Diamonds in the sky
by B.R. Sood
DIAMONDS have for millennia, fascinated human beings because of their glitter, sparkle and lustre. Scientists have also had an attraction for diamonds because of their special physical properties like exceptional hardness and the phenomenon of total internal reflection of light within the diamond. Later phenomenon is responsible for sparkle in diamonds, Diamond is nothing but a single crystal of carbon atoms. In a single crystal atoms are arranged in an orderly fashion along a set pattern.

Cybersurfing with Amar Chandel
Portals go Hindi
Most of the search engines are currently in English. Perhaps the first one in Hindi is www.webdunia.com , which has considerable material on a large number of subjects in the matrabhasha. As in the case of other portals, you can choose a topic and then search all the material on it. Information is sketchy on some subjects but adequate on most others.

Science Quiz
by J. P. Garg

New products & discoveries

Styling the mobile phone
by H.S. Jatana

MOBILE phone style has come a long way from the days of the heavy black brick. It has become a pervasive part of daily life, and for consumers is as much a statement of style as a communications tool. Moreover, industry style leader Nokia is proving that design counts.The best and the brightest of the world of haute couture turned out in force in Paris to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the feted Japanese boutique the House of Kenzo. Yet also sharing the spotlight that night in early January was the world’s most fashionable phone company, the house of Nokia. The planet’s biggest selling cellular phone maker used the event to launch its latest handset, the chic 8210.

Nokia’s chief designer Frank Nuovo described it as the culmination of a 10 year dream to turn the mobile phone from a drab business tool into a stylish and desirable accessory. The Paris event was “the getting together of two fashion leaders — a fashion house and a fashion technology brand”.

It underlines the extraordinary penetration of the mobile phone into popular culture and daily life. Not all mobile phones are going to be carried down the catwalk, but vendors are paying increasing attention to the worlds of fashion and culture.

Branding the phone

Nokia was the first manufacturer to offer phones in different colours — initially deep dark blue, green and red. Then with the 5110 phone 1997-98, it gave users the chance to change the colour of the cover themselves. The latest phone, the 8210, has changeable front and back covers. And finally the titanium 8800 series took the products out of technology and into the categories of fashion accessories, almost like jewellery.

But while Nokia forges the way, its rivals are catching on. Now, a Motorola mobile phone is made with a particular market segment in mind. Its new season product, the v2088, is the first in series of phones which will each target discreet segments.

The v2088 is aimed at what Motorola calls the “social networkers”. These are people who want products that are cool, and can be customised. Other groups targeted are those who are looking for cutting edge technology, users who are most focused on business-specific applications, and finally those who emphasise family and personnel lifestyle communications.

In contrast to Nokia’s efforts to lead the industry by becoming the style trendsetter, the philosophy at the other big phone maker, Ericsson, is to cultivate a distinctive look.

Size does matter

The design is just one of the key selling points for a mobile phone, along with functionality and performance.

One issue all vendors face is how to mesh the hardware design with the operating system and features. Motorola tackles this by developing them in tandem. The software goes across several platforms having spent some years in making. A combined hardware-software committee defines in detail the features that go into the product. It takes a modular approach, so features can be easily added or omitted.

Once the application has been decided, the next step is to determine the platform, including chipsets and the platform architecture. At the same time, the marketing people will plan the positioning with operators and consumers. Getting the designing process right is important, but can be a strength.

The disappearing handset

In the coming years we will see manufacturers developing a family of products which can be tailored to meet individual requirements. There will be no need to manufacture a million of the same piece but to use a basic, modular design that can be tweaked.

Perhaps the future of manufacture and design is being scripted in a trial of “personalised manufacture” now underway involving Levi’s Jeans. This enables customers to walk into a shop, order a pair of jeans based on their measurements and design preferences have it made up in an hour.

Further into the future is the push to “wearable computing” and intelligent agent-based telephony. By 2005 we may be able to do away with mobile handsets altogether. By that time an average cellular user may have forsaken the mobile phone and “chosen to integrate telecommunications into his body”. His service provider and lifestyles partner has equipped him with “the stud”; a tiny radio device that simply looks like a small studded earring, but is actually a voice-activated radio communications mobile teleportal.

The stud requires no charging, no maintenance and is worn 24 hours a day, as with any earring, and the user is unaware that he or she is wearing it. It features an intelligent agent who, using advanced voice algorithms, is on stand-by 24 hours a day.

The agent will wake the user in the morning, provide information ranging from e-mails to traffic news to weather forecasts, and can be programmed to track blood pressure, issue birthday and meeting reminders, and can even advise where his GPS-linked children are.

While some cellular executives dismiss this as too farfetched, it is certain that, whatever direction mobile phone design takes, it is bound to happen quickly.

People like to see different things, they like to to relate to different functionality. I think there will be devices which do an incredible amount of tasks. But these devices will be styled differently. Let’s wait for their arrival.

The author is with Semiconductor Complex,Chandigarh.

