My Science School

In 1869, Scientific American – a popular science magazine and now the oldest continuously published monthly in the U.S. – had an article titled The Transits of Venus in 1874 and 1882. As you might now, they expected readers back then to find the article premature as it concerned events years before they were to happen. In fact, they started out by saying just that, before adding that these transits were generally seen as the greatest astronomical events of the century in which they occur and it was their duty to explain why.

Transits occur when inferior planets – those planets whose orbits lie entirely between the sun and the Earth – pass between Earth and sun so that it appears as a round, dark spot on the sun for viewers from Earth. It is similar to the solar and lunar eclipses, but happens when either Mercury or Venus pass between Earth and sun.

Occur in pairs

Thanks to British astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks, it was known that Venus transits occur in pairs. He died at the tender age of 22 in the 17th Century, but he was able to establish that the transit of Venus occurs in pairs that are separated by eight years. This means that if there is one transit of Venus that occurs in a year, the next one would take place eight years later. The one after this pair, however, would happen more than a century later (either about 105 or 121 years later).

Horrocks’ observation of the Venus transit of 1639, following that in 1631, was the first of the phenomena of any notable record. By the end of that century and the start of the next, British astronomer Edmond Halley proposed and called attention to a method that would utilise transits to determine the solar parallax (the angle subtended by the Earth’s radius as viewed from the sun). The parallax of the sun could then be used to determine the distance between Earth and sun – what we now call as the astronomical unit.

Determine solar parallax

As Halley strongly believed that the transits provided an ideal setting to determine this distance accurately, there was renewed interest around the phenomena. So much so that the Venus transits of 1761 and 1769 were the biggest coordinated scientific undertakings ever done till then. Despite this, and the advancements made in telescopes, photography and time-keeping devices before the transit of Venus in 1874, the observations and results produced were far from satisfactory.

Knowing fully well that the next transit of Venus after 1882 was over a century away, the astronomy community worldwide geared into action. Many expeditions were planned and quite a few were approved and financed.

By this time, however, the real urgency to determine solar parallax using transits were gone. Other techniques that were independent of rare transits were now able to provide these values that were as good as, or even better, those arrived at using transit observations.

Todd’s take

Many astronomers still travelled to varied sites and observed the transit of Venus on December 6, 1882. Among them was American astronomer David Peck Todd, who travelled to California and photographed the phenomenon from the summit of Mount Hamilton using a good quality solar photographic telescope.

With perfect skies accompanying the transit of Venus from where he viewed it, Todd made exposures at two-minute intervals for nearly four-and-half hours. With that, Todd was able to capture it in a superb series of plates. But with interest in its utility waning off, the 147 glass negatives were carefully stored in the mountain vault.

They lay there untouched for over a hundred years as the 20th Century passed without another Venus transit. And just as people started looking forward to the first transit of Venus in the 21st Century, Anthony Misch and William Sheehan – two men interested in the history of astronomy – turned to the previous Venus transit.

Images reanimated

Spurred on by a reference in one of Todd’s letters, they found the 147 negatives, which were largely intact – thereby becoming one of the best historical records of the transits. With just a look at the images, Misch and Sheehan knew that they could reanimate Todd’s images using the technology at their disposal.

The result of their work was a movie that showed the Venus transit of 1882 and it premiered at the International Astronomical Union’s general assembly in Sydney in July 2003. The timing couldn’t have been better as the two Venus transits of the 21st Century took place in 2004 and 2012. The next pair is scheduled for 2117 and 2125.

 

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On November 29, 1961, Enos, a chimpanzee, flew into space. While the spaceflight made Enos the first chimpanzee to orbit the Earth, it also subjected the animal to terrible equipment malfunction.

It is well established that the Space Age was essentially a two-horse race to begin with, with Soviet Union and the U.S. being the two protagonists. And while Soviet Union did have the early lead, the Americans caught up and achieved the first human landing on the moon, which was at the forefront of both countries’ objectives.

