1. Marine Biome Climate<br />By Abhijit NaikPublished: 12/8/2010<br />Covering approximately three-fourths of the total surface area of our planet, the marine biome is undoubtedly the largest biome of the world. The amazing size of this aquatic biome plays a crucial role in making it one of the richest biomes of the world in terms of biodiversity. Sadly though, it is also one of the least popular biomes of the world, and this is highlighted by the fact that our knowledge about 'It' is restricted to its use to facilitate transportation and as an important food source. Some of the least known marine biome facts revolve around its climate. In fact, marine biome climate and temperature are among the most important attributes of this biome as they play a crucial role in determining the climate of other terrestrial biomes on our planet. Before we move on to see what is the climate of the marine biome, let's go through some general facts about it. Basically, the marine biome comprises of five oceans of the world - Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Ocean, Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean, as well as various other water bodies such as the gulfs and bays. The most important characteristic trait of this biome is its 'salinity', which differentiates it from the other aquatic biomes on the Earth - the freshwater biome. The study of marine biome is called marine biology. As in case of various other ecosystems of this planet, even the marine ecosystem is characterized by presence of various marine plants and marine animal species. While the number of marine animals and plants lies in millions, if the number of those life forms which are indirectly dependent on this biome - including us humans, is added together then it will cross the billion mark with ease.Even before you move any further, you need to get well versed with two geography terms - climate and weather. In geography, the term 'weather' is defined as the atmospheric conditions prevailing at a particular place over a stipulated period of time - generally a day. On the other hand, 'climate' is defined as the aggregate of weather conditions prevailing in the said place over a longer duration of time - generally a whole year. In general, these atmospheric conditions include various attributes of nature including temperature, precipitation, wind, sunlight etc. While temperature and sunlight have a direct role to play when it comes to ocean biome climatic conditions, wind and precipitation play an indirect - but crucial role in the same.Even though the average temperature of marine biome is 39ºF, you will see a great deal of variation in the same owing to its vast size. The temperature will be at its highest at the equator - wherein the ocean bodies receives direct Sun rays which can penetrate deep into the water. As you head towards either of the poles, the temperature falls and eventually, goes into minus in the polar areas wherein absence of sunlight for half the time of the year and presence of icebergs in water both come into play. Yet another important attribute of marine biome climate, which you don't get to see in freshwater biome climate, is the presence of ocean currents - which play a crucial role in formation of hurricanes. Similarly, wind is an important factor here, as it plays a crucial role in formation of waves and precipitation adds some freshwater to these saline bodies.Marine plants and animals have adapted themselves very well to the climatic conditions prevailing in this biome, and therefore the climate plays a relatively less important role in this biome. One of the best examples of marine animal adaptations is the use of ocean currents and tides by various marine species to facilitate transportation. Other than these animal adaptations, even the marine biome plants have adapted themselves to survive at depths wherein there is no sunlight penetration. This may come as a surprise for many, but marine climate has a great influence on terrestrial climate, and the example of hurricanes given above is the best example of the same. Similarly, the strong winds blowing over the oceans and large-scale evaporation of water from these water bodies have a major role to play when it comes to precipitation in various terrestrial biomes.That covered a significant bit of information on the marine biome climate and weather, with a passing reference to its influence on other biomes of the world. Even though marine biome is far different from various terrestrial biomes, one common factor that you are bound to notice in both these type of biomes is 'human interference'. The rate at which we have been turning our oceans into virtual garbage bins, sooner or later we are bound to spell t-r-o-u-b-l-e for marine organisms, and eventually a d-e-a-t-h k-n-e-l-l for ourselves. <br />Polonium UsesBy Bidisha MukherjeePublished: 12/7/201<br />Polonium is a rare kind of radioactive element found on the earth. The other name of polonium is Radium F. Chemically, it is represented with the symbol Po. In the periodic table, it is placed in group 16 which is also known as chalcogen family. Other members of this family include oxygen, sulfur, selenium, and tellurium. It is the heaviest chemical element of this group. As it is highly radioactive, most of the polonium uses are confined to research based studies. There are rarely any commercial uses of polonium. Before talking about what is polonium used for, let us