General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - October 2018

Oct 2018

Nov 05, 2019

Light-based 'Tractor Beam' Assembles Materials at the Nanoscale

Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a method that could make reproducible manufacturing at the nanoscale possible.
The team adapted a light-based technology employed widely in biology -- known as optical traps or optical tweezers -- to operate in a water-free liquid environment of carbon-rich organic solvents, thereby enabling new potential applications.
As the team reports in a paper published October 30, 2019 in the journal Nature Communications, the optical tweezers act as a light-based "tractor beam" that can assemble nanoscale semiconductor materials precisely into larger structures.
Unlike the tractor beams of science fiction, which grab spaceships, the team employs the optical tweezers to trap materials that are nearly one billion times shorter than a meter.

Voyager 2 Reaches Interstellar Space

Researchers at the University of Iowa report that the spacecraft Voyager 2 has entered the interstellar medium (ISM), the region of space outside the bubble-shaped boundary produced by wind streaming outward from the sun.
Voyager 2, thus, becomes the second human-made object to journey out of our sun's influence, following Voyager 1's solar exit in 2012.
In a new study, the researchers confirm Voyager 2's passage on Nov. 5, 2018, into the ISM by noting a definitive jump in plasma density detected by an Iowa-led plasma wave instrument on the spacecraft.
The marked increase in plasma density is evidence of Voyager 2 journeying from the hot, lower-density plasma characteristic of the solar wind to the cool, higher-density plasma of interstellar space.
It's also similar to the plasma density jump experienced by Voyager 1 when it crossed into interstellar space.

Nov 04, 2019

IIT Kharagpur Researchers Use Wet Clothes At Dhobi Ghat To Generate Electricity

Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, Mechanical department here have generated electricity from clothes drying in natural ambience.
The research was done at a 'dhobi ghat' using 50 wet clothes with a surface area of 3,000 square meters which was put for drying by washermen in a remote village.
The clothes were connected to a commercial super-capacitor. In the process, the researchers were able to reliably charge up to around 10 volts in almost 24 hours. This stored energy is enough to glow a white LED for more than 1 hour.

Nov 03, 2019

Astrosat Views Star Formation In Jellyfish Galaxies

Observations of a jelly fish galaxy, JW100, by Astrosat using its Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope have thrown up interesting puzzles. These puzzles involve star formation in hostile environments containing X-ray-emitting hot plasma.
JW100 is located far away in the galaxy cluster Abell 2626. A recent work describes this analysis and poses the puzzle, vouching for the power of multiwavelength astronomy. The measurements made by the UVIT have been crucial for this work, which is to be published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Four Guinness World Records to be Slated During The 5th India International Science Festival

As many as four Guinness World Records will be attempted during the course of the 5th India International Science Festival (IISF) beginning in Kolkata on November 5, 2019.
On the opening day of the four-day mega event, the largest astrophysics lesson and assembly of spectroscopes will be attempted with the participation of over 1,750 students.
The largest electronics lesson and assembly of optical media communication units at a single location will be attempted the next day (November 6, 2019) with the participation of over 950 students.
The record attempt for most people assembling Radio kits simultaneously will be attempted on November 7, 2019 with the participation of over 400 students.
The largest human image of a human chromosome will be attempted to be formed on the final day, November 8, 2019 with the participation of over 400 students' own exploration in the world of Science and Technology.

Machine Learning-Based Model to Determine If Skin Cancer Has Spread

Using the expression of 17 key genes (messenger RNAs), it is now possible to distinguish primary and metastatic cutaneous melanoma, which is the most common type of skin cancer. While 11 of the 17 genes have already been reported by other studies for cutaneous melanoma, it is for the first time that the potential role of remaining six genomic signatures in classifying samples as either primary or metastatic skin cutaneous cancer has been made.
The 17 genomic signatures, which were identified by a team led by Prof. Gajendra P.S. Raghava from the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), New Delhi, have high accuracy — over 89% — in discriminating metastatic from primary skin melanoma. These signatures also have high sensitivity (in case tumour is metastatic), and high specificity (in case the tumour is primary). The results were published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Nov 02, 2019

Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter Detects Argon-40 On Lunar Exosphere

The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter has detected Argon-40 on lunar exosphere from an altitude of approximately 100 kilometres, informed Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The CHACE-2 payload aboard the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter has detected Argon-40 from an altitude of approximately 100 kilometres.
The ISRO had released images of the moon's surface clicked by Orbiter High-Resolution Camera (OHRC) onboard Chandrayaan-2.

IIIT Hyderabad Researchers Create First Ever Indian Brain Atlas

Researchers at the IIIT Hyderabad said that the first ever Indian Brain Atlas (IBA) has been created. They stated that the next step is to prepare atlases for different age groups to study age related affects on brain anatomy.
The average brain size of an Indian was smaller in height, width and volume in comparison to people of the Caucasian and eastern races.
The immediate implication of this finding can be seen in treatment outcomes of neurological problems or brain related ailments - like dementia, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease etc.

Oct 30, 2019

Mars InSight's Mole Has Partially Backed Out of Its Hole

After making progress over the past several weeks digging into the surface of Mars, InSight's mole has backed about halfway out of its hole.
Preliminary assessments point to unusual soil conditions on the Red Planet. The international mission team is developing the next steps to get it buried again.
Meantime, the lander's seismometer — the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, or, SEIS — continues to collect data on marsquakes in order to provide a better understanding of the Mars interior and why Earth and the Red Planet are so different today after sharing similarities billions of years ago.
The French space agency, Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) and its partners provided the SEIS instrument to NASA.

US Air Force Space Plane Back On Earth After Two-Year Mission

The US Air Force's mystery space plane is back on Earth, after 780 days in orbit following a record-breaking two-year mission.
The X-37B landed at Kennedy Space Centre of National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Florida.
The Air Force is mum about what the plane did in orbit after launching aboard a SpaceX rocket in 2017.
The mission sets a new endurance record for the reusable test vehicle. US officials said that this latest mission has successfully completed its objectives.
This was the fifth spaceflight by a vehicle of this sort. No. 6 is planned for 2020 with another launch from Cape Canaveral.

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