Welcome to the official blog of Science Club, Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata

Multiverse is a great topic top discuss after seeing parallel universe in “Stranger Things(2016)” and “Spiderman into the Spider-verse(2018)” but its not as simple as shown in movies neither even practically proved ,there are great theories about multi-verse but neither of them can fully satisfy our visions about multiverse. When a vision comes to our mind abut universe we think solar system or more vastly milky way but this is only the observable universe and there are so many observable universe which may have failed to maintain the matter/vacuum energy ratio resulting no sign of life. As of “String theory” our observable universe is a 3D structure in a 9D space where the multiple observable universes are stacked like an newspaper-one over another ,these are called membranes ,like a string with twisted membranes where the membranes keep rotating the universes rotate and change their positions in the space. Still it is not yet proven. Whereas some of the scientists belie...

Ever marveled at the unending mysteries of nature? How everything is in perfect coordination all around, how even the tiniest of insects build up their sturdy little homes, how birds travel hundreds of miles to deal with season changes and how perfectly synchronized everything is around us.. We are just one among a billion different species, who call this planet our home. It would be rather unjustified to assume ourselves the most advanced, when a huge number of innovations and technologies we see around us today has been inspired by nature. Nature has been lending us her blueprints time and again, for the benefit of mankind and this has given rise to a whole new field of study- “BIO-MIMICRY”. In a nutshell bio mimicry involves taking inspiration from nature, its processes, models and systems to solve problems faced by mankind by mimicking nature’s time tested strategies. A lot of new innovations has been heavily borrowed from nature, including baobab tree inspired houses, blue...

Since  WiFi's  accidental discovery by Australian Electrical engineer Dr. John O Sullivan, WiFi has revolutionized  the digital communication and makes about 60% of the world's internet traffic. With all of these, WiFi has some issues  1. its has varied signals  2. it is not secure because the signal can travel through walls and can get picked by another user. The reason for all of these is that WiFi uses radio waves to transmit data.We can improve this technology by looking at something that is cheap, safe, plentiful and more advanced for data transfer. The answer to this is light since it is a part of electromagnetic spectrum like radio waves but have much higher frequency i.e the waves can carry energy cycle at faster rate . Light has frequency range 10000 times greater than radio waves. That means it has the capacity to transmit large amount of data in less time. The concept of light being used as medium to transfer internet data has been ...

( Figure: Upper left:  Activation of T cells requires that the T-cell receptor binds to structures on other immune cells recognized as ”non-self”. A protein functioning as a T-cell accelerator is also required for T cell activation. CTLA- 4 functions as a brake on T cells that inhibits the function of the accelerator.  Lower left:  Antibodies (green) against CTLA-4 block the function of the brake leading to activation of T cells and attack on cancer cells.  Upper right:  PD-1 is another T-cell brake that inhibits T-cell activation.  Lower right:  Antibodies against PD-1 inhibit the function of the brake leading to activation of T cells and highly efficient attack on cancer cells.) মার্চ, ২০১৫  আমার বন্ধু,  অনুরাগের (নাম  পরিবর্তিত) টি-সেল একিউট লিম্ফব্লাস্টিক লিম্ফোমা ধরা পড়ে, তখন থেকেই তার প্রয়োজনীয় সমস্ত রকম চিকিৎসা শুরু হয় এবং এই প্রতিকূলতা সত্ত্বেও সে মাধ্যমিক পরীক্ষায় ভালো ফল করে । ধীরে ধীরে সে সুস্থ হতে থাকলো ...

A new theory that tries to answer the question of what is this world made of!, STRING THEORY. In the year 1968 a young researcher Gabriele Veneziano trying to discover a strong force used strings to model particles. Ordinary matter in this world is made of atoms, which is again made of its basic components (electrons, whirling around the nucleus composed of electrons and protons .) Electrons are themselves the fundamental particle, (which falls in the category of leptons.) But from researches, it is found that neutrons and protons are further formed by smaller particles called “quarks”. Our current knowledge abt subatomic composition of the universe is summarized in what is known as the Standard Model of particle physics.it discusses the fundamental building blocks with which the world is made of, and the forces through which these blocks interact. There are 12 of these building blocks, out of which 6 are quarks the are: ·        Up, · ...

