Category Communication

‘Nano’ is derived from the Greek word ‘nannos’, which means ‘dwarf’. Everything that starts with the word ‘nano’ is usually diminutive. Nano-robots are not bigger than a thousandth of a millimetre and can be even smaller. For instance, 1 nano-metre is a thousandth of a thousandth of a millimetre. Nano-robots help doctors in difficult operations. The research that is being carried out on magnetic nano-robots suggests that they can be released in the blood and can attach themselves to cancerous growths. If a rotating magnetic field is applied to the body of the cancer patient, the small magnetic robots in the cancerous tissue would start rotating. As a result, the cancerous growth would heat up and die. 

Sojourner, the small exploration vehicle that landed on Mars in July 1997, was controlled by the ground station of the American space authority NASA. Commands were sent to the Sojourner from there. It was asked to travel over the surface of Mars, take photographs, soil samples, and lots more. There were glitches too. On the first day, Sojourner collided with a rock because it was travelling too fast. And sometimes the computer onboard ‘rebooted’ so the robot ‘forgot’ what it was supposed to do.

Like all sounds, speech also consists of sound waves. The mouthpiece of the telephone has a microphone, which converts the spoken sounds into electrical current. The transmission of electric current is done through wires. In the earpiece, the electric current is converted back to sound waves. Earlier, the wires were made of copper, but today telephonic conversations are transmitted through glass fibre cables or even via satellite connections. Telephone calls over long distances were earlier possible only through telephone operators. Since 1970, however, we can make overseas calls directly. The telephone was invented by Graham Bell, who applied for its patent in 1876.

Don’t you think a book is much more interesting if it has lots of pictures? Pictures or illustrations also make it easier to understand things. The manuscripts of ancient times which were decorated with elaborate initials, miniature illustrations and borders were called illuminated manuscripts. Sometimes, these decorations were even made with gold and silver!Very early printed books were sometimes produced with spaces left for miniatures, or were given illuminated initials or decorations in the margin. Illustrated printed books began to appear in the late 15th century, in Germany and Italy. In earlier times, some books had been published from woodcuts, with text and illustration all carved on a single block. Early type-printed books were illuminated by hand. However, this was very expensive.  Although many early printed books, like the Gutenberg Bible, relied on hand-coloured illustrations, others quickly integrated the new printing, using moveable type for the letters, with the older woodcut traditions. Another early technique was etching, in which the lines of the picture were cut into a copper plate with acid. In either case, ink was spread over the carved illustration and applied to the paper

Typesetting is a presentation of text on paper or some other material, in a printed form. The word ‘type’ is used to denote a small block of metal or wood, bearing a raised letter or number on the upper end that leaves a printed impression when inked and pressed on paper. We know that by the middle of the 15th century, movable type had been invented in Europe by the German printer, Johann Gutenberg. By 1462, Gutenberg’s invention became accepted and the use of it spread throughout Europe.  Movable type is also called foundry type or hot type. In foundry type, each piece of type was cast into a precise size from metal which was an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony. Each piece contained a raised image of a single letter, number, or other character.  In setting type, letters were selected one at a time, and lined up in what was called a composing stick until it was almost full. Then, by using pieces of type with no face on them, spaces between words were adjusted to bring the line to the required length.  Each line of type was placed by hand in a larger box made especially for housing the type. The individually lines were laid out exactly like the page should look except that the type was backwards as if looking at it in a mirror.   The type was then inked and copies made directly from the type. When printing was finished, the type was taken apart, cleaned, and returned to the distribution box to be used again another time