Point Me in the Right Direction, Please - Magnets and Compasses

Point Me in the Right Direction, Please - Magnets and Compasses

  5:33:00 PM    Science Lover

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For centuries sailors knew how to use magnets in the form of compasses to show them where they were going. Compasses are fascinating instruments. In fact, when thinking about it, the concept of a magnetic field on the surface of the earth, which is what allows compasses to function, is in itself a fascinating phenomenon.
Although fascinating, a compass is very simple in the way that it works. A magnet, suspended and light enough to be influenced by the magnetic field in which it finds itself, will automatically line up with the north-south line of that magnetic field. If the only magnetic field in the magnet's sphere happens to be that of the earth's, you have a simple compass.
So if compasses are simple enough in design, how about making your own? Well, it just so happens that outlined below is a method to make a workable compass, using mostly materials found around the home...
What you going to need...

• 2 fairly large sewing needles (please be careful with them, these little things have been known to be quite sharp!).
• A piece of cardboard (at least 10cm x 10cm).
• A cork.
• Scissors, pencil, ruler, marker or pen, wood glue and a compass - not like the one you are making but the thing you use to draw circles - or something round, about 10cm in diameter.
• Something solid to balance the compass on, like a piece of off-cut wood.
• A bar magnet.

How to make the compass...

• Using the necessary stationary, cut out a circle from the cardboard, about 10cm across.
• Now cut a circle out the center of the circle of cardboard about 1 to 1,5cm across. The easiest way to do this is to fold the circle in half, find the midpoint using a ruler, draw a half circle around the midpoint, and then cut it out before unfolding it again.
• Use the pen and ruler to divide it into 4 quarters. At each end of the lines write the 4 main points of a compass, N, E, S, W (in a clockwise direction). This is your compass face.
• Cut a strip of cardboard about 7cm long and 1cm wide, and fold it in half.
• Stick a cork onto a solid foundation with wood glue.
• Push the one needle into the cork so that it is sticking up. Wrap some cellotape around it - this is to insulate it so that the magnetized needle doesn't stick to it.
• Magnetize the other needle by rubbing the bar magnet down the needle about 40-50 times. Always start at the same end and lift the magnet away from the needle to take it back and rub it again, always in the same direction.
• Push the magnetized needle through the folded, straight piece of cardboard at the "loose" ends so that you can open up the loose ends with the needle holding them open.
• Place the "compass face" onto the joined end of the straight cardboard, with the needle along the N-S line.
• Balance the compass on the needle sticking into the cork at the folded end of the straight piece of cardboard.

Once the compass has been set up, as long as the compass face is placed in the right direction and the needle remains magnetized, the compass will always swing to show the correct direction.
And, so, along with the sailors of old, you can, with your rustic compass, navigate your way home through the urban jungle safely to your home. With your newly acquired compass manufacturing skills, who needs a GPS?

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Fun Science Projects - Make a Burglar Alarm

Fun Science Projects - Make a Burglar Alarm

  5:31:00 PM    Science Lover

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Fun science projects are those that teach you something about science and at the same time allow you to make something useful and fun. This is one of those projects!

The job of a burglar alarm is basically to tell you when someone who shouldn't be in your house has come in - not so. And where will these nasties come in? Through a door or window - right? So if we can make something that will tell us when a door or window has been opened that should not have been opened, we would know when someone, who shouldn't be coming in, is in fact coming in - right?

So how are you going to pull this off without some specialized equipment.

Easy...

You are going to use simple circuit that when closed with a switch will set off an alarm. The switch is going to be a clothes peg!

First up - what you are going to need:

• Approximately a meter of flexi-wire
• A 9V battery (the correct scientific term is a cell)
• A 9V battery (cell) holder
• A wooden clothes peg
• 2 thumb tacks
• A sharp knife
• Electrical insulation tape
• An small electric buzzer

