MANORAMA

TE LMEWHY
June 2016 Volume: 10 No: 6

New Age Inventions

W ho invented the telephone? The answer we
all know, is Alexander Graham Bell. Who invent
ed the cell phone? This answer does not come
readily to our minds. 50 also is the case with
almost all the latest inventions, be it a computer
mouse, digital camera, or laptop.
We get a lot of information about pioneering
inventions like the telephone or electric bulb,
even in our school text books. But the interest
ing stories behind the unique inventions of the
last fifty years are not so well known, even
though these amazing inventions have revolu
tionised our daily life, and have, in fact, changed
our world in many ways.
50, this issue of Tell Me Why presents a lot of
not so well known information about some mar
velous modern inventions, and their little
known, but brilliant inventors.
 nology. Today, new products,
services and concepts are
introduced on almost a daily
basis. Whether it is band aids
Why have the past fifty years or ATMs, cell phones or com
been called the age of inven puters, the Internet or airbags,
tions? digital cameras or space
probes, the inventions made
I f you were trying to name the during the last fifty years are a
greatest invention in human tribute to man's intellect and
history, it would be hard to creativity, and are as varied as
beat the stone chopping tool, they are breathtaking.
and the hand axe.
However, during the past fif
ty years, inventions have
transformed our world in ways
once only imagined in science
fiction. Many of these have
also changed, not only our
everyday lives, but also the
course of history.
Giant strides have been tak
en in different fields, whether it
is medicine, energy, or tech-

4 Tell Me Why
 How has the Internet changed the
world?

There is no doubt that the greatest

among all recent inventions is the
Internet. The Internet is the global
system of interconnected computer
==..
-"'""
- ..
networks that link billions of devices
Net-mom' worldwide.
When one connects It first came into existence in 1969,
to other computers when the US military began to build
and websites the computer network that linked
through the Inter computers at different locations. It
net, one is said to was called ARPANET, and later, the
be ' surfing the network was opened to all users and
internet'. The term renamed as the Internet.
was coined in 1992 The Internet has given people a
by a librarian in the new way to communicate. Secondly,
US. Her name was it is a sort of modern library. The Inter
Jean Armour Polly. net has also had an impact on the
She was also economy, and even in the way peo
known as ' Net ple shop! It has changed the way
mom'. people think and feel about each oth
er, and the world around them.

100 N EW INVENTIONS 5
How has the balloon catheter the artery. A tiny balloon is
revolutionised medicine? moved through the catheter,
and is used to open the artery.
The removing of blood clots The balloon is inflated for a
from veins and arteries used to short time. Then it is deflated,
be a complicated process, and and removed. The pressure
one that was often fatal for the from the inflated balloon
patient. makes more room for the
The development of a tech blood to flow. Thus, we can
nique known as angioplasty, say that the invention of the
and the invention of the bal balloon catheter created medi
loon catheter by Thomas Fog cal history.
arty in 1969, greatly reduced
this risk.
Angioplasty is done using a
thin, soft tube called a cathe
ter. A doctor inserts the cathe
ter into a blood vessel in the
groin or wrist. He carefully
guides the catheter through
blood vessels until it reaches .
the coronary arteries. If there
is a blockage, the catheter is
moved to the narrowed part of

6 Tell Me Why
Why is the smoke detector an i mpor
tant invention?

O ne of the most important inven

tions of our modern times is the
smoke detector. It is able to sense
when a fire occurs, because of high
-- -
er levels of smoke in the home.
When this happens, it sounds an Cellphones
alarm that is designed to wake up
The term 'ceUphone'
that building's occupants.
comes from 'cellu
George Andrew Darby invented
lar phones'.
the first true smoke detector in the 'Cellular' phones
early 20th century. It did not depend receive signals
just on temperature, but also includ from towers that
ed some of the particulate from are placed in differ
smoke into the sensor design for an ent areas known as
alarm to sound. 'cells', and each ceU
This useful device has saved many beams the signal to
lives, and is found in virtually every the next, ensuring
modern building around the world the phone gets the
today. signal wherever it
In fact NASA too developed a type is.
of smoke detector for Skylab project.

100 N EW I NVENTIONS 7
Why is the invention of
the digital watch impor
tant?
TOday, modern watches
are made in both ana
logue mechanical form,
and in digital form.
A digital watch or clock
is a type of clock that dis
plays the time digitally -
that is in numerals or
symbols, opposed to an
8 Tell Me Why
analogue mechanical clock, where
the time is indicated by the posi
tions of rotating hands.
More than 40 years ago, the
Hamilton Watch Company intro
duced the world's first commercial
electronic digital wristwatch. It was
named Pulsar, and was an 18-car
at-gold cased device that used a
red LED to tell the time to the user.
However, it was very expensive.
Later, the Pulsar became a sub
sidiary of Seiko, and inexpensive,
plastic strapped versions of the dig
ital watch were introduced into the
market. Digital watches are more
accurate and stylish. In addition,
digital clocks can be very small and
inexpensive.
As a result, they are often incor
porated into all kinds of devices
such as cars, radios, televisions,
microwave ovens, standard ovens,
computers, and cellphones.
 Why are cell phones a unique inven
tion?

W e all know that Alexander Gra

ham Bell invented the telephone in
1876.
However, it was in 1900, that an
First of its Kind inventor named Reginald Fessenden
accomplished a remarkable feat. He
Charles Babbage
made the first wireless telephone call.
designed the first
This achievement laid the foundation
automatic
for cellphones and cellular networks.
computing engine
In 1947, William Rae Young pro
in 1822. It was
posed that radio towers arranged in a
known as the Dif
hexagonal pattern, called a cell, could
ference Engine.
support a telephone network.
Unfortunately,
8abbage was never By the 1960s, Richard H. Frenkiel
able to complete a
and Joel S. Engel developed the
full-scale function technology that could support
al version of this Young's design. But it was Martin
machine, because Cooper who led a team that designed
of lack of sufficient the first practical cellphone. It was 25
funds. centimetres long, and weighed 1. 1
kilogrammes.

100 N EW I NVENTIONS 9
,.

USA, introduced their first

'cigarette pack' sized calcu
Why is the pocket calculator a lator.
significant invention? Thanks to a number of
technical developments,
The very first calculator was these portable computing
the abacus, a sort of hand oper devices quickly got better
ated mechanical calculator using and cheaper.
beads on rods, first used by Scores of companies
Sumerians and Egyptians around rushed into the pocket cal-
2000 Be.
But, it was only in the begin
ning of the 17th century AD, that
the first mechanical calculators
began to appear in Europe.
Later, mechanical and electric
calculating machines were
invented, but they were
large, and could not be
carried around.
In 1970, the first bat
tery-operated 'hand
held' calculators were
sold. In 1971, Bowmar,

10 Tell Me Why

Why is the invention of the
laser printer a milestone?
I n 1938, the American physi
cist Chester Carlson invented
a dry printing process, called
Xerography - the word comes
from the Greek for dry writing
- that laid the foundation tech
nology for copiers and laser
printers.
In the year 1969, Gary Stark
weather invented the laser
printer at Xerox. In those days,
lasers were rather expensive
culator business as demand
for this amazing new product
soared.
Prices began to fall as com
petition grew, and the pocket
1 00 N EW I NVENTIONS
devices, and Gary had been
told by his bosses to stop work
ing on the laser printer project.
So, he ended up working on it
secretly, convincing people to
get different parts for him so he
could build it.
Gary had the idea of using a
laser beam to 'draw' an image
of what was to be copied
directly onto the copier drum.
Finally, the Xerox 9700 was
introduced in 1977. It was the
industry's first commercial
laser printer, and it became a
great success, because of its
speed, precision, and econo
my.
calculator became the most
popular instrument for quick
and accurate calculations, not
only in industry, but at home
and at school as well.
11

What is a floppy disk?
The floppy disk is a magnetic
storage medium for computer
systems. The floppy disk is
composed of a thin, flexible
magnetic disk sealed in a
of the floppy got smaller while
the storage capacity increased.
However, in the 1990s, other
media, including hard disk
drives, USB flash drives, start
ed to replace floppy disks as
storage devices.

square plastic carrier.
beware of get-
The floppy disk was invented
ting a virus.
by IBM engineers led by Alan
Shugart, and in 1971, IBM
introduced the first 'memory
disk', as it was called then, or
the 'floppy disk' as it is known
today.
The nickname 'floppy' came
from the disk's flexibility. The
first floppy disks that came on
the market were 200 mm in
diameter. A number of differ
ent types of floppy disks have
been developed and the size

12 Tell Me Why
 But cross-breeding is slow and
unreliable. Now, there are
amazing shortcuts.
Scientists can take a gene
from one living thing, and put it
What are genetically modified directly into another plant or
organisms? animal to create a GMO. An
early pioneer in the field is
A genetically modified Ananda Chakrabarty. He
organism, or GMO, is a labora worked on bacteria, especially
tory process of taking genes on bacterial plasmids which
from one species and inserting are the small rings of DNA.
them into another in an attempt Chakrabarty's experiment was
to obtain a desired trait or char to create bacteria that could
acteristic. degrade crude oil, and thus
Strictly speaking, this is not a clean up oil spills. Agricultural
new process. For thousands of plants are one of the most fre
years, farmers have improved quently cited examples of
their crops by crossbreeding genetically modified organ
plants that have good traits. isms.
They take pollen from one Some benefits of genetic
plant, and add it to the flowers engineering in agriculture are
of another plant to produce a increased crop yields, and
plant with the traits they want. reduced costs for production.

1 00 N EW INVENTIONS 13
Who invented the food proces-
sor?
FOOd processors are helpful
appliances that are used in
kitchens everywhere. Their
main purpose is making meal
preparation much easier and
faster for the cook. Surprising
ly, the food processor was not
invented by a scientist, but by a
14
salesman! Pierre Verdon was
a French catering company
salesman, who travelled all
over the country watching his
customers slice vegetables,
grind spices, and blend dress
ings by hand.
This inspired him to invent a
machine that would do these
jobs. His device, which he
introduced in 1971, was a
basic model that could chop,
slice and knead dough.
Carl Sontheimer, an engi
neer, refined Verdon's
machines to produce the pop
ular food processor known as
Cuisinart.
Today's food processors are
equipped with several settings
to knead, shred, grind, chop,
slice, mix, blend, shave and
pulverize the different types of
ingredients needed for a meal.
Tell Me Why
 Why is the MRI scan extremely impor
tant in medicine?