The annals of human spaceflight, however, aren't occupied only by human beings. For, before we human beings ventured into space, we needed assurance that it was indeed possible. And for that, we turned to animals.

While some of them enjoy celebrity status, some others are merely footnotes in history. Enos, a chimpanzee, was among those that convinced biologists (on the American side in this case) that animals’ bodies and minds could function even while out in space.

Intense training

Brought from the Miami Rare Bird Farm in April 1960, Enos clocked up over 1,250 hours of training, far more intense than that which Ham, another chimpanzee and the first hominid in space, went through. His selection for the Project Mercury flight that he went on to be a part of, however, happened just days before the eventual launch.

Hours before the launch, Enos, weighing 39 pounds (17.69 kg) underwent a physical examination, was connected to sensors while he stood still, allowed himself to be secured onto a couch built for the purpose and rode the transfer van that took him to the launch vehicle area, before being moved inside the spacecraft.

Relaxed despite delay

Enos’ condition was monitored inside the Mercury capsule. Even though the holds during the countdown lasted for hours due to various faults, Enos was largely relaxed, save for an occasion when the hatch was opened and closed to allow a switch to be correctly positioned.

Walter Williams, the mission director, was referred to by his peers as a “master in imparting a need for orderly urgency”. He did just that during the countdown for this mission, driving from his usual position at the mission control centre to the pad to personally express his desire for things to move in an orderly manner.

Despite losing a lot of time, weather, however, remained favourable, meaning that they could go ahead with the launch of Mercury Atlas 5 (MA-5) on November 29, 1961. Minor discrepancies apart, the spacecraft, including the control, tracking and communications systems, performed satisfactorily, putting Enos into orbit.

Enos, the first chimpanzee to orbit the Earth, was more than merely a passenger. His training included avoidance conditioning, which meant that electrical shocks were administered to the feet when the animal responded incorrectly while carrying out tasks.

Enos performed well in a variety of tasks, receiving many a drink of water and banana pellets as rewards. But in what scientists called the oddity problems, where Enos had to pick the odd one out among three options (say if two triangles and a circle are displayed, then the circle is the odd one out), he was also penalised due to faulty equipment.

A lever fails

Apart from receiving shocks when performing mistakes, Enos started getting shocks even when he answered correctly as one of the levers that he used for answering malfunctioned. Enos was shocked and frustrated, but kept pulling the levers and performing the tasks and remained at rest between problems, as he had been trained to.

The spacecraft, meanwhile, experienced trouble while about to complete two of its scheduled three orbits around the Earth. The operations team realised that the attitude control system was erratic and the cooling equipment also gave trouble. While the physicians felt the mission could continue after monitoring Enos’ parameters and finding that they had stabilised, the operations team wasn’t so sure.

This meant that only two orbits were completed before Enos’ spaceflight ended and he landed back on Earth. A little more than three hours after launch, the capsule containing Enos descended without incident and the chimpanzee was retrieved.

Even though the mission was largely successful, the avoidance conditioning tests and the fact that the chimpanzee had to suffer further because a human-made device failed make it rather unpopular. In November 1962, a little less than a year later, Enos died of dysentery, with no symptoms that could be directly attributed to his training or spaceflight.

 

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Researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute have discovered a new pair of salivary glands hidden between the nasal cavity and throat. The team proposed the name "tubarial glands" as they were found over the torus tubarius, the structure that supports the entrance of the auditory tube. The glands are 3.9 cms in length, and probably lubricate the upper throat behind the nose and the mouth. Until now, there were three known large salivary glands in humans: one under the tongue, one under the jaw and one at the back of the jaw, behind the cheek. The discovery could be important for cancer treatment. Doctors using radiation on the head and neck to treat cancer try to avoid irradiating the salivary glands, but because no one knew about these glands, no one avoided radiation in that region. The more radiation patients received in the area of the unknown glands, the more side effects they reported. The new discovery could thus translate to fewer side effects for cancer patients.

