VVS Science Magazine 2012 (ONE)

7/30/2019 VVS Science Magazine 2012 (ONE)

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Agreed that one shouldnt judge a book by its cover, it is

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Element

MagazineandCoverDesign:AbhinavRai


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ONEThrough the Years...


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ONEvasantvalleyschool

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CVRAMAN

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receive Noble Prize for Physics in 1930 for his pioneering

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Raman Effect.

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This man is not only a name gilded in history but an

epitome of perseverance and passion for the future

generations to look up to. A scientist to some; a ex-

traordinaire to others; But a hero to all.

By Shriya Gupta

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is well aware of the brilliance of that

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together every year to celebrate the

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ALetterFromTheEditor

-iii-

When we think of the word sci-

HQFHDQXPEHURILPDJHVDVKLQour head. Diverse yet each capitu-lating our curiosity, they could bewide ranging from celestial bodiesto objects we encounter in our ev-eryday life.But what is science?I would delineate it as the sys-

tematic study, which enriches our

lives, expands our imagination andrelieves us from ignorance and su-perstition. With research, Sciencehas grown to an unimaginable ex-tent. It is no longer a static entitybut a mold which cultivates holis-tic growth. It has evolved into theessence which fuels humanity andthe whole world has become fun-

GDPHQWDOO\GHYRWHGWRVFLHQWLFDV-pects.We, through the medium of ourmagazine have focused on theearth as it nears its end. PertainingWRWKH IDFW WKDWVFLHQWLF UHVHDUFKof geosciences (an all-embracingterm for the sciences related to theplanet Earth) has become impera-

tive and of utmost importance, ithas become essential to defend theearth from threatening phenomenaand in the survival of mankind. Thesolution we feel, is a re-analysis ofthe current route we are taking by labeling science as a concretestructure and disregarding its in-nate impulsivity. During this greatjourney of creating the magazine,we have acquired an enormous

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which has broadened our perspec-tive. We have realized that al-though science has progressed ina major way in the past century,there are many negative aspectswhich have also been incorporatedinto its advance. Science has notonly become extremely rigid andfour cornered but its once valued

VSRQWDQHLW\ IUHH RZLQJ TXDO-ity has diminished rapidly. Menmade restrictions have begun tobind science, and have made itexcessively mechanical. Individu-als no longer dare to question theunquestionable. They overlook thefact that true education occursoutside classrooms.

Although we might not realize itnow, future generations rely oncreativity and innovation. Rotememorization is gradually begin-ning to hamper and inhibit con-tinually growing love for science.Thus we mustnt underestimatethe importance of science to thehuman civilization, which contin-

ues to grow with each passing day.Interwoven with the threads of ourOLYHVDUHWKHEHUVRIVFLHQFH

Abhinav Rai


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ANoteFromLastYearsEditor

-iv-

Sitting before a troublesome cre-

DWLYH ZULWLQJ DVVLJQPHQW QGLQJeffective ways to make a presen-tation, attempting to compose mu-VLFIRUWKHUVWWLPHWU\LQJWRJHWall members to work together as aWHDPRUJXULQJRXWKRZWRVDYHWKHearth- in one way or another every-one has wondered at some point oftime Where do good ideas come

from? This thought (also the titleof a very interesting book by StevenJohnson) comes to the minds of thecurious, the concerned and the des-SHUDWHDQGZHRIWHQQGRXUVHOYHVin any one or all of these situations.As most would have guessed, thereis no straightforward answer to thisevergreen question. Age and wis-

dom seem to offer no balm to thisdilemma, in fact, childish sponta-neity may be closer to the answerthan we think. However many havecome to believe in the truth of thefollowing words:

If you want to create a space forinnovation, you wont get far by

cloistering yourself away from theworld and waiting for inspiration tohit you. Chance favours the con-nected mind.

The science magazine, for us, wasan opportunity to make our smallcontribution to making this connec-tion. Yes, we live in the 21st cen-tury, the era of communication, butthe closer we get, virtually, to peo-

to people from around the world

the farther we get from ourselvesand we disconnect from our ownspontaneous process of innovation.Lets take a giant leap forward bylooking within and looking aroundus to celebrate the little things andideas that together create the bigpicture that is our world.

Ramya Ahuja

Inphinite, Last years editionof the Vasant Valley Science

Magazine


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Editor:AbhinavRaiCo-Editor:ShriyaGupta

EditorialBoardAkshatAroraAshnaSatyajit

GauriKhannaIshanSardesaiMehakMann

RishabhPrakash

RiyahSinghTusharBhargavaVeerGupta

SpecialThanks!TusharNathNehalSwaroopAnishAsthanaMrs.MajumdarMrs.BanerjeeMs.CharuJohar

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Contents

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-vii-

13

ReachingBeyondtheEarth

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The Time Traveler

Abhinav Rai

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RealityandVitality

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2011: The International Year of

Forests

Winner of the Science Essay Prize 2011The United Nations General As-sembly has declared 2011 as theInternational Year of Forests inorder to raise awareness on sus-tainable management, conserva-tion and sustainable developmentof all types of forests. An Interna-

tional Year of Forests 2011- logohas been designed to convey thetheme of Forests for People.

Forests are one of the preciousnatural resources on the earth.They provide us with various natu-ral services and play an importantrole in economy of the nation.

Forests provide shelter to peopleand habitat to biodiversity; theyare a source of food, medicine andclean water; and play a vital role inmaintaining a stable global climateand environment. Forests are vitalto the survival and well being ofpeople.

Forests are an integral part ofglobal sustainable development.Forest-related economic activitiesaffect livelihoods of 1.6 billion peo-ple worldwide; they provide socio-FXOWXUDOEHQHWVDQGDUHWKHIRXQ-dation for indigenous knowledge;

and as ecosystems, forests play acritical role in mitigating the effectsof climate change and protectingbiodiversity. Forests play a criticalrole in absorbing the greenhousegases that have been attributed toclimate change.

The forest resources of the world

are under threat due to overex-ploitation, deforestation, urbaniza-tion, shifting cultivation practices,natural disasters etc. Consideringthe importance of forests, there isneed to Protect and Conserve theForest ecosystem. The Interna-tional Year of the Forests providesan excellent platform to increase

awareness of the connectionsbetween healthy forests, ecosys-tems, people and economies.Various activities will be organizedall over the world to celebratethis International Year and fosterknowledge exchange on practi-cal strategies to promote sustain-able forest management. Govern-

ments, regional and internationalorganizationsand chivil society organizations areexpacted to create national

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national committees and desig-nate focal points in their respec-tive countries to facilitate organi-zation of activities in support of

the International Year of Forests.The United Nations Forum on For-ests Secretariat has been taskedwith serving as the focal point forthe implementation of the Inter-national Year of Forests.

A website for the International Yearof Forests has been established by

the United Nations:www.un.org/en/events/iyof2011/

India is one of the countries withrich forest resource in the world.In India Forest is the second larg-est land use next to agriculture.The forests play vital role in har-ERULQJ PRUH WKDQ RUDO

and 81,000 faunal species of whichRUDODQG IDXQDO VSH-cies are endemic.

As per the India State of For-est Report, 2009, the total forestcover of the country is 690,899kmconstituting 21.02 % of thegeographic area of the country.

Madhya Pradesh has got the largestforest cover in the country followedby Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattis-garh, Maharashtra and Orissa.Mangrove cover in India accountsIRURI WKHZRUOGVPDQJURYHvegetation and is spread over anDUHDRINPLQWKHFRDVWDOStates/UTs of the country. This ac-

counts for 0.14% of the countrystotal geographic area.

Various measures are being takenup to conserve this forest resource.Indias National Action Plan forClimate Change (NAPCC) includes

National Mission for a Green In-dia. This mission underlines theindispensable role of forests in thepreservation of ecological balance,maintenance of biodiversity and aseffective carbon sinks. It builds onthe Prime Ministers GreenIndia campaign for afforestation of6 million hectares and the

national target of increasing landDUHDXQGHUIRUHVWFRYHUWR,Wis to be implemented on degradedforest land through Joint ForestManagement Committees set upunder State Departments of For-ests.India will also launch its own dedi-FDWHG IRUHVWU\ VDWHOOLWH LQ

to enable real-time monitoring ofboth deforestation and afforesta-tion in the country.All these efforts along with theeffective public participation willGHQLWHO\KHOSWRDFKLHYHWKH6XV-tainable management and conser-vation of forests in India.

