Indulekha - Malayalam novel written by O. Chandu Menon

Indulekha is a Malayalam novel written by O. Chandu Menon. Published in 1889, it was the first major novel in Malayalam language. It was a landmark in the history of Malayalam literature and initiated novel as a new flourishing genre. The novel is about a beautiful, well educated lady of a Nair tharavadu.

The title Indulekha, refers to the main character in this novel, a beautiful, well educated Nair lady of 18 years.

The novel was written at a time when there was an emerging class of upper caste men (mostly Nairs) who received a Western style education, and were achieving prominent positions in British India. The period was a clash of cultures, as the educated Indians were torn between Western ideals and traditional practices. The Nambudiri Brahmins of Kerala, had traditionally had marital relations with Nair women, known as Sambandham, since only the oldest Nambudiri youth was allowed to marry a Brahmin girl. The younger sons were encouraged to have Sambandham with Nair women, in order to maintain male primogeniture, since the children born from such relations belonged to their mother's family. The matriarchy practiced by the Nairs was also coming under attack during this period. Many of the Nambudiri men, though learned in Vedas and Sanskrit, had little knowledge of English and Western sciences. The novel highlights the lack of willingness of the Nambudiris to adapt to the change of times, as well as the struggle by Nair women to break out of the age-old principle of Sambandham, which had little relevance during the late 19th century.

Chandu Menon has written that he initially meant Indulekha as a translation of Benjamin Disraeli's Henrietta Temple (1836), but, having struggled with the subtleties of an alien culture, he abandoned the project in favour of writing one on his own, depicting a similar story.

Indulekha is a graceful Nair girl with good intelligence, artistic talent. She is a young and educated, knowledgeable woman with education in English and sanskrit, who is in love with another young man, Madhavan, the hero of the novel, who was also presented in ideal colours, a member of newly educated class of nayar class graduated from University of Madras.He dressed in western clothes,but,at the same time,he kept along turf of hair,according to the nayar custom. The story details how the matrilineal society of those times, encourages Namboothiris to start a relationship with Indulekha. Indulekha promptly snubs the old Nambudiri man, but Madhavan in haste runs away from the household, to Bengal. There he makes a lot of good friends. In the end, he arrives back and is united with Indulekha. They then leave to Madras, present day Chennai.The story emphasizes inter caste marriage.

The old Namboothiri represents the decadence of feudalism and its polygamous practices. Indulekha, the novel's educated heroine, dramatises the resistance of a progressive Nair woman. She refuses to succumb to the oppression of the Namboothiri and marries Madhavan, who stands up to the social evils of the period..

n 2014 April, literary critics Dr. P. K. Rajasekharan and Dr. P. Venugopalan, published a well accepted research finding in Mathrubhumi Weekly, according to which the available version of the novel is a revised and edited version of the original one. The original novel which made a strong advocacy for women's empowerment was mercilessly edited and those who published the book in later years chopped off many such portions. The last chapter (chapter 20) was the most edited one. The critics found the original version of the novel from the British Library in London after several years of search.

BIGGEST WATERFALL IN THE WORLD- GUAIRA FALLS,BRAZIL

BIGGEST WATERFALL IN THE WORLD- GUAIRA FALLS,BRAZIL

Guaíra Falls were a series of immense waterfalls on the Paraná River along the border between Brazil and Paraguay. The falls no longer exist, inundated in 1982 by the impoundment of the Itaipu Dam reservoir. While published figures vary, ranging from 470,000 cubic feet (13,000 m³) per second to 1,750,000 cubic feet (50,000 m³) per second, Guaíra's flow rate was among the greatest of any then-existing falls on Earth.

The falls comprised 18 cataracts clustered in seven groups—hence their Portuguese name, Sete Quedas (Seven Falls)—near the Brazilian municipality of Guaíra, Paraná and Salto de Guairá, the easternmost city in Paraguay. The falls were located at a point where the Paraná River was forced through a narrow gorge. At the head of the falls, the river narrowed sharply from a width of about 1,250 feet (380 m) to 200 feet (61 m). The total height of the falls was approximately 375 feet (114 m), while the largest individual cataract was 130 feet (40 m) high. The roar of the plunging water could be heard from 20 miles (32 km) away.

Light scattering - Science.

Light scattering is a form of scattering in which light is the form of propagating energy which is scattered. Light scattering can be thought of as the deflection of a ray from a straight path, for example by irregularities in the propagation medium,particles, or in the interface between two media. Deviations from the law of reflection due to irregularities on a surface are also usually considered to be a form of scattering. When these irregularities are considered to be random and dense enough that their individual effects average out, this kind of scattered reflection is commonly referred to as diffuse reflection.

Most objects that one sees are visible due to light scattering from their surfaces. Indeed, this is our primary mechanism of physical observation. Scattering of light depends on the wavelength or frequency of the light being scattered. Since visible light has wavelength on the order of a micro metre, objects much smaller than this cannot be seen, even with the aid of a microscope. Colloidal particles as small as 1 µm have been observed directly in aqueous suspension.

The transmission of various frequencies of light is essential for applications ranging from window glass to fiber optic transmission cables and infrared (IR) heat-seeking missile detection systems. Light propagating through an optical system can be attenuated by absorption, reflection and scattering.

TYPE OF SCATTERING

• Rayleigh scattering is the elastic scattering of light by molecules and particulate matter much smaller than the wavelength of the incident light. It occurs when light penetrates gaseous, liquid, or solid phases of matter. Rayleigh scattering intensity has a very strong dependence on the size of the particles (it is proportional the sixth power of their diameter). It is inversely proportional to the fourth power of the wavelength of light, which means that the shorter wavelength in visible light (violet and blue) are scattered stronger than the longer wavelengths toward the red end of the visible spectrum. This type of scattering is therefore responsible for the blue color of the sky during the day.and the orange colors during sunrise and sunset. Rayleigh scattering is the main cause of signal loss in optical fibers.

• Mie scattering is a broad class of scattering of light by spherical particles of any diameter. The scattering intensity is generally not strongly dependent on the wavelength, but is sensitive to the particle size. Mie scattering coincides with Rayleigh scattering in the special case where the diameter of the particles is much smaller than the wavelength of the light; in this limit, however, the shape of the particles no longer matters. Mie scattering intensity for large particles is proportional to the square of the particle diameter.

• Tyndall scattering is similar to Mie scattering without the restriction to spherical geometry of the particles. It is particularly applicable to colloidal mixtures and suspensions.

