NINE BASIC THINGS FOR EVERY MECHANICAL ENGINEER

1. What does CC mean in Car engine?

Now, cc stands for cubic centimetres - It is a unit to measure the engine's displacement.

This is the measurement of the volume of the engine's cylinders or "compartments".

Now, when you read 200 cc it means the volume of the cylinder is 200 cubic centimeters.

CC can also be expressed in the form of litres. So, 200 cc = 0.2 L engine.

Remember that: 1 cubic centimeter = 0.001 liters = 1 milli liter.

With that you can understand that more cc does not mean more power. So, that brings to the most asked question: Does more cc mean more fuel consumption?

From what I've read, it is generally true that a vehicle with more displacement will have more fuel consumption.

However, there are very many other factors that affect fuel efficiency.

Therefore, by minimizing engine displacement, you will not ensure increased fuel efficiency.

2. What is meant by 'wheelbase' and 'ground clearance' in a car?

Wheelbase:

In a car, there are two rods used to connect the center of the wheels, one on the front and another on the rear.

The distance between these two rods or axles of a vehicle is known as its wheelbase.

This term is generally checked while buying a car to see how much large the cabin is. The longer the wheelbase, the more the interior room in the car's cabin.

Ground Clearance:

It means the distance between the ground (the point where the tire meets the ground) and the under side of the chassis i.e. any parts that aren't designed to touch the ground. The manufacturers generally mention this distance in millimetres or inches in the list of specifications.

High Ground Clearance Vs. Low Ground Clearance:

More the ground clearance, more is the vehicle capable of moving on off-road, bumpy, rough terrains. For this reason, you will generally find that SUVs are designed with high ground clearance.

If the vehicles has low ground clearance will have low center of gravity and that leads to better handling and performance.

A balance between a high and low ground clearance is needed and you'll find this being achieved in the most executive sedans.

3.What does air-cooled engine mean?

As is apparent from the term we are looking at, Air-cooled engines have air circulating over the hot parts of the engine to cool it. Now I can't put a diagrammatic explanation here, but it is pretty clear even with just the theory.

Most cars we use today have modern internal combustion engines.

A great percentage of the heat generated through these engines is released through the exhaust.

The remaining is handled traditionally by using a liquid coolant that is passed through a closed circuit over the cylinder head and engine block.

The liquid coolant absorbs heat and when it reaches the heat exchanger or radiator of the car, it released the heat into air.

Now you may feel that isn't the engine being ultimately cooled by air. Well yes, but because a liquid-coolant circuit was used, this system is called water-cooled engine.

In contrast, the air-cooled engines have the heat generated released directly into the air. Natural air flow plays a big part in this.

4.What is the difference between Multi Utility Vehicle (MUV) and Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV)?

SUV is a term used to denote any vehicle that looks like a station wagon.

They are equipped with four-wheel drive or all-wheel drive.

Their design aims to display superior off-road and towing capabilities and bigger seating capacity.

Example: Mahindra Scorpio, Ford Ecosport, Renault Duster, Toyota Fortuner etc.

MUV is a type of vehicle designed in a shape of van.

They typically allow easy conversion between multiple combinations of passenger and luggage capacity.

Example: Toyota Innova, Maruti Ertiga, Renaulta Lodgy, Honda Mobilio etc.

5. What is the difference between Automatic transmission and Manual transmission?

Automatic transmission have only few select options, like forward, neutral and reverse. Where manual transmission will have complete gear selector.

For buyers, Automatic means a vehicle will select a appropriate Gear by itself as 1st, 2nd or .... as per the vehicle speed and load. where in Manual a driver has to decide and put vehicle in correct gear to move in desired form.

Automatic may have solenoid gear selector or a complex mechanism of overdrive and clutches which we see in luxurious vehicles only.

6. Front and Rear suspension - What do they mean and why are they needed?

First why suspension, between you vehicle body and wheels suspension are the main medium which holds vehicle and make moving when moving wheels. second suspension is for absorbing sudden shocks from round terrain. Each wheel have separate suspension for independent work( minds its for cars only, trucks may have different arrangements)

in every cars there are two axles front and rear. each axles will get two suspension of same type on both the wheels.

For buyers, Front suspension has some difference bcoz front suspension has to modify and adjust as per the turning on front wheel in corners. whereas rear wheels has to Go straight only.

7. What is the difference between 4-cylinder engine and 3-cylinder engine?

4 or 3 cylinder engine - it implies number of cylinder and piston you have in your engine. More number of cylinder means more CC and more power. and also it increases size of the engine.

