Making mendelevium, one atom at a time?

The discovery of mendelevium was announced at the end of April in 1955. It was described by one of its discoverers as "one of the most dramatic in the sequence of syntheses of transuranium elements".

The search for new elements is something that scientists have been doing for hundreds of years. Once Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev organised the elements known at his time according to a repeating, or periodic (and hence the name periodic table), system in the 1860s, the search became a little easier.

This was because the gaps in Mendeleev's periodic table pointed to elements that weren't known yet. The properties of these elements, however, could be predicted based on their place in the table and the neighbours around them, thereby making it easier to discover new elements. Mendeleev's table has since been expanded, to make space for other new elements

One of those new elements discovered was element number 101, named mendelevium after. Mendeleev. American Nobel Prize winner Glenn Seaborg, who was one of the discoverers of the element, wrote that the discovery of mendelevium was "one of the most dramatic in the sequence of syntheses of transuranium elements", in a chapter co-written by him for The New Chemistry. Additionally, he also wrote in that chapter that "It was the first case in which a new element was produced and identified one atom at a time."

Begins with a bang                                                                       

Ivy Mike, the first thermonuclear device, was dropped for testing on the Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean in 1952, sending a radioactive cloud into the air, from which samples were collected. The lab reports suggested that two new elements-elements 99 (einsteinium) and 100 (fermium) - were discovered from the debris. The discoveries came at a time when there was a race to discover new elements.

 The leading researchers of the U.S. involved in this race were camped at the Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, under the direction of physicist Ernest Lawrence A team of scientists which included Albert Ghiorso, Stanley Thompson, Bernard Harvey, Gregory Choppin, and Seaborg, came up with a plan to produce element 101 using a billion atoms of einsteinium-253 that were formed in a reactor.

The idea was to spread the atoms of einsteinium onto a thin gold foil. As its half-life was about three weeks, the researchers effectively had a week to perform their experiments after receiving it. Based on Ghiorso's calculations, they were aware that only about one atom of the new element 101 would be produced for every three hours the gold foil was bombarded with alpha particles.

Race against time

As the experiment would yield only a very small amount of the new element, the scientists set up a second gold foil behind the first to catch the atoms. It was a race against time as well as the half-life of element 101 was expected to be a few hours only.

With the Radiation Laboratory atop a hill and the cyclotron at its base, there really was a mad rush to get the samples to the lab on time. The samples "were collected in a test tube, which I took and then jumped in a car driven by Ghiorso", is how Choppin put it in his own words.

On the night of the discovery, the target was irradiated in three-hour intervals for a total of nine hours. By 4 AM on February 19, 1955, they had recorded five decay events characteristic of element 101 and eight from element 100, fermium. With conclusive evidence of element 101's existence, Choppin mentions that "We left Seaborg a note on the successful identification of Z =101 and went home to sleep on our success."

At the end of April 1955, the discovery of element 101 was announced to the world. The university's press release stated that "The atoms of the new element may have been the rarest units of matter that have existed on earth for nearly 5 billion years... The 17 atoms of the new element all decayed, of course, and the 'new' element is for the present extinct once again."

Cold War era

As element 101 marked the beginning of the second hundred elements of the periodic table, the scientists wanted to name it after Mendeleev, the man behind the periodic table.

Despite the discovery happening during the Cold War era, Seaborg was able to pull enough strings to convince the U.S. government to accept the proposal to name the element after a Russian scientist. The International Union of Pure & Applied Chemistry approved the name mendelevium and the scientists published their discovery in the June 1955 issue of Physical Review Letters.

While only small quantities of mendelevium have ever been produced, more stable isotopes of the element have since been made. The most stable version known as of now has a half-life of over one-and-a-half months, allowing for better opportunities to further study heavy elements and their properties.

Picture Credit : Google

What was the first successful airship built by Ferdinand von Zeppelin in 1900?

On July 2, 1900, the first directed flight of the LZ-1, a zeppelin airship, took place in Germany. The man behind it was Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, who pioneered the cause of building rigid dirigible airships, so much so that his surname is still popularly used as a generic name.

Aeroplanes are now the norm for air travel but there was a brief period early in the aeronautical history when airships or dirigibles were believed capable of playing a crucial role in aviation development. Large, controllable balloons propelled by an engine, airships are one of two types of lighter-than-air aircraft (the other one being well, balloons of course!)

Now relegated to aerial observations, advertising and other areas where staying aloft is more important than movement, airships come in three main types: the non-rigid airships or blimps, the semi-rigid airships, and the rigid airships, often called zeppelins. The last category is more popular as zeppelins because it was a German man called Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin who conceived and developed the first rigid dirigible.

Born in Konstanz, Germany on July 8, 1938, Zeppelin studied at the University of Tubingen before entering the Prussian Army in 1858. He travelled to the U.S. during the American Civil War and acted as a military observer for the Union Army.

