RFID Article in Dream 2047 Magazine, July2005

8/14/2019 RFID Article in Dream 2047 Magazine, July2005

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InsideVP News

EDITORIAL p.31

Max Born p.30

RFID p.27

Infective Diarrhoea p.20

Recent Developments inScience & Technology p.18

VP Radio Serial in Gondi p.17

... think scientifically, act scientifically... think scientifically, act scientifically... think scientifically, act...

Published and Printed by Dr. Subodh Mahanti on behalf of Vigyan Prasar, C-24, Qutab Institutional Area, New Delhi - 110 016 & Printed at S. Narayan &Sons, B-88, Okhla Indl. Area, Phase - II, New Delhi - 110 020 Editor : Dr. V.B. Kamble

ISSN : 0972-169XRegistered with the Registrar of Newspapers of India: R.N. 70269/98 Postal Registration No. : DL-11360/2005

contd. on page....21

July 2005 Vol. 6 No. 10 Price: Rs. 5.00

WYP 2005: Master Resource Persons

Training Programmes

As part of the countrywide campaign on Science and Technology Communicationwith activities built around the World Year of Physics 2005, Vigyan Prasarand National Council for Science and Technology Communication have beenorganizing training programmes-cum-workshops for the Master Resource Personsin different regions of the country. These MRPs, drawn from different states, areexpected to train resource persons within their own States after the training.

The first training programme was organised in Shimla for the Northern Zone.The second trainining programmein the series was organised atGuwahati for the North-EasternZone during the period 15-17 June

2005, in which 35 participants fromthe seven North-Eastern Statesand Sikkim participated. The local hosts were the Assam State Councilfor Science & Technology and Environment. The programme was inauguratedby Mr. D. N. Saikia, Commissioner and Secretary, S&T Department,Government of Assam. Dr. A. K. Baruwa, Director, ASTEC, welcomed theparticipants. Smt. Ujjwala Tirkey, Scientist, NCSTC and Dr. V. B. Kamble,Director, VP, also addressed the participants. He also gave a talk onradioactivity. Professor B. K. Sarma delivered a talk on X-rays, whileProfessor A. K. Borbora spoke on the Discovery of Electron. ProfessorNaresh Dadhich, Director, IUCAA, delivered a talk on the topic FromNewton to Einstein. He also delivered a popular talk on the topic Science

and Society at the Handique Girls College to a packed auditorium. Professor H. L. Duora spoke on the Rise of theQuantum Theory. Shri Biman Basu spoke on Radio Propagation while Prof. A.K Mishra spoke on Raman Effect.Demonstration of Innovative Physics Experiments by Shri Mukesh Roy, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology,Kanpur, were appreciated by all the participants and motivated them to take up similar activities. As part of the training, theparticipants paid a visit to the research labs of the Physics Department of Guwahati University. Demonstration of theAstronomy kit by Smt. Ujjwala Tirkey, a talk by Smt. Indu Puri on the activities of NCSTC, and a talk on communication byShri Chander Mohan were well received. Films on Einsteins Miraculous year 1905 and Anant Yatra Emergence ofModern Science were also screened.

Shri Mukesh Roy demonstrating innovative physics

experiments at Guwahati


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Dream 2047 July 2005V

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Editorial 31

Editor : V.B. Kamble

Address for V igyan Prasar, C-24, Qutab Inst itutional Area,correspondence : New Delhi-110 016; Tel : 26967532; Fax : 26965986

e-mail : [email protected] : http://www.vigyanprasar.com

Vigyan Prasar is not responsible for the statements and opinionsexpressed by the authors in their articles/write-ups published inDream 2047

Articles, excerpts from articles published in Dream 2047 maybe freely reproduced with due acknowledgement/credit.

The Call of the Wild

In 1969, a serious concern was voiced about the threat toseveral species of wildlife and the shrinkage of wildernessin the country at the General Assembly meeting in NewDelhi of the International Union for Conservation of Natureand Natural Resources (IUCN). In 1970, a national ban ontiger hunting was imposed and in 1972 the WildlifeProtection Act came into force. In the same year, the firstever tiger census in India was conducted which revealedthe existence of only 1827 tigers! The tiger population inIndia at the time of Indias independence was estimated atabout 40,000! A task force was set up to formulate a projectfor tiger conservation with an ecological approach. It wasthen that Project Tiger was launched in 1973-74 that aimedat tiger conservation in specially constituted tiger reserves.Incidentally, in the initial stages, Project Tiger was a jointeffort of the Government of India and World Wide Fund forNature (WWF). Now it is a Government of India endeavour.

Various tiger reserves were created in the country underthe Project Tiger on a core-buffer strategy. The core areaswere freed from human activities and the buffer areas weresubjected to conservation oriented land use. Initially, 9tiger reserves were established in different States duringthe period 1973-74, by pooling the resources available withthe Central and State Governments. The project started asa Central Sector Scheme with the full assistance of CentralGovernment till 1979-80: later, it became a centrallySponsored Scheme from 1980-81,with equal sharing ofexpenditure between the center and the states. Today, Indiahas 27 Tiger Reserves to protect the dwindling populationof tigers in different parts of the country.

Why should we be concerned so much with tiger andthe tiger population? To begin with, tiger is at the apex ofthe food chain, and hence is the indicator of the stability ofthe eco-system. For example, for a tiger population tosurvive, a habitat should possess a good prey base, whichin turn depends on undisturbed forest vegetation. This wouldimply the conservation of the entire eco-system and apartfrom tigers all other wild animals also would increase innumber. The website of the Project Tiger lists the mainachievements of this project as being the excellent recoveryof the habitat and consequent increase in the tigerpopulation in the reserve areas, from a mere 268 in 9reserves in 1972 to 1576 in 27 reserves in 2003. In theentire country, however, the tiger population went up from

1827 in 1972 to 3773 in 2001-2002, when the tiger censuswas last conducted. Apparently, Project Tiger could bedescribed as a huge success story as regards the Contd. on page.....21

conservation of the wildlife - tiger in particular. Once againthe tiger could roam majestically at least in the 27 tigerreserves.

Then, a terrible tragedy struck Sariska tiger reserve inRajasthan, which was home to 22 tigers. By January 2005,there was not a shred of evidence of tigers there! Theywere all extinct. It was a crisis of magnitude neverencountered before. Those who have roamed around in the

jungles and seen wildlife in its natural glory only can feelthe magnitude of the crisis. It is like a house whose allmembers have perished in a violent manner!

How did this tragedy of such a great magnitude takeplace? The indications are that the wipe out of tigers inSariska was a result of poaching. And, how were theykilled? According to Valmik Thapar, a member of the PrimeMinisters Tiger Task Force, and who has spent 30 yearsserving the tiger, the tigers were killed amid agonizing roars

mainly by metal traps on the paths to waterholes or aroundkills, livestock and deer kills. Apparently, an organized gangof poachers had killed the tigers. There are signs of declinein the number of tigers in Ranthambore (Rajasthan) andPanna (Madhya Pradesh) reserves too. Indeed 12 out of27 tiger reserves need immediate attention, as Thapar says.

Why are the tigers killed? Tiger parts are consideredan aphrodisiac by believers in traditional medicine in manyparts of East Asia, including China. With a tiger body andall its parts estimated to be worth about US $ 65,000 onthe Chinese medicine market, it is poachers who aredestroying Indias tiger population. International trade intiger parts is banned under the United Nations Convention

on Trade in Endangered Species, but illegal trade continuesto flourish in areas ranging from the Russian Far East toIndochina. Surely, more must be done to stem the tigertrade by curbing the market demand for tiger parts at thesource itself.

The disappearance of the tiger from the Sariska reservemeans that an important local Indian gene pool of tigerhas been lost forever. Surely, we need to review our wildlifeconservation policy and its implementation in the field. Ifthe immediate corrective steps are not taken, the story islikely to be repeated in many other tiger reserves. Theaverage age of forest guards in Sariska is reported to be53 years. Surely, we cannot expect them to patrol a ruggedhilly terrain. We need to recruit local persons who can

make tough forest guards and who are familiar with the


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History of Science 30

Max BornFounder of Lattice Dynamics

Subodh Mahantie-mail : [email protected]

"I am now convinced that theoretical physics is actual philosophy." Max Born

The problem of physics is how the actual phenomena, as observed with the help of our sense organs aided byinstruments, can be reduced to simple notions which are suited for precise measurement and used for the formulationof quantitative laws.

