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India's contribution to Science and Technology
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Indian scientists find way to cut heat in computers
In a finding that may lead to development of better-performing laptops, iPods or cellphones in future, material scientists have found a novel way to remove the heat generated in those devices by too many chips being packed in them to make them run faster and perform better.
The scientists' finding has the potential to create "wonders for the electronics world" if researchers can successfully upgrade their project to the industrial scale.
The electronics industry follows the empirical Moore's Law, which suggests processing speed of computer doubles in every 18 months. In every one and a half years, engineers find out ways to pack larger number of integrated-circuits (IC) onto a single chip to enable computers process more and more data efficiently.
As processing speed increases, removal of heat – generated by all these processors – from computers becomes an acute problem. If kept in the system, the heat will damage the machine.
At the moment, heat is drained out by a small fan. But this low-cost option would not work beyond a point if the number of ICs on a chip become too many. This is where the new discovery would come handy. Exploiting graphene – the thinnest material known to science – the scientists have found a unique way to drain away the excess heat from computers.
"If the packing density of chips increases substantially, conventional cooling systems used on chips such as fans or heat spreaders cannot handle this heat. The solution could lie in heat pipes to efficiently dissipate heat from the chip. Our technology could significantly improve the performance of such heat pipes for computer and other applications," team member Nikhil Koratkar, a professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, told Deccan Herald. The findings were published in "Nature Materials" on January 22.
The researchers utilised a nano-material called graphene, which is an one atom-thick sheet of carbon packed like a honey-comb. Because of its many interesting properties, graphene is one of the hottest areas of research and being used extensively in nanotechnology. Koratkar, Pulickel Ajayan from Rice University and their colleagues successfully created those nano heat-pipes by coating copper, gold and silicon with graphene. "This is more useful for laptops, cellphones and iPod where lots of data is stored in a small space," said Koratkar.
Novel method
* Every 18 months, engineers try to pack in a large number of integrated-circuits onto a single chip for more efficient data processing
* As processing speed increases, removal of heat from computers becomes a problem as the machine may get damaged
* Nano-heat pipes found to dissipate heat efficiently
* Team comprising four Indians and two Iranians and Chinese each have made nano-heat pipes by coating graphene, the thinnest material known to science, onto silicon, copper and gold
Indian scientists find way to cut heat in computers
In a finding that may lead to development of better-performing laptops, iPods or cellphones in future, material scientists have found a novel way to remove the heat generated in those devices by too many chips being packed in them to make them run faster and perform better.
The scientists' finding has the potential to create "wonders for the electronics world" if researchers can successfully upgrade their project to the industrial scale.
The electronics industry follows the empirical Moore's Law, which suggests processing speed of computer doubles in every 18 months. In every one and a half years, engineers find out ways to pack larger number of integrated-circuits (IC) onto a single chip to enable computers process more and more data efficiently.
As processing speed increases, removal of heat – generated by all these processors – from computers becomes an acute problem. If kept in the system, the heat will damage the machine.
At the moment, heat is drained out by a small fan. But this low-cost option would not work beyond a point if the number of ICs on a chip become too many. This is where the new discovery would come handy. Exploiting graphene – the thinnest material known to science – the scientists have found a unique way to drain away the excess heat from computers.
"If the packing density of chips increases substantially, conventional cooling systems used on chips such as fans or heat spreaders cannot handle this heat. The solution could lie in heat pipes to efficiently dissipate heat from the chip. Our technology could significantly improve the performance of such heat pipes for computer and other applications," team member Nikhil Koratkar, a professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, told Deccan Herald. The findings were published in "Nature Materials" on January 22.
The researchers utilised a nano-material called graphene, which is an one atom-thick sheet of carbon packed like a honey-comb. Because of its many interesting properties, graphene is one of the hottest areas of research and being used extensively in nanotechnology. Koratkar, Pulickel Ajayan from Rice University and their colleagues successfully created those nano heat-pipes by coating copper, gold and silicon with graphene. "This is more useful for laptops, cellphones and iPod where lots of data is stored in a small space," said Koratkar.
Novel method
* Every 18 months, engineers try to pack in a large number of integrated-circuits onto a single chip for more efficient data processing
* As processing speed increases, removal of heat from computers becomes a problem as the machine may get damaged
* Nano-heat pipes found to dissipate heat efficiently
* Team comprising four Indians and two Iranians and Chinese each have made nano-heat pipes by coating graphene, the thinnest material known to science, onto silicon, copper and gold
Indian scientists find way to cut heat in computers
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Chikilidae, Legless Amphibian Family, Discovered In India (PHOTOS)
NEW DELHI (AP) — Since before the age of dinosaurs it has burrowed unbothered beneath the monsoon-soaked soils of remote northeast India — unknown to science and mistaken by villagers as a deadly, miniature snake.
But this legless amphibian's time in obscurity has ended, thanks to an intrepid team of biologists led by University of Delhi professor Sathyabhama Das Biju. Over five years of digging through forest beds in the rain, the team has identified an entirely new family of amphibians — called chikilidae — endemic to the region but with ancient links to Africa.
Their discovery, published Wednesday in a journal of the Royal Society of London, gives yet more evidence that India is a hotbed of amphibian life with habitats worth protecting against the country's industry-heavy development agenda.