8. What is drivetrain and powertrain and why is it important?

Powertrain

The powertrain is composed of everything that makes the vehicle move. These components include the engine which generates the initial energy, the transmission that distributes it and produces torque and all the other components of the drivetrain that help to propel the body forward. It can be expressed in terms of a mathematical equation for simpler understanding:

Powertrain = [Engine] + [Drivetrain]

The output from the power sources are controlled by a transmission system and the driveline to deliver torque to the wheels. The circular motion of the crankshaft is transmitted to the rear wheels through the gearbox, clutch, universal joints, drive shafts or propeller shafts, the differential and the axles connected to the wheels.

The application of engine power to the driving wheels through the collaborative effort of each of these components is called the power transmission. All wheel drive vehicles have two sets of these components to distribute the power almost equally to the front and the rear.

Drivetrain

The drivetrain is the part of a motorized carriage that connects the engine and transmission to the wheel axles through a number of other components. Drivetrain consists of all components after the transmission.

9. What is the difference between All-wheel drive and four-wheel drive?

All wheel drive - means the power as explained in power goes from engine to all wheels of a vehicle basically the term uses for multi axle heavy duty trucks or trailer tractors.

Four Wheel Drive- as it says power goes to 4 wheel drive only.

4×4 (also, four-wheel drive and 4WD)

Reflecting two axles with both wheels on each capable of being powered.

6×6 (also, six-wheel drive and 6WD)

Reflecting three axles with both wheels on each capable of being powered.

8×8 (also, eight-wheel drive and 8WD)

Reflecting four axles with both wheels on each capable of being powered.

Cell Therapy (Setting the Body’s ‘Own Killer T Cells Loose on Cancer)

Cellular Immune Therapy of Cancer

Most of the above approaches have the limitation that they require delivery of a "corrective" gene to every cancer cell, a demanding task. An alternative is to harness the immune system, which may have an ability to actively seek out cancer cells. In healthy adults, the immune system recognizes and kills precancerous cells as well early cancer cells, but cancer progression is an evolutionary process and results in large part from an immune-evasive adaptive response to the cancer microenvironment affecting both the afferent and efferent arms of the immune response arc. This results in inhibition of the ability of a patient’s immune system to target and eradicate the tumor cells. To this end, investigators are developing and testing several cell therapy strategies to correct impairment of the host-cancer immune interaction and as a consequence, to improve the immune system’s ability to eliminate cancer.

Cell therapy for cancer refers to one or more of 3 different approaches: (i) therapy with cells that give rise to a new immune system which may be better able to recognize and kill tumor cells through the infusion of hematopoietic stem cells derived from either umbilical cord blood, peripheral blood, or bone marrow cells, (ii) therapy with immune cells such as dendritic cells which are designed to activate the patient’s own resident immune cells (e.g. T cells) to kill tumor cells, and (iii) direct infusion of immune cells such as T cells and NK cells which are prepared to find, recognize, and kill cancer cells directly. In all three cases, therapeutic cells are harvested and prepared in the laboratory prior to infusion into the patient. Immune cells including dendritic cells, T cells, and NK cells, can be selected for desired properties and grown to high numbers in the laboratory prior to infusion. Challenges with these cellular therapies include the ability of investigators to generate sufficient function and number of cells for therapy.  

Clinical trials of cell therapy for many different cancers are currently ongoing. More recently, scientists have developed novel cancer therapies by combining both gene and cell therapies. Specifically, investigators have developed genes which encode for artificial receptors, which, when expressed by immune cells, allow these cells to specifically recognize cancer cells thereby increasing the ability of these gene modified immune cells to kill cancer cells in the patient. One example of this approach, which is currently being studied at multiple centers, is the gene transfer of a class of novel artificial receptors called “chimeric antigen receptors” or CARs for short, into a patient’s own immune cells, typically T cells. Investigators believe that this approach may hold promise in the future for patients many different types of cancer. To this end, multiple pilot clinical trials for a variety of cancer types using T cells genetically modified to express tumor specific CARs are ongoing, some of which are showing promising results.

After a long, intense pursuit, researchers are close to
bringing to market a daring new treatment: cell therapy
that turbocharges the immune system to fight cancer.

