General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - November 2017

Nov 2017

Jul 19, 2021

'India Among Nations that Hacked Phones': Global Media Investigation

India is among the countries that used Israeli company NSO Group's Pegasus phone hacking software to potentially target politicians, journalists and activists, an international collaborative investigation involving 17 media organisations including The Guardian, The Washington Post, and Die Zeit said. India's news website The Wire was one of the 17.
The first part of the multi-part investigation, released, said that 38 Indian journalists (according to The Guardian), including those from mainstream publications (three current Hindustan Times journalists are named, as is one from sister publication Mint), and websites, apart from freelancers were targeted.
The 38 are among 180 journalists the report said were targeted worldwide, including the editor of the Financial Times Roula Khalaf, and journalists from the Wall Street Journal, CNN, New York Times, and Le Monte.

India's First Pod Taxi to Operate Between Noida Airport and Film City

Indian Port Rail and Ropeway Corporation Ltd (IPRCL) has prepared a Detailed Project Report or DPR for the pod taxi service between Noida Airport at Jewar and Film City.
There are plans to run a driverless taxi between the two destinations. This will cost about Rs 862 crore, according to the detailed project report (DPR) submitted to the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (Yeida). This is a 14 km stretch.
This will be India's first pod taxi service.

Japan Sets Internet Speed Record by Transferring 319 Tb/s over 3,001 km

Researchers in Japan have demonstrated an internet speed of 319 terabits per second, setting a world record.
A team of researchers at Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) used advanced fiber optic technology with a 4-core optical fibre of standard outer diameter of 0.125 mm to perform the speed test, breaking the previous record of 178 Tb/s set by engineers in Japan and Britain a year ago.
To achieve the record speed, the researchers constructed a recirculating transmission loop experimental set-up by combining two kinds of rare-earth-doped fiber amplifiers.
The combination of erbium and thulium doped-fiber amplifiers and distributed Raman amplification enabled a long-distance transmission over 3,001 km.

Jul 17, 2021

2 Million Indian Accounts Banned during May-June: WhatsApp

WhatsApp banned 2 million Indian accounts to prevent harmful behaviour and spam on its platform between May 15 and June 15, according to the company's first monthly transparency report released.
The company identifies an Indian account via +91 phone number.
Stating that more than 95% of such bans are due to the unauthorised use of automated or bulk messaging, the company added that these numbers have increased significantly since 2019 because its systems have increased in sophistication, and hence are detecting more accounts even as it believes there are more attempts to send bulk or automated messages.

Jul 15, 2021

India sent most number of requests seeking account info: Twitter report

India has surpassed the United States as the country that sent the most number of legal requests seeking information about accounts from Twitter, the social media company's latest transparency report covering the period from July to December 2020 said.
The number of legal information requests sent from India accounted for 25% of the global volume and 15% of the global accounts specified, up from 21% and 25% respectively in the January-June, 2020 period.

Elon Musk Congratulates ISRO on 3rd test of Vikas Engine for Gaganyaan

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has congratulated the Indian Space Research Organisation for successfully conducting the third long-duration hot test of the Vikas Engine, as part of the Gaganyaan programme. His one-word tweet also has an Indian flag.
The engine was fired for a duration of 240 seconds at the ISRO facility in Tamil Nadu's Mahendragiri. "The performance of the engine met the test objectives and the engine parameters were closely matching with the predictions during the entire duration of the test," ISRO said.
This was the final testing of one of the three stages of the launch vehicle which will be used in the mission to carry humans to space.
Gaganyaan is ISRO's major project of sending humans to space, to a low earth orbit, onboard an Indian vehicle. The first unmanned mission is planned for December 2021 and the second one is scheduled in 2022-23.

Jul 14, 2021

China Harvests 1st Batch of Seeds that Travelled Around Moon

China has harvested the first batch of Space rice from seeds that went to a 23-day lunar voyage with China's Chang'e-5 in November.
After being exposed to cosmic radiation and zero gravity, these seeds weighing around 40 gram returned and were harvested at the space breeding research centre of the South China Agricultural University in Guangdong province.
The seeds are now 1 centimeter long, reports said. Guo Tao, the deputy director of the research centre, has said that the best seeds will be bred in laboratories and then will be planted in fields.

Jul 13, 2021

WHO calls for all Studies involving Human Genome Editing to be made Public

The World Health Organization issued new recommendations on human genome editing, calling for a global registry to track "any form of genetic manipulation" and proposing a whistle-blowing mechanism to raise concerns about unethical or unsafe research.
The UN health agency commissioned an expert group in late 2018 following a dramatic announcement from Chinese scientist He Jiankui that he had created the world's first gene-edited babies.
In two reports, WHO's expert group said all studies involving human genome editing should be made public, although the committee noted that wouldn't necessarily stop unprincipled scientists.
"In the field of stem cell research, unscrupulous entrepreneurs and clinics have deliberately misused clinical trial registries by registering procedures they plan to undertake as if they were properly sanctioned clinical trials," the group said, calling for WHO to ensure that all genetic editing research registered in their database are reviewed and approved by an ethics committee.

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