An idea is born

It was during this time, in 1863, when Zeppelin had the first of several balloon ascensions at St. Paul, Minnesota. While he was quick to realise the weakness of free balloons, their overdependence on winds and their uncontrollability, it was an experience that stayed with him through a lifetime.

By the 1870s, the idea of building a steerable airship had taken shape in Zeppelin's mind. So when he retired from the army with the rank of brigadier general, he decided to devote himself to building these airships.

Zeppelin toiled for a decade even though there were many naysayers. By 1900, he had built the first rigid-body airship consisting of a long, uniform cylinder with rounded ends. At 420 feet long and 38 feet in diameter, it had a hydrogen gas capacity of nearly 3,99,000 cubic feet.

Flies from a floating hangar

 From a floating hangar on Lake Constance, Germany, the initial flight of LZ-1, the first zeppelin, took place on July 2, 1900. Days away from turning 62, Zeppelin had finally made progress with an idea that had been with him for decades.

While the demonstration wasn't entirely successful, the craft attained speeds of nearly 32 km/hour, enough to spark enthusiasm around zeppelins, get more donations, and have enough funding to keep the progress happening. Zeppelin tirelessly worked to make new and improved dirigibles and even created the first commercial passenger air service with them by 1910, but it wasn't until World War I that support from the government finally came in.

With most aeroplanes still in the development phase, the Germans perceived the advantages of zeppelin-type rigid airships, which could not only attain higher altitudes than aeroplanes of the time, but also remain airborne for nearly 100 hours. More than 100 zeppelins were employed by the Germans for military operations during World War I.

Hindenburg disaster

Zeppelin died in 1917, without seeing the heights that his zeppelins reached, and the tragedy that followed. The LZ-127 ‘Graf Zeppelin’ was launched in 1927 and it was one of the largest ever built. Having a length more than that of two-and-a-half football fields, it made a number of trans-Atlantic flights.

The LZ-129 ‘Hindenburg’ came about in 1936 and was touted to become the most famous zeppelin ever. Instead, tragedy struck and the ‘Hindenburg’ exploded and burned on May 6, 1937 at its mooring mast in New Jersey. (In case you were wondering, the Hindenburg Research investment company, which has constantly been in the news this year following their reports about the Adani Group, was named after this zeppelin.)

The Hindenburg disaster spelt doom for zeppelins as the remaining ones were also taken off service and dismantled. While safety concerns diminished their popularity, they had helped establish the principles of lighter-than-air aircraft and had even been among the first to provide commercial air travel.

Picture Credit : Google 

What was the first successful airship built by Ferdinand von Zeppelin in 1900?

On July 2, 1900, the first directed flight of the LZ-1, a zeppelin airship, took place in Germany. The man behind it was Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, who pioneered the cause of building rigid dirigible airships, so much so that his surname is still popularly used as a generic name.

Aeroplanes are now the norm for air travel but there was a brief period early in the aeronautical history when airships or dirigibles were believed capable of playing a crucial role in aviation development. Large, controllable balloons propelled by an engine, airships are one of two types of lighter-than-air aircraft (the other one being well, balloons of course!)

Now relegated to aerial observations, advertising and other areas where staying aloft is more important than movement, airships come in three main types: the non-rigid airships or blimps, the semi-rigid airships, and the rigid airships, often called zeppelins. The last category is more popular as zeppelins because it was a German man called Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin who conceived and developed the first rigid dirigible.

Born in Konstanz, Germany on July 8, 1938, Zeppelin studied at the University of Tubingen before entering the Prussian Army in 1858. He travelled to the U.S. during the American Civil War and acted as a military observer for the Union Army.

An idea is born

It was during this time, in 1863, when Zeppelin had the first of several balloon ascensions at St. Paul, Minnesota. While he was quick to realise the weakness of free balloons, their overdependence on winds and their uncontrollability, it was an experience that stayed with him through a lifetime.

By the 1870s, the idea of building a steerable airship had taken shape in Zeppelin's mind. So when he retired from the army with the rank of brigadier general, he decided to devote himself to building these airships.

Zeppelin toiled for a decade even though there were many naysayers. By 1900, he had built the first rigid-body airship consisting of a long, uniform cylinder with rounded ends. At 420 feet long and 38 feet in diameter, it had a hydrogen gas capacity of nearly 3,99,000 cubic feet.

Flies from a floating hangar

 From a floating hangar on Lake Constance, Germany, the initial flight of LZ-1, the first zeppelin, took place on July 2, 1900. Days away from turning 62, Zeppelin had finally made progress with an idea that had been with him for decades.

While the demonstration wasn't entirely successful, the craft attained speeds of nearly 32 km/hour, enough to spark enthusiasm around zeppelins, get more donations, and have enough funding to keep the progress happening. Zeppelin tirelessly worked to make new and improved dirigibles and even created the first commercial passenger air service with them by 1910, but it wasn't until World War I that support from the government finally came in.

