DO YOU KNOW

 What is a noble gas?

     It is any of a group of six chemical elements, namely helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon. They are colourless and odourless natural gases found in the atmosphere. The noble gases were discovered in the 1890s by the British scientists Lord Rayleigh and William Ramsay. 

     They are called noble because they do not easily react with other elements. All of them except radon, which is highly radioactive, are used in incandescent and gas-discharge lamps.

     Argon and helium are used in welding.

  Helium is also used in balloons that carry scientific instruments high into the atmosphere.

   Radon is at times used in cancer treatment because of its radioactivity. 

INNOVATIVE DEVICES FOR USING GREEN ENERGY

 Ulta Chhaata, Wind Tree, Solar Power Tree 

     There is a growing demand for both clean water and power. Here are some innovative devices that promise a greener future.

Umbrella With A Twist

 

ULTA CHHAATA: As the name suggests, resembles an inverted umbrella. It is a large concave structure that collects rainwater in the monsoon and converts it into potable water, while the solar panels fitted alongside the canopy, produce energy in the dry season.

     The rainwater collected in the ‘bowl’ of the Chhaata, trickles down the stalk to reach a filtering unit of activated carbon where itis cleared of impurities. A cluster of ten or more Ulta Chhaatas is connected to a common device where the water undergoes further filtration to remove microorganisms, making it fit for drinking. A single unit can harvest as much as 1,00,000 litres of water every year. 

    The solar energy harnessed in the dry season is stored in the battery and is used not just to light up the Chhaata but also the premises. Unlike a typical rainwater harvesting unit, Ulta Chhaata’s attractive design lends itself well to the aesthetics of the surroundings, especially when lit up. 

    The device takes up to one sq. ft of area. Ulta Chhaatas can be installed as sustainable workstations in open spaces. They can provide a green roof for reception areas, cafeterias, gazebos, car parks, bus stops and even railway stations. Each Chhaata costs between 4.5 and 5 lakh.

 Besides a number of corporates, Guntakal railway station in Andhra Pradesh has installed six such structures in its premises.

     Ulta Chhaata is the brainchild of a Mumbai-based environmentally conscious couple Priya Vakil and Samit Choksy whose start-up ThinkPhi designs sustainable products.

Winds Of Change 

WIND TREE: Wind tree is a tree-shaped structure that harnesses wind energy using small trembling wind turbines called ‘aeroleaves’ that look exactly like leaves on a tree.

     The micro-turbines work well even when there is little wind. Just a gentle breeze as light as 7 kmph is sufficient. This is something a conventional windmill cannot do. 

     French innovator Jérôme Michaud-Larivière designed the Wind Tree as an elegant, sustainable energy-harnessing device that would enhance urban landscapes. The first Wind Tree was a 3-m-tallstructure with 72 aeroleaves. It produced 3.1kW of power. ‘Wind Bush’ is a combination of aeroleaves and photovoltaic petals that harnesses both wind and solar energy. 

     For the Indian market, Larivière has created ‘Lotus’, an affordable wind tree minus the solar petals.

Sunny Tree 

SOLAR POWER TREE: A solar power tree is a device that is shaped like a tree with its steel branches holding the solar photovoltaic panels. 

     Just like a natural tree, the steel branches of the solar tree are arranged in such a fashion that every solar panel is properly exposed to the Sun. Moreover, the panels can be mechanically tilted east or west to derive the maximum benefit of the Sun’s position. The height of the tree is about 9–10 metres. 

   One tree can produce about 5kW of power. One of the main hurdles in installing solar power plants is the lack of availability of large areas of land. Often, farmers are reluctant to sacrifice their cultivable land for solar power production. But a solar tree with its vertically arranged branches, occupies only four sq. ft of area, leaving almost the entire land free for cultivation. The energy generated can be used to run pumps, e-tractors and tillers as a green alternative to diesel.

     India’s first solar power tree was producedby Central Mechanical Engineering and Research Institute (CMERI), at Durgapur. In2020, a much bigger tree with 35 panels was installed at the CMERI campus. The largest of its kind in the world, it produces up to 11.5kW of power. CMERI hopes to install many such solar trees along highways and farmlands.

FOOTBALLING REVOLUTION

Young Female Footballers Of Alakhpura

  Alakhpura, a village of 2,000 people in Haryana’s Bhiwani district, is a hub for young female footballers.

