General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - October 2018

Oct 2018

Nov 23, 2019

Ribose, a sugar needed for life, has been detected in meteorites

Space rocks that fell to Earth contain ribose, an essential molecule for life's genetic machinery, and other related sugars.
The finding, reported online November 18, 2019 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, lends support to the idea that many of life's ingredients were delivered to Earth by interplanetary debris.
Many organic molecules have been found in space.
Comet Lovejoy, for example, carts around sugar and alcohol, the base ingredients for a decent interplanetary cocktail (SN: 10/23/15).
But until now, no one had confirmed an extraterrestrial source for ribose. This molecule forms part of the sugar-phosphate backbone of RNA, molecular workhorses within cells responsible for reading and carrying out instructions encoded in DNA.

Amazon Echo Flex Plug-In Smart Speaker Launched in India

Amazon has launched another device in its Echo lineup of smart speakers in India — Echo Flex Plug-in.
As the name suggests, the smart speaker is a simple plug-in device that can be directly put into a standard electrical outlet, avoiding the need for wires and chargers.
The device also doubles up as an adapter (7.5W) as it comes with a built-in USB-A port or other devices.
The Echo Flex Plug-in enables to use Alexa to control compatible smart home devices. The device offers pretty much all the controls that other Echo devices offer; one can also connect it to preferred speakers using Bluetooth or a 3.5 mm audio cable for higher audio output.

Nov 22, 2019

Kolkata Becomes First City To Install 'Third Umpire' RT-PCR Machines

In a major step towards upholding public health, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has installed first of its kind high-end reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) machines in India for quick detection of diseases like dengue, tuberculosis and swine flu.
These machines are to serve as a 'third umpire' in situations when medical reports and blood tests reveal contradictory results.
The purpose is to give accurate DNA report on blood tests in order to ascertain the exact cause of illness.

NASA Confirms Water Vapor Is Present Under The Ice Of Jupiter's Moon Europa

NASA has confirmed the presence of water vapor on one of Jupiter's 79 moons.
The American Space agency detected plume-like forms of water vapor above Europa's icy surface, which were detected as a wavelength of emitted infrared light.
The research showed the moon releases more than 5,000 pounds of water per second – enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool in only a few minutes.
These findings have also reignited a longstanding theory that an ocean twice of the ones on Earth lays hidden under the frozen shell.
Given the suspected abundance of warm, liquid water under its mile-thick ice shell, the moon is considered a 'top candidate' by NASA for life on a solar system body other than Earth.

Nov 21, 2019

Railway Factory In Uttar Pradesh Gets 'Sona 1.5' Robots For Non-Technical Work

Raebareli (Uttar Pradesh) railway coach factory is set to be modernised with the introduction of humanoid robot 'Sona 1.5' to transport documents and greet visitors.
The humanoid robot was built by Club First Technologies, who also demonstrated the product on November 18, 2019.
Besides transporting documents, Sona 1.5 is also beneficial for welcoming visitors, technical interaction, other types of training. The company claims that Sona 1.5 is built with human-like spine technology, which helps them to balance.
In addition, the humanoid robot is based on navigation and mapping with the help of sensors and reach the target.
Founded by Bhuvanesh Mishra and Neelima Mishra in 2009, Club First is the manufacturer of SONA 1.5, which is primarily used to serve diners at restaurants. The product is designed and manufactured in Jaipur under the Make in India scheme.

Nov 20, 2019

Visakhapatnam Police Launches India's first Robot - CYBIRA

Andhra Pradesh Police have launched India's first-ever Robot in Visakhapatnam. It will take a complaint automatically through voice or manually.
A start-up company Robo Coupler Private Limited has designed a robot 'CYBIRA' (cybersecurity interactive robotic agent) for registering and disposing of complaints at the police stations in an effective manner.
The first-of-its-kind robot which is at present stationed at Maharanipeta police station can receive complaints through voice recording or keying in the details on a laptop attached to it.

First Electric Racing Aircraft Unveiled at Dubai Airshow

An all-electric racing aircraft is one of the aircraft at display at Dubai airshow. It is yet another step towards revolutionizing air travel in an environmentally conscious way. The aircraft is named "White lightening" and it's expected to compete in the first E-Race in late 2020.
The E Race is backed by European aircraft manufacturer Airbus and its presence indicates that this program will not only be limited to E Racing and air sports but will also make an impact on commercial aviation. Airbus states that "Some of the answers to the future of electric flights will come from programs like this."
This all-electric aircraft has a weight of 375 kg and is powered by an electric motor. It uses Lithium batteries which are fixed under its fuselage and has a top speed of 482 km/h.

Lenovo Launches new ThinkBook Laptops for SMBs

Lenovo launched a new sub-brand line-up ThinkBook targeted at small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
The new line-up begins with the ThinkBook 14 and ThinkBook 15 which will focus on portability and performance. The ThinkBook laptops are designed in anodised aluminium finish to appeal to the new workforce.
Powered by up to 10th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 6-core processor, ThinkBook 14 and 15 aim at strong performance with the ability to reach a maximum turbo frequency of 4.7 GHz, enabling users to process large amounts of data with ease.
The new laptops are equipped with AMD Radeon 625 and 620 graphic cards, to facilitate better consumption of content, loading web pages faster, streaming video smoother, and displaying images clearer.

ISRO to Launch Cartosat-3, 13 Commercial Nano Satellites

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) would launch its earth imaging and mapping satellite Cartosat-3 along with 13 commercial nano satellites from the US, on November 25, 2019.
The satellites would be launched by India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C47 into Sun Synchronous Orbit from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
The launch is tentatively scheduled on November 25, 2019 subject to weather conditions.

Nov 19, 2019

Astronomers Spot New Type Of Storm On Saturn

Saturn saw some weird weather in 2018. Telescope images revealed a newfound type of storm. It raged near the planet's North Pole.
Until now, astronomers had seen only two types of storms on this gas giant. Some were relatively small, about 2,000 kilometers (about 1,250 miles) across.
They appeared as bright clouds for a few days. More impressive have been Saturn's Great White Spots. These rare tempests are 10 times as large and can rage for months.
The newest phenomena are a series of four midsize storms. Each was somewhat bigger than the days-long storms, lasting between about 1.5 weeks and 7 months.

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