Google honored Ferdinand Monoyer, a famous French Ophthalmologist, on his 181st birthday by a doodle. He developed the diopter, the unit of measurement of deviation of light over a specific distance. It's still used as standard these days. Monoyer also devised an eye chart where every row represents a different diopter, from smallest to largest.

Learn more about Ferdinand Monoyer and doodles

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Shah Mir Aizaz, a Pakistani student from Grade 10 has won the second position in 2015 NASA Ames Space Settlement Design Contest.

Every year, individuals, small teams of two to five, and large teams of six or more are invited from all over the world to submit space settlement designs to NASA Ames for judgement. This year there were 994 submissions from 3,007 students. Entries came from 21 nations worldwide and 14 different states from USA.

 
Shah Mir Aizaz registered in his individual capacity and won 2nd place for his report titled “Beyond Infinity – Eros Outer Atmosphere Settlement.”. His work was judged by aerospace professionals, and was thoroughly examined for its ideas in making a space city work. He had to figure out answers for issues such as air supply, agriculture, infrastructure and more in an environment that theoretically does not support human life.

Shah Mir, we are really proud of you. May you bring further glories to Pakistan, Ameen.

 

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A Fairy in Mid Air

Femtosecond lasers are the latest cutting edge technology in ophthalmology and have led to the development of many new techniques and refinement of old techniques in refractive surgery. 

Now scientists from the University of Tsukuba, Utsunomiya University, Nagoya Institute of Technology, and the University of Tokyo, have used femtosecond lasers to produce 3D images in mid air by ionization, which can be touched and interacted. The most important feature of the system is that power of laser is reduced to such an extent that it is not harmful to the skin. Plus interacting with the image generates small shockwaves under the skin, so one can have haptic feedback as well.

Watch the Video at these links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoWi10YVmfE

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2wcnuu

to see the awesome magic in action.

Read more at IEEE Spectrum blog.

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From left: Randy W. Schekman, Thomas C. Südhof and James E. Rothman.

Three American scientists, Randy W. Schekman, Thomas C. Südhof and James E. Rothman, have been awarded Nobel prize for their breakthrough research work on the transport of enzymes, hormones and neurotransmitters in form of vesicles within cells. 

The three laureates discovered how these vesicles get to the right parts of the cell at the right times.

Their work can help solve the problem of diabetes ( in which insulin doesn't reach other cells at the right time ), various neurological diseases like schizophrenia, autism and many others.

The three will share 1.2 million dollar of prize money.

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Scientists at Cornell university made a red laser light disappear for 40 picoseconds last week. They achieved it by passing a beam of green light down an optic fibre cable, and had it move through a lens that split the light into two frequencies, one moving slowly and the other faster. As that was happening, they shot a red laser through the beams. Since the laser “shooting” occurred during a teeny, tiny time gap, it was imperceptible.

Tonight its going to be Super-Moon, means the moon will appear bigger & brighter. This is because the path of the moon is elliptical in shape with one portion closer to the earth & the other away from it.

It is said that the moon will appear 10 percent bigger & 30 percent brighter than rest of the full moons during the year. It will be more prominent during the evening. A Super Moon of such scale is occurring almost after 18 years, last time it happened in 1992. 

A Super Moon, because of its proximity, influences the tidal waves to a bigger extent & can lead to Floods, Storms & Earthquakes.

This Tuesday, a rare Lunar Eclipse was observed in the northern hemisphere, lasting for few mins to hrs in different places, as it occurred on the day of winter solstice (the longest night of the winters).

Lunar eclipse occurs when the earth comes in between the sun & moon, blocking the suns rays to reach the moon. Light after being refracted from the earth's atmosphere turn the moon into crimson red before it slips into darkness. Although, lunar eclipses are common but its occurrence on winter solstice is rare. Similar thing happened about 400 years ago on Dec. 21, 1638 & will occur again on Dec.21, 2094.

If you use Windows as your operating system, then you must have come across it in Vista as a wallpaper. Have you ever wondered what it is? Is it real or not?

It is called Aurora, also known as northern lights phenomenon or southern lights phenomenon, are natural light displays in the sky, usually observed at night, particularly in the polar regions.They are most commonly observed in Alaska, Canada and Sweden.