jump to navigation

CSI – IMPOSSIBLE TO ESCAPE February 11, 2008

Posted by arun in TV shows, biology, chemistry, entertainment, math, physics, science, technology.
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
5 comments

CSI, Crime Scene Investigation, as many of you might already know, is one of the best featured TV-shows team1024x768of its genre, Crime/Drama/Thriller. It comes in three flavors, CSI – Las Vegas, New York and Miami. I have seen only a couple of episodes in Miami, up-to-date on Las Vegas and catching up on New York. Las Vegas was the first and arguably the best, this bias may be because I saw it first. Usually the show consists of a team of 5-6 CSIs. The distinction that sets this show apart is its uniqueness in handling crime scenes by relying only on evidence. Gil Grissom, the head in Las Vegas and Mac Taylor in New York, whose characters are understood to be complex but personable with distinguished intuitiveness and acumen, and immaculate rationality. They don’t connive to violations of law nor do they truckle to threats. In this 1 hour featured show, it doesn’t always result in solving 1 or more crimes within the period. At times, it gets personal putting the lives of CSIs themselves into jeopardy.

The CSI characters each are developed in an unique and exquisite manner with each having their own issues, dark periods, test of endurance, flash backs etc… The show uses state of the art technology in addition to intricate attention to details, in particular, it has a keen inclination towards microscopic particles, fibres and glasses. It deals with numerous fields covering almost all aspects of science and arts which begs the question regarding the voluminous and universal knowledge the CSI team possesses. The show also uses a lot of technical expressions (a result from an analysis or experiment) which remains gobbledygook to one with limited or no knowledge in that field. One thing, if I understood from this show is that, a dead body speaks more than the one alive! :) From the multitude of episodes, you will be caught no matter how intelligently you plan the crime. Why? Because you have no freaking clue of how many things are unique!! There is no perfect crime!

But at times, clues in context to technology related to electronics/computers which is my area of expertise relatively in opposition to say, biology, I find them ridiculous and funny (not always). For examcsi_ny_aboteaserple, in CSI – New York, Season 03, Episode 02, a man is found dead in a jewelry store which is robbed by 3 women clad in same outfit and hard to distinguish between. On analyzing the crime scene (where all the glasses are broken and jewels are looted), they come to know that, the broken glasses doesn’t have any stress marks indicating directionality (when you strike a glass, the broken glass shows a pattern denoting the direction of impact). From a witness in the crime scene who claimed that a dog barked just before the glass shattered, they discover that they used a “frequency device”. Now comes the funny part.

CSI(1): how could one do that?

CSI(2) A sine wave generator. It is a program that manipulates sound. You download the output to a mp3 player and you are ready.
CSI(1): ahan! Check all web sites. Anyone who deals with this kind of software. Cross check with the name “Beth”.

CSI(2): (after some other scenes) The name you gave was good. A women by the name of Beth Lawson bought a sine wave generator program last month from an online distributor. It turns out there was no forwarding address in the package she ordered. The delivery man explained her as “one hot blondie” and she studies “physics” in college.

CSI(1): Beth was studying physics, Natalie was studying engineering…?!!

CSI(2): yes, both indulging in homicide!

:lol: I know! People from engineering background, I need not even explain this. You are already ROTFL. The concept is very true, using high frequency vibration, you could break a glass. But, for a student studying in engineering and physics, writing their own code of a sine wave “program” will take less than 10 seconds rather than placing an online order!! OMG! cracking the case with an online order for a sine wave program purchased by engineering students… it must be a real dull college.

There may be some similar technicalities in other fields too. Otherwise, the show is wondrous, one of a kind. Awe striking graphics & animation, good continuity, the reality in posing the dead bodies, the action, car chases, bomb blasts, internal story line, very little provocative content, character development, technology etc… are inexplicable. Also the details they analyze including finger prints, DNA, blood spatter, fibre particles, glass particles, even sand, paints, acids and drug tests, bugs, weapons including guns for their mm calibers and other instruments resulting in death by stabbing. Anything and everything on the Earth is analyzed!! :) Its therefore impossible to escape… BEWARE!

WINTER AND SODIUM ACETATE – KITH AND KIN: HAND WARMERS January 8, 2008

Posted by arun in chemistry, science, technology.
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
1 comment so far

Global warming has certainly become a much debatable topic, though the debate itself is what has partially led to the awareness in spite of its uncertainty. The inconclusiveness also has resulted in innumerous (constructive?) antagonism amongst various researchers, each of who possess a charismatic charm in convincing us with their theories corroborated with evidence and more than enough evidence to denigrate others’ results that they confabulated or concocted those. The denouement of this long perpetuating argument should be arrived sooner or later.

