What after hubble tumble???

Hubble space telescope is getting a successor called                                
James Webb Space telescope.
The latter will be relying on infra red light observation.
With this capability, this next generation telescope will have the 
capability to observe the first galaxies formed after the Big Bang.


news detail...

                               
                                       

A step closer to Higgs boson??

Every physicist or a physics lover have heard and read about Higgs boson. The hypothetical particle giving mass to everything.....Scientists at CERN have toiled hard to get to know this particle at LHC.
                   Here is a news i tumbled upon on it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14258601
     

TEST TUBE INTELLIGENCE!!??

You might all remember playing a clue game in your childhood. It could be guessing the personality or a place or a word, we always had a set of questions hinting towards a thing fired on the opponent and he had to guess the thing. Now, the researchers in CALTECH (California Institute of technology) are busy playing the same game. But this time its not with fellow researchers, nor robots; this time it’s a test tube having artificial neurons and DNA strands. Humans have this great ability of coming to a conclusion with the help of some fragments of memory . Researchers are trying to replicate it , and have taken first step to success.
                                To keep it simple for my readers, They had four artificial neurons made of 112 DNA strands. They play 'identify the scientist game'. They are first trained by giving information in parts eg.whether the scientist knows english etc. Then a human gives it clues pointing towards a scientist it has to find out. Through fluorescence, it tells which is the scientist, or its not in the list, or data is insufficient. The 

researchers played this game with the network 

using 27 different ways of answering 

the questions — out of 81 total combinations — and it responded correctly each time.  

                                                                    

                This is a major breakthrough and this can be helpful in medical, chemical and biological field…

 This was published in nature.

So, all my engineer friends, buck up. We need to act fast else these artificially intelligent will take over the dormant natural intelligence…….                                                         

               

      

NOW, TIME FOR SOME COLD FUSION

Ran out of power...??? Keep it cool..... Cold fusion is a type of purported nuclear reaction at low energies or temperatures..Cold fusion has been in controversy ever since it was found. It claims to produce high amount of energy at room temperature.Initially met with skeptism, Inventors Andrea Rossi and Sergio Focardi  announced the "E-CAT" in January claiming they had created a reactor that produces massive amounts ofenergyby fusing nickel and hydrogen nuclei at room temperature.It could provide nearly limitless cheap energy with no radioactive byproduct or massive carbon emissions, would cost roughly one penny per kilowatt-hour, drastically cheaper than a coal plant. Claims are there that a 1 MW fusion reactor , reacting Nickel and hydrogen with some suitable catalyst is under sustained fusion reaction.They claim able to produce around 12,400 W of heat from 400 W of input

                                                   Just came across news about it. If its genuine its great, else ........

For further details:- 

http://pesn.com/2011/07/21/9501874_Rossis_Self_Sustaining_One_Megawatt_Reactor/

http://www.naturalnews.com/032455_cold_fusion_E-Cat.html#ixzz1SvH8r1dm                      

http://echofrog.com/2011/03/19/have-we-finally-achieved-cold-fusion/

A COOL WAY OF GENERATION:- HTS

Be it any mode of power generation- thermal, hydro, wind , nuclear etc. At the end, they move a turbine. Most of the ower produced is by a synchronous generator attached to the rotating turbine.

Thus, much research has always been towards improving the efficiency of generator. But now a stage has been reached that due to physical limitations, current carrying capacity of conventional conductors, insulation limitation. Thus hopes have turned towards HTS(High temperature superconductors).

                Advantages:

·         Increased generation capability to 1000GW.

·         better grid stability.

·         The efficiency will increase( beyond 99% thus reducing the energy losses by over 50%).

·         Lower  life cycle costs

·         Lesser pollution per unit energy .[ A 1,000 MW superconducting generator could save as much as $4 million per year in reduced losses per generator]

·         Reduction in size and weight.(1/3 the overall volume of its conventional equivalent)

·         System impact: ( 1. lower armature reaction .

                              2. capability of being significantly overexcited to permit power factor

                                  correction without adding synchronous reactors or capacitors to the       

                                  power system)

·         Reduced expenses.

Siemens and KIT have made a 4MW superconducting motor model successfully and are aiming at much higher MW. They want to use the technology called high temperature superconductors (HTS) in power generation. These superconducting cables will be able to carry 3000 times more current densities and can improve the efficiency of present systems. Thus it will reduce the size of generators. It will also reduce environmental pollution….but above all,  just imagine how great it will be to visit such kinda power station….Cooled to -240®C….ok, there are many difficulties in cooling ,thermal insulation, its reliability, but its good to hear and imagine….

                Japan, USA and some other countries are doing research on it…..Lets see when this dream comes into reality……….Let there be no resistance in the path of its success. J

Article inspired from:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/siemens-superconductor-generator.html

http://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1083

For further reading:

synchronous generator                                                                  

superconductors

Electricity_sector_in_India

                                      

Now You Know--Glass globules in trical lab- mercury arc rectifiers...!!!!

To all my trical 13 VNITians....and of course my E 1 batch....I have something very near and dear to you...
Our labs are really very well equipped.In the present race to get hold of new technology, our benevolent college lab has not parted with the ancient heritage, as old is gold. You must be recognizing this pic i have uploaded above. Yes this is the same thing we tgought has been taken out of chemical lab....
                              But I want to tell you that it iis a MERCURY ARC RECTIFIER. Before the invention of power electronics, thyristors for rectifying, this was most extensively used in vehicles, railway traction and motors and evenly recently for HVDC lines.
                                          It has mercury pool at the bottom which acts as a cathode, and graphite anodes. When heated, mercury vapourizes and gets evaporated when it touches the glass ceiling. The cathode is connected  to the dc load and then to neutral of transformer. When heated due to Hg vapours, circuit gets completed and current flows. Anodes are connected to the phases from each of two end taps. in such a way that there is unidirectional flow. But a disadv is that no current is there when the ac power goes zero and the dc has a varying component with twice frequency of ac supply. So 6 phase supply were used for constant dc supply.
the initiating arc is formed by energizing an electromagnet ,bringing starting electrode in contact with the cathode and then breaking the contact thus causing high emf induced.
                                                    This sums up the story of the glass globule resembling some sci fi space laboratory...........

What is Capacitance????

I have read many definitions of capacitance but never got satisfied.
Can anyone please post a general and most appropriate definition for it.
I want a definition beyond the conventional parallel plate capacitor we
 usually visualize .
Freedom to use any example(good analogies) you feel good.