• Brillouin scattering occurs from the interaction of photons with acoustic phonons in solids, which are vibrational quanta of lattice vibrations, or with elastic waves in liquids. The scattering is inelastic, meaning it is shifted in energy from the Rayleigh line frequency by an amount that corresponds to the energy of the elastic wave or phonon, and it occurs on the higher and lower energy side of the Rayleigh line, which may be associated with the creation and annihilation of a phonon.The light wave is considered to be scattered by the density maximum or amplitude of the acoustic phonon, in the same manner that X-rays are scattered by the crystal planes in a solid. In solids, the role of the crystal planes in this process is analogous to the planes of the sound waves or density fluctuations. Brillouin scattering measurements require the use of a high-contrast Fabry–Pérot interferometer to resolve the Brillouin lines from the elastic scattering, because the energy shifts are very small (< 100 cm⁻¹) and very weak in intensity. Brillouin scattering measurements yield the sound velocities in a material, which may be used to calculate the elastic constants of the sample.

• Raman scattering is another form of inelastic light scattering, but instead of scattering from acoustic phonons, as in Brillouin scattering, the light interacts with optical phonons, which are predominantly intra-molecular vibrations and rotations with energies larger than acoustic phonons. Raman scattering may therefore be used to determine chemical composition and molecular structure.Since most Raman lines are stronger than Brillouin lines, and have higher energies, standard spectrometers using scanning monochromators may be used to measure them. Raman spectrometers are standard equipment in many chemical laboratories.

World Wide Web

Many people use the terms Internet and World Wide Web, or just the Web, interchangeably, but the two terms are not synonymous. The World Wide Web is only one of hundreds of services used on the Internet. The Web is a global set of documents, images and other resources, logically interrelated by hyperlinks and referenced with Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs). URIs symbolically identify services,servers, and other databases, and the documents and resources that they can provide. Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the main access protocol of the World Wide Web. Web services also use HTTP to allow software systems to communicate in order to share and exchange business logic and data.

World Wide Web browser software, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Apple's Safari, and Google Chrome, lets users navigate from one web page to another via hyperlinks embedded in the documents. These documents may also contain any combination of computer data, including graphics, sounds, text, video, multimedia and interactive content that runs while the user is interacting with the page. Client-side software can include animations, games, office applications and scientific demonstrations. Through keyword-driven Internet research using search engines like Yahoo! and Google, users worldwide have easy, instant access to a vast and diverse amount of online information. Compared to printed media, books, encyclopedias and traditional libraries, the World Wide Web has enabled the decentralization of information on a large scale.

The Web has also enabled individuals and organizations to publish ideas and information to a potentially large audience online at greatly reduced expense and time delay. Publishing a web page, a blog, or building a website involves little initial cost and many cost-free services are available. Publishing and maintaining large, professional web sites with attractive, diverse and up-to-date information is still a difficult and expensive proposition, however. Many individuals and some companies and groups use web logs or blogs, which are largely used as easily updatable online diaries. Some commercial organizations encourage staff to communicate advice in their areas of specialization in the hope that visitors will be impressed by the expert knowledge and free information, and be attracted to the corporation as a result.

One example of this practice is Microsoft, whose product developers publish their personal blogs in order to pique the public's interest in their work. Collections of personal web pages published by large service providers remain popular, and have become increasingly sophisticated. Whereas operations such as Angelfire and GeoCities have existed since the early days of the Web, newer offerings from, for example, Facebook and Twitter currently have large followings. These operations often brand themselves as social network services rather than simply as web page hosts.

Advertising on popular web pages can be lucrative, and e-commerce or the sale of products and services directly via the Web continues to grow.

When the Web developed in the 1990s, a typical web page was stored in completed form on a web server, formatted in HTML, complete for transmission to a web browser in response to a request. Over time, the process of creating and serving web pages has become dynamic, creating flexible design, layout, and content. Websites are often created using content management software with, initially, very little content. Contributors to these systems, who may be paid staff, members of an organization or the public, fill underlying databases with content using editing pages designed for that purpose, while casual visitors view and read this content in HTML form. There may or may not be editorial, approval and security systems built into the process of taking newly entered content and making it available to the target visitors.

The Hubble Space Telescope - Space telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation.A 2.4-meter (7.9 ft) aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared spectra. The telescope is named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble.

Hubble's orbit outside the distortion of Earth's atmosphere allows it to take extremely high-resolution images with almost no background light. Hubble's Deep Field has recorded some of the most detailed visible-light images ever, allowing a deep view into space and time. Many Hubble observations have led to breakthroughs in astrophysics, such as accurately determining the rate of expansion of the universe.

Although not the first space telescope, Hubble is one of the largest and most versatile, and is well known as both a vital research tool and a public relations boon for astronomy. The HST was built by the United States space agency NASA, with contributions from the European Space Agency, and is operated by the Space Telescope Science Institute. The HST is one of NASA's Great Observatories, along with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Space telescopes were proposed as early as 1923. Hubble was funded in the 1970s, with a proposed launch in 1983, but the project was beset by technical delays, budget problems, and the Challenger disaster. When finally launched in 1990, Hubble's main mirror was found to have been ground incorrectly, compromising the telescope's capabilities. The optics were corrected to their intended quality by a servicing mission in 1993.

Hubble is the only telescope designed to be serviced in space by astronauts. Between 1993 and 2002, four Space Shuttle missions repaired, upgraded, and replaced systems on the telescope; a fifth mission was canceled on safety grounds following the Columbia disaster. However, after spirited public discussion, NASA administrator Mike Griffin approved one final servicing mission, completed in 2009. The telescope is now expected to function until at least 2014, and possibly 2020. Its scientific successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is currently scheduled to be launched in 2018.

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Tsunami waves -

A tsunami (plural: tsunamis or tsunami; from Japanese: 津波, lit. "harbour wave";   is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, generally an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions (including detonations of underwater nuclear devices), landslides, glacier calvings, meteorite impacts and other disturbances above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami.

Tsunami waves do not resemble normal sea waves, because their wavelength is far longer. Rather than appearing as a breaking wave, a tsunami may instead initially resemble a rapidly rising tide, and for this reason they are often referred to astidal waves. Tsunamis generally consist of a series of waves with periods ranging from minutes to hours, arriving in a so-called "wave train". Wave heights of tens of metres can be generated by large events. Although the impact of tsunamis is limited to coastal areas, their destructive power can be enormous and they can affect entire ocean basins; the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was among the deadliest natural disasters in human history with at least 290,000 people killed or missing in 14 countries bordering the Indian Ocean.

The Greek historian Thucydides suggested in his late 5th century BC, History of the Peloponnesian War, that tsunamis were related to submarine earthquakes, but the understanding of a tsunami's nature remained slim until the 20th century and much remains unknown. Major areas of current research include trying to determine why some large earthquakes do not generate tsunamis while other smaller ones do; trying to accurately forecast the passage of tsunamis across the oceans; and also to forecast how tsunami waves would interact with specific shorelines.

Tsunamis cause damage by two mechanisms: the smashing force of a wall of water travelling at high speed, and the destructive power of a large volume of water draining off the land and carrying a large amount of debris with it, even with waves that do not appear to be large.

