vagdevi vilas e- · pdf filetheir thinking about another major planet of our solar system ......

Volume: II Issue: 2 July 2015

Vagdevi Vilas Vignan Patrika

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Chairman’s Note

Dear students,

In the previous issue of this magazine, we had discussed about our ancestors’

thoughts and findings about SUN, vis–a–vis modern science. Let’s discuss

their thinking about another major planet of our solar system – Saturn, in the

light of the findings of modern science.

Saturn is called ‘Shani’ or ‘Shanischara’, which means slow or slow moving.

Interestingly, one year for Saturn is equal to 29.4 Earth years! That means it

orbits Sun every 29.4 Earth years! Saturn is the most beautiful of all planets,

because of its fabulous ring system. It has around 30 rings in 7 groups. Our ancestors called

him ‘Sundara’( ). Saturn is a giant gas planet with outer atmosphere having

Hydrogen and Helium, like that of Sun! He is called ‘Son of Sun’ ( ). Though

year of Saturn is long (29.4 Earth Year), a day is as short as 10½ hour, which means he rotates

faster on his axis! To denote this quick day and slow year, he is called – .

Though Saturn appears in various colours, black and blue are predominant.

Our ancestors called him ‘ ’.Mass of Saturn is about 95 times

that of Earth and definitely he has influenced the orbit of the Earth by his

pull/push.He is called , . So far 4 space crafts have

visited Saturn: Pioneer-II, Voyager 1 & 2, Cassini Huygens and made

various findings on Saturn and sent beautiful pictures of this most beautiful

planet, Saturn.

It is strange and nice that many of the observations of our ancestors match

with the findings of the modern science.

I want my young scientists of Vagdevi Vilas Institutions to further explore the

treasures of our ancient knowledge and use it in their research, and bring out

many more hidden facts about Saturn and other heavenly bodies.

- - Shri. K. Harish Chairman, Vagdevi Vilas Institutions

Happiness is held in the seed; Happiness is shared in the flower! – John Harrigan

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Editor’s Note

It is heartening to acknowledge that students across all the schools are

enthusiastically celebrating ‘Environment Day’ in their own subtle and meaningful

way. If children learn to value their surroundings and environment at large, in their

tender age, would imbibe virtues, as they grow, to protect nature in true sense. The

spirit of Environment Day should be a celebration of every day, every moment. We

have specially brought out in this issue, news on Environment Day celebrations at

VVS-Varthur. New ventures and initiatives have been taken up in the right earnest

across all the schools regarding environment through various projects. A celestial

wonder of conjunction of planets has been reported by a student in her own way.

As such, this issue contains other regular features including Indian personalities in the

field of Science and Mathematics, having born in the month of July.

An interesting experiment awaits you too! Why delay, start reading…

- R&D Department

Vagdevi Vilas Institutions

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished! – Lao Tzu

Chairman’s Note 1

Editor’s Note 2

Initiatives taken 3

Young scientists in the Making 4

Environment Day celebrations at Varthur 5

Articles by students 7

Famous Indians born in July 9

Fun for all 11

Contents Page Number

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This is an initiative by Adamya Chetana to involve school

children in improving the green cover of the country. The

children from city schools are asked to prepare saplings and

the children from the rural schools to plant these saplings,

grow them into trees and ensure that there is greenery

spreading all along. The children involved are given a ‘Green

Certificate’.

As a part of this initiative, Vagdevi Vilas School, Marathahalli

involved the 8th and 9th grade students. These students, over

200 in number were given each a kit by the

Chairman Shri K Harish. The kit contained 2 Kg of potting mix

(soil and manure) and 4 varieties of seeds (Taare, Honge,

Srigandha and Neem). The Chairman quoted Shri Ananth

Kumar (Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers) that the

target of this initiative is to plant 1 crore saplings, out of which

20 lakh kits are already distributed to various schools.

‘Eyes on nature’ – a program of Environmental Education for

school children was launched on Environment Day by KSCST

(Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology), IISc.

This program is to enable children to understand and

document the urban biodiversity around them. The students

of Grade 8, 9 from Varthur and Marathahalli are a part of it.

They have begun maintaining their Nature Diaries and making

posters developing a sense of Biophilia or ‘love for nature’.

Eyes on nature

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Vruksha raksha

July 01 – Doctor’s Day

July 11 – World Population Day

July 24 – Birthday of Azim Premji, Chairman, WIPRO

July 29 – Birthday of J R D Tata, Indian industrialist.

