Blissful Life

Category: Science news

  • Indian Institute of Scientific Heritage

    This is my 100th post. And I’ve got nothing else as honourable to introduce to you as this website called iish.org. It is the official website of Indian Institute of Scientific Heritage. Now you will ask “What is special about this site other than that it is a website of an institute?” But the special thing is that itself. This website is the website of the Indian Institute of Scientific Heritage. The Institute specializes in the study of Indian Scientific Heritage. And when you come to know more about Indian Scientific Heritage, you will understand why I put this as my 100th post.

    Ancient Indians had a whole lot of knowledge. They knew that planets revolved around sun (and not earth). They knew that pi was an irrational number whose approximate value could be given by [62000+{(100+4)*8}]/20000 = 62832/20000. They recorded all these things in the books written then. But these books turned out to be hard-to-break ciphers for the later generations. That is why much of these knowledge got unused during the older years of mother India.

    Today an institue is fighting for the revival of ancient Indian knowledge to its full glory. It is working hard to make people aware of the excellent culture we had. And what more, it is providing pdf ebook english translations of many books including Vedic Management, Baudhayana Sulbasutra, Bhagavathgeetha, Bharatheeya Vijnana / Saastra Dhara, Value Based Life and Value Based Education, Aryabhateeya, and Kena Upanishad. All these are available for download if you have registered for a free account.

    Also there are weekly messages about Indian culture that is available as email alert. IISH news section contains – Sanathana News, Bharath Heritage News, Dharma Sandesham, Gurudeva Sandesam /Dasami Messages, IISH Messages, and Modern India and Indians.

    So why wait? go to iish

  • Chandrayaan-I Know Everything about it

    The best one who can tell you about Chandrayaan is ISRO. So, I’m not extending this paragraph to the end of this page. Here’s the link ISRO Brochure

  • Payloads of Chandrayaan-I

    There are 11 payloads of which 5 are Indian, 3 of ESA, 2 of United States and 1 is from Bulgaria.

    The 5 Indian ones are

    1. Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC): For complete mapping of moon topography.
    2. Hyperspectral Imager (HySI): a CCD camera designed to obtain the spectroscopic data for mapping of minerals on the surface of the moon as well as for understanding the mineralogical composition of the moon’s interior
    3. Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI): To provide necessary data for determining the accurate altitude of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft above the lunar surface. To determine the global topographical field of the Moon as well as to generate an improved model for the lunar gravity field.
    4. High Energy X-ray Spectrometer (HEX): 1st planetary experiment to carry out spectral studies at ‘hard’ X-ray energies using good energy resolution detectors. Designed to help explore the possibility of identifying polar regions covered by thick water-ice deposits as well as to identify regions of high Uranium and Thorium concentrations.
    5. Moon Impact Probe (MIP):To demonstrate the technologies required for landing a probe at the desired location on the moon.

    More at ISRO

    Other payloads

    1. Chandrayaan-1 Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS): This instrument intends to carry out high quality mapping of the moon using X-ray fluorescence technique for measuring elemental abundance of Magnesium, Aluminium, Silicon, Iron and Titanium distributed over the surface of the moon.
    2. Smart Near Infrared Spectrometer (SIR-2): This instrument aims to study the lunar surface to explore the mineral resources, the formation of its surface features, the way different layers of the moon’s crust lie over one another and the way materials are altered in space.
    3. Sub keV Atom Reflecting Analyser (SARA): The aim of this instrument is to study the surface composition of the moon, the way in which moon’s surface reacts with solar wind, the way in which surface materials on the surface of the moon change and the magnetic anomalies associated with the surface of the moon.
    4. The Bulgarian 1
      Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM):       This instrument aims to qualitatively and quantitatively characterise the radiation environment in space around the moon’s vicinity. It will help study the radiation dose map of space near the moon at various latitudes and altitudes.
    5. Nasa’s 2
      Mini Syntheic Aperture Radar (MiniSAR):       This is one of the two scientific instruments of the United States flown in Chandrayaan-1 mission
    6. Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3): This is an imaging spectrometer which is intended to assess and map lunar mineral resources at high spatial and spectral resolution to support planning for future targeted missions.

    Read more at ISRO

  • The goals of Chandrayaan-I

    Primarily, Chandrayaan-I is dedicated
    1. To know more about the moon
    2. To improve Indian technology
    3. To provide chances in planetary research for young Indian Scientists

    These will be met through high resolution remote sensing of the moon in the visible, near infrared, microwave and X-ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. With this, preparation of a 3-dimensional atlas of the lunar surface and chemical mapping of entire lunar surface is envisaged.

    Thanks to ISRO

  • Chandrayaan-I in work

    It’s all clear. And as planned, Chandrayaan was carried into its orbit around the earth by PSLV-C11, today (22 October, 2008) morning at 6.22 AM. It will now change into a more elliptical orbit and finally shift to the orbit around moon.

    More

  • The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2008 (Nobel Prize in Economics)

    Paul Krugman (b. 1953) of USA wins this year’s The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2008 for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity.

    Source : Nobelprize.org

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  • The Nobel Prize in Physics 2008

    Yoichiro Nambu (b. 1921) of USA wins 1/2 of the prize for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics.

    Makoto Kobayashi (b.1944) and Toshihide Maskawa (b.1940), both from Japan will get 1/4 of the prize for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature.

    Source : Nobelprize.org

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  • Chandrayaan launch on October 22

    Chandrayaan-1, India’s first lunar mission (of course unmanned) is all set to be launched from the spaceport of Sriharikota at 6:20 AM on October 22, according to ISRO sources. The satellite has already been transported from Banglore to Sriharikota in a special vehicle and is currently at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC, but called SHAR as the acronym for its previous name – Sriharikota Range).

    PS : It would be launched on board PSLV-C11.

  • The Grid – Internet of the future.

    I’m giving links to two news-pieces.

    Both of them are about the Grid – very high speed internet that will surprise you by its speed. Almost 10,000 times faster than what we use now.

    But this astonishing thing was made in order to make available, the vast amount of data generated by the Large Hadron Collider, world wide. So, even if the experiment fails, it has caused something great.

    Click here to read about it
    Click here to read the CERN’s role in it.

  • The Large Hadron Collider

    Did you know that the Large Hadron Collider is not just an experiment, but a landmark in human history?

    If you didn’t you SHOULD visit the website of European Organization for Nuclear research and know what the LHC is.