My Science School

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Pripyat in the Soviet Union. It is the worst nuclear disaster in history both in terms of cost and casualties.

The disaster took place during a safety test on the steam turbine of a nuclear reactor. To conduct the test it was necessary to decrease the reactor power. However the power output unexpectedly dropped to near-zero. Despite this the operators went ahead with the test.

After the test the operators triggered a shutdown but instead an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction took place which led to an enormous release of energy in the form of explosions.

A fire in the graphite reactor core released large amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere which was carried over great distances by the wind. More than 100 people lost their lives directly due to the incident but many more died due to complications from radiation exposure.

The government evacuated more than one lakh people from surrounding areas in the following hours. However the fallout of the radiation contamination was unimaginable. For weeks unsuspecting people were eating meat, milk, eggs and vegetables that came from items which were contaminated from the radiation. In Some cases even wool that came from sheep which had been contaminated made people sick and caused illness including cancer.

Chernobyl is regarded as the worst anthropogenic (resulting from the influence of humans on nature) disaster to have happened in the history of the world.

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Britain was first called the ‘United Kingdom’ on May 1, 1707. The new name indicated that the parliament of England and the parliament of Scotland had merged to form one ‘united’ parliament. This merging of parliaments was called the ‘The Acts of Union’ and was passed individually by the English and Scottish parliaments as two Acts. The parliament of England passed the Union with Scotland Act in 1706 and the parliament of Scotland passed the Union with England Act in 1707.

With the merger of the two parliaments, England and Scotland became one country with one unified parliament. The events leading to this merger began with the death of Queen Elizabeth I on March 24, 1603. As Elizabeth I was childless, her first cousin, King James VI of Scotland, inherited the throne of England as well. He became the king of both Scotland and England in a Union of Crowns which took place on March 24, 1603. This union of crowns eventually led to the Acts of Union in 1706 and 1707.

When King James died, his son King Charles I came into power in 1625. King Charles attempted to get rid of the parliament in a bid for absolute power. This led to the English Civil War and the beheading of King Charles in 1649. A period followed in Britain’s history where there was no monarch and the country was ruled as a commonwealth rather than a kingdom. This eventually led to the Acts of Union where power finally rested in the hands of the parliament.

The Scottish parliament and the English parliament united to form the Parliament of Great Britain, based in the Palace of Westminster in London, which was the home of the English Parliament.

Eventually the monarchy came back into power and continues till today.

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Satyajit Ray wore many hats. He was a filmmaker, Screenwriter, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher and music composer.

Ray was born on May 2, 1921 in Kolkata, Bengal to a prominent Bengali family. His family members could trace themselves back for 10 generations. His grandfather Upendrakishore Ray was a writer and a leader in the Brahmo Samaj and his father Sukumar Ray wrote and illustrated children’s books and poetry.

Ray studied in Ballygunge Government High School and graduated in Economics from Presidency College, Kolkata.

Ray was always drawn to the arts and began his career working at an advertising agency. He also illustrated the covers of various books including ‘Pather Panchali’ by Bibhutibhushan Bandyo-padhyay. He was deeply moved by the work and used it as the subject of his first film ‘Pather Panchali’ in 1955, which was critically acclaimed. This film was the first in the Apu trilogy, the others being ‘Aparajito’ in 1956 and ‘Apur Sansar’ in 1959.

Ray received 36 National Film Awards in his career, a Golden Lion, a Golden Bear, 2 Silver Bears, many additional awards at international film festivals and ceremonies and an Academy Honorary Award in 1992.

The Government of India honoured him with the Bharat Ratna in 1992. That same year, Ray’s health deteriorated due to heart complications. He was admitted to a hospital but never recovered. He died on April 23, 1992. This year we commemorate the 30th death anniversary of the legendary director.

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Did you know that words such as arch-villain, leapfrog, dewdrop, watchdog, birthplace, radiance and zany were made up by William Shakespeare? Born on April 23, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon to John and Mary Shakespeare, young William probably studied at Stratford Grammar School. He married Anne Hathaway at the age of 18 and had three children - Susannah, Judith and Hamnet. A few years later he moved to London where he soon became well-known as a playwright, poet and actor.

