 |
|
| SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY |
|
|
|
Bio-diesel production
Dentistry is 9000 years old Studying sky in infrared light Trends
THIS UNIVERSE |
|
|
Bio-diesel production Keeping in view the ever-increasing demand of petroleum products and to make up the subsequent deficit, production of bio-diesel from edible and non-edible oil-bearing seeds have attracted the attention of governments world over, particularly in Europe and America. In India also, several initiatives are underway both at government and corporate level, particularly the oil PSUs like Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), which are experimenting with various mixes of bio-diesel with diesel to make it an effective energy source. According to latest figures, India today consumes about 111 million tones of petroleum products annually. Of this, only 33 million tones is produced in the country as crude thereby implying that less than 30 per cent of the needs are met from domestic sources. Import dependence is estimated to go up to 85 per cent by 2020. The processing of crude gives us various petroleum products and the most significant of them in terms of consumption is the high-speed diesel (HSD). Approximately, 40 million tones HSD is consumed annually in India, which constitutes about 36 per cent of total consumption of all petroleum products. Therefore, efforts to improve self-sufficiency definitely call for initiatives to explore supplementary or alternative sources of diesel. While in European Union, the US and some other countries, bio-diesel programmes are primarily based on variety of edible oils, R&D centres in India like Indian Oil R&D Centre at Faridabad (Haryana ) have been experimenting with Jatropha Curcus and other known edible oilseed based bio-diesel production. At present experiments in India are being made on blending bio-diesel with diesel to the extent of 5 per cent to establish efficacy in the different Indian climatic conditions. Under the directions of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Petroleum Conservation and Research Association (PCRA) has opened a bio-fuel centre at its headquarters in Delhi and is working on building awareness for jatropha curcus cultivation and manufacture of bio-diesel. The IOC (R&D) has examined and optimised the synthetic processes for the preparation of bio-diesel from various vegetable oils, which include oils from rice bran, jatropha curcus, palm, karanjia, sunflower etc. The process has been scaled up to pilot plant level. The IOC has also set up quality control laboratory at Faridabad to check the quality of diesel as per ASTM/BIS specifications. The blended bio-diesel is being successfully experimented in Indian Railway trains and State Roadway buses in Haryana and Gujarat. In order to grow jatropha curcus, the IOC has taken up plantation on 70 hectares of railway land at Surendra Nagar in Gujarat. More than one lakh saplings of jatropha have been planted at the site. This project is one of its kind in the country where every aspect of jatropha bio-diesel would be studied and how wasteland could be used and transformed by undertaking bio-diesel production activities. Efforts going into bringing about this change create enormous opportunities in supplementing the availability of hydrocarbons and socio-economic benefits like creating fresh employment avenues, reducing greenhouses gases thus being eco-friendly etc. Plantation of plants like jatropha would lead to gainful utilisation of wasteland, which is more than 100 million hectares in India and is conducive for growing these plants. Considering the significant implication of producing bio-diesel, the government has envisaged launching National Mission in bio-diesel and Detailed Project Report (DPR) has been prepared for obtaining approval of the planning Commission. Panchayati Raj institutions could also come in handy. Hence the Panchayati Raj Ministry has conceptualised a role for them in creating awareness amongst farmers about jatropha cultivation in residual areas, common land and farm hedges. Cultivation of jatropha curcus has been identified as a business activity to transform the rural economy like the green revolution in the past. This could be done in rural areas through the involvement of Panchayati Raj institutions. The plants could be raised on community land as an additional crop without altering the prevailing cropping pattern in rural areas. After Faridabad, the IOC is now establishing another bio-diesel plant at Panipat with a target of preparing 30,000 litres bio-diesel daily. About one lakh kg Jatropha seeds would be required to achieve the target. It is, however, yet to be seen how far the alternate fuel source would be able to cope up with the growing demand of petroleum products. However, one thing is certain; the farmers will have an added opportunity to earn on their crops while cultivating jatropha on the residual land and farm hedges. |
|
Dentistry is 9000 years old