     More than 200 girl trainees practise football in Alakhpura twice a day—two hours in the morning and three hours in the late afternoon. Earlier, parents hesitated to let their daughters out of the house alone and the idea of girls playing a sport was frowned upon. Today these girls are breaching social taboos. 

  It all began when Gordhan Dass, a sports teacher posted at the government school, introduced football for girls in 2006. He encouraged girls to play the sport. If some families refused to let their daughters participate, Dass would take his daughter along to explain to them that there was no shame attached to football and that they should take pride in what their daughters could achieve. This approach worked and the families relented.    

  Initially, what motivated the girls was the scholarship money for playing well in competitions. But when football became the means of securing a government job, every family began pushing girls to play football—some have landed government jobs in the Indian Railways, the state education department and paramilitary forces such as the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). This has helped the girls become financially independent and support their families, many of whom live below the poverty line. As a result, Alakhpura’s residents no longer view daughters as a burden but as assets. 

  In 2017, the villagers officially registered the Alakhpura Football Club (AFC) with the All India Football Federation. While the Haryana government paid for the coaching and equipment, the villagers crowdsourced funds to cover the team’s expenses. The responsibilities of the club are divided among some of the villagers. Whenever the trainees need financial support, the entire village comes forward. 

    Today, at least half of the players of Haryana’s women’s football team hails from Alakhpura. Overall, 75 girls from the village have played in national-level competitions in different age groups and 12 have participated in international-level events. With their dedication and determination, the Alakhpura girls have firmly carved a space for their village on the country’s sports map and have become an inspiration for girls in India.

NATIVE BIRD OF NORTH AMERICA

 Turkey

     Turkeys are huge birds that are often raised by people for their meat. These birds are native to North America. There are two species of turkeys --- the wild turkey, which is found in central and eastern North America, and the ocellated turkey, which is found in Mexico. 

     Male and female turkeys look slightly different from each other. Male turkeys are larger than females and have colourful plumage and a fan-like tail. They have a red piece of flesh that grows from their forehead over their beak, called a snood, and a fleshy part that grows under their throat, called a wattle. Turkeys eat grains, nuts, seeds and small creatures such as frogs, lizards and snails. 

     A male turkey is called a tom and a female turkey is called a hen. Male turkeys have protrusions on their legs and spurs, which they use to fight with other male turkeys. Turkeys are believed to have been domesticated by humans more than 2,000 years ago. Turkeys have very good eyesight and can spot their predators from a distance. Turkeys can change the colour of their head from red to blue to white depending on their mood. 

Habits:

* Turkeys are social creatures and live in flocks. 

* Turkeys are active during the day and sleep at night. 

* Turkeys can produce around 20 different kinds of sounds to express themselves and communicate with each other. 

* Turkeys often peck the ground to search for food. 

* Turkeys eat small stones along with their food. This helps them to grind food in their stomach and aids digestion. 

Did you know? 

Roasted turkey is an important part of the Christmas meal in the USA, Canada and many European countries. 

AMBITIOUS SPACE MISSION PROJECT OF INDIA

 The Gaganyaan Mission 

     Have you ever dreamt of going to space and exploring the vast universe beyond our planet Earth? Well now India is working on making that dream come true with its amazing Gaganyaan Mission. 

     Gaganyaan is a supercool and exciting project by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) about sending astronauts to space and making India one of the few countries in the world that can do it. 

     The Gaganyaan Mission is super important for many reasons. Here are a few:

Space Exploration: we humans are curious beings, and space is like the ultimate adventure. Gaganyaan will help us explore and understand space better. 

Scientific Research: Scientists can conduct all sorts of experiments in space that they can't do on Earth. This helps us learn more about the universe and how things work. 

National Pride: Just like winning a gold medal in a sports event, Gaganyaan will make India proud on the world stage. It shows our skills and dedication to space exploration.

The Astronauts: Astronauts are like superheroes of space. They are specially trained to go to space and do all sorts of exciting things up there. For Gaganyaan, Indian astronauts will be selected and trained to fly on the mission in Russia's Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre. They will wear cool spacesuits and use high-tech gadgets while in space. 

The Rocket: Getting into space is no easy task. The Gaganyaan astronauts will ride on a powerful rocket called GSLV Mk III. It is India’s heaviest and mightiest rocket and it can carry the crew module (where the astronauts sit) to space. 

The spacecraft: The astronauts will travel in a spacecraft called the Orbital Module. This spacecraft is like a mini home in space. It has all the necessary equipments to keep the astronauts safe and comfortable during their journey. 

