Science Feature

Amazing Facts

Sea Shadow
Sea shadow is a stealth ship developed under a combined program by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), the Navy, and Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space Company. As the name implies, developers used special building materials and adopted unique structural design to hide its signature. The Sea Shadow program was begun in the mid-1980s.

The vehicle is 164-ft. long, 70-ft. wide, displaces 560 tons, draft 14 ft and capable of carrying 10 crews. It has a maximum speed of approximately 10 knots and is powered by a twin- screw diesel electronic drive. It is owned by the Navy and operated by LMSC personnel.

On 11 April 1993, the craft was revealed to the public and underwent daylight testing. Sea Shadow will support risk reduction for future surface ship platforms such as DD 21, the Navy's 21st Century Land Attack Destroyer. The platform will allow the Navy to explore and test, in a realistic at-sea environment, important DD 21 advanced information and automation technologies that support reduced manning and ship survivability. The Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories will continue to manage Sea Shadow for the Naval Sea Systems Command Program office as well as continue its legacy as a source of advanced naval technologies.

Neutron Stars
WHEN a star several times heavier than the Sun dies, its core collapses to become a tiny neutron star, with a mass between 1.4 and 3 times the Sun's mass. The collapse is so violent that the electrons and protons within atoms are forced together to form neutrons. All the material is squashed into an incredibly dense sphere around 10 km (6 miles) across. A pulsar is a fast-spinning neutron star that flashes a signal Earthwards as it spins (like a lighthouse). Pulsars are first detected in 1967 by british astronomers Jocelyn Bell and Antony Hewish.

Compiled By: Edward Apurba Singha

Tip 1: Move your Outlook data
Many of us use Microsoft Outlook to organize personal data and conduct online activities. Obviously, MS Outlook is convenient for e-mail, contacts, and calendars. But problem arises if we need to switch from MS Outlook to another program. We must shift our previous data to our new program. Microsoft has created an option to get your email, addresses, calendar appointments, and other data out of Outlook's .pst files. In Windows XP, follow these steps…
Open Outlook
Choose File>Import and Export
Select Export to a file
Click Next
Choose any option
Click Next
Then you sequentially follow the procedure to move your data

Tip 2: Fight against bad sectors
Bad sectors are responsible for the early retirement of your hard drive. You can protect your disk form bad sectors by adopting precautions and use the Windows diagnostic tools regularly. In Windows XP, follow these steps…
Open Explorer
Right click the drive you want to check
Select Properties
Click Tools tab
Under Error checking, click Check Now
In the Check Disk dialog box, select 'Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors'
Windows will recover as much data form the bad sectors as it can and will move the data to another part of the disk. It will mark the defective area and escape it in the future.

Tip 3: View the file extension
In order to distinguish the interlopers you must know the file extension. File extension is a combination of letters (usually three) placed after the final period of a file's name. Without it Windows does not manipulate any file. To know the file extensions follow these steps in Windows XP…
Open Explorer or any folder window
Choose Tools>Folder Options
Click View tab
Uncheck 'Hide extensions for known file types'
Then click Ok

Edward Apurba Singha
Computer Engineer

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