Max Born in his Experiments and Theory in Physics

Max Born was a pioneer in developing quantummechanics. The term quantum mechanics wasintroduced by Born. Borns initial research interests werelattice dynamics and how atoms in solids one held together

and vibrate. The Born-Haber cycle, a cycle of theoreticalreactions and changes, allows calculation of the latticeenergy of ionic crystals. In 1926, immediately after hisstudent Warner Heisenberg had formulated his first lawsof a new quantum theory of atoms. Born collaborated withhim to develop the mathematicalformulation that would adequatelydescribe it. It was Born who first showedthat the solution of Schroendingersquantum mechanical wave equationhas a statistical meaning of physicalsignificance. Borns interpretation of thewave equation has proved to be of greatimportance in the new quantum theory.Born reformulated the first law ofthermodynamics. Born produced a veryprecise definition of quantity of heat andthus provide the most satisfactorymathematical interpretation of the firstlaw of thermodynamics.

Commenting on Borns scientificcontributions, the winner of 1977 NobelPrize for Physics, Sir Neville FrancisMott (1905-1996) wrote: As the founderof lattice dynamics, that is, the theory of how atoms insolids stick together and vibrate, Max Born is one of thepre-eminent physicists of this century. His celebrated work

on cohesion in ionic crystals formed the bridge betweenthe physicists and chemists ways of studying crystals.For the physicists, lattice energies of the crystals were ofcentral interest and for the chemists, heats of reaction.Born showed that the ionization potentials of the atomscould be used to compare the chemical and physicalconcepts. This was a landmark.

Max Born was born on December 11, 1882 at Breslau,Germany (now Worclaw, Poland). His father Gustav Bornwas a professor of embryology at the University of Breslau

and his mother Margarete Born (nee Kaufmann) came froma Silesian family of industrialists. It was from his motherthat Born inherited his love for music. Borns mother diedwhen he was four years old. In his childhood, Born badly

suffered from bad colds and asthma and which continuedto afflict him throughout his life. Because of his bad health,he was taught by private tutor for a year in home and thenafter spending two years in a preparatory school, he joinedthe Wilhelms Gymnasium in Breslau. At the Gymnasium,

Born studied a wide range of subjectsincluding mathematics, physics, history,modern languages, Latin, Greek, andGerman. At the School, Born did notdisplay any sign of a gifted child. He wasmore interested in humanities than inscience subjects.

In 1901, Born joined the University ofBreslau. Following his fathers advice,Born did not specialize in any particularsubject. He took a wide range of subjectsincluding mathematics, astronomy,physics, chemistry, logic, philosophy, andzoology. At the Breslau University, Bornbecame interested in mathematics andthe credit for this goes to his teachersRosanes and London. Rosanes, astudent of Leopold Kronecker (1823-91),who developed algebraic number theory

and invented the Kronecker delta, gave brilliant lectures onanalytical geometry. It was Rosanes, who introduced Bornthe ideas of group theory and matrix calculus, which were

later used successfully by Born to solve physical problems.Londons lectures on definite integrals and on analyticalmechanics were clear and lucid. The resultant effect of theteachings of Rosanes and London was that Born was drawntowards mathematics. He was helped by some of hisclassmates to develop interest in science. One of hisclassmates named Lachmann awakened his interest inastronomy. His other classmate Otto Toeplitz introducedthe lives and works of some of the greatest mathematicianslike Euler, Lagrange, Cauchy and Riemann to Born. Toeplitz

Max Born


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had learnt these from his father, who was a schoolmasterand mathematician. In his later life Born acknowledged hisdebt to Otto Toeplitz for the first introduction to thesepathfinders in mathematical science.

In those days it was a common practice for a Germanstudent to move from university to university. And Born wasno exception. In 1902 Born went to the University of

Heidelberg and then in 1903he went to the University ofZurich. It was at Zurich thatBorn attended his first courseon advanced mathematicsgiven by Adolf Hurwitz (1859-1919). After coming back toBreslau University, he wastold by his classmatesToeplitz and Hellinger of thegreat teachers ofmathematics, Christian FelixKlein (1849-1925), the founder

of modern geometry unifyingEuclidean and non-Euclidean geometry; David Hilbert (1862-1943), who originated the concept of Hilbert Space; andHermann Minkowski (1864-1909), who developed themathematics that played a crucial role in Einsteinsformulation of theory of relativity at the University ofGottingen. So Born went to the University of Gottingen toattend lectures by these great scientists. At the GottingenUniversity, Born served as an Assistant to David Hilbert.He attended lectures by Klein and Carl Runge (1856-1927)on elasticity and a seminar on electrodynamics by Hilbertand Minkowski. Klein was annoyed with Born because ofBorns irregular attendance at his lectures. Born thenattended Schwarzschilds astronomy lectures. During hisstudent days at the Gottingen University, he had theopportunity to go for walks in the woods with Hilbert andMinkowski. During these walks, all matters of fascinatingsubjects were discussed in addition to mathematicsincluding problems pertaining to philosophy, politics andsocial. Born was also interacting with non-mathematicianslike Courant, Schmidt and Caratheodory.

Born earned his PhD in physics from the Universityof Gottingen in 1907. He then undertook compulsorymilitary service. However, he did not have to completethe standard one year period because he suffered fromasthma. Even his brief stint with the military made himloath all things military. After serving in the military Born

visited Caius College, Cambridge for six months to studyunder Larmor and J. J. Thomson (1908-1909). He cameback to Breslau and worked there with the physicistsLummer and Pringsheim. Around this time he wasfascinated by Einsteins work on relativity. Borns workon combining ideas of Einstein and Minkowski led to aninvitation to Gottingen in 1909, by Minkowski as hisassistant. However, Minkowski died within weeks afterBorns coming to Gottingen. In 1912, Born joined thefaculty of the Gottingen University and he started with

working with Theodore von Karman (1881-1963), whodiscovered Karman vortices.

In 1915 Born was appointed as Professor(extraordinarius) at the Berlin University to assist MaxPlunck. At the time Albert Einstein was also at the BerlinUniversity. However, soon he had to join the Army. He wasattached to a scientific office of the Army, where he worked

on the theory of soundranging. He could alsomanage to find time to workon the theory of crystals,which led to publication hisfirst book entitled Dynamicsof Crystal Latticessummarizing a series ofinvestigations that Born hadinitiated at Gottingen.

In 1919, after theconclusion of the First WorldWar, Born was appointed

Professor at the University ofFrankfurt-on-Main, where a laboratory was put at hisdisposal.. Here Borns assistant was Otto Stern, the firstof Sterns well-known experiments, which were awrdedwith a Nobel Prize originated there.

In 1921, Born came back to the University of Gottingenas Professor of Physics, where he stayed for 12 years,interrupted only by a visit to USA in 1925. Among hiscollaborators at Gottingen were Pauli, Heisenberg, Jordan,Fermi, Dirac, Hund, Weisskopf, Oppenheimer, JosephMayer and Maria Goeppert- Mayer. During his stay Bornsmost important contributions to physics were made. Hepublished a modernized version of his book on crystals.Assisted by his students he undertook numerousinvestigations on crystal lattices, followed by a series ofstudies on quantum theory. He collaborated withHeisenberg and Jordan to develop further the principles ofquantum mechanics discovered by Heisenberg. He alsoundertook his own studies on the statistical interpretationof quantum mechanics. Born proposed that whatSchrodinger had described with his wave equation, not theelectron itself, but the probability of finding the electron inany given location. Consider you are bombarding a barrierwith electrons, when some will go through and some willbounce off. Born figured out that a single electron has, say55 percent chance of going through the barrier, and a 45percent chance of bouncing back. Because electrons

cannot readily divide, Schrodingers quantum mechanicalwave equation could not have describing the electron itself,what it was describing was its probable location. Bornsinterpretation was hailed by Leon Lederman, as the singlemost dramatic and major change in our world view sinceNewton. However, at the beginning Borns interpretationwas not liked either by Schrodinger, the propounder of thewave equation or many other physicists including Einstein.Born corresponded with Einstein on the subject and theBorn-Einstein letters were published in 1971. Borns

David Hilbert Christian Felix Klein


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proposition of probabilitymeant that the determinism ofNewtons classical physicswas no more valid. There is nopredetermined way in whichabsolute prediction can bemade, as in classical physics.