Important days in July!



Vagdevi Vilas Institutions has taken up yet another commendable initiative involving the children of Pre-primary in scientific experiments.

A special science lab has been set up at Vagdevi Vilas School - Marathahalli, catering to the scientific needs of these tiny tots. Children are exposed to hands on experiments in various scientific concepts such as ‘Sense organs’ , ‘Numbers’ , ‘Shapes’ , ‘ Floating’ and ‘My Family’ for the month of June. These activities are based on each unit taught as per the curriculum and are exclusively designed considering their age, hence inculcating a scientific temper in them.

Environment Day was celebrated by these children to bring awareness towards the importance of nature in everyday living. Some of the salient activities included were ‘tree planting’, ‘nature walk’, ‘slogan display’ etc... These little ambassadors participated with great zeal and enthusiasm!

“Things are always at their best in their beginning” – Blaise Pascal

Young Scientists in the Making!

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Mahatma Gandhi rightly said, ‘Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need and not every man’s

greed’. Keeping this quotation as the theme of the month the students of Vagdevi Vilas School, Varthur

were trained to involve themselves throughout the month in awareness drive through various activities.

Nature – in the form of mother earth – the most precious gift of God was worshipped and celebrated in

all its glory during the month. Everyday green pledge was administered in the assembly along with a

green thought and students owed to protect nature and conserve it for the future by following the 5R’s –

Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Renew.

The tiny-tots of the pre-primary section participated actively in the awareness rally clad in green dress,

went round shouting slogans with placards, distributed saplings, paper bags, save earth badges & visited

Halasahalli campus to create awareness in their own little way.

Environmental Day Celebrations and its significance was put across to the students by the leaders. A

skit on the lessons learnt from nature was presented by the nature lovers from the primary classes.

Poems on nature in Hindi and English and Parisara Geethe were recited by nature enthusiasts.

The condition of the oceans, the grievances of the Sun and the depletion of the ozone layers, the

pollution of atmosphere and its affects, humans’ negligence in protecting the environment was brought

out in a dance drama by the students.

Monologue with appropriate costumes were presented as part of CCA competition complemented the

celebration with colourful and meaningful placards and posters created by the students of middle

school.

There was a rally, planting of trees, cleanliness drive in the campus and a street play, ‘Varthur Lake

Bachao Aandolan’, presented by the students of high school. Nature walk and observation of

surroundings – as part of Science club activity, was conducted successfully and students were asked to

write a report on the same.

‘We do not inherit Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children – and hence it is our prime

duty and responsibility as future global citizens to protect and conserve Mother Earth.’

- Reported by Smt. Poorna, VP, VVS-V

“Some people feel the rain, others just get wet.” – Bob Dylan

Environment Day Celebrations at Vagdevi Vilas School, Varthur

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Important days in July!

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Environment Day celebrations at VVS - Varthur



A river cuts through a rock not because of its power but because of its persistence!

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Wonders of Science!

Scientists have developed a gel that helps brains recover from trumatic injuries resulting from accidents, falls or gunshots. Developed by Dr. Ning Zhang at Clemson University in South Carolina, the gel is injected in liquid form at the site of injury which then stimulates the growth of stem cells there. This gel can be loaded with different chemicals to stimulate various biological processes at the site of injury. In a research done on rats, it was found out that full blood supply could be re-established. This gel is expected to be ready for testing in humans in about three years.

- Compiled by Nithya S, VI C, VVSM

Stem cell gel heals brain injuries

This is the age of science and it has changed our entire world. It is not the

same world that our ancestors lived in. If they were to returnback to today,

they will not even be able to recognize the place! Today we have electricity,

telephones, TVs, medicines, computers, internet, cars, airplanes, robots

etc… which will seem like wonders to someonefrom that age!

Science has made our lives comfortable and convenient in many ways. It has

made the world smaller and more accessible making people say that the

world is shrinking!

Science seems to have conquered time and distance. It is because of

Science that we are able to cope better with various illnesses today. This has

made our lives easier and increased our lifespan. Science has impacted all

areas in modern life!

- Compiled by Anshika, VII F, VVSM



On any night in June 2015, the Queen and King of planets – the dazzling Venus and the bold

Jupiter appeared in the western sky drawing closer together every evening!

As seen from Earth, relatively Venus was passing Jupiter in late June / early July. At that time,

especially on the nights of June 30 and July 01, they were seen closest and this will be seen

until August 27, 2016.

