Discovery Discovered

Discovery : Tomb of Ancient Egyptian Female singer - 3,000 Years Old

2012-01-18T09:01:00.000-08:00

Archaeologists have reported that they have discovered a tomb of an ancient Egyptian female singer, which dates back to around 3,000 years. The antiquities minister Mohammed Ibrahim Ali said on Sunday, January 15, 2012 that the discovery was made in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. This finding is considered as one of the rarest discoveries of its kind, and according to the antiquities minister Ibrahim Ali, this finding has been made accidentally by a team of expert archeologists from Switzerland's Basel University in Karnak, situated near Luxor in Upper Egypt. This team was led by a couple of experts, Elena Pauline-Grothe and Susanne Bickel.

According to the information inscribed on the wood plaque that was found in the singer's tomb, the woman, who used to be called "Nehmes Bastet" was a singer for the deity "Amon Ra", during Twenty-Second Dynasty (945-712 BC). Based on the researched information, Mr. Mohammed Ali stated that the singer, "Nehmes Bastet" was the daughter of high priest of "Amon Ra". Minister Mohammed Ibrahim said, "it shows that the Valley of the Kings was also used for the burial of ordinary individuals and priests of the Twenty-Second Dynasty." This fact was practically unknown, but there are good chances that archeologists may discover much more in the Valley of the Kings. This discovery is hence very significant. Till date the tombs that have been discovered in the valley were of those , who had been somehow linked to the royal families of ancient Egypt.

The tomb of a female singer dating back almost 3,000 years (AFP: SCA)

World's First Website

2011-12-28T08:22:00.000-08:00

There have been a lot of talks about discoveries and inventions all around the globe. Here's another one, and that's going to be a real interesting topic for sure. Yes... World's First Website! I am sure everybody who are
reading this has one or more Facebook profile(s), Twitter accounts, blogs etc. I can hardly find anyone who has not heard of Google, Yahoo, Bing, AOL etc. Have you ever spared a thought on World's first website or have you ever visited it? Well the history's recalled here...

It wasn't until the year 1989 that the main idea of World Wide Web (WWW) was proposed by Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee (born 8 June 1955), OM, KBE, FRS, FREng, FRSA, also known as "TimBL" - a British computer scientist, MIT professor. Tim Berners-Lee proposed it to persuade CERN - (the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which is considered as the world's largest particle physics laboratory) - that a global hypertext system would be in the organization's best interest. One most interesting
fact about WWW is that professor TimBL never mentioned the phrase World Wide Web in his proposal. He had mentioned the term "Mesh" instead, but the term WWW happened to coin as he was working on preparing the code in the year 1990 - much like an accident!

The year 1990 created a buzz all across the globe through media through bringing in a world wide revolution. Professor Tim Berners-Lee finished off his codding for WWW in the year 1990, on the basis of his proposal. Alongside he also set the standard for HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language - not a programing language), HTTP (The Hypertext Transfer Protocol - an application protocol for collaborative and hypermedia information systems, and is considered as the base of WWW.), URL (Uniform Resource Locator, which is a specific character string acting as a unique reference to a resource on the Internet.)

AND... in the year 1991 the world's first website ever had been created and the URL was http://info.cern.ch. The world's first textual content on the first website encompassed explanation of the World Wide Web (WWW).

A bit about professor Berners-Lee

Currently Sir Berners-Lee acts as the director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C - www.w3c.org) - an global community that develops open standards to ensure a steady and healthy growth of the Web. Professor Berners-Lee is also the founder of the World Wide Web Foundation, and is a senior researcher and holder of the 3Com Founders Chair at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). He also holds the position of the director of The Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI), and
a member of the advisory board of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence.

In the year 2004 Queen Elizabeth II had honored him with the title "KNIGHT" for his unparalleled contribution. Sir Berners-Lee had been elected as a foreign associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences, based in Washington, D.C in the year 2009.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2011-12-24T07:05:00.000-08:00

"Discovery Discovered" wishes you a Merry Christmas. May you and your loved ones be showered by happiness, peace and fun in the New Year to come. Let me also wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. I am really honored to have such nice readers like you. I wish all the teachers, students and parents to great time ahead! Thank you...

Presence of Ghost and Einstein's Theory on Conservation of Energy

2011-11-15T04:36:00.000-08:00

Here’s something that I have been thinking for long! I am not too sure if I believe in ghost. But I believe in energy and if I believe that energy cannot be created, nor destroyed; it can only be transformed, then I think I should believe in something that exist after my death, as my energy would be transformed into…

There are many organizations and groups carrying amateur research on ghosts. They believe in the presence of Ghost, in act. But for people like you and me – I mean people those who are a bit more inclined towards the modern science – the evidence for the presence of ghosts is a bit confusing. Despite years of experimentation by ghosts hunters, we do not have any solid proof of the presence of ghostly energy yet still. Most scientifically inclined believers of ghosts believe that the proof of the existence of ghosts has been well supported by Einstein’s theory in Modern physics! Many ghost hunters believe that Albert Einstein – one of the great scientists of all time had laid the logical base for the presence of ghostly energy.

Very recently a Google search exhibited around 8 million results on its Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) suggesting the link between the presence of ghost and Einstein’s research work that covers the “Conservation of Energy” that concludes “energy can neither be created, nor be destroyed; it can only be transformed.” Many leading ghost researchers have repeatedly mentioned Einstein’s theory on “Conservation of Energy”. For instance, in his book - "Ghosthunters" (2007, New Page Books), John Kachuba mentioned, "Einstein proved that all the energy of the universe is constant and that it can neither be created nor destroyed. ... So what happens to that energy when we die? If it cannot be destroyed, it must then, according to Dr. Einstein, be transformed into another form of energy. What is that new energy? ... Could we call that new creation a ghost?"

Another renowned group called Tri County Paranormal states, "Albert Einstein said that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only change from one form to another. When we are alive, we have electrical energy in our bodies. ... What happens to the electricity that was in our body, causing our heart to beat and making our breathing possible? There is no easy answer to that."

The truth unleashed here!

Yes… Energy is neither created… nor destroyed; it can only be transformed. When I shall die my energy (which is too negligible as compared to the overall energy of the environment) goes out to the environment. Should I be buried or burnt my energy would be transformed into heat or light. If I die amidst the wood, and if there wouldn’t be anyone of bury me or burn me, I will be eaten by the wild, may be the maggots, or worms and bacteria for sure. My energy will be transferred to them, very much like when we eat veggies. The energy stored into the cabbage or carrots are transferred in you, when you eat it. When we eat meat, the food is metabolized as it gets digested. The Chemical reaction that happens within us releases energy which we use for our living.

Mysterious Lines Discovered in the Chinese Desert

2011-11-15T03:12:00.000-08:00

The credit of this image goes to Google Map. A network of a strange tangles of while mysterious lines have been discovered in China's Desert. New satellite photos have appeared in the Google map, showing unidentified linear structures in the middle of the China’s desert. What are these lines? The news has created a sensational buzz across the web. Big brains are wondering who would have made them and why have these tangles of white lines been made! Are they some gigantic structures that China has been building in the middle of the desert? The location is in Dunhuang, Jiuquan, Gansu, north of the Shule River that crosses the Tibetan Plateau to the west into the Kumtag Desert. The total coverage area of white lines stretches approximately one mile long and over 3,000 feet in width.

Seemingly made of huge metallic stripes, this could be the dust that has been dug by machinery. The tracks are neatly executed, and they seem to be designed to be seen from the orbit. While examining this mysterious lines ni the desert of China a few things have been cleared off. Firstly, the image doesn’t represent any “structure”. The photographed lines are flat as if they are roadways entangled with each other. The lines may appear as if they are formed by sand blown over them in places, which suggests that they have indeed smooth surface, most likely that they are low to the ground.

Similar lines had been discovered called “Nazca Lines”, in the Atacama desert of Peru. The fact that the lines are visible only from a great height, doesn’t mean that they were created to be seen from the orbit.

Amazing Discovery - Four-eared Dog Discovered in China

2011-08-27T01:21:00.000-07:00

A Four-eared small Dog has been discovered in China, a land that is blessed with waves of unusuals.

The news of this amazing discovery o the four-eared small Dog has created a buzz across the world wide web, thereafter sparking debates all around the Internet. While some consider it as matted fur built up, some are taking it as tangled coat made by the owner. Many other obviously have used their scientific brains, saying if we can have 6 fingers, it is also possible to have animals with extra organs, which can make a pooch like Shun Shun a dog of news.

The owner, Peng Qiang, from Wulumuqi, Xinjiang province, said the dog was taken from one of his friends, around a year ago. Peng explained: "Originally we didn't spot any difference until six months ago when he started to grow another pair of ears behind the original ears."

Pang says that his family did not spare any attention on this during her early age, but with the passage of time the extra pair of ears started growing longer right behind the original ones. The extra ears are around 10cm in length.

Shun Shun s a beloved member of the family. His favorite foods are tomatoes and watermelon.

25,000-year-old Stone Pendant Discovered in Spain

2011-08-11T05:03:00.000-07:00

25,000 years old oblong pendant with perforation at on end

One more news of interesting discovery... 25,000-year-old Pendant discovered and excavated safely in Basque region of Northern Spain.

Yes... once more! A group of archaeologists from the Sociedad Aranzadi in the Irikaitz dig near the town of Zestoa in Gipuzkoa, Basque region of Northern Spain has discovered a pendant which is supposed to be around 25,000 years old. Alvaro Arrizabalaga, who had been directing the excavation stated that the pendant was even older than all the other articles discovered so far in the Praileaitz cave, estimating to be around 15,000 years old.

This 25,000 years old pendant, which was oval and elongated shaped and around 4 inches long was discovered perforated at an end and was probably wore by the person round his/her neck, hung from a cord. The director of the excavation, Arrizabalaga also said that the other end of the stone pendant was used as a tool to retouch the edges of weapons such as arrows, scrapers etc. Interestingly there were around "some 20 pieces from this same epoch" that were discovered on the Iberian peninsula till date - all been discovered in caves.

Director Arrizabalaga said, "the piece is very well preserved and we've been lucky to be able to remove it without damaging it in any way." According to him the 25,000 years old stone pendant did not need any more restoration, and after the experts' study no the article would be over it would included in the collection of "Cromagnon discoveries" found at the site. Finally the pendant would be kept in a public museum.

The Irikaitz dig near the town of Zestoa in Gipuzkoa, Basque Country, where this team of hugely experienced archaeologists started working in the year 1998, is known for being the site of discoveries of things up to around 250,000 years old, a timeline when the forerunner of Homo sapiens (us) had been into existence. "Twenty-five thousand years ago, human beings of our species (Homo sapiens) had come to this place that functioned as a hunting place for wandering groups... they moved eight times per year to zones where there were specific types of resources" stated the dig leader Alvaro Arrizabalaga.

216 Kleopatra - The Unusual Dog Bone Shape Astoroid Discovered

2011-07-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

On 2000 May 10, an asteroid -

, which is almost of the size of New Jersey has been discovered. What's most interesting about it is that this asteroid has a very unusual shaped 0- the shape of a dog bone. It orbits the Sun between the planets Mars and Jupiter. 216 Kleopatra - the dog bone shaped asteroid had been mapped with Earth-based radar, reflects back the radio waves so well that astronomers could assume that it is composed mostly of metals such as nickel and iron. The unusual dog bone shape and the unique composition of 216 Kleopatra could have been resulted from the central regions of a tremendous collision between larger asteroids billions of years ago. Kleopatra - the dog bone shaped asteroid, according to the astronomers is not completely solid. The surface is made of loosely consolidated rubble, although its core may contain large solid-metal lodes.

Good news is that the Astronomers said that 216 Kleopatra will never collide with the Earth, rather it may serve as one of the most important sources of raw building materials - may be sometimes in the future.

Note: Credits for the images go to Stephen Ostro et al. (JPL), Arecibo Radio Telescope, NSF, NASA

Running with time

2011-04-17T21:37:00.001-07:00

I do not think I can ever run out of things to do. Assignments are getting piled up one over the other. Well... this sounds good 'coz my brain is never empty to think about unimportant, valueless stuff, but works sometimes eat away my life, on the other level! So buddies, I may get into hibernation for the next few days. Stay tuned... will come up again with something really interesting!

America Hunts for the Next Top Young Scientist - 2011

2011-03-31T23:49:00.000-07:00

Howdy buddies? Today's April 1, and I promise to make no joke here. I intended to flash this news on the 1st day of April, 2011, about the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge. No prank... be serious... my heartfelt good luck to all of you!

So here's again the great opportunity to proof your worth! Yess... the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge is coming up on April 15, 2011. This is the premier national science competition for students between grades 5 to 8. The Scientist Challenge competition has been designed to encourage young intellectuals to explore science and innovation amongst the youth of America. This in turn will help promote the importance of science communication.

Here's just a brief and rapid eyewash on the history of Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge

During 1999, Discovery Communications had launched a competition to nourish the next generation scientists of America. Most interestingly Discovery Communications had selected this age group (standard 5-8), because at this age the interest in science and scientific activities start diminishing.

In the year 2008 3M got hooked up with Discovery Education with a common cause of nurturing the nex-gen US scientists. They jointly introduced an innovative and interactive science program for the middle school students of America. Since then over the tenure of the last decade, more than 600,000 middle school students have been nominated to participate in the Scientist Challenge competition. Winners have been given opportunities to speak before the members of Congress. this is not the end of the story...
The winners have gone to work with the top scientists of America and pursue their academic careers in the field of sciences.

So get yourself groomed up, and be at it! Let the scientist within you come out to work for a better future for the world!

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All the best and God Bless!

How Hot is Mercury?

2011-03-25T01:34:00.000-07:00

Back in December 2008, I had made a post about how cold is Pluto here on this blog! I get hits to this post still today, which made me wonder how intensely people are interested to know about the other planets. Well... I am of no exception! My post on how cold is pluto has been a big hit on this blog. Seeing this I started to make a bit of research work across the web and a few other sources like magazines, books and encyclopedias etc. to know more about Mercury. Here's now how hot is murcury :) Read on...

Being a planet closest to the sun, Murcury is known to be the hotest of all planets in the solar system... known fact! But how hot is it? Incredibly hot? Blisteringly hot? Blazingly hot? Or is it even more than what you can think of? Adjectives do not always work well while explaining certain things!

Bare Fats About Mercury

Mercury is lack in significant atmosphere, which acts as the blanket on a planet. Since in case of Mercury the atmosphere is abent, it receives the full heat generated by the sun. I used to think that the planet Mercury is hot in totality, which after coming across certain documentations of researchers, has proved to be a wrong notion.

Researchers say, only the side of the planet Mercury that faces the Sun is hot. The opposite side, facing off the Sun, is almost as cold as space itself.

Like our planet - Earth, Mercury rotates. The face of Mercury facing the sun is always changing and it takes over 58 days to complete a single day. So the temperature changes according to planet's portion facing the sun. Researchers have discovered that every single part on Mercury receives 6.5 times as much sunlight as the same spot on the Earth.

At the hottest point of Mercury, temperature may rise as high as 700 Kelvin (430 °C) for the regions directly facing the Sun, while its opposite side can get down to 110 Kelvin (-163 °C). The absolute coldest regions of Mercury are the darker regions of the planet’s polar craters. These are parts of this planet that that never face sun, and the planet's surface temperature gets as low as 90 Kelvin (-183 °C).

Hence, the average temperature of this planet is around 452 Kelvin (179 °C).

Quite interestingly, the planetary scientists are hoping to find evidence of water ice in these shadowed craters of the planet. They hope that if water at all exist on mercury it might have been existed on Mercury for millions of years, because these parts are protected from the blazing Sun.

Earth's Lowest Point on Land

2011-03-24T22:05:00.000-07:00

The lowest point of the Earth discovered - the shore of Dead Sea.

