Tell Me Why - The Story of Science

A 'FLYING' MAGNET!
A magnet hovers above

super conductor. The
magnetic field produced
by the current flow in th
super conductor
repels the magnet and
makes it 'fly' above!
'Super Conductivity' has
become one of the main
areas of modern Physics.
MANORAMA
TEILMEWHY
September 2012
Volume: 6
No: 12
From the houle of MAGIC POT, MANORAMA YEAR BOOK, VANITHA,
THE WEEK & THE MALAYALA MANORAMA DAilY
Man's Greatest Achievement

The history of science tells us the thrilling
story of how h u ma n i ntellect developed.
The word 'science' originates from the Latin
word 'sci entia', which means knowledge.
However, science as we know it now, is not
just a collection of bits of knowledge. On
the other hand, it refers to a systematic way
of building u p, organizing, and handling
knowledge in the form of testable explana
tions and predictions.
'Why?' is the basic question that led to
the g reat enqu i ries of science. Early Man
wondered a bout everything he saw a round
him. The rising sun, the thundering storm
clouds, the twinkling stars - all these
brought countless questions i nto his mind,
and science came to be.
Great scientific minds put together relat
ed facts, d rew u p general principles, and
thus paved the way for scientific thinking.
It wou ld obviously be impossible to carry
all the epoch-making feats of science in a
single issue ofTell Me Why. I n this issue, we
have included some questions related to
physics, chemistry, biology and geology.
Questions related to mathematics - the
q ueen of all sciences- will be published in a
later issue.
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Why is physics an ancient science?
In very early times, Man attributed
the wonders of nature to the gods.
However, around the first century be
fore the birth of Christ, there was an in
tellectual awakening in the a ncient
Greek colonies. The philosophers of Hero of Greece
the time realized that the Universe ex
Thales is remembered as
hibited an order, and followed certain one of the first of Seven
rules. Around 450 Be, Empedocles, an Wise Men of Ancient
ancient Greek philosopher and poet, Greece. He was a
first put forward the idea that all matter mathematician and
is composed of fou r essential ele astronomer, who
ments-fire, air, water, and earth. He predicted a solar ecli pse,
used a clepsyd ra, a vessel with a hole at and is credited with five
the bottom, and one at the top, to theorems of elementary
prove that air existed. He was one of geometry. He measured
the first to conduct an experiment to the pyramids of Ancient
prove a scientific theory. Egypt.
Why is Democritus sign ificant in the
history of physics?
Democritus, who l ived in Northern Greece
between 460 and 370 BC, is famous for his
g reat contributions to science. He appears
to have spent all of his time in scientific and
philosophical studies, teaching, and writing.
He came u p with the idea that all matter
contains atoms. He reasoned that atoms
were the smallest part of matter, and cou ld
not be broken down further. Democritus'
theory of the atomic nature of the physical
world is known only through the works of
critics of the theory such as Aristotle and
Plato and Theophrastus. However, hisworkwas largely
Aristotle ignored for almost 2000 years. He is ac
knowledged today as the person
who laid the foundation for the
atomic theory of matter. He also
coined the word 'atom,' which means
'unable to cut,' in Greek.
Three Philosophers
The three great philoso

phers of Ancient Greece lived
during the 4th century BC, d u r
i n g the reign of Alexander the
6 Tel l M e Why
Ctesi bius of Alexandria,
Egypt, was a Greek physicist
a n d inventor. He wrote the first
treatises on the science of com
pressed air, and its uses i n
pumps, a n d even the cannon.
Ctesibius is also known for his
i mprovement of
the water clock.
Fire, air,
water, and earth.
Democritus This year's scientist
award will undoubtedly
be mine!
Great. They were Plato, Soc
rates, and Aristotle. Socrates
was Plato's teacher. Plato i n
turn, was Aristotle's mentor.
Aristotle bel ieved that by
observing a natural phe
nomenon, one could also ar
rive at the laws governing
Nature. He rejected the the
ory of the atom, and said
that all matter is made up of
five elements.
The Story of Science 7

Eureka ! ..
Found the fish

for today's
meal!
Why is Archimedes described as the

first mathematical physicist?
Archimedes lived in Syracuse between
290 and 80 BC He used mathematics to
solve many of the problems of physics. He
established the concept of the centre of
gravity, and dealt with the equilibrium of
floating objects. Archimedes is most fa-
Archimedes mous for his principle that states that any
body completely or partially submerged
in a fluid at rest is acted upon by an upward force. The magni
tude of this force is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced
by the body. Archimedes' principle explains why a ship made
of i ron floats, even though i ron sinks in water. Archimedes is
supposed to have made this discovery when stepping into his
bath, and it is said that he was so excited that he ran home
naked, shouting ' Eureka,' which means 'l found it'!
Power of Ste a m
RepLica of Hero's Engine
8 Tell Me Why
Why is it said that physics made great
strides in A ncient India and China?
In the 6th century BC, an Indian philoso
pher named Kanada developed an atomic
theory. The theory of dyads and triads, and
the molecular theory of matter were also
put forward in Ancient I ndia. Ancient Indi
an philosophers were the first to suggest
that light and sound travelled in waves,
and they putforward the theories of reflec
tion and refraction of light. One of them,
They theorized that light itself was made
up of small particles-now known as pho-
tons. Ancient India also made great contri
butions to astronomy. The Earth was as
sumed to be the centre of the U niverse
around which revolved the seven g rahas
or planets. Varahamihira and Aryabhatta A ryabhatta
were two of the great astronomers of An
cient I ndia.
I n China, Zhang Sui was a g reat astrono
mer who constructed new astronomical
instruments in collaboration with Liang
Lingzam in 724 AD. In 1 045, Chinese as
tronomers sighted the Crab Nebula, and in
1 280, Kuo Shou-Ching another g reat as
tronomer, introduced improved astro Varahamihira
nomical instruments.
Star Scientist
P tolemy from
Greece identified
over a thousand
stars. In AD 964, this
l ist was revised by AI -Su fi. He described
their position, size, and brightness in a
book which had two drawings of each
constellation.
Ptolemy
Why is the development of

ancient astronomy fascinating?
Man has always loved gazing up
at the stars, and wondering a bout
them. This led to the development
of astronomy in ancient times.
Change
this picture!
The a ncient Egyptians and Bab
Earth is the centre ylonians developed a fai rly accu
of the Universe. rate calendar of astronomical ob
servations and predictions.
In the 5th century BC, the Py
thagoreans developed a model of
the solar system. Heracleides Pon
ticus suggested that the planets
revolve around the sun. He be
lieved that the sun r�volved
around the Earth, which was rotat
ing on its axis.
Aristotle too believed that the
Earth was the centre of the Uni
verse, with the planets and stars
surrounding it in concentric cir
cles.
10 Tell Me Why
What do we know about
the development of physics
in the Arab world?
The torch of learning passed
i nto the hands of scholars of
Arab world during the dark
Ages of Europe i n the ]lh cen
tury. Arabic translations were
made of Greek scientific
works. Thabit ibn Qurra,
proved the principle of the
equilibrium of levers and pro
posed a theory of motion. The
most comprehensive work
d u ring this period was written
Pythagoras by Abd ai-Rahman a l-Khazin
in 1 1 2 1 , and called 'The Book
Trigonometric tables were de of the Balance of Wisdom'. It
veloped by Hipparchus. He also discussed the history of statis
put forward the concept of equ i tics and hydrostatics.
noxes. Ptolemy was also a great
astronomer of ancient times.
�-
� '
S f��1
/.t�.� ,
Revealing
.!D
,
Secrets
Forty planetary
conjunctions and thirty
lunar eclipses, and more
than ten thousand entries
for the sun's position for
many years, were a l l Thabit ibn Qurra
recorded by I bn Yunus.
Zij i s the name of the Arabic
astronomical tables. These
tables are used to calculate
the position of the Sun,
Moon, stars and planets.
,
What do you know about the growth of physics

in medieval Europe?
During the Middle Ages
Cali/eo Showing his of Europe, science took a
Telescope to Senators back seat. However,
awareness of ancient
works re-entered the
west through translations
from Arabic to Latin.
European scholars con
sidered Aristotle to be the
greatest thin ker of the
ancient world. It was be
lieved that celestia l ob
jects moved in circles
while earthly objects
moved in straight l ines
towards the centre of the
Earth.
Experiments were not
encouraged, and many
12 Tell M e Why
The Renaissance
The re-discovery of
ancient scientific texts
in 1 453, revived a n
interest in science.
This interest was fur
ther stimulated by the inven
tion of printing, which
al lowed ideas to spread fast
er. Paolo Nicoletti, N icholas
of Cusa, and Leonardo da
Vinci, are all great men of the
time whose inquiring minds
sparked the Renaissance of
science in the 1 6th century.
Galileo's Telescope
did not consider them a valid

means of learning a bout the
natural world.
I n short, the spirit of scien
tific inquiry appeared to be An Early Model of
dormant d u ring this period the Solar System with Earth at
in Europe . its centre.
Newton's 'Opticks' - Euclid - A Painting
The First Edition
When was optics considered a sepa
rate d i scipline of science?
Optics is the scientific study of sight,
and the behaviou r oflight. The firsttheory
of vision was developed by Euclid around
300 BC, and this was the beginning of
optics as a separate science. Euclid be
lieved that the eyes emitted light in the
shape of a cone that had its vertex in the
centre of the eye, and its base on the ob
ject seen. AI-Kindi studied the propaga
tion of light, the formation of shadows,
and the principles of radiation.
I n AD 984, Ibn Sahl studied the laws of
refraction. I bn al-Haytham initiated a
Statue of Euclid revol ution i n optics when he rejected the
ancient theory that vision occu rs by the
emission of light rays from the eye. He
stated that vision occurs when eyes re
ceive the lig ht rays reflected from ob
jects-and proved it by experimental
demonstration.
14 Tel l M e Why
J oha nnes Kepler was a German as
tronomer who observed that the
planet Mars had an elliptical orbit with
the sun as its focus. He establ ished the
laws of elliptical orbits, and his theory
was that the sun exerted a mag netic force that kept the plan
ets moving in their orbits. He is remembered as the scientist
who brought astronomy and physics together.
Why is Copernicus an impor

tant figure in astronomy?
For hundreds of years, most
scholars had believed that the
sun, stars, and planets revolved
a round Earth. But they were
mistaken. It was Nicolaus Coper
nicus who changed all that. Co
pernicus studied mathematics,
law, and medicine. His i nterest
Copernicus - A Painting in astronomy grew in and around
1 5 1 7. He came up with a rad ical
Tod ay
way of looking at the Universe.
,
I will complete m
project on the H i s theory was that the Earth ro
solar system. tates daily on its axis, and re
volves a round the Sun yearly.
Known as the heliocentric sys
tem, it challenged the existing
theory known as the geocentric
system, which stated that the
Earth was the centre of the Uni
verse. Copernicus' ideas were
too different for most of the
scholars of his time to accept.
Why is Galileo cal led the 'fa Look, that's
ther of modern physics'? not a star, that's
Gal ileo Galilei was referred to as Jupiter.
the father of modern astronomy
and physics. Galileo was one of •
the first to improve the telescope
enough to use it to observe th
sky. H e d i scovered fou r of Jupiter's
largest satellites, and his observa- ·
tions of the moons of Jupiter re-
Torricel l i was
volving around the large
a physicist and
planet, and Venus orbiting the
mathematician
sun, lent support to Coperni
who assisted
cus' heliocentric theories.
Galileo. It was Galileo who sug
Galileo also discovered
gested to Torricelli to use mer
cury i n his vacuum experiments,
that the Milky Way was made
and this enabled him to create a
up of millions of stars, and
sustained vacuum, a nd to d i s
that the Moon's surface was
cover the principle of the ba rough and cratered, and not
rometer. smooth as it was then be
Blaise Pascal replicated Torri lieved.
celli's mercury experiment, and Galileo tried to arrive at the
proved that air has weight. u niversal laws of motion
through both mechanical
Blaise Pascal and mathematical experi
ments.
Gal ileo's greatest scientific
contribution was in connec
tion with the fall and motion
of bodies. He proposed that
a body would fall with a u n i-
Tel l Me Why
Rene D escartes
Rene Descartes used questions to fi nd

truth. In Descartes' vision of the Un iverse,
God set matter in motion- and according to
the principle of inertia, matter, once set in
motion, can not stop, but must conti nue to
move in a straight line until something else stops it.
What is the role played by

