Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems and Electronic Non-Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS/ENNDS) heat a solution (e-liquid) to create an aerosol which frequently contains flavourants, usually dissolved into Propylene Glycol or/and Glycerin. All ENDS (but not ENNDS) contain nicotine. Electronic cigarettes, the most common prototype, are devices that do not burn or use tobacco leaves but instead vaporise a solution the user then inhales. The main constituents of the solution, in addition to nicotine when nicotine is present, are propylene glycol, with or without glycerol and flavouring agents. ENDS solutions and emissions contain other chemicals, some of them considered to be toxicants.

The World’s First Hydrogen-Powered Commuter Train Is Now in Service in Germany.

While hydrogen is often touted as a clean fuel, it’s more accurate to describe it as a clean energy-storage technology. In the idealized vision of the clean hydrogen economy, the hydrogen itself is generated by the electrolysis of water. Hydrogen fuel cells, such as those used by Alstom’s train, can then combine the hydrogen with oxygen, “burning” it into water and steam as the waste products. These fuel cells allow the trains to hit a top speed of 140km/hr (87mph). Not the fastest trains around, but capable of keeping up with the average speed in the UK.

The advocates of hydrogen as the solution to replacing fossil fuels, particularly in transportation, have some compelling arguments. The fuel can be made with entirely renewable electricity, the internal combustion engine need not be abandoned, and the only waste product from burning it is water.

That hydrogen wall is the outer boundary of our home system, the place where our sun’s bubble of solar wind ends and where a mass of interstellar matter too small to bust through that wind builds up, pressing inward. Our host star’s powerful jets of matter and energy flow outward for a long stretch after leaving the sun — far beyond the orbit of Pluto. But at a certain point, they peter out, and their ability to push back the bits of dust and other matter — the thin, mysterious stuff floating within our galaxy’s walls — wanes. A visible boundary forms. On one side are the last vestiges of solar wind. And on the other side, in the direction of the Sun’s movement through the galaxy, there’s a buildup of interstellar matter, including hydrogen.

Laminated glass

It can also be called bulletproof glass. Several layers of safety glass are bound together with a transparent adhesive.

Flint Glass

Optical glass is softer than any other glass. It is clear and transparent. Potassium and lead silicates are used in making optical glass. It is also called flint glass. The main use of flint glass is in the manufacture of lenses, prisms and other optical instruments.

Pyrex glass

Pyrex glass is highly heat resistant. In ordinary glass, silica is the main constituent. In pyrex glass some of the silica is replaced by boron oxide. It has a high melting point and is resistant to many chemicals. Laboratory equipment and ovenware are made of pyrex glass.

Lead crystal glass

Lead crystal glass has high refractive index, and so has the maximum brilliance. It sparkles and is used for high quality art objects and for expensive glassware.

The nitrogen cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which nitrogen is converted into multiple chemical forms as it circulates among atmosphere, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems.

Nitrogen enters the living world by way of bacteria and other single-celled prokaryotes, which convert atmospheric nitrogen—N2\text N_2N2​N, start subscript, 2, end subscript—into biologically usable forms in a process called nitrogen fixation. Some species of nitrogen-fixing bacteria are free-living in soil or water, while others are beneficial symbionts that live inside of plants.

Nitrogen-fixing microorganisms capture atmospheric nitrogen by converting it to ammonia—NH3\text {NH}_3NH3​N, H, start subscript, 3, end subscript—which can be taken up by plants and used to make organic molecules. The nitrogen-containing molecules are passed to animals when the plants are eaten. They may be incorporated into the animal’s body or broken down and excreted as waste, such as the urea found in urine.

Nitrogenous compounds from dead organisms or wastes are converted into ammonia—NH3 by bacteria, and the ammonia is converted into nitrites and nitrates. In the end, the nitrates are made into N2 gas by denitrifying prokaryotes.

