AQUATIC ENGINEERING

Lessons from fish

Have you ever wondered what boats and fish have in common? You might think they’re completely different, but here’s a fun fact: some of the fastest and most efficient boats are designed to mimic the shapes of fish! Yes, that's right - engineers and scientists study fish to make boats better. But how does that work? Let's find out! 

Fish are incredible swimmers. They’ve been perfecting their moves for millions of years, and each species has unique adaptations that help it glide through the water effortlessly. Scientists noticed that the shape of a fish's body plays a huge role in how it moves. Some fish have sleek, streamlined bodies, perfect for speed, while others have broader bodies for stability and maneuverability. 

Take the tuna, for example. Tuna-fish are built for speed, with a streamlined, torpedo-shaped body that cuts through water with minimal resistance. By designing boat hulls that mimic this shape, engineers create boats that can move faster and use less fuel. 

Dolphins, although not fish, are also inspiring. Their smooth, curved bodies and flexible spines allow them to leap and swim with grace and speed. Boats designed with dolphin-like curves can glide over waves more smoothly, making for a faster and more comfortable ride. 

Engineers are constantly experimenting with new designs, taking inspiration from various sea creatures. Imagine a submarine that moves like a squid or a speedboat that mimics the agile movements of a marlin. The possibilities are endless and exciting! 

So, why is this important? By designing boats that move more efficiently through the water, we can save fuel, reduce pollution, and explore our oceans more effectively. Plus, it’s a great example of how we can learn from nature to make our world better. 

Next time you’re by the water, take a moment to watch the fish. Think about how they move and what makes them special. Who knows? You might come up with the next big idea for boat design! 

Remember, the world is full of amazing connections just waiting to be discovered. 

PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Think like an Ant

When was the last time you thought about ants? Yes, ants—those tiny, seemingly insignificant creatures that crawl around your garden or sneak into your picnic, always showing up in hordes. It’s easy to overlook them or dismiss them as mere pests. But have you ever paused to observe them? Take a moment the next time you see an ant, and you will notice something fascinating. They are always busy, whether they are carrying food back to their colony, building intricate anthills, or even fighting off rivals. These little creatures are constantly in action, working tirelessly, and they never seem to stop. 

While many people see ants as nothing more than an irritation to tolerate, you can actually learn a powerful life lesson from them. You might be wondering how such a small, insignificant insect could teach you anything of value. The answer is surprisingly simple. You often look to the greats—successful people, major events, and grand experiences—to learn how to improve yourself, how to succeed, and how to unlock the secrets of life. But sometimes, the greatest lessons come from the smallest and most overlooked things in your environment. And the lesson you can learn from ants? It's one of survival. 

Ants are some of the best survivors in nature. They may be tiny, but their survival strategy is brilliant. You may wonder how something so small could be so effective, and it’s because they follow a simple, yet powerful, process. Jim Rohn, a well-known motivational speaker, called this process the "Ant Philosophy," and he identified four key lessons you can learn from these determined little creatures. Let’s take a look at those lessons. 

Lesson 1: Ants Never Quit 

You can learn a lot from ants when it comes to persistence. Ants don't know how to quit. If you observe an ant heading toward a destination and try to block its path, it won't hesitate to find another way. It will climb over obstacles, crawl under barriers, or navigate around them. No matter how many times you obstruct them, they don't stop moving forward. They refuse to give up and will always search for another route to reach their goal. 

Even if you destroy their ant hill, they will rebuild it over and over. Kick them away from your food, and they will come back again and again. The determination of ants is relentless. The lesson here for you is simple: Never quit. When life presents obstacles or challenges, keep looking for new ways to achieve your goals. Just like ants, you should develop the mindset that no hurdle is final. Keep pushing forward, adapting to the situation, and eventually, you will succeed. 

Lesson 2: Think Winter in Summer 

Ants are masters at thinking ahead. During the summer, they are fully aware that the warm, abundant days won’t last forever. They know winter is coming, and they prepare for it well in advance. While the sun is shining and food is plentiful, ants gather their resources for the tough months ahead. They don’t waste time enjoying the present without consideration for the future. 

This behavior teaches you the importance of planning ahead. When things are going well, don’t assume that they will always stay that way. Prepare yourself for potential downturns. In your life, you can take advantage of the good times by saving, learning, and preparing for periods of uncertainty. You must learn to think ahead, knowing that nothing lasts forever, and make sure you are ready for whatever comes next. 

Lesson 3: Think Summer in Winter 

On the flip side, ants also keep a positive outlook during the winter months. Even when the conditions are harsh, and food is scarce, ants don’t dwell on their current misery. They tell themselves, "This won’t last forever; summer will be here soon." Instead of giving in to despair, they remain patient and optimistic, knowing that better times are just around the corner. 

This mindset is invaluable for you to adopt. When you find yourself in difficult circumstances, remind yourself that they are temporary. Stay positive and know that every challenge will eventually pass. By focusing on the future and maintaining a hopeful outlook, you will be ready to embrace new opportunities when they arise. As soon as the first sign of better times appears, just like ants emerging on the first warm day, you should be prepared to jump into action and make the most of it. 

