A stop motion movie named “A Boy and His Atom” created by IBM is the kind of sensation an invention creates. This movie, as acknowledged by Guinness as the world’s shortest stop motion film, is apparently made by using pixels derived from individual molecules.
The movie may not go to the Oscars but the kind of science that is involved in creating such a picture is deeply invigorating as well as startling. The movie is centered on a boy called Atom who makes friends with an atom. The movie is a depiction of the duo’s playful journey. The scenes involve movements like jumping on a trampoline, dancing and playing catch.
Two tunneling microscopes were used to move the molecules by IBM. These microscopes are gigantic machines weighing up to two (2) tons.They operate at a temperate of minus 268 degrees Celsius. These tunneling microscopes magnify atoms by 100 million times that are placed on a surface made of copper. The making of the movie involved moving 5,000 carbon monoxide molecules by the machine. The team of this project rendered an image each time the molecules were in the right frame. A total of 242 frames were generated in this manner. The shooting took 18-hour shifts of the team over a span of 10 days in order to get each frame perfect.
A standard computer is responsible for operating the machine while a super sharp needle that can feel atoms is used to manipulate atoms. The needle makes use of electric current to physically be a magnet for atoms and molecules thereby putting them in the right position. This procedure is known to make what is called an “atomic short” or a scratchy sound that makes the researchers know as to how far the particles have journeyed.
One may ask as to why such a sound is a necessity. That is because it is not possible to film atoms when they are in motion. Hence, the sound is a parameter for researchers to gauge if the atom has moved to the slot where it was intended to be placed. The noise results from the change of current when the atom is pushed between couple of binding surfaces thereby acting as an aural guide.
Moore’s law has been exploited by the researchers that rests on a premise that atoms can be used to enhance computation as well as storage of data. Benefiting from the same scientific strategy, world’s smallest magnetic bit has also been created by the team. It has been built using 12 atoms in order to provide storage of one bit of magnetic information. This differs from the modern electronic device wherein a million atoms are needed to store a bit of information.
Principal investigator of IBM Research Andreas Heinrich believes in long term engineering solutions and also that data storage needs to get smaller down to the atomic level.
You shall be startled to learn that the food chains that originated in America and have spread across the world offer delectable fast food at outlets outside America. 1.Cheese Burger Crown Crust Pizza by Pizza Hut, Middle East
Bored of the regular cheese topped pizza crust with the conventional toppings? This dish is sure a surprise to all pizza lovers. The “Crown Crust Carnival” in Middle East invites you to gorge on a pizza covered with beef, tomatoes, lettuce and a tinge of exceptional excitement. That is a ring of mini cheeseburger over the crust with a Pizza Hut’s special sauce. The brand also offers Chicken Fillet Crown Crust Pizza for chicken lovers that are topped with chicken fingers instead of the cheeseburgers. 2.Gouda Shrimp- Cutlet Sandwich, KFC, Japan
Fly off to Japan to dwell into the lusciously looking Colonel’s secret recipe burger that just flooded the Japanese markets becoming the hottest invention in the fast food race. This particular burger has a chunk of cheese filled with shrimp and is then deep fried. Hence, the burger is served. 3.Mega Mac, McDonalds, UAE
The huge sensation of Mega Mac, an entry in the menu of McDonalds, UAE is no doubt an everlasting uproar. While other countries citizens feel satisfied with their two buns and a single patty burger, UAE offers a double dose. The Big Macs are made up of four layers of beef and three buns. Mega Mac is a meal combination of two Big Macs. 4.Green Tea Blizzard, Dairy Queen, Thailand
Dairy Queen has undergone an amazing twist of turning a healthy element that is used to cure cancer into an icy dessert. While the rest of world shall stay satisfied with their Oreo Blizzards, this new addition will take away the breath of whoever touches it. 5.Dry pork and Seaweed Donut, Dunkin’ Donuts, China