The letters MRI stand for Magnetic

Resonance Imaging. An MRI scan is
a medical investigation that uses an
exceptionally strong magnet and
radio frequency waves to generate
images of our body.
The foundations for this technology
that uses a mag were laid during the year 1946, when
netic field and Felix Bloch and Edward Purcell inde
pulses of radio pendently discovered the magnetic
wave energy to resonance phenomena. The idea of
make pictures of using nuclear magnetic resonance to
organs inside the look inside the body was actually
body. An MRI credited to Raymond Damadian.
machine's magnet However, the most significant
ic field is 1000 to advancement in MRls occurred in
4000 times strong 2003, when Paul C. Lauterbur and
er than that of the Peter Mansfield developed MRls as a
Earth's magnetic diagnostic tool.
field! The development of MRI revolu
tionised the medical world.

1 00 N EW INVENTIONS 15
 Why do space stations fire our i mag
B e careful, ination?
this 's not our
p l ace.
A space station is a spacecraft
that is capable of supporting a crew,
and is designed to remain in space,
orbiting the Earth, for long periods of
time.
In a space station, astronauts can
live and work in space for months, or
y even years. They carry out research
and examine the behaviour of mate
rials and living things in a near
weightless environment. They also
study the effect of space flight on the

Out of Time
The Salyut 1 as a Russian space station
that was destroyed after 6 months in orbit.
The reason for this is that it ran out of fuel,
and could not be refuelled in time.

16 Tell Me Why
)
What is remarkable about the
CT Scan?
The letters CT stand for
'computerised tomography'. A
CT scan uses a computer that
takes data from several X-ray
images of structures inside the
body, and converts them into
pictures on a monitor.
A CT scanner emits a series
of narrow beams through the
human body as it moves
through an arc, unlike an X-ray
machine which sends just one
radiation beam. The final pic-
human body. Early space sta
tions such as Russia's Salyut
1, and the US Skylab were
built on Earth and launched
into orbit as complete units.
Larger stations such as Mir
and the International Space
1 00 N EW I NVENTIONS
ture is far more detailed than
an X-ray image.
Godfrey Hounsfield is con
sidered to be the inventor of
CT scan. By 1971, it was being
used for clinical purposes. CT
became widely available by
1980s.
CT scans are able to detect
some conditions that X-rays
cannot, since CT scans can
show a '3D' view of the section
of the body being studied.
CT scans are also useful for
monitoring a patient's pro
gress during treatment.
Station are assembled in orbit
from modules or sections that
are ferried up from Earth into
space, one at a time.
Space stations have also
been used for both military and
civilian purposes.
17
How were e-mails invented?
A ctuallY, e-mail was never
invented - it just evolved from
very simple beginnings. An
e-mail just puts a message in
another user's computer in a
spot where it can be seen
when the user is logged in. It's
just like leaving a note on
someone's desk.
Before the Internet, email
could only be used to send
messages to various users of
the same computer. Once
computers began to connect
each other over networks,
however, the problem became
a little more complex - mes
sages had to be addressed to
the receiver, and sent to their
computers. To do this, there
had to be a way to indicate to
whom letters should go. This is
18
why Ray Tomlinson is credited
with inventing e-mail in 1971.
He picked the @ symbol from
the computer keyboard to sep
arate the name of the user
from the user's machine.
Today, e-mail remains the
most important application of
the Internet, and the most
widely used facility it has. It is
estimated that more than 600
million people communicate
using email.
(
\
Tell Me Why
How have microprocessors changed
the history of computers?

A microprocessor is an electronic
component that is used by a comput
er to do its work. It is a central pro
cessing unit on a single integrated
circuit chip, containing millions of very
small components including transis First e-mail
tors, resistors, and diodes that work
Tomlinson did not
together.
realise the
The microprocessor is one of the
importance of the
most central parts of any computer
first e-mail mes
device. Microprocessors were invent sage he sent nor
ed by Ted Hoff, along with his col does he remem
leagues working at a young Silicon ber what the mes
Valley start-up called Intel. sage was.
They changed the history of comput "I sent a number
ers, for till then, computers had been of test messages
huge and unwieldy. The microproces to myself from
sor allowed computers to shrink in one machine to
size, but also grow in speed. The the other," he
microprocessor paved the way for the recalls.
age of personal computers.

1 00 N EW I NVENTIONS 19
 What is a touch screen?

The touch screen is a type of display

screen that has a transparent panel
covering the screen. This panel is sen
sitive to touch. It allows a user to inter
act directly with what is displayed on
the screen, without using a device like
a mouse.
J Touch screens are designed to
respond to the touch of a finger. The
idea of a touch screen was first devel
oped by E.A. Johnson at the Royal
Radar Establishment in England. His
idea was described in a short article

Touch screens have many advantages. They

are easier to use than a keyboard and
mouse, and tasks can be performed faster.
Moreover, smaller computers can be made
by using touch screen technology.

20 Tell Me Why
published in 1965. However, it
is Dr. Sam Hurst who is popu
larly considered to be its inven
tor. In 197 1, he developed a
sensor called the 'elograph'.
From mall kiosks to smart
phones to tablet computers,
touch screens are seen every
where these days.
How has C Programming lan
guage changed computing?
I n the late 40s and early 50s,
computer programmes were
entered by flicking switches. It
was quickly realised how inef
ficient and slow that was and
computer programming lan
guages soon appeared.
A programming language is
a special language that com
puter programmers use to
develop software programmes,
100 NEW INVE NTIO NS
scripts, or other sets of instruc
tions for computers to execute.
Each and every operation that
your computer performs has
instructions that someone had
to write in a programming lan
guage.
C is one such programming
language. That means that
you can use C to create lists of
instructions for a computer to
follow. It is one of thousands of
programming languages cur
rently in use. C was developed
between 1969 and 1973 by
Dennis Ritchie at AT&T Bell
Laboratories.
Programmes written in C
language are efficient, fast,
and easy to understand.
Therefore, it is not surprising
that C is among the most suc
cessful and popular program
ming languages.
21
 and IBM had entered the mar
How has the personal comput ket, and computers became
er or PC changed the world? common in offices, and even
tually, homes. Today, laptops,
Today's personal computers smart phones, and tablet com
are drastically different from puters allow us to have a PC
the massive, hulking machines with us wherever we go.
that emerged after World War At home and at work, we use
II. our PCs to do almost every
But, one of the most signifi thing. It is nearly impossible to
cant of the inventions that imagine modern life without
paved the way for the PC revo them.
lution was the microprocessor.
Many other innovations fol
lowed, which made it cheaper
and easier to manufacture
computers than ever before.
As a result, the small, rela
tively inexpensive 'microcom
puter'-soon known as the '
'personal computer'-was
born. Soon companies like
Xerox, Tandy, Commodore,

22 Te LL Me Why
What is PET? weight, and shatterproof bot

PET is not an animal. These tles. PET does not react with
food products, which is why it
three letters stand for polyeth
is widely preferred for packag
ylene terephthalate, which is a
ing foods, beverages, and
clear, strong and lightweight
pharmaceuticals.
plastic belonging to the polyes
It is recyclable, which means
ter family.
it is friendlier to the environ
It is typically called 'polyes
ment. Today, PET is one of the
ter' when used for fibres or fab
world's most commonly used,
rics, and 'PET' when used for
versatile and trusted materials,
bottles, jars, containers, and
both in the textile and food
packaging applications.
packaging industry.
PET was first synthesized in
the U.S. during the mid- 1940s
by DuPont chemists in their
search for innovative new tex Credits
tile fibres. In the USSR, PET was first
In the late 1950s, research manufactured by the
ers found a way to stretch a USSR Academy of Scienc
thin sheet of PET to create es in 1949. The PET bottle
PET film. In the early 1970s, was patented in 1973 by
the technology was developed Nathaniel Wyeth.
to mould PET into strong, light-

1 00 N EW INVENTIONS 23
 Why is LASIK a popular form of eye
Are you
surgery?
ready for the
surgery?
H umans have tried many ways to
correct problems of vision, whether it
is by using spectacles or contact
lenses. But, neither of these offers a
permanent solution. This is possible
only with laser eye surgery.
Lasers are amazing light beams
that are powerful enough to zoom
miles into the sky, or cut through
lumps of metal. The first human
vision correction using laser surgery
was done in 1988. In 1990, two Euro
pean doctors, the Greek eye doctor

Dry Eyes
LAS I K is a surgical procedure that uses a
laser to correct certain eye problems.
However, in around 20 per cent of the cas
es, it can cause the problem of dry eyes.

24 Tell Me Why
Pillakaris and the Italian eye storage and display medium
doctor Burrato developed what that looks like paper, but can
would be called LAS IK eye be repeatedly written on by
surgery. electronic means, thousands
This procedure reshapes the or millions of times. A single
cornea to enable light entering sheet of electronic paper can
the eye to be properly focused hold lots of information.
onto the retina for clearer The predecessor to electronic
vision. In most cases, laser paper, the Gyricon, was invent
eye surgery is pain-free, and ed in 1974 in the labs of the
completed within 15 minutes. Xerox Research Centre.
Many innovations and
What is electronic paper? improvements followed, and
electronic paper is now used
Electronic paper goes by for applications such as
many names. These include e Books, electronic newspa
e-paper, sometimes spelled pers, portable signs, and fold
as ePaper, electronic ink, and able displays.
also E Ink. All of these names The advantage of electronic
describe a technology that paper is that the information is
mimics the appearance of still there even when the power
ordinary ink on paper. is off, so it doesn't use too
To put it simply, electronic much electricity, and it is envi
paper is a portable, reusable ronment friendly too.

1 00 N EW I NVENTIONS 25
 Why are digital cameras an exciting
invention?

I n 1973, Steven Sasson, a young engi

neer, went to work for Eastman Kodak.
Two years later, he invented digital pho
tography, and made the first digital cam
era.
Digital cameras capture and record
images using digital technology. Digital
cameras look very much like ordinary
cameras that use films, but they work in
Only 24 a completely different way. When you
Steven Sasson press the button to take a photograph
was only 24 with a digital camera, an aperture opens
years old when
he invented the
digital camera
in 1975.
However, the
technology was
patented only in
1978.

