Category Science

HOW TO BE SMART WITH INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT)?

The Internet of Things, or lot as it is popularly known, is becoming a very important part of not only the technology industry, but also our daily lives. And you may be using lot without even knowing it!

What is IoT?

IoT is nothing but the billions of physical devices that are all connected to the Internet. These devices can then be controlled and can communicate information without any help from humans.

The IoT connects “dumb” devices like refrigerators. washing machines or a kettle, to the Internet using software and makes them “smart” loT devices. These loT devices can now collect and exchange data around the world and have some digital intelligence!

Chatting with each other

With loT, devices or machines can talk with each other, or to the people who are controlling them, by messaging over the Internet. This means that these devices can tell other devices, as well as people, if something is wrong with them or they are functioning well.

For example, in loT a car will become smart and can communicate and tell you that it needs petrol.

This has become possible as Wi-Fi networks are very common and devices can now have software to allow Internet access and make use of the Wi-Fi connection. The IoT requires sensors and software to collect data and communicate.

A personal computer or a laptop is not usually considered an loT device. Neither is a smartphone, despite it having sensors.

Aeroplane engine

Large machines, like an aeroplane engine, maybe be filled with numerous smaller loT components and devices, with thousands of them relaying data back and forth and sensors gathering information to make sure it is running efficiently.

loT is here to stay to make your life even easier!

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WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE NEW DORMANT BLACK HOLE?

Scientists have achieved yet another historic feat by discovering a dormant black hole. It is for the first time that a dormant stellar-mass black hole orbiting a star has been detected in a nearby galaxy.

This new black hole is nine times the mass of the Sun and revolves around a blue star in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy. Researchers have termed it “the first to be unambiguously detected outside our galaxy”. The binary system has been christened VFTS243. This finding is cardinal because it will help us get more insights into what happens during the death of a star and how black hole pairs are formed.

Astrophysicist and the lead author of the new study Tomer Shenar remarked that they have found a ‘needle in a haystack. The study was published in the Nature Astronomy journal.

How it was detected

In a binary system, two stars revolve around each other and when a star dies, it will lead to a black hole in orbit with the other companion star. Scientists detect black holes from the X-ray radiation they emit as they feed on the companion star.

In this case, the scientists found a massive star orbiting something that couldn’t be observed.

Following further studies, scientists found out that it was a dormant black hole.

The stellar mass black holes are formed when a massive star dies and collapses in a supernovae explosion. But strangely, in this particular case, the star that led to the formation of the black hole in VFTS 243 went away without any explosion and literally vanished into a black hole. Scientists have termed it a direct-collapse scenario. This has led scientists to understand that all stars do not end their lives in supernova explosions and it gives insight into how black hole pairs are formed.

What is a Black Hole?

A black hole is a celestial body that has an immensely huge gravitational pull, so huge that nothing escapes it. Not even light can escape it! The black hole grows by accumulating matter that falls in it. An image of a black hole was captured for the first time in 2019.

What is the size of a Black Hole?

The tiniest black hole can be as tiny as an atom but it can have the mass of a huge mountain. The other is the stellar black hole and these can have a mass of more than 20 solar masses, which is 20 times more mass than our sun. And the biggest black holes are christened supermassive. Sagittarius A is a supermassive black hole.

How are Black Holes formed?

Black holes are formed at the end of the life of a big star. When a massive star, say one having more than 20 solar masses, collapses after its nuclear fuel depletes, it will collapse onto itself and become a black hole. This collapse leads to a supernova and a part of the star gets blown off into space.

So will our Sun turn into a Black Hole?

The Sun cannot turn into a black hole. For us, the Sun is big, but on a celestial scale, it is too small to collapse into a black hole! So, our Sun will only turn into a white dwarf.

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WHEN AND WHY IS PAPER BAG DAY CELEBRATED? WHAT CAN WE DO ON PAPER BAG DAY?

World Paper Bag Day is observed on July 12 every year to spread awareness about plastic pollution and encourage the use of environment-friendly alternatives. Use of paper bags, which are easily recyclable, will help reduce plastic waste that takes years to decompose, causing environment pollution.

Remember the 3 ‘R’s? We know this mantra of Reduce’, ‘Reuse and Recycle can help us adhere to a sustainable lifestyle. It’s also our trump card to save the Earth. What if we told you that there is also another lifestyle choice you could make to help the earth breathe, reduce your carbon footprint and regulate the usage of plastic.