Rishabh ChatterjeeIX B

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The Copenhagen Interpretation

It is a widely held notion that see-

ing is believing, but that might notbe true after all.The Copenhagen Interpretation isone of the earliest and most com-monly taught interpretations ofquantum mechanics. This theo-ry basically follows the principle:What is observed certainly ex-ists; about what is not observedwe are still free to make suitableassumptions. We use that freedomto avoid paradoxes.It came about in part to explainthe infamous Double Slit Experi-ment. This experiment showsthat an electron or any other sub-DWRPLFSDUWLFOHUHGDWDZDOOZLWK

two slits in it, will sometimes gothrough one, sometimes throughthe other, and sometimes it will gothrough both slits simultaneously(meaning, a single thing will be intwo places at once). The twist is,if you try and observe the electronat the moment it passes throughWKHVOLWVWRJXUHRXWZKDWLVKDS-

pening, the electron goes back tobehaving like a normal electron,and innocently shoots through oneof the slits, that is, randomly as-sumes only one of the possible ex-its. But how is this possible?What the scientists of that timecame up with is that all particlesexist as waves of probability. From

the observers perspective, there isonly a certain chance that a given

electron will either go through theleft slit or the right slit. When youare not watching, it remains a cloudof probability and sort of does alittle of everything. When you arewatching, the mere act of observ-ing it somehow causes the cloud

to pick a side. So the next timeyou observe a particle, be warned:they know youre watching, and assoon as you stop, theyre going tostart a party.But if you apply the CopenhagenInterpretation to bigger macro-scopic objects, it gets even weird-er. The infamous Schrodingers

Cat thought experiment, said thatif you put a cat in a box and pressD EXWWRQ WKDW KDV DIW\ SHUFHQWFKDQFHRIOOLQJWKHER[ZLWKSRL-son gas, then until you go and lookin the box, the cat exists as a cat-cloud which is simultaneously bothalive and dead. hus, a descriptionof the cat during the course of the

experiment becomes a blur ofliving and dead cat. But this cant


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be correct because it implies thatthe cat is actually both dead andalive until the box is opened tocheck on it. But the cat, if he sur-vives, will only remember beingalive.And theres more: if everythingexists as a probability wave, thenthat means that technically, any-thing could happen at any time.The Many Worlds Theory rejectsThe Copenhagen Interpreta-tions crazy idea that particles canchange their behavior seemingly atwill, and replaces it with the evencrazier idea that the only reasonwe think particles are changingtheir behavior is that we are onlyseeing that particles action in oneXQLYHUVH UDWKHU WKDQ WKH LQQLWHnumber of universes that actuallyexist. So for every action you haveever taken, every movement youhave ever made, even down to

the atomic level, there is a paralleluniverse out there where you didsomething else instead.

Many physicists and philosophershave objected to the Copenha-gen Interpretation, both on thegrounds that it is non-determinis-

tic and that it includes an unde-QHG PHDVXUHPHQW SURFHVV WKDWconverts probability functions intonon-probabilistic measurements.Einsteins comments I, at anyrate, am convinced that He (God)does not throw dice. and Do youreally think the moon isnt there ifyou arent looking at it? exemplify

this. Bohr, in response said, Ein-stein, dont tell God what to do.

Mehak MannXII B

-4-

DIDYOUKNOW?

There could be two

suns visible on Earth

some time in 2012!


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-5-

Costa Rica: A Summer Well Spent

Costa Rica, literally Rich Coast isquite assuredly the worlds green-est and the worlds happiest coun-try. And this summer, I happenedto be there as part of a NationalGeographic Student Expedition, togive back to nature and to learnabout the immense biodiversityour planet has to offer. What I

didnt realize was what Costa Ricawould give back to us. Our groupRIZDVPXOWLFXOWXUDOLQLWVWUXHsense. We had teenagers rangingfrom as far as Canada, to Taiwanand of course from India as well.Each one of us chose an On As-signment Project that ranged fromPhotography, to Community Ser-

vice to Wildlife and conservation.I chose Wildlife and Conservation.What followed over a course of 15days was exploration in its truesense.We mapped the length and breadthof two Costa Rican areas, San Luisand Guanacaste. Our day in SanLuis would begin at 6 a.m. with an

early morning hike to spot the elu-sive bell bird or the agouti and

milk the cows. We would then

come back to our base i.e. the Eco-lodge which was also the campusof the University of Georgia, havea traditional Costa Rican meal andhead of into our subgroups accord-ing to our projects. For my groupit included visiting the MonteverdeCloud Forest Reserve [home of theextinct Golden Toad], exploring

the forest on horseback with natu-ralists at our call, visiting the ani-mal rehabilitation centre to tendto injured snakes and spotting thegreen viper of South American for-ests on a night hike. Such was thebiodiversity of this region that onWKH UVW GD\ LWVHOI , VSRWWHG species of birds, plants and am-

phibians. They ranged from [ notethe names!] hot lips plant, Dracu-la orchid, dumb king plant whichactually makes you dumb if youeat it, Swiss cheese plant and therattle snake plant to name a few.We were joined by our Nat geo ex-pert Taylor Edwards who is a con-servation Geneticist. With him we

worked on capturing footages oftoucan birds, researching on ourprojects for which the universitystudents gladly lent their exten-sive library! To reduce our carbonfootprint we had created by travel-ling here, we left our imprints on&RVWD5LFDQVRLOLQWKHIRUPRItender saplings. After spending avery eye opening week in San Luiswe headed to Guanacaste which


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is a beach area. There we pre-VHQWHG RXU QDO RQ DVVLJQPHQWVprojects which ranged from pho-tography slideshows to podcasts

to musicals, showcasing all thatwe had learnt. We spent the lastday of our trip, learning to snorkeland surf. My instructors were Tay-lor- from Harvard University, Sam-a Costa Rican specialist from theUniversity of Arizona and Lisa afrequent traveler from IBEX Expe-ditions.

This was more or less skimmingover the surface. Hard as it is topack everything into a nutshell andpresent it to you, I have tried mybest and now as I sit back on myLJKWEDFNWR1HZ'HOKL,KDYHDQepiphany. Over the last two weeksI have made some very goodfriends, I have learnt the true spirit

of adventure and of being able totruly open up to the beauty of thisworld. I have learnt to ask ques-tions and seek their answers with-in myself. I have learnt to connectthe underlying and often obvioussecrets in things. I have learnt thetrue essence of science.Pura Vida!

Riddhima YadavXII B

-6-

HOWCANWEREFINECRUDEOIL?

Teach it some manners of

course!

Fungus which loves

to eat Plastic!

Plastic encases our gadgets, helps keep

our food fresh, holds our water, and car-

ries our data. But chemical bonds in

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nature to degrade it. The end result is lots

of waste for the next several generations.Students from Yale recently discovered a

new type of fungus, called Pestalotiopsis

microspora, while collecting microor-

ganism and plant cell samples at a Rain-

forest Expedition and Laboratory trip to

the Amazon rainforest.It was discovered

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cally polyurethane, which we use mil-

lions of tons of every year. Popular usesinclude foam for inside furniture, build-

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is grows on polyurethane in both aerobic

and anaerobic environments. It breaks

the plastic down into liquid or solid

forms. Its also possible Pestalotiopsis

microspora could work at biodegrading

the plastic buried deep within our land-

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THE SUCCESS OF THE

COCKROACH!

The cockroach is a fascinating in-sect belonging to phylum Arthrop-oda of kingdom Animalia.This insect, which is found practi-cally anywhere and everywhere (in-cluding school biology laboratorieswhere they are dissected, studiedand preserved, basements, small

cracks and crevices, sewers, yardsetc.) has been grubbing around allover the world since the time ofthe dinosaurs!They like to get snug and comfort-able in warm, moist and dark areaswhich implies that during the daytime, the areas beneath refrigera-tors, doormats, cupboards etc. in

our homes provide ideal conditionsfor this creature. The only areasdevoid of this six legged, creepycrawly are the extremely cold re-gions of the world such as the po-lar ice caps.This remarkable insect can livefor almost a month without foodand for about two weeks without

water! Some female cockroachesonly mate once and stay pregnantfor life! A cockroach can live for upto one week without its head andit can hold its breath for up to 40minutes. They can also run at aVSHHGRIPLOHVDQKRXU,QIDFWit has also famously been said thatcockroaches can survive a nuclear

attack. Now a nuclear attack maybe too much for even a cockroachto handle if we consider the tem-

perature rise associated with suchan attack but it is true that cock-roaches are highly resistant to ra-diations; radiations which couldcause severe damage to humanbeings. Clearly, it takes a lot of ef-IRUWWRQDOO\VHHDFRFNURDFKRQits back! Those sprays and insecti-

cides just never seem to work withcockroaches. This explains whyWKH\ DUH VXFK WURXEOHVRPH GLI-cult and downright irritating housepests.

The cockroach is indeed a livingfossil. It is one of the most suc-cessful life forms to have ever ex-

isted on earth. While all the mas-sive dinosaurs disappeared, thisfreak of nature survived withoutXQGHUJRLQJDQ\VLJQLFDQWFKDQJ-es in its morphology. So what arethe reasons for the great successof the cockroach?

All organisms need food to sur-

vive. The cockroach is no different.But cockroaches unlike most othernormal organisms, can consumevirtually any kind of organic sub-stances as their source of energy.Wood, paper, glue for book bind-ings, human and animal excreta-DOOWKHVHWKLQJVIRUPDVLJQLFDQWchunk of the diet of a cockroach.

The cockroach is unaffected bysuch items entering its stomachand digests them with ease.


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-8-

As a result, cockroaches rarely facea lack of food. For these strangeorganisms, truly anything and ev-erything is food. They are anythingbut fussy eaters!Some cockroach species like theAmerican Cockroach can live for upto 1 to 2 years. They live for muchlonger than other insects. They

also reproduce quickly and can doso throughout their life. Most in-sects do not show parental care.But in cockroaches, some degreeof parental care has also beenseen which increases the survivalrate of the offspring.They are also very clever andsneaky and at the sniff of any kind

of danger like predators such aswasps and birds, they quickly hidein cracks and crevices for shelterand protection. They have well de-veloped sensory and nervous sys-tems which enable them to reactquickly when faced with any kindof danger. They also possess highregenerative power. In case they

lose a leg in an accident or attack,they can regenerate the whole legquickly after just one molt. You iss-

ont see a cockroach with a miss-ing leg too often!Some other interesting facts aboutcockroaches are:


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-9-

What Makes a Bird Fly?

