Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

Expanded as <keyword id="55120" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Right-To-Information">Right To Information</keyword> Act, <keyword id="6356198" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="RTI">RTI</keyword> means that any Indian citizen can request any information (which is supposed to be public knowledge) from the offices and departments of the state or central governments. The act mandates that the said offices and departments must process such requests in a timely manner. <br /><br /><strong>Why RTI?<br /></strong><br />The Government of India has implemented the RTI in order to see that the Indian citizens are enabled to exercise their rights to ask some pertinent questions to the Government and different public utility service providers in a practical way. RTI Act replaced the Freedom of Information Act 2002. The objective of this act was to help the citizens avail of quicker services from the government agencies since the act enables them to ask questions like why a particular application or an official proceeding gets delayed. Mainly the act aims at achieving a corruption-free India. <br /><br /><strong>What is mandated by the RTI Act?</strong><br /><br />The RTI Act mandates that any Indian citizen is free to seek any information from any public or government authority and the authority is under liability to respond to such a request within a period of 30 days from the date of receiving such an application. However, the information sought must not be related to defense, national security, or personal details.<br /><br />Before the advent of the RTI act, the disclosure of information in India was restricted by the Official Secrets Act and some other special laws. The RTI Act relaxed many such laws in the country. <br /><br />The RTI act has also made it mandatory for computerizing the records for the purpose of wide spread relay so that any information sought by the public can be processed quickly aided by the information categorization. <br /><br /><strong>Applying for RTI</strong><br /><br />Applying for RTI is a simple process and can be done either online or offline. Nevertheless, some states have not still effected the online option. One can apply for RTI through the official website of the RTI. For different states and departments, the rules for filing RTI is different. <br /><br /><strong>What Information can be sought under the RTI Act?</strong><br /><br />Any Indian citizen is free to seek answers from a Government Authority like applying for a delayed IT refund, driving license or passport, or details of a repair or infrastructure project completed or going on. Information sought can also be related to the funds allotted under the different kinds of relief funds in the country. The act enables students to get copies of answer sheets from the universities under this act. <br /><br /><strong>The background of RTI Act</strong><br /><br />In 1987, a few laborers In Rajasthan were refused their wages on charges of inconsistent performance. Mazdoor Kissan Shakti Sanghatan (MKSS), an activist group fought for these workers and demanded that the government produced the necessary proof to verify the worker’s performance records. After a series of protests, the MKSS got the copies of rolls, which also brought to surface the corruption existed among the officials. Provoked by such discrepancies, the MKSS protested for the RTI. This protest turned into a national event leading to the passing of the Freedom of Information Act 2002 which became the RTI Act 2005. A Pune police station received the first RTI application in the year 2005. <br /><br /><br /><strong>See Also - <br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/meet-the-top-10-richest-women-in-the-world/articleshow/68318378.cms"><strong>Meet the top 10 richest women in the world</strong></a><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/article/checkout-new-and-upcoming-electric-bikes-in-india/articleshow/73999357.cms"><strong>Upcoming electric bikes in India in 2021</strong></a><br /><br />

