Science and Technology - Briefs

GEOLOGY Fault finding “Stable” zones of the earth’s crust might not be so stable. These zones are more likely to cause massive earthquakes. It was thought that “stable” zones, where fault segments of the crust slip slowly, act as barriers to earthquakes and fast-slipping faults trigger them.

Science and Technology - Briefs

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Finned polluter

Science and Technology - Briefs

PHYSICS Fishy behaviour Survival of silvery fishes like sardines depend on their ability to reflect maximum light and remain nearly invisible to predators. But it is well known that reflective surfaces polarise light, a process which should have made the fish visible. The fish owe their survival to the presence of two types of crystals in their skin.

Deaf to nuclear plant protests

Crust falls apart

SEISMOLOGISTS say the two undersea quakes that struck near the Indonesian province of Aceh on April 11, 2012, could have been triggered by changes happening at the faults on the Indo-Australian plate of the Earth’s crust. The plate spans Australia, eastern Indian Ocean and the Indian subcontinent.

Flash floods are man-made

Flash floods are becoming recurrent in the Himalaya as well as in other parts of India. What are the geological processes that could trigger them? Interviewee:  K S Valdiya

Science and Technology - Briefs

HEALTH SCIENCES Diesel fuelling obesity

Reservoirs losing capacity

HEAVY rainfall leading to flash floods in Himalayan rivers in July-end devastated three states—Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. It claimed 34 human lives and damaged property extensively. It also brought into focus the precarious condition of more than a dozen dams in the region.

Science and Technology - Briefs

CLIMATE SCIENCES Blooming like never before

Science and Technology - Briefs

Plant sciences Agent orange & its ruby