:KDWPDNHVDELUG\"What is the reason for a blue sky?Whats the cause of a natural disas-ter?What can make us run faster?Science lies within you,Theres no need to doubt, its all true.It holds the answer to our life anddeathIt holds the key to every singlebreath.It tells us why the earth is round,It tells us what makes which sound!It tells us how life beganIt tells us the evolution of man.It has the answer to your deepestquestionIt holds the secret to digestion!Science, science. Its everywhere,Its in our blood. Its in the air.

Riya Kothari VIII BNimran Kang VIII C

Existence

Science took us forward from thestone age,Today we stand at a modern stage,We have really evolved,and so many problems have beensolved.

We have unraveled the mysteriesof our minds,We humans are one of a kind,We contain the thirst to mature,As the discovery list grows by thescore.

We have even reached the moon,Science and technology is a boon,:HQGDQGLQYHQWDVZHOOIt is really swell.

Do not restrain this rainbow of

thought,Such knowledge isnt easilysought,Nature, space and earth are beau-WLIXODQGQHAnswers to these are really divine.

Prevention is better than cure,About that Im absolutely sure,

Our skills and knowledge will reachSuch a height,As science shows us the light.

Ananya GuptaIX A

-9-

DidYouKnow?2\VWHUVFDQFKDQJHEH-

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Solar EnergyAlternate fuel of the

FutureToday petroleum and coal are ourmain sources for creating electric-ity, providing heat and transport.%XWERWKWKHVHIRVVLOIXHOVDUHQ-ishing fast so I suggest we go in forsolar energy as an alternate fuelbecause the sun provides enough

energy that can be stored for uselong after the sun sets and evenduring cloudy periods.

The Advantages of solar energyare many as it is free and clean.Firstly, it is a renewable sourceof energy as the sun will not loseits heat for many, many millionyears so there is no harm of de-stroying the environment. Thereis no emission of carbon dioxideor other toxic gases so no dangerof global warming. It can be pro-duced from remote places as thesun is available to all on this Earthunlike fossil fuels like petroleumand coal.

We can trap and store this en-ergy with the help of solar pan-els on roofs of buildings that willUVWWUDSWKHHQHUJ\DQGWKHQXVHit to heat our houses, water etc.through water pipes. This way wecan heat our homes, buildingsand also get hot water. Solar en-ergy can be stored in solar cells

called photovoltaic, which convertsunlight directly into electricitythrough a chemical process.

These cells could be used in cars,trucks and buses to power themwithout polluting our environ-ment. Coal too can be substituted

by Solar Furnaces which use anenormous array of mirrors to con-centrate the sunlight to a smalllocation which produces very hightemperature that can be as high asGHJUHHV&HOVLXV7KHVXQVUHHFWHGHQHUJ\KHDWVRLORZLQJthrough pipes and the heat ener-gy is then used to generate

electricity.I magine a world where the carsrun on solar energy from panels ontheir roofs instead of petroleum,all the lighting is solar, homes areheated by solar panels or throughelectricity generated by solarturbines and solar furnaces areused in place of traditional coal

furnaces!Sumer Grewal


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-11-

How Do Owls Fly

Silently?

One of the many physical feats ofWKHRZOLVLWVDELOLW\WR\VLOHQWO\This is due to the design of thewings of several species of owlsDOORZLQJWKHPWR\LQXWPRVWVL-lence. Various parts of the wingsof the owl enable it to accomplishthis.All owls have broad wings with

very large surface areas, allowingWKHPWR\EXR\DQWO\DQGHIIRUW-OHVVO\ZLWKRXWWRRPXFKDSSLQJand loss of energy. Hence they areDEOHWRJOLGHHDVLO\DQG\VORZO\for long periods of time. The vel-vety down feathers on the wingsand legs of the owl are brilliantabsorbers of the sound frequen-

cies in their wings. Another fan-tastic mechanism allowing owlsWKHLU VLOHQW LJKW DUH WKHLU VWDEL-lizing serrated comb-like feathersand sound reducing fringe feath-HUV7KLV VLOHQWLJKW LVH[WUHPH-ly helpful for owls while catchingtheir prey at all times.

Indraneel RoyIX B

Accidental

DiscoveriesThe French scientist Louis PasteurRQFH IDPRXVO\VDLG,Q WKHHOGof observation, chance favoursonly the prepared mind.Some of the most important dis-

coveries or inventions in sciencehave been due to the most ran-dom accidents. Many of these ac-

cidents have led to great successLQYDULRXVHOGVRIVFLHQFH6RPHof the greatest scientists have alsoreceived the highest honours dueto their fortunate accidents!/RXLV 3DVWHXU KLPVHOI LQ had been a victim of these for-tunate accidents. He inoculat-ed some chickens with cholera

bacteria. It was supposed to killthem, but Pasteur or one of hisassistants had accidentally useda culture from an old jar and thechickens merely got sick and re-covered. Then Pasteur inoculatedthem again with poisonous freshculture, and he observed that theydidnt even fall sick this time. He

UHVHDUFKHGDORWRQWKLVDQGQDOO\concluded to his famous discoveryof the principle of vaccination fordisease prevention.

Biologist Sir Alexander Flemingwas researching a strain of bac-teria called staphylococci. In 1928he had accidentally left out someof the culture dishes and went on

a holiday. It was only when he re-turned that he noticed that they


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had become contaminated withfungus and threw it away. Laterhe learnt that the staphylococcusbacteria were not cable to grow

in the area surrounding the fun-JDOPRXOG+HLGHQWLHGWKHPRXOGas being from the Penicillium ge-nus. He completely changed thetreatment for bacterial infectionsin medicine forever by creatingWKH UVW DQWLELRWLF +H ODWHU VDLGWhen I woke up just after dawnon September 28, 1928, I cer-

tainly didnt plan to revolutioniseall medicine by discovering theZRUOGVUVWDQWLELRWLFRUEDFWHULDkiller, but I suppose that was ex-actly what I did.

Another amaz-ing example would be that of Wil-helm Roentgen .He was exploringthe path of electrical rays pass-

ing from an induction coil througha partially evacuated glass tube.Although the tube was coveredin black paper and the room wascompletely dark, he noticed that aVFUHHQFRYHUHGLQXRUHVFHQWPD-terial was illuminated by the rays.He later realised that a number ofobjects could be passed through

these rays, and that the project-ed image of his own hand showeda contrast between the opaqueERQHV DQG WKH WUDQVOXFHQW HVKHe later used a photographicplate instead of a screen, and animage was captured. In this ex-traordinary accident a discoveryhad been made: that the internal

structures of the body could be

made visible without the necessityof surgery - an XRay was made!

Smart Dust too was dis-covered this way. Smart Dust has

the ability to determine the quali-ty of drinking water; it can vet outhazardous chemicals in the air, lo-cate and destroy tumours in thebody. They were discovered by Ja-mie Link while she was working onher doctorate in chemistry at theUniversity of California in San Di-ego when one of the silicon chips

she was working with exploded.She found that the tiny pieces thatresulted from the burst could stillfunction as sensors.

In 1945 Percy Leb-aron Spencer, an American engi-neer and inventor, was working onmanufacturing magnetrons, thedevices used to produce the mi-

crowave radio signals that wereintegral to early radar use. Radarwas a very important innovationduring the war, but microwavecooking was discovered purely byluck. While standing by a function-ing magnetron, Spencer noticedthat the chocolate bar in his pock-HWKDGPHOWHG+HJXUHGRXWWKDW

it was the microwaves that hadcaused it, and later experimentedwith popcorn kernels and even-tually, an egg, which exploded.7KHUVWPLFURZDYHRYHQZHLJKHGDERXWOEV DQGZDVDERXW WKHsize of a fridge.

Riyah SinghXII C

-12-


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Global CoolingHydrosols & Microbubbles

Using microbubbles to turn partsRIWKHRFHDQZKLWHDQGWKXVUHHFWsunlight and cool down the Earth..Air water and water air inter-faces are equally refractive, clouddroplets and microbubbles dis-SHUVHG LQERGLHVRIZDWHU UHHFWsunlight in much the same way.7KH OLIHWLPH RI VXQOLJKW UHHFW-

ing microbubbles, and hence thescale on which they may be ap-plied, depends on Stokes Law andWKHLQXHQFHRIDPELHQWRUDGGHGsurfactants. Small bubbles back-VFDWWHUOLJKWPRUHHIFLHQWO\WKDQlarge ones, opening the possibilityof using highly dilute micron-radiuhydrosols to substantially bright-en surface waters. Such micro-bubbles can noticeably increaseZDWHUVXUIDFHUHHFWLYLW\If this is successful, we will beable to counter the effect of globalwarming by cooling the earth.

Prithvi Raaj Singh

XC

If There Was No

Friction!Friction is a force,Like a pull or a push,Without it to stop us,We would land up in a bush!The world would be as slippery assoap,

For so many inventions, therewould have been no hope.Rubbing 2 stones wouldnt createUHStaying warm wouldveve beenour desire.Tyres wouldnt grip the road,They would skid and explode!Sometimes we need to reducefriction too,Then lubricants, grease are handy,to name just a few./HRQDUGR'D9LQFLZDVWKHUVWWRstudy friction,He should get the credit for it,thats my conviction!

Kabir SinghVI A

Whatdidonequantumphysicistsaywhenhe_IV\ML\WOP\IVW\PMZ

quantumphysicist?Letmeatom

DidYouKnow?The most dangerous animal

in the world is the common

KRXVH\'XHWRWKHLUKDELWV

RIYLVLWLQJDQLPDOZDVWHWKH\transmit more diseases than

DQ\RWKHUDQLPDO


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Solar Power

Through the centuries, scientists

have found innovative ways toharness the power of the sun from magnifying glasses to steamengines. Converting more so-lar power into electricity is highon the political agenda in manyFRXQWULHV DPLG WKH SXVK WR QGdomestic energy sources that areless polluting than fossil fuels.

