Minerals are naturally occurring inorganic substances that have specific chemical compositions and physical properties of their own. They are solid in nature and have definite crystalline structures, and are an outcome of geological processes. They can be formed by cooling of hot melting material, evaporation, or by precipitation. Their composition ranges from pure elements to complex silicates….
A person’s DNA, short for deoxyribonucleic acid, is a molecule that functions as a storehouse of genetic information. The discovery of DNA was a major breakthrough in medical science. While Watson and Crick gave the actual structure of the molecule, the credit of its discovery and identification goes to Friedrich Miescher. In 1869, Swiss-born Friedrich Miescher…
Ancient Indian mathematician Baudhayana is perhaps the first person to calculate the value of ‘pi’. In his text Baudhayana Shulba Sutra, he mentions that the perimeter of the pit is thrice its diameter, so the approximate value of π is 3. Since Baudhayana was essentially a priest, he used mathematical calculations for facilitating religious constructions…
What if snowflakes actually looked like pizza slices and hail stones resembled pretzels? In a research conducted as a part of NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement mission, scientists have discovered that raindrops look like hamburger buns! It has been a long-standing belief that raindrops are tear-shaped. Cartoonists, illustration artists, doodle experts, and anyone who wishes to represent…
American geologist Bruce Heezer and oceanic cartographer Marie Tharp were researchers at the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, New York. In the 1950s, they expedited with a crew across the Atlantic to gather data about the ocean floor from the ocean surface. The observations proved that there was in fact a chain of mountains, as high as halfway till the surface, under the…
The discovery of Teflon, a polymer chemically known as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), was sheer coincidence, and yet a revolutionary one. The man behind the discovery was an American chemist named Dr Roy J. Plunkett (1910–1994), who was then working for DuPont, an American chemical company. In the year 1938, Dr Plunkett was conducting a coolant gas…
