Science Zone

WHY DO WE DREAM?

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First, let’s start by answering a basic question – 
What is a dream?<br />
 A dream can include any of the images, thoughts and emotions that are experienced during sleep. Dreams can be extraordinarily vivid or very vague; filled with joyful emotions or frightening imagery; focused and understandable or unclear and confusing.<br />
<br />
So why do we dream?<br />
What purpose dreams serve?<br />
<br />
While many theories have been proposed, no single consensus has emerged. Considering the enormous amount of time we spend in a dreaming state, the fact that researchers do not yet understand the purpose of dreams may seem baffling.   
However, it is important to consider that science is still unraveling the exact purpose and function of sleep itself. 
Some researchers suggest that dreams serve no 
real purpose, while others believe that dreaming is essential to mental, emotional and physical well-being.<br />
<br />
Ernest Hoffman, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Newton Wellesley Hospital in Boston, Mass., suggests that "...a possible (though 
certainly not proven) function of a dream is to be 
weaving new material into the memory system in a way that both reduces emotional arousal and is adaptive in helping us cope with further trauma or stressful events."   
Next, let’s learn more about some of the most 
prominent dream theories.<br />
<br />
Psychoanalytic Theory of Dreams: 
Consistent with the psychoanalytic perspective, 
Sigmund Freud’s theory of dreams suggested that dreams were a representation of unconscious desires, thoughts and motivations. According to Freud’s psychoanalytic view of personality, people are driven by aggressive and sexual instincts that are repressed from conscious awareness. 
While these thoughts are not consciously expressed, Freud suggested that they find their way into our awareness via dreams.<br />
<br />
In his famous book The Interpretation of Dreams, 
Freud wrote that dreams are "...disguised 
fulfillments of repressed wishes." He also described two different components of dreams: manifest content and latent content. 
Manifest content is made up of the actual images, thoughts and content contained within the dream, while the latent content represents the hidden psychological meaning of the dream. 
Freud’s theory contributed to the popularity of 
dream interpretation, which remains popular today. 
However, research has failed to demonstrate that 
the manifest content disguises the real psychological significance of a dream.<br />
<br />
Activation- Synthesis Model of Dreaming: 
The activation-synthesis model of dreaming was 
first proposed by J. Allan Hobson and Robert 
McClarley in 1977. According to this theory, circuits in the brain become activated during REM sleep which causes areas of the limbic system involved in emotions, sensations and memories, including the amygdala and hippocampus, to become active.<br />
The brain synthesizes and interprets this internal activity and attempts to find meaning in these signals, which results in dreaming. 
This model suggests that dreams are a subjective interpretation of signals generated by the brain during sleep.<br />
While this theory suggests that dreams are the 
result of internally generated signals, Hobson does not believe that dreams are meaningless. Instead, he suggests that dreaming is "…our most creative conscious state, one in which the chaotic, spontaneous recombination of cognitive elements produces novel configurations of information: new ideas. While many or even most of these ideas may be nonsensical, if even a few of its fanciful products are truly useful, our dream time will not have been wasted."<br />
<br />
Information-Processing Theories: 
One of the major theories to explain why we sleep is that sleep allows us to consolidate and process all of the information that we have collected during the previous day. 
Some dream experts suggest that dreaming is simply a by product or even an active part of this information-processing.<br />
As we deal with the multitude of information and memories from the daytime, our sleeping minds create images, impressions, and narratives to manage all of the activity going on inside our heads as we slumber.</div>

WHY DO WE DREAM?

First, let’s start by answering a basic question – What is a dream? A dream can include any of the images, thoughts and emotions that are experienced during sleep. Dreams can be extraordinarily viv…