It also gives exciting new evidence in the study of prehistoric species migration, as well as evolutionary paths influenced by continental shift.
"This is a major hotspot of biological diversity, but one of the least explored," Biju said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We hope this new family will show the importance of funding research in the area. We need to know what we have, so we can know what to save."
His first effort in conserving the chikilidae was to give it a scientific name mirroring what the locals use in their Garo language. The chikilidae is a caecilian, the most primitive of three amphibian groups that also include frogs and salamanders.
"We hope when the locals see the name, and their language, being used across the world, they will understand this animal's importance and join in trying to save it," Biju said. "India's biodiversity is fast depleting. We are destroying these habitats without mercy."
The chikilidae's home in long-ignored tropical forests now faces drastic change under programs to cut trees, plant rice paddy, build roads and generate industry as India's economic growth fuels a breakneck drive in development. More industrial pollutants, more pesticides and more people occupying more land may mean a world of trouble for a creature that can be traced to the earliest vertebrates to creep across land.
Biju — a botanist-turned-herpetologist now celebrated as India's "Frogman" — has made it his life work to find and catalog new species. There are too many cases of "nameless extinction," with animals disappearing before they are ever known, he said. "We don't even know what we're losing."
Amphibians are particularly vulnerable, and have drastically declined in recent decades. The same sensitivity to climate and water quality that makes them perfect environmental barometers also puts them at the greatest risk when ecological systems go awry.
Biju, however, is working the reverse trend. Since 2001, he has discovered 76 new species of plants, caecilians and frogs — vastly more than any other scientist in India — and estimates 30-40 percent of the country's amphibians are yet to be found.
Within the chikilidae family, the team has already identified three species, and is on its way to classing three more, he said.
The chikilidae's discovery, made along with co-researchers from London's Natural History Museum and Vrije University in Brussels, brings the number of known caecilian families in the world to 10. Three are in India and others are spread across the tropics in Southeast Asia, Africa and South America. There is debate about the classifications, however, and some scientists count even fewer caecilian families.
Because they live hidden underground, and race off at the slightest vibration, much less is known about them than their more famous — and vocal — amphibious cousins, the frogs. Only 186 of the world's known amphibious species are caecilians, compared with more than 6,000 frog species — a third of which are considered endangered or threatened.
Even people living in northeast Indians misunderstand the caecilians, and rare sightings can inspire terror and revulsion, with farmers and villagers chopping them in half out of the mistaken belief that they are poisonous snakes.
In fact, the chikilidae is harmless, and may even be the farmer's best friend — feasting on worms and insects that might harm crops, and churning the soil as it moves underground.
Much remains to be discovered in further study, Biju said, as many questions remain about how the creatures live.
So far, Biju's team has determined that an adult chikilidae will remain with its eggs until they hatch, forgoing food for some 50 days. When the eggs hatch, the young emerge as tiny adults and squirm away.
They grow to about 4 inches (10 centimeters), and can ram their hard skulls through some of the region's tougher soils, shooting off quickly at the slightest vibration. "It's like a rocket," Biju said. "If you miss it the first try, you'll never catch it again."
A possibly superfluous set of eyes is shielded under a layer of skin, and may help the chikilidae gauge light from dark as in other caecilian species.
DNA testing suggests the chikilidae's closest relative is in Africa — with the two evolutionary paths splitting some 140 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed what was then a southern supercontinent called Gondwana, since separated into today's continents of Africa, Antarctica, Australia, South America and the Indian subcontinent.
Biju's team worked best during monsoon season, when the digging is easier and chikilidae lay eggs in waterlogged soils. Gripping garden spades with blistered hands, the researchers along with locals they hired spent about 2,600 man hours digging for the elusive squigglers, usually found about 16 inches (40 centimeters) deep.
"It was backbreaking work," said research fellow Rachunliu Kamei, who even passed out in the forest once, and some days found not even one specimen.
"But there is motivation in knowing this is an uncharted frontier," said Kamei, lead researcher and main author of the study paper.
In this photo released by Amphibians of India, a chikilidae egg is shown in the soils of northeast India. Since the age of dinosaurs the chikilidae has burrowed unbothered beneath the monsoon-soaked soils of remote northeast India, unknown to science and mistaken by many villagers as a deadly, miniature snake. Their discovery, published Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012, in a journal of the Royal Society of London, gives yet more evidence that India is a hotbed of amphibian life with habitats worth protecting against the country's industry-heavy development agenda. (AP Photo/ Amphibians of India, Sathyabhama Das Biju)
NEW DELHI (AP) — Since before the age of dinosaurs it has burrowed unbothered beneath the monsoon-soaked soils of remote northeast India — unknown to science and mistaken by villagers as a deadly, miniature snake.
But this legless amphibian's time in obscurity has ended, thanks to an intrepid team of biologists led by University of Delhi professor Sathyabhama Das Biju. Over five years of digging through forest beds in the rain, the team has identified an entirely new family of amphibians — called chikilidae — endemic to the region but with ancient links to Africa.
Their discovery, published Wednesday in a journal of the Royal Society of London, gives yet more evidence that India is a hotbed of amphibian life with habitats worth protecting against the country's industry-heavy development agenda.
