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| SCIENCE TRIBUNE | Thursday, March 13, 2003, Chandigarh, India |
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Cloud dims Europa life prospects UNDERSTANDING THE UNIVERSE
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Is interlinking of rivers viable?
The idea of interlinking of rivers in India has repeatedly been occurring to the Indian scientists and engineers in the past but has always met with rejection on account of technical unfeasibility or socio-economic issues. Four decades back, it was Mr K.L.Rao, the then Union Minister for Irrigation and Power, who suggested a 2640-km long Ganga-Cauvery link by carrying waters partly by gravity and partly by lift but the costs were found highly prohibitive and the idea was rejected. Then came forward the Captain Dastur Plan, popularly known as Garland Scheme. Under this scheme, a 4200-km long Himalayan canal and a 9300-km long Garland canal were suggested, both to be linked by pipelines near Patna and Delhi. Again the plan was found technically unfeasible and laid to rest. Now the Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India, has come up with an elaborate plan to link various rivers to get the country rid of droughts and floods and to utilise waters going waste into the sea. Some orders by the apex court have encouraged the study of feasibility of the scheme and there is excitement as well as resentment in many parts of the country. Under the newly proposed scheme, two components named Himalayan component and Peninsular component have been outlined. The Himalayan component proposes to have 14 canal links ( see Table 1 ) while the Peninsular component has 16 links (see Table 2 ). Under the Himalayan component, many dams are planned to be constructed on the tributaries of Ganga and Brahmaputra in India, Nepal and Bhutan. This component envisages linking of Brahmaputra and its tributaries with Ganga and Ganga with Mahanadi to transfer surplus flows of East to the West thus benefiting many states. The proposed links may help in controlling floods in Ganga and Brahmaputra basins. Under the Peninsular component, surplus waters of Mahanadi and Godavari rivers are proposed to be transferred to the deficit basins of Krishna, Pennar, Cauvery and Vaigai. In the transfer of waters from Godavari to Krishna, a lift of 1200 cusecs of water over about 116m is essential. In addition, water is proposed to be transferred from Ken River to Betwa river to benefit MP and AP and interlinking of Parbati, Kalisindh and Chambal rivers to benefit MP and Rajasthan. Peninsular component aims at benefiting Orissa, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Pondicherry, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Estimated cost of the whole scheme at 2002 price level has been worked out to be Rs 5,60,000 crore putting a big question mark over the successful implementation of the scheme. The proposed time period for the completion of the scheme is also very long i.e. 35 years. These two figures may further undergo changes in future. Even the present cost and time frame demand an annual outlay of Rs 16,000 crore. Such a huge and recurring outlay may leave the government groping in the dark. The present status of implementation of the scheme is that the feasibility report of six links has been completed while that of 18 links is under progress. It is estimated that feasibility reports for peninsular component will be completed by 2004 while that of Himalayan component will be over by 2008. Many committees have been constituted to ensure participation of all states as the surplus states may strongly object to the transfer of waters to the deficit basins. Though policies may be framed to compensate the surplus states but the general feeling is that the political scenario greatly affects the implementation of laid policies which may undergo changes with the change in governments. This is a crucial issue to be tackled parallel to the studies for technical viability. The proposal may get stuck if the states in surplus are not duly compensated and if they do not agree even if the scheme is found as technically sound. In addition to arrival of consensus among the co-basin states, negotiations need to be held with the neighbouring countries, Bhutan and Nepal as the scheme demands construction of storage dams in these two countries. Sizeable land shall have to be acquired for the construction of storage dams, canals and reservoirs. Land acquisition is a big process in itself. It has also to be seen that in an effort to provide respite to millions from floods and droughts, we don’t displace an equal millions. The rehabilitation plans need to be fast and adequate for successful implementation. Keeping in view the past track record, this area needs special vigil. The Ministry of Environment and Forests is always quite particular about this and will not accord clearance unless it is satisfied about the workability of rehabilitation plans. Though the interlinking plan promises relief from floods and droughts to many areas, 30000 MW of additional power and 22 million hectares of additional irrigation, it is bound to face many bottlenecks as the interests of states and countries may clash, past records of promises kept or broken may come to surface and arrangement of funds may look impossible. Yet the scheme needs very careful and selfless examination for its technical viability. Of the 30 links identified, 21 are interdependent and nine are independent. Work may of course start on the nine independent links without a hurdle but it must be examined if these links will be of any use in case the whole scheme does not go through. If found fully viable, states and countries may join hands for mutual benefits and for the sake of mankind. |
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Cloud dims Europa life prospects The discovery raises some doubts about whether the fourth-largest and second-closest jovian moon is capable of sustaining life, as scientists have speculated. Cassini — at present en route to a July 1, 2004, orbital rendezvous with
Saturn — focused its magnetospheric imaging instrument in the general direction of Europa during a recent fly by of
Jupiter's neighbourhood. In doing so, the spacecraft detected a cloud millions of miles in diameter in a torus, or donut, shape . The cloud is thought to be the result of
Jupiter's severe bombardment of Europa with ion radiation — radiation so strong it actually disturbs the moon’s surface, kicking up and pulling apart water-ice molecules and dispersing them into space, NASA scientists explained. Europa is one of only a few places in the solar system other than Earth where life might be possible. The ice-covered Europa, astrobiologists suspect, could harbour liquid oceans under its frozen surface. It has been the subject of preliminary studies by the voyager spacecraft in the early 1980s and more recently by the
Galileo spacecraft, which flew within 900 miles of the moon’s surface in February, 1999. Although Europa’s surface temperature is -260 degrees Fahrenheit, scientists think the gravitational effects of
Jupiter and its neighbouring moons could be keeping large parts of Europa’s subsurface in a liquid state. The same tidal friction from
Jupiter also causes the intense volcanic activity on the jovian moon 10. More detailed examination of the moon’s surface should be possible with the Europa Orbiter mission, at present planned for launch in 2008. The orbiter is designed to conduct a two year investigation beginning with its orbital rendezvous in 2010. The craft will carry a radar-sounding device able to locate liquid beneath Europa’s surface. The orbiter also will carry other instruments to map Europa’s surface in unprecedented detail, and to calculate where to drop a submarine-like probe that will melt through the ice and explore the oceans beneath. After Cassini begins orbiting Saturn next year, it will release its piggy-backed Huygens probe about six months later for descent through the thick atmosphere of the Saturnian moon, Titan, other possible home for alien life. According to Cassini’s instruments, the mass of the torus cloud is about 60,000 tons, large enough to suggest
Jupiter's intense radiation is causing significant disruptions on the European surface.
