Category Science

Can India experience heat waves beyond human survival?

India could experience heat waves beyond human survival limit, says World Bank report. And this impact would be felt in several ways. A look at the report in five brief points

1. HOTTEST ON RECORD: The World Bank report titled “Climate Investment Opportunities in India’s Cooling Sector” said that the country is experiencing higher temperatures that arrive earlier and stay far longer. “In April 2022, India was plunged into the grip of a punishing early spring heat wave that brought the country to a standstill, with temperatures in the capital. New Delhi, topping 46 degrees Celsius. The month of March, which witnessed extraordinary spikes in temperatures, was the hottest ever recorded,” said the report.

2. INTENSE HEAT WAVES: Predicting that heat waves situation in India could break the human survivability limit, the study noted that the recent heat wave supports what many climate scientists have long cautioned about with reference to rising temperatures across South Asia. It added that in August 2021, the Sixth Assessment Report of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that the Indian subcontinent would suffer more frequent and intense heat waves over the coming decade. The G20 Climate Risk Atlas also warned in 2021 that heat waves across India were likely to last 25 times longer by 2036-65 if carbon emissions remain high, as in the IPCC’s worst-case emission scenario.

3. IMPACT ON ECONOMY: The report warned that rising heat across India can jeopardise economic productivity. “Up to 75 per cent of India’s workforce, or 380 million people, depend on heat-exposed labor, at times working in potentially life-threatening temperatures….By 2030, India may account for 34 million of the projected 80 million global job losses from heat stress associated productivity decline,” the report stated.

4. HEAT AND COLD CHAINS: Transporting food and pharmaceutical goods across India requires a system of cold chain refrigeration that works every step of the way. “A single temperature lapse in the journey can break the cold chain, spoiling fresh produce and weakening the potency of vaccines. With only 4 per cent of fresh produce in India covered by cold chain facilities, annual estimated food losses total USD 13 billion,” it said. It also observed that the third largest producer of pharmaceuticals in the world, pre-COVID-19, India lost approximately 20 per cent of temperature-sensitive medical products and 25 per cent of vaccines due to broken cold chains, leading to losses of USD 313 million a year.

5. THE POOR ARE VULNERABLE: According to analysis presented in the India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP), only eight per cent of Indian households own air-conditioning units. “Indoor and electric fans can help to maintain thermal comfort, but these too are expensive to buy and inefficient. As a result, many poor and marginalised communities across India are more vulnerable to extreme heat, living in inadequately ventilated, hot and crowded homes without proper access to cooling,” the report warned.

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What is the importance of wet-bulb temperatures in a warming world?

The summer is here and the heat is upon us. Much of India experiences hot weather, exposing over a billion people to tough conditions. While you might be tracking the daily temperatures of your region that can be seen in weather forecasts, that might not be a fair reflection of the conditions.

The temperatures we see in weather forecasts are called air temperatures, also referred to as dry-bulb temperatures by meteorologists. Humidity, which plays a big role in how we experience heat, is not factored into air temperatures.

What is wet-bulb temperature?

Wet-bulb temperatures, on the other hand, combine the dry air temperature that we can see on a thermometer with humidity. It is for this reason that wet-bulb temperatures are a better measure of heat-stress conditions on humans in direct sunlight.

The name is a reflection of how this temperature is measured. When a wet cloth is slid over the bulb of a thermometer, the thermometer cools down due to water evaporating from the cloth. This lower temperature is the wet-bulb temperature and cannot go above air temperature.

The evaporating water cooling down the thermometer is akin to how our hodu temperature is lowered when we sweat. The sweating helps, however, only when the humidity in the surrounding air is low.

Sweating and humidity

If the humidity is high then it means that the air is already more saturated with water. As a result, less evaporation will occur and the wet-bulb temperature will be closer to the dry temperature. In such a scenario where the humidity is very high, sweating might not cool you as the sweat needs to evaporate off our skin for cooling to occur.

