(Current Affairs) Science & Technology, Defence, Environment | April: 2016

Science & Technology, Defense, Environment

India will come u p with its own version of LIGO (Free Available)
Scientists finding ways to reduce coral bleach (Free Available)
Antarctica inûuencing weather in tropics (Free Available)
India’s sun mission Aditya-L1 will be launched in 2019 (Only for Online Coaching Members)
Zika is fit case for WHO to declare public health emergency (Only for Online Coaching Members)
Travancore bush frog reappeared in western ghats (Only for Online Coaching Members)
Ice found at the surface of comet 67P (Only for Online Coaching Members)
PSLV-C31 launch in two days (Only for Online Coaching Members)

India will come u p with its own version of LIGO

With the discovery of gravitational waves by the U.S.-based LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory), Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have tweeted his support for a similar detector in India but such a project is at least eight years away.
This is not counting the time it will take the Central government to clear the proposal, estimated to cost around Rs. 1,200 crore, and is further premised on the project not running into environmental or State-level hurdles.
Another ambitious mega-science project, the Indian Neutrino Observatory (INO) project — a proposed, underground observatory inTamil Nadu to detect ephemeral particles called neutrinos — had been cleared by the Union government in 2015.
Scientists associated with the India-LIGO project (called INDIGO) say that they have, since 2009, done considerable work in identifying suitable sites in India and met officials in several States.
INDIGO will be a replica of the two LIGO detectors and many of its components have already been built and are ready to be shipped from the United States.
The project was initially tobe located in Australia but, since 2011, scheduled to be located in India. At least 25 sites were considered for the detector that will, most saliently, have two L-shaped four- kilometre-long arms.
Other than the benefit of having a third detector, which will likely improve the chances of spotting gravitational waves, an India detector would improve the chances of novel, exciting discoveries being made out of India and being made by Indians.

Scientists finding ways to reduce coral bleach

Oceanographers are diving deep into the aquamarine seas of Lakshadweep to unravel the mysteries of marine life that thrive and wither deep down there around the colourful corals.
A group of researchers from Kerala are looking at the science behind the defence mechanism of corals to resist coral bleaching, the biggest threat to their beautiful submarine world.
Coral bleaching is considered as a stress response of corals to a few biotic and abiotic factors. Increased solar irradiance (photosynthetically active radiation and ultraviolet band light) is an important factor.
Exposure to UV radiation when combined with thermal stress could be lethal for corals.” It could lead to the loss of algal symbionts from coral tissue and coral bleaching.
Mycosporinelike Amino Acids (MAA)are small secondary metabolites produced by organisms that live in environments with high volumes of sunlight.
Besides protecting cells from mutation due to UV radiation, they also boost cellular tolerance to desiccation and salt and heat stress.
The coral reefs are highly sensitive ecosystems facing the threat of extinction. They are often compared to tropical rainforests considering the ecosystem services they deliver.
Coral reefs are considered valuable source of pharmaceutical compounds from which drugs for the treatment of cancer, HIV, cardiovascular diseases, ulcers, and other ailments are extracted, highlighting the medicinal value of corals, the researchers noted.

Antarctica inûuencing weather in tropics

Scientists are coming to grips with how weather in Antarctica is inûuencing climate as far away as the tropics.
For example, researchers at Ohio State’s Byrd Polar Research Center have discovered an inûuence of atmospheric circulation in the Wilkes Land and Ross Sea regions of Antarctica on precipitation from the East Asian monsoon.
In this context, the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement West Antarctic Radiation Experiment (AWARE) project gains importance as it studies the skies above Antarctica for answers to questions such as how climate change and associated atmospheric physics are affecting Antarctica and how the ripple effects of these phenomena are being felt thousands of miles away in the mid latitudes and the tropics.
The temperature gradient between the equator and the poles essentially drives the atmospheric circulation in the southern hemisphere in the form of three north- south systems: the polar cell, the mid-latitude Ferrelcell and the tropical Hadley cell. These cells are dynamically linked together.
The AWARE project by the United States located at Mc Murdo station in Antarctica will observe how climate change affects the polar region as it has been determined that when the polar region warms, the lo- cation of the boundary be- tween the polar and Ferrel cells will change, along with the strength of circulation in both cells.
Antarctica acts as a global heat sink. Near the equator the Sun is highest in the sky and insolation (solar radiation reaching the surface) is larger than thermal radiation loss to space.
At the South Pole during winter there is no insolation and the Antarctic continent loses energy to space.
Energy and warmth transported over the Antarctic continent by global circulation patterns is lost to space by radiative cooling.
Another wind system is the circumpolar westerlies which prevents warm air from the northern latitudes of the southern ocean from reaching the interior of eastern Antarctica which remains a cold, isolated desolate region, losing energy to space.