Science & Technology, Defense, Environment - December, 2013

Gold in the Eucalyptus Trees Discovered

Researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Perth, in the month of October 2013 revealed that they found tiny particles of gold in the eucalyptus trees. The researchers
explained that the discovery of hidden gold in trees can help the future prospectors to find out more about the precious metal. The Australian researchers explained that the trees were on the top of gold deposits which were rooted deep in the ground. In order to search for the moisture, these trees suck more of gold. The Geochemist at CSIRO, Melvyn Lintern explained that seeing the gold particles in leaves was other metals like copper and zinc. The researchers also explored the gold in leaves of other trees like Acacia Mulga. The latest discoveries of gold fell by 45 percent in past 10 years. In the year 2011, the US Geological Survey revealed that there was
around 51000 tonnes of gold remaining in reserve of the world.

World’s First Bionic Man

Scientists developed the world’s first robot human (Bionic man) made entirely of prosthetic parts. The bionic man can walk, talk and has a beating heart. Bionic man was assembled from prosthetic body parts and artificial organs donated by laboratories around the world. The bionic man also has a nearly complete set of artificial organs including an artificial heart, blood, lungs (and windpipe), pancreas, spleen, kidney and functional circulatory system. He also sports a cochlear implant, speech recognition and speech production systems. The engineers equipped the bionic man with a sophisticated chatbot programme that can carry on a conversation. It
also has a pair of robotic ankles and feet from BiOM in Bedford, Massachusetts, designed and worn by bioengineer Hugh Herr of MIT’s Media Lab, who lost his own legs after getting trapped in a blizzard as a teenager.

To support his prosthetic legs,  the bionic man wears a robotic exoskeleton dubbed Rex .It was made by REX Bionics in New Zealand. He lacks a few major organs including liver, stomach and intestines, which are too complex to replicate in a lab. His brain can mimic certain functions of the human brain and he has a retinal prosthesis. Roboticists Rich Walker and Matthew Godden of Shadow Robot Co in England developed the bionic man. The robot was modeled in some physical aspects after Bertolt Meyer, a social psychologist at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, who wears one of the world’s most advanced bionic hands. The total cost for
development of the robot is around 1 million US Dollars.

Farthest-yet galaxy & others The universe’s farthest galaxy… so far

Astronomers have caught a glimpse of the farthest, most ancient galaxy to date, a star factory that was bustling with activity a mere 700 million years after the big bang. The researchers estimate the galaxy, named z8_GND_5296 and located 13.1 billion years away, formed stars at a rate that was a hundred times more prolific than today’s Milky Way. The find, reported in Nature this week, suggests the early universe may
have witnessed more bursts of frenetic star birth than astronomers had thought

The Decline of Wikipedia

The sixth most widely used website in the world is not run anything like the others in the top 10. It is not operated by a sophisticated corporation but by a leaderless collection of volunteers who generally work under pseudonyms and habitually bicker with each other. It rarely tries new things in the hope of luring visitors; in fact, it has changed little in a decade. And yet every month 10 billion pages are viewed on the English version of Wikipedia alone. When a major news event takes place, such as the Boston Marathon bombings, complex, widely sourced entries spring up within hours and evolve by the minute. Because there is no other free information source like it, many online services rely on Wikipedia. Look something up on Google or ask Siri a question on your iPhone, and you’ll often get back tidbits of information pulled from the encyclopedia and delivered as straight-up facts.

Chemists present a way to infer the enigmatic temperature variations inside a reactor

Most chemical products start their lives as oil. And most of the conversion processes used to turn the black stuff into plastics, fuels and the rest rely on catalysts. Given the sensitivity of catalysts and Earth’s dwindling supplies of oil, you might think that these reactions would be among the most studied and the best understood in the chemist’s cookbook. Unfortunately not, In fact, for many chemists and chemical engineers — those who work with bucketloads of reactants rather than the contents of pipettes — what goes on inside an industrial reactor is something of a mystery. It’s a black box. Indeed, when some textbooks and academic papers on the subject show flow charts of chemical processes, they actually represent the reactor, the beating heart of our industrial society, as a black box. If process engineers want to know what happens inside — and so how to make it more efficient, safer or more environmentally friendly — they measure what comes out, compare it with what goes in, and make an educated guess.

