SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS APRIL 2013

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS APRIL 2013

• The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the 14 mega watt Solar Power project and laid Foundation Stones for Pilgrim Queue Complex and Deoghar – Basukinath 44 kilo meter Solar Street Light Project at Deoghar, Jharkhand on April 30, 2013. Speaking on the occasion the President said that he is hopeful of these initiatives contributing to the overall growth of Deoghar and helping in setting high standards for pilgrimage management. He also commended the government authorities and local MPs for having taken the initiative to establish the high technology solar lighting project.
  
• An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team on 22 April, said Japan may need longer than the projected 40 years to decommission its tsunami-crippled nuclear plant and urged its operator to improve plant stability. The head of the team, Juan Carlos Lentijo, said on 22 April that damage at the Fukushima Daiichi plant is so complex that it is “impossible” to predict how long the cleanup may last. The government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) have predicted the cleanup would take up to 40 years. They still have to develop technology and equipment that can operate under fatally high radiation levels to locate and remove melted fuel. The reactors must be kept cool and the plant must stay safe and stable, and those efforts to ensure safety could slow the process down. Recent problems have raised concerns about whether the plant, crippled by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, can stay intact throughout a decommissioning process. They have also prompted officials to compile risk-reduction measures and review decommissioning plans. Mr. Lentijo, an expert on nuclear fuel cycles and waste technology, warned of more problems to come. The IAEA team urged the plant operator to “improve the reliability of essential systems to assess the structural integrity of site facilities, and to enhance protection against external hazards” and promptly replace temporary equipment with a more reliable, permanent system.
  
• Indian Coast Guard Ship H-191, the fifth of the series of twelve Air Cushion Vehicles (ACVs) was commissioned at Mumbai by Director General Indian Coast Guard Vice Admiral Anurag G Thapliyal on 10 april. The 21 metres long Air Cushion Vehicle with 31 tonnes displacement can achieve a maximum speed of 45 knots. The ACV is capable of undertaking multi-farious tasks such as surveillance, interdiction, search and rescue and rendering assistance to small boats/craft in distress at sea. The Air Cushion Vehicle H-191 will be based at Okha under the Administrative and Operational Control of the Commander Coast Guard Region (North-West). The hovercraft is commanded by Commandant IJ Singh and has a crew of two Officers and eleven Enrolled Personnel. The commissioning ceremony was witnessed by Inspector General SPS Basra, Commander Coast Guard Region (West) and other dignitaries from Central and State Government.
  
• A plan by California and Canadian universities to build the world's largest telescope at the summit of Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano received approval from the state Board of Land and Natural Resources on 12 April. The decision clears the way for the group managing the Thirty Meter Telescope project to negotiate a sublease for land with the University of Hawaii. The telescope would be able to observe planets that orbit stars other than the sun and enable astronomers to watch new planets and stars being formed. It should also help scientists see some 13 billion light years away for a glimpse into the early years of the universe. The telescope's segmented primary mirror, which is nearly 100 feet - or 30 meters - long, will give it nine times the collecting area of the largest optical telescopes in use today. Its images will also be three times sharper. Some Native Hawaiian groups had petitioned against the project, arguing that it would defile the mountain's sacred summit. Native Hawaiian tradition holds that high altitudes are sacred and are a gateway to heaven. In the past, only high chiefs and priests were allowed at Mauna Kea's summit. The mountain is home to one confirmed burial site and perhaps four more. Environmentalists also petitioned to stop the telescope on the grounds it would harm habitat for the rare wekiu bug. The University of California system, the Association of Canadian Universities and the California Institute of Technology for Research in Astronomy are leading the telescope project. India, China and Japan have joined the project as partners.
  
• Indian researchers claim to have developed "world's smallest antenna
  Researchers on 7 April claimed to have invented the world's smallest super compact ultra-wideband (UWB) planar antenna that can find application in homes and the military among other domains. Academician Professor Srikanta Pal, who is with the Birla Institute of Technology in Mesra, and his research scholar Mrinmoy Chakraborty have developed the antenna. "Our antenna is the world's smallest at 14 mm X 11 mm, with much more than a 10:1 bandwidth," Chakraborty, a PhD student with BIT-Mesra, said. The UWB technology brings mobility of wireless communications with high data rates, they said, adding that the technology was designed for short range, wireless personal area networks (WPANs), with the objective of freeing people from wires. The antenna is cheap and their goal was to reduce the size so that it can be pasted on any curved surface."The material used for this design is fibre reinforced plastics, which is less expensive. The fabrication process is simple wet chemical etching method," Pal, who is a Honorary Research Fellow at the Birmingham University in UK from 2010-2014 for his work in radio astronomy, said.
  