In the last two years, China hasemerged as the dominant playerin green energy especially insolar power. It accounted for atleast half the worlds production in2010, and its market share is ris-ing rapidly. Chinas Big Three solarpower companies Suntech Pow-er, Yingli Green Energy and TrinaSolar all announced in August2011 that their sales in the sec-RQGTXDUWHUZHUHXSEHWZHHQDQGSHUFHQWIURPD\HDUHDUOLHUBut, analysts say, China hasachieved this dominance throughlavish government subsidies in itssolar industry that are detrimental

to American companies and otherforeign competitors. While mostU.S., Japanese and Europeancompanies still have a technologi-cal edge, China has a cost advan-tage, analysts say.

Shiv KapurXC

The Indian TigerI, the royal tiger, the national ani-

mal of India am often describedas a particularly dangerous, slyand invincible predator. I am anintegral part of the Indian heritagewhich is on the verge of extinc-tion. I have a powerful body, largepaws with very sharp claws, butno match for a gun. I am a totalgentleman and not a blood thirsty

killer. Surprising as it may sound,I dont kill for pleasure but forneed. I kill only when I am hungryand dont want to kill humans. Itis my inability to hunt that forcesme to kill humans.Today I would like to share withyou my bucket list. A bucket list isa list of things one wants to before

dying, it comes from the phrasekick the bucket.So here goes:For starters I would like to live in adense jungle, a lot of shade so thatmy den remains really cool, and Ican sleep all day long, near a riverwhere I can swim to my heartscontent, for leisure & adventure. I

dont live to eat but eat to live, sowould like to get my daily share ofmeat to satisfy me.We live in a fragile and remoteworld, a blue, white and greengem in the solar system. With theever expanding human popula-tion and development in the nameof consumerism, our delicate andunique planet is being depleted ofLWV QLWH UHVRXUFHV E\ SROOXWLRQpoaching, habitat destruction and


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fragmentation and climate change.As people over-consume, animalsand plants around the world are

becoming extinct at an unprec-HGHQWHG UDWH 8QOHVV VLJQLFDQWsteps are taken to prevent extinc-tions, one half of all species livingon the planet today will be extinctwithin the next hundred years- in-cluding me, the Indian tiger. So intodays day and age my bucket liststarts with the hope of consolida-

tion of tiger reserves: there shouldbe no construction of highwaysthrough our forests and an end toillegal mining and timber trade inforest areas (which is leading toerosion of forest corridors), villag-es should be relocated away fromcore critical tiger habitats but in afair and voluntary manner so that

there is no hostility towards us butthey support the cause. I wouldlike to have a Tiger Force Protecti-

on Force that checks poaching,where forest guards control andmonitor our forests. These guards

should be trained and providedwith adequate equipment to tack-le poachers. The poachers shouldEHFRQYLFWHGZLWKKHDY\QHVDQGprosecution. Villages near our re-serves should be offered employ-ment for upkeep of our reserves;they should be offered compen-sation for loss of livestock so that

they dont indulge in revenge kill-ings. I wish more people wouldvisit tiger sanctuaries and nationalparks and discover our countrysnatural heritage. But rememberthat the wilderness is to be expe-rienced, not to be polluted. TheJavan, Caspian and Bali speciesare already extinct; dont add me

to this list.Divij Chandna

VI C

DidYouKnow?7KHQXPEHURI

tigers in India has

UHGXFHGE\KDOILQ

WKHSDVWFHQWXU\

There are less than

1411 tigers left inWKHFRXQWU\


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Ask the Students!

What is the Largest living Structure on Earth?

At over 2000

kilometers long,

The Great Barrier

Reef is the largest

living structure on

Earth.

Students Response

TheGreatBarrierReeI

Asia

GrizzlyBear

BlueWhale


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The Accelerating Universe

Some say the world will end inUH

Some say in ice.....

- Robert Frost,Fire and Ice

What will be the fate of our uni-verse ? If we are to believe theNobel Laureates of 2011, it willprobably end in ice. After care-ful study of many exploding starscalled supernovae, they have con-cluded that the expansion of theUniverse is accelerating.

The World is Growing

The expansion of the universe be-gan with the Big Bang 14 billionyears ago, but it slowed down dur-LQJWKHUVWVHYHUDOELOOLRQ\HDUVEventually it started to acceler-ate. The driving force behind thisacceleration is an unknown formof energy known as dark energy.This dark energy makes up a large

SDUWRI WKH8QLYHUVHQHDUO\ and is one of the greatest myster-ies in the world of physics today.

Two Rival TeamsSaul Perlmutterheaded one of thetwo rival research teams - the Su-pernova Cosmology Project, which

began in 1988. Brian SchmidtandAdam Riess the two other NobelPrize winners were part of a comp-

eting project, the High-z Super-

nova Search Team. Both teamsraced against each other, trying toQGWKHPRVWGLVWDQWVXSHUQRYDHwhich would help them map theUniverse and predict its fate.

This method of using supernovaeto measure cosmic deceleration/acceleration relies on a simple prin-ciple, one that has been around fordecades - to locate distant starsand to measure how they move.However, this is not as easy as itseems. For one these stars arebillions of light years away andmoreover the explosions of super-novae are brief. To look for such

supernovae in the vast expanse ofthe universe can be thought of asthe cosmic equivalent of search-ing for a needle in a haystack.

Chasing these supernovae provedto be a Herculean task that chal-lenged the very limits of scienceand technology. Sophisticated

telescopes, both on the groundand in space, powerful super-computers helped to solve thiscosmological puzzle.

A Surprising ConclusionAfter years of hard work and manypitfalls, both teams reached thesame conclusion - the light from

the supernovae seemed weakerthen expected, they were fadingas they were being carried faster


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-19-

This simple statement has seriousDQGFRPSOLFDWHGUDPLFDWLRQVDQGposes a bevy of bewildering ques-tions - What is the cause of this ex-

pansion ? Dark energy, claim thescientists. Which invites the ques-tion - What is dark energy ? Eventhe scientist dont know. Dark en-ergy to date remains an enigma inthe realm of physics. According toFXUUHQWFRQVHQVXVDERXWRIthe Universe consists of dark en-ergy. The rest is matter. However

even out of that only 5% is matteras we know it. The remaining 20%is invisible dark matter ( which isanother riddle).

This discovery also forces us to re-consider our cosmic fate. The sci-HQWLVWVKDGH[SHFWHGWRQGVLJQVof the expansion of the Universe

slowing down, which would lead toequilibrium between warmth andFROGUHDQGLFH+RZHYHUZLWKthe expansion of our Universe ac-celerating, all matter will get di-luted in an ever large, ever moreempty and ever colder space. TheUniverse may well end in ice.

7KHUHIRUHWKHQGLQJVRIWKHNobel Laureates in Physics haveopened a Pandoras box of unan-swered questions and unsolved

riddles and shown us the frontiersthat science must conquer in thecoming years.

Tushar BhargavaXII C

DidYouKnow?

A space vehicle mustmove at a rate of 7 milesper second to escapethe earths Gravitation-al pull. This is equivalentto going from New York

to Philadelphia in abouttwenty seconds.


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Take planet earth, and squeeze itdown to the size of a marble. Youllcreate an object so dense that noteven light, travelling at 1,86,000miles/sec, can escape its extraor-

dinary gravitational pull. Its name,a black hole.Black holes are formed when amassive star dies. This usually oc-curs either because the star hastoo little fuel left to maintain itstemperature through stellar nu-cleosynthesis (the collective termfor the nuclear reactions taking

place in stars to build the nucleiof the elements heavier than hy-drogen), or because a star thatwould have been stable receivesextra matter in a way that doesnot raise its core temperature. Ineither case the stars temperatureis no longer high enough to pre-vent it from collapsing under its

own weight. But Black Holes arent

Supermassive Black Holes!

the end to this story!

A few decades ago, 2 astronomersdiscovered something extraordi-nary and unusual, a discovery setto overturn our understanding ofhow the Universe formed. Theydiscovered was a very simple re-lationship, a relationship betweenthe galaxy we live in and the mostdestructive force in the Universe.