New free expression tools from Google Ideas

As long as people have expressed ideas, others have tried to silence them. Today one out of every three people lives in a society that is severely censored. Online barriers can include everything from filters that block content to targeted attacks designed to take down websites. For many people, these obstacles are more than an inconvenience—they represent full-scale repression.

The threat in the pocket

Given all the talk about mobile malware—Trojans, viruses, keyloggers, phishing expeditions and other scams infecting the phones in people’s pockets—users might be forgiven for thinking cybercrooks are cleaning up at their expense. Truth is, surprisingly few bits of malware have found their way into mobile phones. More by accident than design, smartphones have turned out to be much tougher to infect than laptops and desktop PCs. At least, that is the case at present.

How trees drinking gold can help the mining industry

It’s not just the gods of antiquity who sloshed back cups of liquid gold. Trees drink gold, too. A paper published this week in Nature Communications reports that gold crystals can be found in Eucalyptus trees growing above buried deposits of the mineral. The report offers a tentative solution to a worldwide slump in new gold deposit discoveries, suggesting that, somewhat counter intuitively, an effective means of peering into the Earth is to look up – not to the gods, but to the trees.

Researchers keep mum on botulism discovery

Scientists have discovered a new strain — the first in 40 years — of Clostridium botulinum, the bacterium that is ultimately responsible for causing botulism. And although they have reported their findings in a scientific journal, the investigators have taken the extraordinary step of withholding key details of the discovery. That’s because the toxins made by C. botulinum are the most dangerous known to humankind and currently there is no antidote for a toxin generated by the new strain. The fear is that malevolent organizations or rogue governments might use the information to reverse engineer their own version of the new bug, making it a potent and real bioterrorism threat.

Science & Technology, Defense, Environment - December, 2013

Seven Planet System Discovered

Astronomers, in the last week of October 2013, revealed that they identified one of the richest planetary systems. The astronomers discovered the seventh planet around the dwarf star KIC 11442793. The discovery was done by two different teams of  researchers from the University of Oxford and team of astronomers from several European countries. The newly discovered planetary system has a lot of similarities like our own system. However, all the seven planets orbit closer to the host star which is situated around 2500 light years from the Earth. One of these identifications was done by the volunteers using the Planet Hunters website.

This site was established in order to enable the volunteers to  search through the public data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope. The NASA’s Kepler space telescope makes use of the transit method in order toexplore
new planets. Chris Lintott, from the University of Oxford, co-author on the Planet Hunters paper explained that this was the first seven-planet system from Kepler, by making use of the transiting search. The research doneby the team of Chris Lintott was submitted to the Astronomical Journal for peer review. Another research conducted by the astronomers from several European countries submitted their paper tothe Astrophysical Journal. It is worth noticing that the newly discovered planet is the fifth furthest from the parent star and orbits with the period of around 125 days. Though there is a lot of similarity of this planet system with our own Solar System, but in the new system, all the seven planets are close to their host star. The Planet Hunters team after conducting the simulations revealed that the planetary system is a stable one. Apart from this, there is another star, HD 10180, which is claimed to have either seven or even nine planetary signals. Yet another sun called GJ 887C might have seven planets.

New Blood Test to Detect Gastrointestinal Disorders

Scientists from Cedars-Sinai Medicla Centre, Los Angeles, for the first time developed a blood test to determine if a person is suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), or another serious condition such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Researchers conclusively identified a test for antibodies that form against a particular protein, vinculin, found in the guts of patients. The study and results of the research work were presented on 11 October 2013 at the American College of Gastroenterology’s 78th Annual Scientific Meeting in San Diego, California. In the study, 221 patients were evaluated; some had a diagnosis of IBS, some were diagnosed with IBD and some were healthy, with no symptoms. Anti-vinculin antibodies were significantly elevated in IBS patients as compared to those with IBD or those who were healthy. Until this study, there had been no accurate biomarkers identified specifically for IBS. The new blood test has the potential to distinguish IBS from IBD and reduce the need for unnecessary testing, expense and years of suffering.

About Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a gastrointestinal disorder characterised by diarrhea, bloating and abdominal pain. However, millions of patients are never diagnosed correctly. A simple blood test at the first sign of symptoms  means patients who have IBS could get effective treatment sooner. Food poisoning has been identified as a significant risk factor for developing this disorder which is characterized by a cluster of symptoms including diarrhea, bloating and abdominal pain.