Isaac Newton in physics?
Sir Isaac Newton is one of the
most influential scientists of a l l
time. He came u p with n umer
ous theories, and contributed
ideas to many different fields in
cluding physics, mathematics,
and philosophy. He used experi
mental and mathematical meth-
Thank God ,
Galileo Galilei I did'nt choose a jack
fruit tree!
form acceleration, provided
that it is falling through a vacu
um, or there is no resistance.
To sum u p, Galileo was the
first astronomer to use what
we cal l science, to find out
what the Universe is made of.
The most important thing
about him is that he was not
guessing. He could clearly
prove to a nyone that what he
had d iscovered was true.
ods to explain natural phenomena. I n
1 687, Newton published t h e book
'Principia', which is widely regarded as
one of the i mportant books in the h is
tory of science. In it, he describes u n i
versal g ravitation and the three laws of
motion, concepts that remained at the
forefront of science for centuries after.
His law of u niversal gravitation de
scribes the g ravitational attraction be
tween bodies with mass, the Earth and
Moon. Newton was known to have said
that his work on the theory of g ravita
tion was inspired by watching an apple Newton
fall from a tree!
Who were the great scientists who

developed modern optics?
In the 1 7th centu ry, Kepler was one of
the first scientists to explore modern
optics. He had many firsts to his name
he was the first to try and explain the
behaviour of light, the first to explai n
t h e process of vision, the first t o use a
pin hole camera, the first to formulate a
geometric theory of lenses, the first to
develop eyeglasses for both near and
far sightedness, and the first to explain
why both eyes are needed to perceive
Kepler depth! Another great scientist in this
field was William Snellius, who put for
ward Snell's Laws of Refraction. New
ton's contribution to this field was his
theory of colours, while the theory of
light was developed by Christian H uy
gens a round the same time.
18 Tel l Me Why
How did science g row
after the 17th century?
Before the 1 7th century
began, science and scien
tists were not truly recog
n ized. In fact, even g reat
scientists like Newton were
called 'natural philoso
phers'. The latter half of the
1 ]lh century was a period of
peace and prosperity.
Newly i nvented machines
became part of the daily life
of 1 7thcentury fol k.
The 1 8th and 1 9th century
also saw great progress be
ing made i n science. 1 9th
century achievements i n
science included the inven
tion of the internal com
bustion engine, the tele
phone, telegraph and rail
roads. The 20th and 2pt
century has seen many
Electromagnetism
The relationship between electricity and magnetism

was first established by Hans Christian Oersted, a Dan
ish physicist. He noticed that when a wire carrying
electric current was placed near a magnetic needle, the
needle swung at right a ng les to the wire. I n 1 820,
this led to the birth of a new branch of science
-Electromagnetism.
I'm a
mind-boggling de
sc ientist, not a
velopments in sci natural
ence, including philosopher ...
plate tectonics, ge
netic engineering,
space probes, nanotechnology, Big
Bang theory, electronic computers,
nuclear weapons, artificial intelli
gence, and many other astounding
products of the human mind.
Wh has lectricity b en one of the g reatest

r
Electricity is one of the most powerful offorces,
and the discovery that we could harness electri
cal energy led to many great inventions that
have revol ution ized our lives. It was William Gil
bert who coined the word 'electricity' in the 1 7th
century. A little later, Otto van Guericke built the
first electric generating machine which popular
Edison 's Bulb ized experiment s with electricity. I n 1 729,
Stephen Gray, an English scientist, discovered
conductivity, and in 1 765, Joseph Priestley com-
James Joule
n 1 840, Joule established that the heat

generated(Q) in a wire by an electric current(l)
for a time (t) was proportional to the resistance
(R) and the square of the current. It is expressed
as: Q=i2Rt. This is known as Joule's law.
20
piled all the available data on electricity.
Priestley's observations were transformed
into a law known as Coulomb's Law by
Charles Cou lomb. The invention of the vol
taic battery by Alessandro Volta in the 1 9th
century was another important m ilestone.
In 1 82 1 , Michael
Faraday built an
electric motor that
converted electricity Al l physical objects
into mechanical mo are made up of
tion. This was fol atoms. In an atom
lowed by a series of are protons, elec
important inven trons, and neutrons.
tions and d iscover The protons are
ies, but it was Tho positively charged,
mas Edison who i n- the electrons are
vented the means of Thomas Edison negatively charged,
generating this force and the neutrons
and d istri buting it. Benjamin Franklin are neutral. Static
This made electricity electricity is the
result of a n
a part of our every
imbalance
day life.
between negative
and positive
charges i n an
object. When you
comb your ha ir, or
ru b your feet on a
ca rpet, this causes
an i m bala nce which
causes electrons to
be discharged.
When this happens,
you feel a mild
shock which is static
electricity.
21
Unknown Rays
Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, a German

professor of physics, was the first person to
discover electromagnetic radiation i n a
wavelength range commonly known as X
rays today. To highlight the un known na
ture of these rays, he called them X-rays. He
was honoured with the first Nobel Prize in
Physics in 1 901 for this discovery.
Why James Clerk Maxwell considered

a hero in physics?
James Clerk Maxwell was a Scottish theo
retical physicist and mathematician. He is
best known for his work on light and elec
tromagnetic waves. Maxwell showed that
Roentgen, oscil lating charge�produced waves in an
electromagnetic field, and that these waves
had the same speed as light. He also pre
dicted the existence of other forms of elec
tromagnetic radiation, such as radio waves.
He produced a set of eq uations, known as
'Maxwell's Equations' that explain the
properties of magnetic and electric fields,
and help to show
that light is an elec
tromagnetic wave.
James Clerk
Maxwell
Don't
disturb me! I
have to complete
this theory of
light.
22
Why is electromagnet
Oh!
ic technology so useful Changing magnetic
to the world today? field Induces
Electromagnetic tech electricity.
nology began with Fara
day's discovery that a changing mag
netic field induces an electric cu rrent. His \. �
findings showed that mechanical energy
can be converted to electric energy. It
provided the foundation for electric
power generation, leading d irectly to
the i nvention of the dynamo, and the
electric motor. Faraday's finding also
proved crucial for lighting and heating Sub Atomic World
systems. In 1 844, Samuel Morse used this J .J Thomson d iscov
technology to send a coded message - ered the electron, and
and this led to the invention of the tele opened the door to the
graph. Edison invented an incandescent subatomic world. This
light bulb in 1 879, using this technology, set the stage for Max
and Alexander Graham Bell used it in the Planck's Quantum
telephone. Marconi employed radio Theory. The model for
waves to send a wireless message across the hydrogen atom is
the Atlantic in 1 901, and this led to attributed to Ernest
broadcast radio transmission. Radar sys Rutherford, who was
tems, televisions and computers, all de Thomson's student.
pend on this technology.
M a g l ev Tra i n
T his train has n o wheels, a n d n o en

g ine, but can move at speeds upto 480
kmph or more. Magnetic levitation
(maglev) trains float on a cushion of
air above the rail. The electro magnets
attached to the train and rai l levitate
the train, and propel it forward.
The Story of Science
SOME OF THE IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES THROUGH THE YEARS
1700's The origin of modern scientific disciplines.

1752 Benjamin Franklin proposes the single fluid theory of
electricity.
1800 Alessandro Volta invents chemical batteries and voltage.
18 0 Hans Christian Orsted notices that electric
current deflects a mag netized needle.
18 I Michael Faraday shows that changing magnetic field
produces electricity.
1 0 James Joule and Herma n n von Helmholtz proposes that
electricity is a form of energy.
18 James Maxwell presents equations of electromagnetism.
1887 Heinrich Hertz transmits radio waves.
189 Wil helm Roentgen d iscovers X-rays.
1897 JJ. Thomson discovers the electron.'
1898 Pierre and Marie Curie separate radioactive elements.
1900 Max Planck invents the quantum theory of radiation.
190 Albert Einstein formulate the theory of Relativity.
191 N iels Bohr applies Planck's theory to the atomic
structure.
1923 Erwin Schrodinger's wave equation.
1927 Max Born and Werner Heisenberg formulate matrix
mechanics.
1949 Richard Feynman, Julian Schwinger, and Shin'ichiro
Tomonaga formulate quantum electrodynamics.
1967 Steven Weinberg, Sheldon Glashow and Abdus Salam's
formulate unified theory of electromagnetic and weak
forces.
19 Superfluid helium-3 d iscovered by David Lee,
Douglas Osheroff, and Robert Richardson.
1 Discovery of high-temperature superconductivity by
Karl Muller and J. Bed norz.
In the 1 8th and 1 9th centuries,
i mportant advances were
made i n the conceptofenergy,
and in the discovery of the
laws of thermodynamics. The
study of thermodynamics is
the study of the amount of en
ergy moving in and out of sys adioactivity was
tems. There are many different discovered by Henry
forms of energy. One form of Becquerel in 1 896. It
energy can be transferred to was Rutherford who
another form. The laws of developed a n uclear
thermodynamics govern how model of the atom in
and why energy is transferred. 1 9 1 1 . In this model,
the atom has a dense,
Galileo and Newton, the
positively charged
French engineer Sadi Carnot,
nucleus, i n which a l l
the German scientist Rudolf
t h e mass is concen
Clausius, the Austrian physicist
trated, around which
Ludwig Boltzman, Lord Kelvin
n eg a t i ve l y-c h a rg e d
and Walther Nernst all made
electrons circulate.
significant contributions to
the study ofthermodynamics.
Quantum theory evolved as
a new branch of theoretical
physics during the first few
decades of the 20th century. It
is an attempt to understand
the fundamental properties of
matter. Certain radiation ef
fects could neither be ex
plained by classical mechan
ics, nor by the theory of elec
tromagnetism. Max Planck
Why is Einstein considered one of the

greatest among scientists?
Al bert Einstein was one of the g reatest
scientists of all time. Einstein's special the
ory of relativity a ssumed that light trav
elled through space in the form of pho
tons. He also asserted that the speed of
light in a vacuum does not vary, and is in
dependent of the speed of its source. His
equations showed that mass increases
Albert Einstein with velocity, and that time is foreshort
ened by velocity. Until the end of his life,
Einstein sought a unified field theory,
whereby the phenomena of gravitation
and electromagnetism could be derived
from one set of equations. The papers that
he published changed Man's view of the
Universe, and led to the final acceptance
ofthe atomic structu re of matter.
Why is Einstein's Theory of Relativity
important?
Albert Einstein published his famous
General Theory of Relativity i n 1 9 1 5, which
26 Tel l Me Why
developed a new formula which
stated that energy is always emit
ted or absorbed in discrete units,
which he called quanta. Planck
developed his quantum theory
further, and derived a universal
constant, which came to be
known as Planck's constant.
Projection ofa Space Time

Curvature Described in General
Relativity
conti nues and expands the

Special Theory. The main
points of the theory are
that, the maximum velocity
attainable in the Universe is
that of light, and that ob
jects a ppear to contract i n
the direction of motion and
vice versa.
Another i mportant obser
vation is that mass and en
ergy are equivalent, and in
terchangeable properties.
This gave rise to the most
famous formula in the
world. It states that matter
can be converted into ener
gy, or 'E mc2'. In short, Al
=
bert Einstein's theory

changed our concepts of
space and time.
Einstein's Home
Why is N �els Bohr considered
to be the father of atomic struc
ture?
Niels Bohr was a Danish physi
cist whose i nvestigations of
atomic structure earned him the
1 922 Nobel Prize for physics.
Bohr's work helped solve the
problems classical physics
could not explain about the nu
clear model of the atoms. Bohr
developed his own theory
about the structure of the at
om. He described an atom as a
miniature solar system, with
electrons revolving around
the heavy n ucleus. According to
Bohr, each electron has a fixed
amount of energy that corre Ball and Stick Represen
tation of a Molecule
sponds to its fixed orbit, and so,
different electrons spin in differ
ent orbits a round the nucleus.
Sir, is it
Bohr's model of
atom?
28 Tel l Me Why
Birth of Modern Physics
By the end of the 1 9th century, it was felt

that physics had evolved to a point where all
the i m portant laws of physics had been dis
covered. However, the beginning of the 20th
century witnessed a major revol ution in the
world of physics which ushered in the era of modern physics.
Why is quantum
mechanics an ad
vanced concept?
Quantum physics is
a branch of physics
that works with the
activities going on in
side of atoms. I n the
early 1 900's, scientists
were beg i n ning to ex
amine the i nside of
atoms. Niels Bohr had
putforwa rd thetheory
that in every atom,
there is a n ucleus, and
there are rings or or
bits of energy around
the n ucleus. The Proton (Red)
length of each orbit Nelltron (Black) and
was related to a wave Path of Electrons (BIlle)
length of electromag
netic radiation(EM). entists also d iscovered that EM radiation
Scientists now say not only moves like a wave, but has packs
that electrons behave of energy known as quanta. The term
like waves, and fill ar 'quantum mechanics' was given to this
eas of the atom. Sci- branch of physics by Max Born in 1 924.
He is
search ing for the
sub atomic particle
in his break fast.
What do you know of subatomic particles?

