Month August 2022

Guano is the accumulated excrement or droppings of seabirds or bats. It is valuable as manure, as it has a high content of nitrogen, phosphate and potassium – key nutrients essential for plant growth. Before fertilizer began to be made in factories (the first such factory came up in Germany in 1913), countries competed to capture islands populated by seabirds so that they could have access to large deposits of guano. Economies of some countries like Peru flourished through the export of guano. Even today, Peru is the largest exporter of guano which is in demand again because of the growing popularity of organic farming.

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After prolonged exposure to water, the skin on our fingertips and toes tends to shrivel up, making them look like dry, wrinkly prunes (a kind of plum). But unlike prunes which shrink when they lose moisture, our skin becomes wrinkled because it absorbs water.

Our skin is made up of several layers. The outer layer of the skin is mostly made up of dead cells that help protect the body. These cells contain a protein called keratin, the same protein which is present in our nails and hair. On our palms and soles, the quantity of keratin in the cells is higher, which makes the skin in these areas thicker and tougher.

The outer layer of the skin is covered by an oily substance called sebum which keeps water out of the skin. When we swim in the pool for a long time, the layer of sebum gets washed off leaving the skin exposed to water.

The keratin-rich skin on our palms and soles tends to absorb more water than skin on the other body parts. Thus, the skin swells up and becomes puffy, but cannot expand too much as it is attached to the layer beneath and shrinks instead, resulting in prune fingers and toes.

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Howrah Bridge is a long and heavy bridge but it has no support in the centre. Rabindra Setu, popularly known as Howrah Bridge, links the cities of Howrah and Kolkata. It is a 705-metre long cantilever bridge. A cantilever is a structure that juts out way beyond its base. The branch of a tree is a natural cantilever, a beam of metal jutting out from a wall to support a balcony is a cantilever, the diving board of a swimming pool may be a cantilever. In all these examples, the support exists only at one end. In a cantilever bridge, the cantilever juts out over the river from a supporting structure known as a pier. A similar cantilever juts out from a supporting structure on the opposite side of the river. The two arms meet to form the spanof the bridge. The piers at either end of the bridge support the load that a cantilever bridge has to carry so there is no need for a support in the centre.

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As we celebrate 75 years of independence, here are some unheard stories of our freedom fighters.

Golden girl kanaklata  

The 16 years old kanaklata was determined to participate in the hoisting of the flag on Gohpur police station close to her house.

It was a period of turmoil in the country and talk of freedom was in the air. Like many other youngsters of her time, Kanaklata Barua felt a passionate desire to help free her motherland. She had lost her parents, one after the other by the time she was 14 and was brought up by her grandparents.

Call to hoist the tricolour on police stations

 On September 18, 1942, a few weeks after the ‘Quit India’ resolution had been passed, a leader from Tejpur, Assam, gave instructions to hoist the tricolour on all police stations and government buildings in the district. The 16-year-old Kanaklata was determined to participate in the hoisting of the flag on Gohpur Police Station close to her house. The people had been asked to gather at a place some distance away from the police station on the morning of September 20. Kanaklata finished her household chores. Then she said to her younger sister, “Let us have breakfast together. God alone knows whether we shall meet again.” Kanaklata led one of the groups that advanced towards the police station shouting slogans like ‘Glory to Mother India’ and ‘Mahatma Gandhi ki Jai’.

The officer in charge of the police station warned them not to advance but Kanaklata pressed forward saying, “Don’t try to stop us! We shall leave only after putting the flag up!”

Felled by police bullets

The police opened fire. Some people from the group turned and fled, but Kanaklata continued to press fonward. The police fired again and Kanaklata was hit in the chest. Others around her were also felled by the bullets but now they were very close to the police station and one member of the group, Ram Pati Rajkhoa snatched the flag from the dying Kanaklata, climbed to the top of the police station and planted the flag there.

Her sister and her grandparents broke down when her comrades brought her body home. But Kanaklata would not have wanted it any other way. If she had had another life to give, she would have perhaps gladly given away that too for her beloved country.

Robin Hood of the Godavari

From the jungles of the Rampa region in the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh emerged a young hero who galvanised the local Adivasi tribals to rise against the British Raj in the 1920s. His name was Alluri Sitarama Raju. The Madras Forest Act had severely affected the tribal way of life. It prevented the tribals from engaging in the traditional method of shifting cultivation and collecting forest produce. They ended up being exploited for cheap or free labour by the British.