Chemists show life on Earth was not a fluke

How life came about from inanimate sets of chemicals is still a mystery. While we may never be certain which chemicals existed on prebiotic Earth, we can study the biomolecules we have today to give us clues about what happened three billion years ago. Now scientists have used a set of these biomolecules to show one way in which life might have started. They found that these molecular machines, which exist in living cells today, don’t do much on their own. But as soon as they add fatty chemicals, which form a primitive version of a cell membrane, it got the chemicals close enough to react in a highly specific manner. This form of self-organisation is remarkable, and figuring out how it happens may hold the key to understanding life on earth formed and perhaps how it might form on other planets. The 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was given to chemists for showing how complex molecules can perform very precise functions. One of the behaviours of these molecules is called self-organisation, where different chemicals come together because of the many forces acting on them and become a molecular machine capable of even more complex tasks. Each living cell is full of these molecular machines. Pasquale Stano at the University of Roma Tre and his colleagues were interested in using this knowledge to probe the origins of life. To make things simple, they chose an assembly that produces proteins. This assembly consists of 83 different molecules including DNA, which was programmed to produce a special
green fluorescent protein (GFP) that could be observed under a confocal microscope.

The assembly can only produceproteins when its molecules are close enough together to react with each other. When the assembly is diluted with water, they can no longer react. This is one reason that the insides of living cells are very crowded, concentrated places: to allow the chemistry of life to work. In order to recreate this molecular crowding, Stano added a chemical called POPC to the dilute solution. Fatty molecules such as POPC do not mix with water, and when placed into water they automatically form liposomes. These have a very similar structure to the membranes of living cells and are widely used to study the evolution of cells. Stano reports in the journal Angewandte Chemie that many of these liposomes trapped some molecules of the assembly. But remarkably, five in every 1,000 such liposomes had all 83 of the molecules needed to produce a protein. These liposomes produced large amount of GFP and glowed green under a microscope. Computer calculations reveal that even by chance, five liposomes in 1,000 could not have trapped all 83 molecules of the assembly. Their calculated probability for even one such liposome to form is essentially zero. The fact that any such liposomes formed and that GFP was produced means something quite unique is happening. Stano and his colleagues do not yet understand why this happened. It may yet be a random process that a better statistical model will explain. It may be that these particular molecules are suited to this kind of self-organisation because they are already highly evolved. An important next step is to see if similar, but less complex, molecules are also capable of this feat. Regardless of the limitations, Stano’s experiment has shown for the first time that selfassembly into simple cells may be an inevitable physical process. Finding out how exactly this self-assembly happens will mean taking a big step towards understanding how life was formed. Andrew Bissette does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.

Brain Makes Use of Sleep to Drain Waste Toxins

The researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Centre, in the third week of October 2013 revealed that the brain makes use of sleep in order to drain the waste toxins which are built during the thinking of the hard day. The team of researchers explained that the waste removal system is actually one of the primary reasons of sleep. The study conducted by the researchers explained that the brain cells shrink when a person sleeps, in order to open the gaps between neurons and enable the fluid to clean the brain from toxins. The study also suggested that failure to clean a few toxic proteins can lead to brain disorders as well. The findings were developed on the discovery of brain’s own network of glymphatic system. The discovery was made by the same team of researchers in the year 2012. The glymphatic system actually carries the waste material out from the brain. The researchers used the images of the mice for the study and concluded that the glymphatic system became at least 10 times more active while the mice were asleep. The researchers however explained that the actual importance of the findings would come up after the human studies only. Doing the same experiments in the MRI machine can prove relatively simpler. It is important to note that a lot of brain-related conditions such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease have the common characteristic of building up of damaged proteins in the brain. Both these diseases are caused because of the loss of brain cells. The researchers, in this context, explained that the issues with the cleaning mechanism of the brain can lead to diseases like these. However, further research was required on this.

Management of canker infestation in citrus

Acid lime variety is highly susceptible to citrus canker. Yield losses range from 5 to 30 per cent, depending upon the variety. The disease attacks seedlings and grown up trees. In young plants in the nursery, the disease causes serious damage. Badly cankered leaves fall down and in serious infestation the entire plant dies. The disease affects leaves, twigs, thorns, older branches and fruits. On the leaves the disease first appears as a small, watery, translucent yellow coloured spot. As the spots mature, the surface becomes white or grey in colour and finally ruptures in the centre giving a rough, hard, corky and crater-like appearance.