With most aeroplanes still in the development phase, the Germans perceived the advantages of zeppelin-type rigid airships, which could not only attain higher altitudes than aeroplanes of the time, but also remain airborne for nearly 100 hours. More than 100 zeppelins were employed by the Germans for military operations during World War I.

Hindenburg disaster

Zeppelin died in 1917, without seeing the heights that his zeppelins reached, and the tragedy that followed. The LZ-127 ‘Graf Zeppelin’ was launched in 1927 and it was one of the largest ever built. Having a length more than that of two-and-a-half football fields, it made a number of trans-Atlantic flights.

The LZ-129 ‘Hindenburg’ came about in 1936 and was touted to become the most famous zeppelin ever. Instead, tragedy struck and the ‘Hindenburg’ exploded and burned on May 6, 1937 at its mooring mast in New Jersey. (In case you were wondering, the Hindenburg Research investment company, which has constantly been in the news this year following their reports about the Adani Group, was named after this zeppelin.)

The Hindenburg disaster spelt doom for zeppelins as the remaining ones were also taken off service and dismantled. While safety concerns diminished their popularity, they had helped establish the principles of lighter-than-air aircraft and had even been among the first to provide commercial air travel.

Picture Credit : Google 

Who was the Danish astronomer known for planetary observations Tycho?

On March 5, 1590, Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe observed a comet. This was one of the many observations made by Brahe, known for his comprehensive astronomical observations.

The invention of the telescope allowed astronomy to peer further and further still improving technology and better equipment implies that our modem telescopes allow us to see way beyond what our predecessors imagined possible. And yet, there was a time when there were no telescopes when astronomical observations were still being done.

Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe is best known for measuring and fixing the positions of astronomical bodies and developing astronomical instruments. While his observations paved the way for future discoveries, the fact that these were the most accurate measurements from a time when the telescope had yet not been invented makes it all the more special.

Born in Denmark in 1546, Brahe’s parents were part of the nobility. Abducted at a very early age by his wealthy uncle, Brahe was raised by him and attended universities in Copenhagen and Leipzig

Drawn to astronomy

While his family wanted him to be a lawyer and he even studied the subjects, Brahe chose to pursue astronomy eventually. The total eclipse of the sun on August 21, 1560, and the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in August 1563- Brahe's first recorded observation -were natural events that pushed Brahe to devote his lifetime to astronomy.

In 1566, Brahe fought Manderup Parsberg, his third cousin and a fellow student, in a duel over who was the better mathematician. While Parsberg and Brahe went on to become good friends after this, Brahe lost a large chunk of his nose during the duel and had to wear a prosthetic nose to mask the disfigurement for the rest of his life. While this nose was long believed to be made of silver, the exhumation of his body in 2010 revealed that it was made of brass.

Brahe observed a supernova in the constellation of Cassiopeia in 1572 and the new star remained visible for nearly a year-and-a-half. He observed a comet late in 1577 and meticulously followed it till it remained visible in January 1578

Against prevailing theory

 While prevailing theory dictated that disturbances in the atmosphere was the reason behind these. Brahe’s measurements showed differently. Brahe was able to show that the supernova never changed with regard to the surrounding stars. And based on his measurements of the comet, he was able to determine that it was at least six times farther away than the moon

These observations elevated Brake to a new level and he acquired an international reputation. His fame earned him a more comfortable life and the backing of the rulers as King Frederick II of Denmark offered him exclusive usage of his own island of Hven and financial support to carry out astronomical observations.

Brahe built a huge observatory on the island and diligently tracked the heavenly bodies, maintaining impeccable notes of the observations. During his time at Hven, Brake observed at number of comets. The one he observed on March 5, 1590 when he was employed in observing Venus was one of the last he tracked down while at the island.

Combined model

Even though Brahe's work laid bare the flaws of the system that was then used, he failed to embrace Polish polymath Nicolaus Copernicus's proposed model of the universe with the Sun at its centre. Brahe, instead, offered a combined model with the moon, and the sun going around the Earth, even as the five other known planets orbited the sun

Brahe's influence waned following the death of Frederick in 1588 and most of his income stopped under Frederick’s son Christian IV. He left Hven in 1597 and after short stays in a couple of places, settled in Prague in 1599 and stayed there until h death in 1601.

It was in Prague that German astronomer Johannes Kepler started working as Brakes assistant. Kepler. ironically. would go on to use Brahe's detailed observations to arrive at his planetary laws of motion and show that planets moved around the sun in elliptical orbits.

Picture Credit : Google 

When was mendelevium discovered?

The discovery of mendelevium was announced at the end of April in 1955. It was described by one of its discoverers as "one of the most dramatic in the sequence of syntheses of transuranium elements".

