In the last part, we talked about the ‘Historic’ #PlutoFlyby, that probably made more headlines than anything else this year. If you haven’t checked it out yet, here is the link.
Are you ready for another amazing ride through the unknown?
If yes, fasten your seat belts, and control your excitement, as we talk about “Earth’s Older Cousin”..
Meet “Earth’s Older Cousin”..
It has a lot of similarities with Earth; Some are so striking that Kepler 452b might also be coined as ‘Earth 2.0′.. It might not be Earth’s close twin, but it is a pretty close cousin!
How is it similar to Earth? It lies in the constellation Cygnus, which is about 1400 light years away from our solar system. With an orbital period of 385 days, it is just little more far away from its star than Earth is from our Sun. Unlike Kepler 186f which orbits a cooler star, Kepler 452b orbits a star which belongs to the same class as our Sun; it is just 10% more brighter and 4% more massive.
Is it the same size as Earth? It is about 60 percent wider than Earth, and is 5 times more massive: It has a “more than even” chance of being rocky. It is estimated to be 6 billion years older than Earth.
Courtesy: The Monitor Daily
Does it host life?
It has been at the perfect distance from its star for millions of years, which means that it possibly hosts life or could have at some point in its history. It’s star is 1.5 billion years old than our Sun.
Temperature: Kepler 452b is at the optimal temperature to allow liquid water to cease on its surface- which is vital for supporting life.
Surface: The Kepler Team worked closely with geologists to know that the surface of this planet is rocky to an extent; and the existence of a full-fledged volcanic system is plausible.
Life? It is said to be warmer, and the added light and heat energy supports plant life. If there are more plants, human life can possibly cease as Plant Photosynthesis is the process that generates the air we breathe..
Courtesy: UthMag
But, can we really get there?
Kepler 452b might be warm, sustainable, possibly wet. It is also similar to Earth in a lot of other ways; But it is 1,400 light years* away!
[What is a light year? It is the distance a beam of light can travel in year.. And the speed of light is 1,86,000 mi/sec! Light from the sun takes 8 minutes to reach Earth; Imagine how FAR Kepler 452b might be.. I can’t even.]
That seems pretty impossible in the present time, unless some prodigy scientist invents a spacecraft that travels way faster than light..
Deep under, I really hope we get to explore Kepler 452b soon. What are your thoughts? Keep pondering, and check out this video while at it.
If not, quantum dot (QD) is a nanocrystal made of semi-conductor material that exhibit quantum properties. Quantum dots were first discovered by Alexey Ekimov in 1981.
Researchers have studied applications for quantum dots in transistors, solar cells, LEDs, and diode lasers. They have also investigated quantum dots as agents for medical imaging and as possible qubits in quantum computing. The first commercial release of a product utilizing quantum dots was the Sony XBR X900A series of flat panel televisions released in 2013.
There are several ways to produce them; colloidal synthesis, fabrication, viral assembly, electrochemical assembly, heavy-metal free quantum dots and bulk manufacture. They also have a wide range of applications starting from photovoltaic devices, light emitting devices, photodetector devices, to biology and computing.
Courtesy: nanotechmag
Here is how they help in computing….
Computers could get a huge speed boost by using photons instead of electrons to process and transmit data. Researchers have designed a light-emitting device that can flip on and off 90 billion times per second. The record-breaking speed of the new device, based on quantum dots, could become the basis for faster computing at the speed of light.
Duke University researchers engineered the quantum dots—tiny spheres of semiconducting metal about six nanometers in diameter—as part of a “spontaneous emission” light source that can be modulated at speeds of 90 GHz. That’s much faster than the fastest laser diodes which switch on and off at speeds of 25 to 50 GHz. Such a breakthrough could pave the way for new optoelectronic devices that use light to transmit data between traditional electronic microchips.
A plasmonic(metal) structure was made that had a gap of few nanometers into which the quantum dots could be embedded. A plasmonic structure takes advantage of how light can excite electrons on the surface of metals. The phenomenon creates intense electromagnetic fields that can effectively make light emitters, such as quantum dots, emit light much faster.
