Tag: #science #animal #plants

Solar Energy for The Future

N kavya

Solar energy is any type of energy generated by the sun. Solar energy is created by nuclear fusion that takes place in the sun. Fusion occurs when protons of hydrogen atoms violently collide in the sun’s core and fuse to create a helium atom. Solar technologies convert sunlight into electrical energy either through photovoltaic (PV) panels or through mirrors that concentrate solar radiation. This energy can be used to generate electricity or be stored in batteries or thermal storage.

The Process of Solar Energy –

This process, known as a PP (proton-proton) chain reaction, emits an enormous amount of energy. At its core, the sun fuses about 620 million metric tons of hydrogen every second. The PP chain reaction occurs in other stars that are about the size of our sun and provides them with continuous energy and heat. The temperature for these stars is around 4 million degrees on the Kelvin scale (about 4 million degrees Celsius, 7 million degrees Fahrenheit).

In stars that are about 1.3 times bigger than the sun, the CNO cycle drives the creation of energy. The CNO cycle also converts hydrogen to helium but relies on carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen (C, N, and O) to do so. Currently, less than 2% of the sun’s energy is created by the CNO cycle.

Nuclear fusion by the PP chain reaction or CNO cycle releases tremendous amounts of energy in the form of waves and particles. Solar energy is constantly flowing away from the sun and throughout the solar system. Solar energy warms the Earth, causes wind and weather, and sustains plant and animal life.

The energy, heat, and light from the sun flow away in the form of electromagnetic radiation (EMR).

The electromagnetic spectrum exists as waves of different frequencies and wavelengths. The frequency of a wave represents how many times the wave repeats itself in a certain unit of time. Waves with very short wavelengths repeat themselves several times in a given unit of time, so they are high-frequency. In contrast, low-frequency waves have much longer wavelengths.

The vast majority of electromagnetic waves are invisible to us. The most high-frequency waves emitted by the sun are gamma rays, X-rays, and ultraviolet radiation (UV rays). The most harmful UV rays are almost completely absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere. Less potent UV rays travel through the atmosphere and can cause sunburn.

The sun also emits infrared radiation, whose waves are much lower frequency. Most heat from the sun arrives as infrared energy.

Sandwiched between infrared and UV is the visible spectrum, which contains all the colors we see on Earth. The color red has the longest wavelengths (closest to infrared), and violet (closest to UV) the shortest.

Natural Solar Energy

1. Greenhouse Effect
2. Photosynthesis
3. Fossil Fuels
• Harnessing solar Energy (The methods use either active solar energy or passive solar energy)
• Photovoltaics
• Concentrated solar energy
• Solar Architecture

Advantages & Disadvantages of Solar Energy

1. Advantages
• Solar energy is clean. After the solar technology equipment is constructed and put in place, solar energy does not need fuel to work. It also does not emit greenhouse gases or toxic materials.
• There are locations where solar energy is practical. Homes and buildings in areas with high amounts of sunlight and low cloud cover have the opportunity to harness the sun’s abundant energy.
• Solar energy complements other renewable sources of energy, such as wind or hydroelectric energy.


Homes or businesses that install successful solar panels can produce excess electricity. These homeowners or business owners can sell energy back to the electric provider, reducing or even eliminating power bills.

2. Disadvantages
• Solar energy equipment is also heavy. To retrofit or install solar panels on the roof of a building, the roof must be strong, large, and oriented toward the sun’s path.
• Both active and passive solar technology depends on factors that are out of our control, such as climate and cloud cover. Local areas must be studied to determine whether or not solar power would be effective in that area.
• Sunlight must be abundant and consistent for solar energy to be an efficient choice. In most places on Earth, sunlight’s variability makes it difficult to implement as the only source of energy.

Climate change: Everyone Focused on saving lives till now, time to save livelihood as well:

According to a Climate Central map, hundreds of cities on India’s eastern coast will be under water by 2050. CEEW says more than 80% of India’s population is vulnerable to “extreme climate risks”

According to a map created by Climate Central, hundreds of cities on the eastern coast of India will be under water by the year 2050. Over 27 states and union territories in India and more than 80% of the country’s population are vulnerable to “extreme climate risks”, says a report by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water.

