Muhammad Farhan Siddiqui, a graduate of the National University of Sciences and Technology in electrical engineering, took fancy to these emerging technologies and did his master’s degree from the Florida Institute of Technology, USA, majoring in microelectronics with subjects ranging from optical electronics, VLSI processing, IC design to microelectronics fabrication. Employed with a leading private company, he provides technical solutions to the industry to improve efficiency, quality and productivity using state-of-the-art engineering products and software.

Considering native trends, microelectronics and photonics are seldom heard of on the local front.

What made you opt for these subjects for majors abroad?

During my college, I had a compelling fetish for electronics and lasers for the promise they held for the future. Electronics has transformed the way we live and continues to alter the lifestyle of people making it efficient and manageable. Electronic marvels such as computers which used to weigh tonnes have now been reduced to ounces with enhanced power and capacity. Microelectronics and photonics was the way I had to take.

What were the revelations of microelectronics and photonics and how do you factor them into the local industry and your professional life?

During microelectronics studies at the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT), I had the opportunity to actually fabricate silicon wafers which taught me the basics of chip manufacturing. With the quality of engineers in our country, there is a lot of potential for establishing chip fabrication to cater to not just the local market but also the global demand. In photonics, the efficient conversion of electrical signals into light and reconverting them back can be utilised in environments which are risky and hazardous. Furthermore, over a single optical cable we can deploy multiple optical signals, immune to electrical interference, while reducing the cost of cabling tremendously.

Can you illustrate some uses of optical electronics and microelectronics giving simple examples?

Expensive load cells are utilised to calculate the weight of any object. These can now be replaced with the more economical optoelectronic circuits using optical fibre cable coupled with a transceiver to calculate the load. Similar technologies can be used in forensic and medical labs for verification of PH of various chemicals and liquids. Application of laser technology would help our manufacturing industry in numerous areas of precision and quality.

How can the industry benefit from photonics and lasers?

For any industry to thrive and establish a steady market, precision in production is a necessity. Lasers can perform accurately and with speed, which is why these are deployed in the industry. Some examples are: laser cutting, laser welding, laser photo-coagulation surgery, atomic clocks etc. An interesting example is a device called the ‘Scan station’, a laser scanner which acquires 3D soft images of any constructed area, its dimensions and area including the features of the structure in a matter of minutes.

What kind of opportunities does the field of microelectronics and photonics provide to fresh engineers?

In the current era, life is all about adopting new technologies which help in improving efficiency and minimising cost. With modern industrial units being introduced perpetually around the world, we have to be ready to embrace newer challenges of maintenance and upkeep. Therefore, young engineers should start emancipating and instead of opting for traditional subjects should choose modern technologies so that they can avail better opportunities in the local and foreign job market.

What role can the government and the HEC play to improve the professional standard of our young engineering students?

In a state of unison, both can give a tremendous boost to the country’s technical strength in modern technologies. They can arrange valuable exchange programmes with universities abroad which are regarded for their didactic acumen in microelectronics, optical electronics and photonics. It can facilitate our engineers to expand their vision and harness higher technologies. This would not just help our engineers remain abreast of the latest developments but will also enable them to contribute towards the country’s prosperity.

What is your advice for the young engineering students?

Considering the diverse enormity of academic subjects, opting for specialisation in a particular line of work is the key factor to success. Regular reading or browsing for new developments can also enhance the cross-trade appreciation. Logical understanding of technical subjects and hands-on experience is an engineer’s salvation and can only be achieved through initiative and perseverance.

What is the future of microelectronics and photonics?

Chip makers continue to pack more and more transistors by refining the manufacturing process which is currently transiting through the 32 nanometre-mark (Intel’s Sandy Bridge packs nearly a billion transistors) which is likely to close-in on the 11 nanometre-mark by 2015. These high density chips combined with photonics would eventually provide stimulus to fulfil the ultimate dream of quantum computing and advanced artificial intelligence.