The researchers took inspiration from the design of radio-frequency antennas to create tiny “plasmonic nanopatch antennas” that could boost the rate at which quantum dots emitted light. The design consists of silver nanocubes and a thin gold film layer separated by a gap. That tiny gap contains a spread of quantum dots sandwiched between the nanocubes and gold layer.
When the team aimed a laser at the 75-nm wide silver nanocubes to excite free electrons in the metal, the subsequent energy remained trapped on the cubes’ surfaces and created an electromagnetic field that could excite the quantum dots. Result: the spontaneous emission rate (rate at which the excited quantum dots gave off energy) jumped by 880 times, the total fluorescence intensity (brightness) by 2300 times.
Researchers say that the most near term application is not for optical computing but for optical communication at short distances; for example, between processor cores. Short distance communications need good, cheap, and energy-efficient light sources that can be made directly on chip, which is not possible with lasers.
But quantum dots aren’t ready for prime time in optical communication just yet. Next up, the Duke University researchers want to excite the quantum dots with electricity rather than a laser, which is a crucial step towards building electrically-pumped devices that can be modulated faster than 100 GHz. To achieve this, they hope to use a new class of 2-D semiconductors based on materials such as graphene that could operate at incredibly low power levels.
Do you think you’re sitting still right now? You’re on a planet that is orbiting a star at a speed of 30km/s. Your star is a part of a gigantic solar system, and it is orbiting the center of the galaxy at 250km/s. That galaxy is moving through an universe at 600km/s. Since you started reading this, you have traveled about 3000km! And not only this, we only know about 1% of what lies beyond us, in the vast expanse, far away from our planet.
2015 was one of those years where we took a step ahead in reaching out to the farthest horizons, and bringing out information that changed the way we idealized our counterparts.
From where do I begin? Honestly, I always fall short of words whenever I have to talk about the mammoth progress in space exploration this year! To commemorate this huge success, we decided to compile a list of the most prominent breakthroughs so far, to keep honoring the amount of effort various space agencies are investing to ‘Explore the unexplored’.
‘Hi Pluto’
Courtesy: gannett-cdn
The Pluto Flyby made more headlines than any other hot news this year, and well this limelight was well justified! On the July 14th, we got to meet our distant friend Pluto, and explore a lot about it, and its moons. The New Horizon Spacecraft began its journey on January 19, 2006. It swung past Jupiter in February 2007, where it got a speed boost, and cut down three years from its travel time. After 9 years of travel, it finally went past Pluto on July 14, 2015 at 7:35AM EDT. The closest it could get was 7,200 miles away from the surface of this planet, dwarf planet.
There was a lot of exhilaration in the air, and across all social platforms. Well, why wouldn’t there be any? Till now, whatever we knew of Pluto was based on telescopic observations, and human calculations. And now, NASA actually developed the fastest spacecraft, and sent it to the excavate information on the unknown. Are your ready to delve deeper into this much celebrated event?
________________________________
The New Horizon Spacecraft
Courtesy: redchairblogs
The New Horizon Spacecraft was developed in a quest to probe Pluto, and its biggest moon Charon. It was a part of NASA’s $460 million mission to study the world past Neptune. It is the fastest spacecraft ever built, and it swung past our moon in just 9 hours, while the Apollo Mission took over 3 days!
Did you know?
The New Horizon Spacecraft houses the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto in the year 1930.
It has an in-built spectrometer, dust particle detector, and many high power cameras, including the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager(LORRI) and the Ralph Instrument. It spent the whole day of July 14th carefully studying the surface of Pluto; it sampled the solar wind, the surface magnetic field, dust and atmospheric conditions. Scientists believe that a lot of information was extracted by the New Horizon, and it will take around 16 months for the whole set of high quality images to get transmitted back to Earth. It takes the spacecraft about 4-6 hours to transmit a normal image, and it takes NASA around 45 minutes to 1 hour to load it!
