T H E

THE inquISTEMysterious worlds -

waiting for us

We believe in seeking the roots of our science.When the world’s best minds come forth from the corners of the earth,We believe in proclaiming their vision.We share their delight, revel in their passionand think alongside their thoughts.

ContentsPG=>1 Mind might travel time Transperent CementPG=>2 Emerging Technlogies & Sci-i story challengePG=>3 Proton size is always a headache

STUDENTS’ CHAPTER NIT CALICUT JOURNAL : INDIAN SOCIETY FOR TECHNICAL EDUCATION

Transperent Cement: forget about the glass houses,transperent cement is the way...@ Amala Maheshwari

In the general sense of the word cement is a binder that sets and hardens by itself. It is one of the basic and essenal materials in construcon. In a recent break-through Italian architects have developed a new transparent ce -me-ment. It will enable daylight to flood in and make the walls app -ear like giant windows.

It was created by researches at Italce-men group, by bonding special resins in a nex mix. The material called I. Light has dozens of holes and thereby lets light through. However it is very well capable of retaining the structustructural integrity.

On a sunny day it creates an effect similar to light mesh iltering light coming in. This has so far been used only in one building, the Italian pa-vilion at last years Expo in Shanghai.

It is believed that the usage of transpar-ent cement could save considerable amount of electricity that would be re-quired for daytime lighting. Similar effect is generated using ibre optics cable ththrough concrete. However the transparent cement made from plastic resins is much cheaper than one made from

Mind might travel time: This might be reason behind seeing future in dreams@ Kiran Ganji

Spotlight: Today’s emerging technologies, innovations and technologies@Ruthvic.V

The shortest Sci-fiction story challenge…

Scientists make things from imagination, “Sci-Fi-ists” make imagination out of things….so, we @ ISTE throw a challenge to the limit of your imagina-tion…. Can you write Sci-Fi shorter than this?...

"The last man on earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door... “ (17 words)“God said, 'Cancel Program GENESIS.' The universe ceased to exist." (10 words)“That morning the sun rose in the west “ (8 words)“ “One futurewards , three returned!!! ” (4 words) “One futurewards , three returned!!! ” (4 words) “Faster than light !!! ” ( 3 words )...”calculated 0/0”... __________________________________________________CHALLENGE : Can you make it better?

So far, half man, half machine crea-tures, such as the TERMINATOR, or the Borg from the television serial STAR TREK ,are still the stuff of sci-ence fiction. However , advances in modern pros-thetics are pointing the way for-ward ,with mechanical limbs controlled by brain waves already boosting the mobility of amputees. However ,cyborgs of an entirely differ-ent type have already seen the light of day in a German laboratory .Peter Fromherz of the Max Planck Institute for biochemistry combined living snail cells to a silicon chip .It is possible for electric impulse to be transmitted be-tween this two worlds ,and work such as this is laying the foundations for great improvements in prostheses.

The echo of the big bang’ is The HBP’s first goal is to build an integrated system of six Information and Communication Technology-based research platforms, providing neuroscientists, medical researchers and technology developers with access to highly innovative tools and services that can radically accelerate the pace of their research.

The second goal of the project is to trigger and drive a global, collabora-tive effort that uses the platforms to address fundamental issues in future neuroscience, future medicine and future computing.

The end result will be not just a new understanding of the brain but trans-formational new ICT. As modern computers exploit ever-higher num-bers of parallel computing elements,they face a power wall: power con-sumption rises with the number of processors, potentially to unsustain-able levels. By contrast,understanding the brain which manages billions of process-ing units connected via kilometres of fibres and trillions of synapses, while consuming no more power than a light bulb

not audible on a normal radio, cosmic microwave background radiation peaks at a frequency of 160GHz ,which corresponds to a wavelength of 1mm.By comparison .the VHF band has a frequency of 100MHz and wavelengthwavelength of 3m ,ordinary radio aerials are not at all suit-able for receiving the Big Bang’s residual radiation.

Proton size always remains a headache

We realise that no magazine can be complete without a resolve to keep on improving, and lending an

open ear to suggestions, comments and criticisms. Much like the message that belongs not to the messen-

ger, Inquiste is merely the medium of our expression; the soul resides in the combined minds of its es-

teemed readers. Hence, as we in ISTE NITC Students’ Chapter, bring forth this venture, we admit that

though we put in sincere effort in trying to leave no leaf unturned, our work is not an end in itself, at least

not until our voice hears a voice from your side . Together, in an earnest effort to portray the world around

us, the why, the how and the who, we need your valuable opinion. Kindly do us a favour and cut this tear

out , and write your valuable comments, positive or nega-tive opinion about suggestions about any

article/column/info what you feel with full freedom and anonymity. We look forward to hear-ing from you,

and to improve Inquiste further, to serve our readers better and to embody not just the voice of ISTE, but

the true undying spirit of our campus. --Inquiste Team

Protons are not point-like particles as electrons and have a substructure, hence a radius. Traditionally, physicists use two indirect methods to deter-mine the size of a proton. They can fire an electron beam at protons and measure how far the deflected particles can get.But mostly, a method relying on the simplest atom, hydrogen, is used. They shoot a laser at a hydrogen atom, exciting the atom and making the electron jump to a less stable, high-energy state. When the electron returns to a low-energy state, the frequency of the X-rays emitted can give the size of the proton. Both of the above methods suggest the proton has a radius of about 0.877 femtometers, or 0.877quadrillionths of a meter.

Then a surprising paper was published in 2010, by physicist Randolf Pohl and his group at Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, Ger-many. They used a different measurement method. While having as a basis the excited hydrogen method, they replaced the electron with a muon, a par-ticle with the same charge as the electron, but 200 times heavier. All this ad-ditional mass makes the muon’s behavior more sensitive to proton’s size, providing a lot more precise measurements. Well, the new measurement wasn’t just more precise; it was different. The new measured radius was 0.8418 femtometers, 4 percent less than before.

Debates arose in the physics community. Problem is, the team recently re-peated the experiment: the result is now even more precise; and same still.

Pohl himself suggests three likely explanations. Experimental error could have happened, a rather slim possibility, as the initial results have been con-firmed. Or the electron experiments could be off (“a boring possibility”, says Pohl). The most exciting possibility is that the muons could interact with the proton in an altered way, which might require the existence of un-known particles. Such particles could solve some of the problems with the Standard Model, like providing a candidate for dark matter.

In the next two-three years, more experiments will follow to get an end to this.

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