My tale is from the early days of my childhood and my desire to understand the gas lighter. When I was very young—somewhere between four and seven years old—at home appeared a gas stove and a gas ...

The gas lighter works on the principle of the piezo-electric effect (conversion of mechanical stress into electric signal). Inside the gas lighter, a piezo-electric crystal is placed, at one end of a ...

My mornings in IIT Kanpur, where I teach, are interspersed with sips of green tea, the longing calls of peacocks and peahens, and the purposeless barking of my neighbour’s dog. Often making things ...

Certain crystalline materials (like quartz, Rochelle salt and certain ceramics) have piezoelectric behaviour. Certain crystalline materials (like quartz, Rochelle salt and certain ceramics) have ...

A piece of piezoelectric material (left) could someday replace the battery in a traditional pacemaker (right). The same material that sparks barbecue lighters to flame may soon be used to power ...