While everyday wind waves have a wavelength (from crest to crest) of about 100 metres (330 ft) and a height of roughly 2 metres (6.6 ft), a tsunami in the deep ocean has a much larger wavelength of up to 200 kilometres (120 mi). Such a wave travels at well over 800 kilometres per hour (500 mph), but owing to the enormous wavelength the wave oscillation at any given point takes 20 or 30 minutes to complete a cycle and has an amplitude of only about 1 metre (3.3 ft). This makes tsunamis difficult to detect over deep water, where ships are unable to feel their passage.

The reason for the Japanese name "harbour wave" is that sometimes a village's fishermen would sail out, and encounter no unusual waves while out at sea fishing, and come back to land to find their village devastated by a huge wave.

As the tsunami approaches the coast and the waters become shallow, wave shoaling compresses the wave and its speed decreases below 80 kilometres per hour (50 mph). Its wavelength diminishes to less than 20 kilometres (12 mi) and its amplitude grows enormously. Since the wave still has the same very long period, the tsunami may take minutes to reach full height. Except for the very largest tsunamis, the approaching wave does not break, but rather appears like a fast-moving tidal bore. Open bays and coastlines adjacent to very deep water may shape the tsunami further into a step-like wave with a steep-breaking front.

When the tsunami's wave peak reaches the shore, the resulting temporary rise in sea level is termed run up. Run up is measured in metres above a reference sea level. A large tsunami may feature multiple waves arriving over a period of hours, with significant time between the wave crests. The first wave to reach the shore may not have the highest run up.

About 80% of tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean, but they are possible wherever there are large bodies of water, including lakes. They are caused by earthquakes, landslides, volcanic explosions, glacier calvings, and bolides.

The Bhopal disaster -

The Bhopal disaster, also referred to as the Bhopal gas tragedy, was a gas leak incident in India, considered the world's worst industrial disaster. It occurred on the night of 2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Over 500,000 people were exposed to methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and other chemicals. The toxic substance made its way in and around the shanty towns located near the plant. Estimates vary on the death toll. The official immediate death toll was 2,259. The government of Madhya Pradesh confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release.Others estimate 8,000 died within two weeks and another 8,000 or more have since died from gas-related diseases. A government affidavit in 2006 stated the leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial injuries and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries.

The cause of the disaster remains under debate. The governments of India and the activist community support the argument that a combination of slack management, underinvestment in maintenance created a situation where some routine pipe maintenance caused a backflow of water into a tank of MIC, triggering the disaster. UCC and its successors, though, present evidence that the only feasible way water could have entered the tank was through an act of deliberate sabotage. In either case, though, it is clear that additional safety mechanisms, and tighter management and oversight could have prevented the disaster regardless of its catalytic event.

The owner of the factory, UCIL, was majority owned by Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), with Indian Government-controlled banks and the Indian public holding a 49.1 percent stake. In 1989, UCC paid $470m ($907m in 2014 dollars) to settle litigation stemming from the disaster. In 1994, UCC sold its stake in UCIL to Eveready Industries India Limited (EIIL), which subsequently merged with McLeod Russel (India) Ltd. Eveready Industries India, Limited, ended clean-up on the site in 1998, when it terminated its 99-year lease and turned over control of the site to the state government of Madhya Pradesh. Dow Chemical Company purchased UCC in 2001, seventeen years after the disaster.

Civil and criminal cases are pending in the District Court of Bhopal, India, involving UCC and Warren Anderson, UCC CEO at the time of the disaster. In June 2010, seven ex-employees, including the former UCIL chairman, were convicted in Bhopal of causing death by negligence and sentenced to two years imprisonment and a fine of about $2,000 each, the maximum punishment allowed byIndian law. An eighth former employee was also convicted, but died before the judgement was passed.

Global warming -

Global warming refers to an unequivocal and continuing rise in the average temperature of Earth's climate system. Since 1971, 90% of the warming has occurred in the oceans. Despite the oceans' dominant role in energy storage, the term "global warming" is also used to refer to increases in average temperature of the air and sea at Earth's surface. Since the early 20th century, the global air and sea surface temperature has increased about 0.8 °C (1.4 °F), with about two-thirds of the increase occurring since 1980. Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth's surface than any preceding decade since 1850.

Scientific understanding of the cause of global warming has been increasing. In its fourth assessment (AR4 2007) of the relevant scientific literature, the International Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) reported that scientists were more than 90% certain that most of global warming was being caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases produced by human activities. In 2010 that finding was recognized by the national science academies of all major industrialized nations. Affirming these findings in 2013, the IPCC stated that the largest driver of global warming is carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from fossil fuel combustion, cement production, and land use changes such asdeforestation.Its 2013 report states

"Human influence has been detected in warming of the atmosphere and the ocean, in changes in the global water cycle, in reductions in snow and ice, in global mean sea level rise, and in changes in some climate extremes. This evidence for human influence has grown since AR4. It is extremely likely (95-100%) that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century. - IPCC AR5 WG1 Summary for Policymakers"

Climate model projections were summarized in the 2007 Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). They indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 1.1 to 2.9 °C (2.0 to 5.2 °F) for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.4 to 6.4 °C (4.3 to 11.5 °F) for their highest. The ranges of these estimates arise from the use of models with differing sensitivity to greenhouse gas concentrations.

Future climate change and associated impacts will vary from region to region around the globe. The effects of an increase in global temperature include a rise in sea levels and a change in the amount and pattern of precipitation, as well as a probable expansion of subtropical deserts. Warming is expected to be strongest in the Arctic, with the continuing retreat of glaciers, permafrost and sea ice. Other likely effects of the warming include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves, droughts and heavy rainfall; ocean acidification; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes. Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the loss of habitat from inundation.

Proposed policy responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction, adaptation to its effects, and possible future climate engineering. Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic (i.e., human-induced) climate change. Parties to the UNFCCC have adopted a range of policies designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to assist in adaptation to global warming.Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required, and that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 °C (3.6 °F) relative to the pre-industrial level.Reports published in 2011 by the United Nations Environment Programme and theInternational Energy Agency suggest that efforts as of the early 21st century to reduce emissions may be inadequate to meet the UNFCCC's 2 °C target.

Emissions of greenhouse gases grew 2.2% per year between 2000 and 2010, compared with 1.3% per year from 1970 to 2000

Traditional Chinese medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM; simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: zhōng yī; literally "Chinese medicine) is a broad range of medicine practices sharing common concepts which have been developed in China and are based on a tradition of more than 2,000 years, including various forms of herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage (Tui na), exercise (qigong), and dietary therapy.

The doctrines of Chinese medicine are rooted in books such as the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon and the Treatise on Cold Damage, as well as in cosmological notions such as yin-yang and the five phases. Starting in the 1950s, these precepts were standardized in the People's Republic of China, including attempts to integrate them with modern notions of anatomy and pathology. Nonetheless, the bulk of these precepts, including the model of the body, or concept of disease, are not supported by science or evidence-based medicine. TCM is not based upon the current body of knowledge related to health care in accordance with the scientific community.

