General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - June 2017

Jun 2017

Feb 01, 2019

Vast Hole Surprises NASA Scientists

NASA scientists have discovered a gigantic cavity, almost 300 metres tall, growing at the bottom of the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica, indicating rapid decay of the ice sheet and acceleration in global sea levels due to climate change.
The findings highlight the need for detailed observations of Antarctic glaciers' undersides in calculating how fast sea levels will rise in response to warming.
Researchers expected to find some gaps between ice and bedrock at Thwaites' bottom where ocean water could flow in and melt the glacier from below.

Jan 31, 2019

Centre for Gaganyaan Space Mission

Gearing up for its maiden manned space mission 'Gaganyaan', ISRO unveiled its Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) at ISRO Headquarter campus in Bengaluru.
The space agency is gearing up for the human spaceflight programme by 2021-end that is likely to include a woman astronaut.
According to the space agency, Gaganyaan is the highest priority for ISRO in 2019, and the plan is to have the first unmanned mission in December 2020 and second for July 2021.
Once this is completed, the manned mission will take place in December 2021.

Jan 30, 2019

Artificial skin could give humans 'superpowers'

Scientists have developed a sensor for artificial skin that may not only help burn victims feel, but also lend humans 'superpowers' to detect sound waves and magnetic fields.
Our skin's ability to perceive pressure, heat, cold, and vibration is a critical safety function.
However, burn victims, those with prosthetic limbs, and others who have lost skin sensitivity, often injure themselves.
Researchers from University of Connecticut created a sensor with a silicone tube wrapped in a copper wire and filled with a special fluid made of tiny particles of iron oxidecalled nanoparticles.
When this tube is bumped by something experiencing pressure, the nanoparticles move and the electric signal changes.
Sound waves also create waves, and the electric signal changes in a different way than when the tube is bumped.
Researchers found magnetic fields alter the signal too, in a way distinct from pressure or sound waves.

Jan 29, 2019

Eggs to Pave Way for Cancer

Genetically modified chickens that produce human proteins in their eggs can offer a cost-effective method of manufacturing drugs widely used for treating cancer and other diseases.
The research, which initially focused on producing high quality proteins for use in scientific research, found the drugs work at least as well as the same proteins produced using existing methods.
According to researchers from the University of Edinburgh in the UK, high quantities of the proteins can be recovered from each egg using a simple purification system and there are no adverse effects on the chickens themselves, which lay eggs as normal.
The findings, published in the journal BMC Biotechnology, provide sound evidence for using chickens as a cheap method of producing high quality drugs for use in research studies and, potentially one day, in patients. Eggs are already used for growing viruses used as vaccines, such as the flu jab.
This new approach is different because the therapeutic proteins are encoded in the chicken's DNA and produced as part of the egg white.
The team have initially focused on two proteins that are essential to the immune system and have therapeutic potential -- a human protein called IFNalpha2a, which has powerful antiviral and anticancer effects, and the human and pig versions of a protein called macrophage-CSF, which is being developed as a therapy that stimulates damaged tissues to repair themselves.

IIT-Mandi Finds New Treatment for Zika

Researchers from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mandi, have identified a drug target in the Zika virus that can bind with an existing antimalarial drug to inhibit the spread of the disease in the human body.
Zika is a viral disease transmitted by the aedes aegypti mosquitoes that also transmit diseases such as dengue and chikungunya. It is a self-limiting disease that causes fever, rashes, joint pain and red eyes, but in pregnant women it has been associated with babies born with microcephaly (a small head and abnormal brain development).
The researchers found that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), a drug that is used to treat malaria, can inhibit the NS2B-NS3 protease necessary for the replication of the Zika virus.
Giri's team worked closely with Indira Mysorekar from Washington University at St. Louis, USA, to study the enzyme kinetic studies. Earlier, Mysorekar's team had suggested that the use of HCQ can prevent the transmission of Zika from mother to foetus.

'Superbug' Surfaces in Arctic

An antibiotic-resistant gene first discovered in India has been found some 13,000km away in the Arctic region, triggering concerns about the speed with which superbugs can spread across the world.
Researchers found the New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1 (blaNDM-1) gene, which helps bacteria produce an enzyme making it immune to one of the world's last line of antibiotic defence (carbapenems), in Svalbard, an archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole.
Encroachment into areas like the Arctic reinforces how rapid and far-reaching the spread of antibiotic resistance has become.
The findings were published in the journal Environmental International. The researchers analysed DNA from 40 soil cores at eight locations along the Kongsfjorden region of Svalbard, where a total of 131 antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs) were detected.
The place where researchers recovered the samples is marked by rugged, remote terrain with temperatures varying from 3°C in summers to -20°C in winters, and have almost no population except for visiting research groups.

Jan 28, 2019

Gsat-31 to Replace Dying Sat

Isro will get its communication satellite Gsat-31 launched from French Guiana. Arianespace will launch Gsat-31 on February 6. The satellite will replace Insat-4CR, whose life is expected to end soon.
Though Gsat-31 is not a heavy satellite (2,600kg), the services of Arianespace are being used as it is an emergency launch to replace the dying Insat satellite so that communication services are not affected.
Gsat-31 satellite can only be launched with GSLV Mk III. But MK III rockets are already booked for Chandrayaan-2 and other important missions.
Arianespace will also launch Gsat-30 in June. This satellite will replace dying satellite Insat-4A.

Kerosene to Boost GSLV Mk III's Payload Capacity

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is working on upgrading its heavylifter GSLV Mk III where the upper stage of the rocket will have highly refined form of kerosene as fuel in order to increase its payload capability.
To increase the payload capability of GSLV Mk III from 4 tonnes to 6 tonnes, ISRO is in the process of making some improvements in rocket stages. First, working on enhancing the cryogenic stage fuel loading from 25 tonnes to 30 tonnes. Second, working on changing the core stage L110 — which has 110 tonnes of unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) and dinitrogen tetroxide (N2O4).
This is to replace L110 stage with semi-cryogenic engine that will carry liquefied oxygen and highly refined kerosene called kerolox (aka RP-1) instead of liquefied hydrogen.

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