 

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A newly-described reptile species from Madagascar suggests that dinosaurs and pterosaurs (extinct flying reptiles) had an extremely small ancestor --- just 10 centimetres tall. The fossil is named Kongonaphon kely which translates in the Malagasy language as 'tiny bug slayer'. Wear on its teeth suggests that it ate insects, which helped it to survive by occupying a different niche to its mostly meat-eating relatives.

Kongonaphon provides evidence for a 'miniaturisation event': a sharp decrease in ancestors' body size, before dinosaurs and pterosaurs eventually evolved to be much bigger. Tiny ancestral body size may help explain the origins of flight in pterosaurs. All flying animals seem to have evolved from very small ancestors. A smaller, lighter body is more conducive to aerial locomotion such as gliding; an important intermediary steps in the origin of flight.

Its discovery may also explain the evolution of feathers in dinosaurs and pterosaurs. Kongonaphon's habitat would have had sudden shifts in temperature between the days and the nights. A growth of feathers might have helped it to regulate its body heat.

During the time Kongonaphon was alive (around 237 million years ago), Madagascar was attached to India as part of the supercontinent Gondwana. "Triassic vertebrate fossils of similar age have been found in a band of rocks extending across Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. I am confident that future work by Indian paleontologists will recover relatives of Kongonaphon," said Christian F. Kammerer, Research Curator of Paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

 

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Scientists have found 77 new rare species of butterflies in Matheran, near Mumbai. With this, the total number of butterfly species in Matheran has gone up to 140. The last time butterflies were codified in this eco-sensitive zone was in 1894, when British researcher J. A. Betham identified 78 species.

Finding the forgotten gems: Revisiting the butterflies of Matheran after 125 years, a research paper by scientists from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and Somaiya Vidya Vihar University is the outcome of eight years of field work with 140 butterfly species and 22,833 butterfly observations made during 2011-2019.

A strong seasonal variation in butterfly diversity was observed. The maximum diversity of butterflies (125) was recorded during winter, and the least (80) during the monsoon. The scientists introduced a novel barcode system for denoting seasons and activities of Indian butterflies and hope this will help butterfly biologists to concisely present data.

"Butterflies are not just beautiful creatures but also indicators of a healthy environment and ecosystem," the BNHS said.

 

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Today, the kinds of robots that are designed and made available to the public are nothing short of amazing. Listed here are some of the craziest robots made and what they are capable of doing.

Tag-along suitcase bot

Any time you travel, one of the biggest hassles is pulling along or carrying your suitcases and luggage while weaving past crowds without going crazy. You wish you could have your own pet mule, but that's nearly impossible...or is it? Gita cargo both works the seemingly impossible by being a large suitcase that can lug around your items and follow you along while you walk ahead like a boss. Now that's a suitcase no one would mind owning!

A friend for everyone

For young kids and old adults without companions, Zenbo might be able to offer the right company Looking like a vacuum cleaner with a digital face capable of displaying emotions, this robot whizzes around taking commands, singing songs, playing games, dance and generally always be cute and at your disposal without a frown.

A cute, furry cure

You've probably heard that animals like dogs and cats are ideal as therapy for sick But a dog might bite accidentally or a cat might scratch, and there is that problem with them shedding fur. The solution? In Japan, patients get to pet and interact with a cute, furry robotic seal PARO. With touch-sensitive fur and whiskers, it'll let you pet and cuddle, without expecting any care from you.

100% winner

What makes rock-paper-scissors fun is the fact that it is a totally random and unpredictable way to pass time! Enter Janken, a robot that takes the game a bit too seriously. So seriously, in fact, that it has a 100 per cent winning rate. How on earth does it do that? Equipped with a high-speed camera and hand shape recognition, it can apparently guess what shape you're going to make so quickly that you'll never know. Cheater!

