The Music of Gravitational Waves
Posted: November 30, 2010 Filed under: inventions Leave a comment »
This artist's concept shows the proposed LISA mission, which would consist of three distinct spacecraft, each connected by laser beams. It would be the first space-based mission to attempt the detection of gravitational waves -- ripples in space-time that are emitted by exotic objects such as black holes. (Credit: ESA)
A team of scientists and engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has brought the world one step closer to “hearing” gravitational waves — ripples in space and time predicted by Albert Einstein in the early 20th century.The research, performed in a lab at JPL in Pasadena, Calif., tested a system of lasers that would fly aboard the proposed space mission called Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, or LISA. The mission’s goal is to detect the subtle, whisper-like signals of gravitational waves, which have yet to be directly observed. This is no easy task, and many challenges lie ahead.
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Growth and Development cames at a Huge Cost:A Case Study of Chandrapur,India
Posted: November 28, 2010 Filed under: opinions, Urban Studies Leave a comment »
Growth and development in the form of industrialisation, urbanisation, power production and coal mining may have brought Chandrapur into the list of developing cities, but like other evolving cities, this growth has come at a huge cost. Not only has Chandrapur become the most polluted city in the Indian state of Maharashtra and fourth most polluted in the country, but the development has taken away for mining a very large area of fertile agricultural land and forest area.
A study titled ‘Impact assessment studies of Irai watershed in Chandrapur district using geo-informatics approach’ has compared changes in the built up area, agricultural land, forest cover, mining and other activities from 1975 onwards in the watershed belt. The study was undertaken by Maharashtra Remote Sensing and Application Centre ( MRSAC) resource scientist Sanjay Patil as part of his doctoral research programme using remote sensing satellite images.
The research indicates that development activities have disturbed the water cycle, drastically bringing down the groundwater table and also disturbed the ecology and environment of the entire watershed area of Irai river spread over 1,35,130ha. The built up area has expanded by about 700ha, from a built-up area of 2,875ha in 1975 to over 3,600ha as of today.
Besides, exploitation of all available natural resources in the watershed in a haphazard and non-sustainable manner for development has degraded the land and forest cover. Industrialisation, coal mining and Chandrapur Super Thermal Power Station (CSTPS) are the biggest culprits. The ash pond area of CSTPS has been growing at an alarming rate since 1989, and its area has jumped from just 375.29ha in 1989 to a whooping over 1,886ha presently. The percolation of hazardous elements from these ash ponds has also polluted the Irai river water as well as the groundwater in surrounding areas.
Out of the five major reservoirs, Irai, Chargaon, Chandai, Tadoba Lake and Ramala (inside the city), the Chandai and Ramala have been affected. While siltation has reduced the storage capacity of Chandai reservoir drastically, flow of sewage and other wastes into the Ramala tank has polluted the water and affected aquatic life.
Meanwhile, mining of coal from Durgapur, Padmapur, Hindustan Lalpeth, Mana and Bhatadi mines has taken away 2,140ha of land since 1975. The use of agricultural land for mining has expanded from 255ha from 1975-1989 to 1,112ha. Similarly, mining has engulfed protected, reserved and un-notified forest areas, with such areas under mining increasing from 560ha to 1,000ha over this period. Mining has not just taken away land but is also responsible for fluctuations in groundwater table.
The development activities have also influenced the river course and reduced the width of both Irai and its tributaries Motaghat Nullah and Upsa Nullah. This has happened due to dumping of mine waste into these rivers, leading to loss of 39ha of river area.
Prof YB Katapatal from the civil engineering department of the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, who guided the study, says, “Remote sensing is one of the best tools to conduct impact assessment studies extremely accurately in a very short time span. Development of any city has a multifaceted effect, many of which cannot be prevented. But our study can act as a good model for similar studies of other developing cities.”
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Overdependence on GPS Units Cause Memory and Spatial Problems
Posted: November 26, 2010 Filed under: GPS, opinions 1 Comment »
McGill University researchers conducted a series of three studies which magnify the effects GPS systems have on the human brain, and found that avid GPS users have a higher risk of suffering from problems with memory and spatial orientation.
Veronique Bohbot, associate professor of psychiatry at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and McGill University, along with a team of McGill researchers, found that those who use a GPS system to navigate often have a higher chance of damaging a region of the brain that controls memory.
Humans generally navigate using one of two methods. The first is a spatial navigation strategy where landmarks are used to build cognitive maps that help us figure out where we are without the use of a GPS. The second is a stimulus-response strategy where we drive in auto-pilot mode, making turns in certain places because repetition tells us that this is the best way to reach a specific destination. This second strategy is more closely related to the way GPS users navigate.
Overdependence on GPS unit may lead to atrophy of the hippocampus as we age, which puts the person at risk for cognitive problems such as Alzheimer’s disease later in life. Alzheimer’s disease affects the hippocampus first before any other part of the brain, which leads to problems with spatial orientation and memory.