The patient’s T-cells, the soldiers of the immune system, are extracted from the patient’s blood, then genetically engineered to recognize and destroy cancer
The redesigned cells are multiplied in the laboratory, and millions or billions of them are put back into the patient’s bloodstream, set loose like a vast army of tumor assassins.
The killer cells are genetically engineered to produce a complex protein, an amalgam of pieces from different parts of the immune system that is unlike anything seen before.
http://www.nytimes.com/…/cancer-cell-therapy-immune-system.…
http://www.foxnews.com/…/cells-dripped-into-brain-help-man-…

When 5-year-old Emily Whitehead was first diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common pediatric cancer, her parents were optimistic – the cure rate for ALL can be as high as 85 percent. “We felt pretty hopeful at that point,” says her mom, Kari.

But the chemotherapy treatments were hard on Emily. She suffered from constant pain and nausea and developed a life-threatening infection in her legs. Her cancer went into remission twice, but each time it returned.

Soon, it became clear that there was not much more Emily’s doctors could do.

That’s when her parents brought her to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

A Dramatic Recovery

The days immediately after Emily received the T cell therapy were harrowing. She spent over a week in CHOP’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, on a ventilator and heavily sedated. Her symptoms were an indication that the T cells were hard at work in her body. But her body’s reaction to the cells was so intense she nearly died.

Then her medical team made another breakthrough. One night, after they found abnormal levels of a certain protein in her blood, they were able to identify a medication – one not typically used in cancer patients – that they believed would block the effects of the protein.

The team administered the drug to Emily, with dramatic results. “The ICU doctor told me that he had never seen a patient that sick get better that quickly,” says Grupp.

Over the next weeks, Emily completely recovered from the illness that resulted from the T cell therapy – and tests soon revealed that her leukemia was in remission.

Emily went home from the hospital on June 1. And thus far, she remains in remission.

Everything you need to know about beer

The exciting thing about beer is that there is so much to enjoy beyond the sensory pleasure of drinking it. Of course, it all starts and ends with flavor, but beer lovers have extended their interests to include the packaging and labeling of beer, the people who make it, brewing history, festivals devoted to beer, and crafts and collections based on beer. We study the stuff, celebrate its traditions, collect its artwork, debate its merits, and categorize its styles.

Here is a manual to build your beer knowledge—practical insights and personal passions that can augment what we already know: beer tastes great.

How To Sound Like A Beer Expert

Master a few basics, and you’ll know more than anyone else at the bar.

Your friends have noticed that you order imported beer at the bar. You always bring a six-pack of something tasty back from vacations. Now, they’re starting to call you “Mr. Beer,” or “Ms Beer” (as the case may be).

They’re kidding you. But they’re also looking to you for leadership. They’ve seen that you take beer seriously, even if the truth is that you are just taking your first steps into the subject, yourself.

Never fear, with this handy crib sheet, you can master the basics, and answer ninety percent of the questions about beer that ever float around the bar. Commit these answers to memory, and you can also qualify for a job answering ninety percent of the questions that come to the staff of All About Beer.

Q: What are pilsners, ales, lagers, etc? What does “bottom fermented” mean? And when you say “lagered,” what exactly does that involve?

A: “Beer” refers to any fermented beverage made from grain. Lagers and ales are the two families of beer, distinguished by the type of yeast and the temperature of fermentation. Lagers are fermented at cooler temperatures by so-called “bottom fermenting” yeast. Beers in the lager family need to be conditioned—or “lagered”—somewhere cool for a number of weeks before they are ready to drink. Ales are fermented at warmer temperature by top-fermenting yeast strains, and are ready to drink sooner.

There are many distinct styles of beer within the lager and ale families: for example, pilsner is one of the most popular lager styles; and porter and stout are examples of ale styles. And in both families, beers can run the gamut from light to dark-colored, and from weak to strong alcohol.

Q: Who invented beer?

A: The earliest records of beer and brewing have been found in Sumeria, which is in modern Iraq. They date back over 4,000 years ago, so there isn’t really a “who.”

Q: Is there a way to turn non-alcoholic beer into alcoholic beer?

A: People who ask about putting the A back in NA beer are generally a) living in the Middle East, b) under age, or c) in prison. I leave it to you to weigh the consequences of breaking whatever law you are up against.

You can add sugar and yeast to NA beer and generate a little alcohol, but it will taste nasty. Homebrewed beer—even bad homebrewed beer—will taste better. Alternatively, our ancestors coped with Prohibition by creating “needle beer”—NA beer with a syringeful of grain alcohol added.

Your best and safest bet is to a) change countries, b) grow up, or c) get released.

Q: How many calories in beer?

A: There are about 150 calories in a 12-ounce serving of standard beer, the same amount as those little pots of fruit yogurt dieters like so much. I know which is my choice: when I want a cold one after work, I don’t mean a cold yogurt. A light beer will contain about 100 calories. Some hefty styles such as barleywines contain about 300 calories. Remember: it’s not the beer, it’s the nachos.

