Dr Rajiv Desai
An Educational Blog
Undersea Optical Fiber Cable
Undersea Optical Fiber Cable: Figure above shows map of the world’s undersea communication cables. _ Section-1 Prologue: If you ask any average citizen, “where does the internet come from?” the answer you most likely get would be from space, via satellites. Wrong. Modern consumers have come to imagine the internet as something unseen in the atmosphere – an invisible “cloud” just above our heads, raining data down upon us. Because our devices aren’t tethered to any cables, many of us believe the whole thing is wireless but the reality is far more extraordinary. The vast majority of information that flows across the tens of billions of devices connected to the internet comes from the sea. Around 600 fiber-optic undersea cables carry more than 95% of all internet data. The fact that we route internet traffic through the ocean – amidst deep sea creatures and hydrothermal vents – […]
Cloud Seeding
Cloud Seeding: _ _ Section-1 Prologue: In the 1956 movie The Rainmaker, Burt Lancaster plays a con man catering to the dreams of spinster Katharine Hepburn. And while both stars triumph in the end — the rain does fall, and she comes out of her shell. In Hindu tradition, mortals prayed and performed elaborate rituals to please Indra, the god of rain. Legend has it that musician Tansen’s melodious voice could summon showers from cloudless skies. Humans have long sought to purposefully alter such atmospheric phenomena as clouds, rain, snow, hail, lightning, thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and cyclones. The modern era of scientific weather modification began in 1946 with work by Vincent J. Schaefer and Irving Langmuir at the General Electric Research Laboratories in Schenectady, N.Y. Schaefer discovered that when dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) pellets were dropped into a cloud composed of water droplets in a deep-freeze box, the […]
The Enigma of Quantum Entanglement
The Enigma of Quantum Entanglement: _ _ Section-1 Prologue: Physicists and philosophers of physics have been debating the meaning of quantum mechanics in general, and quantum entanglement in particular, ever since quantum mechanics was first formulated, and are still debating it today, almost 100 years later. At the heart of quantum mechanics lies a concept that feels almost magical—quantum entanglement. Imagine two particles of the same type becoming so intertwined that a change in one instantly affects the other, no matter how far apart they are. This is the essence of quantum entanglement, a phenomenon that Albert Einstein famously described as “spooky action at a distance.” Quantum entanglement stands as one of the strangest and hardest concepts to understand in physics. Two or more particles can interact in a specific way that leave them entangled, such that a later measurement on one system identifies what the outcome of a […]
Critical Minerals
Critical Minerals: _ Tesla would not go out of business if supplies of cobalt vanished. But without it, the current generation of electric vehicles would not be able to drive as far between charges or remain in service as long without replacing the batteries. _ Section-1 Prologue: Archaeologists and historians describe early civilizations and periods of human history using terms such as the Stone Age, the Copper Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. Such descriptions reflect the fundamental importance of nonfuel minerals, metals, and materials technology and applications. Early civilizations were built to a significant degree using the seven metals of antiquity (in order of discovery): gold (6000 BC), copper (4200 BC), silver (4000 BC), lead (3500 BC), tin (1750 BC), iron (1500 BC), and mercury (750 BC). Each discovery led to a range of innovations and applications that provided a marked advantage until such time […]
Nuclear Holocaust
Nuclear Holocaust: No one person can be credited with producing the world’s first atomic bomb but two men (figure above) had outsize achievements in that effort: physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and Army Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves. _ The movement of survivors of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, known as hibakusha, receives the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to achieve a world without nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through personal testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again. “So long as any state has nuclear weapons, others will want them. So long as any such weapons remain, there is a risk that they will one day be used, by design or accident. And any such use would be catastrophic.” —Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission _____ Section-1 Prologue: Hiram Maxim, the inventor of the machine gun, declared, “Only a general who was a barbarian would send […]