He wrote more than 30 plays, of which historic plays include ‘Julius Caesar’ and ‘Henry VI’; tragedies include ‘Othello’ and ‘Macbeth’; comedies include ‘As you like it’ and ‘A Midsummer night’s dream’; and romances include ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Antony and Cleopatra’.

Shakespeare is widely regarded as the most influential writer of all time. His themes, depth of characters, inimitable use of words and employment of a variety of literary devices make each one of his plays masterpieces.

His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright in history. They continue to be studied, reinterpreted and adapted for screens big and small. Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616 at the age of 52.

In 1623 two friends of Shakespeare’s, John Heminges and Henry Condell, published the ‘First Folio’, a posthumous collection of Shakespeare’s works. Its preface hailed Shakespeare with the now famous words – “not of an age, but for all time”.

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You may have noticed your mother boiling milk before serving it to you. Have you ever wondered why? She boils the milk to kill harmful bacteria that may be present in it which could make you ill. Many years ago people did not know that milk should be treated this way before consumption.

The process of pasteurization where liquids were heated between 60 and 100 degree Centigrade to kill the bacteria present in them was discovered by a French microbiologist called Louis Pasteur. Pasteur was born on December 27, 1822 in France. He completed his studies from the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris and was appointed Professor of Physics in the Lycee (secondary school) at Dijon in 1847.

He was approached by a local brewer to investigate the decay in beet root juice in 1856. Pasteur carefully examined the beet root juice at each stage of fermentation. He noticed a number of spherical organisms floating in the yeast - the microbe that consumes sugar to transform it into alcohol. After a few days he noticed rod-shaped organisms in the liquid.

Pasteur suggested a process of heating and then rapidly cooling liquids or food in order to kill microbes that may cause disease. This process later came to be called pasteurization. He completed the first pasteurization test on April 20, 1862. His method was soon used all over the world to preserve milk and beer.

He is also one of the earliest proponents of the germ theory of disease, which proposed that diseases could be prevented by eliminating germs. He was instrumental in heralding the antiseptic age in medicine which led to many lives being saved through proper ‘operation theatre’ hygiene.

This year marks 160 years since Pasteur’s initial pasteurization test.

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RMS Titanic or the Royal Mail Ship Titanic was a British luxury liner that was built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. The Titanic was the largest ship in the world when she was launched and second of three Olympic class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line.

On April 2, 1912 when the Titanic was completed, she was the largest man-made object ever to be built. Nearly 14,000 men were employed to build her. Eight days later she set out on her doomed maiden voyage from Southampton, England, making two port calls in Cherbourg, France and Queensland, Ireland before heading west towards New York.

On April 14, the Titanic hit an iceberg at around 11:40 pm and sank two hours 40 mins later at 2:20 am on 15th April. The disaster left over 1,500 of the 2,200 passengers and crew dead, making it the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in history.

Touted as “Unsinkable” it was believed that the Titanic could stay afloat even if 4 of her 16 compartments were breached. It was originally believed that the iceberg had caused a long gash in the hull, but it was later found that the collision with the iceberg had produced a series of thin gashes as well as brittle fracturing and separation of seams in the adjacent hull plates, allowing water to flood into the Titanic. It is believed today that low-quality steel or weak rivets may have led to the sinking.

The scale of the tragedy ensured that the Titanic would be remembered as one of the most shocking disasters in history. It has since been recreated multiple times on film and documentaries and several ocean Explorations were undertaken to locate and salvage part of the wreck.

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Eldrick Tont Tiger Woods was born on December 30, 1975 in Cypress, California to Earl Woods, a U.S. Army infantry officer and Kultida Woods, a Thai citizen.

