MySiTe | Mystery, Science & Technology

HUMANITY : FROM EVOLUTION TO EXTINCTION

2023-02-28T22:27:00.000+05:30

Formation of our planet Earth took place around 4.5 billion years ago. Severe impact of numbers of interstellar objects like asteroids, meteors, dust particles shaped the planet as we see it in present time. Initially, it was just a hot blob molten metals and rocks. Eventually, billions of changes took place to make the planet fit for the survival of millions of species diversity as we see it today. The Earth's biodiversity, as we see in present time is nothing but the resultant outcome of all physiochemical changes happened in its past.

All the changes that occurred on the Earth not only affected the physique of the planet, but also had massive impact on many living species. Abiogenesis or origin of life took place on Earth around 3.7 billion years ago. Life of microscopic organisms flourished in ocean which mark the beginning of all living species as we see them today. As time passed, new organisms evolved. Numbers and types of living species increased. But with time Earth had to face drastic changes, which had a severe impact on the existed species. Since then, our Earth had faced major extinction events in past. Some are less intense, some are so severe that it wiped out nearly 95% of all biodiversity all at a time that ever lived on earth.

There are 5 major mass extinctions that had devastated the planet in a harsh way. Millions of species completely lost, some survived and evolved. Reports shows that about 5 billion living species evolved on our planet since beginning, out of which 99 per cent are already extinct.

Survival of species is the ability of the organisms to adapt to the changes that occur in their environment. They compete for food, water and shelter. According to Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, 'survival of the fittest' plays an important role in the species diversity that dominates the Earth. The species that struggled for its survival on the planet, eventually became extinct. However, gradual extinction is also a major step in evolution of life. And hence, billions of species are completely lost on the planet.

If we try to draw conclusions based on our pasts, then unfortunately the results are not so well. Its quite terrifying that if something like dinosaurs, the most dominating species before humans could vanish from the planet, then we humans are nothing. We have no much time left in our hand to face such an event that will wipe out humanity. So, is there any possibility that another mass extinction is on its way? Will humanity going to vanish from Earth? It's a hot topic in the present time. Let's dive into the topic in details.

HOW HUMANS EVOLVED?

Millions of species inhabited our planet Earth before prehistoric humans. Some are way more powerful and dominating than us. But in evolutionary struggle, humans are the only one to obtain the advantage of their existence. Humans (Homo sapiens) are the present day dominating species on the planet that changed the environment around the world. But it took several million years to adapt those changes that we see in modern man.

Origin of our ancestors took place around 20 million years ago. They are the fruit eating creatures on African trees and known as 'Proconsuls'. They were feeding on fruits and leaves. They climbed with their four limbs. Both the upper and lower limbs are the same. Their skull was primitive and brain was small and simple. Study of their fossils revealed that their jaws are placed in such a way that they are less aggressive, which marks an important feature of humans.

Around 10 million years ago, their is a severe drop in temperature in African region. As a reason, the species were unable to approach the branches of trees. A new species evolved, called as 'Ardipithecus'. They moved on their rear limbs. Their feet were broad, which allowed bipedalism. But able to walk not easily as we humans do. But the species was an intermediate between humans and apes. They were both entirely human-like and entirely ape-like.

However, life moved on. Trees became sparse, Africa became a boundless savanna. So, it became impossible to climb the trees. Around 4 million years ago, a new creature in savanna appeared, called as Gracile australopithecus. They were well adjusted to their home. They walked on both legs not much different from ours. They gathered and ate everything and walked for miles. They became the first species that formed cohesive groups that allowed them to repel danger.

About 3 million years ago, Australopithecus afarensis of east Africa evolved into first humans. The species that marks the first representative of our genus is known as Homo habilis, which is regarded as the handy man. This is because they were the first to make and use stone tools. They used it for several purposes like carving meat, killing prey, defending from predators, etc.

Humans are now armed. Life on tree was left behind. The intelligence of human brain helped itself to protect and survive on the planet. The face size became smaller. Around 1.5 million years ago, a new species Homo ergaster evolved. This is considered as the working man. This is where human brain is much developed. Human became hunter. They used spear, stone tools and dominated forests by killing large animals like elephant, antelopes, etc. More characters were similar to that of modern man.

Evolution played a very important role in development of human brain. The species named Homo erectus lived between 1.9 million and 200,000 years ago. They are though to have been the first species to build shared fireplaces for cooking food. Within the last million years there had been dramatic advances in human evolution. Just before the modern man, a species evolved known as Homo neanderthal. It evolved around 200,00 years ago in Southern Europe. They have bulkier bodies that resisted cold of the ice. Their brains were large and there are evidences they buried their dead.

Around 200,000 years ago, our own species Homo sapiens appeared. The first species appeared in Africa and began to spread about 100,000 years later. All other human-like species became extinct, while modern human flourished and civilization began. With larger brain, humans are now able to use spoken language. They are very adaptable and learned to make more advanced tools. Since then, humans have made rapid advancement in almost every possible fields in the world. Technology, science, experimental, literature, philosophy, infinite and endless possibilities humans have explored and continuing. With these fast developments, drastic changes took place on the planet.

THE GREAT ACCELERATION AND IT'S IMPACT

Rapid developments on the planet had been seen over past few centuries. Great acceleration refers to the drastic changes that took place around the globe at much faster rate. Above all, human population had a massive impact on the planet. The population itself surged from 1.1 billion in 1880 to 8.0 billion in 2023. With rapid advancements, the global economy had already crossed 100 trillion in the year 2022. From which, only U.S and China comprises about 40.76% from the total economy. With these massive progress around the Earth, the planet had to face numerous changes that unfortunately had created negative impact on our planet in a harsh way.

The great acceleration is causing massive anthropogenic damage to our planet. There had been an exponential increase in the pollutants over the Earth. The industrial revolution had made drastic changes to the Earth's biodiversity. Release of excess of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere destabilized the global balance of Earth's ecosystem. The green house gases increases the planet's temperature by 1°c each year. A single degree change can affect whole biodiversity of the Earth.

Ocean plays a key role in balancing the planet's ecosystem. But, due to the changes, their had been a severe impact on Earth's ocean. Ocean absorbs about 90% of heat produced by man-made carbon dioxide. Due to the rise in the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, rise in ocean temperature had damaged rich aquatic ecosystem. Amount of carbon dioxide emission is estimated to be roughly 34 billion tones per year from burning of fossil fuels. From which, 45 per cent is only liberated from burning of coal. This has a severe impact on Earth's climate.

Forests are considered as the most precious and gifted thing on planet Earth. They meet the needs of the entire living world in almost every aspects. Due to rise in temperature, the forest fires are spreading at much higher rate. The large forests with rich diversity of ecosystem are collapsing day by day.

With the unchecked anthropogenic activities, the planet had became unstable in all fields. The effect is seen worldwide in present time. Frequent storms and major natural calamities occurring in day to day life in every corner of the Earth. Due to drastic changes in climate, from oceanic currents to the atmosphere, everything had lost control. It's due to the excess consumption of natural resources by humans and not conserving it. There will be a severe impact on our future generations, if nothing gets changed.

THE END OF HUMANITY

So, is humanity going to be extinct? Humans, as the present day dominating species has created massive impact on the planet Earth. According to the National Academy of Sciences, the 6th mass extinction had already began at the middle of 20th century. Reports say, this extinction had already affected 75% of terrestrial habitats and 66% of all marine ecosystem. We have interrupted climate pattern, oceanic activities in a negative way.

Due to the severe impact on Earth's ecosystem, the food chain is also disrupted. We are losing species at much faster rate. Humans, as only discovered species in the observable universe inhabited the Earth, but now had failed to protect it. Is this the end? It's literally became too late to change the planet as it was before. Unfortunately, everything's becoming out of control. Now, it's really terrifying that humanity will extinct one day.

SOURCES

1. Koranos : Global Extinction: How Long Do We Have Left?

2.Scientists against Myths : Evolution from ape to man

Hunting for a Home beyond our Homie, Earth.

2023-02-01T03:22:00.003+05:30

Hello web wanderers, have you ever wondered what will happen if something happens to our dear earth. If you think this possibility is far from the truth, read our article on human extinction coming up soon in the extinction series. If something so unfortunate happened, where could we take our refuge, Is there any room for survival or will the flame of life be forever blown out of existence?

For starters, there is a considerable probability of life being present outside of the planet earth considering the enormous size of our universe. Though we are yet to find any alien life, various potential environments for the sustainability of life have been discovered and some of the likeliest candidates to be labeled as our next home will be discussed here.

First of all, I would like to divide these into two categories, The first is within our solar system which is not as good in supporting life as the earth is but can be researched well and terraformed shortly as they are comparatively close and can be traveled to using our current technology. Though the act of colonizing these beasts needs huge technological developments. The second is outside our solar system which provides a similar if not better environment than that of the earth to support life. Though they are extreeeeemly far away and cannot be accessed soon. Still, we can hope to reach them sometime before Earth gives up on us.

For the matter of discussion of today, I'll be focusing on our solar system as they are more practical to inhabit. Still, I'll try to give a brief review of some exoplanets at the end.

Before going into the details of which planet to pick and choose, let us first know which planet will be the most suitable to be deemed as the new earth. As mentioned in an article by NASA the basic requirements of life are Water, chemistry, and energy. These three elements are very basic and self-explanatory. Other than these there are some other factors like the distance from the earth for transportation, oxygen, economical viability, proper temperature and pressure, protection from radiation and meteors, and more.

Also, there is a different thing of hunting life in the universe, which basically searches for the presence of life outside earth. This must not be confused with the topic of discussion of today. Because in hostile environments with different chemical compositions, there might be species that can survive by doing chemical reactions. But in our case, we want the resources and environmental conditions such that humans can survive.

This is one of the most intriguing problems in astronomy as the applications are very much practical. Additionally, if we spread out our population on various planets. We can certainly prevent human extinction.

The candidates in our Solar System

I'll be mentioning the top 3 candidates for the next earth in our solar system.

3. Venus

There was a very close call for having Venus in at number 3 instead of other options that you will get to know in our honorable mentions. The main reason being the place above the clouds of Venus also referred to as paradise by many is the most earth-like place in the entire solar system.

For starters, the size of Venus is comparable to that of earth, and the gravity is also very close. It is relatively one of the closest places for us to colonize. And also it has a smaller launch window. The surface of Venus has really harsh conditions for life such as extreme temperatures. But the place just above the clouds is perfect to support human life. The atmosphere protects us from radiation and meteors unlike the two higher up in the list. The making of balloon cities filled with oxygen and nitrogen is the most popular idea to build a settlement on Venus. As the atmosphere of Venus is made up of carbon dioxide the balloons filled with oxygen and nitrogen will float and the oxygen will also be great for breathing. The rotation period of the planet is very slow, but above the clouds, due to air currents, this day-night cycle also occurs faster.

The Temperature and pressure over there are very similar to that on earth. The major problem is the presence of water. Also, various important minerals and other stuff present on the planet's surface cannot be accessed by us as the temperatures are high enough to melt lead. Also, there is corrosive sulphuric acid present, Hence the floating city must have a proper coating to it. Over 20 successful missions have been carried out and the possibility of building an aerostat habitat with floating cities is suggested by many but the economic viability and other problems mentioned above pose a threat.

2. The Moon

The latest Artemis program is going to send people to the moon again very soon. Though the major focus is not to build an alternative colony but to extract the resources and start a moon camp at the least. But it can in turn lead to a human settlement there.

The moon is confirmed to have water resources in it and you can read about this in this article-Water on the moon confirmed, a great opening for deep space exploration.

We need to be ready to access this properly and get to know how exactly the water came to the moon, which can be really helpful for future prospects. Solar electricity can be generated here.

Due to the lack of an atmosphere, the moon is vulnerable to radiation, solar particles, cosmic rays as well as heavier objects like meteors. Well if you think why does the moon not have an atmosphere read this- Why does the moon not have an atmosphere while the earth does??

Also, due to this, there is no greenhouse effect which in turn gives very cold temperatures. The gravity is also pretty low compared to the earth and can cause long-term health issues.

Obviously, we can start by setting up extraction bases there slowly and steadily, And the most important application of colonizing the moon is to use it as a launch pad to launch probes for other missions.