With about 9 times more saline than any other oceans on this planet, Dead sea has been aptly name, as no life has been able to survive there, except of a few - too few hardy bacteria. Dead Sea has been considered to be one of the most extreme habitat on this planet. While on a project to discover life under Dead Sea, a researcher Dr. Joseph Lati said,"No one can answer for sure what the response of nature to the mixing will be." He added, "We have to go very carefully with this project until we know more about the biological and chemical effects. There might be micro-impacts that we don't know about until they hit us."

Howbeit, this was just a bit about the mystic Dead Sea. This post is all about probably one of the most interesting discoveries ever! Yes... The lowest point of our Earth. The shore of the Dead Sea has been scientifically determined to be around 1,400 feet (nearly 420 meters) below sea level, which marks it as the planet's lowest point on land.

Documentations have been brought forth with the evidence that the lowest point of the Earth on land is the Dead Sea that borders Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. The Dead Sea is sitting above the Dead Sea Rift, which is a tectonic fault line between the Arabian and the African plates. The occasional movement of these plates causes the Dead Sea dip down nearly 1 meter down each year. Historians have researched out that the Dead Sea used to be linked to the Mediterranean Sea in the past. Over a geologic time scale, the Dead Sea got de-linked from the Mediterranean Sea, gradually got evaporated, which concentrated the salt in the water. The Result is... today Dead Sea is 30 to 31 percent mineral salts.

On the other hand, if we delve deeper into the lowest point issue, we will come up with a different conclusion altogether. Lowest point on the crust of the Earth has been discovered to be the Mariana’s Trench in the North Pacific Ocean. The Mariana’s Trench that is considered as the lowest point of the crust of our planet is around 11 kilometers deep. Like the other deep extremes of the Earth, the Mariana’s Trench also is the consequence of Pacific tectonic plate's subduction beneath the Philippine plate. By this I mean that the Pacific Plate is slowly sliding underneath the Philippine plate, and it causes the Mariana’s Trench shrink down, because the particular point where the Philippine plate overlaps is the Mariana’s Trench.

Deep-sea discoveries off Canada's coast

2011-03-09T00:31:00.000-08:00

In the year 2010, a group of researchers has got the first rare glimpse of of a marine life in the North Atlantic. They have used a high-tech robotic camera to discover this marine life that, they claim, could give a more in depth clue about the ecosystem of the under-sea world and the climate thereby some 1,000 years back. The submersible robot camera had been operated by the crew aboard the Canadian Coast Guard ship Hudson. This hi-tech underwater, robotic camera enabled the crew to reach around 500 meters deeper than they had reached ever before.

The submersible robotic camera sent deep under the see by the scientists returned back amazing images of tulip-shaped sponges, brightly colored corals, delicate pink stars and feathery organisms. This never-seen-before amazing organism were found scoured the bed of the ocean at a depth of around 9,800 feet [3,000 meters] off the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland.

A group of researchers from three Canadian universities and the Spanish Institute of Oceanography had worked on this for 20 days to study 11 zones under the protection of the North Atlantic Fisheries Organization. Exploring these zones was very important as there were "trees of the ocean," said Ellen Kenchington (one of the lead scientists in the expedition), research scientist with the Fisheries Department of Canada. Kenchington told CNN affiliate CTV from her office at the institute as pictures from the robot streamed on her computer, "It's been really spectacular. It's really changing our perception of the diversity that's out there. ... We're seeing new species in deeper waters." She also told the Montreal Gazette that the scientists could look at the coral's chemical composition, which helped them determining the temperature of the water and other relevant data from 1,000 years ago. she said, "That's how we are able to say if there is warming or a change in climate direction. In order to understand the present, we need to put it into context."

The finds were really interesting! The corals have been a highly successful life form for 250 million years. They are very tiny animals and polyps, which are genetically identical individuals. Interestingly, they can eat - kill plankton for food and also defend themselves. In the living process they use to secrete calcium carbonate, which becomes the basis for an external skeleton on which they sit. These hard calcified skeletal bodies can grow enormously big over long span of time to form coral reefs. T, which are amongst the very important part of the ecosystems and can provide shelter to over 4,000 species marine lives, including fishes.

According to the lead researcher Ellen Kenchington, the research would be helpful to "evaluate areas that are still too deep for current fishing technologies but could be accessible in years to come. This will enable us to give advice in the future about what types of organisms are in these areas before they're fished."

More Facts About Socrates Discovered

2011-03-07T22:23:00.000-08:00

This post is again about certain facts about the Greek philosopher socrates. Consider this post as a continuation of the information about Socrates. Socrates is the central theme of this post. Very little has been known to us about this great philosopher, but here's something that I could discover from various sources about him. I am not very sure how far some of this information are genuine... but it's really interesting! Most information about Socrates has been discovered from the documents of derived largely from Plato and Xenophon (430 – 354 BC). Xenophon was an ancient Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates. He was the son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens. He is also known as Xenophon of Athens.

Facts about Socrates that have been discovered are as follows:

Socrates was actually a stone cutter by profession, although there is very little evidence about it. Historians are not sure enough as to how much he used to earn from his profession to make a living.

However, when he was a hoplite in the Athenian military, he owned a suit of armor, which is a good prove that he was not too poor. So, fact remains that he did have at least that volume of money that he required to get an expensive suit as that.

Socrates' mother was a midwife. She was quite knowledgeable about pregnancy and childbirth, and helped in deliveries of babies.

Socrates was married with three sons. All through his life Socrates claimed that he could hear voices, which he interpreted as signals from the heaven - Gods.

Documentations show that Socrates had spent his adult life in the agora (or the marketplace). He used to converse about the ethical issues there. He had a strong inclination towards exposing ignorance, hypocrisy, and conceit among the people of Athens.

Socrates was disliked by many people that his place during his time, he had developed stong follower base. Some of his famous followers are Plato, Euclid, Alcibiades, and a lot more. His noble thoughts could influence the lives many people like these.

What is your nail made of ?

2011-03-07T20:48:00.000-08:00

Hello friends... have you ever thought of what your nails made of? I am sure most of you have not yet :). I am sure that you don't even care to think of your nails until mommy says you should now trim them. Nail care is important... many people, like me, cut nails with teeth... that's not done! Well you know this, but what you do not know about nails is that what you nails are made of. Have you spared a thought over this?

Nails are made of KERATIN (Pronounciation: kair-uh-tin), which is a protein made by the nail cells. Keratin is the same thing that your hairs are made of, and even the top layer of your skin is made of. Note that you had nails in your fingers and toes even before you were born. You must have noticed that your finger and toe nails begins to grow at the starting point of the U-shaped cuticle (a point where your nail meets your skin) of your fingers. Well there are a lot more going on beneath it. Remember you have nail root in each of your finger - hidden under the cuticle, and the nails start to grow from the root. Cuticles have significant role to play here. It help to protect the new nail as it outgrows from the root of your nail.When the cells at the root of your nails grow old, the new nail cells push the old nail cells out. This old nail cells come out of the cuticles of your fingers, and finally get flattened and hardened. The new born nails then slide along the nail bed, which is a flat protective surface present just under each of your nails. The nail bed actually sits right on top of the tiny blood vessels, which give nutrition to it. This is why your nails appear pink in color.

Interesting fact about your nail: Your fingernails grow slowly. The nails of your fingers grow about one tenth of an inch (2.5 millimeters) each month. At that rate it normally takes around 3 to 6 months to completely replace an old nail.

A Story and a Few Sayings of Socates Discovered

2011-03-05T09:52:00.000-08:00

A story of Socrates discovered!

I am not really sure how far is it true, but its a story that gives a very practical and precious lesson of life! This post is all about the great classical Greek philosopher - Socrates, who was considered as one of the leading founders of Western philosophy. His thoughts and philosophy greatly inspired Plato, who was his student. Philosophy of Socrates had been real inspiration for generations following Plato's time. For instance Aristotle - the student of Plato was also highly influenced by the thoughts of Socrates.

Here's a story of Socrates that I just discovered...

A young lad once asked Socrates about the secrets of his success story. Socrates asked the guy to see him near the river the next morning told the young man to meet him near the river the next morning. The guy came, hoping to be able to know about the secrets of Socrates' success. Socrates asked the boy to walk with him into the water river until the water got up to his chin. Surprisingly Socrates swiftly ducked the boy into the water and held him pressed tight under the water, although the boy struggled hard to get out. Socrates was stronger than the boy and could kept him under the water until he started to turn blue due to breathlessness. After a few moments he let the boy come up of the water ans asked him, what did he desired the most under the water. The boy was almost gasping due to the want of oxygen and replied him that he wanted a little air to breath.

Socrates said that, it was what the success is all about! He said that until you want the "success" as badly as you wanted the air under the water, then will never achieve it. There is no other secret to the success, according the great philosopher - Socrates.

Here's a few quotes of Socrates that I discovered this morning. Read on...

"By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher."

"Death may be the greatest of all human blessings."

"I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance", from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers

"There's only one good, KNOWLEDGE, and bad IGNORANCE ", from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers

"Having the fewest wants, I am nearest to the Gods", from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers

"Do not do to others what angers you, if done to you by others."

"If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it."

"Thou shouldst eat to live, not live to eat"

"Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions; but those who kindly reprove thy faults"

"The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways - I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows", In Plato, Dialogues, Apology

"Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live."

"It is not living that matters, but living rightly."

"Let him that would move the world, first move himself."

"I pray thee, O God that I may be beautiful within"

Interesting Fact About Einstein’s Brain

2011-02-25T11:56:00.000-08:00

Did you know that the brain of scientist Albert Einstein had been pickled in a Jar for 43 Years and driven across the nation in a Trunk of a Buick?

Yes, its a fact!

After the death of Albert Einstein in the year 1955, his brain was removed without seeking any permission from his family. His brain was removed by Thomas Stoltz Harvey, who was a pathologist at the Princeton Hospital. It was this man - Thomas Stoltz Harvey, who conducted the autopsy. Harvey took the Einstein's brain home and stored it in a jar. He was later fired out of his job for refusing to relinquish Einstein's brain.

Years later, Thomas Stoltz Harvey was permitted by Hans Albert to carry out a detailed study on Einstein’s brain. Harvey sent out slices of the brain of to researchers and scientists across the globe. One of these scientists was Marian Diamond of UC Berkeley. Diamond, on a study with Einstein's brain discovered that Einstein had much more amount of glial cells in the region of the brain compared to a normal person. The Glial cell are responsible for synthesizing information.

In another study on Einstein's brain conducted by Sandra Witelson of McMaster University, she discovered that his brain lacked a particular "wrinkle" called the Sylvian fissure. Witelson speculated that this unusual anatomy allowed neurons in Einstein’s brain to communicate better with each other. Other studies had suggested that Einstein’s brain was much denser, and that the inferior parietal lobe, which is often associated with mathematical ability, was larger than brains of a general person.

The saga of Einstein's brain can be quite strange at times: in the early 1990s, Harvey went with freelance writer Michael Paterniti on a cross-country trip to California to meet Einstein’s grand daughter. They drove off from New Jersey in Harvey’s Buick Skylark with Einstein’s brain in a jar in the trunk! Paterniti later wrote his experience in the book "Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein’s Brain"

In 1998, the 85-year-old Harvey delivered Einstein’s brain to Dr. Elliot Krauss, the staff pathologist at Princeton University. Harvey said, that after safeguarding the Einstein's brain for decades "like a holy relic" he handed it over to the pathology department at the nearby University Medical Center at Princeton. It was this the university and town where this enigmatic genius, Mr. Albert Einstein had spent his last twenty years.

At the age of 85 years Harvey said slowly, "eventually, you get tired of the responsibility of having it. … I did about a year ago. I turned the whole thing over last year [in 1998]."

Guys... more to come here about Einstein. Keep dropping by my blog to find what's new up next!... Till then great time ahead!

Fossil Discovery : One Fingered Dinosaur Discovered

2011-01-25T10:02:00.000-08:00

Linhenykus Dinosaur Probably used its long digit to dig termite mounds... guessed the researchers
Here's again a great news for discovery. This post is about the discovery of a dinosaur - a parrot-sized single fingered dinosaur that has been been announced by the scientists just yesterday - Jan 24, 2011. The scientists have discovered a parrot-size dinosaur with just one enlarged "digging" finger on each hand. Fossil remains of this strange dinosaur have been unearthed in Northeastern China, Linhenykus monodactylus that is a member of the theropod dinosaurs, which is a group of two-legged carnivores that includes Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptor.

Although most theropods had three fingers on each hand, but Linhenykus monodactylus happened to fall under a family that is known as "alvarezsauroids" - small, long-legged dinosaurs with one big finger alongside two almost non-functional nub fingers. The study leader Xu Xing of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing said, "some researchers speculate that these dinosaurs used their hands to dig termite nests." He said, "this was probably the case for Linhenykus as well"

According to Xu Xing, the hand of Linhenykus had a leftover bone for a second finger, but the nub of a digit would not have been functional, which makes Linhenykus the only known one-fingered dinosaur. According to the researchers the other dinosaurs in the same group probably didn't make much use of their functional nub fingers. According to them "the extra fingers would have been biologically inexpensive to maintain, so they didn't totally disappear." On the other hand, "the Linhenykus had no working vestigial nubs, and its one long finger wasn't as specialized for digging as the digits of other alvarezsauroids. This demonstrates that hand evolution in this group "did not follow a simple linear trend," the study authors write.

NOTE: Illustrator Julius T. Csotonyi rendered the one-fingered, short-armed new dinosaur Linhenykus monodactylus, shown in the picture

New Frog Discovered

2010-11-28T23:02:00.000-08:00

Here is another news on discovery that has amazed the lovers of animals world wide! The story is of the researchers exploring deep into the the jungles of Colombia. A British-led team of well versed scientists who walked into the deep Columbian forest in search for frogs that are believed to be extinct since World War I, has ended up with discovery of a frog species that was never known to science so far. Three species hitherto including the one very strange "tiny beaked frog" that have always been unknown to mankind have been discovered in Colombia. Amongst the others were another type of toad and the a poison-secreting rocket frog, which is very attractive.

The "tiny beaked frog" which is even tinier than a human thumbnail at the maturity has deep purple skin with small blue blotches on it. The most fascinating fact about this frog is that it has a beak like extension in front of its nose, which led the scientists give it such a name.

The next discovered treasure is a red-legged tree frog. This is another beautiful amphibian with distinctive black streaks from the nose region to the body. Interestingly this is a poisonous frog and carries toxic chemical cargo, though this new species is less toxic than most other toxic frogs known to science.

The third discovery is the brown toad with exceptionally beautiful red eyes is another important addition to the zoological record. "I have never seen a toad with such vibrant red eyes," said Robin Moore, Conservation International, the scientist who led the team. He also said, "this trait is highly unusual for amphibians, and its discovery offers us a terrific opportunity to learn more about how and why it adapted this way." George Meyer, a long-time Simpsons writer and amphibian enthusiast, said, "the toad's imperious profile and squinty eyes indeed look like Monty Burns."

As the leader of the expedition, the Scottish amphibian conservation officer and photographer, Robin Moore, 35, from Edinburgh, played the mos vital role in the discoveries. Robin said, "the amazing part is that nobody, in the history of its existence, has ever recorded its presence."

According to the experts from Conservation International, the reason that tiny beaked toad has not been identified previously is probably because the species skips the tadpole stage, instead producing toadlets that resemble the fallen leaves of the forest floor in which they live. The amphibian search, co-ordinated by Conservation International along with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, began in August and is the first co-ordinated attempt to look for species assumed to be extinct since the First World War.

Photographs by Robin Moore

Extraterrestrials Discovered : Aliens Hijacked the Spacecraft Voyager 2

2010-11-06T00:47:00.000-07:00

Who or what is out there, reprogramming and sending us unknown signals? Interesting the researchers and great minds Opine that there is every possibility that some alien species who exit in outer solar system has trapped the probe - Voyager 2 and reprogrammed it - probably the motive is to get in touch with us! Who knows, what the truth actually is ????