take a look at the history and chemistry of this element.The credit for discovering polonium goes to Marie curie and her husband. They discovered it in the year 1898. The name polonium actually originated from Poland which happened to be the native land of Marie Curie. They were inspired by Henry Becquerel’s discovery of radioactivity and were doing research on uranium ores to identify the cause of radioactivity. While working, they found that after separating uranium and thorium from the ore, there was another radioactive material which is more unstable than uranium and thorium and exhibit higher radioactivity. After polonium, this couple went on to discover another radioactive element radium. Basically, polonium is rarely found in nature. This is because it is formed by radioactive disintegration or breaking down of natural form of uranium 238 which is also a radioactive element. Moreover, it has a very short half life period. Thus the only natural source of polonium is uranium ores. Even in this ore its concentration is very low. One metric ton of uranium ores contains hardly 100 micrograms of polonium.Now, polonium can be produced artificially. The process of manufacturing polonium was discovered in the year 1934 when scientists bombarded naturally occurring bismuth with neutrons. Now, it is mostly prepared with the help of neutron refluxes present in nuclear reactors. Atomic number of polonium is 84. In all, there are 33 known isotopes of polonium. In fact, polonium is well known for its highest number of isotopes. The atomic masses of all these isotopes are in between 188 and 220 and all of them are radioactive in nature. Among them, polonium 210 is the most commonly found isotope and is most widely used for practical applications. Element polonium is categorized as metalloid. The term metalloid is used for those chemical elements that exhibit properties of both metals as well as non metals. Polnium is a soft metal and can be identified with its silvery gray color. It has extremely high volatility. In fact, if you heat the metal at 55 degrees Celsius, half the sample would be vaporized in the first 45 hours itself. The chemical properties of polonium have lots of similarities with that of bismuth. It is highly soluble in acidic substances and only partially soluble in alkaline substances. Polonium UsesIn the previous section on polonium facts you have learned that polonium is one such element which is rarely found naturally. Even artificial production of polonium is barely 100 grams in a year. For all these reasons, there are restricted uses of polonium. Some of the key polonium 210 uses are given below:<br />Polonium 210 is widely used as source of neutrons. It is combined with beryllium for this purpose. The alpha particle emitted by the radioactive polonium helps in release of neutrons from beryllium. However, one need to own a license to use polonium as a neutron source.<br />A small amount of polonium releases large amount of energy every second in the form of alpha particles. For this reason, it has been used in thermoelectric cells of artificial satellites.<br />Those brushes that are being used for cleaning up accumulated dust particles from camera lenses and photographic films have polonium 210 in them.<br />Another key application of polonium is in those devices which are used for elimination of static electricity in various machines. Such devices are needed in paper rolling machine, spinning synthetic fibers, plastic sheet manufacturing, etc.<br />It is used in radioisotope thermoelectric generator. This device converts the energy released by the radioactive decay of an element into electricity. It is needed as a power source for unmanned remote facilities such as lighthouse and space probe.<br />Research is going on to find out whether it can also be used as a source of heat for spacecrafts. However, it may not be used in long term space missions because of its short half life period.<br />Hope you got a clear idea about basic polonium uses. Polonium is a toxic chemical substance. It can cause severe damage to human body tissues if it is ingested or inhaled. Therefore, extra precaution is always needed while handling this chemical. <br />pH of Milk<br />By Florentyna KPublished: 12/1/2010<br />As children, all of us were encouraged to drink milk. Drinking milk is considered as an ultimate key to good health. However, drinking milk may not be always desirable for your health. More so, if you ignore certain facts about milk. pH of milk is one such issue that needs to be taken seriously. Balancing pH of foods that you eat is very important, since many diseases and disorders stem from the imbalance of acids and alkalies in our body. In this article, we are going to find the pH of milk in various forms, as well as the significance of balancing pH of milk.In the pH scale of 1 to 14, acids cover the lower scale between 0 to 7, while bases dominate the higher scale between 7 to 14. A pH of 7 is considered as neutral. Pure rain water is considered to have a pH of 7. In its purest, form milk is slightly acidic with a pH of 6.7. The milk that we are talking about in this case is cow's milk. Since, cow's milk is the mostly consumed milk type in the western world, knowing pH of cow's milk is very important. Homogenized milk is most acidic while raw milk is medium acidic. As milk begins to sour, its pH levels fall sharply making it even more acidic. Certain bacteria named