UPI |
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UNDERSTANDING THE UNIVERSE The other day while I was drinking water I started casually rubbing the rim of the glass with my finger dipped in water. After a while the glass started making a humming sound. Why did it happen? That was a nice observation. If you had a different glass, something like a wineglass, with a long stem, the sound would have been purer in pitch and louder. In some circles this is a game people play at parties. I would like you to do some experimentation. Put different amounts of water in the glass and try to observe if the pitch of the sound changes. You will find that it does. The glass has a natural frequency of vibration, depending on the length of the air column, besides its structure. Strike the glass with a spoon and listen to the pitch of the sound. Then you do your experiment with a wet finger moving over the rim. You should find that the dominant pitch is the same. This shows that the finger is not doing any special magic. It is continuously exciting vibrations in the glass because of the friction between the slightly wet finger and the rim of the glass. It is because of the continuous stimulation by the finger that you get a continuing sound. In fact this is rather similar to the way a bow excites vibrations in a violin string. The sound is almost continuous but at the same frequency that you would hear if you plucked that string. All things are, in principle, musical instruments, some better than the others. In many of them cavities of air, their shape and length, are crucial. Remember that instrument called the Jaltarang? I think that if a way could be found to use a bow over the rims of the cups used in the Jaltarang, we would have an entirely different instrument! If you play the violin or have an access to a bow you might find that the bow could perhaps replace your wet finger. |
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NEW PRODUCTS & DISCOVERIES Robot that mows your lawn It cuts the lawn. It automatically recognises and avoids obstacles. Miniature electronic “brain” is based on proprietary SharpScan technology. Bumper pneumatic sensors allow ROBOMOW to stop if it should hit an obstacle. Tilt sensors stop the motor when tilt angle exceeds 20 degrees. Whisper-quiet operation lets you run it at any time - no more noise, gasoline, oil or dirt, no more upset neighbours. Environment-friendly mulching action-recycles lawn clippings and valuable nutrients. The robot mows in straight lines to produce a striped, manicured lawn. A special tracking mode ensures that ROBOMOW trims the edges of the lawn. For “fun” you could still use it in manual mode for easy and efficient mowing. Powered with two 12 V batteries, just place a guide wire round the edge of your lawn, and connect the wire to a small generator. Press the green button on the perimeter
switch; this sends a smart electrical pulse through the wire, which signals ROBOMOW’s computer controlled guidance system. ROBOMOW is easily moved from the garage to the lawn and back and the blade stops automatically if it is tilted while in action.
Software to study ancient MS A
new software developed by a 65-year-old engineer is all set to revolutionise the study of ancient Indian manuscripts, including the archaic Grantha, Nandhinagari and Saradha. Karnataka-based P.T. Narayan, a retired mechanical engineer, presented the software, which enables transliteration of ancient scripts into Sanskrit, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi among other languages, at the inaugural session of a seven-day seminar on Manuscriptology, Paleolography and Ancient Technical Sciences organised by the University of Madras at Chennai recently. "The software, which also has voice-recognition facility, is the first step towards digitisation of manuscripts,'' said Narayan, now working as Project Coordinator at ASR Centre for Technology Research in Sanskrit (ACTRIS), a wing of the Academy of Sanskrit Research, Melkote.
UNI
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WITH PROF YASH PAL
The Solar system just grew a little stranger — and perhaps lonelier —as instruments abroad NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have discovered a large and surprisingly dense magnetic gas cloud occupying the same orbit as
Jupiter's icy moon Europa.
Nobody likes the repetitive burden of mowing one’s lawn every week. At work you have automated everything you had to do more than twice — though the lawn is not a spreadsheet. For the gadgeteer who’s in charge of certain chores around the house or garden, here is the perfect “killer app”.