“Do not believe what your teacher tells youmerely out of respect for the teacher.”

Gautama Buddha02ONE WORLD, DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

Explore diversity in vision and figure out how the same topic may be vieweddifferently by different folks. This is a mirror to society and life

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It’s possible that the futureastronauts will sleep in whitecoffin-like pods, as the cryo-preserved astronauts infuturistic fantasies — ‘2001: ASpace Odyssey’, ‘Alien’, and‘Avatar’— did

Nasa is seriously discussingwhether they can makehumans hibernate. Tomake long journeys

through the galaxy easier on astro-nauts, and actually possible, scien-tists are looking at hibernating ani-mals to see if we can replicate thephysiological process in humans. Theprimary problem for human hiber-nation is physiological. For humansto successfully hibernate, we need tolower our body temperature withoutexperiencing any muscle or bone loss.

How do animals hibernateMuscle loss is one of the main issuesastronauts face unless they adhereto a strict exercise routine in space.However, various animals, like cer-tain types of bears and the Arcticground squirrel, can hibernate formonths without losing allof their strength.

The problem isthat scientists don’tunderstand how ani-mals hibernate, butthey do know the stateof inactivity is key toconserving energy.

The Guardianreports: Nasafunded a pre-l i m i n a r ystudy thatlooked at theidea of put-ting as-

tronauts into a state of torpor, or hi-bernation, for weeks at a time. Theprospective benefits that were re-ported last year included a cut in thefood and water required on theirspacecraft, a reduction in wasteproducts, smaller living quartersand less space needed for supplies,exercise and entertainment. And

putting the crew to sleep mightminimise their psychologicalchallenges.

As scientists make new dis-coveries on the secrets of hiber-

nation, they plan to apply theirfindings to non-hibernating ani-

mals before moving on to hu-man testing.

Hibernation in spaceIs it possible?

HEALTH RISKSOF STAYING INOUTER SPACE Your sight could changeYour vision might get worsedue to pressure changes inthe brain. Fluids near theoptic nerve can push on theback of the eyeball. Deep-space radiation might alsopromote cataracts andimpair eyesight. With lessgravity, a lot of liquids movetoward and into your head —so your face looks puffy.

Your bone density can changeIf you don’t exercise while inspace, you’ll lose about 12%of your bone density.Researchers are still tryingto understand why this hap-pens, though microfracturesin bone caused simply bywalking around on Earthseem to be important tomaintaining bone health.

Your cancer riskincreasesRadiation bombarding yourbody outside of Earth’sprotective magnetic fieldcan increase your risk ofgetting cancer. Also, it’sdifficult to sleep in spacedue to zero gravity.

Nasa astronaut ChristinaKoch spent 328 days in outer

space — the longestspaceflight

ever by awoman

The name was establishedto avoid confusionThe name “Air Force One” was es-tablished for communication pur-poses. It was adopted in 1953, af-ter a commercial plane, EasternAir Lines Flight 8610, enteredPresident Eisenhower’s airspacewhen he was on board his plane,which had a similar name — AirForce 8610. After the incident, theterm “Air Force One” was coinedto avoid any confusion aboutwhich aircraft is carrying thecommander-in-chief. Hence, it isthe official air traffic control callsign for the POTUS’s arrival.

There are two Air ForceOne planes

The military has two planes readyas Air Force One with all the mod-ifications, amentities and securityneeded for the POTUS. The twoplanes serving in the Air Force Onefleet today have been in servicesince 1990, and one of them is al-ways ready to fly.

There’s a mobile command centerPresidents have a mobile com-mand center at their disposal onthe Air Force One aircraft. Theonboard electronics are modifiedto protect the plane from an elec-tromagnetic pulse, and the planeis equipped with advanced se-cure communications equip-ment, according to the WhiteHouse website. In case of an at-tack, the Air Force One is ready

with security features to safe-guard the President.

Air Force One can stay inthe air indefinitely

This feature would only be neededin case of an emergency, but it'spretty cool nonetheless. How doesit work? The plane has a special fuelcap on its nose, so a second AirForce plane can connect a fuelpump to the front of the plane whileflying above it.

It's fastThe Air Force One has the abilityto fly at a speed of more than 965kilometres per hour (or around 75per cent of Mach 1 — the speed ofsound at sea level).

It has a surgical suite withoperating table, two kitchens

The plane has complete medical fa-cilities, including an operatingtable, an extra reserve of the Pres-ident's blood type in the refrigera-

tor, besides other equipment. It alsohas two kitchens that can cater to100 people at a time. Of course, thereare other personal conveniences forthe POTUS.

It can withstand nuclear attack While the details of the plane’s de-fence capabilities are a top secret,the plane has the ability to functionas a de-facto bunker in case of a nu-clear attack. Reportedly, it is capa-ble of repelling airborne missilesand has a special electronic defencesystem that can jam enemy radars.