Diamonds in the sky
by B.R. Sood

DIAMONDS have for millennia, fascinated human beings because of their glitter, sparkle and lustre. Scientists have also had an attraction for diamonds because of their special physical properties like exceptional hardness and the phenomenon of total internal reflection of light within the diamond. Later phenomenon is responsible for sparkle in diamonds, Diamond is nothing but a single crystal of carbon atoms. In a single crystal atoms are arranged in an orderly fashion along a set pattern. In a diamond carbon atoms forming tetrahedrons are stacked together to yield a three-dimensional structure. Because of hardness diamonds, for times immemorial, have been used as glass cutters and as industrial abrasives for smoothening and polishing of surfaces.

Diamonds, methane gas and the planet Neptune, on the face of it, do not seem to have anything in common. But recent research has established a close link between the three. Methane molecule (CH4) consists of one carbon atom at the centre of a tetrahedron and four hydrogen atoms at its corners. It is the simplest molecule belonging to a family of widespread molecules known as hydrocarbons. It is an established fact that methane accounts for about 15% mass of Neptune. Other constituents of the planet Neptune are lighter gases hydrogen and helium. Methane, being heavier, forms the inner core of Neptune and hydrogen-helium combination forms its atmosphere covering about 4000 km around the core. Pressure exerted by the atmospheric gases is estimated to be around two lakh times the atmospheric pressure on earth (two lakh atmosphere) at 4000 km below the atmospheric gases increasing to five lakh atmosphere at 7000 km. High pressure forces methane to condense into a fluid. In addition temperature of the methane core is around 2500°C. Such temperature and pressure are far more intense than that exist in the molten core of earth.

It was predicted on a theoretical basis that under such extreme conditions methane in the core of Neptune must be crushed to yield its basic constituents, carbon and hydrogen, and further carbon atoms should combine and give rise to crystalline form of carbon i.e. diamond.

Thus there is a strong possibility that the inner core of giant planet Neptune contains millions of tons of diamond subject to the condition that methane under conditions of extremely high pressure and temperature gets converted into diamond as predicted theoretically.

To verify this premise a team of researchers in the USA undertook an experimental study recently. Methane gas was subjected to high pressure of five lakh atmospheres and its temperature was raised to 3000°C. Methane was found to react on expected lines giving rise to two products, one being diamond and the other a polymerised hydrocabon. Presence of diamond in laboratory experiment simulating conditions existing on Neptune prove that Neptune is a storehouse of diamonds. Pressure at which reaction starts in the laboratory is less by a factor of 10 than theoretically predicted value implying that breakdown of methane in Neptune occurs around 7000 km below atmospheric gases and further down.

Implications of the existence of high pressure chemical reaction are far reaching and add a new dimension to the proper understanding of gaseous planets. So far the accepted picture of these large size planets far away from the sun is that of layers of various gases or of mixtures of gases of fixed compositions. Light shed by high pressure induced chemical reaction has given impetus towards a more realistic dynamic occurrences inside the core of Neptune.

Diamonds produced in the process being denser than the surrounding medium from which they are created sink deeper towards the centre under the influence of planet’s force of gravity. In this act gravitational potential energy is released in the form of heat. This heat energy churns the interior of the planet. Churning manifests itself in different forms. Churning firstly can boost the magnetic field of the planet and can also account for heat energy radiated away from the planet. Establishment of a link between diamonds, methane and the planet Neptune has definitely added a new dimension to the understanding of the state of affairs within the giant gaseous planets. This should certainly go a long way in the history of astrophysics.

Cybersurfing with Amar Chandel
Portals go Hindi

Most of the search engines are currently in English. Perhaps the first one in Hindi is www.webdunia.com , which has considerable material on a large number of subjects in the matrabhasha. As in the case of other portals, you can choose a topic and then search all the material on it. Information is sketchy on some subjects but adequate on most others.

The interesting thing is that you can type your search in Roman while the portal translates it in Hindi for you.

But there was a lot of problem in getting the Hindi e-mail working. Trying to register as a new user was not successful. But once the teething troubles are over, this Hindi service should be a great boon, particularly because there are no fonts to be downloaded.

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The website www.cheftalk.com is basically for chefs but can be useful for everyone interested in cookery, because there is so much of information to be had, through a Bookshelf. There are also sections such as chef's forum, cooking history, history of soups, and how to use them, details of culinary tools etc etc.

But the most popular obviously is going to be the recipe section, which is large, simple and effective.

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Coming back to Indian sites, one simple but interesting one is www.nazara.com. Its USP is Bollysearch, which has a database of over 10,000 films. You can find here the details of films, actors, actresses, producers, directors, music directors and year of release.

The site offers very many prizes, facility to e-mail a song, chat shop and jukebox.

By way of interactivity, there are a large number of opinion polls.

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As far as prizes go, www.quizbucks.com is quite a mart. It is another matter that it is not very professionally designed. There are several brainteasers which offer you prizes running into Rs 8,000 every month. Even otherwise, these are a good tool to enhance your knowledge.