WASHINGTON: Proving prehistoric man’s ingenuity and ability to withstand and inflict excruciating pain, researchers have found that dental drilling dates back 9,000 years. Primitive dentists drilled nearly perfect holes into live but undoubtedly unhappy patients between 5,500 BC and 7,000 BC, an article in Nature reports. Researchers carbon-dated at least nine skulls with 11 drill holes found in a Pakistan graveyard. That means dentistry is at least 4,000 years older than first thought — and older than the invention of anaesthesia. This was no mere tooth tinkering. The drilled teeth found in the graveyard were hard-to-reach molars. And in at least one instance, the ancient dentist managed to drill a hole in the inside back end of a tooth, boring out toward the front of the mouth. The holes went as deep as one-seventh of an inch. “The holes were so perfect, so nice,” said study co-author David Frayer, an anthropology professor at the University of Kansas. “I showed the pictures to my dentist and he thought they were amazing holes.” How it was done is painful just to think about. Researchers figured that a small bow was used to drive the flint drill tips into patients’ teeth. Flint drill heads were found on site. So study lead author Roberto Macchiarelli, an anthropology professor at the University of Poitiers, France, and colleagues simulated the technique and drilled through human (but no longer attached) teeth in less than a minute. “Definitely, it had to be painful for the patient,” Macchiarelli said. Researchers were impressed by how advanced the society was in Baluchistan province. The drilling occurred on ordinary men and women. The dentistry, probably, evolved from intricate ornamental bead drilling that was also done by the society there, went on for about 1,500 years until about 5,500 BC, Macchiarelli said. After that, there were no signs of drilling. Macchiarelli and Frayer said the drilling was likely done to reduce the pain of cavities. Macchiarelli pointed to one unfortunate patient who had a tooth drilled twice. Another patient had three teeth drilled. Four drilled teeth showed signs of cavities. No sign of fillings were found, but there could have been an asphalt-like substance inside, he said. Richard Glenner, a Chicago dentist, wouldn’t bite on the idea that this was good dentistry. The drilling could have been decorative or to release “evil spirits” more than fighting tooth decay, he said, adding, “Why did they do it? No one will ever know.”
— AP |
|
Studying sky in infrared light The flawless launch of the high performance infrared satellite mission Astro-F by means of a Japanese M-V rocket from Uchinoura space centre in the Kagoshima district of Japan on Feb 21 has opened a new and exciting window for the in-depth study of the sky in the infrared light, that would ultimately help reveal the distant phenomena hidden from our eyes. This, in turn, will unravel the age of the evolutionary process taking place in the depths of cosmos. Indeed, this joint collaborative venture involving Japanese and European scientists, marks a major step towards scanning the sky with much better sensitivity, spatial resolution and wider wavelength coverage than its only infrared surveyor predecessor, the Anglo-Dutch-US Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) launched in 1983. As pointed out by Prof David Southwood, Director of Science at the European Space Agency (ESA), “The successful launch of Astro-F is a big step. A decade ago, our Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) opened up this field of astronomy and the Japanese took part then: Our involvement with the Japanese in this programme responds to our long-term commitment in infrared astronomy, whose potential for discovery is huge. We are now off and rolling with Astro-F, but we are also working extremely hard towards the launch of the next generation infrared telescope ESA’s Herschel spacecraft which will go up in the next two years”. The Astro-F which has since been named Akari (meaning light in Japanese) will observe thousands of selected astronomic targets in detail from its space home in polar orbit around the earth at an altitude of 745 km. This will enable researchers to look at these individual objects for a longer time, and with increased sensitivity to carry out their precise spectral analysis. After the depletion of liquid helium used to cool down the telescope and its various instruments to a few degrees above absolute zero, Akari will continue to make observations of selected celestial targets with its infrared cameras only. Clearly and apparently, a well conceived infrared satellite mission opens up the possibility of mapping the cooler objects in the universe that includes planetary systems, interstellar dust and gas or distant galaxies which are quite difficult to observe in the visible part of the light spectrum. Through an infrared satellite mission, it is also possible to zero in on the birth of stars and galaxies as well as the creation of energy that reaches its pinnacle in the infrared range. Meanwhile, ground is being prepared for the early 2008 launch of ESA’s Herschel infrared satellite mission. Equipped with the largest and most powerful space telescope to date, Herschel will build on Akari’s study of the infrared universe. As envisaged now, Herschel is expected to unravel the mysteries of galaxies and of star formation and evolution. In particular, Herschel will study the chemistry of the cold, hidden universe. The scientific payload onboard Akari includes a helium cooled telescope with an approximately 70-cm aperture, the Far Infrared Surveyor (FIS) and the Infrared Camera (IRC). Together, they will make possible an all-sky scanning in as many as six