(Current Affairs For SSC Exams) Science & Technology | December : 2014

Science & tech

World’s oldest computer is even older than scientists thought

Antikythera Mechanism, the world’s oldest computer, is even 100 years older than scientists previously thought, say Argentinian researchers.
Discovered from a Roman cargo shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, the bronze device was used to track the movements of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
The device provides a wealth of astronomical information and offers practically the only possibility for a close astronomical dating of the mechanism, the New York Times reported.
The device was discovered in a wooden box and consists of bronze dials, gears and cogs.
The complex device, made up of up to 40 bronze cogs and gears, was used in ancient times to track the cycles of the solar system. On the back were two further dials displaying information about lunar cycles and eclipses.

Ability of HIV to cause AIDS slowing found study

A research study has found that HIV – and as a consequence AIDS — is slowly becoming less aggressive in parts of Africa.
These are the significant findings of a study conducted by Professor Philip Goulder and his team at the Nuffield Department of Medicine at Oxford University that have been published in the journal Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.
Based on a study of about 2,000 pregnant women in Botswana and South Africa, the team has demonstrated that the weakening of the immunodeficiency virus is due to its rapid evolution and ability to mutate over time.
In Botswana the epidemic took off in the 1980s, a decade before it hit South Africa. “Overall we are bringing down the ability of HIV to cause AIDS so quickly,” Prof. Goulder told Reuters.
Scientists were aware that a gene known as HLA-B*57 in a person acted as a protection against the HIV virus. The new study finds that the virus has adapted to the gene, which therefore no longer offers protection.

Shela River route closed after Sundarbans oil spill

The Bangladesh government has closed Shela River route to allvessels after the sinking of an oil tanker that led to a massive oil spill in the Sundarbans mangrove forest.
Carrying 357,664 l of furnace oil, the tanker ‘OT Southern Star 7’ went down after being hit by another vessel on the Shela at Mrigmari in the Sundarbans Chandpai range three days ago.
The massive oil spill from the sunken tanker has put the biodiversity and ecology of the world’s biggest mangrove forest, a world heritage site since 1997, at risk.
Forest officials suspect that all of the furnace oil in the sunken tanker has already spread into the rivers and canals of the Sundarbans.
Stem cells in eye can restore vision: scientists
In what promises to be an alternative to corneal transplantation in treating blindness caused from damage to cornea, scientists from city-based L.V. Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) in collaboration with U.S. scientists claimed to have discovered potent stem cells in the eye that possess the ability to restore lost sight.
The findings were published in Science Translational Medicine. Dr. Sayan Basu, LVPEI consultant corneal surgeon, said he along with other scientists at the laboratory of Prof. James L.Funderburgh, Professor of Ophthalmology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, tested stem cells obtained from human eyes on an experimental model of corneal scarring.

Mountains of plastic waste floating in world’s oceans

Believe it or not, nearly 269,000 tonnes of plastic comprising an estimated 5.25 trillion plastic particles are floating in the world’s oceans, including the Bay of Bengal.
This estimate does not take into account the amount of plastic waste found in the shorelines, on the seabed, suspended in the water column and that consumed by marine organisms.
The plastic particles are found in three size ranges — microplastic (less than 4.75 mm), mesoplastic (4.75-200 mm) and macroplastic (above 200 mm). The microplastic particles alone are in two size classes — 0.33-1.00 mm and 1.01-4.75 mm.
Of the 269,000 tonnes of floating plastic waste, the larger plastic items are predominant (an estimated 233,000 tonnes).
The results of a study by Marcus Eriksen (the first author) from the Five Gyres Institute, California, are published (December 11) in the journal PLOS ONE.
The results are based on 24 expeditions undertaken between 2007 and 2013 across all the five sub-tropical gyres — North and South Pacific Oceans, North and South Atlantic Oceans and the Indian Ocean — coastal Australia, Bay of Bengal and the Mediterranean Sea.