lactobacilli convert the sugars in milk into acids, thereby reducing the pH of milk. Completely sour milk has a pH of about 4.4. On the other hand, there are certain other bacteria which convert the milk components into ammonia products. This process gradually increases the pH of milk, making it alkaline. Know more on pH of ammonia.Here's one milk fact. Human breast milk is by far considered as the most alkaline milk type. It has a slightly alkaline pH, just above 7. Goat's milk and soy milk are other milk types which fall under the category of low alkaline foods. However, giving goat's milk for infants is not good as it carries certain risks. Electrolyte imbalance is one such health concern associated with drinking goat's milk.Almost all of the milk products have a pH below 7, making them acidic. Buttermilk, cottage cheese are some of the low acidic milk products. Processed milk products have the highest acid content, hence lowest pH amongst all milk products. These foods include processed cheese, ice-creams, etc. Goat cheese is low alkaline with a pH value just above 7. Talking of pH of milk and water, both these compounds exhibit different nature when acids are added, even though they have a pH range in same scale. When you add acids to water, the pH plummets at a faster rate. On the other hand, reduction in pH level is gradual in case of milk. This is because milk contains certain buffering agents such as caseins and calcium phosphate which slow down the process. Read more on milk nutritional information.As mentioned above, knowing the pH of foods that you consume is of utmost importance. Milk is often taken as a remedy for acidity. If you do not know the pH value of milk, you might end up taking acidic milk (say homogenized milk) to cure acidity. This will in fact add to the levels of acids already present in your body. Soy milk or goat's milk would be a better alternative in this case. Knowing the pH of milk products may also help you to cut down your intake of these high acidic foods. Thus, keeping yourself informed about the pH of milk is extremely necessary to keep acid-base related disorders at bay. Hope this article on pH of milk was resourceful. <br />Floor Cleaning Robot<br />By Amigo GPublished: 12/2/2010<br />Robots for floor cleaning is undoubtedly, one of the best inventions of the 20th century. Robots have come a long way since their discovery as robot toys to scientific gizmos and these days research is being done to make the robot more and more intelligent. Imagine a square shaped robot working as vacuum cleaner and cleaning between the chair legs and having it's own navigation system for cleaning. Pretty fascinating, isn't it? Floor cleaning robots, these days, are self adjusting and have the capability of sensing the corners and areas in the room filled with dust. Remote control operated robots also can be used for floor cleaning, wherein, you can guide the robot with a remote control for directions. Advanced floor cleaning robots are provided with wheel sensors, for houses with various levels.Let's do the floor cleaning robot reviews for few of the top robots for cleaning floors, available in the market.iRobot Rumba 570: iRobot rumba 570 is the best robot vacuum in the floor cleaning robot technology. It comes with a much larger dustbin and is based on anti-tangle mechanism. Anti tangle mechanism prevents robot from getting stuck up at carpet fringes and can pass above wires of up to 2cm thickness. The amazing wireless command center enables you to direct Rumba for smooth navigation all over the room. Virtual wall lighthouse technology in the Rumba ensures complete vacuum cleaning of one area before moving on to the next area. Lighthouse technology employs radio frequency signals and 3 infra red beams for cleaning. Once Rumba starts vacuum cleaning one area, lighthouse acts as an obstruction and doesn't let the robot move on to next area until the current area or room is completely cleaned. Once done, rumba transmits a signal to lighthouse, which will allow the robot to move to next area or room. Rumba follows the walls, through sensors and is furnished with advanced navigation technology. Modular bottom design of Rumba makes cleaning easy and helps in replacing any part with ease. The iRobot comes with rotating brushes which clean up dirt and dust efficiently and state-of-the-art filters traps more dirt and dust. Large sized storage bin can accumulate more quantities of trash as compared to conventional floor cleaning robots. You get an additional filter, side brush and beater brush with rumba. The other components that you receive with rumba are one home base, which is self charging, virtual lighthouses, which we discussed above, 3. you have to buy 2 C batteries for each lighthouse. It's not included in the kit. Rumba kit also includes wireless center and one rechargeable battery. Rumba 570 is priced at approximately $500.Karcher RC 3000: Karcher RC 3000, another gizmo based on robotics, will clean your home or office and you don't need to be there. Simply, plug the robot to the base station, switch on and set the vacuuming time and the rest will be done by the robot. After cleaning is done, the robot will come back to base station and empty the dust bin into the filter bag and the batteries get recharged. Like Rumba, this robot also uses infra red beam technology for smooth navigation and returning back to base station. For traveling over hurdles such