1. Mars

Mars is the most popular place for all, be it science fiction books, illustrations, future missions, and so on. Why is it so?? The major reasons are the presence of water in the polar caps and the presence of various minerals. Also, the thin atmosphere is good enough to sustain life. Self-sufficiency can be achieved on mars in the future though the potential to generate energy using various methods is pretty poor.

Talking about the challenges, there are a lot of them that can be tackled. First of all, it is really far from earth, and if we talk about our current technology the colony on mars will be pretty much isolated from earth. Well what other political and practical implications it can have, that's a topic for discussion for some other day.

Additionally, low gravity can have short-term and long-term effects on human health. The absence of oxygen is another issue. Due to the thin atmosphere, there is no protection from radiation or meteors. The environment is toxic. The temperature is very cold.

Whatsoever it is mars offers the best conditions for life in our solar system, obviously after the clouds of Venus. But so far the most feasible conditions are provided by mars.

Well terraforming mars and colonizing mars by itself has a lot to talk about. So, I would like to postpone this talk to some other day in some other article in great detail.

Honorable menti0ns- Europa and Titan

Water and other nutrients are said to be present on the moon of Jupiter, Europa. NASA's Galileo spacecraft's magnetometer noticed a signature in the magnetic data which is said to correspond to a salty ocean. The presence of energy-forming sources still remains a mystery.

Life is said to be possible under the icy shell of Europa. Various chemical elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and, so on can be found here. Organisms that can sustain themselves by chemical reactions can be present there theoretically. But finding life on Europa will be a great step to the future and the perspective of viewing our universe would change. Well, I'll keep this conversation brief for the time being.

Now let's jump to the only moon with a dense atmosphere in our solar system, the Titan. It is one of the moons of Saturn. It has rivers, lakes, and seas just like earth. Just like the Earth, Titan is the only other place that has cycles of liquid, like the water cycle. The Cassini spacecraft observed that the moon has an underground reserve of liquid water. This says it can contain habitable life. But the conditions for human survival are still in question there.

Although these are very favorable, they are very far from the earth and pose various problems.

Talking about distances far away I would like to show you the exoplanets just like or even better than the earth outside our solar system before you leave.

Candidates outside our solar system

The planets that can be inhabitable must lie in the habitable region concerning their star. It provides conditions for the presence of all essential conditions and water required for life. But the inhabitable exoplanets are very difficult to reach. Even at near light speed, the closest exoplanet orbit to a star will take around 4-5 years to reach. The parker solar probe which is the fastest probe ever made will take about 6000-7000 years to reach. Hence, with the current technology colonizing such stars will be a tough task. Maybe we can somehow slow the life processes of humans to a very slow rate and preserve them alive for a long time, then maybe we can send them somewhere out, but the fuel required and other challenges must be taken care of as well. Anyways, this seems like a far future now let's take a halt.

The closest star Proxima Centauri has an exoplanet Proxima Centauri b orbiting it, which lies in the habitable zone. Similarly, Trappist 1D orbits its supercool dwarf star Trappist 1 which is around 40 light years away and lies in the habitable zone. Similarly, planets such as Kepler 62e and Gliese 433 d also lie in the habitable zone. Let's discuss more fascinating exoplanets and another super-earth in some other discussion.

Before finishing I would like to say that the earth will be engulfed by the sun within 7.5 billion years before it turns into a red giant. Hence, we have loads of time to develop before we prepare to leave. But I'm afraid we'll be able to survive till then. Especially, with the non-sustainable life we are leading, the clock is surely ticking on us. Hence, let's appreciate how great is our planet earth, let the scientists and engineers plan it out, and focus more on living sustainably. See ya.

References

List of poteWikipediaabitColonizinganets- Wikipedia

Colonizing the moon- miuc.org

Wikipediaion_of_the_Moon- Wikipedia

Colonization_of_Mars - Wikipedia

Colonization_of_Venus- Wikipedia

In-depth- Titan- NASA

Scientists Discovered Planets Even Better for Life Than Earth- What if

The Elon Musk of India??

2022-07-17T14:18:00.005+05:30

Kalam SAT, A Case Study.

Today we'll be discussing about a kid who can be considered as the future Elon Musk of India. He designed the lightest satellite and launched it with the help of NASA in the year 2017 at the tender age of 18 only. He kept upgrading and is now set to create a great private spaceflight agency in India. We'll be learning about his journey, his achievements, the problems he solved and the takeaways from his journey. After reading this article you might understand why I considered him the future Elon Musk of India.

The Elephant In The Room

It won't be an understatement if we say that we have already entered the age of the internet. Using the internet has become a part and parcel of our lives that we can't live without. Just like food, water, air and shelter, internet is creeping up to become a basic requirement to life. The pandemic has only added fuel to the fire.

Satellites can be considered the backbone of this global digital boom. With the increase in the number of satellites internet access has started reaching remote corners of the world. Services such as GPS, television, weather forecasting and so on have been only possible due to the satellites.

Now, here are some of the problems with the current system. Most of the satellites are bulky due to which the cost of production is high. Also, mass production is difficult. And obviously, as the satellites are bulky, the cost of launching is high.

Even with the global internet boom, less than 20% of the people in underdeveloped countries have access to proper internet services. Over 3 billion people lack proper internet services around the globe. This directly ties in to the previous problems of the inability to launch many satellites in mass.

Glimmer of light

Now, we have already learnt that there is a necessity to reduce the weight of the satellites. Among many of the innovators, there was a group of Indian individuals led by Rifath Sharook whose satellite was selected to be launched by NASA. He with his team designed the smallest satellite in the world using 3D modelling, which serves as a ray of hope to the big bulky satellite problem.

Before we delve into the details of the satellite itself, let's first know a bit about Rifath Sharook and his team.

His-Story

Rifath Sharook created history at the age of only 18 by making the smallest satellite in the world. He with his team of 6 members was able to design a satellite weighing only 64 grams. His father being an astronomer inspired him to look into the world beyond our planet. Even after his death he inspires Sharook to move forward.

He at a very young age was a part of the Space Kidz India group in Chennai. This helped him grow his interest towards aerospace engineering and gain loads of experience. In 2015 he took the gold in the young scientist India-2015 program with his aerospace balloon.

credit: thecognate.com

Finally he emerged victorious among 80,000 more participants in the contest, "Cubes in space" sponsored by NASA . He named the satellite Kalam SAT after the great Indian scientist, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. He deeply appreciates his team consisting of Yagna Sai, Abdul Kashif, Tanishq Dwivedi and Vinay Bharadwaj under the guidance of Dr. Srimathy Kesan.

Kalam SAT

Kalam SAT was the first satellite that showed the full potential of 3D printed satellites in space. It was made of a strong reinforced carbon fiber polymer which can operate under micro gravity. It was a femto satellite (satellites of mass usually under 100g ). It weighed a minimalist 64 grams and had a volume of just 3.8 cm cube. It was launched for demonstration purpose and put on test the use of 3D printing in the satellite industry. It was launched on 22nd June, 2017 from NASA. It was set to orbit the sub orbital trajectories for 240 mins but it operated for 12 minutes only before falling back. This might seem to be a failure but it was a great steps towards building small satellites. It has a nano Geiger Muller counter to measure the radiations, sensors to measure temperature, pressure, rotation and so on.

credit: thecognate.com

Takeaways and Future Prospects

There are some of the important lessons that we must take up from this case study.

First of all, if you are passionate enough you can do whatever you want irrespective of your age. Secondly, the contribution of a parent is highlighted in this case study. Here Sharook's father inspired him to take up space science and even after he passed away, he was a major part in this mission. When he was asked about how he managed his study, he simply replied that if you are passionate enough you will find a way out. Also, organizations such as Space Kidz India and competitions to showcase your talent played a major role to hunt down such kids and give them the opportunity they deserve.

In an interview he gave this message, "Follow your passion and create your own path to achieve what you want. But, for this to happen, parents should allow their children to identify their passion instead of pushing them to join coaching institutes and tuitions".

One more thing we can learn is to stay hungry. Even after achieving so much in such a tender age, he didn't settle down, instead he is planning to make Space Kidz India a great private spaceflight agency. They are set to making more innovations in the field and counter the drawbacks that they faced with their early projects. Truly, he has the potential to be the Elon Musk of India. Well this statement looks very limiting. Let us rephrase it and say, he has the potential to be the "Rifath Sharook" of India.

References and credits

Meet Rifath Sharook. The Boy Who Developed KalamSAT And Made History

Quora- Kalam Sat

Kalam Sat- Space Kidz India

Images credit- thecognate.com

Can we build a staircase to the moon?

2022-04-24T22:06:00.010+05:30

HOW HIGH CAN WE BUILD?

There is a famous story in Hindu mythology in which Ravana wanted to build a staircase to the heavens but kept procrastinating and was never able to even begin with the project. Fast forward to the 21st century and all this seems to be funny. But if not to the heavens, is it possible to build a staircase to the moon? In the modern world, staircases are replaced by elevators, and building a space elevator is what is a dream mission for humanity (I wonder who would like to take the stairs to the moon?). If not an elevator to the moon, at least we hope to reach the lower earth orbits.

Before even thinking to build something as big as the space elevator whose height is about Thirty-five thousand kilometers. which is about 40 thousand times the tallest building on earth, The Burj Khalifa, we should first try and find out the maximum height that we can build on earth, and what are the challenges that we face in doing so.

Historically, the tallest structure built was the pyramids of the Giza which held this title for around 4000 years. It was topped by the cathedral building in the 14th century. After some years there was a revolution in the maximum height of artificial structures with the introduction of the Eiffel Tower which stood at a staggering height of 330 meters which is about 2.4 times the pyramid of Giza. After this there was no looking back, we kept growing more and more vertically. Another revolution was with the building of TV and Radio towers, the highest of them being about 650 meters in height. As of now, Burj Khalifa is the highest structure ever built by humans at an astounding height of 828 meters. But the question is "Can we go higher"? Famous structural engineer, Willam Baker stated that we could even go higher than Mount Everest. But is that it, Before knowing that let's look at some possible challenges.

The first and foremost challenge is that if we make the height very big then the pressure exerted on the foundation by the weight of the building will be very high. Eventually, the building will either sink or collapse. But this problem can be easily tackled if we make the base very wide and keep thinning it out as we move up. Due to this, the weight of the building is well distributed and the pressure on the foundation is reduced (Pressure is inversely proportional to the area of contact). Using this principle, buildings such as X-seed 4000 are planned to be brought up in the future. It is estimated to have a height of about 4 Km and to compensate, the base is made of a diameter of around 6-7 Km.

Now that this problem is technically dealt with, what are the other challenges that we face as we build up? Considering a building that has human inhabitants, extreme heights can lead to physical health issues. Other than that, transportation and obviously the economic limitations are major issues. But what if we don't want to live in the building itself but only use it for transportation, just like the space elevator we mentioned above. This brings back the question again "Is it possible to build a space elevator?"

Before looking for the answer, you have the right to ask me why should we even bother to build high. Is it just to satisfy your childhood fantasies or to give a hard time to your acrophobic (fear of heights) friend. Well scientifically in space research and technology, the space elevator has a huge role to play. If we manage to build a space elevator, then the cost of transportation of objects to space will reduce by about 95 to 99 percent. We can easily deploy satellites, space stations, and even the dream to build a lunar city won't be very far.

Now then you all might be thinking as to why this kid is beating around the bush and not coming to the point. For all those let us now discuss the challenges and disadvantages of building a space elevator.

First of all, they are very expensive, the estimated expense is as high as 60 billion dollars which is close to the entire GDP of New Zealand. Keeping the cost factor aside, let us now discuss why it is physically impossible to build a space elevator with our current technology. The top of the buildings will be at extremely high speed, resulting in high centrifugal force. Thus the tension that is required to withhold the structure together is required to be very high to balance the centripetal force. As of now the strongest material we have on hold are the carbon nanotubes, but even they will not be able to upstand these extreme conditions. They are also prone to be either struck by lightning as they are good conductors or objects such as meteors flying around. It will also be experiencing extreme thermal conditions. Such a material that can tick all the boxes is not yet made, but we hope that the future has a different say.

