General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - December 2018

Dec 2018

Apr 16, 2020

Aarogya Setu Becomes World's Fastest App To Reach 50 Mn Downloads: NITI Aayog CEO

The Centre's mobile app, Aarogya Setu, developed for tracking COVID-19 patients, has become the world's fastest app to reach 50 million downloads in just 13 days, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the nation on April 14 appealed to people to download this app.
"Telephone took 75 years to reach 50 million users, radio 38 yrs, television 13 yrs, Internet 4 yrs, Facebook 19 months, Pokemon Go 19 days. AarogyaSetu, India's app to fight COVID-19 has reached 50 mn users in just 13 days-fastest ever globally for an App," Mr. Kant said in his tweet.

Apr 15, 2020

The Government of India, in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India, has decided to issue Sov...

Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad has announced an "innovation challenge" for Indian start-ups to develop a video conferencing solution under the Digital India programme.
"Announcing Innovation Challenge for Indian startups and innovators for developing a world-class video conferencing solution. Urge the innovators, software product startups to come forward and take part in this effort," Prasad tweeted.

Apr 14, 2020

Science-based Website CovidGyan on COVID-19 Was Launched

CovidGyan, a Science-based website, was launched. The website aims to bring the scientific and factual aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak onto the public domain, multi-institutional, multi-lingual science communication.
The website was launched by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), and Tata Memorial Centre (TMC).
Many other partners including Vigyan Prasar, IndiaBioscience, and the Bangalore Life Science Cluster (BLiSc), which includes Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (InStem), Centre for Cellular And Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), and National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) have also joined the initiative.

Apr 13, 2020

In a First, NASA Measures Wind Speed on a Brown Dwarf

For the first time, scientists have directly measured wind speed on a brown dwarf, an object larger than Jupiter (the largest planet in our solar system) but not quite massive enough to become a star. To achieve the finding, they used a new method that could also be applied to learn about the atmospheres of gas-dominated planets outside our solar system.
Described in a paper in the journal Science, the work combines observations by a group of radio telescopes with data from NASA's recently retired infrared observatory, the Spitzer Space Telescope, managed by the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
Officially named 2MASS J10475385+2124234, the target of the new study was a brown dwarf located 32 light-years from Earth — a stone's throw away, cosmically speaking. The researchers detected winds moving around the planet at 1,425 mph (2,293 kph). For comparison, Neptune's atmosphere features the fastest winds in the solar system, which whip through at more than 1,200 mph (about 2,000 kph).

NASA Unveils Plan To Setup 'Artemis', The First Human Base Camp On Moon's South Pole By 2024

NASA is working on the Artemis program that aims to land humans on the moon by 2024. The space agency has put forward a plan showing what a US lunar presence may look like after the milestone.
NASA submitted a 13-page report to the National Space Council on 2 April. The National Space Council is an advisory group to US President Donald Trump, presided over by Vice President Mike Pence.

SpaceX Unveils Users' Guide For Giant Starship Rocket

SpaceX released a users' guide for Starship, the reusable spaceship-rocket combo the company is developing to help colonize Mars. As the guide makes clear, Starship is designed to be a flexible transportation system, one capable of delivering both people and payloads to a variety of off-Earth destinations.
Indeed, the company will develop cargo and crewed variants of Starship. The cargo version will be capable of hauling gear quickly from point to point around Earth in addition to its space duties, according to the guide, which is the first version of a document that SpaceX said will be updated frequently.

SunRISE becomes new NASA mission to study Giant Solar Particle Storms

NASA announced they have selected the proposed Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment (SunRISE) mission to study how the Sun creates and releases Giant Solar Particle Storms. This mission will further aid scientists to understand how the Solar System works. It will also help protect future astronauts from Solar Storms while going to the Moon or Mars.
The SunRise mission was one of two missions chosen by NASA in August of 2017, for the Mission of Opportunity program as apart of the Explorers Program, to conduct an 11-month concept study. And in February of 2019, NASA approved an extra year of formulation study for the program. It was awarded in March of 2020, $62.6 million to design, build, and launch the SunRISE mission. It has a NET launch date of July 1, 2023.
The mission is led by Justin Kasper at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. It is also managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Mar 30, 2020

Apple Launches COVID-19 Information App, Website

In a bid to provide accurate and credible information to users about the COVID-19 pandemic, tech giant Apple has released a new dedicated app and website for users across the US.
The new COVID-19 app and website provide the latest information and guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The app is available on the App Store. The users can also use the new tools to answer questions around risk factors, recent exposure, and symptoms. The tool will provide guidance on social distancing and self-isolating based on risk level. In addition to the new tools, Apple also enabled Siri to provide guidance and resources from the CDC.
Users in the US can ask Siri, "How do I know if I have coronavirus?" to access the information.

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