What is barcode art?

Barcode art is created using the personalized data of a human being. When an individual's gender, weight, height, age and location are entered, a barcode is formed using real-world data. This barcode can then be printed, mapped, scanned, even depicted on a T-shirt or a coffee mug. Scanning this barcode projects the user's brand of humour. The calculation of an individual's BMI based on the height and weight data reveals the health of an individual. Thus, those considered underweight or overweight are worth less money. Thanks to the dominance of the US, all barcodes are published in inches and pounds.

Read More

Why does steel glow when it's hot?

Hot steel glows red when hot because its atoms vibrate with a lot of energy. The amount of energy varies in atoms resulting in a range of colours.

Read More

Why are cellphones switched off while flying?

Mobile phones are radio transmitters and as such, were banned from use in civilian airplanes, for fear they could interfere with airplane avionics. There was also concern that a cellular phone would cause disruption to the cell systems' towers, and distract passengers during take-off and landing.

Read More

What is cryopreservation?

Cryopreservation (freezing at super cold temperatures) of tissue and cells is a technique which puts the cells in suspended animation where they can retain their viability indefinitely. Cryopreservation protects against catastrophic losses caused by such events as disease outbreaks, fire, breeding cessation, or genetic contamination and eliminates the necessity of maintaining stocks 'on the shelf' when those stocks are not being actively used. Cryobiology improved rapidly with the discovery of the beneficial effects of cryoprotectant substances that are added to cell freezing solutions. Cryopreservation is now routinely used to store semen, embryos and all types of cells/tissue of animals and humans.

Read More

What is helicopter parenting?

What is helicopter parenting?

It's a colloquial term that refers to a style of parenting which involves paying extremely close attention to children. It's also called overparenting. It gets its name from the fact that parents hover over children like a helicopter, to make sure they aren't harmed in any way. This particularly pertains to school-related problems. It can be detrimental for children who end up being overprotected.

Read More

What is the Latur pattern of study?

The Latur pattern of study involves continuous and methodical practice of model question papers months before the board exams. This method was devised by principal Aniruddha Jadhav of Rajarishi Shahu College in Latur, who felt this mechanical methodology of continuous study helps students in providing point-to-point answers to questions which could be expected in the examination. This methodology, however, has been lambasted by educationists who consider it a tool to gain temporary advantage that does not aim to prepare them for advanced learning.

Read More

What is synchronised and circular trading in the stock exchange?

A synchronised trade is a transaction wherein the buy and sell order quantities are identical, and are put through at exactly the same time on the trading platform. Circular trades in a particular scrip happen when a closely knit set of market entities, mainly brokers, buy and sell shares frequently among themselves to push up the stock price. Since there are no genuine intentions to trade in the case of circular trades, the trading volumes thus generated are referred to as artificial volumes.

Read More

What is an electron gun?

It is a device in the back of a "cathode ray tube" television or computer monitor (pre-plasma or LCD flat-panel). The electron gun fires a stream of electrons from the back of the TV onto the inside face of the screen, which is coated with a material that glows when hit by electrons. By using powerful magnets to direct the stream across the screen, a series of dots ('pixels') is built over the screen which appears as an image.

Read More

When and why do we celebrate Engineer's Day?

September 15 is celebrated every year in India as Engineer's Day to commemorate the birthday of the legendary engineer Sir M. Visvesvaraya (1861-1962). Internationally recognised for his genius in harnessing water resources, he was responsible for successful design and construction of several river dams, bridges and implementing irrigation and drinking water schemes all over India.

He served as the dewan of Mysore State and was considered to be the architect of the all-round development of Karnataka. Among his most successful projects are the design and construction of the K.R. Sagar dam and its adjoining Brindavan Gardens, turn-around of the Bhadravati Iron and Steel Works, setting up of the Mysore Sandalwood Oil Factory and the founding of the Bank of Mysore.

Read More

What is daltonism?

Daltonism is another term for colour blindness, named after John Dalton, a scientist. There are specific cells on the retina for forming real inverted images after refraction from the eye's lens. Cone-shaped cells respond to colours. Colour-blind people lack such cells which enable them to distinguish between colours, mostly red and green. Such people have normal vision. This is a congenital defect which is inherited.

Read More