Moreover, the elevator being higher than the orbits of satellites and the International space station, needs to be navigated properly, preferably in a boat, in the ocean to avoid a collision. Considering the previous broadening of the base factor, a boat won't work. We might as well need Blackbeard's fleet to carry it for us. Also, the influence of other celestial bodies is also required to be taken into consideration. Anyways, just like the build limit has been increased in Minecraft lately, I hope our own potential build height keeps on increasing. Maybe then we can imagine a moon colony for ourselves. To the moon everyone. By the way, I don't know about Ravana but I'm pretty sure that we as a community will manage to pull this off in the future.

I Started with staircases but wrote everything about the elevators, please don't bash me for that. Well, everything will be the same, or will it? Please write down below what the additional challenges to building a stair to the moon would be.

References

Is There a Limit to How Tall Buildings Can Get? - Bloomberg

Why Space Elevators Suck?

List of visionary tall buildings and structures - Wikipedia

How High Can We Build?

We have finally managed to touch the sun. A new dawn in humanity?

2021-12-24T13:26:00.002+05:30

Hello web wanderers, have you ever wondered a man made instrument touching the sun. As a kid it would have been a fantasy but as we grow up, reality started to dawn upon us and it kept seeming impossible in reality and more suitable for a science fiction skit. But it was about a couple of days ago that I came across this news and I was dumbstruck to see that my childhood fantasies were actually being realized. So, lets delve right in and understand how exactly we have managed to touch the sun. Firstly we'll discuss about the mission in detail. Then we'll see as to how the probe survived the high temperature. And finally we'll shed some light upon it's findings and it's significance to humanity. Lets go..

PARKER PROBE :- THE MISSION

Its been about six decades since the inception and the planning about this seemingly unfeasible mission of touching the sun. And finally 3 years after the launch NASA's Parker Probe have reportedly entered the sun's atmosphere.

Unlike the interior planets, the sun isn't solid but a huge ball of plasma. The solar particles held by the sun's gravitational and magnetic fields making it's atmosphere is known as the Corona. And the boundary is know as the Alfven critical surface. The particles away from the reach of these fields flows out of the sun as solar wind.

During the 8th orbit of the probe around the sun, the probe observed the Corona through WISPR images and also observed the magnetic fields. The Corona is not clearly observable and the radius of the Corona was never confirmed. But thanks to the Parker Probe it was observed to be around 18.8 solar radii. also the boundary of the Corona was found to be wiggly rather than being uniform.

HOW DID IT WITHSTAND THE HARSH SOLAR CONDITIONS?

The temperature of the Corona is estimated to be about a million degree Fahrenheit. Firstly, there is a heat shield attached to the probe, to protect it from the solar particles. The shield is made up of Carbon-Carbon as the exterior and Carbon foam as the inner layer. This is programmed to adjust itself automatically in case it is distorted. Secondly, there is a cooling system which circulates water to keep the system cool.

Also, the density of plasma is very low in there. Heat refers to the transfer of energy where as temperature is the degree of measuring the hotness or coolness of a body. Until and unless there is a heat transfer, even though the temperature is high, the body will be unaffected. The low number of plasma particles can be dealt with and until the particles actually touch the probe, it'll remain unaffected.

SIGNIFICANCE

Knowing more about the sun will help us know more about other stars in general. It'll help us know more about our solar system. Well, that was kind of vague. Let's be more specific now. Firstly, we need to know more about the solar winds as they are found to disrupt the satellites. Knowing more about it's origin will help us understand about the phenomena more. Questions such as the wiggly border of corona and the high temperature of the solar wind will be tried to be answered.

There are something known as switchbacks which is the disturbance that causes magnetic field to bend in a weird and abrupt way. Scientists had no idea about the reason causing the switchbacks. But the Parker Probe has tracked in to the origin of such switchbacks. Still many questions about the switchbacks remain unanswered which might get answered in the near future as the voyage of the Parker probe continues.

If we manage to understand about the only life supporting star in our observation. We might as well head towards finding life away from earth.

REFERENCES

I was hugely inspired by the articles and videos created by NASA as a reference, while writing this. I have included some of their ideas that I found interesting in this article. The links are mentioned below, in case you want to learn more deeply.

NASA Enters the Solar Atmosphere for the First Time, Bringing New Discoveries

NASA's Parker Solar Probe Touches The Sun For The First Time

How NASA's Parker Solar Probe Will Survive the Sun

BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY: THE NEXT REVOLUTION

2021-10-15T11:07:00.005+05:30

Within a span of last 30 years, world had came across numerous revolutionary changes. Introduction to Internet to the lifestyle had changed the world in fascinating way. Let me take you back to the iron age where modern humans have more evolved brains than before. There started the concept of trading, in which goods are exchanged between people, on the basis of their needs. With time, more ideas including barter system also became operative. Basically, the medium of exchange in present time i.e. money or paper notes are the evolved form of that trading system. Apart from trading experiences, with time the maintenance of records also became a vital part of lifestyle. In almost every fields of world records became necessary for proper functioning of any system.

After the internet took over the world, those ancient problems became simpler. But, on the other hand newer issues like illegal hacking, cyber crimes, internet frauds also evolved. Thus, the world now needs something that will overcome these types of problems.

With limitless studies on data science and technology, various cryptographers in fields of information and communication have successfully introduced a technology known as "Blockchain". They claim that this technology is going to take over the whole world and will be the most secured system till date. With the help of this technology, the paper notes that everyone using as a medium of exchange in present era, is going to extinct after few years. The blockchain is going to be the next revolutionary change after Internet soon.

Now, several questions arises: Is this true that this technology is going to rule the entire world ? Why is it considered to be most secured ? To answer such questions, we have to go back in time about how the idea of blockchain came into existence, it's mechanism and more detailed information. So, let's dive into the topic in details.

THE RISE OF CRYPTOGRAPHY :

"Cryptography" refers to the process of analyzing codes. In 1982, a famous American cryptographer David Chaum, for the first time introduced the concept of 'blocks' where he described a decentralized system. Decentralized system refers to a network of devices, where multiple users have the access to authorize a system. Here, the block chain comes to play. His work was further re-established by other cryptographers in 1992. But the concept took 16 long years to be implemented.

In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto introduced the idea of famous cryptocurrency "Bitcoin" and the concept was totally based on blockchain technology. In the case of Bitcoin, the blockchain technology was used for the first time ever for storing the records of transactions in the form of databases in a decentralized network.

Each transaction of bitcoin generates a new hash (unique ID) which circulates throughout the chain by proceeding further through different blocks. And the mechanism of blockchain continues. Soon after the launch of Bitcoin, the technology boosted and implemented in multiple fields. Like in health-care systems for storing records and also in Real Estate for property managements. This technology works best between a buyer and a seller, as well as maintaining contracts between 2 parties.

WHAT IS A BLOCKCHAIN ?

From the word blockchain, it refers to a system containing a chain of blocks. But, how does this chain works ? Before answering this question, let me discuss the structure of a single block. A single block in the system contains a total of three parts, a record that stores relevant information related to a particular field (like in case of cryptocurrencies, the records are transactions), second, a hash. A hash is a unique identification code that is recorded for certain activity (e.g. e457Jr9hgEf56lkgr). And third, the previous hash. This hash is the ID of the previous block.

All the three parts contribute to built a single block. The block that initiates a blockchain is termed as a "Genesis" block. The Genesis block transfer it's hash to the first block, the hash of first block continues with the second, and the process goes on and subsequently forms a chain.

Here is an example of a trading system that how a chain works. When a buyer creates a transaction, a record is made with an unique id, so called hash. The hash along with the record further passes onto a database system where processing occurs, and stored in various networks which leaded by some certified users or miners. Blockchain miners are basically those people who use certain software to have access to these blocks. With the help of miners, a network is created and the system becomes more secured. The process is discussed in the next section.

MORE ABOUT DECENTRALISED SYSTEM :

We often hear that the blockchain technology is a "decentralized system", which means multiple servers have access to authorize the entire system. Let me clarify it. Take an example of a bank. People open their individual accounts for storing their assets. Later on they debit, credit and transact whenever it is necessary, and all the data of their activity stored as records in bank, and bank handles it. Whenever they wish to see their activities or records, they could request to the bank, and the bank provides it. The main problem lies here is trustworthiness. As the system is under control of someone else, so you have not the proper visibility. Like the bank might crash and you can loose your money. Or else the data provided might not be 100% precise. And hence, the bank is considered as a centralized system.

Unlike the centralized system, blockchain plays an important role in loyalty. Means, you have proper visibility on your assets and their records. No one could substitute it without your approval. Like in case of cryptocurrencies, a certain amount circulates worldwide having no central agency. Some network of computers run and manage it. Like I described on the above section, that how miners works for it.

WHY IT IS CONSIDERED AS MOST SECURED ?

New technologies are invading the planet in present time. With time, threats to cyber crimes are also in peak. Millions of hackers are scattered worldwide. Researchers claim that hacking the blockchain is next to impossible. Here's why.

As I had discussed earlier that a block contains three parts; a record, a hash and previous hash. Out of the three, the previous hash plays an important role that makes blockchain more secured. More often, the hash of previous block is connected to further blocks that results in the formation of a chain. One of the best feature of blockchain is that, more and more data can be added millions of times but can't be changed once after it was added. So, if someone disturbs a single block, the whole system becomes a complete mess and it's not possible because every single computer linked to the system need to approve the change. In simpler words, a change in a single block is executed only if it is approved by at least 51% of the systems within a network. Hence, if a That is why, it is consider as a secured system.

From the above, we can conclude that a system under blockchain could be more secured if databases related to a system will be stored in maximum possible networks. This is why cryptocurrencies are preferred as the best trading network and of course, will dominate the future. We can see countries like El Salvador initiated the network, to be used as a legal and invulnerable system throughout their country. And gradually it will acquire the whole world.

FUTURE IN BLOCKCHAIN :

The growing trend in this technology is clearly visible in present time. Hence, we can predict that this will surely gain heights in the upcoming generations. Moreover, the blockchain in continuously improving its features with newly updated ideas. In coming time, cloud-based platforms can be shifted to blockchain technology. As blockchain based applications are more secured and privacy focused, it will be more benefit to use several apps and stuff under this technology. So, blockchain in the future might be used in almost every field whether be it technical or non-technical.

The only thing that can be focused in present, is to spread awareness and provide education related to this technology. Several enterprise must involve in this act to create sort of user experience that this technology is safe, usable and easily understandable. And hence, the blockchain technology will revolutionize the world same as internet did.

SOURCE: Blockchain | Bitcoin | Dhruv Rathee - https://youtu.be/ENrjn-lD1e8

Does fire have a shadow? Fun experiment.

2021-10-13T20:17:00.003+05:30

The short and simple answer is no!! A shadow of anything forms when the object blocks the path of light, creating a dark impression behind him. As fire is already a source of light, it can't block light. Even if it could, it's own light will compensate and we will never get a shadow.

You can even try this at home. Go to a dark room. Light a candle in front of a wall. Get a torch and light it in front of the candle. On the wall you will observe the shadow of the candle but not of the flame. Try it and comment if it works.

Have you ever thought if light is faster or shadow. Well that's a question for another day.

TIME DILATION. Is time absolute??

2021-10-11T17:43:00.011+05:30

Special theory of relativity was a revolution in science. Sir Einstein with his theory connected the link between space and time. He said a couple of simple things. The laws of physics are the same in all frame of reference and the speed of light is constant. We all know that motion is relative and your state of motion depends on the frame of reference. But using his theoretical explanation Einstein drew a mind boggling conclusion which we could have never imagined. Moving clocks slows down. Or the time that we thought to be absolute is actually relative.

When I was a kid this particular observation made me intrigued and curious. So, with that feeling in mind let's go. We'll first mathematically prove Einstein's conclusions and see how exactly moving clocks slow down using lorentz equation. Then, we'll end our article with the twin paradox and how this phenomenon can potentially affect real humans.

If you want to skip the mathematics, feel free to do so. skip to the paragraph after the second written photograph. Anyways, even if you don't understand, I'll recommend you to read the full thing to maintain the continuity.

