My Science School

A type of reptile found in Australia and New Guinea, the frilled lizards or "frillnecks," are members of the dragon family

Remember Dilophosaurus? That dinosaur in the first Jurassic Park movie which would unfurl its extendible neck frill and spit venom when intimidated?

Well, in reality, there is no evidence that the dinosaur had the neck frill. But meet Australian frilled lizard, the closest you will ever get to watching something as bizarre as the Dilophosaurus' defence strategy.

Any time the frilled lizard feels threatened, it puts on the greatest show in the wild. It is also perhaps the most dramatic sight you will ever witness in the animal kingdom.

When the lizard feels intimidated, the first response is to scare the other creature away. So it will stand on its hind legs, open its mouth wide, and hiss. But this is not all. A bright-red neck frill, a pleated skin flap around its head, would unfurl as it strikes the intimidating pose, giving the creature a very grotesque appearance. This is a potential gimmick to scare off the opponent. (When unopened, the scaly neck frill lies as a cape over the shoulders of the lizard.)

If this stunt fails, and the attacker doesn't flinch, the lizard has another trick up its sleeve. It will quickly turn, and bolt, running on its hind legs, its yellow mouth wide open, legs flailing, and will not stop until it ambles up a tree for safety.

The frilled lizards or "frillnecks," are members of the dragon family. It is a type of reptile found in Australia and New Guinea. its size and color may vary from region to region. This creature spends a large part of its life on the trees. It is seen to descend to feed on lizards, small mammals, and ants.

These lizards can be classified into three different genetic groups. The main predators include birds of prey, larger lizards, snakes, and so on. The lizard lives in the tropical and warm temperate forests and savanna woodlands of northern Australia.

The eggs are laid in underground nests and hatchlings are independent, able to hunt as they emerge and adept at using the neck frill. The color of the frill of the lizard varies and is a result of carotenoids, which it acquires from the insect diet.

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African American civil rights activist Martin Luther King's speech "I Have a Dream" emphasized the unrealised promise of economic freedom for black Americans - and the White House dreaded the consequences. The physical copy of this speech is widely regarded as one of the most influential documents in American history. Read on to discover the surprising journey of this historic document In the annals of history, August 28, 1963, stands as a pivotal moment-a day when Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his timeless oration, "I Have a Dream," to a crowd of nearly 2,50,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Little did anyone know, amidst the fervor of that day, that the physical copy of this iconic speech would embark on a journey of its own, passing through the hands of an unlikely guardian.

George Raveling's brush with history As King concluded his speech and stepped away from the podium, he found himself face to face with George Raveling, a former Villanova University basketball player assigned to provide security. In a serendipitous moment, Raveling, moved by the speech, asked King if he could have the folded papers (that had the written oration). Without hesitation, King handed over the speech to the young volunteer, unaware of the significance of this exchange.

The speech finds its voice

For nearly two decades, the speech remained tucked away in a Harry Truman biography, as Raveling pursued his career in NCAA basketball coaching. It wasn't until 1984, during a conversation with a journalist, that Raveling revealed his possession of the historic document. Prompted by the journalist's interest, Raveling retrieved the speech and had it professionally framed.

Safeguarding a national treasure As Raveling began to grasp the importance of the speech, he decided to secure it in a bank vault in Los Angeles. Despite receiving lucrative offers from collectors, including a staggering $3 million bid in 2014, Raveling remained steadfast in his decision to preserve the speech's integrity. Instead, he entrusted Villanova University with the responsibility of safeguarding this invaluable piece of history.

A homecoming

In August 2021, Villanova announced its role as the custodian of King's speech, which made its public debut at the National Museum of African American History and Culture later that month. Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the march in Washington, the speech returned to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture on August 7, 2023. This temporary exhibition provided an opportunity for visitors to connect with the speech's profound impact on American history. As the world continues to cherish and commemorate King's legacy, the physical copy of his iconic speech remains a poignant reminder of the power of words to inspire change and unite humanity.

DID YOU KNOW?

• It was actually gospel singer Mahalia Jaskson's cry "Tell them about the dream, Martin!" that prompted King to improvise the line I have a dream.

• In 2003 Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous words were inscribed into the spot where he gave the iconic speech.