Most plastics are normally made through polymerisation reactions of certain chemicals that come from petroleum or natural gas. A group of researchers at Sao Paulo University in Brazil have now found that they can manufacture excellent plastic materials starting from pineapple leaves and stems, banana plants and coconut fibres. A special type of material, nano-cellulose, is prepared from these sources a pound of which can be used to prepare a hundred pounds of reinforced plastic. The resulting material is expected to be used in manufacture of plastics used in the automobile industry.

Driving a car while sitting on a car seat made of bananas and pineapples? Why not as after all this is the wondrous world of science.

Artificial arm—thought controlled

Thought controlled devices are becoming increasingly common. Today it is possible for paralysed persons to move wheel chairs or drive cars purely by thought control. Now two undergraduate biomedical engineering students, Thiago Caires and Michal Prywata, at Ryerson University in Toronto have developed an artificial arm that can be controlled by thought control. Powered by compressed air, the device is easy to construct and avoids the need of invasive surgery that is necessary to fit persons with amputated arms with artificial ones. The person using the arm sends signals to it through a skull cap. The cap has sensors which sense the changes in blood flow in the brain that occur when the thought command is issued. These signals are transmitted to a microprocessor in the arm which already has stored patterns for signals such as ‘up’, ‘down’, ‘left’, ‘right’, etc. The microprocessor compares the signals coming from the brain with those previously stored in it for various movements and acts accordingly.

The germs are winning

The micro organisms that are responsible for disease have built in mechanisms to survive by undergoing genetic changes (mutations) and by other means. This has allowed antibiotic resistant strains to survive and develop. There is, therefore, a constant race between scientists working to develop more powerful antibiotics to replace the ones which have lost their efficacy, and micro organisms which are evolving and developing resistance against existing antibiotics. Indeed infections by resistant strains of microorganisms represent a major threat in most hospital wards, and many deaths occur during hospital treatment.

The problem has been severely aggravated by the huge costs associated with new drug development. These can exceed a billion US dollars, and the investment is often a complete loss since Food and Drug Administration (FDA) often rejects those drugs which show side effects before they can be commercialised. Most pharmaceutical companies have, therefore, abandoned their research programmes directed to develop new antibiotics against resistant strains, as it is no longer economically feasible. As a result we are now losing the race against disease causing germs, and there is a growing risk of multiplication of disease resistant strains. This could lead to millions of deaths because of non-availability of effective antibiotics.

An exciting initiative to look at plant derived natural extracts for their antibiotic activity against resistant strains has been undertaken at the premier research institute of Pakistan—International Centre of Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) at Karachi University. Both H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry and Dr Panjwani Centre of Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, are two prestigious institutions that are integral parts of ICCBS. Over a dozen promising compounds have been discovered as a result of these efforts.

We may therefore go back to what nature has provided: the survival of mankind on this planet may lie in the biodiversity, and associated chemical diversity, that nature has blessed us with in the form of the plant kingdom.

A sonar device: for strokes

Sound propagation through water (sonar) is a standard technique used by submarines to detect and avoid other vessels. Passive sonar involves listening to the sounds made by other vessels. Active sonar involves emitting pulses of sounds and listening to the echoes that bounce back after colliding with objects.

Now sonar has been adapted to detect strokes in human brains. A device is worn on the head, and the pressure waves that are generated by the blood passing through blood vessels are detected by highly sensitive sensors on the device. Any abnormalities in such blood flow caused by clots in blood vessels or rupture of blood vessels can be readily detected by analysis of the resulting patterns. Strokes represent a major cause of death the world over, and early diagnosis of the problem is critical for recovery. The sonar device promises to add another tool in the hands of the physician to detect the nature of the stroke and the medication required to address the problem.

aurahman786@gmail.com

Malnutrition in Pakistan is not restricted to the millions of flood affected people throughout the country but is also clearly evident, and on the increase, amongst many millions of people with low or negligible incomes for both urban and rural dwellers alike.

According to the oft repeated mantra of the ministry of agriculture ‘there is no shortage of food’ in the country yet. Be this as it may, it is also true that a high percentage of the population can no longer, thanks to rampant inflation, afford to purchase the food on offer. However, this does not automatically give the government, along with indigenous and foreign investors and existing agricultural concerns, the right to switch over from cultivating food crops to crops solely intended for what is currently perceived as a lucrative biofuel market.

