Volume: III Issue: 2 August 2016

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“We should not give up and we should not allow the problem to

defeat us” -Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam

CCChhhaaaiiirrrmmmaaannn’’’sss NNNooottteee

- K. Harish Chairman, Vagdevi Vilas Institutions.

Accidental Inventions:

There is a saying that success comes when preparation meets opportunity!

Even Scientific inventions happen when a deep pursuit meets preparation!

We all know that “Charles good year” invented vulcanized rubber. There is a very

strange incident behind this invention. Good year was mixing rubber and sulphur in an

attempt to avoid rotting. Once he went to a general store to show of a new rubber. As he

was waving it in air, a piece flew off and landed on a sizzling hot pot-bellied stove. After

he peeled a piece off the stove, he had accidentally made what he was trying to develop.

This process is called vulcanisation of rubber. Good year found that heated rubber was

much stronger than regular rubber! Later he conducted several experiments to confirm

his accidental findings and now he has the patent for vulcanized rubber!

Many such inventions happen accidentally! But even to realize that, we should be in

pursuit of the proposed invention and be totally engrossed in it. We try to remember

someone’s name and we fail. But the subconscious mind gets into its task of finding it out

and suddenly while having dinner or doing some other job, the name you had forgotten

flashes back! When you are obsessed with your research/invention, the subconscious

mind is on its job 24/7. Becoming mad after an idea & getting totally engrossed in it is

the key to any success!

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“Perform all work carefully, guided by compassion……”

-Veda vyasa (The Bhagvad gita)

EEEdddiiitttooorrr’’’sss NNNooottteee

Contents Page no.

Chairman’s note 1

Editor’s note 2

Workshop on IRIS and INSEF 3

Teaching aid competition in Visvesvarya Museum

4

Eyes on Nature report 5

Pre-primary activities 6

Special days in July 6

Scientists born in August 7-8

Articles by Facilitators 9

Articles by Students 10 - 12

MATHEMATICS PUZZLE 13

Try it activities JULY MONTH ANSWER 14

Try it activities 15

Dear Reader, We bring to you the August edition of Vagdevi Vilas Vignan Patrika with interesting information on the Father of Indian Space Program, Sri Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai, and a write up covering inventions of Scientists born in August month. We would also like to share with you an interesting article which deals with scientific facts behind winners being winners consistently. Students’ articles on Penicillium, 3-D Zebra crossing for safer roads and cool science behind hot peppers, are truly thought provoking. Also try out the Mind teasers! That will be a good mental exercise for sure!!

- Research and Development Department.

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“Confidence and Hard work is the best medicine to kill the disease called failure. It will make you a successful person.”

- A.P.J Abdul Kalam

Workshop on IRIS and INSEF A workshop was conducted for the students of Grade 9 & 10 on 28.July.2016 to enlighten and motivate students to participate in National level Science Exhibits like INSEF and IRIS which are to be held in the month of November and December respectively. Sri. Harish Bhat, Research Consultant of Vagdevi Vilas Institutions shared information about selection criteria of the projects and gave some tips to write the synopsis in effective way. Chairman Sri. K. Harish, Principal of VVSM Smt. Padma Sagar, Principal VVSV- Smt. Sindhu, Head R&D Smt. Anitha Sukhdev, Vice principal and Coordinator ( 9&10) were invitees for the workshop.

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Teaching aid competition in Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum

As a part of the 51st anniversary celebrations at Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological museum, many competitions were held for students and teachers of various schools in Bangalore. A Teaching Aid completion was held for teachers of various schools on 25.July.2016. Three Research Facilitators, Smt. Shalini, Sri. Venkata Ramana Reddy.M and Sri. Srinidhi. C.M. from Research and Development Department participated. An improvised teaching aid of the urinary system depicting various parts using household things won the first prize. A model exhibiting magnetic levitation and a frictionless magnetic bearing along with magnetic suspension using round magnets won a special prize. Valedictory was on 27th July and was graced by Dr. P. Sreekumar, Director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Mr. A.S.Manekar, head of the National Council of Scientific Museums, Mr K.G. Kumar, Director, Visveswaraya technological museum. Students of Vagdevi won a hand full of prizes in various competitions and complimentary gifts in open quiz.

The longest time between two twins born is 87 days.

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Eyes on Nature July 2016-17

The students of ‘Eyes on Nature’, observed the Biodiversities in areas of their interest within the school campus. The curiosity with which they were observing the tiny creatures is commendable. Each of them came out with excellent results out of their observations. Few areas of study are - ‘Regular checking on birds and their habitat, butterflies and insects’, ‘pH test for different water samples available in the school’, ‘Food mile calculation’& ‘Herbarium’.