Picture: Credit Google

From finding the fastest path to a cafe to self-driving cars, modern necessities and benefits rely upon something that many take for granted: the Global Positioning System (GPS). GPS is so deeply ingrained into our daily lives that it's difficult to picture a world without it, but did you know where it came from?

The origin of GPS

In the middle of the 1960s, the US Navy experimented with satellite navigation to follow U.S. submarines that were carrying nuclear weapons. The Department of Defence (DOD) decided to employ satellites to support their scheduled navigation system in the early 1970s because they wanted to make sure that it was a reliable, stable system, based on previous ideas from navy scientists. In 1978, the Department of Defence launched the first Navigation System with Timing and Ranging (NAVSTAR) satellite which later changed into GPS. In 1993, the 24-satellite constellation went into full functioning. It was initially intended to replace earlier navigation systems and locate military transportation equipment worldwide with accuracy. Over time, the GPS evolved into an easily available, free device that improves daily safety and comfort together

The Pioneers behind GPS

Despite being created by the U.S. Department of Defence, a few scientists have been recognized as having made significant contributions to this ground-breaking technology. Roger L. Easton led the Space Application division of the Naval Research Laboratory. Timing technology and circular orbits are two of the most important aspects of GPS that he specialised in as a Cold War scientist. As the first manager of the Navstar GPS programme, Brad Parkinson contributed to the program's conception and early to mid-stage implementation. Dr. Ivan Getting was the founding president of The Aerospace Corporation and drove the GPS's launch. To pinpoint their precise location, Dr. Gladys West first worked at the U.S. Naval Weapons Laboratory, where she calculated equations and analyzed satellite data.

How Does GPS Work?

Satellites, ground stations, and receivers make up the three components of the GPS. 13 satellites transmit radio signals that provide precise time and location derived from onboard atomic clocks. At a speed of 300,000 kilometres per second or the speed of light, these signals travel across space. The precise location of these satellites is verified by ground stations by receiving their signals. A computer, an atomic clock, and a radio are installed on every satellite. It continuously sends its position and time shifts since it recognizes the Earth's orbit and the clock. The scientific use of the GPS is offering historically beyond-reach data in exceptional amounts and with extraordinary clarity. The movement of the polar ice sheets, the tectonic plates of Earth, and volcanic activity are all being measured by scientists using GPS. Ever wondered how birds find their way?

If you were lost in the middle of the woods and couldn't see the sun, you might use a compass to figure out which way to go. For more than a thousand years, people have used magnetic compasses to navigate. But how do the other birds find their way?

The Earth's magnetic field is recognized for shielding the planet and its people from risky cosmic rays and plasma emitted by the sun. However, birds use this magnetic field for navigation in a unique manner, similar to a GPS, and they can turn it on and off with great flexibility. Researchers have discovered two factors that are essential to a bird's internal GPS: eyesight and scent. The perfume is unusual because we don't typically associate birds with a sense of smell. The scent, it turns out, plays an important role in helping birds navigate. A bird can identify magnetic fields visually, allowing it to use a visual compass to navigate over long distances. Scientists have discovered a protein called cryptochromes in their retinas that enables signalling and sensing activities, assisting birds in navigating the great distances they travel while migrating.

Researchers detected a little magnetite area on the beaks of several birds. Magnetite is a magnetised rock that functions as a miniature GPS device for birds, providing information about its position relative to the Earth's poles. Birds are considered to be able to navigate vast distances across places with few landmarks, such as the ocean, by using both beak magnetite and eye sensors.

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Many of us watch foreign and other language movies or series in our own regional language and get the same feel as the original. These movies involve an intricate process called dubbing. Let us find out.

Dubbing is a post-production process of adding sound and dialogues into a media. It also involves replacing the original voice track with a synchronised translation in another language. Unlike voiceovers, dubbing is much more nuanced and complex. It is mostly done for movies and TV series, while it is also needed for animation movies, video games and music at times.

Dubbing helps in reaching a wider audience. It is categorised into three types namely lipsynced dubbing, time-synced dubbing and non-synced dubbing.

Origin of dubbing

With the invention of photograph (a device used to record sound), cinema began transitioning from the silent era to sound. Warner Bros. of Hollywood were pioneers who made new sound movies, called Vitaphone movies. These movies had a recording of an orchestra along with some sound effects that were synchronised perfectly with the moving images. Slowly 'talkies' were made, where movies incorporated dialogues as actors started talking to one another.