The search for new elements is something that scientists have been doing for hundreds of years. Once Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev organised the elements known at his time according to a repeating, or periodic (and hence the name periodic table), system in the 1860s, the search became a little easier.

This was because the gaps in Mendeleev's periodic table pointed to elements that weren't known yet. The properties of these elements, however, could be predicted based on their place in the table and the neighbours around them, thereby making it easier to discover new elements. Mendeleev's table has since been expanded, to make space for other new elements.

One of those new elements discovered was element number 101, named mendelevium after. Mendeleev. American Nobel Prize winner Glenn Seaborg, who was one of the discoverers of the element, wrote that the discovery of mendelevium was "one of the most dramatic in the sequence of syntheses of transuranium elements", in a chapter co-written by him for The New Chemistry. Additionally, he also wrote in that chapter that "It was the first case in which a new element was produced and identified one atom at a time."

Begins with a bang

Ivy Mike, the first thermonuclear device, was dropped for testing on the Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean in 1952, sending a radioactive cloud into the air, from which samples were collected. The lab reports suggested that two new elements-elements 99 (einsteinium) and 100 (fermium) - were discovered from the debris. The discoveries came at a time when there was a race to discover new elements. The leading researchers of the U.S. involved in this race were camped at the Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, under the direction of physicist Ernest Lawrence A team of scientists which included Albert Ghiorso, Stanley Thompson, Bernard Harvey, Gregory Choppin, and Seaborg, came up with a plan to produce element 101 using a billion atoms of einsteinium-253 that were formed in a reactor.

The idea was to spread the atoms of einsteinium onto a thin gold foil. As its half-life was about three weeks, the researchers effectively had a week to perform their experiments after receiving it. Based on Ghiorso's calculations, they were aware that only about one atom of the new element 101 would be produced for every three hours the gold foil was bombarded with alpha particles.

Race against time

As the experiment would yield only a very small amount of the new element, the scientists set up a second gold foil behind the first to catch the atoms. It was a race against time as well as the half-life of element 101 was expected to be a few hours only.

With the Radiation Laboratory atop a hill and the cyclotron at its base, there really was a mad rush to get the samples to the lab on time. The samples "were collected in a test tube, which I took and then jumped in a car driven by Ghiorso", is how Choppin put it in his own words.

On the night of the discovery, the target was irradiated in three-hour intervals for a total of nine hours. By 4 AM on February 19, 1955, they had recorded five decay events characteristic of element 101 and eight from element 100, fermium. With conclusive evidence of element 101's existence, Choppin mentions that "We left Seaborg a note on the successful identification of Z =101 and went home to sleep on our success."

At the end of April 1955, the discovery of element 101 was announced to the world. The university's press release stated that "The atoms of the new element may have been the rarest units of matter that have existed on earth for nearly 5 billion years... The 17 atoms of the new element all decayed, of course, and the 'new' element is for the present extinct once again."

Cold War era

As element 101 marked the beginning of the second hundred elements of the periodic table, the scientists wanted to name it after Mendeleev, the man behind the periodic table.

Despite the discovery happening during the Cold War era, Seaborg was able to pull enough strings to convince the U.S. government to accept the proposal to name the element after a Russian scientist. The International Union of Pure & Applied Chemistry approved the name mendelevium and the scientists published their discovery in the June 1955 issue of Physical Review Letters.

While only small quantities of mendelevium have ever been produced, more stable isotopes of the element have since been made. The most stable version known as of now has a half-life of over one-and-a-half months, allowing for better opportunities to further study heavy elements and their properties.

Picture Credit : Google 

Who discovered petroleum jelly?

On June 4, 1872, American chemist Robert Chesebrough was granted a patent titled "Improvement in products from petroleum". Chesebrough mentioned the name with which he marketed petroleum jelly in this patent, which is now a brand name.

Whenever you had minor skin scrapes and burns, or just had to moisturise your face, hands, or other parts of the body, chances are that you probably used petroleum jelly. Yes, the folks around you or the elders at home probably referred to it with its brand name, but if you look at what it is made of, you will realise that it is petroleum jelly.

For one-and-a-half centuries now, petroleum jelly has played a pivotal part in skincare, be it to help with skin moisturising or healing. Also called petrolatum, petroleum jelly is a mixture of mineral oils and waxes that forms a semisolid jelly-like substance. Ever since American chemist Robert Augustus Chesebrough discovered it in the 19th Century, the product hasn't changed much.

His job turns obsolete        

A British-born American chemist, Chesebrough owed his discovery to serendipity. He began his career as a chemist distilling kerosene from the oil of sperm whales. This role, however, soon turned obsolete with the discovery of petroleum in Titusville, Pennsylvania.

Now jobless, Chesebrough decided to travel to Titusville. He decided to research the new fuel to see what new materials might be created from it. Strolling around the oil field, Chesebrough came across something called rod wax, also known as petroleum jelly.