Well, let us talk a few words about the Voyager 2. The Voyager 2 is an unmanned unmanned interplanetary space probe that had been launched on August 20, 1977 by NASA. It is still functional as on this year 2010. Alike the Voyager 1, the Voyager 2space probe had been designed, developed and built at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena, California. Most interestingly, the Voyager 2 is expected to keep transmitting weak radio signals until at least 2025, which is over 48 years since it was launched in the year 1977. The Voyager 2 was directed to grab information on Jupiter and Saturn and their systems of moons and rings. The space probe Voyager 2 is backed with highly technical and well assorted scientific instruments including two highly sensitive vidicon cameras to make measurements in the ultraviolet, infrared, and radio wavelengths, as well as ones to measure the cosmic rays and subatomic particles in outer space.

Along with the voyager 2, Nasa had sent a gold record (CD) welcoming potential aliens to Earth. The CD contained a welcome message in 55 languages, noises of nature (waves, birds) and some clasical music (mozart), and most interestingly sounds of dolphins and whales. This probe travelled to the edge of our solar system and has been sending back signals that take around 13 hours to reach the Earth. Unfortunately on the 22nd April 2010, Voyager 2 started sending distorted signals and finally stopped transmitting signals all together.

What the experts at NASA thinks about the probe's stopping transmitting signals?

It might be the fact that aliens were responsible for distorted signals or they might be trying to contact us! This really sounds quite weird and strange, but there's no reason to deny believing what great minds are thinking!

Reports from NASA experts has clearly depicted that signals are distorted as if someone has reprogrammed it. Now when the Voyager 2 again started sending back signals, it sounded like an answer, although signals was not recognized as it was in an unknown data format. The Alien expert Hartwig Hausdorf, a German academic, said "it seems almost as if someone had reprogrammed or hijacked the probe – thus perhaps we do not yet know the whole truth. I don’t refute the possibility that some alien species which are wandering in outer solar system has reprogrammed it and quite possibly they want to establish contact with us. Most clever minds (damn , I'm not among them right now but believe one day I'll) are trying to decode that unknown signals. Voyager probe also carried the recorded sounds of whales and dolphins. May be possible some unkown creture from Jovian World has deciphered it and sending signals back to the Earth."

Nasa claimed that software problem with the flight data system caused the probe to send unknown signals. Mr Hausdorf, on the other hand, believes it could be the work of aliens. Hartwig Hausdorf believes that the reason Voyager 2, an unmanned probe that has been in space since 1977, is sending strange messages that are confusing scientists, is because it has been taken over by extraterrestrial life. He told the German newspaper Bild: "It seems almost as if someone has reprogrammed or hijacked the probe – thus perhaps we do not yet know the whole truth." Dr Edward Stone, a scientist on the project, said the desk, called the Golden Record, is "a kind of time capsule, intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials."

Why do you Burp or Belch?

2010-11-05T23:00:00.000-07:00

Why do you Burp or Belch?

After you have drunk water or ate your foods, you normally burp out air? So tell me children, where does this burp come from?

A burp, also called belch is a volume of gas that comes out of your stomach. When you eat or drink, you usually engulf some air along with it. The air that we swallow with our food and drink, contains different gases, which need to get out, and they get out in the form of burp or belch. The extra gas that goes in along with your food and drink is forced out your stomach, passing out throuch esophagus and finally through your mouth in the form of belch or burp.

Now why do you feel to burp more when you drink corbonated drinks or soda?

Guess why!

Well, the reason behind the fact that you feel to burp more frequently and in big volume when you drink corbonated drinks or soda is quite simple. It's because these drinks contains extra carbon dioxide gas. When you drinnk these beverages you swallow the extra gas in them in more volume. Consequently the extra carbon dioxide needs to get out more frequently, as the volume of gas intaken is more.

Burping is not a thing to worry about until it happens once in a while. Burping is quite normal and good in kids and adults as it means that the move out the the extra gas from your stomach. So there's nothing wrong in burping; even the president of your country burp after drinking and eating. It is not wise to force your burp stay in; it will cause considerable agitation and discomfort, which may be harmful. Always burp out the extra gas that needs to come out. But when you are around people and you feel a burp coming on, try to do it quietly, covering your mouth. This is nothing but maintaining your decency when you are around people.