Everything depends onprobability. A similar idea isembodied in the uncertaintyprinciple of WernerHeisenberg. But Bohr,Sommerfeld, Heisenberg andmany others took Borns ideasseriously and they continued the exciting work of trying toget all pieces to fit.

Born introduced a useful technique, known as the BornApproximation, for solving problems concerning thescattering of atomic particles. Born and J. RobertOppenheimer introduced a widely used simplification of

the calculations dealing with electronic structures ofmolecules. This work known as Born-Oppenheimer theoryof molecules deals with interatomic forces.

In 1933, like many other scientists of Jewish origin,Born was forced to leave Germany. He went to Englandand became Stokes lecturer at the University of Cambridge.He worked there for three years. During these years hemostly worked in the field of nonliniear electrodynamics,which he developed with Infeld.

During the winter of 1935-1936, Born spent six monthsat Bangalore at the invitation of C. V. Raman. Commentingon his coming to Bangalore and subsequent events, Bornsaid: As I had no other job, I was willing to acceptRamans offer namely, a permanent position at his institute,if he could obtain the consent of the Council. Then heinsisted on my attending the next faculty meeting whichhad to decide on bringing my appointment before theCouncil.

The English professor Aston (who had joined aroundthe same time) went up and spoke in a most unpleasantway against Ramans motion declaring that a second rankforeigner driven out from his own his country was not goodenough for them. I was so shaken that, when I returnedhome, I simply cried.

Born was elected to the Tait Chair of natural philosophyat the University of Edinburgh in 1936. He became a Britishsubject in 1936. One of Borns research students described

Borns days at Edinburgh: When Born arrived in themorning he first used to make the round of his researchstudents, asking them whether they had any progress toreport, and giving them advice, sometimes presenting themwith sheets of elaborate calculations concerning theirproblems which he had himself done the day beforeTherest of the morning was spent by Born in delivering hislectures to undergraduate honours students, attending todepartmental business, and doing research work of hisown. Most of the latter, however he used to carry out at

home in the afternoons andevenings.

After his retirement in1953 Born went back to hisnative country and settled inGottingen. In 1954 he wasawarded the Nobel Prize in

Physics for his fundamentalresearch in quantummechanics, especially for hisstatistical interpretation of thewavefunction. He shared thePrize with Walther WilhelmGeorg Franz Bothe (1891-

1957).Born was awarded Fellowships of many scientific

academiesGottingen, Moscow, Berlin, Bangalore,Bucharest, Edinburgh, London, Lima, Dublin, Copenhagen,Stockholm, Washington, and Boston. He was awardedhonorary doctorates from a number of universities including

Bristol, Bordeaux, Oxford, Freidburg/Breisgau, Edinburgh,Oslo, and Brussels. He received the Stokes Medal ofCambridge, the Max Planck Medal of the German PhysicalSociety, the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society of London.He was also awarded the MacDougall-Brisbane Prize, theGunning-Victoria Jubilee Prize of the Royal Society,Edinburgh and the Grand Cross of Merit with Star of theorder of Merit of the German Federal Republic.

During his post-retirement life in Bad Pyrmomt, a townneer Gottingen, Born wrote many articles and books onphilosophy of science and the impact of science on humanaffairs particularly the responsibility of scientists for theuse of nuclear energy in war and peace. He was totallyagainst the use contemporary scientific knowledge ofnuclear energy for warfare. He took the initiative in 1955 toget a statement on this subject signed by a gathering ofNobel Laureates. Born is buried in Gottingen, where hedied on January 05, 1970. His tombstone displays hisfundamental equation of matrix mechanics that is pq-qp =(h/ 2)i.

References1. Born. Max. My Life: Reflections of a Nobel Laureate.

London: Taylor & Francis, 1978.

2. A Dictionary of Scientists. Oxford: Oxford University Press,1999.

3. The Cambridge Dictionary of Scientists (Second Edition).Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

4. Parthasarathy, R. Paths of Innovators in Science,Engineering & Technology. Chennai: East West Books(Madras) Pvt. Ltd., 2000.

5. Spangenburg, Ray and Diane K. Moser. The History ofScience: From 1895 to 1945. Hyderabad: Universities Press(India) Ltd., 1999.

6. Dardo, Mauro. Nobel Laureates and Twentieth-CenturyPhysics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Hermann Minkowski Theodore von Krmn


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Cutting Edge 27

RFIDA Marvel Technology with Bountiful Benefits

and Some Concerns Shivaprasad M Khened

e-mail : [email protected]

An ever-increasing number of mobile telephone users inIndia, during the last couple of years, have highlightedthe significance of wireless communication. A momentsthought, about mobile telephones, an invinciblecommunication tool of modern days, will help us in readilyappreciating the benefits of wireless technology. When weextend these benefits to communication of data, to andfrom portable low cost data carriers, we come very closeto appreciating the nature and potential benefits of RadioFrequency Identification, RFID for short. RFID has the powerto make computing an inconspicuous, intuitive part of everyday life. According to research analysts, the RFID market

is estimated to be worth 3.1 billion dollars by 2008. RFIDsystem implementation will involve IT solutions andtherefore it will merit the attention ofany growing economy like India, whois on the forefront of providing ITsolutions worldwide.

One best way to illustrate thepotential benefits of RFID technologyis to simulate a futuristic shoppingmall that will have the RFID system inplace for the billing system. Presentday shopping malls adopt a conceptof enabling their customer to choosea diverse range of products from theshelves of the shopping mall. Thecustomer can stack his chosenproducts haphazardly in the trolley andwalk out with it after paying his bill.Unfortunately the agonizing time onehas to spend at the cash counterwaiting for the cashier to account forthe bill scanning one item at a timeand computing the total bill from thebar code tags attached to theproducts, as it exists in present days,is a major irritant for the customers. IfRFID is in place in such shopping mall,

it will let the customer to pass throughthe cash counter paying ones bill forall the diverse selection of products intheir shopping trolley. RFID, a new technology that isknocking at our doorsteps may replace and push the, untilnow popularly used bar code technology in to the annalsof technological history. The ability to swiftly and reliablyscan a shopping cart full of jumbled, closely spaced RFIDtagged items is a major aim of this technology which hasalready knocked our door.

Modern management concepts rely heavily onprocessing consumer information based on informationfeedback, to know their customers, likes and dislikes forfurthering their own cause. Knowing what toothpaste youand I may use might be worth millions of rupees to somecompany, and the people who are spending that muchmoney on research and development for obtaining anddocumenting such information would depend on theemerging RFID technology to provide such personalisedinformation. Notwithstanding rosy applications of RFIDtechnology, there definitely will be a flip side to this. Privacyadvocates are already alarmed that this new technology

might be able to monitor even the tiniest aspects of ourpurely private lives. Does this technology really amount to

a dangerous invasion of privacy, or isit a harmless technological tool thathelps companies to monitorinsignificant facts such as which razorblades we use, or what tooth pastewe use, these are some of the issueswhich will be clear in years to come.