It also gives exciting new evidence in the study of prehistoric species migration, as well as evolutionary paths influenced by continental shift.
"This is a major hotspot of biological diversity, but one of the least explored," Biju said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We hope this new family will show the importance of funding research in the area. We need to know what we have, so we can know what to save."
His first effort in conserving the chikilidae was to give it a scientific name mirroring what the locals use in their Garo language. The chikilidae is a caecilian, the most primitive of three amphibian groups that also include frogs and salamanders.
"We hope when the locals see the name, and their language, being used across the world, they will understand this animal's importance and join in trying to save it," Biju said. "India's biodiversity is fast depleting. We are destroying these habitats without mercy."
The chikilidae's home in long-ignored tropical forests now faces drastic change under programs to cut trees, plant rice paddy, build roads and generate industry as India's economic growth fuels a breakneck drive in development. More industrial pollutants, more pesticides and more people occupying more land may mean a world of trouble for a creature that can be traced to the earliest vertebrates to creep across land.
Biju — a botanist-turned-herpetologist now celebrated as India's "Frogman" — has made it his life work to find and catalog new species. There are too many cases of "nameless extinction," with animals disappearing before they are ever known, he said. "We don't even know what we're losing."
Amphibians are particularly vulnerable, and have drastically declined in recent decades. The same sensitivity to climate and water quality that makes them perfect environmental barometers also puts them at the greatest risk when ecological systems go awry.
Biju, however, is working the reverse trend. Since 2001, he has discovered 76 new species of plants, caecilians and frogs — vastly more than any other scientist in India — and estimates 30-40 percent of the country's amphibians are yet to be found.
Within the chikilidae family, the team has already identified three species, and is on its way to classing three more, he said.
The chikilidae's discovery, made along with co-researchers from London's Natural History Museum and Vrije University in Brussels, brings the number of known caecilian families in the world to 10. Three are in India and others are spread across the tropics in Southeast Asia, Africa and South America. There is debate about the classifications, however, and some scientists count even fewer caecilian families.
Because they live hidden underground, and race off at the slightest vibration, much less is known about them than their more famous — and vocal — amphibious cousins, the frogs. Only 186 of the world's known amphibious species are caecilians, compared with more than 6,000 frog species — a third of which are considered endangered or threatened.
Even people living in northeast Indians misunderstand the caecilians, and rare sightings can inspire terror and revulsion, with farmers and villagers chopping them in half out of the mistaken belief that they are poisonous snakes.
In fact, the chikilidae is harmless, and may even be the farmer's best friend — feasting on worms and insects that might harm crops, and churning the soil as it moves underground.
Much remains to be discovered in further study, Biju said, as many questions remain about how the creatures live.
So far, Biju's team has determined that an adult chikilidae will remain with its eggs until they hatch, forgoing food for some 50 days. When the eggs hatch, the young emerge as tiny adults and squirm away.
They grow to about 4 inches (10 centimeters), and can ram their hard skulls through some of the region's tougher soils, shooting off quickly at the slightest vibration. "It's like a rocket," Biju said. "If you miss it the first try, you'll never catch it again."
A possibly superfluous set of eyes is shielded under a layer of skin, and may help the chikilidae gauge light from dark as in other caecilian species.
DNA testing suggests the chikilidae's closest relative is in Africa — with the two evolutionary paths splitting some 140 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed what was then a southern supercontinent called Gondwana, since separated into today's continents of Africa, Antarctica, Australia, South America and the Indian subcontinent.
Biju's team worked best during monsoon season, when the digging is easier and chikilidae lay eggs in waterlogged soils. Gripping garden spades with blistered hands, the researchers along with locals they hired spent about 2,600 man hours digging for the elusive squigglers, usually found about 16 inches (40 centimeters) deep.
"It was backbreaking work," said research fellow Rachunliu Kamei, who even passed out in the forest once, and some days found not even one specimen.
"But there is motivation in knowing this is an uncharted frontier," said Kamei, lead researcher and main author of the study paper.
In this photo released by Amphibians of India, a chikilidae egg is shown in the soils of northeast India. Since the age of dinosaurs the chikilidae has burrowed unbothered beneath the monsoon-soaked soils of remote northeast India, unknown to science and mistaken by many villagers as a deadly, miniature snake. Their discovery, published Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012, in a journal of the Royal Society of London, gives yet more evidence that India is a hotbed of amphibian life with habitats worth protecting against the country's industry-heavy development agenda. (AP Photo/ Amphibians of India, Sathyabhama Das Biju)
Iamanidiot
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First ever integrated solar power tile launched in Kerala - Times Of India
KOCHI: The Amrita Centre for Nanosciences has come out with what is billed as the world's first integrated solar power storage tile using super capacitor.
It has been named 'Amrita Smart' and was launched on Friday at the ongoing International Conference, NANOSOLAR 2012, organised by the Amrita Centre for Nanosciences at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences.
The product has been developed at the Amrita Centre by its team of 40 researchers headed by Shanti Nair and Vinod Gopal.
Amrita Smart is a combination device of a solar cell and a battery that can be used to power devices even at night. The patented concept uses special electronics to integrate the solar cell with the storage device.
The products are capable of charging a laptop or a mobile phone and their use can be extended for building integrated solar storage and usage (home use) at night without the need for expensive battery systems.