Gumming

The infection spreads to the fruits on which spots are formed. The cankers may be scattered all over the surface or several cankers may occur together forming an irregular scurfy mass. Gumming is sometimes associated with spots on fruits. Canker has never been observed occurring naturally on roots of even badly diseased trees. However the disease has been found on grape fruit roots exposed above ground surface.

Management

• Dropped off canker affected leaves and twigs should be collected and burnt.

• Disease-free nursery stocks should be used for planting in new orchards.

• The plants before planting in new orchards should be  sprayed with Bordeaux mixture 1.0 per cent.

• In old orchards pruning of affected plant parts before the onset of monsoon and spraying with Bordeaux mixture 1.0 per cent at periodical intervals  depending upon weather conditions controls the disease.

• Spraying should be done  immediately after the appearance of every new flush of leaves.

• The vigour of the plant should always be maintained by proper fertilization and irrigation.

• Manuring should be done in such a way that its maximum effect is felt during wet weather.

Chinese Scientists Developed Vaccine for H7N9 Bird Flu Virus

Chinese scientists on 26 October 2013 announced the independently developed a vaccine for the H7N9 bird flu virus. The vaccine was jointly developed by the School of Medicine of the Zhejiang University, Hong Kong University, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Food and Drug Control, and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. China reported the world’s first human case for H7N9 bird flu infection in March 2013. As of now, a total of 136 people were confirmed to have been infected with the virus. Of the infected, 45 died, representing a fatality rate of about 33 per cent.

Science & Technology, Defense, Environment - December, 2013

What is the avian influenza A (H7N9) virus/Bird Flu Virus?

Avian influenza A H7 viruses are a group of influenza viruses that normally circulate among birds. The avian influenza A (H7N9) virus is one subgroup among the larger group of H7 viruses. Although some H7 viruses
(H7N2, H7N3 and H7N7) have occasionally been found to infect humans.

Jelly-making protein could help make cheap fuel cells

New research shows that a catalyst made from gelatin, the same protein used to make jelly desserts, helps fuel cells be more efficient. This may offer a cheap alternative to the expensive metal-based fuel cells. In a fuel cell, energy released from a chemical reaction (most commonly hydrogen and oxygen combining to form water) is converted into electricity.

Many carmakers like Toyota are racing to find a commercially viable fuel cell. If they are able to, cars of the future will spit out only water, instead of the carbon dioxide, water and other pollutants that today’s fossil fuel powered cars do. Researchers from the UK, Japan and China, led by Zoe Schnepp at the University of Birmingham, reported their new catalyst in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A. To make the catalyst, they mixed salts of magnesium and iron with gelatin to create a foam. Heating this foam to 800 °C in a process called calcination degrades the gelatin and oxidises the metals, producing a sponge which contains metal nanoparticles (which are a million times smaller than a human hair). Any remaining metal is washed off with acid, leaving behind a porous structure made of carbon.

This porous structure is an advantage for the catalyst. The network of pores and bubbles inside the catalyst provides a very large surface area for chemical reactions to occur. The more places there are for hydrogen and oxygen to react to produce water, the more efficient the catalyst is. The choice of metal salts proved to be important too. The identity of the metals used determined the size of the pores formed, and thus affected how well the reactions occur. The two metals used react differently during calcination: the magnesium is converted to nanoparticles of magnesium oxide, while the iron bunches together into much larger particles of iron carbide. This meant that the ratio of magnesium to iron can be used to tune the pore size. During heating iron carbide converts the carbon around it to a thin sheet, which happens to be good for a fuel cell reaction. Nitrogen atoms from the gelatin become embedded in this thin sheet of carbon, and previous results have shown this makes the catalyst even more effective. When Schnepp compared commercial platinum catalysts with her catalyst, she found they did just as well. Crucially, the new catalyst is also as durable as the platinum ones. Platinum is too expensive to be used for commercial fuel cells. In recent years, there have been many efforts to find a cheaper and better alternative. Schnepp’s catalyst needs cheap gelatin and plentiful metal nitrate salts, making it one of the best alternatives yet. By exploiting the properties of biological polymers, Schnepp and colleagues have found
simple route to a structurally complex and useful material. Simplicity, as Steve Jobs would say, is often the first step to a great product.