Lesson 4: Gather All You Possibly Can 

Ants don’t stop when they have gathered “enough.” During the summer, they work tirelessly to collect as much food as possible. They don’t set a limit for themselves and then relax. If there is more to be gathered, they will work extra hours to ensure they have everything they need to survive the winter. Ants don't believe in halfmeasures; they give it their all. 

For you, the lesson is clear: Don’t limit yourself when working toward your goals. Gather all the knowledge, resources, and experience you can. Push beyond what you think is “enough” and strive to achieve more. If there’s an opportunity to improve or advance further, don’t hold back. Go the extra mile and make the most of your time and effort. Just like ants, you should work with dedication and persistence, ensuring that you are fully prepared for whatever lies ahead.

Summary – Applying the Ant Philosophy to Your Life The Ant Philosophy offers you powerful lessons that can be applied to your everyday life. If you adopt the mindset of never giving up, always looking ahead, staying positive, and doing everything in your power to achieve your goals, you will find success. While average people often focus on when they can stop working or when they can take a break, successful people are constantly looking for the next step, the next challenge, and how to keep moving forward. This shift in mindset can make all the difference in your journey. 

When you make the transition from wanting to quit to embracing the effort and pushing ahead, you open up endless possibilities for yourself. Every day becomes an opportunity to do something meaningful and wonderful, to make progress toward your goals. You can transform your life by maintaining persistence and a proactive attitude, much like the ants who never stop seeking ways to overcome obstacles. 

Always keep in mind the importance of taking advantage of good times when they come. The saying "Make Personal hay while the sun shines" is a valuable reminder for you. Opportunities and favorable conditions don’t last forever, so you should seize them when they arise. Similarly, bad times won’t last forever either. Just as ants prepare during the summer for the winter ahead, and remain positive during the winter in anticipation of better days, you too should be mindful that both highs and lows are temporary. With this mindset, you can navigate life’s ups and downs with resilience, knowing that perseverance will eventually lead to success. 

Finally, we can end this article with a quote by Robert Schuller - Most people who succeed in the face of seemingly impossible conditions are people who simply don’t know how to quit. 

DISPLAY OF LIGHT WITH SOUND

Firecrackers and Fireworks

Explosive firecrackers and brilliant fireworks are the hallmarks of the joyous Diwali festival.

Be it the sparkling phooljhari, spinning chakra, fountainlike anaar, flying rocket or the Laxmi bomb — the dazzling fireworks captivate one and all during the days of the festival of lights.

Bursting firecrackers is an ancient practice that has its origins in China. It is said that a Chinese monk named Li Tian stuffed a green bamboo with gunpowder and threw it into a fire. The bamboo exploded suddenly and thus was born the firecracker. 

Firecrackers go off with a bang where as fireworks are a visual delight, setting the night skies ablaze with their splendour. Also called pyrotechnics, fireworks shows are not just about noise but also about light, smoke and colour.

The Recipe

A firecracker consists of gunpowder or flash powder wrapped very tightly in a paper tube, with a fuse. Gunpowder is a combustible mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal and sulphur. These ingredients react with each other chemically to produce nitrogen and carbon dioxide gases when heat is applied by lighting the fuse. As the heated gases expand, the paper wrapping is ripped apart, producing the explosive sound. Flash powder burns quicker than gun powder and produces a loud bang with a flash of light.

Various types of fireworks produce different kinds of visual and sound effects depending on the chemicals stuffed in them. The most common component is aluminium, which emits silvery white sparks. Potassium imparts a violet shade while barium is used to create green colour. The pyrotechnic composition thus determines whether the firework emits a lot of smoke, glitters in a palm tree effect, whistles or crackles upon explosion.

Industrial Centre

Sivakasi is the fireworks capital of India with more than 600 manufacturers generating an annual turnover of Rs 7,000 crores. Dry climate and scanty rainfall as well as easy availability of raw materials make Sivakasi ideal for the fireworks industry. An impressed Jawaharlal Nehru nicknamed the industrial town ‘Kutty Japan’ (Mini Japan). However, Sivakasi was condemned for its use of child labour and today, steps have been taken to eradicate the practice.

The Darker Side

While fireworks continue to dazzle, they also create air, water and noise pollution apart from causing serious injuries. According to a 2016 study by the Pune-based Chest Research Foundation, burning a single cracker emits pollutants equal to the burning of 500 cigarettes at a time. The smoke contains traces of heavy metals and other toxic chemicals such as sulphur dioxide, magnesium and nitrates, which lead to health problems, especially respiratory ailments. Even the noise from the crackers— with decibel levels in excess of 90 — is harmful. Last year, the Supreme Court banned the sale of firecrackers in Delhi NCR. The smoke combined with the wintry mist leads to a spike in the levels of fine particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or less (PM 2.5) in the air. These particles, which are 30 times finer than human hair, accumulate in the internal organs and bloodstream, causing sickness.

