Popular Science Section

For long has the Jaipur Foot 'walked', and it's only fair that its journey of countless suns culminates at the altar of scientific genius and technological innovation. Keeping in step with the idea of integration of technology into human lives, artificial limbs have evolved in 'leaps' and 'bounds'.

The movement of any body part is controlled by the cortex in the brain, aided by the nervous system and the specialized nerve cells called motor neurons. The ‘will’ to move a body part, in a particular way, originates in the cortex in the form of electrical currents, which are conveyed through the neurons to the specific muscle groups which contract or relax to bring about motion.

If and when a body part becomes numb, there occurs a divorce between the functioning of the brain and the body part. The same is the case with an artificial limb. Any movement of the attached limb is not perceptible to the brain. It is an alien part attached to the biological self, acclimatizing to which would take time. Experiments  are underway with the  aim of making artificial limbs respond to natural neural control of motor activities using   complex processes and specialized chips. The electrical current issued by the neurons in the cortex are read and transferred to the artificial limb which in turn, acting like muscles would cause the flexing of the artificial limb, in imitation of a natural limb. This interface between an alien body and the human brain is called the Brain-Machine Interface (BMI). BMI is of two types: Invasive BMI and Non-Invasive BMI. In both cases electrodes are used to read the brain’s activity. The difference lies in the fact that a Non-Invasive BMI uses the electrodes without piercing the brain tissues. The electroencephalogram is one of the earliest Non-Invasive BMI devices.

While the Non-Invasive BMI is able to read the brain’s activity with respect to the electricity passing through the axons of a clump of neurons, the Invasive BMI is capable of reading the electrical activity of a neuron in isolation. In this case, a very slim electrode placed parallel to the axon of a neuron tracks and reads the electrical activity. The bionic limbs are designed so as to provide functionality as well as tactile sensory feedback.

The good news is not only for amputees but also patients of incurable ailments like the motor neuron Alzheimer’s disease. Besides this, the new invention moves outside the paradigm of limb movements to accommodate restoration of communication ability for victims of stroke and other paralytic disorders. This can be achieved by using the method to map and translate thoughts into communicable format using computer programmes, instead of to flex alien parts attached to the body.

Science today is advancing at a fast rate to make life more comfortable and worth living. In his attempt to achieve supremacy and self-betterment, man is moving, probably involuntarily, to a scenario where all activities are controlled by the human brain, at the speed of thought. There might, in the far future, be a situation where people would trade their healthy natural limbs for stronger, synergist, pain-enduring and multi-tasking bionic limbs. 

The Indo-US Nuclear Agreement is a pact between India and the United States envisaging increased use of nuclear energy. The pact came into effect on October 8th, 2008 when the then US President, George W. Bush, signed the legislation on the Indo-US nuclear deal, approved by the US Congress, into law. The pact aims at enabling India meet its power requirements as it moves along the path of rapid economic progress. The pact is also known as the 123 Agreement following the amendments made to Article 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act of 1954 that facilitates American nuclear cooperation with other nations. However the bill that was supposed to give India a great opportunity to end its decades-old isolation in the global nuclear scenario doesn’t seem to do it in the REAL sense.

India expected to be chaperoned into the nuclear club by her chosen mentor - the US, who, it was assumed, would smoothen the path and remove all obstacles. The agreement itself, signed in the face of strong opposition from the Left parties, saw the UPA government staking its survival on the issue. The deal was seen as part of a new and path-breaking strategic relationship with the US, with India being unofficially anointed “a potential superpower”. What the government forgot was that since the end of the Cold War, the Pentagon had requested increased strategic ties with India and having separate policies towards India and Pakistan rather than just an “India-Pakistan” policy.With a few strokes of the pen, President Bush eliminated a major Cold War irritant from the scene. India is not politically and diplomatically aligned with US as Europe is, but India as a strategic partner in ensuring safety of the sea-lanes of the Indian Ocean is very valuable. At the moment as long as US stays in Iraq and Afghanistan, the world will perceive US as a big bully. A major regional power, with a different outlook than the European and the US is needed to cool the tempers off. India has to step in to prevent further sliding of the Middle East into anarchy.

The US also sees India as a viable counter-weight to the growing influence of China, to protect its own interests in Asia, besides a potential client and job creator. The deal provides the US immense economic benefits. India will import technology and hardware from US for nuclear projects with investments around $15-20 billion to be placed with the US companies in next 6 to 8 years. Fund for these installations will come to India either in form of FDI or soft & commercial loans. Banks and equipment manufacturers abroad will be delighted to make this amount available to India. In return India will pay it back with goods and services export, in the same way China did it for the past 25 years. Further expansion of business dealings on both sides will follow. It’s a win-win situation for the US lenders and US suppliers.