Subatomic particles are particles that are smaller than atoms.
Physicists have discovered hundreds of particles smaller than the
three best known subatomic particles that make up an atom-pro
tons, neutrons, and electrons. Most subatomic particles exist for
only fractions -less than a billionth
of a second, and some particles
combine to form more stable com
posite particles.
Fermions are subatomic particles
that make known matter and a nti
matter. Leptons are elementary par
ticles that do not participate i n hold
ing the nucleus together. Quarks, on
Super Star Neutrino
the other hand, are elementary parti
A neutrino is a cles that do participate in holding
sub atomic particle that is the nucleus together. Then there is
believed to be mass-less, a nti-matter, which consists of coun
or to have a very small ter-particles of quarks and leptons.
mass. A neutrino is very Hadrons are composite particles like
similar to the electron, the proton and neutron, while bos
except that it does not ons are particles that carry fou r types
carry an electrical charge. offorces.
30 Tel l Me Why
Large Hadron Collider
Why has Higgs boson

"become very important?
The biggest news in phys
ics now is the discovery of
the Higgs boson. A boson is
a kind of particle that's even
smaller than an atom. But it
Large Hadron Coll ider took nearly 50 years to find
out that it really exists.
The LHC is a circular tunnel, To understand what Higgs
27 kilometres in boson is, you must first u n
circumference, lying
derstand what mass is. Mass
u nder the Swiss-French
is, q uite simply, a measure of
border, where high-energy
how much stuff an object - a
proton s in two
particle, a molecule, or a box
cou nter-rotating beams
- contains. If not for mass, all
collide. It was built by the
of the fundamental particles
European Organization for
Nuclear Research or CERN, to
that make up atoms would
test the predictions of
whiz around at the speed of
different theory of particle light , and the Universe as we
physics. On July 4th, 201 2, know it, could not have
CERN a nnounced that they clumped up i nto matter. The
had d iscovered a new Higgs mechanism proposes
subatomic particle greatly that there is a field of bosons
resembling the H iggs i n the Universe which is now
boson. It is one of the cal led the Higgs field .when
greatest scientific particles interact with the
discoveries of a l l time. field, and with the Higgs
bosons i n it, mass is formed.
Nuclear Fission
Nuclear Fusion
What is condensed matter

physics?
I will Condensed matter physics
spilt this atom, and deals with the thermal, elastic,
create a nuclear electrical, magnetic and optical
fission. properties of matter in a con
densed state. It is a sub-branch
of quantum physics and statis
tical mechanics.
Condensed-matter physics
g rew at an explosive rate d u r
ing the second half of the 20th
century, and it has scored nu
merous important scientific
and technical achievements.
Tel l M e Why
A Uranium Mine
Why is nuclear fission a major mile

stone in physics? 8ig8ang
In nuclear fission, atoms of heavy ele
ments, such as uranium or plutonium, M ost scientisits
split, to form atoms of lighter elements. believe the Un iverse
When atoms undergo fission, energy is began in a Big Bang
about 1 4 billion years
released.
ago. At that time, the
The history of n uclear fission begins
entire Universe was
with the discovery of the neutron by
inside a bu bble that
James Chadwick in 1 932. Enrico Fermi i n
was thousa nds of
Italy started studying the n uclear reac
times smaller than a
tions produced when different elements
pinhead. Then it
were bombarded with neutrons. In 1 93 9, suddenly exploded.
Hahn i n Germany announced that he had The Universe that we
obtai ned nuclea r fission. ln 1 939, Frederic know was born! I n a
Joliot-Curie, Hans von Halban, and Lew fraction of a
Kowarski found that several neutrons second, the Un iverse
were emitted in the fission of u ra n ium- grew from smaller
23 5, and this discovery led to the possibil tha n a single atom, to
ity of a self-sustaining chain reaction. N u bigger than a galaxy!
clear power plants produce energy by And it kept on
nuclear fission reactions of radioactive el growi ng at a
ements like u ranium. fantastic rate.

A High Temperature
Super Conductor
Levitating above a
Magnet
Why is superconductivity fascinat

ing?
Superconductivity is the complete
disappearance of electrical resistance in
various solids when they are cooled be
Iow a temperature called the transition
temperature.Thetransition temperature
varies for different materials, but is gen
erally is below - 253°C. Superconductiv-
ity was discovered in 1 9 1 1 by the Dutch Heike Kamerlingh
physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes. In Onnes
1 986, a new class of high-temperature
superconductors was discovered by Karl Alex Muller and J Georg
Bednorz. These superconductors hold g reat promise, as they can
be used for many practical purposes.
Amazing Man
Stephen William Hawking is one of the greatest

theoretical physicists of the 2 1 st century. Con
fined to a wheelchair because of a neurological
disease, Stephen Hawking is among the many
physicists working on a 'Theory of Everything'
that covers gravity, electromagnetic forces, and
nuclear and weak interactions. Such a theory
would explain the workings of everything i n
t h e U niverse .
Tel l M e Why
1926: The first liquid-fuelled rocket is
launched by Robert H. Goddard.
1944: V2, the pioneer of all modern
rockets is developed by Germany,
as a weapon.
1957: The Soviet Union launch
Sputnik 1 , the first artificial satellite.
1957: The Soviets put the dog Lai ka on a
spacecraft, maki ng it the first
animal to reach the space.
1958: The first US artificial satellite,
Explorer 1 is launched.
1961: The Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin
becomes the first man to reach the
space.
1963: The Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina
Treshkova becomes the first
woman to reach the space.
1969: US astronauts Neil Armstrong and
Edwi n Aldrin becomes the first men
to step on the Moon.
1971: The first space station Salyutl is
launched by the Soviet Union.
1975: I ndia launches its first satellite
Aryabhata.
1981: US launch First Space Shuttle
Colu mbia.
2008. India launches Chandrayan-I to
explore the Moon.
2012' US robot rover Curiosity lands on
Mars.
How did chemistry origi
nate?
The origin of chemistry
goes back as far back as pre
historic times. Fire was
known to the ancestors of
humans about a million
years ago. After Man discov
ered fire, he bega n to u se it
to harden pottery, and ex
tract metal from ore.
In the 5th century BC,
Empedocles, a Greek phi
eword losopher, said that all matter
'chemistry' was made of fou r elements.
comes from the Greekword They were fire, air, water,
'chemeia,'which referred to the and earth. Between 3 00 BC
art of metal- making in the 4th and 300 AD, a lchemy be
century. camevery popular. Alchemy
was the practice of attempt
ing to turn base metals into
He gold.
discovered
Why were a lchemists
f ire!
considered to be the first
chemists?
Alchemists believed
there were four spirits -
mercury, sulfur, arsenic,
and sal ammoniac- and
six bodies- gold, silver,
copper, tin, lead, and
36 Tel l Me Wh
Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle was an English philosopher,

natural i st, and chemist. He rejected
Aristotle's theory of matter, and presented
the hypothesis that corpuscles, or atoms,
were the finest d ivision of matter.
How did modern chemistry beg i n ?

Modern chemistry began to emerge
when Robert Boyle made a clear distinc
tion between chemistry and alchemy in
1 660. German chemists Johann Becher
and Georg Ernst Stahl laid the fou ndation
for the modern theory of combustion. The
English chemist Joseph Priestley discov
ered in 1 774, that oxygen is essential to the
burning process. Henry Cavendish identi
fied hydrogen, and in 1 783, Lavoisier de
veloped the theory of conservation of
Robert Boyle mass.
iron. According to them,

the purest bodies, which Oh no!
were gold and silver, My gold chain
could be obtai ned by turned into
treating the other bodies
with the fou r spirits. Al
chemy was an early pre
cursor to science, and in
cl u ded many chemistry
related processes. Alche
mists were therefore,
considered to be the first
che mists.
Atoms Why is Dal
could not be ton's Atomi�
created , but a cup Theory a mile
of tea we can
stone in chern..,
make!
istry?
In 1 805, John Dalton, an
English schoolteacher, devel
oped the atomic theory. He
claimed that all elements were
made of atoms, a nd that atoms
of the same elements were
identical. Atoms could not be
created, d ivided, or destroyed in a chemical
process. However, they could combine with
atoms of other elements to form a chemical
compound. Later, Jons Jacob Berzelius de
termined the atomic weight of 40 elements.
Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac, a F renchman, es
tablished that hydrogen and oxygen com
bi ne by vol ume in the ratio 2: 1 to from water.
It was Dalton's work therefore, that laid the
lohn Dalton fou ndation for what is called modern chem
istry today.
Humphry Davy
Humphry Davy d iscovered the

process of e lectrolysis, and isolated the
elements potassium, sodium, calcium,
magnesiu m, barium, and strontium .
He also d iscovered nitrous oxide, or
laughing gas, which was used as the first
anesthetic. H i s most important i nvention
however, was the miner's safety helmet.
Davy's lamp, fixed to a helmet, could burn
Humphry Davy safely in mines.
38 Tel l M e Why
· .
o you know that iodine was

discovered by accident? It happened
when a French chemist, Bernard
Courtois noticed purple vapours ris
ing from kel p ashes that he had acidi
fied with sulfuric acid, and heated.
The vapours condensed on a cold
surface to form shiny dark crystals.
These crystals were later proved to be
an element that was cal led iodine,
after the Greek word for violet, iode •
Why is it said that Friedrich Wohler

a rted a new era in chemistry?
Chemicals are split up i nto organic
chemicals and i norganic chemicals. It
was earlier believed that organic chemi
cals were fou nd only i n living things. In
1 828, Friedrich Wohler, a German scien
tist, accidentally synthesized u rea, an Iodine
organic compound known to occ u r i n
living things, from an i norganic sub
stance,ammoniumcyanate.Thisopened
a new era of research in chemistry. By the
end of the 1 9th century, scientists were
able to synthesize hundreds of organic
compounds. These included mauve,
magenta, and other synthetic dyes, as
well as the widely used drug aspirin.
Wohler's works on chemistry a re widely
used as texts today.
Friedrich Wohler
Th e Story of Science 39
Beam of
Electrons
Deflected in a
Circle by a
Magnetic
field.
Carbon
the Great
Living things are

made up of carbon
compounds, and How was the electron d i scovered?
so, organic Electrons are particles that surround the
chemistry is nucleus of an atom. Electrons have negative
dedicated to its charges. They were discovered in 1 897 by
study. Organic
J.J. Thomson. Thomson's discovery of the
compounds can
electron began in 1 895, with a series of ex
be divided into
periments. He conducted experiments with
fam i lies such as
beams of negative particles, and he discov
proteins, fats, and
ered that these beams or rays consisted of
sugars. Carbon is
different from all
Don't worry,
other elements
It's Thomson's Cathode
because it has the ray tube.
unique ability to
form very stable
bonds with itself.
So, there are long
chains that
contain hundreds
of thousands of
carbon atoms.
40 Tell Me Why
t J. J. Berzelius
J .J. Berzelius was a doctor who developed a

chemical notation in which elements were rep
resented by letters, typically the first letters of
their chemical notation. Thus, oxygen was 0,
and copper was Cu. He was the first person to
make the d istinction between organic and inor
ganic compounds. Berzelius coined many new
terms, and identified many new elements too. 1. J. Berzelius
Why was the discovery of proton