Tiger was introduced to golf by his father Earl at the age of 2. He soon became a child prodigy decimating all his opponents in the under 10 group competition held at the Navy Golf Course in Cypress. He went on to win the junior world championships 6 times. He turned professional at the age of 20 and won his first Masters title on April 13, 1997 at the age of 23. He followed it up with the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA Championship making Tiger Woods the only player in history to have won all four major professional golf championships in the same year. For this reason this achievement is also called the ‘Tiger Slam’.

Woods’ performance was touted to be the greatest by a professional golfer in 100 years. He was the youngest golfer to win the Masters and the first African-American to win a major title.

Wood’s margin of 12 strokes was the highest recorded in the 20th century. By June 1997, Tiger Woods became world number 1. In a short time it was clear that not only was Tiger Woods the best in the world at golf but also arguably the best in the history of golf.

2022 marks 25 years since Tiger’s iconic Masters win.

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Abraham Lincoln was America’s most illustrious President. He steered the nation towards progress by fighting for the emancipation of enslaved black people in the United States. Initially however, not all the 50 states were in favour of abolishing slavery and this led to the American Civil War which took place from 1861 to 1865.

This was because the Southern states in the U.S. depended on slavery to run their cotton farms and were unwilling to let their slaves go free. They clashed with the more advanced northerners who were opposed to any sort of human bondage. At this time the northerners were led by the leader of the Republicans, Abraham Lincoln.

When Lincoln was elected president in 1860, 11 southern states retaliated by forming the Confederate States of America. Civil War followed which lasted for 4 years during which Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which declared freedom of all slaves in 1863. He was re-elected in 1864 even as Union military victories signalled the end of the Civil War.

Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC on April 14, 1865. He died the following morning on April 15. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth, a member of the Confederate cause, in the back of the head. Booth used a 44 calibre Derringer pistol which he hid in his pocket.

His assassination was part of a larger conspiracy intended by Booth to revive the Confederate cause by eliminating the three most important officials of the United States government. Secretary of State William H Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson were also intended victims but beyond Lincoln’s death, the plot failed: Seward was wounded but survived and Johnson’s would be attacker lost his nerve. Lincoln is remembered as one of the most venerated heroes of the United States and his legacy of government of the people, by the people and for the people continues to this day in the U.S.A.

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Did you know that the ‘space age’ of Earth began 8 years before Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon? It began when Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin shot into space on April 12, 1961 at 9:07 Moscow time in the spacecraft Vostok 1.

Yuri Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934 in Klushino, Western Oblast, and Soviet Union. His parents worked on a collective farm and he was the third of four children. During the Nazi Occupation during World War II, the Nazis captured Klushino and seized the family’s farm.

Yuri’s family were evicted from their house and were forced to work to feed the soldiers. Yuri’s school was burned down, his brothers sent to Poland for slave labour and he was beaten and left to starve. His mother was injured by the Nazis and was hospitalised. After the war ended Yuri joined school again. His favourite subjects were maths and science and he was fascinated by airplanes. He continued his studies at an industrial technical school and volunteered at a local flying club as a Soviet air cadet. He was picked to join an Air Force pilot’s school in Orenburg and later recommended to the Soviet Space programme.

After rigorous training and a multi level selection process he was chosen for the Vostok programme which aimed to send a man into pace. His parting words as he shot up into space were “Poyekhali!” which means “off we go” in Russian.

His mission was a success and brought him instant worldwide fame. He was awarded the ‘Order of Lenin’ and given the titles of ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’ and ‘Pilot Cosmonaut of the Soviet Union’. Monuments were raised to him and streets were renamed in his honour across the Soviet Union.

The Russian government did not allow Gagarin to participate in any more space missions as he was considered a national hero and too valuable to risk losing. Tragically however, he was killed in an air crash while on a routine training flight on March 27, 1968. His ashes are placed in a niche in the Kremlin wall. After his death in 1968 the town of Gzhatsk was renamed Gagarin. It has been 61 years since his legendary spaceflight shot him into the history books.

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The ancient Olympic Games began in 776 BC and Continued till 393 AD. They were held in Olympia, Greece every four years for athletes from the Greek world. The modern games began in 1896 and are held around the world for people of all nations. It took 1,503 years for the Olympics to return. The idea to rekindle the games was a Frenchman’s - Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who came up with the idea in 1894. The first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece from 6 to 15 April, 1896.