TCM's view of the body places little emphasis on anatomical structures, but is mainly concerned with the identification of functional entities (which regulate digestion, breathing, aging etc.). While health is perceived as harmonious interaction of these entities and the outside world, disease is interpreted as a disharmony in interaction. TCM diagnosis aims to trace symptoms to patterns of an underlying disharmony, by measuring the pulse, inspecting the tongue, skin, and eyes, and looking at the eating and sleeping habits of the person as well as many other things.

In traditional Chinese herbal medicine, plant elements are by far the most commonly, but not solely, used substances; animal, human, and mineral products are also utilized. The effectiveness of this medical system remains poorly documented. There are concerns over a number of potentially toxic Chinese medicinals that consist of plants, animal parts, and minerals. There is a lack of existing cost-effectiveness research for TCM.Soachers hunt restricted or endangered species animals to supply the black market with TCM products.Although advocates have argued that research had missed some key features of TCM, such as the subtle interrelationships between ingredients, it is largely irrational pseudoscience, with no valid mechanism of action for the majority of its treatments

Sirius- Biggest star in the WORLD.

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. With a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, it is almost twice as bright as Canopus, the next brightest star. The name "Sirius" is derived from the Ancient Greek: Σείριος Seirios ("glowing" or "scorcher"). The star has the Bayer designation Alpha Canis Majoris (α CMa). What the naked eye perceives as a single star is actually a binary star system, consisting of a  main-sequence star of spectral type A1V, termed Sirius A, and a faint dwarf companion of spectral type DA2, called Sirius B. The distance separating Sirius A from its companion varies between 8.2 and 31.5 AU.

Sirius appears bright because of both its intrinsic luminosity and its proximity to Earth. At a distance of 2.6 parsecs (8.6 ly), as determined by the Hipparcos astrometry satellite, the Sirius system is one of Earth's near neighbors; for Northern-hemisphere observers between 30 degrees and 73 degrees of latitude (including almost all of Europe and North America), it is the closest star (after the Sun) that can be seen with the naked eye. Sirius is gradually moving closer to the Solar System, so it will slightly increase in brightness over the next 60,000 years. After that time its distance will begin to recede, but it will continue to be the brightest star in the Earth's sky for the next 210,000 years.

Sirius A is about twice as massive as the Sun and has an absolute visual magnitude of 1.42. It is 25 times more luminous than the Sun but has a significantly lower luminosity than other bright stars such as Canopus or Rigel. The system is between 200 and 300 million years old.It was originally composed of two bright bluish stars. The more massive of these, Sirius B, consumed its resources and became a red giant before shedding its outer layers and collapsing into its current state as a  dwarf around 120 million years ago.

Sirius is also known colloquially as the "Dog Star", reflecting its prominence in its constellation, Canis Major (Greater Dog). Theheliacal rising of Sirius marked the flooding of the Nile in Ancient Egyptand the "dog days" of summer for the ancient Greeks, while to the Polynesians it marked winter and was an important star for navigation around the Pacific Ocean

Energy conservation

Energy conservation refers to reducing energy through using less of an energy service. Energy conservation differs from efficient energy use, which refers to using less energy for a constant service. For example, driving less is an example of energy conservation. Driving the same amount with a higher mileage vehicle is an example of energy efficiency. Energy conservation and efficiency are both energy reduction techniques.

Even though energy conservation reduces energy services, it can result in increased,environmental quality, national security, and personal financial security.It is at the top of the sustainable energy hierarchy.

Some countries employ energy or carbon taxes to motivate energy users to reduce their consumption. As detailed in the book, Green Illusions, carbon taxes can allow consumption to shift to nuclear power and other alternatives that carry a different set of environmental side effects and limitations. Meanwhile, taxes on all energy consumption stand to reduce energy use across the board, while reducing a broader array of environmental consequences arising from energy production. The State of California employs a tiered energy tax whereby every consumer receives a baseline energy allowance that carries a low tax. As usage increases above that baseline, the tax is increasing drastically. Such programs aim to protect poorer households while creating a larger tax burden for high energy consumers.

One of the primary ways to improve energy conservation in buildings is to use an energy audit. An energy audit is aninspection and analysis of energy use and flows for energy conservation in a building, process or system to reduce the amount of energy input into the system without negatively affecting the output(s). This is normally accomplished by trained professionals and can be part of some of the national programs discussed above. In addition, recent development of smartphone apps enable homeowners to complete relativily sophisticated energy audits themselves.

Building technologies and smart meters can allow energy users, business and residential, to see graphically the impact their energy use can have in their workplace or homes. Advanced real-time energy metering is able to help people save energy by their actions.

In passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, and distribute solar energy in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design or climatic design because, unlike active solar heating systems, it doesn't involve the use of mechanical and electrical devices.

The key to designing a passive solar building is to best take advantage of the local climate. Elements to be considered include window placement and glazing type,thermal insulation, thermal mass, and shading. Passive solar design techniques can be applied most easily to new buildings, but existing buildings can be retrofitted..

Mass communication -

Mass communication is the study of how individuals and entities relay information through mass media to large segments of the population at the same time. It is usually understood to relate to newspaper, magazine, and book publishing, as well as radio, television and film, as these mediums are used for disseminating information, news and advertising. Mass communication differs from the studies of other forms of communication, such as interpersonal communication ororganizational communication, in that it focuses on a single source transmitting information to a large group of receivers. The study of mass communication is chiefly concerned with how the content of mass communication persuades or otherwise affects the behavior, attitude, opinion, or emotion of the person or people receiving the information.

Mass communication is "the process by which a person, group of people, or large organization creates a message and transmits it through some type of medium to a large, anonymous, heterogenous audience."  Mass communication is regularly associated with media influence or media effects, and media studies. Mass communication is a branch of social science that falls under the larger umbrella of communication studies or communication

The history of communication stretches from prehistoric forms of art and writing through modern communication methods such as the Internet. Mass communication began when humans could transmit messages from a single source to multiple receivers. Mass communication has moved from theories such as the hypodermic needle model (or magic bullet theory) through more modern theories such as computer-mediated communication.

In the United States, the study of mass communication is often associated with the practical applications of journalism (Print media), television and radio broadcasting, film, public relations, or advertising. With the diversification of media options, the study of communication has extended to include social media and new media, which have stronger feedback models than traditional media sources. While the field of mass communication is continually evolving, the following four fields are generally considered the major areas of study within mass communication. They exist in different forms and configurations at different schools or universities, but are (in some form) practiced at most institutions that study mass communication.

Wangari Muta Maathai - Kenyan environmental and political activist

Wangari Muta Maathai (1 April 1940 – 25 September 2011) was a Kenyan environmental and political activist. She was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya. In the 1970s, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees,environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 1986, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, and in 2004, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for "her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace". Maathai was an elected member of Parliament and served as assistant minister for Environment and Natural Resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki between January 2003 and November 2005. Furthermore she was an Honorary Councillor of the World Future Council. In 2011, Maathai died of complications from ovarian cancer. 