These statistics show that the lives of many communities are put in danger due to climate change, and that a significant number of them lose their livelihood to it as well. Ritayan Mukherjee, a photojournalist, shares that while covering the pastoral nomads in the Himalayas, he came across the Changpa community who take their yak and sheep to grazing grounds that are 10,000-11,000 feet above the sea level. “The livelihood of these people is directly dependent on nature, because they move with their herd from one place to another,” says he.



Mukherjee shares that because of global warming, rising temperatures and the winter months getting shorter, the pastoralists have to take their herds to even higher grazing grounds. A report that Mukherjee worked on for the People’s Archive of Rural India said that the yak population in Leh fell about 57% between 1991-2010, according to the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying. A lot of these pastoralists don’t just depend on yak for their economic incomes, but they also use the yak-wool to build traditional tents, called Rebos. However, Mukherjee shares that these residential tents have disappeared over the past few years for reasons that can be attributed to climate change.

According to a Climate Central map, hundreds of cities on India’s eastern coast will be under water by 2050. CEEW says more than 80% of India’s population is vulnerable to “extreme climate risks”.

How many headlines and news articles did you come across in the last month that told you the condition of the climate is deteriorating? That a big chunk of our lives will be lost battling global warming in the next few decades? It’s no secret that climate change is impacting lives every single day, but let’s take a look at how it has been affecting us and what we can do to change its course.

Animal Husbandry And Veterinary Science

Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness.
Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture where animals are reared, bred and raised for meat, fiber, eggs, milk and other food essentials. It refers to livestock raising and selective breeding. A large number of farmers rely on animal husbandry for their livelihood.

Food is necessary for the development and survival of all the organisms. To deal with the need of food with the increasing population, it is necessary to increase food production. There are many technologies which increase yield such as plant breeding, animal husbandry and modern technologies like tissue culture, genetic engineering, embryo transfer.

Types Of Animal Husbandry

Out of many methodologies, there are four major types of animal husbandry practiced in the world today. An elaborated description of the same has been stated under:
Dairy Farming – It is mostly concerned with the long term production of milk, which is then processed to obtain dairy products such as curd, cheese, yoghurt, butter, cream and so on and so forth.
Poultry farming – It is concerned with raising and breeding of birds for commercial purposes. The eggs and meat hence produced are a rich source of protein.
Fish farming – It is the process of raising fish in closed tanks or ponds for commercial purposes. Another name one can call it is pisciculture.
Fish farming or pisciculture is of two types, namely:
Extensive aquaculture, based on the local photosynthetic production.
Intensive aquaculture, based on the external food supply given to fishes.
Bee farming – Also known as apiculture, is the practice of maintaining bee colonies by humans in man-made hives.

Role Of Animal Husbandry In Human Welfare

• Animal husbandry is beneficial to human beings in a decent number of ways, one of which is production of dairy products.
• Animals such as cows, goats, sheep are the major source of milk and milk products such as yoghurt, cheese, butter, etc.
• Meat is another very important product yielding via husbandry of animals such as pigs and goats.
• Animals also produce fibres or textiles such as wool and leather. Just as sheep are reared for wool whereas leather can be obtained from camel.

Strategies For Enhancement Of Food Production

An improved variety can be produced by induced mutation and by selecting improved mutants. Genetic engineering is also an option.

Main Steps Required For Developing New Varieties

The first involves collection of variability, genetic variability, being the main reason behind breeding.
Akin to this fact, evaluation and selection of parents certainly becomes equally as essential.


Hybridisation, which is the process of making cross between two genetically diverse parents to obtain a progeny with desired superior traits, is the third and a very important step for developing new varieties.
The fourth step involves selection and testing of superior recombination, which is more or less as the term suggests. It comprises selecting, among the progeny of the hybrids, to be specific, those plants that have the desired character combination.
This is the crucial step for the success of breeding objectives and requires careful scientific evaluation of progeny.

Plant breeding is one of the shortest and most effective routes to improve global health through better nutrition.