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Showing posts from November, 2022

DOES THE COSMIC IONIZATION RADIATION EFFECT AIRCRAFTS, AIRCREW, PASSENGERS IN FLIGHTS?

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    We are protected from cosmic radiation by Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere. At higher altitudes in an airplane and particularly when closer to the North and South poles, this protection is less. During a commercial flight, cosmic radiation is several times higher than on the ground thus it increases the high rate of health risks.  Cosmic radiation comes from the sun and outer space and this c osmic radiation makes up about 1/6th of our  exposure to natural radiation.      E veryone, everywhere, is exposed to all kinds radiation like terrestrial radiation, cosmic radiation, man-made radiation and industrial uses like nuclear radiation. Terrestrial  radiation  comes from the Earth: everything is naturally radioactive, including rock, soil, water, air, animals, plants, and food. Its a natural part of the environment in which we live.   The average dose  from terrestrial radiation is 2 mSv(millisieverts) per year. More than half of this is from radon in your home.  People are also

MOST OUTSTANDING APPLICATIONS OF RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY

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    Raman spectroscopy is named after its discoverer ‘Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman’, the great Indian physicist who discovered it in the year 1928. Later on, Sir C.V. Raman received the most prestigious award, the Nobel prize in Physics in the year 1930 for his great discovery of Raman effect . In fact, Sir C.V. Raman was the first Asian to be awarded a  Nobel Prize in all fields of science “for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the Raman effect named after him in 1930.”  He was the second Indian Nobel Laureate but the first Indian scientist to win Nobel prize.  Raman spectroscopy is a Chemical analysis technique that provides detailed information about the molecular structure without causing any physical and chemical changes. It studies the vibrational modes along with translational and rotational modes of the molecule.      Raman spectroscopy works on the principle of Raman scattering. When a monochromatic radiation incident on the sample, the radiatio

THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE: A TRUE ENGINEERING MARVEL

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         The  James Webb Space Telescope is the largest and the most powerful space telescope ever built till today.  The interesting fact is that James Webb telescope is very big and its as tall as a 3-story building and as long as a tennis court! It is so big that it has to fold origami-style to fit inside the rocket to launch.  The James Webb Telescope sees the universe in light that is invisible to human eyes. This light is called as   infrared radiation , and we can actually feel it as just heat. The James Webb Space Telescope uses its infrared cameras to see through cosmic dust in our universe. Stars and planets form inside those cosmic dusty clouds, so peeking inside could possibly lead to exciting new discoveries! It will also be able to see objects (like the first galaxies) that are so far away that the expansion of the universe has made their light shift from visible to infrared! Even more interesting fact is that mirrors of this telescope have a thin layer of gold coating th

IS THE QUANTUM MECHANICS A REALLY COMPLETE SCIENCE OR INCOMPLETE ILLUSION?

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   It is certainly possible that quantum theory may not be exact for larger systems in macroscopic level, although a vast majority of physicists and scientists would cringe even considering the possibility. Actually, t he main point is that quantum theory works so well when i t is typically applied to microscopic systems: molecules, atoms and sub-atomic particles.  So,  there is no real motivation speculating any modification of the basic postulates of quantum theory. There are indeed strong reasons to believe that the basic principles of quantum mechanics are here to stay. Usually, all the attempts to change the rules of quantum physics come from a false motivation which is to "make sense" of quantum theory. But quantum mechanics makes perfect sense because it  allows the calculation of properties and behavior of physical systems at microscopic level for molecules, atoms as well as sub-atomic particles.      Actually, one experiment has proven Quantum field Theory to be wron