Q: How many carbs are in a beer?

A: Ah, an Atkins dieter. There are about 13 carbs in a standard beer, 5 in a light beer.

Q: I’m allergic to wheat. How can I be sure the beer I drink is safe for me?

A: The basic ingredients of beer are malted barley, hops, water and yeast. Some brewers add wheat, oats, rice, or corn—the last two, in particular, are used by the big brewers to create a lighter flavor and save costs. So, to make sure you don’t get any ingredient you’re sensitive to, look for beers that explicitly say they are made only from malted barley (“malt”), hops, water and yeast. Or look for beers that say they are brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot, or the “Bavarian beer purity laws of 1516,” which stipulates the use of the same four ingredients.

Q: What is the proper way to pour a beer?

A: If you pour the beer slowly down the side of a tilted glass, a smaller head is formed, and more CO2 remains dissolved in the beer. If you hold the glass upright and pour straight into the glass, more gas is released, and a larger head will form. Real aficionados will insist that different beers have different ideal pours, but you are a mere expert, not an aficionado. Pour an ale so that it has about half an inch of head, lagers with a larger one, and allow a wheat beer to throw a big, pillowy head.

Q: My girlfriend won’t drink beer. How can I convert her?

A: When she says she won’t drink beer, the kind of beer she won’t drink is probably the standard light lager that dominates the market. There are another seventy some-odd defined styles out there: persuade her to try a wheat beer, or a Belgian ale. If that fails, tell her that until recently, brewing was the province of women: she owes it to her sex to like beer.

Q: May I have a chilled glass, please?

A: No, you may not.

Q: O.K., Mr. Beer, what’s the best beer in the world?

A: (Dodge this one. Experts avoid this question like the plague, lest they offend the next brewer they want to visit). Say! Isn’t that Michael Jackson over there?

—Julie Johnson Bradford

How To Judge Beer

Sniff, stare, sip, swish, savor, swallow. Simple.

Throughout the United States—indeed, throughout the world—homebrewers have been holding competitions for over 20 years. Of course, in order to have a winner, someone has to judge the beer. An organization formed in 1985 by the Home Wine and Beer Trade Association and the American Homebrewers Association trains and certifies homebrew judges. This group, now an independent nonprofit organization, is called the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), and it has over 2,500 members throughout the United States, Canada and many other countries.

To become a beer judge with the BJCP, an individual must study for and pass a written test comprising 10 essay questions that cover the history of beer, the many styles of beer, the chemistry of beer, and the techniques for brewing beer, as well as a practical tasting and evaluation of four different homebrewed beers using the official BJCP score sheet. The test takes three hours to complete.

According to BJCP guidelines, the task of judging beer falls into five distinct categories of evaluation in a 50-point scoring system. Here’s how you can judge a homebrew following this system.

Bouquet/Aroma (10 points): Immediately after the beer has been poured, take a sniff while the sniffing’s good. In less time than you think, the volatile esters that make up the beer’s aroma will be gone. What you’re looking for are the dominant aromas of the beer. Is it sweet, sour, roasty, earthy, herbal, flowery, citric or any one of a number of other aromas? A strong malt presence will be sweet. Sourness and tartness often, but not always, are a result of an infected beer. Roasty aromas derive from roasted grains, such as the highly roasted, unmalted barley used in an Irish stout. Different varieties of hops impart earthy, herbal, flowery and citric aromas. Ales are often fruity. German wheat beers and many Belgian ales are yeasty and spicy.

Appearance (6 points): Is the beer clear? Most beers are filtered and should be clear. Or is the beer cloudy? Unfiltered wheat beers are supposed to be poured so that the yeast on the bottom of the bottle is roused and poured into the glass. What color is the beer? Each beer style has its own color parameters: golden for pilsners, amber for most pale ales, orangey-reddish-amber for Oktoberfests, black or near-black for stouts. Does the beer have a nice foamy head and good head retention, or is the head weak and anemic? Does beautiful lace cling to the sides of the glass or does the beer wash down the inside of the glass like dishwater?

Flavor (19 points): Here you’re looking for a number of characteristics, many of them similar in definition to the bouquet/aroma characteristics. Is the main flavor one of malt (sweet or roasty) or hops (earthy, herbal, flowery, citric)? Does an added fruit take over the flavor? Is the beer tart or sour? Wheat beers are often pleasantly tart. Many Belgian beers are tart or yeasty or spicy or something totally different. How does the flavor change from the first impression into the middle and to the finish? Is the finish a slam-bam “That’s all folks!” or does it linger with a particular taste?