____________________________
Love Letter from Pluto
Pluto might be around 5 billion kilometers away in a faraway land, but it is nothing less than an ‘Icy Wonder’. Since the news of the Pluto Flyby had predominantly hit the social media, I was deeply intrigued, and learnt a lot about this fascinating ‘Dwarf Planet’.
Courtesy: Wikipedia
‘Till 1930, we only knew of 8 bodies in the solar system’
How was it discovered? It was accidentally discovered at the Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona by the self-taught astronomer Clyde Tombaugh on February 18, 1930.
But where did the idea of a ninth planet come from? The existence of an unknown ninth planet was first proposed by Percival Lowell, an astronomer. He discovered that the irregularities, or wobbles in the orbital revolution of Uranus and Neptune was caused by the gravitational pull of another unknown planet.
When was it brought to limelight? On March 13, 1930- Lowell’s Birth Anniversary, Pluto was officially born. It’s name is derived from the Roman Name of the ‘God of the Underworld’.
‘Let’s talk some science, shall we?’
General Facts
It was first conferred the status of a ‘planet’ and is 2,370 kilometers in diameter. It has a mass of 13,050,000,000,000 billion kg (Still, it is only 0.00218 times the Mass of Earth!)
It has 5 moons: Charon, Kerberos, Styx, Nix and Hydra. Pluto and Charon, it’s largest moon are tidally locked to each other. Tidally locked? It means that both the bodies always present the same face to one another, and neither body movies in the other direction. Did you know? Earth and it’s moon follow the same phenomena too!
It has an eccentric orbit, and is titled to about 22 degrees compared to other major planets. It is 4.5 billion miles away from the sun, and it takes 248 Earth Years to go around it. Surprisingly, it is closer to the Sun than it’s neighbor- Neptune.
DID YOU KNOW?
Pluto has about 66% of our moon’s diameter, and only 18% of its mass! Pluto’s biggest moon Charon is very similar to our own moon. It is 1,208 kilometers in diameter, and takes about 6.4 Earth Days to orbit around Pluto.
The air, and the land..
Courtesy: Discovery News
What do we know of Pluto’s Atmosphere? When Pluto is closer to the sun, its surface ice thaws and forms a thin atmosphere, primarily consisting of nitrogen with a little carbon dioxide and methane. And as it moves away from the sun, the atmosphere freezes and falls on Pluto’s surface. The atmosphere of Pluto is so vast that along with the planet, it ceases to be larger than our Earth. Fascinating!
‘The surface is complex and varied’. The New Horizon released many photographic evidences to justify that the surface of Pluto has a lot of variations. It has many bright patches, like the “heart” shaped one, and many dark blotches, including one that strongly resembles a ‘Whale Tail’ (Over the next few months, we might actually have scientific names for them)
_________________________________________
Why was it demoted from being a planet?
A few months after the New Horizon left Earth’s surface, a formalized definition of a ‘Planet’ was formulated by IAU. It said:
A planet is a celestial body that:
(a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.
IAU, and other prominent scientists voted, and it was mutually decided that Pluto didn’t quite meet all the three criteria. Thus, it was conferred the status of a dwarf planet seven months after New Horizon began its voyage.
(That means, New Horizon set out to explore one of the nine planets in our solar system, only to end up exploring our nearest dwarf planet!)
However, that is not the only reason.
Mike Brown, A Scientist, A professor, and an astrophysicist started studying Pluto from the year 2002. He found Eris, another celestial body in the Kuiper Belt that shared many striking similarities with Pluto. It also has a diameter of 2,336 kilometers, while Pluto has a diameter of 2,370 kilometers.He suggested that similar objects should be classified together, and strongly favored the new stature of Pluto.
What do we know about Pluto now?
Courtesy: Slate
1. Pluto is definitely bigger than Eris
And they might be different is many ways. It’s always been difficult to measure the size of Pluto as it’s atmosphere creates a mirage around its boundaries, resulting in a lot of uncertainties.