TIME DILATION

We will be using Lorentz transformation equation to derive the expression and to prove that time dilates for moving objects. Let's first define two frame of references one at rest (say S frame) and other moving with uniform velocity V along x axis (say S' frame) . We will see how space and time varies in both frames. Let x, y, z be the position of an object in s frame and x', y', z' be the position in s' frame. Let t be the time taken in s frame and t' in s' frame.

We know that the Lorentz equation says that

First of all let's define some events. Let two events occur in the same place w.r.t S frame at time t1, t2 respectively. But in S' frame it'll seem to be happening at two different places x1' and x2' at t1' and t2' respectively. Think, you are sitting in a bus. In your observation, the passenger next to you will be at same position for two different times in the bus. Where as, for an observer outside the bus, the position of the passenger will be different at different points in time. Now, using Lorentz transformation we can relate the improper time interval or the time interval w.r.t the S' frame or the moving frame and the proper time interval or the time interval w.r.t the S frame or the rest frame. This will let us establish a relation as to how time varies with motion.

The above is the expression for time dilation. We know that V is always less than C. Hence, improper time is greater than proper time. TIME DILATES WHEN AN OBJECT IS IN MOTION. HENCE, MOVING CLOCKS SLOW DOWN.

Now you all will bang me hard in the head and say that, does it make me older than others if I stay at home instead of travelling in buses and trains all the time. Or, are the drivers of trains and buses who look like that of your age are actually as old as your grandpa. Well, the answer is simply no. As most of the speeds that we deal with in our daily lives are very very less in comparison to that of the speed of light. So, we can say from the formula that the proper time and the improper time will be equal or it will not have any effects on us.

TWIN PARADOX

Well if you have reached till this point and are still continuing to read. Hats off to you. But now we'll discuss something that may blow your mind apart even more.

So let's say Jay and Viru are twins. Jay leaves earth when both of them were of the age 10 in a spacecraft travelling with a speed of 0.6 times the speed of light. Now, 20 years have passed on earth. Using the formula we can say that for a hundred days in jay's life, viru will only get 80 days to live. Or if viru returns after 20 years have passed on earth, jay will be 30 years old where as viru will only be 26 years old. It sounds very complicated right. Well it kinda gets even worse. I would like to eat your last brain cell remaining.

Now, everything is clear but what's the paradox. Well, if we consider Viru's frame as rest frame or assume that we are in the spaceship. The earth will appear moving to us with a velocity of 0.8c. Now, Viru should age faster than Jay. But this generally doesn't happen. A possible reason can be that Viru had to change inertial frames to divert his direction back to earth, but Jay is constantly in the rest frame of earth. Hence, it is more accurate to consider Jay's rest frame rather than Viru's.

But what if Viru gets very close to the speed of light, will he be immortal. The answer is no. His time is passing way slower than the ones that are relatively travelling slower than him. But he will exactly feel the same number of days as the one on earth. In Mr. Beiser's words, "longer life but it will not seem longer". Or ,if he is left disconnected from earth, he will never even realize. We'll discuss about this in detail some other time, giving references to popular movies like the "Avengers Endgame" and everyone's favorite "Interstellar". See ya.

Source: Concept Of Modern Physics by Arthur Beiser

NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICINE | RECEPTORS OF SOMATOSENSATION

2021-10-07T15:17:00.008+05:30

The modern man started invading the planet a few 300,000 years ago. Since then, the act of new ideas came to play. Started from scratch, from the stone, bronze, and iron age to the modern and contemporary time, tons of discoveries had been made and continuing. The field of research and technology is accelerating with tremendous facilities. In the present time, more futuristic ideas are taking place in day-to-day life.

The only thing that remained constant, is this human body. Although small changes like some parts are vestige, all in all, it's still the same. Humans also wondered knowing its framework and mechanism, and also took 300,000 years and ended up with no conclusion. And it's still in progress. It's been just 4 days since the newly discovered receptors of touch and temperature, which took place by the immense work of 2 researchers of the US, that lead them to the most prestigious prize of the world.

The Nobel Assembly of Karolinsk Institute had announced the Nobel prize in physiology and medicine jointly to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for the discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch. David(1955) is working at the University of California, San Francisco, and Ardem(1967) is from Lebanon, working in Scripps Research La Jolla, California. Let's dive into the topic in detail.

CONCEPT OF SENSES

We all know that we have five sense organs: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin, and their functions are vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch respectively. These sense organs possess receptors of their own type, which react to the external stimulus. The receptors generate electrical signals which are further transferred to the brain through neurons where the action is generated. In this way, the brain, nerve cells, and receptors work in a coordinated manner.

Out of the five sense organs, the skin serves for touch as well as temperature sensation. The skin has touch or thermoreceptors. The novel works are based on Somatosensation. So let me elaborate on it.

SOMATOSENSATION AND ITS MECHANISM

As we know that touch receptors are present in our skin, which makes us feel something when we get in contact with it. This ability to feel our body surface or internal organs with the outside world is referred to as Somatosensation. Feeling of temperature, touch and movement are feelings relying on it. The receptors result in the continuous flowing of information that connects our internal body with the external world.

Since these receptors are involuntary in nature, it also works efficiently in our subconscious state of mind. You must be familiar with the word "Reflex Action", which explains the situation these receptors work in this state. In general, the whole system works like the pathway depicted below.

You can see the sensory endings present at the skin that receives the stimulus. These are the sensory neurons and are of varying types for different stimuli. The physical stimuli of heat and touch are converted into biological signals which leads the process.

Besides all these known facts, the scientist workers wonder that several molecular receptors must exist on nerve cells that are responsible for converting heat and touch signals into nerve impulses. The identification of these receptors was actually unknown till now, which was then discovered by David Julius. Let's have a look at his scientific work.

THE NEW DISCOVERY

From the 17th century, the stimulus of pain, the temperature was explained and the mechanism behind the neuro-signal transfer was known, defined the working between skin and brain. Thereafter, neurons act as units for signal transfer was also discovered that is responsible for the conversion of physical stimuli of heat and touch to biological signals. But, as I had mentioned earlier, that the molecular receptors are unknown, which has been done now by the novelists.

David Julius and his co-workers took the help of a chemical named "Capsaicin", which is present actively in chilly pepper. When we eat something with chilly pepper, it gives a burning or sometimes a painful sensation, as a result, we start sweating.

This Capsaicin can trick the brain into thinking there is an actual change in body temperature. It was known that capsaicin activates sensory neurons and this activation is responsible for the burning sensation while eating chilly pepper. But the molecule that detects capsaicin remained unknown.

Julius assumed that a single gene active in sensory neurons is responsible for the sensation. Therefore he took millions of DNA fragments that were active in sensory neurons hoping that one of them would contain genes for capsaicin receptors. He then introduced single DNA fragments into cells that are insensitive to capsaicin, and then added capsaicin and recorded the activity. It was a high-risk project that needed lots of DNA fragments to be recorded but finally came to an end. The capsaicin receptor was identified and it turn out to be the novel protein named "trpv1" which is present at the outer membrane of the cell. The protein trpv1 acts as a channel for ions. Julius tested that how trpv1 reacted to the warm temperature and opens the ion channel. Later, he fixed the protein for a temperature-sensitive ion channel activated by heat that is perceived as painful.

A few years later, David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian independently search for a cold-sensitive channel and discovered a related channel "trpm8" soon after this additional related channels were shown to contribute to touch sensation. We all know that the number of different channels is activated at different temperatures at different time intervals. Then they act together to code in temperature sensation and heat-induced pain.

AN OUTLOOK

After the mechanism for temperature sensation was revealed, the molecular mechanism for the sensation of touch remained a mystery. The sensational touch is started by mechanical force such as when pocking on the skin. Here the activity of the cell membrane reacts first to the touch. Ardem and his co-workers used this system and identified a cell line that is mechanosensitive. In these cells, Ardem identified 72 candidate genes that he thought could be the critical sensor activated by mechanical force. One-by-one each of the 72 candidate genes were silenced and the cells were tested for mechanical sensitivity.

71 of 72 genes had been tested without result. But when 72 number gene was silenced, sensitivity to pocking was lost. The mechanosensitive receptors had been discovered and was named "PSO1". Though it was similar to PSO1, a second gene was found and named "PSO2". Ardem demonstrated that PSO protein belongs to an entirely novel class of protein and functions as ion channels activated by mecahnical force. Importantly, PSO2 was then found to be the sensor for touch.

So to summarize, the work of Julius and Ardem has unlocked one of the secrets of nature by explaining the molecular basis of sensing temperature and mechanical forces. This represents a foundation for our perception of temperature, heat pain and touch, and the location and movement of our body called Proprioception. In further work, TRP and PSO channels have been found to play key roles in many aspects of physiology thus establishing far reaching roles of the newly identified temperature and mechanically sensitive ion channels.

SOURCE: Announcement of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine | https://youtu.be/01T0yOyD808

WHY DOES THE MOON NOT HAVE AN ATMOSPHERE WHILE THE EARTH DOES ??

2021-09-29T16:33:00.001+05:30

Obviously, at some point we would have thought as to why does the moon lack an atmosphere while the earth being very close to it actually does have an atmosphere. The answer is very simple. Moon has a weaker gravitational pull than the earth. That's all, lemme elaborate.

To begin with, an atmosphere mostly consists of gas molecules. As the moon have a weak gravitational field, the velocity required by the gas molecules to escape its gravitational reach will be much lesser. Also, it is found that the velocity of the gas molecules generally present in our atmosphere is more than that required to leave the moon's gravitational field. Or if any of the gas molecules will be present there, they will escape its gravitational field as their velocity is greater than the escape velocity of the moon.

In short we can say that as the gravitational field of the moon is weak, it is unable to hold the gas molecules around itself as an atmosphere.

IS THE MONEY USED FOR SPACE EXPLORATION A COMPLETE WASTE ??

2021-09-25T17:31:00.000+05:30

I've heard a bunch of people complaining about the excessive use of money for space exploration. We have many problems on the earth itself but instead of solving those why in the world do we launch rockets and waste tons of money. I've even heard people say that space exploration is a luxury that is completely unnecessary. Well, do you think the same?

The thing is that humanity is very insecure. Just like the asteroid that obliterated the planet billions of years ago, there are many more lurking around the corner. And in a matter of seconds, humanity may vanish into thin air. Hence, to find an alternative place to live in case of emergency or colonizing the space so that even if one planet is destroyed, humanity as a whole can survive, space explorations turn out to be a compulsion. The money may not be directly beneficial to us but it can be considered as an investment for our future generation and the entire human race.

There are many more points, aspects, and layers to this that won't fit in this short article. So, do comment if u want a detailed version of this. It will encourage me and help me push myself further.

WHY ARE GREEN SCREENS GREEN?

2021-09-22T18:30:00.005+05:30

Green screens are used to create virtual background. We remove the green from the background and replace it with any custom background. But WHY green??

The answer is simple, this is because our skin tone has negligible amounts of green. In simple terms, while removing green from the picture or video, we don't remove any part of our skin.

LASERS AND HOW THEY'VE BEEN MONUMENTAL DURING THE PANDEMIC.

2021-08-19T14:41:00.008+05:30

From fancy crime sequences in sci-fi films to playing stupid pranks on our friends, and not to forget the extremely popular lightsabers, LASER is familiar. It is very compact with intricate physics. LASER is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. That sounds complicated but it's not. A LASER stands out from any other source of light because of its unique properties, the light produced is monochromatic, coherent, highly intense, and collimated. Let me explain. (If you don't want too much theory you can skip a couple of paragraphs)

The electron in the excited state is very unstable and ends up in the ground state instantly, emitting a photon in a process known as spontaneous emission. If a photon interacts with an electron before it jumps down, it will stimulate the release of another photon. This emission is called stimulated emission which is the first step of a reaction chain. The major difference is that in the second case the photons will be in phase. In simpler terms, photons want to be together due to which they will be in phase and can be called coherent. The problem is that most of the electrons are in the ground state, hence we need to go for population inversion which redistributes the energy levels. But the life of electrons in the excited state is short. So we use materials with metastates, where the electron can stay longer giving enough time for stimulated emission. Now this process continues and starts causing a cascading effect resulting in millions of coherent photons.