On 1 April 1940, Maathai was born in the village of Ihithe, Nyeri District, in the central highlands of the colony of Kenya. Her family was Kikuyu, the most populous ethnic group in Kenya, and had lived in the area for several generations. Around 1943, Maathai's family relocated to a -owned farm in the Rift Valley, near the town of Nakuru, where her father had found work. Late in 1947, she returned to Ihithe with her mother, as two of her brothers were attending primary school in the village, and there was no schooling available on the farm where her father worked. Her father remained at the farm. Shortly afterward, at the age of eight, she joined her brothers at Ihithe Primary School.

At age eleven, Maathai moved to St. Cecilia's Intermediate Primary School, a boarding school at the Mathari Catholic Mission in Nyeri. Maathai studied at St. Cecilia's for four years. During this time, she became fluent in English and converted to Catholicism. She was involved with the Legion of Mary, whose members attempted "to serve God by serving fellow human beings." Studying at St. Cecilia's, she was sheltered from the ongoing Mau Mau Uprising, which forced her mother to move from their homestead to an emergency village in Ihithe. When she completed her studies there in 1956, she was rated first in her class, and was granted admission to the only Catholic high school for girls in Kenya, Loreto High School in Limuru.

University of East Africa in Kampala, Uganda. However, the end of East African colonialism was nearing, and Kenyan politicians, such asTom Mboya, were proposing ways to make education in Western nations available to promising students. John F. Kennedy, then a United States Senator, agreed to fund such a program through the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, initiating what became known as theKennedy Airlift or Airlift Africa. Maathai became one of some 300 Kenyans selected to study in the United States in September 1960.

She received a scholarship to study at Mount St. Scholastica College (now Benedictine College), in Atchison, Kansas, where she majored in biology, with minors in chemistry and German. After receiving her bachelor of science degree in 1964, she studied at the University of Pittsburgh for a master's degree in biology. Her graduate studies there were funded by the Africa-America Institute, and during her time in Pittsburgh, she first experienced environmental restoration, when local environmentalists pushed to rid the city of air pollution. In January 1966, Maathai received her M.Sc in biological sciences, and was appointed to a position as research assistant to a professor of zoology at University College of Nairobi.

Upon her return to Kenya, Maathai dropped her Christian name, preferring to be known by her birth name, Wangari Muta.When she arrived at the university to start her new job, she was informed that it had been given to someone else. Maathai believed this was because of gender and tribal bias. After a job search lasting two months, Professor Reinhold Hofmann, from the University of Giessen in Germany, offered her a job as a research assistant in the microanatomy section of the newly established Department of Veterinary Anatomy in the School of Veterinary Medicine at University College of Nairobi.In April 1966, she met Mwangi Mathai, another Kenyan who had studied in America, who would later become her husband.She also rented a small shop in the city, and established a general store, at which her sisters worked. In 1967, at the urging of Professor Hofmann, she traveled to the University of Giessen in Germany in pursuit of a doctorate. She studied both at Giessen and the University of Munich.

In the spring of 1969, she returned to Nairobi to continue her studies at the University College of Nairobi as an assistant lecturer. In May, she and Mwangi Mathai were married. Later that year, she became pregnant with her first child, and her husband campaigned for a seat in Parliament, narrowly losing. During the course of the election, Tom Mboya, who had been instrumental in founding the program which sent her overseas, was assassinated. This led to President Kenyatta effectually ending multi-party democracy in Kenya. Shortly after, her first son, Waweru, was born. In 1971, she became the first Eastern African woman to receive a Ph.D, her doctorate in veterinary anatomy. from the University College of Nairobi, which became the University of Nairobi the following year. She completed her dissertation on the development and differentiation of gonads in bovines. Her daughter, Wanjira, was born in December 1971.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie---French physicist and chemist

Marie Skłodowska-Curie (7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the only woman to win in two fields, and the only person to win in multiple sciences. She was also the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995 became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris.

She was born Maria Salomea Skłodowska  in Warsaw, in what was then the Kingdom of Poland, part of the Russian Empire. She studied at Warsaw's clandestine Floating University and began her practical scientific training in Warsaw. In 1891, aged 24, she followed her older sister Bronisława to study in Paris, where she earned her higher degrees and conducted her subsequent scientific work. She shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband Pierre Curie and with physicist Henri Becquerel. She won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Her achievements included a theory of radioactivity, techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two elements, polonium and radium. Under her direction, the world's first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms, using radioactive isotopes. She founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and in Warsaw, which remain major centres of medical research today. During World War I, she established the first military field radiological centres.

While a French citizen, Marie Skłodowska Curie (she used both surnames) never lost her sense of Polish identity. She taught her daughters the Polish language and took them on visits to Poland. She named the first chemical element that she discovered – polonium, which she first isolated in 1898 – after her native country.

Curie died in 1934 at the sanatorium of Sancellemoz (Haute-Savoie), France, due to aplastic anemia brought on by exposure to radiation – mainly, it seems, during her World War I service in mobile X-ray units created by her

Nuclear power, or nuclear energy,

Nuclear power, or nuclear energy, is the use of exothermic nuclear processes to generate useful heat and electricity. The term includes nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion. Presently the nuclear fission of elements in the actinideseries of the periodic table produce the vast majority of nuclear energy in the direct service of humankind, with nuclear decay processes, primarily in the form of geothermal energy, and radioisotope thermo electric generators, in niche uses making up the rest. Nuclear (fission) power stations, excluding the contribution from naval nuclear fission reactors, provided about 5.7% of the world's energy and 13% of the world's electricity in 2012.In 2013, the IAEA report that there are 437 operational nuclear power reactors, in 31 countries, although not every reactor is producing electricity. In addition, there are approximately 140 naval vessels using nuclear propulsion in operation, powered by some 180 reactors.As of 2013, attaining a net energy gain from sustained nuclear fusion reactions, excluding natural fusion power sources such as the Sun, remains an ongoing area of international physics and engineering research. More than 60 years after the first attempts, commercial fusion power production remains unlikely before 2050.

There is an ongoing debate about nuclear power. Proponents, such as the World Nuclear Association, the IAEA and Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy contend that nuclear power is a safe, sustainable energy source that reduces carbon emissions. Opponents, such as Greenpeace International and NIRS, contend that nuclear power poses many threats to people and the environment.

Nuclear power plant accidents include the Chernobyl disaster (1986), Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster (2011), and the Three Mile Island accident (1979). There have also been some nuclear submarine accidents.In terms of lives lost per unit of energy generated, analysis has determined that nuclear power has caused less fatalities per unit of energy generated than the other major sources of energy generation. Energy production from coal, petroleum, natural gas and hydro power has caused a greater number of fatalities per unit of energy generated due to air pollution and energy accident effects. However, the economic costs of nuclear power accidents is high, and meltdowns can take decades to clean up. The human costs of evacuations of affected populations and lost livelihoods is also significant.

