Chandigarh, Thursday, July 8, 1999
Chandigarh, Thursday, July 8, 1999 |
| Towards international space
station by Radhakrishna Rao The American sponsored international space station (ISS), a truly multinational venture supported by besides United States, Russia, Japan, Canada and Europe represented by the 14 nations’ European Space Agency (ESA) is now shaping up in outer space. Neglect
of tree biology Treating
waste water
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Towards international space
station The American sponsored international space station (ISS), a truly multinational venture supported by besides United States, Russia, Japan, Canada and Europe represented by the 14 nations’ European Space Agency (ESA) is now shaping up in outer space —with two elements already in orbit and a third element set to join them this November. The first astronaut is slated to move into the station in March, 2000. First mooted about a decade back the ISS is meant to establish a long-term manned presence in space and to conduct varied experiments in the zero gravity conditions of the outer space. As envisaged now the first experiments on the space station will begin in the second half of the year 2000 and exploitation will continue throughout the life of the ISS, until at least 2014. Obviously, as things stand now it would take more than 40 orbital missions uptil the year 2004, to ferry the various elements required to build the massive orbital complex weighing more than 450 tons. When completed, the space station will make room for as many as six astronauts to live inside it. Two elements of the station —the Russian built Zarya module and the US’s utility module —are already in orbit. The third element, the Russian service module named Zvedza (star in Russian) will now be launched in November for Baikanur, Kazakhsthan. It is currently undergoing testing at the Baikanur cosmodrome. "Zveda" will serve as the crew living quarters over the next four years while the station is being assembled. Zveda will also carry the antenna for the European Global Time System, the first experiment on the station. It will broadcast experimental chronometric signals whose proposed uses range from automatic adjustment of clocks and watches between time zones to remote immobilisation of stolen vehicles. The Columbus laboratory, Europe’s main contribution to the station, is now planned for launch onboard the American reusable space transportation system space shuttle in Feb, 2004. Another key European system, the European Robotic Arm, built for the Russian Science and Power Platform, is set to be launched is Nov. 2001. The 10-metre arm will be used to assemble the Russian segment of the station. It is currently undergoing flight qualification. The first European astronaut Umberto Guidoni is now scheduled to set foot on the station in June, 2000. His space shuttle crew will deliver up to 10 tons of equipment experiments and supplies to the station, transporting the material in a multipurpose logistics module developed by the Italian space agency. In the meantime, the ESA is making preparations for the scientific and technical utilisation of the station. It has selected the first experiments, which will be attached to the structure on the outside of the station and exposed directly to space’s unique environment. They range from a special infrared sensor to detect and monitor "hotspots" on the earth, such as volcanic eruptions and forest fires, to an atomic clock that will be 10 to 100 times more accurate than the most accurate clock on earth, and even include experiments looking at life in outer space. Meanwhile the ESA has
set up a user centre for the international space station
to serve as a resource centre for those interested in
conducting research on board the European elements of the
Space Station, Scientists, engineers and academicians
considering using the space station will be able to learn
about the facilities available on board the station,
receive information on access conditions and discuss with
ESA experts the procedure for developing an experiment. |
Neglect of tree biology The importance of tree has been fully appreciated, but the subject of tree improvement is yet to get adequate attention in view of the ever-increasing pressure on our forests. It is high time to look for promising indigenous fast growing plant species which are not only adapted to different agro-climatic regions but are also socio-ecologically acceptable. Past efforts of using exotic plant species are reported to have not met with the desired success, according to Dr D.R. Sharma, Dean, College of Horticulture, and Head Department of Biotechnology, Dr Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni (Solan). The green cover of India has been shrinking at an alarming rate. Of the 329 m ha geographical are, 75 m ha (23 per cent) was under green cover at the time of Independence. A recent report of the Union Ministry of Environ-ment and Forests, Government of India, has estimated the annual loss of forest cover at 45,000 hectares. The forest cover in India uptil 1975 was reduced to 52.24 m ha (16.8 per cent), which further came down to 10 per cent, according to an estimate made by the National Remote Sensing Agency, Hyderabad. It may reach the figure of 6 per cent in as short time as four years. The annual shortage of fuelwood is expected to increase to 125 m t by 2000 AD, which may increase the pressure on the remaining forests. The need of the hour, according to tree scientists, is to raise plantations of fast growing commercial and multipurpose trees, and generate substitute fuel resources for meeting this exigency. Dr Sharma feels the urgency of integrating environmental conservation with agriculture and rural development programmes. The need is also being felt to strengthen the country’s overall knowledge on various aspects of tree biology before successful launching of any tree improvement. The information is very meagre at present even for a single species, whereas such information is reported to be available in plenty on the temperate trees in Europe and America. Data is, however, lacking on Himalayan trees except some literature on cytological and reproductive biology. A comprehensive effort is required towards research on ecology, breeding systems, genetic valuation and improvement. The application of genetic principles can result in lowering the rotation age of tree species as well as help in making tree plantation a people’s movement because of their ensured economic gains. The species which have already received attention include Acacia catechu, Alnus nepalensis, Bouhunia veriegate, Dendrocal-amus hamiltoni, Grewia optiva, Popullus ciliata, P. deltoides, Pinus gerardiana, Pinus roxburghii and Robinia pseudacacia. According to an official estimate, if the future afforestation programmes in India lay stress on introduction