Death from above

I was reading a news report of an asteroid that that hit the earth’s atmosphere at Caribbean on 22^nd July this year. Fortunately the size of this asteroid was only three meters wide so no major damages. NASA admitted that it did not have any idea that this was coming thereby reiterating the need for a constant watch on the sky in case a massive asteroid comes hurling through space and crashing down the earth, which could cause wide spread damages to earth and all living beings.

Apophis -God of chaos Image Courtesy Google Images

An asteroid named after Ancient Egyptian god of evil, darkness and destruction Apophis of diameter 370 meters noticed in 2004 is on a potentially collision course with the earth. NASA have stated that it will not strike the earth but will fly close to earth in 2029 and the scientists will study the asteroid for a better under understanding but cannot rule out the possible impact decades later in 2068 as the close encounters with earth may affect some changes to the orbit and shape of the asteriod. In the event this 27 billion kg asteroid strikes the earth the impact blast would be equivalent to 65000 times powerful than the atomic bomb on Hiroshima which is worrying matter indeed. 

One leading cosmochemist Natalie Starkey, who revealed one could even hit tomorrow. We need to understand what these things are made of and what their orbits are so we can actually protect the planet. “I think everyone should be concerned about it, but not worried. “I don’t think we need to be worried that tomorrow we’re going to all die in an asteroid impact, although it could happen. “I think it’s something we need to be concerned with for the future.” 

As per NEO (Near Earth Object) watch group of NASA there over 20,000 asteroid  large enough to be tracked in space before striking the earth. I just mentioned only one asteroid Apophis in previous paragraph and now imagine the probability of a asteroid strike on our universe... it is quite frightening isn’t it. 

Earth has been through five mast extinction and the last one was nearly 66 million years ago wherein the entire dinosaur species along with nearly three fourth of all other living beings were killed. There are two different theories put forth by the scientists to explain the fifth mass extinction. One is known as Alvarez Hypothesis which states that a massive asteroid of size 10-15 km wide slammed into the earth and thereby filling the atmosphere with gas, dust and debris that drastically altered the climate of the earth and thereby killing most living beings.. This theory gained some traction with the finding of a huge impact crater along the coast of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. Some scientists say that evidence of massive asteroid impact is not conclusive and the culprit may be the earth itself. Ancient lava flows in India known as the Deccan Traps seems to match the time of the fifth extinction resulting in volcanic rock coverage for over 200,000 square kilometres in layers that are in places more than 6000 feet thick and this could possibly mean that there had been a vast and massive eruption that would have choked the skies gases and thereby altered the earth’s climate drastically leading to the extinction.

Since the killer asteroid that struck the earth 66 million years back, many smaller asteroid and space rocks have struck the earth and thankfully we are yet to see a large object fly towards us. NASA says such events happen once in few million years and as a result the scientists are certain that sooner or later it is bound to happen and we have to make preparations to protect the earth when it happens.

I am sure that most people would have watched the blockbuster science fiction movie of 1998 named  Armageddon  wherein few people fly on to a huge asteroid heading to earth to drill and plant nuclear bomb to blow the asteroid to pieces may become a reality in future with multinational task force to protect the earth from asteroid impacts. With so much progress in science in last few decades i am sure scientists will come up with a solution to protect the earth in such events. 

So finally guys/gals do not be worried of death from above.. live your life as it unfolds....Cheers

Once a failure does not mean failure always

Last couple of days the media has been harping of the lunar mission by we Indians and our news network (Indian) have been shouting (NDTV) hoarse that the mission is a failure. In contrast the International Media have been lauding the Indian scientist for having pulled off a complex mission with notable success on their first attempt. Yes the Lunar Lander Vikram lost communication with the ground station while just 2 kms above the moon surface. It would take time to analyze all the readings for the scientists at ISRO to pin the reason for this glitch and accordingly use this knowledge to rectify the same for future missions. USA had 11 attempts, Russia 7 and China 5 before they could succeed. 

In life as well as in science a failure once does not always mean always a failure. In fact most successful and famous men in the world have failed repeatedly and have endured these failures in their life. They did not give up, but got up and kept going on towards their goals and have succeeded finally. Some sadly did not find success but their work in turn has inspired others to take up the thread where it was left and complete the same. What happens during this pursuit for success is generally not known to public and there may have been multiple failures in the path to glory and  may be revealed only in the event of success.

If we have to make new discoveries in science or life then it means that we have to leap into the dark and the chances are that it may be a failure for there are no set guidelines in the dark and it is a new frontier with untold probabilities. People who fear failure will not take this leap and be just another human leading a risk free normal life. 

Image Courtesy Google Images

In science there are failures and rejections much more often than success that are recorded over a period of time and it has never stopped committed scientist to brave all these pitfalls and prevail in the end to help mankind in all fields of science. So much progress today is due to unrelenting pursuit of life changing discoveries that these people undertook and just to name few here are Nicholas Copernicus, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Louis Pasteur, Alexander Graham Bell, Wright brothers, Faraday, Alexander Fleming, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and lot more. The list of scientist and people who have contributed to the mankind is large and would run into pages.

So never give up... Keep trying and trying and am sure you would achieve your goal.

What is it in a name??

I have been queried by quite a few people as to why I chose to use my alter ego to be “engram” and here goes my response

As an engineer we do not use the prefix Engineer before our names unlike the doctors but then while in gulf I noticed most engineers from Egypt use the prefix Engineer before their names. This gave me an idea for selecting the change of name for my blog and also for my copyright name. My blog now is known as Engram’s random rambling and my copyright for my images are @engrams photos. A very simple thought process while selecting the name ... well the first three letters from engineer and the first three letters of my name– Engineer Ramesh to formulate Engram

I never knew that the same name is used as a medical term and as per the Collins English dictionary the word Engram is explained as the physical basis of an individual memory in the brain. In neuropsychology a memory trace, is also known as an engram, is a theoretical means by which memories are physically stored in the brain. The actual method of storage of memory, whether by biophysical or biochemical means, is still being debated. The name engram was originally coined by a scientist by name Richard Semon, a German biologist who thought he may be able to find the place where the memories are stored. 

Phewww i never thought that the name I selected has so much history to it, but then am quite pleased that my alter ego is an unit of memory trace for my blogs and images are indeed my memories. Fuelled by astonishment I did a Google searched my blog Engrams Random Rambling and to my pleasant surprise I found that one of my blog about “ Work Life Balance” has been referred in couple of research papers. 

 

 

The screenshot of credits being given to my blog in the research paper carried out by couple of professors from Banaras Hindu University. Also a mention of the same blog has been referred in a paper submitted to The International Journal of Business & Management by two persons from Abia State University, Nigeria. In my blog I had recounted my experiences about the work culture changes over a period of time and i am very happy that my post was read by people across the world and also gave them some thoughts to pursue it further in their research.

This does reinforces my thoughts about writing blogs that someone somewhere would surely read what I write and may be of some use to them in a small way.