2. We know the sizes of three moons
Charon has a diameter of 1,208 kilometers and is the largest. The other two, Nix and Hydra, have diameters of 30 and 40 kilometers respectively. Kerberos and Styx are so wee and tiny that is almost impossible to accurately ascertain their diameter.
3. Nitrogen smell was predominant from a distance of 6 million kilometers
With the current estimate of the amount of Nitrogen on Pluto, Scientists expected to obtain traces from 1.5-2 million kilometers away. But, it happened much earlier. It could possibly be a complex atmosphere, with more nitrogen concentration that previously determined. Scientists also hold the exotic possibility of an entirely new process happening on the surface of Pluto.
In the next few parts, we’ll talk about other predominant breakthroughs in space exploration. So, make sure you’re tuned to the website!
We live in a complicated world. Our lives are driven by unfathomably complex systems that overlap in a cacophony of technology to deliver us our cellular service, Internet, groceries, health care, transportation, consumer goods, music, TV, movies and everything in between.
Gone are those days when electrical circuits were just made on rigid circuit boards.
Courtesy: shuanglicable.com
Previously, researchers were envisioning ways of making flat conductors sandwiched between layers of insulating material to lay out electrical circuits in order to serve in various applications. At that time, aluminium alloys were the most important elementsin the electronics world, and they possessed invariable characteristics, such as:
Excellent corrosion resistance capacity
High current carrying capacity
Suitable for low and high voltage lines
Ideal for use in coastal areas (due to less corrosion)
Modern electronics
Courtesy: thegreatcourses.com
In today’s fast pacing world, a lot of other elements have been discovered, and some have been suitably modified to satisfy all the criteria for usage in the electronics world. Gallium is used in doping semiconductors and blue light LEDs; Indium for LCD screens, computer chips, LEDs and solar panels; Tellurium is a major component for high efficiency solar panels, and are also used in rewritable disks; Praseodymium is used as an alloying agent with magnesium to craft parts for aircraft engines; Samarium forms a high quality magnet when mixed with cobalt; Dysprosium is used in laser technology, and nuclear energy plants; and Lanthanum is used for batteries in hybrid cars, etc.
Courtesy: wikipedia Gallium sealed in vaccum apoule
Over the last few years, these common, rigid, printed circuit boards are being replaced by flexible, stretchable and bendable electronics. To allow the circuits to be easily bendable and stretchable, researchers have shifted to liquid gallium alloys as an electrical interconnect material. But these liquid alloys have a very big disadvantage i.e. they oxidize very quickly, precisely in a minute or so. Scientists believe that if a solution can be found, liquid alloys can be a major advantage. Through the use of ionic species, the oxidation rate can be controlled. The result will be a foldable circutry which is tightly spaced and can be fixed with airplane’s wings and even human skin. Scientists are also working on graphene to get flexi circuits. Graphene is a lattice of pure carbon only one atom thick.
Courtesy: cmp.mines-stetitnne.fr
Devices from surgical sutures that monitor skin temperature to biodegradable sensors that dissolve when their useful life is done, share a unifying quality: They can slip seamlessly into the soft, moist, moving conditions of the living world.
Electrical monitor can mold to brain surface to sense aberrant electrical activity.
Applications:
Courtesy: sciencedaily.com Stretchable, bendable electronics can have many uses.
The hybrid flexible system can be used to monitor stresses and strains and report this information through miniature embedded antennas to ground crews or a pilot.
During LCD fabrication, if these flexible materials are used as a substrate instead of using glass, then the entire system can be flexible because the film deposited on the surface of substrate is very thin.
Courtesy: forums.oculus.com
Flexible solar cells for powering solar lights.
Courtesy: prezi.com
In “bunker buster” bombs by Air Force: These bombs detonate after penetrating deep inside the earth
If there’s one thing humans have always loved doing, it has to be exploring new modes of transport! What if you could get from your home to the supermarket without actually using a vehicle? That’s where the idea of Teleportation comes into existence. YES, I’m talking about what you might know as the likes of “Star Trek” and “The Fly”..