• Scientists designed new Adaptive Material inspired by Human Tear
  -A team of US scientists on 8 April 2013 designed a new adaptive material inspired by human tears. The new material was inspired by dynamic, self-restoring systems in Nature, such as the liquid film that coats our eyes. Individual tears join up to form a dynamic liquid film with an obviously significant optical function that maintains clarity, while keeping the eye moist, protecting it against dust and bacteria, and helping to transport away any wastes -- doing all of this and more in literally the blink of an eye. The bioinspired material is a continuous liquid film that coats, and is infused in, an elastic porous substrate, which is what makes it so versatile. With this design architecture in place, the team has thus far demonstrated the ability to dynamically control, with great precision, two key functions: transparency and wettability.
  
• Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis have identified a new set of genetic markers for Alzheimer's that point to a second pathway through which the disease develops. Much of the genetic research on Alzheimer's centers on amyloid-beta, a key component of brain plaques that build up in the brains of people with the disease In the new study, the scientists identified several genes linked to the tau protein, which is found in the tangles that develop in the brain as Alzheimer's progresses and patients develop dementia. The findings may help provide targets for a different class of drugs that could be used for treatment. "We measured the tau protein in the cerebrospinal fluid and identified several genes that are related to high levels of tau and also affect risk for Alzheimer's disease," says senior investigator Dr Alison M Goate, the Samuel and Mae S. Ludwig Professor of Genetics in Psychiatry.
  
• US government on 3 April 2013 announced a new research initiative called Brain (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) which is designed to revolutionize the understanding of the human brain. Indian born Arati Prabhakar, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which pioneered the Internet, is among that leading themulti- agency project. Launched with approximately 100 million US dollars in the President's Fiscal Year 2014 Budget, the BRAIN initiative ultimately aims to help researchers find new ways to treat, cure, and even prevent brain disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury. The BRAIN Initiative will accelerate the development and application of new technologies that will enable researchers to produce dynamic pictures of the brain that show how individual brain cells and complex neural circuits interact at the speed of thought. The scientists possess the capability to study individual neurons and figure out the main functions of certain areas of the brain, but a human brain contains almost a hundred billion neurons making trillions of connections.
  
• The medium range nuclear capable Agni-II missile was on 7 April 2013 successfully test-fired with a strike range of more than 2000 km from the Wheeler Island off Odisha coast. The two-stage missile equipped with advanced high accuracy navigation system, guided by a novel scheme of state of the earth command and control system was propelled by solid rocket propellant system. The 20-metre long Agni-II is a two-stage, solid-propelled ballistic missile. It has a launch weight of 17 tones and can carry a payload of 1000 kg over a distance of 2000 km. The state-of-the-art Agni-II missile was developed by Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL) and integrated by the Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), Hyderabad. Agni-II is part of the Agni series of missiles developed by DRDO which includes Agni-I with a 700 km range, Agni-III with a 3000 km range, Agni-IV with 4000 km range and Agni-V more than 5000 km range.
  
• A recent study conducted by Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich found out that the compounds (metabolites) which are found in the exhaled breath are as unique as the fingerprints of an individual. The metabolites have always been seen as the waste products of the chemistry of someone’s body, but the uniqueness of these metabolites was never shown. The study suggested that these metabolites could be very useful for the purpose of medical diagnosis, just like that found in the blood or urine. The breath test is said to be non-invasive and their results are also available instantly, which is why a breath test can be convenient, especially for doping tests or anesthesia. The lead author of the study is Renato Zenobi.
  
• World health day was celebrated on 7 April 2013. The theme for 2013 was “high blood pressure”.This day marks the anniversary of the founding of WHO (World Health Organization) in 1948. Each year a theme is selected for World Health Day that highlights a priority area of public health concern in the world. High blood pressure also known as raised blood pressure or hypertension increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure. The ultimate goal of World Health Day 2013 is to reduce heart attacks and strokes. According to the World Health Organization, High Blood Pressure affects one in three adults worldwide and leads to more than nine million deaths globally every year.
  
• Central Medical Services Society (CMSS), a Central Procurement Agency of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, has been registered under Societies Registration Act, 1860 on 22-03-2012. CMSS will be responsible for procuring health sector goods in a transparent and cost-effective manner and distributing them to the State/UT Governments by setting up IT enabled supply chain infrastructure including State warehouses in 50 locations. The main objective of CMSS will be to ensure uninterrupted supply of health sector goods to the State Governments. Rules and Regulations of CMSS have been framed. MoHFW is providing one time budgetary support of Rs.50 crores to enable establishment of CMSS.CMSS has been permitted to charge a service fee on the value of procurement to meet its operational expenses which should be well within an upper ceiling of 5% of the value of procurement. CMSS is being made operational shortly.