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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - September 2018

Sep 2018

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.

Jul 20, 2019

Ant- Sized Robots to Sense Climate Change

Scientists have developed a 3D-printed robot — about the size of the world's smallest ant — that moves by harnessing vibration from ultrasound sources or even tiny speakers.
Swarms of these "micro-bristle-bots" could work together to sense environmental changes, move materials, or repair injuries inside the human body in the future.
The prototype robots respond to different vibration frequencies depending on their configurations, allowing researchers to control individual bots by adjusting the vibration, according to the research published in the 'Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering'.
About two millimetres long, the bots can cover four times their own length in a second despite the physical limitations of their small size.

NASA Aims to Build as a Way Station for Mars Exploration

Unlike the Apollo programme that put astronauts on the moon 50 years ago, NASA is gearing up for a long-term presence on Earth's satellite that will eventually enable humans to reach Mars.
NASA is working to build a sustainable, open architecture that returns humanity to our nearest neighbour.
The next manned mission to the moon will require leaps in robotic technologies and a plan for NASA to work with private companies such as Elon Musk's SpaceX or Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to help cut the cost of space travel.
Using NASA's Space Launch System, a heavy-lift rocket being built for a debut flight in late 2020, the agency is aiming to return humans to the moon by 2024 in an accelerated timeline set in March 2019 by the Trump administration.
No humans have launched from US soil since the space shuttle programme ended in 2011.
NASA officials say exploration of the moon and Mars is intertwined, with the moon becoming a testbed for Mars and providing an opportunity to demonstrate new technologies that could help build self-sustaining extraterrestrial outposts.
Technologies that can mine the moon's subsurface water ice to sustain astronaut crews, but also to be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen for use as a rocket propellant, could be crucial for missions to Mars. The planet is reachable in monthslong missions when at its closest orbital approach of 35.8 million miles from Earth.
The last manned mission to the moon was almost a half-century ago in 1972, when Cold War era tensions underscored President John F Kennedy's push to prove technologies that landed the first humans on the lunar surface.

Jul 19, 2019

Chandrayaan 2 Launch Rescheduled

Three days after the launch of India's second mission to the moon was aborted, the Indian Space Research Organsation (Isro) announced that the glitch was corrected and Chandrayaan 2 is ready for launch on July 22 at 2.43pm.
The new launch timing, however, would leave no margin for error due to a shorter window period.
The July 22 launch would be just two days after the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon and Neil Armstrong becoming the first man to walk its surface on July 20, 1969.

Jul 18, 2019

Isro Aims at July 21-22 Chandrayaan-2 Launch

After calling off the launch of Chandrayaan-2 due to a snag, Isro is now actively looking at a window as early as July 21 or 22, 2019 for a retry.
Isro's confidence can be attributed to the assurance given by the technical teams working at the Sriharikota launch pad who were "confident of rectifying the snag" in the next 48 hours.
The space agency is keen on the July 21-22, 2019 window because these are the earliest dates on which it will get a chance to navigate the lunar craft to the Moon's orbit. After this, the next possible window will open up only in September, 2019.
Every launch has an 'optimal window' to achieve desired results. July 15 provided the longest window of 10 minutes. Now, Isro has a window of at least one minute every day for the rest of the month.

US Marks Apollo 11 Mission 50 Years On

Fifty years after a mighty rocket set off from Florida carrying the first humans to the Moon, a veteran of the Apollo 11 crew returned to its fabled launch pad to commemorate "one giant leap" that became a defining moment in human history.
He and Buzz Aldrin, who piloted the module that landed on the Moon's surface, are the two surviving members from the mission that would change the way humanity saw its place in the universe. Their commander Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, died in 2012 aged 82.
The spacecraft took four days to reach the Moon, before the module known as "Eagle" touched the lunar surface on July 20, 1969.The Washington Monument will be lit up between July 16 and 18 with a life-size, 363-foot (111-meter) projection of the colossal Saturn V rocket built by ex-Nazi war criminal Wernher Von Braun.
Collins described how the mission was broken into discrete goals such as breaking free of the Earth's gravity or slowing down for lunar orbit.

Jul 16, 2019

Robots to Install Telescopes

As the United States races to put humans back on the moon for the first time in nearly 50 years, a NASA-funded lab in Colorado aims to send robots there to deploy telescopes that would look far into our galaxy, remotely operated by orbiting astronauts.
The radio telescopes, to be planted on the far side of the moon, are among a plethora of projects underway by the U.S. space agency, private companies and other nations that would transform the moonscape in the coming decade.

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