a n d the n ucleus very important?
I n the ea rly 1 900's, it was u nderstood
that atoms contain electrons, and that
electrons have a negative charge. I n
1 91 0, a physicist from New Zealand,
Ernest Rutherford carried out a series
of experiments which suggested that
most of the atom must be empty
space. The atom's positive charge,
Rutherford proposed, was concen
trated in the nucleus, which is a dense
Rutherford central core within the atom. The posi
tively charged particles in the nucleus
a re called protons, and each proton
lightweight particles carries the same quantity of charge as
with a negative charge. an electron. The proton however, has
These particles were a mass a bout 1 ,840 times the mass of
electrons. The device J.J. the electron. The discovery of both
Thomson used for these protons and neutrons are important
investigations was the m ilestones in the development of
cathode ray tube, the atomic theory, which al lowed for a
forerunner of the televi g reater understanding of how mole
sio n tu be. cules bond and work.
Why was the discovery of
radioactivity said to be acci
denta l?
In 1 896, Henri Becquerel was
using naturally fl uorescent
minerals to study the proper
ties of X-rays which had been
discovered in 1 895 by Wilhelm
Roentgen. He exposed potas
sium u ranyl sulfate to sunlight,
and then placed it on photo
g raphic plates wrapped i n Henry Becquerel
black paper, thinking that the
u ranium absorbed the sun's
energy, and then emitted it as
x-rays. His experiment failed,
because the sky was overcast,
and there was no sunlight. For
some reason, Becquerel de
cided to develop his photo
g raphic plates anyway. To his
surprise, the images were
strong and clear, proving that
the u ranium emitted rays
spontaneously without the
help of any external source like
the sun. Becquerel had discov
ered radioactivity by accident,
and now a n element that
spontaneously emits radiation
is said to be radioactive. Radio
active substances such as u ra
nium produce three types of
rays or particles when they de
cay, or break down- alpha, be
ta, and gamma rays.
42
Avegadro Number
Avogadro, an Ita l ian, was

the firstto publish in 1 81 1
the idea that elements
could exist as molecules.
The word 'molecule' was a
Discovery from a Dream Latin word that he adopt
ed for his hypothesis, ex
The idea that carbon atoms
plaining why mixing a
join together to form a ring
volume of hydrogen gas
was put forward i n 1 865,
with an equal vol ume of
when a German chemist,
chlorine gas does not
Friedrich August Kekule
result in a doubling in the
von Stradonitz suggested a
volume of gas. The hy
ring structure for benzene,
pothesis states that equal
an organic compound.
volumes of ideal gases, at
He got th is idea after he
the same temperature
dreamt of a snake biting
and pressure, contai ned
its tail!
an equal number of
molecules.
Avogadro
43
The Neutron
I n 1 932, James Chadwick proved that the

atomic nucleus contained a neutral particle
which had been proposed more than a decade
earlier by Ernest Rutherford.
James Chadwick
Periodic Table oithe ELements

All of you
stand m a
Why is Mendeleev'5 periodic
table so important?
People have known a bout ele
ments like carbon and gold since
ancient times. In the late 1 860's,
Dmitri Mendeleev began working
pn his g reat achievement- the pe
riodic table of the elements. By ar
ranging all of the 63 elements
then known by their atomic
weights, he managed to organize
them into groups possessing simi
lar properties. First, he put ele
ments into their correct places in
Tel l Me Why
Why has the inven
tio n of artificial fibres
and dyes changed the
world ?
Until the 1 9th century,
the onlyfi bres that were
available for weaving Rayon
fabrics were natural
This ones- l inen, wool, silk, and cotton. The
rayon might first man-made fibre was produced
hefp save our a bout 1 855, and it was primarily used
l ives! as a substitution for silk. It went by the
name viscose and was later renamed
<lyon. Rayon is technically not artificial,
or is it natural. It is made a rtificially
from a natural substance- from wood
cel l ulose. Nylon is the first truly man
made a rtificial fibre, as it is made en
tirely of petrochemicals.
the table. The g reatness of Mendeleev was

that not only did he leave spaces for ele
ments that were not yet discovered, b ut he
predicted properties of five of these ele
ments and their compou nds!
Spectroscope
The spectroscope is used in chemistry

to identify and measure various
chemical substances. The credit for its
d iscovery goes to Robert Bunsen, who
is better known for creati ng the
Robert Bunsen Bunsen burner.
Why are petrochemicals, fibreglass, and
rubber considered major developments in
chemistry?
Improvements in petroleum refining tech
niques led to the emergence of petrochemicals
and plastics. One of the most i mportant results
of the new processes that were developed was
the discovery that petrol cou ld be made by refin
ing petroleum, and petrol is essential for life to
day. Fibreglass, a form of synthetic g lass, was first
developed byGames Slayter, an American i nven
tor in the 1 930's. When natural rubber became
scarce d u ring World War I, synthetic rubber was
invented by chemists. We use thousands of rub
ber products with varying deg rees of hardness in
our daily lives. In short, the 20th centu ry saw the
Stainless development of several other synthetic materi
Steel Cladding als that proved to be immensely useful for hu
mankind- thanks to chemistry.
Developi ng
Chemistry
T he 1 9th century saw

giant strides being made
in every wal k of l ife. The
Industrial Revolution,
i mproved transport and
communication, while
developments in
medicine and agriculture
improved the quality of
life - and chemistry
played a major role in this
transformation.
46
Why was the invention of stai nless
steel a mi lestone in economic devel
opment?
Steel is an alloy of carbon and i ron. It
is extremely strong, and its properties
make it especially useful in producing
weapons. I n 1 872, the English company
Messrs Woods and Clark patented an
alloy of i ron, chromium, and tungsten
that was resistant to acid and weather.
This could be considered the first pat
ent for what came to be known as
stai nless steel. However, it was only in
Steel Rods 1 9 1 3 that Harry Brearley created the
first-ever stainless steel. Stainless
steel's resistance to corrosion and
staining, low maintenance, and attrac
tive appearance, make it an ideal mate
rial for many applications. There are
Petrochemical Plant
over 1 50 g rades of stainless steel, of
which fifteen are most commonly used.
Today, everything from buildings to
kitchen utensils use stain less steel.
How did n itri
acid and ammoni
revo lutionize agri�
cultu re?
The i mportant
n utrients essential
for plant g rowth are
often lacking in the
soil, which creates
the need for fertiliz
Fritz Haber Hermann ers. The big break
Staudinger through in the field
of artificial fertilizers
came in 1 908 when F riedrich Wilhelm
Ostwald invented the process to manu
facture n itric acid, which can be used as a
base for fertilizers. I n 1 908, F ritz Haber,
developed a process to make ammonia
gas from the nitrogen i n the air. Ammo
nia is used in the production of liquid
fertilizer solutions which consist of am
monia, ammonium n itrate, u rea, and aq-
�� "'- .' �'.{� .�
�- lt�
Founder of Polymer Chemistry
: jtr��;:-
Herman n Staudinger is considered to be

the fou nder of polymer chem istry. In the
1 920's, he began to study rubber, and
was the first to suggest that it was made
of large, strand-l i ke molecules, or poly-
mers. H i s work led to the es
tabl ishment of the synthetic
polymer industry, and he
was awarded the Nobel Prize
for chemistry in 1 953.
Tel l Me Why
T he al lotropes of
carbon are the
different molecular
config u rations that
p ure carbon can take.
Carbon is a
remarka bly versati le
element. Allotropes of
carbon ca n be as hard
as dia monds, or as soft
as graph ite.
ua ammonia. Artificial
fertil izers boosted ag Why is the development of the phar
ricultural productivity, maceutical industry so significant?
because the n utrients As the horizons ofchem istry expanded,
they provided could new industries that were related to
be a bsorbed quickly chemistry g rew too. In 1 928, Alexander
by the soil. Fleming, a biochemist, discovered peni
cillin quite by accident. This discovery
made a stupendous difference to the
You can use world.
what you think Further experiments revealed that the
enough!
fungus, Penici l l ium notatum, could kill
many kinds of bacteria and could be ad
ministered to laboratory animals without
danger. Penicillin was used extensively
in World War I to treat the sick and
wounded. It was the first antibiotic, and
subsequently, many other antibiotics
were discovered too. As a result, the
pharmaceutical industry boomed, and
� became one of the biggest in the world.
Why is it said
Excuse me sir,
that basic chem
Check the fossils
istry showed not the rock!
great develop
ment in the be
g i n n i n g of the
20th century?
The beginning
of the 20th century
saw many ad
Willard Libby vances being
made i n basic
chemistry. In
1 932, James
Chadwick has dis
covered the neu-
Industrial Chemistry deals with the

production of inorganic chemicals, organic
chemicals, petrochemicals, agrochemicals,
and explosives.
50 Tel l
tron, and this led to intense research i n
this field. Many scientists were engaged
in studying the reactions that occurred
when the n uclei of d ifferent elements
were bombarded with neutrons. Many
new elements were identified and cre
ated.
The technique of radiocarbon dating Latrochemistry
was developed during this time by Wil
Latrochemistry was a
liam Libby. It is used to date a rtifacts by fusion of chemistry
applying rad ioactivity. Progress in and medicine. Having
quantum mechanics helped us u nder its roots in a lchemy, Ia
stand how individual atoms combine trochemistry sought to
to form chemicals or molecules. provide chemical solu
tions to diseases and
Why is Linus Pauling considered to medical a i lments. This
be an im portant chemist of the early area of science has fal l
20th century? en out of use since the
Linus Pauling was a scientist, and a rise of modern medical
fou nding father of molecular biology. practices.
He gave a big boost to modern theo
retical organic chemistry. He also deter
mined the role of electrons i n the for
mation of molecules. Pauling proposed
the idea that vitamin C could help pre
vent cancer. The work of Paul i ng on the
chemical bond culminated in his fa
mous textbook, 'The Nature of the
Chemical Bond', which was published
in 1 939. It is considered by many scien
tists as the most influential work in
chemistry. Pauling won the Nobel Prize
for Chemistry in 1 954. He was also
awa rded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1 962,
for his efforts to stop atomic bomb re Linus Pauling
search.
F rederick Sanger proved that
proteins have a definite chemi
cal composition. He a lso
developed a method for
sequencing the DNA
molecule, and determined the
amino acid structure of the
hormone insulin i n 1 955.
hy are J mes atson and

Francis eric associated with
DNA?
James Watson DNA is the molecule that is the ba
sis for heredity. It contains the pat
terns for constructing proteins in the
body, including the various enzymes.
A new understanding of heredity
and hereditary disease was possible
once it was determined that DNA
consists of two chains twisted
a round each other, ordouble helixes.
Modern biotechnology also has its
basis in the structural knowledge of
DNA. James Watson, Francis Crick,
Mau rice Wilkins, and Rosalind Frank
lin were four scientists who worked
to u nravel the mysteries of DNA.
Franklin d ied of cancer at the you ng
age of 37. In 1 962, James Watson
Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins
jointly received the Nobel Prize for
their 1 953 determination of the
structure of DNA.
52 Tel l Me Why
What do we know about i norganic chemistry?
Inorganic chemistry is the study of a l l the elements and their
com po u nds with the exception of carbon and its compo unds,
which fal l u nder the category of organic chemistry. At the turn
of the 20th century, experiments by scientists U rey a n d M i l ler
proved the hypothesis that l ife origi n ated on the primordial
Earth from i n organic molecu les. Hans Krebs discovered the citric
acid cycle that has come to be known as Krebs' Cycle. The Krebs'
Cycle helps us to u ndersta nd how living beings a re a ble to con
vert food i nto energy and waste produ cts. The detai l ed chemical
process u n derlying photosynthesis was u nderstood only in the
second half of the 20th century. I norganic chemistry has n ow
become a sci
ence concern
ing inorga n ic
m a t e r i a l s
based primari ly
on data a bout
the structure of
compou nds on
the ato m ic and
molecular lev
els.
Hans Krebs Stanley Miller
N M R S p ectroscopy
mong the most important tools for

a nalytical chemistry is the N uclear Magnetic
Resonance or N M R spectroscope. It is
extensively used to determine the structure
of large biological molecules.
T h e Story o f Science 53
P olymers are molecules that form long, repetitive chains. Plastics
a re among the best known polymers. Conductive polymers are
polymers that can conduct electricity. Conductive polymers can be
combined with conventional plastics to create a product that pos
sesses the qualities of both the materials. Conductive polymers
were discovered in 1 977 by A.J. Heeger, MacDiarmid, and H.
Shira kawa.
Why is chemistry useful in the field of

energy?
Dear Sun,
My solar panel is
Solar power, or the technique of con out of order.
verting the energy received from the Sun So, please give me
i nto useful and usable energy has become some energy
increasingly important, and chemistry directly.
plays a role in producing solar power. A
solar cell is really only a converter that
takes the light of the Sun, and turns it into
electricity. Many of the processes that oc
cur in chemistry are dependent on the
state of the electrons floating around the
outside of the nucleus- and the material of
solar cells is an elaborate network of elec
tron paths.
Chemistry also plays an impo rtant role Af).�a�
in fuel cells. A fuel is any compound that
has stored energy.
Whether it is solar
energy or other con
ventional forms of
energy, chemistry is
the key player in the
process of releasing
energy.
Solar Panel
54 Tel l Me Why
Why is nanotechnol
ogy important?
Nanotechnology is the
science of creating mo
lecular-size machines
that manipulate matter,
one atom at a time. The
name comes from na
n ometer-one- b i l l ionth
of a metre-which is
roughly the size of these
tiny devices. Chemical
techniques, in an a rea
known as synthetic
chemistry, are already A Nanomaterial
capable of synthesizing
small molecules of a vari
ety of compounds. These
are being used in the
chemical i ndustry and
the pharmaceutical in
dustry. The medical in
dustry sees a great deal
of potential in the appli
cations of nanotechnol C a rbon nanotubes are
ogy to diagnose, treat, cylin d rical carbon molecules, a nd
and research diseases. have novel properties that make
Future applications in them potentially useful in a wide
clude nanorobots and variety of applications in
other nanoscale ma nanotechnology, electronics,
chines. Nanobots ma optics, and other fields of
nipulate atoms, and can materials science. They exhibit
in principle, make a ny extraordinary strength and
thing from apples to air u n ique electrical properties, and
planes. are efficient conductors of heat.