Nine new frog species add to Western Ghats inventory

The inventory of amphibian diverstiy in the Western Ghats has just got longer with the discovery of nine new species of bush frogs in this mountain range.
Some as tiny as a thumbnail, other brightly coloured or plain slimy, each of these creatures adds important insights into the evolutionary biodiversity of the Western Ghats, says Kartik Shanker of the Indian Institute of Science and co-author of a paper published in international journal Zootaxa.
Researchers trekked through the Western Ghats during the rainy season (when bush frogs are most active) training their ear to tell tale bush frog calls and scouring tree trunks for them.
Bush frogs are miniature frogs distributed throughout south and southeast Asia.
They then used genetics, geography, morphology and acoustics to separate the frogs into “lineages” (descendants of a common ancestor that lived a million or more years ago).
There could be at least 15 new species of bush frogs waiting to be discovered adding to the over 50 species known from the Western Ghats, said Dr. Shanker.

New evidence of water on Mars, NASA report

Led by a team of scientists of Indian-origin, NASA’s Curiosity rover has found new evidence of water on Mars, indicating that the planet most like Earth in the solar system was suitable for microbial life.
Pictures and other data collected by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity show that rivers once flowed into a lake or lakes at the bottom of Gale Crate, an enormous dimple carved out by an incoming space rock.
NASA said its interpretation of Curiosity’s finds in Gale Crater suggests ancient Mars maintained a climate that could have produced long-lasting lakes at many locations on the Red Planet.
The American space agency said Mars’s Mount Sharp was built by sediments deposited in a large lake bed over tens of millions of years.
“If our hypothesis for Mount Sharp holds up, it challenges the notion that warm and wet conditions were transient, local, or only underground on Mars,” said Indian- American Ashwin Vasavada, who is the Curiosity deputy project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
The thickness of the rock outcrops indicates that the lake — or lakes — must have sloshed around the bottom of 154-km Gale Crater over the course of millions of years, though the lake probably dried up and then reappeared a number of times, the researchers said.

African Snail will make a comeback says experts

The Giant African Snail, an invasive species that has established itself in large parts of the State, could re-emerge from its dormant state and pose a greater menace before the next wet spell, a consultative workshop held warned.
The molluscs that have gone into aestivation (period of hibernation to escape summer heat and dryness) could come out in a big way during the summer showers and go on to expand their area of distribution, according to T.V. Sajeev, Entomologist and Head, Forest Health division, Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI), Peechi.
Experts participating in the workshop cautioned against the use of chemicals to control the snail that has ravaged crops and posed a threat to native ecosystems in parts of the State.
The workshop was organised by the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE) and the Centre for Innovation in Science and Social Action.
Highlighting the potential ecological damage caused by chemicals, speakers called for organic methods to check the biological invasion.
In his presentation, Mr. Sajeev suggested nicotine-based pesticides to keep a check on snail populations. He said studies had proved the efficacy of tobacco decoction to quell the marauding pest.
The KFRI, he said, had initiated efforts to develop a plant extract with molluscicidal activity. “It is important to ensure that the control agent used against a pest does not become a problem in itself,” he said.

Discarded laptop batteries have enough life to power slums

Discarded laptop batteries still have enough life in them to power slums in India and other developing countries, a new study by IBM India has found.
The research presented at a conference in San Jose, U.S., analysed a sample of discarded batteries and found 70 per cent had enough power to keep an LED light on for more than four hours a day for a year.
According to researchers at IBM India, many of the estimated 50 million lithium—ion laptop batteries discarded every year could provide electricity storage sufficient to light homes in developing countries.

Bio-digester technology of DRDO can give thrust to Swachh Bharat campaign

A simple, low-cost technology for treating human waste – developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) – can aid in putting an end to open defecation and manual scavenging in the country.
The bio-digester technology of DRDO has the potential to give a thrust to the ambitious Clean India campaign, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A recent report “Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation, update 2014”, by WHO and UNICEF, estimates that about 597 million people in India resort to open defecation, the highest in the world.