Benefits and concerns of RFIDRFID deals with automaticidentification. It has quietly beengaining momentum in recent yearsand is now poised to radicallyenhancing data handling processes,complimentary in many ways to otherdata capture technologies such as barcoding. RFID technology is aninnovative means of storing andretrieving data throughelectromagnetic transmission to anRF compatible integrated circuit. RFIDuses radio frequencies toelectronically read information onsmall tags with few problems ofambiguity or orientation, which have

haunted the bar code technology. Arange of RFID devices and associatedsystems are available to satisfy an

ever-increasing range of applications. The main advantageof this technology is its ability to identify the materialswithout the visual contact. This determines the applicationsof RFID technology in every industry, commerce andservice, where data needs to be collected and processed.The three main principle areas of RFID application include:Transportation and Distribution, Manufacturing and

Tagit Market


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Cutting Edge 26

processing and Security and Law Enforcement. TheSecondary areas of RFID application, some of which aresteadily growing include: Animal tagging, Wastemanagement, Time and attendance, Postal tracking, Airlinebaggage reconciliation, Road toll management etc. Someof the other specific applications of RFID technology are:Electronic article surveillance, Protection of valuable

equipment against theft, unauthorised removal or assetmanagement, Controlled access to vehicles, parking areasand fuel facilities, Automated toll collection for roads andbridges, Controlled access of personnel to secure orhazardous locations, Animal husbandry - for identificationin support of individualised feeding programmes, Automaticidentification of tools in numerically controlled machines -to facilitate condition monitoring of tools, for use inmanaging tool usage and minimising waste due toexcessive machine tool wear, Identification of productvariants and process control inflexible manufacture systems,Sport time recording, Electronic

monitoring of criminal offendersat home. RFID can also help incombating with counterfeiting.Counterfeits are a major causefor concern it is estimated that15% of perfume worldwide iscounterfeit, 10% of car andaircraft parts and 6-10% ofpharmaceuticals, with a figure of30% of pharmaceuticals in thethird world are all counterfeits.The list of application of thisemerging technology will beendless in foreseeable future and therefore, RFID; manyfeel will be the most efficient way of doing business.

Notwithstanding the unending benefits that thistechnology is likely to usher in, there seem to be equalnumber of ethical concerns plaguing this technology. Rightnow you can buy a detergent, toothpaste, shaving cream,or your favourite perfume, and what not, with totalanonymity. With RFID tags, that may become a thing ofthe past. Products with RFID tags will reveal your identityand will enable people to track you, thus intruding intoones personal lives. Therefore RFID, some feel, will be thefirst step towards a nightmare of personality profiling andBig Brother-style monitoring. They also feel that privacy ofpeople will be completely compromised with the onset of

this draconian technology. Privacy activists worry thatthe unchecked use of RFID could end up tramplingconsumer privacy by allowing retailers to gatherunprecedented amount of information about their activities.Katherine Albrecht, a fierce critic of RFID technology, whoheads the association of Consumers Against SupermarketPrivacy invasion, says, If you are walking aroundemanating an electric cloud of these devices wherever yougo, you have no more privacy. She further adds, Everydoorway you walk through could be scanning you. Human

rights campaigners have criticised the RFID scheme, sayingthat anyone with the right kind of scanning device couldfind out exactly what items shoppers have bought and couldultimately identify a person simply by the goods they arecarrying or wearing. The latest trials of controversialelectronic radio tags that allow store bosses to keep trackof individual goods are currently taking place. There was

controversy earlier in 2003 when the tracking system wasused in the packaging of Gillette Mach3 razor blades tostop shoplifting at one of the store chains Cambridgebranches.

Despite the raging debate on the benefits and concernsof this technology, RFID applications in the industry seempoised to revolutionise the inventory system. RFID is hereto stay and is also likely to push the presently omnipresentBar code technology in to oblivion. RFIDs designers -based at the Auto-ID Centre, set up by the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology - saytheir goal is to produce anInternet database of every

product in the world.Mr Sanjay Sarma along

with Mr David Brock and MrKevin Ashton co-founded theAuto-ID centre at MIT, whichhelped plant the seeds of thisgrowing technology. Mr Sarma,professor of mechanicalengineering at MassachusettsInstitute of Technology (MIT)who is considered a leadingauthority in RFID said,realising business processes

improvements through RFID would be the key to successin its adoption. Mr Sarma also said, the announcementof Wal-Mart and the US Department of Defence requiringits vendors to adopt RFID by 2005, has given a significantboost to this technology.

Overview of RFIDThe objective of any RFID system is to carry data in suitabletransponders, generally known as tags, and to retrieve data,by machine-readable means, at a suitable time and place,and to satisfy particular application needs. RFID systemshave several basic components or technical characteristicsthat define them. These are: A reader, including an antenna(The device that is used to read and/or write data to RFID

tags), A tag (A device that transmits to a reader the data),and The communication between them (RFID uses adefined radio frequency and protocol to transmit and receivedata from tags). The wireless communication methods usedby the RFID system are again of two different types namelyInductive coupling type and Propagation coupling type.

RFID tags form an important part of the RFID systemand these tags can be segregated into two majorclassifications by their power source, namely, Active tagsand Passive tags. Active tags contain both a radio

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Cutting Edge 25

transceiver and battery to power the transceiver. Theonboard radio of the active tag enables it to cover a widerrange typically more than 300 feet in comparison with itspassive counterpart. However the batteries in the activetags are required to be replaced periodically as in any otherbattery powered products. Passive tags on the other handcan be either battery or non-battery operated, depending

on the type of application. Passive tags reflect the RF signaltransmitted to them from a reader or transceiver and addinformation by modulating the reflected signal. A passivetag does not use a battery to boost the energy of thereflected signal. A passive tag may use a battery tomaintain memory in the tag or power the electronics thatenable the tag to modulate the reflected signal. Tags arefurther classified into two categories depending on thememory used namely Read/Write and Read only.

As the very name suggests RFID depends on the radiofrequency for its operation. Today there are eight frequencybands in use around the world for RFID applications, whichare identified by number and not name. These are divided

into low, intermediate and high range of radio frequencies.Frequency bands in the range of 100 to 500 KHz fall underthe low range, frequency bands from 10 to 15 MHz fallunder the intermediate range and frequency bands from850 to 950 MHz and 2.4 to 5.8 GHz fall under the highrange of radio frequencies used by the RFID system.

How does an RFID system work?The RFID system consists of a tag and a reader with anantenna, also known as an interrogator. The RFID readercommunicates with a tag through the use of radio frequency(RF) energy. The reader sends out an RF signal and thetag then modulates the waves and sends them back to the

reader. The reader converts these new waves into digitaldata. In addition to reading the tag, the reader can use RFenergy to write new information to the tag. This enablesthe user to alter the information stored in the tag from adistance. The readers can be networked together so as toprovide nearly unlimited coverage for a system.

RFID Versus Bar CodingThere is a big debate over the competition between bar codeand RFID technology. Who will win out? Which technology isbetter? Generally, the consensus among RFID experts isanything but the biased answer you might expect. Rather,most experts agree that RFID and bar coding will probably

work in conjunction with one another at least for anotherdecade or so. Each application has its strong points featuresthat the other technology is not capable of. However as thecost of RFID tags are brought down to the presently mythicallevel of 5cents a piece, the Bar Coding may well be pushedin to the annuls of history.

History of RFIDThe genesis of RFID lies in the fundamental understandingof the electromagnetic energy. Michael Faraday, a noted

English experimentalist, proposed in 1846 that both lightand radio waves are part of electromagnetic energy. In 1864,James Clerk Maxwell, a Scottish physicist, published histheory on electromagnetic fields and concluded that

electric and magnetic energy travel in transverse wavesthat propagate at a speed equal to that of light. Soon afterin 1887, Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, German physicist,confirmed Maxwells electromagnetic theory and producedand studied electromagnetic waves (radio waves), whichhe showed are long transverse waves that travel at thespeed of light and can be reflected, refracted, and polarizedlike light. Hertz is credited with the first transmission andreception of radio waves. His ideas were soon experimentedand confirmed by Aleksandr Popov in Russia. In 1896,Guglielmo Marconi demonstrated the successfultransmission of radiotelegraphy across the Atlantic, andthe world would never be the same after that. In 1895,before Marconis much-acclaimed feat, Jagadis Chandra

Bose, gave his first public demonstration ofelectromagnetic waves, using them to ring a bell remotelyand to explode some gunpowder. In 1896 the Daily Chronicleof England reported: The inventor (J.C. Bose) hastransmitted signals to a distance of nearly a mile and hereinlies the first and obvious and exceedingly valuableapplication of this new theoretical marvel. The firstsuccessful wireless signalling experiment by Marconi onSalisbury Plain in England was not until May 1897. The1895 public demonstration by Bose in Calcutta predatesall these experiments. Invited by Lord Rayleigh, in 1897Bose reported on his microwave (mill imeter-wave)experiments to the Royal Institution and other societies in

England. Unfortunately as history would have it, J C Bosesname some how does not find a mention in the westernhistorical references.