26 Tell Me Why
Why are 3D computer graph
ics fascinating?
Computer graphics means
drawing pictures on a comput
er screen. This technology
was first created as a visuali
sation tool for scientists
research centres such as Bell
Labs and Boeing in the 1950s.
Normally, a page on
screen of a computer monitor
has only two dimensions
height and width. However,
some of the games that you
at the front of the camera, and
light streams in through the
lens. But there is no film in a
digital camera. Instead, there
is a piece of electronic equip
ment that captures the incom
ing light rays, and turns them
into electrical signals. All digi-
100 NEW INVENTIONS
now play on a computer have
images that are in 3 dimen
sions, or 3D.
These three dimensions are
height, width and depth. 3D
graphics techniques and their
application are fundamental to
in the entertainment, games, and
computer-aided design indus
tries. It is a continuing area of
the research in scientific visualisa
tion as well.
Furthermore, 3D graphics
are now a part of almost every
personal computer.
tal cameras have a built-in
computer, and all of them
record images electronically.
A digital camera has many
advantages. It gives us instant
photographs, allows us to edit
our pictures, and makes it eas
ier for us to share photographs.
27
Why is the history of the super
computer interesting?
It was Seymour Cray who
developed the first transistor
ised supercomputer for the
Control Data Corporation by
1950s.
So, what exactly is a super
computer? A supercomputer is
a computer with great speed
and memory, which can do
jobs faster than any other com
puter of its generation. Fifty
28
years ago, the smallest com
puter in the world was a gar
gantuan machine that filled a
room. When transistors and
integrated circuits were devel
oped, computers could pack
the same power into micro
chips as big as your fingernail.
So, what if you build a room
sized computer today and fill it
full of those same chips? What
you get is a supercomputer
-a computer that's millions of
times faster than a PC, and
capable of solving the world's
most complex scientific prob
lems.
Supercomputers are perfect
for tackling big scientific prob
lems, from uncovering the ori
gins of the Universe, to
understanding earthquakes,
and predicting the weather as
well as for medical research.
Tell Me Why
 How have personal stereos changed
the world of music?

A personal stereo is a portable

audio player. When talking of per
sonal stereos, the first name that
comes to mind is Sony Walkman. In
July 1979, the Sony Corporation
launched Sony Walkman, a silver
and blue coloured portable player
with flashy buttons and leather case
but it was a little bulky.
William Fetter One day, Sony's co-founder,
was an art Masaru Ibuka while travelling for
director. He is business, asked his executive dep
credited with uty president to design a model that
having coined the could be used with light compact
term'computer headphones. This high quality, slim
graphics'. He was mer device for music lovers cap
the first to draw a tured the market, and took the world
human figure by storm. It brought about a revolu
using computer tion in the music world by allowing
graphics. people to carry their favourite music
while they were on the move.

100 N EW I NVENTIONS 29
 resolve X- rays from sourc
es outside Earth's atmos
phere.
X-rays do not reflect off
mirrors the same way that
visible light does. This
means that X-ray tele
scopes must be very differ
ent from optical telescopes.
The mirrors have to be pre
cisely shaped, and aligned
What is an X-ray telescope? nearly parallel to incoming
X-rays.
Earth based telescopes suffer Thus, they look more like
from the limitations caused by barrels than the familiar
light pollution, atmospheric turbu dish shape of optical tele
lence, and weather systems. scopes. Because of atmos
Added to this, the Earth's atmos pheric absorption, X-ray
phere absorbs electromagnetic telescopes must be carried
radiations of the shorter wave to high altitudes, or placed
lengths such as X-rays, which are in orbit outside the atmos
emitted by objects in the Universe. phere. X-ray telescopes
An X-ray telescope is an instru are used to study the Sun,
ment designed to detect and stars and supernovas.

30 Tell Me Why

What is an air car?
Can a car run on air? If it could,
all our worries about the world's
diminishing supply of oil and pet
rol would end.
It would be the ideal solution
because air never runs out, air is
non-polluting, and best of all, air
is free. Unfortunately, air alone
can't be used as a fuel. First,
energy has to be stored in it by
squeezing the air tightly, using a
mechanical air compressor.
Once the compressed air is
released, it expands. This
The
air car is
ready.
;a"""'-
L
'
100 N EW I NVENTlON S
expanding air can be used,
for example, to drive the pis
tons that power an engine.
The idea of using com
pressed air to power a vehi
cle isn't new. In 1979, Terry
Miller invented a car that
runs on compressed air, and
applied for a patent in 1983.
In the 1980s, inventors Claud
Mead, Des Hill, Ricardo
Perez-Pomar, and George
Miller said that they had
invented an air car.
In 2012, Tata Motors pre
sented their concept for the
air car, and said that it would
go to production as one of
the cheapest and simplest
\' cars on the road. However,
this has not happened so far.
31
Why is Maglev an important
invention?
M aglev is short for magnetic
levitation. It is a method of
transport in which high speed
vehicles are lifted by magnetic
repulsion, and propelled along
an elevated guideway, by pow
erful magnets attached to the
vehicle.
If you've ever played with
magnets, you know that
opposite poles attract and
like poles repel each other.
This is the basic principle
behind electromagnetic pro
pulSion. Electromagnets are
similar to other magnets in
that they attract metal objects,
but the magnetic pull is tem . netically
porary.
Today, many countries have
started using powerful electro-
32
magnets to propel high-speed
trains called maglev trains.
These trains will float over a
guideway, using the basic prin
ciples of magnets to replace
the old steel wheel and track
trains.
The trains do not physically
touch the guideway, do not
need engines, and do not burn
fuel. Instead, they are magnet
ically propelled by electric
power fed to coils located on
the guideway.
Maglev is cheaper, faster,
non-polluting, and safer than
normal modes of transport.
Many countries already have
maglev trains. The world's first
commercial high-speed mag-
levitated train was
implemented in Shanghai,
China, in 2004. It travels at a
speed of 430 km per hour.
Tell Me Why

What is interesti ng about the
invention of Post -it notes?
A Post-it note is a small
piece of paper with a re-usa
ble strip of glue on its back. It
can be stuck on documents, or
in any prominent spot with
messages that act as remind
ers, and peeled off easily after
use.
----
A real l y
useful
i nvention!
1 00 NEW I NVENTIO N S
Interestingly, two accidents
led to the invention of the Post
it note. The first was by Spen
cer Silver, who accidentally
created a weak adhesive
agent. It has two interesting
features. Firstly, when stuck
to a surface, it could be peeled
away. Secondly, the adhesive
was re-usable.
Four years later, the second
accident occurred. Arthur Fry
was singing in the church's
choir, and the markers he used
to note his place in the hymn
book kept falling out. Fry used
some of Silver's adhesive to
keep the markers in place. The
weak adhesive kept the mark
ers in place. He lifted off the
markers easily without damag
ing the pages, and this marked
the beginning of Post-it notes.
33
Why is the hepatitis B vaccine
important?
H epatitis B is a virus that
infects the liver. This virus is
spread through infected blood
or body secretions. Very often,
it doesn't have any obvious
symptoms in adults.
It usually passes in a few
months without treatment, but
it can recur, and develop into a
chronic infection, which can be
fatal. In children it often per-
34
sists for years, and may even
tually cause serious livel
damage.
The hepatitis B virus was dis
covered in 1965 by Dr. Baruc
Blumberg who won the Nobe
Prize for his work. Workin
with Dr. Blumberg, microbiolo
gist Irving Millman helped tc
develop a blood test for the
hepatitis B virus.
Four years after discoverin
the hepatitis B virus, Drs.
Blumberg and Millman devel
oped the first hepatitis B vac
cine.
Worldwide, chronic hepatitis
B causes 80 per cent of all liver
cancer, which is the 9th leading
cause of death.
Therefore, a vaccine that
protects against a hepatitis B
infection can also help prevent
liver cancer.
Tell Me Why
Why was the first reusable reusable spacecraft marks an
spacecraft a wonder? important step forward for any
space programme. NASA's
The Space Shuttle, f irst space shuttle launched like a
launched by NASA in 198 1, rocket, and returned to Earth
was the world's f irst reusable like a glider.
spacecraft. The reusable space shuttle
Normally, spacecraft once has three components- the
launched into space, w ill orbit orb iter space plane, rocket
the Earth continuously for a boosters, and external fuel
spec ified period of t ime, and tank. Special heat-res istant
later, burn themselves out dur tiles prevented the orbiter from
ing re-entry through the Earth's burning up when it re-entered
atmosphere. S ince spacecraft the Earth's atmosphere.
are very expensive to build, a The space shuttle was init ial
ly used to launch satellites in
orbit and to carry scientific
experiments. As the pro
gramme matured, the space
shuttle also has been used to
repair the International Space
Station and to retrieve and
return to the Earth previously
deployed spacecraft.

1 00 N EW INVENTIONS 35
What is a scanning tunnelling Why is the artificial heart
microscope? a life saving invention?

A scanning tunnelling micro The very first artificial

scope, or STM, is a device that heart was implanted in an
obtains images of the atoms on the animal - in this case, a
surfaces of materials. dog- by Soviet scientist
It is the most powerful type of Vladimir Demikhov, in
microscope ever built. It was invent 1937.
ed in 1981, by Gerd Binnig and
Heinrich Rohrer who won the Nobel Is this heart
Prize in Physics in 1986. enough for your
The STM is very different from heart probl em?

ordinary microscopes. Ordinary

microscopes focus light which is
emitted -or reflected- from objects.
The resolution of such a microscope
is limited by the wavelength of light.
The STM, on the other hand basi
cally uses the principle of qucmtum
mechanics known as quantum tun
nelling. It operates at low tempera
tures or in a vacuum. It is an
important tool in nanotechnology.

36 Tell Me Why

The first artificial heart to be
successfully implanted
human was the Jarvik 7 in
1982. It was designed by a
team, including Willem Johan
Kolff and Robert Jarvik.
On December 2nd,
Kolff implanted the Jarvik 7
artificial heart into
Clark, a dentist from Seattle
who was suffering from severe
heart failure. Even though the
surgery was a success, the
patient survived only for 1 12
days, that too having bleeding
in a and acute medical conditions.
Today, the modern version
of the Jarvik 7 is known as the
SynCardia Temporary Total
Artificial Heart. It has been
1982, implanted in more than 1,350
people as a bridge to trans
Barney plantation.

_ _ _____ _ r

Heart Lung Machine

A heart lung machine is a machine that tem
porarily takes over the functions of the heart
and lungs, especially during heart surgery.
It was invented by John Heysham Gibbon
who successfully performed an open heart
surgery using this machine for the first time in 1953.

1 00 N EW I NVENTIONS 37
 schools and hotels. In fact, the lap
top computer revolutionised the
way people work and travel.
The first laptop computer availa
ble to the public was the Osborne 1
that was released in 198 1. The
screen was 12.7 cms, long and the
Ideal keyboard was in the lid of the com
puter. A portable battery was
According to
designed and available for pur
research, the most
chase after its first release.
preferred laptops is
Most of the early 'portable' com
the one that comes
puters were heavy and unwieldy.
with 500 GB Hard
Since the Osborne 1, the laptop
Disk, 4 GB RAM , and
has changed over the years.
15 inch screen size.
The first laptop to be comfortably
lap-sized was the Epson HX20,
Why have laptops become which became widely available in
so popular? 1983. It was powered by batteries,
and included a small printer. Lap
T Oday, laptops are com tops have grown smaller over the
monly in use everywhere years, as technology and storage
in homes, offices, on capabilities have improved, and
trains and planes, in have become enormously popular.