Genes
Inside every cell of

each living thing
plant or an imal- are
sets of instructions
cal led genes. The
genes provide the
i n structions on what
is the plant or an imal
is, what it looks l i ke,
how it is to survive,
a n d how it wi l l What is green chemistry?
i nteract with its Chemical wastes have a significant Im
su rrounding pact on life today. Green chemistry is the
environment. invention, design, and application of
chemical products and processes to reduce,
-----
or to eliminate the use
Salute to and generation of
green chemistry, I've hazardoussubstances.
decided to change my car
into green. For example, in order
to decrease human
consumption of pe-
troleum, chemists
have investigated
methods for produc
ing polymers from re
newable resources
- such as biomass.
Green chemistry re-
56 Tel l Me Why
s b 0 ec 09 7
Biotechnology is uti l izing the
sciences of biology, chemistry,
physics, engineeri ng, computers,
and information technology to
develop tools and products that
hold great promise for human be
ings. Both traditional and modern
biotechnology use living organ
isms to enhance crops, fuels,
medical treatments, and a host of
other tools that can help us. One
of the areas of biotechnology is
cloning. We have been cloning
plants for centuries. Each time a
leaf i s excised from a plant and
placed i n soi l to grow a new plant,
cloni ng has occurred. Biotechnol
ogy can have an immense i m pact
in the artificial increase in plant
yields. I n medicine, biotechnology
has come a long way since the
company Genentech produced
h uman insulin using genetic engi
neering techniques. There i s no
doubt that biotechnology is the
science of the future.
duces toxicity, minim izes waste,

saves energy, and cuts down on the
dep letion of natural resources. Dur
i ng the ' 990's many industries began
to earnestly adopt green chemistry,
and other sustainable practices.
What are genetically
modified crops?
Genetic modification
involves altering an or
ganism's DNA. This can
be done by altering an
existing section of DNA,
or by adding a new gene
altogether. A gene is a
code that governs how
we a ppear, and what
characteristics we have.
Like animals, plants have genes too. Genes
decide the colour of flowers, and how tall a
plant can g row. J ust as our parents pass on
G . M. Tomato their characteristics to us, the characteristics
of a plant will be transferred to the plant's
seeds, which g row into new plants. When a
scientist genetically modifies a plant, they
insert a foreign gene in the plant's own
genes. This might be a gene from a bacterium
resistant to pesticide, for example. The result
is that the plant receives the characteristics
Ethics in Genetically Modified Food
Though genetically modified crops may

produce bigger fruits and flowers, and be
more resistant to drought and disease, there
a re concerns about the safety of the food they
produce, a nd their impact on the environ
ment. Genetically modified crops may release
new d iseases into the wild, and prove to be less hardy than natural
crops i n the long run. As a resu lt, a large number of countries still do
not permit the production or sale of genetic� lIy modified foods.
58 Tel l Me Why
John Fenn
J ohn Fenn was a

scientist who
developed a
technique which
made possible the
rapid a nalysis of the
G . M. Plum structure of
proteins, and other
held within the genetic code. Conse
quently, the genetically modified plant
also becomes able to withstand pesti
cides.
Apart from making crops pesticide
resistant, genetic modification can ac
tually reduce the use of pesticides and
herbicides required by the crop. Ge
netical ly modified crops can also be
made more resistance to drought, and
some research is already taking place
to accomplish this.
Loo k! That's lohn Fenn

our genetically
modified brother!
bimolecules through
mass spectrometry.
He was a Nobel
Prize-winner in
chemistry, a nd his
work i n the field of
biomolecular
technolog ies helped
i ncrease the speed
and development of
new drugs.
What advances do we expect from chem istry in
the 2 1 51 centu ry?
Chemistry in the 2 1 '1 century will focus on green
chemistry, genomics, and biotechnology. We can ex
pect to see improved processes that will reduce the
production of harmful wastes. Renewable energy
source like solar cells will become more popular, and
new materials with u nusual properties will be devel-
oped. DNA sequencing will be
come even quicker and more ac
cu rate, leading to its widespread
use. More and more genes re
sponsible for diseases may be
identified, and therapies devel
oped and biotechnology will ush
er in a revolution in aqriculture
too.
The Nobel
Marie Curie and Pierre Family
The Curie family can be called a 'Nobel Family'. A total of five

Nobel Prizes have been awarded to them. Marie C u rie won two
Nobel Prizes, and her h usband, Pierre Curie, won one. Marie,
together with her husband Pierre and Henri Becquerel received
the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1 903. Ma rie, alone, received the Nobel
Prize i n Chemistry i n 1 9 1 1 . Marie's eldest daughter Irene, along
with her husband Frederic Joliot, received the Nobel Prize i n
Chemistry in 1 935. Eve Curie, Marie's younger daug hter married
Henry Labouisse, who as executive director of U N ICEF, received
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1 965.
60 Tel l Me Why
What i s the m ean i ng of 'biol
ogy'?
Biology is the study of life proc
esses and living organisms. The
term however, is a fai rly recent
one, and was introduced around
the 1 9th centu ry. Earlier, many
terms were used to descri be the
study of living organisms. There
was natural history, which re
ferred to the descriptive aspects
of biology, and natu ral philoso
phy, and natural theology. In the
1 8th and 1 9th centuries, botany
and zoology replaced natural
history and natural philosophy.
Today, biology encompasses not
just botany and zoology, but
many other fields of studies as
well, including mycology and
molecular biology.
Don't move,
you are my study
material today.
The word 'biology is
made up of two
Greek words- 'bio'
meaning 'life' and
'logy' meaning
'study of'.
Th e Story of Science
�
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,.�"":...�... Why is biology a science that goes ,

\""I�lr�1:l:1��1f� - f.
•
• " 4
back to Ancient Mesopota mia and

!\t� l.J(il��w. .a:... ;.Zl Egypt?
L1 ,'""< l\. .. n _ The study of natural phenomena
1 r��ti��t 4),
• .;,. ' .. . Yhtt4
goes back to the ancient civilizations of
Mesopotamia and Egypt. The oldest
. \:' ,"Yr�·Z��c�:L�i.\: Babylonian text on medicine has its ori-
�rr� �1(\7;H-!_:;,::: g i n i n the first halfofthe second millen-
.. i.L��7i:il3(l'I;t: .... n i u m BC Papyri and a rtifacts found in
�
, � � l\t�a.;Je..
�.6,��.r
�:
III \
the tombs and pyramids of the Egypt
indicate that the ancient Egyptians
"'� . . �.I I��""'-¥ _ . t- possessed considerable m �d ical
.
'.fd.l :\�\i _ � I . � '" ':..: : .y , ...
�. <.�
knowledge. I n fact, the m ummies of
I
... . -�: ancient Egypt prove their knowledge
.. ·I) � .
• .
a bout human anatomy, and the pre

servative properties of plants used for
embalming. The ancient Egyptians also
knew about the circulatory system and
tumours. Did you know that the a l l u r
ing eye makeup of the a ncient Egyptian
q ueens may have been used to help
prevent, or treat eye disease by dou
Egyptian,
bling as an infection-fighter? Isn't that
Surgery
amazing?
The earliest known Th is is not
surgery in Egypt was only a cosmetic,
performed around but also a medi
2750 B C. The ancient
cine!
Egyptians a lso knew
about the
i mportance of the
pulse, and the con
nection between the
pulse and the heart.
62 Tel l Me Why
H u a Tuo was a Chinese surgeon who in
vented an oral anaesthetic. Using a mixture
of hemp and wine, he was able to make his
, patients i n sensitive to pain. H e was such an
'-
. outsta n d i n g medical doctor i n a ncient
China that he .was known as a 'miraculous
healer'.
What do you know a bout ancient Chi

nese medicine?
The ancient Chinese were also very
knowledgeable about medicine. The earli
est known Chinese medical writing was
written about 1 86 BC, and was called The
Reci pes for Fifty-Two Ailments.' The reme
dies included chanting spells, herbal medi
cines, lancing or cutting the skin open, and
cauterization or burning the flesh. By the
time of the Han Dynasty a bout 1 00 BC,
· Ebers Papyrus China had become a major centre of medi
cal research, and the home of some of the
The Ebers Papyrus is
world's best doctors. According to the Chi
a very i mportant
scrolL It is the most
nese, you get sick when the two forces
comprehensive
known as yin and yang that exist in you r
description of
body are out o f balance. Lifestyle choices
ancient Egyptian like bad food, not exercising, stress, and
medicine. It your environment can knock yin and yang
conta ins 700 out of balance. Doctors used a combina
formulae and tion of acupuncture, herbal medicines, and
traditional exercises to restore this balance. They also
remedies to cure used many medicines made of different
afflictions ra nging herbs and tree barks. By 300 AD, Ge Hong
from crocodi le bite was the first doctor i n the world to write
to toenail pain. about a medicine for malaria.
The Origin of Life
T he ancient Greeks had many theories

a bout the origin of life. In the 6th century
BC, Thales of M iletus theorized that the
world and all living things were made
from water. His student Anaximander
had a different view. He proposed that
life arose spontaneously in m ud.
Why do we say that botany a nd medi

Sushruta
cine were wel l developed in ancient In
dia?
There is evidence that the people of An
cient India had knowledge of botany and
medicine even as far back as 2500 BC The
Rig Veda tells us about the action of light on
plants, and during the vedic period, the
medicinal properties of plants were known
too. Later, botany evolved into medicine,
and the science of agriculture. A document
dated about the 6th century BC
Master, describes the use of a bout 960
may I pull it out ? medicinal plants, and incl udes
It's a medicinal information on such topics as
plant. anatomy, physiology, patholo
gy, and obstetrics. Ayurveda de
veloped in India around 1 500
. BC, and of the earliest Ayurvedic
treatises was the Sushruta Sam
hita which is attributed to the
great physician Sushruta . He
wrote on medicine, pathology,
anatomy, midwifery, ophthal
mology, biology, and hygiene.
64 Tel l Me Why
From the avail Why is Aristotle ca lied
a b le records, it the most i mportant bi
is evident that ologist in ancient
major a bdomi Greece?
nal operations Aristotle, the ancient
were a lso car Greek philosopher, com
ried out. (har bined his understanding
ak, the great of the natural world with
Hindu physi- his studies in philosophy,
cian l ived and began to d ra w con
around 320 clusions a bout the state
Aristotle
B.C. H is teach- of matter and organisms.
ings a re com- He stated that the func
plied into what is known as tion of an animal is i ntimately con
"(harak Samhita" and it is nected to its form. He concentrated
also one of the classics of on his studies in zoology. Aristotle
ancient Indian medicine. attempted to classify animals, and
identified a bout 540 species. He
studied their anatomy, habits, and
habitats. Aristotle made contribu
tions to the theory of evolution too.
He is properly recognized as the
originator of the scientific study of
life, and often called the father of
biology.
Alcmaeon's Findings
Alcmaeon was a Greek scientist

