MEET THE SCIENTIST

 Antoine Lavoisier

I am Antoine Lavoisier, a famous chemist. I was born in France on August 26, 1743. I grew up in an aristocratic family. My father was a layer but my mother died when I was only five years old.

I didn’t practice law because I found science more interesting. Since I had inherited a good deal of money when my mother died I was able to live as a nobleman and pursued various interests. I also worked in various government positions and was elected to the Royal Academy of Science in 1764.In 1775, I set up a laboratory in Paris where I could run experiments. This lab became a gathering place of scientists and I made many important discoveries in chemistry. 

Do you want to know what scientific discoveries I have done?

The Law of Conservation of Mass:

One of the main scientific theories in my time was the phlogiston theory. This theory thought fire was made up of an element called phlogiston. But I disproved this theory and demonstrated that there was an element called oxygen that played a major role in combustion. I also showed that the mass of products in a reaction are equal to the mass of the reactants and no mass is lost in a chemical reaction. This is known as the Law of Conservation of Mass and is one of the most important and basic laws of modern chemistry and physics.

The Elements and Chemical Nomenclature:

I spent a lot of time isolating elements and breaking down chemical compounds. I also invented a system of naming chemical compounds that were made up of multiple elements and named the element hydrogen. The First Chemistry Textbook:

I also wrote the first Elementary Treatise of Chemistry. This was the first chemistry textbook. The book contained a list of elements. I died when the French Revolution began. I wanted to remain separate from the revolution. But because I had worked as a tax collector for the government, I was branded a traitor and was executed on May 8, 1794 by guillotine.

WORLD'S FIRST COMMERCIAL SAND BATTERY

 Energy from Sand

THE Vatajankoski power plant in Kankaanpää, a small town located northwest of Helsinki, Finland’s capital, is unique. It has the world’s first commercial scale battery powered by sand. 

 

The battery acts as a reservoir for excess electricity produced by the town’s solar and wind farms and stores it in the form of heat energy. The sand, 110 tonnes of it, is fully enclosed in a 7-m-tall steel container. The air inside the sand is heated up to 600 degrees Celsius using a resistance heater that runs on solar and wind energy. The hot air is then circulated by a fan through heat exchange pipes. The thick insulation surrounding the sand keeps the temperature inside the battery at 600 degrees Celsius, even in freezing weather conditions. The battery stores 8 MWh (megawatt hours) of thermal energy when it is full. In use, the battery discharges 200 kilowatts of power through the heat exchange pipes—enough to provide heating and hot water to 100 homes and a public swimming pool in Kankaanpää. It supplements the power supplied from the city grid. The sand is charged at night when clean electricity is more cheaply available. The electrical energy is transferred to the battery using a closed loop air-pipe. The battery is low maintenance. The sand is the cheap, low quality one rejected by builders, and not the high quality river sand utilised for construction. The fan is the only moving part and it’s easy to replace if necessary. Sand retains heat for a long time and can store power for months. The sand can be heated and cooled any number of times. It becomes denser after a while, at which point more sand has to be added. Four young Finnish engineers, Tommi Eronen, Markku Ylönen, Liisa Naskali and Ville Kivioja, who were childhood friends, invented the battery.

How does a sand battery score over a lithium-ion battery?

Lithium ion batteries that power laptops, smart phones and electric vehicles degrade continually even when not in use. A sand battery doesn’t age because there is no chemical reaction. Lithium batteries are not completely safe as they are flammable. Lithium extraction and refining has a much greater impact on the environment because of the carbon dioxide emissions. The sand battery is also eight to ten times cheaper than a lithium battery for the same amount of energy.

28 FEBRUARY

                National Science Day

                     

National Science Day is celebrated every year on 28 February. It is observed to honour the contributions of our scientists. On this day, in 1928, an Indian physicist, Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, made an important discovery in the field of spectroscopy, which was later named after him – the Raman Effect.

C V Raman, as he is popularly known, was born on 7 November, 1888. He was the first Indian scientist to win the prestigious Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of what is later named as Raman Effect in 1930. He discovered that when light passes through a transparent material, some of the deflected light beams change in wavelength. This phenomenon was named ‘Raman Scattering’ or Raman Effect. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1954. So, in memory of his discovery National Science Day is celebrated. C V Raman passed away on 21 November, 1970.

