SciGaze Group

  X-Ray Diffraction (XRD)        To understand the XRD we need to learn about the history of crystals. Question 1:- Why Do Crystals Have Regular External Shapes?    # There is a famous postulate by Robert Hooke “Because they have a regular arrangement of ‘building blocks’(atoms in the modern language)” { Robert Hooke father of ‘Microscopy’, wrote the first book on the microscopy study of material }                X-rays were discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen (1845-1923) who was a Professor at Würzburg University in Germany. In his laboratory he was working with a cathode-ray tube in his laboratory, crystals on a table near his tube were started glowing like a fluorescent glow. The tube on which Roentgen was working was filled with positive and negative electrodes encapsulated in a glass envelope (bulb). When a high voltage has applied the air in the tube wa...

  Humans are working more and more on extraterrestrial habitations. A few decades back we were planning to settle on the Moon and now we are planning the same on Mars. Many researchers also proposed many theories on such habitations as O'Neill Cylinder, McKendree Cylinder, and many more. One such famous hypothetical theory is Terraforming. But what does the term terraforming mean? Terraforming is the process of transforming the atmosphere, topography, temperature and other factors of any moon or planet to make it habitable and similar to the Earth. It was Carl Sagan who first proposed the theory of terraforming. He proposed the terraforming of Venus. He thought of seeding Venus with algae. The algae will convert nitrogen and carbon dioxide to organic matter and eventually, the greenhouse effect will reduce to a comfortable, habitual level.  However, later studies revealed that the clouds of Venus are full of sulphuric acid. Also, the atmosphere of Venus is very thick, any...

  Everyone is talking about the development of our civilization. But how to measure the extent of our development? In order to measure the extent of development and technological advancement of any civilization Soviet astronomer, Nikolai Kardashev in 1964 proposed a theory. This theory measures the extent of development by the amount of energy a civilization can utilize for technological advancement. Many astronomers argued by considering it completely hypothetical. They believed that we cannot measure the extent of advancement until we find out any extraterrestrial civilisation. While many astronomers strongly believed in this theory. They believed that the type of civilisations mentioned in the Kardashev Scale might exist in some distant galaxies.  Kardashev ranked the advancement of civilisation into three categories. However, a hypothetical fourth type of civilisation was also included by some astrophysicists. These types are: Type I civilisation Type II civilisation Type ...

New ideas always bring controversy with them, sometimes they are also concluded as orthodoxy. The same scenario is with outer space habitations. Some believe humans can't live and reproduce in outer space, while some hope for the future. Gerard O'Neill in 1974 published an article showing the possibility of outer space habitations in the 21st century through O'Neill cylinders. O'Neill was a strong believer in outer space habitations. In 1969, he predicted that humans will move outside the Earth. According to O'Neill: Humans can colonize space without damaging or harming anyone and without polluting anything. If we start working today, then within a century, we can move our industrial activities away from the Earth's fragile biosphere. Such migration of people and industries will encourage self-efficiency and will increase cultural diversity and degree of independence.  If we colonize space then the human race could expand by 20,000 times the present value.  O...

           AI brings a new era of computing, cognitive computing. Cognitive Computing is radically a new type of computing that provides a very different form of the programmable system than the previous generation of its kind.          From 1940 the Conventional Computing worked based on the mathematical principle to bring out a solution. Conventional Computing is a program based on rules and logic intended to derive mathematically precise answers, often followed by a rigid decision tree approach.           Nowadays, with the increase in the wealth of data and information which requires more complex evidence-based decisions, rigid approaches like Conventional Computing often break or fail to coordinate with the available large amount of data(Big Data).Cognitive Computing gives power to people to create a profoundly new kind of value, finding answers and insights locke...

                                    With the advancement in technology, we have the ability to look beyond the visible range in space with the help of the infrared and various types of telescopes. With the help of these telescopes, researchers discover lots of nebulas, galaxies, etc. But when researchers look beyond the clouds where the stars used to form they found that every star similar to the Sun forms a binary system with the other Companion star. So where is the Companion star of the Sun ???                  Hypothetical Companion Star of the Sun is called Nemesis which is considered to be Red dwarf or Brown Dwarf. Originally the Theory was postulated in 1984, that Nemesis is orbiting the Sun at the distance of about 95000AU (1.5 Light Years), somewhere beyond the Oort Cloud to explain a perceived cycle of mass extinctions in the geological re...

 Meteorites are known to have a wide range of materials due to their extreme environment. They are under constant heat, pressure and gravitational force. Hence it is possible to have rare materials on it, which might not be on the Earth. These all make them the perfect target to search superconductors. Meteorites are chemically inhomogeneous, which means they have non-uniform chemical composition. The superconductivity in meteorites might not be permanent. It can last for few minutes also. This makes the search for superconductivity even more difficult. To overcome this difficulty the astronomers have developed ultrasensitive MFMMS (Magnetic Field Modulated Microwave Spectroscopy). The MFMMS is a technique to measure superconductivity very precisely. Sensitivity is the key feature of this technique. This makes astronomers possible to measure superconductivity which lasted for a very short time. MFMMS is also used to detect the superconductivity in many alloys and bulk materials apa...

 In 2008, a giant red star appeared on the horizon of its life. A heavy star like this is born 25 times the mass of the Sun, had to come out with a boom of firelight known as a supernova, millions or billions of times brighter than our Sun. But this star refused to play the role of the drama queen. Instead, it just emits a little light, then disappeared, perhaps leaving a black hole. No one has ever seen one of these huge red stars dying quietly in the past. It was a sign that the lives and death of these stars are even more complicated than our simple ideas. "As amazing and important and fun and exciting as this is, it's not surprising," said Stan Woosley at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In fact, the discovery may be helpful in explaining why big stars in computer models often fail to explode. A popular theory holds that almost all stars born more than eight times the size of the Sun ends up in supernovae. When the star is young, it shines brightly and blue. ...

The dust of the moon is not the same as the dust that settles on a bookshelf or on a table. It is so bad that it even broke NASA's vacuum designed to clean up the Moondust with Apollo planes. With NASA's return to the Moon and its orbit, it will have to carry the dust, which is also dangerous to humans. The first step is to know how close you are at any given time. Efforts to do that are already paying off on Earth, in the fight against air pollution. Apollo's machines fought hard to deal with the damage caused by the moon's dust. It turned off the camera and scratched the helmet making it hard for astronauts to see.  Apollo 17 astronaut, Harrison Schmitt described his reaction to lunar dust as “moon hay fever,” with a sore throat. The symptoms went away, but concern about human health is the reason behind NASA's research on lunar soil. Sensitive issues such as lungs will be damaged by the dust of the moon trapped inside the living space. While air filters can remov...

  Mars, our only hope for survival if we wanted to leave the Earth. It is the neighbour planet of Earth and the second smallest planet in the solar system. The Red Planet got everyone's attention when water was discovered on it. Today, water is present only at the North Pole in form of ice caps and beneath the carbon dioxide caps. Apart from water, the Martian atmosphere is the only suitable place to live, apart from the Earth. A very minute quantity of vapour is present in the Martian atmosphere. More than 5 million cubic km of ice is present on the surface of Mars. Hence it is possible to create an artificial lake or sea on Mars by melting those ice caps. There is no existence of liquid water on Mars. However, it is believed that a few million years ago, rivers were flowing on the Martian surface.  Timeline of Water on Mars: A few million years ago, Martian soil was thriving with liquid water. Evidence of flowing water (i.e river) and lakes were found during several studies....