While it was long believed that a wet-bulb temperature of 35 degree Celsius was the maximum a human could endure for extended durations, a study in ?0?? suggested that it could he much lower – around 31 degree Celsius. With the world’s temperatures fast rising, extreme weather events, including heatwaves, are being encountered far more often in a warming world.

When the wet-bulb temperature in your region is high, it is important to take good care of yourself. If you are forced to be outside for a considerable length of time, then it is recommended that you wear a hat and lightweight, loose-fitting, light-coloured clothes. It goes without saying that you should try to take frequent breaks in areas with shade and keep yourself hydrated by taking plenty of fluids.

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Are heatwaves Present in the ocean?

High temperatures and heatwaves across the globe saw records broken in July 2023 on land and in the oceans. The oceans serve as the Earth’s heat reservoir, absorbing substantial amounts of thermal energy as a result of their continuous interaction with the atmosphere. Under specific conditions prolonged periods of unusually high temperatures in the oceans are called marine heatwaves much like their atmospheric counterparts.These higher temperatures could be driven by increased heat input from the atmosphere. decreased heat losses from the ocean or the transfer of warmer water masses through currents Over the past two decades these events have become more prevalent and widespread, having been observed in various areas of the global ocean, in both regional and large scales, at the surface of the ocean and at depth

In particular, recent data shows the occurrence of marine heatwaves surged by 34 percent between 1925 and 2016. While the exact mechanisms triggering marine heatwaves vary from region to region. There are two primary factors. In some instances, the atmospheric conditions themselves play a pivotal role. During such episodes, stagnant air masses and prolonged high temperatures in the atmosphere conspire to heat the ocean’s surface setting the stage for a marine heatwave event. This pattern was notably evident during a 2012 North Atlantic event, which saw one of the highest sea surface temperatures ever recorded.

In other cases, the main driver is the movement of ocean currents, which transport relatively warm water masses to new areas. When these warm masses converge in specific regions, they cause a rapid and abrupt increase in the sea’s surface temperature. This was witnessed in the 2015 Tasman Sea (situated between Australia and New Zealand) event.

As the impacts of marine heatwaves reverberate across the globe, understanding the complex interplay between the oceans and the atmosphere is crucial for predicting the Occurrence of these extreme events. In the face of climate change, conserving and protecting our oceans becomes ever more critical. Therefore improving marine heatwave predictability is crucial to empower communities and ecosystems alike to adapt and build resilience. By better understanding the science behind marine heatwaves and taking collective action, people can work towards a more resilient and sustainable future for the oceans. (With inputs from agencies).

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What is the history behind QR code?

“Can you please scan the code,” is one of the most common phrases used during transactions in today’s digital world. QR codes are ubiquitous these days-in cafes, bazaars, roadside fruit carts, and even at pani puri stalls. A whole range of consumer and businesses have adjusted to the digital world that has brought QR codes back, especially in the last few years with the advent of the cashless economy. However, have you ever wondered who designed the QR Code and for what purpose?

The invention of the QR Code

Similar to the evolution of several technologies, QR Codes originated from necessity. In 1994, a Japanese company called Denso Wave invented the QR code, which was used to label car parts. The idea was to replace the numerous bar-code labels that had to be scanned on each box of auto parts with a single label that contained all of the data from each label, making it easier to keep track of the different kinds and quantities of car parts. Following that, there was an increased interest in more product traceability across the world, particularly in food and pharmaceuticals.

The International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) added the QR Codes to their list in the year 2000, giving it international certification. They rapidly understood the significance of the QR code and began using them in production, shipping and transactions. Later on, with the development of smartphones, there was no slowing in increasing the utilisation of the QR codes’ popularity.

How QR Code is helping the world?

Undoubtedly, using QR Codes to access websites, networks, and payment details is the quickest method. To get started, all someone has to do is scan the code and do not need to enter any URL.

