My Science School

The TimeChi sits on your desk and blocks digital and physical interruptions to keep you focused on your work and monitor your productivity. The productivity device comes with a colour-display and connects to any device via WiFi. Once you set the timer for your work, the accompanying app instantly puts your smartphone in the "Do Not Disturb" mode to block notifications. It even blocks "time wasting" websites; when you try to enter any, a motivational message pops up to keep your focus. A traffic light system lets others know when you're not to be disturbed and when you're available. TimeChi uses a combination of the

Pomodoro technique and 'timeboxing' - allotting a fixed time period in which your planned activity takes place. It offers gentle reminders to take regular breaks; after four focused time periods it reminds you to take a longer break so you can recharge. When the focus period ends and a break starts, the app unblocks the settings. Productivity Analytics on the app dashboard helps you analyze when you did the most work and when you were distracted.

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What is the WISA Woodsat?

• The WISA Woodsat is a nano-satellite that's shaped like a cube. It measures roughly 10 x 10 x 10 cm and weighs one kilogram.
• According to the European Space Agency (ESA), it is built up from standardised boxes - but with surface panels made from plywood. The base material for plywood is birch. The Woodsat's only non-wooden parts are comer aluminium rails used for its deployment into space plus a metal selfie stick.
• The satellite will be powered by nine small solar cells. It will be equipped with an amateur radio payload that will allow amateur astronauts to relay radio signals and images around the globe.
• The WISA Woodsat is scheduled to be launched from New Zealand in November 2021. After launch, it will enter polar orbit around Earth at 500-600 km altitude.

Who are the key players?

The wooden satellite has been developed by Arctic Astronautics, a Finnish company manufacturing cubesat kits for students. The satellite has sensors developed by the ESA and the rocket that will carry it has been developed by American aerospace manufacturer Rocket Lab.

What is the objective of the satellite?

• The aim of the mission is to test the behaviour and durability of wood - the plywood panels - in the extreme conditions of space and assess its suitability for future missions. Plywood has been prized for its strength, rigidity and durability-three things that are good in a spacecraft.
• WISA Woodsat will also run an experiment to understand the 3D printing of cables in space. Future satellite projects may be able to make power and data cables using an onboard printer in space.
• The satellite will be outfitted with two cameras, one of which will be attached to a metal selfie stick, allowing the mission team to observe how the satellite's plywood surface changes in the space environment.

How has it been designed to endure the space environment?

• All components in the satellite will be made to withstand the rigours of launch and open space.
• In normal conditions, plywood is susceptible to humidity in the air. So, the wood used in the WISA Woodsat will be vacuum-dried to avoid any troubles in space.
• An ultra-thin layer of aluminium oxide, which is commonly used to coat electronics will be added to the satellite to minimise any vapours emitted (called outgassing) by the wood. Such emission could cloud the satellite's optical instruments.
• The aluminium oxide will also apparently protect the plywood panels from atomic oxygen, a corrosive element at the edge of Earth's atmosphere. It's created when UV rays strike and split oxygen molecules.
• The scientists will also be testing other varnishes and lacquers on sections of the wood.
• The dual-camera monitoring would help the scientists determine how the satellite reacts to space's harsh conditions. The ESA's pressure sensors will help monitor the pressure in its cavities.

What happened during the test flight?

On June 12, the first test flight of the WISA Woodsat was carried out. It was launched aboard a weather balloon to approximately 30 km above Earth's surface. Tests of its communication capabilities, command response, and selfie stick camera were successful.

What are satellites usually made of?

Engineers need to build satellites out of materials that don't expand or contract much due to temperature fluctuations, which occur frequently in orbit. Satellites travel at high speed, which means they have to withstand immense gravitational forces and potential impacts with space junk and space rocks.

Most satellites are made of aluminum and its alloys. Aluminium is lightweight, durable, and relatively cheap. Aluminum-coated polyimide is usually used to insulate the satellite. The iconic gold shimmer of many satellites comes from this polyimide. Graphite, boron, carbon, fiberglass, Teflon, Kevlar and many other materials all work together to create a fully functional satellite.