Everyone has unique tongue print like fingerprints.

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Light doesn’t necessarily travel at the speed of light. The slowest ever recorded light moving at is 38mph.

TTiinnyy TToottss BBuussyy iinn llaabbss…… Thoughts and ideas of the young brains are elevated through the Science and Maths lab concepts like ‘My School and my family’, ‘Parts of body’ and ‘Good habits’, ‘ pentagon shapes’ and ‘Introduction to number 1’ and numbers from 0-50. These hands-on activities are designed with at most care considering the students learning styles. These activities serve as extended learning tools of the lessons taught as per the curriculum in regular class hours.

SSppeecciiaall DDaayyss iinn tthhee mmoonntthh ooff AAuugguusstt • August 06 -- Hiroshima Day • August 09 -- Quit India moment • August 12 – International youth Day • August 19 – World photography Day • August 29 – National sports Day, Dhyan Chand’s Birthday • August 30 – Small industry Day

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Scientists born in August

Chemist and physicist Ernest Rutherford was born August 30, 1871, in Spring Grove, New Zealand. A pioneer of nuclear physics and the first to split the atom, Rutherford was awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his theory of atomic structure. Dubbed the “Father of the Nuclear Age”.

Research and Discoveries:- In 1895, as the first research student at the University of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory in London, Rutherford identified a simpler and more waves than had been previously established by German physicist Heinrich Hertz. Also while at Cavendish Laboratory, Rutherford was invited by Professor J.J. Thomson to collaborate on a study of X-rays. German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen had discovered X-rays just months before Rutherford arrived at Cavendish, and X-rays were a hot topic among research scientists. Together, Rutherford and Thomson studied the effects of X-rays on the conductivity of gases, resulting in a paper about dividing atoms and molecules into ions. While Thomson went on to examine what would later be called an electron, Rutherford took a closer look at ion-producing radiations. Focusing on uranium, Rutherford discovered that placing it near foil resulted in one type of radiation being easily soaked up or blocked, while a different type had no trouble penetrating the same foil. He labelled the two radiation types “alpha” and “beta.” As it turns out, the alpha particle was identical to the nucleus of a helium atom. The beta particle was, in fact, the same as an electron or positron.

Powerful earthquakes can permanently shorten the length of Earth’s day, by moving the spin of the Earth’s axis. The 2011 Japan earthquake knocked 1.8 microseconds off our days. The 2004 Sumatra quake cost us around 6.8 microseconds.

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Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai Considered the Father of the Indian space program; instrumental in establishing the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad in November 1947; was Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. He along with other Ahmedabad-based industrialists played a major role in the creation of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Vikram Sarabhai was one of the greatest scientists of India. He is considered as the Father of the Indian space program. Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai was born on August 12, 1919 at Ahmedabad in an affluent family of progressive industrialists. When World War II began, he returned home and joined as a research scholar under Sir C. V. Raman at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore His interest in solar physics and cosmic ray led him to set up many observation stations around the country. He built the necessary equipment with which he took measurements at Bangalore, Poona and the Himalayas. He returned to Cambridge in 1945 and completed his Ph.D in 1947. Vikram Sarabhai was instrumental in establishing the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad in November 1947. The laboratory was established in a few rooms in M.G. Science Institute of the Ahmedabad Education Society, which was founded by his parents. Subsequently, it got support from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Department of Atomic Energy. Vikram Sarabhai did research on the time variations of cosmic rays and concluded that meteorological effects could not entirely affect the observed daily variations of cosmic rays; further, the residual variations were wide and global and these were related to variations in solar activity. Vikram Sarabhai visualized a new field of research opening up in solar and interplanetary Physics. The year 1957-1958 was designated as International Geo-physical year (IGY). The Indian program for the IGY had been one of the most significant ventures of Sarabhai. It exposed him to the new vistas of space science with the launching in 1957 of Sputnik-I. Subsequently, the Indian National Committee for Space Research was created, of which Vikram Sarabhai became Chairman. With active support from Homi Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai, set up the first Rocket Launching station (TERLS) in the country at Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram on the Arabian Coast, as Thumba is very close to the Equator. The first rocket with sodium vapour payload was launched on November 21, 1963. In 1965, the UN General Assembly gave recognition to TERLS as an international facility. After the sudden death of Homi Bhabha in an air crash, Vikram Sarabhai was appointed Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission in May 1966. He wanted the practical application of science to reach the common man. He decided to acquire competence in advance technology for the solution of country’s problems based on technical and economic evaluation of its real resources. He initiated India’s space programme, which today is renowned all over the world.