The country known for serving all kinds of living species on a plate serves a donut that is most yearned for. Of course a chocolate or sugar glazed donut doesn't count for a fulfilling breakfast. However, this non vegetarian pastry covered with dehydrated and pulverized pig along with seaweed chunks is meant to make the first meal of the day highly enjoyable. 6.Mac ‘n’ Cheese Pizza, Pizza Hut, Germany
Tired of eating the conventional pizza full of cheese and toppings? This pizza overshadowed many other pizzas on the Germany’s Pizza Hut menu. A pie smothered with pasta and topped with cheese sauce makes taste buds swell and water. 7.Tower Burger, KFC, Australia
What an irony it is that the restaurant that evolved from the US is making a menu different from the outlets in its home country. Dig in with a tall burger consisting for a fried-chicken patty crowned with hash brown, tomato sauce, gooey cheese, lots of lettuce and mayonnaise. Cherish it all, rest of the world! 8.Jelly and Ice Cream, Burger King, UK
UK seems to have taken the American Jell-O, revamped it and came up with the delectable strawberry flavored jelly crowned with ice-cream. Ta da! We present Jelly and Ice cream that is meant to wobble the taste buds and make the spectator weep for a bite! 9.Veg Shammi, Subway, India
Vegans in America are devoid of this great sandwich that Indians seem to totally die for. A kebab made up of lentils and garlic and served with a topping of onions inside fresh crusted bread is a bull’s eye in the wake of increasing vegan-ism. 10.Nacho’s fries, Wendy’s, Japan
Japanese no longer have to undergo a dilemma as to what to choose between nachos and fries. They can have both with Wendy’s Nacho fries that are deep fried potatoes (regular fries) topped with guacamole, chili, cheese and jalapeno peppers. The USA needs to buck up!
[SOURCE: www.smartertravel.com]
In its quest to discover water on the moon, on 9th October 2009, at 7:31 a.m. ET, NASA bombed the moon by a 2.2 tonne empty rocket using LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite). The rocket crashed in the moon's surface at a speed of 5600 miles per hour. The target was a 60-mile-wide crater called Cabeus. The LCROSS crashed on the surface four minutes later.
It was hyped that the blast would create a large cloud of gas, dust and vaporized water ice going up to 6 miles high and which will be visible from the Earth. Although, millions who were watching the event live on the internet were left disappointed. There was barely a change observed in the crater where the missile hit. NASA claim to have gained a lot of new knowledge through the $79 million experiment. The principal investigator, Anthony Colaprete quoted- "I'm not going to say anything about water or no water, but we got the data that we need" to answer the questions raised by many as to what have we gained from this experiment
The LCROSS carried a visible camera, near-infrared cameras, spectrometers and a visible radiometer to guide scientists from NASA to examine the resultant dust plume. Moon's surface is like a dry desert but scientists believe that some ice is trapped deep in the craters where the sunlight cannot penetrate. Two American spacecrafts had earlier reported the presence of water on Moon by tracing the hints of Hydrogen and Oxygen- the two elements that make up the water. These constituents were found in frozen state in deep craters of the North and South poles. [SOURCE: www.nasa.gov]
In the age of cross breeding and hybrids, scientists in Dubai took an extra step by making some unusual discoveries. In order to make more fertile hens, scientists in Dubai of Central Veterinary Research Laboratory injected a duck’s DNA to produce eggs and sperm into a chicken. According to Timenewsfeed, it says:
Researchers injected a chicken’s germ cells — carrying DNA to produce eggs and sperm — into the reproductive organs of a male duck embryo; once the duck matured, it began to produce the chicken’s sperm. Initially looking to genetically modify chicken to produce more fertile hens (the global poultry industry currently maintains some 50 billion chickens).
With the assistance of Dr. Mc Grew, a scientist at the Roslin Institute, Dubai team wishes to make chickens give birth to a variety of different bird species like songbirds and eagles. Hoping this technique could be used to breed even endangered species one day.