Most Important Inventions and Discoveries Around the World

2010-03-07T05:11:00.000-08:00

Important Inventions and Discoveries

• Adrenaline: (isolation of) John Jacob Abel, U.S., 1897.
• Aerosol can: Erik Rotheim, Norway, 1926.
• Air brake: George Westinghouse, U.S., 1868.
• Air conditioning: Willis Carrier, U.S., 1911.
• Airship: (non-rigid) Henri Giffard, France, 1852; (rigid) Ferdinand von Zeppelin, Germany, 1900.
• Aluminum manufacture: (by electrolytic action) Charles M. Hall, U.S., 1866.
• Anatomy, human: (De fabrica corporis humani, an illustrated systematic study of the human body) Andreas Vesalius, Belgium, 1543; (comparative: parts of an organism are correlated to the functioning whole) Georges Cuvier, France, 1799–1805.
• Anesthetic: (first use of anesthetic—ether—on humans) Crawford W. Long, U.S., 1842.
• Antibiotics: (first demonstration of antibiotic effect) Louis Pasteur, Jules-François Joubert, France, 1887; (discovery of penicillin, first modern antibiotic) Alexander Fleming, England, 1928; (penicillin's infection-fighting properties) Howard Florey, Ernst Chain, England, 1940.
• Antiseptic: (surgery) Joseph Lister, England, 1867.
• Antitoxin, diphtheria: Emil von Behring, Germany, 1890.
• Appliances, electric: (fan) Schuyler Wheeler, U.S., 1882; (flatiron) Henry W. Seely, U.S., 1882; (stove) Hadaway, U.S., 1896; (washing machine) Alva Fisher, U.S., 1906.
• Aqualung: Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Emile Gagnan, France, 1943.
• Aspirin: Dr. Felix Hoffman, Germany, 1899.
• Astronomical calculator: The Antikythera device, first century B.C., Greece. Found off island of Antikythera in 1900.
• Atom: (nuclear model of) Ernest Rutherford, England, 1911.
• Atomic theory: (ancient) Leucippus, Democritus, Greece, c. 500 B.C.; Lucretius, Rome c.100 B.C.; (modern) John Dalton, England, 1808.
• Atomic structure: (formulated nuclear model of atom, Rutherford model) Ernest Rutherford, England, 1911; (proposed current concept of atomic structure, the Bohr model) Niels Bohr, Denmark, 1913.
• Automobile: (first with internal combustion engine, 250 rpm) Karl Benz, Germany, 1885; (first with practical high-speed internal combustion engine, 900 rpm) Gottlieb Daimler, Germany, 1885; (first true automobile, not carriage with motor) René Panhard, Emile Lavassor, France, 1891; (carburetor, spray) Charles E. Duryea, U.S., 1892.
• Autopilot: (for aircraft) Elmer A. Sperry, U.S., c.1910, first successful test, 1912, in a Curtiss flying boat.
• Avogadro's law: (equal volumes of all gases at the same temperature and pressure contain equal number of molecules) Amedeo Avogadro, Italy, 1811.
• Bacteria: Anton van Leeuwenhoek, The Netherlands, 1683.
• Balloon, hot-air: Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier, France, 1783.
• Barbed wire: (most popular) Joseph E. Glidden, U.S., 1873.
• Bar codes: (computer-scanned binary signal code):
• (retail trade use) Monarch Marking, U.S. 1970; (industrial use) Plessey Telecommunications, England, 1970.
• Barometer: Evangelista Torricelli, Italy, 1643.
• Bicycle: Karl D. von Sauerbronn, Germany, 1816; (first modern model) James Starley, England, 1884.
• Big Bang theory: (the universe originated with a huge explosion) George LeMaitre, Belgium, 1927; (modified LeMaitre theory labeled “Big Bang”) George A. Gamow, U.S., 1948; (cosmic microwave background radiation discovered, confirms theory) Arno A. Penzias and Robert W. Wilson, U.S., 1965.
• Blood, circulation of: William Harvey, England, 1628.
• Boyle's law: (relation between pressure and volume in gases) Robert Boyle, Ireland, 1662.
• Braille: Louis Braille, France, 1829.
• Bridges: (suspension, iron chains) James Finley, Pa., 1800; (wire suspension) Marc Seguin, Lyons, 1825; (truss) Ithiel Town, U.S., 1820.
• Bullet: (conical) Claude Minié, France, 1849.
• Calculating machine: (logarithms: made multiplying easier and thus calculators practical) John Napier, Scotland, 1614; (slide rule) William Oughtred, England, 1632; (digital calculator) Blaise Pascal, 1642; (multiplication machine) Gottfried Leibniz, Germany, 1671; (important 19th-century contributors to modern machine) Frank S. Baldwin, Jay R. Monroe, Dorr E. Felt, W. T. Ohdner, William Burroughs, all U.S.; (“analytical engine” design, included concepts of programming, taping) Charles Babbage, England, 1835.
• Calculus: Isaac Newton, England, 1669; (differential calculus) Gottfried Leibniz, Germany, 1684.
• Camera: (hand-held) George Eastman, U.S., 1888; (Polaroid Land) Edwin Land, U.S., 1948.
• “Canals” of Mars: Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italy, 1877.
• Carpet sweeper: Melville R. Bissell, U.S., 1876.
• Car radio: William Lear, Elmer Wavering, U.S., 1929, manufactured by Galvin Manufacturing Co., “Motorola.”
• Cells: (word used to describe microscopic examination of cork) Robert Hooke, England, 1665; (theory: cells are common structural and functional unit of all living organisms) Theodor Schwann, Matthias Schleiden, 1838–1839.
• Cement, Portland: Joseph Aspdin, England, 1824.
• Chewing gum: (spruce-based) John Curtis, U.S., 1848; (chicle-based) Thomas Adams, U.S., 1870.
• Cholera bacterium: Robert Koch, Germany, 1883.
• Circuit, integrated: (theoretical) G.W.A. Dummer, England, 1952; (phase-shift oscillator) Jack S. Kilby, Texas Instruments, U.S., 1959.
• Classification of plants: (first modern, based on comparative study of forms) Andrea Cesalpino, Italy, 1583; (classification of plants and animals by genera and species) Carolus Linnaeus, Sweden, 1737–1753.
• Clock, pendulum: Christian Huygens, The Netherlands, 1656.
• Coca-Cola: John Pemberton, U.S., 1886.
• Combustion: (nature of) Antoine Lavoisier, France, 1777.
• Compact disk: RCA, U.S., 1972.
• Computers: (first design of analytical engine) Charles Babbage, 1830s; (ENIAC, Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator, first all-electronic, completed) 1945; (dedicated at University of Pennsylvania) 1946; (UNIVAC, Universal Automatic Computer, handled both numeric and alphabetic data) 1951.
• Concrete: (reinforced) Joseph Monier, France, 1877.
• Condensed milk: Gail Borden, U.S., 1853.
• Conditioned reflex: Ivan Pavlov, Russia, c.1910.
• Conservation of electric charge: (the total electric charge of the universe or any closed system is constant) Benjamin Franklin, U.S., 1751–1754.
• Contagion theory: (infectious diseases caused by living agent transmitted from person to person) Girolamo Fracastoro, Italy, 1546.
• Continental drift theory: (geographer who pieced together continents into a single landmass on maps) Antonio Snider-Pellegrini, France, 1858; (first proposed in lecture) Frank Taylor, U.S.; (first comprehensive detailed theory) Alfred Wegener, Germany, 1912.
• Contraceptive, oral: Gregory Pincus, Min Chuch Chang, John Rock, Carl Djerassi, U.S., 1951.
• Converter, Bessemer: William Kelly, U.S., 1851.
• Cosmetics: Egypt, c. 4000 B.C.
• Cosamic string theory: (first postulated) Thomas Kibble, 1976.
• Cotton gin: Eli Whitney, U.S., 1793.
• Crossbow: China, c. 300 B.C.
• Cyclotron: Ernest O. Lawrence, U.S., 1931.
• Deuterium: (heavy hydrogen) Harold Urey, U.S., 1931.
• Disease: (chemicals in treatment of) crusaded by Philippus Paracelsus, 1527–1541; (germ theory) Louis Pasteur, France, 1862–1877.
• DNA: (deoxyribonucleic acid) Friedrich Meischer, Germany, 1869; (determination of double-helical structure) Rosalind Elsie Franklin, F. H. Crick, England, James D. Watson, U.S., 1953.
• Dye: (aniline, start of synthetic dye industry) William H. Perkin, England, 1856.
• Dynamite: Alfred Nobel, Sweden, 1867.
• Electric cooking utensil: (first) patented by St. George Lane-Fox, England, 1874.
• Electric generator (dynamo): (laboratory model) Michael Faraday, England, 1832; Joseph Henry, U.S., c.1832; (hand-driven model) Hippolyte Pixii, France, 1833; (alternating-current generator) Nikola Tesla, U.S., 1892.
• Electric lamp: (arc lamp) Sir Humphrey Davy, England, 1801; (fluorescent lamp) A.E. Becquerel, France, 1867; (incandescent lamp) Sir Joseph Swann, England, Thomas A. Edison, U.S., contemporaneously, 1870s; (carbon arc street lamp) Charles F. Brush, U.S., 1879; (first widely marketed incandescent lamp) Thomas A. Edison, U.S., 1879; (mercury vapor lamp) Peter Cooper Hewitt, U.S., 1903; (neon lamp) Georges Claude, France, 1911; (tungsten filament) Irving Langmuir, U.S., 1915.
• Electrocardiography: Demonstrated by Augustus Waller, 1887; (first practical device for recording activity of heart) Willem Einthoven, 1903, Dutch physiologist.
• Electromagnet: William Sturgeon, England, 1823.
• Electron: Sir Joseph J. Thompson, England, 1897.
• Elevator, passenger: (safety device permitting use by passengers) Elisha G. Otis, U.S., 1852; (elevator utilizing safety device) 1857.
• E = mc2: (equivalence of mass and energy) Albert Einstein, Switzerland, 1907.
• Engine, internal combustion: No single inventor. Fundamental theory established by Sadi Carnot, France, 1824; (two-stroke) Etienne Lenoir, France, 1860; (ideal operating cycle for four-stroke) Alphonse Beau de Roche, France, 1862; (operating four-stroke) Nikolaus Otto, Germany, 1876; (diesel) Rudolf Diesel, Germany, 1892; (rotary) Felix Wankel, Germany, 1956.
• Evolution: (organic) Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, France, 1809; (by natural selection) Charles Darwin, England, 1859.
• Exclusion principle: (no two electrons in an atom can occupy the same energy level) Wolfgang Pauli, Germany, 1925.
• Expanding universe theory: (first proposed) George LeMaitre, Belgium, 1927; (discovered first direct evidence that the universe is expanding) Edwin P. Hubble, U.S., 1929; (Hubble constant: a measure of the rate at which the universe is expanding) Edwin P. Hubble, U.S., 1929.
• Falling bodies, law of: Galileo Galilei, Italy, 1590.
• Fermentation: (microorganisms as cause of) Louis Pasteur, France, c.1860.
• Fiber optics: Narinder Kapany, England, 1955.
• Fibers, man-made: (nitrocellulose fibers treated to change flammable nitrocellulose to harmless cellulose, precursor of rayon) Sir Joseph Swann, England, 1883; (rayon) Count Hilaire de Chardonnet, France, 1889; (Celanese) Henry and Camille Dreyfuss, U.S., England, 1921; (research on polyesters and polyamides, basis for modern man-made fibers) U.S., England, Germany, 1930s; (nylon) Wallace H. Carothers, U.S., 1935.
• Frozen food: Clarence Birdseye, U.S., 1924.
• Gene transfer: (human) Steven Rosenberg, R. Michael Blaese, W. French Anderson, U.S., 1989.
• Geometry, elements of: Euclid, Alexandria, Egypt, c. 300 B.C.; (analytic) René Descartes, France; and Pierre de Fermat, Switzerland, 1637.
• Gravitation, law of: Sir Isaac Newton, England, c.1665 (published 1687).
• Gunpowder: China, c.700.
• Gyrocompass: Elmer A. Sperry, U.S., 1905.
• Gyroscope: Léon Foucault, France, 1852.
• Halley's Comet: Edmund Halley, England, 1705.
• Heart implanted in human, permanent artificial:Dr. Robert Jarvik, U.S., 1982.
• Heart, temporary artificial: Willem Kolft, 1957.
• Helicopter: (double rotor) Heinrich Focke, Germany, 1936; (single rotor) Igor Sikorsky, U.S., 1939.
• Helium first observed on sun: Sir Joseph Lockyer, England, 1868.
• Heredity, laws of: Gregor Mendel, Austria, 1865.
• Holograph: Dennis Gabor, England, 1947.
• Home videotape systems (VCR): (Betamax) Sony, Japan, 1975; (VHS) Matsushita, Japan, 1975.
• Ice age theory: Louis Agassiz, Swiss-American, 1840.
• Induction, electric: Joseph Henry, U.S., 1828.
• Insulin: (first isolated) Sir Frederick G. Banting and Charles H. Best, Canada, 1921; (discovery first published) Banting and Best, 1922; (Nobel Prize awarded for purification for use in humans) John Macleod and Banting, 1923; (first synthesized), China, 1966.
• Intelligence testing: Alfred Binet, Theodore Simon, France, 1905.
• Interferon: Alick Isaacs, Jean Lindemann, England, Switzerland, 1957.
• Isotopes: (concept of) Frederick Soddy, England, 1912; (stable isotopes) J. J. Thompson, England, 1913; (existence demonstrated by mass spectrography) Francis W. Ashton, 1919.
• Jet propulsion: (engine) Sir Frank Whittle, England, Hans von Ohain, Germany, 1936; (aircraft) Heinkel He 178, 1939.
• Kinetic theory of gases: (molecules of a gas are in a state of rapid motion) Daniel Bernoulli, Switzerland, 1738.
• Laser: (theoretical work on) Charles H. Townes, Arthur L. Schawlow, U.S., N. Basov, A. Prokhorov, U.S.S.R., 1958; (first working model) T. H. Maiman, U.S., 1960.
• Lawn mower: Edwin Budding, John Ferrabee, England, 1830–1831.
• LCD (liquid crystal display): Hoffmann-La Roche, Switzerland, 1970.
• Lens, bifocal: Benjamin Franklin, U.S., c.1760.
• Leyden jar: (prototype electrical condenser) Canon E. G. von Kleist of Kamin, Pomerania, 1745; independently evolved by Cunaeus and P. van Musschenbroek, University of Leyden, Holland, 1746, from where name originated.
• Light, nature of: (wave theory) Christian Huygens, The Netherlands, 1678; (electromagnetic theory) James Clerk Maxwell, England, 1873.
• Light, speed of: (theory that light has finite velocity) Olaus Roemer, Denmark, 1675.
• Lightning rod: Benjamin Franklin, U.S., 1752.
• Locomotive: (steam powered) Richard Trevithick, England, 1804; (first practical, due to multiple-fire-tube boiler) George Stephenson, England, 1829; (largest steam-powered) Union Pacific's “Big Boy,” U.S., 1941.
• Lock, cylinder: Linus Yale, U.S., 1851.
• Loom: (horizontal, two-beamed) Egypt, c. 4400 B.C.; (Jacquard drawloom, pattern controlled by punch cards) Jacques de Vaucanson, France, 1745, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, 1801; (flying shuttle) John Kay, England, 1733; (power-driven loom) Edmund Cartwright, England, 1785.
• Machine gun: (hand-cranked multibarrel) Richard J. Gatling, U.S., 1862; (practical single barrel, belt-fed) Hiram S. Maxim, Anglo-American, 1884.
• Magnet, Earth is: William Gilbert, England, 1600.
• Match: (phosphorus) François Derosne, France, 1816; (friction) Charles Sauria, France, 1831; (safety) J. E. Lundstrom, Sweden, 1855.
• Measles vaccine: John F. Enders, Thomas Peebles, U.S., 1953.
• Metric system: revolutionary government of France, 1790–1801.
• Microphone: Charles Wheatstone, England, 1827.
• Microscope: (compound) Zacharias Janssen, The Netherlands, 1590; (electron) Vladimir Zworykin et al., U.S., Canada, Germany, 1932–1939.
• Microwave oven: Percy Spencer, U.S., 1947.
• Motion, laws of: Isaac Newton, England, 1687.
• Motion pictures: Thomas A. Edison, U.S., 1893.
• Motion pictures, sound: Product of various inventions. First picture with synchronized musical score: Don Juan, 1926; with spoken dialogue: The Jazz Singer, 1927; both Warner Bros.
• Motor, electric: Michael Faraday, England, 1822; (alternating-current) Nikola Tesla, U.S., 1892.
• Motorcycle: (motor tricycle) Edward Butler, England, 1884; (gasoline-engine motorcycle) Gottlieb Daimler, Germany, 1885.
• Moving assembly line: Henry Ford, U.S., 1913.
• Neptune: (discovery of) Johann Galle, Germany, 1846.
• Neptunium: (first transuranic element, synthesis of) Edward M. McMillan, Philip H. Abelson, U.S., 1940.
• Neutron: James Chadwick, England, 1932.
• Neutron-induced radiation: Enrico Fermi et al., Italy, 1934.
• Nitroglycerin: Ascanio Sobrero, Italy, 1846.
• Nuclear fission: Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassmann, Germany, 1938.
• Nuclear reactor: Enrico Fermi, Italy, et al., 1942.
• Ohm's law: (relationship between strength of electric current, electromotive force, and circuit resistance) Georg S. Ohm, Germany, 1827.
• Oil well: Edwin L. Drake, U.S., 1859.
• Oxygen: (isolation of) Joseph Priestley, 1774; Carl Scheele, 1773.
• Ozone: Christian Schönbein, Germany, 1839.
• Pacemaker: (internal) Clarence W. Lillehie, Earl Bakk, U.S., 1957.
• Paper China, c.100 A.D.
• Parachute: Louis S. Lenormand, France, 1783.
• Pen: (fountain) Lewis E. Waterman, U.S., 1884; (ball-point, for marking on rough surfaces) John H. Loud, U.S., 1888; (ball-point, for handwriting) Lazlo Biro, Argentina, 1944.
• Periodic law: (that properties of elements are functions of their atomic weights) Dmitri Mendeleev, Russia, 1869.
• Periodic table: (arrangement of chemical elements based on periodic law) Dmitri Mendeleev, Russia, 1869.
• Phonograph: Thomas A. Edison, U.S., 1877.
• Photography: (first paper negative, first photograph, on metal) Joseph Nicéphore Niepce, France, 1816–1827; (discovery of fixative powers of hyposulfite of soda) Sir John Herschel, England, 1819; (first direct positive image on silver plate, the daguerreotype) Louis Daguerre, based on work with Niepce, France, 1839; (first paper negative from which a number of positive prints could be made) William Talbot, England, 1841. Work of these four men, taken together, forms basis for all modern photography. (First color images) Alexandre Becquerel, Claude Niepce de Saint-Victor, France, 1848–1860; (commercial color film with three emulsion layers, Kodachrome) U.S., 1935.
• Photovoltaic effect: (light falling on certain materials can produce electricity) Edmund Becquerel, France, 1839.
• Piano: (Hammerklavier) Bartolommeo Cristofori, Italy, 1709; (pianoforte with sustaining and damper pedals) John Broadwood, England, 1873.
• Planetary motion, laws of: Johannes Kepler, Germany, 1609, 1619.
• Plant respiration and photosynthesis: Jan Ingenhousz, Holland, 1779.
• Plastics: (first material, nitrocellulose softened by vegetable oil, camphor, precursor to Celluloid) Alexander Parkes, England, 1855; (Celluloid, involving recognition of vital effect of camphor) John W. Hyatt, U.S., 1869; (Bakelite, first completely synthetic plastic) Leo H. Baekeland, U.S., 1910; (theoretical background of macromolecules and process of polymerization on which modern plastics industry rests) Hermann Staudinger, Germany, 1922.
• Plate tectonics: Alfred Wegener, Germany, 1912–1915.
• Plow, forked: Mesopotamia, before 3000 B.C.
• Plutonium, synthesis of: Glenn T. Seaborg, Edwin M. McMillan, Arthur C. Wahl, Joseph W. Kennedy, U.S., 1941.
• Polio, vaccine: (experimentally safe dead-virus vaccine) Jonas E. Salk, U.S., 1952; (effective large-scale field trials) 1954; (officially approved) 1955; (safe oral live-virus vaccine developed) Albert B. Sabin, U.S., 1954; (available in the U.S.) 1960.
• Positron: Carl D. Anderson, U.S., 1932.
• Pressure cooker: (early version) Denis Papin, France, 1679.
• Printing: (block) Japan, c.700; (movable type) Korea, c.1400; Johann Gutenberg, Germany, c.1450 (lithography, offset) Aloys Senefelder, Germany, 1796; (rotary press) Richard Hoe, U.S., 1844; (linotype) Ottmar Mergenthaler, U.S., 1884.
• Probability theory: René Descartes, France; and Pierre de Fermat, Switzerland, 1654.
• Proton: Ernest Rutherford, England, 1919.
• Prozac: (antidepressant fluoxetine) Bryan B. Malloy, Scotland, and Klaus K. Schmiegel, U.S., 1972; (released for use in U.S.) Eli Lilly & Company, 1987.
• Psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud, Austria, c.1904.
• Pulsars: Antony Hewish and Jocelyn Bell Burnel, England, 1967.
• Quantum theory: (general) Max Planck, Germany, 1900; (sub-atomic) Niels Bohr, Denmark, 1913; (quantum mechanics) Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, Germany, 1925.
• Quarks: Jerome Friedman, Henry Kendall, Richard Taylor, U.S., 1967.
• Quasars: Marten Schmidt, U.S., 1963.
• Rabies immunization: Louis Pasteur, France, 1885.
• Radar: (limited to one-mile range) Christian Hulsmeyer, Germany, 1904; (pulse modulation, used for measuring height of ionosphere) Gregory Breit, Merle Tuve, U.S., 1925; (first practical radar—radio detection and ranging) Sir Robert Watson-Watt, England, 1934–1935.
• Radio: (electromagnetism, theory of) James Clerk Maxwell, England, 1873; (spark coil, generator of electromagnetic waves) Heinrich Hertz, Germany, 1886; (first practical system of wireless telegraphy) Guglielmo Marconi, Italy, 1895; (first long-distance telegraphic radio signal sent across the Atlantic) Marconi, 1901; (vacuum electron tube, basis for radio telephony) Sir John Fleming, England, 1904; (triode amplifying tube) Lee de Forest, U.S., 1906; (regenerative circuit, allowing long-distance sound reception) Edwin H. Armstrong, U.S., 1912; (frequency modulation—FM) Edwin H. Armstrong, U.S., 1933.
• Radioactivity: (X-rays) Wilhelm K. Roentgen, Germany, 1895; (radioactivity of uranium) Henri Becquerel, France, 1896; (radioactive elements, radium and polonium in uranium ore) Marie Sklodowska-Curie, Pierre Curie, France, 1898; (classification of alpha and beta particle radiation) Pierre Curie, France, 1900; (gamma radiation) Paul-Ulrich Villard, France, 1900.
• Radiocarbon dating, carbon-14 method: (discovered) 1947, Willard F. Libby, U.S.; (first demonstrated) U.S., 1950.
• Radio signals, extraterrestrial: first known radio noise signals were received by U.S. engineer, Karl Jansky, originating from the Galactic Center, 1931.
• Radio waves: (cosmic sources, led to radio astronomy) Karl Jansky, U.S., 1932.
• Razor: (safety, successfully marketed) King Gillette, U.S., 1901; (electric) Jacob Schick, U.S., 1928, 1931.
• Reaper: Cyrus McCormick, U.S., 1834.
• Refrigerator: Alexander Twining, U.S., James Harrison, Australia, 1850; (first with a compressor device) the Domelse, Chicago, U.S., 1913.
• Refrigerator ship: (first) the Frigorifique, cooling unit designed by Charles Teller, France, 1877.
• Relativity: (special and general theories of) Albert Einstein, Switzerland, Germany, U.S., 1905–1953.
• Revolver: Samuel Colt, U.S., 1835.
• Richter scale: Charles F. Richter, U.S., 1935.
• Rifle: (muzzle-loaded) Italy, Germany, c.1475; (breech-loaded) England, France, Germany, U.S., c.1866; (bolt-action) Paul von Mauser, Germany, 1889; (automatic) John Browning, U.S., 1918.
• Rocket: (liquid-fueled) Robert Goddard, U.S., 1926.
• Roller bearing: (wooden for cartwheel) Germany or France, c.100 B.C.
• Rotation of Earth: Jean Bernard Foucault, France, 1851.
• Royal Observatory, Greenwich: established in 1675 by Charles II of England; John Flamsteed first Astronomer Royal.
• Rubber: (vulcanization process) Charles Goodyear, U.S., 1839.
• Saccharin: Constantine Fuhlberg, Ira Remsen, U.S., 1879.
• Safety pin: Walter Hunt, U.S., 1849.
• Saturn, ring around: Christian Huygens, The Netherlands, 1659.
• “Scotch” tape: Richard Drew, U.S., 1929.
• Screw propeller: Sir Francis P. Smith, England, 1836; John Ericsson, England, worked independently of and simultaneously with Smith, 1837.
• Seismograph: (first accurate) John Milne, England, 1880.
• Sewing machine: Elias Howe, U.S., 1846; (continuous stitch) Isaac Singer, U.S., 1851.
• Solar energy: First realistic application of solar energy using parabolic solar reflector to drive caloric engine on steam boiler, John Ericsson, U.S., 1860s.
• Solar system, universe: (Sun-centered universe) Nicolaus Copernicus, Warsaw, 1543; (establishment of planetary orbits as elliptical) Johannes Kepler, Germany, 1609; (infinity of universe) Giordano Bruno, Italian monk, 1584.
• Spectrum: (heterogeneity of light) Sir Isaac Newton, England, 1665–1666.
• Spectrum analysis: Gustav Kirchhoff, Robert Bunsen, Germany, 1859.
• Spermatozoa: Anton van Leeuwenhoek, The Netherlands, 1683.
• Spinning: (spinning wheel) India, introduced to Europe in Middle Ages; (Saxony wheel, continuous spinning of wool or cotton yarn) England, c.1500–1600; (spinning jenny) James Hargreaves, England, 1764; (spinning frame) Sir Richard Arkwright, England, 1769; (spinning mule, completed mechanization of spinning, permitting production of yarn to keep up with demands of modern looms) Samuel Crompton, England, 1779.
• Star catalog: (first modern) Tycho Brahe, Denmark, 1572.
• Steam engine: (first commercial version based on principles of French physicist Denis Papin) Thomas Savery, England, 1639; (atmospheric steam engine) Thomas Newcomen, England, 1705; (steam engine for pumping water from collieries) Savery, Newcomen, 1725; (modern condensing, double acting) James Watt, England, 1782.
• Steamship: Claude de Jouffroy d'Abbans, France, 1783; James Rumsey, U.S., 1787; John Fitch, U.S., 1790. All preceded Robert Fulton, U.S., 1807, credited with launching first commercially successful steamship.
• Stethoscope: René Laënnec, France, 1819.
• Sulfa drugs: (parent compound, para-aminobenzenesulfanomide) Paul Gelmo, Austria, 1908; (antibacterial activity) Gerhard Domagk, Germany, 1935.
• Superconductivity: (theory) Bardeen, Cooper, Scheiffer, U.S., 1957.
• Symbolic logic: George Boule, 1854; (modern) Bertrand Russell, Alfred North Whitehead, England, 1910–1913.
• Tank, military: Sir Ernest Swinton, England, 1914.
• Tape recorder: (magnetic steel tape) Valdemar Poulsen, Denmark, 1899.
• Teflon: DuPont, U.S., 1943.
• Telegraph: Samuel F. B. Morse, U.S., 1837.
•
• Telephone: Alexander Graham Bell, U.S., 1876.
• Telescope: Hans Lippershey, The Netherlands, 1608; (astronomical) Galileo Galilei, Italy, 1609; (reflecting) Isaac Newton, England, 1668.
• Television: (Iconoscope–T.V. camera table), Vladimir Zworkin, U.S., 1923, and also kinescope (cathode ray tube), 1928; (mechanical disk-scanning method) successfully demonstrated by J.K. Baird, England, C.F. Jenkins, U.S., 1926; (first all-electric television image), 1927, Philo T. Farnsworth, U.S; (color, mechanical disk) Baird, 1928; (color, compatible with black and white) George Valensi, France, 1938; (color, sequential rotating filter) Peter Goldmark, U.S., first introduced, 1951; (color, compatible with black and white) commercially introduced in U.S., National Television Systems Committee, 1953.
• Thermodynamics: (first law: energy cannot be created or destroyed, only converted from one form to another) Julius von Mayer, Germany, 1842; James Joule, England, 1843; (second law: heat cannot of itself pass from a colder to a warmer body) Rudolph Clausius, Germany, 1850; (third law: the entropy of ordered solids reaches zero at the absolute zero of temperature) Walter Nernst, Germany, 1918.
• Thermometer: (open-column) Galileo Galilei, c.1593; (clinical) Santorio Santorio, Padua, c.1615; (mercury, also Fahrenheit scale) Gabriel D. Fahrenheit, Germany, 1714; (centigrade scale) Anders Celsius, Sweden, 1742; (absolute-temperature, or Kelvin, scale) William Thompson, Lord Kelvin, England, 1848.
•
• Tire, pneumatic: Robert W. Thompson, England, 1845; (bicycle tire) John B. Dunlop, Northern Ireland, 1888.
• Toilet, flush: Product of Minoan civilization, Crete, c. 2000 B.C. Alleged invention by “Thomas Crapper” is untrue.
• Tractor: Benjamin Holt, U.S., 1900.
• Transformer, electric: William Stanley, U.S., 1885.
• Transistor: John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, William B. Shockley, U.S., 1947.
• Tuberculosis bacterium: Robert Koch, Germany, 1882.
• Typewriter: Christopher Sholes, Carlos Glidden, U.S., 1867.
•
• Uncertainty principle: (that position and velocity of an object cannot both be measured exactly, at the same time) Werner Heisenberg, Germany, 1927.
• Uranus: (first planet discovered in recorded history) William Herschel, England, 1781.
• Vaccination: Edward Jenner, England, 1796.
• Vacuum cleaner: (manually operated) Ives W. McGaffey, 1869; (electric) Hubert C. Booth, England, 1901; (upright) J. Murray Spangler, U.S., 1907.
• Van Allen (radiation) Belt: (around Earth) James Van Allen, U.S., 1958.
• Video disk: Philips Co., The Netherlands, 1972.
• Vitamins: (hypothesis of disease deficiency) Sir F. G. Hopkins, Casimir Funk, England, 1912; (vitamin A) Elmer V. McCollum, M. Davis, U.S., 1912–1914; (vitamin B) McCollum, U.S., 1915–1916; (thiamin, B1) Casimir Funk, England, 1912; (riboflavin, B2) D. T. Smith, E. G. Hendrick, U.S., 1926; (niacin) Conrad Elvehjem, U.S., 1937; (B6) Paul Gyorgy, U.S., 1934; (vitamin C) C. A. Hoist, T. Froelich, Norway, 1912; (vitamin D) McCollum, U.S., 1922; (folic acid) Lucy Wills, England, 1933.
• Voltaic pile: (forerunner of modern battery, first source of continuous electric current) Alessandro Volta, Italy, 1800.
• Wallpaper: Europe, 16th and 17th century.
• Wassermann test: (for syphilis) August von Wassermann, Germany, 1906.
• Wheel: (cart, solid wood) Mesopotamia, c.3800–3600 B.C.
• Windmill: Persia, c.600.
• World Wide Web: (developed while working at CERN) Tim Berners-Lee, England, 1989; (development of Mosaic browser makes WWW available for general use) Marc Andreeson, U.S., 1993.
• Xerography: Chester Carlson, U.S., 1938.
• Zero: India, c.600; (absolute zero temperature, cessation of all molecular energy) William Thompson, Lord Kelvin, England, 1848.
• Zipper: W. L. Judson, U.S., 1891.