And here is how it is done -

• Strip about 1cm of the plastic insulation off the one end of both wires of the flexi-wire using the sharp knife.
• Attach both wires of the one end of the flexi-wire to the battery holder by joining the wires together and then wrapping insulation tape around the joins.
• To the other end attach the buzzer in much the same way as you did the battery holder. To check if all is good up till now, if you attach the battery the buzzer should sound.
• About half way down the wire cut one of the wires in half, leaving the other one in tact. Strip the ends so that about a centimeter of wire is exposed.
• Press the thumb tacks onto the inside of the opening end of the clothes peg. Before you push them all the way in, place the end of the wire you have just stripped under each of the thumb tacks and push them in hard so that the wire is held there.
• Attach the battery. If everything is attached correctly, with the clothes peg closed, the buzzer should buzz. If it does not, you need to check your connections on the battery, buzzer and peg.
• Once everything is working, open the clothes peg and jam it into the gap of a door and it's frame or in a slightly open window.
• Alternatively, put a piece of cardboard or paper between the thumb-tacks that has a string attached. The other end of this string can be attached to anything that is going to move, with the idea that if that object is moved the cardboard is pulled from between the thumb-tacks.
• Once the thumb-tacks touch - if all is in working order, the buzzer will alarm you to something out of the ordinary.

And hey presto - a simple, but very effective burglar alarm.

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Web-Based Interface For Molecular Docking

Web-Based Interface For Molecular Docking

  5:29:00 PM    Science Lover

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Docking Server windows are organized into three modules following the basic steps of docking calculations:

(1) Protein set-up
(2) Ligand set-up
(3) Docking Calculation.

The user can create its own ligand, protein and dockings folder so that the ligands, proteins and dockings can be saved and organized for later use.

Protein set-up

The protein can be uploaded as a pdb file, or can directly be downloaded (after keyword search in the database if needed) from Protein Data Bank (www.rcsb.org). At this step the user can choose whether to include water molecules or any other heteroatoms present in the pdb file in the docking calculation. Add heteroatoms to my ligands command allows the adding of molecules present in the pdb files to the ligand folder. In the next step, the simulation box can be chosen. The simulation box can be either selected to cover only a known ligand binding site, or the whole target protein. Exact coordinates can be given as center of simula¬tion box similarly as in Autodock. In addition, Docking Server allows the user to define amino acids or heteroatoms present in the uploaded pdb file as center or borders of the simulation box.

Ligand set-up

The ligands can be uploaded or directly drawn. Besides single ligands, multiple ligands in sdf files can also be uploaded so that to enable high throughput docking of ligand libraries. The user can chose the desired pH affecting the protonation state of the ligand and whether semiempirical charges and optimization should be carried out during the process of ligand preparation.

Protein Ligand Docking

In the docking window the user can choose multiple ligands and/or dockings for the docking calculation. The docking calculation can be started using the default parameters; moreover, it is also possible to manually set docking parameters for more advanced users.

Finally, docking results are automatically processed in different ways to offer better understanding of the results:

1, resulting docking energies, frequencies and downloadable pdb coordinates are summarized in a table;
2, figures of the calculated ligand-protein complexes are automatically generated by VMD or can be manually rendered using the Jmol applet;
3, ligand-protein interaction tables are automatically generated that helps identify the driving forces of the complexation;
4, HB-plots (Bikadi, et al., 2007) are automatically generated to interpret the effects of the binding on the whole protein structure; 5, The applied methods and the according references are summarized.

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Molecular Docking Server

Molecular Docking Server

  5:28:00 PM    Science Lover

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Analysis of the mode of interaction between ligands and their target proteins is of crucial importance in order to explore different aspects of biochemical processes. Besides laboratory experiments, there is an emerging role of in-silico methods in investigating the interactions of ligands to proteins.

In-silico study of protein-ligand interaction involves molecular docking, where the binding energy and geometry of ligands, substrates or possible drug candidates to target proteins is predicted using computational chemistry methods.

The task in molecular docking assignments is to find the best ligand protein complex geometry. The problem is usually seen as an optimization task where the goal is to minimize the intermolecular interaction energy between the two molecules of interest. Since the possible number of ligand- protein complex geometry is usually very large, different algorithms are used in order to accurately explore the space of possible conformations while decreasing the computational power needed for the docking calculation at the same time.

Thus, a molecular docking calculation consists of the following steps:

(1) Optimization of the ligand geometry, calculate pH-dependent partial charges, identify rotatable bonds and

(2) Calculate electrostatic properties of the protein of interest and define the ligand-binding region,

(3) The ligand-protein interaction is then calculated by a scoring function that includes terms and equations that describe the intermolecular energies. The result of a docking calculation is a ligand-protein complex geometry and the corresponding binding energy. Therefore, for accurate interpretation of the results, a high-quality representation of the complex geometry is of great importance as well

(4)DockingServer integrates a number of computational chemistry software specifically aimed at correctly calculating parameters needed at different steps of the docking procedure, i.e. accurate ligand geometry optimization, energy minimization, charge calculation, docking calculation and protein-ligand complex representation.

