Electronic tagging of humans
Dr Paul Singh
The implantation of microchip in milching animals to check the misuse of bank loans and tracking the movement of wild animals by radio collars are very common now a days. But humans, in future, are also to be tagged for tracking their movements by imbedding a microchip in the body. This chip would be capable of transmitting data to a computer. The implantation technique in humans would open way to a numerous exciting applications in the field of medical sciences, bionics and human biometrics.

“Squirrel” was first mammal to fly 
Steve Connor
A squirrel-like mammal that lives 125 million years ago appears to have discovered flight at about the same time, or even earlier, than the first birds, scientists have found. The mammal went extinct without leaving any living descendants, but its preserved fossil clearly shows that it was able to glide from tree to tree much like modern-day squirrels and lemurs.

Prof Yash Pal

Electronic tagging of humans
Dr Paul Singh

The implantation of microchip in milching animals to check the misuse of bank loans and tracking the movement of wild animals by radio collars are very common now a days. But humans, in future, are also to be tagged for tracking their movements by imbedding a microchip in the body. This chip would be capable of transmitting data to a computer. The implantation technique in humans would open way to a numerous exciting applications in the field of medical sciences, bionics and human biometrics.

Dr Kelvin Warwick, Professor of Cybernetics, University of Reading, U.K., has been conducting research on artificial intelligence, control and robotics under Project Cyborg. In the first phase of project started in 1998, he got a microchip implantation in his forearm.All the neuro-signals between Dr Warwick’s brain and the body were transmitted, recorded and analysed by the computer. The signals received by a neural signal processor were digitised and then scanned on line for neural spike events. The motor neural signals detected by the array were able to move an intelligent artificial hand.

In a landmark event, scientists succeeded in moving the robot hand through on-line neural transmission.

In another experiment, the ultrasonic signals from an external source were received by Dr Warwick’s neural network and it enabled him move around a room blindfold without hitting the objects.

After three months of experimentation, no adverse effects in terms of rejection or infection were detected. The body had adapted and effectively strengthened the neural connection with tissues growing around the array and holding it firmly in place on the median nerve.

The electronic tagging of humans may provide immense applications from security and national identity management to the offender tagging. The uses of this technology are endless. It would provide a more permanent form of identification than a smart card.

In future, a silicon chip implant could provide a unique and permanent source of identification of a person, containing vast amount of data on an individual such as nationality, medical record and citizen data. This data would be retrieved easily and could be transmitted instantly to any place via internet.

In the financial sector, it would offer new ways in personal verification technology. It would help in curbing identity theft and prevent fraudulent access to banking and credit card accounts because for meeting any such transaction, the physical presence would be required.

In the fast changing world of information technology, the security is of paramount importance. In this field, the chip implant could integrate with advanced biometric devices such as retina scanners so as to enable the security managements safe access to buildings and government establishments.

In future, its use could be extended to consumer products such as cars, homes, ACs and mobile telephones.

Another important area of its use, would be in the countries where kidnapping for ransom is prevalent. The chip implant technology may provide an ideal solution.

Soon you can have a tracking chip implanted in your body. If you have lost your little baby on way to school or at the mall, the Babysitter will track his location from a jellybean-sized microchip implant discretely tucked under the collarbone.

The Constant Companion lets you keep a watchful eye on grandpa or grandma, even when you can’t be by their sides.

The Invisible Bodyguard offers you the freedom from the fear, and you can enjoy the fauna and foliage when eco-tourism takes you to kidnapping.

— The writer is Assoc. Prof. (Physics),CCS HAU, Hisar

“Squirrel” was first mammal to fly 
Steve Connor

An artist’s impression of the flying mammal whose fossil was found in inner Mongolia

A squirrel-like mammal that lives 125 million years ago appears to have discovered flight at about the same time, or even earlier, than the first birds, scientists have found.

The mammal went extinct without leaving any living descendants, but its preserved fossil clearly shows that it was able to glide from tree to tree much like modern-day squirrels and lemurs.

Palaeontologists discovered the mammal’s fossil at a site in inner Mongolia where the rock is about 70 million years older than the rock containing the earliest previously known fossils of gliding mammals. The fossil bears the clear impression of a large, fur-covered patch of skin that stretched between the animal’s forelimbs and hindlimbs, which was used as an aerofoil in gliding fight.

Scientists working at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing have published the first detailed description of the ancient mammal, which they have called Volaticotherium antiquus, in the journal Nature.