RV Samudra Ratnakar dedicated to the Nation

Union Minister for Mines Dinsha J. Patel dedicated state of art Geoscientific research vessel RV Samudra Ratnakar to the nation at Kandla Port of Gujarat on 12 October 2013. RV Samudra Ratnakar is specially designed to carry out sea bed-mapping, mineral exploration in the deep waters along with geoscientific oceanographic researches. The Geological Survey of India (GSI) in the last week of September 2013 took the delivery of Korean manufacturer Hyundai Heavy Industries’ oceanographic research vessel RV Samudra Ratnakar.

About RV Samudra Ratnakar

• The research vessel RV Samudra Ratnakar is 103 m long, 13 m wide and can travel at an average speed of 11.4 knots. It will be used for survey and exploration of the seabed in Indian and international waters at depths of 10000 m.

• The vessel Samudra Ratnakar will be docked in Mangalore.

• RV Samudra Ratnakar built at world’s largest Ship building yard of Ulsan, South Korea. Cost of the vessel is 600-crore Rupees.

• The Geological Survey of India on 7 August 2013 entered into an agreement with Shipping Corporation of India for the management, operations as well as maintenance of Samudra Ratnakar.

First Unit of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant Synchronised with Southern Power Grid

The first unit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) was on 22 October 2013 synchronised with the southern regional electricity grid. Earlier, the nuclear reactor achieved criticality on 13 July 2013. The power generation in the nuclear reactor will be increased in stages to attain full capacity of 1000 MW by end of 2014. As the nuclear plant is synchronized to the southern grid, the power generation will now be increased to 500 MW, 750 MW, 900 MW and then finally 1000 MW. Nuclear Power Corporation of India is constructing two 1000 MW units at KNPP jointly with Russia at Kudankulam in Tiruneveli district, 650 km from Chennai. The Kudankulam nuclear power plant which was to be commissioned on December 2007 got inordinately delayed because of protests by locals. Kudankulam is the first pressurized water reactor belonging to light water reactor category in the country.

About KKNPP

The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) is an Indo Russian joint venture for establishig a nuclear power station with 2 units (KKNPP 1&2) of 1000 MWe Pressurized Water Reactors of VVER design at Kudankulam in Tamilnadu.

Synchronization in power plants

When two power supplies are to be connected to a common distribution, voltages, frequencies and phase angles of both power plants should be adjusted to equal values (or grid values). Synchronization supports the
generation and transfer the electricity.

Criticality in Nuclear power plants

Criticality is the term refers to the balance of neutrons in the nuclear system. In a nuclear reactor, the neutron number at any instant is a function of the rate of neutron production (due to fission processes) and the rate of neutron losses (via non-fission absorption mechanisms and leakage from the system). When a reactor’s neutron population remains steady from one generation to the next (creating as many new neutrons as are lost), the fission chain reaction is self-sustaining and the reactor’s condition is referred to as critical. When the reactor’s neutron production exceeds losses, characterized by increasing power level, it is considered supercritical, and when losses occur, it is considered subcritical and shows decreasing power.

Internet through Lightbulbs

Scientists from Fudan University, Shanghai successfully developed Li-Fi Technology-a new cheaper way of getting connected to internet by using signals sent through light bulbs instead of radio frequencies as in ‘Wi-Fi’. According to the School of Information Science and Technology at Fudan University, researchers modulated Internet signals to a 1watt LED lamp. Under the light, four computers were able to access the Internet.

What is Li-Fi Technology

The LED-based alternative to Wi-Fi, dubbed Li-Fi, or Light Fidelity, refers to a type of visible light communication technology that delivers a networked, mobile, highspeed communication solution in a similar manner to Wi-Fi. As with radio waves, light is also a type of electromagnetic wave. The basic rule for sending and receiving Internet signals via light waves is similar to that for radio waves. Light-emitting diodes are switched on and off much faster than the eye can detect, which makes the light source appear to be continuous. By adding a microchip to an LED bulb to control on and off switching, the data will flow as binary code: an on LED is a logical “1” while when off it is a logical “0”. The term Li-Fi was coined by Harald Haas from the University of Edinburgh in the UK and refers to a type of visible light communication technology that delivers a networked, mobile, highspeed communication solution in a similar manner as Wi-Fi. Sample Li-Fi kits will be on display at the China International Industry Fair that will kick off on 5 November 2013 in Shanghai.