What is RTI Act, all you need to know about RTI act

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>At this week's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, a panel of distinguished game developers and critics gathered for a very popular panel, the third annual #1ReasonToBe -- as in, "the number one reason to be" a woman who works in games and technology.</p><p>The goal of #1ReasonToBe is to focus on their accomplishments and amazing experiences. </p><p>Last year, the <a href="http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020593/">panel reduced the audience to tears before concluding in a standing ovation</a>, and became the talk of the event.  </p><p>This year, people lined up before the doors opened, and the crowd filled the large auditorium. </p><p>"I hope to do more to just live, I hope to thrive," says <span>Elizabeth LaPensee on her experiences as a Native American woman in video games. </span></p><p><span>It's a common sentiment, lately. The rise of harassment campaigns like the infamous GamerGate scandal makes women scared to make games or work in technology at all, and we hear more and more about women quitting technical jobs over it. Those who stay find themselves unwilling or unable to speak up for fear of losing their jobs, or worse.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"There are many people silenced this year," said panel moderator and game developer Brenda Romero. </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In a powerful segment called the "Empty Chair," Romero displayed anonymous comments made by people too afraid to speak up publicly, while the room stood completely silent. For example:</span></p><ul><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"Games were supposed to be a fun career choice. Now I'm afraid I'll get murdered."</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"I used to check twitter for fun. Now it's fear." </span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"There isn't a woman alive who doesn't have to worry about this."</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"I don't draw attnetion to my femininity in order to survive as a developer. I disguise it with tomboyish behavior and silliness. I am neither." </span></li></ul><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Audience members and panelists alike could be heard crying. </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Professor <span>Constance Steinkuehler of the University of Madison Wisconsin talked about how she managed to sneak a toy gun from the massively popular game, "Portal" into the White House during her time as a policy advisor for President Barack Obama - as well as helping shape the Obama Administration's policy on video games and gun violence.</span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>"You can play the games that you want to play, and I can play the games I want to play, and that's called free speech," <span>Steinkuehler said. "I can make the games I want to make, and you can't stop me."</span></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></span></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">That's the reason to be in video games, for Professor </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Steinkuehler</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">: It's free speech, pure and simple. </span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span>The next panelist, EA Creative Director <span>Amy Hennig, </span>discussed her love affair with old-school arcades and the Atari 2600, which eventually faded. She went to film school instead, and her dream was to become a cinematographer. But she was told that it was for men only and to find another career. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span>She never gave up, and eventually took a job at Atari making a game for its Atari 7200 game console to help pay for her tuition. And while the game wasn't great, it made her consider a real career, working her way up in the industry, and doing a little bit of design work for EA on classics like Desert Storm and not-so-classics like Super Nintendo's "Michael Jordan: Chaos In The Windy City." </span></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span>Her career continues to take off, with stints at major studios like Crystal Dynamics and Naughty Dog. Most recently, she led creative direction for the "Uncharted" series, and now she's back at EA working on a Star Wars game. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></span></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">For Hennig, her main reason to be in the games industry is that it's presented continued opportunities and rewards for her, thanks to her tenacity. </span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span>"These things are not the game industry," Hennig says on the GamerGate controversy and the harassment that centers around it. It's not a man's world, she says, and it's important to fight that perception. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span><span>Sela Davis, a software engineer with Microsoft, spoke on her experiences as a child who made games on her ZZT computer who then went to the Rochester Insitute of Technology for Computer Science, only to drop out and go into creative writing, metalsmithing, and eventally a stint at SAP. </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span><span>"I wasn't happy in art, and I wasn't happy in tech," Davis says on what led her to go back to RIT and learn to really make games. </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span><span>Her career in games started to take off. Soon, she ran up against impostor syndrome, made much worse by the fact that she was often the only woman in the room. Not feeling like you fit in with everybody else in the room can eat at your confidence. </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span><span>Davis' one reason to be in the games industry is that it needs more people who can feed each other's energy. </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span><span><span>Adriel Wallick, the independent game developer better known as '<span>MsMinotaur,' also touched on her own experiences with playing games. Video games were her escape when she was lonely, and she used it to bond with friends. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span><span><span><span>"They let us do lots of things," Wallick says. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span><span><span><span>Eventually, her interest turned to programming, and she built a rudimentary text adventure. Later in her life, she discovered the independent video game scene, and started building small projects in between punching the clock at her day job. Soon, she connected with Boston-based game studio, Harmonix. Along the way, she found she got a lot of respect and support and mentorship from the games community. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span><span><span><span>"It's allowed me to be a part of all these communities who have made me feel like family," Wallick says of her number one reason to love the games industry.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span><span><span><span>Finally, Katherine Cross, a Ph.D candidate with the City University of New York, where she studies online harassment. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span><span><span><span>"Boy, have I ever been given a case study," Cross said, referring to GamerGate, to laughs. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span><span><span><span>Cross took an academic approach to her presentation: On paper, women are in the industry, working as critics and coders; engineers and economists. The gap in understanding why harassment is a big deal, Cross says, comes from not understanding that the Internet <em>is </em>real life, where people do business and present the work that matters to them. That's why harassment matters, because it interferes with and scares people away from a space that really matters. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span><span><span><span>When faced with the wrath of GamerGate herself for discussing the subject publicly, Cross said there was only one thing to do: write about games more. Cue a standing ovation. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span><span><span><span>And so Cross' reason to be in games is to be part of a community building new, interesting forms of criticism that tackle issues of sex and race in the gaming world. To create a world where people understand why the Internet and video games matter, and so aren't threatened by women in the field. Change is being made, bit by bit, by people writing on the frontier. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span><span><span><span>"I study games because they matter. Because gamers matter," Cross says. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The overall message is that women are here, playing video games, writing about video games, and making video games, they care about video games as much as any other gaming enthusiast, and they're not going away just because of a hashtag. In fact, games critic Leigh Alexander announced she's launching a new website called <a href="http://offworld.com/">Offworld</a> just for criticism and interviews from and with women and minorities in games.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"I am here to stay, and there's nowhere else I would rather be," Cross says.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Once again, the #1ReasonToBe panelists each recieved a standing ovation.</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/best-1980s-video-games-2014-2">11 Video Games From The 1980s That Are Better Than Games Today</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="ptcmh3azpLLAXH99VM4L4D55NyUKc3KM" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Why these women stayed in the games industry after the worst year ever