and promotion of indigenous useful plant species, it can provide the best example of mountain perspective oriented sustainable development, resource conservation, and can certainly stand the test of time for simultaneous management of problems of fragility, marginality, inaccessibility, diversity and sustainable resource use, the specificity of mountain area in particular. The Solan university has started implementation of a project titled "Strengthening of Tree Biology Research", for which the Department of Biotechnology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, has sanctioned Rs 37.88 lakh. Dr Sharma, who is the principal investigator, says the project has been formulated with the idea of strengthening biology of 10 economically important commercial and multipurpose tree species of western Himalayas: Acacia catechu (Khair), Alnus nepalensis (Kunish), dendrocalamus hamiltonii (bamboo), Grewia optiva (buel), Pinus gerardiana (wild pomegranate), Pinus roxburghii (cheel), robinia pseudacacia, taxus baccata, Populus ciliata, and Ouercus leucotrichophora. The project envisages
establishment of an advanced centre for research and
extension on western Himalayan forest tree species, and
is to be completed by July 2001. |
Treating waste water ATUL Gupta (22) has designed a "hybrid reactor" for anerobic waste water treatment. Impressed by the young scientist’s research, the department of bio-technology, New Delhi, has given a grant of Rs 14 lakh for further study on the project. The technology developed by Atul is in the process of being patented in the USA, Europe and India. This project was supervised by Dr T.R. Sreekrishnan of the department of biochemical engineering and biotechnology, IIT, Delhi. The project was on "biomas concentration and chemical oxygen demand reduction". Atul, incidentally, belongs to Chandigarh. His father is an executive engineer in Panjab University. This young boy passed his plus 2 from the local DAV College in 1994. He joined a five-year integrated B.Tech in biochemical engineering and bio-technology at IIT, Delhi and has secured an "outstanding grade" for the project in his class. Atul says growing awareness for eco-friendly technology and stringent environment laws and regulations to keep pollution at bay has put a heavy burden and responsibility on the industry. Pressure on land requires introduction of compact, cost-effective and efficient affluent treatment plants. His project was precisely focused on this scenario and took cognisance of pollution of rivers by the industry. The "hybrid reactor" Atul has designed is meant for anerobic waste water. The treatment of this with his technology has advantages over the ones available for aerobic process. What Atul has designed makes available "biogas" — a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, which can later be successfully used as "fuel" by industry — boilers and furnaces. Anerobic process is slow due to small formation of biomass. This young boy has overcome that problem with the type of reactor he has designed, which enhances concentration of biomass, it is directly proportional to the treatment of anerobic waste water. The concentration is
achieved through "granules" which are later
used as manure. His reactor has a high treatment
percentage: impurities are removed to an extent of 75 per
cent; this is higher than any reported for any existing
reactor. He listed existing technologies and says his
"hybrid reactor" incorporates good points of
available technologies. Its application will be useful
for the treatment of "high strength" industrial
waste from sugar, potato, starch, yeast, dairy, brewery
and distillery units etc.
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Photo copy to floppy Now you can make digital copies of your photos without bothering to boot up your PC: The image Deck stand-alone 600-dpi scanner saves images directly to its built-in floppy and zip drives. Scan all or part of an image in black-and-white or colour. The resulting scan can be saved as a low, medium, or high-resolution JPEG file .Price: $499 Eco-friendly electricity US researchers claim to have come up with a new technology for producing electricity from coal that can decrease the amount of greenhouse gases and pollutants associated with traditional way of producing power from coal. The new technology uses a system called high performance power system (HPPS) developed by researchers at United Technologies Research Centre at Connecticut. Current power plants use the heat from burning coal to boil water. Then they compress the resulting steam to a high pressure and use it to spin a turbine. The steam is condensed back to water to restart the cycle. In the process, a great deal of energy is released from the cooling tower, rather than being used to turn the turbine. HPPS uses a heat exchanger to warm up air and sets it apart from conventional coal-fired power systems. By using hot air to push an off-the-shelf gas turbine, of the sort used in natural gas-based electricity generation systems’ the researchers succeeded in making a "huge leap" in the temperatures that can be reached. There’s no condensation in HPPS and heat of vaporisation is not lost. Also, because the power generation process is more efficient, it generates less carbon dioxide. Device to monitor airborne particles To check pollution level in food and drug industries that require completely particle-free air, German scientists have developed an instrument to monitor air-borne particle levels during manufacturing and to take appropriate action if the level becomes too high. Developed jointly by researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation, in Stuttgart and Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology, the optical particle counter is capable of distinguishing between biotic particles originated from living organisms and abiotic particles of inanimate origin. The quality of air cleanliness is monitored online in real time, during the manufacturing process, says a report in Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Research News. Using paper to shape steel By using paper as the raw material, German scientists have developed a process to manufacture forming tools which are used widely in car industry to shape hard steel. Many car parts such as the side panels, bonnet and mountings are given their contours by pressing them between two dies. Such dies consist of several thousand layers of paper, pressed together by a computerised system developed by scientists at Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation in Magdeburg. The paper-made dies, claim German scientists, are capable of pressing hard steel into the desired shape. The extremely
wear-resistant dies are capable of shaping the
ten-thousandth car panel as precisely as the first. |
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