General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - October 2015

Oct 2015

Jul 26, 2019

North Korea Tests Short-Range Ballistic Missiles

North Korea test-fired two new short-range ballistic missiles, its first missile test since its leader, Kim Jong Un, and US President Donald Trump agreed to revive denuclearisation talks last month.
South Korea, which supports efforts by North Korea and the US to end years of hostility, urged the North to stop acts that are unhelpful to easing tension, saying the tests posed a military threat on the Korean peninsula.
The South said it believed the missiles were a new type of ballistic missile but it would make a final assessment with the US.
Firing a ballistic missile would be a violation of UN Security Council resolutions that ban the North from the use of such technology. North Korea has rejected the restriction as an infringement of its sovereign right to selfdefence.
North Korea launched the missiles from the east coast city of Wonsan with one flying about 430km and the other 690km over the sea. They both reached an altitude of 50km.
The launch casts new doubt on efforts to restart stalled denuclearisation talks after Trump and Kim met at the demilitarised zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas at the end of June 2019.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong Ho are expected to meet on the sidelines of a forum in Bangkok.

Jul 25, 2019

Face Recognition Cams at IGI Airport

Delhi's Indira Gandhi International airport will soon get its first set of face recognition cameras, which will help the Central Industrial Security Force end the menace of people entering the airport terminal using fake and edited tickets.
The facility, which is expected to be in use by August 2019, will initially be used only on the airport staff and will be extended by the year end for flyers.
The face recognition systems have been installed at three levels — at the terminal entry, at security hold area (SHA) and at boarding gates. Initially one machine has been installed at each level.
A passenger who arrives at the terminal entry will require entering his/her name and flight details at a kiosk installed at the entry.The camera in the machine captures their face and generates a unique identification number. The passenger then heads to the security hold area (SHA) and feeds that unique number into a similar kiosk and is given access to head for his/her security check. Once done with the security check, the passenger will head to the boarding area. At the time of boarding passengers will pass through similar kiosk which will give them a quick access as their information is already saved.
Before its introduction in Delhi, the technology was successfully tested at the Hyderabad airport in 2018.

Netflix Unveils Cheaper Mobile-only Plan

Netflix has introduced a mobile-only subscription plan in India at Rs.199 a month, as the world's largest video streaming service looks to add users in the country where video content consumption has surged, with data prices plunging to among the lowest in the world.
This is Netflix's first mobile-specific option anywhere in the world and its fourth India plan in addition to the existing basic (Rs.499), standard (Rs.649) and premium (Rs.799) plans.
With the cheaper subscription plan, Netflix expects to reach new users in India, who typically watch videos on their mobile phones.
Still, Netflix will have to grapple with several local and overseas rivals such as Disneyowned streaming service Hotstar and Amazon Prime Video, which are luring users with free or low-priced offerings.
According to the Ficci-EY media and entertainment industry report for 2019, smartphone penetration in India grew to 36% of total phones in 2018.
Indians spend 30% of their time on mobile phones on entertainment, second only to social media. However, in terms of data, they use over 70% on entertainment.

Jul 24, 2019

Nasa to Use Chandrayaan-2 Data

Nasa plans to use the data obtained by Chandrayaan-2 in the south pole region of the Moon while working out its next manned lunar mission in a few years.
The Nasa mission plan envisages landing the first set of astronauts on the south pole of the Moon around 2024 under its Artemis programme. The idea is to establish a sustainable human presence on the moon, with the goal of sending humans to Mars.
Isro is using the Nasa's deep space network at Goldstone in California for tracking the Chandrayaan-2 mission.

Jul 23, 2019

Chandrayaan-2 Placed in Orbit Successfully

India's aim of becoming a major space powerhouse got a lift-off as it launched its second lunar mission that, if successful, will make it only the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the moon, and the first to explore its south pole.
At 2.43pm, the 14-storey-tall GSLV Mark III rocket blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota with the 3,850kg Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft.
The indigenously designed spacecraft — comprising an orbiter, a lander and a rover — is expected to touch down on the moon's surface in the early hours of the morning of September 7.
The rover, called Pragyan, will examine the lunar surface, search for water, and probe craters and traps that could untangle key questions about the history of the solar system.

Jul 22, 2019

Genome India Project Set for Oct Launch

India will launch its first human genome mapping project by October 2019, a move that will help researchers get closer to developing effective therapies for treating diseases such as cancer.
In the first phase called the Genome India project, the genomic data of 10,000 Indians will be catalogued.
A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all its genes. It contains all the information needed to build and maintain that organism.
By sequencing the genome, researchers can discover the functions of genes and identify which of them are critical for life.
The DBT said it will build on its own experience of genomic cataloguing and rope in 22 partner organisations including public health institutions that have obtained regulatory ethical clearances.
Investigators in hospitals will lead the data collection through a simple blood test from participants and the information will be added to bio banks.
Across the world, predictive diagnosis and precision medicine based on the genetic makeup of patients are emerging fields in the treatment of diseases such as cancer and other genetic disorders.
The Genome India project will aim to make predictive diagnostic markers available for some priority diseases such as cancer and other rare and genetic disorders.
The DBT has started establishing diagnostic labs for genetic testing and counselling services and a programme to train clinicians to produce skilled personnel to set up more such labs.
The department has also initiated an outreach programme to provide genetic diagnosis and counselling to families affected by common genetic disorders in certain districts. The Human Genome Project, which was completed in 2003, was led by an international team of researchers looking to sequence and map all the genes – together known as the genome – of human beings.

Robots help produce new class of antibiotics

Researchers have used robotics to engineer a common gut bacterium to produce a new class of antibiotics, a "breakthrough" that could be vital for the ongoing battle against antimicrobial resistance.
These antibiotics, known as class II polyketides, are also naturally produced by soil bacteria and have antimicrobial properties which are vital in the modern pharmaceutical industry to combat infectious diseases and cancer.
The naturally produced Escherichia coli bacteria are difficult to work with as they grow in dense clumps that are incompatible with the automated robotic systems used for modern biotechnology research, said researchers from The University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.
By transferring the production machinery from the soil bacteria into E coli, the team is now making this class of antibiotics accessible for much more rapid exploration.
This breakthrough could be vital for the ongoing combat against antimicrobial resistance, as recently developed automated robotics systems can now be used to create new antibiotics in a fast and efficient way.
By combining the bacterial production machinery with enzymes from plants and fungi, it was possible to produce new chemical compounds not previously seen in nature.
Using this plug-and-play platform, it will now be possible to explore and engineer polyketides using robotic systems to develop new and diversified polyketides in an automated, rapid and versatile fashion.

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