Raju channelled the tribal discontent into an anti-British force. He realised that mere bows and arrows were not enough. So he conducted lightning strikes on police stations, raiding their arsenal of guns and ammunition. He would announce the date and time of attack and even enter the details of the loot in the station diary!

For two years from 1922-1924, Raju and his guerrilla fighters terrorised the British. A bounty of Rs 10,000 was placed on his head and special forces were drafted to combat his men. No amount of persuasion could sway the local people from being loyal to Raju. They called him ‘Manyam Veerudu (Hero of the Jungle). It was only after Raju was caught and shot dead on May 7, 1924 that the British heaved a sigh of relief.

Young braveheart

In 1938, Dhenkanal (in Odisha) was up in arms against the repressive measures of the local kings who were British loyalists. The British force was hot on the trail of Veer Baishnav Pattanayak, a revolutionary who was stirring up villagers against them. They arrived at the village of Bhuban on October 10, 1938 to nab him, but he escaped. A troop of British soldiers chased him, but they were stopped in their tracks by an ordinary boy of extraordinary courage. Baji Raut was a 13-year-old boatman of Nilakanthapur village who was standing guard at a ghat on River Brahmi. When the British platoon arrived and demanded to be ferried across, Baji Raut refused. A furious soldier attacked the boy with the butt of his rifle, fracturing his skull. The boy was fatally injured, yet he managed to raise an alarm, alerting the villagers. A soldier bayoneted him, while another shot him. Enraged villagers rushed to the riverbank. The platoon panicked and hastily retreated in Baji Raut’s boat while firing away at the mob, killing four more.

Baishnav Pattanayak took the bodies of Baji Raut and the four villagers to Cuttack to give them a hero’s farewell. In 1943, Sachidananda Routray, the father of modern Odia poetry, immortalised the boy’s sacrifice in his poem, Baji Raut.

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Romance languages have nothing to do with love or affection. This phrase actually refers to a set of related languages that were derived from Latin, the language of the Ancient Romans.

Now here is the catch, the Latin of the elite literati (like the politician, lawyer and philosopher Cicero) that dominates the written classical texts was different from the one used by the populous in their day-to-day life.

Vulgar Latin

The unpolished, simplified Latin of the commoners was called Vulgar Latin. Even Cicero used this version of the language in personal correspondence. In that period the word vulgar was just an adjectival form for the crowd (unlike the meaning it holds today). Simply put vulgar Latin was the language of the masses. The one traders and soldiers took with them, as they travelled to different parts of the world and mingled with people who spoke other native languages. As the empire grew so did the people who spoke Latin.

The birth of the Romance Language

The fall of the Roman Empire at the end of the 5th Century lead to its newly liberated far-flung territories forming their governments and dialects of the spoken tongue giving birth to the earliest Romance languages. Linguists suggest that there are a total of 27 different ones in existence today. The five most prominent of those are Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Romanian.

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When one says conservation efforts to save a species have paid off, it usually means one thing a steady increase in the species population. And that’s good news. Recently though conservation efforts paying off had a slightly unexpected result. What is it? Come, let’s find out.

In summer, great white sharks move up the Atlantic coast of the U.S., towards New England. Their numbers normally hit the peak between August and October. But a few weeks ago, an unusual increase in human-shark encounters was evident along the U.S. East Coast, The reason? Experts believe it could ironically be due to the “conservation wins for vulnerable species”. There has been an increase in great white shark numbers, which experts think is the result of continued protection. And this likely led to increased human-shark encounters too.

An important factor in the shark number increase is the fact that the number of its main prey -the seal-has seen an uptick too due to protection. Scientists also believe that the increasing encounters could be “linked to the sharks bait fish-menhaden, also known as porgies or bunkers, recovering”. But they also warn that “it’s tricky to figure out how much of it is increasing populations moving around as a result of changing ocean conditions from climate change.”

Though there have been instances of sharks being portrayed in pop culture as blood-thirsty, that’s far from the truth. Studies have shown that sharks can mistake surfers or swimmers for their usual prey meaning many attacks could be the result of mistaken identity. Researchers say that if the number of beach-goers is anything to go by, there should be tens of thousands of shark attacks every year whereas the truth is that annual global deaths due to shark attack is five. When more sharks come close to land for feeding and more people go swimming, the encounters are likely to increase.

