Now dress code for birds too
by B.R. Sood
AN old song, “Multiplication is the name of the game, every generation plays the same,” truly highlights the existence and preponderance of basic instinct of all the species to go headlong in an effort to ensure the continuation of the species. Further the axiom “Survival of the fittest” implies that the best of the species win in the game of multiplication and ensure the survival of the species, especially in the kingdom of animals and birds. Kind of games the animals and the birds have to play simply to propagate their genes through progeny has enormous variety and surpasses one’s imagination. Carrying of an unwieldy tail is one price a peacock has to pay just for appearing attractive to the fairer sex.

New products & discoveries

Now dress code for birds too
by B.R. Sood

AN old song, “Multiplication is the name of the game, every generation plays the same,” truly highlights the existence and preponderance of basic instinct of all the species to go headlong in an effort to ensure the continuation of the species. Further the axiom “Survival of the fittest” implies that the best of the species win in the game of multiplication and ensure the survival of the species, especially in the kingdom of animals and birds. Kind of games the animals and the birds have to play simply to propagate their genes through progeny has enormous variety and surpasses one’s imagination. Carrying of an unwieldy tail is one price a peacock has to pay just for appearing attractive to the fairer sex.

During mating season peacocks have to dance with stretched feathers to attract the attention of the peahen. Males of other bird species have evolved fancy and showy ornamental feathers to convey the basic message to the females that decorative dots, spots and stripes of different shapes, sizes, textures, hues, shades and colours are a true picture of the quality genes essential for the continuation of the species with all the grandeur.

Human race, not being lucky enough to be bestowed with natural colourful, pleasing and catchy plumage, has evolved its own ways and means of displaying its qualities. Dressing up with elan, applying fancy makeup, having divergent hairstyles, fancy and colourful clothing of ladies, building up of muscular body by gents are some of the aids utilised by human beings to get attention. Basic psychology behind getting noticed, primarily by the opposite sex, is nothing but a game of one-upmanship in the competition for being the chosen one in the race for multiplication. This trait works for both the sexes equally. It existed in the primitive man and shows no signs of ebbing in modern times.

Now there is scientific evidence which points to the fact that wearing on legs of ribbon band, of a particular colour, makes male zebra finches more attractive to the females of the species. Work has been carried out by a team of evolutionary ecologist that included researchers from France and from Scotland. Zebra finches are small singing birds that have beautiful stripes on their plumage.

Earlier, it was known that females of the species preferred mating with males that have better looking and attractive plumage. Research data suggest that female zebra finches that mated with attractive males deposit more of sex hormone testosterone in their eggs than they do in their eggs resulting from a liaison with males they deem less attractive.

Studies in related singing birds, canaries, have suggested that growing chicks that have received more testosterone compete for food more vigorously and grow faster and get healthy. In other words offspring resulting from attractive males have a better chance of being able to be the ones responsible for the propagation of the species. A new dimension here is the role of the female in providing extra help to the progeny fathered by attractive males in the form of extra hormones.

A new discovery by the research team is that proper dressing up of the male zebra finches adds to their attractiveness for the females. The experiment was conducted by tying red or green ribbon bands to the legs of the male zebra finches. Twelve female zebra finches were divided into two groups of six each. One group was first mated with males wearing green bands and the other group mated with red banded males. After the laying of eggs the group of females that earlier mated with green band males were now united with males wearing red bands and vice versa. Eggs laid in all the four cases were analysed for the hormone testosterone and it was conclusively proved that eggs laid by females that mated with males having red bands on their legs had more quantity of testosterone.

Thus the red band tied to the leg of the male has the same effect as the attractive plumage has. In other words a proper dress code has been found that adds to the attractiveness of the male zebra finches for the females of the species. Thus dressing up well for getting attention of the fairer sex, an exclusive trait of human beings, has worked for the male zebra finches.

The writer is from the physics department, Punjabi University, Patiala.

Internet, Cable TV shake hands
by Deepak Bagai

ADVANCEMENTS in computers, networking, convergence, and communication technologies have redefined all the domains of human endeavour. Internet is the mother of all networks. More than six million users access the Internet in more than hundred countries. It has scaled new heights of performance, and speed in the range of terabits per second. Applications such as videoconferencing have become a reality.

According to a survey, Internet traffic is doubling every five months. Due to the bandwidth limitation, traffic congestion takes place and thereby Internet access becomes slower and expensive. The well-known phrase ‘World Wide Web’ has changed to ‘World Wide Wait’. It takes a significantly large amount of time these days to upload and download the files. Further, the user has to pay both for the telephone usage and Internet connectivity. The traditional system, of hooking on to the Internet, by a dial up connection is set to change.

Internet on cable TV is the technology of the day. In a manner similar to the plugging of cable connection to the television, the Internet user can plug a cable connection to the computer for Internet access.