and philosopher who l ived in the
5th century Be. He is bel ieved to be
the first scientist who practiced
d issection in his researches. H e
made t h e first scientific d iscoveries
in the field of anatomy.
Why is the Libra ry and Museum in Alex
andria considered a major centre of bio
logical development?
The ancient city of Alexandria boasted of
impressive a rray of mathematicians, as
tronomers, doctors, biologists, geogra
phers, mechan ical engineers, theologians
Galen
and thinkers. The native Egyptians had al
ready developed a considerable expertise Galen was a
in medicine, astronomy, and engineering Greek physician
and the Greeks had led the world in advanc who was one of the
es in mathematics, biology, and philosophy. first to observe that
These trends converged in the new Greco the arteries carry
Egyptian port city of Alexandria. The city's blood, and not air,
Library and Museum became the world's as was commonly
first university and i ntegrated scientific re beli eved at that
search complex. time.
Herophilus of Chalcedon was one of the
most outstanding physicians from Alexan
d ria, who recognized the brain as the centre
ofthe nervous system. Pedanius Dioscorides
wrote De Materia Medica in AD 77, the clas You are the
centre of the
sical source of botan ical terminology and
world, sorry,
pharmacology. Around this time, Pliny the nervous system!
Elder completed The Natural H istory'- a
huge volume of work that dealt with differ
ent branches of biology.
Ruins ofAlexandria
Tel l Me Why
Neurology
N eurology is the medical special

ty concerned with the d iagnosis
and treatment of d isorders of the
nervous, system, which i ncludes
the bra i n, the spi nal cord, and the
nerves. The 20th century witnessed great
advances in neurology, and research by
doctors and scientists greatly i ncreased
our u n derstan d i ng of the nervous sys
tem.
What is physiology?
Physiology is a branch of biology that deals
with the mechanical, physical, and biochemi
cal fu nctions of living organisms. Physiology
is concerned with the way the individual
parts of an anima l or human work, and how
their workings affect other parts and the
whole organism. Physiology is l i n ked to
I'm sure. anatomy and medicine.
This med icine The Alexandrian physician Herophilus un
will help you. dertook the first studies
in h u man physiology
around 300 BC Modern
animal physiology
dates from the discov
ery of blood circulation
in 1 6 1 6 by William Har
vey. The third branch of
physiology is plant
physiology.
1 800 The term 'biology' is
coined by Karl Friedrich B u rdach
1 859 Darwin publishes
'The Origin of Species'
1 866 Mendel formulates the
laws of I nheritance.
1 869 Miescher d iscovers
n ucleic acids in the n uclei of cells.
1 9 1 8 Muller formulates the
principles of spontaneous
gene mutation.
1 946 Melvin Calvin explains
photosynthesis.
1 953 Watson and Crick determine
DNA is a double strand helix
1 986 Wilson coi n s the term
biodiversity
2000 H uman Genome Project
presents its preli m i n a ry results.
What is biochemistry?
Biochemistry is the science in which
chemistry is applied to the study of living
organisms, and the atoms and molecules
which comprise these living organisms.
Plants, animals, and single-celled organ
isms all use the same basic chemical
compounds.
Biochemistry is not a bout the cells or
the organisms- it is a bout the smallest
parts of those organisms, the molecules.
It is also a bout the cycles that happen to
create those biological com pounds. The
68 Tel l Me Why
Why is the cell theory i mportant in
,,
bi ology?
."
Robert Hooke, a scientist was observing
dead cork samples through a simple micro -: '?
scope, when he noticed that they were

made up of small, simple units that looked
like the bare prison cells of his time. He called
i
,
' �':i
. .
'
.
•.
'
these units 'cells,' and his work launched a

i't'.
new frontier in scientific exploration that led ...
•
, , 'ijS
_ -
�� -,-"
to modern cell theory.
The Cell Theory states that all living Robert Hooke
things are made of cells which are repro
duced from existing cells. It also states
that cells are the basic u n its of structure,
and function i n living things. The modern
version of the theory adds three more
points. The first is that energy flow occurs
within cells. The second point is that he
reditary i nformation is passed on from cell
to cell, and the third point i s that all cells
have the same basic chemical composition.
cycles usually rely on enzymes and other Ge nom e

proteins to move atoms and molecules.
The human genome
The pharmaceutical industry depends
is l i ke a blueprint for
g reatly on biochemistry.
creating humans.
You r genome
contains all the
information needed
to create you, and to
determine how your
cells function
throughout your
whole life.
·
Ca rl Li n n a e us
Carl Linnaeus established the system oftaxonomy in which animals

and plants are grouped by characteristics a n d relationship. Lin
naeus classified living things within a hierarchy, startin g with two
kingdoms-the plant and an imal kingdoms. This is the binomial
system, in which each living thing is assigned a name consisting of
two Latin words. The first word is the name of the genus, and the
second is the species.
Why is the study of micro-organisms

i m portant to biology?
Micro-organisms make up the largest
number of l iving organisms on the planet.
There are three types of m icro-organisms
or microbes. They a re bacteria, fungi, and
viruses.
It was the g reat French chemist Louis
Pasteur who demonstrated that there are
micro-organisms everywhere. He believed
that they were responsible for i nfectious Carl Linnaeus
diseases. He later developed effective vac
cines against anthrax and rabies. Later,
Robert Koch validated the germ theory of
diseases. This led to the birth of a new
branch of biology- bacteriology.
Help!
There's a demon
on the table! Robert Koch
Tel l Me Why
Why is Darwin
an i m portant
figure in the his
tory of biology?
During a five
year trip around
the world, Darwin
observed many
� John Ray forms of l ife. The
strange plants,
J oh n Ray was a British
Charles Darwin animals and fos
researcher. I n 1 703, he
sils he had seen,
established the six
showed that many forms of life were
rules of plant classifica
similar - but also slightly different. I n
tion. To this day, they
remain the fundamen
t h e struggle t o survive i n a world of
tal rules i n this field.
scarce resources, he reckoned that
His work covers the maybe the slightest difference wou ld
taxonomy of about be helpfu l . Animals or plants with help
1 8,600 species. ful differences would be the most l i kely
to survive and pass along those differ
ences to their offspring. Organisms with unhelpful differences
would be more likely to die before they had offspring. Darwin
called this 'natural selection,' which helped a species to evolve. In
1 859, he spelled out his theory of evolution in a book titled 'On the
Origi n of Species.' The book electrified the scientific world - and
the public as well.
HMS Beagle that took Darwin

on his Expedition
Why are William Harvey's contribu
tions to biology important?
William Harvey is famous for having ac
curately described how blood circulates
a round the body, and the part the heart
plays in this.Harvey was able to disprove
the existing theory that the body made
new blood, as it used up the old. He
proved that the heart was a pump which
forced the blood around the body
through the arteries, and that the blood
was retu rned to the heart through the
veins. He also undertook research in em-
Gregor Mendel bryology, and his contributions to biology
remain significant to this day.
Why is Gregor Mendel called the 'father of genet
ics'?
In the 1 860's, Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk began
experimenting with peas. Mr. Mendel wanted to find
out how living things pass physical characteristics, also
known as traits, from one generation to the next. By
cross pollinating the pea plants, he care
fully controlled which plants reproduced,
Peas are
good for and tracked how each of these traits was
health. passed on from generation to generation.
Cross pollination means that Gregor Men
del took pollination from a pea plant
which he selected, and put it on another
pea plant that he had also selected.
It was Mendel who first formulated the
laws of inheritance of dominant and re
cessive traits. He called the fundamental
u nit of heredity an allele, which is very
t,..,..,. , .......
similar to the gene. Today, Mendel's work
/' is world-renowned, and he is called the
father of genetics. .
72 Tel l Me Why
Why is it said that the Renaissa nce in
Europe saw a Renaissance i n botany
too?
The Renaissance in Europe saw the re
birth of ideas, and of classicism. The first
u niversities were founded, and the first
botanical gardens l i ke the U niversity bo
tanical garden� in Florence, Padua, and Pi
sa, were established. As a result, there was
a widespread growth of bota nical knowl
edge. European u niversities bega n to
WiLLam Harvey study plants not just by referring to manu
scripts, but by studying living plants. Many
famous botanists lived d u ring this period.
Luca Ghini from Italy is credited with being
the first to press and dry plants i n order to
conserve them i n a herbarium. The inven
tion of the letterpress in 1 455 led to a rapid
Botanical Garden of spread of knowledge in all fields, i ncluding
Florida botany. A lot of scientific literature was
published, and made ava i lable to a large
n umber of readers.
Why is Robert Hooke
Ho! A terrifying
considered to be a great
world in a little
drop! experi menta l i st?
Throughout most of h u
man h istory, scientists
knew very l ittle about life,
and how it works. It was not
u ntil 1 665 that a scientist
by the name of Robert
Hooke u sed the micro
scope, and discovered the
existence of cells. While u s
i n g the n ewly i nvented
compound microscope to
Why did the i nvention of look at a thin sl ice of cork,
the microscope revol utionize
biology?
Since the time of their i nvention, microscopes have allowed the
exploration of an entire new world that is i nvisible to the naked
eye. They have played a very i mportant role as a tool in conducting
biological researches. M icroscopes made possible the study of
very minute organisms. Cells are the basic building blocks i n all
organisms, and without microscopes we would be unable to ex
plain even the simplest biological processes. It was Anton van
Leeuwenhoek who invented the modern microscope in 1 668.
With the advent of electron microscopes, we can now even see
the thinnest of cell walls. In short, microscopes have made visible
the fascinating details of worlds within worlds.
Marcello Malpigh i
Ma rcello Marpighi was a physician who was

one of the first to use the microscope- a n
invention that revolutionized a n atomy. He was
also the first to d iscover, and study human
fingerprints.
74 Tel l Me Why
Hooke saw tiny room-like structures that he
named cells. I n h i s book 'Microg ra phia', pub
l ished i n 1 665, Hooke recorded his observa
tions with the compound m icroscope of in
sects, sponges, bryozoans, fora m i n ifera, and
bird feathers. H e was the first person to ex
a m i n e fossils with a microscope, and began
the study of paleontology. H ooke correctly
understood that fossils a re the rema i n s of l iv
ing orga n isms. Hooke was perha ps the single
greatest experimental scientist of the seven
teenth century. His i nterests knew no bou nds,
ran g i n g from physics a nd astronomy, to
Leeuwenhoek chemistry, biology, and geology, from archi
tectu re to nava l technology.
Jean Lemarck
Jean Lemarck put

forward the theory that
acquired traits can be
i nherited. This theory is
known as Lemarckism.
He proposed that in
Nature, it is the
environment that
produces changes. For
example, he suggested
that the length of the
g iraffe's neck can be
attributed to generations
of reaching up for food.
Today, he is
Leeuwenhoek 's acknowledged as a
Microscope forerun ner of the theory
Lemarck
of evolution.
cology is the study of organisms and the environments
they l ive in. Ecologists study specific areas of biological
activity cplled ecosystems. Environmental science usually
involves the interface between ecological science and the
human world, particularly in terms of public policy and
natura l resource economics.
Why is cloning important in biol

ogy?
Cloning is the process of creating
genetically identical copies of bio
logical matter. Our bodies are made
up of cells which have i nfprmation
to go about their work in the form of
DNA or de-oxy-ribo-nucleic-acid.
This is called the genetic code.
We all have grown from a singJe cell
Dolly which contains these two parts of the
DNA. It is called the egg cell. Since
each cell has a copy of all the genetic
information needed by the body,
Wow! what we need is an egg cell to create
Who created an identical copy of an organism.
my clone?
I n cloning, laboratory processes
are used to produce offsprings that
are genetically identical to the donor
parent. Dolly the sheep was the first
cloned mammal to be created. Clon
ing is important, becausethecloning
of specific organs can completely do
away with the need to transplant or
gans. Cloning can also help us to re
produce animals and prevent them
from becoming extinct.
76 Tel l Me Why
_ ._ ",.,t-.c. .... ., biology is the study
of the network of genes,
protei n s and biochemical What do you know a bout the
reactions that make u p the growth of molecular biology?
human body. Understa n d i ng
Molecular biology is the branch
this network will help u s
of biology that deals with the mo
understand an organism
lecular basis of biological activity.
better- and this, i n turn, will
gi v e u s deeper insights into
The classical period of molecular
biology began i n 1 953, with the
human health and diseases.
discovery of the DNA double helix
Mom, I'm �oing by James Watson and Francis
to be eco friendly. Crick.
I quit using all wood Once the structure of DNA was
products Including understood, the focus of molecu
my books. lar biology shifted to the mechan
ics of genetic replication and func
tion. ln the 1 970's, molecular biolo
gists developed a variety of tech
niq ues for manipu lating genetic
material. As molecular biology
g rew, it branched out into differ
ent fields like molecular cell biolo
gy, molecular evolution, and mo
lecular medicine.
Why is the Human Genome
Project very important?
You know that the human ge
nome is like a blueprint for creat
ing humans. The H u man Genome
John Craig Venter Project, which began in 1 990, is an
international scientific research
The Creator project to map all of the human
I
genes 30 000 i n all - on the 46
- ,
J ohn Craig Venter is