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Tristan Olivo was a <keyword id="11931250" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="bridesmaid" source="Orion">bridesmaid</keyword> in a May wedding, but the dress she ordered was the wrong color.</li><li>Olivo shared a <keyword id="11894125" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="tiktok" source="Orion">TikTok</keyword> video showing off how she dyed the dress twice to get the right shade.</li></ul><p><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@trilllow/video/7095415709055946030">Tristan Olivo</a> was allowed to pick any <keyword id="12251507" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="bridesmaid-dress" source="Orion">bridesmaid dress</keyword> she wanted for her friend's wedding — as long as that dress was a burnt or rust-orange color.</p><p>She purchased <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@trilllow/video/7096924246735129899?is_copy_url=1&amp;is_from_webapp=v1">three different dresses</a> and ended up falling in love with a $40 option from Shein. There was just one problem: It was neon orange. </p><p>Instead of picking a different dress that was in the orange shade the bride requested, Olivo decided she would try to dye the Shein gown just days before the wedding. </p><div type="image" title="The original color of Olivo's dress was neon orange, she said." height="1051" width="747" msid="92163154" hostid="261"></div><p>She shared part one of her journey in a <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@trilllow/video/7095415709055946030">TikTok video</a> on May 8. The video had 23.9 million views as of Sunday. </p><p>To change the color of the dress, Olivo first cooked up an orange and yellow dye from the brand Rit Dye on the stovetop and let the dress sit in the mix for 30 minutes. She then hung the dress to dry and "prayed it was the right color," as she said in the video. </p> <p>"The first time I dyed it, it was just a shade darker but nothing noticeable," she told Insider. </p><div type="image" title="Olivo said the dress didn't change much in color after she dyed it the first time." height="3024" width="4032" msid="92163158" hostid="261"></div><p>After her first TikTok video went <keyword id="11896837" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="viral" source="Orion">viral</keyword>, Rit Dye commented and told her the exact dye mix that would give her the shade of orange she wanted. Olivo bought the dyes on Amazon and tried to adjust the color of the dress a second time.</p><p>On May 9, Olivo shared her second attempt in <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@trilllow/video/7095457076138478894?is_copy_url=1&amp;is_from_webapp=v1">a TikTok video</a> that had 5.9 million views on Sunday. She told Insider her second attempt at dyeing the dress went better than the first, and she ended up with the perfect shade of orange. </p><p>"This was my first time dyeing anything, so I was just winging it," she said. "The whole thing was stressful, but I'm relieved now that it's over." </p> <p>"It feels good to be able to wear the dress, as it was always my favorite out of the ones that I had," Olivo added. "That's why I put all the work into dyeing it."</p><div type="image" title="Olivo told Insider she was set on wearing the Shein dress, which is why she wanted it to work." height="4032" width="3024" msid="92163161" hostid="261"></div><p>In the end, Olivo told Insider that her bride loved the way the dress turned out, and she asked the rest of her bridesmaids to pick looks that matched Olivo's. </p><p>"Once she saw me in it, she was set on me wearing it because it looked so good," she said. "It all blended together so nicely, and she was so happy." </p>

