Technolgies useful for Indian problems

[A Sharma]

A textile vein in your heart? IIT on the job

[Sanjay M]

Here is a link to the actual paper from Profs Tajmar & Matos:

http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0603033

And here are some more news articles:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 232140.htm

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2006/3/emw364473.htm

If the phenomenon is validated by other labs reproducing similar results, then it would mean the possibility of achieving acceleration without Newtonian action-reaction.

This could open up the idea of "field propulsion" whereby a spacecraft could travel without being constrained by a limited onboard propellant supply. In order to travel from point A to point B, you would simply generate an accelerative field which would distort space and cause you to "fall" in the desired direction, without your having to interact with any other mass body to achieve this.

Similarly, while in the presence of a natural gravitational field, such as Earth's, an artificial gravity field could be used to counteract the natural force of gravity, to either lighten an object's apparent weight or even levitate it.

The dawn of a new form of transportation?

[A Sharma]

Nanotechnology helps IIT-B to develop 'Silicon Locket'

[Sanjay M]

Heh, I know I'm harping on it, but I just wanted to post yet another link about the European Space Agency's announcement on having generated artificial gravity using a superconductor:

http://arstechnica.com/journals/science ... /3/27/3334

I liked this link because it articulates and paraphrases the description of the phenomenon in an entirely different way than the other articles.

We've seen Indians at the forefront of research in nanotubes, fusion, quantum computing, superconductors, stem cells, and so many other cutting-edge fields. Now let's hope that some will seek to foray into artificial gravity research, if the ESA results pan out.

[Alok_N]

If the phenomenon is validated by other labs reproducing similar results, then it would mean the possibility of achieving acceleration without Newtonian action-reaction.

is someone claiming that, or is it your idea? ... I haven't studied it but at first glance, it does not seem possible to use gravito-magnetic fields for accelerating objects ...

if it is anything like magnetic fields, it will do no work (the force is a cross-product) ...

[Sanjay M]

If the phenomenon is validated by other labs reproducing similar results, then it would mean the possibility of achieving acceleration without Newtonian action-reaction.

is someone claiming that, or is it your idea? ... I haven't studied it but at first glance, it does not seem possible to use gravito-magnetic fields for accelerating objects ...

if it is anything like magnetic fields, it will do no work (the force is a cross-product) ...

Alok, my statement was based on the idea that if you can generate an arbitrary gravitational field, then you can fall in the direction that you choose to. As you know from the Equivalence Principle, it is impossible to tell the difference between inertial acceleration and gravitational acceleration from within that reference frame.


Meanwhile the field of superconductivity may have been boosted by Amit Goyal's research, in which superconductivity is found to be more robust when it is broken into very short nano-scale domains:

http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/10/3/21/1

[Sanjay M]

A new process will allow the manufacture of jet fuel from coal:

http://www.techreview.com/BizTech-Energ ... 96,p1.html

The USAF is investing in this process.

[Sanjay M]

a new device is being tested in India for cleaning blood, and could be a useful tool in the defense against bio-terror:

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/medicine/4 ... drcrd.html

[Alok_N]

Alok, my statement was based on the idea that if you can generate an arbitrary gravitational field, then you can fall in the direction that you choose to.

the point is about acceleration ... using this effect, theoretically one could steer an object gravitationally, but without increasing the object's energy, i.e., without accelerating ...

[Div]

Reliance webs rural India
http://www.ciol.com/content/news/2006/106040106.asp

[Sanjay M]

Alok, my statement was based on the idea that if you can generate an arbitrary gravitational field, then you can fall in the direction that you choose to.

the point is about acceleration ... using this effect, theoretically one could steer an object gravitationally, but without increasing the object's energy, i.e., without accelerating ...