People with higher number of moles tend to live longer than people with lesser number of moles.

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The science of why winners keep winning Winning teams like the New England Patriots obviously have a lot of things going for them. The ability to attract top talent, for example, makes a huge difference. But is there anything about winning itself that makes people more likely to win again in the future?

The answer seems to be yes, according to a recent segment from the new NPR podcast "Hidden Brain" - and there's science to back it up. "there's an old saying that 'nothing succeeds like success.'" When researchers actually tried to test that proposition, they found that in fact, there was some truth to it. Competitors who experience success are more likely to continue winning - even when compared to people of basically equal talent who didn't experience an initial success. In other words, there's something about winning that makes people more likely to keep succeeding. The hard part for researchers is differentiating between the effect of talent and the effect of winning by itself. So Swedish researchers Olof Rosenqvist and Oskar Nordstrom Skans analyzed the performance of players in the first phase of a professional golf tournament - where about 140 golfers would compete to make the cut. About 65 would proceed to the next round. They compared the players who barely made the cut to the ones who just missed it - the people who would be ranked 65th and 66th overall, for example, whose skills should be fairly equivalent. A statistical analysis found that the players who made the cut were about three percentage points more likely to succeed again in future events - especially if those future events involved more prize money, theoretically with higher stakes and more pressure. They write in the study that they consider this a "fairly substantial effect."

Rosenqvist and Skans speculate that the confidence that comes from winning makes it easier to succeed again. Of course, factors like confidence vary from person to person, and it's possible that these effects could be less strong or even stronger in other sports, especially when team dynamics are taken into account. More research on a wider variety of sports and players is needed to see if this effect holds up.

But as this study suggests, competition isn't just about raw talent. Psychology, confidence, and perhaps some other effect of having won in the past seem to make a difference too.

- Venkat (R&D Facilitator)

Thinking about your muscles can make you stronger.

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Pencillium

Penicillium are comparable to Aspergillus. The genus Penicillium falls into the order Eurotiales. In this order, organisms produce asci within cleistothecia. Penicillium is often reffered to as Deuteromycetes, or Fungi imperfecti. The name Penicillium comes from the word "brush"; this refers to the appearance of spores in Penicillium. Pencillium fungi are versatile and opportunistic. They are post-harvest pathogens. Penicillium species are one of the most common causes of fungal spoilage in fruits and vegetables. Penicillium italicum and Penicillium digitatum are the most common attackers of citrus fruits, whilePenicillium expansum is known to attack apples. P. digitatum works by producing ethylene to accelerate ripening.

It the covers the fruit with green conidia, causing the fruit to shrivel and dry out. P. italicum causes slimy rot and produces blue-green conidia. These species like cooler temperatures, which explains why they are usually found on foods left too long in the refrigerator. Many species produce mycotoxins; for example, P. expansum produces one called patulin.

Most of these species resemble each other in color characteristics, style of decay, and infection symptoms; they fall under a general category called blue mold. P. expansum is one of the most aggressive species. These fungi live a long time and are quite durable, even under adverse conditions. Sometimes, P. italicum and P. expansum will adhere to each other to create synnemata. Synnemata also occurs in Penicillum claviforme. Penicillium growth typically occurs as a result of wound infections in produce. The most common treatment is to use fungicide on harvested produce. Penicillium species attack more than just fruit. For example, Penicillium verrucosum grows on cereal products.

One species, Penicillium marneffei, is rare to most of the world. It is endemic to Southeast Asia and infects bamboo rats. It can be spread to humans, especially immunosuppressed individuals.

However, Penicillium is not merely a harmful fungus. It also has many useful species. For example, Penicillium roquefortii is used to make bleu cheese. The color of the cheese comes from the spores (conidia) of the fungus. The spores are injected into the cheese curd during fermentation. Penicillium camambertii is another species used to produce cheese.

Some Penicillium species actually help prevent fungal decay as opposed to producing it. Penicillium chrysogenum produces glucose oxidase, which is used as a preservative in fruit juices.

One of the things Penicillium is most famous for is the drug penicillin. It was used to create the first antibiotic. The originial strain, Penicillium notatum, was discovered in 1920 by Sir Alexander Fleming. However, it was replaced with Penicillium chrysogenum, a more productive species, which is now the species used in manufacturing penicillin.

- Chaitanya (VII C)

The colder the room you sleep in, the better the chances are that you’ll have a bad dream.