These very bright worlds were very hard to miss (unless for a cloudy sky) as Venus and

Jupiter rank the third and fourth brightest celestial bodies respectively after the Sun and the

Moon, in our solar system.

- Compiled by Hitakshi Nagaraj, VII G, VVSM

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Venus and Jupiter Conjunction



JAYANT NARLIKAR (19 July 1938) Jayant Vishnu Narlikar is an Indian astrophysicist. He is a proponent of steady state cosmology. He developed with Sir Fred Hoyle the conformal gravity theory, commonly known as Hoyle-Narlikar theory. It synthesises Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and Mach’s Principle. It proposes that the inertial mass of a particle is a function of the masses of all other particles, multiplied by a coupling constant. Narlikar has received several national and international awards and honorary doctorates. India’s second highest civilian honour, Padma Vibhushan was awarded to him in 2004 for his research work. Prior to this in 1965, he was conferred Padma Bhushan. Narlikar was appointed as the Chairperson of The Advisory Group for textbooks in Science and Mathematics.

S S ABHYANKAR (1930 – 2012) Shreeram Shankar Abhyankar was born on 22 July 1930 and was an Indian American mathematician known for his contributions to algebraic geometry. He at the time of his death, held the Marshall distinguished professor of mathematics chair at Purdue University. He was a professor of computer science and industrial engineering. He is known for Abhyankar’s conjecture of finite group theory, Abhyankar’s lemma and Abhyankar-Moh theorem. Notable awards conferred on him include the Chauvenet Prize from the Mathamatical Association of America in 1978, Herbert Newby McCoy Award from Purdue University in 1973. His research was in algebraic geometry, commutative algebra, local algebra, valuation theory, quantum electrodynamics, computer-aided design and robotics. He popularized the Jacobian conjecture.

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The science of today is the technology of tomorrow! – Edward Teller

Famous Indians born in July



D D KOSAMBI (1907 – 1966) Damodar Dharmananda Kosambi was born on 31 July in Goa. He was a mathematician, statistician, historian and polymath who contributed to genetics by introducing Kosambi’s map function. He is well known for his work in numismatics and for compiling critical editions of ancient Sanskrit texts. Kosambi excelled in his final school examination and was one of the few candidates who was exempted on the basis of merit from necessarily passing an entrance examination essential at the time to gain admission to Harvard University. He enrolled in Harvard in 1924. He is an inspiration to many across the world, especially to the Marxist scholars. The government of Goa has instituted the annual D D Kosambi Festival of Ideas since February 2008 to commemorate his birth centenary. India Post issued a commemorative postage stamp on 31 July 2008 to honour Kosambi.

LALJI SINGH (05 July 1947) Lalji Singh is a scientist who has worked in the field of DNA fingerprinting technology and is popularly known as ‘Father of DNA fingerprinting’. He has also worked in the areas of molecular basis of sex determination, wildlife conservation, forensics and evolution and migration of humans. In 2004, he received the Padma Shri in recognition of his contribution to Indian science and technology. Singh founded various institutes and labs in India, including the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics in 1995, Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES) in 1998, and Genome foundation in 2004. He holds fellowships from several Indian and foreigh academies which include Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, Fellow of Thrid World Academy of Sciences. He is also conferred with many awards which include CSIR Technology Award and Indian National Science Academy Medal.

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FISHING FOR ICE!

Take ice cubes in a cup of water.

Place a string in water and across top of

the ice cubes.

Sprinkle salt across the ice cubes and

wait for a minute.

Pull the string out and see what you

have caught!

(When salt is mixed with ice it lowers the

freezing point significantly. This simply

means the ice melts. However, when it is

used in such a small amount, the water

around the ice freezes again quickly. This

means that the string gets trapped as the

water around it refreezes, thus making it

stick to the ice.)

An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field. – Niels Bohr

Fun for All !

1) Did you know?

2) 1) Peanuts could be one of the ingredients of dynamite. 3) 2) ‘Petrology’ is a study of rocks. 4) 3) If a lobster loses an eye, it can grow another one! 5) 4) During a lifetime, an average human being grows 940 Km of hair (when joined together)! 6) 5) Crocodiles swallow stones to help them stay underwater! 7) 8) 9) 10) 11)

12) 13) 14)

Just Try!

8 x - 9 = 7

+ - ÷ -

+ 1 + 3 =

÷ + - x

2 x ÷ = 4

= = = =

5 + ÷ 2 =

Send your answers to:

[email protected]

11

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