What they found, were supermas-sive black holes.Supermassive black holes are gi-ant black holes of apocalyptic pro-portions. They are a million to abillion times the mass of a typi-cal black hole. In fact, they areVRODUJHWKH\FRXOGOODQ(17,5(SOLAR SYSTEM! Frankly, a super-

massive black hole is gravity gonemad! Anything that gets close toany of these, be it gas, stars oran entire solar system are suckedinto oblivion. It even destroys thevery fabric of the Universe. If youthink of the Universe as a space-time web,


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the gravity of ordinary stars andplanets creates a dent in this web,but the immense gravity of a su-permassive black hole is so de-structive that it distorts space-time to breaking point.At the heart of a supermassive

black hole is one of the mostmysterious occurrences in phys-ics - the singularity, a point wherespace, time and all known laws ofphysics fall apart. It is as good assaying shown that the singular re-gion contains all the mass of theblack hole solution.It so happens to be that one of

these black holes is in the centerof our Milky Way Galaxy. But itsOLJKW\HDUVDZD\IURPXVVRtheres nothing to worry about..for the moment. Earth will even-tually crash into mars, then again,WKDWOOWDNHDERXWELOOLRQ\HDUV

Akshat AroraXII B

Astrology and

Science

Human beings have always beencurious to know their future.:KHQHYHUVRPHRQH LV LQGLIFXO-ty and cannot easily come out ofit, he wants to know whether thedays of his misery will come to anend at all.There have always been peoplearound who have successfully pre-

dicted future events. Their meth-ods have been different - somepeople can simply look into the fu-ture, some use tarot cards, somedraw up an astrological chart whichwe call horoscopes, some read thelines in the palms of people.One cannot deny that future hasbeen accurately predicted many atimes and by many a people. Eachsuccessful prediction proves thatit is indeed possible to correctlypredict the future.In the ancient times, astrologers

were held to be in great esteemby the people. There was no dif-ference between astronomers and

astrologers. In fact, astronomyand Astrology were not consid-ered to be different. Most of therenowned scientists of the past,including Sir Isaac Newton, wereastrologers too. In ancient IndiaAstrology was known as JyotishShastra which included predic-tive Astrology as well as what we

know as Astronomy. Needless tosay that the astrologers of that


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era were all great mathematicianstoo.It would perhaps not be an ex-

aggeration to say that Astrology

was considered to be the foremostbranch of science.But,over the years,astrology haslost its place in science as sci-HQFH LQ WRGD\V ZRUOG LV GHQHGby three words-Physics,Chemistryand Biology.What we ,as a society do not un-derstand is that science is a muchbroader term which not only is asystematic enterprise that buildsand organizes knowledge,but isalso about predictions and obser-vations about the universe.Anytheory which cannot be put to testcannot be called science but thefact that science works on obser-

vations cannot be denied.Newton gave us the law of gravi-tation which tells us that an applefalls from the tree. It is a mereobservation till this stage.In modern education system as-trology has not been given dueattention it deserves because itsnot considered to be a proven sci-

ence but many psychological the-ories are also not proven but weall understand it. The main prob-lem with astrology is ignorance.Once someone asked Isaac New-ton How can you believe in astrol-ogy? His reply was because Istudied it and you didnt. Thus,wemust learn to not restrict science

to a few branches but take a muchbroader view of it,under which as-trology has an important role to

play,as astrology is all about pre-dictions and observations of theuniverse,the part of the word sci-ence we tend to overlook.

Veer GuptaXII B

Q:Whatdochemistscallaben-bMVM ZQVO _Q\P QZWV I\WU[ ZM-XTIKQVO\PMKIZJWVI\WU[')")NMZZW][_PMMT"

Fe-Fe/\FeFe

\/Fe-Fe


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Every heard of HD 85512 b? Iensure you that its fascinating,even scientist are bewildered byLW%XWUVW DOORZPH FODULI\ WKDWHD 85512 b is notthe new HarleyDavidson Sportster. Its a superEarth.A super Earth is is an extrasolarplanet with a mass higher than

Earths, but substantially belowthe mass of the Solar Systemsgas giants, viz. Jupiter, Saturn,Uranus and Neptune.In general, super-Earths are de-QHG H[FOXVLYHO\ E\ WKHLU PDVVand the term does not imply tem-peratures, compositions, orbitalproperties,or environments simi-

lar to Earths.7KH UVW VXSHU(DUWKV ZHUH GLV-covered by Aleksander Wolszczanand Dale Frail approx. 2000 lightyears away from the Sun in 1992.The planets have masses approxi-mately 4 times Earth but are toosmall to be gas giants.(YHU VLQFH WKH UVW GLVFRYHU\

there have been plenty more su-per Earths that have emerged,each with its own distinct masscircling in its own orbit. Some ofthese exosolar planets are coatedLQODYDVRPHKDYHYHVXQVRWK-ers have atmospheres made of or-ganic compounds and one hasfound to have been almost as old

as the Universe itself!The reason these planets are notconsidered in the solar system is

HD 85512 B: A Possibility of Life?

because they are exosolar plan-ets, as I mentioned before, andhence they lie a couple of light-years from our Solar System.Theclosest star known to host orbit-ing super Earths is Epsilon Eridani(which was discovered in 2000, incase you were wondering) and liesjust over 10 lightyears away from

our Solar System. The two superEarths orbiting it areEpsilon Eridani b and Epsilon Eri-dani c. (I wonder what happenedto Epsilon Eridani a?)Now coming to the most excitingsuper Earth discovered yet, HD85512 b. It was discovered by ateam of scientists lead by St-

phane Udry at University of Ge-neva, Switzerland. The discov-ery was carried out using HARPS(High Accuracy Radial VelocityPlanet Researcher, aka The Plan-HW+XQWHUZKLFKZDVUVW XVHGEDFNLQ2XWRIWKHSODQ-ets discovered recently, Europeanastronomers announced that they

have found 16 super-Earths thatcould potentially support life, as of


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September 2011. And from these16 planets, HD 85512 b has cap-tured the astronomers attention

as it orbits a star (similar to our6XQ DURXQG OLJKW\HDUV DZD\from Earth. With a temperaturesimilar to summers in India, anorbit that lies at a perfect distancefrom its star and a gravitation-al pull which is 1.4 times Earths,HD 85512 bs conditions could beripe enough to support life!The

potential habitable super EarthKDVDPDVVWLPHVWKH(DUWKVand with the current informationscientists are claiming that theFKDQFHVRIWKHPQGLQJVRPHIRUPof life present on the planet arequite likely. Considering the fact ayear on HD 85512 b has only 60days and the temperature is reallyhot, I dont suppose the kids therego to school much.

This rocky planet also serves as asign of hope for all the astrono-mers that were disheartened as

they found out the truth aboutGliese 581 g in the beginning of2011.After investing a fair share ofyears researching on Gliese 581WKH UVW VWDU ZLWK SODQHWV WKDWhad high chances of supportinglife) they realised that they couldreceive a positive response from

Gliese 581 d and Gliese 581 g.Out of these they were countingmuch more on Gliese 581 g as itproved to be almost 100% hab-itable. But all hopes came crash-ing down when The Planet Huntershowed no signs of its existence!Even though they still had Gliese581 d,which was a little less of ahope as compared to Gliese 581g, it was a big disappointment.

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And then came HD 85512 b! Es-tablishing new hope and enthusi-asm in the broken hearted astron-omers. Lisa Kaltnegger, a studyleader of the Harvard-Smithson-

ian Center for Astrophysics, statedHD 85512 b is, with Gl 581 d, thebest candidate for exploring hab-itability to date, a planet on theedge of habitability.(Personally I dont really trustGliese 581 d, I mean it came fromthe same Solar System as Gliese581 g. And all Gliese 581s are thesame, look at how Gliese 581 gpromised wonderful discoveriesand then simply vanished. Nowhow can we say Gliese 581 d wontdo the same?)$VWURQRPHUV UVW EHOLHYHG WKDWGliese 581 g, also known as Gol-dilocks (because the tempera-

ture on the planet was not too hotor not too cold, it was just right!),was the only habitable planet. Butit so happens that our HD 85512b falls in the Goldilocks zone aswell. Recent discoveries show thatit lies just a little closer to its starthan Earth, making it a tad morehotter than our planet.

Even though with our current tech-nologies itll take a million years(without exaggeration) to reachHD 85512 b, or even Gliese 581 dfor that matter, scientists have al-ready attempted to contact Gliese581 back in 2008 by sending highpower transmission using a radiotelescope.

The signals are predicted to reachthe planet by 2029 and the earli-est possible response we might

get is predicted to be in 2049.Finally Id like to say that our

technology is advancing at a greatpace. Scientists may actually in-vent a form of communication orcontact beforewe receive the pre-dicted response in 2049.Whos to say it is impractical?The thought of a connection nowseems unimaginable but a coupleof generations ago so did travel-ling to the moon. Our exception-ally talented astronomers haveinvented impressive machines likethe HARPS that have found superEarths and other Solar Systemsthat lie light years away. Whosto say that they wont be able tobuild a form of communication

linking us to HD 85512 b soon?On the other hand, by the timethis article gets published evenHD 85512 might have vanish.

Ashna SatyajitXII A

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The Big Bang

The universe after the big bang. Although the big bang took placein just a fraction of a second , the explosion was strong enough toVHQGHQHUJ\DQGPDWWHU\LQJRXWDWJUHDWVSHHGLQDOOGLUHFWLRQV.No one is able to explain yet what might , if anything have comebefore the big bang

-25-

$WUVWWKHHQWLUHXQLYHUVH

was a hot ball tinier than anatom and much hotter thanany star. This swelled much,much faster than the speedof light. Growing to the size

of a galaxy in just a tiny frac-tion of a second.

2. As the universe expanded,

it began to cool and tiny par-ticles of energy and matter,each of them much smallerthan the atoms, began to forma thick , soup like material .


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$IWHU DERXW WKUHH PLQXWHVgravity started to pull the par-ticles together. Atoms joinedtogether to make gases such ashydrogen and helium, and thethick soup began to clearand thin out . By the end of thethird minute the matter thatsurrounds us today had beencreated.

Anhad AroraVIII C

4. Over time , as theyoung Universe grewlarger , the gases .clumped into clouds .Af-ter several hundred mil-lion years , the cloudsbegan to form stars andgalaxies.,

Scientists believe that because bothspace and time began with the big bang,there may possibly be no time beforeit occurred

DidYouKnow?


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Dark Energy and Dark Matter

In the early 1990s, one thing

was fairly certain about the ex-pansion of the Universe. It mighthave enough energy density tostop its expansion and re-col-lapse, it might have so little en-ergy density that it would neverstop expanding, but gravity wascertain to slow the expansion astime went on. Granted, the slow-

ing had not been observed, but,theoretically, the Universe had toslow. The Universe is full of matterand the attractive force of grav-ity pulls all matter together. Thencame 1998 and the Hubble SpaceTelescope (HST) observationsof very distant supernovae thatshowed that, a long time ago, the

Universe was actually expandingmore slowly than it is today. Sothe expansion of the Universe hasnot been slowing due to gravity, aseveryone thought, it has been ac-celerating. No one expected this,no one knew how to explain it. Butsomething was causing it.

