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Digital homes are here Spider that crawled with dinosaurs How to score
THIS UNIVERSE |
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Digital homes are here CRAZE for a digital home is increasing day by day in this modern era. Out of the four houses displayed in the International Electronics Show held at Las Vegas recently, one home was specially developed as a digital home of this century. Although digital home is not a new thing during these days but one exhibited in the show was designed with latest technology of this field and was fitted with all types of facilities and comforts expected from a modern
digital home. All the household work from dusting to cooking and security were possible with a touch on computer screen in this digital home. All the lamps were ready to give light and doors to open just with the touch of a finger. By touching the screen we can maintain room temperature as per our requirement. The menu for whole day was also available on computer screen out of which your choice food would be ready in the microwave oven provided in the digital home. Every thing from laundry to bathroom facility was digital. The complete house was ready to work as per your wish. A robot was also provided for all types of dusting. cleaning and routine work. And Queens used to get in ancient times wih force. The Nextgen home company’s designed digital home was equipped with latest technology of world famous computer company ‘HP’, software king ‘Microsoft & top chip producer ‘Intel’. ‘Viv’ named this digital home was fitted with latest devices of all the major companies along with a powerful computer to obey and perform according to the will of its user. The whole system of this digital home was cordless and free from all types of switches and cables. You may know what is happening in the house and the world around just by touching the screen by using remote control. The digital home was also furnished with a very powerful wireless sound system and high definition T.V. for all type of entertainment and activities happening in the world. This digital home was a true and real copy of the digital home dreamt by our scientists and engineers centuries ago. According to producers of this digital home every programme is interconnected without cables. Provision has also been made to run all office work from this digital home. One can get all the required information of office with just a touch of screen on the computer. The day is not far when we will also find such digital home in our towns, if the progress of digital technology maintains this speed and we will be able to enjoy the comforts of digital age through digital home. |
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Spider that crawled with dinosaurs Many spiders use webs to catch prey or to protect their young but it is only the true orb-weavers that spin the spiral-shaped aerial structures for trapping flying insects. David Penney of Manchester University and Vicente Ortuno of Alcala University in Madrid found the spider in a piece of amber unearthed at Alava in northern Spain. The fossil was preserved because amber is fossilised tree resin, which helps prevent biological degradation. The find suggests this group of spiders had already evolved by the time that flowering plants and insects were undergoing an explosive phase of co-evolution more than 100 million years ago, the scientists say in the journal Biology Letters. It is the oldest fossil species of orb-weaving spider and its existence shows that this family of spiders was set to exploit the rapid growth in the diversity of pollinating insects. “One modification is quite fantastic,” Dr Penney said. “Picture a spiral orb web and running down from it a ladder-type structure which is also made from sticky silk. This has evolved to trap moths, which have scales that rub off. When a moth flies into a normal orb web, it’s the scales that stick and the moth tumbles out of it. “But with the ladder structure, the moth tumbles down until all the scales come off and eventually it gets caught.” By arrangement with |
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How to score KEN
BRAY, a theoretical physicist with a doctorate in quantum science, has some important advice for any player taking a penalty in this summer’s World Cup. Aim for the top corner. “It may sound obvious but Bray’s advice is backed by scientific research, which he says can help players in everything from taking free kicks to saving penalties. “Science is important in terms of winning matches,’’ said Bray, author of a book on the science behind soccer called ‘’How to Score”. Bray has analysed memorable games over the past 50 years and applied research in physics, biology, computing and psychology to the beautiful game. Using biomechanics to calculate the absolute reach of a goalkeeper diving to try to save a penalty, Bray has identified an area near the posts and in the top corners where the goalkeeper cannot reach as the “unsaveable zone”. “If a player were to place the ball in those regions which are 28-30 per cent of the goal area there is not a sniff that the goalkeeper can do to get across to them,” explained Bray, from the University of Bath in England. He advised goalkeepers to move before the kick is taken because if they wait, the ball will be half way to the goal before they make a move. He said where the striker places and points his standing foot is a good clue to where the ball will go. “It’s been shown that in about 85 per cent of cases the direction in which that foot points is the direction of the shot,” he told a news conference in
London. — Reuters |
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How did dodo die out? Most theories blame settlers who found the plump flightless bird on the Indian Ocean island in the 16th century and began to hunt it relentlessly. In an attempt to provide a scientific answer, the Dodo Research Programme, plans to study fossils from a mass dodo grave unearthed in southern Mauritius last October and an adjacent site, using carbon dating techniques and DNA analysis.