This bridesmaid's $40 Shein dress was the wrong shade of orange, so she dyed it just days before the wedding she was in

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2015-05">NASA/CXC/SAO</a></span></p><p class="caption">HAWC will allow scientists to study some of the most violent processes in the universe.</p></div><p></p></div></div>On the flanks of the Sierra Negra volcano in Central Mexico, nearly 14,000 feet above sea level, there is a giant field of water tanks. Three hundred water tanks, to be exact, occupying a space that's roughly the size of three football fields.</p><p>Collectively, this massive array is known as the <a href="http://hawc-observatory.org/">High Altitude Cherenkov Gamma Ray Observatory</a> (HAWC), and it's helping scientists measure high energy particles from outer space called <a href="http://home.cern/about/physics/cosmic-rays-particles-outer-space">cosmic rays</a> that are racing toward us at nearly the speed of light.</p><p>Cosmic rays are often called space messengers. That's because they carry information from distant parts of the cosmos, up to billions of light-years away. Just like astronomers use different wavelengths of light to understand different aspects of the universe, scientists can study different properties of cosmic rays - like their velocity, trajectory, radiation, mass and energy - to learn more about our universe, including its structure, composition and the processes happening within it. Using cosmic rays, scientists can try to answer questions about our galaxy and the universe that they wouldn't be able to using visual clues alone.</p><p><span>In addition to being messengers, cosmic rays </span><span>are a form of high energy radiation and</span><span> can be damaging to the human body, which is why it's a good thing that Earth's atmosphere blocks most of them from ever reaching </span><span>us at the surface. But astronauts in space who are un</span><span>sheltered by the atmosphere are </span><span>not protected from this radiation. Understanding how and when cosmic rays are produced can also help us protect them.</span></p><h2>The most sensitive map ever made</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>NASA</span></p><p class="caption">This very second, billions of cosmic rays are smashing into out atmosphere.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Cosmic rays were <a href="http://timeline.web.cern.ch/events/victor-hess-discovers-cosmic-rays">originally discovered</a> in 1912 by Austrian physicist Victor Hess, but scientists still aren't sure where they come from. Some cosmic rays have such high energies that scientists believe they might have been created by some of the most violent processes in the universe - supermassive black holes, rapidly spinning super dense stars, remnants of exploding stars.</p><p><span>By figuring out exactly where these cosmic rays are originating, scientists will be able to probe these violent processes and get a better understanding of the universe. </span></p><p><span>That's why scientists at HAWC, a collaboration between national laboratories and universities in Mexico and the United States, are working together to get a closer look. <span>On April 18, after a little over a year of collecting data, HAWC released the highest energy and most sensitive map ever made of the sky.</span></span></p><p>"We spent four years working in the high mountains in Mexico, taking this green hillside and turning it into a laboratory," Jordan Goodman, the US spokesperson and principal investigator for HAWC, said. "Now we're getting to the fun part of actually doing the <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> - making the highest energy map that anyone's ever made and seeing things no one's ever seen before."</p><p>But cosmic rays are charged particles, which means their paths in space are bent by magnetic fields. This makes it hard to retrace their steps to figure out what which forces catapulted them towards us. In order to get to the bottom of this mystery, scientists are studying the highest energy light particles out there, gamma rays.</p><p>The same violent processes that produce cosmic rays can also radiate gamma rays. And because gamma rays are light particles, or photons, they travel in straight lines through space unaffected by magnetic fields. Tracing these gamma rays back to their sources scientists might link their path to the mysterious cosmic rays.</p><h2><strong>So what's with the water tanks?</strong></h2><p>Both cosmic rays and gamma rays speed into our atmosphere, smashing into other particles and creating a <a href="http://www.physics.purdue.edu/astro/KASCADE/intro/air_show.html">cascade of secondary particles</a> called an air shower. As the air shower descends towards the ground at nearly the speed of light, the particles spread out, multiplying as they smash into other particles. They then form a particle pancake that contains billions of particles that can spread up to 10 miles wide.</p><p>This is where all those giant water tanks come in.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Jordanagoodman</span></p><p class="caption">HAWC is a massive array of water detectors located near the Sierra Negra volcano in Mexico.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Each of the tanks holds 50,000 gallons of purified water - an amount that required 3,900 tanker trucks driving up the mountain to fill them, Goodman told Business Insider.</p><p>When the high-energy particle pancake (the one that's traveling at nearly the speed of light) smacks into the water, the individual particles produce <a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SpeedOfLight/cherenkov.html">blue cones of light</a> called Cherenkov radiation. A team of four extremely sensitive light detectors fixed to the bottom of the tanks picks up these flashes of light.