Aircraft Noise Led to Increased Risk of Heart Problems

The researchers from the Imperial College London and the King’s College London, in the second week of October 2013 revealed that a lot of aircraft noise can increase the risks of circulatory, heart and stroke diseases. The study was conducted on 3.6 million residents near Heathrow Airport. The study suggested that the risks of these people increase by 10-20 percent with the highest levels of aircraft noise. However, the researchers
agreed that noise was not the only reason to blame and that further research was required in this area. The research suggested highest risk for the hospital admissions as well as deaths from the stroke, circulatory diseases or heart diseases for the 2 percent of study. This meant that around 70000 people were at an increased risk in UK where the aircraft noise was the loudest. The lead author, Dr Anna Hansell, from Imperial College London explained that louder aircraft noise can contribute to other factors such as rising blood pressure because of disturbance in the people’s sleep. This can lead to a startle reaction to the loud noise, which in turn can lead to other factors. In the study, the data about the noise levels in 2001 from the Civil Aviation Authority was used. This data covered 12 London boroughs and nine districts outside of London where the noise exceeded 50
decibels. However, the researchers explained that other factors can also contribute towards the risks of heart disease and heart stroke. These included smoking-related factors, South Asian ethnicity and deprivation. The UK Government spokesman also explained that the number of people affected by the noise around the Heathrow Airport was falling considerably in recent years because of the improvements in the aviation technology as well as better planning of the flight paths. In the meanwhile, in next few months, the Public Health England will recruit experts in order to examine the public health issues around the exposure of the noise.

Polonium-poisoned politician & othersArafat and polonium poisoning:

A sort-of update On Friday, the news network Al Jazeera made an announcement: the British medical journal, The Lancet, was now supporting the theory that the deceased Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, had died of polonium- 210 poisoning. According to the report, independent scientists had reviewed earlier findings by Swiss scientists and: “endorsed their work, which found high levels of the highly radioactive element in blood, urine,
and saliva stains on the Palestinian leader’s clothes and toothbrush”.

Curiosity confirms origins of Martian meteorites

Earth’s most eminent emissary to Mars has just proven that those rare Martian visitors that sometimes drop in on Earth—a.k.a. Martian meteorites—really are from the Red Planet. A key new measurement of Mars’ atmosphere by NASA’s Curiosity rover provides the most definitive evidence yet of the origins of Mars meteorites while at the same time providing a way to rule out Martian origins of other meteorites. The new measurement is a highprecision count of two forms of argongas—Argon-36 and Argon-38– accomplished by the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument on Curiosity. These lighter and heavier forms, or isotopes, of argon exist naturally throughout the solar system. But on Mars the ratio of light to heavy argon is skewed because a lot of that planet’s original atmosphere was lost to space, with the lighter form of argon being taken away more readily because it rises to the top of the atmosphere more easily and requires less energy to escape. That’s left the Martian atmosphere relatively enriched in the heavier Argon-38. Stanford drones open way to
new world of coral research Like undiscovered groves of giant redwoods, centuries-old living corals remain unmapped and unmeasured. Scientists still know relatively little about the world’s biggest corals, where they are  and how long they have lived. The secret to unlocking these mysteries may lie with a shoebox-size flying robot.

Science & Technology, Defense, Environment - December, 2013

New “magic number” inside atoms discovered

“Magic numbers” of protons and neutrons can make an atomic nucleus exceptionally stable—and a new one has just been added to the existing menagerie that helps sketch a fuller picture of the complicated inner workings of atoms. By smashing beams of nuclei together at high speeds, researchers have discovered that when a calcium atom has 34 neutrons in its nucleus, things stay pretty quiet—at least for a few milliseconds. The discovery overturns some of scientists’ previous notions about magic numbers and opens up a new line of inquiry for nuclear physics.

Jellyfish are taking over the seas, and it might be too late to stop them

Last week, Sweden’s Oskarshamn nuclear power plant, which supplies 10% of the country’s energy, had to shut down one of its three reactors after a jellyfish invasion clogged the piping of its cooling system. The invader, a creature called a moon jellyfish, is 95% water and has no brain. Not what you might call menacing if you only had to deal with one or two.