— Reuters Testosterone on a song Testosterone may help some songbirds “live fast, die young and leave a good-looking corpse,” as the adage goes. For dark-eyed junco males, having a little extra testosterone made them more attractive to females — especially older ones — helped them fly farther and sing more sweetly, scientists say. And the hormone-laden males produce more offspring, North Dakota State University assistant biology professor Wendy Reed found. But the chicks were smaller and less likely to survive, she reported in the American
Naturalist. — Reuters 750-legged
millipede The world’s leggiest species — a millipede that has up to 750 legs — has been spotted for the first time in 80 years. The last time Illacme plenipes was seen was in 1926, when it was discovered living in a tiny habitat measuring just 0.8 square kilometres in San Benito County, California. I. Plenipedes can have up to 750 legs, making them the closest to having the 1,000 that millipedes according to folklore are supposed to have.
— AFP
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THIS UNIVERSE I have a question written in Hindi in his own hand from a class 2 student from Jhumri Talaya, Jharhkhand: mera sawal hai - hawa dikhta kyon nahin? Do I try to craft an answer for this beautiful question from a six or seven year old child, or should I try answering an older child or grown up person who sends the same query as: why is air not visible? In this column I will first try an answer for the older human being, child or grown up. I will also try answering the young child by writing to him by hand in simple Hindi because he deserves an answer. However, I will share that answer with you given below in italics. It would be useful to have views on slightly different treatment for the two versions. To see something we need light that lights up the object we want to see. We cannot see things in the dark. Dark is when there is no light that our eyes can detect. The lighted objects become visible only if they send some of the light falling on them towards our eyes, sometimes altered in colour and intensity. We call this process as scattering. Therefore, we would not see things that do not obstruct or scatter light significantly. This is true of air and several other gases. It is also true of very clear and clean glass. Only this much of an answer would be a cheat. The questioner clearly wants to know why when something is, is it different. Then I would say that yes air is different but not quite because air does scatter light and its presence can be detected even by the naked eye if the layer of air is thick enough. We know that air not only scatters light but it scatters the blue colour much more than the red colour. This is what gives us our blue skies! Indeed our sky is nothing but preferentially scattered light of the sun. The answer in Hindi for that 6-7 year old follows: Yeh to tumhen pata hai ki hawa hai. Shayad is liye ki chalti hawa mehsoos kar sakte ho. Zor se chalti hai to khidki darwaze khad khad karte hain, dhool uthti hai, aandhi aati hai, ped jhoomte hain, kabhi gir bhi jate hain. Is liye bhi ki sans lena padta hai, ek nali (straw) paani mein daal kar phoonk lagao to bulbule nikalte hain. Aisi bahut cheezon ke bawjood hawa dikhti kyon nahin yeh tumhara sawal theek hai. Yeh to tumhen maloom hai ki dekh sakne ke liye yeh zaroori hai ki roshni ho. Agar raat hai aur suraj ki roshni nahin hai to hum diya, lamp ya bijli ke bulb se roshni kar lete hain duniyan ko dekhne ke liye. Phir bhi hawa nahin dikhti. Yeh isliye ki kewal woh dikhta hai jo kahin se bhi aai roshni ko mod kar hamari aankh ki taraf phaink sake. Kabhi kabhi aisi roshni ka rang bhi badal jata hai. Kai cheezen aisi hoti hain jin mein roshni ke kan takrate nahi, ya bahut kam takrate hain. Is halat me woh roshni seedhi nikal jati hai , hamari aankhon ki taraf aaye bina. Aisii cheez hamein nahin dikhti. Hawa inhin cheezon mein ek hai. Ab zara socho yeh kitni khushkismati ki baat hai hamare liye. Agar hawa hamein dikhti, aasani se dikhti, to kahin se bhi aati roshni bikhar jati ya rook jati. Suraj tak ki roshni hum tak nahin pahunch paati. Tab ped paudhe kaise ugte, khaana kahan se aata, har samein raat hoti! Ho sakta hai dhundla sa, kaala sa aakash hamein ghere rehta. Agar hamare vayoo mandal ki bajaye utne hi bhar ki lakdi ki parat hamen ghere rahti, toi, woh ek meter se moti hoti! Aisi halat mein to hamara hona sambhav nahin tha. Is liye achha hi hai ki hawa hamen dikhta
nahin! |
THE oldest orb spiders to weave a spiral web of silk have been found trapped in a fragment of amber 120 million years old. A study of the amber-trapped spider suggests that it must have lived at the time of the dinosaurs — long before the rise of the warm-blooded mammals. 
How did the dodo die out? Scientists in Mauritius have launched a project to discover why the giant bird became extinct.