chromosomes present in the DNA.
one of the central
The project also focuses on several
figures in the Human
non human organisms, and is one
Genome Project. Using
a fast sequencing
technique, Venter and Craig Venter Institute
his colleagues were
able to sequence the
human genome, a n d
t h e genomes o f other
organisms. This was a
project parallel to the
actual Human Genome
Project. He also
created the first cel l
with a synthetic
genome in 20 1 0.
78
M et a b o l o m ics a n d P roteomics
M etabolomics i s the study of naturally

occurring molecules called metabol ites in
biological materials. Proteomics is the
large-scale study of proteins, particularly
their structures a nd functions. Both
metabolomics and proteomics a re new and
important emerging branches of science.
of the largest i nvestigative projects Why is genomics an im

in modern science. portant field of research?
The Human Genome Project was Genomics is the study of
completed in 2003. Although genes and the functions. It
knowing the location of all of the aims at understanding the
human genes on the chromosomes structure of the genome,
is a monumental achievement, including mapping of the
there is much more work to do be genes, and sequencing the
fore this i nformation can be u sed to DNA.
diagnose, or treat the occu rrence of Genomics includes the
disease. scientific study of complex
diseases such as heart dis
ease, asthma, diabetes, and
cancer, because these dis
eases are typically caused
more by a combination of
genetic and environmental
factors than by i ndividual
genes. It is an i mportant
field of study, because it can
open the door to new pos
sibilities for therapies and
treatments for some com
plex diseases, as well as new
diagnostic methods.
79
Stem C e l l s
S tem cel l s are different

from ord i n a ry cells. A stem
cell can make any one of the
220 d ifferent types of cells
Stem Cells
in the human body. There
are two types of stem cells
embryonic stem cells, a nd
I don't want
adult stem cells. Adult stem
your company.
cells are l i ke built in repair
I'm a stem cell.
kits that repair damaged or
diseased cells i n the body.
Stem cells a re important i n
that they have t h e potential
to generate replacements
for various body tissues and
organs.
What is synthetic biology?

Synthetic biology is a mixture of engi neering, biology, chemis
try, and physics. The aim of synthetic biology is the design and
construction of new biological functions and systems not fou nd in
nature. Researchers i n California, for example, have created syn-
thetic circuits for yeast cells
that produce a chemical called
Hooray! artemisinin, a key antimalarial
I'm a product of
synthetic biology. drug, which will be cheaper
than the existing ones. A US
Swiss g roup has engineered a
genetic circuit designed to
detect and destroy cancer cells
without i nflicting the unin
tended damage caused by
chemotherapy and radiother
apy.
80 Tel l Me Why
Why is Dolly the sheep a
scientific landmark?
Dolly was an ewe, and the
first mammal to have been
successfu l ly cloned from an
adult cell. She was cloned at
the Roslin Institute in Mid lothi
an, Scotland, and lived there
until her death when she was
six years old. Dolly was cloned
in 1 996 from a cell taken from a
six-year-old ewe. The tech
nique that was made famous
by her birth is somatic cell nu
clear transfer, i n which a cell is
placed in a n u nfertilized egg.
Considered one of the most
significant scientific break
throughs ever, Dolly's birth,
Dolly with its Kid and subsequent survival
proved that adult cells can re
programme themselves into a
new being. Dolly gave birth to
several lambs, and this proved
that clones can reproduce. In
the autumn of 2001 , at the age
of five, Dolly developed arthri
A m I Dol ly? tis and bega n to walk stiffly,
but this was successfu lly treat
ed with anti-inflammatory
drugs. Dolly died at age 6- ear
lierthan a normal sheep wou ld.
As the first cloned mammal ev
er to be created from an adult
cell, Dolly's place is secure in
the history of h u man progress.
New World Biology
Biolog ists in the 2 1 't century wil l team up

with physical, computational, and earth
scientists, mathematicians and engineers to
fi nd solutions for susta i na ble food produc
tion, ecosystem restoration, optim ized
bio-fuel production, and improvement in human
health. New technologies and new fields of
research will open up the ever wideni n g horizons
of biology, the science of life.
What is bioinformatics?
Bioinformatics is a branch of biology which deals with
the study of methods for storing, retrieving, and analyz
'
ing biologica l data. It generates new knowled ge about
drug desig ning and development of new software
tools. The goal ofbioinformatics is to get new biological
insig hts, and to try and identify the u n ifying principles
of biology. Using bioinfor
matic tools, researchers can
compare the genomes of
different species, and the
similarities and differences
among organ isms. It has
enabled researches to trace
the evolution of a large
number of organisms by
measuring the changes in
their DNA. Vast improve
ments, over the past two
decades, in technology that
supports biological discov
ery, have enabled great ad
vances in the field of bioin
formatics.
82 Tel l Me Why
BEOlOB!
What is geology?
I'm a Geology is the science that studies the
geo logist. I'm
Earth. It deals with the surface features of
<::>
not afraid of
volcanoes. the Earth, as well as with the structure and
behaviour of every part of this planet. A
geologist tries to understand the Earth's
past by dating radioactive minerals and
rocks, and by studying fossils which are
the remains of shells, bones, and leaves.
The study of geology is of g reat help in the
search for fossil fuels like coal and petro
leum, uranium, and other sources of
atomic fuel.
The word
geology comes
from two Greek
words, 'geo'
mea n i ng 'earth'
and 'logos'
mea n i ng 'study',
Hot Core
We can learn about the temperature of

the Earth from measurements taken from
deep boreholes, mines, and from sediments
in the ocean floor. It seems that the Earth's core is likely to be
at temperatures a round 72000C • The radioactive decay of
elements like ura n i u m and thorium are a source of consider
able heat at the core of the Earth.
Why is the Earth thought to be Who were the ancient

spherical in shape? geologists who studied
The sha pe ofthe Ea rth has i ntrig ued the origin of the Earth?
scientists throughout h istory. Py AI Biruni was one of the
thagoras of Samos, who lived be earliest geologists. whose
tween 580 and 500 BC, was probably works d u ring the Middle
the first to consider the possibility Ages included the earliest
that the Earth might be a sphere. The writings on the geology
first voyage a ro u nd the world, led by of India, hypothesizing
Ferdinand Magellan, established that that the Indian subconti
the Earth was a nent was once a sea.
g lobe. The reason
for the spherical Oh my god,
shape ofthe Earth Please keep the
became clear shape of the Earth
when Isaac New as a sphere!
ton formulated
his law of gravita
tion.
Replica oj
Magellan 's Ship
Avicenna was a fa
Avicenna
mous Persian who the
orized on the formation D uring the Middle
of mountains, origi n of Ages, few scholars
earthquakes, formation contributed more to
of m inerals, and the di science a n d
versity of the Earth's philosophy than
terrain. Avicenna. He wrote
William Whiston pub a bout astronomy,
l ished 'A New Theory of alchemy, medicine,
the Earth" in 1 696. Later, and m inerals, among
James H utton, a Scot other things, and
tish scientist arg ued theorized a bout
that the processes oc weather and the for
Avicenna mation of mountains
curring in the Earth to
and seas.
day had their counter
parts in the ancient
past. He is considered What is the Laplace hypothesis?
the fou nder of modern The first theories a bout the origin of
geology. the planets assumed that they were
formed as part of the evol utionary his
tory of the stars, or by a n accidental col
lision between two stars. In 1 776, these
concepts changed with the French
mathematician and astronomer La
place's hypothesis that the solar system
formed from a spinning cloud of gas.
According to this hypothesis, the mate
rial that formed the S u n and planets
was originally a disc-shaped rotating
nebula, or cloud of hot gas. As the gas
lost energy by rad iation, and became
cooler, the cloud would have shrunk i n
wards, and wou ld have rotated more
Laplace rapidly, u ntil finally it stabil ized to form
the sun.
S e cret of E a rth's I nteriors
. .. . q
I n 1 725, John Woodward,
an English geologist, put
forward the theory that the
Earth had a molten centre
surrounded by a thick crust. However, he failed
to g ive a satisfactory explanation a bout how
rocks were formed.
\ \)
John Woodward
Why is the Earth's crust This rock

fascinating? is not suitable for
The earth is very, very old in construction.
deed- around 4.6 billion years
old. It has a surface a rea of
a round 5 1 0 million square kil
ometers, and a radius of
around 6,400 kms. Almost 70
percent of the surface area is
water, as dry land accounts for
just 29 percent of the surface. The earth is made
of fou r distinct layers. These layers a re the
Shen Kuo
crust, the mantle, the outer core, and the i nner
core. The crust is made u p of layers of sedimen
tary rocks, g ranite and basalt. The mantle is
made u p of superheated rock. It represents 85
% of the Earth's weight. The outer core is made
up of super heated lava, while the inner core or
centre of the earth is made of iron and n ickel.
Shen Kuo
Shen Kuo was a great Chinese astronomer, mathematician,

and scientist who suggested the theory of gradual climate
change, and gave explanations for the process of land forma
tion, based on his observation offossil shells.
86 Tell Me Why
He is a geo logist
researching tne age
of Earth.
Fossil of a Fish
Why are rocks called the pages

of the Earth's history book? Fos s il s
Almost a l l the Earth's h istory, to
the extent that it is recorded, is re F ossils a re formed when
corded in rocks. The characteristics a plant or a nimal dies
that rocks display are related in an and its soft body parts
orderly fashion to the processes that degrade, leaving behind
created the rock. The presence of harder parts as leaves,
fossil corals, or the shells of other bones, and shells. These

are i m porta nt to u s
marine organisms in a limestone in
because fossils provide
dicates that it was deposited on the
vital information about
sea floor, and that what now is land,
the h i story of the planet.
once lay beneath the waves.
Fossils provide
Old lava flows represent the erup
information about the
tions of ancient volcanoes, and vents topography, the
that were active many millions of climatic conditions,
years ago. Beds of rock-salt point to animal culture, habitat,
the former existence of i n land seas and other factors that
that evaporated in the sunshine. prevailed d uring a
Seams of coal, which a re the com particular era. Fossils
pressed remains of accumulations of are a l so an i m portant
peat, suggest widespread swamps tool i n u nderstanding
and luxuriant vegetation. So, we can evolutionary processes.
say that studying the way the Earth They provide real
works now furnishes an understand physical evidence for
ing of the characteristics of rocks and processes that occurred
the history they represent. m i llions of years ago.

Why did geology become
an important branch of sci
ence in the 1 1th century?
The 1 7th century saw many
questions being asked about
how the Earth came i nto exist
ence. The Bible gave many dif
ferent interpretations, but the
one constant factor in all of
them was that the Earth was Why was the 1 9th century
shaped by a Great Flood that important for geology?
swept overthe planet. To prove The 1 9th century saw many
this, a great deal of data on the advances being made i n geolo
Earth's composition was col gy. In England, a mining sur
lected, and this in turn, led to veyor, William Smith, produced
the discovery of fossils. There the first geological map of Brit
was a heightened i nterest i n ain. Many nations sought to ex
the composition o f t h e Earth, pand their empires with explo
which in turn, led to i ncreased rations to distant lands. This
curiosity a bout minerals and gave naturalists like Darwin the
other components ofthe Earth's opportunity to collect data on
crust- and in the science of ge these voyages. I n fact, Darwin's
ology as a whole. discovery ofgiantfossils helped
Geology
I n the 1 8th century, mining became very important

in Europe. Scholars began to study the makeup of
the Earth in a systematic manner, and were eager
to learn more abo�t precious and semi precious
metals. The term geology was first used professionally in publica
tions by two natu ralists, Jean Andre De Luc and Horace Benedict de
Saussure. In 1 74 1 , the most well-known institution in the field of
natural history, the National Museum of Natural H i story in France
designated the first teaching position specifica"y for geology.
88 Tel l Me Why
What do you know about
geology in the 20th century?
In the 20th century, geology
became i ncreasingly i mportant
as the search for minerals, hy
drocarbons, metals, gases and
radioactive materials i ntensi
fied. With the boom i n the con
struction industry, the demand
Museum o/Natural history, for minerals sky rocketed, for
France minerals are needed for the
manufactu re of cement and
to establish his reputation as steel. The 20th century also saw
a geologist. Governments an important development in
also supported geological geology- the theory of plate
research, because of the tecton ics. This theory explains
economic benefits involved the cause of earthquakes, vol
in the discovery of precious canoes, oceanic trenches,
metals and fossil fuels. mountai n range formation, and
many other geologic features.
Hooray, Gallery 0/PaLeontoLogy,
It's a prec ious Museum o/NaturaL History
stone.
�. ,.
�.\)S 'aCI Plate Tecton ic Theory
��:".
�
\'-
. .�
'
., .-
The theory of plate tecton i cs -meaning
'plate structure'- was developed i n the
m , 960's. This theory explains the movement
of the rocky plates that form the Earth's
crust. The plates are moving at a speed that has been estimat
ed at 1 to 1 0 ems per year. Most of the Earth's volcanoes and
earthquakes occur at the plate boundaries as they i nteract.
Why is Alfred Wegener a significant fig