People, especially children, burst firecrackers from very close quarters, about a foot away. So they directly inhale the smoke pollutants in large quantities. Of all the firecrackers, the snake tablet burns for less than 10 seconds but produces the highest levels of PM 2.5, followed by the ladi, phooljhari, chakri and anar.

Fast Facts

◆ At the stroke of midnight on 1 January 2016, wide eyed spectators witnessed the world’s largest display of 8,10,904 fireworks in the Philippine Arena, an indoor stadium in the Philippines. The show lastedfor an hour — a Guinness World Record!

◆ In May 2010, as many as 1,25,801 rockets were launched in 30 seconds in a record-making event in Cebu, Philippines.

◆ China is the largest manufacturer and exporter of fireworks in the world.

THE MIRACLE GRASS

Vetiver 

Originally derived from Tamil, the word ‘vetiver’ means a ‘root that is dug up’. Its botanical name is Chrysopogon zizanioides. It is called khus in Hindi.

Ancient Ayurvedic texts refer to the use of ushira (Sanskrit word for khus roots) in wells and reservoirs to get rid of the foul smell orbitterness in water. It is found all over India, particularly along river banks and marshylands. 

Vetiver is a perennial grass that is now cultivated in over 70 countries with both tropical and temperate climates. Scientists have recognized its vital role in reducing soil erosion, recharging ground water, and absorbing toxic pollutants in water. The grass has also found favour with the pharmaceutical industry because of its scented essential oil that is extracted from the roots. No wonder, the people of Mali in Africa call vetiver a ‘plant that never dies’.

Vetiver is used in numerous products—baskets, mats, brooms, coir netting in air coolers, etc. But the greatest use is in the rural areas where vetiver strips are planted to prevent soil erosion. In the village of Chellagurki in the Bellary district of Karnataka, some 5,000 strips have been ordered to stabilize the watershed area.

In China, vetiver has been grown for soil erosion although it was initially planted in the early 1950s to extract oil from its roots. The man credited for its wide distribution is Richard Grimshaw, a former official at the World Bank who took a thousand vetiver strips from Bangalore to China in 1988.

THE BOARD GAME

Mastermind 

The board game Mastermind is designed to be played by two persons above the age of eight. One of the players creates a code and the other tries to decipher it with the help of the clues. 

The game consists of a decoding board, code pegs and key pegs. The board has twelve rows, each with four large and eight small holes. At the two ends of the board are four large holes covered by a shutter. This is where the player creates a secret code using any of the six coloured pegs.

The code-breaker has to guess the colours of the code pegs and their exact positions. He gets twelve chances to do so. After each attempt, the code-maker provides a clue and the code-breaker responds by filling in a row of code pegs on the board. The code-maker indicates which part of the guess is right or wrong by placing flat key pegs on the board. 

The game continues until the code-breaker cracks the code or completes twelve guesses.

FOR SECURITY PURPOSE

If AI is so clever, why can't it solve a CAPTCHA?

CAPTCHAs (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) are special puzzles on the internet made to tell the difference between humans and computers. They’re meant to be tricky for machines but easy for people to solve.

Here’s why AI, which is like a very clever computer, sometimes has trouble with CAPTCHAs:

HARD TO SEE: CAPTCHAs often show wobbly letters, numbers or pictures that are hard to read. While AI is good at recognising normal images and text, CAPTCHAs are made to be confusing so that computers can’t easily figure them out.

ALWAYS CHANGING: As computers get better at solving certain CAPTCHAs, new and harder ones are created to stay ahead. This means that CAPTCHAs are always being made trickier to keep computers from solving them.

HOW AI THINKS: AI doesn’t ‘see’ things like humans do. It looks for patterns in what it’s  been taught. If a CAPTCHA breaks these patterns by being extra confusing, the AI might not be able to solve it.

KEEPING THINGS SAFE: The main job of CAPTCHAs is to stop robots (automated programs) from doing things like making fake accounts or sending lots of spam. Even though AI can sometimes solve CAPTCHAs, letting it do that would ruin the whole point of using them for security.

So, even though AI is very clever, CAPTCHAs are designed to be tricky on purpose, so computers can’t easily get past them. That said, AI is getting better and better at this. In fact, a 2023 study showed that most AI can solve CAPTCHA with a 96% accuracy – while humans’ accuracy ranges from 50-86%!

ANCIENT WORLD

What are hieroglyphs?

This strange-sounding word actually describes a form of picture writing used by the ancient Egyptians. 

The Egyptians used about 1000 pictures or hieroglyphs to express their thoughts. Each hieroglyph stood for an object, sound or idea. The hieroglyphs were written on paper called papyrus, made of reeds. Gradually, people stopped using hieroglyphs and in time, everyone forgot what the pictures meant. Then, in 1799, a stone called the Rosetta Stone was found, which had writing in three languages, including the hieroglyphic language.

A Frenchman named Jean Francois Champollion was able to translate the hieroglyphs and now scholars of the ancient Egyptian civilisation can read hieroglyphs. If you want, you can learn it too when you grow up!