Thus, the use of DockingServer allows the user to carry out highly efficient and robust docking calculation, which could not be achieved using single software so far. Since the calculations run on our servers, the use of DockingServer does not require powerful hardware or pre-installed software from the user.

The core of DockingServer web application is our integrating PHP software connected to a MySQL database, where the different tasks are automatically managed by daemons running on our servers and the input data will be read from the database and output data will be directed into the database.

The AutoGrid/AutoDock 4.0 (Morris, et al., 1998) program package is used for docking calculations, allowing docking of flexible ligands to proteins. With the help of Autodock program package the partial charges and atom types of the ligand and proteins can be assigned. However, the results of docking calculations strongly depend on the accuracy of charges calculated in the ligand.

Thus, besides offering ligand partial charge calculation with the Auto-Dock program package DockingServer also integrates calculator plug-ins from Chemaxon (Csizmadia, 2000) and the MOPAC2007 program (Stewart, 2007) for accurate pH-dependent protonation and ligand partial charge calculation. Moreover, geometry optimization, refinement of the ligand geometry using semiempirical methods (PM6) can be carried out. Automatic conversions between necessary file formats are achieved by Chemaxon tools.

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World 1st: Two-arm transplant

World 1st: Two-arm transplant

  11:04:00 AM    Science Lover

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Yeh haath mujhe de de thakur, screamed Gabbar Singh even as he chopped off the hands of the man who had once nabbed him and sent him to jail. Watching thakur (Sanjeev Kumar) wrapped in a shawl, stoic and helpless, is among the most indelible images of Sholay, Bollywood's biggest blockbuster ever. Now consider this. What if technology helped give thakur a new pair of arms? Would he still have hired Viru and Jai to capture Gabbar? Or would he have himself embarked on a mission of revenge.

Well, such a possibility is no longer in the realm of fantasy. A German medical team said on Friday that it had performed what it called the world's first transplant of two full arms, on a farmer who had lost both his limbs in an accident. The donor was a 15-year-old boy who had died before the farmer's operation. The patient, 54, was "doing well under the circumstances" after the 15-hour operation on July 25-26, a spokeswoman for the clinic at the Technical University in Munich said.



The amputee, who had lived without arms for six years since the accident, consulted the 40-member team at the university's Rechts der Isar Clinic after two failed attempts to use artificial prostheses. "The man required round-the-clock assistance — a condition he wanted to change as quickly as possible," the clinic said.



The head of the transplant team, Christoph Hoehnke, said he was deeply moved as the man's wife went to his bedside after the operation and instinctively reached for his hands. "They look just like they used to," she said.



Two years before new hands get fully functional



Doctors said it could take two years before he "really has feeling in his fingertips again" because the transplanted nerves must still grow.



The facility has a decades-old unit for microsurgery and replantation surgery, with a speciality in interdisciplinary operations it said was essential for a procedure of this complexity. Professor Hans-Guenther Machens had prepared the transplant since he became the clinic's director in December.







Doctors said suppressing the man's immune system so it would not reject the new limbs was a key concern. Another challenge was finding a donor who matched the patient's sex, age, skin colour, size and blood type.



Five teams working in two operating rooms gathered at 10.00pm the night of the operation, divided between the patient and the donor, who had died only hours before.



The first step was to expose the muscle, nerves and blood vessels to be connected. Before the bones of the donor could be cut, blood vessels in his arms were filled with a cooled preservation solution.



Both arms were then removed exactly at the point matching the patient's arm stumps. First the bones were joined, then arteries and veins to ensure blood circulation as quickly as possible.



"The arms quickly resumed their rosy colour," the spokeswoman said. The surgeons then attached the muscles and tendons, then the nerves and finally the skin.



The doctors will now monitor how the wounds heal and whether infections, side effects from medication or any other rejection by the immune system occurs.

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Hackers control the internet traffic

Hackers control the internet traffic

  4:42:00 PM    Science Lover

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Internet security researchers on Thursday warned that hackers have caught on to a "critical" flaw that lets them control traffic on the Internet. An elite squad of computer industry engineers that laboured in secret to solve the problem released a software "patch" two weeks ago and sought to keep details of the vulnerability hidden at least a month to give people time to protect computers from attacks.

