My Science School

A U.S. start up is behind Terran 1, and could be a pioneering effort in the still-nascent commercial space industry.

Relativity Space is a Los Angeles aerospace start-up that builds rockets using advanced 3D printing technology.

Its debut rocket, the Terran 1, has completed pre-launch testing, ahead of a planned launch window beginning June 30. Originally intended to be ready by 2020, the project is running about 18 months behind schedule. The first rocket launch will carry no cargo and is purely a test flight. If successful, a second flight will carry a NASA payload-it is capable of lifting up to one tonne into low Earth orbit.

The Terran 1 is an intended stepping stone on the way to realising the Terran R, a reusable rocket currently under development, capable of carrying 20 times the cargo of the Terran 1, when it launches in 2024. In order to 3D-print large components, Relativity Space has created "Stargate" a system that it claims is the world's largest 3D printer of metals. It uses existing welding technology to melt metal wire, layer by layer, into precise and complex structures that have minimal joints and parts. The company says it will eventually be able to build an entire rocket (95% of which is 3D-printed) in two months. Traditional methods of construction take 24 months and use 100 times as many parts.

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On June 18, 1983, Sally K. Ride was onboard the space shuttle Challenger for the STS-7 mission, thereby becoming the first American woman to go into space. Apart from making two space flights, Ride championed the cause of science education for children.

The first decades of space exploration was largely dominated by two countries the US and the Soviet Union This period is even referred to as the Space Race as the two Cold War adversaries pitted themselves: against each other to achieve superior spaceflight capabilities.

While the two countries were neck and neck in most aspects. the Soviets sent a woman to space much before the US. Even though Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in June 1963, it was another 20 years before Sally Ride became the first American woman in space

Urged to explore

Ride was the older of two daughters born  to Carol Joyce Ride and Dale Ride. Even though her mother was a counsellor and her father a professor of political science. Ride credits them for fostering her interest in science by enabling her to explore from a very young age.

An athletic teenager, Ride loved sports such as tennis, running, volleyball, and softball. In fact, she attended Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles on a partial tennis scholarship. She even tried her luck in professional tennis, before returning to California to attend Stanford University.

By 1973, Ride not only had a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics, but had also obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. She got her Master of Science degree in 1975 and obtained her Ph.D. in Physics by 1978

Restriction removed

Having restricted astronaut qualification to men for decades,  NASA expanded astronaut selection with the advent of the space shuttle from only pilots to engineers and scientists, opening the doorway for women finally. Having seen an ad in a newspaper inviting women to apply for the astronaut programme Ride decided to give it a shot

Out of more than 8,000 applications, Ride became one of six women who were chosen as an astronaut candidate in January 1978. Spaceflight training began soon after and it included parachute jumping, water survival, weightlessness, radio communications, and navigation, among others. She was also involved in developing the robot arm used to deploy and retrieve satellites.

Ride served as part of the ground-support crew for STS-2 and STS-3 missions in November 1981 and March 1982. In April 1982, NASA announced that Ride would be part of the STS-7 crew, serving as a mission specialist in a five-member crew.

First American woman in space

On June 18, 1983, Ride became the first American woman in space. By the time the STS-7 mission was completed and the space shuttle Challenger returned to Earth on June 24, they had launched communications satellites for Canada and Indonesia. As an expert in the use of the shuttle's robotic arm, Ride also helped deploy and retrieve a satellite in space using the robot arm.

Ride created history once again when she became the first American woman to travel to space a second time as part of the STS-41G in October 1984. During this nine-day mission, Ride employed the shuttle's robotic arm to remove ice from the shuttle's exterior and to also readjust a radar antenna. There could have even been a third, as she was supposed to join STS-61M, but that mission was cancelled following the 1986 Challenger disaster.

Even after her days of space travel were over, Ride was actively involved in influencing the space programme. When accident investigation boards were set up in response to two shuttle tragedies - Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003 Ride was a part of them both.

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The practice of using stethoscopes started in a hospital in Paris, in the early 19th Century.

The Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital in Paris provided specialised medical care. Rene Laennec, one of the doctors there, was trained to use sound to diagnose diseases of the chest.

One day in 1816, a young woman who had a heart problem came to consult Dr. Laennec. Ordinarily, the physician would have put his ear to the woman's chest and listened to her heartbeats to detect if there was any aberration. But the woman who came to see Dr. Laennec was rather plump. Uncomfortable with the idea of putting his ear to her chest, the doctor's eyes fell on a newspaper lying there...and he got a brainwave!

