SCIENCE AND SOCIETY

  DEVASTATING EARTHQUAKE IN TURKEY   Nikunja Bihari Sahu             A 7.8 magnitude earthquake, relatively huge on the Richter scale, struck south-eastern Turkey, near the Syrian border, in the early hours of February 6  causing widespread devastation to life and property unprecedented in recent times with the death toll predicted to touch 50,000 in coming days. This was followed by more than 6000 aftershocks with 40  of them within the deadly 5 to 6 magnitudes range.  Two powerful quakes of 7.6 and 6  magnitudes also struck the same region on the same day in the aftermath of the incident. The series of earthquakes killed more than 48,000 people to date, destroyed more than one lakh buildings and left a million people homeless. These earthquakes are estimated to have caused nearly $84.1 billion worth of damage to property, ranking them the fourth deadliest earthquake on record. According to the UN, which ...

                                                                HUNT OF THE HUDHUD                                                                                                          Nikunja Bihari Sahu            History repeats itself! While on October 12, 2013, the Sapphire (referred to as the cyclonic storm Phailin meaning ‘Sapphire’ in the Thai language)   shone brightly on the Odisha crest, exactly a year later the Hoopoe (referred to as the cyclonic storm Hudhud)  flapped its wings vigorously i...

  NEW HORIZON MISSION  HAS CHANGED OUR IDEAS ON PLUTO Nikunja Bihari Sahu       From a small, distant, faint point of light in 1930 (ever since it was discovered by the US astronomer Clyde Tombaugh) to the recent rendezvous of  NASA’s New Horizon Flyby Mission, the dwarf planet  Pluto has evoked many speculations during in  its 85 years of  history. The mission has completely revamped our ideas on this mysterious world   and shown us a world in great detail like never before. It is going to be a fascinating new world now with immense surface features and hectic geological activity! Some of the  landmark findings of the mission is outlined below:   An active world with tall mountains   The high-resolution close-up photograph of Pluto's surface revealed a bizarre craterless surface unlike most Solar System planets and their Moons. Planetary craters are generally formed by the bombardment of meteors or as...

                                        HISTORIC SUNDIAL OF BARAMBA Nikunja Bihari Sahu                    Known for the famous temple of the goddess Bhattarika on the bank of the river Mahanadi, the erstwhile princely state of the British colonial period, Barambagarh is located nearly  84 km West of Bhubaneswar. The Baramba palace still stands in testimony to this glorified past of the royal period. A British period sundial that adorns the Tahsil office premises of Baramba adds further to this great colonial legacy. There was a time when the device was quietly ticking away under the Sun and people, from far and near, were thronging the site for checking time , as there was no other time-keeping device then available. However, things have changed a lot over the years. Time has clearly taken a to...