38 Tell Me Why
What is an IP address?
Internet Protocol or IP is a
set of rules governing the
format of data sent over the
Internet or other network. If
you want to communicate
through the Internet, you
I t's time
to check the IP
address.
need an IP address. An IP
address is a fascinating product
of modern computer technology.
It is designed to allow one com
puter - or any other digital device
to communicate with another, via
the Internet.
IP addresses pinpoint the loca
tion of literally billions of digital
devices that are connected to the
Internet. A remote computer
needs your IP address to com
municate with your computer,
just as someone needs your
mailing address to send you a
letter.
An IP address consists of four
numbers, each of which contains
one to three digits, with a single
dot separating each number or
set of digits. This group of four
numbers is the key that helps us
to send and retrieve data over
our Internet connections.

39
Why is stealth technology a
military breakthrough?
We know that radar is used
to determine the location of an
object, including aircraft.
The operating principle of
radar is based on the fact that
radio signals reflect off metal
surfaces, such as the body of
an aircraft.
During wartime, this makes it
very difficult for an airplane to
fly over enemy territory without
being detected. Stealth tech-
Only three countries have
ever conducted stealth
combat aircraft demon
strations -the US, Russia
and China.
40
nology is a technology which
makes an airplane invisible to
radar.
Most conventional aircraft
have a rounded shape which
creates a very efficient radar
reflector. A stealth aircraft, on
the other hand, is made up of
completely flat surfaces and
very sharp edges. When a
radar signal hits a stealth
plane, the signal reflects away
at an angle.
In addition, surfaces on a
stealth aircraft can be treated
so they absorb radar energy
as well. As a result, a stealth
aircraft looks like a small bird
on a radar screen.
Therefore, stealth technolo
gy has been of immense value
to the military, ever since the
first stealth fighter aircraft
came into operation in 1983.
Tel l Me Why
What is a anned Manoeuvring Unit or free-flying satellites,
M U? 482 kilometres from
the space shuttle
A manned manoeuvring unit or Challenger, on the first
M M U is a jet-powered backpack for test flight of the
astronauts. It is designed to work Manned Manoeuvring
alongside the life support systems Unit. The M M U has
already in place on a space suit. been flown during
It enables astronauts to venture three space missions.
untethered outside an orbiting space
craft, in order to carry out different
activities in space, such as satellite
retrieval, science investigations and
observations, in-space construction,
and rescue operations.
Lockheed Martin designed, built, and
tested the Manned Manoeuvring Unit
at its space centre near Denver, and at The final MMU
NASA's Johnson Space Centre in Hou mission was
ston, US. The M M U represents the cUl STS-51-A. This
mination of more than a decade of manned manoeu
research and development. vring unit flew in
In 1984, Astronauts Bruce McCand November 19.
less, and Robert Stewart became tiny,

1 00 N EW INVENTIONS 41
What is the signifi computer to a room of Apple inves
cance of the Apple tors. Though it was met with excited
Macintosh ? applause from Apple's shareholders,
the new Macintosh in 1984, nearly
More than thirty flopped.
years ago, Steve Jobs After a slow start, Apple's Macintosh
presented the new fortunes began to turn around for
Macintosh personal users discovered valuable, unique
applications of the new machine. Soon
it was recognised that the Apple Mac
intosh had revolutionised the entire
computer industry.
Steve Jobs had truly launched a
'people's computer', one that could be
easily used by the normal person in
the street - and not only by experts.

Not the First

The Macintosh is the most famous of Apple
computers. It was not the first though. The
first computer was launched by Apple in
July 1976. It was the Apple 1.

42 Tell Me Why
 surgery performed was a lapa
roscopic surgery.
Since then, numerous proce
How has robotic surgery dures have been performed
changed the way operations laparoscopically as technology
are performed? and the skills of the surgeons
have developed. The greatest
Robotic surgery, or robot advantage of robotic surgery is
assisted surgery, allows doc that there are fewer complica
tors to perform many types of tions, less pain, and quicker
complex procedures with more recovery and smaller scars.
precision, flexibility, and con
trol than is possible with con
ventional techniques.
The most widely used clinical
robotic surgical system
includes a camera arm and
mechanical arms with surgical
instruments attached to them.
The surgeon controls the arms
while seated at a computer
console.
Surgical Robots were intro
duced in 1987, and the first

100 N EW I NVENTIONS
 What is the importance of DNA finger
printing?

I n September 1984, Dr. Alec Jeffreys, a

geneticist from the University of Leices
ter in Great Britain was studying heredi
tary diseases in families when he
realised that D NA patterns are unique to
each person.
Way Out So he invented the test that is today
DNA fingerprint known as D NA fingerprinting. This test
ing helps to can identify and evaluate the genetic
resolve many information-called D NA or deoxyribonu
crimes. The cleic acid, in a person's cells.
process was It is called a 'fingerprint' because it is
made famous very unlikely that any two people would
when prosecu have exactly the same D NA information,
tors used it to in the same way that it is very unlikely
accuse O.J. that any two people would have exactly
Simpson of a the same fingerprint. D NA fingerprinting
double murder is used to determine whether a family
case in the US.
relationship exists between two people,
to identify organisms causing a disease,
and to solve crimes.

44 Tell Me Why
What are self driving cars? sure at G M's Futurama
exhibit at the 1939 World's
Driver error is the most common Fair.
cause of traffic accidents. So obvi The first self driving car
ously, cars that drive themselves was unveiled in 1977 by S.
should be able to reduce the num Tsugawa and his col
ber of road accidents. leagues at Japan's Tsuku
However, this is easier said than ba Engineering Laboratory.
done. The idea of self driving cars The car was equipped with
gained widespread public expo- two cameras that used
analogue computer tech
This fool nology for signal process
doesn ' t know that ing. Automakers are
I don ' t have a developing complex sys
driving license.
tems that allow cars to
drive themselves.
In May 20 14, Google
presented a new concept
for their driverless car that
had neither a steering
wheel nor pedals. Google
plans to make these cars
available to the public in
2020.

45
Why are superconductors a
significant discovery?
You might have learnt that
conductors, such as metal,
allow electricity to pass through
them easily, while insulators
like plastics barely let it pass
through at all.
Actually, all materials con
duct electricity, under the right
conditions, but some conduct
more easily than others.
When we say a metal con
ducts electricity well, we really
mean it offers little or no resist
ance when you try to make a
current flow through it. At the
same time, when we say plas
tics insulate well, we 're actually forever, forming a very power-
saying that they put up high . ful electromagnet. In fact, the
resistance to electric currents.
In 19 1 1, a Dutch physicist
called Onnes was investigat-
46
ing the resistance of metals at
very low temperatures. He
discovered that when Mercury
is cooled to about -269 C, it
offers no resistance to an
electric current. He called this
surprising effect supercon
ductivity.
During the 1950s, more work
was done on superconductors,
and it was realised that they
represented are one of the
greatest of scientific discover
ies. This is because if you set
up a current in a loop of a
superconductor, there is noth
ing to stop it as there is no
resistance.
Therefore, it will keep flowing
most powerful magnetic fields
on Earth are produced using
superconductors.
Tell Me Why
Why does the stent represent nary, vascular, and billiard
a milestone in medical history? stents, to simple plastic stents
used to allow the flow of urine
In medicine, a stent is a tube between kidney and bladder.
or other device placed in the Julio Palmaz, a radiologist, is
body to create a passage known for inventing the bal
between two hollow spaces. loon-expandable stent, for
There are a wide variety of which he received a patent
stents used for different pur filed in 1985. This patent has
poses, from expandable coro- been included on the list of the
ten most important inventions
of all times.
This stent The first use of a coronary
wil l be a huge stent is attributed to Jacques
success. Puel and Ulrich Sigwart when
they implanted a stent into a
patient in France in 1986.
In October 1987, Palmaz
implanted his first stent on a
patient in Germany . Later, the
first Palmaz-Schatz coronary
stent was implanted in Brazil.
All these procedures were very
successful.

100 N EW I NVENTIONS 47
What is a touch pad?
A touch pad is a device for
pointing on a computer display
screen. It is an alternative to
the mouse.
It was invented by George E.
Gerpheide in 1988. The touch
pad is a flat area, located
beneath your keyboard. When
you move your finger across
the touchpad surface a corre
sponding mouse pointer moves
around your computer screen.
With a touchpad, you perform
clicking actions to open or
select things on screen by
using the right and left buttons
on the bottom of the touchpad.
Under the soft skin of the
touchpad, there is an array of
sensors which create an elec
trical field. The finger changes
the character of the electrical
field, allowing the user to drag
a cursor across the screen.

-------

Unlucky
The computer mouse as we know it today
was invented and developed by Douglas
Engelbart with the assistance of Bill Eng
lish, during the 1960s, and was patented on
November 17, 1970. But he never profited
from his invention, because his patent expired before it
become a commerc ial success.

48 TeLL Me Why
What is M P3 compression?
Audio files in a normal com
pact disc can be very large.
This is because information on
a compact disc is stored in the
form of binary digits.
MP3 compression reduces
the number of bits by taking out
unnecessary information. One
of the main advantages of MP3
1 00 N EW I NVENTIONS
files is that they still retain
acceptable audio quality, even
after compression, while great
ly reducing the size of the file.
MP3 files can be downloaded
faster than normal files.
Moreover, they also take up
less space in your computer 's
memory. MP3 technology also
made MP3 players possible.
So, if you love listening to
music wherever you go on
your handy little MP3 player,
you have to thank the German
company Fraunhofer
Gesellshaft which developed
MP3 technology.
Two names are mentioned
most frequently in connection
with the development of MP3.
They are Dieter Seitzer and
Karlheinz Brandenburg who is
often called the 'father of
MP3'.
49
 Why is the World Wide Web different
from the Internet?

M any people think that the internet

and the World Wide Web are the same
thing. While they are closely linked, they
are two different things.
The internet is a huge network of com
puters all connected together. The
Mouse World Wide Web or www for short, is a
collection of web pages found on this
The computer
network of computers. Your web brows
mouse was
er uses the internet to access the web.
called a'turtle'
In 1989, the World Wide Web was
in its early days
invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. He
because of its
was trying to find a new way for scien
shape. The
tists to easily share the data from their
name was
experiments. Web pages are primarily
changed howev
er, because the text documents formatted and annotat
wire at its end ed with Hypertext Markup Language or
looked like a HT ML. The World Wide Web has con
mouse's tail. nected the world in a way that was not
possible before. It has made it so much
easier for people to communicate.