24 Oct 2014

NOSE: THE ULTIMATE AIR CLEANER

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Your nose does more than just decorate your face. Inside, you’re carrying around a personal air treatment system, cleverly designed to protect the delicate tissues of your lungs that transfer oxygen out of the air you breathe and into your body.Whether classically bold or cutely upturned, your nose:<br />
<br />
*.Filters the air, catching and trapping tiny particles before they can get into your lungs.<br />
<br />
*.Humidifies the air, adding moisture to keep your airways from drying out.<br />
<br />
*.Warmsthe air to body temperature beforeit reaches your lungsThis marvelous system is portable, durable–usually fairly quiet – and never needs batteries! But it does require some maintenance to keep it working at peak efficience.<br />
<br />
<br />
What’s Up Your Nose?<br />
<br />
When you breathe through your nose, the air goes past your nostrils into an open area inside your head called the nasal cavity before heading down your trachea and into your lungs through your windpipe.The whole system of airways is lined with a thin layer of sticky mucus that traps dust particles, bacteria and other pollutants. Tiny hairs called cilia sweep mucus from your nasal cavity into the back of your throat where it can be swallowed and neutralized in your stomach. More mucus is constantly being produced (2-4 cups perday) and the cycle goes on.An intricate network of blood vessels takes care of the heating and humidifying work. Folds of tissue (called turbinates) inside your nasal cavity provide a huge surface area of blood vessels that warm the air to body temperature and add moisture within seconds.<br />
<br />
<br />
Meddling With Mucus:<br />
<br />
Mucus must have just the right balance of stickness and fluidity for the filtering process to work efficiently. Allergic reactions and infections can disrupt this balance, and dry air, irritating chemicals and second hand smoke tip the scales even more.Allergens and infections alert your immune system to send extra blood cells to the lining of your nasal passages, making them swollen and inflamed (congested).<br />
 the same time, your nose produces extra mucus.<br />
This can overwhelm the cilia’s ability to clean things out – and leave you with a stuffed-up or runny nose.<br />
<br />
Strong scents and chemicals (such as those in tobacco smoke) can affect how well the cilia in your nasal cavity work, alsocausing mucus to build up.A dry nose also has trouble moving mucus effectively. When the air you breathe is very dry especially cold winter air), it may pull more moisture than usual from your nose. The resulting dried out nasal passages and thickened mucus will be less able to sweep out germs, leaving you more susceptible to disease.<br />
<br />
<br />
Mouth Breathing: <br />
<br />
Breathing through your mouth instead of your nose – because your nose is congested, perhaps, or during vigorous exercise – by-passes much of  your body’s natural air filtering and treatment. This can allow germs, allergens and other pollutants to get inside your lungs, where they can damage delicate tissues.It also allows unconditioned air to affect sensitive small airways. For example, drawing cold air into your lungs without letting your nose warm it up first has a two fold effect:<br />
<br />
*.The cold air makes your airways tighten up and constrict, so breathing becomes more difficult<br />
<br />
*.The dryness thickens mucus and clogs the cilia, so your lungs are less able to process oxygen and move it into your bloodstream.<br />
<br />
<br />
ACold in the Nose:<br />
A “cold” is a viral infection in the lining of your nasal passages. You may pick up the germs by touching contaminated surfaces with your hands then touching your nose or eyes or by being exposed to germs from someone’s cough or sneeze. When your nose is working efficiently, cold viruses are swept out of the nasal passages in your mucus. When it’s not, they can sit in your nose and make their way into your nasal tissue, causing infection.<br />
<br />
<br />
Asthma:<br />
Because the connection between the nose and lungs is so important, keeping your nose healthy can help reduce problems in the lungs such as asthma symptoms. Sensitive airways already compromised by underlying inflammation are primed and ready to react when exposed to allergens, irritants, excess mucus or cold air.<br />
<br />
<br />
How To Maintain a Healthy Nose:<br />
<br />
Although you can’t always control the temperature or contents of the air you breathe, you can take steps to keep your nose as healthy as possible by following these tips:<br />
<br />
*.Drink plenty of water to keep mucus thin and fluid.<br />
<br />
*.Help warm the air you breathe in cold weather by wearing a scarf over your nose and mouth.<br />
<br />
*.Keep nasal passages moist with saltwater nasal washes or sprays, especially if you are exposed to dry air, allergens or infection.<br />
<br />
*.When using nasal sprays, be careful to direct the spray toward the outer surface of your nasal passage, away from the center of your nose, to avoid damaging the septum (the tissue that separates the two sides of your nasal passage).<br />
<br />
*.Limit your use of decongestant sprays, which can damage the cilia that clear the nose and sinuses.<br />
*.Ask your healthcare professional whether any other medications you take could contribute to nasal problems.<br />
<br />
<br />
 For instance, diuretic blood pressure medications and some anti-anxiety medications have a drying effect on nose and throat; birth control pills, betablockerblood pressure medicines and erectile dysfunction medication can increase nasal congestion;eye drops can aggravate nasal symptoms when they drain into the nose with tears.</div>

NOSE: THE ULTIMATE AIR CLEANER

Your nose does more than just decorate your face. Inside, you’re carrying around a personal air treatment system, cleverly designed to protect the delicate tissues of your lungs that transfer oxygen …