Along with other sustainable energy sources, nuclear power is a low carbon power generation method of producing electricity, with an analysis of the literature on itstotal life cycle emission intensity finding that it is similar to other renewable sources in a comparison of greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions per unit of energy generated.With this translating into, from the beginning of nuclear power station commercialization in the 1970s, having prevented the emission of approximately 64  gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent(GtCO2-eq) greenhouse gases, gases that would have otherwise resulted from the burning of fossil fuels in thermal power stations.

As of 2012, according to the IAEA, worldwide there were 68 civil nuclear power reactors under construction in 15 countries,approximately 28 of which in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), with the most recent nuclear power reactor, as of May 2013, to be connected to the electrical grid, occurring on February 17, 2013 in Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Plant in the PRC.In the USA, two new Generation III reactors are under construction at Vogtle. U.S. nuclear industry officials expect five new reactors to enter service by 2020, all at existing plants. In 2013, four aging, uncompetitive, reactors were permanently closed.

Japan's 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which occurred in a reactor design from the 1960s, prompted a rethink of nuclear safety and nuclear energy policy in many countries. Germany decided to close all its reactors by 2022, and Italy has banned nuclear power. Following Fukushima, in 2011 the International Energy Agency halved its estimate of additional nuclear generating capacity to be built by 2035

Nuclear power , o nuclear enerhiya

Nuclear power , o nuclear enerhiya , ay ang paggamit ng eksotermiko nuclear proseso upang makabuo ng kapaki-pakinabang init at koryente . Ang term na may kasamang nuclear fission , nuclear pagkabulok at nuclear fusion . Sa kasalukuyan ang mga nuclear fission ng mga elemento sa actinideseries ng periodic table makagawa ang karamihan sa mga nuclear na enerhiya sa mga direktang pag- serbisyo ng sangkatauhan , na may mga proseso ng nuclear pagkabulok , lalo na sa anyo ng mga geothermal enerhiya , at radioisotope thermo electric generators , sa niche na gumagamit ng paggawa ng up ang natitira . Nuclear ( fission ) kapangyarihan istasyon , ang pagbubukod ng mga kontribusyon mula sa hukbong-dagat nuclear fission reactors , na ibinigay tungkol sa 5.7 ​​% ng enerhiya sa mundo at 13 % ng koryente ng mundo sa 2012.In 2013 , ang ulat IAEA na mayroong 437 operational nuclear power reactors , sa 31 mga bansa, bagaman hindi lahat ng reaktor ay gumagawa ng koryente. Sa karagdagan, mayroong humigit-kumulang 140 para sa hukbong-dagat vessels gamit ang nuclear pagpapaandar sa operasyon , na pinapatakbo ng ilang 180 reactors.As ng 2013 , attaining isang net pakinabang enerhiya mula sa napapanatiling nuclear fusion reaksiyon , ang pagbubukod ng natural fusion kapangyarihan pinagmumulan gaya ng sa Araw, ay nananatiling isang patuloy na lugar ng internasyonal physics at engineering pananaliksik . Higit sa 60 taon matapos ang unang pagtatangka , komersyal fusion kapangyarihan produksyon ay nananatiling malamang na hindi bago 2050 .

May isang patuloy na debate tungkol sa nuclear power . Proponents , tulad ng World Nuclear Association , ang IAEA at Environmentalists para sa Nuclear Enerhiya makipaglaban na nuclear power ay isang ligtas , napapanatiling pinagmulan ng enerhiya na binabawasan ang carbon emissions . Opponents , tulad ng Greenpeace International at NIRS , makipaglaban na nuclear power poses maraming mga banta sa mga tao at sa kapaligiran.

Aksidente nuclear power planta isama ang Chernobyl disaster ( 1986 ) , Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster ( 2011) , at ang Three Mile Island aksidente ( 1979 ) . Mayroong din ay inalisan ng ilang mga nuclear submarino tuntunin accidents.In ng mga buhay nawala sa bawat yunit ng enerhiya na nagawa , pag-aaral ay natukoy na nuclear power naidulot nito sa mas mababa fatalities sa bawat yunit ng enerhiya na nagawa kaysa sa iba pang mga pangunahing pinagkukunan ng enerhiya henerasyon . Produksyon ng Enerhiya mula sa karbon , petrolyo , natural gas at hydro power naidulot nito ang isang malawak na bilang ng mga fatalities sa bawat yunit ng enerhiya na nagawa dahil sa air polusyon at lakas ng aksidente effect . Gayunpaman , ang pang-ekonomiyang mga gastos ng nuclear power aksidente ay mataas , at meltdowns ay maaaring tumagal ng mga dekada upang linisin ang . Ang pantao mga gastos ng evacuations ng mga apektadong populasyon at nawala livelihoods Makabuluhan din .

Kasama ng ibang mga napapanatiling enerhiya mapagkukunan, nuclear power ay isang mababang carbon kapangyarihan henerasyon paraan ng paggawa ng koryente , na may isang pag-aaral ng panitikan sa itstotal ikot ng buhay na pagpapalabas ng intensity paghahanap ng mga na ito ay katulad sa iba pang mga pinagkukunan Renewable sa isang paghahambing ng greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions sa bawat yunit ng enerhiya generated.With ito sa pag-translate sa , mula sa simula ng nuclear power station commercialization sa 1970s , pagkakaroon ng humadlang sa pagpapalabas ng humigit-kumulang 64 gigatonnes ng carbon dioxide katumbas ( GtCO2 - eq ) greenhouse gases , mga gas na sana ay kung hindi man ay nagresulta mula sa pagkasunog ng fossil nagbibigay lakas sa thermal kapangyarihan istasyon .

Bilang ng 2012, ayon sa mga IAEA , pandaigdigan mayroong 68 sibil nuclear power reactors ginagawa pa lamang sa 15 bansa, humigit-kumulang na 28 sa mga ito ay sa Republic People ng Tsina ( PRC ), na may mga pinakabagong nuclear power reaktor , bilang ng May 2013 , maging konektado sa mga de-koryenteng grid , na nagaganap sa Pebrero 17, 2013 sa Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Plant sa PRC.In ng USA, dalawang bagong Generation III reactors ay ginagawa pa lamang sa Vogtle . Asahan opisyal ng nuclear industriya US ng limang bagong reactors upang ipasok ang serbisyo sa pamamagitan ng 2020 , ang lahat sa umiiral na mga halaman . Sa 2013 , apat na pag-iipon , uncompetitive , reactors ay permanenteng sarado.