In 1930, a musical talkie by name 'Applause' was made by Rouben Mamoulian that first used dubbing. The director experimented the sound mixing by interlocking 35 mm audio tracks and began the dubbing practice. Eventually, more and more films started to record actors' dialogue after shooting scenes, then synchronising the sound to the scene. When actor Louise Brooks refused to reshoot their silent scenes in the movie The Canary Murder Case', the hiring of voice actors began.

Subs Vs Dubs

The debate on subtitles versus dubbing is still on. While there are people who don't like subtitles due to their pace and complexity, dubbing is preferred as it adds more emotion. But the catch is that, the results of dubbing has to be natural and organic. If the audio is poorly mixed or if any actors’ accent is incomprehensible, subtitles come in handy. They can also be used by those with hearing difficulties.

 Varied perspectives

Though dubbing allows for a deeper understanding and connection to the storyline, it is a time consuming and critical process for filmmakers. Some filmmakers have moved to sync sound which involves reconting the is sound while on the set to make the film more realistic This helped in reducing the post production cost and efforts. But filmmakers continued to rely on dubbing as it enhances the audio quality.

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The eighties and nineties were the era of VHS tapes. Invented by the Japanese company JVC, Video Home System (VHS) - or the 'deck' as it was locally known - was an instant hit around the world. Even in small towns of India, video shops that rented VHS players and cassettes were a lucrative business.

The era, however, did not last long. Along came the Compact Discs. Music, movies, data files - the flashy CDs could store anything. They could be played on TVs (hooked with CD players) and computers. Today, whatever CDs are left behind are used as reflectors on bicycles or for art-from-waste projects.

Streaming and cloud storage have made the CD obsolete, just like its predecessor. Tomorrow, the streaming system could be replaced with something else. This process of evolution of technology - from VHS tapes to streaming platforms or landline phones to smartphones - is called Creative Destruction.

The technological advancements defined above are recent, but the concept of creative destruction has been defined and debated by economists, sociologists, and political thinkers since the 19^th century. The industrial revolution and colonialism were the two defining historical events that shaped its definition.

Foundational theories

 Creative Destruction is a critical component of the capitalist system of economics and politics.Yet, a first clear definition for the  process was given by the father of communism –an opposing economic and political throught Karl Marsx. Though he did not use the term Creative Destruction, he defined the concept as a ‘’contant upheaval and change within the capitalist system.’’

In his exhaustive work tirled, ‘capital; Acriyique of Political Economy; published as three volumes in 1867, 1885, and 1894. Marx writes: "The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society."

This encapsulates the process of technological innovations that we see today. Take for instance the case of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It is the new "instrument of production that is replacing older technologies and even humans in some cases. As a result, the "relations of production also changes, with new skills becoming essential for upward mobility in the job market. The "relations of society" has also changed as engineers with Al skills now draw higher pay packages compared to engineers in other sectors.

Much later, in the 20th Century, German economist Joseph Schumpeter popularized the term Creative Destruction, which was coined by another.

German economist Werner Sombart. In his book Capitalism, Socialism and Democraay, published in 1942. Schumpeter extrapolates the Marxist thought to describe the destructive process of a transformation caused by innovation for instance, the slow death of landline phones.

Schumpeter says Capitalism is a method of economic change which can never be stationary. The fundamental impulse that keeps the system running is new consumer goods, new methods of producing or transporting them, new markets to sell them, and new forms of organisations that the system creates. This is a fairly accurate description of how businesses work in our world today.

Modem examples

Schumpeters work is pretty accurate in defining the current startup era. He says innovative entry by entrepreneurs is the disruptive force that sustains economic growth, even as it destroys the value of established companies that enjoyed some degree of monopoly. A classic example for this is the case of social media eating into the market control of mainstream medin

However, Schumpeter was pessimistic about the sustainability of this process. Seeing it as leading eventually to the undermining of capitalism's own institutional frameworks. The capitalist process in much the same way in which it destroyed the institutional framework of feudal society abo undermines its own, he said.

Today, most technology majors are focussed on continuous innovations that push boundaries of human imagination. As we grapple to get a grasp over the everevolving trends in technology, its important to leam about the great minds that prophesied this era.

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The Enforcement Directorate arrested the former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on January 31 in connection with a land scam case. The arrest came as soon as he resigned as the Chief Minister. Following his arrest, which has been challenged in the court of law, tribal bodies announced protests across the State.