What is Teleportation?
In layman Terms, Teleportation is the transfer of matter from one place to other, without actually peregrinating the distance between them. And how does this really take place? Deconstruction into the constituent molecules occurs and this matter is converted into energy. The energy traverses through space and reaches the other destination where energy is reconstructed into matter again.
(If this reminded you of Harry Potter, I really like you my friend… I wonder if they use the method of teleportation to travel in the magical world. What do you think?)
What is Quantum Teleportation?
Quantum Teleportation is the process by which quantum information is transmitted from one place to the other, with the help of Quantum Entanglement and other classic techniques of transferring matter. It is a way of transferring qubits from one location to other, without requiring the help of a physical particle.
Sounds simple enough? Well, the real science behind this is a long series of equations with some variables we might not have seen in our lives, so I guess it will be better to tackle them at later stages of life!
It is no more a dream…
Teleportation Setup in the University of Tokyo | Courtesy: Google Images
The first instance of quantum teleportation was reported in the year 1998. Physicists from the California Institute of Technology successfully teleported a photon (a carrier of light) from one place to another. The group succeeded in reading the structure of the photon, transferred this information across a meter of a coaxial cable, and created a replica of the same particle at another location. With this, they were able to overcome the barriers of Heisenberg’s Uncertainity Principle, which states that it is impossible to simultaneously determine the location and speed of a particle.
Since then, scientists have conducted several experiments to transport quantum information, or even demonstrate the process of entanglement. In the year 2014, researchers at the Delft Institute of Technology in Netherlands succeeded in transferring Quantum Information from one qubit to the other, located 3 meters away. (Quantum Information determines the exact state of an atom or photon)
What we are teleporting is the state of a particle, if you believe we are nothing more than a collection of atoms strung together in a particular way, then in principle it should be possible to teleport ourselves from one place to another
— Professor Hanson, Delft Institute
This is one of the first instances where quantum information was teleported with 100% reliability, using Quantum Entanglement*. If worked upon, this could be a breakthrough in the field of Quantum Computing (If you don’t know what Quantum Computing is, you should check out our article here). It can be used to develop an ultra-fast connection between two quantum computers, which might help in extending a global platform to transport quantum information at high speeds. This might be the first building block to create a *secure* quantum internet, which might superpower today’s world wide web.
[*Quantum Entanglement: It is a Quantum Science phenomena in which two quantum states are entangled with each other, even after being separated by a spatial distance. How does that happen? The quantum states of two or more objects have to be subjected in reference with each other. This leads to a correlation between the observable properties of the states.]
What about ‘Human Teleportation’ then?
Courtesy: Discover Magazine
Neuroscientists have created an out-of-body illusion in people placed inside a brain scanner and used that illusion to perceptually ‘teleport’ the participants to different locations in a room.
This experiment was conducted by a group of scientists from the Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet have found out that the perceived location of the illusion can be interpreted from the activity patterns in specific cells of our brain. Studies show that rats possess certain “place cells” in the brain, that help it track its own position in a room. Further probe is being conducted to know exactly how human brain cells perpetuate the illusion of being a body somewhere else in space. In the experiment conducted in Sweden, the 15 participants were put in a brain scanner, where they could observe a body of a stranger in the foreground, while their physical body is visible in the background of the scanner…
What the future of teleportation looks like? Watch this video…
This idea really fascinates us.. What about you? Tell us in the comments below..
Have you ever thought of why you have round pupils, while animals possess varied shapes? Don’t worry, we answer you today!
We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.
How does a Pupil Function?
Essentially what the pupil does is allow light to pass through the eye and onto the retina at the back of the eye. In bright light, the terrestrial vertebrate pupil contracts (becomes smaller) to reduce the amount of light coming in. Conversely, in dim light the pupil expands to increase the amount of light coming in. It’s functionally very similar to the aperture on a camera.
Cats are said to have creepy eyes! Don’t you agree?