50 Tell Me Why
 Sea rch
What is a search engine?
Think of the Internet as the
world 's biggest library - but
instead of books, its shelves
contain billions of individual
web pages.
In a library, you have an
index to help you track down
the book you want. The Inter
net has something similar in
the form of 'search engines'.
Search engines are special
websites that have indexed bil-
lions of pages. The first search
engine was developed as a
school project by Alan Emtage,
a student in Montreal.
Today, popular search
engines include Google,
Yahoo, Bing and Ask. To get to
a search engine, you just need
to go to your browser's address
bar and type in the address of
the search engine website.
In the search engine's
homepage, you'll find a single
box. You simply type whatev
er you want to search for into
that box. The search engine
then searches its collection
of billions of documents, and
does two things. First it returns
only those results that are rel
evant to the searcher's query,
and second, it ranks t hose
results according to t he popu
larity.
51
Why is the Hubble Space Tel takes pictures of them as it
escope an awesome inven whirls around Earth.
tion? Hubble is named after an
American astronomer Edwin
The Hubble Space Tele P. Hubble. He showed that the
scope is a large telescope that galaxy containing the solar
orbits the Earth . It was system-the Milky Way - was
launched into orbit by space only one of many galaxies.
shuttle Discovery on April 24 , His work helped show that
1990. the universe is expanding, and
Hubble orbits about 547 kilo this has been proved by the
metres above the Earth. It is Hubble Space telescope as
the length of a large school well.
bus, and weighs as much as The Hubble Space telescope
two adult elephants. helped researchers make
Hubble does not travel to important discoveries about
stars , planets or galaxies. It our Universe.

------

Decades Ago
Hubble Space Telescope's early origins date
back as far as 1946-more than 10 years
before NASA was established.

52 Te l l Me Why
 -
, - -' ,
.... - -

. _ . ,

I ' . - ,

'" _I H.

. RADIO
,; CONTROLLED
WATC H

first radio controlled watch and

named it Mega 1.
The Mega 1 used standard
radio time signals to synchro
nize an internal quartz clock
once per day. A radio-con
trolled clock is similar to an
What is Mega 1 ? ordinary electronic watch, but
it has two extra components. It
The Mega 1 is a watch, but it has an antenna that picks up
is different from ordinary radio signals, and a circuit that
watches. It is a radio controlled decodes them.
watch.
Most people regularly check
their watches against a relia
ble time signal -like the ones
you hear before news broad
casts on radio stations.
Now imagine a watch that
could listen to those broad
casts, and set itself to the right
time automat ically ! In 1991,
the Junghans Company did
just that. They developed the
53
 was actually invented a
couple of years before the
web.
However, as soon as the
World Wide Web went up,
Why was the webcam invented? the service was connected
to the Internet.
The webcam was actually
invented by lazy students at Cam
bridge University who didn't want
to waste a trip to the nearby cof
fee pot if it was going to be empty
when they got there !
In 199 1, too many trips to an
empty coffee pot led Dr. Quentin
St afford- Fraser and Paul Jarde QuickCam
tzky to invent the world's first web In 1994, Connedix
cam to help l ate night studiers released the very first
a nd programmers keep an eye on commercial webcam,
coffee levels. the QuickCam. The
When switched on, the cam er a webcam did not come
provided a n image o f the coffee into widespread use
pot, and the level of coffee remain until the 20005.
ing in it ! Ironically, the 'webc am'

54 Tell Me Why

How have smart phones
changed the concept of mobile
phones?
A smart phone is basically a
cell phone that performs many
1 0 0 NEW INVENTIONS
of the functions of a computer
such as e-mail or Internet
browsing.
Today, almost about every
one owns a smart phone, even
though it is a fair ly recent
invention.
The very first concept of a
smart phone is said to have
been envisioned back in the
mid- 1 970s, but that idea didn 't
come into reality until almost
20 years later, when I B M 's
Simon Personal Communica
tor was first launched in 1993.
Despite being able to send
and receive emails and faxes,
Simon was never technically
called a smart phone.
In 1996, Nokia released their
first smart phone, and mobile
phones were never the same
again ! It revolutionised the
world .
55
What is GPS? On the ground, all G PS
receivers contain a computer
The letters G PS stand for that calculates its own position
Global Navigation System. by getting bearings from three
This system gives us informa of the four satellites.
tion about location and time in The G PS has many scientific,
all weather conditions, any military, civil and commercial
where on Earth. It consists of uses, and is one of the most
24 satellites that orbit the fantastic utilities ever devised
Earth. by Man.
Each satellite contains a
computer, an atomic clock, Why are USBs useful?
and a radio, and it continually
broadcasts its changing posi The US B - its full form is Uni
tion and time. versal Serial Bus- is a connec-

Different Systems
The Russians have also developed a
navigation system called GLONASS. India,
China and Japan, as well as the European
countries, also have different navigation
systems of their own.

56 Tell Me Why
tion used to connect a computer US B flash drives are not a
to devices such as digital cam new invention, but as the
eras, printers, scanners, and world becomes more and
external hard drives. more digital, the need for
It was developed in 1994 by a these devices is growing
group of seven companies. They rapidly.
were Compaq, DEC , I B M, Intel,
Microsoft, NEC , and Nortel. Like
a hard disk, a US B drive- or flash
drive as it is popularly known
stores information.
However, with a flash drive
you can easily transfer that infor
mation from one computer to
another. US B flash drives vary in
size and shape and can hold Generation Next
gigabytes of information. USB Tthe first integrated
flash drives are also cal led pen circuits supporting
drives, key chain drives, key USB were produced by
drives, and memory keys. Intel in 1995. iMac by
When it comes to saving Apple was the first
important digital files, the impor mainstream product
tance of a US B drive can't be with USB.
stressed enough.

1 0 0 N EW I NVENTIONS 57
What are C Ds and DVDs? information they can store. A
CD can hold 650 megabytes,
C Os are one of the most or million characters of data,
popular ways of storing music whereas a D V D can cram in at
and computer data. A C D is a least seven times more data.
thin, circular disc of metal and In effect, a D V D can do any
plastic which uses flashing thing that CD does, and more
laser lights to record and read efficiently.
back information.
C Ds were originally used just
W hat a joke!
for storing music. Later, they You can copy a
were used for storing videos full movie?
as well. Each disc could store
74 minutes of stereo sound.
The technology behind C Ds
was invented in the late 1960s
by James T. Russell .
An avid music fan, he longed
for a sound-recording system
that would reproduce music
more exactly than LP records .
and cassette tapes.
The difference between C Ds
and D V Ds is the amount of

58 Tell Me Why
 removed. This is how Dolly's
Why was 1 996 a very impor life began - from a single cell
tant year for science? taken from the udder of her
mother.
In 1996, a major scientific The DNA in her mother 's cell
breakthrough stunned the was removed, and transferred
world. This was the year that into the egg cell of another
the first mammal was success sheep. Five months later, Dolly
fully cloned from an adult cell. was born, creating medical
What is cloning? Cloning is a history.
process in which scientists It was Ian Wilmut, Keith
extract the DNA from an ani Campbell, and their colleagues
mal cell, and implant it into an at the Roslin Institute in Edin
egg cell taken from another burgh, Scotland who were
animal. Before implanting it, responsible for this remarkable
the DNA of the recipient cell is achievement.

Singer Sheep
DoUy is name of the first cloned animal,
a sheep. It was named after a famous
singer, DoUy Parton.

1 0 0 NEW I NVENTIONS 59
Why are hybrid electric cars nologies. In spite of this,
important? very few vehicles were
produced that could both
H Ybrid cars use an internal com reduce the world's depend
bustion engine -and can be ence on oil and compete
fuelled like normal cars -but have with gasoline vehicles on
an electric motor and battery , and price and performance.
can be powered by electricity. It wasn't until Toyota
It was the oil crisis of 1973 that released the Prius in Japan
gave impetus to idea of saving in 1997 that a viable alter
petrol by using electricity to power native emerged.
cars. Over the next 25 years , auto In 1999, the Honda
manufacturers spent billions of Insight became the first
dollars on research of hybrid tech- mass produced hybrid car
in the United States.
By using both a conven
tional engine and electric
motor, the best hybrids
achieve significantly better
fuel efficiency than their
non-hybrid counterparts.
They also pollute less and
save drivers money
through fuel savings .

Te l l Me Why
 What is the significance of the Human
Genome Project?

A genome is the genetic material that

makes up a living organism. It is con
tained in chromosomes, which are the
tiny threadlike structures inside cells.
Chromosomes are made from a chem
ical substance called D NA, and D NA is
Big Science a sequence of smaller units, called bas
es. The D NA bases combine to form
In its scope and
genes. These contain the instructions
importance, the
that are passed on from one generation
Human Genome
Project is as of an organism to the next.
awesome as the The Human Genome Project, was an
project to put a international effort to discover the exact
human being on makeup of the genetiC material that con
the Moon. trols the way human beings develop,
Such projects and grow. Thousands of scientists from
are termed many countries worked on the Human
' Big Science' Genome Project. The first draft of the
projects. human genome was published in 2 000,
and a more complete version was pub
lished in 2003.

1 00 N EW INVENTIONS 61
Why are fuel cell bikes gen, taken from the surrounding
cool? atmosphere. The Ital ian bike maker
Aprilia has developed a fuel cell
Fuel cell bikes are a b ike that stores compressed hydro
new invention- and a cool gen in metal canister housed in the
one at that. On an ordi frame. W ith a top speed of 32 k ilo
nary bike, you cannot metres per hour, the bike weighs
travel very long d istanc less than regular electric bikes and
es, as you would get travels tw ice as far, about 69 k ilo
exhausted from all the metres, before it needs more gas.
pedaling. Fuel cell b ikes have the great
The alternatives to this advantage of offering an environ
are electric bikes, and ment-friendly mode of transport.
fuel cell b ikes. An electric
bike has a motor that is
dr iven by electric ity from a
battery. A fuel cell b icycle,
on the other hand, uses
hydrogen as a fuel. The
battery found on an elec
tric bike is replaced by a
compact fuel cell wh ich
generates electric power
from hydrogen and oxy-

