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

Science & Technology, Defense, Environment

ENVIRONMENT

  • Indian Cities with Minimum air Pollution

  • New Species of Dancing Frogs

  • WHO Report on Pollution

  • Change in U.S. Climate

  • "Save Our Snow Leopards"

  • Happy Earth Day doodle

  • River policing

  • 15 Endangered Indian Birds

  • Indian projects shortlisted for Green Oscars

KLOTHO

  • People who have a variant of a longevity gene have improved brain skills such as thinking, learning and memory. Re-searchers found that increasing levels of the gene, called KLOTHO, in mice made them smarter, possibly by increasing the strength of connections between nerve cells in the brain.

  • The study was published in Cell Reports. Those who have one copy of a variant of the KLOTHO gene, called KL-VS, tend to live longer and have lower chances of suffering a stroke whereas those who have two copies may live shorter lives and have a higher risk of stroke.

  • The study also found that those with one copy performed better on cognitive tests regardless of age, sex or the presence of the apolipoprotein 4 gene, the main genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease.

India's first cyber lab

  • The National Law School of India University (NLSIU) on May 6 will launch what is touted to be the country's first cyber lab in a legal academic institution.

  • The lab, co-funded by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY), Ministry of Communication and Infor-mation Technology, will be inaugurated by Shyamal Ghosh, the former Telecom Secretary, Government of India; Gulshan Rai, Director-General, Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and R. Venkata Rao, Vice-Chance-llor, NLSIU.

  • A release from NLSIU's Advanced Centre for Cyber Law and Cyber Forensics, said the centre also offers training programmes for bank officials and other professionals who want to gain knowledge of cyber technology and forensics crucial for detection and investigation of cyber crimes.

  • The centre launched its Postgraduate Diploma in Cyber Law and Cyber Forensics in June 2013, which senior police officers, IT security officers and lawyers have enrolled for.

Implantable Device to Control BP

  • Not being able to control blood pressure even after gulping pills would no longer be a problem. Soon, an implantable device will reduce blood pressure by sending electrical signals to the brain.
  • In a first, German researchers have successfully reduced the blood pressure in rats by 40 percent with this device without any major side effects.
  • This could offer hope for a significant proportion of patients worldwide who do not respond to existing medical treatment for the condition.
  • The implantable device uses an intelligent circuit to record the activity of the patient, for instance when they are exercising, and adjust the blood pressure accordingly.
  • The device consists of 24 individual electrodes that are integrated into a micro-machined cuff. It is designed to wrap around the vagus nerve, which extends from the brainstem to the thorax and abdomen - supplying and stimulating various major organs including the heart and major blood vessels.

Supermassive black holes

  • Luck for the average pedestrian is happening upon a crisp dollar bill tumbling down the sidewalk. For European astronomers, it's happening to be looking at the right portion of sky at the exact moment a star is ripped apart by a giant black hole.

  • The auspicious discovery was made by the European Space Agency's orbiting X-ray observatory XMM-Newton. The cosmological providence revealed not one black hole, but two — the first pair of supermassive black holes observed in a normal galaxy. Normal galaxies, or quiescent galaxies -- as opposed to active galaxies -- are no longer actively producing stars.

  • Black holes are much easier to locate in newer active galaxies. While black holes in active galaxies are constantly eating up gas clouds and star matter, giving off detectable X-rays as a result, similar activity is less frequent and more sporadic in normal galaxies.

  • Currently, the only way to find a normal black hole is by happening upon a "tidal disruption event," like the star consumption witnessed by ESA's XXM-Newton.

  • What makes the latest discovery even more unusual is that the two black holes were found together, orbiting each other -- the product of two galaxies having merged.

Helix's twisted cousin

  • The helix is a complex shape found in many natural settings. It is commonly illustrated by the shape of DNA molecules. The roots of some plants also burrow as helices, like corkscrews winding downward in search of richer soil. But during an experiment at Harvard University, mechanical engineers were surprised when a pair of rubber ribbons expected to form a helix did not, buckling into a shape rarely observed in nature.

  • Every helix winds in a left or right direction. The engineers observed what they called a hemihelix: a helix that changes its direction midway. The region along which it changes its direction is called aperversion. Charles Darwin observed plant tendrils forming hemihelices in 1888.

  • Starting with two strips of an elastic polymer of different lengths, the engineers stretched the shorter one to be the same length as the other. Then, while maintaining the stretching force, they joined the strips side-by-side. As the force was dwindled, the bi-strip twisted and bent to create either a helix or a hemihelix.

  • As energy due to stretching flows through the strip, the strip twists to reduce the load it bears. However, imperfections in the material could cause the strip to buckle at certain places, where perversions form and the chirality reverses.

From thin air to drinking water

  • An Israeli company has developed a new and inexpensive technology that produces drinking water from thin air, an advancement that can address the problem of water scarcity in developing countries such as India.

  • Using the technology, a litre of water can be produced for a mere Rs. 1.5, as compared to Rs. 15 for a litre of bottled water, the company claims. The Atmospheric Water-Generation Units created by Water-Gen use a "GENius" heat exchanger to chill air and condense water vapour.

  • The clean air is passed through the heat exchanger system where it gets dehumidified. The water is then removed from the air and collected in a tank inside the unit.

  • The company claims its water generator is more energy efficient than other such companies as it uses the cooled air created by the unit to chill incoming air. The system can produce 250-800 litres of potable water a day depending on temperature and humidity conditions.

Orbit of the International Space Station (ISS)

  • The orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) will be corrected by raising it by 2.15 kilometres.
  • The maneouver were carried out using the thrusters of the Progress M-21M cargo spacecraft.
  • The station was raised to the altitude of 415.2 kilometres and the adjustment is made to ensure better docking condi-tions of the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft, which is scheduled to blast off from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan on May 28 to bring a new crew to the ISS.
  • The Progress M-21M docked with the orbital station on November 30. The docking operation was being carried out by means of the new approach system in an automatic mode.

Microbes could Colonize Mars

  • In the race to colonise Mars, microbes may end up beating humans!
  • Hardy little micro-organisms from Earth could hitch a ride on a spacecraft and colonise the surface of Mars and trick scientists into thinking they are aliens, a new study by NASA scientists, including one of Indian-origin, has found.
  • These bacteria could conta-minate celestial bodies such as Mars, making it difficult for researchers to determine if a life form actually originated on the site, researchers said.
  • Currently, spacecraft landing on Mars or other planets where life might exist must meet requirements for a maximum allowable level of microbial life, or bioburden.
  • These acceptable levels were based on studies of how various life forms survive exposure to the rigours associated with space travel, researchers said.
  • Spore-forming bacteria are of particular concern because spores can withstand certain sterilisation procedures and may best be able to survive the harsh environments of outer space or planetary surfaces.
  • Spores of Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032 have shown especially high resistance to techniques used to clean spacecraft, such as ultraviolet (UV) radiation and peroxide treatment.
  • When researchers exposed this hardy organism to a simulated Mars environment that kills standard spores in 30 seconds, it survived 30 minutes.

<< Go Back To Science & Technology, Defence, Environment Main Page

Science and Technology
Current Affairs
Civil Services EXAM
Civil Services Preliminary
UPSC