A byproduct of oil drilling, the jelly-like substance was cleaned off from the pumping equipment often. The workers told Chesebrough that it was largely a nuisance, except for one particular use. When someone had a cut or a burn, rubbing the wax on the injured area not only reduced the pain, but also allowed the injury to heal quickly.

Refines the process

Chesebrough set off back to his chemistry lab in Brooklyn with a batch of rod wax. He began experimenting and refining the process by which the wax was generated in order to come up with a solution that healed and protected the skin.

He spent the following years perfecting the technique of extracting a colourless, odourless form of petroleum jelly. By 1865, Chesebrough patented his purification method. This marked the beginning of triple-distilled petroleum jelly products, which remains the norm till this day.

By 1870, Chesebrough began distributing this pure petroleum jelly under the brand name Vaseline. He opened a factory in Brooklyn that same year and even promoted his "miracle" product by touring the entire State in a horse-driven carriage.

On June 4, 1872, Chesebrough received U.S. patent 127568A titled "Improvement in products from petroleum". In this, Chesebrough mentions that he has "invented a new and useful Product from Petroleum, which I have named Vaseline".

Even before Chesebrough started to sell his petroleum jelly, he had tested it on himself for his own cuts and burns. Despite his firm belief in the product and its efficacy, Chesebrough was still unable to sell these to drug stores.

Daredevil marketing

Things changed, however, when he demonstrated his "wonder jelly" in an extreme fashion. Chesebrough started to burn his skin with acid or an open flame in front of the gathered audience, before dabbing the clear jelly on his injuries. He would then demonstrate his past injuries, healed, he would claim, by his "miracle" product. He also gave out free samples to further increase demand.

Chesebrough's daredevil acts worked as a tin of his product was being sold every minute in the U.S. by 1874. They continue to work till this day as the brand name he coined is now a household name, used to refer to pure petroleum jelly itself rather than just the product.

But then, Chesebrough’s belief in the product was so sound that he actually ate a spoonful of it every day until his death aged 96, according to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! The next time you use the product, be sure to tell the tale to those around you, but please don't take it to your mouth!

Picture Credit : Google 

WHAT IS VAN GOGH SELF- PORTRAIT DISCOVERY?

It has been found on the reverse side of one of his painting, hidden behind glue and cardboard. Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch painter, generally considered to be the greatest after Rembrandt van Rijn, and one of the greatest of the Post-Impressionists. He sold only one artwork during his life, but in the century after his death he became perhaps the most recognized painter of all time.

The sensational discovery was made when an x-ray image was taken of Van Gogh's Head of a Peasant Woman" (1885) in advance of a forthcoming Impressionism exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh, the U.K.

Currently, the self-portrait is covered by layers of glue and cardboard believed to have been applied to the reverse of "Head of a Peasant Woman" before being framed for an exhibition held in Amsterdam around 1905. Experts are researching to see if they can uncover the self-portrait, but warn that removing the glue and cardboard will require delicate conservation work to avoid harming the painting on the other side It's believed Van Gogh painted the self-portrait after he moved to Paris and was exposed to the work of French Impressionists.

"Head of a Peasant Woman", which shows a local woman from the town of Nuenen in the Netherlands, was donated to the National Gallery of Scotland collection in 1960 by a prominent Edinburgh lawyer. It will feature in the "A Taste for Impressionism" exhibition on The Mound in Edinburgh on till November 13, 2022, together with an illuminated copy of the x-ray image.

Picture Credit : Google 

WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF TIMEKEEPING?

Long before watches were invented people kept track of time with the help of the sun. Later, Sundials, water clocks, sand glasses or hour glasses, and lamps or candle clocks were created to measure time. The oldest sundial, dating back to 1500 BC was made in Egypt Let's rewind a little to look at how watches have evolved over time

Early watches

In the 1500s, Peter Henlein, a locksmith from Nuremberg, Germany, made a portable, round clock with wheels. It was powered by a metal string. It was called the Nuremberg Egg' because of its shape.

People in France, England, and Switzerland also started to make watches but with only the hour hand. All required to be wound twice a day. Some had dials with the numbers 1 to 12 marked in the outer circle, and 13 to 24 in the inner circle. As watches came to be regarded as jewellery pieces, watchmakers began decorating watch cases with precious stones. They were worn around the neck, mainly by women.

Watches with spring mechanism

 The spiral balance spring mechanism was first used in watches in 1675. The credit for introducing this mechanism, which greatly improved the accuracy of watches, goes to Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens and English physicist Robert Hooke Minute hands were added to watches a few years later.

During this time, King Charles II of England set the fashion of wearing long waistcoats Men stopped wearing their watches around their necks and started keeping them in the pockets of their long waistcoats.