09 Oct 2014

SUN PILLAR

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Sun pillar is a halo phenomenon of a vertical shaft of
light extending upward or downward from the sun.
Typically seen during sunrise or sunset, sun pillars
form when sunlight reflects off the surfaces of ice
crystals associated with thin, high-level clouds
(e.g.cirrostrat us clouds). The hexagonal plate-like
ice crystals fall with a horizontal orientation, gently
rocking from side to side as they fall.<br />
<br />
When the sun
is low on the horizon, an area of brightness appears
in the sky above (or below) the sun as sunlight is
reflected off the surfaces of these tipped ice crystals.
However, often only the upper pillar appears.
Sun pillars are seen best within a few minutes of
sunrise or sunset. Initially the have about the same
colour and width as the sun, but sunpillars will
gradually change their colour from orange-white to
red-orange. Sun pillars generally fade 20 to 60
minutes after sunset.<br />
<br />
Under favourable conditions,
e.g. icy fog, sun pillars might stretch out up to 30°
above the sun, while light streaks of 5° to 10° are
most common.
On rare occasions, regarded with awe in more
superstitious times, it may occur with part of the
parhelic cycle to give the appearance of a cross
centred on the Sun. The sun pillar is comparable with
the light course, the setting sun produces on a water
surface.</div>

SUN PILLAR

Sun pillar is a halo phenomenon of a vertical shaft of light extending upward or downward from the sun. Typically seen during sunrise or sunset, sun pillars form when sunlight reflects off the surfac…

06 Oct 2014

THE MIRAGE

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It's 2:00 p.m. on a very hot afternoon, and
we've just pulled out of the entrance to the
express road. Far ahead of us a puddle seems to
be continuously evaporating off the sun-baked
pavement, its receding edge matching its speed
to ours. Even when my old man floor the
accelerator we
can't catch up to the water, but somehow the
cars passing ours easily do. They
drive into it without a splash, and they seem to be
reflected in it, upside down.<br />
<br />
Of course, real water doesn't behave this way.
The retreating puddle is just the most familiar
form of that often misunderstood phenomenon
of air and light, the mirage.<br />
Is the puddle mirage real or is it an illusion? It's
actually a little of both-straightforward physics
plus the workings of the human mind. Add a
little dehydration, which we almost always
experience on hot days like this, and perhaps
we're even more inclined to see water where it
isn't! Scientists relax and read.<br />
<br />
To understand how a mirage forms, one must
first understand how light travels through air.
If the air is all the same temperature--cold or
hot--light travels through it in a straight line. If
a steady temperature gradient exists, however,
light will follow a curved path toward the
cooler air.
The standard freshman physics
explanation for this phenomenon is that cold air
has a higher index of refraction than warm air
does. As a result, photons (particles of light)
travel through hot air faster than they can
through cold air because the hot air is less
dense.<br />
<br />
The quantum electrodynamics
explanation is that photons always take the
path of minimum time when traveling from one
point to another. In order to get from one point
to another in a minimum time, photons will take
"shortcuts" even though the length of the path
is curved and it covers a longer distance than
the direct route.
Mirages are a direct result of photons taking the
path of minimum time in vertical temperature
gradients. Ideal conditions for a mirage are still
air on a hot, sunny day over a flat surface that
will absorb the sun's energy and become quite
hot.
When these conditions exist, the air closest
to the surface is hottest and least dense and the
air density gradually increases with height.
Incoming photons take a curved path from the
sky to the viewer's eye.
The illusion comes from
the fact that quantum electrodynamics is not
intuitive and the human brain assumes that
light travels in a straight line.
A viewer looking at, say, the road ahead on a hot,
still, day will see the sky because photons from
the sky are taking the curved path that minimizes
the time taken. The brain interprets this as water
on the road because water would reflect light from
the sky in much the same way that a vertical
temperature gradient does.</div>

THE MIRAGE

It's 2:00 p.m. on a very hot afternoon, and we've just pulled out of the entrance to the express road. Far ahead of us a puddle seems to be continuously evaporating off the sun-baked pavement, its re…