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Early Universe Was a Liquid
Posted: November 24, 2010 Filed under: opinions, Space Leave a comment »
In an experiment to collide lead nuclei together at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider physicists from the ALICE detector team including researchers from the University of Birmingham have discovered that the very early Universe was not only very hot and dense but behaved like a hot liquid.
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Indian Rivers
Posted: November 20, 2010 Filed under: Countries, India, Uncategorized, water Leave a comment »
The origin of the rivers in India comprises three prime watersheds:
- Himalayas and the Karakoram ranges
- Vindhya, Satpura ranges and the Chota Nagpur Plateau
- Western Ghats
The Indian rivers can be classified into the
Himalayan Rivers,
Deccan Rivers ,
Coastal Rivers,
Rivers of the inland Drainage basin .
Talking about the Indian Rivers, the rivers that one thinks of are Ganga and Yamuna . However, India is home to several other rivers like Brahmaputra, Krishna, Cauvery, Narmada and many more. Besides rendering a pleasing beauty to the country, the Indian Rivers also happens to be an important source of transportation, hydro-electricity and most importantly irrigation. The lives of the boatmen, farmers, fishermen and others depend on these water bodies. A large number of crops depend on the water from the rivers. Further the rivers in India are indispensably connected to Indian culture. Wrapped in religious ethos and mythology, these rivers also draw numerous tourists from all corners of the world. Various dams and multipurpose projects on Indian Rivers have been undertaken at various times thus making the rivers in India a source of economy as well. With change in time the function of the Indian rivers have underwent major sea changes. The rivers like Alaknanda etc are being made use of for various purposes like adventure sports, river rafting etc. The Indian rivers bear the evidences of the oldest civilization. Hence these are significant religiously, historically, and culturally. Twisting through the valleys the rivers come down to nurture the lands, in the same way as it did hundreds of years ago.
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Solar Systems like ours may be common!!!
Posted: November 18, 2010 Filed under: Space Leave a comment »UC Berkeley astronomers Andrew Howard and Geoffrey Marcy chose 166 G and K stars within 80 light years of Earth and observed them with the powerful Keck telescope for five years in order to determine the number, mass and orbital distance of any of the stars’ planets. The sun is the best known of the G stars, which are yellow, while K-type dwarfs are slightly smaller, orange-red stars.
According to them nearly one in four stars like the sun could have Earth-size planets, according to a University of California, Berkeley, study of nearby solar-mass stars…..
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Chandra of NASA Finds Youngest Black Hole
Posted: November 16, 2010 Filed under: Space 2 Comments »
Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have found evidence of the youngest black hole known to exist in our cosmic neighborhood. The 30-year-old black hole provides a unique opportunity to watch this type of object develop from infancy.The 30-year-old object is a remnant of SN 1979C, a supernova in the galaxy M100 approximately 50 million light years from Earth. Data from Chandra, NASA’s Swift satellite, the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton and the German ROSAT observatory revealed a bright source of X-rays that has remained steady during observation from 1995 to 2007. This suggests the object is a black hole being fed either by material falling into it from the supernova or a binary companion.
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Troposphere is Also Warming since Decades
Posted: November 16, 2010 Filed under: climate change, earth, Ecosystem, Environment Leave a comment »
Not only is Earth’s surface warming, but the troposphere — the lowest level of the atmosphere, where weather occurs — is heating up too, U.S. and British meteorologists reported on Monday.In a review of four decades of data on troposphere temperatures, the scientists found that warming in this key atmospheric layer was occurring, just as many researchers expected it would as more greenhouse gases built up and trapped heat close to the Earth.
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ESA’s Glob Snow Project Gives Real Time Information on Snow Cover
Posted: November 14, 2010 Filed under: climate change Leave a comment »
The European Space Agency´s (ESA) GlobSnow project, led by the Finnish Meteorological Institute, can map the extent and volume of snow cover especially on the northern hemisphere. Launched at the beginning of November, the service provides almost real-time data on snow cover and snow depth.The purpose of this service, accessed through the GlobSnow website maintained by the Institute, is to create a global database containing the snow data gathered by satellites.
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Maps to plot malaria elimination plan
Posted: November 11, 2010 Filed under: map making Leave a comment »Half the world population lives at risk of malaria, a disease that kills 1.2 million people each year. Ninety percent of those deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa.
Malaria has affected Africa disproportionately more than in any other part of the world, though other areas, including Pakistan and Afghanistan, face a growing challenge to contain a mosquito-borne illness that now has resistance to the medicines used to treat malaria and to the pesticides used to kill mosquitoes.
For five years, Tatem and Smith have collaborated with a team of scientists, geographers, statisticians and on-the-ground health workers to create a single worldwide database for mapping and modeling P. falciparum transmission. Their assessments in The Lancet Series are based on malaria’s regional intrinsic transmission, the disease’s toll on crippling health systems and the levels in which population movement help spread malaria across borders. Tatem and Smith’s analysis may give the public health community a tool it needs to most effectively allocate financial and technical support for regions whose citizens suffer with the disease.Half the world population lives at risk of malaria, a disease that kills 1.2 million people each year. …
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