In natural ecosystems, many processes, such as primary production and decomposition, are limited by the available supply of nitrogen. In other words, nitrogen is often the limiting nutrient, the nutrient that’s in shortest supply and thus limits the growth of organisms or populations.

Nitrogen and phosphorus are the two most common limiting nutrients in both natural ecosystems and agriculture.

Monosodium glutamate is the sodium salt of the naturally occurring amino acid glutamic acid.  This amino acid is one of the most abundant in nature, being an important component of all proteins.  Monosodium glutamate, has been used as a seasoning or flavour enhancer, since it was first isolated from seaweed more than a century ago and is now recognised as the most pure example of umami or savoury taste.  The body treats glutamate in exactly the same way whether it comes from the food we eat or from seasoning.

MSG not only adds a umami character to food but can also be used to reduce the salt content. For the latest information about the science about glutamate and umami taste. It was suspected by some people of being the cause of ‘Chinese restaurant syndrome’, where people suffer a hot flushing reaction after eating food containing MSG. However, tests on people who claim to be susceptible have never been able to confirm that there is a link, as this scientific review explains.

Ozone can cause the muscles in the airways to constrict, trapping air in the alveoli. This leads to wheezing and shortness of breath.

Ozone can:

• Make it more difficult to breathe deeply and vigorously.
• Cause shortness of breath, and pain when taking a deep breath.
• Cause coughing and sore or scratchy throat.
• Inflame and damage the airways.
• Aggravate lung diseases such as asthma, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis.
• Increase the frequency of asthma attacks.
• Make the lungs more susceptible to infection.
• Continue to damage the lungs even when the symptoms have disappeared.
• Cause chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

These effects have been found even in healthy people, but can be more serious in people with lung diseases such as asthma.

India’s first biofuel flight is operated by SpiceJet. It is a 78-seater aircraft Bombardier Q400 aircraft. With an aim to lower the costs and help reduce the carbon emissions by around 15 percent, SpiceJet is planning to blend in a quarter of its energy requirement with biofuel for flight operations.

• The fuel is developed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) – Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP), Dehradun.
• It contains 75 percent aviation turbine fuel and 25 percent bio jet fuel and has been made out of Jatropha crop
• It is made of vegetable oil, sugar, animal fat and waste biomass, and it can directly be used in aircraft without any modifications.

Formaldehyde (systematic name methanal) is a naturally occurring organic compound with the formula CH2O (H-CHO). It is the simplest of the aldehydes (R-CHO). The common name of this substance comes from its similarity and relation to formic acid.

Formaldehyde is an important precursor to many other materials and chemical compounds. In 1996, the installed capacity for the production of formaldehyde was estimated at 8.7 million tons per year. It is mainly used in the production of industrial resins, e.g., for particle board and coatings.

In view of its widespread use, toxicity, and volatility, formaldehyde poses a significant danger to human health. In 2011, the US National Toxicology Program described formaldehyde as “known to be a human carcinogen”.

• Formaldehyde is a common precursor to more complex compounds and materials. In approximate order of decreasing consumption, products generated from formaldehyde include urea formaldehyde resin, melamine resin, phenol formaldehyde resin, polyoxymethylene plastics, 1,4-butanediol, and methylene diphenyl diisocyanate. The textile industry uses formaldehyde-based resins as finishers to make fabrics crease-resistant.
• An aqueous solution of formaldehyde can be useful as a disinfectant as it kills most bacteria and fungi (including their spores). It is used to produce killed vaccines.
• Formaldehyde preserves or fixes tissue or cells. The process involves cross-linking of primary amino groups.
• Formaldehyde and an 18 M (concentrated) sulfuric acid makes Marquis reagent—which can identify alkaloids and other compounds.
• In photography, formaldehyde is used in low concentrations for process C-41 (color negative film) stabilizer in the final wash step, as well as in the process E-6 pre-bleach step, to make it unnecessary in the final wash.