How do all these flavors play off each other? In beer-judge talk, that’s called “balance.” Is the balance good, or does one flavor drown out all the others in a nasty show of brute strength? How well is the beer “conditioned,” by which beer judges mean the age of the beer and how the flavors have all come together? Is the level of carbon dioxide pleasant or overpowering?

Body (5 points): What’s the mouthfeel of the beer? Is it thin and watery (like a standard American lager) or full and chewy (like an Imperial stout)? Does the beer sparkle or is it flat and dull looking?

Drinkability & Overall Impression (10 points): Finally, beer judges make comments about how they perceive the beer as a whole, adding kudos where appropriate and constructive criticisms when necessary: “This is a great example of an American pale ale, full of malt body and lots of fresh, lovely Cascade hops aroma and flavor.” “This was entered as an Irish stout, but there’s almost no roasty malt aroma or taste, and the color is brown, not black.”

One thing must be clear from the above examples. In order to judge beer, you have to know beer. Beer styles. The BJCP lists 26 main categories of beer styles with many more subcategories. Study these by buying and tasting as many commercial examples as possible and you’re on your way to becoming a knowledgeable beer judge.

The BJCP website (www.bjcp.org) will be a great help in learning the definitions and characteristics of all the beer styles you’re ever likely to encounter. Have fun studying.

—Gregg Glaser

NASA's Kepler Mission Rewrites Drake's Equation --"Humans Not the First Technological Civilization in the Universe"

Cecile G. Tamura

"The question of whether advanced civilizations exist elsewhere in the universe has always been vexed with three large uncertainties in the Drake equation," said Adam Frank, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester. "We've known for a long time approximately how many stars exist. We didn't know how many of those stars had planets that could potentially harbor life, how often life might evolve and lead to intelligent beings, and how long any civilizations might last before becoming extinct."

As Frank puts it "We don't even know if it's possible to have a high-tech civilization that lasts more than a few centuries." With Frank and Sullivan's new result, scientists can begin using everything they know about planets and climate to begin modeling the interactions of an energy-intensive species with their home world knowing that a large sample of such cases has already existed in the cosmos.

"Our results imply that our biological, and cultural evolution has not been unique and has probably happened many times before. The other cases are likely to include many energy intensive civilizations dealing with crises on their planets as their civilizations grow. That means we can begin exploring the problem using simulations to get a sense of what leads to long lived civilizations and what doesn't."

A new study shows that the recent discoveries of exoplanets combined with a broader approach to the question makes it possible to assign a new empirically valid probability to whether any other advanced technological civilizations have ever existed. And it shows that unless the odds of advanced life evolving on a habitable planet are astonishingly low, then human kind is not the universe's first technological, or advanced, civilization.

The paper, published in Astrobiology, also shows for the first time just what "pessimism" or "optimism" mean when it comes to estimating the likelihood of advanced extraterrestrial life.

"Thanks to NASA's Kepler satellite and other searches, we now know that roughly one-fifth of stars have planets in 'habitable zones,' where temperatures could support life as we know it. So one of the three big uncertainties has now been constrained."

Frank said that Drake's third big question--how long civilizations might survive--is still completely unknown. "The fact that humans have had rudimentary technology for roughly ten thousand years doesn't really tell us if other societies would last that long or perhaps much longer," he explained.

The illustration of the Drake equation and the Frank equation is shown below. In 1961, astrophysicist Frank Drake developed an equation to estimate the number of advanced civilizations likely to exist in the Milky Way galaxy.

The Drake equation (top row) has proven to be a durable framework for research, and space technology has advanced scientists' knowledge of several variables. But it is impossible to do anything more than guess at variables such as L, the probably longevity of other advanced civilizations.

In their new research, Frank and Woodruff Sullivan offer a new equation (bottom row) to address a slightly different question: What is the number of advanced civilizations likely to have developed over the history of the observable universe? Frank and Sullivan's equation draws on Drake's, but eliminates the need for L.

"Rather than asking how many civilizations may exist now, we ask 'Are we the only technological species that has ever arisen?': said Sullivan. "This shifted focus eliminates the uncertainty of the civilization lifetime question and allows us to address what we call the 'cosmic archaeological question' -- how often in the history of the universe has life evolved to an advanced state?"

That still leaves huge uncertainties in calculating the probability for advanced life to evolve on habitable planets. It's here that Frank and Sullivan flip the question around. Rather than guessing at the odds of advanced life developing, they calculate the odds against it occurring in order for humanity to be the only advanced civilization in the entire history of the observable universe.