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We take global live broadcasts for granted these days. And yet, there was a time, not too far back, when worldwide broadcasts weren’t a reality. In fact, it was only in 1962 that information truly went global with the Telstar 1 mission.

An international collaboration among AT&T, Bell Telephone Laboratories, NASA, the British General Post Office, and the French National Post, Telegram, and Telegraph Office was at the heart of the Telstar mission. It was chiefly developed by Bell Labs for AT&T, and its onboard equipment was powered by a solar array along with a battery back-up system.

Tracked by ground stations

Right after launch on July 10, 1962, Telstar 1 immediately created a first as it became the first commercial payload in space. It operated in a low-Earth orbit, tracked by ground stations equipped with large microwave antennas.

Two days after launch, on July 12, the world’s first active communications satellite relayed the world’s first transatlantic television signal. The first global television signal was transmitted from Andover Earth Station, Maine, to the Pleumeur-Bodou Telecom Center, Brittany, France. The times when video reels had to travel by an aeroplane across the ocean from one continent to another would soon become a thing of the past as Telstar 1 heralded a new age of communications.

The first images included views of the iconic Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower, images of the then U.S. President John F. Kennedy and French singer Yves Montand, and even had clips from sporting events and shots of an American flag fluttering.

First live broadcast

What came 13 days after launch on July 23 was even more special as the first live broadcast took place. With journalists, newscasters, and broadcasters from the U.S. and the U.K. involved, the multinational broadcast was carried across American networks CBS, NBC, and ABC, Eurovision in Europe, and CBC in Canada. The hosts of the show were quick to identify that the greatest significance of this new communication bridge was its heightened nature of portraying immediacy.

The Telstar 1 was operational for only a few months as an on-board electronics failure, the result of the effects of radiation, put an end to its usability in November 1962. By then, it had completed over 400 transmissions that fell in the telephone, telegraph, facsimile, or television categories.

The learnings from Telstar 1 were put into effect in following missions. These included placing subsequent communications satellites at a much higher orbit. Placed at close to 35,786 km from the Earth’s surface, these geostationary satellites’ speed match that of the Earth’s rotation, and hence appear to be located in a fixed point in the skies. As a result, the satellite dish antennas of ground stations can be trained at this spot permanently and do not have to be moved to track the satellite.

Apart from having demonstrated that information could be sent via satellite and hence going past existing transmission limits, the Telstar 1 mission also helped gain experience in satellite tracking and studied the effects of Van Allen radiation belts (a zone of energetic charged particles) on the design of the satellite. Telstar 1 and the satellites that followed made communication instantaneous and an everyday affair.

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Isaac Newton is among the most famous personalities in science. The legend of an apple falling on his head, leading him to develop his law of universal gravitation, is also equally popular. We all study the laws of motion framed by him that form the foundation of classical mechanics during our schooling days.

Newton’s laws of motion and law of universal gravitation were part of Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural History) that comprises three books. First published in Latin, this work, which is popularly referred to as just Principia, is among the most important works in the history of science.

Born in 1642 near Grantham, England, Newton was the son of a farmer. Having studied Science and Mathematics after entering Cambridge University in 1661, Newton was forced to move back to his childhood home following the outbreak of the bubonic plague.

Did the apple really fall on his head?

It was during this period that Newton witnessed an apple drop from a tree while at an orchard. There’s no evidence to suggest that it actually fell on his head, but the incident certainly led him to think as to why they fall straight downwards, and not upwards or sideways. And once he started thinking, the fundamental principles of the theory of gravitation fell in place. In other words, the seeds for Newton’s magnum opus were laid when that apple fell to the ground.