01 Oct 2014

HOW DO CLOUDS AND RAIN FORM

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Water vapour saturation:<br />
 The air in our atmosphere always contains some
water vapour, whose density can only climb to a
certain saturation value at any given temperature.
The maximum possible water vapour content of the
air however increases out of proportion to any
increase in temperature. Equally, it is always
possible to cool an air parcel, reducing the water
vapour saturation value, to a temperature at which
the water in it starts to condense. The temperature
at which this starts to happen is known as the dew
point. Further cooling results in the excess water
vapour being deposited onto fixed surfaces (dew
formation) or onto condensation nuclei, leading to
the formation of droplets. Tiny particles of various
origin, the so-called aerosols, are usually present in
abundance in the atmosphere and serve as these
condensation nuclei.<br />
<br />
Clouds:<br />
 As an air parcel rises it cools, the water vapour
condensing when it reaches the dew point. Sunlight
is scattered from the resultant droplets so that the
emergent clouds can be seen by human eyes by
their white, diffuse light. The best example of this is
when air parcels rise from the warm ground in
summer; those with only a small buoyancy
compared to the surrounding atmosphere produce
‘fine weather’ clouds, those with stronger buoyancy
climb higher and form thick clouds and heavy
rainfall.
In low pressure systems with their cyclonic (anti-
clockwise, in the northern hemisphere) air flow,
warm, humid, subtropical air is transported to the
north-east. Due to its lower density it moves up
over the colder northern air, cooling as it rises. This
is how clouds form on the warm fronts of such
pressure systems in the mid-latitudes. Conversely,
on the western side of the low the cold air moves
southward, pushing under the warmer subtropical
air and raising it up above its condensation level to
form clouds on the cold front. Clouds can also be
formed from the cooling and condensation that
occurs when air flows over physical obstructions
like mountain ranges.<br />
<br />
 Precipitation:<br />
Cloud droplets are tiny, only 1/100 mm in diameter,
and are thus very light and practically float freely in
the air. As the droplets collide, with time some grow
larger than others and start to slowly fall, falling
faster as they accumulate more and more droplets.
If the cloud of droplets is dense enough to form
droplets greater than 1/10 mm in diameter through
this process, the droplets survive the fall through
the air below the cloud, despite evaporation, and
reach the ground as rain. This process develops
what is known as ‘warm rain’, but in our part of the
world it is responsible for only the weakest drizzle
from near surface clouds. In the warm tropics it is
responsible for intense rainfall from clouds lower
than 5 km.
More important in the formation of heavier rain is a
process that involves frozen particles. Although the
temperature at cloud level is often below 0 ºC, the
droplets themselves remain in liquid form – this is
known as ‘super cooling’. In these circumstances, a
tiny disturbance (a collision, or the presence of a
suitable ice nuclei) is enough to cause the droplets
to suddenly freeze solid. Water vapour condenses
more easily onto ice particles than onto liquid water
droplets, so these ice particles grow faster than the
surrounding droplets and begin to fall sooner. They
grow further through the accumulation of other
droplets and quickly become large enough to reach
ground level. Since the ice particles encounter ever
warmer layers of the atmosphere as they fall, they
often melt as they fall and reach the ground as rain.
If they have formed in a very thick cloud however
they can become so large that they do not melt
before they reach the ground and fall as granulated
ice particles. Storm clouds can contain upward
winds that are so strong that ice particles that have
already melted at the surface are pulled back up
into the cloud and freeze anew. At some point they
will fall again, growing by the accumulation of other
droplets and melting again. Occasionally this
process is repeated a number of times, leading to
the eventual formation of large, layered hailstones.<br />
<br />
Types of Clouds :<br />
 Clouds are basically divided into two classes, based
on appearance: there are single layer (stratiform)
clouds and accumulated (cumuliform) clouds, which
can both occur at different altitudes throughout the
troposphere. Stratiform clouds are formed through
the large-scale rising of entire layers of air, whilst
cumulus clouds are primarily formed through the
action of small scale vertical mixing processes. The
following table gives a brief overview of the
appellations of the main cloud types:
Clouds are further named to denote their origin,
details of their appearance or their degree of
development (e.g. St Fr – Stratus Fractus – Broken
Stratus)</div>

HOW DO CLOUDS AND RAIN FORM

Water vapour saturation: The air in our atmosphere always contains some water vapour, whose density can only climb to a certain saturation value at any given temperature. The maximum possible water …

01 Oct 2014

IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE LIGHTENING WITHOUT THUNDER?

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Heat lightning is the name used for the faint
flashes of lightning on the horizon or other
clouds from distant thunderstorms that do not
have accompanying sounds of thunder. This
happens because the lightning occurs very far
away and the sound dissipates before it reaches
the observer.<br />
<br />
 [1] The term is a little misleading
because it has nothing to do with the heat of the
lightning itself. At night, it is possible to see the
flashes of lightning from very far distances, up to
100 miles, but the sound doesn't carry that far.<br />
<br />
 [2]Lightning results from the discharge of
negative ions created from the friction of ice and
water particles bumping into each other at the
bottom of a cloud. Heat lightning can be an early
warning sign that thunderstorms are
approaching. In Florida, heat lightning is often
seen out over the water at night, the remnants of
storms that formed during the day along a sea
breeze front coming in from the opposite coast.
Heat lightning is not to be confused with
electrically-induced luminosity actually
generated at mesospheric altitudes above
thunderstorm systems (and likewise visible at
exceedingly great ranges), a phenomenon
known as "sprites ".

