Is Ferrari finally catching Mercedes in the run of F1 championship?

Formula 1 is a sporting event where the performance of the cars is directly proportionate to the performance of the drivers. One of the most important part of Formula 1 is the testing circuits where detailed analysis of the car is done for further enhancement. Circuit testing often represents a slanted picture of the season to come, but if two weeks at the Circuit de Catalonia taught us anything it’s that Ferrari has made a huge step forward over this winter.

Ferrari’s 2014 performance was not much up to the expectations, but the Italian team has been able to come back with a great pace making fast progresses. Ferrari wriggled to break out of the midfield in the 2014 season, and its average qualifying time was 1.22s which was less as compared to rivals Mercedes. The biggest mistake of 2014 was on the power unit side, and Ferrari quite remarkably covered it up in the next season 2015 by almost halving the average qualifying gap to Mercedes to 0.67s.

Analyzing of lap times in testing circuits is done with caution as it varies with fuel loads and track conditions, but at the final test Rosberg who represents Mercedes and Kimi Raikkonen representing Ferrari obtained lap times that solicited for an assessment. So, two different times were set on alternate days, Rosberg's was given to drive on day one when track temperatures were warmer and Raikkonen's on the marginally cooler day three, but both were driving cars with soft tyres and relatively low fuel. They were split by a time of 0.013s in the favor of Ferrari.

Mercedes and Ferrari, both the team kept very different testing schedule this winter. Mercedes focused on a staple run-plan of heavy fuel and medium tyres and abstained from using the ultra-soft or super-soft tyres during the two weeks of circuit testing in Spain. However, Mercedes conducted a pair of quick qualifying mockups on soft tyres. Rosberg set his soft-tyre benchmark with a time of 1:23.022 during the first of these on Tuesday morning. Fellow driver Lewis Hamilton was 0.6s off Rosberg on his qualifying simulation the following morning, which was the biggest ever gap between the two driver over the past two years in a competitive qualifying session.

Ferrari, on the other hand was keener to experiment on low fuel and pandered in a number of quick laps on Pirelli's two softest compounds to set the absolute fastest laps in both tests. Raikkonen's lap timing was a resounding 1:23.009 which was 0.013s faster to Mercedes’s Rosberg lapping time. The two lap time was then compared and analyzed, implying the competitive battle that has been going around these two juggernauts in the F1 world.

Well, testing circuits are one thing, but championships are won over longer runs with heavy fuel loads on race days. Circuit de Catalunya has always been Mercedes' happiest hunting grounds. But, this time the analyzed results are telling a different stories and is pointing the advantage towards the rivals Ferrari. But nobody can be too sure, as the real analyzing of lap time is done on race days and not on circuit testing days.

However, if seen from the mileage point of view, Mercedes is the winner over this winter running over 19 races completing over 1294 laps. Ferrari on the other hand have ran a distance of only 13 laps. Suppose even if Ferrari's enhancements do not encompass to race-winning pace at a circuit as aero-sensitive as the Circuit de Catalunya, the testing circuit results still represents a step forward. Ferrari's comeback since 2014 has been truly noteworthy and that day is not far away when Ferrari will finally take over Mercedes.

What will be the impact of Leicester city's triumph over EPL?

Have you ever thought what impact will it have on the premier league if Leicester wins it? A title for the foxes will undoubtedly enlighten the “fox-fans"  but certainly not the supporters from the other part of the country. In this staggering shush of the Premier League break, Leicester City is focusing exclusively on their unexpected title tilt.

As already out of FA Cup ties and European League contests, the Foxes have got all the time in the world to train themselves in a way to finally stand on the crest of so-called premier league giants and make their dream come true.

Although finishing line is far from sight as there are still 11 matches remaining in order to decide the trophy holders, Leicester city currently leads the table with a two-point gap over Tottenham Hotspur. But there is still a lot of milestones to be crossed by Claudio Ranieri’s team in order to finally drink the oasis of title triumph. 

The break has also given us the opportunity to pause and evaluate what, Leicester City title would mean for the Premier League. Looking at the history of the premier league, the last time any club have won their maiden premier league title was back in 1978, when Nottingham Forest lifted the famous trophy. Based on this fact, we can predict the thereafter condition of a Leicester City title and what historical seriousness this conjectural title would carry.

Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez has been the main source of Leicester’s success and has contributed a total of 33 goals and 14 assists so far this season, which, in fact, is more than Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani. Not only the strikers but the defensive area of the club was well structured too, thanks to Robert Huth and Wes Morgan for their brilliant performances throughout the season so far. Midfield area was euphoric to where players like Albrighton and Kante did a good job.

With the heft of a history down the line, a Leicester City title victory would exuberantly troupe off every Premier League agreement we have ever come in to accept. This is the reason why this season is so revitalizing, it is like the blood is soaked out and pumped into the heart with a greater pressure which is being seen as an immediacy of success that may surpass all expectation and unquestionably jolts the whole world.

Leicester’s title-chasing success was not a mere coincidence but behind it, lies a bit of hard work and good timings, even if they finish second or third, the impression of Leicester’s current season will echo long after the season itself is over. 

But, what if we cut ourselves from these sentimental prognoses for a moment and focus on the effect it is having on English football. The current situation lasts an imprint of apathy and inconsistency of the English clubs throughout the season. Though it is agreeable that the title race is in the accelerating paddle throughout, but, on the other hand, it reflect poorly on the asset of the English league football. 

The decline of premier league football in both champion’s league and Europa league over the past 5 years is well known to both fans and experts all around the globe, and having one underdog team on the way to clinch the domestic title is definitely not the solution board members are looking for. But comparatively, this season is a little better than the previous one, where every English team were eliminated from Europe’s exclusive competition before the quarter-final stage. 

But the aforementioned words will certainly not bore the ears of the Leicester city’s fan base and why should it? Since their overall performance till now has been in the positive quadrants of the graph. A club with an overall market value of just 95 million euros fought and won against some of England’s finest football club. So, no matter what people says, Leicester City will return from their holiday well rested and refocused. Vardy will continue to run unremittingly and Mahrez will continue to dribble brilliantly and Ranieri’s men will keep on giving their 100% till their last breath.

And as far as the European footballing aristocracy, they may sound as how disdainful England have allowed audacious petite Leicester to do so well. For the next 11 games, a new history will be written either way. Leicester City’s next nine league matches are against teams currently outside the top five until they face Manchester United and finish with games at home to Everton and away to Chelsea.

Mourinho breaks Manchester united silence,says he will be back soon than expected.

“Is Mourinho going to be the successor of Van Gaal”, this simple statement has kept the world of football in an exhilarating stage. Manchester United’s recent performance has not been at par and with each passing day the possibility of Van Gaal’s departure from Old Trafford is moving closer. Though the former Chelsea boss has also been linked with a return to Inter Milan, but the possibility of him being the “Red Devil” boss is looking more obvious in the current situation.

Further spark has been ignited into the situation last week when Mourinho declared in public about his plan to be back in a top managing position within a span of two weeks. But, Mourinho has also expressed his fun time out of football and said that absence from a tight schedule has given him more opportunity to think about his future.

Recently in Singapore, he said: "If I have to return tomorrow, I return tomorrow.

“I always feel that it is better to wait and not to rush. It is better to wait for the right moment and the right move. I think starting next season with a new club and project is probably the best for me.”

“I read so many different things. One day they say 'yes' and another day they say 'no'. One other day they say I'm going to China, another day they say I'm going back to Italy.”

“I go to Milan and people say I'm going back to Inter. I'm here and people probably say I'm going to (the) Singapore national team. Every day new things are coming but the reality is I have no job and I am happy not to have a job.”

Well, looking at the condition of Manchester United's performance we are not much sure of their chances in this season  and the question of whether Van Gaal can really turn around things is highly in doubt but one's thing for sure that if the situation persists then Mourinho can be the potential replacement.

'Molecules that absorbs starlight in space has been found'

Whale galaxy

“Which molecule is responsible for the absorption of starlight in space”? A question which has been dwelling in minds of many astrophysicists for about a century now has finally been given an answer. In this article, I am going to discuss about this flabbergast molecule which the scientists have been failed to discover until the mid-80s and it was not till 2015, that the theory was finally prove.

So, before even starting this discussion, let me brief you on the definition of starlight, which as the name suggests is the lights being emitted from the stars. It is an electromagnetic radiation which is quite observable from the surface of the earth during night-time. Some component of starlight can even be seen during daytime but that’s highly rare as because the color of a starlight is yellowish-white (similar to that of the sun rays) due to which the color merges with the rays of sun making it invisible for human eyes to differentiate.