The deal may be even viewed as a trade-off between strategic autonomy on one hand, and the need to quickly step up nuclear power generation. The government agreed to separate our civil and defence nuclear facilities and even allow intrusive international inspection (of IAEA) of the 14 out of the country’s 22 Atomic Power Stations. Most experts argue that if India were to continue to have credibility as a nuclear weapons power, more tests are essential at some point which is very difficult under the purview of the international safeguards. Also, giving in to outside pressure and as a price for the nuclear deal, India messed up her relationship with Iran, potentially a vital geostrategic partner with converging interests. Following the tsunami-induced problems in Fukushima, there’s worldwide concern about nuclear safety. Countries like Germany and Japan are poised to stop expansion of nuclear power and are accelerating shut down of other plants. As a result, the global demand for uranium is decreasing causing countries like Australia agreeing to sell cheap uranium to India. But it’s useless when the US has denied India the permission for enrichment and reprocessing of the nuclear fuel obtained from such strict NSG countries. Clearly, Indians need to accelerate the ingenious development of these technologies. Moreover, untested EPR reactors from France- are already seeing delays and cost overruns in France itself.

There’s even more to India’s problems. A new technology has been developed in the West in which new metal fuel rods (for bombardment by fast neutrons) can be made from mixtures of uranium and actinides recovered from materials produced by present-day reactors, regarded as ‘waste’, through electrorefining and pyrometallurgy. This not only allows one to get more energy from a given quantity of fissile material but also to take care of long-term radioactive waste. If the technology is mastered, India need not depend on the US or the NSG for uranium supplies and all its energy needs can be met for a long time to come. But the US’ Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty can be used to get back all the ‘waste’ and deny India the full use of the fuel. It is now clear that the benefits of signing the nuclear deal no longer exist and the gains are, at best, minimal. Yet, the cost- especially in terms of strategic space and manoeuvrability- remains high. Therefore it’s time the government revisits the terms of the agreement.

Mars, named after the Roman God of War, is an arid, rocky, cold and apparently lifeless neighbour of ours. Undoubtedly, the very mention of The Red Planet instigates intense curiosity as well as great scientific interest for all Earth-bound sky-watchers. It reigns as a favorite among sci-fi writers for being the most fascinating place in the Solar System (other than Earth, of course!). It was formed around the same time as Earth, having half the diameter of Earth (though both have almost same land area) and a much thinner atmosphere.

Since the 1960s dozens of robotic spacecrafts (including orbiters, landers, rovers) have been launched towards Mars to explore the current conditions, answer questions about the past and analyse the future scope for a possible mission to this planet. Exploration of Mars began with a high failure rate with two-thirds of all spacecrafts destined for Mars failing much before completing their mission. This phenomenon is informally being termed as the “Mars Curse”(The Great Galactic Ghoul).

So far, Mars Exploration has groomed through the following three stages:

Flybys : The very first missions simply flew by Mars, taking maximum pictures on their way past.

Flyby missions include: Mariner 3-4, Mariner 6-7.

Orbiters : As technologies grew, spacecraft were put in orbit around Mars leading to high resolution mapping of the Mars for longer term and improved global studies.

Orbital missions include: Mariner 8-9 ,Viking 1-2 , Mars Observer ,Mars Global Surveyor ,Mars Climate Orbiter, 2001 Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

With even more capabilities over the years, landing on the surface became possible. These spacecrafts even have abilities to be mobile on the surface of Mars.

Landed missions include: Viking 1-2, Pathfinder, Polar Lander/Deep Space 2, Mars Exploration Rovers, Phoenix, Mars Science Laboratory.

The famous twin Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) - Spirit and Opportunity -were designed to study the history of water on Mars at their landing sites and to uncover geologic clues about whether Mars had any environment wet enough in the past to sustain life. In 2003, these rovers were launched to explore the Martian surface. Spirit's mission was to explore Gusev Crater which may hold ancient lake deposits, and Opportunity's site is Meridiani Planum which contains a large deposit of hematite.

The rovers have together returned more than 260,000 images, which have assisted in revealing many mysteries ranging from Mars's current climate to its deep geologic past. They have provided more evidence for long-ago Martian surface water, photographed dust-devils, and helped reconstruct the impacts associated with nearby craters. Even though the Spirit rover has been unable to move since January 2010, it continues to return valuable data to this day. Opportunity continues to rove far beyond its originally planned path toward new destinations and as of July 2011,it is said to be the only functioning piece of equipment on the surface of Mars beaming signals back to Earth .

PROSPECTIVE MISSIONS

The Mars Science Laboratory Rover, known as Curiosity, is NASA's next major mission to the Martian surface. Scheduled for a mission launch on 25th Nov 2011, Curiosity will seek to find evidence of past or present life. The mission is the next step following Spirit and Opportunity.

The Mars 2018 Mission is a proposed NASA Mars rover mission that would launch in 2018, and carry with it the European Space Agency's (ESA's) ExoMars rover.They would land together on the surface of Mars in 2019 by means of sky crane landing system. The goal of NASA rover, intended to be designed as a solar-powered rover, would be to collect and cache samples of interest for a potential return to Earth. It will study rocks and look for scientifically exciting samples, including those that might have the potential to have preserved signs of past life on Mars.