Cable television is already a household item and a higher bandwidth is achievable on a cable TV. Economically also this is a better alternative and the existing cable TV operators can benefit from this. The per hour cost of Net access via cable is lower than that in dial-up connections.

Telephone line need not be blocked when the user accesses the Net through cable. Generally the cable operators provide unlimited usage. This is best suited for heavy users. The maximum available dial-up speed is 56 kbps whereas for the cable network it is of the order of 128 kbps.

The most important constituent of the Internet access via cable TV is the “Cable data modem”. This modem, in combination with an Ethernet, provides an access between the user premises and the CATV network. Internet access through cable will further gain momentum, when fiber optic cable replaces the traditional copper wires. Fiber optic cable has a higher bandwidth and is less affected by electromagnetic disturbances. “Hathway Cable" is already offering Internet connections on cable network in Mumbai. Siticable is soon going to enter into this area. The day is not far when the Internet on cable will be a household item. The facilities like e-mail, banking, shopping trading, medical access, education, entertainment and so on shall be the comforts of home.

New products & discoveries

Re-building history
Tobu World Square, a new theme part in Tochigi, Japan, specialises in miniatures of famous buildings. Two hours by train from Tokyo, the park has the largest collection of miniature buildings in the world.

These miniatures are 25 times smaller than the original buildings and were constructed by the Tobo film company which is known for making movie sets. It took the company five years and 15 billion yen to construct the buildings.

As the miniatures are exhibited outdoors, they had to be made of stainless steel to withstand adverse weather. The part has 102 miniature buildings on an area of 80,000 square metres. To give it a human touch, models of more than 14,000 people were added.

Some of the famous structures recreated in mini-form are the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Buckingham Palace, the Great Wall of China, the Sistine Chapel, Arc de Triomphe, the Coloseom, The Kremlin and the Statue of Liberty.

Chemical answer to ‘rudraksha’ cures
Ayurvedic specialists in Calcutta have elucidated the chemical basis that imparts multi drug values to ‘Rudraksha’ fruits, grandma’s traditional antidote to various ailments.

While trying to scientifically establish the medicinal properties of the ridged fruits, mentioned in the ancient scriptures, researchers M.N. Das, A.K. Mangal and D De of Central Research Institute of Ayurveda found that they contained palmitic, isopalmitic, linoleic and myristic acids.

These compound make the fruits ideal for treatment of head diseases, epileptic fits and asthma, Das told PTI.

Rudraksha, the fruit of Elaeocarpus sphaericus, is characterised by a stony endocarp with five grooves running lengthwise and tubercled ornamentation.

The flattened elliptical seeds have a distinct seed coat, endosperm and leafy cotyledons.

The team studied both market and authentic samples separately through transverse sections to establish their anatomical peculiarities characterised by brown pigments, oil drops and calcium oxalate crystals, Das said.

A powdered drug, characterised by sclereids, fibres, vessles and sclerenchyma cells was then chemically analysed to confirm the presence of the acids which impart the fruits medicinal value.

Das said preliminary observations on different extracts of the powdered drug also showed faint fluorescence of the extract in 10 per cent sulphuric acid solution under short ultra-violet radiation.

Identifying moving vehicles
German scientists have come up with a new intelligent system which is capable of recognising registration plates and symbols on vehicles to provide telemetric data and regulate vehicle access to company premises or shopping centres.

Researchers from Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology (IPK) in Berlin have developed the system which improves the images of registration plates, automatically.

A special optical trigger ensures that the picture is “shot” at exactly the best movement, even with vehicles moving at speed, report Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Research News.

A software combines intelligent character recognition (ICR), with learning routines derived from soft computing to overcome numerous difficulties, such as when the number plates are smeared with dirt, bent or deformed, or use irregular colours.

The system developed by the IPK group can identify registration plates from more than 20 countries. It is also quick to learn and requires only a few samples — embossed plates or video images or a new character font — to distinguish between different plates.

Solution to problems of turbulence
While several research efforts are on to find a means to reduce the effects of air turbulence on aircraft, a surprisingly simple approach discovered through a students’ research project at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore promises to provide a solution.

Researchers at IISc’s aerospace engineering department used a hinge-winged aircraft model to test the effects of air turbulence on it, and found that the drag on the aircraft caused by sudden gusts of winds so common in turbulence was much reduced.

A Prabhu, professor at the department, told PTI wings attached on hinges to the fuselage of the aircraft, that allowed movement over the line of axis along the wing’s length to adjust and eliminate the effects of air turbulence, were more effective in managing turbulence.

“While the aircraft is in flight and there is a sudden gust of wind which is characteristic of turbulence, the hinged wing plane will largely remain stable as the wings move on the axis running along the length of the wing, letting the body of the plane be relatively stable.” Fixed-wing aircraft in similar situations will undergo violent movements, and in some cases accidents could occur, Prabhu said.