Universe Dark Energy-1

Expanding UniverseThis diagram reveals changes inthe rate of expansion since theuniverses birth 15 billion yearsago. The more shallow the curve,the faster the rate of expansion.The curve changes noticeablyDERXWELOOLRQ\HDUVDJRZKHQobjects in the universe began

\LQJDSDUWDV D IDVWHU UDWH$V-tronomers theorize that the fasterexpansion rate is due to a mys-terious, dark force that is pullinggalaxies apart.

What is Dark Energy?More is unknown than is known.We know how much dark energy

there is because we know how itaffects the Universes expansion.Other than that, it is a completemystery. But it is an importantmystery. It turns out that roughlyRI WKH8QLYHUVH LV GDUN HQ-ergy. Dark matter makes up about25%. The rest - everything on

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Earth, everything ever observedwith all of our instruments, allnormal matter - adds up to lessthan 5% of the Universe. Cometo think of it, maybe it shouldntbe called normal matter at all,since it is such a small fraction ofthe Universe.One explanation for dark energyis that it is a property of space.$OEHUW (LQVWHLQZDV WKHUVW SHU-son to realize that empty space isnot nothing. Space has amazing

properties, many of which are justbeginning to be understood. TheUVWSURSHUW\WKDW(LQVWHLQGLVFRY-ered is that it is possible for morespace to come into existence. Thenone version of Einsteins gravitytheory, the version that containsa cosmological constant, makes asecond prediction: empty space

can possess its own energy. Be-cause this energy is a propertyof space itself, it would not be di-luted as space expands. As morespace comes into existence, moreof this energy-of-space would ap-pear. As a result, this form of en-ergy would cause the Universe toexpand faster and faster. Unfortu-

nately, no one understands whythe cosmological constant shouldeven be there, much less why itwould have exactly the right valueto cause the observed accelera-tion of the Universe.Another explanation for how spaceacquires energy comes from thequantum theory of matter. In this

theory, empty space is actuallyfull of temporary (virtual) part-

particles that continually form andthen disappear. But when physi-cists tried to calculate how muchenergy this would give emptyspace, the answer came out wrong- wrong by a lot. The number cameout 10120 times too big. Thats a1 with 120 zeros after it. Its hardto get an answer that bad. So themystery continues.A last possibility is that Einsteinstheory of gravity is not correct.That would not only affect the

expansion of the Universe, butit would also affect the way thatnormal matter in galaxies andclusters of galaxies behaved. Thisfact would provide a way to decideif the solution to the dark energyproblem is a new gravity theory ornot: we could observe how galax-ies come together in clusters. But

if it does turn out that a new theo-ry of gravity is needed, what kindof theory would it be? How couldit correctly describe the motion ofthe bodies in the Solar System, asEinsteins theory is known to do,and still give us the different pre-diction for the Universe that weneed? There are candidate theo-

ries, but none are compelling. Sothe mystery continues.The thing that is needed to decidebetween dark energy possibili-ties - a property of space, a newG\QDPLFXLGRUDQHZWKHRU\RIgravity - is more data, better data.

What is Dark Matter?

%\ WWLQJ D WKHRUHWLFDO PRGHO RIthe composition of the Universe to

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the combined set of cosmologi-

cal observations, scientists havecome up with the compositionWKDW ZH GHVFULEHG DERYH adark energy, ~25% dark matter,~5% normal matter. What is darkmatter?We are much more certain whatdark matter is not than we arewhat it is. First, it is dark, meaning

that it is not in the form of starsand planets that we see. Obser-vations show that there is far toolittle visible matter in the Universeto make up the 25% required bythe observations. Second, it is notin the form of dark clouds of nor-mal matter, matter made up ofparticles called baryons. We know

this because we would be able todetect baryonic clouds by theirabsorption of radiation passingthrough them. Third, dark matteris not antimatter, because we donot see the unique gamma raysthat are produced when antimat-ter annihilates with matter. Finally,we can rule out large galaxy-sizedblack holes on the basis of howmany gravitational lenses we see.

High concentrations of matter

bend light passing near them fromobjects further away, but we donot see enough lensing events tosuggest that such objects to makeup the required 25% dark mat-ter contribution. However, at thispoint, there are still a few darkmatter possibilities that are viable.Baryonic matter could still make

up the dark matter if it were alltied up in brown dwarfs or in small,dense chunks of heavy elements.These possibilities are known asmassive compact halo objects, orMACHOs. But the most commonview is that dark matter is notbaryonic at all, but that it is madeup of other, more exotic particles

like axions or WIMPS (Weakly In-teracting Massive Particles)

Ishita MalhotraVI C


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Farewell Old Friend!

Ever since the beginning of hu-mankind, and possibly much be-

fore, there has always been oneentity accompanying our planet.Earths lone natural satellite, themoon, has been a constant sourceof fascination for all beings. Froma childs innocent questions aboutwhy the moon is following him orher to NASA scientists ponderingover its decreased force of grav-

ity, the moon has always beenour gateway to the vast galaxy. Ithas been there from the start andmany believed, would stay till thevery end. However, this idealisticproposition is as far from the truthas it can get.No one can pinpoint the exact datethe moon was formed, or where it

started out in relation to its dis-tance from our Earth. All we knowis that today, the moon is on aver-DJHNLORPHWUHVDZD\Ddistance that it has gradually cov-ered over billions of years. Thoughit might seem like one, it is not amyth that our only moon is drift-

ing away from us. Its passage isslow, but, whether we like it or

not, its steady.This phenomenon has been oc-curring since the time the moonand earth were formed. Neverthe-less, the reasoning behind it hasonly been discovered in the lasthundred years. The tendency ofthe moons orbit to increase (andhence, move farther away from

earth) is related to tidal force.On the side of Earth nearest tothe moon, the moons gravity isthe strongest, while on the sidefurthest from the moon, its theweakest. This variation of gravitystretches the Earth, causing it tobecome a bit oblong. We call theparts that stick out tidal bulges.

Tidal bulges most noticeable ef-fect is that they cause tides on theearths ocean. However, they arecovertly instrumental in anotherprocess as well.Every mass exerts a gravitationalforce. Therefore, the tidal bulgeson the Earth exert a gravitationalpull on the Moon. As the Earth ro-tates faster (once every 24 hours)than the Moon orbits (once everyGD\VWKHEXOJHWULHVWRVSHHGup the Moon, and pull it ahead inits orbit. Paradoxically, the Moonalso pulls back on the tidal bulgeof the Earth, slowing the Earthsrotation. Tidal friction, caused by

the movement of the tidal bulgearound the Earth, takes energyout of the Earth and puts it into


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the Moons orbit, making theMoons orbit larger, but slower.Due to this, not only is the moonmoving away from the Earth, butEarths rotation is slowing downas well. One hundred years fromnow, the day will be 2 milliseconds

longer than it is now. However,this is sadly not the most worryingconsequence of this phenomenon.Even though the rate at which themoon orbits is increasing is onlyaround 4 centimeters per year, inthe future, its rotation will increaseby 40%. The moon will then takeGD\VWRFRPSOHWHRQHURWDWLRQ

This will consequently have ad-verse effects on the earth itself, asthe moon inadvertently stabilizesearths orbit, and its weather. TheEarth will end up with an unbal-anced axis.Though this might seem extreme,this theory is still not the mostdistressing. The most bizarre the-

ory is that the moon is destinedto disintegrate. Logically, as themoon moves away from us, it also

moves closer to the sun at somepoint on its orbit. Hence, when thesun enters its predicted red giantphase, and begins to literally en-gulf the solar system, the moon

ZLOOEHUHGXFHGWRSLHFHVUVW7KHonly ironic reassuring fact is thatwe will not have to live long with-out our moon, as the earth will benext.These theories seem strange andimplausible, but their occurrencein their future is almost certain.However, thankfully, the future I

am talking about, is not tomorrow,next year, or ever in the next cen-tury. The future I am referring toLVYHELOOLRQ\HDUVDZD\DWLPHthat we will never see.

Vani MohindraXII B

DidYouKnow?99% of our solarsystems mass is

concentrated in the sun.


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ISS Envy: Some Breathtaking

Pictures of the Earth!

We envy the international Space Station astronauts with theirwindow on the world offering breathtaking views of the Earth andof the universe as a whole. Outer space may become the nextfrontier for vacations. If that becomes a reality, and we can book aspace hotel with an eye in the sky overlooking Earth . .

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft,docked to the International

Space Station

Normally, we look up atamazing auroras, but

the ISS crew is fortunateenough to have and cap-tures auroras like this to

give us an entirely differentperspective of the phenom-

ena.

:LOGUHVZLWKVPRNHplumes faintly visible in thenight sky of Australia. Thegold / green halo is atmo-spheric airglow hanging

above the horizon.


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Eruption of ClevelandVolcano, Aleutian Islands

ISS shot of Earths Moon.

The Envisat MERISimage over the North Seacaptures numerous aircraft

condensation trails, or

contrails.

Durrat Al Bahrain photo-

graphed by an Expedition26 crew member on the

International SpaceStation.


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The Planets of Our Solar System

MercuryOne year of Mercury is one and ahalf days long due to its proximityto the sun.The asteroids hit the planet be-cause it has almost no atmosphereto protect it. Because Mercury hasalmost no atmosphere, its temper-ature change from night to day isover 1,000 degrees.