"We are in a lot of trouble," said IOActive security specialist Dan Kaminsky, who stumbled upon the Domain Name System (DNS) vulnerability about six months ago and reached out to industry giants to collaborate on a solution.

"This attack is very good. This attack is being weaponised out in the field. Everyone needs to patch, please," Kaminsky said. "This is a big deal."

DNS is used by every computer that links to the Internet and works similar to a telephone system routing calls to proper numbers, in this case the online numerical addresses of websites.

The vulnerability allows "cache poisoning" attacks that tinker with data stored in computer memory caches that relay Internet traffic to its destination.

Attackers could use the vulnerability to route Internet users wherever the hackers wanted, no matter what website address is typed into a web browser.

The threat is greatest for business computers handling online traffic or hosting websites, according to security researchers. The flaw is a boon for "phishing" cons that involve leading people to imitation web pages of businesses such as bank or credit card companies to trick them into disclosing account numbers, passwords and other information.

"I was not intentionally seeking to cause anything that could break the Internet," Kaminsky said during a conference call with peers and media. "It’s a little weird to talk about it out loud."

Kaminsky built a webpage, www.doxpara.com, where people can find out whether their computers have the DNS vulnerability. As of Thursday, slightly more than half the computers tested at the website still needed to be patched. "People are spending tens of thousands of hours getting this patch out the door," Kaminsky said.

The US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT), a joint government-private sector security partnership, is among the chorus urging people to quickly protect computers linked to the Internet. "Just like you should wear a seat belt going down the road to be safe in a car accident, the same applies here," said Jerry Dixon, a former director of cyber security at the US Department of Homeland Security.

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Microsoft, Google fight over Yahoo

Microsoft, Google fight over Yahoo

  7:57:00 PM    Science Lover

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WASHINGTON: Google and Microsoft will spar today at a congressional hearing called to examine whether Google's revenue-sharing deal with No 2 search rival Yahoo will harm competition. Google, with more than 60 per cent of the Web search market, and Yahoo, with 16.6 per cent, announced a deal on June 12 that would allow Yahoo to place Google advertisements on its site and collect the revenue.

The deal, which the firms have said would garner Yahoo at least $250 million in the first year, was widely seen as an effort by Yahoo to fend off Microsoft's on-again, off-again efforts to buy all or part of Yahoo.

Microsoft's most recent offer to acquire Yahoo's search business was rejected by Yahoo. Google chief legal officer David Drummond, defending his company's deal with Yahoo in written testimony for Tuesday's hearing, took a shot at Microsoft's 90 per cent share of the personal computer operating system market.

"Dominance of the desktop can let one company favor its own products and services and obstruct the interoperability of competing products or services, overriding the desires of consumers," said Drummond in testimony prepared for the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel.

Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith hit back, saying Google's deal would reduce Yahoo's incentive to compete against Google, would push Yahoo's search advertising platform into a downward spiral and establish an illegal price floor.

"When it comes to the issues before this subcommittee, Google should not be allowed to achieve an outcome through an agreement that it would not be permitted to achieve otherwise," said Smith in his written testimony.

The revenue-sharing deal has not been implemented by Google and Yahoo while they wait for an opinion from the Justice Department's Antitrust Division. Several state attorney generals have expressed concern about the arrangement.

"Microsoft believes the Google/Yahoo deal harms competition in several critical ways. Advertisers and online content providers would be harmed through price coordination that will establish higher prices and limit choice," said Smith. "Consumers would be put at risk as Google expands its ability to collect the personal information of users passing through its search gateway. On an even more fundamental level, Google's monopoly power would increase its ability to shape what people get to see and experience online."

The House Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee will hold a similar hearing later on Tuesday.

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Nuclear Power, India's Future Energy Resource

Nuclear Power, India's Future Energy Resource

  9:54:00 PM    Science Lover

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"The Treasure Hunt".Yes, God has given man a great treasure which man has to find out him self and use. At last man has succeeded in finding out "The Treasure", and has now slowly started using it. The Treasure which he discovered is the nuclear power, (the tremendous energy) which was hid deep inside the nucleus of the atom. He can convert this treasure into any form of energy which is a wonder. The only condition is that he should use it properly and should not waste it because it's wastage may cause irreparable damage. God trusted man and gave him this magical power. So he has to be responsible and should be careful while using it.
The group of people who are helping others in using this energy are the scientists of DAE. When nuclear Energy has been successfully applied for power production, in a couple of decades from now, India will not have to look abroad for its exports but will find them ready at hand." These echoing words of the great architect Homi J Babha is coming true. We can be proud to be Indians. Kudos to the scientists of DAE who have found out the first safe Nuclear Reactor in the world. At this glorious moment let us highlight the achievements of DAE.