The number of seasons a region or country experiences is seemingly declining in the Southern India. A few years back, I could say we had at least 3 seasons; summer, very brief winter and rainy. But the situation now seems to give the impression that at least Chennai has only summer season throughout the year having become impotent of the other seasons, a blunt non-statistical inference though. However, in Germany, its already around -4 to -12 degree Celsius and counting. What is the funny but rather irritating consequence (I am not discussing Global warming)? It takes about 10 minutes to gear up with every piece of clothing you have, including thermal wears, t-shirt, another t-shirt, a sweater, jean, ear-bands or khullahs, neck-scarf(??) , gloves and finally a jacket minimum. This is similar to that of funny olden day Tamil Heroes getting loaded with shiny leather jackets, armors, hand grenades, machine guns bla bla… near the climax of the movie to slay the Villain and free the heroine after which they live happily ever after (Even Arnold Schwarzenegger movies!!). And what is even more irritating is, due to the presence of heaters inside the building (which is indispensable) some of the clothes have to be taken off to stop sweating.

Also sometimes the gloves aren’t that protective and you still require more warmth. It was not long before I came across this simple but intriguing heat device. It was some sort of a liquid along with what seemed like a switch. On pressing the switch, the liquid undergoes an immediate transition to solid phase and in the process generates heat, an exothermic reaction. My ignorance lead to a sense of bafflement over such a sophisticated and ingenious method of generating heat. How? This is where Sodium acetate, CH3COO-Na+ comes into picture. I quote from Wikipedia rather than trying to rephrase it. Awesome!

Sodium acetate is also used in consumer heating pads or hand warmers and is also used in “hot ice”. When sodium acetate trihydrate crystals (melting point 58 °C) are heated to around 100 °C, they melt. When this melt cools, it gives a supersaturated solution of sodium acetate in water. This solution is capable of supercooling to room temperature, well below its melting point, without forming crystals. By clicking on a metal disc in the heating pad, a nucleation center is formed which causes the solution to crystallize into solid sodium acetate trihydrate again. The bond-forming process of crystallization is exothermic, hence heat is emitted. The latent heat of fusion is about 264–289 kJ/kg (Source).

Also, I came across this video which should give a better understanding. (Courtesy and credits)

HELIUM, TIMBRE & DONALD DUCKS December 19, 2007

Posted by arun in physics, science, technology.
Tags: , , ,
add a comment

So, how are these terms associated with one another? The gist is that inhaling Helium makes one sound like a Donald Duck. How? It is a well known fact that sound requires a medium to travel. Under normal circumstances, the composition of air in the larynx is in normal proportions and when the vocal cord starts to vibrate, the skin compresses accordingly creating sound waves. The frequency depends on the number of compressions. However, when one injects helium, which is about 1/7th of the density of nitrogen, creates a difference in the density, changing the composition of air in one’s larynx. Because the frequency of vibration of vocal cords is independent of the medium, and pitch of a tone depends on frequency, there is no change in the pitch of the voice. However, the velocity of sound waves changes because of the difference in the medium and affects the timbre of the tone. This results in the speech or voice sounding more like a Donald Duck!!

EMBARK UPON THE BLUE RAY & HD DVDs December 16, 2007

Posted by arun in entertainment, physics, science, technology.
Tags: , ,
add a comment

I have always had a particular jones towards technology, which has aggrandized since my dad bought my first computer with 166 MHz Intel processor and 32 MB RAM configuration. In fact, it has even influenced to a great extent in pursuing my under graduation studies too. I could not help but get fascinated by these next generation optical drives and whet my appetite to contribute significantly. Here is a piece of information to the likewise ardent admirers of technology!!