Modern Radio communication began with the firstdemonstration of the continuous wave (CW) radiogeneration in 1906, by Ernst F. W. Alexanderson. Thisachievement signals the beginning of the modern radiocommunication, where all aspects of radio waves arecontrolled. Then came an important invention the birth ofRADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging) in 1922. The work

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Cutting Edge 24

on Radar during World War II was a significant technicaldevelopment that was critical to the success of the Allies.Radar sends out radio waves for detecting and locating anobject by the reflection of the radio waves. This reflectioncan determine the position and speed of an object. SinceRFID combines radiobroadcast technology and Radar, itis not unexpected that the convergence of these two radio

disciplines and the thoughts of RFID occurred on the heelsof the development of Radar. One of the earliest works onthe concepts, workingprinciples and exploration ofthe RFID was a landmarkpaper published by HarryStockman, Communicationby Means of Reflectedpower. Thirty years wouldpass before Harrys visionwould begin to yield fruits. Forthe success of RFID, otherdevelopments and inventions

were needed: the transistor,the integrated circuit, themicroprocessor, developmentof communication networks,and changes in ways of doingbusiness, before RFID technology could be harnessed forany fruitful applications. A lot has happened in the 53 yearssince Harry Stockmans work. The 1950s were an era ofexploration of RFID techniques following technicaldevelopments in radio and Radar in the 1930s and 1940s.Several technologies related to RFID were being exploredsuch as the long-range transponder systems ofidentification, friend or foe (IFF) for aircraft. Developmentsof the 1950s include such works as F. L. Vernons,Application of the microwave homodyne, and D.B. Harris,Radio transmissionsystems with modulatablepassive responder. Theseeds of RFID developmentwere sown during those earlyyears.

The 1960s witnessedsome exciting works in thefield of RFID. Some of theseworks included the studiesof R. F. Harrington of theelectromagnetic theory

related to RFID in his papersField measurements usingactive scatterers andTheory of loaded scatterers in 1963-1964. The othernotable works included Robert Richardsons Remotelyactivated radio frequency powered devices in 1963, OttoRittenbacks Communication by radar beams in 1969, J.H. Vogelmans Passive data transmission techniquesutil izing radar beams in 1968 and J. P. VindingsInterrogator-responder identification system in 1967.

Government laboratories and academic institutions joinedthe race in the 1970s and started work on RFID. Researchlaboratories and academic institutions such as Los AlamosScientific Laboratory, Northwestern University, and theMicrowave Institute Foundation in Sweden contributed inthis endeavor. Around this time some of the privatecompanies too joined in developing RFID technology, such

as Raytheons Raytag in 1973. RCA developed anElectronic identification system in 1975 and Electronic

license plate for motorvehicles in 1977. ThomasMeyers and Ashley Leigh ofFairchild also developed aPassive encodingmicrowave transponder in1978. The other companiesto work in this field includedGeneral Electric,Westinghouse, Philips andGlenayre. Projected

applications during the1970s were for animaltracking, vehicle tracking,and factory automation.Examples of animal tagging

efforts were the microwave systems at Los Alamos andthe inductive systems in Europe. Interest in animal taggingwas high in Europe. By 1980s number of companies,individuals and institutions working on RFID began tomultiply.

The main unsung hero in the invention of RFID is CharlesWalton who also held the patent for RFID in 1973. He wasan inventor from the Silicon Valley who worked in this fieldall through the 1970s and 80s. Walton showed his idea of

RFID to the board ofdirectors of General Motors,who some how wereunimpressed. The prototypeRFID system developed byWalton was a 36-square-inch circuit board loaded withcoiled wires and othercomponents common in the1970s. Waltons RFID cardscosted about 1.75 USdollars. Unfortunately forhim, way back in the 1970s,

the bar code technology,which Walton hoped toreplace, was a mere 25-cent

solution and therefore his idea, which was a costly affair incomparison with bar code, did not appeal to General Motors.What appeared to be a costly affair then has completelychanged now. Over time, the price of RFID cards havefalllen consistently from about $5 for a door lock card keyin 1973 to roughly 40 cents for an RFID tag today. Whatwas once affordable only for the highest security locations

MaxwellFaraday

Marconi J. C. Bose


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Cutting Edge 23

in the 1970s is now almost a virtualthrowaway technology. By 2007,analysts expect that RFID tags areexpected to cost only about 5 cents.

Having received a set back andrejection from GM, Walton had to gowithout any salary for almost a year

wanting to push through his ideas ofRFID as a great invention. As luck wouldhave it, he could sell his idea and licensehis RFID technique to a lock makercompany, Schlage, to make electroniclocks that could open by waving a keycard in front of a reader. Walton madeabout $3 million from patenting RFIDtechnology. But his last royalty-bearing RFID patent expiredin the mid-1990s. When asked to comment on the expiryof his patent, Walton said, Im disappointed it ran out after17 years, he went on to add, Its not a bad law. I cantcontrol it, and Im not angry. I was never into stretching out

the length of a patent because I was always more interestedin inventing something new. RFID had been around invarious forms for years before Waltons invention of a radio-operated door lock. Earlier inventors received patents onanimal control systems, a luggage handling system and amail-sorting system. Howeverthe design that merited theattention of the industry was thatof Waltons. His design wasunique and therefore hasremained popular even today. Heused innovative type of tags inhis design in which a minuteelectrical current from a radiotransceiver, or reader, wakes upa dormant card and gives itenough power to generate aresponse. This innovativeapproach for which he wasawarded a patent in 1973, hasbeen referred to by 48 laterinventions.

In the 1990s RFIDtechnology was used widely inthe United States for the deployment of electronic tollcollections on highways. The worlds first open highwayelectronic tolling system opened in Oklahoma in 1991,

where vehicles could pass toll collection points at highwayspeeds, unhindered by a toll plaza or barriers and withvideo cameras for enforcement. The worlds first combinedtoll collection and traffic management system was installedin the Houston area by the Harris County Toll Road Authorityin 1992. Several countries like Australia, China, Hong Kong,Philippines, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Japan,Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, South Africa,Europe and India have adopted RFID technology for efficientand unhindered toll collection. With the success of toll

collections, other applications have soonfound their place for the RFID technology.

Present day RFIDModern RFID systems are made up ofreaders and smart tagstiny

microchips each with an attachedantenna. The tags can be stuck oneverything from milk cartons to hospitalpatients. When prompted by a reader, thetag broadcasts the information on its chip.Unlike the traditional bar code, RFIDchips give every tagged object a uniqueidentification. (A bar code describes onlya class of objects, such as cans of

Coke.) Companies hope to use RFID to track the trillionsof objects that circulate the world every year in planes,lorries and ships, through ports and warehouses, on toshop shelves, through tills and into homes and offices.Accurate tracking should eventually save hundreds of

billions of dollars a year for industry as it improvesdistribution, reduces theft, cuts labour costs and shrinksinventory. Governments also want to use RFID to reducedrug counterfeiting and improve military logistics, amongother things.

In 2002, the Auto-IDcentre, a partnershipbetween academicresearchers and businessbased in Cambridge,Massachusetts, came upwith a standard for a new,stripped-down RFID chip

that stores just 96 bits ofinformationenough to giveevery object in the world aunique number. With tagreaders plugged into acomputer network, thisnumber can be used to lookup detailed informationabout the object, such asits origin, age and expirydate. At the same time, the

Auto-ID centre also challenged manufacturers to producea five-cent tag. Several start-ups, including Alien Technologyand Matrics, said they could do so. Suddenly, there washuge interest and talk of a potential mass market. Wal-Mart, the worlds biggest retailer, has said that it wouldrequire its 100 top suppliers to put tags on pallets andcases of products for shipment to a cluster of its supercentres in northern Texas. Tesco, Britains biggest retailerhas also decided to introduce RFID technology. TheAmerican government is also becoming a big user of thenew tags. The Pentagon has said that it would require itssuppliers to put tags on cases and pallets shipped to itswarehouses. The Food and Drug Administration has also

Radar

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insisted that the drug manufacturers,distributors and retailers have to adoptthe new RFID technology to combatcounterfeiting. At the current rate ofdemand for RFID technology and asprices continue to fall; demand willcontinue to grow, from expected tens of

billions of tags in 2006, to hundreds ofbillions by 2009, to perhaps trillions afew years later. As prices fall, mostorganisations dealing with physical andlogistical challenges should find valuableuses for the new tags.