Next, to amplify the light waves we put our system in a LASER cavity consisting of mirrors, making the photons reflect back and forth creating a tsunami of stimulated photons forming an amplified standing wave. The transparency of one of the mirrors is lessened to allow the beam to pass through. This wave will be collimated and can be focussed on smaller areas. Also, the linewidth is very narrow, or in other words, it almost produces a single frequency of light which can be called monochromatic technically. We can change the frequency of the wave by tweaking the length of the cavity or the material in the cavity.

LASER has been very useful in the medical field, be it surgery, dentistry, or even cancer detection which is now less painful and more precise. LASERs are useful in cutting and welding of metals. It's used in military and security systems. Its used to conduct many science experiments. It is very common in barcode scanners and printers too. We can clearly see how every walk of our life is being influenced by LASERs.

Most importantly, the help that the LASER technology has provided during the pandemic is immense. Say, for example, non-contact thermometers, which is a must in the current situation. This is because as we all know that COVID-19 can spread through surfaces or by touch. Non-contact thermometers are very commonly observed in the post lockdown period. It has even been made a safety norm in various places. It works on the principle that every body emits Electromagnetic radiation which varies with temperature. It uses a couple of laser beams for the safe and precise measurement of temperature.

Lasers can also be used for disinfecting surfaces. The high thermal energy of intense LASER beams can kill the virus thus, disinfecting the surface. There are no chemicals involved or no secondary waste produced. Studies have also shown potential in LASERS based on Raman Spectrometry being useful in fast detection of covid-19. It is also found that LASER light can relieve inflammation and induce cell growth in the lungs.

Hope to see our future move forward with the speed of LASER beams leaving the virus and the destruction caused by it light years behind, with the LASER technology as lightsabers in our possession. And ya, hope to see you all in the next one, keep reading my friends. Do subscribe for regular jaw-dropping content.

Newton's First Law of Motion

2021-07-27T21:32:00.005+05:30

Newton's first law of motion simply states that :- A body at rest will remain at rest and a body moving with constant speed will continue to move with constant speed in a straight line until and unless an unbalanced external force is applied to it.

Let's analyze it properly now.

GOALS:-

⟶Basic understanding of first law using examples and illustrations.

⟶Relating that to real life scenarios.

⟶Understanding balanced and unbalanced forces.

⟶Brief discussion on inertia.

⟶Summing up our discussion and what to take away from this article.

Newton's first law with examples and illustrations:-

Newton's first law is very fundamental and easy to understand if you are able to relate it physically. Take for example a scenario, you are lying on the bed with your phone for a long time, you will lie there until and unless your mom comes and forces you to study, at least if you aren't an absolute nerd like me. Here, you lying down with your phone is the state of rest and your mom forcing you to study signifies the external force required to change your state of rest. Similarly a ball at rest, will be at rest until and unless you apply an unbalanced force on it. Now what's an unbalanced force, we'll come to that very soon.

Now lets take another example, you are playing a video game, you will continue to play the video game the way you are until an external agency affects you. Let me explain. You are playing and your friends come in, this will affect you to play the game more rigorously. On the other hand if your mom comes in, you have to stop or at least slow down. Or say you are playing GTA and your friends come in and most of them like to play Counter Strike. Now this will change the game that you are playing.

Similarly a ball rolling with constant velocity will keep on rolling with the same velocity until and unless an unbalanced force is acted upon it. This may turn out to be a little tricky because it's pretty difficult to imagine in real life. You may argue that a ball rolling with constant velocity eventually comes to rest without us doing anything or applying any force to the ball. It seems like there is no force acting on the ball but in reality there is a force of friction acting on it that we tend to ignore.

Now if the frictional force was absent then no net force will be acting on the body. In that case the body will keep moving with the same velocity. Similarly just like u changed what game you were playing because your friends forced you to do so, here the ball will keep moving in a straight line and will change its direction only if some net force is acting on it.

So now let's gather all the ideas that we've learned and try to summarize what exactly is the first law of motion. So in both the examples we saw two cases. In one case the body was at rest, and in the other case it was in uniform motion. In both of the cases we saw that a force was necessary to cause a change in the state of the body whether it is the state of rest or motion. We can say that the bodies were at a state of equilibrium or balance which was disrupted by our very dear force. The two cases of rest and uniform motion can also be defined as static and dynamic equilibrium respectively.

So, now comes the important significance of the first law which I learnt recently from my teacher and it's very cool. We can say that we have officially defined force as a thing that causes change, in very simple words. Or we can say that Newton's first law of motion defines force.

Balanced and Unbalanced forces:-

Now that we are done with our basic explanation of force we should try to see what the unbalanced force is all about that we kept mentioning throughout. Imagine playing tug of war with a friend who has equal strength as you. The rope will be constant and none of you will win. But if you are playing tug of war with a sumo wrestler then its obvious that he'll pull the rope towards him and you will lose. In the first case the forces were equal and opposite and they cancelled out each other or balanced each other. Therefore there was no net motion. But in the other case the sumo wrestler overpowered you or the forces were unbalanced which caused net motion. From this example we can easily say why we told that unbalanced force is required to change the state of a body.

In all the examples of the rolling ball that we considered you may ask why we ignored gravity of did we assume it to be zero just like friction. The answer is that gravitational force acts on the ball throughout, but the force is balanced by Normal reaction by the surface or ground, which we'll discuss in detail in near future. Basically Normal reaction acts in the opposite direction of the gravitational force or its weight and cancels it out, which makes them balanced forces.

What is Inertia and why the first law is commonly known as the law of inertia??

Now that we have the basic idea of the first law we can easily define inertia now. The simple definition of inertia is the tendency to remain unchanged. Or as we say in physics that it is the tendency to remain in the state of rest or uniform motion. And that statement looks very familiar to us because that's exactly what we mentioned in the first law so far. Also Inertia has various types which we can easily relate to our above explanation. The types of inertia are:-

Inertia of rest:- The tendency of a body to remain at rest

Inertia of motion:-The tendency of as body to remain in the state of uniform motion

Inertia of direction:-The tendency of a body to move in a straight line

It can be easily understood now why the first law of motion is also known as the law of inertia.

One line summary and what to take away from this article:-

Now that the blabbering and chit chat is done. We can simply say that Newton's first law of motion says that until an external unbalanced force acts on the body it will continue to do whatever it is doing. As simple as that.

Well, there are still many things to discuss related to this topic like inertia vs mass and so on. But the article is already too long so we are going to conclude here as of now. See you in the next one. Next time we'll be discussing about the 2nd law of motion. So do follow to get the notification.

I was heavily inspired by this video of "don't memorize" on the same topic, check it out for quick reference, it's good.

References:- BOOKS- 11th class NCERT Textbook and "New simplified physics by SL Arora"

SCIENTISTS ANALYSIS ON 'VOICES OF DEATH'

2021-01-25T23:46:00.004+05:30

Science and spirituality, unlike their own paths had gone so far in modern world. Yeah, it's true that beliefs in modern science developed soon after seventeenth century, which is much after the ancient times, where spirituality leading the world mostly. But, there will be always a conflict among both the subjects over time. Well, keeping the controversies apart, let's jump into the topic.

Science and spirituality have their own aspects. But, there is a question, that can resemble both fields - 'Are the spirits real or they are just our imagination ?' Answering to this question is similar to the case that - 'Do God exists ?' Now, in case of spiritual beliefs, both answers the same. But, when it comes to the science, researches heading since millenniums had not able to deduce the final conclusion. However, researches in paranormal studies and supernatural powers are still continuing in modern era.

ARE SPIRITS REAL ?

Spirits are defined as the after life of a human body that continue it's existence in another realm. Many researchers from paranormal studies believed that there are some entities always present in another realm from where you actually came from. The life you have now, is just like you are in the state of subconscious mind. Many people also say that they experience that world in state of hallucination when they consume drugs. So, is this true that the life we are thinking of is just a state of mind.

Let's move some steps ahead of this. You might have heard about some paranormal investigators using advanced gadgets to detect any spirits now a days. This may sound stupid but according to their studies, tools like electromagnetic field detectors and infrared thermometers are quite useful in these processes. On the other hand, exorcism is the vital technique in the spiritual beliefs. Like that, there are too much of distinct opinions in case of studying the presence of spirits.

Apart from all these, the last thing that figures a different question is that, many people hear the voices of death. This is technically weird, but true as proven by some recent theories. Here we go.

A SCIENTIFIC DEMONSTRATION :

This experiment is purely based on the beliefs of clairaudience, who have got their ability of hearing the spirit of a dead. The clairaudience are found to be general spiritualists or the person related to the any religious environment. Now, the question arises, that is that true about a person connecting his own mind to the realm where the after life exists? Or, I should say that connection with the voices of dead.

This becomes more serious topic when it comes about not having the mental illness, Schizophrenia. Where scientists previously believed that this might be developed from false beliefs and disorganized practices, that results in obstructing self-experience, rather say hallucinations.

Durham University of England pays attention in this topic and does a massive experiment . It arranged a survey of a crowd where 65 mediums from UK spiritualists national union and about 145 from general population were taken. They just wanted to conclude the differences in a clairaudience, mostly spiritualists and general public. The results were shocking.

About 44.6 per cent of spiritualists reported hearing the voices. Whereas, 79 per cent reported experiencing the voices in their everyday life. Many of them told that the voices are from their subconscious state of mind and 31.7 per cent reported the voices are both from external as well as internal sources.

The survey resulted that most of the spiritualist mediums believed in supernatural powers as compared to the general population. Their experience about the voices of dead started from an average age of 21.7 years old. Also many believed that it might start after one having any religious moment in life and the belief on it can lead a person's way to be a clairaudience overtime.

Dr. Powell, the head researcher concluded that "our findings say a lot about learning and yearning. For our participants, the tenets of spiritualism seem to make sense of both extraordinary childhood experiences as well as the frequent auditory phenomena they experience as practising mediums". The researches regarding the mediums and paranormal studies about the voices of death, with the spiritual beliefs will be further continued by the investigators.

EPILOGUE :

The spiritual beliefs apart from scientific world, have many diversified theories and possibilities. Also, as many theories where science failed to explain, their might be a possible blank for the spiritual world to discover. As many scientific researches were still in path of discovering the thing, where the spiritual beliefs had already found a prediction, the strong beliefs by numerous individuals can't just be avoided.

REFERENCES :

1. Facttechz: https://youtu.be/pP8BUwK_360

2. Sciencealert: https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-are-figuring-out-how-some-people-can-hear-the-voices-of-the-dead

3. Times Now News: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.timesnownews.com/amp/health/article/science-throws-light-on-how-some-people-can-hear-the-dead/711535

Vegetarian meat maybe the next big thing.

2021-01-22T21:50:00.008+05:30

Recently, I came across a video in YouTube about meat analogue (in simple words veg-meat) and how can it change the planet, the link to which will be down at the end of the article. I was immensely inspired to know more about this topic. And actually I did realize that making livestock our staple food is a huge mess to the planet. So, here's what I learnt about the topic in recent days. Will it impact the planet and to what extent? And will people be able to accept this as the alternative for meat? Let's delve right in and find out?

I live in India where the meat intake is very less per person, where many are vegetarian. If you live in India you mayn't be able to understand this problem as such. But in most of the countries like US, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand and many more, meals or diets consist of meat in majority. It's like meat is compulsory in almost every meal. So in this post I will focus more on those countries and not much on India.

Why is consumption of meat harmful?

According to fao.org 26% of habitable land is used for livestock grazing and 33% of the croplands is used to grow crops to feed them. Now the amount of land resource and water resource taken up by these animals are enormous. The livestock includes cow, pig, chicken, goat, sheep, etc.

The second point is global warming. 14.5% of the greenhouse gases is produced by cattle. Cows produce methane in their gut during digestion which it releases from it's mouth, known as enteric fermentation. In simple words cow burps. This methane comprises a lot of the greenhouse gas and consequently contribute to global warming. I don't mean that those animals are bad by any chance, but if we overpopulate them then these problems will arise. If we leave them to reproduce naturally, then the balance will be perfect and there will be no threat to the environment. But if we overpopulate them for our selfish needs, then it will be an issue.