Courtesy: news.discovery
Cats have vertical pupils which are mainly found in nocturnal predators who snare for pray. So the reason why cats have vertical pupils lies in their mode of hunting . Goats, sheep, horses, domestic cats, and numerous other animals have pupils which vary from fully circular in faint light to narrow slits or rectangles in bright light.
Advantages of Vertical Pupil:
Longer length of focus during the daytime
Allows a small predator to see horizontal movement in sharp focus- important when spotting prey from low to the ground
Crypsis: a round pupil is more distinctly noticeable than a vertical pupil.
Courtesy: digitalalcohol
“The size of a pupil depends on the amount of light entering it..”
The science behind this incospicious fact
A domestic cat can change the area of its pupil by 27 times as compared to that of round pupils found in human beings. The simplest and most basic theory looks at an animal’s functional anatomy. Slit pupils are commonly found in animals with eyes that are exposed to highly variable light conditions- i.e., nocturnal or crepuscular animals. Slit pupils allow the iris to contract or expand more dramatically. On the other hand, many noctural species have round pupils which are very good in contracting to small size. For example, Tarsier.
Courtesy: discovermagazine
The amount of light entering our eyes can’t be the only reason for orientation. Instead, the pupils are almost always horizontal or vertical, which suggests the possibility of other benefits that could invariably explain this orientation.
In fishes, pupils do not dilate. Their means of controlling the amount of light entering their eye is relegated further back, within the retina. The exception to this are shark and ray species, which have evolved pupils that can contract or expand. This has led to some pretty bizarre shapes.
Courtesy: dailymail
Species with vertically elongated pupils are very likely to be ambush predators and stay active all day and night. Species with horizontally elongated pupils are very likely to be prey and to have laterally placed eyes.
Humans have round pupils; and the outermost (black) zone of the pupil is completely blocked, meaning that in bright conditions it would be unable to see colors with longer wavelengths. But when the pupil constricts in a vertical way, all three zones of the pupil still have some exposure. In other words, an organism with a slit, multifocal pupil could maintain better color vision at both low and high levels of light.
Courtesy: en.wikipedia
HORIZONTAL SLIT PUPILS
Mongooses, some rays, some frogs and toads, Japanese vine snakes, and octopi they all have horizontal pupils. It allows them to see better in front and behind, and maybe not to be dazzled by sunlight from above. Horizontal pupils sacrifice some sharpness with the advantage of an extremely wide- nearly 360 degree in some species- field of vision. Many animals with horizontal pupil are foragers, whether they are prey or predators.
Courtesy: animal-zone
DID YOU KNOW?
Noctoral Gecko have zig-zagged pupils that can tightly constrict to let in only pinpoints of light.
Courtesy: rachaelwrites
Fascinating, aren’t they? We really hope that you’ve been liking our articles till now
While talking about the states of matter, we usually speak only about solid, liquid, gas, and sometimes about plasma. But scientists say that there are over 15 states of matter in total! While solids, liquids, gases and plasma are formed naturally, the other states are obtained in the laboratory. The latest addition to this list are Jahn-Teller Metals.
Jahn-Teller metals exhibit a unique combination of the properties. They act as an insulator, a superconductor, a metal and a magnet, which makes them even more interesting!
Courtesy: Physics World
A little bit in detail..
A group of scientists led by Dr. Kosmas Prassides at the Tohoku University in Japan found that by adding rubidium atoms to carbon-60 molecules (commonly known as ‘buckyballs’), a whole new state of matter can be obtained.
How do they function?
When the pressure was increased by adding rubidium atoms, the substance changed from an insulator to a superconductor.
Their study provides important clues about how the interplay between the electronic structure of the molecules and their spacing within the lattice can strengthen interactions between electrons that cause superconductivity.
When the rubidium molecules apply pressure, Jahn-Teller Effect comes into play and what was previously acting as an insulator now acts as metal. The effect persists for a while. Though the molecules stick to their original shapes, the electrons manage to hop around and behave as conductors.
Courtesy: Physics World
What’s more?