2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear kalamidad Japan , na naganap sa isang disenyo ng reaktor mula noong 1960 , na-prompt ng isang umisip na muli ng nuclear kaligtasan at nuclear patakaran sa enerhiya sa maraming mga bansa . Nagpasya Alemanya upang isara ang lahat ng reactors nito sa pamamagitan ng 2022 , at Italya ay ipinagbabawal na nuclear power . Sumusunod Fukushima , noong 2011 ang International Energy Agency halved nito pagtatantya ng karagdagang nuclear bumubuo ng kapasidad na binuo sa pamamagitan ng 2035

الطاقة النووية، أو الطاقة النووية -Nuclear power, or nuclear energy

الطاقة النووية، أو الطاقة النووية ، هو استخدام العمليات النووية الطاردة للحرارة لتوليد الحرارة والكهرباء مفيدة . ويشمل مصطلح الانشطار النووي ، وتسوس النووية و الاندماج النووي . في الوقت الحاضر الانشطار النووي من العناصر في actinideseries من الجدول الدوري تنتج الغالبية العظمى من الطاقة النووية في خدمة المباشر للبشرية ، مع عمليات الاضمحلال النووي ، في المقام الأول في شكل من أشكال الطاقة الحرارية الأرضية ، و المولدات الكهربائية الحرارية بالنظائر المشعة ، في مكانة يستخدم صنع ما تبقى . النووية ( الانشطار ) محطات توليد الطاقة ، باستثناء مساهمة من مفاعلات الانشطار النووي بحرية ، شريطة حوالي 5.7 ٪ من الطاقة في العالم و 13 ٪ من الكهرباء في العالم في 2012.In عام 2013، تقرير وكالة الطاقة الذرية أن هناك 437 مفاعلا للطاقة النووية التشغيلية ، في 31 دولة ، على الرغم من أن ليس كل المفاعل هو انتاج الكهرباء. بالإضافة إلى ذلك، هناك ما يقرب من 140 سفن بحرية باستخدام الدفع النووي في العملية ، والمدعوم من نحو 180 reactors.As من عام 2013 ، تحقيق صافي ربح الطاقة من تفاعلات الاندماج النووي المستمر ، باستثناء مصادر الطاقة الانصهار الطبيعية مثل الشمس، يبقى مساحة الجارية الفيزياء الدولية و البحوث الهندسية . بعد أكثر من 60 عاما من المحاولات الأولى ، لا يزال من غير المحتمل قبل عام 2050 إنتاج الطاقة الانصهار التجارية.

هناك نقاش دائر حول الطاقة النووية. أنصار ، مثل الرابطة النووية العالمية ، و الوكالة الدولية للطاقة النووية عن البيئة يؤكدون أن الطاقة النووية هي مصدر طاقة آمنة ومستدامة تقلل من انبعاثات الكربون. المعارضين، مثل منظمة السلام الأخضر الدولية و تقارير قوائم الجرد الوطنية ، يؤكدون أن الطاقة النووية تشكل العديد من التهديدات على الناس و البيئة.

وتشمل الحوادث محطة للطاقة النووية كارثة تشيرنوبيل (1986 ) ، فوكوشيما دايتشي كارثة نووية (2011 ) ، و حادث ثري مايل ايلاند (1979 ) . كانت هناك أيضا بعض المصطلحات accidents.In غواصة نووية الأرواح المفقودة لكل وحدة من الطاقة المولدة ، قرر التحليل أن الطاقة النووية قد تسبب وفيات أقل لكل وحدة من الطاقة المولدة من المصادر الرئيسية الأخرى لتوليد الطاقة. وقد تسبب إنتاج الطاقة من الفحم والبترول و الغاز الطبيعي و الطاقة المائية عددا أكبر من الوفيات لكل وحدة من الطاقة المتولدة بسبب تلوث الهواء و الطاقة حادث الآثار. ومع ذلك، فإن التكاليف الاقتصادية ل حوادث الطاقة النووية عالية، ويمكن أن يستغرق عقودا الانهيارات لتنظيف. التكاليف البشرية ل عمليات الإخلاء للسكان المتضررين وسبل العيش خسر هو أيضا كبير .

جنبا إلى جنب مع غيرها من مصادر الطاقة المستدامة ، والطاقة النووية هو منخفض الكربون طريقة توليد الطاقة لإنتاج الكهرباء ، مع تحليل للأدب على itstotal دورة حياة كثافة الانبعاثات العثور على أنه مشابه ل مصادر الطاقة المتجددة الأخرى في مقارنة من غازات الاحتباس الحراري ( غازات الدفيئة ) الانبعاثات لكل وحدة من الطاقة generated.With هذا ترجمة في ، من بداية محطة الطاقة النووية تسويق في 1970s ، بعد أن منعت من انبعاث حوالي 64 جيجا طن من مكافئ ثاني أكسيد الكربون ( GtCO2 من مكافئ ) غازات الدفيئة والغازات التي من شأنها أن أدت خلاف ذلك من حرق الوقود الاحفوري في محطات الطاقة الحرارية .

اعتبارا من عام 2012 ، وفقا للوكالة ، في جميع أنحاء العالم هناك 68 مفاعلا للطاقة النووية المدنية تحت الإنشاء في 15 بلدا ، ما يقرب من 28 منها في جمهورية الصين الشعبية (PRC) ، مع مفاعل الطاقة النووية الأخيرة، اعتبارا من مايو عام 2013، أن تكون متصلا بالشبكة الكهربائية ، التي تقع في 17 فبراير 2013 في محطة الطاقة النووية هونغيانخه في PRC.In الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية ، المفاعلين الثالث الجيل الجديد قيد الإنشاء في Vogtle . ويتوقع مسؤولو الصناعة النووية الامريكية خمسة مفاعلات جديدة ل تدخل الخدمة بحلول عام 2020 ، وكلها في المصانع القائمة . في عام 2013 ، قتل أربعة الشيخوخة، و غير قادرة على المنافسة ، والمفاعلات أغلقت بشكل دائم.

2011 كارثة فوكوشيما النووية في اليابان ، التي وقعت في تصميم المفاعل من 1960s ، دفعت الى اعادة النظر في السلامة النووية و سياسة الطاقة النووية في العديد من البلدان . قررت ألمانيا إغلاق جميع مفاعلاتها بحلول عام 2022 ، و حظرت إيطاليا الطاقة النووية. بعد فوكوشيما ، في عام 2011 وكالة الطاقة الدولية تقديراتها النصف من قدرة إضافية توليد الطاقة النووية التي سيتم بناؤها بحلول عام 2035

La energía nuclear o energía nuclear,

La energía nuclear o energía nuclear, es el uso de los procesos nucleares exotérmicas para generar calor y electricidad útil . El término incluye la fisión nuclear , el decaimiento nuclear y la fusión nuclear. Actualmente, la fisión nuclear de elementos en los actinideseries de la tabla periódica producen la gran mayoría de la energía nuclear en el servicio directo de la humanidad, con los procesos de desintegración nuclear, principalmente en la forma de la energía geotérmica , y los generadores termoeléctricos de radioisótopos , en lugar utiliza haciendo el resto. Nuclear centrales eléctricas ( de fisión ), excluyendo la contribución de los reactores de fisión nuclear navales , siempre cerca de 5.7 % de la energía mundial y el 13 % de la electricidad mundial en 2012.In 2013, el informe de la AIEA que hay 437 reactores nucleares operativas , en 31 países, aunque no todos los reactores está produciendo electricidad. Además , hay aproximadamente 140 buques de guerra de propulsión nuclear que utilizan en la operación , impulsados ​​por unos 180 reactors.As de 2013 , alcanzando una ganancia neta de energía a partir de reacciones de fusión nuclear sostenida , con exclusión de las fuentes de energía de fusión natural, como el Sol , sigue siendo un área en curso de la física y la investigación internacional de ingeniería. Más de 60 años después de los primeros intentos , sigue siendo poco probable antes de 2050 la producción de energía de fusión comercial.