Even in the perspective of health, we get very less energy from animals than plants. As plants take up energy directly from sun, where as animals get their energy from plants. There is a rule known as the 10% rule that says that only 10% of the energy is passed on from one trophic level to another. Which means that plant take about 10% of sun's available energy, and we get 10% of the energy that plant have (in simple words we get 10% of 10% of the sun's energy or 1% of the sun's energy) if we stick to a vegetarian diet. But in case of animals the energy we get (0.1% of the sun's energy) is very less compared to that from plants.

Finally, it's not morally good to breed them in places that are incredibly uncomfortable for them. Store them in cluttered spaces far from the green, and finally slaughter them when they grow. I mean it doesn't feel morally right.

Vegetarian meat to the rescue.

Now, finally the time has come we need to switch our meat uptake by vegetarian alternatives as it has a lot of demerits as discussed above. These mainly consist of soy proteins or gluten proteins or pea proteins with added binders, oils, etc. It is engineered in a way that it smells, tastes and looks like real meat. In experiments conducted, some people were even unable to distinguish between the fake one and the real one. Companies like beyond meat and impossible foods commercially sells it. Haem is one of the main ingredients for it to taste like meat.

Will it be accepted as an alternative?

Veg-meat is better in many aspects than regular meat. With the amount of resources that will be saved if we reduce meat production will be able to feed everyone across the globe. No one will die of hunger. Veg-meat is eco-friendly, saves a lot of resources, gives the same amount of calories and proteins as meat and is healthier. And people say that with increase in demand veg-meat will be cheaper than regular meat.

Isn't it obvious now that we must shift to the better alternative. But due to the stereotypic mind of people, veg-meat remains unpopular. People think that meat must be eaten to symbolize your wealth. Even if they aren't rich, they eat meat to show that they are. But there are actually some people that are shifting over, and the idea of vegetarian meat is rising, although at a slow rate.

Other alternatives.

Single cell protein is gaining some popularity over time as an alternate source of food. Basically we culture microbes and consume them. They are easy to grow and give enormous value of nutrients. The best thing is to shift to a completely vegetarian or vegan diet or at least try to reduce the meat consumption to half. But if you can't control and want to take the feel of meat then veg-meat is the best option.

Anyways huge thanks to Mark Rober whose video has inspired me to write this post. And there are some points that I mentioned from his video that I liked a lot. I've referred to meat analogue as veg-meat a lot of times in the article, which actually is not it's official name. But that's what I like to call it, and isn't that cool. Hope you liked it and do comment if I made any mistakes and do give us your suggestions. Here are the sites and videos that I referred majorly while writing this.

References

Mark Rober- Feeding Bill Gates a fake burger (to save the world)

Wikipedia- Meat analogue

fao.org- LIVESTOCK AND LANDSCAPES

mashable.com- Alternative meat can help stop climate change. Here's how.

WHY USING WHATSAPP IS NOT SAFE IN 2021?

2021-01-21T20:51:00.001+05:30

HOW DID THIS MATTER START??

It starts in such a way that one notification comes in the phone where some terms and conditions are given which you have to agree to continue using WhatsApp. In that notification, it was given that your data in WhatsApp will be shared to Facebook and it was also written that if you won't agree with the terms and conditions then your WhatsApp account will be deleted or they won't allow you to use their services.

This year (2021) WhatsApp has introduced these terms. But when WhatsApp started( in 2009), they said that it will not charge any money for using their app and also said that it will keep all the data and messages private, which won't be shared to anyone.

NOW QUESTIONS ARISES " CAN WHATSAPP READ ALL THE MESSAGES RIGHT NOW"?

Even if you have accidentally accepted the terms and conditions, don't worry it's not a big deal, WhatsApp will still keep your data end to end encrypted which means messages will only be seen by you(SENDER) and RECEIVER. No third party will get to know what message you have typed. In fact WhatsApp itself will not know what you have typed.

THEN WHAT DATA WOULD BE SHARED IF YOUR MESSAGES ARE END TO END ENCRYPTED??

WhatsApp latest notification says that except messages all other data's will be shared to Facebook. Here data includes all the essential things like STATUS , NAMES , IP ADDRESS , CONTACT DETAILS , PROFILE PICTURE , HARDWARE MODEL , OPERATING SYSTEM , SIGNAL STRENGTH etc.

HOW THIS DATA IS HELPFUL TO FACEBOOK?

Facebook messenger and Instagram messenger are those messengers you can't trust because they are not end to end encrypted, messages which you will send to receiver will be seen by these messenger. Their way of earning money is that they give our data to other companies(advertisers).Many companies are there who wants to take your data ( means they want to know about you , what you want to purchase which includes buying houses , cars etc) . And the companies(advertisers) who buys our data will show the advertise of product which we want to buy.

WHAT ELSE WILL WHATSAPP KNOW?

Previously, if you were chatting with anyone then it was only you who know about your messages , now also WhatsApp will not be able to know what you are messaging BUT will be able to know with whom you are chatting and in which group you are active in a high percent.

We know that DATA is a very essential in anyone's life. In India, 40 Crores people use WhatsApp for professional and personal work and we would not like that our important data (that may be anything which is mentioned above) will shared with anyone.

Lastly most dangerous thing that WhatsApp has included in it's privacy policy is that end to end encryption will only work if you are normally chatting with your friend or relatives but if you are chatting with any Whatsapp Business account then it will not work. In that case WhatsApp will be able to see all the messages which you are sending to the receiver.

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION THEN?

The Delhi high court on Monday said that accepting the new privacy policy of WhatsApp was "Voluntary" thing and one can choose not to use or join that platform if one did not agree with it's terms and conditions.

"It private app and Don't join it. It is a voluntary thing don't accept it. Use some other app". Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva said to petitioner, a lawyer who has challenged WhatsApp new privacy policy. The Central government also agreed with court statement.

This above discussion can be concluded as that right now we can't trust social messaging app that is WhatsApp and we must try to switch over to other platforms. And do remember to read every single thing that pops up in your mobile screen before you click agree.

Will 2021 be the shortest year? Why is the earth rotating faster than ever before?

2021-01-19T22:37:00.003+05:30

Hello web wanderers have you ever wondered what would happen if the earth will start spinning faster. Will the weather become harsh or will the earth be eventually flooded. Actually you may be right, the earth is spinning faster lately. But the consequences will not be the same as you've imagined.

Well firstly, I want to make something clear. Yes, the earth is rotating faster but the increase in its speed causes a delay in the order of milliseconds, not that it's rotating 10 times faster. Now you must be wandering that a delay of such magnitude will cause no effect. You may already be mad at me for click-baiting you. But a delay like this can cause severe problems. Let's discuss this topic in detail.

The prologue

After reading that stupid intro, I can sense that most of you are confused. So, let's try and understand the whole case scenario. For decades now earth was slowing down. But unexpectedly it started spinning faster. 2020 witnessed the shortest day ever. And 2021 is expected to be even shorter, though the difference is only in milliseconds.

Why is the earth spinning faster?

Well there are many reasons like seismic activity, movement in earth's core and many more. But the more accepted theory is the melting of ice caps and glaciers due to global warming. This makes more solids water, which in turn makes earth rounder. Hence it starts spinning faster. Other than this the movement in the earth's core plays a very significant role.

Will it have any effect on us?

Yes, it will. Satellites need to be ultra accurate with time. Just imagine the vastness of earth's surface area. Even the change in order of milliseconds can cause a lag in the order of kilometers in the GPS. Most of our electronic devices are based on satellites, hence the broadcasting services, the radio, the TV, even the internet will stop working.

Solar time vs atomic time

We measure time with the help of atomic clocks called International atomic time. And the solar time is measured by noting the position of stars in the sky with respect to earth as timeanddate.com explained. All the world clocks are based on the International atomic time. But the satellites depend on the rotation of earth and it's position with respect to the sun and the stars. Hence they operate on solar time or the actual time of rotation. If the earth fastens up then the solar day will be shorter than International atomic time. Consequently, there will be lack in coordination between us and the satellites.

The solution

In order to sync the global time with the solar time we add or subtract what we call a "leap second". There is an organization called International Earth Rotation and reference System and services (IERS) which takes care of the delay between solar time and international atomic time. Whenever the difference in time exceeds 0.9 seconds a leap second is added or subtracted. Now with this inclusion, the solar time and our global time are back in sync or the satellites and other communication devices are synced. As I already mentioned earth was slowing down for decades. Hence, we needed to add a second to our global time to match up. But this is the first time we are adding a negative leap second or subtracting a second from our global time.

To summarize the earth is indeed rotating faster which causes lag between our clocks and the actual solar time, which can be corrected by subtracting a second from our clocks to match up with the solar clock. And if it continues to be speeding up at this rate 2021 may be the shortest year ever.

Do correct me if I've made any mistake. Also I was greatly inspired by Ecowatch and their post on the same topic, the link to which will be shared below including some other references.

References

Ecowatch- Earth Is Spinning Faster Than Ever

USA today- Scientists say Earth is spinning faster than it has in decades

Forbes- Do We Need A 'Drop Second?' The Worrying Reason Why the earth may be speeding up after decades of slowing down?

Phys.org- The Earth has been spinning faster lately

MASS EXTINCTIONS : A CASE STUDY

2021-01-18T21:30:00.008+05:30

Life is always being a precious gift to planet Earth. Not only about the present, but from very beginning the varying species diversities who have inhabitated and those who are still inhabitating on the blue planet, play a vital role as an individual species. Apart from insects, who remained the most successful species till date, only a fewer tends to be the primal survivor.

Ancestors of humans have ruled over the planet since 24 Million years ago as The Hominids [ Dryopithecus: ancestors of modern apes and man]. Who can ever imagine that someone more dominant than us can eventually become extinct. It seems impossibly right. If you do think of the same, then let me take back to the Triassic and Jurassic Periods [ Mesozoic Era(248 MYA - 63 MYA)] where someone more powerful and dominant had ruled the planet. Yes you guessed it right, The Dinosaurs. Their size and power surpassed man in every aspect. Though they were huge and dominant, but nature decided to write the story in it's own way. And it so happened, that dinosaurs disappeared in a mass extinction.

8.7 million is the number of eukaryotic species present on Earth today, and also many species are to be discovered. But, research says that the species count in the present time is just 0.1 per cent of all species that ever inhabitated the planet. So, is this true that all 99.9 per cent of species became extinct?

With this point of view, if a creature as powerful as dinosaurs can go extinct, then we fragile humans are nothing. Well talks apart, let's dive into the topic of how mass extinction changed the planet? Will it happen again? What would be the case if it didn't? Before focusing on such aspects, we must know first what is mass extinction and it's occurrence in history.

First of all what comes to your mind when you hear the word 'mass extinctions' ? Let's answer to this question first. It's an event that occurred with several impacts which are so severe that, it swept away large number of biodiversity in a small period of geological time. Their are various possibility that includes asteroid impacts, volcanic eruptions, climate changes and also severe natural calamities that resulted in a huge loss in species diversities and took millions of years for recovery. There are 5 known mass extinctions happened in history which includes :-

1. Ordovician - Silurian Extinction [ End Ordovician (450 MYA - 440 MYA)]

2. Devonian - Carboniferous Extinction [ Late Devonian (375 MYA - 360 MYA)]

3. Permian - Triassic Extinction [ End Permian (252 MYA)]

4. Triassic - Jurassic Extinction [ End Triassic (201 MYA)]

5. Cretaceous - Paleogene [ End Cretaceous (66 MYA)]

It's clear that nearly all types of species were swept away by the deadly events but the Marine inhabitants suffered the most. Let's discuss about the mass extinctions in brief.

1. LATE ORDOVICIAN MASS EXTINCTION :

Ordovician period started about 485 million years ago after the end of Cambrian period and before the beginning of Silurian period of Palaeozoic era.

Life flourished in the oceans during this period. Many different types of fishes evolved during this period along with other animals such as Trilobites, which came to existence in Cambrian period. But the Ordovician period ended as the second largest mass extinction in the history.

There is not any proper evidence about what must had happened, or the causes related to the extinction. But, as per the suggestions of paleontologists, there must be some drastic climate changes occurred, which have leaded to the extinction of various species. Or, the extinction might had occurred in several phases, like the major falling in sea level causing a severe downfall of carbon dioxide content in atmosphere, affecting survival of numerous of species.

Further, glaciation took place by global warming which resulted in depletion of green house gases converting them into toxic pollutants in atmosphere. There were no such asteroid impacts recorded during late ordovician mass extinction.