The naturally occurring, solid, insoluble organic matter that occurs in source rocks and can yield oil upon heating. Kerogen is the portion of naturally occurring organic matter that is nonextractable using organic solvents. Typical organic constituents of kerogen are algae and woody plant material. Kerogens have a high molecular weight relative to bitumen, or soluble organic matter. Bitumen forms from kerogen during petroleum generation. Kerogens are described as Type I, consisting of mainly algal and amorphous (but presumably algal) kerogen and highly likely to generate oil; Type II, mixed terrestrial and marine source material that can generate waxy oil; and Type III, woody terrestrial source material that typically generates gas.

Horn Silver is a weathered form of chlorargyrite. It is an ore of Silver Chloride.

This superficial silver ore is polished by desert wind and dust to the dull luster of a cow horn, hence the name “horn silver”.

Diamonds occur in a variety of colors—steel gray, white, blue, yellow, orange, red, green, pink to purple, brown, and black. Colored diamonds contain interstitial impurities or structural defects that cause the coloration, pure diamonds are perfectly transparent and colorless.

There are 234 pesticides registered in India. Out of these, 4 are WHO Class Ia pesticides, 15 are WHO Class Ib pesticides and 76 are WHO Class II pesticides, together constituting 40% of the registered pesticides in India. In terms of consumption too, the greatest volumes consumed are of these poisons.

The following is a list of 24 pesticides registered and used in India, classified as Potential Carcinogens by the US EPA: Acephate (C), Alachlor (B2), Atrazine (C), Benomyl (C), Bifenthrin (C), Captan (B2), Chlorothalonil (B2), Cypermethrin (C), Dichlorvos (C), Diclofop-Methyl (C), Dicofol (C), Mancozeb (B2), Methomyl (C), Metolachlor (C), Oxadiazon (C), Oxyflourfen (C), Permethrin (C), Phosphamidon (C), Propiconazole (C), Propoxur (B2), Thiodicarb (C), Thiophanate Methyl (C), Triadimefon (C), Trifluralin (C).

As per the EPA classification of carcinogenic pesticides, B indicates Probable Human Carcinogen (B2 indicating sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity from animal studies and C indicates Possible Human Carcinogen (limited evidence of carcinogenicity in animals, in the absence of human data).

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has selected US scientists Frances Arnold and George Smith and British researcher Gregory Winter for the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. They were selected for harnessing power of evolution to develop enzymes and antibodies that have led to new pharmaceuticals and biofuels. Chemistry was third of this year’s Nobel Prizes. Frances Arnold shared the half price and George Smith and Gregory Winter share other half of the prize.

Little packets of silica gel are found in all sorts of products because silica gel is a desiccant — it adsorbs and holds water vapor. In leather products and foods like pepperoni, the lack of moisture can limit the growth of mold and reduce spoilage. In electronics it prevents condensation, which might damage the electronics. If a bottle of vitamins contained any moisture vapor and were cooled rapidly, the condensing moisture would ruin the pills. You will find little silica gel packets in anything that would be affected by excess moisture or condensation.

Silica gel is nearly harmless, which is why you find it in food products. Silica, or silicon dioxide (SiO2), is the same material found in quartz. The gel form contains millions of tiny pores that can adsorb and hold moisture. Silica gel is essentially porous sand.

Silica gel can adsorb about 40 percent of its weight in moisture and can take the relative humidity in a closed container down to about 40 percent. Once saturated, you can drive the moisture off and reuse silica gel by heating it above 300 degrees F (150 C).

Nitrox, also known as ‘Enriched Air’, is a blended gas consisting of pure nitrogen and oxygen. The air we breathe normally is ~21% oxygen and ~79% nitrogen (with other trace gasses mixed in); Nitrox (generally) has an oxygen percentage between 22 and 40%.

Trimix is a mixture of 3 gases (nitrogen, oxygen and helium) used to increase depth limits and/or dive times.

Heliox is a mixture of helium and oxygen used by technical divers on very deep/long decompression dives. It is not used by recreational divers.