These solar modules, when exposed to sun for four hours, can later charge the laptops and mobile phones in two hours and can have seven days' storage capacity.
The product would weigh 200 gms and is expected to be marketed in one to two years. Shanti Nair said that energy generation and storage must go hand in hand.
"The development of the solar storage tile is a milestone in nanosolar aided research and in the field of renewable energy sector," said Nair.
KOCHI: The Amrita Centre for Nanosciences has come out with what is billed as the world's first integrated solar power storage tile using super capacitor.
It has been named 'Amrita Smart' and was launched on Friday at the ongoing International Conference, NANOSOLAR 2012, organised by the Amrita Centre for Nanosciences at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences.
The product has been developed at the Amrita Centre by its team of 40 researchers headed by Shanti Nair and Vinod Gopal.
Amrita Smart is a combination device of a solar cell and a battery that can be used to power devices even at night. The patented concept uses special electronics to integrate the solar cell with the storage device.
The products are capable of charging a laptop or a mobile phone and their use can be extended for building integrated solar storage and usage (home use) at night without the need for expensive battery systems.
These solar modules, when exposed to sun for four hours, can later charge the laptops and mobile phones in two hours and can have seven days' storage capacity.
The product would weigh 200 gms and is expected to be marketed in one to two years. Shanti Nair said that energy generation and storage must go hand in hand.
"The development of the solar storage tile is a milestone in nanosolar aided research and in the field of renewable energy sector," said Nair.
sesha_maruthi27
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Waiting to see your posts......
Hope they are interesting as well as informative too.........
H.A.
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will post them tonight....however it would be on the broader context about India's contribution, be it science, mathematics, astronomy etc. Contributions which had a huge impact on the world.
H.A.
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Dr. Netravali led the research and development of Bell Labs' high definition television (HDTV) effort, in the 1990's. A video encoder based on his work is used today, by more than 150 TV stations for their HDTV broadcasts.
He is cited for his "pioneering contributions that transformed TV from analog to digital, enabling numerous integrated circuits, systems and services in broadcast TV, CATV, DBS, HDTV, and multimedia over the Internet; and for technical expertise and leadership, which have kept Bell Labs at the forefront in communications technology."
TechMotivator - Technology Genius (Arun Netravali)
He is cited for his "pioneering contributions that transformed TV from analog to digital, enabling numerous integrated circuits, systems and services in broadcast TV, CATV, DBS, HDTV, and multimedia over the Internet; and for technical expertise and leadership, which have kept Bell Labs at the forefront in communications technology."
TechMotivator - Technology Genius (Arun Netravali)
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H.A.
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Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, (7 November 1888 – 21 November 1970) was an Indian physicist whose work was influential in the growth of science in the world. He was the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930 for the discovery that when light traverses a transparent material, some of the light that is deflected changes in wavelength. This phenomenon is now called Raman scattering and is the result of the Raman effect.
C. V. Raman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
C. V. Raman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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H.A.
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Professor Ajay Sood along with Shankar Ghosh and N. Kumar found that when liquid flow over nanotubes, electricity is generated. His article was published in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters. Nanotubes act as flow sensors, converting the mechanical energy generated by the fluid flow into measurable electrical signals. Their discovery heralds a hitherto undiscovered facet of the rapidly growing field of `nanotechnology'. Perhaps a futuristic application of the discovery could be the devising of `miniature hydroelectric power plants' by extracting the combined electrical energy from an assembly of a huge number of nanotubes.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 086601 (2004): Direct Generation of a Voltage and Current by Gas Flow Over Carbon Nanotubes and Semiconductors
Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 086601 (2004): Direct Generation of a Voltage and Current by Gas Flow Over Carbon Nanotubes and Semiconductors
H.A.
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Professor Jagadish Chandra Bose: Was the pioneer of wireless communication and not Marconi a fact proved by IEEE. US-based Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers
Jagadish Chandra Bose - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jagadish Chandra Bose - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
H.A.
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Narinder Singh Kapany Punjabi: ਨਰਿੰਦਰ ਸਿੰਘ (born 12 October 1926 in Moga, Punjab) is an Indian born American physicist known for his work in fiber optics. He was named as one of the seven 'Unsung Heroes' by Fortune magazine in their 'Businessmen of the Century' issue
Narinder Singh Kapany - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Narinder Singh Kapany - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
H.A.
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Prof. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910 – 1995): He was the first to theorize that a collapsing massive star would become an object so dense that not even light could escape it. Although this finding was greeted with some skepticism at the time it was announced, it went on to form the foundation of the theory of black holes, and eventually earned Chandrasekhar a shared Nobel Prize in physics for 1983. Chandrashekhar estimated the limit (Chandrashekhar limit) on the size of a highly dense variety of star known as 'White Dwarf'. If this star's mass exceeds the limit, it explodes to become a bright supernova.NASA's premier X-ray observatory was named the Chandra X-ray Observatory in honor of the late Indian-American Nobel laureate
Chandra :: About Chandra :: Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar - The Man Behind The Name
Chandra :: About Chandra :: Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar - The Man Behind The Name
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Jayant Baliga's invention is a power saver - Forbes India News - IBNLive
As a child, everyone has a favourite boast about their daddy. But few would have a story to match Prof Jayant Baliga's. "The first TV broadcast into a home in India occurred in my house."
