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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Concordantly Proving still....Faster than light Neutrino

The latest confirmation brings them one step closer to shaking the very foundation of modern physics — Albert Einstein's 1905 Special theory of Relativity that states nothing can travel faster than light.

If the results announced two months ago shocked and stunned scientists all over the world, a sense of disbelief has set in after the team of scientists reconfirmed the results last Friday.

The experiment involved generating proton pulses and measuring the time taken for the neutrinos to travel 730 km from CERN, Europe's particle physics lab near Geneva to Gran Sasso National laboratory near L'Aquila, Italy. The 730 km distance between the two points has been measured with an error margin of just 20 cm.

A beam of light would take just 2.4 milliseconds to cover this distance. But in March 2011 scientists were shocked to discover that neutrinos travelled 60 nanoseconds (or 60 billionths of a second) faster than light.

This means that neutrinos were travelling at a speed of 299,798,454 metres per second, while the speed of light in a vacuum is slower at 299,792,458 metres per second.

What was the chemist's reaction when he discovered two new isotopes of Helium?

He He

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Bullet Proof Material and ....

What material is a bullet-proof vest made of and what happens to a person wearing the vest when shot by a gun?


Using indigenous technology it has become possible to develop lightweight composite bullet-proof jackets and helmets that provide exceptional battlefield protection.

In bullet-proof jackets specific layers of biaxial woven kevlar fabric have been stitched in diamond pattern. The trauma pack is an integral part of the ballistic insert. The assembly is stitched in water/moisture-resistant black plastic to maintain its ballistic properties. This effectively stops even a 9 mm bullet.  The jacket can stop a 7.62 mm bullet if the jacket has a laminated ceramic plate inserted to its front and back.

The outer cover is made of washable 100 per cent cotton camouflage twill. Advantages of using kevlar fabric are: high tensile strength/modules, high toughness, light weight, excellent retention of strength at elevated temperatures, high thermal stability, self extinguishing, cut resistant and good chemical resistance.

Such is the effectiveness of a bullet-proof jacket used by soldiers that when test fired from a distance of 5m by 9mm and 7.62mm caliber ammunition, the jacket can stop both types of bullets effectively with nominal trauma effect. Salient features: Protection level is good even without a ceramic plate when used against 9mm ammunition and with ceramic plate (against7.62mm ammunition).

KEVLAR is chemically Poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide

Friday, November 4, 2011

TEARS

Why do tears come when we are in grief?


Tear is a salty fluid, fully filled with protein (prolactin that converts to before human milk, water, mucus and oil, released from the lacrimal gland found in the upper, outer region of our eyes. Usually humans produce excessive tears in emotional contexts than other animals.

Of course, not all tears are of the emotional variety. In fact, three types of tears exist, all with different purposes. Basal tears are omnipresent in our eyes.

These constant tears are what keep our eyes from drying out completely. The human body produces an average of 5 to 10 ounces of basal tears each day. They drain through the nasal cavity, which is the reason so many of us develop runny noses after a good fest.

The second type is reflex tears, which serve to protect the human eye from harsh irritants such as smoke, onions or even a very strong, dusty wind.
To accomplish this feat, the sensory nerves in our cornea communicate this irritation to our brain stem, which in turn sends hormones to the glands in the eyelids. These hormones cause the eyes to produce tears, effectively ridding the irritating substance.

The third type of tears is emotional tears. It all starts in the cerebrum where sadness is registered. The endocrine system is then triggered to release hormones to the ocular area, which then causes tears to form. Emotional tears are common among people who see their mother die or who suffer personal losses.



Human emotions induce a physiological stress that does not exist in other mammals and requires tears to cope with it. The physiology of human eyes is somehow different from eyes of other mammals, such that it requires an excessive production of tears at circumstances other than physical or physiological stress.

Human emotional tears are a byproduct of the unique evolution of a substantial cranial reduction in subnasal prognathism, and increased encephalization. Hypothetically, these developments may have constrained and sensitized the human tear ducts and sinuses when certain emotions are high.

The phrase “having a good cry” suggests that crying can actually make you feel physically and emotionally better, which many people believe.

Some scientists agree with this theory, asserting that chemicals build up in the body during times of elevated stress. They also believe that emotional crying is the body's way of ridding itself of these toxins and waste products.

In fact, one study collected both reflex tears and emotional tears (after peeling an onion and watching a sad movie, respectively).

When scientists analyzed the content of the tears, they found each type was very different. Reflex tears are generally found to be about 98 per cent water, whereas several chemicals such as a protein called prolactin (precursor of breast milk), adrenocorticotropic hormones (indicator of high stress level) and an endorphin that reduces pain and works to improve mood are commonly present in emotional tears.

#The_Laws_of_Human_Nature by Robert Greene - Review

       This is another book that I would classify under the 'fast-read' category because of its narration about human tendencies rat...