And with climate change experts expect “that the increase in ocean temperatures will gradually lengthen the season during which sharks are present in the northern United States”. This could mean increased chances of encounters in the future. Increased vigilance and self-awareness will go a long way in minimising the risk of attacks, feel experts.

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The Indian Space Research Organisation has been successful at developing space launch vehicles, building satellites, and launching them. But the space agency faced a glitch recently on the maiden journey of its Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV). Let’s see what an SSLV is.

As the name suggests, an SSLV is a small satellite launch vehicle capable of launching lightweight satellites. The ISRO’s SSLV is 34 metres tall, weighs 110 tonnes, and is equipped to launch satellites weighing between 10 kg and 500 kg to low earth orbit (LEO), that is up to 500 km from Earth. Such lightweight satellites are also called mini, micro, or nano satellites.

The SSLV has been developed to cater to the emerging market for the launch of small satellites into Earth’s low orbits by developing countries, students, and others. The SSLV is the third offering of the ISRO after the Polar Satellite Launch vehicle (PSV) and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). The key features of the SSLV are low cost, flexibility in accommodating madtiple small satellites, possibility of multiple drop-offs launch-on-demand feasibility, and minimal launch infrastructure requirement On its maiden demonstration flight on

August 7, the SSLV carried an earth observation satellite (LOS-02), and a cube satellite developed by students, named AzandiSAY. The rocket was supposed to place the payloads into the desired 356 km circular orbit. But the satellites were instead placed in an elliptical orbit. It was said the rocket deviated from its path and placed the satellites into 356/76 km low earth orbit due to malfunctioning of a sensor. “As the 76 km elliptical orbit was the lowermost point and closer to the surface of the Earth the satellites placed in such an orbit will not stay for long due to the atmosphere and will come down. The (two satellites) have already come down from that orbit and are no longer usable according to ISRO Chairman S. Somanath.

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Smartphones have become ubiquitous. Whether you need it or not, there is an app for everything. And that has been made possible regardless of whether it is good or not-as we live in a hyper-connected world. Mobile networks have made it possible for us to access the Internet literally anytime, anywhere.

5G is the latest advancement in the telecommunications industry. The 5th generation mobile network is a new global wireless standard after 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G networks. Designed for connectivity, 5G tech is expected to deliver higher speeds, have lower latency, greater availability and network capacity. affording uniform access, even in crowded areas.

Nearly one for every decade

While 1G delivered analog voices in the 1980s, 2G introduced digital voice in the 1990s. Early 2000s brought mobile data through 3G, and 4G came around in 2010s, ushering in the era of mobile broadband. Global operators started launching 5G networks, which is based on OFDM (orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing), in 2019, and it is expected to provide better connectivity than ever before.

All major phone manufacturers have started producing compatible handsets as 5G has been deployed in over 60 countries. With the buzz among consumers about even faster speeds and lower latencies, adoption too has been faster, when compared to 4G.

5G roll out in India

As for India, 5G is likely to be launched this year, with some expecting it to be rolled out as early as next month. Work on related hardware is already under way. thanks to the major telecom operators in the country – Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vi.

The 5G spectrum auction in India has already been completed and it has been valued at Rs. 1.5 lakh crore. Initially expected to be rolled out in 13 cities, competitive pricing of 5G plans is expected in order to make it even more attractive.

Smartphones have become ubiquitous. Whether you need it or not, there is an app for everything. And that has been made possible regardless of whether it is good or not-as we live in a hyper-connected world. Mobile networks have made it possible for us to access the Internet literally anytime, anywhere.

5G is the latest advancement in the telecommunications industry. The 5th generation mobile network is a new global wireless standard after 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G networks. Designed for connectivity, 5G tech is expected to deliver higher speeds, have lower latency, greater availability and network capacity. affording uniform access, even in crowded areas.

Nearly one for every decade

While 1G delivered analog voices in the 1980s, 2G introduced digital voice in the 1990s. Early 2000s brought mobile data through 3G, and 4G came around in 2010s, ushering in the era of mobile broadband. Global operators started launching 5G networks, which is based on OFDM (orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing), in 2019, and it is expected to provide better connectivity than ever before.

All major phone manufacturers have started producing compatible handsets as 5G has been deployed in over 60 countries. With the buzz among consumers about even faster speeds and lower latencies, adoption too has been faster, when compared to 4G.

5G roll out in India

As for India, 5G is likely to be launched this year, with some expecting it to be rolled out as early as next month. Work on related hardware is already under way. thanks to the major telecom operators in the country – Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vi.