</p><p>Because the vast majority of particles hitting the detectors are a result of the bent cosmic rays, scientists need to filter out them by the different footprints they produce. Then, by measuring nanosecond-size differences in the time it takes the particles from the gamma ray showers to arrive in each of the different tanks, scientists can reconstruct the direction they came from. The result is their high energy universe map.</p><p>"We are only now pinpointing what the actual sources of cosmic rays are," University of Mexico research assistant professor and HAWC collaborator Robert Lauer told Business Insider. "Now with this map we can really check individual objects in our galaxy and beyond and say this which sources are producing these particles."</p><h2><strong>Seven times more powerful than the most powerful particle smasher on the planet</strong></h2><p>So just how high-energy is this map? Well, most of the particles HAWC detects are just about the same energy as particles produced in the Large Hadron Collider, the most powerful particle collider on the planet. But some of them can be up to seven times more energetic, much more powerful than anything we can create here on Earth. And the longer HAWC runs, the higher the energies it will pick up.</p><p>What makes HAWC unique is that unlike other gamma ray detectors, which can only operate on dark, moonless nights focusing on just a small section of the sky, HAWC is a detector that operates around the clock and looks at the entire overhead sky all at once.</p><p>Twenty thousand air shower particles per second hit our detector, Brenda Dingus, <span>the principal investigator of the U.S. Department of Energy funding for HAWC and research fellow at </span>Los Alamos National Laboratory told <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2084761-water-telescopes-first-sky-map-shows-flickering-black-holes/">New Scientist</a>. This produces about two terabytes of data every day and nearly a petabyte per year.</p><p>Since the birth of gamma ray astronomy in the 60s, NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center and HAWC collaborator Michelle Hui told Business Insider, they've gone from having only a handful of sources to having over a hundred. In just its first year of data, HAWC picked up 40 different sources of gamma rays, many of which had never been seen before.</p><h2><strong>Black holes and exploding stars</strong></h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="www.space.com/18861-hercules-a-galaxy-radio-jets.html">NASA, ESA, S. Baum and C. O'Dea (RIT), R. Perley and W. Cotton (NRAO/AUI/NSF), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) </a></span></p><p class="caption">Supermassive black holes are one candidate for what might accelerate cosmic rays to such high energies.</p></div><p></p></div></div>One of these sources is located 400 million light-years away in a galaxy called Markarian 501. On April 7, <span>2016</span> HAWC detected a flare of gamma rays coming from Markarian 501 that lasted a little over a day before disappearing. Scientists believe that a flickering supermassive black hole living in the center of the galaxy might have produced this flare. If HAWC hadn't been running day and night focusing on the entire sky above, it would have missed it.</p><p>"We can see events that occurred 400 million years ago and still follow all of these interesting things that happened very rapidly," Lauer said. "It's a completely different way to look at the most extreme objects in universe - in our own galaxy and others."</p><p>Scientists found another source in the remnants of a supernova in our own galaxy. When a massive star dies, collapsing under its own gravity, it explodes into a supernova. The explosion sometimes leaves behind a pulsar, which is a super dense star (imagine the mass of our sun compressed into something the size of Washington, DC) that can spin more than 50 times per second. This spinning star generates intense magnetic fields, which scientists believe might produce a wind of high energy particles. As shockwaves spread through the shell of stellar material surrounding the pulsar that was left behind by the supernova explosion, the particles are accelerated to even higher energies and can emit gamma rays, which is what HAWC picked up.</p><p>The Fermi Telescope, a space observatory orbiting in space, had already been investigating the pulsar itself but HAWC has a unique perspective on the way the cosmic rays interact with the supernova guts surrounding the pulsar.</p><p>The next big project for HAWC, Hui said, is to compare the data with other experiments and look at how their findings overlap with other findings in the community to try to understand the bigger picture. Scientists at HAWC hope to work with the community to gain insight into new physics and possibly even put the hundred-year-old mystery of cosmic rays to rest.</p><p>"We've been looking at the sky for a long time," Hui said. "But now we have this new instrument up and we're still seeing new things that we hadn't seen before. Just to figure out what these objects are is exciting."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mysteriously-large-black-hole-explained-nasa-science-outer-space-2016-4">There's something very strange about this rare supermassive black hole that astronomers can't explain</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="FxMjZvMjE6pYdJ0bWaREPXK_kZM15FO3" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