The ongoing energy crisis, further fuelled by the lure of carbon credit trading and dreams of profiting from funding promised to ventures intended to combat global warming, is encouraging Pakistani agriculturalists, often working hand in hand with corporate interests and government departments, to stop growing food which is a dangerous trend indeed.

The most talked about biofuel material at present is that of a tropical American plant called Jatropha curcas which is being planted, often illegally by using smuggled seed, by growers in Sindh, Balochistan and in the agricultural heartland of the Punjab with even Pakistan State Oil having jumped on the Jatropha bandwagon by setting up an experimental plantation outside Karachi in recent years.

Entrepreneurs claim that cultivating Jatropha does not infringe of food production in any way as it can be cultivated on marginal, waste and arid land of which, they claim, there is over 80 million acres in the country. What they do not say, quite naturally, is that there are vast numbers of people eking out some kind of living from these lands which are utilised in the production of subsistence crops and for the grazing of livestock. Neither do they publicise the hard fact that whilst Jatropha is claimed to have the ability to produce 10 times for oil than corn, this has not yet been proven on a commercial scale plus, even though it is drought tolerant once established, (this means irrigation is required for young plantations).

Moreover, it needs, according to a Dutch study, five times more water to produce a unit of energy than do either sugarcane or corn and 10 times more water than sugar beet making it, in fact, a rather thirsty crop which, if it doesn’t get adequate moisture, does not produce the anticipated oil for use in biofuels. Thus, it goes without saying, if water was available to be diverted to these 80 million acres of ‘waste’ land, it could be used for increased food production on all levels including that of meat and dairy which are often in short supplies.

There has even been talk of growing Jatropha with financial inputs from South Korea with the crop intended for export and processing there not here which is of no benefit to Pakistan, other than financially, whatsoever. The name ‘Jatropha’ may be familiar to some gardeners as members of this genus, dangerous attractive to mealie bugs which could spread on to other crops, were introduced as ornamentals many years ago.

Second on the booming biofuel cultivation list in Pakistan is the legumus tree Pongamia pinnata, an arid zone, drought tolerant species indigenous to tropical and temperate Asia and from which ‘hongo oil’ has been extracted for thousands of years. But, as with Jatropha, it is necessary to wait a number of years until harvesting can begin which is where other, ‘edible’ dangers arise.

The government is already evaluating the use of sugarcane as a biofuel and if this becomes a reality then sugar prices will surge as availability declines. Other important food crops with important biofuel potential include: canola, soy, rape seed, mustard, palm oil, wheat, corn, sugar beet and sunflower although as perennial grasses are also being examined; livestock and dairy production could also be adversely affected in the long term.

With global food prices at their highest ever, the price of American corn has increased by 79 per cent over the last year as a direct result of much of the crop is now destined for biofuel refineries, the immediate affect has been ‘to push another estimated 44 million people in low and middle-income brackets into poverty’ says the World Bank which is extremely concerned about the potential impact of biofuel production on world food stocks.

Technology today—the cell phone, internet and cloud computing—has made a home-based business as workable and profitable as any regular business but without most running expenses such as office rent, big utility bills and operating cost. We see the bright side of the picture as the number of start-up firms grows steadily and virtual offices open up everywhere. The business is becoming web-based as Skype lets you talk to your business contacts, and employees as well as customers based anywhere in the world.

Many web design companies based in the western hemisphere depend on less expensive workforce in countries like India and Pakistan. Some of the employees may be going to local offices equipped with all the required hardware and software but many professionals stay at home and never need to come to office. Work has become more flexible and less exerting. The disadvantages may be: the staff working in isolation and connectivity tools may create their own problems; but they can be taken care of without much ado. Any business, from local and foreign trade to consultation and executive offices can work in this manner.

You don’t even have to step out of your home to start your business. Call a vendor on phone and tell them to set up the hardware equipped with the requisite software at your place. If you need more software, you can get even that online.

Your letterhead and other office stationery you can design yourself if you can, or get them designed online. Take your time browsing for any stuff for which you can find a ready market and be the bridge between the buyer and seller, making money in the process. The start may be slow but the business will grow just like any other business, maybe even faster as the response time at both supply end and demand end is short. Try using sources like eBay, Amazon Auctions and Craigslist.

