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Horrifying scenes like this can be eliminated with the use of robotic jockeys
Rajashan feeder near Harike barrage Causes of obesity
Germ menace Trends Prof Yash
Pal THIS UNIVERSE |
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Robotic jockeys In a development of far-reaching significance, the introduction of innovative robotic jockeys for use in camel races, a widely popular sports and pastime in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has helped put an end to the untold sufferings of child jockeys hailing from poor countries of Asia and Africa. According to sources in the UAE’s Ministry of Interior, “a total of 1,075 child jockeys have been repatriated since the use of children in camel races was called into question in 2005.” As it is, following widespread and severe protests by human rights groups across the world, in 2005 the UAE banned the children under 18 and weighing less than 45-kgs from taking part in camel races. The versatile and intelligent robot that substitute child jockeys was specially designed and developed by the Swiss firm K-term. This compact and lightweight robotic jockeys receive orders from the instructor via a remote control systems fixed on the back of the camel. Upon receiving the order, the innovative robotic system guides the camel to move along. Incidentally, the robotic jockey is sprayed with fragrance as part of the strategy to make the high tech device as close to human jockeys as possible. Perhaps the most striking feature of this robot jockey is that it has been designed to show gesture similar to those of human jockeys. At one time, the camel race organisers in UAE had as many as 40,000 children under their control. These children used to be either lured or smuggled out of the poverty stricken areas of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and parts of Africa to work as jockeys. At times the poor parents of these children would be paid some money with the alluring promise of educating and taking care of their children in UAE. |
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Slow poisoning of Harike Lake Harike Lake which came to be built in early 1950s, feeds a number of canals such as the Sirhind Feeder, Rajasthan Feeder, Eastern Canal, Makhu Canal and Bikaner or Gang Canal. Of late, it has been found that the outflows from the Harike Lake into the various canal system is highly polluted blackish in colour, having a peculiar stench and pollutants can be seen by the naked eye. A large number of dead fish can be often seen floating on the canal waters. On May 30 when the residents of Muktsar showed Chief Minister Amarinder Singh the polluted water flowing down the Sirhind feeder system he was “shocked” and promised to get the situation rectified promptly. Acting on his orders the Chairman PPCB (Punjab Pollution Control Board) issued orders on June 6 to close down some 176 “polluting” industrial units, located in the two towns situated on the banks of the rivers feeding the lake, as these were considered responsible for the pollution in the lake. The question which is being asked is whether the action taken is considered sufficient to correct the situation? In the opinion of the author, the action taken may not show any immediate benefit or results and the public will be disappointed that too If the sewage could be sufficiently diluted, then during its flow down to Harike, we can count on the “natural purification” phenomenon to take place. This is taking place to some extent in the case of the river Beas component but not so in the case of the river Sutlej. So the raw sewage and untreated industrial effluents from Ludhiana city is finding entry into the off-taking canal system, as due to the Harike Lake being badly silted-up and weed infested, the inter-mixing upsystem of the barrage is not taking place. The obvious answer to the above is that we should build sewage
treatment works and also strictly enforce effluent treatment norms on the industrial units
in both Jalandhar and Ludhiana. As this will take time, the immediate step needed is to improve the working conditions in the Budha Nallaha, which carries for considerable distance the sewage before dropping these into the river Sutlej. Apart from the sewage treatment and political will in enforcing the ban on polluting industries, we need to stop treating the Harike Lake as a Wetland. Rather it should function as a “dynamic water body of a barrage in
which water could travel and mix freely in any direction desired. This is not so at
present on account of the silting and weed infestation which may be conducive for attracting
migratory birds but
which act as “barriers” against free circulation and mixing of the water streams flowing into Harike lake. |
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Causes of obesity Why are so many people fat? Scientists have come up with some novel excuses, including air conditioning, lack of sleep, fewer smokers, and more sex among obese people, which can produce chubby kids. Desserts are not the only things weighing America down, these researchers contend in a report published in the International Journal of Obesity. “I think it’s very creative,” said Dr Robert Kushner, medical director of the weight management programme at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, who had no role in the report. “We are facing an epidemic with no tipping point in the near future. At this point, there are no silly ideas.” However, some critics say the authors’ “Top Ten” list of alternative explanations reads more like material for a late night talk show routine than a scientific study. “I’d put this in the category of ‘calorie distracters’ - ‘Let’s just do anything to get people to stop worrying about having to eat less and move more,’” said Marion Nestle, a nutrition professor at New York University and frequent food industry critic. ‘“And let’s not say a word to food companies about misleading and manipulative marketing practices, especially those directed toward children.’” David Allison, a University of Alabama biostatistician, invited 19 other scientists in the United States, Canada and Italy, to work on the report.