En masse, jellyfish are a bigger  problem. “The [moon jellyfish swarm] phenomenon…occurs at regular intervals on Sweden’s three nuclear power plants,” says Torbjörn Larsson, a spokesperson for E.ON, which owns
Oskarshamn. Larsson wouldn’t say how much revenue the shutdown cost his company, but noted that jellyfish also caused a shutdown in 2005.

DNA has a 521-year half-life

Few researchers have given credence to claims that samples of dinosaur DNA have survived to the present day, but no one knew just how long it would take for genetic material to fall apart. Now, a study of fossils found in New Zealand is laying the matter to rest — and putting an end to hopes of cloning a Tyrannosaurus rex. After cell death, enzymes start to break down the bonds between the nucleotides that form the backbone of DNA, and microorganisms speed the decay. In the long run, however, reactions with water are thought to be responsible for most bond degradation. Groundwater is almost ubiquitous, so DNA in buried bone samples should,
in theory, degrade at a set rate.

Huge Floating Ice Shelf in Antarctica Discovered

Researchers from the University of Exeter, Newcastle University, the University of Bristol, the University of Edinburgh, the British Antarctic  Survey and the University of York announced in the first week of October 2013 that they discovered Giant 250-metre high channels, beneath a floating ice shelf in Antarctica. The height of the ice shelf is around 250 metres and the channels are almost as tall as the Eiffel tower and stretched hundreds of kilo metres along the ice shelf. Giant 250- metre high channels of ice will help to predict future of Antarctic ice. Researchers used satellite images and airborne radar measurements to reveal the channels under the ice
shelf. The researchers also predicted the path of melt water flowing under the part of the ice in contact with the land - known as the ice sheet. When the melt water flowing under the ice sheet enters the ocean beneath the
ice shelf, it causes a plume of ocean water to form, which then melts out the vast channels under the ice shelf. Previously, it was felt that water flowed in a thin layer beneath the ice sheet. But the evidence from this research suggests it flows in a more focused manner much like rivers of water.

However, the implications for the future of the ice sheet are yet to be determined. The channels are likely to influence the stability of the ice shelf and their discovery will help researchers understand how the ice will respond to changing environmental conditions.

Most Distant Galaxy as of Now, Discovered

The international team of astronomers, using the Hubble Space Telescope, in the month of October 2013, detected the most distant galaxy as of now, entitled z8_GND_5296. The discovery was confirmed with the ground-based Keck Observatory in Hawaii. The newly discovered galaxy is around 30 billion light-years away and will help the  scientists in knowing about that period which followed just immediately after the Big Bang. Lead researcher from the University of Texas at Austin, US- Steven Finkelstein explained that this was the most distant galaxy. The galaxy is seen as it was 700 million years after the Big Bang.

About the newly discovered galaxy

• The galaxy is named z8_GND_5296.

• It is the most distant galaxy as of now.

• It is 30 billion light years away  from the Earth.

• The galaxy is redder than the usual. Astronomers rated it as the red-shift.

• The researchers discovered that this galaxy had the red-shift of 7.51, which in turn, beat the previous record of 7.21 redshift.

• The system of the galaxy is small- around 1-2 percent the overall mass of the Milky Way.

• The galaxy z8_GND_5296 is rich in the heavier elements.

• The most remarkable feature of this galaxy is that it is turning  the gases as well as the dust into new stars at a faster pace.

• It is important to note that this is the second far-off galaxy which has the high star production rate.

New Technique to Detect Faults in Coaches, Wagons & Locos

Indian Railways on 4 October 2013 adopted first ever unique modern technology for maintenance of its passenger coaches, wagons and locomotives in its continuous endeavour to enhance safety in Railway operations. The new maintenance technique which uses acoustic method of diagnostics is known as Acoustic Bearing Detectors (ABD) & Wheel Impact Load Detectors (WILD). When used in combination together they are
known as Online Monitoring of Rolling Stock (OMRS) systems. This technique involves placing arrays of microphones and sensors that record the audible noise and forces generated by the running coaches, wagons and locomotives. Conventional method to maintain passenger coaches, wagons and locomotives is to physically examine when these are in stationary condition at the maintenance depots. Under the new technique, the faults in the Rolling stock can be detected while on run which is a big advantage as it will make maintenance faster reducing turn -around time for Rolling stocks thereby ensuring availability of high number of wagons/coaches etc.
for operation. The OMRS equipment is so sensitive and accurate that it is often able to indicate the specific subcomponent that is not behaving the way it should and therefore causing abnormal noise. Moreover, this can be
monitored remotely using mobile communication facilities. In the conventional method, it is nearly impossible to detect this problem unless major assemblies are completely dismantled and checked in the maintenance depot. One such system, which is a combination of ABD, OMRS & WILD systems, is installed near Bakkas in Lucknow division of Northern Railway as a pilot project. It has successfully detected a number of wheel bearing faults avoiding the problem of wheel bearing becoming hot which results in the stoppage of the train at the station or worse still-in between two stations.

