Saturday 11 October 2014

How Cyclone Hudhud got its name


Hudhud in Arabic refers to the hoopoe bird
Did you know Cyclone Hudhud, expected to hit India's south-eastern coast on Sunday afternoon, was "born" in Oman?
We are talking about the name of the cyclone, not the storm itself. The cyclone itself originated in the north Andaman sea in the Bay of Bengal and is now hurtling towards Andhra Pradesh and Orissa states.
The name Hudhud in Arabic refers to the Hoopoe bird.
Hurricanes and tropical cyclones in the Atlantic have had their own names since 1953, a convention begun by Miami's National Hurricane Centre and maintained and updated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a Geneva-based agency of the United Nations.
But naming came to South Asia and the Middle East only recently.
It was just too controversial to do the same around the North Indian Ocean
For years cyclones that originated in the north Indian ocean were anonymous affairs.
In the days before 2004, cyclones in the North Indian ocean were nameless
One of the reasons, according to Dr M Mahapatra, who heads India's cyclone warning centre, was that in an "ethnically diverse region we needed to be very careful and neutral in picking up the names so that it did not hurt the sentiments of people".
But finally in 2004 they clubbed together and agreed on their favourite names
That was when an international panel on tropical cyclones led by the WMO sat down and decided to name their cyclones as a committee in the spirit of co-operation and consensus.
Eight countries - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Sri Lanka and Thailand - took part. They came up with a list of 64 names- eight names from each country - for upcoming cyclones.
Cyclone Phailin is described as the biggest storm in the region for 14 years
The list goes alphabetically, according to each country. The last cyclone in the region was Nanauk in June, a name contributed by Myanmar.
Names can be suggested by the general public in the member country or by the government. India, for example, welcomes suggestions on the condition that the name must be "short and readily understood when broadcast, not culturally sensitive and not convey some unintended and potentially inflammatory meaning".
"A storm causes so much death and destruction that its name is considered for retirement and hence is not used repeatedly," a statement by India's weather office says.
So this time, following the alphabetical order, it is Oman's turn
Last year, Phailin, the name for a massive cyclone which battered India's south-eastern coast and led to the evacuation of more than 500,000 people, was provided by Thailand. Some of the Indian names in the queue are the more prosaic Megh (Cloud), Sagar (Ocean) and Vayu (Wind).
A cyclone approaching Muscat in Oman, several years ago - but not named by Oman
The Hudhud, or hoopoe bird, is an exotic creature noticed for its distinctive crown of feathers and is widespread in Europe, Asia and North Africa.
Next time a cyclone hits the region, it's Pakistan's turn to give it a name
It will be called Nilofar. Last time Pakistan named a cyclone was Nilam in November 2012.
The names will not dry up anytime soon. Dr Mahapatra says Hudhud is possibly the 34th name of the list, which means there are 30 more in the queue. The panel of cyclone experts meets every year, and they will be replenishing the list whenever the need arises.
It's not that the list of 64 names has been without controversy
Cyclone Mahasen, which hit in 2013 and was named by Sri Lanka, was changed to Viyaru after protests by nationalists and officials in Sri Lanka. They said Mahasen was a king who had brought peace and prosperity to the island, and it was wrong to name a calamity after him.
Nevertheless, it is important to name cyclones, say experts
The Hudhud in flight - Oman's choice for a cyclone name
A name helps people and the media to identify each cyclone and become more aware of its implications. It also does not confuse people if there is more than one tropical cyclone brewing in the region.
And these cyclones often prove to be deadly - their names resonate for a very long time.