The 5G spectrum auction in India has already been completed and it has been valued at Rs. 1.5 lakh crore. Initially expected to be rolled out in 13 cities, competitive pricing of 5G plans is expected in order to make it even more attractive.

Picture Credit : Google 

 

On August 22, 1993, just days before the Mars Observer spacecraft was to enter orbit around Mars, it lost contact with the bases here on Earth. The $400 million spacecraft with an estimated overall project cost of $1 billion was designed to study and photograph the Martian surface, but ended in failure.

Following the success of the Mariner programme in the 1960s and early 70s, the Viking programme was the U.S.’s next foray towards our neighbouring planet, Mars. After the probes Viking 1 and Viking 2 successfully landed on the red planet in 1976, over a decade went by before America’s next mission to Mars. That came in the way of the Mars Observer, which was launched in 1992 and had things going well until its ill-fated end.

The mid-1980s saw a high priority mission to Mars being planned to act and expand on the information already assimilated by the Viking programme. With the preliminary mission goals of studying and taking high-resolution photographs of the Martian surface, the Mars Observer spacecraft was initially to be launched in 1990, before being rescheduled to 1992.

Based on Earth-orbiting spacecraft

Based on a commercial Earth-orbiting communications satellite that had been converted into an orbiter for Mars, the spacecraft was built at a cost of $400 million. The payload was made up of a variety of instruments that included a Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS), Pressure Modulator Infrared Radiometer (PMIRR), Thermal Emissions Spectrometer (TES), Mars Observer Camera (MOC), and Mars Balloon Relay (MBR) among others.

The specific objectives of the mission were to find out the elemental characteristics of the Martian surface: defining Mars topography and gravitational field: establishing the nature of Mars magnetic field finding out the distribution and sources of dust and volatile material over a seasonal cycle: and exploring the Martian abmosphere. The MBR was designed to receive information from the planned Mars Balloon Experiment to be carried by a Russian mission for retransmission back to Earth.

Contact lost

The Mars Observer was expected to achieve all this by orbiting the planet for one Martian year (687 Earth days), giving it a chance to observe the planet through the different seasons. The science instruments in the payload were thus designed to study the geology, climate, and geophysics of Mars.

Following a successful launch on September 25, 1992, Mars Observer was scheduled to perform an orbital insertion manoeuvre 11 months later on August 24, 1993. Just days before it, however, on August 22, 1993, communication was lost with the spacecraft even as it was preparing to enter orbit.

When the Mars Observer failed to respond to messages radioed by the ground controllers here on Earth, further efforts to communicate were made-once every 20 minutes. Even though they were met with silence, further attempts were made, less regularly, until the mission was declared a loss on September 27, 1993 and no further attempts to contact were made after that

Propulsion system failure

In 1994, an independent board from the Naval Research Laboratory announced their findings regarding the failure. They suggested that the most probable cause of the communications failure must be a rupture of the fuel pressurisation tank in the propulsion system of the spacecraft

Regardless of what the reason was, an estimated cost of $1 billion, which included the price of the spacecraft along with the costs of space shuttle launching and processing of scientific data was lost. While the science instruments were reflown on two other orbiters, Mars Global Surveyor and 2001 Mars Odyssey, there is no telling if Mars Observer followed the automatic programming to go into Mars orbit flew by the planet, or even if it continues to operate.

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Peacocks can fly, despite their long trains (tail feathers) which make up 60% of their body. The average peacock spends only 2% of its time in flight. Flight serves primarily as a defence mechanism; peacocks launch themselves vertically into the air to escape into the canopies of trees to evade predators and to nest safely during the evenings. If a predator grabs the train, the long feathers pull out easily, so that the peacock can fly away. This national bird of India is protected under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.

When you look at the long tail flowing behind a flying peacock, you might be perplexed as to how they manage to lift themselves off the ground. Technically, their actual tail has only about 20 feathers. However the “train” that is made up of the elongated feathers that drape over the tail can have more than 200 feathers and is about 5-6 feet long!

Surely this mass of 200 extra long feathers trailing behind them must hinder their flight ability. However, scientists believe it actually has no significant effects. In a study carried out by Dr. Askew of the University of Leads, peacock tails were clipped to confirm its effect on their flight.

Surprisingly, peacocks with clipped tails still struggled to take off from the ground, and their flight was similar to when they had full tails. This has lead researchers to believe that the gigantic plumage has little effect on a peacocks ability to fly.

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