(Current Affairs) Science & Technology, Defence, Environment | February: 2014

Science & Technology, Defense, Environment

First telecommunication Satellite of Bolivia launched

Bolivia on 20 December 2013 launched the country’s first telecommunication satellite Tupak Katari. The satellite has been named upon an indigenous national hero, who fought the 18th century Spanish colonial rule. The rocket carrying the satellite blast off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China. Bolivia is one of the last countries in South America to have its own satellite. Ivan Zambrana is the Director of the Bolivian Space Agency. He said that the satellite should be fully operational by March 2014 and help to bring down communication cost and improve television and Internet services for people living in rural areas.

Telecommunications satellite

Satellite telecommunication is the most mature of space applications. Starting 50 years ago with the launch of Telstar in 1962 and Syncom in 1963, satcom has continued to grow ever since. At first, satellite performance was very limited. The use of satellites was limited to long distance telephony and to the transport of television signals between studios.

Use of Telecommunication satellites

  • While listening to the radio and watching T.V. the signals, we receive is distributed from the satellite
  • Most news agencies use satellites to distribute text, audio and video to their affiliates
  • Access to the Internet is possible only by satellite communication
  • Satellites are being used for tele-education, telemedicine or videoconference systems
  • Internet service providers often link their servers to the core of the Internet network by satellite
  • With the emergence of very powerful broadband satellites, users – equipped with their own broadband interactive satellite terminals – get access to the Internet regardless of their distance from the nearest terrestrial node
  • In most remote and some notso-remote parts of the world, satellite communications continue to play a fundamental role in the infrastructure of telephone and other services

First human artificial heart implanted

The first human artificial heart implantation performed in Georges Pompidou Hospital, Paris on 18 December 2013 was successful. The artificial heart designed by the French biomedical firm Carmat and developed by the Dutch based European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS). The artificial heart can give patients up to five years of extra life, which replaces the real heart. The previous heart assistance devices are created mainly for temporary use. The artificial heart uses biomaterials including bovine tissue and an array of sensors to mimic the contractions of the heart. The patient has to wear a belt of lithium batteries to power the heart. Inside the heart, surfaces that come into contact with human blood are made partly from bovine tissue instead of synthetic materials which can cause blood clots. The artificial heart weighs as little as less than a kilogram (900grams), almost three times heavier than an average healthy human heart.

Malaria vaccine developed by Oxford Scientists

Oxford scientists recently developed a novel new Malaria Vaccine which can protect against the deadly mosquito-borne disease. The vaccine has shown promising results in the first clinical trial to test whether it can protect people against the disease. The trial was carried out by researchers led by Professor Adrian Hill of the Jenner Institute at Oxford University, along with researchers from the biotechnology company Okairos. It’s the first time that a vaccine has been shown to have a protective effect through a sufficiently high immune response involving cells called CD8 T cells. It is CD8 immune cells that are seen to mount a protective response against malaria in similar studies in mice.

Every existing vaccine in use - bar one - generates antibodies. But there are two arms to the body’s immune system for fighting infection: ant ibodies and T cells .This new vaccine aims to timulate an immune response
involving T cells. CD8 T cells are important because they are the primary killer cells in the immune system. They can attack nearly all types of infected cells in this case liver cells infected with the malaria parasite. But this first demonstration of a large CD8 response from a vaccine could be relevant for tackling other diseases too.

Science journal’s top 10 breakthroughs of 2013

“Ultimately, we concluded, cancer immunotherapy passes the test. It does so because this year, clinical trials have cemented its potential in patients and swayed even the sceptics. The field of cancer immunotherapy hums with stories of lives extended — the woman with a grapefruit-size tumour in her lung from melanoma, alive and healthy 13 years later; the 6-year-old near death from leukaemia, now in third grade and in remission; the man with metastatic kidney cancer whose disease continued fading away even after treatment stopped,” notes a paper published recently in the journal that ranked the top.

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