It acts as a superconductor at a relatively high temperature of -135⁰C! If this can be replicated on other materials, then superconductors would become easily accessible and useful!
Since superconductors have the ability to conduct electricity with zero resistance, they also make almost perfect magnets and can be used as superconducting electromagnets. Magnetic levitation (maglev) trains can use this material as superconducting magnetic coils on their base, which causes them to ‘float’ on a track.
Courtesy: IBN Times
It is exciting to know that a single substance can exhibit such an exclusive amalgam of properties. Further research is going on to find out if the same is possible with other elements as well. If scientists manage to find the same combination of properties in various other metals, it could lead to a major breakthrough in the field of Science!
In the year 1929, German-born Mathematician Hermann Weyl theorized the existence of massless particles that act as anti-electrons: particles that have the opposite charge as electrons. After 86 years of hunting, Researchers have discovered Weyl Fermion for the first time ever.
Electrons, protons and neutrons belong to the category of Fermions. Unlike other particles, fermions can collide with each other, and they are unique. It is stated that every fermion exists in a different state at the same position and time.
Weyl Fermions are massless anti-electrons that act as basic building blocks of life; We can combine two Weyl Fermions to produce an electron.
They possess a high degree of mobility, and the electron’s spin is in the same direction as its motion. This could be a breakthrough in the field of electronics!
A group of researchers from Princeton University have found that Weyl Fermions exist as Quasi Particlesin the semimetal Tantalum Arsenide (TaAs). Coined as a “Weyl semimetal”, TaAs showed heavy traces of weyl particles on its surface, forming “Fermi Arcs”. Further probe showed that they exist as cones and nodes on the surface.
“The road to more efficient Electronics and Quantum Computing”
“Weyl fermions could be used to solve the traffic jams that you get with electrons in electronics – they can move in a much more efficient, ordered way than electrons,” – Zahid Hasan, Head Researcher, Princeton University
Scientists say that this discovery is huge; it paves way for advanced electronics, known as “Weyltronics” and new types of quantum computing. Let us see how..
Weyltronics
Electrons are the backbone of today’s electronics, and while they are prime charge carriers, they also bounce into each other while losing energy and producing heat. With the inception of Weyl Fermions, electronics could become more efficient.
The particle’s spin is in the same direction as its motion, which means that all the fermions move in the same direction. They can easily traverse through obstacles that scatter normal electrons with greater speeds. Weyl Fermions travel with 1000 times more speed than electrons.
Weyl Fermions can be used to create massless electrons that move quickly with very less backscattering. Backscattering hinders the efficient movement of electrons, and in turn generates a lot of heat and loss of energy.
“For a physicist, the Weyl fermions are most notable for behaving like a composite of monopole- and antimonopole-like particles when inside a crystal. This means that Weyl particles that have opposite magnetic-like charges can nonetheless move independently of one another with a high degree of mobility,” Prof Hasan said.
Quantum Computing
What is Quantum Computing?
Quantum Computing is a new kid of theoretical computation system that uses all Quantum Mechanical Phenomena, such as Superposition and Entanglement to perform data operations. Unlike normal computing that encodes data into binary digits, Quantum Computing uses Quantum Bits, also known as qubits.
Quantum Computers rely on the principles of Superposition to generate quantum bits for data processing. Although superposition solves the previously intractable problems of computing, the signals can easily collapse if they interact with the environment, causing an interference in the production of qubits.
Since Weyl Fermions don’t interact with the surroundings, their discovery could lead to a new way of encoding quantum information, says M. Hasan.
If you’re too intrigued by these fermions, you might want to check out this video as well..
According to researchers at Princeton University, Weyl Fermions are very strange, and there could be many things that could arise from this particle, and we’re not capable of imagining how beneficial this particle could be!
The ameliorated and more powerful version of atomic bomb is Nuclear Missile. Nuclear reactions are the roots of destructive force derived by these weapons. Nuclear missiles carry one or more warheads containing hydrogen bombs, each capable of destroying a city. Capable of carrying their deadly payload halway around the world, nuclear missiles are the single deadliest weapon ever created. India has been using the Nuclear Technology for the good of the mankind..