Does it come as a surprise that the humble Paper Bag has a day of its own

The first machine

Not much literature is available as to how Paper Bag Day came to be or who started it. But the day gets marked with a flurry of programmes to promote the usage of paper bags. But there is a lot of drama and story behind this bag and how it came to be. Did you know that it was in 1852 that the first paper bag machine was established? This was by American inventor Francis Wolle who patented the first paper bag-making machine. Wolle who was also a priest called it the ‘Machine for Making Bags of Paper.

Later, inventor Margaret E. Knight came up with a machine that could fashion out flat-bottomed paper bags. She patented this in 1870. This invention made a lot of difference enabling the production of flat-bottomed paper bags that could carry groceries.

It is interesting to note that the inventions didn’t stop here! In 1883, another patent was granted. And this was to Charles Stilwell who created the S.O.S bag aka Self Opening Sack. Stilwell named it so because the bags could stand on their own without anyone’s assistance while it was being loaded.

An alternative to plastic

Much has been talked about plastic and single-use carry bags and their detrimental environmental effects. Yet we still find it being used abundantly in marketplaces. People still depend on it out of convenience.

There is an organic solution to tackle this. Paper bags! One can easily create these bags using recycled paper. You must have seen that newspapers are quite often used for making paper bags.

Make your own bags

So, let’s pledge never to use plastic bags and shift to sustainable alternatives such as paper bags or cloth bags.

And try making your own paper bag! Trust us, you will enjoy the process. You can introduce your fellow mates to this bag that can do so much and initiate them to the new craft of making paper bags. Make this sustainable lifestyle choice and be the change!

QUICK FACTS

According to estimates, 100 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide every year.

About 18 billion pounds of plastic find their way into the ocean every year, proving to be life-threatening to marine life. And this plastic stays in the ocean.

According to statistics, over 40% of the plastic produced gets used only once. And they get discarded, ending up as refuse on the Earth, taking years to disintegrate.

In the case of single-use plastic bags, it could take hundreds of years to disintegrate and get turned into microplastics, polluting the environment further. The plastic that we use today could easily stay on even after our journey.

SAY ‘NO’ TO PLASTIC BECAUSE…

It takes centuries to decompose.

It contains many chemicals that pollute the soil and the environment.

It affects food chains; harms water resources, has led to the unnatural death of animals species on land and sea. It is expensive to recycle.

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WHICH BIRDS CAN FLY NON-STOP OVER LAND AND SEA, IN SEARCH OF FOOD AND WARMTH?

Here’s a closer look at some of the birds that perform great feats of endurance by flying non-stop over land and sea in search of food and warmth.

The Arctic tern

The bird that probably sees more daylight than any other creature in the world is the slender, graceful relative of the seagull, the Arctic term. This 33- to 35-cm-long bird makes the most spectacular migration, travelling over 35,000 km every year. It breeds in the Arctic summer and then flies south, reaching in time for the Antarctic summer!

The terns breed on the Arctic coasts of Alaska, Greenland, Canada, Europe, and Siberia, some nesting within 700 km of the North Pole. They raise their young on the abundance of insects and fish during the short-lived Arctic summer when the sun almost never sets. As winter closes in, they begin flying south. After a journey halfway around the globe, they gorge on the small fish and plankton of the Antarctic ocean throughout the southern summer- once more in almost perpetual daylight!

Shining bronze cuckoo

The Arctic term is not the only avid seeker of the sun. Though it may be the long-distance migration champion, there are other birds that perform greater feats of endurance by flying non-stop over land and sea in search of food and warmth.

The fledglings of the shining bronze cuckoo are abandoned by their parents. With no adult bird to guide them; they fly out each March from their breeding grounds in New Zealand.

They accurately follow the path of their parents to Australia, and from there, turn northwards to Papua New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago. Out of the total distance of 6,400 km, 2,000 km is over open sea! One mistake can be fatal, for the birds cannot swim.

Ruby-throated hummingbird

The ruby-throated hummingbird flies 800 km non-stop across the Gulf of Mexico to South America every autumn. Scientists are baffled, because the bird weighs just 3.5 gm, not enough to store so much energy.