VenusTemperatures on Venus can riseto 460 C. And there are thick

clouds of sulfur dioxide on Venusthat rain down sulfuric acid.,WWDNHV9HQXVGD\VWRPDNHa rotation, and 224 days for it tomake a revolution around the Sun.That means a day is longer than ayear on Venus!Venus rotates backwards com-pared to other planets!

EarthIf you could evaporate all thewater out of all the oceans andspread the resulting salt over allthe land on Earth, you would haveDYHKXQGUHGIRRW OD\HUFRDWLQJ

everything. Earth weighs about 6,588,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons

Interesting Facts!


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MarsMars appears red because its cov-ered in rust!Mars has the tallest volcano in theSolar System, Olympus Mons, and

it is 15 miles high, which is aboutthree times the height of MountEverest.

JupiterJupiter technically has no surface

as it is entirely made out of gas.Jupiter can be seen without a tele-scope because of its huge size.The gravitational pull of the planetis so high that anything and ev-erything that passes the planetsgets pulled towards it.7KHSODQHWKDVPRRQVDQGLWLVthe fastest spinning planet of the

solar system.

SaturnYou cannot stand on Saturn. Itis not like Earth. Saturn is mademostly of gases. It has a lot of he-lium. This is the same kind of gasthat you put in balloons.Its beautiful rings are not solid.They are made up of bits of ice,dust and rock.Saturn goes around the Sun veryslowly. A year on Saturn is morethan 29 Earth years.


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UranusUranus is the coldest planet in theSolar System.Summer on Uranuslasts one long day 42 years.

8UDQXVZDVWKHUVWSODQHWGLVFRY-ered in the modern age Only onespacecraft in the history of space-LJKWKDVHYHUPDGHDFORVHDS-proach to Uranus. NASAs Voyager2 zipped pass Uranus in January,1986, coming within 81,000 km ofthe surface of Uranus.

NeptuneScientists believe Neptune has ahot, rocky core about the size ofEarth. It is covered with an oceanof water and other chemicals. Theatmosphere is mainly hydrogenand helium. Neptune probably gets

as much heat from its central coreas it does from the Sun. However,the average surface temperature isRQO\ GHJUHHV IDKUHQKHLW 7KDWis very cold.

DidYouKnow?The Sun provides our planet with126,000,000,000,000 horsepower of energy ev-ery day. This means that 54,000 horsepower isdelivered to every man, woman and child on earthin each twenty four hour period. This amount ofenergy equals only about two billionths of the to-tal energy broadcast into our solar system by the

Sun each day.


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Antimatter: Destroyer or Saviour?

Antimatter is simply a form of mat-ter in which each particle (elec-tron/proton) has the opposite setof quantum properties than itscounterpart. When such a particlemeets its counterpart, they anni-hilate converting all of their restmass into energy in line with: E =mc^2. As all the mass is convert-ed into pure energy, its discovery

led to fear of its consequences.Even though the quantities it isproduced in in research instituteslike CERN are meagre, its viabil-ity and application has been de-EDWHGLQWKHVFLHQWLFFRPPXQLW\for long.The scarcity of antimatter meansthat it is not readily available for

use as fuel. However, it could beused in antimatter catalysed nu-clear propulsion for space appli-cations. The cost of antimatter isestimated at $2.5 million/gram,making it a very cost-effective fuelas just one milligram is enough topropel a rocket to Pluto and backin a year. Furthermore, antimat-

ter is routinely used in medicine toreveal the processes of the bodyat work in the form of positrons,which are produced by a tracermolecule introduced into the bodywhich can highlight different met-abolic processes and reveal loca-tion of tumours or molecular dock-ing sites for messenger chemicals

like serotonin and dopamine. Thestudy of antiprotons reveals thatone of the biggest evils: cancer

can be treated by antimatter.This is an encouraging result as itmeans that cancer patients treat-ed with antiprotons would onlyneed to receive a smaller dose ofradiation.However, the dark side to its usemakes us question its viability.Due to the high energy releasedin matter-antimatter interactions,

it might have military applicationseither as explosive or triggeringnuclear fusion weapons. Quanti-ties measured in grams will be re-quired to achieve destructive ef-fect comparable with conventionalnuclear weapons; one gram ofantimatter annihilating with onegram of matter produces 180 ter-

ajoules, the equivalent of 42.96NLORWRQVRI717DSSUR[LPDWHO\times the bomb dropped on Hiro-shima!) . Containment of such aweapon is of huge concern as anyfailure would immediately resultin energy release, damaging thecontainment system and causingthe weapon to explode at some

very substantial fraction of


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Containment of such a weapon is ofhuge concern as any failure wouldimmediately result in energy re-lease, damaging the containmentsystem and causing the weapon

to explode at some very substan-tial fraction of its full yield. Eventhough these weapons would leadto less long-term contamination,the technical barriers to producingand storing even small amounts ofantimatter remain formidable.Like everything else, this revolu-tionary discovery also has its pros

and cons. While its large energyrelease can power an average cityfor an extensive period of time,its explosion can lead to mass de-struction, causing great loss tolife and property. Given its variousadvantages, it can indeed proveto be a saviour if it is accompa-

nied with development in technol-ogies of producing and storing it.Furthermore, it should fall only ingood hands to ensure it is put inJRRGXVHWKDWEHQHWVRXUVRFLHW\

and environment sustainably.

Nivedita DwivediXII B

?PMV I \PQZL OZILMZ _I[I[SML\WKQ\M6M_\WV[Z[\

law,shesaid,Bodiesinmo-\QWVZMUIQVQVUW\QWVIVLJWLQM[I\ZM[\[\IaQVJML]VTM[[ \PMQZ UW\PMZ[ KITT

\PMU\WOM\]X


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The Time Traveller

2QFHFRQQHGWRIDQWDV\DQGVFLHQFHFWLRQWLPHWUDYHOLVQRZVLPSO\DQHQJLQHHULQJSUREOHP0LFKLR.DNX6FLHQWLF$PHULFDQ

Time Travel- scientists all over theworld have been researching ex-tensively to unearth this mystery,but the question remains-Is TimeTravel actually possible?I believe so, especially since this

CONCEPT is being reinforced bythe work of Dr. Dr. Ronald Mallett.Ronald Mallet was only 10 yearsold when his father ,whom he wor-

shipped, died quite suddenly. Thisgrievous incident coupled with hisreading The Time Machine by H.G.Wells, inspired initial thoughts ofinventing a time machine in Ron-ald Mallett as he harboured thefantasy of travelling back in timein order to save his fathers life.Now after many years of arduous

research, his dream is on its wayto become a reality. Dr. RonaldMallett is a renowned professor ofPhysics at the University of Conn-

eticut and may be on the verge ofbuilding a REAL time travel ma-chine.Professor Malletts brilliant idea in-volves twisting time using a num-ber of Einsteins theories. Accord-ing to Einstein, the space aroundus is connected with time, sowhatever you do to space will alsoaffect time. Hence manipulating

space will manipulate time, in oth-er words, theoretically one couldtravel through time in the sameway one walks through space.We have learned that time is astraight line.

Past Present Future

Dr. Malletts idea required him totwist time, which is presently astraight line, into a loop. This canbe done by generating an extre-


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me amount of gravity. Thereforea pathway for moving backwardsand forwards through time iscreated.

Past

Future

Present

Dr. Mallett studied black holes ingreat detail. Black holes are mas-sive remnants of collapsed stars,which have an almost unmatchedgravitational power which distortspace and time, which is exactly

what he required.

How would Dr. Mallett create some-thing containing such an enormousamount of matter in a lab?According to Einsteins theory ofrelativity e=mc2, matter and en-ergy are just different forms of thesame thing. Therefore light, which

is a form of energy, should be ableto warp space and time in the sameway a gigantic object does. FromEinsteins theories, one knows thatlight can create gravity and sincegravity can warp space and time,light should also be able to warpspace and time. This is what Dr.Malletts work is based on. Hencehe decided to use a circulating la-ser beam, a powerful form of light,

to follow through with his idea.Dr. Malletts convincing project,now called The Space-time Twist-

ing by Light (STL) project requiresIXQGLQJ7KHUVWWLPHWUDYHOOHUZLOOobviously have to be somethingmuch smaller than a human beingso the project entails a devised ex-periment to observe a time travel-ling neutron in a circulating beam.The only drawback is that a bodycan only go back in time until the

time machines switched on, notbefore that. Although his teamstill requires funding for the proj-HFW0DOOHWWFODULHVWKDWKHZLOOEHable to determine the possibilityof time travel using this methodwithin a decade. Even though onlysmall pieces of information will beable to be sent in the starting, you

can imagine what it can facilitate.Dr. Mallett has written a book on


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-44-

his life and work, called TimeTraveller, A scientists personalmission to make time travel a re-ality and a movie (documentary),which is already in the making.