Epidemic outbreaks test health apparatus

Whenever there is an epidemics outbreak, the health apparatus is put to the test. Most of the burden in tackling epidemics falls on the State since a majority of the population flock to the Government Hospitals and Primary Health Centres as not many can afford the huge costs of hospitalisation in private sector.
While the recent outbreak of Avian Influenza or the bird flu in the neighbouring State poses little risk to men, since it does not easily infect human beings, the State Health Department has put all PHCs on Kerala border on alert. As it is a virus-borne disease, it can spread quickly and infect a lot of people in a short time.
Coimbatore is no stranger to epidemic outbreaks. Right from Swine Flu to dengue and diarrhoea, the city has seen it all since it’s a major transmit point and also has an international airport.
S. Somasundaram, Deputy Director of Health Services, says while prevention measures are given importance, the department has also protocols in place to contain outbreaks.
The foremost priority was identifying the source of the outbreak such as mosquito breeding points for dengue. These will be destroyed and awareness programme will be taken up among the public. The health department has put in place protocols for all diseases, he adds.
Coimbatore Medical College Hospital has created an isolation ward to treat epidemic outbreaks patients. Further, another infectious disease ward has been created to quarantine patients with deadle disease such as Ebola, says the hospital Dean S. Revwathy.
The bio-technology and microbiology laboratories of the CMCH were equipped to detect most of the viral-borne disease. However, complicated cases such as ebola are sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune, for confirmation, she adds.

‘Mental health programme’ to focus on the elderly

Over the last few years, a lot of the patients senior geriatrician V.S. Natarajan has seen were in need of mental health services.
“Financial, health and social problems – these are the issues the elderly have. With many elderly citizens living alone in both villages and cities as their children migrate elsewhere for work, cases of depression and dementia are on the rise,” he said.
To take care of the mental health needs of the elderly, an expansion of the district mental health programme (DMHP) in Tamil Nadu has been planned, under which, psychiatrists in every district will be trained to take care of geriatric needs. Once a week, a special clinic for senior citizens will be held.
“We already have psychiatrists in 25 districts; in four others, psychiatrists are being posted and in the three others, the process has begun. Since we have the infrastructure and the resources and have a geriatric care policy in the State, we decided to link them and meet this essential need,” a senior health official said.
This apart, caregivers will also be trained, said the official. “This is important as caregivers too need to be trained in the needs of the elderly.
This area is generally not looked into as most caregivers are family members, but we are planning to focus on this,” he said.
“There has been an increase in longevity thanks to better healthcare, but the aim of the DMHP’s geriatric care services is to improve the quality of life of senior citizens,” said State nodal officer, C. Ramasubramanian.

NASA’s Kepler spacecraft discovers ‘super-Earth’

NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft, which is carrying out a new mission, has made its first exoplanet discovery — a ‘super-Earth’ located 180 light-years from Earth.
Lead researcher Andrew Vanderburg, a graduate student at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studied publicly available data collected by the spacecraft during a test of the new K2 mission in February 2014.
This led to the discovery of a planet, HIP 116454b, which is 2.5 times the diameter of Earth and follows a close, nine-day orbit around a star that is smaller and cooler than our Sun, making the planet too hot for life as we know it. HIP 116454b and its star are 180 light-years from Earth, toward the constellation Pisces.
The discovery was confirmed with measurements taken by the HARPS-North spectrograph of the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo in the Canary Islands, which captured the wobble of the star caused by the planet’s gravitational tug as it orbits.
HARPS-N showed that the planet weighs almost 12 times as much as Earth. This makes HIP 116454b a super-Earth, a class of planets that does not exist in our solar system. The exoplanet discovery was made after astronomers and engineers repurposed Kepler for its new mission.
“Last summer, the possibility of a scientifically productive mission for Kepler after its reaction wheel failure in its extended mission was not part of the conversation,” said Paul Hertz, NASA’s astrophysics division director at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.
Microsoft pitches for ‘White-Fi’ technology to provide last mile broadband connectivity
Microsoft is looking at starting a pilot project of its ‘White-Fi’ technology that uses the unused spectrum in frequencies used for broadcasting of television signals, and is likely to offer solution to tackle the problem of last mile broadband connectivity in the country.
“In a country of massive change, digital divide can pose serious challenge. In all the initiatives by the government — Digital India, Swachh Bharat or Jan-Dhan Yojna — technology has a role to play, and we want to be part of it,” Microsoft India Chairman Bhaskar Pramanik said, adding that at present, the company was talking to all stakeholders, including the government, for its ‘White-Fi’ technology to provide last mile connectivity.
“We are waiting for licence to start our pilot of the technology. Where ever spectrum is involved government permission in needed… We will start with IIIT, Bangalore. We may start with the campus, but want to take it to rural areas to see how it works with all natural barriers,” he added.
The pilot, once started, is expected to last for about three months. Other countries where Microsoft has helped implement the technology are Kenya, Singapore, the U.S. and London.
The 200-600 MHz frequency is used for TV channels to carry data. In India, 93 per cent of this spectrum is not utilised. ‘White-Fi’ will use this vacant spectrum to provide connectivity.
In technology parlance, these unused spectrum spaces are called White Space, and many technology companies are looking at using this to provide free last mile internet access to users.
Under the ‘Digital India’ initiative, the government plans to use the national optic fibre network project to deliver e-services to all corner of the country.