Scientists are unable to give reasoning for creating new species of animals and it is thought to be a crazy and scary thought by many. One of the team member quoted:
“ I’d like to take this moment to voice that science is totally amazing/crazy/terrifying.” Animals giving birth to other species of animals is definitely terrifying."
Such instances make you think if the knowledge and energy of our scientists should be channelized to protect deteriorating habitats rather than to create new ones. As climate change and overpopulation has led to space crunch which has crippled the chances of these existing species for survival or this is the ultimate answer to our problems ? [SOURCE: www.blisstree.com]
Brain is considered to be the most important and complex organ. Its functioning has been a nightmare to many for the past, ummm too many to count years. According to our history, the brain is just an unsolved mystery. However, studies have found that it is easier to just fool the brain than to fight with it. Various techniques to hoodwink the grey matter are: 1. Making it think like you got a good night’s sleep after only 2 hours of actual sleep
The Uberman Sleep Scheduleallows you to have a maximum of essential sleep without wasting precious hours just lying on the bed. Stump the brain by taking six, half an hour naps, every four hours a day. The getting used to this schedule will take some time and you might even want to pull your hair in the end, but when you realize that you can play Wii badminton wee bit longer than everyone else, it’s worth it!! A normal healthy human being sleeps for 8 hours a day. Over these 8 hours of sleep, the body moves through 5 distinct stages of sleep, out of which the 5th stage- REM sleep is the part which provides you with the actual sleep. The trick is to skip all the other four stages and directly enter the REM stage. This is achieved by taking six (6) twenty (20) to thirty (30) minute naps in a day. A common approach to achieve to incorporate this schedule is to indulge in an intense long term project. Jump right in, play/work for five (5) hours, take a nap for thirty (30) minutes and so on for the next few days. It is easier said than done, but the benefits are countless. The Uberman Sleep Schedule involves establishing a customized sleep pattern 2. Be sane with insanity!!!
Close your eyes, think of your favorite thing to do and do it with the person you want!! YUP!! Being insane by hallucinating helps you block most of the signals that go to your brain. Be high with your own dose of delirium and enjoy the Ganzfeld effect.
The technique provides ‘unstructured’ sensations to a person. It is achieved by placing half cut Table Tennis balls over the eyes, the purpose of which is to diffuse the light (usually red) coming through and side by side exposing the participant to white noise through headphones.
The Ganzfeld effect, which means “complete field” in German, otherwise known as Perceptual Deprivation, is an occurrence of sensitivity caused by exposure to a shapeless (diffused white light), unchanging stimulus (White Noise). The result of it is Hallucinations. The trick is to block out signals reaching your brain. After some time (30 minutes or so), the sensory signals of the light coming from ping pong balls and the white noise are ignored by the brain. To compensate for the lost signals, brain has to create its own; this is where the participant will experience hallucinations. This phenomenon is known to be naturally experienced by miners stuck in pitch black mines; Arctic explorers who would only see bland expanse of white noise for a long time. 3. Go to your own fool’s paradise
Wish peter pan actually existed?? Or you could see Santa and his reindeer's with your own eyes? Wish you could ask the tooth fairy to leave more than 1 dollar the next time your tooth breaks? All this is possible when you add imagination with the supernatural powers of belief, with a tinge of sleep to mix it all property. In a dream state, your mind mostly loses the ability to criticize anything that's happening because dreaming just doesn't involve the critical part of your brain. How to have a clear cut dreams of who, what, where, how and why? Keep dream journals to write your own lucid dreams and go into your own movie of “INCEPTION”. The moment you wake up from a dream, jot down every detail that you can remember from your dream, however irrelevant it may sound, just note it down. The brain will recognize patterns embedded in your dreams. It is easier for your brain to recall something that is on paper. Tell your brain that you are serious about remembering your dreams. 4. Become smarter while sleeping [HAVE YOU LOST IT (OR FOUND IT?????)]