The mammal is so unusual and highly specialised that it has no known contemporary relatives. It also possessed a long, stiff tail that was probably used as a rudder to control its direction of movement through the air. Gliding fight has evolved independently many times in vertebrates, but birds and bats are the only members of the group today that are able to fly using flapping wings controlled by powerful muscles.

Volaticotherium antiquus, which means “ancient gliding beast” in Latin, lived at a time when the dinosaurs were the dominant land animals. It was not until after the dinosaurs died out about 65 million years ago that mammals become the largest land animals.

The animal weighed about one pound and lived on a diet of small insects which it probably caught while clambering through the tree tops. It agility in the air was probably not good enough to catch its prey in flight, and it almost certainly glided from tree to tree either to extend its territory or to escape from predators, according to the scientists.

— By arrangement with The Independent, London

THIS UNIVERSE
PROF YASH PAL

Why water does not have any colour — why is it transparent?

Colour is the sensation we get when some components of the wavelengths our eyes are sensitive to get eliminated, reduced or amplified in what we sense as white light! I know this sentence that I have just crafted is a mouthful. This is intentional mischief. This is to highlight the fact that when we see we are doing a sophisticated but limited scattering experiment using the humanly selected set of colours, or wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation we call light. We are entitled to this bias. But we should recognise that water is not transparent at all wavelengths. X-rays and infrared do not travel well through water, nor does ultraviolet. “Transparency” of water is due to the fact that the molecular and atomic structure of water is such that up to shallow depths it seems transparent to us. In actual fact it is not. If we were to look down into the depths of the ocean after putting our head in water we will not see very far. It is nearly pitch dark at the bottom of the ocean, because the light from above all gets scattered or absorbed.

You could also ask the question: why is the atmosphere so transparent? It is marvelous that our sun puts out most of its energy in the narrow visible band of light to which over atmosphere is almost transparent and for which our eyes have the maximum sensitivity. The sun, the earth and its atmosphere seem to have been specially created for us. More likely is the fact that we are a product of evolution suited to the environment in which we came to be. Furthermore just as in the case of water it is marvelous that our atmosphere is not completely and equally transparent to all the colours we can see. If it were we would not have had any sky. Or, more correctly, the sky would have been black! The beauty of the blue skies and orange sunsets would have been denied to us. Clouds would have created some spectacle across the black sky and the rainbows would have still existed - but no twilights and no blue skies. So our air is transparent but to our delight not uniformly and completely so. I think we live in the best of the possible worlds. I hope we realise it and not make it ugly and miserable through our actions.

Unlike other fires we cannot extinguish a petrol fire easily by pouring water on it. Why?

I started thinking about this only after I received your question. I believe the reason for the difference might be the following. A fire flame is produced when the vapour of a combustible gas mixes with oxygen at high temperature. In the case of coal, wood or a candle the combustible gas is produced through the heating of coal, wood or the wax of the candle. If I cool down the coal, wood or the wick of the candle by pouring water, the source of the combustible gas gets throttled and the fire is extinguished. However, the case of petrol fire is different. Petrol is volatile and you can smell its vapour even at normal room temperature. Petrol is also lighter than water. Pouring water on petrol does not bottle up the vapour, which then continues to feed the fire above. Oxygen is always available. Therefore one has to find ways of cutting off the oxygen supply. We have to choke the fire. Some times this is done by setting off explosions, which suck out a lot of oxygen from the vicinity of the fire! For ordinary sized fires simpler ways of choking might be used, for example covering the fire with a thick blanket.

I have noticed that at certain speeds, in some conditions of lighting, the blades of a fan seem to be moving in a direction opposite to their actual direction of motion. How does it happen?

I suspect that you notice this at night when your room is illuminated by florescent lighting. In the household electric current the light intensity of a florescent tube fluctuates at the rate of about 50 times a second - this is the frequency of our A.C power supply.

This is not ordinarily noticed. But take a scale and move it back and forth in front of a florescent tube light at a fast speed. You will notice that the scale seems to be broken up in bands. This is due to the variation of intensity I have mentioned above. Such variations would also be there, but with a much smaller - almost imperceptible - amplitude even when you are viewing with an incandescent lamp. Essentially, in fluorescent lighting you see the world under a strobe light.

Any regular motion, like the motion of blades of the fan, would be modulated by the strobe frequency. This effect is rather similar to the one we see while looking at the image of the wheels of a car while seeing a film or on TV. You would have noticed the wheels going backward during a slow start or stop of the car, because of the strobe effect produced by the film or TV frame rate of about 24 per second.