Courtesy: chemwiki.ucdavis.edu
Massive amount of energy is released by both fission bombs and thermonuclear weapons (combination of fission and fusion). These weapons are in contrast of hydrogen bombs, which uses both fission and fussion to power their greater explosive potential.
During fission reactions, nucleus splitting takes place and a mass of fissile materials is assembled into a super critical mass either by the “gun” method or the “implosion” method. Each fission reaction doubles the amount of neutrons and energy released, causing a chain reaction. After only a few microseconds, this chain reaction can produce an explosion equivalent to the detonation of many thousands of tons (or kilotons) of TNT.
Courtesy: atomicarchive.com
The thermonuclear weapon uses the energy from primary nuclear fission reaction to compress and ignite a secondary nuclear fusion reaction. This power results from uncontrolled, self-sustaining chain reaction in isotopes of hydrogen which combine at extremely high temperatures to form helium in nuclear fusion process.
Courtesy: astro.unl.edu
How does a Nuclear Missile work?
Uranium and Plutonium are the two elements that have unstable nuclei, which makes them radioactive.
A)Naturally occurring uranium and plutonium undergo radioactive decay constantly.
B)The heavy nuclei breaks into lighter nuclei when it hits a neutron. This in turn generates more neutrons which attack other nuclei, creating a chain reaction.
C)When the nucleus breaks a couple of neutrons by shooting, Radiation is generated. By breaking down the nuclei themselves rather than releasing energy through a conventional chemical reaction, atom bombs can release more than 80 terajoules of energy per kilogram (TJ/kg).
DID YOU KNOW?
Any nuclei heavier than iron will release energy when broken apart. Whereas lighter nuclei release energy when they merge.
Pokhran: India’s Advancement in Nuclear Technology
India’s first successful nuclear bomb test with the assigned code name ‘Smiling Buddha’ (MEA designation- Pokhran I) was taken on May 18,1974. The device was formally called the ‘Peaceful Nuclear Explosive’, but it was usually referred to as the Smiling Buddha.The fully assembled device had a hexagonal cross section, 1.25 meters in diameter, and weighed 1400 kg. It was mounted on a hexagonal metal tripod, and was transported to the shaft on rails which the army kept covered with sand.
After 24 years of Pokhran I, further 5 nuclear tests were conducted on May 11,1998 and May 13,1998 by the Indian Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). One thermonuclear device under the code name Shakti and 4 AEC devices were tested and Indian has since declared moratorium on testing. The project was headed by Rajagopala Chidambaram and the team consisted of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Raja Ramanna, P.K. Iyengar, Nagapattinam Sambasiva Venkatesan and Waman Dattatreya Patwardhan.
“The 58 Engineers were specially chosen for the crucial task of maintaining the shafts in which India’s nuclear devices would be tested”
– Raj Chengappa. Editorial Director, India Today
After the test, there was a detailed review, based on the two experimental results: (i) Seismic measurement close to the site and around and (ii) Radioactive measurement of the material after post shot drill in the test site. Kalam, also Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister; R Chidambaram who was chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission; and Anil Kakodkar, then Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, were key players in the Pokhran-II nuclear tests.
Dr. Kalam was the brain behind the multiple tests conducted at the Pokhran Test Range. Our former president was in charge of the Strategic Weaponisation of Nuclear Missiles. He stayed in the Thar Desert for a fortnight, and coined this period as ‘The Dawn of a New Missile Era’…
Courtesy: Focus News
The Bhabha Atomic Research Center had presented Kalam with a banyan tree bonsai with a smiling buddha under it. The Pokhran Nuclear Experiments were a “defining moment” in the country’s progress. On May 11, 2015, Dr. Kalam had tweeted while reminiscing the dawn of India’s Nuclear Era..
Courtesy: Dr. Kalam Twitter Handle
Since then, India has been successfully progressing towards success in the field of ‘Nuclear Missile Technology’..
The Sciencopedia 