful first. So in recognition of his inventive genius, Motorola Company gave Martin Cooper the privilege of making world’s first mobile phone call.

On the historic day of April 3, 1973 Cooper pressed the handset’s push-buttons in the presence of all the senior executives and researchers and said, ‘Hello!’ to none else but Joel Engel of Bell Laboratories. Martin Cooper gave Engel the ‘happy tidings’ that he had finally succeeded in making the world’s first portable handset.

Martin Cooper was inventor of the first modern type mobile phone. His revolutionary invention made Motorola Company wealthy and himself too! However, the first mobile service in USA was started in 1978 by Bell Company in Chicago city.

To know how mobile phones work, follow here: Working of a mobile phone

More reading:
Martin Cooper (Wikipedia)
Mobile phone (Wikipedia)

Reason why we sneeze

2008-09-08T22:34:00.005+05:30

Q. What is the reason for sneezing?

A. When something peculiar enters nostrils or when there is swelling on its internal surface for some reason, sensory cells in the nostrils send a message of alarm to the brain. This message is couriered by a nerve named trigeminal to the brain center which controls breathing. The brain has to respond quickly to throw out the foreign substance, if any, in the nostrils before it can enter in the lungs which are made of very delicate mucous membrane. One important point to be kept in mind is that lungs do not inflate or subside. It is the diaphragm which through its action of contraction and flattening during inhalation causes the chest to expand and through action of relaxation and rising during exhalation causes the chest to subside.

At the command of the brain for a sneeze diaphragm contracts considerably allowing lungs to breathe in a greater quantity of air. Thereafter diaphragm relaxes, not as it does normally but with suddenness. Resulting exhalation is a sudden noisy burst of air and moisture through the nose and mouth expelling air at a maximum speed of 165 kilometers per hour. Foreign particles or mucous logged in nostrils or wind pipe are thrown out in that burst of air which can be compared with running a vacuum cleaner in reverse! During an average sneeze about 5,000 particles of moisture are thrown out up to 4 meters.

More reading:
Sneeze (Wikipedia)

Photochromic glasses turning dark in sunlight

2008-08-24T22:11:00.000+05:30

Q. Why do some spectacles’ glasses automatically become dark like goggles when exposed to direct sunlight?

A. Such spectacles are called photochromic. The lenses of photochromic spectacles are made of glass mixed with minute crystals of light sensitive silver iodide or bromide. These crystals are so minute that they have length of only 50 angstrom (1 angstrom = 0.0000000001 meter). As these crystals split and scatter in sunlight the transparent lenses automatically start becoming somewhat dark. Eyes are not dazzled because some of the sunrays are obstructed by these crystals. The crystals remain embedded in the lenses. Unlike a liquid when strained flows out of the strainer the photochromic glass does not allow these scattered crystals to flow out. As soon as direct exposure to sunlight is withdrawn the crystals of silver iodide or bromide fuse together and the lenses become transparent again.

Photochromic glasses were invented by a chemist named Dr. R.H. Dalon and were first manufactured in 1964 by American company named Corning.

More reading:
Photochromic lens (Wikipedia)

Zero watt bulbs

2008-08-16T11:50:00.001+05:30

Q. There are electric bulbs of 100 watt, 60, watt, 40 watt and 25 watt but what is meant by a zero watt bulb? And why is it called so?

A. There is no bulb with zero watt consumption. Even a small LED indicator consumes power, though it's a fraction of a watt. A zero watt bulb is actually a 15 watt bulb, because when the power consumed by the bulb is zero the output of light will also be zero. An ordinary light bulb (with tungsten filament) of the lowest wattage available in the market is a 15 watt bulb. There is no bulb with wattage less than 15 watts. Such bulbs are wrongly presumed to be zero watt bulbs.

Conventional electro-magnetic energy meters did not record consumption if the load was very small. The indicator did not move when the load was only 15 watts. That is the reason these bulbs came to be known as zero watt bulbs.