Among the numerous advantages of QR codes are their increased sustainability and the ability to update information without having to print brand-new materials. They are also utilized to communicate information on leaflets, packaging, and store displays in addition to serving as mobile menus and facilitating contactless payments. Without requiring prior knowledge or financial education to utilise them for payments, QR codes facilitate the digital shift and provide a positive user experience. The three steps of starting an app, scanning a QR code, and entering an e-PIN are easy and fast. A digital revolution is endlessly possible with QR codes’ innovative and engaging way of bridging the real and virtual worlds.

Know how to create a QR Code

Interested in making your QR Code? Follow the steps given below:

1. Visit the QR Code generator on any browser

2. Insert your URL into the space provided

3. Customise your QR code if the generator provides the service

4. After customising and creating, download your QR Code

5. Use the QR Code for advertising, marketing and promotion

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When food waste piles up, who are you gonna call?

Food is one of the biggest components of garbage produced by humans. Decomposing food emits methane, a gas that contributes hugely to global warming.

One might think that food thrown away by people can be fed to livestock. However, it is shunned by farmers, because it was found to cause infection in animals.

China has found a solution. Cockroach farms! Before you go “Ugh!” consider this: almost a billion cockroaches live in a plant run by Shandong Qiaobin Agricultural Technology Company in Jinan. They munch their way through 45 metric tons of food scraps in a day, waste that would otherwise have gone to a landfill.
Food collected from restaurants is cleaned of stray plastic, glass or metal pieces and ground into a mushy paste. The paste is piped into the cockroaches living quarters, which are kept dark, damp and warm. The insects flourish on the perpetual garbage buffet.

Dead roaches, a good source of protein, are crushed into food for farm animals such as pigs. Dried roach powder is also widely used in Chinese medicine, in skin creams to treat bums and to cure gastric problems.

In fact, the biggest farm in China breeds 6 billion adult cockroaches annually. Seven years ago, the farm in Sichuan was vandalised and a million roaches escaped and ran riot in the streets, sending people scurrying for cover. Now you can go “Ugh!”

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What is AI fiction?

Al fiction is a constantly evolving genre that gives us a peek into the potential umides and downsides of intelligent machines whether it is books written by humans with robots and Al as central characters or stories composed entirely by machine learning algorithms. Al fiction never fails to captivate readers and stimulate discussions about what is in store for technology in the future. Artificial intelligence hum long barn a popular topic in soner fiction from haar

Asimov’s humuncul mots in Robot to the sostient machines of the Matrix Al has beos & costant so of Jascination and spratation As Al trdonology p mie in fiction has been increasingly muted with author examining the potential upsides and dowmides of intelligent madunes.

One recent devettipment in Al fiction is the merger of novels written retimly by artial de The first Al generated novel 1 the Road caine at in 2018 hased on data gathered by namically exhand ca on a road trip from New York to New Orleans it was moted by an operimental 2016 sort story co-written by Al and sapanese researchers troulated as The Day a Computer Visite a Novel which nearly won a literary prize. In the same year, Sunspring, an Al-authored screenplay, was placed in the top 10 at a London sci-fi film festival. In the first year of the pandemic, we got Pharmako-Al, a genre-bender philosophical book co-written by an Al and K. Allado-McDowell, founder of Google’s Artists and a machine intelligence programme, GPT-3. These experimental works of fiction represent an intriguing new avenue for Al fiction. With machine learning algorithms capable of generating coherent narratives and dialogue, it is possible that we may soon see a flood of novels, stories, and even movies written entirely by Al.

Science fiction (sci-fi) & Al

For generations, sci-fi has foreseen the pervasive influence of Al in our daily life. Its representation in mainstream media has played a pivotal role in shaping public opinions towards this technological advancement Films such as The Terminator and Ex Machina have helped to shape the cultural narrative around Al, with many people viewing intelligent machines as potential threats to human safety and autonomy. At the same time, this type of speculative fiction has also explored the more positive aspects of Al, from the helpful robots of Wall-E to the benevolent supercomputers of 2001: A Space Odyssey. As Al technology continues to evolve, it’s likely that all the good, bad, and ugly visions of intelligent machines will continue to be explored in fiction.

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