Blog

What is special about Nagash painting of Saudi Arabia?

Get to know about the nagash painting of Saudi Arabia. Nagash painting, also known as Al-Qatt Al-Asiri, adorns the interior walls of traditional Arabic homes.

Tradition in Saudi Arabia dictates that the man builds the house and the woman decorates it. The women of the Asir province express their creativity by painting frescos on the interior walls of their homes. Known as Al-Qatt Al-Asiri, the traditional folk art form is recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage. The paintings are paintings are also called nagash in Arabic.

The white gypsum walls provide the broad canvas for the home artists. They draw geometric lines, triangles, squares, diagonals and tree-like patterns in bright hues of blues, greens, yellows and reds. The patterns reflect the cultural and weaving heritage of the communities. While some communities draw simple open designs, others make more complex patterns edged with a black outline, adding structure to the design. Traditionally, the women used natural colours-yellow colour was extracted from  turmeric, black from coal, blue from indigo dye and green from grass. They used brushes made from camel or goat hair. Often, the painting is a communal affair where the ladies of the house invite their female guests to contribute in the beautification of the nagash.

Picture Credit : Google

What are some of the animals that go into hibernation?

Every year, certain animals stay in a comatose state, sending themselves into a sleepy stupor. They hibernate to conserve energy. They cool their bodies by 5° to 10°C and slow down their metabolism. For instance, the Arctic ground squirrels cool themselves to subfreezing temperatures! They do wake up and warm up intermittently. Some animals even hibernate as a response to the shortage of food. Here we take a look at some of the animals that go into hibernation.

SNAKES

In the case of snakes, they experience brumation, where they remain dormant. is technically different from hibernation, but they prepare for the winter by going into a state of partial sleep. This helps them conserve energy for breeding. The length of the dormancy varies according to the location of the snakes. While some may go into brumation for weeks, others might for months. There are also occasions when they venture out of their resting spot for hydration. While some snakes brumate alone, some such as the garter snakes brumate together, more like a communal brumation.

BEARS

Think hibernation and the first animal that comes to your mind is the bear. Of course, when the winter sets in, they go into hibernation and survive the winter thus. But with climate change and changes in the temperature, bears have been seen to come out of their hibernation a bit earlier than usual. According to wildlife experts, this early emergence from hibernation isn’t good for the animal.

COMMON POORWILLL

You wouldn’t have heard about birds going into hibernation. Yet there is one bird that does the unthinkable. The Common poorwill is the only bind that hibernates, the sole reason being that the bird’s insect food isn’t available during the winter season! So instead of migrating, like other birds do, they pull through the winter by huddling inside a hollow log, lowering their metabolism and hibernating.

MARMOTS

With the onset of fall, marmots use dirt and plants to cover their tunnel entrances. They are preparing for the annual ritual of hibernation to hide from predators. For about 8 months of a year, the marmots go into hibernation. During this inactive state, they burn the fat that they stored and slow down their vitals. They even reduce their heart rate. And once spring sets in, they emerge from the hibernation.

SNAILS

Did you know that snails also hibernate? Well, some snails hibernate during the colder months. They cover their bodies in a layer of mucus. They crawl into their shell and seal the entrance with mucus. This thin mucus layer prevents them from drying out. The same  activity is carried out by some snails during the summer and this is called aestivation, a prolonged period of inactivity to survive the dry periods.

BUMBLEBEES

While not all bees go into hibernation, bumblebees do. In fact, they hibernate for a longer period of their lives. Some queen bees even hibernate for nine months. That is like three-fourths of their entire life span!

Picture Credit : Google 

What important discovery did Howard Carter make in 1922?

In November 1922, after years of searching, British archaeologist Howard Carter stumbles upon a buried flight of steps while working in Egypt’s valley of the kings and unearths the entrance to the 3,000-years-old tomb of Tutankhamun. In the months that follow, thousands of priceless artefacts are recovered in one of the greatest finds in the history of archaeology.

By the Spring of 1922, British Egyptologist Howard Carter, financed by George Herbert. Earl of Carnarvon, had spent six seasons – November to April each year, avoiding the intense heat of summer- searching for a royal tomb he believed was waiting to be discovered on the west bank of the Nile, in the famed Valley of the Kings. With little to show for his efforts, it was agreed that the quest would be abandoned after one final, short dig of two months only, to start in November of that year.

What Carter uncovered is now regarded as one of the greatest finds in the history of archaeology: a complete set of royal coffins from the pharaonic New Kingdom era, lavishly wrought and in a startling state of preservation, with, at their centre, the mummified remains of a teenage king beneath a gold and blue “death mask”, that would eventually be seen by millions in exhibitions around the world and which would come to represent the magnificence of Ancient Egypt.