as wires and cables, Karcher robot has 4 sensors, which help in detecting various levels such as stairs and obstacles. This miniature robot is provided with 4 suction settings for various intensities of dirt and dust to be vacuumed. Just set the time for cleaning and karcher robot will do the job efficiently. It can clean up to 150 sq ft per hour. It takes approximately 45 minutes for the robot to get charged and once fully charged, it will operate for a period of approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. All you have to do is change the filter bag, once it's full. Sensors of the robot detect how much dirt and dust is to be picked up from the floor and will automatically set the vacuuming program needed for that area. Karcher RC 3000 costs you approximately $1500.Electrolux Trilobite 2.0: Electrolux Trilobite is fully automated robot vacuum which will do cleaning at the time you have set. Once the job is done, robot will return to the docking station to recharge. This robot uses infrared and ultrasound technology for navigation through the rooms. The tracking system discharges ultrasound vibrating at approximately 60,000 HZ. Due to this navigation system, collisions with other objects in the room are avoided. The computer processor pictures the room or area to be cleaned and navigates accordingly for efficient operation. Trilobite comes with an infra red sensor to judge the stairs and avoid from falling. This robot has 3 cleaning programs, such as, spot, for 10 sq ft area or more, quick, for cleaning without mapping and normal, for mapping and floor cleaning the area less than 10 sq ft. <br />This was about floor cleaning robot and advanced features for hassle free cleaning of your home. So, when do you plan to pick one?<br />Noise Cancellation Technology<br />By Rahul ThadaniPublished: 12/6/2010<br />One of the best advancements of recent times has undoubtedly been the rise to prominence of noise cancellation technology. This technology has primarily been used in earphones and headphones to give people a device that drowns out, or cancels, as much outside noise as possible. What this means is that when one has noise cancelling headphones on, there is very little chance of hearing some noise from the outside. The benefits of this cannot be stressed enough, as it gives the user a great listening experience. The fact that no external noise can be heard is a big boost for users, and this also helps makers of these headphones advertise and market these products better. After all, everyone wants a pair of headphones that drown out as much external sound as possible. On the other hand, there are certain disadvantages of this technology as well. People who use these headphones while driving or riding put themselves and other people on the road at risk. Moreover, the headphones can damage one's ear channels if the volume is constantly turned up beyond a certain limit.The technology works on pretty complex principles, and it would be extremely hard to understand for someone with no technical knowledge about sound waves and the way they travel. But at a simpler level, this technology simply obstructs the noise right at the source, rather than prevent it from entering the ear channels. Sound travels through various mediums in the form of waves, and each of these waves has a certain shape. Now in noise cancellation headphones, there are certain microphones that determine the shape of these waves, the speed at which they are traveling and the direction from which they are coming. This is only the tip of the iceberg for the explanation of how do noise canceling headphones work. The microphones then connect with a digital signal processor that releases waves itself (known as antinoise signals), and these new waves counter the older ones, thus rendering them ineffective and useless. These two waves then cancel each other out, and the user is spared the sound that the original waves were bringing. You must remember that active noise cancellation technology is still in its nascent stages, and this technology still has a long way to go. Even though one can buy pretty effective noise canceling headphones in the market today, they do not prevent all noises from coming through completely. Fortunately, this technology will only get better and better over time. This noise canceling headphone comparison will also provide you with some useful information. As mentioned, this software and technology is still developing. As such, there are bound to be certain limitations and factors that one needs to keep in mind. These headphones require a separate source of power, and this is derived either from a USB cable and charging port, or from a set of batteries. From time to time these batteries need to be replaced, or the charging port needs to be connected to a USB source. These headphones also produce their own noise sometimes, and this can annoy a user. These sounds come in the form of constant hissing noises. Moreover, the noise that these headphones cancel are constant noises and hums, not sudden noises and not speech. Right now, noise cancellation devices are made so that an individual can wear it around his ears and drown out outside noise. With further advancements in noise cancellation technology, the concept of antinoise will be ready to be applied to sources that produce noise. These will include big engines, lawnmowers, heavy machinery and many other things. This will result in a