Abhinav RaiXII A

Faster Than the

Speed of LightOne of the greatest physicists oncestated that no object with a masscan travel faster than the speed oflight. Albert Einstein in his theoryof relativity proved this and statedWKDWVXFKDQREMHFWQHHGVLQQLWHenergy to accelerate to this speed.In recent studies and experimentshowever, it has been discoveredthat a subatomic particle like a neu-WULQRFDQGRVRLQDQLWHDPRXQWof energy. A neutrino is actually avery small piece of matter. Its sosmall that it wasnt even discov-ered until 1956. Neutrinos unlikeprotons, neutrons and electrons

are not made up of Quarks, (whichmainly make up most particles ofmatter) they fall under a category

called Leptons. Leptons andQuarks together then constitutePDWWHU7KHUHDUHWKUHHDYRUVof neutrinos: electron, muonand tau. Neutrinos are basicallyelectrically neutral and weaklyinteracting subatomic particleswith very minute non-zero mass.It is able to pass through ordi-nary matter almost unaffectedand can therefore reach up toYHU\KLJKVSHHGV,WZDVUVWDV-sumed that neutrinos travelledat the speed of light and various

theories suggested that a neu-trino might have a tachyonic na-ture contradicting Einsteins the-RU\1HXWULQRVVSHHGVZHUHUVWmeasured in the early 1980s us-ing pulse pions which were pro-duced by pulse proton beams hit-ting a target. Once the beams hittheir target, the pions decayed

producing several neutrinos andtheir interactions set them off athigh speeds which changed theirbehavior making it distinct fromthe relativistic one allowing themWRUHDFKWKHVSHHGRIOLJKWDW-nite energy.

Inventor, Dr. Jeffrey Olsen,has invented a technologyIRU LPSURYLQJ OLJKW DPSOL-

cation in our eyes. He usesnanotechnology to implantquantum dots into the retina,which makes images brighter

and clear.

DidYouKnow?


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The Next Giant Leap For MankindWinner of the Science Essay Prize 2011

Category 11-12

Dark matter is truly one of thevery important topics that hashad scientists minds boggled forquite a while. This matter canplay a huge role in helping usform the Theory of everything.It can help us understand the BigBang, the creation of the universe

and many other things extremelyimportant to science and technol-RJ\EXWUVWDQGIRUHPRVW:KDWis Dark Matter?Dark Matter is, unlike what itsname suggests more than justmatter that is dark. It is a type ofmatter that exists alongside ordi-QDU\PDWWHUEXWLWQHLWKHUUHHFWV,refracts or scatters light and doesnot respond to electromagneticradiation either. The existence ofdark matter was prophesized byscientists when they realized thatthe mass of all the ordinary mat-ter in the universe did not equalthe calculated mass of the uni-verse .In fact, ordinary matterDFFRXQWVIRURQO\SHUFHQWRIall the matter in the universe.If we look around us we realizethat everything around us is madeof matter, the books we read, thefood we eat, the car we drive in,everything, including ourselves ismatter. If we now consider that

ZHDUHRQO\EHLQJDEOHWRXVHper cent of all the matter aroundus, it makes us wonder what kindof potential lies with the remaini-

QJSHUFHQW(LWKHUE\FRQYHUW-ing dark matter into matter or byunderstanding the properties ofdark matter itself, the possibili-ties would be endless, which iswhy I feel that the understandingof dark matter would truly be thenext giant leap for mankind.

But to do so, we will have to un-derstand how the theory of darkmatter came about. Dark matterZDVGLVFRYHUHG LQ E\ )ULW]Zwicky.Zwicky found that the speed ofrotation of galaxies, caused dueto gravitational forces within thegalaxy, was not on terms with theamount of mass contained withinthe galaxy. Hence, either New-tons Gravitational Constant wasnot in fact constant at the galac-tic scale or there was more massin the galaxy than what was visi-ble. According to Zwicky, the darkhalo at the centre of the galaxywas where most of this dark mat-ter was concentrated.A study by Vera Rubins at theCarnegie Institute of WashingtonLQWKHVDQGV IXUWKHUconsolidated Zwickys observa-tions that dark matter was indeedpresent around us.Following this many scientists

carried out hunts for dark matter,in the universe and quite a few ofthem were successful, in thisattempt.


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they predicted that the remainingmass was contained in the 4th or5th dimension, that couldnt re-ally be seen.But one discovery astounded

them all, that of Abell 2029, a gal-axy that scientists calculated con-tained dark matter equal to themass of 1014 suns. When theycalculated the rotational velocityof the galaxy, they found that itheld good with dark matter ob-servations. This announced scoreone for dark matter and zero for

skeptics.Dark matters existence has tru-ly been proved, which makes uswonder at the immensity of thefact that matter equivalent toPRUHWKDQWLPHVWKHPDWWHUYLV-ible around us may soon be avail-able for use. The possibilities ofsuch a situation, would truly be

immense, almost endless, andwould help us on the quest to etchour dominance over the otherplanets and galaxies. It would beDWUXO\UHGHQLQJPRPHQWLQWKHhistory of our universe, that couldhave implications well beyond ourwildest imaginations. Maybe evenbring about an era of colonization

of nearby planets and discoveryof galaxies with life, like our ownplanet Earth. The understandingof Dark Matter would truly be agiant leap for mankind.

Pihu Yadav

They began to imagine the possi-bility of dark matter being tappedinto as a potential resource. Manyof them predicted the propertiesof dark matter through variousQGLQJV$FFRUGLQJ WRPDQ\VFL-entists, dark matter could reduceour dependence on fossil fuels,as it had the potential to be used

as a source of energy. Many evenfelt that dark matter could pavethe way for intergalactic travel.All in all, scientists agreed thatWKHUHPDLQLQJSHUFHQWRIWKHmass of the universe , essentiallydark matter, could lead to hugeadvancements in science andtechnology, and may even be the

biggest discovery, even in the his-tory of mankind.Despite all of this, dark matterhad its fair share of skeptics whodidnt believe that the missingmass of galaxies could be attrib-uted to dark matter. Some be-lieved that the laws of gravitationwere incorrect, while others felt

that the difference was becauseof the fact that every object pos-VHVVHVPRUHWKDQGLPHQVLRQV


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Its Terrafugia-cally Amazing!

,WVDFDUWKDWLHV

No way, get out of here! I dont believe you.

I swear its true!Stop pulling my leg! Its not funny anymore.But its true!

And indeed it is. Terrafugias award-winning MIT scientists have come upwith technology that can now stream-OLQHRQHV \LQJ H[SHULHQFH ZLWK WKHrevolutionary integration of personalland and air travel made possible by

the Transition Roadable Aircraft.3ULFHGDWDEDVHSULFHRIWKLVWHFKQRORJLFDOPDUYHOFRVWVOHVVWKDQWKHQHZ/DPEKRUJLQLPRGHO,WVVSHHGRQWHUUDUPDUHDFKHVXSto 65 miles per hour (105 km/hour), rivalling the Italian sports car. Butthe real excitement lies once you extend the vehicles gull wings youare requested to do this at an airport only and experience the spec-WDFXODUFUXLVLQJLJKWVSHHGRIPLOHVSHUKRXUNPKRXURQunleaded gasoline for 500 miles.

Max, Vh:Cruise, Vc:Stall, Vs:Range:Takeoff:

Gross Take of Weight:Empty Weight:Useful Load:

Fuel burn at cruise:Useable Fuel:Mileage on road:

100 kts (115 mph, 185 km/h)NWVPSKNPKNWVPSKNPKQPLPLNPPRYHUREVWDFOH

OEVNJOEVNJ460 lbs (210 kg)

5 gph (18.9 L/h)JDO/PSJNP/

5HDUZKHHOGULYHRQWKHJURXQG$XWRPRWLYHVW\OHHQWU\DQGH[LW$XWRPDWHGHOHFWURPHFKDQLFDOIROGLQJZLQJ1RWUDLOHURUKDQJDUQHHGHGFDQWLQJDUDJH

&DUJRDUHDKROGVJROIFOXEV


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-49-

Driving:80 (2m) tallPZLGH18 9 (6m) long

Flying:PWDOO26 6 (8m) wingspan19 9 (6m) long

Cockpit:48 at the shoulderCarry-on luggage

Golf clubsTwo place, side-by-side

Safety 'ULYHLQFDVHRILQFOHPHQWZHDWKHU 3URYHQKS5RWD[8/6HQJLQH )XOOYHKLFOHSDUDFKXWHDYDLODEOH 0RGHUQJODVVDYLRQLFV

$XWRPRWLYHFUDVKVDIHW\IHDWXUHV 7UDLQLQJ6SRUWV3LORWLQKRXUVRILJKWWLPHRUKLJKHU

Who wouldve thought cars to be king of skies?:KRZRXOGYHGDUHGWRQGVROXWLRQVWRWKH:K\V"Only with Science will the impossible become boring, (bring)You never know when your dream might become the next bigthing!

Aditi BanerjeeXII C


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-50-

As humans take on the challengeof the impending global energycrisis, the great search for the holygrail of renewable energy is in thezenith of its existence. Scientistsall over the world are contributing

both wisdom and sweat to relieveour planet from the pressures ourgreedy and exponentially grow-ing race puts on it, and contributeWRDQHZJHQHUDWLRQRIQDQFLDOO\feasible, eco-friendly and univer-sally accessible energy produc-tion technology.As a budding enthusiast of both

science and economics, I wasvery intrigued by the idea of newenergy sources, which not onlyproduced renewable energy, butDOVRVDWLVHGWKHFULWHULDRIHFR-nomic feasibility. Not only doesthe technology have to be a gooddeal for our money, but it beingubiquitous is also essential to

prevent worldwide disparities inenergy availability if it is used inthe future. In my constant quest

to read or surf the net and learn

about new developments thatwere coming closer and closerWR IXOOOLQJ WKHVH GHPDQGV RQHtechnology that really impressedme, and got me thinking, wasPiezoelectric energy generation.

Its a known fact that massiveamounts of mechanical energy go

waste when millions of vehiclesmove on roads. In what way? Theenergy consumed by the vehicle(sourced in the fuel combustion)is utili

Documents

VVS Science Magazine 2012 (ONE)