It was on November 1, 1922, that Carter began clearing a row of ancient stone huts, formerly used by workmen and close to a much larger tomb, rubble from which was strewn around the site. Three days into the task, on November 4, a single stone step emerged-the top of a flight that had been dug down into the limestone bedrock some 3,000 years earlier to carve out a smaller-than-average burial chamber and surrounding storage rooms.

By sunset the following day, a blocked doorway at the bottom of the stairs had been reached. It was plastered over and, crucially, bore the seal of the royal necropolis. Carter sent a telegram to Lord Carnarvon telling him of his wonderful discovery in Valley a magnificent tomb with seals intact”.

It was another three weeks before a group consisting of Carter, Carnarvon, engineer Arthur Callender and Carnarvon’s daughter. Lady Evelyn Herbert, stood at a second doorway at the end of a corridor, cleared of debris, while Carter chiselled a hole to peer by candlelight, into the royal antechamber, filled with gold and ebony artefacts.

For the next three months, Carter and his team- including photographer Harry Burton from the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Met’s Egyptologist, Arthur Mace- continued their excavation until, in February 1923, they had reached the burial chamber itself, containing four gilded wooden shrines enclosing the sarcophagus that housed Tutankhamun’s mummified body. It would be another two years, the start of the season in October 1925, before Carter would come face to face with the now-iconic gold funerary mask, found in a solid gold coffin enclosed by two larger coffins within the sarcophagus. Carter’s cataloguing of all king Tutankhamun’s treasures would continue until 1932.

“Tutmania” spread across the globe as news of Carter’s achievement was reported. Amid the political fallout from the discovery – Egypt had been a British protectorate during World War I, but declared its independence in 1922 visitor numbers soared and the cult of “King Tut” was born. The death from a mosquito bite, of Lord Carnarvon in April 1923, fed into the popular belief in the “Mummy’s curse” – the inevitable downfall of those who disturb the pharoah’s resting place.

This autumn, Egypt will hope, once again, to attract world attention as its long-awaited replacement for its antiquities museum in Cairo’s Tahrir Square – home to the Tutankhamun treasures for many decades- opens only a mile from the Pyramids at Giza. The monumental Grand Egyptian Museum, 20 years in the construction and costing over a billion dollars, will bring together for the first time all 5,000 pieces painstakingly retrieved by Carter a century ago.

Picture Credit : Google 

What’s next in the smart ecosystem?

While many facets of life already have a smart counterpart, colour-changing fibres could be a gamechanger in the wearables market.

We live in a world of smart devices. It wasn’t always the case though. There’s been an eruption of sorts in the last couple of decades as there is an attempt to make every conceivable device now into a smart gadget.

It all started with the proliferation of smartphones. With each of us holding onto one of these almost all the time, it was a matter of time before the manufacturers wanted to put more smart gadgets in our control.

It was in such a climate that household appliances such as televisions, refrigerators, and even washing machines started becoming smarter. With smart bulbs, speakers, and devices to control the entire ecosystem, many facets of life now have a smart counterpart.

Colour-changing fibres

If you had ever wondered what could be next in the smart ecosystem, you might be surprised to know the answer. Researchers from the University of Luxembourg have come up with colour-changing fibres that could well pave the way for… you guessed it, smart clothes! Their results were published in Nature Materials in September 2022.

Up until now, clothing has mainly been about covering our body, protecting it from the environment, and maybe even flaunting our style. The future, however, could see clothing become part of the wearable technology bandwagon.

Remains mechanoresponsive

The researchers used Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Elastomer (CLCE), a structurally coloured polymer system that is capable of changing its colour by mechanical deformation. They then developed a simple, scalable method of creating colour-changing CLCE fibres that can be sewn into the fabric easily. The colour of fibres spanned the entire visible colour spectrum and showed excellent mechanochromic response- changing colour continuously and reversibly upon stretching or other mechanical movements.

The team were able to demonstrate the robustness of the CLCE fibres in garments by subjecting it to repeated stretching, machine washing, and abrasion. In addition to its ability to survive long-term use, the fact that it can be woven or sewn into elastic garments, and that it might not impair user comfort, implies that these can be used as smart textiles.

Apart from numerous applications in wearable technology, innovative fashion, and artistic applications, the researchers believe that it might be particularly useful in sports clothing and wearable robotics. It might even come in handy in non-wearable contexts too, in terms of strain sensing (think ropes incorporated with these fibres) and deformation detection. Becoming mainstream might be some distance in the future, by which time “dressing smart might take a whole new meaning.

Picture Credit : Google 

Why is the title of the longest river a matter of controversy?