u re in geology?
In 1 9 1 5, the German geologist and meteor
ologist Alfred Wegener first proposed the
theory of continental drift. According to this
theory, the Earth's crust drifts on top of a liq
uid core. Wegener hypothesized that there
was an original, g igantic super continent 200
million years ago, which he named Pangaea.
Pangaea consisted of all of Earth's land mass
Alfred Wegener es. Pangaea started to break up i nto two
smaller super continents, called Lau rasia and
Gondwanaland, during the period known as
the Late Triassic. Later, these continents sepa
rated i nto land masses that
I won't
look like our modern-day
allow any more
continents to continents. This theory is
drift! supported by the fact that
the West African coastline,
and the east coast of South
America and the Caribbean
Sea fit together like two piec
es of a jigsaw puzzle. A similar
fit also appeared across the
Pacific.
90 Tel l Me Why
Why is the sea floor spreading?
The Birth o f
The sea floor spreading is the move
Mo u n ta i n s
ment of two oceanic plates away from
each other. As the plates move apart, the I n the 1 9th century,
rocks break, and form a crack between the phenomenon of
the plates. Earthquakes occu r along the mounta i n formation
plate boundary. Magma rises through was explai n ed by a
the cracks, and seeps out onto the ocean theory that the Earth
floor like a long, thin, undersea volcano. was once a molten
As the magma meets the water, it cools ball, a n d was now
and solidifies, adding to the edges of the cooling. This cooling
sideways-moving plates. The magma led to contraction and
piles u p along the crack, and a long chain caused the surface to
of mountains forms g radually on the crack a n d fold on
ocean floor.Thi s chain i s called an oceanic itself, pushing up the
ridge. An example of an oceanic ridge is land a bove the cracks.
H owever, this theory
the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It is one part of a
was later replaced by
system of mid-oceanic ridges that
the theory of plate
stretches for 80,467 kilometres through
tectonics.
the world's oceans. The underwater
. Sneha Rao
mountains of the ridge may be more than
three and a quarter kilometres higher
than the surrounding sea floor.
A volcano is a
vent in the Earth's crust
from which molten
magma, rock debris,
and gases erupt.
This creates new
landforms near the vent.
The word 'volcano' is
derived from the n a me of
the Roman God for fire,
Vulcan.

Why are minerals important?
A mineral is a naturally occu rring
solid that has a characteristic chemi
cal composition, a crystalline atomic
structure, and specific physical
properties. Minerals are extracted
from the g round, and from rocks, as
well as from river or sea beds. There
are at present more than 4000
known m inerals. Most minerals do
not contai n carbon. They can be di
vided into metallic, and non metallic
minerals. Non-metallic minerals
Gypsum range from common clay to diamonds. Minerals
are of g reat i mportance to us as they form a part
our everyday life. They are in almost everything we
use, from the toothpaste we brush our teeth with,
to the food that we eat. M inerals a re also used ex
tensively in industry, especially i n the construction
industry.
P a l e o m ag n et i s m
Paleomagnetism simply mean s

t h e study o ft h e Earth's magnetic field. This i s
d o n e b y studying t h e rema i ning traces of
magnetic m inera l s found
This rock withi n various rocks on the
has a magnetic plan et. In the 1 950s
fiela. geologists d iscovered that
. some rocks were
magnetic- a n d this led to the
science of paleomagnetism.
The Canadian geologist
Edward Irving is one of the
key fig u res i n the field of
�__ -.raleomagnetism.
�
92 Tel l Me Why
Why are coal mining and
marine mining important in
today's world?
Coal was the main energy
source that fueled the Ind us
trial Revolution of the , 8th and
' 9th centuries. Coal deposits
are found in sedimentary rock
Coal mine in Bihar basins. Global coal production
More is expected to reach 7000 mil
weapons are lion tonnes per year i n 2030.
found nere. Mining The sea is rich in m inerals.
successful! The most i mportant m ineral
deposits on the sea floor are
phosphorite and manganese
nodules. Today, marine min
ing IS one of the major a reas of
g rowth in m i ning.
Earthquakes
Earthquakes are the shaking,

rolling or sudden shock of the
Earth's surface. The intensity
of earthquakes is measured on
the Richter scale. An earth
quake with magnitude above
7 on the Ritcher scale can cause
huge devastation.

S u rface M i n i n g
S urface mining i s a method of mining used to extract m inerals

and metals near the surface of the Earth. There are several types
of surface mining, but the three most common a re open-pit
mining, strip m i n i ng, and quarrying.
What are the chan ges observed in 2 1 5t century geology?

In the 2 1 '1 century, improved techniques in map making, in
creased data from satellites, and new technologies have all made
it possible to learn more about places like the ocean floor and outer
space that were hither
Tsu n a m i s to thought to be inac
cessible. Geology in the
A tsu nami i s a series 2 1 Sl century will seek for
of huge waves that deeper study into fun
can cause great damental questions,
devastation and loss about the origins of the
of life when they strike a coast.
Earth and life, the struc
Tsunamis are cau sed by an
ture and dynamics of
underwater earthquake, a
planets, and the con
volcanic eruption, a sub-marine
nections between life
rockslide, or, more rarely, by an
and climate, for exam
asteroid or meteoroid crashing
i nto the water from space. The
ple. With the increased
word tsunam i comes from the
awareness of the Earth
Japanese word meaning 'harbour and the environment,
wave'. has come the increased
• Radha ,,!air
awareness of the three
main thrust areas in
earth studies for the
2 1 st century. These
thrust a reas are infor
mation technology,
oceanography, and
919bal warming.
Tel l Me Why
Remote Sensing
Remote sensing is the

process of gettin g i nforma
tion about an object or phe
nomenon, without making
physical contact with the
object. For example, radar
uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range, alti
tude, d i rection, and speed of both fixed and moving
objects. Remote sensing makes it possible to collect
data from dangerous, or otherwise inaccessible areas.
Measuring i n struments aboard satellites provide the
global measurements for various data.
Why is the Geographical I nformation System a useful tool?

The Geographical Information System orGIS is a system designed
to capture, store, analyze, manage, and present all types of geo
g raphical data. In a general sense, the term describes any informa
tion that integrates stores, edits, shares, and displays geographic
i nformation as an aid to decision making. The world's first opera
tional GIS was developed in
1 962 in Ottawa, Canada, by
Dr. Roger Tomlinson. Public
access to geographic informa
tion is mostly dominated by
online resources such as
Google Earth and interactive
web mapping. The condition
of the Earth's surface, atmos
phere, and subsurface can be
examined by feeding satellite
data into a GIS. GIS technology
is important, as it helps to ex
amine the variations in Earth
processes over days, months,
and years.
95
What is oceanography?
Oceanography is the branch of earth
science that studies the oceans. It covers
The ISA or I nternation
a wide range of topics, including marine
al Seabed Authority
organisms, ocean currents, waves, plate
was established i n
1 994 t o organize a n d
tectonics and the geology of the sea
control a l l mineral
floor. Oceanography became recog
related activities i n the
nized as a science in 1 87 1 , when the
i nternational seabed British government sponsored an expe
area. Its headquarter dition to scientifical ly explore the world's
is i n Kingston, oceans. Soon, other European and
Jamaica. However, so American nations started explorations
far, deep sea m i n i ng too. The first ship specifically built for
has proved to be too oceanography was the Albatross. It was
costly to be a practical built in 1 882. The first i nternational or
alternative to ganization of oceanogra phy was estab
land- based mines. lished in 1 902.
96 Tell Me Why
� Clarifications &
orrections
Mr. Ram Kel ker from Mad
hya Pradesh has come u p
G round
with some i mportant addl
Penetrating Radar
. tiona I i nformation, after
reading our July issue, Herit
Ground penetrating age Sites in India.
radar uses radar pulses to
* The Khaj u raho town is in
get images from below
the Chhatarpur district of
the surface of the ground.
Madhya Pradesh. It is located
It can be used to study
about 620 kilometres south
rocks and soil, as wel l as
east of New Delhi.
other underground and
* Khajuraho is said to be
underwater structures.
the most frequently visited
It is very useful as it can
Indian monument after the
detect objects, cracks,
Taj Mahal.
and changes in materials
* The name Khaj u raho is
and structures such as
roads and tunnels.
the modified form of its an
cient name'Kharjuravahaka',
•
which was derived from the
DevNath
Sanskrit words 'kharjura' and
'vahaka'. 'Kharjura' means
Ground Penetrating date pal m and 'vahaka'
Radar means one who carries.
Thank you Mr. Kelker for the
valuable information.
- Editor
The Story of Scienc e

onller WHyi»
� c&� �
Send us your questions
E mail: childrensdivision@mmp.in
Why does a bird not get an electric

shockwhen it sits on a live wire?
A bird sitting on a live wire will get a
shock only if the electric current passes
through its body. We can compare the
flow of electricity through a body to the
flow of water. Like in a water flow, elec
tric current always flows from a higher
potential level to a lower pote�tial level.
The two wires in an electric post are
kept in different potentials. One wire,
which we call live, will be at a high po
tential, and it is the phase wire. The other
wire is neutral and its potential is zero.
On sitting on the live wire, the bird's
potential will also be raised to the same
potential as the wire's. If it comes in
contact with the neutral wire, a current
will pass through its body from the live
wire to the neutral wire. Then the bird
gets an electric shock. The bird can sit on
the live wire without getting electric
shock as long as it doesn't touch the
neutral wire.
• Alwin George
MANORAMA TELL ME WHY - THE STORY OF SCIENCE
Editor: Ammo Mathew Editor-in-Charge: A.V. Harisanker*
P.E. No. 226, Kortayam - 686 00 1 at M.M. Publications Ltd. P.E. No. 226, Kortayam - 686 00 1
Printed and Published by V. Sajeev George, on behalf of M .M . Publications Ltd,
and Malayala Manorama Press, Kortayam - 686 039 and published from
M.M . Publications Ltd, P.B. No. 226, Kortaya'!' - 686 00 1 .
* Responsible for selection of news under the PR.B Act
BEAUTY OR B EAST ?
How nice the picture looks! Yet, in reality, it shows a
monster most dangerous, even though it is so tiny that you
need a highly powerful microscope to see it. It is the avian
flu (bird flu) virus, which is responsible for the
global pandemic.

Tell Me Why - The Story of Science

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Man's Greatest Achievement

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The three great philoso­

The Story of Science 7

Found the fish

Why is Archimedes described as the

RepLica of Hero's Engine

Why is the development of

What do you know about the growth of physics

did not consider them a valid

Why is Copernicus an impor­

Rene Descartes used questions to fi nd

What is the role played by

Who were the great scientists who

The relationship between electricity and magnetism

Wh has lectricity b en one of the g reatest

n 1 840, Joule established that the heat

Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, a German

Why James Clerk Maxwell considered

T his train has n o wheels, a n d n o en­

1700's The origin of modern scientific disciplines.

Why is Einstein considered one of the

Projection ofa Space Time

conti nues and expands the

bert Einstein's theory

By the end of the 1 9th century, it was felt

What do you know of subatomic particles?

Why has Higgs boson

What is condensed matter

Why is nuclear fission a major mile­

The Story of Science 33

Why is superconductivity fascinat­

Stephen William Hawking is one of the greatest

Robert Boyle was an English philosopher,

How did modern chemistry beg i n ?

iron. According to them,

Humphry Davy d iscovered the

o you know that iodine was

Why is it said that Friedrich Wohler

Living things are

J .J. Berzelius was a doctor who developed a

Why was the discovery of proton

Avogadro, an Ita l ian, was

I n 1 932, James Chadwick proved that the

Periodic Table oithe ELements

the table. The g reatness of Mendeleev was

The three great philoso

Why is Copernicus an impor

T his train has n o wheels, a n d n o en

Why is nuclear fission a major mile

Why is superconductivity fascinat

a bout human anatomy, and the pre

What do you know a bout ancient Chi

Why do we say that botany a nd medi

N eurology is the medical special

Why is cloning important in biol

of the largest i nvestigative projects Why is genomics an im

Why is Alfred Wegener a significant fig