Friday 10 October 2014

Malala and Kailash Satyarthi win Nobel Peace Prize

Pakistani child education activist Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian child rights campaigner, have jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize.
At the age of just 17, Malala is the youngest recipient of the prize.
The teenager was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen in October 2012 for campaigning for girls' education. She now lives in Birmingham in the UK.
The Nobel committee praised the pair's "struggle against the suppression of children and young people".
Mr Satyarthi, 60, has maintained the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and headed various forms of peaceful protests, "focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain," the committee said at the announcement in Oslo.
Reacting to the news, he told TV news channel CNN-IBN: "It's an honour to all those children still suffering in slavery, bonded labour and trafficking."
Malala first came to attention in 2009 after she wrote an anonymous diary for BBC Urdu about life under Taliban rule in north-west Pakistan.
She was shot when gunmen boarded her school bus in the Swat Valley.
She has since recovered from the attack and has remained in the public eye, publishing an autobiography and addressing the UN General Assembly.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif congratulated Malala Yousafzai, calling her the "pride" of his country.
"Her achievement is unparalleled and unequalled. Girls and boys of the world should take the lead from her struggle and commitment," he said in a statement.
Malala was named one of Time magazine's most influential people in 2013, and awarded the EU's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize that year.
This year's record number of 278 Nobel Peace Prize nominees included Pope Francis and Congolese gynaecologist Denis Mukwege, although the full list was kept a secret.
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta had also been tipped as favourites for the award.

Chemistry Nobel Prize 2014

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has announced that the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the year 2014 is being awarded to Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and William E. Moerner “for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy”. For years, it was assumed that the resolution that could be achieved by optical microscopy was limited to half the wavelength of light. These three scientists overcame this perceived limitation with the help of fluorescent molecules. Their work has made it possible to “study molecular processes in real time” according to the Nobel Committee Chair. The winners will share the prize money of 8 mn kroner.

Limitation on Resolution

It was assumed by the scientific community that it would be impossible to study living cells in its tiniest molecular detail. The microscopist Ernst Abbe had set 0.2 micrometres as the maximum resolution that could be achieved through optical microscopy. This development took place in 1873, and for decades no scientist could achieve a better resolution. These three scientists surpassed Abbe’s limitation and enabled scientists to analyse the nanoscopic world. The scientists have been awarded for their work with two different approaches, namely, stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy and single molecule microscopy.

Work of Stefan Hell

Stefan Hell developed the STED microscopy method in 2000. To better Abbe’s resolution, he used two laser beams. One beam stimulated the fluorescent molecules to grow, while the other beam cancelled out all fluorescence except that in a nanometer sized volume.

Work of Betzig and Moerner

Betzig and Moerner worked with single molecule microscopy. This method is based on the ability to turn the fluorescence of molecules on and off. A couple of different molecules are allowed to glow each time the image is recorded;. Then, all the recorded images are superimposed to form one complete image covering all molecules. This method was first tested in 2006.

Breakthrough work

The work done by these scientists enables researchers and other to analyse individual molecules, thus enabling them to carry on further research. With the ability to look at individual molecules, we can better understand the human anatomy and the occurrence of various diseases.
About Eric Betzig
Eric Betzig is an American citizen who born in 1960 in USA. He is a Group Leader at the Janelia Research Campus at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in USA
About Stefan W. Hell
Stefan W. Hell is a German citizen who was born in Romania in 1962. He is Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, and Division head at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany.
William E. Moerner
William E. Moerner is an American citizen who was born in USA in 1953. He is the Harry S. Mosher Professor in Chemistry and Professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University in USA.

Government announces establishment of Maulana Azad National Academy for Skills (MANAS)

The Minister for Minority Affairs, Najma Heptullah, announced the establishment of a nation level skill development Academy, “Maulana Azad National Academy for Skills” (MANAS) with headquarters in Delhi.
MANAS will focus on providing skills, upgrading abilities and training members of minority communities in those sectors of the economywhich are either facing a shortage or labour or where demand for labour is expected to surge. MANAS will also train people so that they may be self-employed. The National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC) will provide assistance with credit for persons who have undergone training at MANAS and wish to establish their own business or be self employed. MANAS will also collaborate with multiple national and international agencies to provide certification and assistance with placement for the trainees, and also to secure funding for the program.
A MoU was also signed by MANAS and the National Skill Development Corporation to establish an All India Collaborative Network for MANAS.

Thursday 9 October 2014

R.K. Narayan's 108th birthday


R.K. Narayan is one of the most famous and widely read Indian novelists. His stories were grounded in a compassionate humanism and celebrated the humour and energy of ordinary life.