With that, Frank and Sullivan then calculated the line between a Universe where humanity has been the sole experiment in civilization and one where others have come before us.

"Of course, we have no idea how likely it is that an intelligent technological species will evolve on a given habitable planet," says Frank. But using our method we can tell exactly how low that probability would have to be for us to be the ONLY civilization the Universe has produced. We call that the pessimism line. If the actual probability is greater than the pessimism line, then a technological species and civilization has likely happened before."

Using this approach, Frank and Sullivan calculate how unlikely advanced life must be if there has never been another example among the universe's twenty billion trillion stars, or even among our own Milky Way galaxy's hundred billion.

The result? By applying the new exoplanet data to the Universe as a whole, Frank and Sullivan find that human civilization is likely to be unique in the cosmos only if the odds of a civilization developing on a habitable planet are less than about one in 10 billion trillion, or one part in 10 to the 22th power.

"One in 10 billion trillion is incredibly small," says Frank "To me, this implies that other intelligent, technology producing species very likely have evolved before us. Think of it this way. Before our result you'd be considered a pessimist if you imagined the probability of evolving a civilization on a habitable planet were, say, one in a trillion. But even that guess, one chance in a trillion, implies that what has happened here on Earth with humanity has in fact happened about a 10 billion other times over cosmic history!"

For smaller volumes the numbers are less extreme. For example, another technological species likely has evolved on a habitable planet in our own Milky Way galaxy if the odds against it evolving on any one habitable planet are better than one chance in 60 billion.
But if those numbers seem to give ammunition to the "optimists" about the existence of alien civilizations, Sullivan points out that the full Drake equation -- which calculates the odds that other civilizations are around today -- may give solace to the pessimists.

"The universe is more than 13 billion years old," said Sullivan. "That means that even if there have been a thousand civilizations in our own galaxy, if they live only as long as we have been around -- roughly ten thousand years -- then all of them are likely already extinct. And others won't evolve until we are long gone. For us to have much chance of success in finding another "contemporary" active technological civilization, on average they must last much longer than our present lifetime."

"Given the vast distances between stars and the fixed speed of light we might never really be able to have a conversation with another civilization anyway," said Frank. "If they were 50,000 light years away then every exchange would take 100,000 years to go back and forth."

But, as Frank and Sullivan point out, even if there aren't other civilizations in our galaxy to communicate with now, the new result still has a profound scientific and philosophical importance. "From a fundamental perspective the question is 'has it ever happened anywhere before?'" said Frank. "And it is astonishingly likely that we are not the only time and place that an advance civilization has evolved."

According to Frank and Sullivan their result has a practical application as well. As humanity faces its crisis in sustainability and climate change we can wonder if other civilization-building species on other planets have gone through a similar bottleneck and made it to the other side.

https://www.rochester.edu/news/are-we-alone-in-the-universe/

http://www.seti.org/node/993

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/…/nasas-kepler-mission-discoveri

கலியுகத்தின் 15 கணிப்புகள் (வியக்க வைக்கும் உண்மைகள்!!

நம் ரிஷிகளும் முனிவர்களும் எதிர்காலத்தில் நடக்கவிருப்பதை முன்கூட்டியே அறிந்திருந்தனர். இது அவர்களின் அதீத அறிவாற்றலினால் அவர்கள் கண்டறிந்த உண்மைகள். பாகவத புராணத்தின் இறுதி பாகத்தில் கலியுகத்தைப் பற்றிய சில அரிய தகவல்கள் நிறைந்துள்ளன. 5000 ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன் வேதவியாசர் அருளிய ஓர் உத்தம நூலில் கலியுகத்தைப் பற்றிய குறிப்புகள் அத்தனையும் மிகப் பொருத்தமாக அமைந்துள்ளது மிகவும் வியக்கத்தக்க ஒன்றாகும். ஆச்சரியப்பட தயாராக இருங்கள்!

1) கலியுகத்தின் தாக்கத்தால் அறநெறி, உண்மை, தூய்மை, பொறுமை, கருணை, ஆயுள்காலம், உடல்வலிமை, ஞாபகசக்தி ஆகிய அனைத்தும் மனிதர்களிடையே நாளுக்கு நாள் குறைந்து கொண்டே வரும். [பாகவத புராணம் 12.2.1]

2) கலியுகத்தில், பொருட்செல்வம் மட்டுமே ஒரு மனிதனின் மதிப்பை அளவிடும். மற்றபடி ஒருவனின் முறையான பழக்கவழக்கங்கள் மற்றும் நல்ல பண்புகள் அடிப்படையில் அவன் மதிப்பிடப்படுவதில்லை. மேலும், சட்டமும் நீதியும் ஒருவனின் அதிகாரத்தின் அடிப்படையிலே செயல்படும். [பாகவத புராணம் 12.2.2]

3) சில ஆண்களும் பெண்களும் வெறும் உடலுறவுக்காக மட்டுமே தொடர்பு கொண்டிருப்பார்கள். தொழில்துறைகளில் வெற்றி என்பது வஞ்சகமும் சூழ்ச்சியும் நிறைந்திருக்கும். பூணூல் அணிந்திருப்பதால் மட்டுமே ஒருவன் பிராமணன் என்றழைக்கப்படுவான். [பாகவத புராணம் 12.2.3]
*கணவன் மனைவி உறவு என்பது வெறும் உடலுறவுக்காக மட்டுமின்றி, அது ஒரு மிக உன்னதமான பந்தம். ஆணும் பெண்ணும் சமம், இருவரும் தங்களின் குடும்பத்தை முறையாக வழிநடத்தவேண்டும். பெண்ணை மதிப்பதால் தான் ஒருவன் ஆணாகிறான்; ஆணை மதிப்பதால் தான் ஒருவள் பெண் ஆகிறாள். பிராமணன் என்பவன் நற்குணங்களாலும் தர்மசெயல்களாலும் உருவாகிறானே தவிர பூணூல் அணிவதால் அல்ல. சமூகத்தில் வேண்டுமென்றால் பூணூல் அணிந்துகொண்டு தன்னை உயர்ந்தவன் என்று காட்டிக் கொள்ளலாம். ஆனால், பகவானின் முன்னிலையில் எல்லாவுயிர்களும் சம்மே! (சர்வபூதேஷு சமஹ்-கீதை)

4) ஒருவரின் புறத்தோற்றத்தை மட்டுமே அடிப்படையாக கொண்டு அவரை பண்டிதர் என்று மக்கள் நம்புவார்கள். கண்களால் காணும் வித்தைகளுக்கு மயங்கி தவறான போலிகுருக்களை நம்பி வழிதவறி செல்வார்கள். வெறும் வாய் வார்த்தைகளில் ஜாலங்கள் செய்பவர் கற்றுணர்ந்த பண்டிதராக போற்றப்படுவார். [பாகவத புராணம் 12.2.4]

5) கலியுகத்தின் பிடியில் சிக்கியிருக்கும் சிலர் பொருட்செல்வம் (பணம்) இல்லாதவனைத் தீண்டத்தகாதவன் என்று வெறுத்து ஒதுக்குவர். குளிப்பதாலும் அலங்காரம் செய்து கொள்வதாலும் மட்டுமே ஒருவன் சுத்தமடைந்து விட்டான் என எண்ணிக் கொள்வான். [பாகவத புராணம் 12.2.5]

6) அலங்காரம் செய்தவனெல்லாம் அழகானவன் என்றறியப்படுவான். முரட்டுத்தனமான பேச்சு உண்மை என்று எளிதில் நம்பப்படும். வயிற்றை நிரப்புவது மட்டுமே வாழ்க்கையின் குறிக்கோளாக அமையும். பல மதங்கள் ஆட்களை சேர்த்துக் கொள்வதையும் பெருக்கிக் கொள்வதையும் மட்டுமே லட்சியமாக கொண்டிருக்கும். [பாகவத புராணம் 12.2.6]

7) உலகத்தில் ஊழல் நிறைந்த அரசியல்வாதிகள் நிறைந்துவிடுவர். தன் சமூகத்தினிடையே தன்னை பலமானவன் என்று காட்டிக்கொள்பவன் அரசாளும் அதிகாரத்தைப் பெற்றிடுவான். [பாகவத புராணம் 12.2.7]

8) ஊழல் நிறைந்த அரசாங்கத்தால் நியாயமற்ற கொடுமையான வரிகள் மக்கள் மீது வசூலிக்கப்படும். இதனால் மக்கள் உண்ண உணவின்றி இலை, வேர், விதை போன்றவற்றை உண்ணத் தொடங்குவார்கள். (அரசின் அலட்சியப் போக்கினால்) கடுமையான பருவநிலை மாற்றத்திற்கு ஆளாகி துன்பமிகு வாழ்க்கையில் சிக்கிக் கொள்வார்கள். [பாகவத புராணம் 12.2.9]