He rolled the newspaper into a cylinder and applied one end of it to the region of the woman's heart and the other to his ear. And then his own heart thumped in joy and excitement! He could hear her heartbeats more clearly than if he had put his ear directly to her chest. It was a landmark moment in medical science.

Laennec fashioned a hollow, wooden cylinder and catalogued the various sounds he could hear through it when applied to a patient's chest, and what the sounds indicated about the health of the patient. He sent his findings to the Academy of Science, in Paris.

It was not long before his invention began to be used by physicians all over Europe.

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Food waste is a huge problem worldwide. In Japan alone, the edible food waste produced in 2019 amounts to 5.7 million tons. While their government aims to reduce that to around 2.7 million tons by 2030, there are others who are working on the same problem differently. Researchers from Tokyo University, for instance, have found a new method to create cement from food waste.

In addition to addressing the issue of food waste, the researchers also hope to reduce global warming in this way. Apart from the estimate that cement production accounts for 8% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, there is also the fact that wasted food materials rotting in landfills emit methane. By using these materials to make cement, scientists hope to reduce global warming.

The researchers borrowed a heat pressing concept that they had employed to pulverise wood particles to make concrete. By using simple mixers and compressors that they could buy online, the researchers used a three-step process of drying. pulverising, and compressing to turn wood particles into concrete.

Heat pressing concept

Following this success, they decided to do the same to food waste. Months of failures followed as they tried to get the cement to bind by tuning the temperature and pressure. The researchers say that this was the toughest part of the process as different food stuff requires different temperatures and pressure levels.

The researchers were able to make cement using tea leaves, coffee grounds, Chinese cabbage, orange and onion peels, and even lunch-box leftovers. To make this cement waterproof and protect it from being eaten by rodents and other pests, the scientists suggest coatings of lacquer.

Cement that can be eaten!

Additionally, the researchers tweaked flavours with different spices to arrive at different colours, scents, and taste of the cement. Yes, you read that right. This material can even be eaten by breaking it into pieces and then boiling it.

The scientists hope that their material can be used to make edible makeshift housing materials for starters, as they are bound to be useful in times of disasters. If food cannot be delivered to evacuees, for instance, then they could maybe eat makeshift beds prepared from food cement. The food cement that they have created is reusable e and biodegradable.

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What happened when you browse the Net in incognito mode? Does it ensure anonymity?

You may have noticed a tab in Google Chrome and other browsers called private/incognito. Browsers usually store the web addresses or URLS of the sites you visit. That makes it easier for you to find them again later. In private (incognito) mode, your search history won't be stored on the device you are using.

Your browser also stores cookies. These small data files can not only automatically enter passwords, so you don't have to type them each time, they can also provide tracking information to advertising companies that want to figure out your browsing habits. If you have looked for the best sunglasses available in the market, for example, ads for sunglasses keep popping up on whatever website you are visiting! This is how the internet advertising industry creates detailed profiles of people's online activities over time.

Private or incognito browsing helps here, since it can temporarily disconnect someone's browsing from the technical means used to build up and maintain most of those profiles. Cookies won't provide advertisers with the detailed information they'd otherwise mine. Sometimes private browsing enables you to get around paywalls that block you from reading content on subscriber-only sites. However, going incognito won't make you anonymous or invisible online! Your internet service provider can track your web activities. The sites you visit will also know your location. And if you are logged in to your Google account when browsing, Google sees your search patterns, even in incognito mode.

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TikTok took the top spot for most downloaded app in the first three months of 2022, beating Instagram and Facebook. The short-form video sharing app TikTok was the most downloaded app worldwide in first three months of 2022, according to a report from Sensor Tower.

TikTok is one of the world’s fastest-growing social media platforms. Sensor Tower recently released its “Q1 2022: Store Intelligence Data Digest” report in which TikTok was the top app by worldwide downloads in Q1 2022. The app previously had surpassed 3.5 billion all-time downloads in the first quarter of 2021, becoming just the fifth app (and the only one not owned by Meta) to achieve this milestone.

Since the start of 2022, TikTok has been downloaded more than 175 million times. TikTok has surpassed 10 million downloads for the past nine quarters now, while YouTube has surpassed the same threshold for eight consecutive quarters. No app has had more downloads than TikTok since the beginning of 2018 when WhatsApp had 250 million worldwide downloads, per the report.