Powered exoskeletons are wearable mobile machines powered by a system of electric motors, pneumatics, levers, hydraulics, sensors or a combination of technologies that allow for limb movement with increased strength and endurance. This technology is developing very fast and is already in use in many fields. People with movements related disability will be able to move very easily. Precision will be increased in surgeries. Developing a full body suit that meets the needs of soldiers has been proven challenging, but new and advanced designs with improved technologies and software will definitely benefit the military, police, fire-fighters later on. Modern Industries directly use these kinds of machines for efficient business. Though it makes you stronger, run faster, jump higher, still one of the biggest challenges engineers face is power supply if they are to be worn in the field. They risk explosion, might require frequent charging. Yet hydrogen cells have been used in some protot...

           More than 100 years after Albert Einstein published his iconic theory of general relativity, it is beginning to you fray at the edges according to the modern scientists. Now in the most comprehensive test of general relativity near the Monsters black hole at the centre of our Galaxy scientist Ghez(UCLA professor of Physics and astronomy) reported that Einstein's theory holds up. According to the scientist, Newton's Law of Gravity can be absolutely ruled out, but their observation is consistent with Einstein's relativity theory. However, it cannot fully e explain gravity inside a Blackhole and at some point, modern scientists need to move beyond Einstein's theory to a more comprehensive theory of gravity that explains what a black hole is. The law of Physics including Gravity should be valid everywhere in-universe and Ghez along with her team is watching a star known as SO-2 that makes a complete Orbit it in 3D around the supermassive black ...

School arithmetic is a subject which all educated persons have learnt in their childhood and adolescence, and none can claim to be incapable of carrying out such ordinary arithmetical calculations as are necessary for handling money. The simple applications of the first four rules, the factoring of integers, the calculation of the greatest common divisors and least common multiples of pairs of integers, the extraction of the square roots of integers, and such other exercises in arithmetic are not so difficult to most people as are algebra, trigonometry and calculus. Arithmetic thus constitutes a common stock of knowledge shared by all who have had a high school education.     From the 1990s onwards it has become necessary for students of engineering and technology to learn the rudiments of computer programming. I have noticed that the problems which such students are asked to solve by writing programmes and running them are seldom drawn from school arithmetic. Usual...

For millions of years, emotions and feelings have driven the human species to its pinnacle. The emotion of fear has kept us away from danger, the emotion of happiness has made us prosper and the emotions of love have made us care for our young ones. But what if all these emotions are just chemicals which could be replicated by humans, artificially? Dopamine is a neurotransmitter. What is a neurotransmitter? In simple terms, these are chemical substances which act as a mode of communication between the neurons in our brain. Dopamine is also called as the “Feel-Good hormone” as it makes us happy, euphoric and motivated. Whenever we complete a task, like finishing a race or getting good marks in an exam, we feel happy as our brain rewards us by releasing dopamine. A similar neurotransmitter is anandamide, which makes us feel blissful and also reduces stress and anxiety. All these chemicals, when released in our brains, makes us display emotions. But we don’t have control over a ...

 Attractive feature of continuous flow process is the elimination of the risks associated with failing to scale up process.In flow chemistry a chemical reaction is performed in a continuously flowing stream in a network of interconnecting channels,when they join one another,the fluids come into contact and the reaction takes place.                               Advantages of flow chemistry are-1. Better controls, 2. Process safety,3. Optimization and scale up of chemical reaction,4. Increase product quality. There are two types of flow reactor-1. Microflow reactor,2. Macroflow reactor. These includes potentially hazardous reactions such as- Hydrogenation reaction,Oxidation,  Halogenations,Nitration, Diazotization,Grignard, Reaction that use toxic gases.c In this type of reactor temperature contol can be maintained for endo and exoth...