Hay un debate en curso acerca de la energía nuclear. Los defensores , tales como la Asociación Nuclear Mundial , el OIEA y ambientalistas para la Energía Nuclear sostienen que la energía nuclear es una fuente de energía segura , sostenible que reduzca las emisiones de carbono. Los opositores , como Greenpeace Internacional y NIRS , sostienen que la energía nuclear plantea muchas amenazas a las personas y el medio ambiente.

Accidentes en plantas de energía nuclear son el desastre de Chernobyl ( 1986 ) , el desastre nuclear de Fukushima Daiichi ( 2011 ), y el accidente de Three Mile Island ( 1979 ) . También ha habido algunos términos accidents.In submarinos nucleares de vidas perdidas por unidad de energía generada , el análisis ha determinado que la energía nuclear ha causado menos muertes por unidad de energía generada que las otras fuentes principales de generación de energía. La producción de energía a partir de carbón , petróleo, gas natural y energía hidroeléctrica ha causado un mayor número de muertes por unidad de energía generada debido a la contaminación del aire y los accidentes efectos energía . Sin embargo , los costes económicos de los accidentes de energía nuclear es alto , y colapsos pueden tomar décadas para limpiar. Los costos humanos de las evacuaciones de las poblaciones afectadas y los medios de vida perdidos también es significativo.

Junto con otras fuentes de energía sostenible , la energía nuclear es un método de generación de energía de bajo carbono de la producción de electricidad , con un análisis de la literatura sobre itstotal intensidad de emisiones del ciclo de vida encontrando que es similar a otras fuentes renovables en una comparación de los gases de efecto invernadero (GEI ) emisiones por unidad de energía generated.With esta se traduzca en , desde el comienzo de la estación de energía nuclear de la comercialización en la década de 1970 , después de haber evitado la emisión de aproximadamente 64 gigatoneladas de dióxido de carbono equivalente ( Gt de CO2 -eq ) gases de efecto invernadero , gases que hubiera resultado de otra manera por la quema de combustibles fósiles en las centrales térmicas .

A partir de 2012 , según el OIEA , todo el mundo había 68 reactores nucleares civiles en construcción en 15 países , aproximadamente 28 de los cuales en la República Popular de China ( PRC), con el reactor nuclear más reciente, a partir de mayo de 2013, para ser conectado a la red eléctrica , que ocurre el 17 de febrero de 2013, de la Central Nuclear Hongyanhe en el PRC.In los EE.UU., dos nuevos reactores de Generación III están en construcción en Vogtle . Funcionarios de la industria nuclear de Estados Unidos esperan cinco nuevos reactores para entrar en servicio en 2020 , todo ello a las plantas existentes. En 2013, cuatro de envejecimiento , no competitivos , los reactores se cerraron de forma permanente.

2011 Fukushima Daiichi desastre nuclear de Japón , que se produjo en un diseño de reactor de la década de 1960 , dio lugar a un replanteamiento de la seguridad nuclear y la política de energía nuclear en muchos países. Alemania decidió cerrar todos sus reactores para el año 2022 , e Italia ha prohibido la energía nuclear. Después de Fukushima, en el año 2011 la Agencia Internacional de Energía redujo a la mitad su estimación de la capacidad de generación nuclear adicional que se construirá en el 2035

SOLAR ENERGY

Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, is harnessed using a range of ever-evolving technologies such as solar heating, solar photovoltaics, solar thermal electricity, solar architecture and artificial photosynthesis.

Solar technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar oractive solar depending on the way they capture, convert and distribute solar energy. Active solar techniques include the use of photovoltaic panels and solar thermal collectors to harness the energy. Passive solar techniques include orienting a building to the Sun, selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light dispersing properties, and designing spaces that naturally circulate air.

In 2011, the International Energy Agency said that "the development of affordable, inexhaustible and clean solar energy technologies will have huge longer-term benefits. It will increase countries’ energy security through reliance on an indigenous, inexhaustible and mostly import-independent resource, enhance sustainability, reduce pollution, lower the costs of mitigating climate change, and keep fossil fuel prices lower than otherwise. These advantages are global. Hence the additional costs of the incentives for early deployment should be considered learning investments; they must be wisely spent and need to be widely shared.

The Earth receives 174 petawatts (PW) of incoming solar radiation (insolation) at the upper atmosphere. Approximately 30% is reflected back to space while the rest is absorbed by clouds, oceans and land masses. The spectrum of solar light at the Earth's surface is mostly spread across the visible and near-infrared ranges with a small part in the near-ultraviolet.

Earth's land surface, oceans and atmosphere absorb solar radiation, and this raises their temperature. Warm air containing evaporated water from the oceans rises, causing atmospheric circulation or convection. When the air reaches a high altitude, where the temperature is low, water vapor condenses into clouds, which rain onto the Earth's surface, completing the water cycle. The latent heat of water condensation amplifies convection, producing atmospheric phenomena such as wind, cyclones and anti-cyclones. Sunlight absorbed by the oceans and land masses keeps the surface at an average temperature of 14 °C. By photosynthesis green plants convert solar energy into chemical energy, which produces food, wood and the biomass from which fossil fuels are derived.

The total solar energy absorbed by Earth's atmosphere, oceans and land masses is approximately 3,850,000 exajoules (EJ) per year. In 2002, this was more energy in one hour than the world used in one year.Photosynthesis captures approximately 3,000 EJ per year in biomass. The technical potential available from biomass is from 100–300 EJ/year. The amount of solar energy reaching the surface of the planet is so vast that in one year it is about twice as much as will ever be obtained from all of the Earth's non-renewable resources of coal, oil, natural gas, and mined uranium combined.

Solar energy refers primarily to the use of solar radiation for practical ends. However, all renewable energies, other than geothermal and tidal, derive their energy from the sun.

Solar technologies are broadly characterized as either passive or active depending on the way they capture, convert and distribute sunlight. Active solar techniques use photovoltaic panels, pumps, and fans to convert sunlight into useful outputs. Passive solar techniques include selecting materials with favorable thermal properties, designing spaces that naturally circulate air, and referencing the position of a building to the Sun. Active solar technologies increase the supply of energy and are considered supply side technologies, while passive solar technologies reduce the need for alternate resources and are generally considered demand side technologies

SWEET BEAUTY

BEAUTY OF OUR EARTH....

                                           TASTE OF OUR  NATURAL WATER