In true tradition of a man of science this isn't an empty boast. It really did happen. "My father, BV Baliga, was chief engineer of All India Radio after Independence. There was an exhibition in Delhi in the 1950s where they were using the All India Radio's setup of a camera and a transmitter to show a TV telecast within the exhibition premises. My father wanted to test if the signal could be received at a farther distance."
He had a television set installed at his house at Teen Murti Marg. "It caused quite a sensation in the neighbourhood," says Baliga. BV Baliga went on to head Bharat Electronics Limited, the heavyweight electronics public sector undertaking.
One might have expected Jayant to go firmly towards the future then: Computers. Instead, he invented something that joined two sister disciplines: Electronics engineering and electrical engineering. That device was the IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor), a switch just like the ones in any house. It is just that the one Baliga invented is super-small, can switch on and off 100,000 times a second and handle really high voltage power.
Baliga's invention has resulted in cost savings of over $15 trillion for consumers. "Because of the IGBT the world has not had to build at least 600 hydroelectric dams of the size [of the] Hoover Dam!" says Baliga.
Today, his invention is forming the basis of the emerging smart grid. These electrical supply networks of the future will replaces large and less efficient components with small, cheap and efficient semiconductor equivalent.
One emerging device that is holding out great hope is the transformer-on-a-chip. All of us have seen the large distribution transformers in our neighbourhood. Imagine that being replaced by something that is many times smaller!
It was the late 1970s and Baliga was heading a team of 40 scientists that was working on power semiconductor devices and high voltage integrated circuits at General Electric's Research and Development Center in Schenectady, New York.
By then, the transistor—the device that makes computers possible—had been discovered and commercialised. Since Baliga was at GE, he focussed on a complementary area. He tried to develop a semiconductor device that could control equipment like compact fluorescent lights, airconditioners and electrical motors.
Essentially, the heavy duty stuff. All these applications need power electronic circuits that operate at high efficiency continuously. This reduces heat dissipation, which reduces the size and cost of the electronics. This also reduces electricity consumption, saving consumers money and reducing environmental pollution.
At that time, companies like GE and Westinghouse were developing their bipolar transistors for high-power devices, while another group led by Siliconix and International Rectifier was developing another type of transistor called the power MOSFET. The feeling in the industry was that the two technologies were incompatible because of different manufacturing practices and end customers.
It was Baliga who thought of combining the physics of the two. "There was a vice-president in GE who was developing a heat-pump for air-conditioning applications. He was frustrated that the exiting transistors were failing and that the circuit needed to drive the motor pump was too big, expensive, and very cumbersome to assemble," says Baliga, who had already been working for five years in this area. He rose to the challenge and created a mechanism by which the power surges did not blow out the transistor he had developed.
"It is a research that requires not only knowledge and creativity, but also perseverance. Jay [Baliga] exhibited all of these attributes. With his detailed knowledge of silicon fabrication methods and these transistor devices, he invented the IGBT," says Jim Bray, chief scientist, Electrical Technologies and Systems, GE Global Research.
The device was considered such a breakthrough for GE that Baliga personally briefed Jack Welch. "It wasn't a very usual practice for a scientist to brief the chairman. He came down from Connecticut to Schenectady," says Baliga. Welch decided that the discovery should be kept a secret.
"I wanted to publish about the invention, but that was embargoed for several years. But GE also rewarded me by making me a Coolidge fellow, the youngest ever in the history of GE," says Baliga.
The extent of Baliga's contribution to the world and the US Economy was recognised in 2011 when US President Barack Obama presented him with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. This is the highest form of recognition given by the US government to an engineer.
After that, while Baliga remained in academia, he also founded three companies between 1999 and 2011 to commercialise various semiconductor technologies.
Unfortunately, his association with India, which was fairly high in the 1980s, has declined. "In the 1980s and 1990s, I was visiting India every two years and would make the effort to meet with scientists at universities and government organisations (BEL, BHEL). During my biennial visits, I gave lectures at BEL, BHEL, CEERI-Pilani, IISc-Bangalore, and IIT-Madras. At the present time, I am not connected to any Indian science fraternity," he says.
One issue that has held him back is perhaps the lack of progress in India in semiconductor technology. And developing this does require a huge amount of capital investment. "My impression is that it would be very difficult to develop the types of semiconductor chips that I work on in India due to lack of infrastructure," says Baliga.
As a child, everyone has a favourite boast about their daddy. But few would have a story to match Prof Jayant Baliga's. "The first TV broadcast into a home in India occurred in my house."
In true tradition of a man of science this isn't an empty boast. It really did happen. "My father, BV Baliga, was chief engineer of All India Radio after Independence. There was an exhibition in Delhi in the 1950s where they were using the All India Radio's setup of a camera and a transmitter to show a TV telecast within the exhibition premises. My father wanted to test if the signal could be received at a farther distance."
He had a television set installed at his house at Teen Murti Marg. "It caused quite a sensation in the neighbourhood," says Baliga. BV Baliga went on to head Bharat Electronics Limited, the heavyweight electronics public sector undertaking.