To harness the atomic energy for peaceful purposes,the Department of Atomic Energy was formed in 1954.Since then ,it is engaged in the development of nuclear power technology and applications of the radiation technologies in the field of agriculture, medicine industry and basic research. The Department is now an integrated group of organizations comprising of five research centers, three industrial organizations ,four public sector undertakings and three service organizations. It has two boards that promote extra mural activities by way of financial support and research in nuclear and allied fields and mathematics. It supports even institutes of International repute engaged in Research in basic sciences- astronomy, astrophysics, cancer research and education etc.

Within a decade of launching it's atomic energy programmes, India became one among the top ten advanced countries in this new and complex technology.In 1956 the country achieved the distinction of commissioning Asia's first Research Reactor "Apsara".

With the confidence gained from this achievement Dr.Bhabha drew up a three stage long term nuclear power programme for India. The objective was that Nuclear Power development should reach a level such that power from nuclear energy should contribute significantly to the electrical needs for Industrial and agricultural growth of the country.

In the short span of a decade India had established comprehensive R&D facilities for the entire nuclear fuel cycle- right from prospecting, mining and processing of Uranium, fabrication of spent fuel, fast breeder reactors using plutonium based fuel to radioactive waste management and health and safety. India has also developed the technology of radioisotopes and their utilization in agriculture , machine and industry.

Even though the great architect is not with us his words are becoming a living truth.

DEMAND OF ELECTRICITY IN INDIA
(PRESENT AND FUTURE)

Availability of required amount of electricity is a necessity for a developing country like India. This has to be done in a manner that is sustainable and is based on diverse fuel sources and technology and provides long term energy security. This implies that we have to examine all fuel resources in the country and tap them keeping short ,medium and long term scenarios in perspective. Hydro potential and renewables must be exploited to the maximum possible extent but to meet long term requirement it is necessary to exploit nuclear resources.

Only in 1950s did attention turn to nuclear power for electricity generation. India is in a unique situation with modest uranium and vast thorium resources .Our nuclear programmes are planned taking this in to consideration. It is expected that annual electricity generation would increase from about 638TWh in year 2002-2003 to 7957TWh in the year 2052 to 2053.The growth rate of electricity has been substantially higher than that of any other form of energy. India is a developing country and due to the rising population demand for electricity is more and so there is always a shortage of electricity.

VARIOUS OPTIONS AND INEVITABILITY
OF NUCLEAR POWER IN TERMS OF RESOURCE
POSITION,COST COMPARISONS ETC.

Nuclear fuel contains energy in a concentrated form thus requiring much less tonnage for fuel to be transported or stored. The overall cost of electricity generated from nuclear fuel is much smaller when compared to other components. In addition spent fuel is a resource for fuel to be used in fast breeder reactors. Further the fuel discharged from nuclear reactors also contain fossil components and can be recovered by reprocessing and recycling preferably in FBRs thereby further multiplying the fossil material.
The growth of nuclear power in India demands more resources. So there is a persisting need for developing robust techniques for both front end and back end of the fuel cycle and also for the economic and efficient extraction of uranium from lean sources. Considering the low grade of uranium ore, low tonnage of some deposits, difficult terrain of some of the locations having rich deposits ,it is challenging to speed up the uranium production.

Atomic minerals Directorate for exploration and Research has identified as many as 14 middle Proterozoic basin in India which can host un-confirmity type deposits. Such deposits are of high grade, have large tonnage deposits and are concealed without any surface manifestation. Exploration needs to be stepped up to locate new deposits including those concealed deep in the earth. The projection about energy requirements beyond five decades and indigenous energy resources indicate a large gap between them. To bridge the gap we have to accelerate the work on thorium. Technology should be developed to extract lean Uranium. Uranium from phosphoric acid is a good option. Monazite sand, IREL and sea Technology should be pursued. New potential Heavy zones are present even in coastal tracks of Jagat Singh Pur districts in Orissa.