In 1770, Abraham-Louis Perrelet invented a self-winding mechanism for pocket watches. It was designed to wind as the owner walked. Constant improvements were made thereafter, and watches became smaller and more accurate. Balance wheels and hair springs were introduced, and jewels came to be used as bearings.

The first wristwatch

Polish watchmaker Antoni Norbert Patek and French watchmaker Adrien Philippe are credited with inventing the first wristwatch in the late 19th Century. Initially men did not wear it, as they regarded it as a lady's accessory. The mass production of wristwatches took place after World War I, when army officers found it impractical to fumble for their watches in their waist pockets in the midst of battle. Wristwatches were found to be more practical, and by the end of the war. Switzerland boasted of being the world's largest and most organised watch industry. Electronic wristwatches, such as the quartz watch, were invented towards the end of the 20th Century.

Today you get wristwatches that don't just show the time, date, day of the week, month, and year, but also have calculators, digital cameras, and video games. Many are water-resistant and can withstand extreme temperatures. Eco-friendly watches that work on sunlight are also available, and so are gold and platinum watches studded with precious stones.

Picture credit : Google 

WHO WAS AWARDED THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR THE THEORY OF THE UNIFICATION OF WEAK AND ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERACTIONS?

Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam, and Steven Weinberg were awarded the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics for their contributions to the unification of the weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 1979 Nobel Prize in physics to be shared equally between Professor Sheldon L. Glashow, Harvard University, USA, Professor Abdus Salam, International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Italy and Imperial College, Great Britain, and Professor Steven Weinberg, Harvard University, USA, for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including inter alla the prediction of the weak neutral current.

Physics, like other sciences, aspires to find common causes for apparently unrelated natural or experimental observations. A classical example is the force of gravitation introduced by Newton to explain such disparate phenomena as the apple falling to the ground and the moon moving around the earth.

Another example occurred in the 19th century when it was realized, mainly through the work of Oersted in Denmark and Faraday in England, that electricity and magnetism are closely related, and are really different aspects of the electromagnetic force or interaction between charges. The final synthesis was presented in the

1860’s by Maxwell in England. His work predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves and interpreted light as an electromagnetic wave phenomenon.

The discovery of the radioactivity of certain heavy elements towards the end of last century, and the ensuing development of the physics of the atomic nucleus, led to the introduction of two new forces or interactions: the strong and the weak nuclear forces. Unlike gravitation and electromagnetism these forces act only at very short distances, of the order of nuclear diameters or less. While the strong interaction keeps protons and neutrons together in the nucleus, the weak interaction causes the so-called radioactive beta-decay. The typical process is the decay of the neutron: the neutron, with charge zero, is transformed into a positively charged proton, with the emission of a negatively charged electron and a neutral, massless particle, the neutrino.

Although the weak interaction is much weaker than both the strong and the electromagnetic interactions, it is of great importance in many connections. The actual strength of the weak interaction is also of significance. The energy of the sun, all-important for life on earth, is produced when hydrogen fuses or burns into helium in a chain of nuclear reactions occurring in the interior of the sun. The first reaction in this chain, the transformation of hydrogen into heavy hydrogen (deuterium), is caused by the weak force. Without this force solar energy production would not be possible. Again, had the weak force been much stronger, the life span of the sun would have been too short for life to have had time to evolve on any planet. The weak interaction finds practical application in the radioactive elements used in medicine and technology, which are in general beta-radioactive, and in the beta-decay of a carbon isotope into nitrogen, which is the basis for the carbon-14 method for dating of organic archaeological remains.

Credit : The Nobel prize

Picture Credit : Google 

WHAT NEW MINERAL FOUND IN DIAMOND FROM EARTH’S MANTLE?

Analysis of a 'super-deep' diamond from Orapa, Botswana, has revealed tiny crystals of a never-before-seen mineral trapped inside.

Davemaoite, named after geophysicist and deep-earth scientist, Ho-kwang (Dave) Mao, is the first example of a high-pressure calcium silicate perovskite (CaSiO3) found on Earth. Its crystalline structure forms only under high pressure and high temperatures in Earth's mantle, the mainly solid layer of Earth between the outer core and the crust.

Normally, Davemaoite's crystal structure would break apart if it was brought up to Earth's surface because of the massive drop in pressure. But because it was trapped inside a rigid diamond, it was preserved on its long journey up to the Orapa mine, which probably took between 100 million to 1.5 billion years.

Most diamonds form 120 to 250 kms underground, but those of the super-deep variety are born in Earth's lower mantle, which begins 660 kms below the surface.

Davemaoite makes up around 5-7% of the material in Earth's lower mantle, and is important because it can host radioactive elements like uranium, thorium and potassium-40 that heat Earth as they decay.

Picture Credit : Google 

What is the oldest fossil flowering plant?

Researchers from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS), have uncovered the earliest example of a flower bud in a 164 million-year-old plant fossil in China.