Indian ScenarioThe emerging market of an

unprecedented growth in RFID technologyis likely to provide a fillip to the Indian ITindustry. During the launching of the RFIDsolutions on 31st December 2003, Mr

Nandan M. Nilekani, President and CEO,Infosys said, Enterprises across verticalsface many challenges in real-time visibility and tracking ofphysical movement of goods, assets and personnel. Ourcustomers can now look to us to provide the cost reduction,improved customer service and streamlined operations withthe launch of our RFID solution and expertise. The range ofInfosys services, he said, will range from analyzing thepotential consequences and payback of an RFID deploymentto overseeing initial pilots and final deployment. The companywill also provide low-cost services to develop the customsoftware, its clients will need to link their RFID networks toexisting enterprise systems. Through consultation with RFID

vendors and potential retail customers, Infosys, has developeda framework to help its clients quickly examine the potentialimpact and business value of RIFD investments. Accordingto Infosys, its framework will provide the basis for RFIDdeployments across a wide range of industry verticals. Ourseven-layer reference architecture provides a hierarchicalmethodology for implementing RFID within an enterpriseindependent of whatever industry vertical that enterprise maybe in, says Shashi Shekahar, principle architect of RFID atInfosys. Because the amount of software development requiredto link RFID networks to enterprise systems is significant,India will be immensely benefited from these new opportunitiesof RFID.

Wipro Technologies is launching an RFID concept storeat its corporate campus in Bangalore in hopes of buildingexpertise in the hot supply-chain technology. The storewill be equipped with RFID technology, including tags,readers, and related software, according to a statementissued by the company during the launching of a radio-frequency ID concept store at its corporate campus inBangalore in July 2004. Wipro technicians will test anumber of RFID scenarios at the store, including item-leveltagging, stock maintenance, apparel tracking, and inventory

tracing. Most of the Indian IT companiesare likely to harness potential economicbenefits from this new technology.

The Future of RFIDIn spite of all the hype associated with

RFID, many regard RFID, even today,as a technology in its infancy with asyet untapped potential. Thisassessment seems true. Thetechnology has many benefits to offer.Its stumbling point seems only to be avariety of issues outside the technologyitself: marketing problems, falsepromises, and a lack of standards.Industry members, however, havebecome painfully aware of theseproblems and are trying to do somethingto remedy the mistakes of the past. Ifthey are able to successfully unify the

industry with standards, deliver on futurepromises, and convince end users of

the technologys benefits, then RFIDs future looksfavorable.

RFID has climbed from relative obscurity to becomeone of todays most discussed retail technologies, spurredby industry speculation that a 5-cent RFID tag will beavailable in the near future. Will the speculation of a 5-centRFID tag be a reality or just a myth, is a subject matterthat will only unfold in time to come.

Gartner Symposium/ITxpo is the IT industrys largestand most strategic conference, providing business leaderswith a look at the future of IT. For more than 10,000 IT

professionals from the worlds leading enterprises, Gartnersannual Symposium/ITxpo events are key components oftheir annual planning efforts. Attendees rely on GartnerSymposium/ITxpo to gain insight into how theirorganizations can use modern technology to addressbusiness challenges and improve operational efficiency.During the six-day conference at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2004, Future trends for RFID in retailing werepresented at the symposium. RFID technology holdsexciting opportunities for almost every business, saidStephen Smith, research vice president at Gartner. Theuse of RFID to capitalize on data flow in global supplychains could be one of the most significant developmentsin business strategy since companies first recognized the

importance of information flow. This means we can expecttremendous change ahead for product-centricorganizations. RFID technology and the business benefitsit promises may not arrive with a big bang. High capitalcosts, imperfect read-rates, unproven systems anduncertainty around standards will all need to be addressedbefore retailers can adopt and benefit from the technology.This means that over the next 10 years, retailers willcontinue to use barcodes and gradually introduce RFIDtagging, creating an environment of co-existence.

Cutting Edge 22

British airways baggage RFID tags


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As for the 5-cent RFID tag myth, Mr. Smith said, Thereare conflicting problems with assembling low-cost tags.One of the primary things vendors must do to reduce tagcost is reduce the size of the chip. However, reductions inthe size of the chip make assembly more expensive.Currently, no vendor has been able to come out of thisparadox. Passive tags today cost from 40 cents to $10.

Active tags usually start at $4 to $5, increasing to hundredsof dollars. By 2009, the most competitive RFID tags willcost 20 cents. As it stands now there are many hurdles tobe crossed before the RFID is accepted as a businessstandards.

Due to new emerging possibilities that come with RFIDand Internet connectivity, RFID has witnessed renewedinterest and resurgence in the market. RFID has movedpast the limited market of manufacturing logistics andsecurity access, and gained acceptance in the consumermarket with such applications as automatic toll paymentsand fueling applications. Research into future visions forRFID technology; have showed however, that although the

market is rapidly growing, there is a limited number ofcompelling future visions for RFID systems. In fact, basedon a study conducted by Venture Development Corporation(VDC), it is agreed among many industry players that akiller application has yet to be defined for RFID. With theexception of the extension of current applications such ase-commerce and tracking, there is little other thinking going

on in the field of RFID implementation. The most interestingand visionary thinking of RFID implementation is currentlybeing conducted by Xerox PARC, sometelecommunications companies such as Nokia, and MITsAuto ID Group which is currently funded by a number oflarge companies such as Coca Cola, Johnson & Johnson,Pfizer, UPS, Wal-Mart, Intel, NCR Corporation, and Philips

Semiconductors. This involvement of large corporations andkey players indicates that there is an agreement that RFIDtechnology does have the potential of becoming a veryprominent technology with some strategic thinking andinnovative applications.

ConclusionJust because the interest is there, it does not guaranteethe success of RFID. The biggest challenge facing RFIDare the people and time. History has showed that peoplewere always the biggest barriers to progress. The rift amongthe businesses that were embracing RFID between thosethat had a short-term outlook and those that were more

visionary about it will ultimately be the benefactors ordestroyers of this technology. The latter group sees RFIDas a way to cut costs; the former sees it as the bedrock offuture business relationships. Which group will ultimatelybe the winner will decide the fate of this so-called futureubiquitous technology in years to come.

Shivaprasad M Khened, Curator, Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai

terrain. A number of sanctuaries have villages still locatedinside them as is the case with Sariska andRanthambore. There is no gainsaying the fact that forthe protected areas to survive, the support of the localpeople must be ensured. There has to be communicationbetween the villagers and the forest guards. Further, wemust seriously involve local people in protected areamanagement. Efforts need to be put in to undertake eco-development activities around the protected areas toprovide for the basic needs of people there. The help ofreputed NGOs could be taken to mould the local opinionin favour of scientif ic wildlife management of oursanctuaries, while special education programmes couldhelp in inspiring, informing and empowering localcommunities to participate in the protection of the wildlife.

The disappearance of the tiger from Sariska is a majorsetback to our wildlife management. May be, we could re-introduce tigers in Sariska. The prey base and habitat of

Sariska are still capable of supporting a number of tigers.Soon after reading the Sariska reports in the

newspapers, I dug out my childhood treasure of JimCorbetts - The Temple Tiger, the Man Eaters of Kumaonand so on. In those stories, it was the human beings whoconstantly lived in mortal fear of falling prey to tigers. Todaythe roles seem to have reversed! Today it is the call of thewild; tomorrow it may just be the wilderness. We have toact fast.