Near about half of Marine fauna got extinct including most families related to trilobite and graptolites. Lamp shells, also known as Brachiopods that served as one of the key invertebrates, also vanished during the extinction.

2. DEVONIAN MASS EXTINCTION :

Devonian period started about 419 million years ago and ended before the beginning of Carboniferous, 358 million years ago.

The devonian period is also known as the age of fishes as so many new types evolved. Some of these fishes gave rise to four-legged amphibians (e.g. Eryops) that were the ancestors of all land vertebrates, such as reptiles and mammals. Reef ecosystem began to develop which have horn corals and Brachiopods in major sections.

The extinction was similar to late ordovician mass extinction in case of impact on life, that in maximum range affected the Marine inhabitants. The remaining trilobite families completely swept away by the extinction.

Unlike ordovician extinction, this extinction reports asteroid impact with reference to the Siljan structure in Sweden. Dissolved oxygen inbalance (hypoxic and anoxic sedimentation) in underwater affected a large number of marine species. Global warming and cooling also included in the devonian mass extinction.

Talking about the intensity, it was not so severe as compared to the other extinctions but severely affected marine biodiversity in which Jawed vertebrates suffered the most and corals cannot regained their existence till several millions of years.

3. END PERMIAN EXTINCTION :

End Permian or Permian-Triassic extinction that occurred about 251 million years ago is the greatest known mass extinction till date.

The intensity was so huge that it wiped out nearly 90 per cent of Earth's total species, that included 95 per cent of marine and 70 per cent of all terrestrial species. This was the age where life came to an end, where species count is severely low and surviving in harsh conditions. And worse thing is that, the extinction lasted comparatively longer and took millions of years for it's recovery.

Several causes involved in the process includes heavy meteor impacts, that severely affected the biodiversity of a huge landmass in a very short period of time. Though meteor shower were not globally spread, but fragments reported in parts of Antarctica and Australia destroyed larger area. Apart from meteor shower, other causes including volcanic eruptions also reported in parts of China and Russia. Lastly, temperature differences, disturbances in Carbon cycle and drastic climate changes occurred, that simultaneously led this extinction event to be the world's worst known mass extinction in history.

Remaining genera of trilobite families got extinct. For the first time, terrestrial world had affected. Land Vertebrates including Sauropsids and Therapsid families got extinct. And the fewer that survived, went through extreme unfavorable conditions for their existence that resulted in millions of years for complete recovery.

4. END TRIASSIC MASS EXTINCTION :

Triassic period started about 248 million years ago, and lasted for a comparatively small time as the Triassic Extinction held about 45 years after the beginning of the period, that is about 205 million years ago.

Triassic marks the period where first marine reptiles appeared i.e. Mixosaurus, many other marine fauna developed. One of the greatest event occurred in mid-triassic period was the vast supercontinent Pangea splitted into 2 subcontinents, Laurasia and Gondwana. Two specialized groups evolved from archosaurs at the end of Triassic Period, the first one was dinosaurs, who later on became dominant in Jurassic Period and the second one Pterosaurs, who remained the first flying vertebrates.

Possible causes mainly incude volcanic eruptions, that led to increase in atmosphere carbon dioxide content along with exposure of effective greenhouse gas, methane that further led to global warming. Sudden climate change and rise in sea level also responsible for carbon dioxide inbalance in atmosphere, which remained a major cause for wiping out around 75 per cent of marine and terrestrial species. No such extrastellar impacts recorded in end triassic extinction.

Marine inhabitants were partially affected, where planktons, in some regions lost their diversities. Reefs were affected due to rise in carbon dioxide level. Terrestrial Vertebrates including therapsids completely wiped out. However, only non-mammalian therapsids, Cynodonts survived.

5. END CRETACEOUS EXTINCTION :

The creataceous-tertiary extinction or cretaceous- Paleogene extinction marks the end of Mesozoic Era and beginning of Paleogene epoch of cenozoic era, occurred about 66 million years ago.

Dinosaurs, the creature that dominated during Jurassic Period wiped out during this extinction. Also, the terrestrial species including both flaura and fauna had affected in a huge scale. As a reason, the Cretaceous extinction became the third hugest extinction after the Permian-Triassic and the late ordovician mass extinction . The Marine inhabitants had also suffered a lot where families related to Jawed fishes and sharks species became extinct.The Marine corals however in fewer amounts survived this extinction event.

The major cause for this extinction remained was massive asteroid impacts in different region of world that includes Mexico, Ukraine and parts of Western India. There was no volcanic eruptions reported in this event.

The species we came across present day are the evolved form of the species that survived the mass extinctions. Like, the modern birds evolved from the surviving group of dinosaurs of aves category. Furthermore, the mammalian group that survived adapted their features from where horse, whales and other animals formed after millions of years to which we see now.

A PROSPECTIVE:

Here comes the vital question one may ask himself/herself after reading this post, that will any mass extinction is possible in future? Will there will be some extinction that will wipe out humanity?

Well, answer to such questions might not be easier, as this directly points to a prediction. But, in my point of view, it's most probably possible with respect to the present time. If one will sit down to write some possible causes for the future extinction, it will begin with the major cause i.e global warming and will go so on. Anyway, the main cause always remains the rise in human population and I will continue with this in my next article about the sixth extinction and it's possibilities.

Best advancements in science in 2020.

2021-01-06T19:57:00.029+05:30

Hello web wanderers have you ever wondered whether science has made any progress despite the spread of the pandemic all around. The answer is yes. And we will be discussing all that today in this article. From discovering more about our neighbors in the solar system to making commercial flights to the space, this year has truly been remarkable. So, let's delve right in.

SpaceX makes commercial flights possible

Oh yes this has been something that needs to be in this list. I mean just see how cool it is, making spaceflights accessible to common people at affordable rates. This vision of Elon Musk has finally taken a big step as it's first commercial spaceflight mission to launch 2 astronauts from Florida to the ISS (International space station) succeeded on Aug 2nd as astronauts Bob Behenken and Doug Hurley landed back on earth. The next mission to carry 4 astronauts to the ISS has also been initiated as the rocket launched on 15th November. This is the first step of Elon to achieve his dream to terraform mars. With the help of NASA and the persistence of Mr. Musk and his crew SpaceX is on its way to create history.

An attempt to colonize space

Taking off directly from the previous topic here we are in Elon Musk's dream of colonizing space. We have seriously made some progress in this department. From knowing more about our solar system to locating the resources in the space that can be instrumental to our survival in space. We confirmed the presence of water on moon and even located water in some new places of the moon that was never speculated. We found traces of salt water in mars and the dwarf planet Ceres. Even we got to know more about water on Jupiter's moon Europa.

NASA has also launched a rover to the soil of mars with an oxygen synthesizer to know more about the feasibility of life on mars. We also discovered a material on earth that is older than our solar system. This will help us solve various mysteries of our solar system. There were many more things that happened in this field like NASA's probe and Japan's Hayabusa-2 got us samples from asteroids. Hopefully we will be able to know about our solar system in detail in the immediate future and solve it's mysteries. And hopefully gather enough information so that life beyond earth will be possible.

The fastest developed vaccine

The list will not be complete if we won't include the things that humanity has learnt from the COVID outbreak. Majority of the research in 2020 has been dedicated to study the effects and structure of corona virus and develop efficient solutions to tackle it. This includes development of vaccines. Vaccination is the only way that we can rely on to terminate any disease. Due to the hard efforts of scientists all over the globe, the COVID vaccine came out in the record time of less than a year. Russia vaccinated some of it's citizen with the Sputnik V vaccine on the 5th of December. A couple of days later the same was done by UK using Pfizer vaccine. This was possible only due to mRNA technology.

Superconductivity at room temperature

Like most of the stories in our list, this is also a work in progress project. Conductors are substances that conduct electricity. But Conductors posses some resistance due to which power is lost during transmission, especially in long distance transmission of electricity. Superconductors are solids which are cooled down to extremely low temperatures. At those temperatures the electrons pair up and move in a single direction. The important part here is this actually produces no resistance to the current flow. Hence power transmission can be more efficient.

But the condition of extremely low temperature is not possible for application. Hence this discovery was important. Ranga Dias and his team developed a system which put immense pressure on the solid. This high pressure compensated for the required low temperature and we obtain superconductivity at room temperature. Though those high pressures are not feasible and cannot be used in present application. Still this discovery means a lot, as this can be considered as the first step towards power transmission and storage without any loss.

Closing words

Overall this has been a tough year for all of us. But we should take some time and appreciate the work of the scientists and all the heroes that are working in the shadows for our betterment and safety. Science has not taken a hit from the pandemic but has risen sharply.

There have been many more breakthroughs this year like the use of CRISPR-Cas9 in the human body for the first time, finally recognizing the origin of radio bursts from the cosmos and many more. But I'm short of words now to include all of them. If you want any of those topics or anything from the list in detail, please do comment. The list was based on my knowledge and research. If I missed something, let me know. Let's hope for a great 2021 in science.

The city that went to sleep towards the end of 2020. Polar Night and the Midnight Sun

2021-01-02T16:43:00.007+05:30

Hello web wanderers have u ever wondered as to what will happen if the sun won't rise the next morning or so. Ya you probably would have thought of it as a kid. But what if I say this actually happens in some polar countries, not for one but for many days. Imagine what would be the consequences of it and why does it happen in the first place? Let's delve right in and find out.

Polar night

Utqiagvik is a town in the North of the artic circle which experienced the Sun about a month back for the last time and won't see it till the end of January. Many other countries near the poles experiences this. Well this phenomenon of night (the sun remains below the horizon) prevailing for 24*7 is way too common for the people in this town of Alaska. This phenomenon, when the night time prevails for more than 24 hours is known as polar night. This is the real life incident of what we say in movies as dark prevails over the light. Well I agree I am not so good at cracking jokes. But jokes aside, lets try and understand the physics behind it.

Well we all are familiar that our planet is not straight but a bit tilted on its axis. It is due to this tilt that we experience polar night. There comes a particular time in the year when the time of rotation of earth on its own axis and its position with respect to the sun becomes synchronised in such a way that a particular part of the earth will not get exposed to the sun for a period of time. This causes a temporary dark spot in around the north pole or the south pole. Well its difficult to make you understand this concept just with words. It will be better if you take a globe and try this on your own and make observations.

source: wikipedia

Hope my explanation was understandable, If not then visit the source by clicking the above link and come back here.

The effects of polar night on the citizens.

Sun is the source of energy for all of the organisms. But more importantly the sun is very closely related to our body clock. To make it clear, our body is used to do the activities with respect to the sun's position in the sky. For example, we get up with the sun and sleep as it sets. So for someone like you and me our sleep and diurnal cycle is very much depended on the intensity of light by the sun. So, the most common problem that arises from this is lack of sleep and disbalance in the daily diurnal cycle. Other problems include dizziness, lack of energy and loneliness. Even depression is common in such occasions. You can refer to the attached video at the end of this topic to know as to how the people feel about it.

The next question that arises is how do the people cope up to this problem. The people of Utqiagvik have adapted themselves to this problem. They light their houses very well in order to have the sense of day whenever necessary. They focus on their diet so a to gain as much energy as they can. They organize meets and go for fishing and other related stuff to spend their time. And with time their bodies have completely adapted themselves to the condition. But for someone like you and me it will be extremely difficult to survive. You can check out this video by popular youtuber VSAUCE as to what happens to your sleep cycle with change in environment, especially lighting.

Midnight sun : the complete opposite

Midnight sun is the complete opposite of the polar night, that is the sun remains above the horizon for more than 24 hours. This phenomenon happens in the similar locations where the polar nights happen, that is the poles. But on the contrary to polar night which happens in winter, the midnight sun occurs in the summer. The best example is Antarctica where both of these phenomenon can be observed. Antarctica experiences day for 6 months and night for 6 months straight. Also, as the sunlight is refracted by the atmosphere, midnight sun's last for longer than the polar nights and the area covered by polar night is also smaller than that of polar night.

