Haven’t you often wondered whether there was some form of intelligent life living in the stars? Scientists have been trying to solve this puzzle for many years. There are organizations like NASA and SETI that are focusing their technology and research on detecting new planets and solar systems that are suitable for human life.Some people believe that life occurred on earth by accident, and that the random events that caused it will never occur again. According to them, there are no chances of life being found on other planets. Others argue that life evolves naturally under the right conditions, and that if these conditions occur on another planet, life can exist there too.

While working as a radio astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, Dr. Frank Drake worked out an approach to find out the possibility of other civilizations that may exist in our galaxy. The Drake Equation, as it has become known, was first presented by Drake in 1961. It lists specific factors thought to play a role in the development of civilizations. From these factors, the Drake equation tries to estimate the number of planets that exist with intelligent forms of life.The Drake equation is quite a difficult                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        equation to solve. So, maybe when you are older, we will give you the equation, and let you try to solve it

Ubik represents one of the most advanced technologies we have seen. It is a sleek, futuristic phone that is about 3 inches square. You can use it to access your phone, e-mail, and instant messaging. You can also use it to play games, surf the web, share photos and hear music. Ubik has a flexible, borderless and foldable screen of amazing clarity. On the sides there is a glowing light that is always on. The light can be programmed to monitor the weather, the stock market, incoming phone calls or any other function. The colour of the light changes according to the function you want it to do.The unique aspect of Ubik is that you don’t have to scroll through the text menu to get what you want… you just open the phone, and the function you want is instantly available. Best of all, the built in optical scanner ensures that you are the only one who can your Ubik!

It certainly looks like internet will soon be used in space too. In fact, a programme of the United States Department of Defence called Iris will put an internet router in space by the start of 2009. This programme will allow voice, video and data communications for US troops using standards developed for the internet. Eventually, Iris could extend the net into space too. Right now data from satellites orbiting in space is beamed to the ground first, and then beamed up again to another satellite. Iris will make it possible for data to flow directly between satellites orbiting in space through the internet in space.

Wouldn’t it be incredible if your hand could become a mobile phone? Well, sometime in the future, it may. A technology is already being developed called Finger Whisper technology, which could turn hands into handsets. By converting voice into vibration, then conducting vibration through the bones in the user’s hand, the hand becomes a type of receiver

This is another difficult sounding term which can be explained only if you know what WiBro is.WiBro is a wireless broadband internet technology being developed by the Korean telecom industry. With WiBro, Korean phones will tap into on ‘always on’ broadband connections that have a bandwidth much greater and faster than what is available now. Vo WiBro will be a great improvement on VoIP and the quality of service will be far superior due to the increased bandwidth and speed.

It is a scientific fact that the height to which any object bounces depends on its elasticity. This physical property is defined as the ratio of stress (The force acing on a unit area of the ball during compaction) created on the object to the strain (change in size of the ball) which acts on it. It is independent of the density of the material.

For larger values of elasticity, the strain should be smaller for a given amount of stress. In the case of a steel ball and a rubber ball, though steel has higher than rubber, it has greater elasticity, as the strain produced in steel is much less than that in rubber, for constant stress. In the case of a bouncing steel ball and a rubber ball, even though steel has higher density          than rubber, it has greater elasticity, as the strain produced in steel is much less than that in rubber, for constant stress. In the case of a bouncing steel ball, collision is elastic in which both momentum and kinetic energy are almost conserved.

            That is, the energy loss is minimum. Hence the steel ball bounces to a greater height than the rubber ball.

Information is stored in audio/video tapes by magnetizing them. These tapes are actually long, thin plastic films coated with a magnetic material, mainly iron oxide.

Likewise, the player has a recording head which consists of a coil of a wire wound around a circular piece of iron with a small gap. Any current passing through the wire would produce a magnetic field around it.

Information (voice or image or any data) to be stored is converted into electric signals (by a microphone) amplified and fed to the recorder head. As the current varies in accordance with the image or sound (input signals) to be recorded, it produces a varying magnetic field.

When the tape is run through the small gap present in the recording head, the varying magnetic field magnetizes the particles on the tape rearranged their moments in accordance with the variation in the input signal.

To reproduce the signal recorded, the tape is again run past the recording/playing head which   senses the magnetic field along the tape. This induces a varying current in the coil. This current is amplified and fed to the speaker or TV to reproduce the original message.

For a long time people have wondered what makes the planets go round the Sun and why anything thrown up comes down. Sir Isaac Newton probed the origin of this mysterious force and gave us the law of gravitation.

According to the law, which we have learnt in school, the force acting between two objects depends on their masses and the distance between them.

  The law makes it clear that the origin of gravity is the object itself- that is, by virtue of its own mass any object will have an influence on another object (mass). But if one were to ask why an object (mass) should exert a force on another, our present scientific knowledge does not provide a clear answer.

It seems that even Newton had thought about this question and tried in vain to get an answer. Finally he too admitted it is a god-given property to all objects.

 The term horse power was introduced by James Watt. He chose a normal horse and found that it could do a work of 33,000 ft-lb in a minute. He adopted this measure for comparing the performance of his engines.

  The actual power generated in the engine cylinder is called the indicated horse power (IHP). It is also defined as the power fed into the engine in the form of steam or calorific value of the fuel.

But all that power is not available to do useful work. This is because, part of it is used to overcome internal friction of the moving parts of the engine, work of charging, air resistance to flywheel rotation, and drive auxiliaries such as fuel pumps, governor, lubrication oil and water circulating pumps. This net power output of the engine is called brake horse power (BHP). It is 15- 30 per cent less than IHP.

The term brake horse power comes from the braking device used to measure the power output by stopping the engine.

 Thus it is the amount of power that the engine can produce at a certain speed (measured as rotations per minute).

Usually engines are rated with the help of dynamometers. The device has a power absorber, such as an electric generator or a water brake, which can put different loads on the engine.