"The first magnetic slurry coating on the first disk drive was poured... from a Dixie cup." Barry Rudolph, IBM vice president For most of the twentieth century, the primary medium for data entry, storage, and processing was the punched card. In the 1930s, IBM hired teacher and inventor Reynold B. Johnson (1906-1998) to develop the IBM 805 test-scoring machine to convert pencil marks on forms into punched cards. Twenty years later, Johnson led the team that developed the technology that made the vast majority of punched cards obsolete—the hard disk.      Unlike punched cards and magnetic tape, in which data must be accessed sequentially, hard disk drives provide access to all data almost simultaneously. Some computers in the late 1940s stored data on the outside of magnetic drums, but this left most of the internal space unused. Johnson and his team sought to store data on a stack of more...

“.. you don't have to think about it... you just wear it and it takes orders directly from your muscles.” Robert A. Heinlein, novelist The powered exoskeleton is a good case of life imitating art. Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 novel Starship Troopers described warriors in powered suits. The idea was used again in the Marvel Comic Iron Man, with a man inside a powerful homemade iron suit. The idea struck a chord, and General Electric took up the task of turning it into reality. By 1965 they had produced "Hardiman," the first powered exoskeleton. The idea behind the device was to produce a robot that reacted to the natural muscle movements of the wearer, It was designed to act like a "second skin," albeit one that weighed as much as a car. Hardiman was a 3/4-ton monster, designed to lift 1,500 pounds(680 kg). Unfortunately the team never managed to get more...

In 1923 Juan de la Cierva (1895-1936) pioneered the first autogyro. These machines appear superficially similar to helicopters, but with a single unpowered rotor. Early autogyros were less maneuverable than helicopters and were unable to take off or descend vertically. The invention of the autogyro predated the helicopter and so paved the way for vertical flight. Autogyro rotors are not powered, unlike those of a helicopter, and thus work in a similar way to spinning "helicopter" seed pods such as those of the box elder tree, Acer negundo. These seeds are aerodynamically shaped to spin as they fall, allowing the seed to disperse much further; autogyro rotors autorotate in the same way. The power or thrust of the autogyro comes from a powered propeller (or in later designs a jet engine) meaning that most do require some takeoff runway, but normally only tens of feet. As they can land in more...

"By being able to see... all the genes, all the genetic variation, we can readily pick out answers." Eric Lander, a human genome project leader There are about 30,000 different genes in human DNA. Different cells in the body, although having identical DNA, switch on and off different genes, depending on what is needed to build that particular cell. Studying which genes are active in a cell is a useful way to find out what makes it function, and helps identify what has gone wrong when it is not functioning properly. In 1989 U.S. scientist Stephen Fodor presented a technique that was to revolutionize DNA analysis. He created a DNA microarray—a glass slide with up to 500,000 different strands of DNA attached to it. When a gene is switched on in a cell, a complementary copy of that gene's information (called messenger ribonucleicacid, or mRNA) is produced by the cell. more...

A saint philosopher Swami Vivekanand was the first Indian who with his patriotic zeal and eloquence made the Western world aware of India's great spiritual and cultural heritage. In 1893, he won thunderous applause at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago with his very first words. "Sisters and Brothes of America" and boldly proclaimed that religions were not meant to spread hate and discord but to foster love and brotherhood. He glorified the Hindu religion and the Indian culture. This great saint was born in Kolkata on 12 January ,1863. he was named Narendra. His father was Vishwanath Dutta, a respectable figure and his mother was Devi Bhuvaneshwari, a devout women with great ability for training her children.  Swami Vivekanand was very scientific in his attitude and never accepted anything without proof of knowledge. During  college days once his professor told him to go to Shri Ramakrishna at Dakshineshwar more...

"... if you had a multiplayer game that exceeded sixteen, you might as well call it massive." Raph Koster, Sony Online Entertainment Few people today remember the simpler multiplayer creations that started the craze for shared gaming. The likes of Everquest, World of Warcraft, and even Second Life owe their existence to those who saw how much fun it would be for gamers to be able to interact with many others in an alternate reality on the Internet. Two of the pioneers of Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) gaming were Kelton Flinn and John Taylor, who together founded the games company KESMAI. Although several text-based multi-user dungeon (MUD) games had existed since the late 1970s, they worked on a huge step forward—a graphic-based massively multiplayer game: Air Warrior. Released in 1987, Air Warrior was a World War II flight-combat simulator that many people, hundreds' at a time, could play together online- more...

There is obviously none in this vast world who does not desire happiness. Everyone is running after it to get it. But happiness is not such a thing that can be achieved so easily. If we want it we must think how to choose a profession. There are some people who believe in stars and think that only stars can make their fate. But to speak the truth, it is our own thinking which makes or mars our destiny. A good profession can make our life a heaven while bad one a hell. Now it is very much clear how important it is for us to choose a profession. There are many people in the world who are doing a work for which they are not fit. This causes dissatisfaction or depression among them. Therefore, a well-considered plan should be chalked out to achieve a definite end. I think the more...

"Tape is wonderful at preserving evidence... especially on the sticky side." Michael Baden, forensic pathologist The earliest reference to a sticking tape goes right back to 1676, when lute makers used small pieces of paper with glue on to hold pieces in place while they built instruments. By the early twentieth century, much progress had been made in the area of surgical tape for bandages and plasters, but it was not until the 1930s that what we know as sticky tape appeared. Bakers, grocers, and meat packers in the 1920s had started using cellophane to wrap their products. Unfortunately there was no way to seal it and prevent moisture getting in and spoiling the food. To solve this problem they turned to 3M, and 3M turned to engineer Richard Drew (1899-1980), the man behind the invention of masking tape. In 1930, after more than a year of work, Drew and more...

Sonia Gandhi is truly one of the most popular Indian women, who with her amazing grace anointed as the queen of sacrifice. The way by which she declined the post of the Prime Minister of India has proved her to be true Indian. She, is the course, became the first-ever person to decline the post of the PM, and amazed the whole world. As an as true politician, she claims she was always clear in her mind that she would not accept the post of Prime Minister even if it came her way. Born at the small town of Orbassano, near Turin, Italy in 1946, Sonia Maino was sent to Cambridge, UK to study English where in 1965, she met Rajiv Gandhi which resulted in their marriage. It gave her the honour of becoming a part of a great Indian family. Now they started leading a happy life, away from more...

Lack of education results in ignorance. And ignorance finally leads to superstition. In villages we notice superstitions at every step. The villagers are so ignorant that they often oppose programmes that are meant to help them. They suffer from numerous superstitious beliefs and never try to come out of them. They believe that diseases are the curse of gods and goddesses. Thus instead of qualified doctors they go to quacks and witch doctors. Sometimes, they go to the ojhas to find the remedy. Out of their ignorance, the villager never feel the Importance of family planning. They do not realize that it is better to have few children in order to lead a more comfortable and tension free life. They regard child birth as the gift of god and thus think that they have no right to bring check on it. As a result, they have four, five, six children. more...