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, …

Composting is nature’s process of recycling decomposed organic materials into a rich soil known as compost. Anything that was once living will decompose. Basically, backyard composting is an acceleration of the same process nature uses. By composting your organic waste you are returning nutrients back into the soil in order for the cycle of life to continue. Finished compost looks …

Cold or contact welding is a solid-state welding process in which joining takes place without fusion / heating at the interface of the two parts to be welded. Unlike in the fusion-welding processes, no liquid or molten phase is present in the joint. Cold welding was first recognized as a general materials phenomenon in the 1940s. It was then discovered …

You may have a coal fire in you house, or you may know someone who has, and you probably don’t think twice about putting lumps of black coal on to the fire to keep you warm. But did you know that coal is made of fossilized plants? About three hundred million years million years ago, the land was very swampy …

Which is the most famous sheep in the world? A sheep called Dolly. But why is Dolly famous? That is because unlike other sheep’s, Dolly was not born in the usual manner. She is actually a carbon copy of her mother, like an identical twin. This means that she is the twin sister of her mother who is older by …

Claytronics is an emerging field of engineering, drawing on nano technology and computer engineering. Claytronics or programmable matter refers to an assemblage of tiny components called claytronic atoms or catoms, which could assume the form of any object, depending on the programmes controlling the claytronics. This term also refers to the art of making clay caricatures of public figures, begun …

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the genetic material found in the chromosomes of all animals and plants. It is made up of only four types of organic nitrogenous bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), thymine (T) and cytosine (C). Of these, A and G are the purines and T and C are the pyrimidines. Chargaff gave the base pairing rule or the …