drastic drop in noise levels all around the world, and this will reduce the harmful effects of noise pollution as well. For now though, noise cancellation technology is used by individuals to listen to music and to chat with people online. The scope of this technology is immense and there is a lot that can be achieved with it. It is only a matter of time before this technology starts surfacing in many others facets as well. <br />Driverless CarBy Shrinivas KanadePublished: 12/2/2010<br />Driverless cars by Google has become the talk of town. Some individuals are seeing it as yet another step in the mechanization of the human activities. On the other hand, some other individuals are speculating that it will cut down on the number of road accidents, most of which are caused due to driver's mistakes, and save some of the 1.2 million lives lost. It is not the first time that humans have let go of the control of a device. Airplanes such as Airbus incorporates on-board computers which can fly the plane between destinations as well as control its take off and landing. A driverless car, when it is instructed to go to a certain destination, navigates towards it with the help of inputs from a GPS real time tracking system, i.e. coordinates describing its present physical location on the land and that of the destination. It then proceeds along streets following road maps that are loaded into its computer. It ensures that it is approaching the destination by requesting time-to-time GPS inputs regarding its present whereabouts and comparing it with that of destination.Since 1933, attempts are being made to come up with driverless cars. Norman Bel Geddes was the first one to to enter the field by exhibiting his driverless car named Futurama, in the 1933's World Fair. Since then, various entities such as Tsukuba Mechanical Engineering, Ernst Dickmanns, US Army, Daimler-Benz, Carnegie Mellon University, Alberto Broggi, and General Motors have come up with their models. Competition such as the DARPA Grand Challenge, announced in 2002, and VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge announced in 2010, also helped to attract creative minds to the creation of this concept car. Driverless car by Google is also the latest attempt in this direction.If you go by the statistics related with Google's attempt, a bunch of driverless cars has covered almost 140,000 miles, completely relying on the efficiency of their sensors and response mechanism provided by the on-board computer. This car by Google uses video cameras fixed on the roof, radar sensors and a laser finder built for detecting other traffic which might come its way. According to experts, even after Google's success of putting this car on the road, today, is not possible because of some of the factors such as cost, besides others. However, in next 5 - 6 years, we might be able to use this technology in restricted space, such as, hospitals or airports.<br />Cruise ControlCruise control is considered as a driverless car technology that is found in many car models. Although it enables the driver of the car to take off his or her foot from the gas pedal and set the desired speed, it is not a complete driverless system. The driver has to maintain a lookout for bends and turns in the road and the cars that are traveling at less speed than he is and take proper action to avoid any mishap. Adaptive cruise control employs refined form of the technology used for the cruise control. With the help of radar sensors placed at its front, these automobiles can detect presence of moving objects in their path, and predict their speed, direction and calculate how to maintain a safe distance from them.Pre-safe SystemPre-Safe system that are outfitted in some of the models of the luxury cars is a form of driverless car technology. These are programed to anticipate crashes and take precautionary measures to prevent the occupants of the car from coming to any harm. What happens when the car equipped with pre-safe system is about to collide with another object. The system will, first of all, prime the breaks which on a little bit of application of force will be applied with full force. The system will, at the same time, begin to reduce the engine power which will dampen the impact of the collision. In case the contact is unavoidable, pre-safe system will tighten safety-belts and deploy the airbags at the right moment.Self ParkingCars manufacturers have come with the car models that can look after their own parking. All the driver has to do is to locate the parking space and ensure that it is at least 6 feet bigger than the size of the car. Sensors present on all sides of such vehicles enable them to sense the presence of the other vehicles in the vicinity and the information is used in parking the vehicle without mishap.Traction or Stability ControlTraction or Stability control is a driverless car technology which is much similar to ant-lock breaks system. However, it is much more complicated and is always active when the car is moving. It keeps on monitoring inputs from many system about the car's present speed, direction as well as the quality of the wheel contact with the road surface. If the car seems to go into a skid, the system steps in and tries to rectify the situation.All the driverless car technologies in use, point that the driverless car is a distinct possibility. It will take some time to be on the roads of this world on a mass scale. <br />