Mirages are optical illusions produced by extraordinary atmospheric conditions. They can be non-existent sheets of water or similar visions, inverted or oversized images of distant objects or various other distortions. All are caused by the refraction, or bending, of light rays as they pass through two layers of air with different densities. The differences in density are usually due to …

A micelle is the cluster or aggregated particles formed by associated colloids (substances which, at high concentration, behave as colloidal solutions due to formation of micelles) in solution. Micelle formation takes place above a certain concentration called Critical Micellization Concentration (CMC) and above a particular temperature called Kraft Temperature. Every micelle system has a particular value of CMC. Micelles are …

Memristor is claimed to be the fourth basic element to electrical circuit theory along with the capacitor, resistor and inductor. It was recently discovered in HP Labs. It’s most interesting characteristic is that it remembers the amount of charge that flows through it. So, it is named as memory resistor or memristor. Researchers believe the discovery will pave the way …

People are mammals, and so are lions, elephants, whales, pigs and rabbits. How do we know? Well, scientists have sets of rules which tell them what sort of animals creatures are: whether they are mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds or insects. There are two things which tell the scientists that an animal is a mammal. Firstly, all mammals have some …

A magnet is a piece of iron which will attract or repel pins, tacks, nails or anything else made of that metal. The word comes from a district in Thessaly, Greece, called Magnesia. It was here that men first noticed that certain black stones attracted iron. These stones were composed of an iron ore called magnetite and were natural magnets. …

A light year is a way of measuring distance. I know that doesn’t seem to make much sense because “light year” contains the word “year,” which is normally a unit of time. Even so, a light year measure distance. When astronomers use their telescopes to look at the planets and the stars, the distances are gigantic. For example, the closest …

Kymograph is an electrical device used in preclinical medical research to record the biological responses (muscular motion, change in BP, and other physiological phenomena) of various tissues. It was invented by Carl Ludwig (1847) to record the change in arterial BP. It consists of an electrically driven gear box with a vertical spindle carrying a drum, and is disengaged before …

The Kuiper belt sometimes called the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt, is a region of the Solar System beyond the planets extending from the orbit of Neptune (at 30 AU) to approximately 55 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, although it is far larger – 20 times as wide and 20–200 times as massive. Like the asteroid belt, …

A keystone species is a species that plays a critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community and whose impact on the community is greater than would be expected based on its relative abundance or total biomass. The concept of a keystone species was first introduced by University of Washington professor, Robert T. Paine in 1969. Paine studied …

Jovian planets, also known as gas giants, is a collective term for Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The term Jovian came from planet Jupiter, which describes the other gas giants in our solar system which are like Jupiter. These planets are surrounded by a number of moons and rings and their rotation is faster than terrestrial planets. Jovian planets have …