The Bhut jolokia, also known as ghost pepper, ghost chili and ghost jolokia, is an interspecific hybrid chili pepper cultivated in the Northeast Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland and Manipur. It is a hybrid of Capsicum chinense and Capsicum frutescens and is closely related to the Naga Morich of Nagaland and Bangladesh.

In 2007, Guinness World Records certified that the ghost pepper was the world’s hottest chili pepper, 400 times hotter than Tabasco sauce. The ghost chili is rated at more than 1 million Scoville heat units (SHUs). However, the ghost chili was shortly superseded by the Infinity chili in 2011, followed by the Naga Viper, the Trinidad moruga scorpion in 2012 and the Carolina Reaper on August 7, 2013.

The Periodic Table of Chemical Elements is the tabular arrangement of the chemical elements, arranged by atomic number, electron configuration, and recurring chemical properties.

Features:

• The seven rows of the table are called as periods and generally accommodate metals on the left and non-metals on the right.
• The columns of the table are called groups and contain elements with similar chemical behaviour.
• The elements from atomic numbers 1 (hydrogen) to 118 (oganesson) have been discovered in nature or synthesized in laboratories.
• The first 98 elements listed in the periodic table occur naturally, though some are found only in trace amounts and a few were discovered in nature only after having first been synthesized.
• Elements from 99 to 118 have only been synthesized in laboratories or nuclear reactors.

The chemical composition of pearl is 82-86% calcium Carbonate, 10-14% conchiolin and 2-4% of water (CaCO3 and H2O). The refractive index range is between 1.530 – 1.685. The hardness on the Mohs scale is 3.5 – 4. Its specific gravity is 2.65-2.85

Pearl is often known as “Queen of the Sea”.

A refrigerant is a substance or mixture, usually a fluid, used in a heat pump and refrigeration cycle. In most cycles it undergoes phase transitions from a liquid to a gas and back again. Many working fluids have been used for such purposes. Fluorocarbons, especially chlorofluorocarbons, became commonplace in the 20th century, but they are being phased out because of their ozone depletion effects. Other common refrigerants used in various applications are ammonia, sulfur dioxide, and non-halogenated hydrocarbons such as propane.

N Gopalaswami Committee – Select Institutions of Eminence

It is a seismic discontinuity at a depth of approximately 660 km as the boundary between upper and lower mantle.

RTI overrides the Official Secrets Act, 1923.

Freedom of information act 2002 was the precursor to Right to Information Act, 2005.

‘Project Rupee Raftaar- Aircraft Financing and Leasing from India’

A new map of the night sky is prepared using LOFAR telescope that can detect light sources optical instruments cannot see. The map is consists of hundreds of thousands of previously unknown galaxies discovered.

The Low-Frequency Array or LOFAR, is a large radio telescope network located mainly in the Netherlands.

Garo hills is bounded on the North by the Goalpara district of Assam, on the South it shares international boundary with Bangladesh, on East by the District of Khasi Hills, Meghalaya and Kamrup, Assam and on the West by the district of Goalpara, Assam and Bangladesh.

The GHCA comprises of three legally designated Protected Areas – Nokrek National Park (49.44 km2), Balpakram National Park (220 km2) and Siju Wildlife Sanctuary (5.18km2); and the Reserved Forests of Tura Peak (4.19 km2), lmangiri (8.29 km2), Rewak (6.47 km2) and Baghmara (43.9 km2). The total core area of the proposed nomination is 337.48 km2.

GHCA is under tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Nokrek National Park (notified in 1986) is the core of Nokrek Biosphere Reserve (820 km2) declared by the Government of India in 1988 and recognized under the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme (MAB) in 2009. The Nokrek National Citrus Gene Sanctuary demarcated for the in-situ conservation of Citrus indica is located in the buffer area of the MAB.