AIR FORCE ONETHE FLYING FORTRESSAIR FORCE ONETHE FLYING FORTRESS

Although ‘Air Force One’ can be technologically described as any other military aircraft carrying the Presidentof the United States (POTUS), it is now a standard procedure to use the term specifically for aircraft meant toferry the head of the country. The US Air Force aircraft is modified keeping the needs of POTUS in mind

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Protest, but don’t occupypublic roadsEvery citizen has an equal right to protest,peacefully. For the past few years we havebeen witnessing violent protests and de-struction of public property. People are wel-come to protest and present their views, butit has to be done in an orderly and civilised

manner. People shouldn’t assemble on roadsor at parks as this will only create problemswith the police taking strict action to controlthe situation. People should instead assem-ble at a specific place or spot and protest inan organised manner so that there will be less problems, and the common man does nothave to endure hardships. HARSHUL AGGARWAL, student, Learning PathsSchool, Mohali

Tips to reduce exam anxiety Anxiety is the common flu children sufferfrom during exams. Here are some tips,which may help to reduce exam anxiety:1. Take deep breaths to reduce anxiety.2. Always study in bright light as dim lightputs strain on the eyes. 3. If possible keep some indoor plants nearyour study table. It will definitely boostyour mood.

4. Plan a walk in the garden as it will help torelease your stress.5. Opt for morning studies instead of night.Your mind is completely fresh in the morn-ing after a sound sleep of 6 to 8 hours.6. Write down your notes to make it easy.7. Maintain a time table, make daily targetsand try to achieve them. You will feel encouraged. KAMIYA JAIN, class VIII, Cambridge School, Noida

Like airlines, railways shouldalso ban unruly passengersI appreciate the fact that the railways hasbeen keen to adopt the airlines’ idea ofbanning unruly passengers. There has beenimprovement in the railways like betterbogies, bio toilets, launch of Tejas Express,increasing speed of certain trains, pro-viding free wi-fi to passengers at somestations, escalators, providing better armsfor the railway police etc. We see peopleon trains misbehaving with the passen-gers, talking loudly during late hours, us-ing mobiles at high volume etc. There was

an incident when a person threatened alady passenger and occupied her berth.All rules must be displayed on official web-sites so that everyone comes to know aboutthem and behave properly. Unwanted peo-ple must not be allowed inside the railwaystations. There should be an app to enablepassengers to report any crime or misbe-haviour of passengers so that action canbe taken instantly. All this will bring abouta drastic change in train travel. PRANATHI R PRASAD, class VIII, Indus Valley

International School, Hyderabad

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Keep your anger bucket emptyCBSE, as a part of its thrust on “joyful educa-tion and holistic learning”, has asked its affil-iated schools to be “anger-free”. Hence, weat TRS Global Public School have introduced‘bucket-filler activity’ towards anger man-agement. A yellow smilie card is given to stu-dents who help others while a red-frown card

is given when he/she behaves rudely towardspeers. This makes them conscious of their rudebehaviour as their buckets get filled with red-frown cards. We hope this activity will infusepositivity in the minds of our students.J SIVA KAVITHA, principal, TRS Global PublicSchool, Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu

Has Kalam’s vision of 'India2020' come true? By 2020, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam wanted Indiato be a nation that is prosperous, healthy,secure, peaceful, happy, following a sus-tainable growth path. A nation that is oneof the best places to live in and is proud ofits leadership. The year 2020 has begun butdo you think Kalam’s dream for the nation

as come true? Challenges like poverty, il-literacy, corruption and crimes againstwomen and children are the biggest obsta-cles in our path. But, every problem has asolution. Here, we, the younger generation,the students of this nation are the solution.We are the future of India and our actionswill surely make a change. Kalam believedthat the youth of the nation is the most pow-erful medium to bring about change. Let uscome together and make efforts to fulfilKalam’s dream.MADHURA K DAHIWADKAR, class IX, Vikhe PatilMemorial School, Pune

Have we let Bapu down? Today’s India isn’t the best example of whatGandhiji had visualised when he was fightingagainst colonial rule. We hail Gandhiji as theFather of the Nation, but looking at what wehave become, he definitely would not beproud. Gandhiji envisioned a society whereno individual was discriminated on the basis

of caste, religion or gender, where crime wastreated as a disease that required help andunderstanding and not punishment. We havefailed to implement these ideologies and areon the verge of creating a society built onsocial evils instead of love and compassionfor all. It’s high time we work in close part-nership with our leaders to bring about achange. Be kind to nature, and nature willdefinitely give you its bounty. Respect oth-ers to get respect for yourself. Don’t be blind-ed by the stereotypes and prejudices in so-ciety. We have to realise this on our own andthe day we do that, I promise you we all willbecome Gandhiji’s ideal citizens. TESHI SHARMA, class X, GIIS Chinchwad, Pune

The planes will bereplaced soonIn 2018, Boeing won a $3.9billion (around `28,000crores) contract to createthe new Air Force One planesto replace the current fleet.But, according to the AirForce Magazine, PresidentDonald Trump's new AirForce One fleet will cost atotal of $5.2 billion (around`37,000 crores).

ALL OF THE WINDOWS AREARMOURED

MOST OF THE FURNITURE WAS MADE BY MASTERCARPENTERS

Electronic countermeasure defence systems located in the attic of the plane

jam enemy radars

Photo: Reuters