R.K. Narayan was born on October 10, 1906 in Madras. His father was a provincial head master. R.K. Narayan spent his early childhood with his maternal grandmother, Parvathi in Madras and used to spend only a few weeks each summer visiting his parents and siblings. R.K. Narayan studied for eight years at Lutheran Mission School close to his grandmother's house in Madras, also for a short time at the CRC High School. When his father was appointed headmaster of the Maharaja's High School in Mysore, R.K. Narayan moved back in with his parents. He obtained his bachelor's degree from the University of Mysore.

R.K. Narayan began his writing career with Swami and Friends in 1935. Most of his work including Swami and friends is set in the fictional town of Malgudi which captures everything Indian while having a unique identity of its own. R.K. Narayan's writing style was marked by simplicity and subtle humour. He told stories of ordinary people trying to live their simple lives in a changing world.

R.K. Narayan's famous works include The Bachelor of Arts (1937), The Dark Room (1938), The English Teacher (1945), The Financial Expert (1952), The Guide (1958), The Man-Eater of Malgudi (1961), The Vendor of Sweets (1967), Malgudi Days (1982), and The Grandmother's Tale (1993).

R.K. Narayan won numerous awards and honors for his works. These include: Sahitya Akademi Award for The Guide in 1958; Padma Bhushan in 1964; and AC Benson Medal by the Royal Society of Literature in 1980; R.K. Narayan was elected an honorary member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1982. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1989. Besides, he was also conferred honorary doctorates by the University of Mysore, Delhi University and the University of Leeds.

QUICK FACTS

NAME
R.K. Narayan
OCCUPATION
AuthorJournalist
BIRTH DATE
October 101906
DEATH DATE
May 132001
EDUCATION
Maharaja College of Mysore
PLACE OF BIRTH
ChennaiIndia
PLACE OF DEATH
ChennaiIndia
ORIGINALLY
Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami

-----------------------------------------------------------------

A prize for illuminating lives with blue light


       This year the Nobel prize in physics goes to Isamu Akasaki, Meijo University and Nagoya University, Hiroshi Amano, Nagoya University, and Shuji Nakamura, University of California, Santa Barbara, for inventing the blue light emitting diode (blue LED) 20 years ago.
 After the announcement, when asked how he felt on being awarded the Nobel Prize, Akasaki said “It’s unbelievable.”
 “Their inventions were revolutionary. Incandescent bulbs lit the 20th century; the 21st century will be lit by LED lamps,” notes a statement by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the Nobel Prizes.
This is a prize that would be after Alfred Nobel’s own heart, because he had intended that the prizes should go to those who have “conferred the greatest benefit to mankind.”
The blue LED forms the long-awaited third in the set (red, green were already produced) of coloured LEDs that can together produce white light, in a way that is environment-friendly and energy-efficient. The blue LED can also be made to excite a phosphor into emitting red and green lights, with the mixture yielding white light.
LEDs basically consist of a junction of p-type (electron deficient or hole rich) and n-type (electron rich) semiconductors. When a voltage is applied across this junction, the holes and electrons flow across the junction and recombine, in the process, releasing light.
They do not use mercury or any such gas as is used in the fluorescent light. This makes them environment friendly. They do not require a filament to get heated and glow to shed light unlike the case of the tungsten light bulb.
In contrast to the incandescent bulbs and fluorescent lamps, the LEDS directly convert electricity to light particles. As a result, there is greater efficiency; in the other two cases, a great part of the electricity gets converted to heat.
The colour of the light emitted by the LED when voltage is applied may range from infrared to ultraviolet. Red and green LEDs have been around since the late 1950s, and these have been used extensively in digital displays and the like.
Junctions that emitted weak blue light when excited by an electron beam were made by Akasaki’s group in the late 1980s. Yet, the extraordinary difficulty in making LEDs that give off blue light of significant strength delayed the fabrication of the blue LED to the early 1990s, and this made it a prizewinning effort.
In the 1950s, the material that was commonly used to produce LEDs was Gallium Phosphide (GaP) with dopants (added impurities) like Zn-O or N. These gave out red and green light.
This led to the commercial manufacture of red and green LEDs in the 1960s. However, blue light still remained a challenge and a quest. After some research, it came to be believed that Gallium Nitride (GaN) was the material that would enable development of blue LEDs. But GaN crystals were notoriously difficult to grow in the lab.
The quest for fabricating the blue LED starting from GaN took shape in the 1950s itself. Researchers at the Philips Research Laboratories had produced light of a wide range of wavelengths from GaN.
However, the material was in a powder form and could not be grown into crystals to create p-n junctions So many researchers were giving up GaN and moving back to further research compounds such as GaP. Even as late as 1973, fabricating single GaN crystals and providing adequate p-doping remained the two great obstacles in the path of making the blue LED.
GaN crystals
It was into this scenario that Isamu Akasaki entered, in 1974. Working first at Matsushita Research Institute in Tokyo and later as a professor, with Hiroshi Amano and coworkers, in Nagoya University, he continued his research. In 1986, they succeeded in growing high-quality single crystals with good optical properties on a base of sapphire, for the first time. Shuji Nakamura, the other Nobel Prize awardee, who was working at Nichia Chemical Corporation, developed a similar method and published these results in a 1991 paper.
Second challenge
Still, the second major challenge remained, which was that making an LED requires a p-n junction. While it was easy to form the electron rich n-layer out of crystalline GaN, producing the electron deficient p-layer remained a problem.
By the late 1980s, Amano, Akasaki and coworkers seemed to have cracked this problem, but almost accidentally. They observed that when Zn-doped GaN was viewed under a scanning electron microscope, it seemed to emit more light. This implied that the p-doping had been improved and that a p-n junction had formed. Similarly, shining an electron beam on Mg-doped GaN showed better p-doping properties.
The duo did not however understand why this was happening and were therefore unable to exploit it. This was explained a few years later by Nakamura and coworkers: Acceptor impurities such as Magnesium or Zinc, which normally give rise to p-type conductivity, are trapped by hydrogen during the manufacturing process.
They therefore cannot perform their roles as providers of holes. When the acceptors get excited by electrons, they get activated and the holes are released.
Nakamura used a different approach to produce the p-layer. He found a simple heat treatment (annealing) would activate the acceptors, thus making the p-layer active.
In order to make the LED more efficient, both Akasaki’s and Nakamura’s teams in the 1990s moved on from simple p-n junctions to fabricating more complex, layered structures known as double heterojunctions.
In such multi-layered structures, the recombination of holes and electrons occurs more efficiently and with minimal losses. Having succeeded in the fabricating the basic structures, the groups then started work on to improving the efficiency of the heterojunctions.
In 1994, Nakamura and coworkers fabricated an efficient double heterojunction consisting of a combination of Indium- and Aluminium-doped Gallium nitride (InGaN/AlGaN).
This directly led to the development of efficient blue-LEDs. The teams did not stop there, they went on to develop more applications, such as blue laser emissions based on GaN, which was observed in 1995-96.
This application has advanced the technology for storing music, pictures and movies.
Today, LED lights are used in smart phones and lamps. White light from LEDs is more power-efficient than from other sources: If the amount of light flux produced per unit of power supplied is 16 for a tungsten bulb, and 70 for a fluorescent bulb, it is 300 for a LED supplied source. This would drastically lower our power consumption if LED lights are used more.
Solar-powered LED lights are also taking the world by storm. From providing illumination to possible future applications such as generating UV light for treating bacteria-infested water, the blue LED has come to stay.

Tuesday 7 October 2014

Nobel Prize winners 2014

List of 2013 Nobel Prize winners

For Medicine and Physiology: James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman, Thomas C. SĂĽdhof
The Nobel committee said their research on “vesicle traffic” the transport system of our cells helped scientists understand how “cargo is delivered to the right place at the right time” inside cells.
For Physics: François Englert, Peter W. Higgs
They were awarded the prize for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles. 
For Chemistry: Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt, Arieh Warshel
The Nobel Prize was awarded to them for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems. Listen here
For Literature: Alice Munro
Canadian writer Alice Munro, a thorough, but forgiving documenter of the human spirit, won the Nobel Prize in literature for being a “master of the contemporary short story."
For Peace: The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was awareded the peace prize “for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons”. 
For Economics: The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2013 was awarded to them " for their empirical analysis of asset prices."