One might have expected Jayant to go firmly towards the future then: Computers. Instead, he invented something that joined two sister disciplines: Electronics engineering and electrical engineering. That device was the IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor), a switch just like the ones in any house. It is just that the one Baliga invented is super-small, can switch on and off 100,000 times a second and handle really high voltage power.
Baliga's invention has resulted in cost savings of over $15 trillion for consumers. "Because of the IGBT the world has not had to build at least 600 hydroelectric dams of the size [of the] Hoover Dam!" says Baliga.
Today, his invention is forming the basis of the emerging smart grid. These electrical supply networks of the future will replaces large and less efficient components with small, cheap and efficient semiconductor equivalent.
One emerging device that is holding out great hope is the transformer-on-a-chip. All of us have seen the large distribution transformers in our neighbourhood. Imagine that being replaced by something that is many times smaller!
It was the late 1970s and Baliga was heading a team of 40 scientists that was working on power semiconductor devices and high voltage integrated circuits at General Electric's Research and Development Center in Schenectady, New York.
By then, the transistor—the device that makes computers possible—had been discovered and commercialised. Since Baliga was at GE, he focussed on a complementary area. He tried to develop a semiconductor device that could control equipment like compact fluorescent lights, airconditioners and electrical motors.
Essentially, the heavy duty stuff. All these applications need power electronic circuits that operate at high efficiency continuously. This reduces heat dissipation, which reduces the size and cost of the electronics. This also reduces electricity consumption, saving consumers money and reducing environmental pollution.
At that time, companies like GE and Westinghouse were developing their bipolar transistors for high-power devices, while another group led by Siliconix and International Rectifier was developing another type of transistor called the power MOSFET. The feeling in the industry was that the two technologies were incompatible because of different manufacturing practices and end customers.
It was Baliga who thought of combining the physics of the two. "There was a vice-president in GE who was developing a heat-pump for air-conditioning applications. He was frustrated that the exiting transistors were failing and that the circuit needed to drive the motor pump was too big, expensive, and very cumbersome to assemble," says Baliga, who had already been working for five years in this area. He rose to the challenge and created a mechanism by which the power surges did not blow out the transistor he had developed.
"It is a research that requires not only knowledge and creativity, but also perseverance. Jay [Baliga] exhibited all of these attributes. With his detailed knowledge of silicon fabrication methods and these transistor devices, he invented the IGBT," says Jim Bray, chief scientist, Electrical Technologies and Systems, GE Global Research.
The device was considered such a breakthrough for GE that Baliga personally briefed Jack Welch. "It wasn't a very usual practice for a scientist to brief the chairman. He came down from Connecticut to Schenectady," says Baliga. Welch decided that the discovery should be kept a secret.
"I wanted to publish about the invention, but that was embargoed for several years. But GE also rewarded me by making me a Coolidge fellow, the youngest ever in the history of GE," says Baliga.
The extent of Baliga's contribution to the world and the US Economy was recognised in 2011 when US President Barack Obama presented him with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. This is the highest form of recognition given by the US government to an engineer.
After that, while Baliga remained in academia, he also founded three companies between 1999 and 2011 to commercialise various semiconductor technologies.
Unfortunately, his association with India, which was fairly high in the 1980s, has declined. "In the 1980s and 1990s, I was visiting India every two years and would make the effort to meet with scientists at universities and government organisations (BEL, BHEL). During my biennial visits, I gave lectures at BEL, BHEL, CEERI-Pilani, IISc-Bangalore, and IIT-Madras. At the present time, I am not connected to any Indian science fraternity," he says.
One issue that has held him back is perhaps the lack of progress in India in semiconductor technology. And developing this does require a huge amount of capital investment. "My impression is that it would be very difficult to develop the types of semiconductor chips that I work on in India due to lack of infrastructure," says Baliga.
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Ayurveda research at Haffkine gets Rs4cr boost - Health - DNA
The department of science and technology has granted Rs4 crore to the Parel-based Haffkine Institute for Training Research and Testing to work on the scientific validation of ayurvedic medicines. Under the programme, scientists will study herbal products like Tulsi and Brahmi.
The Haffkine institute, which recently started research on herbal products to regulate the production of ayurvedic medicines, had sought financial aid from the department of science and technology and department of bio-technology a year ago.
Experts say scientific validation will help India enlarge its share in the global drug market. Currently, the global herb market is worth $70 billion and growing annually at 10-15% annually. The global pharma market is worth $142 billion.
Dr Abhay Chowdhary, director of Haffkine Institute, said, "While the preliminary research on herbal products led by veteran researcher and renowned physician Dr RD Lele has already begun, we are awaiting a reply from the department of science and technology. Herbal products will be tested on small animals like mice and rodents using radio isotopes."
In an article published in the institute's bulletin, Lele said molecular pharmacology provides a new interface between ayurveda and modern medicines. Using modern techniques, ayurvedic drugs can provide novel molecular probes.
The department of science and technology has granted Rs4 crore to the Parel-based Haffkine Institute for Training Research and Testing to work on the scientific validation of ayurvedic medicines. Under the programme, scientists will study herbal products like Tulsi and Brahmi.
The Haffkine institute, which recently started research on herbal products to regulate the production of ayurvedic medicines, had sought financial aid from the department of science and technology and department of bio-technology a year ago.