More reading
Incandescent light bulb (Wikipedia)

Manufacturing technique in striped toothpaste

2008-08-07T20:53:00.001+05:30

Q. Some toothpastes are colorfully striped. What is the technique employed in manufacturing it?

A. Manufacturers give colorful stripes to toothpaste by using a two-in-one like tube within a tube. The main tube is filled with white paste. Another tube within the main tube is filled with colored paste. This type of design prevents white and colored pastes from mixing. A few holes are made on the upper part of the colored paste tube so that when the tube is pressed colored paste also comes out through these holes alone the sides of the white paste forming colorful stripes.

Some manufacturers also use two different but non-mixing pastes in a single tube. But this method does not give accurate result.

More reading:
Toothpaste (Wikipedia)

Costliest postal stamp

2008-06-27T20:28:00.002+05:30

Q. Which country has issued the costliest postal stamp?

A. World record is held by Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika. Out of these three countries Tanganyika does not exist as a separate country. In 1964 Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form United Republic of Tanzania. Situated 35 kilometers away from mainland Tanganyika and hardly 2,650 square kilometers in area, Zanzibar’s Arab minority government oppressed African (negro) majority. The revolutionaries effected permanent merger of Zanzibar with Tanganyika, the country having African majority after overthrowing the ruling government so as to prevent Arabs from coming to power in Zanzibar in future.

In the beginning of the 20^th century, all the three neighboring countries of Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika were under British rule. In 1925 they issued their common postal stamp bearing picture of King George V. Tanganyika was then known as Tanganyika Territory. There was not sufficient space in the stamp to print its lengthy name so it was omitted. Another reason for omitting the name was that Britain was authorized to carry out administrative functions only under a mandate from the League of Nations. See photo of the stamp above. The printed value of stamp was 100 Pounds. According to present rate of exchange it is equal to about 8,700 Rupees! Although it was valid for use as a postal stamp, the purpose behind issuing it was to raise funds for economic development of Tanganyika Territory. Some rich philatelists bought these expensive stamps. Today it is considerably more precious than its printed value.

Birds and electrocution

2008-06-20T11:48:00.004+05:30

Q. Why a bird perched on a high tension power line does not get electrocuted?

A. High voltage itself is of little consequence so far as there is no flow of electricity from one point to another. Instead of high voltage it is the high voltage difference that matters.

When a bird, hopefully a small bird, lands on a transmission cable it acquires the same voltage as the cable, so there is no potential difference. Even a large bird can sit there safe and relaxed. But when it spreads wings and touches something like another cable or some point connected to earth, electricity would flow through its body due to voltage difference and the bird would be electrocuted instantly. It is for this reason that electricity companies maintain adequate spacing between two cables. Even so, large birds of prey do sometimes fall prey to electrocution.

More reading:
Electrocution (Wikipedia)

White powdery coating on grapes

2008-05-13T09:30:00.003+05:30

Q. Often a white powdery coating is seen on green as well as black grapes. Which substance is it? Is it pesticide?

A. It is true that in some regions maximum quantity of pesticides are sprayed on grapes. However, white powdery coating on grapes is not pesticide. It is yeast, a type of fungi. Originating as microscopic single cell organisms from grape vine, these cells reproduce in large numbers by splitting and budding, ultimately covering each grape. They survive by consuming glucose in grape and release carbon dioxide and alcohol as by-product, so to say. Both these products cause fermentation in the substance which contains glucose. This is the reason for using yeast in baking bread and cake. Tiny bubbles of effervescence caused by carbon dioxide that yeast releases after consuming glucose contained in wheat expand the dough making it lighter and full of small holes. As there is abundant glucose in grapes, yeast can convert it fully into alcohol within six months.