INS Arihant (S2) may be of a limited utility submarine

India’s first indigenous nuclear submarine, INS Arihant (S2), which made its first foray into the sea for mandatory trials ahead of induction into the Navy, may in effect be a limited utility submarine, if not just a technology demonstrator.
The ballistic missile nuclear submarine (SSBN), said to add the third dimension of the nuclear triad by giving India the vital survivable second-strike capability, falls short of ensuring credible minimum deterrence, sources said.
Worse, the capacity of the reactor suggests that Arihant will hardly be available for operational patrol even for one-fifth of its lifespan, having to spend great amounts of time on transit to patrol areas.
“The effective fuel inventory of the submarine reactor is insufficient for longer duration deployment of the vessel far away from Indian shores, as it will necessitate frequent fuel changes that are time-consuming,” said a Navy veteran, who was previously associated with the project.
Fuel change in a submarine reactor, he said is a protracted and cumbersome process requiring the hull of the submarine to be cut open.
The nuclear attack submarine (SSN) that India operates on a 10-year lease from Russia, INS Chakra (S1), for instance, is said to have reactor with a longer effective core life, granting it more time on patrol.”
The Arihant project — the first of the three SSBNs built by India under its ATV [Advanced Technology Vessel] programme under the supervision the Prime Minister’s Office and involving agencies and establishments such as the DRDO, the Department of Atomic Energy, the Submarine Design Group of the Directorate of Naval Design, besides companies such as L&T — had been under wraps for decades until its high-voltage launch in 2009.
The 83-MW uranium reactor, developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) with generous support from Russia, went critical in August last year. The submarine should have entered service in 2012, as originally planned.

Coconut plucking, women take high wages

Even though Cuddalore district abounds in coconut trees, the price of coconuts is high. The reason trotted out for such market behaviour is the lack of manpower to pluck coconuts or the high wages the workers demand.
It has created a situation in which even the ripe coconuts are left either to rot on the trees or fall. It has become consternation for the coconut growers to find the workforce on time to harvest, not to speak of the plight of the households having a few coconut trees in their garden.
To overcome the problem, the M.S. Swaminatan Research Foundation (MSSRF) has launched the “Friends of Coconut Tree” programme for farmers and the unemployed youth.
R. Elangovan, Project Officer of the MSSRF, told that the six-day training programme organised under the aegis of the MSSRF Village Resource Centre at Parangipettai was intended to help the farmers and unemployed youth learn to climb trees to pluck the coconut.
To start with, 20 persons, including four women hailing from Killai, Nochikadu, Manikkollai and Parangipettai, joined the programme conducted recently.
It was conducted in coordination with the Coconut Development Board that provided the device for climbing the trees free of cost.
It was a sort of an in-house training as the trainees would stay at the Parangipettai centre throughout the training programme. Besides mastering the tree climbing techniques, they were also taught yoga and pranayam.
Mr Elangovan said the Coconut Development Board had made it mandatory that 30 per cent of the trainees ought to be women. It was a surprise that four women had come forward to enroll their names in the programme.

