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What is a Sociometer?

A digital device that detects the signs of charisma and measures them in action, the sociometer is about the size of an iPhone. The wearable gadget is equipped with an infrared sensor and a tiny microphone. It tracks patterns of speech and body movement. The sociometer does not, however, record speech. It was created by computer scientist Alex Pentland and …

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What is a seed crystal?

Seed crystals are tiny single crystals made to dissolve in a solution (or melt) from which larger crystals are drawn either by precipitation, centrifuging or drawing up from a melt. Seeds have the same chemical composition and crystalline structure as that of the larger crystal. Large crystals are grown on a preferred geometer (normally the most densely packed) plane of …

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What is a SCRAM shutdown?

It is an emergency shutdown of a nuclear reactor by inserting a large number of negative reactions into the system. It is derived from the WWII usage of the term ‘Safety control rod axe man’ which referred to emergency situations wherein a rope was cut to stop the operations urgently and to limit the damages arising out of continuance of …

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What is a rack railway?

Ordinary railway lines usually look as though they are laid on level ground. In reality most stretches of railway track have a slight gradient, so that during a journey of any reasonable length, a train will be running up and down a number of very gradual slopes. However, there is definite limit to the degree of steepness a train can …

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What is a pulsar?

A supernova leaves behind a tiny object termed a neutron star, far smaller than the Earth. It is the core of the star that exploded. The protons and electrons of its atoms have been squashed together by the force of the supernova, to from the atomic particles known as neutrons. A neutron star is unimaginably dense. It contains the mass …

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