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Zebra crossings — the alternating dark and light stripes on the road surface — are meant to alert drivers that pedestrians may be trying to get across. Unfortunately, they are not very effective. A 1998 study done by the Department of Traffic Planning and Engineering at Sweden’s Lund University, revealed that three out of four drivers maintained the same speed or even accelerated as they were approaching a crossing. Even worse? Only 5% stopped even when they saw someone trying to get across. India have devised a clever way to get drivers to pay more attention — A zebra crossing with an optical illusion.

3-D crosswalks have been painted across four of the city’s most dangerous highways, there have been no accidents reported! The artists say that while it may appear that the zebra-crossing could cause the drivers to brake suddenly and endanger the vehicles behind, such is not the case. Because of the way the human eye works, the illusion is only visible from a distance. As they get closer, the painting looks just like any other conventional zebra crossing. But since the driver is driving slower, he/she is more likely to stop. The creators hope that their smart design will become increasingly common throughout India and perhaps even the world.

- Sahiti V (VA)

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

The 3-D Zebra Crossings That Are Making India's Roads Safer For Pedestrians

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The cool science of hot peppers

Shiny green slices of jalapeño pepper adorn a plate of nachos. Chomping into one of those innocent-looking chillies will make a person’s mouth explode with spicy fireworks. Some people dread and avoid the painful, eye-watering, mouth-searing sensation. Others love the burn. “A quarter of the world’s population eats chillies every day,” Chilli peppers do much more than burn people’s mouths. Scientists have discovered many uses for the chemical that gives these veggies their zing. Called capsaicin (Kap-SAY-ih-sin), it’s the main ingredient in pepper spray. Some people use this weapon for self-defense. The spray's high levels of capsaicin will burn the eyes and throats of attackers — but won’t kill people. In smaller doses, capsaicin can relieve pain, help with weight loss and possibly affect microbes in the gut to keep people healthier. Now how cool is that? A taste for spice Why would anyone willingly eat something that causes pain? Capsaicin triggers a rush of stress hormones. These will make the skin redden and sweat. It can also make someone feel jittery or energized. Some people enjoy this feeling. But there is another reason why chillies show up on dinner plates the world over. Hot peppers actually make food safer to eat.

Why chillies hurt The heat of a chilli pepper is not actually a taste. That burning feeling comes from the body’s pain response system. Capsaicin inside the pepper activates a protein in people’s cells called TRPV1. This protein’s job is to sense heat. When it does, it alerts the brain. The brain then responds by sending a jolt of pain back to the affected part of the body.

Pain fights pain Capsaicin does not actually damage the body in the same way that a hot stovetop will — at least not in small amounts. In fact, the chemical can be used as a medicine to help relieve pain. It may seem bizarre that what causes pain might also make pain go away. Yet it’s true. Sweat it out Chilli peppers also may help people lose weight. However, a person can’t simply eat hot, spicy food and expect to shed pounds. “It’s not a magic remedy,” warns Baskaran Thyagarajan. He works at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. As a pharmacologist, he studies the effects of medicines. His team is now working to create a drug to make the body burn through fat more quickly than usual. A primary ingredient: capsaicin.

The brain is much more active at night than during the day.

- Hrushikesh (VI H)

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Mathematics Puzzle NUMERALS ALGEBRA POINT SUM PERCENTAGE NUMBERS DECIMAL ROOT PLUS MULTIPLICATION TRIANGLE THEORY RATIO OVAL TRIGONOMETRY DIVISION SQUARE EQUALS MATH CIRCUMFERENCE ADDITION CIRCLE TRIPOD TOTAL ARITHMETIC CALCULUS MINUS TIMES

Sneezes regularly exceed 100 mph.

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The brain uses over a quarter of the oxygen used by the human body.

SOLUTION FOR THE MONTH OF JULY Puzzles of Maths

Observe the given picture. Find the solution for given shapes?

Try It-?

ANSWER

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Science Puzzle Close one of your two eyes. Move your head close to the monitor and watch concentrated to the left circle if you closed your left eye. You should look to the right circle if you closed your right eye. Keep watching and move your head slowly backwards while checking the other circle. What happens? And how is that possible?

Twiddled bolts Two identical bolts are placed together so that their helical grooves intermesh as shown below. If you move the bolts around each other as you would twiddle your thumbs, holding each bolt firmly by the head so that it does not rotate and twiddling them in the direction shown, will the heads (a) move inward, (b) move outward, or (c) remain the same distance from each other?

Try Your Best:

As shown in the image below, group of fishes are swimming from left to right. By moving just three matchsticks, can you make fishes from right to left?

Send your answers to: researchdep.vvi@gmail.com

After eating too much, your hearing is less sharp.