62

Why is the artificial liver a life
saving invention?
The liver performs over 500
different f unctions ! In fact, it is
so important that we cannot
live without o ur liver.
The q uest for a device that
can fill in for the function of the
liver, at least temporarily, has
been unde rway for decades.
Early in 1956, the first exper
iment using a biological artifi
cial liver was cond ucted, using
a live dog's liver that was
placed inside another critically
ill dog.
In October 1958, the first
human patient, a young man,
1 0 0 N EW I NVENTIONS
was placed on the laboratory
made biological artificial liver.
This first case was very suc
cessful, res ulting in the
patient 's recovery.
In 2001, Dr. Kenneth Mat
s um ura and his team devel
oped a functioning artificial
liver that performed most of
the activity of a normal liver
because it was partially made
of normal liver cells.
British scientists have since
created the first artificial liver
tissue from stem cells. The
res ulting 'mini-liver' is the size
of a small coin. The same tech
nique will be further developed
to create a full-size liver.
In fifteen years' time, entire
livers could be grown in the lab
and then be transplanted into
human beings. Isn't that awe
some?
63
 Your steillOn
What is satellite radio?
For decades, to listen to
radio entertainment,
had two choices - A M radio
and F M radio. But in the last
few years, an entirely new
way to listen to radio has
emerged-satellite radio.
This kind of radio broad
casting is digital. It is broad
cast via a communication
satellite that gives a wider
I'm not
getting any
radio channel .
o tremendous amounts of time and
64
range. Two companies got the
license to provide satellite radio
in the year 1997. They were X M
you and Sirius.
Satellite radio was officially
launched in the year 200 1. One
of the great advantages of satel
lite radio is the fact that the pro
grammes are not interrupted by
commercials. This is because
the provider's income comes
from listeners, who pay for the
service, and not from advertis
ers. The satellite radio signal is
digital, which means that you will
get crystal-clear sound wherever
you go.
Why is scramjet a remarkable
invention?
During, and after World War I I,
effort were put into researching
Tell Me Why
high-speed jet and rocket pow
ered aircraft.
Scramjet is an engine tech
nology that is aimed at cutting
weight . Airplane and rocket
fuel requires oxygen to com
bust. But at very high altitudes,
oxygen is also rather scarce.
Therefore, when flying in the
stratosphere, rocket engines
generally need to carry their
own oxygen to use as fuel.
Scramjet technology
designed to eliminate the need
to carry oxygen. The oxygen
needed by the engine to com
bust is taken from the atmos
phere passing through the
vehicle, instead of from a tank
on-board. The craft becomes
smaller, lighter, and faster.
Moreover, since a scramjet
has no rotating part, it is easier
to manufacture than conven
tional jet engines.
At high altitudes, scientists
estimate that a scramjet-pow
is ered aircraft could reach theo
retical speeds of anywhere
from Mach 12 to Mach 24 !

Rock and Roll is not the name of a band, as

you might think. They are the names of two
satellites in orbit. ' Rock', was launched on
March 1 8th, 200 1 , with ' Roll' following on
May 8th of the same year.

1 0 0 N EW I NVENTIONS 65
What is a Blu-ray?

Blu-ray is the name of a new opti

cal disc format. The format was
developed to enable recording,
rewriting, and playback of high-defi
nition video, as well as storing large
amounts of data.
The format offers more than five
times the storage capacity of tradi
No Mistake
tional D V Ds. While current optical
disc technologies such as D V Ds Blu- ray is spelt this
rely on a red laser to read and write way deliberately.
data, the new format uses a blue The present spelling
was adopted for pur
violet laser instead , hence the name
poses of registering
Blu -ray.
the name as a trade
The benefit of using a blue-violet
mark.
laser is that it has a shorter wave
length than a red laser. This makes
it possible to focus the laser pot
with even greater precision. more data on a Blu-ray
As a result, data can be packed disc, even though it's the
more tightly, and stored in less same size as a C D or
space. Therefore, it's possible to fit DVD.

66 Tell Me Why
Why is Skype so popular? computer, or a TV with
Skype on it and best of
Skype is an application for doing all, it is a free service !
things together, whenever you're Skype had more than
apart. It provides video, chat, and 663 million registered
voice call services that make it simple users by the year 2 0 1 0.
to share experiences with the people
that matter to you, wherever they are. I love
Skype made its first appearance in my friends, so
2003, and was the brainchild of Nik I l ove thi s
las Zennstrom, Dane Janus Friis, Ahti skype.
Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, and Jaan Tal
linn. It allows users to communicate
over the Internet by voice using a
microphone, by video by using a web
cam, as well as with instant messag
ing.
With Skype, you can share a story,
celebrate a birthday, learn a lan
guage, hold a meeting, work with col
leagues - just about anything you
need to do together every day.
You can use Skype on whatever
works best for you - on your phone or

1 0 0 N EW I NVENTIONS 67
What is the importance of gra est atom of gas - helium -
phene? and yet allows water vapour
to pass through. Although
I n simple terms, graphene, is scientists knew one atom
a thin layer of pure carbon. It is thick, two-dimensional crys
a single, tightly packed layer of tal graphene existed, no-one
carbon atoms that are bonded had worked out how to
together in a hexagonal hon extract it from graphite.
eycomb lattice. That was until it was isolat
It is the thinnest compound ed in 2004 by two research
known to Man, for it is only ers at The University of
one atom thick. It is one of Manchester, Professor Andre
the lightest material known, Geim and Professor Kostya
and the strongest compound Novoselov.
discovered, being between The potential uses for gra
1 00-300 times stronger than phene appear almost limitless.
steel. They range from new types of
Graphene is also the best flexible electronics that could
conductor of electricity. It is be worn on clothes or folded
st retchable, and yet is up into a pocket, to a new gen
almost t ransparent. It con- ' eration of very small comput
ducts heat better than any ers, hyper-efficient solar
other known substan ce. It panels, and super-fast mobile
acts as a barri e r to the small- phones.

68 Tell Me Why
 ou
Why is the story of YouTube and inspire ot hers across t he
interesting? globe.
YouTube was founded by
YouTube is a video s haring C had Hurley, Steve C han, and
website. Launched in May Jawed Karim w ho were all ear
2005, YouTube allows bil ly employees of PayPal. T he
lions of people to discover, first YouTube video was
as well as to watc h and s hare uploaded on April 23rd, 2005.
originally-created videos. It During t he summer of 2006,
also provides a forum for YouTube was one of t he fast
people to connect, inform, est growing sites on t he Web.
T he website averaged nearly
You tube is 20 million visitors per mont h.
my tube . . . On October 9th, 2006, it was
announced that t he company
would be purchased by Goog
Ie. YouTube's statistics at t he
end of 2015 claim t hat more
t han 400 hours of video was
uploaded to t he site per min
ute. At over one billion users,
YouTube has over a t hird of
t he entire population of t he
Internet hooked on to it !

1 0 0 NEW I NVENTIONS 69
 Why are night vision goggles use
ful?

N ight vision goggles are special

glasses that ena ble a person to see
in the dark. These goggles have
many uses for military and law
enforcement agencies.
The first practical night vision devic
Me at the Zoo es were developed in Germany in the
The first video mid- 1 930s, and were used by both
uploaded on You German tanks and infantry during
Tube was titled ' Me World War I I . The biggest problem
at the Zoo'. It shows with night vision goggles is that eve
co-founder Jawed rything is seen only in grey or green
Karim in front of colours.
the elephant enclo However, a revolutionary system
sure at San Diego
developed for the Dutch military
Zoo talking about
makes night-time video images look
long trunks!
as clear and colourful as those shot
Radha Nair
in broad daylight.
The product is still being tested,
and hopefully it will be availa ble in
the market soon.

70 Tell Me Why
What is surface computing? objects on the screen 's sur
face, and to interact with those
More than four decades objects seamlessly, without
after the introduction of the the use of a mouse, keyboard,
computer mouse, Microsoft or USB port.
has established a new branch We are familiar with touch
of computer technology known screens that allow us to access
as surface computing. content without the use of a
The goal of surface comput mouse or keyboard, but sur
ing is to recognise touch and face computing goes even
beyond this . The 'Surface ' is a
Do not 76 cm 'coffee table' display
touch me . . . that not only enables direct
interaction with digital content,
but also responds to natural
gestures and physical objects.
The Surface can recognise
physical objects. For example,
by simply placing a digital cam
era on the table top, the Sur
face would recognise what it
was, and would automatically
display its contents. Amazing,
isn't it?

1 0 0 N EW I NVENTIONS 71
 Why are i Phones so popular?

I Phones are smart phones des igned and

marketed by Apple Inc. Development of the
f irst model began in 2004, when Apple start-
ed to gather a team to work on the h ighly
conf idential "Project Purple". On January 9th ,
2007, Steve Jobs introduced the f irst iPhone.
The phone revolutionised the concept of
smart phones forever.
By replacing the keypad w ith a touch
screen, and adding advanced computer-like
capabil ities that hadn't been seen before,
the iPhone set the standard for all smart
phones. Later edit ions added more and
more features.
The 2009 model of the iPhone brought vid
eo recording capabil it ies for the first t ime,
and the camera itself got an upgrade too. In
20 10, the model had a new, sleeker, more
modern look'. It was the f irst iPhone w ith a
front-facing camera, and also the f irst w ith
\ I
l!:5d!:::;f4 J . some level of mult itasking. With each new
model, the iPhone's popularity grew !

72 TeLL Me Why

What is a bionic eye?
A bio nic eye mimics the
fu nctio n of the retina to restore
sight for those with severe
visio n loss. It is a boon for peo
ple who have gone blind from
dege nerative eye diseases.
Such diseases damage the
eyes' photoreceptors. Photo
receptors are the cells at the
back of the retina that perceive
light patterns a nd pass them
on to the brain in the form of
nerve impulses. These impulse
patterns then i nterpreted as
images by the brain.
The bio nic eye seeks to rep
licate this with electrodes
impla nted in the eye a nd an
exter nal camera fitted to a pair
of spectacles.
The bio nic eye will soon be
able to let those with visio n
loss not to just see, but to see
i n colour too ! The bionic eye
will cha nge the lives of blind
people for the better .

Co-founders
Most people have heard of Steve Jobs and
know that he founded Apple along with Steve
Wozniak. However, there was also another
co-founder, whom many people have not
heard of. H is name is Ronald Wayne.

1 00 N EW I NVENTIONS 73
Why is it said that the inven
tion of the ATM is a milestone
in history?
The AT M is one of the most
popular among modern day
inventions.
AT M, also known as the
Automated Teller Machine, is
an electronic telecommunica
tions device that enables the
customers of a financial insti
tution like that of a bank, to
perform financial transac
tions, particularly cash with
drawal, without the need for a
human cashier, clerk, or bank
teller.
Authentication is provided by
the customer entering a per
sonal identification number or
P I N.
It is believed that there were
many such devices in many of
74
the countries in the last cen
tury, especially one in Japan,
but little is known about the
Japanese device. Luther
George Simjian has been
credited popularly with devel
oping a 'prior art device'. The
device was known as banko
graph.
The idea of a P I N stored on
the card was developed by a
British engineer named James
Goodfellow in 1965.
It is widely accepted that the
first cash machine was put into
use by Barclays Bank in its
Enfield Town branch in Lon
don, United Kingdom, on 2yth
June 1967.
Today, the ATMs are so pop-
. ular that even remote areas
are serviced by these
machines. Do you know that
there are two in Antarctica ?
Tell Me Why
What is the Large Hadron Col
lider?
The Large Hadron Collider,
built by CE R N, is basically an
atom smasher. It straddles the
borders of France and Swit
zerland, and is the largest,
most complex experimental
facility ever built.
The Large Hadron Collider
or L H C is designed to reveal
the secrets of the Universe, by
recreating the conditions that
existed immediately after the
Big Bang. It is the world's larg
est and most powerful particle
collider, and the largest single
machine in the world. It houses
9300 magnets, and fires pro
tons and lead ions around a 27
kilometre circular tunnel.
L HC's aim is to allow physi
cists to test the predictions of
different theories of particle
physics, high-energy physics
and in pa rticular, to understand
better the conditions that gave
birth to the Universe millions of
years ago.