More Reading:
Grape (Wikipedia)
List of grape varieties (Wikipedia)

Most poisonous snake in the world

2008-05-11T16:25:00.001+05:30

Q. Which is the most poisonous snake in the world?

A. There are 2,400 kinds of snakes, but only about 100 of them are considered dangerous to human. Most naturalists believe that the taipan snake of Australia, found in a remote area of Queensland, is the deadliest and produces the most toxic venom, which is 50 times as powerful as that of the king cobra. In one bite the Australian taipan snake releases enough venom to kill almost 100 people or nearly 2,50,000 mice.

More Reading:
Taipan (Wikipedia)

Sloth and its survival

2008-05-08T00:22:00.002+05:30

Q. How does a sloth, being such a lethargic animal, survive in the wild where norm is survival of the fittest?

A. Sloth’s extreme sluggishness works to its advantage. This primitive mammal which sleeps 18 hours out of every 24, expends so little energy that it eats much less than its more advanced relatives. This is one reason for its success. It survives on a few calories, so it doesn’t have to move about much for forage and the leaves it eats are abundant.

The sloth’s laziness in grooming helps its natural camouflage. Its coarse hair, rarely tended, is practically an ecosystem by itself, harbour two species of blue-green algae. The growth of algae turns the sloth’s hair greenish, making it almost invisible in the trees. It is far from conspicuous to its predators. With its head down on the chest, a sleeping sloth strongly resembles a bunch of partially dried leaves or even a wasp nest. In addition, being able to curl into an almost impenetrable ball and having thick tough skin also helps it to foil attacks by predators that climb well – jaguars, ocelots and other carnivorous mammals. Besides it also protects the sloth from large birds of prey like harpy eagles.

There are other reasons why this animal endures the hazardous environment of rain forests. Its wounds heal quickly and cleanly; so it survives injuries that would kill other animals. Another key to the sloth’s survival is its long, sickle-shaped claws, which enable it to hang effortlessly from the branches of trees and give the animal such a good grip that it’s nearly impossible to pry one loose from its branch. Sloths remain hanging even after they die, often until their bodies have become completely decomposed and all that is skeleton.

Nevertheless, the sloth is perfectly adapted to its arboreal environment. Whereas monkeys and other tree dwellers rely on swiftness and agility for survival, the sloth’s very lethargy is the key to its success. It is fit to survive as Charles Darwin himself would have readily admitted.

More Reading:
Sloth (Wikipedia)

Pressure Cooker and Quicker Preparation of Food

2008-04-19T23:09:00.005+05:30

Q. What does pressure have to do with quicker preparation of food in a pressure cooker?

A. Apart from pressure, water and steam also have their roles to play. Ultimately, though, it is the pressure that matters. Here’s what result in quicker cooking. Ordinarily, water boils at 100° Celsius. The temperature rarely rises higher because escaping steam carries excess heat away. If a container of boiling water is sealed, however, the steam is trapped and pressure starts to rise. This force pushes down on the surface of the liquid, preventing water molecules from breaking apart from one another to create steam. Thus, far less heat is dispersed from the container and, eventually, from the food.

The result of all this is the temperature of the water greatly exceeds 100° Celsius, cooking the food immersed in it much faster and helping to get dinner on the table sooner.

More Reading:
Pressure cooking (Wikipedia)

Turning Mercury into Gold

2008-04-12T23:03:00.005+05:30

Q. Is it possible to convert mercury into gold as many alchemists tried in medieval times?

A. If we wish to manufacture gold, the most helpful metal to start with is mercury. Gold is element 79 and mercury is element 80, which means that there is only a slight difference between their atomic structures. The mercury atom has one more proton in its nucleus and the corresponding electron in the outer (known as F shell) orbit. As the diagram shows, all other shells (from atom A to E) have the same number of electrons in both mercury and gold. So, theoretically, if we can expel one proton from the nucleus of an atom of mercury, we have transmuted it into an atom of gold. The process is difficult since an atom of mercury has eighty electrons; eighty orbits have to be broken through as well as the electric field round the nucleus. The fist experiment was, however, carried out years ago at the Physical-Technical State Institute of Berlin. The bombarding particles were given a high speed by means of a field of 30,000 volts, and a small, but observable quantity of gold was produced from quicksilver. Unfortunately, such laboratory transmutation can never be reproduced on a commercial scale.

