ELECTRIC CARS
When there's no vroom, vroom, it makes it all seem a bit ho-hum
The trouble with electric cars is that they just don’t feel right to drive. There’s no involvement. No passion. No fun. Usually, they are ugly, slow grunts of a proper V8. If you love cars, you will be disappointed. Leccy cars just, well, go sluggishly, silently and rather boringly. And not very far. For all the talk about hi-tech batteries and 100-mile ranges, even the most advanced electric car today is inferior in practicality, cost and performance to the humblest little hatch with an internal combustion engine.
The new electric powered cars of Renault are seen on the first press day of the Frankfurt Auto Show in Frankfurt, Germany on September 15, 2009.

Trends
Electron micrographs show preserved microscopic plankton shells (foraminifera), found in Tanzania, from the Eocene - Oligocene boundary, in this undated handout image. A team of scientists studying rock samples in Africa has shown a strong link between falling carbon dioxide levels and the formation of Antarctic ice sheets 34 million years ago.The results are the first to make the link, underpinning computer climate models that predict both the creation of ice sheets when CO2 levels fall and the melting of ice caps when CO2 levels rise.

Prof Yash Pal

ELECTRIC CARS
When there's no vroom, vroom, it makes it all seem a bit ho-hum
By Sean O’Grady

The trouble with electric cars is that they just don’t feel right to drive. There’s no involvement. No passion. No fun. Usually, they are ugly, slow grunts of a proper V8. If you love cars, you will be disappointed. Leccy cars just, well, go sluggishly, silently and rather boringly. And not very far. For all the talk about hi-tech batteries and 100-mile ranges, even the most advanced electric car today is inferior in practicality, cost and performance to the humblest little hatch with an internal combustion engine. Even in green terms they’re not much better than the cleanest diesels.

There are, admittedly, a few electric sports cars around, such as the well-publicised Tesla, which deliver thrilling performance — at the enormous cost of about £ 80,000 a pop. Even the otherwise hopeless G-Wiz will deliver impressive performance — to about 20mph. That’s because electric motors deliver excellent low-down power, or “torque”, but they soon run out of puff.

By and large, electric cars are a sterile, numbing, depressing experience, and the best that can be said about them is that the more people who don’t care about cars go ahead and drive them, the more petrol will be left for the rest of us. If Renault and partner Nissan manage to deliver electric cars that are both green and great fun, well, that really would be an electric shock.

—By arrangement withThe Independent

Trends

Electron micrographs show preserved microscopic plankton shells (foraminifera), found in Tanzania, from the Eocene - Oligocene boundary, in this undated handout image. A team of scientists studying rock samples in Africa has shown a strong link between falling carbon dioxide levels and the formation of Antarctic ice sheets 34 million years ago. 

The results are the first to make the link, underpinning computer climate models that predict both the creation of ice sheets when CO2 levels fall and the melting of ice caps when CO2 levels rise. The scientists gathered sediment samples in the Tanzanian village of Stakishari where there are deposits of a particular type of well-preserved microfossils that can reveal past CO2 levels. —Reuters

“Super-Earth” has rocky surface
LONDON: Detailed data about the smallest planet ever found outside our solar system suggest it is a rocky “super-Earth” world very like our own, European astronomers said on Wednesday. The so-called exoplanet, whose initial discovery was announced in February, has a mass five times that of Earth, which when combined with its radius suggests it has a solid surface and a density similar to our terrestrial home.

CO2 link to Antarctic ice cap origin
SINGAPORE: A team of scientists studying rock samples in Africa has shown a strong link between falling carbon dioxide levels and the formation of Antarctic ice sheets 34 million years ago. The results are the first to make the link, underpinning computer climate models that predict both the creation of ice sheets when CO2 levels fall and the melting of ice caps when CO2 levels rise.

Does music benefit preemies?
NEW YORK: There is no high-quality evidence that listening to music helps tiny babies born prematurely cope with pain, feed better and calm down, according to a review of studies. While there are some “preliminary” indications that music could be helpful for specific purposes, such as easing pain during circumcision, “these findings need to be confirmed in methodologically rigorous trials,” Dr. Manoj Kumar of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada and his colleagues conclude. Itching to stop smoking? Scientists may know why LONDON: Scientists think they have discovered why people trying to quit smoking often find they are itching to stop. Belgian researchers studying the effect of nicotine in mice found that it activates a molecular pathway in membranes in the skin, nose and mouth known to play a role in inflammation. — Reuters

  This Universe
PROF YASH PAL

Why does water expand on freezing?
Water molecules are rather special. They are called polar molecules. This gives a suggestion that when allowed to slow down and get together, their congregation would not be amorphous. (Just think of human beings packed together). The result is that at freezing temperature they form structures. We call these structures crystals. Crystals are like houses, made of molecules. Before freezing, the molecules could be together in any form—like piles of small bricks or stones. But on freezing they cannot take any form. They have to build houses, called crystals. Clearly, then, there would be spaces in these houses. This means that the same number of molecules now occupy a larger volume. In other words, on freezing water occupies more space — it expands.

Our ceiling fans collect so much dirt that we feel we live in a coal mine. How do the fans manage to gather dirt although they move so fast?

Fans get dirty because they sweep lot of air that is dirty. The suspended particles in the air are otherwise not easily seen. In some sense your fan acts as a sensor of particle pollution of air you breathe.

If there is force of gravity then why don’t birds and aeroplanes flying in the sky fall down?

You know that if the bird is not flying it will definitely fall down. When it is flying it is also pushing the air down which stops it from falling down. The same is true for airplanes. You know that a helicopter flying in the air will crash to the ground if its engine stops.

In case of burning of candle why e=mc2 is not applicable?

It is applicable. It you were to collect all the gases and vapours produced and measure their mass and compared it with the original mass you will find that some mass is missing. But the difference would be so small that you will not be able to measure it. Remember you have also to include the energy radiated away in heat and light!