General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - December 2018

Dec 2018

Aug 11, 2021

SpaceX acquires Satellite Start-up Swarm Technologies

SpaceX is acquiring satellite connectivity startup Swarm Technologies for an undisclosed sum, it first acquisition in the 19 years of its existence.
Swarm raised $25 million in August 2018 and launched its flagship product called the Tile which is a small modem that can be embedded in various connectivity devices and linked to the satellite network.
Swarm operates a constellation of 120 sandwich-sized satellites as well as a ground station network.

TikTok Overtakes Facebook

Chinese short-video platform TikTok has overtaken Facebook as the most downloaded social media app in the world.
According to Nikkei Asia, a global survey of downloads in 2020 showed TikTok on top of the list of social media providers for the first time since the study was first conducted in 2018.
As per the report, TikTok's parent company ByteDance launched the international version of short-video platform in 2017, and has since overtaken Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger, all of which are Facebook owned, in downloads, even in the US.

Astronomers Discover Dancing Ghost Galaxies

Astronomers using CSIRO's Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope have discovered strange clouds of electrons surrounding distant galaxies. The clouds, which are about a billion light-years away and never been seen before, resemble two ghosts dancing.
The discovery of the 'dancing ghosts' is one of the initial results from the first pilot survey of the Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU), observed at 944 MHz with the ASKAP radio telescope.

Aug 10, 2021

Juno Team Creates Infrared Map of Ganymede

Using data from the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument onboard NASA's Juno spacecraft, researchers have produced a new infrared map of the Jupiter's moon Ganymede, combining data from three flybys, including its latest approach in July 2021.
The Juno spacecraft came within 50,109 km (31,136 miles) of Ganymede on July 20, 2021.
During earlier flybys in June 2021, and December 2019, the orbiter came within 1,046 km (650 miles) and 100,000 km (62,000 miles), respectively.
The three observational geometries provided an opportunity for the JIRAM instrument to see the moon's North Polar Region for the first time, as well as compare the diversity in composition between the low and high latitudes.
The infrared and other data collected by Juno during the flyby contain fundamental clues for understanding the evolution of Jupiter's 79 moons from the time of their formation to today.

Aug 09, 2021

Ministry for Social Justice Launches 'PM-DAKSH' Portal and Mobile App

The Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Dr. Virendra Kumar has unveiled a portal and mobile application named 'PM-DAKSH', which aims to make the skill development schemes accessible to the target groups. The 'PM-DAKSH' stands for Pradhan Mantri Dakshta Aur Kushalta Sampann Hitgrahi (PM-DAKSH) Yojana. The portal can be accessed at: http://pmdaksh.dosje.gov.in.
The platform has been developed by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in collaboration with National E-Governance Division (NeGD), under the Department Of Electronics And Information Technology. The training programs will be implemented through Government Training Institutes, Sector Skill Councils constituted by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and other credible institutions.
Through PM DAKSH, youths of the target groups can get information about skill development training happening near them and can easily register to avail the benefits of skill development training programmes more easily.

Perseverance Rover Aims for its 1st Sample of Mars, Comes Empty

The Perseverance rover's first sample-snagging attempt didn't go according to plan.
The car-sized Perseverance landed inside the Red Planet's Jezero Crater this past February with two main tasks: to hunt for signs of past Mars life and to collect and cache samples for future return to Earth.
The NASA rover drilled its first sample-collecting hole, a major milestone for the $2.7 billion mission. But data beamed back to Earth by Perseverance indicate that no Mars rock or dirt made it into the sampling tube, NASA officials announced.

Aug 08, 2021

Microsoft Working on Single Unified OneNote App for Windows

American tech is working on plans to unify its OneNote and OneNote for Windows 10 apps into a single unified OneNote app.
According to The Verge, Microsoft has taken all the improvements in its Windows 10 UWP OneNote app and brought them over to the traditional OneNote desktop app instead.
These improvements to the traditional OneNote desktop app that installs as part of Office will appear in a series of updates over the next 12 months. The new updates include a visual refresh and key existing features currently unique to OneNote for Windows 10.

Aug 07, 2021

Apple Leads China Tablet Market in Apr-Jun Quarter

As per reports, Apple maintained its leading status despite sharp decline in its tablet shipments in China with a market share of 31 percent, down from 45 percent a year ago, after its iPad shipments fell 48 percent on-year to 1.72 million units in the second quarter.
Samsung and Lenovo capitalised on renewed demand for tablets in the consumer space.
According to market research firm Canalys, Samsung and Lenovo both enjoyed strong annual growth, of 78 per cent and 299 per cent, respectively, to take third and fourth place in Q2 2021.

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