Hi Alok, to steer any object (ie. change its velocity vector) is to accelerate it. I don't see why kinetic energy of the system would have to stay constant, as long as one is expending energy to generate the gravitational field that achieves the increase in kinetic energy. This would allow things to balance out. The idea then is one can expend energy without expending/expelling propellant mass. Perhaps this would enable nuclear power to be utilized for propulsion in a novel way (ie. use nuclear energy to spin a superconductive gyroscopic mass)

I guess the confusion in the analogy between gravitation and magnetism is that we don't call a magnetic field a curvature of spacetime in the same way we do for gravity. If gravity is exclusively that curvature of spacetime, then it represents an interaction between mass and space itself, rather than a mechanism of interaction between different objects.

In related stories, other discoveries have been made showing chinks in the armor of the Standard Model of Physics.

Neutrinos have been discovered to have mass:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4862112.stm

The Standard Model says that neutrinos have zero mass, so clearly this represents a fundamental revision, and will even affect calculations on the mass of the universe, and theories like Dark Matter, etc, would have to be reviewed accordingly.

[jyerna]

I would be very glad if anyone can explain to me how any of the above technologies posted in last couple of pages would be helpful in solving a variety of India specific problems like poverty, poor nutrition among kids, monsoon dependent agricultrue output, non-availability of power, illiteracy etc.

Thank you.

[Sanjay M]

Well, which tech-related postings do you specifically take issue with?

Yes, the anti-gravity post was more of a theoretical conjecture, but the rest of the postings were mostly related to energy, biotech and computing.

As you may know, energy is a key economic bottleneck, and more of it will free up the economy to generate more jobs and prosperity. Computers are helping to combat illiteracy and spread education. Biotech is useful in food production and abetting health.

Shall I just restrict my tech postings purely to new applications in the use of cow-dung? Or how about just new ways to thatch a roof?

[Singha]

architect Gerard da cunha creates a very interesting desertish type town for jindal steel in a arid locality

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2006 ... -29-04.asp

btw he was first husband of arundhati roy





and I remembered having purchased this wonderful book from him directly by sending a cheque to Goa during my days in bahadur land.

http://www.indoarch.org/archauto.php

those of you with a interest in indian arts and architecture should buy this book. a treasure trove of photography and descriptions.

[Singha]

thoughtful touches...."Visalia" could use such ideas

http://www.goanet.org/wiki/index.php/Gerard_da_Cunha's

In the arid setting of north eastern Karnataka, Gerard da Cunha then made his own options. A main maidan is located in the centre of the township. In each segment or sector, comprising of 18 houses each, they located all kitchens in a way these overlooked a space where the tiny tots could play. So the mums could easily see the children at play. Likewise, children could go to a playground without crossing any roads. Traffic has been kept on the exteriors.

“It was an idealistic situation where you would never worry about your child hitting traffic,â€

[jyerna]

Shall I just restrict my tech postings purely to new applications in the use of cow-dung? Or how about just new ways to thatch a roof?

May be you can take a cue from the posts on the first few pages of this thread. For your convenience, here is the thread starting post which sets the objective of this discussion.

Indian economy and people need a lot of old and new technologies used wisely to prosper and manage contention for resources.
Some of these are emerging stuff like low cost salt water desalination, low footprint low pollution light manufacturing and some are age old but seldom applied stuff like drip irrigation, rain water harvesting, solar panels on roof to heat water....

you NRI's can play a good role here, embedded as you are in the leading univs and cos all around the world.

Please use this thread for news and discussion of technolgies and tools that can solve indian problems - be it literacy, communication, crops, biodiversity, pollution, governance, housing, R&D , security ....

If you want to post a new practical technology that can generate more gobar gas or generate electricity directly from cow dung, then definitely do post it here. You can also post new ways of thatching a roof or new material for roofing that are affordable and much cheaper than bamboo and dry leaves. But if you find a new electron bean melting technology useful for fabricating parts out of metal, then please think twice before posting. Afterall all new technologies being invented are to overcome limitations of the current technologies. You dont invent new stuff just for the heck of it. So, lets limit the scope of this thread to technologies useful for India specific problem. How can we use technology to help the millions of the rural poor improve their standard of living?

[Sanjay M]

Here you go, man:

http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/mar/31sperm.htm

New injectable male contraceptive awaiting clinical results from Indian study trial.

Sorry, I don't have any pictures to post for you.