Giant Bird Discoveries – Penguin Fossils

2010-02-28T07:44:00.000-08:00

Two fossils of ancient giant penguins were discovered in South America

Hey, let’s talk about something very interesting today! Yes, this post is about discovery of penguin fossils that had been made in South America. The discovery has revealed quite a great deal of information about the history of little penguins that thrive today. A report released on one fine Monday in June 2007, described that the fossil discoveries of a couple of ancient species giant penguin suggested that the little penguins that roams about the glaciers today had a real big starting. The scientists describe that the big birds whose fossil had been discovered used be move around the area that is now known as Peru over 40 million years ago.

The finding was really amazing and helped the scientists to track certain information about the ancient species of giant penguins. Scientists named the bird Icadyptes salasi, which used to stand at some 5 feet tall… a man’s height. Paleontologist Julie Clarke, an assistant professor at North Carolina State University, said that these ancient penguins were larger than any other known birds of same species living today or has ever roamed about on this planet. The largest variety of penguins living today is the Emperor penguin, which grows to nearly 4 feet tall on an average. Another new species, a smaller penguin called Perudyptes devriesi, was almost close to the size of a living King penguin that grows to nearly 3 feet tall no average.

The fossil discovery of the ancient giant penguins has stirred up confusions amongst the researchers including paleontologist Julie Clarke. The confusion has rose out of the fact that the penguins, as large as the ones we are discussing about (Icadyptes salasi), shouldn’t have been found in the warm environment where they used to live. The question is how could they tolerate the natural heat? The fossils of the giant birds revealed that the species used to live during one of the warmest time period in the history. In this regard Clarke said, "In most cases, the larger individuals of the species are linked with colder climates…" How could the giant penguins manage to thrive in such a warm environment still remains a mystery to most researchers!

Even more surprising discovery is that these penguins had migrated to warmer climates much earlier than they were originally thought to have done. Scientists believe that these giant penguins hadn't moved to warmer waters until 10 million years ago. We can still find penguins across the warmer areas like the islands of Southern Hemisphere and even near the equator. But these penguins are much smaller and are found in the cold water belts. Bigger varieties are usually found in cold regions like Antarctica. How could Icadyptes salasi handle the extremely warm environment, despite being much bigger than the penguin species found today?

'Vampire' – Skeleton Discovered From a Grave in Venice

2009-06-24T09:40:00.000-07:00

Fossil Discovery: Skeleton discovered from a grave in Venice

As recently as Feb 2009, the researchers exhumed a skeleton from a grave in Venice. The discovery opened up a new horizon in many fields, as it is claimed to be the first known examples of the “vampires” that have been globally referred to in so many modern documents. Matteo Borrini of the University of Florence, Italy discovered the skeleton of a woman with a small rectangular piece of stone block in the mouth. Borrini discovered this strange skeleton while excavating mass graves of the middle aged victims of the Venetian plague of 1576 on the Lazzaretto Nuovo Island in Venice.

Borrini’s amazing discovery of the skeleton has helped the researchers to draw a link between the epidemic (plague) and human belief during those days. It was due to the wanton spread out of the plague, that people had been victimized by death. At the time the woman died, people used to believe that the plague was spread out by the “Vampires”, which did not drink people’s blood, but killed them by spreading out diseases by chewing on their shrouds after they died. According to Borrini, the grave diggers, put the small block of stone in the mouth of the dead women (those who were suspected to be “Vampires”) to stop them killing people by spreading epidemics.

According to the researchers, the belief in the so-called “vampires” had risen probably because of the fact that sometimes blood oozed out of the victims’ mouth while dying, which consequently caused the shrouds to sink inwards. Borrini presented his findings at a meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in Denver, Colorado during the last week of February 2009. He claimed that this might be the first known example of vampire to have been examined forensically.

Interestingly, Peer Moore-Jansen of Wichita State University in Kansas claimed that he had found similar skeletons in Poland. According to him, "claiming it as the first vampire is a little ridiculous". Borrini says that his study includes every detail of the earliest grave and shows archaeological "exorcism evidence against vampires".

Fact About Lightning Flashes - Why Are Lightning Flashes Zig-Zag?

2009-06-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

Here’s another very interesting thing that I had discovered from some reliable and valuable sources some years back. Someone had hit the media with an amazing question… “Why is it always that the lightning flashes are seen in zig-zag lines?” Well, a question like this is hardly faced by teachers and parents, I am sure. I personally haven’t yet come across too many kids asking such uncommon question!

So just read on… find why we always see thunder flashes in zig-zag lines. Lightning bolts are flashes that are produced by the high intensity electrical discharges in the atmosphere. Let's start off with an explanation that a lighting flash is a plasma and stripping the electrons off the atoms and molecules! The high intensity electrical discharges are produced due to the friction of the rising hot air with the condensed water particles in the cloud, thereby creating the positive electrical charges, accompanied by the build up of high intensity opposite charges – Negative Charges at the nearest point on the ground. This discharge doesn’t happen until the intensity of charges in the clouds exceeds the optimum limit. In this way a sequence of random discharges occur due to the repetitive crossing of critical limit of the intensity of the charges. The negative charges are discharged in step wise manner from the top of the cloud to its base. This is known as “Leader Discharge”. All the accumulated charges are discharged towards the Earth, which is actually the opposite negative charges and during this course of action reverse flow of electron (negatively charged particles) takes place from the ground towards the cloud, along the same path. The high speed of the high voltage current causes flash, which we call “Lightning”!

This flow and reverse flow of charges are of extreme high speed and are random and cross the atmospheric mediums of varied densities. As it happens randomly and crosses varied medium densities in atmosphere, which make the perception of the lightning in a wavy and zig-zag mode.

Remember, had this atmosphere been a vacuum, we could have seen lightning flashes in perfect straight lines

Use of Sonic Technology to Move The Heaviest Stone Blocks of Pyramids

2009-05-30T23:05:00.000-07:00

A discovery of fact of Pyramid Age!
Sonic Technology used to move the heaviest blocks of stones of Pyramids

The long hunted mystery of the heaviest stone blocks of the myriad Egyptian pyramids has been revealed! I have always wondered as to how those guys could manage to move the heaviest stone blocks that were multiple times heavier than the present day’s locomotive engines. Just a few days back while I was just cleaning my age old book shelf, I came across a news paper (The Times, London) that attracted my attention! “The clue lies hidden in the way an opera singer can shatter a wine glass”, said the researcher Andrew Collins.

According to Andrew Collins the secret laid hidden in using the sound vibrations whether made by raucous, cacophonous sound made by instruments or by making violent strikes of surfaces. Collins said that he had “compelling evidence” that the sonic technology was used to move the heaviest blocks of stones for the myriads pyramids in the ancient Egyptian civilization!

“Arguably the most accomplished engineering feet of the ancient world” as to how the ancient Egyptians built their gigantic pyramids, has long bewildered great minds. Theories that involve ramps, rollers and pulleys have been considered to the most likely explanations! Collins said that some stones that used to weigh up to around 200 tons and measuring up to 9 mts. would have required the strength the strength of over 4000 matured persons to move! Collins published his study on the 10th century civilization in his book “God of Eden” that was released in February, 1998.

Another Arab historian talked about the huge stone blocks of the myriad pyramids. His discovery also encompasses the same theme! The sonic technology was used to move the huge blocks of stones to make those mighty pyramids. According to his documents the stones were being hit with rods, and the ground by stamping of feet and clapping by thousands of people, thus creating vibrations by the sound produced. The severe sound vibration helped defying the gravitation pull of the Earth, thereby making it easy to pull the stones inch-by-inch to the desired destination. They hit upon the bright idea of rolling the huge blocks of pyramid stones on large wooden rollers.

Mr. Collins said: “the ancient Egyptians were able to setup some kind of sustained sound vibrations that enabled the building blocks to defy the gravity. Although simply the leg-end, there are tradition from all round the world to speak of the movement of a stone blocks and the constructions of walls and buildings by sonic levitation.” Although some of the leading Egyptiologists declined be at agreement with the theory, many others researchers believed in the fact that Ultra Sonic technology was used to bring huge stone blocks from distant places to build the pyramids. Jacqueline Pegg, an egyptiologist, kept her study and research work focused on power of sound in her post graduate dissertation at University College, London. Jacqueline said: “I don’t think it’s impossible. If you read the Pyramid texts, it says, when King rises to the heaven, it was always accompanied with great noise, whether clapping or stamping. That could be a metaphor, but they saw sound could do this.”

My view on this is that use of sonic technology to move the mighty pieces of stones is a convincing argument. If sound can crack glass tanks (aquariums) and mirrors, if bomb sound can toss buildings, it’s not impossible that those stone blocks could be moved using cacophonous sound.

Demand of Chewing Gum is The Root to Discoveries of Mayan Cities

2009-05-28T03:04:00.000-07:00

Discoveries of some of the long lost Mayan Cities

Recently discovered ruins of some of the great Mayan cities of the ancient southern Mexico, has stirred up debates across the globe! Guess what! Interestingly the chicles (the modern day's student faves... Chewing Gum) is involved in contributed a lot in this discovery.

The Mayas of the Southern Mexico loved chewing chicles. Evidences are there that one of their heroes, called Kukulkan, who had been worshipped as Lord, used to be highly fond of chewing gum. They used to call them "Chicle", as most people even today call it by this name. The main source of the chewing gum was wild sapodilla trees. They used to make sharp cuts in the bark of the wild wild sapodilla trees and collected the viscous milky white liquid that oozed out of the cuts. when the thick liquid hardened, they became delectable for chewing. Gradually the habit of chewing chicles got spread out through out the Central America and later more widely across the globe. The credit of introducing the chicles in to the modern world actually goes to two American people, named William Wrigley Jr. around 1870s. Later the demand for chewing gums turned out to be really huge and needs were felt to search for the wild sapidilla trees. Good news is that while searching for these wild tress, some of the ruins of the great Mayan cities have been discovered. The discoveries of the ancient Mayan cities helped resolved the longest hunts for the Mayan culture and civilization, but more interesting point hereby is that the hunt for the chicle tree is the root to these amazing discoveries.

A very few consumers of chicles actually know the history of product and it's link with the recent discoveries of the Mayan cities, although chewing the chewing gums has consistently been a part of the popular culture of North America for more than a century, and even the whole world at present. Even I just came to know about the habit of chewing chicles by the pre-Columbian people - the Aztec and Mayans. The extensive research work on this has been by using the historical evidences like documents and engraves. Anthropological, archaeological, botanical, and cultural ecological literature have helped the researchers a lot in this too!

Fossil Discovery Fills in The Gap in Human Evolution Process

2009-05-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

Fossil discovery fills in the gap in human evolution process!
'We just found the chain of evolution, the continuity through time...’

One very recent discovery has unearthed some big secrets about how human ancestors made the giant leap from one species to another. The findings were reported in the scientific journal "Nature". The fossil discovery in 2006 unveiled how actually the complete chain of human evolution till date are linked together. Scientists have discovered a fossil that is around 4.2 million years old in northeastern Ethiopia. The discovery has proved to be one of the most significant fossil discoveries so far, as it helped the researchers fill the gaps of how the ancestors of human made the big leap from one species to the next advanced one.