Physics and Technology: Blue ray acquires its name from the blue-violet laser technology, although HD DVDs also use the low wavelength blue lasers. How does this really make a difference increasing the storage size by about 4 to 6 fold? A Blue-ray disc has around 25GB of storage capacity where as HD DVDs have about 15 GB, on comparison to a 4.7 GB DVD disc. Understanding HOW requires, if not comprehensive, a glancing purview of how optical drives typically work. In optical drives, the digital information is usually encoded in the pattern of pits of varying lengths. The laser beam in the drive is excited on to these information layers and a photo diode collects the reflected light (the pits reflect less light than the adjacent layers). However, it is imperative to agnize that the lens (focusing the laser beam) produces a finite diameter owing to diffraction. So, the pits must be separated by the distance demanded by the diffraction of the light wavelength in order for the data reading to be efficient. This ultimately decides the size of the optical storage disc. By using shorter wavelengths, the spot size for reading pits can be reduced which results in many pits at relatively small distances separating each other, hence the tremendous increase in the size!! To quantify, the pit length has decreased in CD, DVD, HD DVD and blue-ray as 0.8, 0.4, 0.2 and 0.15 micrometers. To physics fanatics, refer 1 and 2.

Does this really make a difference? There is of course increase in the resolution obtained, however, not as high as the resolution obtained as in the case of say, a video-tape to DVD era. Before clambering up the bandwagon, it is essential to know, the technology of the drives demand equal display resolutions from TV or computer displays to bring the best out of it. The maximum resolution of the best displays is about 1080p (progressive scan) > 1080i (interlaced). Blue-ray players typically demand a 1080p resolution whereas HDTV (TV shows) are broadcast at 1080i or 720p. So, watching them on a 1080p TV makes no difference!

It is surprising as to how much increase in the storage capacity can be obtained from basic physics learnt at the level of high-school, Huygens’ wave theory (to those who were taught properly!! I owe it to Mahalakshmi teacher -)).

DNA & LOAD OF CRAP December 9, 2007

Posted by arun in biology, humor, science, technology, thoughts.
Tags: , ,
add a comment

Determined to dawdle, I glanced through an older edition (2006 Jan) of Reader’s Digest. I stumbled upon an article on DNA. Now, the moment I think of DNA, the first thing that comes to my mind is the well-known “double helix” structure. For some of us, our scientific knowledge in this subject is limited to only that much and know diddly-squat more about it. To jog your memory, DNA is…… naaaahhhh… cutting to chase, the extent of DNA research purportedly has gone so far that, with a bit of body tissue sample and awful lot of money, it’s possible to get an entirely customized cosmetic package and even specifically designed DNA-based diet routine. While the intension of the sick, salacious and sycophant business lunatics is to take advantage of people yearning for better looks and cash in more money for our desires, the seemingly well-educated people start investing their money with hopes! Some of you might have conflicting opinions and may even discredit me for ridiculing such a potential scientific break-through. However, careful perusing of required information is absolutely imperative. There are plenty of research and discoveries accompanied by solid proofs through a multitude of able experiments yet to be made before commercializing. Also, I also would like to highlight this link which shows wondrously the distortion towards the perception of beauty, as a result of high technology and amazing photo-editing softwares that turns even gorillas into uber-sexy swim-suit models. Think!! do your homework and obtain the most veritable information without believing blindly!!!

My speculation is that in another couple of years or so, we would have a spittle pouch and/or hair sampler in laptops with miniaturized PCR (DNA amplifier) machine aside the blue-ray trays (possibly replacing the then-obsolete CD/DVD burners) for “security” (replacing the thumb-print security system available now). We might as well spit or chafe our body on the DNA sensor to lock/unlock our computers, probably leading to fungal infections too. Our cars, all electronic junks, even houses would have DNA based spit-absorbent doors for identity theft prevention. I could not resist but imagine the possibility of sick yet funny thefts where the muggers actually wait for the mugged’s?? hair, spittle or even blood sample to unlock and loot his possessions. Even worse, these erroneous interpretations might be incorporated in a Hollywood movie where the hero confronts and shoves up a completely developed AI Robot’s ass with a totally independent, cloned, medically refined and clinically approved venereal organ, to unlock the gateway to villain’s territory. The worst possibility should be blatantly known by now, actor Vijayakanth playing the same role (yes, shoving up the robot in the wrong places) after 5-10 years and dancing intermittently with the then-Miss India. Guffaw!!!

I mean not only in this field, take chocolates for instance… major amount of chocolates come from West Africa it seems, where cars still use leaded gas which results in the lead entering (as a result of rains) in the soil, later on transferring to plants (thereby getting onto the system)… which leads to severe health deficits when present in large amounts because of adverse effects of lead to the drug!! Source: CSI TV Show S03 E01.

Ok, time’s up… enough is enough. Let me now finish my toblerone candy bar and apply my NoveaXY10921 cosmetic!!