Athletes from 14 nations attended the inaugural games, with the largest number from Greece, Germany, France and Great Britain.

The athletes were all male and competed in 43 events - athletics (track and field), cycling, swimming, gymnastics, weightlifting, wrestling, fencing, shooting and tennis.

Foreign athletes were greeted with parades and banquets by a crowd estimated to be more than 60,000 on the opening day of the competition. The royal family of Greece played an important role in the organization and management of the Games.

There were only two medals to begin with - silver medals for winners and copper medals for the runners up. Today as we know, the International Olympic Committee has converted these to gold and silver with bronze medals for third place.

Ten of the 14 participating nations earned medals, with the US bagging the most gold medals at 11. Greece won the most medals overall 47. It has been 126 years since the first modern Olympics.

On 6 April 1896, the American James Connolly won the triple jump to become the first Olympic champion in more than 1,500 years. He also finished second in the high jump and third in the long jump.

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It is commonly believed that art and science lie on opposite ends of a spectrum, but according to Isaac Asimov, the two are interlinked. He once said that scientists can “make great leaps into new realms of knowledge by looking upon the universe with the eyes of artists”.

Asimov was a living example of this connection. A distinguished professor of biochemistry at Boston University, he was also one of the greatest authors of science fiction stories.

His Foundation series, Galactic Empire series and Robot series of novels placed him in the ‘Big Three’ club of science fiction greats, along with Arthur C Clarke and Robert Heinlein.

Born on January 2, 1920, Asimov came from a Jewish family that moved to the U.S.A. from communist Soviet Union. His parents worked hard at building a new life for their family. They owned a Succession of small stalls that Sold candy, magazines and newspapers.

Asimov used to help out at the stalls and in his spare time cocoon himself in between the books and read the science fiction comics.

He wrote his first story at age 11 and his father encouraged him to try and get it published. Young Asimov took a subway to John W Campbell’s (editor of ‘Astounding Science Fiction’) office in New York and managed to meet him. Although his first story was rejected, Campbell saw potential in young Asimov and encouraged him to keep writing. Asimov never gave up and after many tries sold his first story, ‘Marooned off Vesta’ in 1939.

He went on to write or edit more than 500 books that would enthrall and amaze science fiction fans everywhere. His novelette, ‘Nightfall’ was voted the best science fiction story of all time by the Science Fiction Writers of America.

He coined the word ‘robotics’ and laid down three rules for robots in his work. They are: 1. - Robots cannot harm humans;

2. - Robots must obey humans except when an order conflicts with the first rule;

3. - A robot may protect his own existence as long as it does not conflict with the first and second rules. His book ‘I Robot’ was made into a successful film by the same name starring Will Smith. Asimov died on April 6 in 1992. This year we commemorate the 30th death anniversary of this great writer.

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“Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere”.

These are the opening lines of one of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s most famous poems, ‘Paul Revere’s Ride’. While many poets of his generation were busy creating complicated masterpieces with oblique references and obscure meanings, Longfellow poured his simplicity into his poems. They neither took the reader to poignant heights nor wretched lows but described with gentle imagery the deeds of honest men and women.

Critics have called his poetry childish and worthless but for many children and families across America there was no better poet to read by the fireside at the end of day.

Born on February 27, 1807 in Portland in the US state of Maine to descendants of pioneers, Longfellow knew very early on that he would devote his life to literature.

His parents encouraged his aspirations and sent him on a European tour to learn French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and German. Apart from his poetry Longfellow is also known for his translations of Dante Alighieri’s ‘Divine Comedy’ and the poetry of Michelangelo.

Longfellow was married twice. His first wife died shortly after childbirth and his second from burn injuries when she accidentally dropped a self-lighting match on herself. His grief at both the tragedies was great and he channelled his sorrow into poems such as ‘Footsteps of Angels’ and the ‘Village Blacksmith’.