Scientist at the University of Basel have been able to identify for the first time in a century a molecule that is indeed responsible for the absorption of starlight in the space, the positively charged cage-fused structure buckminsterfullerene, or so-called ‘football molecule’ (its structure is similar to that of a soccer ball). Buckminsterfullerene is a structure of 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons consisting of 60 carbon atoms, each placed at the vertex of each polygon.

From centuries ago, Astronomers have discovered that the spectrum of star lights arrived on earth with dark gaps, known as interstellar bands but they have not been successful until now to find out which matter in space is absorbing this starlight and causing the “diffused interstellar bands (DIB)”. There are over 400 known starlight in the outer-space today, each having different kind of mystic gaseous shape.

Astronomers have been suspecting that a big complex molecules and gaseous ions based on carbon could be absorbing the starlight. And no molecule other than Buckminsterfullerene matched their criteria which is so far the largest molecule in chemistry to show the property of a wave-particle duality.

Once the Buckminsterfullerene molecule was discovered in the mid-80’s, questions started arousing regarding buckminsterfullerene’s impact on the Dark Interstellar bands (DIB). Researchers started all kind of experiment in order to prove this theoretical aspect into practical reality and finally giving answers to these complicated questions. The experiments didn’t disappointed much as the spectrum measured in the lab did show absorption features at two wavelength that were near two DIB that had been discovered by the astronomers the following year.

Experimental Procedure of the research.

In order to unambiguously prove that these molecules (buckminsterfullerene) absorb starlight and thus produce the DIB, a gas phase spectrum of the ion was needed. To obtain the spectrum in the laboratory using a diode laser, several thousand Fullerenes were confined in a radio-frequency trap and cooled down by collision with high density helium to a very low temperature of around 6 degree Kelvin (conditions were very similar to that of outer space).

Triangulum Galaxy

After the results came out of this experimental research, the resultant absorption measured in the laboratory was coinciding with most of the astronomical data, and have a comparable bandwidths as well as relative intensities. This identifies for the first time two DIB and proves that ionized buckminsterfullerene in the gas-phase in space.

The experiment has helped solving one of the most critical problems in the field of astronomy and has further enhanced the advancing theory of cosmology. The whole research work was carried out at the Department of Chemistry, University of Basel.

New Astro-Model could give 24 hours' notice of a major space event

Have you ever heard of solar storms? Well, if you haven’t then i will give you a little glimpse about it in this article and you will also come to know about how it can affect the earth’s environment. Solar storms are nothing but a variety of eruption of mass and energy from the solar surface. In simple terms, it is the atmospheric effects felt on the earth’s surface due to events occurring on the sun. More scientifically speaking these occurrences on the solar surface has a direct and adverse effect on the earth’s magnetic field that can bring the power grids, navigation and communication system to a standstill.

These solar strikes generally come in surprise and can create a huge mess even resulting in a worldwide ‘black-out’. If somehow the prediction time of these solar attacks and the time-span for which the strike will remain is known, then it will be easier for the scientists to get some time in analyzing the storm and prepare for precautionary action against it.

NASA has came up with a new model that aims to enhance the prediction time for these powerful solar eruption known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), to as much as 24 hours from 1 hour notice that the current technology allows. CMEs fire off colossal clouds of charged particles, whose speeds can range from a relatively lower to that of a mind-blogging speed of 3000mph. If the CMEs magnetic fields are allied south to north of the earth’s magnetic field, the storm will not have any effect on the earth’s atmosphere and it will undamagingly pass by, but if they are arranged in the opposite direction, these storms can generate a major space weather event.

NASA’s powerful solar dynamics observatory, whose sole purpose is to continuously keep an eye on sun’s activities and report in case of any sign of flares on sun’s surface have came up with a new forecasting tool which can predict CMEs magnetic field alignment far in advance. The observatory has also been able to analyze the data about the shifting of the CME clouds movement in the aftermath of the eruption. NASA has merged these data sets to predict how these CME cloud evolves and how the magnetic field will be oriented. This invention has indeed taken one step further in depicting the safety of earth’s magnetosphere from these solar astro-storms in future.

If we take a look at the project’s practical application, the scientists from NASA’s Goddard space flight center have tested the new model from record of eight CME (coronal mass ejection) clouds, including the famous false alarm on Jan 9, 2014, in which the earth was saved from the adversity of an enormous solar eruption effect. Future testing are going on which will help the team refine the model further to make these technology more accurate and efficient.

