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

Science & Technology, Defense, Environment

Leo Minor, can shed new light on birth of the universe

  • A faint blue galaxy situated about 30 million light years from the Earth and located in the constellation “Leo Minor” can shed new light on birth of the universe.
  • Astronomers from Indiana University (IU) found that a galaxy nicknamed Leoncino or “little lion” contains the lowest level of heavy chemical elements or “metals” ever observed in a gravitationally bound system of stars
  • Finding the most metal-poor galaxy ever is exciting since it can help contribute to a quantitative test of the Big Bang.
  • There are relatively few ways to explore conditions at the birth of the universe, but low-metal galaxies are among the most promising.
  • This is because the current accepted model of the start of the universe makes clear predictions about the amount of helium and hydrogen present during the Big Bang.
  • The ratio of these atoms in metal-poor galaxies provides a direct test of the model. To find these low-metal galaxies, however, astronomers must look far from home.
  • Our own Milky Way galaxy is a poor source of data due to the high level of heavier elements created over time by “stellar processing,” in which stars churn out heavier elements.
  • Low metal abundance is essentially a sign that very little stellar activity has taken place compared to most galaxies.
  • Leoncino is considered a member of the “local universe,” a region of space within about one billion light years from Earth and estimated to contain several million galaxies.
  • Leoncino is unique in several other ways. A so-called “dwarf galaxy”, it is only about 1,000 light years in diameter and composed of several million stars.

Scientists found out gene which gives rise to carotenoids

  • Scientists unveiled the gene in carrots that gives rise to carotenoids, a critical source of Vitamin A and the pigment that turns some fruits and vegetables bright orange or red.
  • Un-poetically dubbed ‘DCAR_032551’, the star gene emerged from the first complete decoding of the carrot genome, published in the scientific journal Nature Genetics .
  • Carotenoids were first discovered in carrots (hence the name), but which among the vegetable’s newly tallied 32,115 genes was most responsible for their formation remained a mystery.
  • The researchers sequenced the genome of a bright orange variety of the vegetable called the Nantes carrot, named for the French city
  • Daucus carota now joins a select club of about a dozen veggies — including the potato, cucumber, tomato and pepper — whose complete genomes have been sequenced.
  • Laying bare the humble carrot’s genetic secrets will make it easier to enhance disease resistance and nutritive value in other species, the researchers said.
  • Among vegetables spinach and peas are widely associated with growing up strong, but it’s hard to beat the carrot when it comes to health boosters.
  • Carrots are loaded with beta-carotene, a natural chemical that the body can transform into Vitamin A.The deeper the orange colour, the more beta-carotene.
  • Carotenoids are also antioxidants, which are thought to protect against heart disease and some forms of cancer by neutralising so-called “free radicals”, single oxygen atoms that can damage cells.
  • Interestingly, carrots — along with many other plants — have about 20 per cent more genes than humans.
  • Looking back at the plant’s family tree, scientists have been able to determine that it split with the grape about 113 million years ago and from the kiwi about 10 million years after that, when dinosaurs still lorded over the planet.
  • Originally white, the wild ancestors of the carrot likely came from central Asia. The earliest record of carrots as a root crop dates from 1,100 years ago in Afghanistan, but those were yellow carrots and purple ones, not orange ones.
  • Paintings from 16th century Spain and Germany provide the first unmistakable evidence for orange carrots. Global crop production of the root has quadrupled in the last 40 years and is today eaten everywhere in the world.

Earliest known example of a plant-eating marine reptile

  • A bizarre crocodile-sized ’hammerhead’ creature, that lived 242 million years ago in what today is southern China may have been the earliest known example of a plant-eating marine reptile, researchers have said.
  • The fossil, discovered in 2014, has a poorly preserved head, but it seemed to have a flamingo-like beak.
  • Scientists found that “beak” is actually part of a hammerhead-shaped jaw apparatus, which it used to feed on plants on the ocean floor.
  • The reptile’s name, Atopodentatus unicus , hints at its muddled past — it is Latin for “unique strangely toothed.”
  • However, newly discovered fossils make it clearer how its “strange teeth” were actually configured.
  • Its wide jaw was shaped like a hammerhead, and along the edge, it had peg-like teeth. Then, further into its mouth, it had bunches of needle-like teeth.
  • Not only does this discovery solve the mystery of the strange-toothed animal, but it also provides us with an example of the first herbivorous marine reptile.
  • The jaw structure is clearly that of an herbivore. It has similarities to other marine animals that ate plants with a filter-feeding system, but Atopodentatus is older than them by about eight million years.
  • The existence of specialised animals like Atopodentatus unicus shows us that life recovered and diversified more quickly than previously thought.

A rare astronomical phenomenon to occur on 9th may

  • Planet Mercury will be seen as a dot on the solar disc from several parts of India, a rare astronomical phenomenon that occurs only 13 times in a century.
  • The planet will be seen as a small black dot travelling from one limb of the solar disc to the other as the Sun, Mercury and the Earth will be lined up in one plane.
  • The last transit of Mercury had occurred on November 6, 2006, when just the end of the event was visible from the extreme north-eastern parts of India at sunrise.
  • In Delhi, the event can be seen for about 2 hours 20 minutes, as it will start at 4.41 p.m. and sunset will take place at 7.01 p.m.
  • The planet appears as a dot on the disc because its angular size is very small compared to that of the Sun as seen from the Earth.
  • The phenomenon is relatively rare and occurs 13 or 14 times in a century. It occurs in May and November.
  • The interval between one November transit and the next November transit may be 7, 13 or 33 years whereas the interval between one May transit and the next May transit may be 13 or 33 years.
  • The transit of Mercury will be visible from most parts of Asia.The next transit of Mercury will take place on November 11, 2019, but the event cannot be seen from India as the same will begin after the sunset time in the country.
  • The transit of Mercury on November 13, 2032 will be visible again from India.
  • The Sun should never be viewed with the naked eye. Safe technique to observe is using filter like aluminised mylar, black polymer or welding glass of shade number14.

Gravitational waves detection won special breakthrough prize in fundamental physics

  • The LIGO team’s detection of gravitational waves, announced in February, has won the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.
  • The $3 million award, instituted by Yuri Milner, will be shared between two groups of laureates: the three founders of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and 1012 contributors to the experiment
  • First will each equally share $1 million (Rs. 6.65 crore); and 1012 contributors to the experiment, who will each equally share $2 million (Rs. 13.31 crore).
  • The founders are Ronald W.P. Drever; Kip Thorne and Rainer Weiss. The 1012 contributors include 1,005 authors of the paper and seven others.
  • K.G. Arun of Chennai Mathematical Instituteis among the 1012 contributors.
  • Dr. Arun joined the LIGO scientific collaboration through the INDIGO consortium in 2012.
  • The calculations done by his team occupies three paragraphs in the 11-page paper.

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