This newly discovered fossil is of the species Australopithecus Anamensis that had been found in the region of the Middle Awash, where as many as seven other species close to human in appearance, spanning around 6 million years and three major phases of human development that had already been discovered previously. With this discovery, the scientists got more detailed clue about the link of the gaps between some prehistoric species in the evolutionary process of human. In a telephonic interview from Addis Ababa, the study co-author and Ethiopian anthropologist Berhane Asfaw said, "We just found the chain of evolution, the continuity through time, One form evolved to another." According to the scientists, the species Anamensis is not new, but its location is what helped the scientists to explain the shift from one early phase of human-like development to the next advanced phase. This way the complete chain of human evolution process has been discovered, which is really a path-breaking innovation in the world of science! Until this amazing discovery was made and analyzed, scientists had only the snapshots of human evolution scattered hither and thither all around the world. This is one most vital finding, because it tied up everything with a single chain, making those disorganized snapshots more of a miniature movie of the human evolution. “It’s like 12 frames of a home movie, but a home movie covering 6 million years... The key here is the sequences. It’s about a mile thickness of rocks in the Middle Awash and in it we can see all three phases of human evolution,” said study lead author Tim White, co-director of Human Evolution Research Center at University of California at Berkeley.

The modern man falls under the genus "Homo", which is a subgroup of the family of "Hominids". As per the research, What actually evolved into "Homo" might be the genus called "Australopithecus" (once known as “man-ape”), which includes the famed 3.2 million-year-old “Lucy” fossil that was found around mid 70's. The key component for the genus that evolved into "Australopithecus" was "Ardipithecus". What is more imjportant is this newest finding bridges, although not completely, the gap that existed between Australopithecus and Ardipithecus.

Bach FLower Therapy Opens Up a New Chapter in Medical Science

2009-05-01T05:57:00.000-07:00

With the advent of Bach FLower therapy, there was a big revolution in the medical world! The Bach Flower therapy (pronounced as 'Batch' ) is one of the most innovative healing modality, which was discovered by a british allopathic Dr. Edward Bach (Pronounced as Batch) - (1886 - 1936) M.B., B.S., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., D.P.H. (Camb.). The discovery was maed around 1930 to
1936. Bach's approach was really quite unique, because that wasn't intended to treat or dignose and cure diseases based on the modern medical techniques. It was rather a very simple system of eliminating the negetive behaviors by considering the patients' personality traits, nature and attitude towards life. Such considerations are made irrespective of your diseases or medical conditions. According to Dr. Bach, the reigning behavioral negativities such as guilty feeling, frustration, and/or jealousy that get accumulated in human mind over a certain span of time are the negetive emotions that make us "emotionally imbalanced", are root cause of all human ailments, as they alters the biochemistry of the patients.

According to Bach Flower Therapy, often any medical condition result from the emotional imbalance emerging directly from the mind or from socio-economic stress. As per Dr. Bach, as soon as your mental condition improves, the psychological trouble gets mitigated and the physical trouble disappears along side. This implies that the patients' nature, their attitude towards life and inimitable surrounding circumstances have vital roles to play in breeding diseases. During the course of his work he as a general phycian he realized that the value of a priceless dictum that said: "There are no diseases or ill-health conditions but only sick (emotionally imbalanced) People!" While treating his patients, the doctor used to study their emotional configuration and their personal traits. He studied many individual personalities and analysed their psychological make-up and carried out a series of scientific tests. he found a co-relation of those negative emotions with the intestinal flora (fluid) or bacterial bowel lining of that particular patient. Dr. Bach noticed that two patients, who are same in age, height and weight, with same background and proficient in same field often react in different way under a same situation. The reason is simple! They have entirely different approaches towards life. Their mind is triggered with their own emotions which different from each other. While prescribing certain dosage of antibiotics to such patients for the same ailment, Dr. Bach observed that the rate of recovery also vary. The inherent nature and the approach towards life cast a great impact in recovery too! The doctor concluded that the nature of a person and the mental configuration plays te most vital role in the process of healing, which is why, according to him consideration those factors are of prime importance while determining the line of treatment.

Hypersonic 'X-51' Poised for The Test Flight

2009-04-30T03:03:00.000-07:00

With a motive to bridge the gap between the rockets and airplanes, the US military is planning to carry out an experimental aircraft that can fly at a pace over 6 times than the speed of light! The aircraft will work on the ordinary jet fuel but is expected to work multiple times faster. It is officially called X-51, but the guys love to give it a special name - "WaveRider". But why "WaveRider" and not any other name? Because this special aircraft will stay partially airborne, with its lift generated by the shock waves of its own flight. This is really a highly technical aircraft the civilization has ever witnessed. Being the pioneers in technology, the designers have designed the special aircraft, keeping in mind the goal of program that includes demonstration of air-breathing, hypersonic, combustion ramjet engine, known as a scramjet.

"We built a vehicle around an engine," said Joseph Vogel, the project manager of X-51 with boeing, which is building a series of four test planes programs, which is managed by managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio. The total expense invloved in the program is aroud $246.5-million.

Scramjets works on a high-value technology by using the forward motion of an engine to compress the air for fuel combustion. Although very much similar to to a ramjet engine, yest there is a slight difference. Scramjets work at supersonic speeds that can the capacity to break the record for a jet-powered aircraft with a speed of Mach 9.6, or around 7,000 mph. The concept has been tested by NASA in the year 2004. The vehicle, called X-43, flew only for a few seconds, because the copper-based engine of X-43 wasn't designed to survive the tenure of flight.

The Air Force X-51 program manager Charlie Brink told Discovery News: "The heat from the combustion process was just absorbed by (X-43's) engine. It would hold its shape for a limited point of time and then start melting". The X-51 engine, made by Pratt & Whitney, is made up of a standard nickel alloy, which keep the engine cool during the flight. The program's goal is to fly for about five minutes.

In an interview, Vogel said, "I truly believe this is one of those history leaps that will only happen every so many hundred years". The US military has its eye on the high-speed cruise missiles and along side the space vehicles too that doesn't actually need carry-on oxidizers. The space shuttle carries both liquid hydrogen as well as liquid oxygen, to power its main engines.

Google on Mars With Google Mars 3-D

2009-03-14T08:06:00.000-07:00

The first map of Mars - the red planet was published in 1895 by Percival Lowell. After years of telescopic experiments of the neighbor planet Lowell came up with an amazing pictograph of Mars that enticed interests of millions across the globe. Time's different now. Everything is at your finger tips. You can use your web browser to find what's there in Mars. Yes, those smart brains, who brought you the astounding Google Sky and Google Earth have now come up with what they call Google Mars. In collaboration with the NASA scientists at Arizona State University, they have created the most scientific map of Mars. Never before this any map of Mars, as detailed as this, was made. Good news is that all the three software, the Google Earth, Google Sky and Google Mars are now a complete package and downloading it is quite easy. The 3-dimensional topographic views of Mars is now so realistic that exploring the virtual Mars is really an amazing experience. Noel Gorelick, the tech lead for the Google Astro team said about the data and images,"It's as raw as it possibly can be". The data that comprises Google Mars 3-D doesn't look like the processed and touched-up/edited images. Students, teachers and parents will find their hours frozen with fun and excitement while soaring through the alien trenches on the red planet.

Most of the imagery used in 3-D Google Mars is publicly available and are easily accessible on sites across Internet, said Noel Gorelick, the project leader. This new tool helps to explore the whole of Mars by fetching data together in the same place and at the same time. That's where the value of the tool lies, thinks Gorelick. The data and the imagery that can be found in Google Mars 3-D are based on the pictures received from the landers and orbiters since years. Ashwin Vasavada, the NASA researcher in Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), who wasn't tied to the Google Mars 3-D project, said:"We spend the money to send craft to study Mars, but compiling all that data isn't something NASA has the resources to do".Noel Gorelick, a NASA veteran for 19 years joined GOogle in 2006. He used the NASA's images of Mars to create the 2-D application called Google Mars. On further processing the data from NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the European Space Agency and from other reliable sources, Gorelick ungraded the Google Mars map application into 3-dimensional version, thereby creating scopes for the armchair explorers to spy on the red planet.

Google Inc. and NASA joined hand to launch the Mars add-on for the Google Earth application in February, 2009 that has it's popularity already at the peak. The the Google Mars 3-D updates of March, 2009 enlists more interesting features like
spanning back to see the historical globe maps of Mars, watching real-time orbital tracks of space craft and guided exploration of Mars. Interestingly, the users of Google Mars 3-D application can explore the Mars and spot out the points of some of the NASA landers and rovers.

Discovery of a New Planet Leaves The Solar System With Only 8 Planets

2009-03-03T04:35:00.000-08:00

Hey... how many planets are there in our Solar System? The answer is 8! Wondering? Read out...

Until 2006, nothing was officially known about Eris. Eris is the largest known dwarf planet that had been discovered while a team of three astronomers, Mike Brown (Caltech), Chad Trujillo (Gemini Observatory), and David Rabinowitz (Yale University) were on a survey at Palomar Observatory's Samuel Oschin telescope. They suggested the name officially on September 6, 2006 which was accepted and announced on September 13, the same year. This discovery of new planet stirred up a buzz across Internet as well as many science magazines.

Myth About Its Name:

The name has been given in honor of the Greek goddess warfare and strife - ERIS, who's believe to breed the sense of jealousy and causes aggression among men. Greek mythology documents a story of the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, where all Gods were invited except Eris. Enraged at the exclusion, Eris spitefully caused a situation when Gods got involved in a quarrel that caused the Trojan war. Keeping the myth in mind, the researchers named the new planet Eris, as it caused a great lot of confusion among the members of international astronomical community in a discussion board at International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Prague, regarding the planet's proper designation. The meeting ended up with a conclusion that Pluto and Eris had to be demoted to Dwarf-Planet category, setting apart the solar system with only 8 planets! Both Pluto and Eris are the distant objects ever seen in orbit around the sun.

It was literally not possible to say how bit Eris was when it was first discovered. Researchers were gripped in confusions regarding it's size, because all they could see was a dot of light, which was actually the sunlight reflected off Eris's surface. Another big confusion was that the researchers didn't know if the object was bright because of it's highly reflective surface or because of it's large size or both. The discoverers said: "When an object is too far away to directly see how big it is, astronomers use an indirect method instead where they measure the heat coming from the object. If we wanted to measure the size of a fire, for example, we could do it by measuring the total amount of heat coming from the fire. The temperature of the flames in a match and a bonfire are essentially the same, but a bonfire emits much more heat because it is much bigger. The same is true of distant planets. Because we know how far away the planet is we have a pretty good idea of the surface temperature (a frosty 405 degrees below zero!), thus when we measure the total heat we can tell how big the object is. Unfortunately, the new planet is so far away and so cold that our first attempt at measuring the heat, using the Spitzer Space Telescope, could not detect the heat output. This fact tells us that the object must be smaller than about 3300 km."

Atmosphere and Surface of Eris

The discoverers study the composition of the dwarf-planet, Eris by studying the sunlight reflected off of the new object. They used the Gemini Observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaii to study sunlight reflected off of the surface of Eris and found remarkable similarities with Pluto, although not completely identical! Surface of Pluto is moderately red, while Eris appears to be white. Since Pluto has a mottled surface, it reflects 60% of the sunlight on an average, which hits it. Eris has comparatively uniform surface, which makes 86% (+/- 7%) of the sunlight to reflect back. The distance of Eris from the sun is so great that its surface is a frozen solid! In around 280 years or so, Eris will be around 2.6 time closer than it's current location from the sun. Over the next 280 years the absolute temperature of Eris will eventually rise by a factor of 1.6 (which is the square root of 2.6). Currently the temperature of Eris is minus 405 degree.

Facts About This New Planet - Eris:

Discoverers - Brown, Trujillo, Rabinowitz
Size - 2400 +/- 100 km (105% Pluto)
Brightness - 4th brightest Kuiper belt object (KBO)
Current distance - 97 AU
Orbital period - 560 years
Closest approach to sun - 38 AU
Visibility - late summer, fall, early winter
Tilt of orbit - 44 degrees
Furthest from sun - 97 AU

Note: AU means Astronomical Units. 1 AU = 149 598 000 kilometers

Rare Bird Discovery News - Nonggang Babbler Discovered

2009-02-09T23:55:00.000-08:00

Another amazing news of discovery awaits here...

The stuff was published at ScienceDaily on February 8, 2009. A new species of rare bird has been discovered very recently. Researchers call it a "babbler", as the bird makes loud, babbling cry. This new species of bird has been discovered in the Guangxi province in south-west China, located very close to the border with Vietnam. In the honor of the reserve at which it was discovered, the scientists named the bird Nonggang Babbler Stachyris nonggangensis. The Nonggang Babbler has been found to have a close resemblance with Sooty Babbler S. herberti, and the researchers concluded that this new species is closely related to Sooty Babbler S. herberti. The Nonggang Babbler is a bit larger than Sooty Babbler, and has white crescent patches right behind the ear coverts and dark spots on the throat and upper region of breast.

Until 2005 this beautiful rare bird species hadn't been sighted, and the ornithologists, Zhou Fang and Jiang Aiwu from Guangxi University were the first ones to identify this amazing babbler as an un-described taxon in the year 2006. A detailed informative copy had been published in an edition of ornithological journal "The Auk" very recently. By general behavior, the Nonggang Babbler resembles a wren-babbler of the genus Napothera, says the ornithologists. The babbler in survey prefers running to flying, rather than flying off directly from motionlessness. This new species of babbler has been found to be investing most of its time on the ground, foraging for insects under the fallen leaves and between pebbles, which is interestingly in contrast to other closely-related babblers that hardly come on the ground. The nesting habits of Nonggang babblers have not yet been traced, because no nests have been found, although around 100 pairs of the birds have been observed in Nonggang.

Ornithologists, Zhou Fang said: "I have been studying birds in the region since the 1970s but I had never seen it before. Their habitat in the reserve is protected, but as they could also exist in the karst rainforest outside the reserve, logging and burning wood to make charcoal pose a threat to their wider habitat." He continued, "The limestone area in south-western Guangxi is part of the Indo-Burma global biodiversity hot spot and the south-east Chinese Mountains Endemic Bird Area, and is one of the most typical tropical karst regions in the world. The fragility of the karst ecosystem and its destruction by people pose great threats to the bird's existence. Therefore, research and conservation of the birds in this habitat is very urgent".

This has been an real exciting discovery; there can be more amazing discoveries awaiting ornithologists in China. This was what Dr Nigel Collar, the Leventis Fellow in Conservation biology at BirdLife International thought.

Decline Of Plankton - A Mystery Partly Unearthed

2009-01-13T02:21:00.000-08:00

Researchers have been continuously talking about the declining of planktons. Have you ever spared a though about why has this been happening? The mystery is revealed here! Just as recently as January 12 2009, a report from ScienceDaily says that the history of the evolution of diatoms -- abundant oceanic plankton that remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through out each year -- requires to be brought in the light, according to a new Cornell study. the study spans back to some 33 millions ago, when an abrupt rise in the number of species, there was a sudden fall of diatoms -- trends that coincided with severe global cooling. According to the research, the long-held theory that diatoms' success was tied to an influx of nutrients deep into the oceans from the rise of grasslands that had taken place some 18 million years ago is doubtful enough to be true. From the recent study, led by graduate student Dan Rabosky of Cornell's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, the researchers got an evidence of a much widespread problem in paleontology: that older fossils are harder to find than the younger ones.