What guides birds across such distances so accurately? Scientists discovered in 1977 that deposits of magnetic iron oxide in the skulls of migratory birds may act as a built-in compass. Some believe that the instinct to migrate maybe encoded in the genes, compelling the birds to behave as their ancestors did, even without apparent reason.

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WHY ARE THE BEACHES IMPORTANT FOR ECOSYSTEM?

Beaches are much more than just recreation – they are integral to the ecosystem and for livelihood. There is thus, a need to preserve them.

Beaches are amazing wonders of nature. But they are not just spaces for recreational activities. They support an incredible diversity of marine life and the livelihood of fisherfolk. They act as a natural barrier between the land and the sea protecting coastal areas from large waves during a storm. Without this barrier, coastal land would be infertile, courtesy, the sea’s salty water.

India has a long coastline of over 7,500 km which includes both sides of the Indian peninsula and the islands. But, did you know that at many places along the coast, the sandy shoreline has been disappearing slowly? As much as 33 per cent of the coastline has been lost in 26 years between 1990 and 2016 alone. This phenomenon, known as coastal erosion is natural and human-induced.

Coasts undergo constant changes due to natural factors, such as rivers flowing into the sea, sediment deposition, tides, storms, tsunamis and more. However, it is human activity that has put our beaches in peril today.

Threatened existence

A beach is formed when a river deposits large amounts of sediment as it drains into the sea. Dams, built along the course of rivers, have disturbed this natural flow of sediment to the coast. Many ports and fishing harbours dotting the coastline have changed the natural pattern of sand distribution along the coast. Sediments have to be removed from time-to-time to maintain ports. But, they are rarely ever replenished, leading to beach erosion.

Rampant sand mining is a huge contributor to coastal erosion. Sand is a common raw material for construction activities, and its growing demand has spawned sand mafias, which routinely take away truckloads of sand from beaches. Then, mangrove forests hemming the shoreline, that bind the sand together and prevent erosion, are being destroyed for building homes factories, and for commercial activities like aquaculture.

Global warming, over the past several decades, has caused glaciers to melt, leading to a rise in sea levels. Rising seas have been slowly engulfing coastal areas. Due to the rapidly warming Indian Ocean, cyclones are increasing in number and intensity on India’s east and west coasts. Severe cyclones cause changes to the coastal geography. Added to this are many illegal constructions that have encroached upon the coastline despite a ban. This has not only endangered coastal ecosystems but also caused large-scale beach erosion.

In the past two decades, the sea has swallowed up large stretches of our coastline, destroying hundreds of homes and forcing families into temporary shelters. With no beach to stop the sea from flooding villages and towns, the govemment built high stone walls to keep the waves at bay. But sea walls seem to have caused more harm than good.

Erosion during the monsoon is natural, but after the rains, the beach gets restored as the sediments that are washed away are returned to the beach But stone walls block this natural movement of sand. They also redirect the waves and cause another area along the coast to erode. Moreover, sea walls block the easy access of fishermen to the sea. In Kerala, over 65 per cent of the coast is now lined with stone walls instead of sand.

Beach restoration

Until 1989, Puducherry had a beautiful beach drawing thousands of tourists each year. It began to erode soon after the construction of a harbour, and disappeared completely within a few years. After unsuccessful attempts to contain the sea with stone walls, Puducherry finally adopted a sustainable plan to restore the beach. A triangular-shaped artificial reef, submerged into the sea, has been able to partially restore it within a year.

Odisha has installed geotextile tubes at Pentha, a small coastal hamlet in Kendrapara district. These tubes acted as an effective barrier and protected the coast during the cyclones that battered the state in the last decade. The beach has been restored here as well.

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WHAT IS CRYPTOZOOLOGY?

It is the study of animals whose existence has not been proved or documented by mainstream Zoology. Such animals include creatures from myths and legends such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Yeti, among many others. Cryptozoology also involves searching for living members of extinct species such as dinosaurs. All these animals are collectively called ‘cryptids’.

The search for cryptids is largely based on alleged sightings and stories; the lack of concrete evidence has kept cryptozoology from being recognised as a true branch of science. However, cryptozoologists argue that several animals like the okapi, giant squid, the mountain gorilla, and so on, were deemed cryptids before their existence was brought to light. Although examples of such successes are few and far, the prospect of unravelling more mysteries of nature continues to give cryptozoology a huge following.

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