If you wish to do a service business, you can be a virtual assistant performing word processing or bookkeeping or become an interior designer or gardening consultant. You can be a tutor or trainer after having prepared courseware for yourself and selling it online; you can even re-sell books and courses.

A technically proficient person can provide computer services either hardware or software or both, networking and web designing. Become a subcontractor or consultant for smaller companies. If you have managed a business for several years and lost it for some reason, you can work as an online consultant for someone else who desires to establish their own business. The best home business idea is the one that fits your passions, interests, abilities and needs. Match your resources with the perfect business idea to begin a new business.

It is always a good idea to separate fact from fiction at the start of a home-based company.

Launching a virtual business is simple and easy

It may look too easy to start a virtual business but it is not as easy to become a millionaire overnight as you might think. Remember: building a business from scratch may be a slow and tedious process. You have to learn the ropes through acquiring authentic information and considerable trial and error.

It costs almost nothing to launch a virtual business

It might be true if you are offering a service. But when selling a product, you have to invest in materials and supplies. Even services such as catering require special equipment you have to procure in advance.

You can make money while sleeping

It is not possible until you have established your company’s reputation that sells itself. You get to this point through years of hard work.

In just a few weeks your virtual business can become a success

Like any other business, you need to make the right decisions at the right moment and work hard to succeed. And it may take years. A single mistake might land you in losing everything. Think creative and work hard in the beginning to multiply your chances of success.

Electricity is normally associated with causing fires through short circuiting. However, George Whitesides and co-workers at Harvard University, US, are using electricity to extinguish fires. While the ability of electricity to extinguish flames has been known for a long time, the science behind it was not well understood. It is now thought that the electricity beams cause the soot particles in the flames to become charged, thereby destabilising the flames and resulting in the fire to be extinguished.

If beams of electricity are fired at flames, the flames quickly go out, as if water had been sprayed on them. A 600 watt amplifier connected to a wand is used to deliver the electrical beams. On the basis of the work carried out, backpacks are being developed for firemen who could be shooting electricity beams at the fires of the future.

Similarly, buildings can be fitted with electricity amplifiers on roofs, instead of water sprinklers, to put out fires. Such a system could save huge amounts of water wasted in extinguishing fires and avoid damage to buildings and contents caused by the massive amounts of water.

Jets fly—on biofuels

Biofuels are fuels that can be produced by micro-organisms or they may be derived from organic or food waste products. The can be in the form of solid biomass, liquid biofuels or biogases. Since the materials from which they are produced are usually derived through photosynthetic processes, they can be regarded as a solar energy source.

On Friday, March 18, 2011, there was an exciting development in the field of aviation. An F-22 Raptor fighter jet aircraft flew using a 1:1 blend of conventional jet fuel and biofuel derived from a plant of the mustard family, Camelina sativa, or simply known as ‘camelina’. The fighter aircraft flew at speeds 50 per cent greater than the speed of sound (Mach 1.5) and successfully concluded the test.

Passenger airlines such as KLM and Japan Airlines have already used blends of the biofuel derived from camelina in their aircraft, but this was the first time that this was successfully used in the sophisticated F-22 fighter jet aircraft. Camelina is widely grown in USA, usually as a rotation crop with wheat. Biofuel derived from camelina is competitive in price (about $ 70 per barrel) as compared to conventional fuels (above $100 per barrel).

Artificial leaves

Leaves, along with certain algae and many species of bacteria, are able to carry out photosynthesis. The process of photosynthesis involves the conversion of carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere into organic compounds such as sugars by using the energy from sunlight.

Oxygen is released as a by-product of the reaction. This maintains the level of oxygen in the atmosphere, removes carbon dioxide from it, thereby reducing global warming, and provides food so necessary for our survival. The annual rate of energy captured by the process of photosynthesis is about 100 terawatts—which is about six times the annual power consumption on our planet.

Scientists have been trying to develop ‘artificial leaves’ for many years—devices that could use sunlight to split water into its elements, hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen thus produced can then be stored in fuel cells and used for energy production.