There is a centuries old dispute about which river is the longest. The contestants for this title are the Amazon River and the Nile River, and they both have strong claims on their sides. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Nile is officially the longest river. Its main source is Lake Victoria in east central Africa and it flows over 6600 kilometres to merge into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile River is a source of water for the following eleven countries: Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt.

Until 1971, the true source of the Amazon River was not discovered. In the same year, Loren McIntyre, an American photojournalist who worked extensively in South America, claimed that this river originated in the snow-covered Andes of southern Peru. This makes the Amazon River’s length 6700 kilometres when it flows into the South Atlantic Ocean through the Par estuary (which is its most distant mouth). But here again, the calculations are not that simple as the Amazon has several mouths, making it extremely difficult to ascertain the exact point where the river ends.

Picture Credit : Google 

Which is the longest bridge in the world?

The Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge in China is the world’s longest bridge with a length of 165 kilometres. It is a part of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway and has played a crucial role in reducing the travel time between Beijing and Shanghai.

It is a girder bridge, a common form of bridge construction that is found all over the world. The bridge only took about four years to materialize as girders generally increase the speed of construction.

Due to its extraordinary length, the bridge is spread across different geographical terrains and building it required remarkable engineering knowledge. It was designed by the China Road and Bridge Corporation, which is a section of the China Communications Construction Company. This project was completed on time and was fully built by the November of 2010.

It was officially opened for the public the next year, in June.

Picture Credit : Google 

Why is the Seikan Tunnel known as the longest undersea tunnel?

The Seikan Tunel in Japan is the world’s longest undersea tunnel, in terms of overall length. Although the Channel Tunnel, connecting England and France, is shorter, it has a longer undersea segment. Seikan is also the second-deepest transport tunnel that is located below the sea level- the deepest one being the Ryfylke Tunnel, which is a road tunnel in Norway that was opened in 2019.

The Seikan Tunnel is 53.85 kilometres long and is a dual-gauge railway tunnel. It has a 23.3 kilometres segment under the seabed of the Tsugaru Strait (which separates Aomori Prefecture on the main Japanese island of Honshu from the northern island of Hokkaido). The track level of this tunnel is about 100 metres below the sea-bed and 240 metres below sea level.

Seikan Tunnel is also the second longest main-line railway tunnel- the longest one being the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland, which was opened in 2016.

Picture Credit : Google 

Which is the longest railway line in the world?

The Trans-Siberian Railway is a railway network that connects Western Russia to the Russian Far East. It is the longest railway line in the world with a length of 9,289 kilometres. Expansion of this railway system is still continuing as of 2021, reaching to Mongolia, China, and North Korea. There is a plan of connecting Tokyo to this network via bridges between the mainland and the islands of Sakhalin and Hokkaido.

Planned and executed by Tsar Alexander III, its construction began in 1891 and took place in different sections from the west (Moscow) and from the east (Vladivostok) and across intermediate reaches through the Mid-Siberian Railway, the Transbaikal Railway, and other lines simultaneously. In the east, the Russians secured China’s permission to build a line directly across Manchuria from the Transbaikal region to Vladivostok and this line was completed in 1901.

After the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, Russia feared Japan’s possible takeover of Manchuria and built a longer and complex alternative route – the Amur Railway, through this region to Vladivostok. The Amur railway line was completed in 1916. As a result, the Trans-Siberian Railroad has two completion dates.

Its completion marked a milestone in the history of Siberia, as it opened up large areas to be exploited for settlement, and industrialization.

Picture Credit : Google 

Why is the Pan-American Highway special?

The Pan-American Highway is the world’s longest “motorable road”. It also holds a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. Started as a single route in 1923, this road grew into a number of designated highways in participating countries, and has now become a network of highways between North America and South America. From Alaska and Canada to Chile, Brazil, and the southern tip of Argentina, this vast network is nearly 30,600 km long. The Inter-American Highway, which extends from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, to Panama City (5,390 km), is a part of it.

In 1937, Argentina, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and the United States signed the Convention on the Pan-American Highway, by which all of them came together for the quick construction of their respective sections of the highway. The Mexican section, which was the first Latin American section to be completed, was carried out completely by Mexico. However, the U.S. had to provide assistance to build the sections through many of the Central American countries.

The Pan-American Highway is almost continuous, except at the Darien Gap, which is the overland route between Panama and Colombia. This route is about a 100 kilometres. The Darien Gap consists of environmentally sensitive rainforests and marshlands and are inhabited by indigenous people, who have always opposed any plans to continue the construction of the highway in this region. People who want to cover this length of the Americas on the Pan-American Highway generally travel the gap by boat or plane.

Picture Credit : Google