A field of water tanks in Mexico is bringing us closer than ever to solving a 100-year-old cosmic mystery

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Living in a world with microgravity where you're just inches from exposure to the vacuum of outer space can have a profound influence on the human body.</p><p>Most astronauts only spend six months at a time in that environment on the International Space Station (ISS), floating 250 miles above the Earth.</p><p>On March 27 however, NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency sent three astronauts to the ISS - they will be the first people to spend a continuous year in space.</p><p>Tests performed on these astronauts will get us closer to understanding what could happen on longer space exploration missions, like visiting Mars - a journey that will take at least six months each way.</p><p>It may not sound like a long time, but this year-long trip is not for the faint of heart. Scientists know a few things about what a 6-month stay in microgravity does to the human body, some of which are downright disturbing:</p><h3><strong>1. It stretches out your spine</strong></h3><p>Astronauts can grow up to <a href="http://www.space.com/19116-astronauts-taller-space-spines.html" target="_parent">3% taller</a> in space. That means that a 6-foot-tall astronaut could tack on an extra two inches. </p><p>The growth spurt happens because microgravity allows the squishy spinal discs between vertebra freedom to relax and expand - almost like relieving pressure on a spring. It takes a few months to return to normal height after they get back to Earth.</p><h3><strong>2. It turns your muscles into jelly</strong></h3><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>You don't need muscles to support you in a weightless environment. Astronauts' muscles almost immediately start shrinking and shedding the extra tissue that they no longer need.</p><p>That's why exercise is crucial on the ISS so astronauts can maintain the muscle mass they need when they return to Earth.</p><p>They usually budget about two hours a day for exercise. That includes "weight lifting" using a special resistance machine, since a freeweight weighs nothing in zero gravity. You can see the crazy contraption used to do squats below:</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><h3><strong>3. It makes your face puffy</strong></h3><p>Our bodies are mostly liquid. The gravity on Earth pulls that liquid down and some of it pools in our lower extremities. In near zero-g the liquid is spread out more evenly around the body, so astronauts' faces look <a href="http://education.jsc.nasa.gov/explorers/p3.html" target="_parent">puffier than normal</a> while their legs look skinnier than normal.</p><p>After a few weeks the body adjusts to the gravity change and some of the puffiness goes down.</p><h3><strong>4. It thins out your bone density</strong></h3><p>Astronauts can <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jbmr.1647/abstract" target="_parent">lose around 1%</a> of their bone density every month they spend in space if they don't regularly exercise. It makes them a lot more likely to break bones when they're back on Earth - similar to people who have osteoporosis.</p><p>Exercise and good nutrition is crucial for minimizing this effect. It will be especially important for the astronauts spending a full year in space.</p><h3><strong>5. It can cause vision problems</strong></h3><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div>It's a struggle returning to Earth after spending 6 months in microgravity. Astronauts lose their definitive sense of up and down while they're in space because the vestibular system can't tell where the ceiling is and where the ground is in a weightless environment.</p><p>Eventually the body re calibrates, but astronauts are a little shaky on their feet at first.</p><h3>9. It messes with your senses</h3><p>Pressure changes in space and so fluids shift around in the body. The same effect that makes astronauts' faces puffy also makes them congested.</p><p>"It's the same as having a cold or allergies," astronaut and physician Scott Parazynski told <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/taste-changes-in-space/" target="_parent">Scientific American</a>. "A stuffy nose definitely dampens your sense of smell and consequently your sense of taste."