113 items in this section. Displaying page 2 of 12
The Earth takes a Battering
During its life span, our planet has suffered the impact of close to 30 small planets, up to 10 miles in diameter and travelling 60 times the speed of sound. Each such impact releases about a thousand times as much energy as would be released if all the nuclear powers exploded all their present weapon stocks. About 5,000 giant meteorities with diameters of more than a kilometre have hit the Earth over the past 600 million years, with an average strike rate of one per 120,000 years....
A New Camel Specie Discovered
Have you ever sat on a camel? Well, if you have, then you know how scary it is when the camel rises on its long wobbly legs. The rocking motion of a camel is a bit like a ship being tossed around in heaving seas. Small wonder then that the camel is often called the ship of the desert. Actually, the name owes its origins to the fact that camels were brought from the desert, to serve as beasts of burden in other countries....
Pollution – an old ancestral legacy
If you thought today’s pollution and environmental damage was just as old as the coming of industrial factories, smoke and chemical waste, you were wrong. A recent report in the journal ‘Science’ says that environmental pollution is as old as human existence itself, though industrialisation certainly hastened the process. The report is based on a study consisting of the combined research of 19 scientists across four continents, who found that the diversity of marine life was among the first to be affected....
Everything is made of something
How do you make tea? Simple, put a teaspoon of tea into a boiling cup of water. Strain the water, pour some milk and sugar to taste and the tea is ready! Interestingly, everything that we prepare has a recipe and is made up of simpler ingredients. For example, what is sugar made of? It is made of sugar molecules, which in turn, are made up of atoms. The atom is the building block of all substances....
Save rivers, lakes from worshippers
Before every Ganesh Chaturthi, people from across India, especially Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Orissa, get busy with preparations for celebrations. But, as the momentum of activity increases, officials of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) start feeling queasy in their stomachs. For, though festivals like Ganesh Puja and Durga Puja are a time for fun, it is also the time when rivers and lakes around the country are abused. Unlike in the past when the idols of gods and goddesses were made of ordinary colours and plain clay that dissolve in water easily, without causing widespread pollution, now they are made of plaster of Paris, distemper, plastic paint, dyes, metallic powders, adhesives, varnish, fluorescent powders and oil paints, which can have an adverse effect on the eyes, skin and respiratory system....
An Organism that is visible from Space
The elephant is the largest land animal. The Blue whale is the largest sea animal. But however big these animals may be, they can not size up to the colonies built by tiny little sea creatures – the coral. The colonies built by corals are called coral reefs. Coral reefs can be as huge as big islands or even as big as a country! These reef-building corals are not single animals. A coral is a colony made up of many individual animals called polyps....
The Earthworm's Good Turn
Every day, countless dustbins are emptied in dumping grounds. A lot of this garbage ends up polluting the ground water and also the rivers and seas. Actually, a large part of this junk, especially the biodegradable waste (waste that can be decomposed) can be disposed in a more efficient manner, without polluting water bodies. Many countries are now doing it by using a cheap and eco-friendly option – the earthworm. Yes, earthworms have been in the business of decomposing waste and enriching the soil for thousands of years....
Rhinoceros: On the Comeback Trail
Next to the tusk-bearing elephants, rhinos are the other large animals heavily targeted by poachers. Rhinos are poached for their horns and these are sold in the black market at astonishing prices. Since 1977, trade in rhino horn has been banned but poachers and smugglers still hunt and kill these gentle creatures to meet the demands of the rhino horn in markets in Central Asia and the Far East. For some years now, rhinos have been high on the endangered list....
Treaty on Global Warming
In the last week of July 2001, representatives from 178 countries met in Bonn, Germany, for something that is very crucial to their future and the very survival of our planet. They signed a historic agreement that promises to fight global warming. This is the first international treaty of its kind that seeks to check the excesses of human development at the cost of the environment – and the planet itself. Location and date marker for glacier in Jasper National Park in Canada....
Dropping Trees from the Sky – Hydroseeding
Finally there is a simple solution to the growing problems of deforestation and the greenhouse effect – dropping millions of trees out of an aircraft. Dropping Trees from the Sky [Illustration by Shinod AP] The idea may sound bizarre but it has come from The Lockheed Martin Aerospace Company, USA. The company has proposed to transform equipments installed in huge C-130 military transport planes for laying carpets of landmines across combat zones, to plant trees in barren areas....