General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - May 2015

May 2015

Apr 20, 2019

Bone Lost in Evolution Likely to Come Back

A primordial bone found in our primate ancestors but thought to be redundant and rapidly dwindling in humans — appears to have made a quiet comeback over the past century.
Scientists from Imperial College London have admitted they are stumped as to why the fabella, a small bone buried in a tendon behind the knee, is now three times more common than it was in the early 1900s.
They speculate that its reemergence could be linked to joint problems, and understanding why could help treat or protect those most at risk.
Fabellae are sesamoid bones, which means they grow in the tendon of a muscle — the knee cap being the largest example in the human body.

Apr 19, 2019

Universe's Most Ancient Molecule Detected

Scientists have detected the most ancient type of molecule in our universe in space for the first time ever.
Helium hydride ion (HeH+) was the first molecule that formed when, almost 14 billion years ago, falling temperatures in the young universe allowed recombination of the light elements produced in the Big Bang.

Nepal Launches its First Satellite

Nepal successfully launched its first satellite into space from the US to gather detailed geographical information of the Himalayan nation.
Developed by the Nepalese scientists, NepaliSat-1 satellite was launched from Virginia in United States.
Two Nepali scientists, Aabhas Maskey and Hariram Shrestha who are currently studying at Japanese Kyushu Institute of Technology, developed the satellite under the BIRDS project of their institute.

Apr 17, 2019

Earth-sized Planet Discovered

NASA's latest planet-hunting probe has discovered its first Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting a star 53 light-years away.
The Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite (TESS) also discovered a warm sub-Neptune-sized world in the same system.

Google Blocks Chinese App TikTok in India

Google blocked access to the hugely popular video app TikTok in India to comply with a state court's directive to prohibit its downloads.
The move comes hours after a court in southern Tamil Nadu state refused a request by China's Bytedance Technology to suspend a ban on its TikTok app, putting its future in one of its key markets in doubt.

Apr 15, 2019

World's Largest Plane

The world's largest aeroplane, with two fuselages and six Boeing 747 engines, made its first test flight in California.
The mega jet, called Stratolaunch, carried out its maiden voyage over the Mojave Desert.
It is designed to carry into space, and drop, a rocket that would in turn ignite to deploy satellites.
It is supposed to provide a more flexible way to deploy satellites than vertical takeoff rockets because this way all that is needed is a long runway for takeoff.
The aircraft is so big that its wing span is longer than a football field, or about 1.5 times that of an Airbus A380.
Specifically, the wing span is 117 metres while it is just under 80 metres for an Airbus A380.
The plane flew for about two-and-a-half hours.
It hit a top speed of 304 km per hour and reached an altitude of 17,000 feet (5,182 metres).

Apr 12, 2019

A Pile of Solar E-waste

According to a study, by 2050, India will likely stare at a pile of a new category of electronic waste, namely solar e-waste.
Currently, India's e-waste rules have no laws mandating solar cell manufacturers to recycle or dispose waste from this sector.
India's PV (photovoltaic) waste volume is estimated to grow to 200,000 tonnes by 2030 and around 1.8 million tonnes by 2050.
India is among the leading markets for solar cells in the world, buoyed by the government's commitment to install 100 GW of solar power by 2022.
So far, India has installed solar cells for about 28 GW and this is largely from imported solar PV cells.

SpaceX's Conducts First Commercial Flight

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy launched its first commercial mission from Florida in a key demonstration for billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk`s space company in the race to grasp lucrative military launch contracts.

New Species of Tiny Early Humans

Scientists have discovered the remains of a tiny, previously unknown species of humans that roamed the Earth nearly 67,000 years ago.
Researchers said that the findings represent a major breakthrough in our understanding of human evolution across Southeast Asia.
The team uncovered the remains of at least two adults and one juvenile within the same archaeological deposits in the Philippines, proving the region played a key role in hominin evolutionary history.
The new species, Homo luzonensis is named after Luzon Island, where the more than 50,000 year old fossils were found during excavations at Callao Cave.

Israeli spacecraft Crashes onto Moon

The Israeli spacecraft Beresheet crashed onto the moon after a series of technical failures during its final descent, shattering hopes of a historic controlled landing on the lunar surface.
The unmanned robotic lander suffered periodic engine and communications failures during the 21 minutes or so of the landing sequence.
Beresheet, whose name is Hebrew for the biblical phrase "In the beginning", had travelled through space for seven weeks in a series of expanding orbits around Earth before crossing into the moon's gravity last week.
So far, only three nations have succeeded in carrying out a "soft" landing on the lunar surface: the United States, the Soviet Union and China.

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