Club Science

Here is a collection of 15 stories that gives a glimpse of important developments reported by Indian scientists during the year. The year 2018 is ending with spectacular success of Indian scientists and technologists in space and defence sectors, with a series of high impact missions. But that’s not all Indian scientists achieved in 2018. Several scientific developments, new techniques and promising technologies – in fields ranging from nanotechnology to space weather – made headlines during the year. Here is a collection of 15 such stories that gives a glimpse of important developments reported by Indian scientists during the year. A gel that can protect farmers from toxic pesticides Most farmers do not wear any protective gear while spraying chemicals in fields, which often leads to pesticide exposure and toxicity. Scientists at the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Bangalore have developed a protective gel - poly-Oxime - that can be applied on skin a

  TUNGSTEN AND COOLIDGE William David Coolidge received a patent on December 30, 1913 for a method of making ductile tungsten. Even though this patent was later invalidated, the process developed by Coolidge helped in brightening the world. A.S.Ganesh throws light upon Coolidge, the man who helped utilise the ductility of tungsten…  A device wherein a wire filament is heated to such a high temperature that it glows with visible light, the incandescent light bulb is one of the earliest forms of electric light that still remains relevant to this day. If you had looked at these bulbs close enough, you surely would have noticed the wire filament. That filament is generally made of tungsten and it was William David Coolidge who made that possible. A liking for electrical devices Born in a small farm in Hudson, Massachusetts, the U.S . in 1873, Coolidge was drawn towards electrical devices from a very young age and spent a considerable amount of time in the town’s machine shop. He

 A meteor is the streak of light that you see in the sky when a small piece of cometary or asteroidal material enters the atmosphere at high speed and burns up because of the frictional heating from the piece’s collision with the atoms and molecules in the atmosphere. Before the small bit of comet or asteroid enters Earth ’s atmosphere, it floats through interplanetary space and is called a meteoroid . Most meteoroids that enter the atmosphere burn up completely as meteors. In some cases, however, the meteoroid does not completely burn up, and the object actually makes it to Earth’s surface. The chunk that has survived its fiery journey is called a meteorite .  A small body starts its life as a meteoroid floating through space between the planets until it makes a bright streak of light in Earth’s atmosphere as a meteor and then, if it isn’t consumed by frictional heating, finally lands on the ground as a meteorite. By Adhil saeem Club science