Daily Gyan

What makes a story good? Sure, you could throw in some hideous monsters, fountains of blood, and things jumping out from every corner, but as classic horror author H.P. Lovecraft wrote, "The oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." And writers harness that fear not by revealing horrors, but by leaving the audience hanging in anticipation of them. That is, in a state of suspense.   The most familiar examples of suspense come from horror films and mystery novels. What's inside the haunted mansion? Which of the dinner guests is the murderer? But suspense exists beyond these genres. Will the hero save the day? Will the couple get together in the end? And what is the dark secret that causes the main character so much pain? The key to suspense is that it sets up a question, or several, that the audience hopes to get an answer to and delays that answer while maintaining their interest and keeping them guessing. So what are some techniques you can use to achieve...

Your hands, up close, are anything but smooth. With peaks and valleys, folds and rifts, there are plenty of hiding places for a virus to stick. If you then touch your face, the virus can infect you. But there are two extraordinarily simple ways you can keep that from happening: soap and water, and hand sanitizer. So which is better?  The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is one of many viruses whose protective outer surface is made of a lipid bilayer. These lipids are pin shaped molecules whose heads are attracted to water, and tails are repulsed by it. So in water-rich environments, lipids naturally form a shell like this, with the heads outside and the tails inside. Their shared reaction to water makes the lipids stick loosely together— this is called the hydrophobic effect. This outer structure helps the molecular machinery of the virus break through cellular membranes and hijack our cells. But it has thousands upon thousands of weak points where the right molecules could pr...

In the early 20th century, it led Austrian logician Kurt Gödel to a discovery that would change mathematics forever. Gödel’s discovery had to do with the limitations of mathematical proofs. A proof is a logical argument that demonstrates why a statement about numbers is true.  The building blocks of these arguments are called axioms— undeniable statements about the numbers involved. Every system built on mathematics, from the most complex proof to basic arithmetic, is constructed from axioms. And if a statement about numbers is true, mathematicians should be able to confirm it with an axiomatic proof. Since ancient Greece, mathematicians used this system to prove or disprove mathematical claims with total certainty. But when Gödel entered the field, some newly uncovered logical paradoxes were threatening that certainty. Prominent mathematicians were eager to prove that mathematics had no contradictions.  Gödel himself wasn’t so sure. And he was even less confident that ma...

After the California Gold Rush of 1848, white settlers streamed west to strike it rich. In addition to precious metals, they unearthed another treasure: dinosaur bones. Two wealthy scientists in particular— Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope— competed to uncover these prehistoric monsters. Marsh and Cope were first to describe iconic creatures like Brontosaurus, Triceratops, and Stegosaurus. But they also showcased the destructive whirlwind of profiteering and ambition that fueled American science during the late 1800s. Their rivalry, one of the most notorious scientific feuds in history, became known as the Bone Wars. Marsh was ill-tempered and had a knack for debunking falsehoods. One woman said that getting to know him was “like running against a pitchfork.” Cope, on the other hand, was charismatic and given to bold theorizing. But he was also sarcastic and temperamental. By his own admission, he wasn’t “constructed for getting along comfortably with the general run ...

'Snoopy', a member of the dog squad at Delhi Airport, retired on 29th June 2021 after completing 10 years of service. She was a specialist in carrying out explosives' detection on the cabin of aircraft due to her small size: Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) official. 'Snoopy', a member of the dog squad at Delhi Airport, retired on 29th June 2021 after completing 10 years of service. She was a specialist in carrying out explosives' detection on the cabin of aircraft due to her small size: Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) official pic.twitter.com/huxP7bvyLh — ANI (@ANI) July 19, 2021 Thank You 

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic rocked economies worldwide. Millions of people lost their jobs, and many businesses struggled to survive or shut down completely. Governments responded with some of the largest economic relief packages in history the United States alone spent $2.2 trillion on a first round of relief. So where did all this money come from? Most countries have a central bank  that manages the money supply and is independent from the government to prevent political interference. The government can implement many types of economic policy, like decreasing people's taxes and creating jobs through public  infrastructure projects, but it actually can’t just increase the money supply. The central bank determines how much money is in circulation at a time. So why can’t central banks authorize the printing of unlimited money to help an economy in crisis?  They could, but that’s a short-term solution that doesn’t necessarily boost economic growth in the long-...