V. B. Kamble

WYP 2005: Master.... (Contd. from page 32)

Cutting Edge 21

The third training programme for the Western Zone wasorganised at Mumbai during period 29 June 01 July 2005. S& T Cell, Government of Maharashtra and Nehru ScienceCentre, NCSM, were the co-hosts. 35 participantsrepresenting 5 States and 2 UTs participated in theprogramme. Dr. A. V. Sapre, Senior Scientific Officer, S&TCell welcomed the participants. Renowned PhysicistProfessor Virendra Singh inaugurated the training programmeand also spoke on the Rise of the Quantum Theory. Dr. A. B.Pandey, Secretary, IT and S&T, Government of Maharashtra,presided over the inaugural session. Shri G. S. Rautela,Director, NSC proposed the vote of thanks. Professor A. A.Rangwala spoke on the Discovery of the electron, while Dr.M. B. Hosur spoke on X-rays. The other topics and thespeakers were the same as in the training programme for theNorth-Eastern Zone at Guwahati. As part of the trainingprogramme, the participants visited various labs of Tata Institute

of Fundamental Research.Feedback from the participants revealed the efficacy

of the training programme. The resource material and thesoftware articles on discoveries made during the goldendecade 1895-1905 and the biographies of the makers ofthese discoveries, power point presentations on 9 topics,astronomy kit, and VPs publications have been receivingtremendous appreciation. The resource material wasdistributed to the participants of the MRP trainingprogrammes.

The Call of the Wild (Contd. from page 31)


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Infective DiarrhoeaRemedies and Prevention

Dr. Yatish Agarwale-mail: [email protected]

Mediscape 20

With most eating placesrestaurants, confectioners,halwais, chaatwallahs and food vendorsa suspect,poor quality of potable water, filthy choked drains andcesspools harvesting flies and other crawlies, its your gutsthat bear the crunch. Bugs of all kindsviruses, bacteriaand protozoacan ambush you any time. You come toknow of it only when these little thugs begin to show effects.You start feeling queasy. Your insides rumble. The gutsmarts in pain. You rush to the loo. You want to rest, butyour inflamed bowel will not let up.

Your body fights back. Mostly it wins. The little thugsare eliminated. But before they quit, some damage isalready done. Your body loses valuable fluids andelectrolytes, and there is a need to replenish the loss, topull it out of distress. Simple measures can avert a crisis.

Replenish body water and electrolytes : Just themost important thing in management of acute diarrhoea isto replenish the lost body water and electrolytes, and notallow yourself to get dehydrated.

You have many options. The easiest, of course, is tobuy a commercially available sachet of oral rehydrationsalts (ORS). Mix, as per instructions, in clean drinkingwater and sip a sufficient amount of it to maintain your

hydration level. Make sure that you mix just the right amountand not be miserly or overzealous. Too less or too much ofthe salts may disturb the delicate electrolyte equilibrium.

You can buy any of the commercial ORS sachetsPunarjal granules, Prolyte, Electral, Ricetral or Cerelyte.All are good and available at all chemists.

Making a mix of ORS at home is not difficult either.Just take a litre of clean water. In case the water quality isdoubtful, boil it for two minutes to make it safe. Allow it tocool and then use. Add half a level teaspoon of salt and

eight level teaspoons of sugar. Stir well to mix and theORS is ready.

Another method to make a rehydration drink is to addhalf a level teaspoon of salt and eight heaped teaspoons ofpowdered rice to one litre of water and boil it for five toseven minutes. The liquid gruel is an excellent replenisher.

You can also add half a cup of fruit juice, coconut wateror mashed ripe banana to the mix. This will make it richerin potassium and improve its taste.

Always be very careful about not sipping the mix if itgoes bad. It is best to prepare it fresh and use over an

hour. If left at room temperature, the drink gets spoiledvery quickly because it allows bacteria to flourish.

Sip to a good measure : Most of the times vomitingaccompanies diarrhoea and is an equally big problem. Ifnot severe, it can be tackled at home. To get around it,you should sip the rehydration drink in small amounts atfrequent intervals, say every five minutes. Sip slowly. Tryingto gulp down too much at once may trigger more vomitingand worsen the condition. In case you take a tablet whichstops vomiting, wait for half an hour before you sip liquidsand test the tablets effectiveness.

The healthy mark : There are many ways to determinehow much rehydration liquid is required in a particular case

to make up for the loss.The simplest gauge is the output of urine. If the sick

person is urinating three or four times a day, it indicatesthat the fluid balance is adequately maintained. However,if urination is weak or absent, the mouth and tongue godry, the skin loses its turgor and mental alertness takes adip, it is a clear indication that the fluid replacement isinsufficient and immediate medical attention is needed.Intravenous fluids, given quickly, help a person to pull outof such a delicate situation.


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Mediscape 19

Just take clear liquids :For the first twenty-four hours,it is best to restrict yourself to clear liquids only. You maytake chhach, neembu pani, sherbat, tea (minus the milk),daal ka pani, chawal ka maand, green coconut water andsimilar other homely fluids. Do not force your system tohandle more than it can take, nor let it starve.

Fasting is not the remedy : It is never a good idea to

starve while you have diarrhoea. Some people do this underthe wrong impression that this may help them overcomethe condition. But this can be very dangerous, particularlyin children and the elderly. Dehydration is a ruthless killer.

Add small feedings of soft foods : Soon as thediarrhoea begins to settle, you suddenly feel hungry andare ready for some palate-tickling food. But never be in ahurry. Try khichdi, daal-chawal, mashed potatoes, bananas,poha and yoghurt. Carry on with these soft foods for a dayor two, allowing your intestines to recover.

Avoid raw fruits and vegetables : In theconvalescence stage, raw fruits and vegetables and wholegrain cereals should be avoided as these foods tend toadd more bulk to the intestinal contents.

Stay off milk : It is always a good idea to stay off milkand milk products for a few days after an attack of diarrhoea.Milk can prolong the illness and make the diarrhoea worsebecause all acute diarrhoeas knock out the intestinalenzymelactase. Made in the intestinal wall, this enzymeis absolutely vital for digestion of milk sugar. Deprived oflactase, the intestines cannot tolerate milk. But once thediarrhoea settles, normalcy is restored after a few days.Milk can then be resumed.

Medicines have little role :Never take anti-diarrhoealproducts like Lomotil or Pectokab on your own initiative.Such drugs slow down the gut movements and appear toprovide relief, but thats no good. Your body fights hard toexpel the toxic, diarrhoea-causing organisms. It simplypurges them out. Do not interfere with this natural healingmechanism.

Some infective diarrhoeas do, however, need antibiotics.Consult your doctor on this as he would know best.

When to call the doctor : Fortunately, in most acute

diarrhoeas the il lness is brief and, at most, aninconvenience. It can often be managed with simple homemeasures. However, it is best to consult your doctor if:

the diarrhoea is severe and is not getting better there is fever signs of dehydration appear, or the patient is an infant, elderly or a debilitated person.

In such situations, intravenous fluids and antibiotics maybe necessary.

Prevention is best : Many cases of infective diarrhoeasoccur due to plain carelessness. A few simple rules areeffective and reduce your chances of getting acutegastroenteritis. Read on.

Wash your hands with soap and water before preparingfood. This little measure helps avoid the transfer ofbacteria from your hands to the food.

Always wash and clean thoroughly and, preferably, peelraw fruits and vegetables before you eat them.

Never eat cracked eggs or raw animal protein food.These could very easily be harbouring toxic organisms.

Do not leave food at room temperature for more thantwo hours. Avoid eating anything that is suspect. Donot taste it to check if it is still good, just throw itaway.

Toxic organisms and dangerous toxins can easilycontaminate home-canned foods. If there is even theslightest suspicion, or any signs of gas production,

just do not try. Avoid cracked jars, clear liquids that have turned milky,

or cans and jars that spurt or have an off odour when

opened. Avoid food that may have been exposed to flies, rats,

mice or dust. Stay out of the kitchen in case you are suffering from

boils, infected wounds, or throat infection. You cancontaminate the food with dangerous staph bacteria.

Always maintain the cleanliness of utensils you cookin and the cutlery and the crockery you use. Replacesponges often and wash and wipe clean crockerybefore use.


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Recent Developments in Science & Technology

New Horizens 18

A Washing Machine for Blood:

Scientist in Germany have developed a device that couldquickly and effectively retrieve toxic substances from thevital fluid without altering the blood count. This could helpby efficient blood cleansing save same many a lives asblood poisoning is fatal.

