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

Science & Technology, Defense, Environment

Trio of scientists won the Nobel Chemistry Prize for developing molecular machines (Free Available)
Scientists recorded sounds by Jupiter’s aurora (Free Available)
ISRO has firmed up a strategy to a make increasingly smaller satellites (Free Available)
Estimates of TB burden has been inaccurate in India (Free Available)
There are a dizzying two trillion galaxies in the universe (Only for Online Coaching Members)
Genetic secrets of purple rice (Only for Online Coaching Members)
Process for Chandrayan-2 started (Only for Online Coaching Members)

Trio of scientists won the Nobel Chemistry Prize for developing molecular machines

A trio of French, British and Dutch scientists won the Nobel Chemistry Prize for developing molecular machines, the world’s smallest machines that may one day act as artificial muscles to power tiny robots or even prosthetic limbs.
Inspired by proteins that naturally act as biological machines within cells, these synthetic copies are usually constructed of a few molecules fused together.
Also called nanomachines or nanobots, they can be put to work as tiny motors, ratchets, pistons or wheels to produce mechanical motion in response to stimuli such as light or temperature change. Molecular machines can move objects many time their size.
The first step towards a molecular machine was taken by Mr. Sauvage in 1983, when he succeeded in linking together two ring-shaped molecules to form a chain.
The second step was taken by Mr. Stoddart in 1991, when he threaded a molecular ring onto a thin molecular axle and demonstrated that the ring was able to move along the axle.
Mr. Feringa (65) was meanwhile the first person to develop a molecular motor — in 1999 he was able to make a molecular rotor blade to spin continually in the same direction. Using molecular motors, he has also designed a nanocar.

Scientists recorded sounds by Jupiter’s aurora

Scientists have recorded haunting sounds cast by Jupiter’s auroras, captured by NASA’s solar-powered Juno spacecraft during its first full orbit around the king of planets.
The radio emissions cast by Jupiter’s auroras — light shows similar to the northern and southern lights on Earth — were recorded by an instrument, called Waves, as the Juno spacecraft travelled about 4,100 km above Jupiter’s swirling clouds.
The emissions from Jupiter were discovered in the 1950s but had never been analysed from such a close vantage point, according to NASA.
The scientists want to learn how electrons and ions are accelerated along magnetic field lines above Jupiter to eventually collide with the atmosphere, creating the bursts of light that become the auroras.
To do that, the Waves instrument will sample plasma waves along different segments in the magnetic field lines with each of its orbits around Jupiter.

ISRO has firmed up a strategy to a make increasingly smaller satellites

Even as it moves into making heavier communication spacecraft weighing 4,000 kg to 6,000 kg, ISRO has also firmed up a strategy to a make increasingly smaller satellites for earth observation and scientific, experimental and other missions.
The plan for small satellites is two-pronged and can range from 10 kg ‘micros’ to 300 kg-500 kg ‘minis’.
A series of 350-kg ‘mini’ satellites, probably with high resolution cameras and innovative features, will be built in the near future for the ISRO’s own remote-sensing uses.
They will be built on the decade-old IMS-2 platform on which the ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) has earlier brought out half a dozen EO (earth observation) satellites.
It also plans to build 10 kg or smaller nano and micro satellites using a 100 kg IMS-1 platform.
This will offer ready and reliable micro and nano satellite ‘shells’ on which the Indian Institutes of Technology, universities and even start-ups can put their experimental payloads or devices.
The idea is to encourage users to save time to import a suitable small satellite and instead focus on test novel concepts on the satellites. IMS stands for 80 kg Indian Mini Satellite, launched in 2008.
The 300 kg- 400 kg class may be the new norm in Indian EO.
It estimates that more than 3,600 small satellites are expected to be launched over the next 10 years, much more than during the last decade.
Their market value, including the cost of satellites and their launch fee, is put at at $22 billion which would be 76 per cent more than what it was in the previous decade (2006-15).

Estimates of TB burden has been inaccurate in India

Inaccurate estimates of the tuberculosis burden in India between 2000-2015, has led the World Health Organisation (WHO) to seriously underestimate the global TB epidemic.
The most crucial finding of the latest Global TB Report 2016 is that India had reported only 56 per cent of its TB burden in 2014 and 59 per cent in 2015. This massive underestimating will result in health authorities revising the global TB data.
The WHO has noted with concern that the TB burden is, “larger than previously estimated, reflecting new surveillance and survey data from India.”
In 2015, an estimated 10.4 million people were infected with TB around the world — which is a jump of 500,000 from 2014. The disease killed 1.4 million worldwide in 2015.
The report said “In 2015, 6.1 million new TB cases were notified to national authorities and reported to the WHO. Notified TB cases increased from 2013–2015, mostly due to a 34 per cent increase in notifications in India.”
The revised estimates put the incidence of TB in India at 217 per 1,00,000 population in 2015 as against the previously estimated 127 per 1,00,000.
The report and the WHO stated that the size of the epidemic has increased considerably because researchers have realised that earlier estimates in India — for the previous 15 years — were too low.
According to the WHO, the substantial increase in reporting from India is due to the policy of mandatory TB notification.