ATLAS to the rescue

ATLAS is among the many humanoid robots in the make that is capable of performing different tasks. Unlike many robots that can move well only on smooth floors, ATLAS can power its 6-foot frame through forest paths or even snow. That's not all - it can open doors, climb ladders, use tools, turn on or turn off valves and probably other tasks. In the future, be prepared to not be shocked by seeing one or ATLAS humanoids rushing past you to tackle emergencies.

What a help!

Finally, a robot we'd rush to buy if only they became available to the public! FoldiMate Inc. is designed to tackle the most annoying among all household chores and the one that Mom assigns to you most often folding clothes. Think of merely feeding one piece of cloth after another on top of FoldiMate and the good robot dutifully deposits them into a bin, ready for you to use!

A robotic smartphone

One day, our boring old rectangular smartphones will be replaced by miniature robot-shaped phones that will do much more. RoBoHoN is one such robot in the making. How can it be better than your faithful smartphone that you own? For instance, you probably go hunting for your smartphone if you keep it somewhere, but ROBOHON is capable of moving in search of you. How awesome is that?

 

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A solar probe built by the European Space Agency and NASA has delivered the closest photos ever taken of the sun's surface, revealing a landscape rife with thousands of tiny solar flares that scientists dubbed "campfires" and offering clues about the extreme heat of the outermost part of its atmosphere.

The Solar Orbiter snapped the images using the probe's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager as it orbited nearly 77 million km from the sun's surface or roughly halfway between the sun and earth,

The "campfires" are believed to be tiny explosions, called nanoflares, and could explain why the sun's outer shield, the corona, is 300 times hotter than the star's surface.

Scientists typically have relied upon Earth-based telescopes for close-ups of the sun's surface. But Earth's atmosphere limits the amount of visible light needed to glean views as intimate as those obtained by the Solar Orbiter.

 

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Researchers from Pune and Kerala have rediscovered a rare and critically endangered plant species called Globba andersonii from the Sikkim Himalayas after a gap of 135 years. The plant, commonly known as 'dancing ladies' or 'swan flowers' was thought to have been extinct until its "re-collection for the first time since 1875 when the British botanist, Sir George King, collected it from the Sikkim Himalayas. Globba andersonii are characterised by white flowers and a "yellowish lip". The species is restricted mainly to the Teesta River Valley region which includes the Sikkim Himalayas and Darjeeling hill ranges. The plant usually grows in a dense colony as a lithophyte (plant growing on a bare rock or stone) on rocky slopes in the outskirts of evergreen forests.

Globba andersonii are characterised by white ?owers, non-appendaged anthers (the part of a stamen that contains the pollen) and a “yellowish lip”. Classified as “critically endangered” and “narrowly endemic”, the species is restricted mainly to Teesta River Valley region which includes the Sikkim Himalays and Darjeeling hill ranges.

“As no live collections were made for the last 136 years, it was considered as presumably extinct in the wild. E?orts made by us for the rediscovery of the taxon for the past several years were in vain. However, Dr. Punekar could locate some specimens during his visit to Sevoke in July 2011, which was used to make a detailed description,” said Mr. Thachat.

 

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Scientists have developed a new way to create "sight" for blind people. The approach bypasses the eyes and delivers a sequence of electrical signals to the brain, creating the perception of a glowing light that traces a shape. The method might one day restore aspects of vision to people with damaged eyes or optic nerves.

The team "drew" letters of the alphabet on blind people's brains by giving them specific patterns of electrical stimulation. Tiny jolts of electricity to the visual cortex, a span of neural tissue at the back of the brain, can make a person "see" small bursts of light called phosphenes. When electrical stimulation was used to dynamically trace letters directly on patients' brains, they were able to see the intended letter shapes and could correctly identify different letters. They described seeing glowing spots or lines forming the letters. Researchers said their inspiration for this was the idea of tracing a letter in the palm of someone's hand.

So far, only simple shapes, such as the letters C, W and U, have been tested. But outlines of common objects, such as faces, houses or cars, could be traced using the same idea, they said.

 

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