The Mission:

The Mission will have three main parts:

1) The launch: The astronauts will blast off from the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh. 

2) The journey: The crew will spend about a week in space, orbiting our planet. They will experiment, take amazing pictures, and maybe even do a spacewalk.

3) Coming back: After their incredible adventure in space, the astronauts will return to Earth. A special crew module will protect them from the scorching heat as they re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, and they will land safely in the Arabian Sea.

     Gaganyaan would be a giant leap for India and all of us who dream to go into space and explore the universe. 

OUR RICH HERITAGE

Ancient Indian Universities 

     India has a long history and tradition of learning and thinking, and none of it makes it more evident than the mega universities existing in ancient times before invaders destroyed them. Let's look at a few of them:

Nalanda University:

 Located 95kms southeast of Patna near Bihar Sharif, Nalanda was established in the 5th century BC, dedicated to Buddhist studies, fine arts, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, politics and the art of war. 

     The university had eight separate compounds, ten temples, meditation halls, classrooms, lakes and parks. It had a nine-story library with 9 million books where monks meticulously copied books and documents. It housed 10,000 students and 2,000 professors. Nalanda attracted pupils and scholars from Sri Lanka, Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey, who left accounts of the centre. 

     Evidence in the literature suggests that in 1193, Nalanda University was sacked and destroyed by Bakhtiyar Khilji.

Pushpagiri: 

    The school in Pushpagiri was established in the 3rd century AD in modern Odisha, with three campuses. The Lalitgiri campus in Cuttack is supposed to be one of the oldest Buddhist establishments in the world, having been established in the 2nd century BC. Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang also mentioned Pushpagiri in his writings. The ruins of Pushpagiri were discovered in 1995 and have since become a tourist spot in Odisha. 

Taxila:

    Taxila or Takshashila was located in the kingdom of Gandhara (modern day Pakistan-Afghanistan border). Claims to have existed at least since the sixth century BC. Takshashila was an early Hindu and Buddhist centre of learning. The school consisted of several monasteries without large dormitories or lecture halls where religious instruction was imparted individually. 

     Taxila has been mentioned in detail in Jataka tales. Taxila's main claim to fame is from Chanakya, for writing his socio-politic treatise Arthashastra at the university. The alums also include Mauryan emperor Chandragupta and Ayurvedic healer Charaka. 

Vikramshila: 

    Vikramshila was established by King Dharmapala (783 to 820) in response to a supposed decline in the quality of scholarship at Nalanda. Present in modern day Bhagalpur, Vikramshila was one of the largest Buddhist universities, with more than one hundred teachers and about 1000 students. Its scholars were renowned for being invited to teach Buddhist learning to foreign countries. It was destroyed by the forces of Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji around 1200.

STORY TIME

  The fisherman and the businessman 

     Once upon a time, a businessman sat on the beach in a small Italian village. As he sat, taking a brief break from the stress of his daily schedule, he saw a fisherman rowing a small boat back into the harbour. In the boat were a few large fish. 

     Impressed, the businessman asked the fisherman, "How long does it take you to catch even more?"

     "More? This is enough to feed my entire family and even offer some to my neighbours," the fisherman said. 

     "So what do you do for the rest of the day?" Enquired the businessman. 

     The fisherman replied, "Well, I've usually caught my fish by late morning, at which point I go home, spend some time with my wife and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap and read. I go to the village in the evening to enjoy myself with my friends, play guitar, sing, and dance into the night!"

     Putting his entrepreneurial hat on, the businessman offered a suggestion. 

     "I have a Ph. D. in business! I can help you become much more successful. From now on, you should spend longer at sea and catch as many fish as possible. When you've saved enough money, buy a bigger boat to catch even more fish. From there, you’ll soon be able to buy more boats, set up your own company, build a production plant to can the fish and control distribution, and move on to the city to control your other branches."

     To this, the fisherman asks, And after that?"

     The businessman laughs, "After that you'll be able to live like a king, take your company public, float your shares and be rich!"

     "And after that?" Asks the businessman once more. 

     "After that you can retire, move to a house by the sea, wake up early in the morning to go fishing, then return home to spend time with your wife, play with your kids, take a nap in the afternoon and join your friends in the village, play guitar and dance into the night!"

     Puzzled, the fisherman replies, "But isn't that what I'm doing already?"

Moral of the story: Be content with what you have. Find happiness in your work. Do not let stress steal your joy.