The fossil is 1.7 inches long and 0.8 inches wide. It contains a stem, a leafy branch, a bulbous fruit and a tiny flower bud around 3 sq mm in size. The researchers have named the new species Florigerminis jurassica.

There are two main types of plants: flowering plants (angiosperms) and non-flowering plants (gymnosperms). The flower bud and fruit in the fossil are clear indicators that F. jurassica was an angiosperm, the dominant plant type during the Jurassic period. Until now, fossil evidence showed that angiosperms did not arise until the Cretaceous period, between 66 million and 145 million years ago. The discovery firmly pushes back the emergence of flowering plants into the Jurassic period, between 145 million and 201 million years ago.

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What is Pallas the asteroid? Who discovered it?

When we learn about the solar system, we are introduced to a class of objects called asteroids. Most of these asteroids exist in the main asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter. While this much is common knowledge these days, the existence of this asteroid belt wasn't even known a little over 200 years back.

Pallas, third largest asteroid in the asteroid belt and the second such object to be discovered, by the German astronomer and physician Wilhelm Olbers on March 28, 1802, following the discovery of Ceres the year before. It is named after Pallas Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. A.s. Ganesh takes a look at the third largest asteroid in the asteroid belt……..

Late in the 18th Century, German astronomers Johann Daniel Titius and Johann Elert Bode arrived at a mathematical expression now known as Titius-Bode law. These calculations not only predicted the positions of the planets then known, but also suggested possible positions of others.

The search begins

When the discovery of Uranus in 1781 corresponded to that predicted by this law, there was a sense of anticipation as the law suggested another between Mars and Jupiter. Among the group of astronomers hunting down the missing planet was Wilhelm Olbers, a German physician who did his astronomical work by setting up his own house for the purpose.

Ceres, which was discovered by Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi in January 1801, was believed to be the missing planet and was tracked down for a while before it went behind the sun. It was Carl Friedrich Gauss, a young mathematician who later became a good friend of Olbers, who devised a way to find out the orbit of an object using limited observations.

Olbers applied Gauss' method and observed Ceres later in 1801. He continued this exercise on an everyday basis and discovered a similar object on March 28, 1802. Named after the Greek goddess of wisdom Pallas Athena, 2 Pallas (number based on order of discovery) can even be considered the first asteroid to be discovered as 1 Ceres was classified as a dwarf planet in 2006.

Remnants of a planet?

Apart from being the second such object to be discovered in what we now know as the asteroid belt, Pallas is also the third largest asteroid in the region. The discovery of Ceres and Pallas, along with Juno and Vesta over the next few years, led to the idea that asteroids are remnants of an actual planet. Even though this is no longer accepted, the idea that asteroids are pieces of the missing planet predicted by the Titius-Bode law endured for a long time.

While little was known about Pallas for over 200 years, a study in the past few years revealed that this asteroid has a violent, cratered past. In order to analyse Pallas' shape and surface in detail, scientists used the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research (SPHERE) imager on the Very Large Telescope in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile.

Pockmarked surface

 Researchers were able to capture 11 images of the asteroid's surface. Using these images along with their own simulations, the scientists were able to tell that there were numerous craters ranging from 30 to 120 km wide on Pallas surface and that its appearance could even resemble that of a golf ball.

Even though the orbital eccentricity of Pallas is moderate, its orbital inclination is unusually large. This means that Pallas' orbit is highly inclined with respect to the plane of the asteroid belt and the asteroid is therefore rather inaccessible to spacecraft. Plenty still remains unknown about this asteroid and even though missions are planned, Pallas is for now the largest asteroid that hasn't been visited by a spacecraft yet.

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What did Joseph Priestley Discover 1774?

On 1 August 1774 chemist Joseph Priestley isolated a new "air" in its gaseous state. He named the gas "dephlogisticated air", later renamed 'oxygen' by Antoine Lavoisier. Priestley also discovered hydrochloric acid, nitrous oxide (laughing gas), carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide.

An English theologian and educator, too, he was appalled at the quality the available English grammar books, so he wrote his own The Rudiments of English Grammar (1761). His innovations in the description of Englishy gran led 20th-century scholar describe him as "one of heat grammarians of his time.

In 1762, he was ordained and married Mary Wilkinson, the daughter of a prominent iron-works owner. She was, he noted, "of an excellent understanding, much improved by reading, of great fortitude and strength of mind, and of a temper in the highest degree affectionate and generous; feeling strongly for others and little for herself."

Priestley traveled regularly to London, and became acquainted with numerous men of science and independent thought, including an ingenious American named Benjamin Franklin, who became a lifelong friend. Franklin encouraged Priestley in his research, one result of which was The History and Present State of Electricity. For that work, and his growing reputation as an experimenter, Priestley was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1766.