Nocera, Professor of Chemistry at MIT, US, and co-workers have now developed a material which is thinner than a leaf and contains a couple of cheap catalysts that do the trick—nickel borate along with a cobalt compound on a silicon electronic system. When this leaf is placed on a gallon of water under sunlight, and connected to a fuel cell, it can supply enough electricity for a day for a small household in a developing country. The material is claimed to produce 10 times more energy than a natural leaf.

Biofuels from sunlight and greenhouse gases

Normally burning of petroleum and other fossil fuels leads to the production of green house gases such as carbon dioxide. This is a major cause of global warming. Can we do the reverse, i.e., use carbon dioxide to produce biofuels? Removal of carbon dioxide in this manner would be good for our environment. This can be achieved by growing of crops that produce biofuels.

Now, however, Prof Larry Wackett and co-workers at the University of Minnesota have found that this can be achieved using two bacteria. The first bacterium (Synechococcus) converts carbon dioxide to sugars using sunlight. These sugars are then converted by a second bacterium (Shewanella) to certain compounds that can be used as fuels. The product has been named as ‘renewable petroleum’.

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According to the Mobile World Congress held in the Catalan city of Barcelona last February, the days of the cell phone being used primarily for audio communications are long gone, though it still remains the mainstay of use for the device. However, the exponential increase in computing power of the phones, plus the availability of applications made exclusively for mobile devices has created an unprecedented market for intelligent devices.

Everything from computing tablets to smart phones are now being used to not just talk, but live an online life, maintain lines of communications, manage finances, pay bills, listen to music, watch movies and just about anything that we are doing with the help of our regular day-to-day computer, and more.

Twitter is yet another form of new-age communication. During his keynote address at the Congress, Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo said that 40 per cent of tweets now come from mobile platforms. He said that the service needed ‘deeper integration’ in smartphones as well as to extend how it was made available to more basic phones.

Twitter now regularly carries 130 million tweets a day and during major events, such as the football World Cup can see upwards of 3,000 tweets a second, Costolo said. The record, he revealed, was 6,000 tweets per second in Japan at New Year’s Eve.

Tablet wars are well on their way, too. Samsung has stolen the lead over Apple when it launched the Galaxy S II. We now have sharper display, bigger screen and a much better resolution camera, coupled with the latest version of Android, Gingerbread 2.3 OS. The result, Apple announced that it was releasing the next version of its iPad, which is now out in the market.

Another mobile technology maker, Nokia, has joined hands with Microsoft to work together and bring out the next killer mobile device. The shotgun marriage was also deemed necessary considering that both the companies are witnessing their domination of the computing world slip away by more aggressive competitors.

Android, with its various versions, continues to be the most favoured OS. It has already overtaken Symbian to become the top smartphone platform. Android phones in the fourth quarter of 2010 was 33.3 million, compared to 31 million Symbian phones, 16.2 million Apple phones, 14.6 million RIM devices and 3.1 million Microsoft phones.

Another new trend that we should look forward to is cross-platform gaming on Android and Tegra devices, which will allow players to team up in games to play across PlayStation 3, PC and mobile platforms. Judging by its popularity amongst mobile technology developers, it’s no wonder that a new version of Android is just around the corner. There is talk that it will be named Ice Cream!

Speaking of 3D, phones too have the techie world buzzing. During the Congress, LG announced its Optimus 3D, a dual-channel, dual-core and dual-memory smartphone with 3D capabilities. Amazing is the fact that no glasses are needed to view the 3D images. But it first needs to clear up a few issues which include holding the handset very steadily in front of your face to get the 3D effect; serious questions over eye strain and exactly how much impact the 3D technology has on battery life.

And finally, the veil over 4G networks has unveiled.

Nokia Siemens Networks talked of planned rollouts this year across the world, while devices like the Samsung Galaxy S II are equipped for HSPA+ speeds, and the GSM Association has been touting the growing number of HSPA connections.

Buzz is already moving from, “We will be introducing 4G networks” to, “We are introducing 4G networks”. Probably by next year, it could be, “We have introduced 4G networks”.