WORLD STATUS OF NUCLEAR POWER

Nuclear Power is a saviour to mankind. Man needs energy for developing his environment and himself. He can get it from Nuclear Power. Nuclear Power is the energy released by splitting of certain atoms.
The first commercial nuclear power station was started in 1950s.There are some 440 commercial power reactors operating in 31 countries with over 3,64,000MWe of the total capacity and they supply 16% of the world's electricity, as base load power and their efficiency is increasing. 56 countries operate a total of 284 research reactors and a further 220 reactor power ships and submarines. Today the world produces as much electricity from nuclear energy as it did from all sources combined in1960. 17 countries depend on nuclear power for at least a quarter of their electricity needs. Today only eight countries are known to have nuclear weapons capability. In contrast 56 operate civil research reactors.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF RESEARCH REACTORS FOR
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

Research reactors have many uses including research and the production of medical and industrial isotopes as well as for training. Radiation technologies application programme and other advanced technologies is as important as nuclear power programmes because of its societal relevance. It has many components, the main being the technologies for the production of radiation and the technologies for their application. Radiation can be produced either from radio isotopes or from accelerators. Therefore for the production of radiation one has to develop research reactors and accelerators.

Another technology being pursued by DAE is "Lasers and their applications". DAE has developed and is developing research reactors, accelerators, lasers and other advanced technologies. Application areas of radiation technologies include health-care, agriculture, food preservation, water resources and research. Parallel to the nuclear programmes ,the applications of radiation technologies have made constant progress in India.

PRESENT STATUS AND FUTURE PLANS OF THE INDIAN
NUCLEAR POWER PROGRAMME

Our nuclear programmes in many ways is unique. It encompasses the complete range of activities that characterize an advanced nuclear power including generation of electricity and advanced research and development. Our scientists have mastered the complete nuclear fuel cycle. The manner of development of our programme which has been envisaged is predicted on our modest uranium resources and vast reserves of thorium.

We remain committed to the three stage nuclear power programme, consisting of Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors(PHWR) in the first stage, fast breeder reactors in the second stage and thorium reactors in the third stage. Our scientists have done excellent work and we are progressing well.

A committee was set up by the DAE which has recommended planning of the activities of the DAE to attain a total nuclear installed capacity of about 20,000MWe by the year 2020.These plans have been further fine tuned by the internal working Group (power) set up by DAE for the formation of the five year plan.Capacity addition upto the year 2020 includes several 220MWe PHWRs,540MWe PHWRs,1000MWe LWRs and 800 MWe FBRs. All the activities will be taken up to meet the requirement of the power programmes.

INDIA'S 3-STAGE NUCLEAR POWER PROGRAMME

Accessing the resource position and facilities Dr.Homi Babha designed our 3-stage Nuclear Power Programme.

• The First stage comprises setting up of pressurized heavy water reactors and associated fuel cycle facilities is already in the industrial domain. The technology for manufacturing various components and equipment for PHWRs in India is well established and has evolved through active collaboration between DAE and the industry. As DAE gains experience and masters various aspects of the nuclear technology, performance of nuclear power plants is continuously improving.

• The Second stage envisages setting up of fast breeder reactors backed by reprocessing plants and plutonium based fuel fabrication plants. In order to expand the nuclear capacity in the country fast breeder reactors are necessary.

• The third stage will be based on the thorium -uranium 233 cycle.Uranium233 is obtained by irradiation of thorium in PHWRs and FBRs. An advanced Heavy Water Reactor is developed in BARC. So technologies pertaining to utilization of thorium have been under development.
Indian power plants can definitely achieve these goals and India can become self sufficient in Nuclear Power.

DAE's CAPABILITY IN THE NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE

The nuclear power programme has a number of ancillary operations which form a part of the nuclear fuel cycle. The front end of the cycle includes mineral exploration, mining, milling , processing of ore and fabrication of fuel .Back end of the cycle covers reprocessing of depleted uranium fuel, and management of nuclear waste. India has acquired comprehensive capability in the PHWR design, construction and operation of associated plants facilities covering the entire nuclear fuel cycle of the nuclear power programme based on PHWR.

Self sufficiency has been achieved in the production of heavy water. Besides meeting the domestic demands tones of heavy water is exported to South Korea. The performance and safety of all the operating heavy water plants have remained excellent. The cumulative production achieved by the plants is surpassing the scheduled targets and due to conservation methods consumption has reduced a lot.