infrared wavelengths. These instruments will also perform detailed photometric and spectroscopic observation of selected astronomical targets over the 2-180 micrometre wavelength range in 13 bands. During its scanning process of cosmos, Akari will provide a comprehensive infrared map of our galaxy complete with its stellar nurseries, which, incidentally, can only be observed in infrared range because their visible light is obscured by the dust in which they are embedded. On another front, Akari will also look for planetary systems within a distance of 1,000 light years from out sun which will ultimately help researchers study their formation from the discs of dust and gas in which the “protoplanets” are enshrouded. As things stand now, Akari will also help trace the large-scale structure of the universe, study its most luminous objects that are in a state of constant motion and observe star formation in nearby and distant galaxies. In addition, it will study many extragalactic sources and provide a detailed multi wavelength coverage of a wide variety of radio sources such as solar system asteroids, brown dwarf stars, debris discs and stars in nearby galaxies. |
|
Trends What Martin Nweeia noticed first when he encountered narwhals, he says, was the sound. In May 2000, as spring was just reaching Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, a famed local hunter took Nweeia out on the ice searching the open water for those tusk-bearing, high-Arctic whales. “I was sitting on a bucket out on the ice doing polar bear watch,” he says. At that time of year, daylight lasts around the clock, and at 3 a.m., the gray sky had orange streaks. “The water was like glass, and a light mist was rolling in,” he says. “Then, I heard the breathing.” Many people have searched for narwhals, but Nweeia may be the only Connecticut dentist to have done so. He practices in that state and teaches at Harvard School of Dental Medicine in Boston. And what’s there for a dentist not to love about an animal with a 3-meter-long tooth-and the only spiraling tooth ever reported?
Light all night Ansel Adams once called his photography of the nation’s parklands a “blazing poetry of the real.” If scientific data were verse, that description would also fit Chad Moore’s pictures. Taken in dozens of national parks, mostly in the western United States, Moore’s images emphasise contrast, horizon, and sky. But they aren’t imitations of Adams’ art. In the name of science, Moore photographs the darkness, but his subject may be in peril. Moore’s data demonstrate that artificial light from urban areas penetrates deep into some of America’s most remote, wild places. For species and ecosystems that have evolved with a nightly quota of darkness, light pollution can be a force of ecological disruption, other research has suggested. With the new images, ecologists can identify geographic areas where sensitive species are most likely to be affected. The inventory of images also provides a reference point for measuring future changes in light pollution, Moore says. Most of this light originates in cities as illumination
Flapless plane A remote-controlled aeroplane packed with scientific knowhow has recently had a test flight in the United Kingdom, heralding a new generation of aircraft. The revolutionary model plane has been developed as part of a £6.2-million programme, involving engineers from the University of Leicester, funded jointly by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and BAE Systems. |
|
|
THIS UNIVERSE Yesterday I saw a tiny object moving in the sky at a very high altitude. It appeared like a moving star. My friend thought it could be a meteor or a comet. It had no tail. Just a slow moving white dot in the black sky, what could it have been? I do not think you saw a meteorite. Meteorites would move very fast and would change their brilliance as they burn in the atmosphere. I do not think you saw a comet because a comet, being very far moves rather slowly across the sky, besides being a bit fuzzy and having a tail. It could be a high-flying airplane. Such planes, when flying at an altitude of 10 kilometers or so, can take a few minutes to go across the sky. A satellite is possible. Depends on the time of the night. If it was only an hour or two after sunset the satellite in a low earth orbit would still be sunlit and would be seen easily. This would also be so an hour or two before sunrise. I remember seeing the first sputnik launched by the Russians in 1957 at about 4 am. These low orbit satellites move across the sky in about 15 minutes. Geo synchronous satellites are not visible with naked eye. You may have been lucky and seen the international space station. Indeed, this should be the brightest visible satellite when viewed at the right time. The reason is that it is the biggest artificial object in the sky and it is not at a very high altitude, being only a few hundred kilometers above the earth. I have given you several possibilities and ruled out several others. The rest is up to you. If white light is passed through a green prism which colour will deviate the most? This is an interesting question but the answer is simple. If the prism is green then the material of the prism absorbs all colours other than green. Only the green light will come out and it will deviate as green light should. |
|
| HOME PAGE |
|
