General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - June 2017

Jun 2017

Apr 27, 2020

Researchers Develop Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Nanocoatings For Disposable Masks

Dr.Viswanatha R from Jyothy Institute of Technology, Bengaluru under the DST Nano Mission has developed organic-inorganic hybrid nanocoatings for disposable masks.
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has approved the large-scale production of the mask.
The N95 masks are capable of filtering out all types of particles, including viruses and bacteria. These masks are expensive and need prior training as standard practice before using it. Inexpensive disposable masks have several limitations.
These often get wet through salivary droplets, body fluids, and sweat. The wet masks attract the microorganisms and act as a breeding ground for those organisms to multiply in number.

First-Ever Digital Geological Map Of Moon Released By US Geological Survey

The first ever digital, unified, global, geological map of the moon was released virtually by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Lunar Planetary Institute on April 22, 2020.
The map is a 'seamless, globally consistent, 1:5,000,000-scale geologic map'.Called the 'Unified Geologic Map of the Moon', it will serve as a blueprint for future human missions and a source of research and analysis for the educators and the general public interested in lunar geology.
The moon the closest cosmic body to Earth through which space discovery can be attempted and documented has always piqued the interest of humanity.

NTPC Launches Hydrogen Fuel Bus And Car Project For Leh And New Delhi

NTPC Ltd, India's largest power producer and a central PSU under Ministry of Power, has invited Global Expression of Interest (EoI) to provide 10 Hydrogen Fuel Cell (FC) based electric buses and an equal number of Hydrogen Fuel Cell based electric cars in Leh and Delhi. The EoI has been issued by NTPC's wholly owned subsidiary, NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN) Limited.
The move to procure Hydrogen Fuel Cell based vehicles is first of its kind project in the country, wherein a complete solution from green energy to the fuel cell vehicle would be developed.
The initiative, which has been undertaken with support of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, will also harness renewable energy for generation of hydrogen and develop it's storage and dispensation facilities as part of pilot projects at Leh and Delhi. The move to launch hydrogen powered vehicles aims at decarbonizing mobility segment.

IICT Collaborated LAXAI Life Sciences To Reduce Dependency For Apis And Drug Intermediates

Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, has collaborated with Hyderabad-based integrated pharmaceutical company, LAXAI Life Sciences, to develop and manufacture Active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and drug intermediates. The initiative may help to reduce the dependency of the Indian pharmaceutical sector on Chinese imports of these ingredients.
The collaboration will use the know-how for the commercial manufacturing of the products.
LAXAI Life Sciences will be one of the first few to commercialize these products.
The manufacturing of these APIs and intermediates will be taken up at US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA)/Good manufacturing practice (GMP) approved plants held by LAXAI through its subsidiary, Therapiva Private Limited.

Apr 25, 2020

China Names Its First Mars Mission 'Tianwen-1'

China has named its first Mars exploration mission as 'Tianwen-1'. The announcement was made on April 24, 2020, the same day when the nation celebrated 'Space Day' to mark the 50th anniversary of the launch of its first-ever satellite 'Dong Fang Hong-1' in 1970.
China's Mars mission will include an orbiter, a lander and a rover. The mission is expected to be launched later this year. With the mission, China aims to catch up with the other nations that have launched successful mars missions including the United States, European Union, Russia and India.

Scientists Discover 19 Interstellar Asteroids Between Jupiter and Neptune

Nineteen asteroids that once belonged to a distant star system have been found orbiting the sun between Jupiter and Neptune.
They have been circling the sun for more than 4.5 billion years, since the very inception of the solar system.
Astronomers believe the space rocks were ripped from their original location as the universe expanded and the sun grew rapidly, creating its own gravitational pull.
The enormous force of the burgeoning star sucked the rocks into the formative solar system and they have remained here ever since, astronomers believe.

Apr 24, 2020

Hubble Telescope Celebrates 30 Years Of Stunning Science

It's 30 years ago to the day that the Hubble Space Telescope was launched.
Famously blighted by blurred vision at the outset, the observatory was eventually repaired and upgraded.
The remarkable pictures it has taken of planets, stars, and galaxies have transformed our view of the cosmos.
Indeed, there are those who think Hubble is the most important scientific tool ever built.
The US space agency (NASA), which runs the observatory in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA), says operations will be funded for as long as they remain productive.

Exploring 'Super-Luminous Supernovae Exploded Rapidly And Decayed Slowly'

Researchers at the Arayabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) Nainital an autonomous research institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST) Govt. of India found that SN 2010kd, a super-luminous supernova stands out with the amount of mass as well as Nickel ejected during explosion, which is much more than seen in case of normal core-collapse supernovae.
Supernovae are a kind of energetic explosions where the core of massive stars (a few times to that of mass of our Sun) go to a catastrophic phase of explosion liberating huge amounts of energy. These events are visible through very far away distances much beyond our own solar system. Super-luminous supernovae are a special type of stellar explosions having energy output 10 or more times higher than that of standard supernovae.

Apr 23, 2020

India's First Mobile Virology Diagnostics And Research Laboratory Inaugurated In Hyderabad

Unique and first of its kind facility in the country, a Mobile Virology Diagnostics and Research Laboratory has been inaugurated in Hyderabad at the ESI medical college. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar and Minister of state for Home Kishan Reddy and Telangana Industries Minister K Taraka Ramarao have attended the programme through video conference.
Developed by the DRDO, the Bio safety level-3 laboratory can test thousand samples for Corona virus daily and can scale up to 2000 in future. The laboratory also has a facility to trial drugs and conduct research on Corona virus.

Apr 22, 2020

Swiss Scientists Discovers Six-Planets System With Near 3:2 Resonance

A team of Scientists at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, have discovered a six-planet system (a 'super-Earth' & five 'mini-Neptunes') orbiting the star HD 158259 in the Draco constellation.
The discovery was done by using the SOPHIE spectrograph installed at the Haute-Provence Observatory in the South of France and TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) exoplanet-hunting space telescope.
The star HD 158259, which is 88 light-years away from Earth, was observed by Astronomers for the last seven years. Every planet in the HD 158259 star has the same orbital resonance from its later planet and it is 3:2. This would be 1.5 according to Period Ratio. That is, when the inside planet makes three rounds, then immediately after that the planet makes two rounds.

Pune Municipal Corporation Develops 'Saiyam' App To Track Home-Quarantine

To track home quarantine people on a real-time basis, Pune Municipal Corporation has developed a mobile application named 'Saiyam'. The mobile application has GPS tracking so that whenever quarantined citizens leave their homes, city administration gets alerted and the local ward or the local police station gets informed, who then visit the family.
The municipal corporation has appointed dedicated teams for five zones of the city to monitor home quarantined citizens with technology in their hand.

Iran Says It Launched a Military Satellite Into Orbit

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Iran had launched a military satellite into orbit, after months of unsuccessful efforts that raised the specter of outside sabotage.
There was no immediate independent confirmation of the announcement, which came amid wider tensions between Iran and the United States. This was the first military satellite ever launched by Iran.

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