There’s a lot to be said about the success of TikTok and where it’s going. The social media app is mainly dominant for its relevant trends, unique algorithm and a diverse set of communities for every niche subject matter. Just recently, its updates include interactive add-ons for in-feed ads as well as a test on a private dislike button for comments. It also recently launched its own AR development platform, Effect House.

When examining the global downloads on iPhones and iPads, the order of the top five apps has remained unchanged over the past three quarters. TikTok exceeded 70 million App Store downloads for only the third time in Q1 2022, driven by 11% quarter-over-quarter growth in Asia. Despite being banned in India, which has one of the largest markets for app installs in the world, the app was ranked third place overall in Asia. It was No. 1 in the App Store, yet in seventh place for Google Play in Asia.

Looking at U.S. overall downloads, TikTok has been the top app each quarter since Q1 2021. The last app to beat TikTok was Zoom in Q4 2020. Also, since Q1 2021, TikTok and YouTube have been the top two apps on the U.S. App Store each quarter. TikTok was also the number one app on Google Play for the third quarter in a row, with installs up 19% year-over-year.

The same five apps have taken the top spots in Europe for each of the past four quarters. TikTok and WhatsApp were in the top two positions, while Instagram went down a ranking from last quarter to the number four spot. Even though WhatsApp has been the top App Store app in Europe for each of the past seven quarters, TikTok has also held on to the top spot on Google Play over the same period.

These estimates made by Sensor Tower include worldwide downloads for iPhone, iPad and Google Play for January 1 through March 31, 2022. This excludes preinstalled apps. The company only reports unique installs and Android estimates do not include third-party stores. The figures represent aggregate installs of all app versions.

Credit : Tech crunch \

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On June 5, 1938, "Pedro, the Voder was put on display to the public for the first time at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia One of the first devices to create human speech, the Voder was a successful experiment in reproducing speech electronically.

We are far too used to machine-made voices speaking to us in today's world. Be it the automated responses that are provided to us when we call for customer support. personal assistants in our smartphones, or various devices that support a smart home ecosystem, there are plenty of examples in our everyday lives.

While we don't often pause to think about these, there are instances when we talk about the technologies with a mixture of fear and reverence. That mixture of feelings was first experienced by human beings with the success of "Pedro, the Voder'.

Voice Operation Demonstrator

Voder is short for Voice Operation Demonstrator. Named "Pedro" after the Brazilian emperor Dom Pedro who is believed to have exclaimed "My God! It talks!" after listening to a telephone for the first time, the Voder was one of the first devices to bring us entirely synthetic speech.

The Voder was the brainchild of pioneering engineer Homer Dudley, an acoustic visionary and an inventor at Bell Labs. He rose to prominence in the 1920s when he created the popular "channel" vocoder. This was capable of coding human speech across telephone lines by transforming incoming speech into electrical signals and then replicating it on the other end by using electric sounds that mimicked human speech.

Artificial human sound

With the Voder, Dudley went one step further as this device was able to produce speech without human voice as an input. Dudley filed a patent for a system for the artificial production of vocal or other sounds in April 1937. Weeks before this patent was granted to him, the Voder had its first public demonstration at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on June 5, 1938.

The Voder was operated - or played according to its creators - to create about 20 different electric sounds. By using 10 keys, a wrist plate, and a pedal, the operator could orchestrate the electric sounds to make them sound like speech and even create a range of inflections.

Operating the Voder, however, was no easy feat as it required thinking about how sounds combine to form a word, and how subtle inflection changes alter the meaning. In fact, the Voder was almost entirely operated by a Helen Harper, who was also responsible for teaching the 20-30 people who ever learnt how to use it.

Crowds amazed

During the presentations at the Franklin Institute, the 1939 New York World's Fair, and San Francisco's Golden Gate International Exposition, Harper was seated behind a console as she worked her magic. She was able to make the voder speak statements and ask questions; say the same sentence using different inflections; make its voice sound like a female, male, or like an old person; or even mimic a cow. Making the voder recite “Mary had a little lamb” in all of its different voices was a popular trick that the bell Labs team employed.

Bell Labs, however, never meant to sell the machine as a commercial product and only used it as a proof of concept. This meant that it vanished following its successful tours of various venues. Apart from leaving the audience with a sense of wonder, Bell Labs was able to show that the Voder was capable of making electrical vibrations that translated into sound waves in the loudspeaker, without needing to manipulate air. Speech synthesis and machine-made human voices have come a long way since then.