Fast forward a couple of decades, and in August 1684 British astronomer Edmond Halley (the same Halley after whom the famous comet is named) visited Newton to consult with him about the law of gravitation in general and orbital dynamics of planets in particular. Newton was able to tell him that the orbit of a planet would be an ellipse and was also able to send a demonstration of his findings by November. These, along with notes about the laws of motion, were published as a paper entitled De Motu (On Motion) in February 1685 by the Royal Society.

The spark Newton needed

Halley’s visit turned out to be the spark that Newton required to attack the problem of gravitation with newfound vigour and publish his results. He completed the draft of the first book, which covered the motion of particles or bodies in free space, before the summer of 1685. It wasn't until April 1686, however, that the book was presented to the Royal Society.

The next book, which looked at motion in a resisting medium along with hydrostatics and hydrodynamics, was ready by the summer of 1686. Ten months later, Newton had completed the third book of the Principia in which he had determined the masses and distances of the planets and their satellites in the solar system.

The actual printing of the three books, which was funded mainly by Halley, wasn’t completed until the summer of 1687 and it was on July 5, 1687 that Newton’s Principia was first published. It wasn’t long before Newton’s stature rose to one of international prominence. It certainly took longer to alter the beliefs of the common people and completely assimilate all his work into the field of maths and science.

As for the Principia, it enjoys a unique position of being considered the building block for most of modern science. A preliminary census conducted in 2020 was able to identify 387 surviving copies of the first edition of Newton’s masterpiece. Even though an exact estimate of the initial print run hasn’t been possible, it is clear that the revered Latin text has always been held in high regard.

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Scientists from the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bengaluru, have developed a new variety of marigold, Arka Shubha, which has high carotene-content compared to other varieties.

As carotene is mainly used in the pharmaceutical sector, there is always a high demand for it. Presently, India imports most of its carotene from other countries. This new variety can help the sector meet its need.

“All marigolds have carotene content that range upto a maximum of 1.4%. However, the Arka Shubha variety has a carotene content of 2.8% which is the highest content from a plant source,” said Dr Tejaswini P., principal scientist in the IIHR’s Division of Floriculture and Medicinal Plants, who led the team of scientists that developed this variety.

Generally, marigold flowers lose their value if they get spoilt due to rain or delay in harvest. But Arka Shubha are of value even if they get spoilt as they can still be used for extraction of crude carotene.

Arka Shubha not only has ornamental purposes like other marigold varieties, but its petals could be used as poultry feed to get quality yolk.

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Have you been staying up late in the night and consciously delaying sleep to enjoy movies or play games on your mobile simply because you were too busy during the day? This is called Revenge Bedtime Procrastination (RBP).

Behaviour associated with RBP includes the conscious delaying of going to sleep; the absence of a valid reason for staying up late and remaining glued to electronic gadgets – all while being aware of the consequences of insufficient sleep.

Dr Pavan Yadav, Consultant (Interventional Pulmonology, Sleep Medicine and Lung transplantation) with Aster RV Hospital, Bengaluru, puts it simply: “Bedtime procrastination is viewed as getting “revenge” on a daytime that gives us no leisure hours”. The feeling gained momentum in response to the stress in the pandemic year.

Future research may lead to a better understanding of RBP, but doctors agree that sleep should not be compromised upon. “Sleep is the key to happiness, better memory and concentration, reduced irritability and fatigue,” says Dr Yadav.

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Scientists have discovered a new species of ancient winged shark, which lived around 93 million years ago. Aquilolamna milarcae was discovered in Vallecillo, Mexico, renowned for its well-preserved fossils. The specimen measures around 1.65 metres in length and has a fin span of 1.9 metres.

Nicknamed ‘eagle shark’, the shark had extremely long pectoral fins reminiscent of wings. It was unlikely to have been able to hunt for food as it was not adapted to swimming fast and following prey. Coupled with a large head and no teeth found on the skeleton – suggesting they were very small or missing entirely – it was more a plankton-eater than predator.

Previously, scientists had only known of one category of large plankton feeders in the Cretaceous period, a group of large bony fish called Pachycormidae. The eagle shark is now the second-known, plankton-eating fish ever discovered.

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