Vakkom G Sreekumar: October 2010

Amazing Scanning Electron Microscope Pictures

All these pictures are from the book ' Microcosmos', created by Brandon Brill from London. This book includes many scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of insects, human body parts and household items. These are the most amazing images of what is too small to see with the naked eye.

01 — A wood or heathland Ant, Formica fusca, holding a microchip

02 — The surface of an Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory silicon microchip

03 — Eyelash hairs growing from the surface of human skin

04 — The surface of a strawberry

05 — Bacteria on the surface of a human tongue

06 — Human sperm (spermatozoa), the male sex cells

07 — The nylon hooks and loops of velcro

08 — Household dust which includes long hairs such as cat fur, twisted synthetic and woolen fibers, serrated insect scales, a pollen grain, plant and insect remains

09 —The weave of a nylon stocking

10 — The end of the tongue (proboscis) of a hummingbird hawkmoth

11 — The head of a mosquito

12 — A human head louse clinging to a hair

13 — The eight eyes (two groups of four) on the head of a Mexican red-kneed tarantula

14 — Cut hairs and shaving foam between two razor blades

15 — Cigarette paper

16 — The corroded surface of a rusty metal nail

17 — The head of a Romanesco cauliflower

18 — The fungus Aspergillus fumigatus

19 — Mushrooms spores

20 — A clutch of unidentified butterfly eggs on a raspberry plant

21 — Fimbriae of a Fallopian tube

22 — A daisy bud

23 — Calcium phosphate crystal

24 — The shell of a Foraminiferan

India & Some Indians

Q. GM of Hewlett Packard (hp) ?

A. Rajiv Gupta

Q. Creator of Pentium chip

(needs no introduction as 90% of the today's computers run on it)?

A. Vinod Dahm

Q. Founder and creator of Hotmail
A. Sabeer Bhatia

Q. President of AT & T-Bell Labs

(AT & T-Bell Labs is the

creator of program languages such as C, C++, Unix to name a few)?
A. Arun Netravalli

Q. MTD (Microsoft Testing Director) of Windows 2000,

responsible to iron out all initial problems?
A. Sanjay Tejwrika

Q. Chief Executives of CitiBank, Mckensey & Stanchart?

A. Victor Menezes, Rajat Gupta, and Rana Talwar.

Q. Indians are the wealthiest among all ethnic groups in America , even faring better than the the natives.

There are 3.22 millions of Indians in USA (1.5% of population). YET,

38% of doctors in USA are Indians.

* 12% scientists in USA are Indians.

* 36% of NASA scientists are Indians.

* 34% of Microsoft employees are Indians.

* 28% of IBM employees are Indians.

* 17% of INTEL scientists are Indians.

* 13% of XEROX employees are! Indians.

These facts were recently published in a German magazine, which deals with

WORLD HISTORY FACTS ABOUT INDIA.

1. India never invaded any country in her last 1000 years of history.

2. India invented the Number system. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.

3. The world's first University was established in Takshasila in 700BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects.
The University of Nalanda built in the 4 th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.

4. According to the Forbes magazine, Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software.

5. Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans.

6. Although western media portray modern images of India as poverty striken and underdeveloped through political corruption, India was once the richest empire on earth.

7. The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 5000 years ago.
The very word "Navigation" is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH.

8. The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the

concept of what is now known as the Pythagorean Theorem. British scholars

have last year (1999) officially published that Budhayan's works dates to

the 6 th Century which is long before the European mathematicians.

9. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India . Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11 th Century; the largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Indians used

numbers as big as 10 53.

10. According to the Gemmological Institute of America , up until 1896,

India was the only source of diamonds to the world.

11. USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century-old suspicion amongst academics that the pioneer of wireless communication was

Professor Jagdeesh Chandra Bose
and not Marconi.

12. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.

13.Chess was invented in India .

14. Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health

scientists of his time conducted surgeries like cesareans, cataract,

fractures and urinary stones. Usage of anaesthesia was well known in

ancient India .

15. When many cultures in the world were only nomadic forest dwellers over

5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley

(Indus Valley Civilisation).

16. The place value system, the decimal system was developed in

India in 100 BC

Quotes about India .

"We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made'.

ALBERT ELINSTEIN.

"India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech,

the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and

the great grand mother of tradition."

Mark Twain

"If there is one place on the face of earth where all dreams of living men
have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India" .
French scholar Romain Rolland.

"India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without

ever having to send a single soldier across her border".

Hu Shih

(former Chinese ambassador to USA )

"ALL OF THE ABOVE IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG,
THE LIST COULD BE ENDLESS".