Overall, the global smartphone market grew 89 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2010, as compared to 2009, exceeding 100 million units for the first time. The push for a world on the go is definitely on.

The iPad 2 is becoming just as big a device if not bigger. Even the dead can’t wait to get their hands on it. Reuters recently reported that paper replicas of the tablet were selling out in parts of Asia, as revellers prepare to set the thing ablaze during China’s Qingming festival Tuesday. As is tradition, paper versions of money, clothing, and, yes, consumer electronics are burned as offerings to the dead, and this year Apple’s latest slate is apparently all the rage for techies dead and gone. In fact, one shopkeeper in Malaysia claimed that his stock of 300 paper iPad 2s sold out quickly, leaving him unable to meet demand.

The latest version of any Apple product is likely to be thinner and lighter than its predecessor and so it is with the iPad 2. The iPad 2 is roughly two-thirds the thickness of the original iPad, and 88 per cent of its weight. Though it’s thinner and lighter, it’s inherited many of the original features. The iPad 2 is still a 9.7 inches of LED IPS panel. It’s still 1024×768, 4:3 and glossy. The position of the iPad 2’s buttons and ports are, likewise, more or less undisturbed. There’s a sleep/wake button at the top right edge, a standard headphone jack at top left, a volume rocker and a sliding switch (configurable to lock screen orientation or mute alert sounds via the Settings app) at the top of the right side, a 30-pin dock connector port at the bottom, and a home button at the bottom of the front face.

What’s different is that the iPad 2 uses a new Apple-designed processor called the A5. The A5 is a dual-core version of the 1GHz A4 chip that powers the iPhone 4 and the original iPad. The iPad 2 also has 512MB of Ram—twice that of the original iPad—and a 200MHz bus speed, likewise, twice that of the original. Despite the boosts in processing power, Apple claims that the iPad 2 has the same 10-hour battery life as the original models.

The original iPad came in six different variations—Wi-Fi-only and Wi-Fi/3G versions, each available with 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of storage. The product was such a hit that Apple apparently decided that even more variations would be better—as a result, there are 18 different versions of the iPad 2. Talk about redefining the phrase, spoilt for choice.

On the entertainment side, the new Apple Digital AV Adapter lets the iPad 2 spread its wings. With this adapter, the iPad 2 can output high-definition video at resolutions up to 1080p, as well as Dolby Digital surround sound, all served via a standard HDMI cable. This enables Video Mirroring and for this feature alone we have fallen in love with the device.

The downside of the iPad 2 is the camera which the large screen exposes very quickly. The cameras in the iPad 2 are essentially the same as those in the fourth-generation iPod touch. The front-facing camera is the same one used in the iPhone 4 and the iPod touch, offering only VGA resolution (640 by 480 pixels). It’s grainy in low-light settings but will provide a decent quality for video chatting.

Final verdict: although the iPad 2 is an improvement on the original iPad in numerous ways, it’s still an evolutionary product, not a revolutionary one. If you’re happy with your current iPad, there’s no reason to dump it just because there’s a shinier, newer one available. Of course, if you’ve been clamoring for an iPad, now might be the time to buy an iPad 2.

There was a time when business cards used to define a person’s taste. A person carrying a plain business card usually had a plain personality while the most creative cards came from the ones most creative. Sadly, with the arrival of the World Wide Web, people have started trusting social websites for interaction with friends and strangers, making the business cards go out of fashion, albeit slowly.

However, freelance Journalist Farah Zahidi Moazzam disagrees, “I think both the social websites and business cards have a special place. While Facebook, Twitter and even Linkedin can introduce you to hundreds within seconds unlike business cards, the latter are handy and still add value as not everyone is tech savvy. You may meet some people once, say in a conference. That is where a business card in hand will be better than any profile on any number of websites.”

There is another kind of ‘business card’ making rounds since the turn of the millennium—the ones sent via mobile phones. Some people find them quite handy while others consider them irritating, terming them impersonal. Hamzah Faruqi, a student in Szabist University feels business cards on phone are cooler than those in print.