[jyerna]

I am sorry, I did not click on the link... does the contraceptive use anti-gravity materials that prevents conception?
If you are not able to find pictures, post some illustrations since you seem to be very familiar with the subject.

[Sanjay M]

As part of the post-hurricane reconstruction effort, New York architect Marianne Cusato has designed the Katrina Cottage, which is a panelized pre-fab house that is cheaper than most temporary trailers, yet strong enough for permanent housing.

There is more here in this Businessweek article

[Sanjay M]

Researchers have only just now discovered that GroupXIII materials such as the metal Indium have the ability to polymerize, potentially allowing for great versatility in semiconductor fabrication:

http://www.physorg.com/news63297350.html

Indium polymers could be used to create spray-on coatings for solar power generation, or even flexible OLED displays for rugged laptops, e-chaupals, simputers, etc.

[SaiK]

Microsoft Tech support!

[Alok_N]

Sanjay M,

This stuff is getting OT, so I'll keep this short ... it is correct that pseudo-vector forces can "accelerate" as in change direction, but they do no work and hence do not impart energy to an object ... the gavitational effect that was described seemed similar ...

also, it is well known that neutrinos can not constitute dark matter ... the question is whether they are Dirac particles (like electrons) or Majorana particles (self-conjugate) ... the SM needs to be extended in any case because it is an incomplete theory ...

[amritk]

I was recently in the Andheri/SEEPZ area of Mumbai and was watching some road construction labourers trying to start a small diesel-engine powered machine. I think the machine is used to compact the wet concrete, looks a bit like a lawn mower - civil engs can correct me. For at least 25 minutes three people were trying to start the thing (finally it did start). One guy to hold the machine steady. One guy to wrap a sad looking piece of rope around the starter pulley and one more for moral support or backup when the other guy's arm gets tired. The rope broke twice while I watched. It was knotted each time, and reused. A few days later I saw the same people doing the same thing. And this under the much touted mumbai urban infrastructure project (MUIP)! What a waste of time and effort.

We need some technology to solve this problem! I suggest a stronger piece of rope.

That road has been under construction for 1 year+, and will take another year by the looks of it. The traffic is nightmarish; no place to walk on the road. It could be completed in 3 months if halfway decent construction techniques and equipment were used.

[Sanjay M]

Alok, unless you're thinking of something like a "power satellite" bound in a fixed orbital trajectory, gravity does indeed do work. Hydroelectric power users can attest to this.

The point is that work is being done to produce the artificial gravitational field, and so that work is where the change to the object's kinetic energy is coming from -- it's simply being applied through a different coupling method. It is therefore not a pseudo-vector force, like the way centripetal acceleration is for a power satellite. If done right, the convolution doesn't have to zero out, and can instead provide a net non-zero vector.

Regarding neutrinos, they don't have to become coherent/condensed matter to exert an aggregate gravitational pull, and to account for a sizeable fraction of mass in the universe. Every cubic centimetre of space is believed to have hundreds of neutrinos, and across the entire volume of space in the universe this then adds up to quite a lot. And that is partly why the MINOS experiment is so groundbreaking, along with the original Japanese experiment whose results it helped validate.

Anyway, I know the navel-gazing luddites of the Red-Green persuasion get very itchy everytime discussion departs from proletarian diktats or how to properly slaughter a goat, so let me return the thread to its original track.
(Perhaps someone could allow me to start a thread on "21st-Century India: Science & Technology Developments" just so that people can discuss these things without being taunted on "how does GSLV help the common man? how does thorium help the common man? how does open source software help the common man? aren't you ashamed that resources are being spent on luxuries like stem cells instead of improving our rice paddies?" Or perhaps we can have a thread on "Disruptive/Leapfrog Technologies" since India's development path is earning it the title of leapfrog nation. I strongly believe we need to keep abreast of the technical cutting edge.)

