Archive for October, 2008
On Wednesday morning, just after sunrise, Chandrayaan-1 - India’s first unmanned mission to the moon - blasted off. History was made as the orbiter started its journey with a mission to study the moon. It’s being described as a huge breakthrough for India and for the team of scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Once the space craft reaches the moon, a small probe will descend from the craft to the surface of the moon. The probe will carry the Indian flag to demonstrate that this is a historic Indian achievement.
However, despite this huge achievement, there is a sense that India as a country has failed to popularise science as a lifestyle and is instead teaching is as a mere subject which needs to be crammed.
The question that was being asked on CNN-IBN’s Face The Nation was: Mission Moon Successful: Has India failed to popularise science?
On the panel of experts to try and answer the question were Scientific Officer Science Popularise Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE), Nikhil Pawar; Head of the Science Department Springdales School, Anita Luthra; and Space Law Expert, Dr Ranjana Kaul.
MOONSTRUCK
India’s first ever unmanned moon mission had a perfect lift-off at 06:22 hours IST on Wednesday morning. Chandrayaan-1 is orbitting Earth at the moment and will enter the moon’s orbit on November 8, 2008.
India’s first man in space, Wing Commander (Retd) Rakesh Sharma, who in 1984 spent a record eight days in space aboard a Soviet aircraft said, “Well, I would say, its a small step for science, for India through the efforts of ISRO, that’s how I would describe it. Essentially it’s the beginning of the exploration era and to tell the world now ISRO has now sort of come of age and that it is ready and able to take part in collaborative ventures to explore near earth object.”
The successful launch has earned kudos for Indian scientists and school children across the country are delighted.
“What it really opens up is I think is whole new career option for youngsters. I think this is where we can expect kids to look beyond IT and it’s a very lucky generation because within their lifetime they are going to be exploring space,” Rakesh Sharma said.
Former ISRO chairman, U R Rao added, “It is am important step for us because we have for the first time, got into space. For the common man it is a great achievement and for the children, I think it is a great sense of pride as well as excitement because it will increase their interest in science and exploration.”
Spread the word: related/bookmark it/readit
Source
Hydrocarbons:
Hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of (H)hydrogen and (C)carbon atoms.They can be straight-chain, branched chain, or cyclic molecules. Carbon tends to form four bonds in a tetrahedral geometry.
Pure Hydrocarbons are arenes, alkanes, alkenes and alkyne-based compounds composed entirely of carbon or hydrogen.
Impure Hydrocarbons consists of bonded compounds or impurities of sulphur or nitrogen.
All hydrocarbons are insoluble in water because of their relatively nonpolarity.
Structures of hydrocarbons can be differentiated on the basis of presence of bounds between carbon atoms. It may be single, double or triple.
Alkanes are made of only single bonds so are known as Saturated organic compounds.
Unsaturated organic compounds are those which have double or triple bonds.
Methane (CH4), a non-reactive hydrocarbon, is the most common hydrocarbon in the earth’s atmosphere.
Sources of Hydrocarbons:
- Hydrocarbons found naturally occur in crude oil where decomposed organic matter provides an abundance of carbon and hydrogen which, when bonded, can catenate to form seemingly limitless chains.
- Fossil fuels like coal, petroleum, and natural gas
- Vegetation, vehicle emissions, gasoline marketing and storage tanks, chemical industries, dry cleaning, fireplaces, natural gas combustion and aircraft traffic
- Petro-plants for example Euphorbia royleana, E.antiquorum, E.splendens and E.triculli convert a substantial amount of photosynthetic products into latex which contain liquid hydrocarbons.
Spread the word: related/readit
Scientific Method is a systematic approach to solve a problem by discovering knowledge, investigating a phenomenon, verifying and integrating previous knowledge. It follows a series of steps that evaluates the fact or the feasibility of a prediction through research and experimentation from where the information obtained. This is the best way yet discovered for separating the truth from lies and delusion.
Steps of scientific method are:
- OBSERVATION - Identifying the problem to solve
- HYPOTHESIS - Plan a tentative answer that is compatible with what you have observed
- Use and Testing the hypothesis with continued observations & controlled experiments
- Gathering and analyzing data
- Making conclusions
When consistency is obtained the hypothesis becomes a theory and provides a coherent set of propositions which explain a class of phenomena. A theory is then a framework within which observations are explained and predictions are made.
Spread the word: related/readit
Mich.: A satellite about the size of a loaf of bread will be designed and built at the University of Michigan and deployed to study space weather, thanks to a new grant from the National Science Foundation.
Undergraduate and graduate students will be heavily involved in this Radio Aurora Explorer project. The Radio Aurora Explorer satellite will be made of three CubeSats.This CubeSat will be the first free-flying spacecraft built in part by U-M students. S3FL, an organization for giving practical space systems design and fabrication experience to students play an important role.
“I’m extremely excited about the student involvement. They will be an integral part of the team,” said James Cutler, assistant professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and a principal investigator on the project.
Ionosphere is the region of the earth’s atmosphere where concentration of free electrons affects the propagation of radio waves. It extends from a height of 70 kilometers (43 miles) to 400 kilometers (250 miles) above the surface. Any disturbances in the ionosphere can affect earth-to-space communications such as GPS signals, digital satellite television and voice and data transmission systems including Iridium and Globalstar. According to Radio Aurora Explorer project, it will measure the energy flow in the ionosphere.
“This project will help us better understand space weather processes, how the Earth and Sun interact, and how this weather produces noise in space communication signals—noise that translates to lower quality telecommunications capabilities and error in GPS signals,” Cutler said.
RAX is scheduled for launch in December 2009. This will be a milestone for Kiko Dontchev, program manager in M-Cubed, the S3FL team that will be working with Cutler.
“It’s pretty incredible that we’ll build and design a spacecraft that will actually fly,” Dontchev said. “This project ensures that Michigan will have a profound footprint in the CubeSat community.”
Get more info regarding this on : www.engin.umich.edu/
Spread the word: related/readit
Human Anatomy
Human anatomy deals with the observation, experimentation and prediction of morphological structures that makeup the adult human body. You can say the morphological study of the human body.
Morphology :
“This is the branch of biology that refers to the outward appearance like form and structure,color,pattern of an organism. Basically this relates to the study of the structure of living things.”
Human Anatomy again can be sub-divided in to:
1. gross or topographical or regional anatomy : The study of region of the body and their relationship.
2. Microscopic anatomy : The study of the microscopic structure of cells, tissues, and organs of the body that we can see with the help of microscope. We can’t see these structures with naked eye.
- It consists of Histology : The branch of microbiology which deals with the study of the organization of tissues.
- Cytology : The study of cells (structure,formation,function). This plays very imp. role in diagnosis (to detect a disease who have signs of abnormality) and screening(detect the presence of a specific disease that does not show any symptoms) of diseases.
Different Systems of Human Anatomy are:
- Male Reproductive System
- Female Reproductive System
- Digestive System
- Lymphatic System (Angiology)
- Endocrine System (Endocrinology)
- Nervous System (Neurology)
- Cardiovascular System (Angiology)
- Skeletal System (Osteology)
- Muscular System (Myology)
- Urinary System
In medical terms location of parts of the human body can be identify with following terms:
- Superior - toward the head
- Inferior - away from the head
- Anterior - the front of the body or body part
- Posterior - the back of the body or body part
- Medial - toward the midline that divides left and right
- Lateral - to the side away from the midline
- Proximal - closer to the torso
- Distal - farther away from the torso
Spread the word: related/readit