“People these days don’t carry wallet with them and that is why carrying business cards is a hassle,” he says, “Everyone has a phone and one can store unlimited stuff on it. I have a Blackberry which not only gives me round the clock access to websites like Facebook, but I can also save the personal information of my friends, along with their pictures on my device and carry it with me. I can send that data to any of my friend via Bluetooth, without any hassle.”

They might always be available, but for some, the traditional business cards are still the best bet. Journalist Qasim Moini prefers traditional business cards over digital ones sent via mobile any day. “In Karachi, the chances that your mobile might get snatched are pretty high. Hence, if such a thing happens, you lose all the information, your contacts, data and SMS. Having people’s data stored digitally is fine, but it pays to have a hard copy back-up.” He still feels that by not being on Facebook and Twitter, he is a winner. “Social websites are definitely less convenient than traditional business cards as I use neither. I believe in maintaining human relationships rather than maintaining make-believe online relationships.”

On the other hand, there are people who have become more tech savvy than many youngsters due to their knack for staying updated at all times. Veteran journalist Afia Salam feels that the digital facilities and their easy access have rendered traditional business cards ‘almost’ obsolete. “For me, it is far easier to search for contacts in the computer and/or mobile phone and send messages across to my friends via Twitter and Facebook than it was ever before. I not only get instant replies but save a lot of time that I would surely have wasted rummaging through my card files.”

She does have a point. Ever since the arrival of electronic communication, people have been exploring new ways to share information with each other. As our lives switch from analogue to digital, so does technology and the wide range of futuristic alternatives. Postal letters have been replaced by emails, which, in turn, have been rendered superseded by texting and instant messaging. From swapping email addresses to trading mobile phone numbers and, increasingly, connecting through an online social network are the new ‘in’ things.

Industries may change and technology may evolve, but the age-old tradition of exchanging business cards stands. Pakistan might have become technologically advanced, yet using the mobile phone during business meetings is still considered rude. Ovais Sohail, marketing head of a bank feels the traditional business cards will always remain superior to competition.

“Social networking may be popular amongst the youth yet it hasn’t made its presence felt in the business community,” he says, “It will, eventually, become part of the culture but that may take some time. The reason I would take a business card any day is because it contains your business details as well as your social network details (if any). That way, those who want to contact you electronically will do so whereas the ones who would like to interact on personal level will do what pleases them most,” he adds.

Messenger will stay in orbit for about a year and send back colour photographs of about 90 per cent of the planet’s surface. The data that it provides will throw light on the birth of the planets in our solar system.

Gunshot detectors—now in use
One of the problems encountered by soldiers in a battle situation is to accurately determine where precisely the gunfire is coming from. Both the direction and the distance from where the gun fire is coming needs to be determined accurately before proper counter-action can occur. Now, such a device has been developed and 13,000 such units will be released to the US soldiers fighting in Afghanistan, about 1,500 per month.

The equipment, known as Individual Gunshot Detector (IGD), is a small box weighing less than two pounds carried on the shoulders by the soldiers and it is fitted with four small acoustic sensors and a screen. The IGD detects the exact direction from which the gun fire is coming, as well as the distance from which the shot has been fired.

The US has been spending over 200 billion dollars annually in the war effort in Afghanistan and Iraq for a decade. If a third of this amount had been invested in education and projects related to socio-economic development, Afghanistan would be a prosperous country today instead of being covered in blood, ignorance and poverty. Such wars are not won by spilling of blood. They are won by winning the hearts and minds.

Robots to the rescue
A robot called ‘Monirobot’ has been employed to help at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. It is designed to function at radiation levels at which human beings cannot function. The robot was developed through researches commissioned by the Japan’s Nuclear Safety Technology Centre after a nuclear accident occurred at the Tokaimura nuclear power plant in 1999 in which two workers lost their lives. The robot is fitted with a radiation detector, a 3D camera as well as temperature and humidity detectors. It can collect samples and remove obstacles using its special arms. It has a height of 1.5 metres and rolls along merrily on caterpillar tracks.

Washing machines—break world records
Conventional washing machines take about 90 minutes on average to complete the wash cycle involving rinsing and spinning. Now a new type of washing machine has been developed by Russell Hobbs in the UK that completes this cycle in just 12 minutes. It involves two nozzles spraying detergent and water directly on to the soiled clothes. The machine is fitted with various detection systems to automatically adjust the washing time if it contains only half a washing load. The manufacturers claim that it cuts energy and water consumption substantially, besides saving valuable time.