The Board also has an energy efficient ammonia-water Front End Technology to delink ammonia based heavy water from the fertilizer plants.It is a heavy water upgrading facility for use on commercial scale which employs indigeneously developed lower internals in vacuum distillation columns. Fuel processing is mainly done in the Back End of the Nuclear fuel cycle.

The Indian Nuclear power programme is based on a closed cycle approach that involves reprocessing of spent fuel and recycle of plutonium239 and Uranium233 for power generation. DAE has a pilot plant for reprocessing at Trombay for the development of fuel processing technology and industry scale plant at Tarapur and Kalpakkam. The plant at Trombay processes spent fuel from research reactors and the other two plants process spent fuel from power reactors. Robotics and automation are very important for all activities of the fuel cycle and several other programmes such as maintenance of nuclear reactors.

NUCLEAR WASTE MANAGEMENT

Radioactive wastes generated at various stages of nuclear fuel cycle are categorized as low , intermediate and high level wastes. The plants for management of all types of radioactive waste have been in operation in many nuclear facilities. The low and medium level radio active wastes are treated in eco friendly ways. The high level waste generated in small quantities are fixed in glass matrix vitrification. It a complete technology possessed by a few nations only and it has been successfully developed at Trombay. Based on this technology two waste immobilization plants are operating in Tarapur and Trombay. A similar plant is at Kalpakkam. After 30 years vitrified waste will be disposed off.

Advanced oxidation process including wet air oxidation, photochemical oxidation, super critical water oxidation etc on an industrial scale need to be developed. Development of specific sorbents and magnetic assisted separations will have a key role to play in future waste management plants. Recovery of zirconium from hulls is highly desirable. Management of waste from pyrochemical will be developed. Overall strategy has to be to ensure that uranium and plutonium are recovered and recycled . Adoption of membrane based technologies such as reverse osmosis, bio separation and ultra filtration techniques should be encouraged.
The highest priority is to develop new technologies to enhance performance and minimize waste leading to a very low impact on the environment.

SAFETY IN NUCLEAR REACTORS AND
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

The safety performance of atomic power stations continue to be excellent. The radio active releases to the environment is much below the prescribed limit. The emergency Preparedness system in the nuclear plants is updated. In almost all nuclear power stations the Environmental management systems was implemented in line with ISO 14001. Environment around the nuclear sites are well conserved. Many nuclear power stations have bagged the AERB Green Site Award. At the low level radiation Research laboratory Kollam, Kerala research on the health and biological effects of continuous natural radiation on human population are continuing.

An independent body, The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board monitors safety. The safety standards formulated by AERB are on par with those recommended. The safety operations through the entire nuclear fuel cycle, from prospecting and mining of ores to management of waste encompass all aspects of safety viz. radiological safety, industrial safety and environmental protection. In all the nuclear installations care is taken to protect operating personnel, public and environment.

It is a matter of pride for our country that NPCILis a member of the world association of nuclear operation(WANO).Indian experts have participated in the peer reviews of the atomic power plants in Japan and many other countries. Indian scientists are members of the International Safety Advisory Grant and IAE which prepare the safety codes and standards.

Safety surveillance inspection are regularly carried out and comprehensive emergency preparedness and response plans to handle postulated emergency scenarios are inaction at DAE. Environmental radiation monitoring and environmental surveillance are the regular features of the Environmenal protection programme of DAE. Full protection of the environment and people is the prime concern of DAE.

PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS ABOUT NUCLEAR ENERGY

There is a need to launch public awareness programmes to explain all aspects of nuclear technology, particularly to remove fears related to nuclear radiation, waste management and safety issues.
People in general have a strong unknown fear in their mind about nuclear power and radiations. This explains why people prefer to live as far as possible from the nuclear power plants.
People treat Nuclear energy as a "rich and powerful man who donates money" even though they admire his money the are scared to be close to him. Similarly people want the energy given by nuclear power but they don't want to be near it.
It is the responsibility of the educated to make the people understand that"Nuclear Energy "is the Saviour of mankind.

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A 'scratch' to make net 100 times faster

A 'scratch' to make net 100 times faster

  10:58:00 AM    Science Lover

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Scientists have developed what they claim is a small scratch on a piece of glass, which could make the internet nearly 100 times faster and give users unlimited, error-free access anywhere in the world.