There are certain things beyond the universe that we never thought of. One of those things is the ‘Dark Matter’ mystery. It exposes the very birth of our universe  .Dark matter is the ultimate key to the fate of our Universe. Dark matters are nothing but a form of matter which doesn't interact with light but their only form of interaction is gravitationally. The name only refers to the fact that it doesn't appear to interact with observable electromagnetic radiation thus remain invisible to the entire electromagnetic spectrum. This makes it extremely difficult to be detected by current technologies .This form of matter is better known as "Invisible Matter" .Dark Matter is classified as cold , warm  or hot according to the velocity with which it moves throughout the universe. Dark Matters account for a significant part of the universe unlike the visible matter which makes up for the minority part of the universe . No one has been able to exactly predict the chara...

Imagine two heavenly objects are revolving around each other e.g. earth and moon revolving around each other. Under what condition the bodies will  a) collapse on each other b) move away from each other c) continue to orbit at the same orbital radius. All three conditions are found in nature. Sankarnath Mukhopadhyay Faculty, HIT Kolkata

The biggest and widely used search engine on the web today is Google. Every second it meets queries by millions of internet users and provides answers.  There are millions of pages available in the web server and among these all pages the search engine needs to return the page based on the user’s need. This is properly done by using Google page Ranking. PageRank was developed by  Larry Page and Sergey Brin  in 1996 as a part of a research project about a new kind of search engine at Stanford University . This technique is used by Google to rank web pages according to their importance, link popularity: a page is ranked higher if there are more links to it. While a query for a particular web page is made by one internet user, Google search algorithm compiles the PageRank scores using PageRank algorithm and returns the web pages depending on the score of each page. In the PageRank algorithms the webs are considered as a directed graph in which nodes represent the pages an...

Algebra is better known as the most jaded subject in our curriculum. The subject usually represents mathematical ideas and techniques involving symbols rather than numbers. It began with finding the solutions of an equation. Algebra has a beauty in its own strange and abstract way. The most fascinating thing is that the language of algebra has mottled significantly across the history of all civilizations. In the initial stages after its apparent day of birth, it evolved with the idea of theory of equations. In fact the word "algebra" originated from the Arabic word al-jabr, which initiated from the treatise, written in the year 830, by a medieval Persian mathematician, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. The treatise provided systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations. Algebraic expressions appeared in three different stages starting from Rhetorical algebra (where equations were written in full sentences) to Syncopated algebra and finally to Symbolic algebra. Since i...

With the advent of the lifestyle of people in past years, there has been a significant advancement in the field of science and technology to quite a lot extent. It not only fulfills our daily requirements but also enhances the quality of our lifestyle. HOW DOES SCIENCE PRACTICALLY HELP IN TECHNOLOGY? First, we take a back seat and with help of science, we try to understand how things happen, what prompts it to happen, how to change its behavior and observe it under different circumstances. Then we take the driver seat and make things to work the way we want by the help of technology. However despite all the field of science being so much advantageous, is it the only shade of it visible? The latest episode of the demise of American firefighter Willie Brown brought the topic into the limelight that "Learning to control the fire made us human but adapting its use brought us cancer." Willie Brown was an American firefighter who succumbed to cancer. The severe exposure...

For more than 1.2 million years, only us humans have used fire for our own benefits. Whether having a hot meal or lighting up a dark room, the discovery of fire has changed the course of the human civilization. But today, another species is using fire for their advantage. In Australia, three birds of the prey species: Black Kites, whistling kites, and brown falcons, use smoldering branches or twigs to spread fire in a region in order to catch their prey. These birds gather around the edges of the fire-blazing region, where their prey, like lizards, insects, or small mammals like rabbits, run towards, to save themselves from the fire but get caught straight into their talons.  Bob Gosford, an ornithologist, said “ A group of falcons or kites would collect slowly- burning branches and drop them off at an unburnt area of grass to start a fire. ” Observers reported both solo and group efforts to catch a prey in such a manner. The surprising thing is that these birds don’t ...