Ever heard the expression “SLEEP ON IT”? Well, scientists have found that you remember more when you learn 24 hours before and then sleep. (Seems like my mother was bang on about this) The ability of your brain to retain information and consolidate it occurs while you are asleep. The brain processes all the things that have happened to you since the morning and create permanent blocks that can be brought back whenever you need it. Retention of any information by the human brain comprises of three (3) stages- attainment, consolidation and recollection. While rest of the body is asleep, the brain is constantly processing information gathered; this is when the consolidation of information occurs. Think of it in this way- A Software will take longer to install when there are many applications running in the background, while it would take a lot less time when all other applications are down. 5. Bamboozle!!!
Trick your brain into believing anything is possible. Use your memory to distinguish the real memories from the fake ones that have been told to you since you were young. Accentuate the memories that you actually need from the garbage fed to you by everyone around. The Brain processes so much information that the memory becomes distorted. The brain tends to keep a blend of memories. The memories consists of general lessons learnt and the important facts and figures. All this information is a part of an assortment, the information can be gathered from an experience or from something you read, saw, heard etc. The trick lies in confusing your mind by constructing scenarios using your memories and believing in it. [SOURCE: www.cracked.com]
In 1994, the Guinness Book of Records set aside a separate column for the world’s largest cashew tree called Maior Cajueiro do Mondo located in Natal, Brazil. The gigantic tree has grown from an amalgamation of two genetic tissues. Such tissues allow the branches of the tree to grow outwards rather than upwards. Gradually, hence, the branches tend to stoop towards the ground and eventually make for a root. This new root further grows into a new tree.
We all have heard of twins, identical twins and even conjoined twins for that matter. But ever heard of a pair of twins out of which one baby just had a head and no body? Also that the under developed twin’s head blinked and smiled but wasn't capable of survival? Well, this is the case of Manar Maged.
The Egyptian girl was born with a birth defect called craniopagus parasiticus.This is a very rare birth glitch that occurs when the embryo splits into two parts but refuses to complete the process leaving its twin with a load of brain diseases.
Manar was operated by a team of thirteen surgeons on 19 February 2005 when she was ten months old to separate her conjoined twin. The procedure being complex and ambiguous the surgery lasted thirteen long hours. The little kid, though survived the surgery and the subsequent brain operations but eventually died an year later on 25 March 2006 due to excessive brain infection, pneumonia and serious heart condition. The tiny baby seems to have been born only to create history as hers was the only case that survived the surgery in 2005.
Pity and disbelief are two emotions that erupt within the person who watches the movie, "50 First Dates" for the first time. It is the condition of Drew Barrymore that makes people go awe in disbelief and the compassion shown by Adam Sandler towards his girlfriend. The condition of Michelle Phipots is similar to that of Drew Barrymore’s. She needs to be convinced every morning by her husband that she is married to him by showing her pictures of their wedding.
The forty seven (47) year old lady suffers from what is called anterograde amnesia. This brain defect was caused in Michelle after suffering from two road accidents, one a motorbike crash in 1985 and five (5) years later, a car accident in 1990. The poor woman can recall everything that happened up till 1994 however, her memory has no instance of anything that happened beyond that.
The first question that arises in a reader’s mind after knowing the condition of short term memory loss in this lady is how she copes with her life. She retaliates by saying that she uses a huge number of post-its notes to remind herself of daily tasks. She also uses reminders on her mobile phone. Though it is difficult but a list of all the people she meets has to be entailed in a written form.
The woman works for a charity that is meant to serve people with disabilities. For her, each joke is jocular as she cannot recall whether she has heard it before; each episode of EastEnders is a new one as she cannot remember the story line. Kudos to her husband Ian who says that it is his patience that gives him the strength and it is the love he has for her that keeps him going. He says he is thankful that he met her before 1994 so she can remember him vividly.