World's Largest Lab ,,

The world's largest laboratory dedicated

to the pursuit of fundamental science
is in Switzerland. It is called CERN.
Ryan Thomas

100 N EW I NVENTIONS 75
 and oxygen atoms. They had
created the world's thinnest
Who i nvented the world's thin glass that was just two atoms
nest glass? thick !
The researchers' o bserva
I n 20 12, researchers at Cor tions were first described in
nell University and Germany's
University of Ulm accidentally Where 's
discovered the world's thin the I ass?
I can t see.
nest sheet of glass.
They were trying to create
graphene, one of the thinnest
and strongest materials in the
world. Sheets of graphene are
just one carbon atom thick,
with those atoms arranged in a
honeycom b lattice.
Using an electron micro
scope , the researchers
inspected some 'muck' on the
graphene. To their surprise,
they discovered that it was
essentially a 2D sheet of com
mon glass, made up of sil icon

76 Tell Me Why
January 2012 in the journal
Nano Letters. Though it was
an accidental discovery, the
researchers say such deliber
ately created 2D glass could
find its way into nanotechnol
ogy, and could even one day
be used in transistors.
Why is the Oculus Rift a break
through in virtual reality?
Everyone talks about virtual
reality, but do you know what it
actually is? Virtual reality is an
artificial environment that is
created with software, and
presented to the user in such a
way that the user feels he is in
a real world.
To enter this world, you need
special goggles. The Oculus
Rift is an amazing set of virtu
al-reality goggles. You can use
1 00 N EW I NVENTIONS
them with your gaming desk
top or laptop. You just pull a
helmet over your head, and
suddenly, you're inside a virtu
al world that seems completely
lifelike.
You can run around, fight,
race, fly, and play games in a
way that no one has ever done
before. The Oculus Rift has a
pair of screens that displays
two images side by side, one
for each eye. A set of lenses is
placed on top of the panels,
focusing and reshaping the
picture for each eye, and cre
ating a stereoscopic 3D image.
The goggles have embed
ded sensors that monitor the
wearer's head motions, and
adjust the image accordingly.
The Oculus Rift was devel
oped by a virtual reality enthu
siast named Palmer Luckey.
77

Sir, we
want some
Why is Higgs Boson a scien
tific breakthrough?
We know that all matter is
made up of atoms, and inside
atoms are electrons, protons,
and neutrons.
They, in turn, are made of
quark s and other subatomic
particles. Scientists have long
puzzled over how these min
ute building blocks of the Uni
verse acquire mass.
78
Without mass, particles
wouldn't hold together and
there would be no matter.
Peter Higgs suggested that
elementary particles sweep
up their masses from an invis
ible energy field - now known
as the Higgs field - permeat
ing space, and the existence
of a new particle, the Higgs
Boson.
Many Higgs Bosons clumped
together make up the Higgs
field, and it is this field that
causes particles to have mass.
Fifty years later, the world's
largest particle smasher, the
L HC, buried underground
near the border of France and
Switzerland proved that this
tiniest of all particles actually
exists ! It is known both as
Higgs Boson, and the God
Particle.
Tell Me Why
Why is GravityLight an
important invention?
Did you know that there
are currently over 1.5 bil tricity, batteries, kerosene or diesel,
lion people in the world -
especially in poorer
countries- who have no
reliable access to elec-
1 0 0 N EW I NVENTIONS
tricity? These people rely, instead,
on mostly kerosene for lighting once
the Sun goes down. GravityLight is
a lamp that is powered not by elec
but by gravity !
This lamp uses a bag filled with
rocks or ea rth, attached to a cord,
which slowly descends. After a few
seconds, this action powers the light
for up to thirty minutes whenever it
is needed.
Once the weighted bag reaches
the floor, which depends on how
high it was installed, it is simply lift
ed to repeat the process. Gravity
Light has no batteries to run out,
replace or dispose of. There is no
smoke or fumes too.
Gravity Light is completely clean
and green- it is a truly revolutionary
new approach to storing energy and
creating illumination, especially for
developing countries.
79
How has Mangalyaan created Mars Orbiter Mission, named
history? Mangalyaan, floated smooth
ly into Mars orbit making India
IS R O, which is the Indian the first co untry in the world to
Space Research Organ iza achieve this feat in its maiden
tion, created h istory on Sep attempt.
tember 24th 20 14, by Unlike many other space
s uccessfully p utting a space craft, the Mangalyaan only
craft into orbit around Mars has five equ ipments on board
with its very f irst attempt. The to st udy the var io us condi
t ions on the Mars, and it has
been hailed as the most cost
effective space project to
date.
The mission is cr itical, as it
will help IS RO understand bet
ter the dynamics of keeping a
spacecraft in orbit for almost a
year. It will also help o ur scien-
. tists gain deeper insights into
deep space communications ,
and more efficient ways to
manage future interplanetary
missions .

80 Tell Me Why
Why are 3D printers very use provided by computer soft
ful ? ware. The computer directs
t he 3D printer to add new lay
3 D printing is a rapidly c hang ers to a digital bl ueprint. T he
ing technology that has excit object is t h us, b uilt up layer by
ing potential for designers and layer, and until a complete
ind ustries all over the globe. t hree dimensional product is
T hese printers can b uild prod uced.
objects from digital bl ueprints . One of t he greatest advan
A 3D printer is very different tages of 3D printing is t hat it
from an ordinary printer. It fol can be used to create artificial
lows a predetermined plan organs for organ transplant.

Unmanned
Drone is the popular name of unmanned
aerial vehicle or unmanned aircraft sys
tem. It is an aircraft without a human pilot
aboard. Drone innovations started in the
early 1900s. The first scale remote piloted
vehicle was developed by Reginald Denny in 1935. The
drones as we seen today, were developed over the the last
fifty years.

1 00 N EW I NVENTIONS 81
 r::T
What is SOCCKET? soft to the touch. A pendulum
like mechanism inside c ap
SOCCKET looks like a soc tures the kinetic momentum
cer ball, but it is much more. It gener ated during play, and
is a port able generator that stores this energy inside for
h arnesses and stores energy later use.
when played with. Just 30 minutes of play c an
As the ball is kicked around, power a simple LE D lamp for
it h arnesses the kinetic energy three hours. Designed and
exerted on it. assembled in the USA, the
Weighing about 30 grammes project is currently being pilot
more than a standard soccer ed in selected areas of North
ball, SOCCKET is constructed and South America- continents
from custom water-resistant where soccer is the n ational
foam that is both durable, and p astime.

3D printers speed up industrial where we c an f abricate prac

processes, and c an immensely tically anything we w ant. With
improve defense systems by a 3D printer, one c an m anu
helping to complex f acture objects that were pre
create
weaponry. viously made at the industry
On a d ay to day level, 3 D level, such as ornaments or
printing c an tr ansform our toy c ars. Isn't th at a thrilling
homes to small factories thought?

82 Tell Me Why
Why is it getting easier to snakes t he wire through t he laces.
charge mobile phones? The battery is t hen fastened
around t he ankle, or to the top of
M Obile p hones are very t he s hoe.
useful, but t heir batteries The wire is plugged into the bat
have to be rec harged fre tery, whic h t hen receives its c harge
quently. simply from t he user walking
This means you have to around as they would normally. In
carry your charger every
w here, and if you are at Need to
place w here there is no c harge my mobi l e
electrical plug point, immedietly.
recharging is not possible.
With a new device called
SolePower, developed by
a company of t he same
name, rec harging your
mobile phone battery as
easy as walking !
T his device comes in two
parts- t he power-generat
ing insole, and the battery.
T he user places t he
insole in their s hoe, and

1 00 N EW I NVENTIONS
Why is the Morpher helmet a flat so that it resembles a
handy invention? small textbook.
This means it will easily fit
Anyone who rides a bike into a backpack, purse, or
knows that they must wear a briefcase. At the same time,
helmet for their own protec it is as safe as normal hel
tion. mets, and has already
But, helmets are bulky passed most European test
and difficult to store. This ing standards.
difficulty inspired British Its flat shape when folded,
cyclist Jeff Woolf to invent a makes it possible to be sold by
helmet that would be easier vending machines too.
to carry around and store With its stunning looks, Mor
away. pher is the answer to every
The result was the Morpher cyclist's dream of a stylish,
Bike Helmet. What sets the comfortable, and easy to carry
Morpher apart from ordinary and store helmet that is also
helmets is the fact that it folds 1 00 percent safe.

test i ng, the company found SolePower does not depend

that the battery would receive oOn external conditions. Rain or
enough energy to fully shine, day or night, every step
charge an iPhone in a n y you take is a step closer to a
where from 4 to 8 kilome tres. full battery.

84 Tell Me Why
Why is the Ring an amazing ger, and uses them to send
invention? texts, make payments, and
control the TV, as well as the
The Ring is a brilliant inven lights. This latest wearable
tion by Logbar Inc. The tech technology can be used to
nology offers a new mode of control smart household items ,
communication that works and to even make payments
through gesture-recognition , with the swipe of a finger.
and uses Bluetooth-based For example, drawing an
technology. envelope shape in mid-air
The Ring lets you control opens an email , drawing a
anything with a gesture. It is an camera opens the camera app
actual ring that is to be worn on on a connected phone, or
the index finger. The Ring rec drawing a musical note will
ognises the motions of the fin- start playing songs.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Wouldn't it be great to get a lifetime supply
of chocolates free? Well, Ruth Wakefield,
the inventor of the chocolate chip cookie
got just that, when she sold the idea to Nes
tle Toll House!

1 00 N EW I NVENTIONS 85
 Why is the Hoverboard considered a fun
invention?

A Hoverboard is a self balancing scooter.