Alright, so anyway:

A new material could reduce the cost of fuel cells, to help facilitate distributed local power generation:

http://www.techreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=16665

More on Intel's low-cost Discover PC, intended for poor countries:

http://www.techreview.com/BizTech-R&D/w ... 95,p1.html


Disabled Japanese to ascend mountain using robot exo-skeletal suits:
(perhaps there's a military utility for troops on high mountain frontiers?)

http://english.people.com.cn/200604/04/ ... 55806.html

Hmm, robots, HAL, Cyberdyne ... sounds like an ominous combination of names, anyway...

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/World/2 ... 8-sun.html

http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xht ... 00000094M0

[Alok_N]

Sanjay M,

I am not averse to discussing such topics in the proper forum ... however, it is not fair to the readership to post misleading comments ... someone might take them seriously ... a cross-product force does no work ... period.

now, this neutrino bit:

Regarding neutrinos, they don't have to become coherent/condensed matter to exert an aggregate gravitational pull, and to account for a sizeable fraction of mass in the universe. Every cubic centimetre of space is believed to have hundreds of neutrinos, and across the entire volume of space in the universe this then adds up to quite a lot.

unfortunately physics is a science of measurements and not speculations ... neutrinos have been ruled out as a dark matter candidate ... google it ...

And that is partly why the MINOS experiment is so groundbreaking, along with the original Japanese experiment whose results it helped validate.

I'll let the MINOS folks know that they have fans ... they are a bit depressed about lack of any new result ...

[Sanjay M]

Sanjay M,

I am not averse to discussing such topics in the proper forum ... however, it is not fair to the readership to post misleading comments ... someone might take them seriously ... a cross-product force does no work ... period.

Alok, a cross-product is measured against spatial coordinates, and when those very coordinates are themselves warped as an Einsteinian geodesic, then the conventional notion of a cross-product does not apply.
Again, magnetism is not a curvature of spacetime, but gravity is. So it's apples and oranges.

unfortunately physics is a science of measurements and not speculations ... neutrinos have been ruled out as a dark matter candidate ... google it ...

see article here

Neutrinos have been measured and found to have mass. Physics does allow for speculations, as these are the basis on how to seek new measurements. Science is an interplay between observation and theory, and not an absolute dictatorship of one over the other.

[Alok_N]

I give up about gravitational magnetics ... one aspect of pursuing physics is not being needlessly stubborn ...

regarding the other topic, you should read the articles you post ... it is about sterile neutrinos which has nothing to do with MINOS ... in fact experiments such as MINOS rule out sterile neutrinos ... keep your references straight ...

so, MINOS will tell us a big fat ZERO about dark matter ... it is about real neutrinos and not some speculative set of right-handed neutrinos ...

as for speculations, they have to be within a set of parameter ... neutrinos were a candidate for dark matter a decade ago ... once a theory is disproven, extending and tweaking it beyond the original is usually bad science ...

I could postulate that dark matter is made up of invisible space-faring elephants ... can you disprove it?

[Sanjay M]

Alok, even if sterile neutrinos in particular aren't viable, the fact is that MINOS and SuperKamiokande have determined the rest of the neutrinos have gravitational mass. And gravitational mass is the raison d'etre for Dark Matter, in order to account for why the Universe isn't inflating faster.

Meanwhile, here's a useful technological innovation for agriculture:

www.gizmag.com/go/5481/

A rapidly inflatable conveyor belt which can be quickly deployed for agricultural work. These are the sorts of things which can help increase productivity while reducing backbreaking burdens.

[Alok_N]

Alok, even if sterile neutrinos in particular aren't viable, the fact is that MINOS and SuperKamiokande have determined the rest of the neutrinos have gravitational mass. And gravitational mass is the raison d'etre for Dark Matter, in order to account for why the Universe isn't inflating faster.

boss, let's leave raisin dieter to the pakis ... yes neutrinos have mass, but they don't have enough mass ... hence, they can not constitute dark matter ...

[SaiK]

can neutrinos be generated like radio waves and thus used in advanced strategic and defence and communcation products?

[SaiK]

can neutrinos be generated like radio waves and thus find use in advanced strategic and defence and communcation products?

[Bade]

There are simple techniques like fire detection from space which could be useful for a wide variety of activities.