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Instagram is testing out a pin-to-profile feature that lets you choose three posts to feature at the top of your profile grid. You can choose any three photos, videos or reels to pin. Users will be able to spotlight specific elements on their profile, e.g., most-liked post, major development in life, etc. Click on the three horizontal dots at the top right corner of the post you want to pin. Tap 'Pin to your profile' on the menu, and the post will show up at the top of your grid. If you change your mind about pinned posts, un-pin them by clicking 'Unpin from your profile' from the menu. If you don't see the option to pin a post, then you don't have access to the feature yet.

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Merlin Bird ID was created for bird watchers, nature lovers, and anyone curious about birds. It is the only bird app that enables both sound and photo identification powered by AL. Merlin offers four fun ways to identify birds. Answer simple questions and Merlin reveals a list of birds that match your description. Got a photo of a bird you can't identify; tap 'Photo ID' to id it. Use 'Sound ID to record birdsong, and Merlin shows you which species it is most likely in real time. 'Explore Birds' shows you all the birds most likely to be around you on that day. Save the birds you identify to keep track of those you've seen. The app delivers personalized results of birds to expect based on the time of year, your location or your choice of regions around the world, including a digital field guide with more than 80,000 photos and sounds, plus maps, and ID tips. The app, powered by eBird and the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, delivers results based on millions of sightings, photos, and sounds from bird watchers across the world. Free for iOS and Android.

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With the Rocketbook Flip, you get the best of both handwritten and typewritten notes. As well as being environmentally friendly, it's an efficient way to organise your notes. Designed for lefties and righties alike, the 36 page Flip features a top-turn binding. Each page is equipped with lines on the front and a dot grid on the back. Write with the accompanying Pilot FnXion pen, then again! wipe clean with a microfibre towel to reuse again a Use the Rocketbook app to scan your notes, lists and ideas Your pages are then optimised and digitised, you can even search for specific words. The notes can be sent to the cloud (Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud, Evernote, etc.). The pages have icons at the bottom representing the cloud applications: select one before scanning, and they will automatically be sent to the relevant location. Once you've uploaded your notes, you can erase them and begin again.

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Mr. Trash Wheel, officially called the Inner Harbor Water Wheel, is a trash interceptor, a vessel that removes trash from the Jones Falls river as it empties into the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland. It is powered by water wheels and solar cells, and places trash from the harbor onto an onboard conveyor belt which routes it into dumpsters on the vessel. Mr. Trash Wheel was invented by John Kellett in 2008, who launched a pilot vessel at that time. A larger vessel was later developed; it replaced the pilot vessel and was launched in May 2014. The Mr. Trash Wheel vessel is part of the Waterfront Partnership of the City of Baltimore's "Healthy Harbor Plan."

Mr. Trash Wheel is a moored vessel that removes trash from the mouth of the Jones Falls river at Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Rubbish from the streets of Baltimore is flushed into storm drains that empty into the Jones Falls river. The floating rubbish is then carried by the river to its outlet into the Inner Harbor, where it is captured by Mr. Trash Wheel. Mr. Trash Wheel is powered by the current from the river, and backup power is provided by solar panels when the current is sluggish. These power a conveyor belt. Mr. Trash Wheel removes flo

ating debris using rotating forks that dip into and out of the water, and which then place the trash onto a conveyor belt which moves it into a dumpster. The water wheel can be controlled remotely on the Internet. Mr. Trash Wheel was constructed using $720,000 of public and private funding.

Credit : Wikipedia

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The Surface Web contains less than 10% of the info that is on the Internet.

The Deep Web consists of websites and content that are not searchable by standard search engines such as Google If Google can find the content you are searching for, then its on the Surface Web! The Surface Web contains less than 10 per cent of the information that is on the Internet.

Most people are unaware that the Deep Webs contains benign sites. Examples are your password-protected email and bank account certain sections of paid subscription services like Netflix and sites that can be accessed only through an online form. The Deep Web is estimated to be many many times larger than the Surface Web.

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Did you know scientists hope to develop targeted drugs for hard-to-treat diseace using the technique?

Ultra high-definition 3D videos of cells inside the body taken by an advanced microscope are creating a revolution in modern biology. Previously, transmission electron microscope (TEM) images of living cells (called biomolecules) were indistinct blobs. This was because the high-energy electron beams would dry out the water surrounding the molecules and burn them.

In cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM), biomolecules are cooled to extremely low temperatures and embedded in vitrified water (ice that has no crystals). This ensures that they are preserved intact. The three scientists who developed the cryo-EM technique won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

The current level of sophistication in the cryo-EM technique is largely due to advances in camera technology, image processing and computer software. The biomolecules are photographed from thousands of different angles and at different stages. The images are put together to create a video, allowing researchers to see the structure of the molecules in live action within the cell.

Using this technique, scientists hope to develop targeted drugs for hard-to-treat diseases such as dementia and Parkinson's.

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Your mother wants to make a duplicate set of the house keys. That would involve a visit to the local key-maker. Wouldn't she be relieved if you could make her a set sitting right at home? Well, that day is not too far into the future and best of all, it's not science fiction. 3D printing is here!

Additive manufacturing

3D printing is not really new. It is a type of additive manufacturing or AD, which itself means creating an object by adding material to it layer by layer. AD is also known as stereo-lithography, 3D layering and 3D printing 3D printing can be compared to stalactites and stalagmites in limestone caves or to coral reefs. Both are built by adding material layer by layer, bit by bit, until they form a solid structure. This natural process is very slow. In 3D printing, the design is precisely engineered with computer software. The computer directs the printer on how to add the layers.

Used in diverse fields

3D printing was earlier used to build prototypes or models of objects. Now there are a variety of printers that can create products in a vast number of fields. Already available in the market are 3D printers that can roll out anything from a precision-moulded car part, a designer chocolate and a customised toy to artificial limbs, dentures and even living human tissue for building organs!

First, a 3-D model is produced on computer using CAD or computer-aided design software. CAD can also tell you how the model will work when made with the kind of material you are using. In fact, the working can be seen using virtual simulation. The second step is converting the CAD model to a format that will work with the designated printer and then transferring it to the computer that controls the printer. Just as with a normal laser or inkjet printer, you can feed in the size and orientation (landscape. portrait, etc). Each kind of printer uses different materials (printing inks/toners) to build the object-cheese or chocolate for food items and liquid polymers or other chemical binders for making inedible objects like car or aeroplane parts or dental fixtures or even live cells to produce human tissue (bioprinting). The object is layered on a tray made of material that is water-soluble. Once the object is created, this support can be easily removed!

The machine may take hours or days to complete the object and it can take more time to cool, set or cure till it is fit to handle and be used.

It's expensive, right now

3D printers are expensive right now, ranging from $30,000 to $80,000. However, as the technology evolves, the cost is expected to come down and you may eventually be able to print a set of keys at home!

Critics of 3D printing feel that the technology may be misused to print weapons. One nervous state in the U.S. has already passed a law banning 3D plastic and metal guns, and taken down a website that showed people how to make them!

Did you know?

A family in France became the first in the world to move into a 3D printed house in July 2018. The four-bedroom house took 54 hours to print, with an additional four months for contractors to add doors, windows and the roof! The design of the house was programmed into a 3D printer which worked by printing the walls in layers from the floor upwards. The cost of construction was 20 per cent less than that of a traditionally built house.

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Nasa has discovered a rare and highly valuable asteroid called '16 psyche’. It was found by nasa’s hubble space telescope. The asteroid is located in our solar system’s asteroid belt between the planets of mars and jupiter.

According to a study published by the planetary science journal on monday, asteroid '16 psyche’ is located roughly 370 million kilometres (230 million miles) from the earth and measures 226 kilometres across (140 miles).

The most interesting thing about the asteroid is what it's made of. Unlike other asteroids made up of either rocks or ice, psyche is made up of metals.

One of the study's authors tracy becker said that they usually come across meteorites that have metal deposits but since psyche is made up entirely of metals, it is quite unique. 

Psyche's size and presence of metal deposits means that it could be worth $10,000 quadrillion ($10,000,000,000,000,000,000), which is equivalent to ten thousand times the global economy in 2019.

Researchers used the ultraviolet spectrum data collected by the space telescope imaging spectrograph on the hubble telescope during two observations made in 2017.

The data showed them that psyche's surface could be made of pure iron but they also found that the presence of iron composition as small as 10 percent could dominate ultraviolet reports. Psyche is believed to be the dead core of a planet that might have failed during its formative stages or it could also be the result of many violent space collisions.

Nasa has already targeted the exploration of asteroid psyche with the launch of nasa discovery mission psyche, which is expected to be launched in 2022. The psyche space probe will be sent atop a spacex falcon heavy rocket and will reach the asteroid by 2026, and hopefully uncover its exact metal content and other facets.

Credit :  India times 

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