— AP |
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Germ menace
Worried about colds, flu and other germs? Go ahead and touch those doorknobs and elevator buttons, but watch out for the telephone, fresh laundry and sinks, a top expert advises. And while you should always wash your hands before making a meal, many people do not realise that they should do so afterwards also, says Charles Gerba, a microbiologist and clean water expert at the University of Arizona. ‘’Most of the common infections — colds, flu, diarrhoea — you get environmentally transmitted either in the air or on surfaces you touch. I think people underrate surfaces,’’ Gerba said in a telephone interview. And when they are cautious, they are usually cautious about the wrong things. Germs do not stick where people believe they will. ‘’Doorknobs are usually on the low side,’’ said Gerba, who has conducted dozens of surveys of bacteria and viruses in workplaces and homes. ‘’I guess they are not moist. Never fear a doorknob.’’ A recent informal survey of a Reuters office helped him illustrate how microbes take advantage of misconceptions to propagate themselves. Two computer keyboards, for example, carried far more bacteria than an elevator button, the handles and button on the communal microwave oven or the office water fountain, an analysis by Gerba’s lab found. Keyboards and telephones — especially when they are shared — are among the most germ-laden places in a home or office, Gerba said. ‘’Keyboards are a lunch counter for germs,’’ Gerba said. ‘’We turn them over in a lot of studies and we are amazed at what comes out of a keyboard.’’ In fact, the average desk harbours 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat, says Gerba, whose latest survey focuses on the most germ-prone professions. “Nobody cleans the desktop, usually, until they stick to it,’’ he says. Perhaps not surprisingly, teachers have the highest exposure to bacteria and viruses, Gerba has found. Accountants, bankers and doctors also tend to have microbe-laden offices, while lawyers came out surprisingly clean in the germ-count stakes. Offices are, however, becoming cleaner, Gerba says. His lab does a simple overall bacteria count for its most general surveys. The person swabs each surface and sends it to Gerba’s lab, which then cultures the bacteria in a lab dish. The growth of whatever bacteria are present can be used to estimate an overall load of germs, including harmless E. coli bacteria — which are found in the gut and are an indicator of what scientists delicately call ‘’faecal contamination’’.
— Reuters |
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Trends Scientists have found what might have been the ideal ancient vacation hotspot with a 23-degree Celsius average temperature, alligator ancestors and palm trees. It’s smack in the middle of the Arctic. Core samples dug up from deep beneath the Arctic Ocean floor show that 55 million years ago an area near the North Pole was practically a subtropical paradise, three new studies show. The scientists say their findings are a glimpse backward into a much warmer-than-thought polar region heated by run-amok greenhouse gases that came about naturally. Skeptics of man-made causes of global warming have nothing to rejoice over, however. The researchers say their studies, appearing in Nature, also offer a peek at just how bad conditions can get. “It probably was (a tropical paradise) but the mosquitoes were probably the size of your head,” said Yale geology professor Mark Pagani, a study co-author.
— AP |
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THIS UNIVERSE Why does the bright flame of burning candle point upwards? This question has come to me on a postcard written in Hindi from Topno Bano, Simdega (perhaps in Jharkhand). The question reads: Moambatti aur diyon ki lau ooper ki aur kyon hote hain? This could have come from any town or village in the world. Curiosity about this everyday observation is delightful. A long time ago a child shared with me what he discovered while trying to discover the stuff that made up a candle flame. He placed a burning candle next to a wall in a darkened room and set out to find its nature by illuminating it with the beam of a flashlight! To his utter surprise he found that the flame did not cast a shadow but he did see the dark shadow of the wick of the candle. I suggest every one should enjoy conducting this beautiful experiment because it shows that the flame is made up of a tenuous gas emitting light and heat while the dark wick sits there innocently as if it was not the main actor. Returning to the question asked: what goes on to give the candle flame that special sky seeking shape? I believe what goes on is something like this. When you light up the candle with a burning matchstick you melt a little bit of wax, and the melted wax produces a bit of hydrocarbon vapour. Hot hydrocarbon vapour combines with oxygen in the air and produces carbon dioxide and water vapour. The process is exothermic - in the sense that it produces energy. Heated carbon particles emit light and burn to make carbon dioxide. The hydrogen component in the gas vapour combines with oxygen producing lot of energy and making water vapour. The hot burning vapour is lighter than the surrounding air and rises while the reactions go on. The required air is sucked in from the sides and on being heated joins the upward moving train of gases. The heat produced in the reactions keeps melting the wax on the candle and the melted wax keeps rising up through the pores of the wick because of capillary forces. The wick does not burn away fast because it lies below the region where the energy producing reactions occur. The width of the region in which reactions occur expands on going up. This depends on the supply of the melted fuel from the wick and the temperature. As one moves higher up in this train of rising gases, the hottest region is the highest in the flame. The width of this part contracts because the fuel supply gets limited and the burning in the core is the fastest. All this while I have explained the various factors that produce the flame and keep it going, without directly answering why the flame is pointed upwards towards the sky. But by now the reason for that should be clear. Heated gas is lighter than the same amount of cold gas. Therefore it rises up. Its place is taken up by the surrounding cold gas which also rises if it is being continuously heated. This process is called convection. You would also realise that convection occurs in our world because we have gravity. Without gravity nothing can be lighter or heavier because there is no weight! In a space capsule in orbit the candle flame would not know which way to point. Indeed there would be no flames as we know them in our ordinary world. I cannot help feeling that so many aspects of the world around us seem to conspire to create things and phenomenon that delight us. Shape of a candle flame is just one of them. Somehow it sounds even better if instead of calling it flame of a candle I use the words of the child: Moambatti ya diye ki lau. I do not know how to properly translate into English the word lau! The word flame sounds too harsh.
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