Till date no manned missions have been possible on Mars. In the future, if any human expedition to Mars becomes feasible, one thing is for sure : this home to Olympus Mons(the largest volcano in the solar system), the deepest canyon and crazy weather would be no place for the faint-hearted and would emerge as the ultimate adventure planet destination.

‘Neutrino’ is one of the most sought after topic for research by most scientists. Probably due to the lack of knowledge regarding this neutral, elementary sub-atomic particle that hardly interacts with matter. For a very long time it was believed that neutrinos are mass less, but it seems like it was a belief meant to be abolished.

Neutrinos are mostly formed in certain radioactive decay, or nuclear reactions such as those that take place in the Sun. Experiments in the past reveal that the numbers of neutrinos reaching the Earth are only one-third of what was predicted by the standard solar model. This discrepancy lingered on in the field of science for a long time popularly known as ‘solar neutrino problem’, before it was discovered that neutrinos could oscillate midway from one flavor to another.

NEUTRINOS DO HAVE MASS

There are three types, or ‘flavors’ of neutrinos: electron, muon and tau. Flavor is the quantum number of elementary particles. Two or more particles may be interchanged if they have identical interactions, without affecting their environment or the system. Any linear combination of such particles gives the same physics if they are kept orthogonal or perpendicular to each other. This gives rise to flavour symmetry. This was depicted when while travelling from the sun to earth, most neutrinos partly changed flavors and most of them went undetected by the detectors.

According to the standard model formulated initially, neutrinos are mass less and can’t change flavors. Since it became evident later that neutrinos did change flavors, they had to have mass, even though a very small one. The existence of mass in a neutrino strongly suggests the existence of  a tiny neutrino magnetic moment, which hints towards a possibility that neutrinos could interact electromagnetically as well.

Recently in an experiment at CERN, 17 GeV muon neutrinos were sourced from CERN and collected at Gran Sasso, Italy. The time that was calculated for the muon neutrinos clocked to be lesser than what light would have taken to travel in vacuum i.e. at its peak speed.  Scientists relied on the already available  CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso beam for the measurement. Similar results were obtained using 28 GeV neutrinos, which were observed to test energy dependence.

There could be other possibilities to explain the bizarre results, but if neutrinos actually do turn out to be faster than light, it would shake the very basis of Einstein’s relativity theory on which innumerable other theories and scientific breakthroughs are based.

The final announcement regarding the ongoing experiments is expected to be made by the end of 2011.

Who would mind giving up the chaotic accident-prone life on Earth to escape to the picturesque valleys of Pandora and lead a hassle-free life (with absolutely zero cost of living!) of the fit and flexible Na’vis flying across the mountains astride the aerodynamic Ikrans? Who would refuse to be a part of the action packed, whimsical world of Tintin?

Well, blame it on the astounding new technologies behind these visually spectacular movies that create the illusion of reality and deceive even the smartest! Here’s a take on the technologies that are giving a whole new dimension to the world of cinema:

The virtual world in these movies is more of Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) than live-action shooting. CGI, an application of the field of 3D computer graphics, is used to create as well as manipulate objects and characters. Such characters are brought to life by ‘motion capture’. The live action actors wear special suits with sensors which translate their skeletal and muscular movements on to a digital model. The data collected allow computers to copy their movements into CG characters.

The amazing emotional authenticity of the heavenly creatures is lent by “Image-based facial performance capture”, a novel technique that requires actors to wear special headgears equipped with camera. As the actors perform, the camera transmits the complex movements of the human face that are put on the required virtual characters.

In order to capture these 3D dynamics, the most recent invention is the Fusion Camera System. In real life, we see images in three dimensions because our left and right eyes see slightly different images that, when combined by the brain, deliver a picture that has depth. The Fusion camera setup contains stereoscopic cameras, which play the role of human eyes, aligned to each other in such a way that they can be moved in order to focus on objects that are nearby or far away to provide the illusion of depth.

Gone are the days when the director had to wait for the post production days to merge the live action sequences with the Computer generated world. Today, the likes of Virtual cameras and Simul-Cams have made it possible to examine the motion-capture results in real-time set up.  

To name but a few, software packages that helps in creating spectacular visual effects include : MASSIVE, a program that enabled armies of thousands of soldiers to fight in the epic trilogy, The Lord of the Rings and ape brigade to storm into the city of San Francisco in the more recent Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes; CityBot, another application that enabled to generate the 1933 New York City in King Kong. The revamped version of MASSIVE was used in Avatar to rev up the flora and fauna of Pandora.

While we sit here awaiting the next larger than life flick, somewhere some crazy director must be working his brains out to bring his far fetched imagination to reality, thus paving the way to even more advance technologies that would leave us spellbound for sure!