The pollutants causing discolouration of Taj Mahal identified

Finally, the specific pollutants in the air that are responsible for the discolouration of the white marble of Taj Mahal have been identified. Particulate carbon and fine dust particles that are deposited on the marble are responsible for its browning.
Carbon is of two types — black carbon and light absorbing organic carbon or brown carbon. The results from a study were published a few days ago in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Besides studying air samples collected from the area, the authors used marble samples on the building to collect the pollutants. They also undertook computer modelling to study the colour change brought about by reflectance of the particles.
Both organic carbon and dust particles have the ability to preferentially absorb light in the blue region of the spectrum. The absorption of blue light by these pollutants in turn gives the marble surface a brown hue.
“There is one group of organic carbon which absorbs light in the blue region of the spectrum and this is called brown carbon.
Discolouration is because of what is happening to reflectance, and reflectance is in turn influenced by these particles,” said Prof. S.N. Tripathi from the Department of Civil Engineering and Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur. He is one of the authors of the paper.
The ability of fine dust particles to produce the brown hue is a well known in North India. According to him, it is the presence of haematite in the dust that is responsible for the brown hue.

Remote powered ‘solar ploughing machine’ developed by engineering students

Ploughing is an arduous task. It takes time and involves physical labour. More farmers now use a tractor for ploughing, than those who still depend on traditional bullocks.
But a tractor does not come for free. The fuel charges, the driver’s wages all need to be borne by the farmer who rents it. And the charges easily work out to anything between Rs.3,000 to Rs. 3,500 for ploughing an acre.
And the next issue is the vehicle’s availability to source it on time. In some villages, farmers book the vehicle in advance since it would be busy on rent for days together.
These things can change — seems to be the concept of a group of engineering students from Mailam Engineering College, Tindivanam, Villupuram district, Tamil Nadu which has devised a new solar powered plougher to till fields.
Mr. I.Vetrivel, Mr.V.K.Arun, Mr. K.Sivaraman and Mr. V.Premnath comprise the group of final year electronics and communication engineering students who developed this device.
“Basically our college is situated in an agricultural region and there are plenty of fields surrounding our campus. And many of our students come from agricultural families. As part of annual project work these four students wanted to try doing something different.

DNA reveals history of horse domestication: scientists

Speed, smarts, and the heart of a champion: using genomic analysis, scientists have identified DNA changes that helped turn ancient horses such as those in prehistoric cave art into today's Secretariats and Black Beautys, researchers reported.
Understanding the genetic changes involved in equine domestication, which earlier research traced to the wind-swept steppes of Eurasia 5,500 years ago, has long been high on the wish list of evolutionary geneticists because of the important role that taming wild horses played in the development of civilization.
Once merchants, soldiers and explorers could gallop rather than just walk, it revolutionized trade, warfare, the movement of people and the transmission of ideas.
It also enabled the development of continent-sized empires such as the Scythians 2,500 years ago in what is now Iran. It was all made possible by 125 genes, concluded the study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Related to skeletal muscles, balance, coordination, and cardiac strength, they produced traits so desirable that ancient breeders selected horses for them, said geneticist Ludovic Orlando of the Natural History Museum of Denmark, who led the study.
The result was generations of horses adapted for chariotry, pulling plows, and racing. Genes active in the brain also underwent selection. Variants linked to social behavior, learning, fear response, and agreeableness are all more abundant in domesticated horses.
The discovery of the genetic basis for horse domestication was a long time coming because no wild descendants of ancient breeds survive.
The closest is the Przewalski's horse. By comparing domesticated species to their wild relatives, scientists figured out how organisms as different as rice, tomatoes and dogs became domesticated.
With no truly wild horses to study, Orlando's team examined DNA from 29 horse bones discovered in the Siberian permafrost and dating from 16,000 and 43,000 years ago, and compared it to DNA from five modern domesticated breeds.