It looks like a skateboard without wheels,
and consists of a gyroscope, which is a
device consisting of a wheel or disc, mount
d so that it can spin rapidly about an axis,
which is itself free to alter in direction.
A Hoverboard also has motors that keep
the board balanced, and move it forward,
microprocessors to manage power output to
the motors, and large batteries to fuel the

Another Accident!
Tea bags are very popular today because
they are so convenient to use. But they were
invented quite by accident. In 1904, Thomas
Sullivan sent small samples of tea to poten-
. . tial customers in silk bags instead of boxes,
since It was cheaper. The recipients believed they were
meant to be dunked in hot water, and the tea bag was born!

86 TeLL Me Why

device. Hoverboards do not
hover, but they are great fun,
and are used for all kinds of
stunts, racing in hallways, and
even dance routines.
Shane Chen is the man who
developed and patented the
Hoverboard design, and in a
very short time, they have
become enormously popular.
Why is the Microsoft Holo
Lens an extraordinary i nven
tion?
Virtual Reality headsets, like
the Oculus Rift, create a virtual
world when you wear them.
Microsoft 's Holo Lens is an
Augmented Reality or A R
Headset. It overlays graphics
and text on the real world as
you see it through the device's
lenses. The HoloLens is the
1 00 NEW I NVENTIONS
r:=
I LENS
first ever Microsoft Hologram
device that will fuse the real
world and the virtual reality.
Holograms are 3D images
that have been projected and
captured on a 2 D surface. If
you look at these holograms
from different angles, you see
objects from different perspec
tives, just like you would if you
were looking at a real object.
Some holograms even appear
to move as you walk past
them, and look at them from
different angles.
The HoloLens can project
virtual or digital images to the
real world. The images would
appear as 3D objects which
would enable the user to
manipulate these objects.
The device is being used by
NASA to mimic Mars' terrain in
labs.
87
 Why is the Safety Truck a welcome
invention?

Many road accidents are caused

when drivers try to overtake large
trucks, without realising what lies
ahead. The Safety Truck is a crea
tive solution to this problem, put
forth by Samsung, and an advertis
Corky is a remarka
ing agency in Argentina named Leo
ble invention by
Burnett.
Adele Peters. It is a
The Safety Truck consists of a
computer mouse
wireless camera attached to the
made entirely of
front of the truck , which is connect
recycled materials
ed to a video wall made out of four
that produces its own
energy. It does this exterior monitors, located on the
by storing, and then back of the truck. The monitors
using the kinetic give drivers behind the truck a view
energy exerted on it of what is going on ahead.
whenever it is This allows drivers to have a bet
clicked, scrolled, or ter view when deciding whether it is
moved around. safe to overtake. It may also reduce
Sneha Rao the risk of accidents caused by sud
den braking.

88 Tell Me Why
What is the Apple Pencil?
Th e Apple Pencil comes with
the Apple iPad Pro. It is a sty
lus , but it is no ordinary stylus.
Long and slender , the device
looks and feels like a pencil ,
and so , the name is most apt.
The Pencil has many uses. It
can be used for taking notes ,
I have an
Apple penc i l .
1 00 N EW I NVENTIONS
to annotate documents , to cre
ate beautiful graphics , and to
mark up drawings.
The Pencil works seamlessly
with an array of apps, allowing
you to draw onto the apps, and
unlock other functions. This
pressure sensitive writing tool
is both sophisticated , and easy
to use. Press lightly to get a
thin stroke, or press harder to
get a thicker stroke. You can
even shade , and trace through
a regular sheet of paper using
the Apple Pencil.
The device a lso comes with
a built-in lightning plug that is
revealed by removing the Pen
cil's cap. This allows you to
plug your Pencil directly into
your iPad to charge.
Al l things considered , the
Apple Pencil is truly a remark
able invention.
89
 Adidas 1 shoes, which were
invented in the year 2004, have
a special quality. The shoes have
a built-in microprocessor. They
can think for themselves, and
can decide what kind of foot
support the wearer needs.

Iron Man
Suit
XOS 2, devel
oped by a compa This electric car invented
ny named in the year 2010 is a super effi
Raytheon Sarcos cient and super cheap car. The
is known as Iron Antro Solo can hold up to three
Man suit. The XOS people. The forward motion
2 allows even its comes from an electric motor
least muscular that's partly powered by
wearer to lift 90 solar panels.
kg. Raytheon
hopes to intro
duce the XOS 2 to
the military first.
It will help the The tank's name is Ripsaw and
soldiers in thea its inventors are Geoff and Mike
tres of operation Howe. The Ripsaw can go up to
to lift heavy ord speeds of 96 kilometres per
nance or other hour, and can withstand a jump
things with ease. of 15.2 metres in the air!
 Differ nt
Vehec1
The British pavilion for the
David de Rothschild, a
2010 World Expo in Shanghai was
British man and his
constructed of 60,000 light-fun
crew, sailed a boat
neling fibre-optic rods, each with
made of discarded soft
one or more seeds implanted at its
drink bottles from San
tip. It was called seed cathedral and
Francisco to Australia.
became one of the popular
Their boat is built with
national pavilions at the
12,500 recycled plastic
Shanghai Expo.
bottles and a recyclable
plastic material called
Seretex, which is held
together with glue
made from cashew-nut
Straddling Bus husks and sugarcane.
Shenzhen Huashi
Future Parking Equip
ment is developing a
massive "straddling
bus." It's supposed to
B deles
be cheaper than a met
ro train. It can carry up This fan, invented in the
to 1,200 people in a year 2009, indeed not have any
carriage, raised 2.1 blades. This fan blows out air like
metres above the road the regular bladed fans by sucking
way. It also allow cars in air, and blowing it out through
to pass underneath. hidden impellers located around
The invention of the the ring of the fan. It is how
new bus would be revo ever, yet to be commer
lutionary. cialized.
Which is the cheapest and
greenest car?
T
esla's Model X is the world's
first lUxury electric Sports Util
ity Vehicle, or SUV. Its most
amazing features are its mind
bending acceleration, gor
geous design, and amazing
rear passenger doors. Tesla
calls them 'falcon' doors,
because they lift like the wings
Magic Bandage
HemCon invented a
lifesaving bandage called
Chitosan bandage in
2002. It clots blood within
thirty seconds.
The bandage is highly
useful in warfare.
92
of a bird. But most important of
all, since it runs on electricity, it
is economical and eco friendly
too.
Like all electric vehicles, it is
very quiet, and very smooth. It
is convenient and cheap, for it
does not guzzle expensive
petrol or diesel. Owners just
have to pull into their garage,
plug in the the car, and let the
battery recharge for the next
day's running.
Electric cars are 'green' in
that they do not release toxic
fumes into the atmosphere.
Their batteries give them a low
centre of gravity, which means
that they handle like sports
cars. So, it is no wonder that
. Tesla's Model X has been
hailed as the meanest, green
est, driving machine on the
road today.
Tell MeWhy
r Corrections & Clarifications
Nihar Shah, has an add-on
Vadodara, points information to our
out a correction to issue- Cities of the
the Tell Me Why World. She men
issue on Cities of tioned about the
the World (April). box given on page
He refers to the 55, where the nick
mention on Page names of the the
72, where it is city of Philadelphia
wrongly stated that Zurich has given. She adds that it
is the capital of Switzer also has a nickname called
land. In fact, the capital of Quaker city.
Switzerland is Berne. Thank you readers for your
Chaitanya Vinu, Madurai, valuable feedback. - Editor

Laser Court Battles

Lasers are amazing light beams powerful
enough to zoom miles into the sky or cut
through lumps of metal. The basic idea of
a laser is simple. It's a tube that concen
trates light over and over again until it
emerges in a really powerful beam. Lasers were evolved
from masers which are similar but produce microwaves
instead of visible light. Masers were invented in 1950 by
Charles Townes and James Gordon. In 1957, one of Townes'
students Gordon Gould made sketches of how a visible light
version of maser could work, and called it laser. However, he
didn't patent the invention immediately, and lengthy court
battles followed.

100 NEW INVENTIONS 93

 Here's a contest for our readers.
IdentifY these LAN DMARKS,
from the photos given here.
All you need to do is send us an email naming each one
with the proper number.
(PLEASE GIVE YOUR POSTAL ADDRESS ALSO IN THE E-MAIL)

PHOTO You are also welcome to send your answers by post.

Ten winners will be awarded prizes.

QUIZ
In case there are more than ten correct entries,
the winners will be chosen by lot.

94 Tell Me Why
100 NEW INVENTIONS 95
 J
PHOTO QUIZ3 WINNERS
1. Ramya Coushik
lB, Ascot Apartments, 191, Defence Colony,
Indiranagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka.
2. Sreerag
Vrindavan, Thankayam, Trikaripur, Kasaragod.
.
3. Parthdhwajendra Mishra
51, Chukkhuwala, Block First, Dehradun,
Uttarakhand.
4. Ketaki Patil
404, 4th Floor Asawari Buinding,
Near Marine Drive Police Station,
Dinshaw Vaccha Road, Churchgate, Mumbai.
5. Prithwish Ghosh
C/o Soumik Ghosh, Subhaspally Road, Burdwan.
Winners of the Photo Quiz-3
held in the March issue of
Tell Me Why.
6. Sameera Maria P
S/o Gige George P., Pulikkottil House, Church Road.
Pazhanji, Thrissur.
7. Shruti Sunil Patil
C/o Sunil P. Pati!, 41B, Prerana Society,
Behind Systel School. Deopur, Dhule.
8. Devika.A
Ambazhathingal House, Peruvayal P 0,
Kozhikode,Kerala.
9. Siddharth Chauhan
E2/04 Vikramnagar Colony, Bopal Ambli Road,
Satellite, Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
10. Ujjwal Jain
117, First Floor, Kailash Hills, New Delhi.

PHOTO aUIZ-3 ANSWERS

1. C.V. Raman 2. S. Chandrashekar 3. Har Gobind Khorana

4. Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha 5. Satyendra Nath Bose

96 Tell Me Why

Hel l o ai r
' '.
Let's have a strong
bonding.
Question sent by:
Panna Singh, on e-mail.
Send us your questions
Email: tellmewhy@mmp.in
100 NEW INVENTIONS
Why doesn't glue stick to the
tube?
Glue is actually a mixture of an
adhesive and solvent. When we
put glue on a piece of paper, the
solvent is exposed to air, and
easily get evaporated. Remaining
is the adhesive that sticks to
whatever it's on. This is how glue
works.
When the glue is sealed in the
tube, the solvent can't evaporate,
as it is not in contact with the air.
So the glue stays in solution, and
not especially sticky. That is why
the glue inside the tube doesn't
stick to it.
Leave a container of glue open
for a day or so, and we can see it
stick to the walls of the tube
impressively well.
Indhu Thomas
97
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