Now to cut the story short, polar night is a phenomenon that seems impossible, but due to the magic of geography and physics, we can observe it. During the polar nights the inhabitants get to see the northern lights in the winter, which is a sight to behold and all the problems faced vanishes with this sight. And the celebration during the sunrise after a couple of months is spectacular and magnificent. Well do you want to know more about northern lights, do comment if u want to. And follow us to check the article as soon as it releases.

What is the bright ring around the moon :- The 22° halo.

2020-11-26T10:08:00.003+05:30

Last night I came across this phenomenon in my native town and went on to research about it. Well, it's actually very common but a mysterious event. The image from my cam will be down at the end of the article.

The 22° halo (both lunar and solar) , is a very common event in the nature occurring about twice a week, which is more frequent than that of a rainbow.

Why does this happen?

Halo in general is a ring of light. This can be observed from the light of the sun (commonly called the solar halo) or the moon (commonly known as the lunar halo).

The 22° halo is due to the refraction of lunar light through thousands and thousands of tiny ice crystals present in the atmosphere. These ice crystals are hexagonal in shape and light enters as it gets refracted and re-emerges from it getting refracted again. This whole refraction process bends the light by about 22° and that's how it got the name. Even the ring's radius around the sun is about 22°. There is also some reflection involved in this phenomenon. The moon ring is also referred to as the winter halo as it occurs generally in the winter.

This is generally white in colour but sometimes it looks something like a rainbow because of the dispersion of light through the crystals.

How the halo got it's exact orientation?

Well the orientation of the ice crystals for giving the halo it's particular shape still remains a mystery. It is almost impossible to recreate this event in lab. The halo actually forms on the high cirrus clouds (thin clouds with wispy strands) as they are moving. It was previously thought that this could be due to the random orientation of the crystals in columns but this was disputed by the fact that they actually appear to be horizontal with respect to each other. Nowadays it is thought to be like a cluster of bullet shaped ice column.

Source: wikipedia

Is it really rare?

Though it occurs quite often, it's difficult to observe. Because the ice crystals need to be oriented perfectly with your eyes. It keeps happening but most of the times we forget to look over our heads. In other words halo is exclusive to each one of you. The halo I'm seeing will be different from the one you are as the crystal refracting the lights for me will be different from that of yours. Well to cut it short the lunar halo occurs quite commonly and most of the times is not properly observable. But as of today the halo that I saw was properly oriented so that we all were able to see it at the same time.

What does it signify?

It is said in folklores that the halo brings rain or storm which actually is scientifically right. The high cirrus clouds actually bring rain. Don't mistake it with corona (not the pandemic one obviously) which is also a similar phenomenon that occurs due to refraction through the droplets of water and not crystals of ice.

Here are the images of lunar halo that I observed yesterday. From cuttack, India.

Water on the moon confirmed, a great opening for deep space exploration.

2020-11-05T23:25:00.007+05:30

Scientists have finally confirmed the presence of water on moon which can have great impact on the future of deep space explorations. The quantity of water is estimated to be 100 million to 2.9 billion tonnes which is much more than the previous estimations. And surprisingly, water has also been detected on the sunlit side of the moon.

What are it's implications to the future of astronomy? Why is this discovery important? How the presence of water has been confirmed? How the water would have possibly formed over there? And what are the future plans to use this potential resource? Let's dive right in and try to answer those questions.

The advancements in the discovery

The presence of water was confirmed by NASA on 26th October,2020 in the clavius crater located at the southern Hemisphere of the moon.

Two researches were published in the nature astronomy related to this discovery. The first research by Casey Honniball confirmed the presence of water where it was expected to be and gave an estimation that is much more than ever before. On the other hand the second research by Paul Hayne detected the presence of water on the sunlit side of the moon for the very first time. On the darker shadowy regions of the moon, water is suspected to be present as frozen ice in shadowy pockets known as cold traps which is potentially accessible. The links to both of these researches are given below.

Research 1 by Casey Honniball

Research 2 by Paul Haynes

Water on moon was first discovered in 2009 by the Chandrayaan I mission of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization), where they used Moon mineralogy mapper to detect a wavelength that resembled water in the polar regions of the moon. But the problem was whether this wavelength (around 3 micro metre) was that of water or that of the hydroxyl groups. The absorption band of both of them are very similar, so it was difficult to predict.

But in 2020 SOFIA (The Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy), world's largest flying observatory noticed a wavelength of 6 micrometers which was produced by a fundamental vibration unique to water. This actually confirmed the presence of water.

Lunar water and deep space missions

Well it's confusing that how exactly water present in the moon is a great achievement. To answer this question we need to understand the importance of water in deep space. We spend millions of dollars to transport water through space journeys but if we extract water from moon then the transportation cost will be reduced significantly.

The use of water in space is two fold. First it can provide hydrogen for propelling the rockets and secondly it can provide oxygen for breathing purposes. Both of them are great necessities when we talk about space missions. With a surplus of fuel And oxygen we can actually travel far into deep space. The water could be used for drinking purposes as well. And who knows the presence of water on the moon could be our first step towards colonising space.

Evidence of water on the sunlit surface was astonishing.

Without the moon's atmosphere and the sunlight falling directly on it, it was thought that even if water molecules would have formed there, it would have vaporised. But its presence over there, posed lots of questions. The most logical explanation can be given if we understand how the water molecules would have formed.

It can be formed because of some meteors or by the action of the solar wind. The theoretical explanation that can be given is that during the impact from space rocks, the water molecules would have been captured in tiny bead like structure. Or alternatively they could be trapped between the grains of Moon's soil. But the reality could only be known once we visit it.

The future on moon?

Now that we have finally confirmed the presence of water we need to think forward. The future framework involves getting some additional information about it through SOFIA. And to map the cold traps and the water resources on the moon through VIPER.

And yeah, NASA's Artemis mission in 2024 will send one man and a woman to the moon to discover the possibilities. It is estimated that the water could be in the range of 100 million to 2.9 billion tonnes. The aim of the Artemis mission is to establish sustainable existence on moon. Well Artemis is a great topic, let's discuss it some other day.

Check out this video by NASA on Artemis mission.

India's Bermuda Triangle.

2020-10-20T20:27:00.008+05:30

The Bermuda Triangle (or) Devil’s Triangle

Talking about the Bermuda triangle, which have positions held with the regions of the Florida, Puerto Rico and the Bermuda as the coordinates and later comprising the shape as a triangle hence named as Bermuda Triangle.

But the difference between the India's Bermuda Triangle and this triangle is that, it had got an official tag for itself whereas the India’s still remained an unsolved mystery.

Though Devil’s Triangle remained more complicated to be solved, but still the India’s Triangles are not much less as compared to that. Hence, there must be some notable things to get into a serious discussion.

India’s Bermuda Triangle reveals 3 known places, where incidents regarding deaths and missing cases had filed but just remained unresolved for certain circumstances. Those places includes :

1. Mayurbhanj, Odisha

2. India-Myanmar Border

3. Kullu Valley, Himachal Pradesh

THE CURSED RUNWAY

Have you ever thought of crashing of aircrafts at a particular point for number of times. This had really happened within the last 74 years at a place called Amardha Road in district of Mayurbhanj in Odisha. More than 16 planes crashed at the same point killing many people. From the records and investigations, Indian Air Force stated that most of the aircrafts are related to the defence establishment.

Most of the planes had crashed during the World War 2, many of them related to British Airlines. Nearly all people killed during that time who were inside. Afterwards, in 1945, July 26 there happened the biggest crash till date that, 2 British Royal Air Force B-24 Liberator four-engine bombers, EW225 and EW247 collided at lower altitude.

Amardha road airfield also claims that more than 7 aircrafts that did take off from that region crashed in Bay of Bengal within the years of Independence.

2. LAKE OF NO RETURN

This is one of the well known mysterious places in India. This lake held as a part of Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh(India) and also some part are there in Myanmar. Also the lake made visible from Pangsau Pass present at India-Myanmar border.

The lake, for the first time ever had drew attention during world war 2, when number of US aircrafts that were passing by the lake crashed on their way near the lake. The second time happened a bit serious, when a group of Japanese soldiers lost their way and ended at the lake, where they had decided for a night halt. But, unfortunately they all were found dead next morning near the lake. Later, tests proved that the troop died of Malaria. Afterwards, US decided to assign a group of US Army to examine the lake. Again, each member of the group got trapped underwater and died.

A road named 'Ledo Road' that crossed nearby the lake remained closed till 2007 and recently came into discussion about reopening of the way. But, the lake stands as the local Bermuda triangle for the inhabitants of that region who claims that the mystery still remained unsolved.

3. GRAVEYARD OF HIKERS

This place is not likely a mysterious place as anyone would be expecting. According to the Irish Times, this place is full of crimes that includes drug trafficking, murder, casual sex and many more.

Kullu Valley(or Parvati Valley) within the Himalayan range of Himachal Pradesh attracts tons of tourists from abroad, from which most of them are travellers or hickers. Each year they visit the place to appreciate the beautiness of the valley and to enjoy hicking. But, every humans that visits the place, not returns. Rather, we should say that, a few just vanishes. The cases remains unsolved, hence the place had got an unofficial tag as India’s Bermuda Triangle.

According to the ' Mysterious Himachal ' site, since 1992 and till date, more than 20 foreign tourists gone missing in that area. Only a few cases were traced but the rest remained unresolved till now. The main reason behind the mystery stands as a possibility of drug trafficking. From records,many visits the place in search of cannabis.

Lastly, I should say thay, the place, as India’s Bermuda Triangle is probable because a number of cases still remained unresolved and the mystery still leading it’s way in present time.

GETTING AN OFFICIAL TAG

Here comes the vital question that one should ask himself/herself after reading the content. However, the only reason that held behind the unsolved mysteries of the areas that I had mentioned above, not remains alike in every cases.

Prevailing an official tag would not be easier as the events happening within the regions are not persisting for a similar frequency of time. But, the Kullu Valley's mystery remains a bit opposed in comparison with the Lake of No Return and the first one, as it appeared at recent discussion in 21st century, which may be the India’s Bermuda Triangle in future.

Why computers understand only 0 and 1?

2020-10-20T19:52:00.012+05:30

• In a modern world , Everything in the computer’s brain comes down to 0’s and 1's. You have most likely heard that this code of 0’s and 1’s is what’s referred to as Binary and while almost everybody knows that this is somehow related to what computer’s do, very few of us seem to understand what Binary is and Why computers use it.

If you want to know then you can follow this article because it’s actually a very simple concept and still fascinating. Before we get to computers, let’s talk about what Binary is.

Binary

• Binary is a system of counting that uses only two digits that is 0 and 1. Computer uses these digits to store data ,perform calculations and many more. But the question arises how computer is doing everything by only using these zeros and ones .You will understand about these clearly in further below article. So let’s start in a step wise manner.

To understand the concept in a better way, we will discuss in a stepwise manner.

Step 1:-

(1) Modern computers are based on semiconductor technology which understands low voltages and high voltages. Transistor is a semiconductor device which constitute of millions of tiny components. Transistor acts as a switch, at low voltages transistor act as an open switch and at high voltages transistor act act as an closed switch. And importantly,

Low voltages indicates 0(zero)

& High voltages indicates 1(one)

Step 2:-

(2) Every electronics device understands Signals and as Computer is an Electronics device it will easily understand signals. Every sound signals whether we are talking over phone or watching a movie has series of vibration in it.These vibration are converted into Electrical signal. Computer understands only digital signals and these digital signals consists of 0 and 1.

Step 3:-

(3) Whatever input we are giving from keyboard , Pendrive , hard disk or microphone are stored internally in the form of 0 and 1 in computer. Compiler is used to convert high level language to low level language. For example:- If we write our names in English like (Rahul) compiler will convert this English letters R A H U L to binary language means to 0’s and 1’s. We will understand this in a detailed way in step 4.

Step 4:-

(4) There is a coding system named American standard code for information interchange (ASCII) used to convert Symbols to Numbers. Whenever you want to type your name, let’s take an example:-

Just like my name is ISRAR , and I want to write my name using keyboard So in ASCII,

I is represented by Number 73 (01001001)

S is represented by Number 83 (01010011)

R is represented by Number 82 (01010010)

A is represented by Number 65 (01000001)

R is represented by Number 82 (01010010)

• This huge binary stream is formed in the name ISRAR which is processed by CPU and you can see this output on your computer screen.