Atmosphere
The movement of sound in the atmosphere
depends on the properties of the air, such as
temperature and density. Because temperature
and density change with height, the sound of
thunder is refracted through the troposphere .
This refraction results in spaces through which
the thunder does not propagate. The sound of
thunder often reflects off the Earth's surface.
The rumbling sound is partly due to these
reflections. This reflection and refraction leaves
voids where thunder cannot be heard.<br />
<br />
 Curvature:<br />
The Earth's curvature also contributes to distant
observers not hearing the thunderclap. Thunder
is more likely to be bounced off the Earth's
surface before it reaches an observer far from
the strike, and only the right refraction and
reflection of the sound off of the atmosphere will
give it range it needs to be heard far away. The
reflection and refraction in the troposphere
determines who hears the strike and who
doesn't. More often than not, the troposphere
will reflect the light, and leave out the sound - in
these cases some fraction of the light emanating
from distant thunderstorms (whose distant
clouds may be so low to the horizon as to be
essentially invisible) is scattered by the upper
atmosphere and thus visible to remote
observers.<br />
Under optimum conditions, the most intense
thunderstorms can be seen at up to 100 miles
(161 km) over flat terrain or water when the
clouds are illuminated by large lightning
discharges. However, an upper limit of 30–50
miles (48–80 km) is more common due to
topography, trees on the horizon, low to mid
level clouds, and the fact that local visibilities are
generally no more than 25 miles (40 km).<br />
<br />
 Variability of anvil height (an anvil is the large,
plume-like top of a thunderhead) also
contributes—45,000 feet (13,715 m) is very
common in the mid latitudes for warm season
thunderstorms, but the anvil height can range
from 35,000 feet (10,665 m) to a current record
of 78,000 feet (23,770 m).

Silent lightning:
Silent lightning also occurs where airborne
matter muffles the thunder, such as heavy snow
in winter storms ( thundersnow) and dust and
sand storms . In some instances, heavy falling
snow has silenced thunder from cloud to ground
lightning strikes as close as one to two miles
(1.6 to 3.2 km) from the observer and severe
dust storms are even more effective in many
cases.</div>

IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE LIGHTENING WITHOUT THUNDER?

Heat lightning is the name used for the faint flashes of lightning on the horizon or other clouds from distant thunderstorms that do not have accompanying sounds of thunder. This happens because the …

11 Sep 2014

EVER WONDERED WHY WE FEEL COLDER ON THE TILES THAN ON CARPET

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">The perception of "cold" is due to your nerve cells. If an object is giving heat energy to your skin, you feel warmth. If it is taking away heat energy, you feel cold.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">The answer in brief is:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">the carpet has more insulation; the tile has greater heat conductance with your foot; and the tile has better conduction of hea</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">t away from your foot. Carpet is composed of fibres which trap air, creating I insulating layers. This is the same process whereby clothes (for example a woollen vest) trap your own body heat to warm you just as I told u early in of my facts.<br /><br />So the carpet is sort of composed partly of fibres and partly of air. Air is much, much easier to heat than stone, tile, or metal. So the same amount of heat energy will cause a greater increase in the temperature of a carpet than of a tile. When you place your bare foot on the floor, the heat is drawn away from your body via thermal conductance, through the points of contact with the floor.<br />The smoother the surface, the more contact there is, and the greater the transfer of heat. So a smooth tile can draw away more heat than a ruffled carpet can. Also, the transfer of heat will depend on how good the substance is at conducting heat away.<br /><br />Metal is very good, as it has all these free electrons in it, ready to carry currents and heat. Tile is probably reasonable good, while carpet would be quite bad at conducting heat away from you, because of those insulating layers of air.<br /><br />WHAT'S UR OWN VIEW SCIENTISTS.<br />DO SHARE WITH OTHERS.</span></div>

EVER WONDERED WHY WE FEEL COLDER ON THE TILES THAN ON CARPET

The perception of "cold" is due to your nerve cells. If an object is giving heat energy to your skin, you feel warmth. If it is taking away heat energy, you feel cold. The answer in brief is: the car…

08 Sep 2014