Experts say scientific validation will help India enlarge its share in the global drug market. Currently, the global herb market is worth $70 billion and growing annually at 10-15% annually. The global pharma market is worth $142 billion.
Dr Abhay Chowdhary, director of Haffkine Institute, said, "While the preliminary research on herbal products led by veteran researcher and renowned physician Dr RD Lele has already begun, we are awaiting a reply from the department of science and technology. Herbal products will be tested on small animals like mice and rodents using radio isotopes."
In an article published in the institute's bulletin, Lele said molecular pharmacology provides a new interface between ayurveda and modern medicines. Using modern techniques, ayurvedic drugs can provide novel molecular probes.
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- 7,550
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India`s 3rd research base in Antarctica begins on trial basis
New Delhi: India has done a soft launch of its third research station in Antarctica's Larsemann Hills region, considered as one of the few geological windows intothe history of the continent.
"The construction is over. We are running it on trial basis. The winter team is there carrying out tests on various equipment and systems," Shailesh Nayak, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, told PTI.
The formal launch of the research station -- Bharti – is expected in November when it is summer time in the icy continent.
The research station would address the growing urge in the Indian scientific community for exploring deeper and wider areas of Antarctica for better understanding of the vast continent, said Rajesh Asthana, the leader of the 15-member team, at a brief inauguration ceremony at Larsemann Hills on March 18.
The station is situated at an unnamed promontory of land between the Strornes and Broknes peninsulas in the Larsemann Hills region of East Antarctica.
The natural topography is a rocky granite hill towering approximately 90 meters above sea level.
The siting and placement of the new research station was based on a location that would minimise the amount of snow drifting, minimise the need for extensive site modification and provide the best access to the sea and sea ice.
Australia, Asia, Africa, South America and India were once part of a super-continent called Gondwanaland where the present day east coast of India shared a common border withthe eastern shores of Antarctica.
Indian polar scientists want to put this theory to test by examining rocks in river basins in the Indian subcontinent and minerals in the glaciers around the Larsemann Hills.
The new station is located almost 3,000 km away from the existing 'Maitri' station which has been serving the nation since its inception in 1988-89.
'Maitri', which has been hosting summer team of about 70 members and winter team of 25 members every year since 1988-89, is the gateway for Indian scientists to venture into interior Antarctic mountains.
India's first research station in Antarctica was Dakshin Gangotri (1983) which has been decommissioned after it got buried under ice and has now been marked as an historic site.
The government has allocated Rs 290 crore in the Union Budget 2012-12 for polar sciences and cryosphere, which covers research activities at Antarctica, Arctic and glaciers of Himalayas.
New Delhi: India has done a soft launch of its third research station in Antarctica's Larsemann Hills region, considered as one of the few geological windows intothe history of the continent.
"The construction is over. We are running it on trial basis. The winter team is there carrying out tests on various equipment and systems," Shailesh Nayak, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, told PTI.
The formal launch of the research station -- Bharti – is expected in November when it is summer time in the icy continent.
The research station would address the growing urge in the Indian scientific community for exploring deeper and wider areas of Antarctica for better understanding of the vast continent, said Rajesh Asthana, the leader of the 15-member team, at a brief inauguration ceremony at Larsemann Hills on March 18.
The station is situated at an unnamed promontory of land between the Strornes and Broknes peninsulas in the Larsemann Hills region of East Antarctica.
The natural topography is a rocky granite hill towering approximately 90 meters above sea level.
The siting and placement of the new research station was based on a location that would minimise the amount of snow drifting, minimise the need for extensive site modification and provide the best access to the sea and sea ice.
Australia, Asia, Africa, South America and India were once part of a super-continent called Gondwanaland where the present day east coast of India shared a common border withthe eastern shores of Antarctica.
Indian polar scientists want to put this theory to test by examining rocks in river basins in the Indian subcontinent and minerals in the glaciers around the Larsemann Hills.
The new station is located almost 3,000 km away from the existing 'Maitri' station which has been serving the nation since its inception in 1988-89.
'Maitri', which has been hosting summer team of about 70 members and winter team of 25 members every year since 1988-89, is the gateway for Indian scientists to venture into interior Antarctic mountains.
India's first research station in Antarctica was Dakshin Gangotri (1983) which has been decommissioned after it got buried under ice and has now been marked as an historic site.
The government has allocated Rs 290 crore in the Union Budget 2012-12 for polar sciences and cryosphere, which covers research activities at Antarctica, Arctic and glaciers of Himalayas.
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India warms to cold fusion
Kalyanaraman M.
CHENNAI, MARCH 17, 2018 23:06 IST
UPDATED: MARCH 18, 2018 08:37 IST
3 teams have renewed efforts to produce nuclear energy without radiation
Cold fusion — or its successor technologies such as Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) — remains a dead-end and a false hope for many scientists across the world. India, however, is taking tentative steps towards restarting research into it, some 25 years after it was shut down at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) following global criticism heaped on the idea.
At least three research groups have taken up the theme. An effort in IIT-Kanpur is focusing on transmutation of elements at lower temperatures. Another at IIT-Bombay, funded by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), has constructed an apparatus that has produced energy spikes, but researchers are trying to verify that these were not an outcome of quirks in the apparatus that were not accounted for.