Gene therapy—for Alzheimer’s disease
Certain diseases are caused by defective genes. Gene therapy involves insertion of genes, or alteration/ replacement of genes in a person’s cells and biological tissues to cure the disease. It is still in its infancy and limited successes have been achieved employing it.

Now scientists at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, New York have found that it is possible to improve the condition of patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease by using gene therapy. Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that causes tremors, rigidity of muscles, sluggish movements and impairment of balance. The condition is caused due to the lack of a chemical substance in the brain (GABA). The scientists introduced a virus into the brains of such patients that contained a gene that was able to increase the levels of GABA. This led to a marked improvement in the condition of such patients in clinical trials.

Scientists at Imperial College, London’s department of gene therapy, led by gene therapy Professor Nicholas Mazarakis, have also been making significant progress in using gene therapy to treat various motor neurone disorders. This is an exciting horizon in medicine.

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Winter has traditionally always begun during mid-November and run through until at least the end of February in the plains and a month or so longer in upland areas of the country with the short spring. March and April follow by five months of summer, turning to autumn in September in the hills and at the beginning of October in the plains. This pattern, however, has undergone a drastic change over the last 10 to15 years and is having a knock-on affect on both the agricultural and horticultural sectors. Plus, it has also increased demands for electricity and gas which, as a direct result of this climate change, are in increasingly short supply.

The four seasons of the year now run something like this: the winter—January through February; the spring—March. The summer starts in April till the end of October and the autumn beginning in November to the end of December. This trend towards shorter winter, almost nonexistent spring, very long summer and late, compressed autumn also includes more extreme climate events—in the form of storms, flooding and extended periods of drought—than earlier weather patterns underwent what is, in climate terms, an extremely rapid alteration. This phenomenon, if it continues at this pace, will, within the next 10-15 years diminish winter and autumn even further, delete spring completely and leave the country subject to an almost permanent summer beset by periodic, intensive storms be they wet storms or dry ones.

This potentially devastating alteration of seasons is obviously not confined to Pakistan alone: it is a global phenomenon although the lengthening and shortening of specific seasons differs from continent to continent depending on latitude and longitude. But the overall effect on food production remains roughly the same.

What this means for food security in Pakistan is worrying indeed as longer, hotter summers when, according to scientific experts, monsoons may or may not arrive and if they do, are liable to be of high intensity over a shortened time span, will adversely impact agricultural and horticultural production across the board. Farmers are already facing problems in this respect as traditional sowing times of traditional crops grown in traditional areas often no longer apply.

Generally speaking, sowing can be performed earlier than has been the practice for preceding generations but, particularly in barani areas that are heavily dependent on rainfall patterns, this promptly leads to complications as rain fall patterns have not moved forward in line with sowing times. If a farmer sows his crops according to currently emerging weather patterns he may well lose everything when rain fails to materialise when it is most required, which is one of the reasons that farmers need expert guidance on how to cope with climate change as of now.

These rapid seasonal changes are also having an adverse effect on the natural world as nature, which is attuned to changes taking place over thousands, even millions of years, is largely unable to adapt fast enough to keep abreast with the current scenario.

Tree species such as apricots, plums and apples, widely cultivated in upland areas, are coming into blossom earlier each year and now often bloom before their locally indigenous pollinators are active. This can result in reduced pollination and therefore reduced crops, a situation further exacerbated by indiscriminate use of pesticides which wipe out useful insects along with the harmful ones.

All plant species, not just cultivated ones, are under abnormal levels of stress as seasons shrink/expand, average temperatures rise and rainfall/snow patterns spin out of the ‘norm’ and it will take time, perhaps a number of years, for the full effect of these changes to become known.

The danger is that whilst being aware that change is going on, concerned agricultural and horticultural departments do not move fast enough to avert future shortages of fresh food by educating growers as to how best to cope with potential problems and also by introducing new crop species able to tolerate anticipated climatic conditions.