One of the true gems of American literature, Longfellow died on March 24, 1882 and this year we commemorate his 140th death anniversary.

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Before the construction of the Suez Canal, ships travelling from Europe had to sail around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa to reach Asia. The Cape route as it was known resulted in European settlements in this area which controlled and operated trading stations as well as port activities.

The European population called themselves ‘Afrikaaners’ and systemized the practice of racial segregation in South Africa, known as apartheid. Apartheid was legalized officially in 1948 when the National Party, led by Daniel Malan gained office the same year. This included banning native people from public facilities, white residential areas and even parliament. The natives were relegated to backward areas called ‘bantustans’.

This monstrous disregard for human rights led to a global boycott of South Africa with the U.S. and UN imposing trade sanctions on it.

Apart from global pressure, the South African government had to deal with growing resentment in the native population at home. Racial tensions sparked unfortunate incidents like the Sharpeville massacre on March 21, 1960 when 69 African protesters were killed by police officers.

The African National Congress, which was established on January 8, 1912, to defend the rights of the African people, established a military arm to launch attacks on white infrastructure. The government retaliated by declaring the ANC as illegal and arresting dozens of their leaders, including Nelson Mandela who was held in prison for 27 years.

After more than four decades of struggle and censure, the white minority in South Africa voted to end racial discrimination on March 17, 1992. Nelson Mandela became the first African president of South Africa winning a fully represented democratic election in 1994.

This year, we celebrate 30 years of referendum for the abolition of apartheid in South Africa.

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The American inventor and scientist Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, Professor Alexander Melville BelI, was a respected phonetician and his mother, Eliza Grace Bell, was a hearing disabled person.

Bell became interested in the science of sound to help his mother communicate. Bell’s father, who was an authority on elocution and speech, invented a system of phonetic symbols to represent the position of the speech organs in articulating sounds. He called this system ‘visible speech’. Bell became a student under his father and soon became an expert in the field.

In 1870 his family moved to Canada, where Bell continued his efforts to help the hearing disabled. He opened a school called the “School of Vocal Physiology and Mechanics of Speech” in 1872 in Boston, in the United States. Eventually, his work on hearing and speech led him to experiment with hearing devices and sending voice messages down a telegraph wire. In an experiment conducted by Bell and his assistant Thomas Watson on March 10, 1876, Bell sent a voice signal to an adjoining room using a liquid transmitter. The first words ever spoken over a telephone were “Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you”!

Upon obtaining a patent for his invention Bell attempted to sell his invention to the world’s most important communications company at that time – Western Union. Western Union declined his offer and Bell eventually formed the Bell Telephone Company in 1877, which is known today as AT&T.

Bell did not stop with the telephone. He went on to invent the metal detector, the audiometer (used to detect hearing problems) and a device to help find icebergs. He died of complications arising from diabetes on August 2, 1922 at the age of 75.

This year we celebrate the 176th birth anniversary of this legendary inventor.

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India has around 106 national parks that cover an area of over 40,000 sq.km. Did you know that the first national park in the world was established on March 1, 1872 in the U.S.A. and covers an area of 8,104 sq.km?

The Yellowstone National Park lies in northwest Wyoming and extends into the states of Montana and Idaho. The park is rich in wildlife with 67 species of mammals, 322 species of birds, 16 species of fish, over 1,100 species of native plants, more than 200 species of exotic plants and over 400 species of thermophiles (heat loving bacteria).

The park features the Yellowstone caldera, one of the largest super volcanoes in the world, with over 10,000 thermal features and more than 500 geysers, including ‘Old Faithful’. Old Faithful is a geyser that regularly throws out Columns of boiling water at intervals of 60 to 90 minutes. It was first discovered in 1870.

Yellowstone is situated in a region that has been volcanically active for tens of millions of years. Tectonic movement of the North American Plate has thinned the Earth’s crust in the area, forming a hot spot - a place where a dome of magma, or molten rock, comes close to the surface. This builds up pressure which causes the geysers to erupt.

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