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The name may be a misleading but the website www.guru.com is for the professionals. It is a premier exchange for connecting independent professionals with contract projects. It claims to have on its lists 1,00,000 professionals and 10,000 hiring companies.

Science Quiz
by J. P. Garg

1. Born near Ujjain, this Indian astronomer and mathematician lived in sixth century A.D. He is known for his major work “Panca sidhantika”, a book on astronomy which encompassed all that was known at that time, including his knowledge of Greek, Egyptian and Roman astronomical concepts. Name this Sanskrit scholar and author of some other books which dealt with different aspects of science.

2. Tuberculosis is a dangerous disease and an alarming challenge for mankind. To focus attention on the issue, World Tuberculosis Day was observed on March 24. What is the significance of this date?

3. Holi was celebrated recently. Many Holi colours sold in the market are made from chemicals the use of which can cause skin allergies, eye irritation and even blindness. Which chemical compounds are generally used to make green, purple, silver and black colours, respectively?

4. Which non-metallic pollutant from the exhaust of vehicles like cars is known to be carcinogenic and contributes to leukaemia cases?

5. Which is the second most common element on earth after oxygen? Of which material on earth is this element the main ingredient? What is the main use of this element?

6. Some flowers are so beautifully shaped that certain male insects mistake these flowers as their female partners and are attracted towards them for mating. But this action turns out to be an illusion. What is this process called?

7. The first laser was produced by man in the laboratory in 1960. Now it has been discovered that lasers exist in space naturally. What name has been given to such a laser?

8. EBIT is a device in which atoms are trapped in an incense beam of high energy electrons. What is the full form of EBIT?

9. Name the first synthetic rubber developed for commercial use, which is resistant to heat and common chemicals. Name also its two chemical constituents.

10. This ambitious global project, comprising 66 low-earth-orbit satellites and providing telephone services to more than 160 countries, is going to be abandoned soon for want of adequate funds. Which system are we talking about?

Answers

1. Varahamihira 2. On March 24, 1882, German physician Robert Koch discovered the germ (sometimes called Koch’s bacillus) that causes TB 3. Copper sulphate, chromium iodide, aluminium bromide and lead oxide 4. Benzene 5. Silicon; sand; for making computer chips 6. Pseudo-copulation 7. Cosmic laser 8. Electronic Beam Ion trap 9. Neoprene; chloroprene (obtained from acetylene and hydrochloric acid 10. Iridium system.

New products & discoveries

Building material from glass
To meet the demand of fibre-free building materials for acoustic and thermal insulation, German scientists have come up with such a new material made of recycled glass.

The new material, developed by scientists at Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics (IBP) in Stutgart, is resistant to acid, water and fire.

Called REAPOR, it is extremely stable and at the same time light in weight, insulates against heat and cold, and absorbs sounds, according to a report in Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Research News.

Furthermore, it is extremely environment-friendly. Made of 90 per cent recycled glass, the material can be fully recycled. It is easy to machine, saw and drill.

Super glue from seafood
The search for a strong waterproof adhesive by the U.S. military took researchers to mussels a type of edible sea molluscs whose feet produce an epoxy with adhesive-like properties that rivals any commercially available “super glue”.

Unfortunately, it takes about 10,000 mussels or molluscs to produce just one gram of adhesive resulting in a prohibitive cost.

So molecular biologists at the Idaho National Engineering Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) along with researchers from the University of California in Santa Barbara are developing methods to clone the mussel’s genes through DNA technology, that will allow them to economically produce large quantities of the adhesive protein.

As sea water breaks down even the strongest of conventional adhesives, a natural alternative is important to the Navy and private marine industry in building and repairing ships.

Molluscs also attach to ships, increasing the drag, and therefore, decreasing the efficiency at which these large vessels operate. Understanding the adhesive will help to prevent this marine fouling.

Stereo sound for video conferencing
Scientists from Bell Labs in the U.S.A., the research and development arm of Lucent Technologies, have made a breakthrough in audio research, making it possible for the first time to deliver full-duplex stereo sound in an audio or video conference.

The technology can be used in an internet protocol (IP) environment and incorporated into both teleconferencing and videoconferencing systems.

Stereo effect is the reproduction of sound in a way that the listener receives the sensation that individual sounds are coming from different locations just as did the original sounds reaching the microphone system.

Stereo conferencing technology, as it is called, gives participants a better way to hear and comprehend multiple streams of conversation.

Programme to forecast traffic jam
Just as meteorologists can forecast weather days in advance, a U.S. researcher is designing a system that can predict traffic jams long before rush hour begins, reports Associated Press.

The software, being developed by Georgia Tech civil engineer John Leonard, will predict traffic flows showing drive times in bright colours like a weather map. He is also developing a scale for gridlock so that traffic conditions can be expressed in a figure.

“People need a simple-to-understand number — even if it doesn’t have a physical meaning — to represent traffic congestion,” Leonard said. “What I want to do is bring traffic flow science to the travelling public ... and get people to start developing a personal understanding of congestion and plan accordingly.”