The unique feature of the technique developed by theresearcher at the Franunhofer Institute for InterfacialEngineering and Biotechnology in Collaboration withscientists at University of Stuttgart and GambroDialysatoren GmbH is that blood cell separation andplasma cleaning are carried out in a single step.

During the complex process, a doctor extracts someof the patients blood with a hydrodamic needle. A plasmafilter separates the cell from the plasma and in secondstep, the plasma is percolated through microbed columnscontaining absorbers that fi lters out specific toxicsubstance. The cleansed plasma is then reunited with theblood cells and returned to the body. The blood cells arenot be permitted to touch the absorber suffers as otherwisethe blood may clot.

The new technique enables the amount of blood thatis outside the body to be reduced by more than half. Inaddition, the hollow fiber material does not activate theblood cell in other words, it does not blood clotting. In thisnew technique blood flows through the porous hollow fibers.Only the plasma passes through the fine pores. Thesensitive blood cells are too big and stay on the inside. Inthis way the blood is automatically separated into cells

and plasma. This new method has already passed all itslaboratory test and scientists are now preparing for thefirst clinical trial in aphaeresis therapy.

Source: PTI News, June (II) 2005.

Killar Fungi could cut malaria deaths:

Mosquito staying fungi could help cut malarias toll ofmisery and death. Studies have shown that impregnatinghousehold surface with fungal spares can slash the numberof mosquitoes capable of transmitting the parasite.

To find out if fungi could be effective a British team atImperial College, London and the University of Edinburgs

fed one mosquito species blood infeded with malariaparasite. After two weeks, nearly a third of the insectscarried sporozoites the infections from parasite. But whenthe mosquitoes were kept in boxes sprayed with an oilcontaining fungal spores, 90 percent died after two weeksand only 0.4 per cent of the surviors carried sporozoites.

One reason the method works so well is that malariainfection approve to make mosquitoes far more vulnerableto fungal infections which enter the insects bodies throughtheir feet. The team found only 6 days to expose to a

sprayed surface was needed and fungus was effective forat least 12 days after spraying. The fungus used wasBeauveria bassiania chosen because it has already been

approved for use as a biopesticide.com

Source: New Scientist.

Super Computer to copy human brain:

The first attempt to build a complete simulation of the humanbrain has begun.

IBM and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology inLausanne announced the launch of the Blue Brain Project,an attempt to model the entire electrical circuiting of thebrain using a supercomputer based on IBMs Blue Genedesign.

Drawing on more than 10 years worth of biological

observations of how the brains 10 billion neurons behaveindividually and how they are wired together, the simulationwill give scientist an opportunity to study how part of brainrespond to different stimulation. The hope is that the virtualbrain will help our understanding of aspects of humancognition such as perception and memory as well as howmalfunction neurons can cause psychiatric disorder suchas autism and schizophrenia.

Source: New Scientist, June 2005.

NASA probe collided with the Comet:To learn about the formation of solar system, NASAscientists used a space probe to chase down a speedingcomet 134 million km away and slammed it into the frozenball of ice and debris.

The unmanned probe of the Deep Impact mission collidedwith Temple 1, a comet half the size of Manhattan on 4 July2005. Comet are frozen ball of ice rock and dust that orbit thesun. A giant cloud of gas and dust collapsed to create thesun and planets about 4.5 billion years ago and comets formedfrom the leftover building blocks of solar system.

The energy produced from the impact was equivalentto exploding five tones of dynamite and it caused the cometto shine six times brighter than normal. Soon after thecrash on the comet sunlit side the mother ship prepared toapproach Temple 1 to peer into the crater site and send

more data back to Earth. When the dust settles, scientistshope to peek inside the comets frozen core- a compositeof ice and rock left over from early solar system.

NASA fleet of space telescopes including the HubbleSpace Telescope, Chandra X-rays Observatory and SpitzerSpace Telescope and dozens of ground observatoriesrecorded the impact.

It was a milestone for the U.S. space agency becauseno other space mission has flown this close to comet.

Compiled by Kapil Tripathi


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VP News 17

In addition to the well known languages like Tamil, Teluguand so on a number of minority languages of hill and forestdwelling Tribal scattered over much of the subcontinentalso belong to Dravidian language family. Gondi, a principal

Dravidian language of Northern India, is one of the 17Dravidian languages spoken in India Gondi is the mostimportant of the Central Dravidian group, which must haveseparated from southern languages such as Kannada andTamil well over two thousand years ago. In order of speakersit is 15th most spoken language with about 21,24,852returning Gondi as their mother tongue. As per the 1991census about 0.25 % of Indian population return it as theirmother tongue.

The word Gond occurs in the works of Sanskritlexicographers like Hemachandra. The Gonds have giventheir name to the tract of Gondwana, which corresponds tothe greater part of what is now the Central Provinces.Gondwana or land of the Gonds, is a loosely-defined area

of southeastern Madhya Pradesh, eastern Maharashtra,and parts of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, and northern AndhraPradesh. Their home has long been the plateau betweenthe Narwada valley on the north and the Nagpur plains onthe south. Gondi thus simultaneously refers to a peopleand their language in central India. The Gondi, or Gondpeople are spread over the states of Madhya Pradesh,eastern Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, northern AndhraPradesh, and western Orissa. With over four million people,they are the largest tribe in Central India.

Gondi is not a literary language. There are, however,several Gondi songs current, and some of them have beenprinted in the work by the Rev. S. Hislop. Except suchefforts there are hardly any written literature in Gondi. The

language is spoken in several large enclaves of forest tractsof central India, separated from one another by settledlands where Marathi, Chhattisgarhi and Telugu are spoken.Such interactions have resulted in emergence of dialectssuch as Bhatri (amalgam of Gondi with Oriya) and Halbidialect of Marathi and Gondi.

The Gonds are traditionally agriculturalists; somepractice shifting cultivation, while others raise cereals orherd cattle. Traditional Gond religion involves a distinctpantheon of gods and spirits. Gond society is highlystratified and belong to a category of very large tribes thathave traditionally dominated the regions in which they havelived. The central region of India was home to several Gondkingdoms from the 15th century to the mid-18th century,

when the Marathas expanded into the region from the west.Since Independence there were attempts to spread

literacy amongst the population. The government selecteda group of Gonds who were semiliterate in Telugu or suchmajor languages and taught them the basics of writtenscript. These individuals became teachers who taught inGondi, and their efforts enjoyed a measure of success.However still illiteracy is rampant.

The innovative and unique effort of Vigyan Prasar isaimed at production of a 13 part radio science serial in

Vigyan Prasars Radio Science Serial in Gondi

Workshop Participants at Dantewada

Gondi for the benefit of this large tribal population of India.The programme is being developed and produced jointlywith State Health Resource Center, Raipur and VanvasiChetna Ashram, Dantewada. Topics such as Science- a

everlasting journey of search; Bastar to Brahmand; naturalphenomena; myths and science; superstitions and rationaloutlook; Why we fall sick; major diseases afflicting Bastarregion; Agricultrue, food preservation are to be addressedin the radio science serial. The audio scripts are beingprepared with inputs from the elders from the tribal hamlets,native Gondi speakers as well experts working in thatregion.

Vigyan Prasar invites individuals to contribute articles(including interviews with eminent scientists andprofiles of Indian scientific institutions) for publication inDREAM-2047. The articles may be accompanied bysufficient number of illustrations. The articles should bewritten in a language that can be understood by lay-readers.The article (both in hardcopy and electronic version) shouldaccompany a brief write-up about the author with mailingaddress, phone number and e-mail ID. The articles alsocould be e-mailed in the MS word format. Vigyan Prasar

will not be responsible for the statements and opinionsexpressed by the authors in their articles/write-upspublished in Dream-2047. The author will ensure thatthere is no copyright violation. Unsolicited articles will notautomatically ensure publication in Dream-2047. Thearticles will be accepted for publication based only on theirmerits. Vigyan Prasars decision will be final in this regrrd.

Vigyan Prasar also invites translators for translatingEnglish articles into Hindi and vice versa. Kindly send yourresume along with samples of your recent translation works.

Editor

Would you like to write or translatearticles for DREAM 2047?

RFID Article in Dream 2047 Magazine, July2005

Documents

Transcript of RFID Article in Dream 2047 Magazine, July2005