Barren island eruption caught from space

[Sanjay M]

SaiK the neutrino cross-section is very low, which makes it harder to detect, and so you have to build a huge reciever/detector like in the MINOS or SuperKamiokande experiments. Radio waves are much easier by comparison.

The only advantage the neutrino has, is that it can travel thru matter easily, which radio waves (low-energy photons) cannot do. So if you were journeying to the centre of the earth, like in the Jules Verne story, or perhaps even submerged 20,000 leagues under the sea, then you might find neutrinos to be a useful means of communication.

Meanwhile, here's a new laser tuned to selectively passing through some matter, which is being developed for selectively burning fat from the body:

http://www.itv.com/news/index_702390.html

http://www.physorg.com/news63806610.html

A laser like this would only heat up the harmful fat in your body, while leaving the rest of your tissues unaffected. Perhaps it will one day clear arteries, destroy pimples, and actually make obese people thinner.

[Sanjay M]

I've posted before about phyto-remediation, such as arsenic-eating plants like the brake fern which can absorb significant amounts of arsenic from the soil. Now genetic engineering is being used to improve the plants' characteristics, enabling them to transfer the arsenic from their stems to their shoots:

article here

This would enable quick and easy harvesting and cleanup of the toxic chemical, by chopping them at the stem. The plant would then re-grow and suck up more arsenic in the process.

As you know, India & Bangla have a lot of arsenic-contaminated groundwater.

[ramana]

From London Times

GM success puts cheap drug for malaria within reach of Africa

[quote]

GM success puts cheap drug for malaria within reach of Africa
By Mark Henderson
A US breakthrough will allow scientists to engineer the key ingredient of the best treatment

Mosquitoes spread the disease

A CHEAP and effective treatment for malaria could be available within a decade after scientists genetically engineered a form of yeast to make the key ingredient of the drug best able to fight the disease.

The advance by a research team in the United States should reduce greatly the cost of manufacturing artemisinin, the most effective therapy for the world’s second-most deadly infectious disease.

Artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs), in which the drug is given in combination with older anti-malarial treatments, are recommended by the World Health Organisation as the best way of fighting malaria. But the cost places them beyond the means of many of the developing countries where malaria is most prevalent.

At present, artemisinin can be made only by using an acid extracted from the sweet wormwood plant, Artemisia annua, which is grown in China. The raw material is expensive, raising the cost of a dose of ACT to about £1.35 per person. By producing artemisinic acid, the key precursor of artemisinin, artifically from genetically modified yeast or bacteria, the researchers hope that they will eventually be able to reduce the cost to as little as 14p per dose, making it more widely available in poor countries.

Malaria kills more people than any infection other than HIV/Aids, with an annual death toll estimated at between 1 million and 2.7 million. It infects between 300 million and 500 million a year, chiefly in Africa.

The new strain of yeast has been engineered by a team led by Jay Keasling, Professor of Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, which discovered two years ago that it was possible to modify microbes to make artemisinic acid.

The yeast, details of which are published today in the journal Nature, is an efficient producer of the acid and should allow scientists to sidestep expensive laboratory processes needed at present to synthesise artemisinin.

Although the scientists do not believe that it will be possible to make artemisinin itself in microbes, they say that making the precursor is almost as good. All the artimisinin drugs on the market are made from the precursor acid.

“This is probably as close to artemisinin as we are going to get in microbes,â€

[Alok_N]

thanks ramana for a technological advance that is truly applicable to economically developing nations ... let's not post about neutrinos no more ...

[Sanjay M]

Your post was gratuitous, Alok; the thread has already moved on.

Anyway, we've all heard about the benefits of LED lighting, but OLED polymers will allow flexibility in geometry:

article here

Perhaps this could lead to skylights which let in natural light during the day, and convert into ceiling lamps at night.

[Sanjay M]

In the event of an emergency, a new collapsible elevator can be used to evacuate people:

article here

watch the video here

[Sanjay M]

A protein found in Wallaby milk has 100 times the anti-bacterial potency as penicillin:

article here

[Sanjay M]

Laminated holograms can improve solar efficiency, bringing material costs down:

article here