Pallikaranai Wetland is a freshwater marsh in the city of Chennai, India. It is situated adjacent to the Bay of Bengal.

A project on ‘Inland Wetlands of India’ commissioned by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India had prioritised Pallikaranai marsh as one of the most significant wetlands of the country.

It’s shocking that Pallikaranai wetland, which is supposed to act as a carbon sink, is emitting a whopping 8.4 gigatonnes of methane every year, reveals a study conducted by Anna University researchers.

Among several factors, the main source of methane is the five-decade-old dump yard and this establishes the fact as to why it catches fire often.

Source:

http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/2019/feb/03/ecological-scare-pallikaranai-marsh-emitting-84-gigatonnes-of-methane-every-year-1933586.html

Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary (PCWBS) is a protected area in Tamil Nadu, South India along the Palk Strait where it meets the Bay of Bengal at Point Calimere at the southeastern tip of Nagapattinam District.

The sanctuary was created in 1967 for conservation of the blackbuck antelope, an endemic mammal species of India. It is famous for large congregations of waterbirds, especially greater flamingos.

PCWBS forms the easternmost and most biologically diverse part of Ramsar Site which, on 19 August 2002, was declared a place of international importance for the conservation of waterbirds and their wetlands habitats.

The Arunachal Pradesh government has raised the pitch for inclusion of two of its sites in UNESCO’s World Heritage list.

The Apatani cultural landscape in Ziro Valley under Lower Subansiri district of the state and Thembang Dzong, a fortified village in West Kameng district, have made it to the tentative list of UNESCO and is now vying for a place in the final list of world heritage sites.

The dzong (fort), surrounding ancient and historical structures, is a traditional settlement of the Monpa tribe. None of the settlers individually own any property inside the village, which is run by a panchayat system.

Ornamental features, including traditional wood carvings, paintings and manuscripts, have been etched on the walls of the dzong.

The Apatani cultural landscape has also made it to the tentative list for the unique agricultural techniques practiced within the community.

The farmers here rear fish in paddy fields and grow millet on the bunds (partitions) between the rice plots.

All are under tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Site

Neora Valley National Park::

The Neora Valley National Park (NVNP) is one of the three PAs in Darjeeling district of West Bengal and the most undisturbed patch of forest of the State. It is unique and ecologically important as it includes a relatively inaccessible patch of late successional forests and with rich diversity and a wide range of environment gradients.

It is the land of the elegant red panda.

The southern boundaries of the Park are adjoining to the forests of Jalpaiguri district which have connectivity with the Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary and the Gorumara National Park.

The Sacred Mountain Landscape and Heritage Routes::

The Sacred Mountain Landscape and Heritage Routes are located in the Pithoragarh district in the north-eastern part of Uttarakhand State of India.

The Historic Ensemble of Orchha::

Orchha is a historical town in the Niwari district of Madhya Pradesh, India with a total population of around 12,000 inhabitants. The town encompasses a very dense collection of the historical buildings, gardens and traditional housings. It was the seat of an eponymous former princely state of central India, in the Bundelkhand region. The historical settlement derived its name from the phrase ‘Ondo chhe’ meaning ‘low’ or ‘hidden’. The site was indeed bowl-like, buffered by bluffs and forests, lying on the Betwa River.

Ekamra Ksetra::

Ekamra Kshetra comprises the area of the old city of Bhubaneswar that forms the centre of this temple architecture and is considered a Hindu holy city.

Bhubaneswar has a unique position among the cities of India. A temple town with series of ancient sandstone temples, heritage ponds and water tanks, its wealth of monuments is testament to an ancient continuous architectural and historical heritage covering over 2,000 years from the 3rd century BC to the 15th century AD representing most of the important dynastic changes over the period. Bhubaneswar is dubbed the “Temple City” – a nom-de-plume earned because of the 700 temples which once stood here. It still boasts of a cluster of magnificent temples, constituting virtually a complete record of Kalinga architecture almost from its nascence to its culmination.