BARC in fray?
Yet another group at the Center for Energy Research of the Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samasthana (S-Vyasa) in Bengaluru says the Department of Science and Technology has approved funding for their research through its High Risk High Reward programme. Sources indicate that BARC is revisiting the cold fusion paradigm but its scientists are cagey about discussing the details.
Cold fusion seeks to produce nuclear energy without harmful radiation, complex equipment and the application of very high temperatures and pressures. But it has no conclusive theory explaining it and flies in the face of a well-established physics law that goes against easy fusion of nuclei. There is no guarantee that every time a cold fusion or LENR experiment is done, energy will be produced, say critics. Cold fusion advocates, however, say much progress has been made in achieving repeatability. “Research is underway in the U.S., Japan, China, Russia, Italy, France and Ukraine too. Given the challenge posed by the science behind LENR and its potential payoffs, the Indian government should fund academic institutions that are willing to enter the fray,” says M. Srinivasan, a veteran of the Pokhran I test and former leader of BARC’s Neutron Physics Division. In 1990 Dr. Srinivasan helped to validate the original Fleischmann-Pons cold fusion experiment. Now retired, he has continued to advocate the idea and pushed for it among researchers.
India should take up this research for the sake of national interest, says Prahlada Ramarao, former Chief Controller and Distinguished Scientist at the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and present Director of the Centre for Energy Project at S-Vyasa. “If we don’t take it up and others succeed, we will have to pay for their intellectual property. If all of us fail, that’s fair enough,” he adds.
S-Vyasa researchers have been working on triggering fusion in hydrogen on the surface of nickel, which has hydrogen-soaking properties. The ingredients are heated to temperatures above 1,200° C.
“The first 30-40 experiments were about perfecting the equipment and the process. We observed power spikes in our 80th and 90th experiments in August and October 2016,” says Shree Varaprasad, a researcher there. “We feel that since the reaction seems to be a surface phenomenon, cleaning all the micro-crevices on nickel’s surface to a high degree may be the key to repeatability,” he adds.
“In our electrolysis experiments, we have found irrefutable evidence of new elements and isotopes forming that can happen only through nuclear reactions. But heat measurements are tough to verify and peers will deny their veracity,” says Professor K. P. Rajeev of IIT-Kanpur.
Kalyanaraman M.CHENNAI, MARCH 17, 2018 23:06 IST
UPDATED: MARCH 18, 2018 08:37 IST
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3 teams have renewed efforts to produce nuclear energy without radiation
Cold fusion — or its successor technologies such as Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) — remains a dead-end and a false hope for many scientists across the world. India, however, is taking tentative steps towards restarting research into it, some 25 years after it was shut down at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) following global criticism heaped on the idea.
At least three research groups have taken up the theme. An effort in IIT-Kanpur is focusing on transmutation of elements at lower temperatures. Another at IIT-Bombay, funded by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), has constructed an apparatus that has produced energy spikes, but researchers are trying to verify that these were not an outcome of quirks in the apparatus that were not accounted for.
BARC in fray?
Yet another group at the Center for Energy Research of the Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samasthana (S-Vyasa) in Bengaluru says the Department of Science and Technology has approved funding for their research through its High Risk High Reward programme. Sources indicate that BARC is revisiting the cold fusion paradigm but its scientists are cagey about discussing the details.
Cold fusion seeks to produce nuclear energy without harmful radiation, complex equipment and the application of very high temperatures and pressures. But it has no conclusive theory explaining it and flies in the face of a well-established physics law that goes against easy fusion of nuclei. There is no guarantee that every time a cold fusion or LENR experiment is done, energy will be produced, say critics. Cold fusion advocates, however, say much progress has been made in achieving repeatability. “Research is underway in the U.S., Japan, China, Russia, Italy, France and Ukraine too. Given the challenge posed by the science behind LENR and its potential payoffs, the Indian government should fund academic institutions that are willing to enter the fray,” says M. Srinivasan, a veteran of the Pokhran I test and former leader of BARC’s Neutron Physics Division. In 1990 Dr. Srinivasan helped to validate the original Fleischmann-Pons cold fusion experiment. Now retired, he has continued to advocate the idea and pushed for it among researchers.
India should take up this research for the sake of national interest, says Prahlada Ramarao, former Chief Controller and Distinguished Scientist at the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and present Director of the Centre for Energy Project at S-Vyasa. “If we don’t take it up and others succeed, we will have to pay for their intellectual property. If all of us fail, that’s fair enough,” he adds.
S-Vyasa researchers have been working on triggering fusion in hydrogen on the surface of nickel, which has hydrogen-soaking properties. The ingredients are heated to temperatures above 1,200° C.
“The first 30-40 experiments were about perfecting the equipment and the process. We observed power spikes in our 80th and 90th experiments in August and October 2016,” says Shree Varaprasad, a researcher there. “We feel that since the reaction seems to be a surface phenomenon, cleaning all the micro-crevices on nickel’s surface to a high degree may be the key to repeatability,” he adds.
“In our electrolysis experiments, we have found irrefutable evidence of new elements and isotopes forming that can happen only through nuclear reactions. But heat measurements are tough to verify and peers will deny their veracity,” says Professor K. P. Rajeev of IIT-Kanpur.