Rabosky said that they tried to address the simple fact that the number of available fossils is colossally greater from recent times than from earlier times. He added, "It's a pretty standard correction in some fields, but it hasn't been applied to planktonic paleontology up till now." Over 90% of the diatom fossils that are known, are younger than 18 million years. Another unadjusted survey of diatom fossils has given a clue of the fact that more diatom species have been in existence in the recent past than just 18 million years ago. Researchers say that it is possible to understand the dearth of the early fossils. In order to get the sampling for the diatom fossil, drill ships are required to be bored deep into sea floor sediment. The scientists needs to find out the ancient sediment on the seafloor first in order to find a trace of an ancient fossil, which is not an easy job, because plate tectonics constantly shift the ocean floor. Fossils spots are also shifted as a result. Moreover the great part of the seafloor is to young to sample, as per the scientists.

While making the research, Rabosky and co-author Ulf Sorhannus of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania controlled for the number of samples that were taken from the time period of each million-year of the Earth's history, going 40 million years backward. Re-analysis of the findings, caused that long-accepted boom in diatoms theory over the last 18 million years simply disappear. Instead of that long-accepted boom in diatoms theory, the researchers concluded that there had been a recent gradual rise, with a much more dramatic increase and decline at the end of the Eocene epoch, that is, about 33 million years ago.

The diatoms gained their peak diversity at least 10 million years prior to when grasslands became came into being. Rabosky said, "if there was a truly significant change in diatom diversity at all, it happened 30 million years ago". According to him, "the shallow, gradual increase we see is totally different from the kind of exponential increase you would expect if grasslands were the cause". While giving an example of an increase of that type, Rabosky recalled another fossil record -- the teeth of horses. Before the grasslands came into being, the horses were believed to have smaller teeth that were suited for chewing soft leaves... not the harder grass like today. This belief had been supported by scientific researches. As per Rabosky, although the diatoms ought to have shown a similar evolutionary response to the sudden availability of silica, yet they don't.

The new findings fail to explain the diatoms that are currently prevalent in the ocean, yet Rabosky said that whatever led to the rise in diatoms' at the end of the Eocene period, the tiny organisms may have contributed to a greater extent to the global cooling that followed. Rabosky said, "why diatom diversity peaked for 4 to 5 million years and then dropped is a big mystery. But it corresponds with a period when the global climate swung from hothouse to ice house. It's tempting to speculate that these tiny plankton, by taking carbon dioxide out of the air, might have helped trigger the most severe global cooling event in the past 100 million years"

Rabosky's research has been partly supported by the National Science Foundation.

Atmosphere of Pluto - How Cold is Pluto?

2008-12-27T23:54:00.000-08:00

Here’s a tale of Pluto… the secrete uncovered! Yes, right when the researchers are working hard to trace the evidences of life on Mars, a group of scientists concluded some interesting fact about Pluto – the last member of the solar family of planets. Pluto – a planet that still remains an enigma, is the tenth largest known orbiting family the Sun and the second largest dwarf planet discovered till date. Although not much is known about the Pluto and its atmosphere, yet researchers say that it is around 58,736,000 kilometers away from the Sun, which is an incredibly long distance. According to the researchers, it is certain that Pluto quite cold. Now the question is, how freezing is Pluto? How cold Pluto is, is still a matter of conjecture! In a research paper published in ‘Science’, volume – 261, pp 1713-1716, in 1993, a group of scientists led by S Alan Stern, at Space Science Department, South West Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, United States, talked about something really astonishing about the atmosphere of Pluto. They researched to conclude that Pluto may be as cold as 25 to 40 Kelvins at the surface, which is some tens of degree below the temperature of the liquid Nitrogen.

The researchers studied Pluto and the atmosphere there, using the highly sophisticated device that could track even the millimetrewave thermal emission (low heat radiation) that came from Pluto. The conclusion changed many other believes about Pluto. It used to be believed that Pluto’s atmosphere had methane gas as one of the major constituents, but now the belief has changed. Such a colder surface cannot have methane in the atmosphere. The thin dark line seen in the spectra of Pluto, which was believed to be due to the presence of methane, may be caused by the gas frozen on the surface of Pluto. Stern’s team contended that the atmosphere of Pluto constitutes chiefly nitrogen and carbon monoxide, with just a little trace of methane, instead of mostly methane.

Now again another question arises. Does the temperature on Pluto remain same all through? Not obviously! Temperature on Pluto varies hugely due to its highly elliptical orbit that ranges something between 4.4 billion km and 7.4 billion km away from the Sun. Another source suggested that the temperature of Pluto comes down to as low a 33 K, which is -240 degree Celsius when it is furthest from the Sun. Different sources have been laying their own unique view points, which s why Pluto is still a wondrous enigma.

Here are some view points regarding the atmosphere of Pluto, as laid down by various sources:

Lodders, Katharina & Bruce Fegley, (Jr. The Planetary Scientists Companion. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998: 237-240), said: "… the surface temperature of 40 K implies a surface pressure of approximately 58 millibar".

Rosanna L. Hamilton has more advanced view about Pluto. Hamilton says: "Due to its great distance from the sun, Pluto's surface is believed to reach temperatures as low as -240 degrees C (-400 degrees F)".

According to "Pluto." (The World Book Encyclopedia. Vol. 15, Chicago: World Book, 1999: 580-589), "Astronomers believe the temperature on Pluto may be about -390 to -370 degrees F (-230 to -220 degrees C)"

As per "The Heavens", Chicago: World Book, 1989: 120-121, "Its estimated temperature: -369 degrees F (-223 degrees C) also makes the presence of a gaseous atmosphere unlikely".

Here are some facts about Pluto:

Composition of atmosphere: Methane and Nitrogen
Discovered by: Clyde W. Tombaugh
Date of discovery February: 18, 1930
Equatorial radius (km): 1,137
Equatorial radius (Earth = 1): 0.1783
Equatorial surface gravity (m/sec^2): 0.4
Equatorial escape velocity (km/sec): 1.22
Magnitude (Vo): 15.12
Mass (kg): 1.27e+22
Mass (Earth = 1): 2.125e-03
Mean density (gm/cm^3): 2.05
Mean distance from the Sun (km): 5,913,520,000
Mean distance from the Sun (Earth = 1): 39.5294
Mean orbital velocity (km/sec): 4.74
Orbital period (years): 248.54
Orbital eccentricity: 0.2482
Orbital inclination (degrees): 17.148
Rotational period (days): -6.3872
Tilt of axis (degrees): 122.52
Visual geometric albedo: 0.3

Correlations Between Music and Mind - What Genre of Music Stimulates Mind?

2008-12-23T02:20:00.000-08:00

The topic was submitted by Meg Rebholz, Wiley Curran, Katie Kean and Andrew Hagan on October 21 2005. Although I posted about the Magic of Music before, I thought of talking a bit more about it. Scientists have been researching with the biochemistry of brain for many years now and the studies have been becoming essential endeavor in understanding human psychology and behavior. Music has been found to have a profound impact on brain, thereby favorably affecting the mood, concentration and work efficiency.

While just scrambling through the web, looking for information about "correlation between music and mind", I just came across a brief extract written by the researchers about their study on the effect of music on brain. "We hope to find a correlation between a specific genre of music and greater work efficiency and concentration", they said. They gave Miami University students of short reading comprehension test while listening to specific genres of music - classical, rock, rap, techno, pure instrumental. A group of students had been examined with the same reading comprehension test without music. A totality of 90 students were examined, hoping to unfold the miraculous relation between music and mind. Although there has been thousands of studies to uncover the impact of music on brain, but this time the research was about a bit more specific concept. The motive of this research project was to find out what genre of music could spell the greatest beneficial effect on comprehension and concentration. However, their studies examined some more broader topic in this relation. Not just what genre of music could have better effect on brain, the researchers moved a step ahead to to reach conclusions on how could a student improve his or her academic performance along side the mental efficiency. It was found that with no music the work efficiency was the worst.

A path-breaking study "The Effects of Music on Helping Behavior" was carried out by David Hargreaves, Mark Tarrant and Adrian North in 2004, seeking to examine how music manipulated human behavior. They played music in a gym to examine the affect that the tunes on behaviors of their subjects immediately after their workout. The participants were asked to help out a charity. The participants were divided into two groups:

First: the ones who were exposed to the annoying music like hard rocks
Second: the ones who were exposed to the cool uplifting music

The researchers reached the conclusion that those given to listen to the uplifting music were seen to be more supportive than those who were exposed to the annoying tunes.

Another study "The Mozart Effect" carried out by Weinberger, Norman suggested that the format of the mathematical rhythms in Mozart's symphonies contain certain factors that could enhance the mental clarity and the work efficiency. Rollin McCraty's study "The Effects of Different Types of Music on Mood, Tension, and Mental Clarity" sought to test the different effects that different genres of music had on the mental clarity. In this study four distinctive genres of music, including New Age, Classical, Grunge Rock and Designer music had been put to test. As a result, Grunge Rock had been seen to have to reduced mental clarity and motivation greatly. This implies more noisy the music will be, greater will be the interference in the quality of the signals promotes mental clarity. Work efficiency of a subject will have a definite fall if he is exposed to noisy music.

Life in Mars

2008-12-22T04:57:00.000-08:00

Owing to similarity and proximity to the Earth, scientists have long speculated the possibilities of life in Mars. For several years, scientists have been putting forth loads of convincing logics to support their believes that Mars used to host water early in its history, if not now. Very recently, observations from the Mars Phonenix landers and the certain other spacecrafts have given evidences of the deposition of water as ice at the polar region of the planet. Evidences ice have also been shown in the soil-covered glaciers in the mid-latitude region of the red planet – the Mars more than around 3.6 billion years ago. Now the question is how much of the planet was occupied by water. Also very less is know about what actually happened to the water during its geological march till the present times.

Scientists have pointed out a period when the water in Mars formed clay-rich minerals, after a drier span of time. Moreover the minerals and acidic water had an adverse effect on the plants that believed to have existed in Mars. If this had been a true incedence, then it can be assumed that life might have there in Mar, and they ceased to existed due to the adverse reaction.

A team researchers led by Brown University has been burning the midnight oil, looking for the evidences if there was life in Mars at all. They found traces of carbonates, which is a long sought minerals that proves the the existences of life in Mars – especially water organisms. Scientists have ascertained that the acidic effect had left some parts of the red planet unscatched, where life (that could have probably existed) came to an end due to other adverse affects. Clue for life may be there in those regions of Mars that had not underwent the acidic transformation. A graduate student of Brown University, Bethany Ehlmann, who's also the lead author of the paper that appears in the December 19 2008 edition of “Science”, said that "Primitive life would have liked it". He added: “It's not too hot or too cold. It's not too acidic. It's a 'just right' place”.

The finding of carbonates in Mars, strengthened the belief of existence of life in Mars. Presence of carbonates implies that planet had neutral to the alkaline water, when the minerals formed in the mid-latitude region of Mars. The carbonate traces have been showed up clearly in about 24 images captured by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, which is a hi-tech device installed by the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometers for Mars (CRISM) searches for the residual of minerals that had formed due to presence of water or might have been formed due to thermal vents or hot springs on Mars. The existences of water in Mars spans far back in its history – around millions and millions of years back. Scientists have traced the minerals depositions around the trough, called Nili Fossae. Nili Fossae is 667 kilometers long crack in the surface of Mars that has been eroded and partially filled up by the sediments of minerals. Evidences of carbonate depositions have been found in the sides of eroded mesas, sedimentary rocks within Jezero crater. Traces of carbonates have also been found in Libya Montes, Terra Tyrrhena and even on rocks that are exposed on sides of valleys in the crater's watershed. Researchers assumes that possible evidence of past life in Mars could be found on these locations in the planet.

Fossil Discovered: Fossil Fragments of Primitive Jawless Fish

2008-12-14T02:37:00.000-08:00

This news first came up in the Science Reporter in February 1979. Part of the title “Fossil Fragments of Primitive Jawless Fish” is exactly what was there in the original article.

The article stated about John E Repetski of US Geological Survey, who discovered the fossils fragments an amazing creature… a fish that hadn’t had its jaws and used to live around 510 million years ago. Some fragments of the fish’s external plates were found in the rock collected in Crook Country in Wyoming, where there used be a warm sea before North America got its present position in the atlas. For millions of years, this warm sea had been natural thriving place for great varieties of plants and animal lives.

Repetski claimed that the fish in question was the world’s oldest known vertebrates and believed to have been sharing the oceans of the late Cambrian period with trilobites and other primitive invertebrates. Repetski’s discoveries include around 2 dozens of fragments that he termed as Anatolepis. Although the fishy nature of Anatopelis has always been in many disputes, with some scientists suggesting that the fragments actually belonged to a Crustacean, and not to a fish-like vertebrate, but later the issue was resolved with a confirmed conclusion that Anatolepis was a vertebrate indeed. By scientific analysis of the fragments, it was found that the creature was of bony composition, which strongly indicated that they came from a vertebrate.

Radioactive dating of the fossil fragments indicated that this fish used to be there around middle late Cambrian age – some 510 million years ago. Repetski said that the fish was about 7.5 cm long and had a protective hard covering that acted as a shield or armor for the creature. The scales were attached to this hard covering and probably the middle and the rear part of the body was covered with smaller plates that helped the fish in locomotion. Repetski concluded that the Wyoming fish was apparently very much similar to the primitive fish that had been reported in Australia, which was believed to have been in existence about 480 million years ago.

Flowers and Fragrances - Effects of Air Pollution on Flowers

2008-12-12T04:28:00.000-08:00

I am sure you have been wondering why roses, these days, can't spread out such strong aromas that they used to do years ago! Your granny probably blames the gardener. I have heard people saying that it's due to the degrading qualities sold by unscrupulous floral traders that we can't smell roses from distance.

Hey... here's something that can bring wrinkles on your forehead. Yes... it's such an information that compelled many intelligent brains to be worried about the future - future of the planet. Biochemists and environmental scientists have traced out an adverse effect of air pollution on the floral fragrances. They have shown that air pollution restrains the fragrances of flowers from traveling spontaneously the distance they should. The pollutants released out of the flues of automobiles and industries, break apart the scent molecules, thereby altering the underlying chemistry. This results in destroying the delicate floral orders that are responsible for attracting bees and the other insects that act as the pollinating agents. Evidences have shown that these insects used to travel as long as three times the distance they are traveling these days. This means, the fragrances of the flowers can't travel more than one-third of the former distances! "What we find is that these fragrances only travel one-third of the distance that they used to travel," said Dr. Fuentes. I wonder, those days are not far away when roses will cease to spread out aroma. Dr. Fuentes also adds that "the pollinators are spending more time trying to locate food and less time trying to actually harvest food that they need". What if it continues to be like this? A time will come soon when this green planet will turn into a gray grave. Plant population is running a risk of being destroyed, because plants need insects to pollinate that allows flowers to reproduce. According to him, one single action that we can take to prevent this situation from getting more grave is to “work towards having a very clean environment”.

Let's have a brief understanding of sensing mechanism of smells.

What is smell? Smell is the sensory response to the complex combination of certain chemicals present in the atmosphere surrounding us. These chemicals are called “Odorants”. We can sense a smell when we are able to sense a specific combination of these chemicals. These chemicals bind into distinctive combinations to form specific proteins, which stimulates the protein receptors that line the cells present in our nose. Each kind of receptors can detect only a specific kind of fragrance, i.e. each specific kind of chemical combinations. This way we can sense smell and distinguish one from the other.

Why is air pollution held responsible?

Air pollution is promoted by millions of pollutant particles (called Aerosols) present in gases, droplets and smokes. Once released, these pollutants remain suspended freely in the air, making it dirty. These chemical particles reacts with the fragrance molecules of the flowers and breaks off their chemical bondage. This consequently cause the loss of chemical properties in the fragrance molecules released by flowers. It's due to this typical chemical soup that floral fragrances are not perceived from distances.

Plants Fossil Discovered - Land Plants of 200 Million Years Ago

2008-12-12T02:00:00.000-08:00

Yes, Plant Fossil Discovered!

