Darwin IV is a fictional planet 6.5 light years from the Earth, with two suns and 60% gravity. It was depicted in the series ‘Alien Planet’ based on Wayne Barlowe’s book Expedition. According to the story, after identifying Darwin IV as a world that could support life, Earth sends a pilot mission consisting of the mothership Von Braun and three …

The cyclotron, developed by Lawrence and Livingston in 1932, is a machine that accelerates charged particles like protons, so that they can be used in atom-smashing experiments. Because the principles of this accelerator are involved in the cyclic motion of charged atomic particles in a uniform magnetic field, the device is called cyclotron.

It is architecture in another form, the creation of living and working spaces which are a harmonious blend of technology, multimedia, intelligent systems and user interactivity. These spaces can be customized and the residents can claim to be the world’s most connected community. Cybertecture even allows a person to select preferred background music. One such cyberstructure is coming up on …

It’s sticky, it’s messy and it’s just the thing to eat at a fair. Children or adults, most people do not consider a mela or fair complete without the giant-wheel and the fluffy cotton candy wrapped around a stick. Or budhiya ke baal (old woman’s hair), as it is popularly known in parts of northern India. And do you know …

The study of the Origin, evolution and structure of the universe is known as cosmology. It is based on simple observation and Fundamental mathematical theories, technological advances and space explorations.

It is an element in meteorology. It acts on the atmosphere and is caused by the rotation of Earth, which rotates on its axis from west to east with an angular velocity of 15 degree per hour and gives rise to an apparent force called Coriolis Force or geostrophic force. It acts at right angles to the wind vector, to …

A globally convergent (the so-called convexification) algorithm was developed for coefficient inverse problems (CIPs) with time/frequency-dependent data. Convexification is extended to the case of a CIP for an elliptic equation with data generated by the source, running along a straight line. The data are incomplete, since they are given only at a part of the boundary. Applications to electrical impedance …

This is an important technique in modern farming, which was developed as farmers learnt from the mistakes made in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Then many people thought that the Earth’s resources were boundless, and in colonies and other territories around the world, they cleared forests and grasslands to make way for new farms. At first, yields were high, …

A state in which most of one’s attention is on a primary task, but where one is also monitoring several background tasks. CPA is that state most of us enter when we’re in front of a computer screen, or trying to check out at the grocery store with a cellphone pressed to one ear or blogging the proceedings of a …

Concentrated solar power plants (CSPs) generate electricity by using the sun’s energy to convert water into steam to run turbines connected to generators. Such a power plant consists of large sun-tracking mirrors (heliostats) to focus sunlight on a receiver at the top of a tower. The receiver uses solar power to heat up a heat-transfer fluid to generate steam which, …