The first National Science Day was observed on 28 February, 1987. Educational institutions celebrate the National Science Day by organising public speeches, Radio & TV Programmes, science movies and exhibitions on various themes and concepts, debates, quiz competitions, lectures, seminars and science exhibitions. Let us take a pledge on this day to live a life with scientific temper. Let us make our country proud with our contributions to the development of science.

The theme for Science Day for the year 2023 is Global Science For Global Wellbeing.

FIRST FEMALE DOCTOR OF INDIA

Dr. Anandi Gopal Joshi

Today, February 26, marks the death anniversary of Anandi Gopal Joshi, India's first female doctor and one of the earliest female physicians in the country. Also referred to as Anandibai Joshi, she was the first woman from the erstwhile Bombay presidency (present-day Maharashtra) to study and graduate with a two-year degree in western medicine in the United States. Originally named Yamuna, Joshi was born on March 31, 1865, and brought up in a Marathi Brahmin family. As was the tradition during that time, she was married at the age of just nine to Gopalrao Joshi, a postal clerk and a widower almost twenty years older than her. After marriage, Yamuna's husband renamed her 'Anandi'. Gopalrao Joshi was a strong supporter of women's education, and since this was considered unusual at that time, he was considered a progressive thinker.

Anandi Gopal Joshi is the first Indian female to study western medicine and became an inspiration to generations of women to pursue their further education.

What Inspired Her To Pursue Medicine?

Anandibai gave birth to a baby boy at the age of just 14, but the child could not survive more than ten days due to a lack of medical care. The incident was a turning point in Anandi's life and inspired her to do something about healthcare in India. After Gopalrao tried to enrol her in missionary schools and did not work out, they moved to Calcutta. There she learned to read and speak English and Sanskrit. In 1880, Gopalrao sent a letter to Royal Wilder, a renowned American missionary, stating his wife's interest in inquiring about a relevant post in the US for himself. Wilder published the correspondence in his Princeton's Missionary Review. Theodicia Carpenter, a Roselle, New Jersey resident, happened to read it while waiting to see her dentist. She wrote to the former, impressed by Anandibai's desire to pursue medicine and Gopalrao's support for his wife. Carpenter and Anandibai developed a close bond and came to refer to each other as "aunt" and "niece."
While the husband-wife duo was in Calcutta, Anandibai's health started deteriorating. She suffered from constant headaches, weakness, occasional fever, and breathlessness. Theodicia sent her medicines from America but unfortunately showed no results. In 1883, Gopalrao was transferred to Serampore, and he decided to send his wife by herself to the US for her medical studies despite her poor health condition. Though concerned, Gopalrao convinced her to set an example for other women by pursuing higher education. Anandi Gopal Joshi applied to the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania and was granted admission. Upon learning Anandibai's plans to pursue higher education in the West, orthodox Indian society strongly criticised her. Later, she addressed the community at Serampore College Hall, explaining her decision to go to America and obtain a medical degree. She emphasised the need for female doctors in India, emphasising that Hindu women could better serve as physicians to their counterparts. Her speech received wide publicity, and financial contributions started pouring in from all over India. In March 1886, Anandibai graduated with an MD. The topic of her thesis was "Obstetrics among the Aryan Hindoos", and her thesis utilised references from both American medical textbooks and Ayurvedic texts. On her graduation, Queen Victoria sent her a congratulatory message. In late 1886, Anandibai returned to India and received a grand welcome. The princely state of Kolhapur appointed her as the physician-in-charge of the female ward of the local Albert Edward Hospital.
Anandibai died of tuberculosis early the following year, on February 26, 1887, in Pune before turning 22. Her ashes were sent to Theodicia Carpenter, who placed them in her family cemetery in New York. Despite practising medicine for only two to three months, she rose to fame for her sheer determination and hard work to become the first Indian female to study western medicine and a source of inspiration to all others who came after her.

STORY

 The person hindering your growth

One day all the employees reached the office, and they saw a big advice on the door, on which it was written:“Yesterday the person who has been hindering your growth in this company, passed away. We invite you to join the funeral”.