The new archeological site in St George, Utah, U.S. has recently been brought to notice by Jim Kirkland, the State Paleontologist, another paleontologist, Andrew Milner and a paleo-botanist Sidney Ash. This archeologal site in St George, wasn't so famous until Andrew and Sidney highlighted the site and brought to the attention of the general mass in 2008, although the first scientific studies at the site was carried out in 2006. Why has this archeological site in Utah become so famous? Well, the site is actually more important to the researchers than it is famous to the general mass. Interestingly, this is the only early Jurassic land flora site ever known in the western United States.

The St George archeological site in Utah provides traces of plants fossil of a variety of land plants that had been in existence at this location around 200 million years ago.

Courtesy: Image courtesy of St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site The St George acrcheological site provides tons of evidences of the variety of land plants that were present in that region about 200 million years ago.

Spanning shortly back to 2006, this St George site in Utah was being excavated for the purpose of an industrial Park, when a developer fortunately discovered a plant fossil. Never until then it had been given so much importance as an archeological site. Good news is that, the developers and the researchers have joined hand to work together on a project of preservation of the fossils. This is one site in the entire western United States that promises million dollar information for the archaeologists. "This plant site is extremely important to help us examine further the vegetation recovery of plant life during the mass extinction at the end of the Triassic epoch," said Jim Kirkland, Utah State Paleontologist. Staff from the City of St. George and the State of Utah have teamed up with developers the Wadman Corporation, Bob Anderson and Kastle Rock Excavation and have started working to find out more evidence of puzzling plant fossils. Such findings help the researchers to make study of the environment of those times.

The excavation has been marked to be one of the major excavations occurred all across the globe so far, because this has put forth certain valid evidences of a mass extinction that had happened during late Triassic, where many organisms went completely extinct. The dinosaurs consequently became the most dominating land animals on the planet! Tracks of dinosaur have been discovered in the same area, at Johnson Farm, in February 2000.

Tid bits of Comfort Science - Easy Chair

2008-11-16T07:25:00.000-08:00

The question was “why is an easy chair more comfortable?” I remember, I came across this interesting article years ago in Know How, The Telegraph. I don’t exactly remember the date.

Whether you feel comfortable in an easy chair or not depends entirely on how much part of your body’s total area is in contact with the chair. If you are sitting on a stool or just an ordinary chair (well, let’s name it non-easy chair), it’s only your hip region that is in contact with chair. Naturally the entire weight of the body is laid on a small area. Therefore the pressure per unit area of the body on the seat is high, which makes him feel uncomfortable.

Now let’s assume that you are sitting – rather lying on an easy chair. Almost entire body is in contact with the chair this time. The total body weight is getting shared uniformly… distributed through out the entire chair. Therefore the pressure per unit area of the body is at its minimum, because it is getting distributed uniformly.

It is said that the first original easy chair was made for comfort in the 18th century. It was a unique blend of science and comfort. And since then, the comfort science has been studied seriously. The modern easy chairs are designed for specific use. Starting from the comfort chairs for book lovers to those for music listeners the design and style have been on a constant change.

Black Smoker Discovered Along with 500 new Marine Species

2008-11-14T05:18:00.000-08:00

Astonishingly another undersea discovery have been made on the Easter Sunday morning in 2007, which created a buzz across world wide web on April 17th that year. I'm sure many people who have been keeping track on what's happening deep under the sea, are already aware of this fact. It's for those like Rene, who just turned on her switch of inquisitiveness, when I told her about that “Black Smoker”.

Yes... “Black Smoker” under the sea! A never-seen-before natural undersea mineral chimney - “Black Smoker” has been discovered that emits hot dark water. The discovery was made at about 8,500 feet deep under the sea by an expedition team while exploring a section of volcanic ridge along the floor of Pacific Ocean off Costa Rica.

Who could resist the temptation of knowing more about it? Same for me; I could not stop reading the article until the end and browsed for more stuff when I came across a sentence that stated, this undersea mineral chimney, releasing hot and dark water, attracts unusual marine life. Unusual marine life! That means yet a few more new info about some never-seen-before marine species.

Funded by the National Science Foundation, the discovery was named “Medusa Hydrothermal Vent Field” by the expedition leaders from the Universities of New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida; the Duke University; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts. Why was that discovery named so, was best explained by one of the expedition leaders Emily Klein, who's a professor of geology, from Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. According to the researchers, they picked that name as they wanted to highlight the presence of a pink form of the jellyfish order Stauromedusae and numerous spiky tubeworm casings that festooned the vent chimney, which looked very much like “the serpent-haired Medusa of Greek mythology”.

Karen Von Damm, who's an earth sciences professor and hydrothermal vent specialist on the expedition from the University of New Hampshire's Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space, said that the bell-shaped jellyfish that they found near the vent "are really unusual, and the ones we found may be of a different species because nobody has seen types of this color before."

The researchers have explored the Medusa Hydrothermal Vent Field with 'Jason II', which is a hi-tech remotely controlled robotic vehicle operated by WHOI. Using a temperature measurement device attached to Jason's mechanical arms, researchers have meassured the temperature at the vent's mouth to be 335 degrees Celsius, i.e. 635 degrees Fahrenheit.

Klein said, "despite the great temperature of the vent water, it doesn't boil until 390 C because pressures on the ocean floor are so great, about 200 times the pressure at sea level." "Frankly, it's astonishing that a rich ecology thrives in these extreme environments," added Klein. According to her, however, that although all the organisms near trhe vents are well adapted to such a high preassures at a depth of 8,500 feet, not all of them are experiencing that extreme temperature. She explains that the temperature at the bottom of the sea is about 2 C (35 F) only and there is a vigorous drop in temperature as you move away from the vent. So the organisms living just a few inches away may experience a temperature difference by only a few degrees above normal for the ocean bottom.

Von Damm one of the members of the expedition team, said that the heat-tolerant tubeworms that had been found living on Medusa's chimneys, a type of organism called “Alvinellids” that can thrive well on the high-iron fluids. Jason another researcher also talked about a couple of other types of tubeworms known as “Tevnia” and “Riftia”, which had been found on the vent area.

Karen Von Damm said that researchers have often come across the mid-ocean ridges wherever there are geothermal vents warmed by heat energy from the underlying volcanic channel. Karen siad, “each new vent sighting sparks fresh excitement, because each one is different. Every vent has a little different chemistry, and that helps us understand the processes going on in the ocean crust”. That means each one of them might be a shelter for different kinds of species. Karen said, “Each one gives us a different piece of the puzzle. And biologists have found more than 500 new species at vents since they were first discovered.”

Rich Diver's Sunshine to Petrol Project

2008-11-04T02:45:00.000-08:00

Well, this news is not about any discovery; it's an invention. I just discovered it while scrambling around the net. Hey... read on, it's a real great news for me, for you and for the world.

Have you ever spared a thought over issues like transforming the deadly global warming gas into something that's really important to us? It's now the time when factories can recycle Carbon Dioxide into carbon-neutral liquid fuel, instead of just spewing off into the atmosphere. A highly talented research team from Sandia National Laboratories had been burning their midnight oil since years, working on the technique of transforming Carbon Dioxide into carbon-free fuels. The year 2007 revolutionized the world of science with the team's grand success in developing the prototype device that does the miracle! They named it CR5 for short... "Counter Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator" .

What Does CR5 Do?

CR5 breaks the carbon-oxygen bond in the carbon dioxide, which produces:
1) Carbon Monoxide and
2) Oxygen

This is the main and the prime step to convert Carbon Dioxide into fuel. According to the inventor Rich Diver, the original idea for CR5 came from the concept of breaking down water into Hydrogen and Oxygen and then Hydrogen could be used as the most potent fuel for potential hydrogen economy.

Rich Diver and his team used the concentrated solar energy to reverse combustion to transforms Carbon Dioxide into Carbon Monoxide through this device. The Carbon Monoxide was then used to make Hydrogen that acts as the building block that helps to synthesize liquid combustible fuel, like gasoline, diesel, methanol and even jet fuel.

The researchers called the project "Sunshine to Petrol” project - (S2P) for short. The gist is: the Solar energy is used to transform Carbon Dioxide to Carbon Monoxide, which is used to form Hydrogen that in turns is used to yield the end product - “Liquid Solar Fuel” like methanol, gasoline etc.

A New Discovery that Revolutionized the Marine Researchers - The Epaulette Walking Shark

2008-10-22T04:56:00.000-07:00

After the two expeditions to the "Bird's Head Seascape" led by the Conservation International (CI) in 2006, the Marine world have unfolded a set of amazing facts that were hidden so far in dreary world of obscurity.

Well this is an old story for the people related to the marine world and smaller or bigger aquarists across the globe. I'm sure, millions around me are still in desperate love of multi-colored marine creatures, but haven't yet heard of the epaulette Walking Shark. Discovered in the "Bird's Head Seascape" just as recently as September 2006, a list of 50 unknown marine species, includes this amazing slender-bodied shark that can walk with the pectoral fins along the sea floor and multicolored schools of coral reefs.

Apart from these two kinds of Walking Sharks the resrarchers discovered 8 new kinds of Shrimps, 20 species of hard corals, 22 species of other fishes that are were not listed in any science journals before these expeditions. "Bird's Head Seascape", which is a distinctive peninsula located on the northwestern end of Papua province in Indonesia has become a spot of attention for researchers because of its marine biodiversity.

These Sharks are not much bigger in size... about 1 to 1.2 meters in length when matured and live on shrimp, small fish, crabs and snails. They walk along the bottom of the sea if not disturbed, but swim away fast if spooked. Not much know about this entirely new species of shark... scientists are burning their midnight oil to know more about their breeding and dietary habbits. However, constant threats are being warranted to sustainability of such rare marine species from over-fishing with dynamite and cyanide and not to be forgotten wanton deforestation and mining.

These Walking sharks are called "Epaulette sharks" because of the presence of a couple of large round spots near their heads, which resemble very much the shoulder ornaments that are worn by military officers on their uniforms.

Watch out these clips that I got from Youtube. Special thanks to Youtube.

Magic of Music - Stimulating Mind

2008-10-05T04:35:00.000-07:00

I've been amongst those very intelligent guys, who never did well in the exams. I am sure there are lots amidst the mob out there, who are like me and some of my acquaintances, who used to solve the toughest integrals and differentials with music played in the background. I just wondered why couldn't I solve the easiest Standard Deviations in the exam, while the toughest probabilities were simple for me at home . I realized that it was the music that made the difference. Well, I couldn't tolerate hard rocks and massive beats; symphonies of John Tesh (Piano), Yanni (Piano) Eugene Rousseau (sax), Kim Hutchcroft (sax) and Kenny G (sax) were some I've always been comfortable with.

Later in the year 2000, I just chanced to drop by an article of Gordon L. Shaw, Ph.D. M.I.N.D. University of California, that gave me a clue why I've always been an utter flop in the exams. Gordon L. Shaw and the colleagues of the Center of the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, University of California, USA said that the music not only entertains and motivates, but also enhances our thought process. In the study with some 36 college students, Dr Shaw and his team tried to find if there was any truth in the belief that good tunes can fine-tune our minds too. He used symphonies of W A Mozart and asked the students to recognize and compare te intricate patterns including folds and cut papers - standard tests for mathematical ability and reasoning. They were repeatedly; some tested were carried just after a short time relaxation without listening to Mozart. Surprisingly the students scored better grades in the tests that followed listening to Mozart, while in the other condition the responses were not satisfactory. Believe it or not... after the discovery of the 'Mozart Effect' by Dr. Gordon Shaw researchers are thinking of using music to revolutionize the mathematics education!

The experiment includes the following steps:

College students showed amazing enhancement of 'Spatial-temporal reasoning' after listening to Mozart Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major. This experiment of Dr. Gordon L. Shaw and Dr. Frances Rauscher recieved tremendous attention across the globe in the year 1993 and the media termed it as "Mozart Effect".
Patients suffering from Alzheimer disease showed short term enhancement in 'Spatial-temporal reasoning' right after listening to Mozart Sonata.
Patients suffering epilepsy showed reduced tendencies of seizures after listening to Mozart Sonata.
Brain imaging studies showed a striking increase in brain activities when Mozart was played.

NB: 'Spatial-temporal reasoning' involves transforming as well as comparing mental images in time and space, crucial in doing mathematical calculations, playing games like chess etc.

Why Can't You Tickle Yourself?

2008-10-04T12:22:00.001-07:00

Shubho Sashti-r Preeti 'o' Subhechha to all you guys at the very outset.

Well now let me flag on the voyage! Let me start off with the question that created an impact in my mind. Mannan's question... Why wasn't he able to tickle himself? First off, I don't remember where exactly I found the answer and when. I found it years back - probably in the year 1999 or 2000. Here's why can't people tickle themselves:

Getting tickled is an exciting feeling - a feeling that great minds have failed to explain. All you can say is, its amusing... its exciting... its something typical that creates an unexplained feeling. To understand why can't we tickle ourselves, just know why can we tickle others first. Whenever you're tickling your friend, the sensation is soon recognized and picked up by some special nerve endings of his body. These nerves are called "Mechano Receptive Nerves". The Mechano Receptive Nerve endings are located right beneath the skin. These nerves pick up the sensation (information) and transmit it to the spinal chord and thereafter the lower brain stem through some tiny fibers, which are called 'C-Type Fibers'. This entire process of transmission happens very slowly (at a very slow speed), which is why people feel ticklish. During this time of transmission the superficial muscles in our body tend to move to accommodate the sensation. This movement of these muscles are controlled by 'Cerebellum' (The dorsally projecting part of our brain that is mainly concerned with coordination of muscles and the maintenance of equilibrium of the body). Coordination of muscles by cerebellum is not only concerned with the muscular movement, but it controls and arrests them too. The arresting function of the muscular movements by cerebellum is called 'Damping Action'.

Now when you try to tickle yourself your cerebellum gets the information information before ti actually happens. It blocks the process of transmitting the sensation and you don't feel ticklish. So you cannot tickle yourself due to a different process, where your cerebellum detects your self-inflicted touch beforehand and it sends the information to the rest of the brain. The resulting sensation is thus ignored. So no point wasting time trying to fool your brain by tickling yourself.

The mystery 'why can't we tickle ourselves' has been puzzling great minds for years. A pack of British scientists at University College London have solved it.

Welcome To Discovery Discovered

2008-09-29T08:09:00.000-07:00

All on a sudden!!! Yes, my peeps may think why, just out of the blue, I came up with such a blog - 'Discovery Discovered'. People who know me, know that I'm an avid lover of dogs and run just a couple of dog blogs. Yes I do. Beyond that I do certain other stuff too.

Well it all started during 1990s. I still remember that little guy who suddenly asked me one evening: Why can't we tickle ourselves? Mannan Hussain was his name. He was laughing and tried tickling himself but in vein! His mom Sayera Khatoon was literally an illiterate woman, who scolded her boy and wanted him to stop clowning around amidst the mob. Little Mannan stopped it but his question left an everlasting impact in my mind. How many of you have ever spared a thought on such seemingly silly questions? Let me be very candid! Let me not hide and seek! Until Mannan asked me about that, I didn't even realize that there were many such things that most of us don't think of.

My quest for little things started! My unquenchable thirst for knowing things lead me to collect old news papers, Science Reporters, Readers Digests and stuff like these. Picking things from the road and waste boxes was a typical little me. I started picking informations from wherever I could get, beyond libraries and institutions. I gathered loads of information from varied sources. Students, parents and teachers may find this blog 'Discovery Discovered' to be a vital source of scientific information. I am sure some of my posts may seem a bit too strange but would really be interesting. Keep dropping by this blog and get answers to some strange questions. Forget not to hit me back with your thoughts... comments are endeared.

Also find some really valuable scientific posts that may come to a great help to you, if you are a student or a teacher or stay-at-home mom who spend hours looking for good stuff for your child to teach.

I am sure, Mannan will chance to peep in to this site some day and will surely place his thoughts as comments. Thanx Mannan for being a root to this blog. God Bless you!!!!