/Anuttam/

IBM's superconducting chip can construct ' The future of Quantum Computing'

IBM, one of the world’s leading industries in term of quantum computing, has constructed a new chip, which can be very useful in deciding the future of quantum computing. It is a superconducting chip that can revolutionize the ‘world of Quantum computers’ and can even challenge some theories of quantum physics. The chip is the first in its generation as it can integrate the basic devices needed to build a quantum computer, called qubits, into a two dimensional grid.

Circuitry surface of IBM’s chips are made up of metals, which under extremely low temperature shows super-conducting properties. The chip operates at only a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. Scientists believe that the best way to construct a realistic quantum computer would involve creating grids of hundreds or thousands of qubits working together.

With previous experimental results, researchers have been able to operate qubits only when they were arranged in a line. However, IBM contains the simplest grid possible, four bits arranged in a two by two array.Unlike Binary digits there is a state in which the qubits can effectively work as both 0 and 1 in which is known as superposition state. In this state, the qubits can cut through multifaceted calculation in ways impossible for conventional hardware. Most of the MNC’s and the US Government are working on this technology.

There are different ways to make qubits, but the most conventional ways are those used by IBM and Google. Quantum bits suffer from a ‘quantum effect’ fact which the bits use to represent their data. These datas are very prone to interference.  There are two types of errors occurring in a qubit system, first one being the ‘Bit-flip error’, where a bit representing a 0 changes to a 1 or vice-versa. And the second one is known as ‘phase-flip error’, where a superposition state becomes distorted.

IBM’s new designed chip is constructed in a way (4 qubits arranged in a square) such that it can detect both the ‘bit-flip’ and ‘phase-flip’ errors. One pair of bits is used for checking the errors by the other pair of bits. One bit looks for the ‘bit-flip’ error while the other looks for the ‘phase-flip’ error. This arrangement of the grid can also overcome the interference problem caused by putting the four qubits close together. Further researches are going on, in which the scientists are planning to build a grid of eight qubits arranged in a two by four rectangle.

I hope this experiment succeeds as quantum computers could efficiently take shortcuts through much computation that are difficult for today’s computer. Moreover, quantum computers have mind-blogging applications, but it is stalled by the frailty of quantum computers.

/Anuttam/

NASA's new airplane lands like a Helicopter and fly like an Aircraft!

Have you ever wondered of a battery powered plane that can land and take-off like a helicopter and fly like an aircraft? NASA has successfully come up with a similar kind of aircraft, which can efficiently act like an aircraft aforementioned. This GL-10 proto-type or nicknamed as ‘Greased Lightening’ have been successfully flight tested by NASA and have transitioned from Hover to wing-borne flight during the period of several flight tests.

The body of the aircraft is made with a very precise build-up structure having a 3.05 meters wingspan, eight electric motors on the wings, and two electric motors on the tail end and weighs maximum of 28.1 kilogrammes at the time of take-off. A total of 12 prototypes were made, starting with a simple foam models weighing about 2.3 kilogrammes and the remaining models were highly modified fiberglass hobby airplane weighing about 24.9 kilogrammes. Then, the two models are summed up to finally build up a high quality, carbon fiber GL-10 model weighing a total of 24.9 kilogrammes.

GL-10 prototype is currently in the scheming and testing phase. Though the preliminary thought was to develop a 6.1 meters wingspan aircraft powered by hybrid diesel engines or electric engines, but instead the team started with the minor versions for testing, build by rapid prototyping. These prototype can be a great success and NASA is continuing their work on the advancing these concept which can be four times more aerodynamically efficient in cruise than a helicopter.

The aircraft’s pilot has revealed that flying this ten engine prototype has its ups and downs, but it really flies like a three engine plane from a control prospective. There are many advantages of these aircraft, starting from adaptable take-off and landing ability to its ‘lack of noise’ technology. NASA told that the engine is pretty quiet; even quieter than a neighbor mowing the lawn with a gas-powered motor.

A few more tests are still left and once fully designed; the aircraft can be use for transporting small package deliveries or vertical take-off and landing, mapping large areas for long endurance surveillance and various other applications. It can furthermore be utilized in a much large scale, where it can be used in a one to four person size personal air vehicle.

/Anuttam/