Meanwhile, Champai Soren took over as the new Chief Minister. He also underwent a floor test to prove his party's majority in the House. "At present we have 43 MLAs and four are in hospital. We have the support of 47 MLAs. The Governor is yet to give the time to form the government," Champai Soren told the media ahead of the trust vote last week. To form the government, the ruling alliance needs only 41 MLAs.

The newly formed government passed the confidence motion in the State Assembly. The Jharkhand Mukti CM Champai Soren (left) with Hemant Soren.

Morcha with 29 seats and its ally Congress with 17 were confident of easily sailing through the trust vote. Hemant Soren was also present in the Assembly to attend the floor test. A special court in Ranchi allowed Soren to participate in the trust-vote.

What is a trust vote?

A trust vote, also known as a confidence motion or vote of confidence, is a parliamentary procedure where members of the Legislative Assembly or Parliament vote to express their confidence or lack of confidence in the government. When a government is formed, it needs to prove that it has the support of the majority of the members of the legislative body. If the government loses a trust vote, it typically means that it no longer enjoys the majority support and is expected to resign, leading to either the formation of a new government or fresh elections.

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Images from space that show earth as nothing more than a blur of blue tug at our hearts in a way that can’t be put into words. The ones that you see here, while evoking such emotions, are also iconic in their own right. This is because they show the first human ever to walk untethered in space. The subject of these photographs is NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II.

Born in Boston in 1937, McCandless did his schooling at Long Beach, California and received his Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1958. He then obtained his Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1965, and eventually also ended up with a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Houston in 1987.

Communicator role

A retired U.S. Navy captain, McCandless was one of 19 astronauts selected by NASA in April 1966. He served as the mission control communicator for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during their famous 1969 Apollo 11 mission, which included the first human landing on the moon. McCandless, in fact, famously felt let down by Armstrong as the latter hadn’t revealed ahead what he had planned to say while setting foot on the moon.

McCandless flew as the mission specialist on two space shuttles, STS-41B in 1984 and STS-31 in 1990. While the 1984 mission saw him become the first human to perform an untethered spacewalk, he helped deploy the Hubble Space Telescope during the 1990 mission.

Helps develop MMU

Apart from these, McCandless also served as a member of the astronaut support crew for the Apollo 14 mission and was a backup pilot for the first crewed Skylab mission. For the M-509 astronaut manoeuvring experiment that was flown in the Skylab programme, McCandless was a co-investigator. He collaborated on the development and helped design what came to be known as the MMU – manned manoeuvring unit.

The STS-41B was launched on February 3, 1984. Four days later, on February 7, McCandless stepped out of the space shuttle Challenger into nothingness. As he moved away from the spacecraft, he floated freely without any earthly anchor.

"Heck of a big leap for me"

“It may have been a small step for Neil, but it’s a heck of a big leap for me,” were McCandless’ first words. If the mood at mission control had been apprehensive before, the raucous laughter that followed this comment certainly reduced the tension - a fact that was confirmed by his wife, who was also at mission control. McCandless would later say that his comment was consciously thought out and that it was his way of saying things were going okay, apart from getting back at Armstrong for not revealing his words in 1969.

The images that were shot then, showing McCandless spacewalking without tethers, gained widespread fame. The spacewalk was the first time the MMU that he helped develop was used. These nitrogen-propelled, hand-controlled devices afforded much greater mobility to their users as opposed to restrictive tethers used by previous spacewalkers.

Fellow astronaut Robert L. Stewart later tried out the MMU that McCandless first used. Two days later, both of them tried another similar unit with success. By February 11, the STS-41B mission was complete as the Challenger safely landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre.

In one of his last interviews, before his death in December 2017, McCandless told National Geographic what he had probably told countless others who wanted to know how it was out there.

Fun, but cold

While he always maintained that it was fun, he also adds that the single thing that disturbed him as he moved away from the shuttle was that he got extremely cold, with shivers and chattering teeth.

The reason for that is pretty straightforward. While he had prepared for that moment for years, he wasn’t prepared for the temperature in the suit. As the suit was designed to keep astronauts comfortable while working hard in a warm environment, even the H (hot) position on the life support system actually provided minimal cooling. Considering that McCandless wasn’t really performing strenuous labour during the first hours of his untethered spacewalk, he felt cold. That’s a small price to pay for becoming the first-ever human to walk freely in space.