The History book was too tough for a popular audience, and Priestley determined to write a more accessible one. But he could find no one to create the necessary illustrations. So, in typical fashion, he taught himself perspective drawing. Along the way, he made many mistakes, and discovered that India rubber would erase lead pencil lines — a fact he mentioned in the preface.

By the age of 34, Priestley was a well-established and respected member of Britain's scientific community. He was still paying a price for his religious nonconformity, however. When the explorer Captain James Cook was preparing for his second voyage, Priestley was offered the position of science adviser. But the offer was rescinded under pressure from Anglican authorities who protested his theology, which was evolving into a strongly Unitarian position that denied the doctrine of the trinity.

In retrospect, the Cook affair may have been all for the best. In 1773, the Earl of Shelburne asked Priestley to serve as a sort of intellectual companion, tutor for the earl's offspring, and librarian for his estate, Bowood House. The position provided access to social and political circles Priestley could never have gained on his own, while leaving ample free time for the research that would earn him a permanent place in scientific history.

He systematically analyzed the properties of different "airs" using the favored apparatus of the day: an inverted container on a raised platform that could capture the gases produced by various experiments below it. The container could also be placed in a pool of water or mercury, effectively sealing it, and a gas tested to see if it would sustain a flame or support life.

In the course of these experiments, Priestley made an enormously important observation. A flame went out when placed in a jar in which a mouse would die due to lack of air. Putting a green plant in the jar and exposing it to sunlight would "refresh" the air, permitting a flame to burn and a mouse to breathe. Perhaps, Priestley wrote, "the injury which is continually done by such a large number of animals is, in part at least, repaired by the vegetable creation." Thus he observed that plants release oxygen into the air — the process known to us as photosynthesis.

Credit : American Chemistry Society

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Which are archaeological discoveries of 2021?

A selection of notable finds from the past year

CANADA: Analysis of wood samples from the Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in New foundland, shows that Vikings occupied the Americas as early as 1021 - exactly 1,000 years ago. This is the earliest known record of humans crossing from Europe to the New World

FRANCE: A freshly-unearthed Bronze Age stone known as the Saint-Belec Slab, may be the oldest 3D map in Europe. Archaeologists believe the patterns engraved on the 4,000-year-old slab depict an area of western Brittany

EGYPT: The discovery of a 3,000-year-old city near Luxor known as Aten-is hailed as one of the most important finds since Tutankhamun's tomb. The "lost golden city" was founded by Tutankhamun's grandfather Amenhotep III (1391-1353 BC), one of ancient Egypt's most powerful rulers

U.S.: Radiocarbon dating of fossilized footprints found in New Mexico show that people were living in North America more than 20,000 years ago - about 5,000 years earlier than previously thought. The previous theory was that ice sheets had prevented human migration to the region during the ice age

LEBANON: The remains of at least 25 solider killed defending Christian-held Sidon during the Crusades, are uncovered in the moat of the Saint Louis Castle. This is one of only two archaeologically documented mass burials of Crusaders

MOROCCO: Artefacts unearthed in a cave in Morocco, dating back 120,000 years, indicate that humans used bone tools to render animal skins for fur and leather. The discovery provides the oldest-known evidence for clothing in the archaeological record

SAUDI ARABIA: A series of camel sculptures carved into rock faces are believed to be the oldest large-scale animal reliefs in the world. A fresh study puts the camels at between 7,000 and 8,000 years old older than Stonehenge (5,000 years old) or the Pyramids at Giza (4,500 years old).

TIBET: A pattern of hand and footprints made by children more than 220,000 years ago is the oldest artwork ever found. The youngsters, probably Neanderthals or members of the related Denisovan species, pressed their hands and feet into soft limestone, which later hardened.

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Scientists find duck mimicking phrase ‘You bloody fool’

Scientists have stumbled across a decades-old recording of an Australian musk duck which was able to reproduce sounds and speech, according to an AFP report. It could imitate the noise of a door slamming and someone muttering the phrase. "You bloody fool". Searching through archives, biologist Carel ten Cate found an eerie 1987 recording of "Ripper", a musk duck hand-raised at the

Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, near Canberra. "You bloody fool," the duck says, over and over, dropping the "1", which is apparently hard for ducks to pronounce. Males of the species emit a musky odour which is what gives them their name.

The recordings had been kept in a sound archive and referenced occasionally until Ten Cate rediscovered them in the course of his research on vocal learning in birds. Ten Cate said Ripper had a bit more in his repertoire – he could also make a noise like the sound of a door closing and its latch clicking.

Some species of animals, and notably birds such as parrots and songbirds, are capable of mimicking human speech. But the phenomenon is rare – if somewhat more common in animals raised by humans. “To find a species quite outside these groups…in a duck, that’s quite extraordinary. So it’s an independent evolutionary occurrence of the ability for vocal learning – that’s very special,” Ten Cate said.

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