Computational Science

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First of all what is computer science? Many people do not understand the complete meaning of this term. We often think that computer science is all about writing computer programs, developing software products and building computers. Well, this is not a complete story about Computer Science. Think about fields such as music and astronomy. Music is not just about creating musical instruments and astronomy is not just about building telescopes. Similarly, computer science is not just about tools of writing programs or building computers. It is about learning and using different tools. It is about providing resources to different researching fields. In fact, many of the researches in different fields are dependent upon the field of computer science.
For almost every scientific inventions and research, computer artifacts have become extremely helpful tool in each field. Scientific computing has allowed geologist to predict earthquakes, has allowed biologist to comprehend genetics, and has been very helpful in many other fields. Scientists often rely on computer methodology to do their research and make progresses in their respective fields. Such scientists are called computational scientists. For example, computational mathematician uses mathematics to research different theories and computational chemist uses chemistry to research different atomic models or molecular theory. Similarly, all scientists heavily are dependent upon the use of computers and computational processes. 
This is what makes computer science makes more unique. It is the only field, which can make its own progress without depending upon other fields.

Sources:

http://www.nitrd.gov/pitac/reports/20050609_computational/computational.pdf

Computer Graphics

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First of all, what is computer graphics? Well, there are many ways to define computer graphics. In simple terms, computer graphics is an art of creating charts, graphs, images, lines, etc using computer programming languages. It is made up of small tiny pixels, which are graphical units represented on the computer screen. If you think carefully, then you may realize that computer graphics have become a part of your daily lives. We interact with computer graphics in the form of education, entertainment, communication, and many other things.

To be more specific, there are two types of computer graphics namely non-interactive and interactive computer graphics. In non-interactive computer graphics, we have no control over computer generated image. In this case, image will work only according to programming instructions. For example, images generated in TV, screen savers etc..

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On the other hand, interactive computer graphics give some control over the image by providing some kind of input device. We can maintain some communication with the image by giving series of commands that helps computer in generating graphical images. For example, a video game controller gives control over the graphical image. Interactive computer graphics has changed our lives in many ways. For example, we can train our pilots to fly airplanes by creating a flight simulator. This way pilots get training to fly airplanes without actually flying real airplanes in the sky. This significantly reduces the risk of unwanted accidents and saves money.

As science technology continues to grow, I think the importance of computer graphics will also grow in the future and make our lives even more easier.

Sources:
http://202.191.247.221/courses/images/Courses/It/COMPUTER_GRAPHICS/RESOURCES/cg_unit_1_notes.pdf

Cryptography and Security

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How often do you communicate with your friends, family and co-workers? A lot. Probably much more than you think. In addition to in-person communication, you also communicate through phone, messages, emails and other technological services. Have you ever wondered how secure your communication is? Everyone wants to be assured that their communication is secured from strangers. That is why Information security becomes important. It is a very wide term and it covers all aspects of securing different types of information.

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Cryptography is a part of information security and plays an important role in protecting our information from strangers. It keeps our data and communications secure by encryption and decryption. You might be interested to know that cryptography is used for secured emailing and text messaging. It is simple process. Basically, with the help of secured password or pin number, the sender encrypts the message by sending it and only recipients can decrypt the message by reading it. This makes your communication more secure. The concept of cryptography is even used in online transactions to keep your identity and bank account secured. For example, when you purchase something online from any corporation, you give permission to share your identity and bank data entrusted to a secure encryption system of any given corporation. This system protects you from security threats.

Cryptography has definitely helped many people in securing their information, but still I cannot say that our information is fully protected. In the past, there have been many cases where hackers had cracked in the system and stole personal information. However, I am very sure that cryptography will be able to fully secure our information with the help of new technologies in the near future.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_security
http://www.computer-network-security-training.com/what-is-cryptography/