9) கடுங்குளிர், புயல், கடும்வெப்பம், கனமழை, உறைபனி, வெள்ளம் போன்ற பல இயற்கை பேரிடர்களில் சிக்கி மக்கள் தவிப்பார்கள். இதனால் பசி, தாகம், நோய், பயம், சச்சரவு போன்ற கடுந்துன்பங்களிலும் சிக்கிக் கொள்வார்கள். [பாகவத புராணம் 12.2.10]

10) கலியுகத்தின் கொடுமை அதிகரிக்கையில், மனிதர்களின் சராசரி ஆயுள்காலம் 50 ஆண்டுகளாக குறையும். [பாகவத புராணம் 12.2.11]

11) தன்னை ஊட்டி வளர்த்த பெற்றோர்களை இறுதிகாலத்தில் கவனித்துக் கொள்ளும் தர்மத்தை மகன் மறப்பான். [பாகவத புராணம் 12.3.42]

12) பொருளுக்காக மனிதன் இன்னொரு மனிதனிடம் வெறுப்பு, பொறாமை போன்ற உணர்ச்சிகளை வளர்த்துக் கொள்வான். நட்பு என்ற உயரிய பண்பை போற்றாமல், தன் சுற்றத்தாரையும் உறவினரையும் கூட கொல்லத் துணிவான். [பாகவத புராணம் 12.3.41]

13) வெறும் பகட்டுக்காகவும் புகழுக்காகவும் மட்டுமே தானம் அளிப்பார்கள். தற்பெருமைக்காக மட்டுமே நோன்பு இருப்பார்கள். தர்மத்தைப் பற்றிய அறிவாற்றல் இல்லாதவர்கள் மதங்களை உருவாக்கி மக்களைக் கவர்ந்து தவறான அதர்ம பாதைக்கு இழுத்துச் செல்வார்கள். [பாகவத புராணம் 12.3.38]

14) தனக்கு இனி பயன்பட மாட்டான் என்ற பட்சத்தில் தனக்கு இத்தனை காலமாக உழைத்து தந்த தொழிலாளிகளை முதலாளி கைவிடுவான். இத்தனை காலம் பால் கொடுத்த பசு பால் கொடுப்பது குறைந்துவிட்டால் அப்பசுக்களும் கொல்லப்படும். நன்றிகடன் மறக்கப்படும். [பாகவத புராணம் 12.3.36]

15) நகரங்களில் கொள்ளையர்கள் அதிகரிப்பர்; வேதங்கள் கயவர்களால் தங்கள் சுயநல கோட்பாடுகளைப் பரப்ப பொய்யான முறையில் மொழிப்பெயர்க்கப்படும். அரசியல்வாதிகள் மக்களை மெல்லமெல்ல பலவிதமாக கொடுமை செய்வார்கள். போலி ஆசாரியர்கள் தோன்றி பக்தர்களை உபயோகப்படுத்தி தங்கள் வயிறுகளையும் காமத்தையும் பூர்த்தி செய்து கொள்வார்கள். [பாகவத புராணம் 12.3.32]

கலியுகம் துன்பங்கள் நிறைந்தது. ஆனாலும் நான்கில் ஒரு பங்கு தர்மம் உள்ளது. கலியுக துன்பங்களில் இருந்து நம்மைக் காத்துக் கொள்ள கண்டிப்பாக நமக்கு ஈஸ்வரனின் துணை தேவை. மழையினில் குடைபோல, இறைவனிடம் காட்டும் பக்தி இத்துன்பங்கள் நம்மீது படாமல் பாதுகாக்கும். மனத்தை உறுதியாக வைத்துக் கொள்ள தியானமும், உடலை வலிமையாக வைத்துக் கொள்ள யோகமும், செயலை தூய்மையாக வைத்துக் கொள்ள சுயநலமற்ற சேவைகளும் புரியவேண்டும். கலியுக துன்பங்களில் நம்முடைய தர்மங்களை மறந்துவிட கூடாது.

கலியுகத்தின் நடுவில் ஒரு பொற்காலம் மலரும் என கூறப்படுகின்றது. இப்போது நாம் எல்லோரும் அந்த பொற்காலத்திற்காக உலகத்தை தயார் செய்யவேண்டும். அனைத்தையும் அச்சமின்றி மிகவும் துணிவாக எதிர்கொள்ளவேண்டும்! மிகவும் தெளிவான சிந்தனையோடு செயல்படவேண்டும். ஒருபோதும் கடவுளை மறவாமல் இருக்கவேண்டும்