India among five nations to build world's largest telescope


India along with Japan, the US, China and Canada will start work on the world’s biggest telescope on Hawaii Island that will enable to identify an object as small as coin from a distance of 500 kms.
The 30-meter telescope will be established near the summit of the Mauna Kea volcano with a cost of $1.4 billion.
The construction is expected to be completed by March 2022. Japan is expected to cover about a quarter of the construction costs.
To mark the start of construction, 100 astronomers and officials from the five countries are scheduled to attend a ceremony on October 7 at a location 4,012 meters high on Mount Mauna Kea.
The telescope will be larger than Japan’s Subaru Telescope, one of the world’s biggest, which was also built on the summit of Mauna Kea and started observation in 1999.
The Subaru Telescope’s single main mirror measures 8.2 meters in diameter, while the new telescope will be composed of 492 hexagonal mirrors, each measuring 72 cm across.
The telescope’s light-condensing capabilities will be 13 times greater than the Subaru telescope’s, enabling the identification of an object as small as a coin from a distance equivalent to 500 kms.
Astronomer Masanori Ie, a professor at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan who leads the Japanese team on the project, said the new telescope will broaden the understanding of the cosmos.
A telescope with greater light-condensing capabilities can search for stars that are less bright or farther from Earth. The most distant and oldest star observed to date was born some 800 million years after the Big Bang.

Thursday 2 October 2014

Government cancels Nine SEZs


       In a meeting of the Board of Approval on 29 September 2014, nine SEZs (Special Economic Zone) including those given to Hindalco, Adani, Essar etc have been cancelled because the projects have not made any satisfactory progress in terms of execution. Most of the developers have also been granted extensions, some of which have even expired. Any tax benefits or incentives given to the developers will now have to be refunded by them.

SEZ rules w.r.t validity and extension

Approval of an SEZ is valid only for three years. At least one unit of the project has to commence production within the span of three years. If at least one such unit if functional, the project is said to be operational. Provisions are in place for granting of extensions also, but an extension may be cancelled is no progress is shown by developers.

BoA (Board of Approval)

The BoA is an inter-ministerial body which is headed by the Commerce Secretary. Representatives of the states are also included in the BoA. Approvals and extensions to SEZs are granted by the BoA.

SEZ Policy in India

India was one of the first countries in India to introduce the EPZ (Export Processing Zone) model of promoting exports. The Kandla EPZ established in 1965 was the first EPZ in Asia. With a view to overcome multiplicity of regulatory clearances, lack of infrastructure and promote flow of foreign investment into India, the SEZ Policy was introduced in 2000.

SEZ Act

To further establish a stable mechanism whereby industries could be incentivized to generate employment and exports, the SEZ Act was passed in 2005. The Act exempts the profits generated in SEZ’s units from all taxes for 5 years, and the developers of the project are exempt from tax for 10 consecutive years in a block of 15 years.

SEZ Reforms

As of now, there are 192 operational SEZs in various parts of India, and 200+ approved SEZs that are yet to become operational. The Centre has expressed its intention to reform SEZs and has said that SEZs are an important part of India’s Foreign Trade Policy. It is considering initiatives such as modifying tax rules, especially those imposing MAT (Minimum Alternate Tax) and DDT (Dividend Distribution Tax), and allowing dual use of infrastructure in non-processing areas.

Google social network site–Orkut closed


Google closed the social networking site Orkut permanently on 30 September 2014. Google announced the decision to shut down Orkut in June 2014.
Old users of Orkut will be able to take backup of their pictures and posts till September 2016 and users can export their profile data, community posts and photos using Google Takeout. But no one will be able to create new IDs on Orkut account.
Decision of shutting down Orkut was taken as its competitor social networking sites namely Facebook and Twitter were much popular than orkut. Now, Google has moved to a new platform - the Google Plus.
About Orkut
Orkut started in 2004 was named after its creator, Orkut Buyukkokten, a Google employee.
Orkut had some features similar to the facebook like sharing videos, like option, uploading the pictures and others. Some options were different from facebook like who visited the user profile will be known in Orkut whereas it is not available in Facebook.