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SAJIN SUNNY MATHEW ( XI – B )

Exobiology, study of the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the universe. Exobiologists investigate how the formation of stars and solar systems led to the existence of planets suitable for life, how life originated on Earth and perhaps elsewhere, and which factors influenced biological evolution. The understanding of these events shapes the study of how life arises and evolves in the universe.

An intelligent, communicating civilization might be much easier to detect than primitive life, because it might produce signals, such as radio waves, that could be much more powerful than even natural light from a star. To calculate the likelihood that intelligent life could be detected elsewhere in the galaxy, American astronomer Frank Drake developed an equation for the number of communicating civilizations that might exist. This equation is called the Drake equation and is represented by N = R* fp ne fl fi ft L. N is the number of communicating civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy. R* is the rate of formation of suitable stars, fp is the fraction of those stars that have planets, ne is the average number of suitable planets around a star, fl is the fraction of those planets that develop life, fi is the fraction of those planets with intelligent life, ft is the fraction of such planets with a civilization that communicates, and L is the average lifetime of such a civilization. The only term for which exobiologists currently have a good estimate is R*. Exobiologists need to learn about the galaxy and life on the Earth (and perhaps elsewhere in the solar system) to come up with appropriate estimates for the other terms in the Drake equation.

One particular Drake-equation factor, fl (the fraction of suitable planets that develop life), depends on how life originates. During the 1920s Russian biologist Aleksandr Oparin and British biologist J. B. S. Haldane proposed that life could have arisen as a consequence of the physical and chemical formation of Earth.

RAKESH RETNAKARAN (XI - B)
  The word ‘dream’ comes from the word ‘dreme’, which means joy & happiness. Here are some interesting facts about dreams.

10. Blind People Dream

 
People who become blind after birth can see images in their dreams. People who are born blind do not see any images, but have dreams equally vivid involving their other senses of sound, smell, touch and emotion. It is hard for a seeing person to imagine, but the body’s need for sleep is so strong that it is able to handle virtually all physical situations to make it happen.

9. You Forget 90% of your Dreams

 
Within 5 minutes of waking, half of your dream if forgotten. Within 10, 90% is gone. The famous poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, woke one morning having had a fantastic dream - he put pen to paper and began to describe his “vision in a dream” in what has become one of English’s most famous poems: Kubla Khan. Part way through (54 lines in fact) he was interrupted by a “Person from Porlock”. Coleridge returned to his poem but could not remember the rest of his dream. The poem was never completed.

Curiously, Robert Louis Stevenson came up with the story of Doctor Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde whilst he was dreaming. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was also the brainchild of a dream.

8. Everybody Dreams

 

Every human being dreams (except in cases of extreme psychological disorder) but men and women have different dreams and different physical reactions. Men tend to dream more about other men, while women tend to dream equally about men and women. 

7. Dreams Prevent Psychosis

 
In a recent sleep study, students who were awakened at the beginning of each dream, but still allowed their 8 hours of sleep, all experienced difficulty in concentration, irritability, hallucinations, and signs of psychosis after only 3 days. When finally allowed their REM sleep the student’s brains made up for lost time by greatly increasing the percentage of sleep spent in the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage.

6. We Only Dream of What We Know

 
Our dreams are frequently full of strangers who play out certain parts - did you know that your mind is not inventing those faces - they are real faces of real people that you have seen during your life but may not know or remember? The evil killer in your latest dream may be the guy who pumped petrol in to your Dad’s car when you were just a little kid. We have all seen hundreds of thousands of faces through our lives, so we have an endless supply of characters for our brain to utilize during our dreams.

5. Not Everyone Dreams in Color

 

A full 12% of sighted people dream exclusively in black and white. The remaining number dream in full color. People also tend to have common themes in dreams, which are situations relating to school, being chased, running slowly/in place,  falling, arriving too late, a person now alive being dead, teeth falling out, flying, failing an examination, or a car accident. It is unknown whether the impact of a dream relating to violence or death is more emotionally charged for a person who dreams in color than one who dreams in black and white.

4. Dreams are not about what they are about

 
If you dream about some particular subject it is not often that the dream is about that. Dreams speak in a deeply symbolic language. The unconscious mind tries to compare your dream to something else, which is similar. It’s like writing a poem and saying that a group of ants were like machines that never stop. But you would never compare something to itself, for example: “That beautiful sunset was like a beautiful sunset”. So whatever symbol your dream picks on it is most unlikely to be a symbol for itself.

3. Quitters have more vivid dreams

 
People who have smoked cigarettes for a long time who stop, have reported much more vivid dreams than they would normally experience. Additionally, according to the Journal of Abnormal Psychology: “Among 293 smokers abstinent for between 1 and 4 weeks, 33% reported having at least 1 dream about smoking. In most dreams, subjects caught themselves smoking and felt strong negative emotions, such as panic and guilt. Dreams about smoking were the result of tobacco withdrawal, as 97% of subjects did not have them while smoking, and their occurrence was significantly related to the duration of abstinence. They were rated as more vivid than the usual dreams and were as common as most major tobacco withdrawal symptoms.”

2. External Stimuli Invade our Dreams

 

This is called Dream Incorporation and it is the experience that most of us have had where a sound from reality is heard in our dream and incorporated in some way. A similar example would be when you are physically thirsty and your mind incorporates that feeling in to your dream.

1. You are paralyzed while you sleep

 
Believe it or not, your body is virtually paralyzed during your sleep - most likely to prevent your body from acting out aspects of your dreams. According to the Wikipedia article on dreaming, “Glands begin to secrete a hormone that helps induce sleep and neurons send signals to the spinal cord which cause the body to relax and later become essentially paralyzed.”

Bonus: Extra Facts

 
  1. When you are snoring, you are not dreaming.
  2. If you are awakened out of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, you are more likely to remember your dream in a more vivid way than you would if you woke from a full night sleep.

 

  

  

   
     
 
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