WILD have been installed in 15 locations across the country in the initial phase and these have also detected faulty vehicles that have caused higher than normal impact force on the rails. These 15 locations are; Ajni, Asansol, Mughal Sarai-I, Mughal Sarai – II, Barwadih, Vishakhapatnam, Arakkonam, Gunakal, Mahalimarup, Dongargarh, Bilai, Hospet, Bina, Itarsi and New Katni.

E-Management of INSPIRE Award Scheme

The Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India launched on 10 October 2013 a new project of Electronic Management of INSPIRE Award Scheme (E-MIAS) for the future Innovation in Science Pursuit for inspired Research (INSPIRE)Awards. It was launched during the 3rd National level Exhibition and Project Competitions (NLEPC) being held under the INSPIRE Awards Scheme of the Ministry of Science and
Technology. The application software is ready for use by all the States / UTs, Districts and Schools and the 3 Central organizations Kendriya Vidyalaya, Navodaya Vidyalaya Schools and Sainik Society School.All the concerned authorities are requested to start using the new application software and send future proposals for awards and funds forconducting competitions at various levels online.

What is E-Management of INSPIRE Award Scheme

• Department of Science and Technology (DST) plans to emanage the entire INSPIRE Award Scheme by using Stateof- Art latest Information Technology which would enable e-filing of nominations by the schools across the country.

• Under the INSPIRE Award Scheme, large number of nominations, running into lakhs, have to be processed for selection of the students for INSPIRE Award.

• Its processing by the District and State authorities as well as DST in accordance with the norms of the scheme, transmission of data of selected students to the banks, credit of Award amount to the bank accounts of selected Awardees (wherever notified) or preparation of INSPIRE Award Warrants by the bank and their dispatch to the selected Awardees and all such related activities concerning implementation of the scheme,
  management of the data, generation of various MIS returns etc.

Salient Features of E Management of INSPIRE Award Scheme (E-MIAS)

• It will enable about 5 lakh middle and high schools all over the country to log in online and file nominations under the Scheme, which would be received electronically by the District Education authorities for further processing. The schools will also be able to view, download and print list of sanctioned awardees and their certificates.

• It will enable all the (nearly) 700 District Education Authorities and 35 States / UTs and 3 Central Educational Organizations (Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Navodaya Vidyalaya Sangathan and Sainik School Sangathan) to log in online and process the proposals received from schools and submit to the National Authority i.e.Department of Science and Technology (DST) for sanction.

• The State and Districts  authorities will also be able to submit the proposals for funds release for DLEPCs / SLEPCs online.

• It will enable the National Authority (DST) to process the proposals and Awards / Funds so received from the State Authorities online and issue sanctions electronically, as per the approved norms.

• The software will also have facilities for registration of schools, District Authorities and  State Authority, sending and receiving online communications to / from these authorities, receiving utilisation certificates, summary reports, electronically generate standard and tailor-made MIS reports and so on.

• It will also have the public domain home page where even public at large would be able to view not only the basic details of the scheme but also the awards sanctioned to various States / schools , various reports / documents / forms relating to scheme, submit suggestions / feedback and so on.

• The service provider will also put in place a call centre, which will run six days a week, to cater to the need / grievances of stakeholders.

About the INSPIRE Scheme

• INSPIRE stands f o r Innovation in Science Pursuit for inspired Research.

• It is a National Programme implemented by the Ministry for attraction of talent amongst students to study science and pursue career with research.

• The basic objective of INSPIRE is to communicate to the youth of the country the excitement of creative pursuit of science, attract talent to the study of science at an early age and thus build the required critical human resource pool for strengthening and expanding the science and technology system and R&D base.

• The programme was launched by the Prime Minister of India on 13 December 2008. The implementation started during 2009-10.