In the beginning, they all felt sad for the death of one of their colleagues. But after a while they started getting curious to know who that man was who hindered the growth of his colleagues and the company itself.

The excitement was such that the security agents were ordered to control the crowd in the room. The more the people reached the coffin, the more excitement heated up.

Everyone thought:”Who is this guy who was hindering my progress? Well, at least he died!”

One by one, the thrilled employees got closer to the coffin. When they looked inside it they suddenly became speechless. They stood nearby the coffin, shocked in silence, as if someone had touched the deepest part of their soul.

There was a mirror inside the coffin: everyone who looked inside it could see themselves. There was a sign next to the mirror that said:”There is only one person who is capable to set limits to your growth: it is YOU.”

Our life does not change when our boss changes, when our teachers change, when our friends change. Our life changes when WE change and realise that we are the only one responsible for our life.

ARTICLE

 The importance of smaller steps

Millions of extraordinary people are doing amazing things, quietly putting in hard work to improve lives and make a real difference in our world. And still more impressive is that these heroes are anonymous and humble grassroot warriors. They are driven solely by passion, not by hope or promises of fame or recognition. Their courage and optimism are an inspiration for their generation.

These are the people making progress possible. Their selfless spirit of social service imparts purity to the mission and helps translate development policies into real ground action. They are using their talents to fight poverty, hunger and disease and create opportunities for future generations. The world is a better place because of what they do. What shines through is their resilience, integrity, and depths of their empathy. These tiny revolutions may not command great attention, but in merit, they may equal or exceed the more significant and conspicuous actions of those with more freedom and power. The test is what people do.

Social change flows from individual efforts. Many revolutionary movements have sprung from smaller beginnings. A lot of progress can come from more minor advances. Thousands of lesser improvements that build upon one another can represent an enormous advance for society. The soundest and best way forward is through innumerable small steps that could be just nudges and tiny pushes. We should wait for windows of opportunity to push big changes through during these small steps.

The first rule of learning is to do it in small chunks and through occasional big pushes when the momentum is strong. Brief bursts are better than one prolonged blast. Slower and smaller steps also help build a person’s adaptability to change. Look for small innovations, not just blockbusters. By changing what they do, people move societies in new directions. Big simple solutions are tempting but full of risks. Most of the time, the soundest and the best way forward is through innumerable small steps.

Small gains, well-consolidated as part of a sequence, can mean more than significant gains which are unstable and short-lived. Accumulated over time, they snowball into giant achievements. People move societies in new directions by changing what they do and bringing about change. Big simple solutions are tempting but full of risks.

The real development story is an aggregate of initiatives in thousands of clusters led by extraordinary people, few of them known and the vast majority of them unknown. But not all can expect recognition or become folk heroes. For most of those who put the last first, the satisfaction and rewards are not fame but knowing that they have done what was right and that things are slightly better than they would have been. We have abundant examples of people who have renounced their ambrosia of social and political positions and pledged their lives to empower the disenfranchised. These practical idealists are backed by heroic, skillful and inspiring field staff, and demonstrate passion, intellect and gritty determination. It doesn’t require a flash of genius or the invention of any radical idea to change the storyline.

STORY

 Creativity Can Work wonders

In 1879, famous consumer products manufacturer Proctor and Gamble’s best-seller was candles. But as Thomas Edison had invented the light bulb at that time, the market for candles crashed. They started selling on special occasions only, and seemed to be on the verge of becoming obsolete. The outlook appeared to be bleak for the company.

However destiny then seems to have played a dramatic part in pulling back the struggling company from bankruptcy. An employee at a small factory in Cincinnati forgot to turn off his machine when he went to lunch. This resulted in a frothing mass of lather filled with air bubbles. He almost threw the stuff away. Instead, he decided to make it into soap. The soap floated. Thus, Ivory soap was born.

In Cincinnati, during that period, many people bathed in the Ohio River. Since floating soap would never sink, and consequently never got lost, it soon became a best-seller. The soap turned out to be the stronghold of Proctor and Gamble.

Let us never give up even when things go wrong. Creativity put to work, can solve a problem. In fact, problems can be turned into a gold mine.