"This is a critical building block and a fundamental advance on what is already out there. We are talking about networks that are potentially up to 100 times faster without costing the consumer any more.

"The scratched glass we have developed is actually a Photonic Integrated Circuit. This circuit uses the 'scratch' as a guide or a switching path for information - kind of like when trains are switched from one track to another - except this switch takes only one picoseconds to change tracks.

"This means that in one second the switch is turning on and off about one million times. We are talking about photonic technology that has terabit per second capacity," lead researcher Ben Eggleton at the University of Sydney said.

Though the initial demonstration has shown that it is possible to achieve speeds 60 times faster than many current networks, with further development, the process is likely to produce even faster results, according to the researchers.

"Currently we use electronics for our switching and that has been OK but as we move toward a more tech-savvy future there's demand for instant web gratification. Photonic technology delivers what's needed and, importantly, what is wanted," he said.

The University of Sydney has developed the scratch in collaboration with the Technical University of Denmark and financial support from Australian Research Council.

Researchers had reported some time back that the internet could soon be made obsolete by "the grid". The lightning-fast replacement will be capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds. It will have speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection.

The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the web, could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players, and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.

David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technologies "could revolutionize society".

"With this kind of computing power, future generations can collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine," he said.

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Artificial Intelligence - Available Now

Artificial Intelligence - Available Now

  8:59:00 PM    Science Lover

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Whenever a person wants to present themselves as an industry expert, one credible approach is to paint a shining picture of future technology and what people can expect from hopeful visions of things to come. One potential that has long bothered me is the current general perception of artificial intelligence technology.

There are a few key concepts that are not often included in the general discussion of creating machines that think and act like us. First, the problem with artificial intelligence is that it is artificial. Trying to create machines that work like the human brain and its special creative properties has always seemed useless to me. We already have people to do all that. If we succeed in generating a system that is every bit as able as the human brain to create and solve problems, such an achievement will also result in the same limitations. There is no benefit in creating an artificial life form that can surpass us to further degrade the value of humanity. Creating machines to enhance and compliment the wonders of human thinking does have many appealing benefits. One significant plus to building artificially intelligent systems is the benefit of the teaching process. Like people, machines have to be taught what we want them to learn, but unlike us, the methods used to imprint machine instructions can be accomplished in a single pass.

Our brains allow us to selectively flush out information we do not want to retain, and are geared for a learning process based on repetition to imprint a long term memory. Machines cannot “forget” what they are taught unless they are damaged, reach their memory capacity, or they are specifically instructed to erase the information they are tasked to retain. This makes machines great candidates for performing all the tediously repetitive tasks, and storing all the information we do not want to burden ourselves with absorbing. With a little creativity, computers can be adjusted to respond to people in ways that are more pleasing to the human experience, without the need to actually replicate the processes that comprise this experience. We can already teach machines to issue polite responses, offer helpful hints, and walk us through learning processes that mimic the niceties of human interaction, without requiring machines to actually understand the nuances of what they are doing. Machines can repeat these actions because a person has programmed them to execute the instructions that offer these results. If a person wants to take the time to impress aspects of presenting their own personality into a sequence of mechanical instructions, computers can faithfully repeat these processes when called upon to do so.

In today’s market place, most software developers do not add on the extra effort that is required to make their applications seem more polite and conservatively friendly to the end users. If the commercial appeal for doing this was more apparent, more software vendors would race to jump onto this bandwagon. Since the consuming public understands so little about how computers really work, many people seem to be nervous about machines that project a personality that is too human in the flavor of its interaction with people. A computer personality is only as good as the creativity of its originator, which can be quite entertaining. For this reason, if computers with personality are to gain ground in their appeal, friendlier system design should incorporate a partnering with end users themselves in building and understanding how this artificial personality is constructed. When a new direction is needed, a person can incorporate that information into the process, and the machine learns this new aspect as well.

People can teach a computer how to cover all contingencies that arise in accomplishing a given purpose for managing information. We do not have to take ourselves out of the loop in training computers how to work with people. The goal of achieving the highest form of artificial intelligence, self-teaching computers, also reflects the highest form of human laziness. My objective in design is to accomplish a system that will do the things I want it to do, without having to deal with negotiating over what the system wants to do instead. This approach is already easier to achieve than most people think, but requires consumer interest to become more prevalent.

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