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Two genres, contemporary and fantasy, have always remained popular among young adults. But what happens when you have books that are both or neither. You might be looking at a work of magical realism

Magical realism is a genre of literature that depicts the real world as having an undercurrent of magic. A combination of fantasy and realism, it explores reality in an imaginative way. while suggesting a deeper meaning.

The world of magical realism is grounded in the real world, but fantastical elements are considered to be normal there. One of the attractions of the genre is that it blurs the line between reality and fantasy. For instance, the presence of dead characters in Toni Morrison's Beloved, fluidity of time in Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time", and telepathy in Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children."

How it started

Magical realism developed as a reaction to the realism movement of the 19th Century. The term "magischer realismus." which translates to "magic realism." was first used in 1925 by German art critic Franz Roh. And, it gained popularity among Latin American writers, who explored it further.

Magic realism vs. fantasy How does it differ from fantasy novels and fairy tales? Unlike fantasy novels, authors in the magical realism genre present the incredible as normal, every-day life. These novels are based in a realistic setting and present the magical events as ordinary Occurrences.

Example

A classic example is "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" by Salman Rushdie, who is one of the prominent authors of magical realism in English literature. The novel brings together real-world elements and features of magic or the supernatural

The city of Alifbay in which Haroun lives is described as a sad city because the people there are so depressed, they have forgotten the city's actual name. Similarly, the moon is called Kahani and it's almost entirely covered in warm water. This water. Rushdie writes, is "Story Water, its colourful and Haroun can see steam rising from it. Do you see the magical realism employed here?

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When we speak of flowers, we usually think of rose, jasmine, marigold, hibiscus, and the like. And most flowers are less than the size of our palm and sweet-smelling. What if there's a flower which is neither? Come, let's find out more about this.

It's huge and smelly!     

Rafflesia is a genus of flowering plants comprising at least 15 species found in Southeast Asia. Interestingly for a plant it has only flowers - with nothing to show for leaves or roots. Which means there's no photosynthesis either. Rafflesia is basically a parasite, living off a type of vine. Its body - essentially made of thin filaments - lies inside the stem and the root of its host for years, and the flower bud bursts forth eventually. The bud continues to swell for months before the large flower blooms. For all that wait the flower stays in bloom for just about a week. But when in bloom, it gives off its signature stench - of rotting meat - that attracts flies. These flies ensure pollination and keep the species thriving. Unfortunately, Rafflesia's forests are disappearing and it is critically endangered. It is "impossible to cultivate and "remains largely ignored", according to a media report.

The largest

The flowers of Rafflesia usually win the largest flower title, and this year has been no different. The largest single flower ever recorded was found earlier this year in Sumatra, Indonesia, with a diameter of 111 cm - that's a whopping 3.6 ft! This was a specimen of Rafflesia tuan-mudae, and beat the earlier record of 107 cm set by Rafflesia amoldii, also from the same region.

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In the hot and dry desert of South Africa, the Namib desert beetle survives by harvesting water from thin air. Droplets of fog accumulate on the bumpy body of the beetle and drip down its wing into its mouth. Similarly, redwood trees of California absorb as much as 40% of their water directly from the fog. Without this adaptation, the trees would not be able to move water from their roots to other parts.

Humans too view fog as an important source of water. Dry and coastal regions around the world rely on fog-filled wind to meet their water needs. They install what are called fog catchers to harvest water suspended in the air. This technique is called fog harvesting or fog catching or fog collection.

Fog catchers are usually constructed in the form of a single or double layer mesh net, stabilised between two posts that are spread out at an angle perpendicular to the wind carrying the fog. As the wind passes through the mesh, drops of freshwater collect on the mesh and run downwards and drip into a gutter at the bottom of the net from where they are channelled via pipes to a storage tank or cistern. Mesh panels can vary in size. Typical water production rates from a fog collector range from 200 to 1,000 litres per day, with variability occurring on a daily and seasonal basis.

Fog harvesting systems are typically installed in areas where the presence of fog is naturally high, typically coastal and mountainous regions. They are erected in open locations with a fairly high elevation that are exposed to wind flow. Meteorological and climatic information such as predominant wind flow direction might have to be gathered to identify optimal placement.

Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico and Namibia are some of the countries that have greatly benefited from fog harvesting.

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