Reflections: walking with national flag

Walking with national flag: Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday arrested six Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers and separatists, who were heading towards the Lal Chowk here to hoist the national flag on the occasion of the country's 62nd Republic Day.

The incidents on the eve of republic day, which occurred in the Indian State of J&K, pained every Indian. One political party tried to gain mileage, exploiting the current situation in J&K. Instead of dealing with the situation politically, the governments at the Centre and the State treated it as a law and order problem and created a huge mess. In that process they actually supported the goal of political parties exploiting the situation. In addition, they also sent a wrong message to the general public. The public asks: Are we required to obtain permission to walk with the national flag in our country?   

Efficient solar cells:  The researchers have demonstrated a new solar cell design that can not only convert the full spectrum of sunlight to electrical energy, it is also practical to make using common manufacturing techniques in the semiconductor industry. 

The efficiency of solar cells currently available is low. One of the reasons is it cannot use the full spectrum of light (all frequencies) for the energy conversion. The new, multiband photovoltaic device based on gallium arsenide nitride is highly efficient and practical to produce.

Bring systemic changes to improve law and order:  The gory killing of additional district collector Yashwant Sonawane has shaken the country.  

One after another, such gory incidents occur and public becomes meek spectators. At times we wonder whether this country is ruled by mafia, some on the chair and some supporting it from outside. We know again some inquiry committee will be appointed and the incident will be coolly forgotten, like those earlier. Nothing tangible can be achieved unless we bring in systemic changes. No political party speaks about it.

*

Reflections: cold fusion

Hopes about cold fusion have been raised once again by two Italian researcher who claim to have fused atomic nuclei at room temperature. Cold fusion has been a holy grail of physics for decades. If it could be achieved, it would be a cheap, clean, and limitless energy source. The whole world watches as to whether this becomes a hot (cold) news or another damp squib

In India, the practice of film stars entering politics is not a new phenomenon. It has been in vogue for quite some time. Many film stars have started their second innings with a transition from films to politics. Whether we talk of southern film stars like N.T. Rama Rao and M.G. Ramachandran, or their Bollywood counterparts like Dharmendra and Vinod Khanna, the film industry has time and again made its presence felt in India's political scene. In India, all netas are basically abhinetas, no wonder if some abhineta becomes a neta. The question is if this is an unwelcome trend, why do people vote such people to power. We only get the government which we deserve.

A private high school teacher, who also used to tutor a minor girl, has been arrested on the charges of sexually exploiting the student for about a month. It is high time law is amended to provide exemplary punishment to rapists.

Cold fusion resurfaces

Neta abhineta

Award exemplary punishment to rapists

*

Beware colliding particles

The particle physicists predict the world's new highest-energy atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland, might create tiny black holes. Earlier it could not be shown that the prevailing theory of gravity, Einstein's theory of general relativity, predicts the formation of black this way. Now a computer model shows conclusively for the first time that a particle collision really can make a black hole.

The key to forming a black hole is cramming enough mass or energy into a small enough volume, as happens when a massive star collapses. According to Einstein's theory of general relativity, mass and energy warp space and time or space-time, to create the effect we perceive as gravity. If a large enough mass or energy is crammed into a small enough space, that warping becomes so severe that nothing, not even light can escape. The object thus becomes a black hole. Two particles can make a miniscule black hole in just this way if they collide with an energy above a fundamental limit called the Planck energy.

Choptuik and Frans Pretorius of Princeton University simulated such collisions, including all the extremely complex mathematical details from general relativity. They modeled the two particles as hypothetical objects known as boson stars, which are similar to models that describe stars as spheres of fluid. Using hundreds of computers, Choptuik and Pretorius calculated the gravitational interactions between the colliding particles and found that a black hole does form if the two particles collide with a total energy of about one-third of the Planck energy, slightly lower than the energy predicted by hoop conjecture, as they report in a paper in press at Physical Review Letters.

Although Choptuik says that the LHC is unlikely to make black holes, the research in this area should be immediately stopped even if there is slightest, remotest possibility.

Ref: Colliding Particles Can Make Black Holes, by Adrian Cho, ScienceNOW Daily News, 22 January 2010

*

Credit scheme for small scale renewables: Australian example

Australians who install rooftop solar panels are now entitled to avail of the Solar Credits program, a cost-reduction scheme on small-scale renewable energy systems established through the government’s Renewable Energy Target (RET) legislation.

Under the Solar Credits scheme, a household installing rooftop panels can receive up to five times as many Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) for every megawatt-hour of energy produced by their panels. RECs are an electronic form of currency which can be traded by its earners, as provided for by the RET. The solar Credits will significantly reduce the cost of going solar at home.

It is a very good example for the policy makers in India, who are currently considering schemes to encourage the use of renewable energy sources on small scale. Along with solar, the other form of renewables, such as wind, should also be brought under the purview of such scheme.