It is tempting to laugh off medieval alchemists as greedy eccentrics, who sought methods for forming gold out of cheaper metals. But one ought to give them credit for what they did in the process of searching. These alchemists discovered strong acids like hydrochloric acid, nitric acid and sulfuric acid which are far more useful today then gold could possibly be. The alchemists should have been acclaimed for these revolutionary discoveries. Instead they were sneered at for their failure to make gold out of plentiful metals like mercury.

More Reading:
Mercury (Wikipedia)
Gold (Wikipedia)
Alchemy (Wikipedia)

Length of day and night on the moon

2008-01-31T01:00:00.001+05:30

Q. Are there day and night on the moon? If yes then how long is a day on the moon?

A. Yes, there are day and night on the moon, but not the same as our planet. Instead of twenty-four hours, a moon-day is equal to 27.3 earth-days, because the moon takes so much time to complete a rotation about its axis. What is more surprising is that the moon takes exactly the same amount of time to complete a circle around the earth too, i.e. 27.3 days. As a result we always see only one side of the moon. At the most 59% of the moon’s surface is visible from the earth. The rest 41% of the surface is never seen by us.

Furthermore, the moon only has a day and a night, and no evening! The reason: There is no atmosphere on the moon. Due to absence of air the sun-rays do not scatter at all. Hence, where the sun-rays fall there is a dazzling light and the rest is extremely dark! As if sunshine and darkness are partitioned drawing a line between. In the same way without air the climate is also not temperate on the moon. The temperature in the light would be 102°C, whereas an inch away in the dark the mercury would drop down to freezing -157°C!

(S52/081996)

Onions and Eye-burning

2007-12-22T23:24:00.000+05:30

Q. Why do eyes burn and water up when cutting onions?

A. The scientific reason is only this: There are certain compounds of sulphur in the onions. One can fairly call it mild acid. When an onion is cut these compounds spread around in the air and cause eyes to burn. But fortunately they are water-soluble. As a result they dissolve in tears, so after a while the burning ceases.

When the onions are kept in a bowl of water and then cut, these acidic compounds are dissolved outright and don’t spread around. One can avoid eye-burning thus.

(S53/121996)

Refrigeration and position of an icebox in refrigerator

2007-11-30T23:24:00.004+05:30

Q. How is cold generated to preserve food in a refrigerator? In every refrigerator why is an icebox positioned on top?

A. As per law of science if you smear a little amount of water on skin, after a while it will evaporate and you will feel coldness on the skin. The reason for it happening is to turn water into vapor energy is used. Evaporating water gets this energy (heat) from the body itself. Hence, the part losing heat as energy goes cold. The same principle is applied in a refrigerator. Here, the liquid called chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) evaporates in a thin tube; that is, turns into gas. While doing so CFC absorbs the heat in the refrigerator, and thus the interior is bound get cold. The CFC gas then moves towards the tangle of tubes in the rear part of the refrigerator, where it is turned again into liquid using compressor and loses its heat to the air. This liquid again absorbs the heat in the refrigerator to turn into gas.

Now remains icebox. The answer of the question related to icebox too is very interesting. It is better to keep an ice-compartment, i.e. icebox on top, because in a refrigerator more heat is accumulated in top, hence the first squirt of cold liquid should be made there. This is why it is arranged for CFC turned into liquid with compressor to flow towards the top directly. When it is inevitable to do so and also the liquid entering the top level is super cold, then why not use it to benefit? Turning water into ice necessitates removing all natural heat off it – and it is quite natural that this can be done only using the freshly entered freezing-cold liquid CFC.
(S50/081996)

Disclaimer

2007-11-25T21:36:00.007+05:30

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2007-11-20T23:22:00.006+05:30

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