</p><p>Many astronauts have reported that flavors are much more dull in microgravity, so they crave food with a lot of extra flavoring and spice to make up for the bland taste. Food and drink that rely on a sense of smell to bring out the flavor, like coffee, are disappointing in space.</p><h3>10. It takes a toll on your psyche</h3><p>On the ISS astronauts are literally a world away from anything familiar, and it's not like they can pack up and leave any time they want.</p><p>Astronauts undergo a rigorous psychological screening before they can even start training for space. Still, feelings of isolation and confinement are a <a href="http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4225/long-duration/long.htm" target="_parent">big risk</a>. Combine that with sleep deprivation, the absence of the comfort of gravity, and dulled senses, and you can begin to imagine the psychological toll long-term spaceflight can take.</p><p>Many astronauts have described it as the hardest thing they have ever done.</p><h3>11. It makes nutrition a challenge</h3><p>Not getting the right nutrients can make almost all of the above effects even worse.</p><p>Vitamin D is a concern for astronauts because they're not exposed to sunlight and it's easy to wind up with a deficiency, according to Sara Zwart, a senior scientist at NASA who studies the nutrition effects of long-term spaceflight.</p><p>Specifically, oxidative stress is much greater in space, so astronauts need a lot of antioxidants, Zwart told Business Insider. Spaceflight also changes iron metabolism. Astronauts have elevated iron levels because their red blood cell mass decreases.</p><p>Astronauts track their food intake every week to make sure they maintain the right levels of nutrients. Usually iron levels return to normal after a few months back on Earth.</p><h3>12. It exposes you to dangerous cosmic radiation</h3><p>Cosmic radiation will not give you super powers like in "The Fantastic Four." A dose of it can tear through your very DNA, and that damage can lead to cancer, cataracts, or other diseases.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Earth's atmosphere acts as a force field that shields us from 99% of cosmic radiation, but astronauts don't have the same kind of protection in space. Radiation risk increases by a factor of about 30, according to the <a href="http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Lessons_online/Radiation_and_life" target="_parent">European Space Agency</a>.</p><p>Astronauts wear dosimeters while on board the ISS that measure how much radiation they are exposed to. Their careers as astronauts are limited based on their exposure.</p><p><strong>Scientists don't know much about what will happen beyond six consecutive months in space.</strong> Some of the effects may stay the same, some could worsen, or we may see new effects. NASA's year-long space mission will be crucial to understanding the risks of long-term manned missions to the moon or Mars.</p><p>Still, all of this is much better than if you somehow found yourself free floating outside the space station without a spacesuit where scientists predict you only have <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-happens-to-a-human-body-in-space-2015-3" target="_parent">two minutes before you're dead</a>.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/alexander-gersts-space-time-lapse-2014-12">An Astronaut Compressed 6 Months In Space Into This Amazing Time-Lapse</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="BmMHhpcjpiDPmuDrWshqVvYcEJ-9d_hM" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

You Searched For "why rit" and got 5 results

What is RTI Act, all you need to know about RTI act

BI India Bureau

Why these women stayed in the games industry after the worst year ever

Matt Weinberger

This bridesmaid's $40 Shein dress was the wrong shade of orange, so she dyed it just days before the wedding she was in

Celia Fernandez

A field of water tanks in Mexico is bringing us closer than ever to solving a 100-year-old cosmic mystery

Ali Sundermier

The insane ways the human body changes during long-term spaceflight

Kelly Dickerson

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides