SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS AUGUST 2016
- ISRO successfully test-fires Scramjet Rocket Engine
The Indian Space Research Organization ISRO has successfully test launched the Supersonic Combustion Ramjet engine, called Scramjet, on 28th August. The national space agency says its first ever experimental mission using the engine on-board the sounding rocket ATV02 has met all the specified goals. Scientists claim, it is a major step towards realising an Air Breathing Propulsion System, that uses oxygen from the atmosphere for burning the fuel in rockets.
At present, oxidizing agents are being used along with the fuels in the rockets, making the vehicles heavy and expensive. Once the new technology is adopted, the cost of satellite launches would come down significantly and heavier satellites can also be launched using smaller vehicles.
The rocket carrying Scramjet engines weighed 3277 kg at lift-off. With this success, India has joined the select league of four space faring nations that have demonstrated flight testing of Scramjet engines.
With this test, India has joined the select club of nations which have the technology of air breathing engines. - NASA's Juno probe completes first Jupiter flyby
NASA's solar-powered Juno spacecraft has successfully executed its first flyby of Jupiter passing just 4,200 kilometres above the planet's clouds. It was the closest contact ever achieved by a man-made probe with Jupiter.
NASA said, the flyby was the first time Juno had its entire suite of science instruments activated and looking at the planet as the spacecraft zoomed past. There are 35 more close flybys of Jupiter planned during Juno's mission scheduled to end in February 2018.
The Juno spacecraft was launched on August 5, 2011 from Florida, and had reached Jupiter on the 4th of July, 2016. - G20 countries score poorly in climate goals report
Global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of G20 countries are continuing to increase, a report from Climate Transparency, an open global consortium, has shown ahead of the 2016 G20 Hangzhou summit to be held on September 4-5 in China.
Between 1990 and 2013, the absolute carbon dioxide emissions of G20 countries, which account for three-fourths of global CO2 emissions, went up by 56 per cent, the report shows.
Funded by Climate Works Foundation, Stiftung Mercator and the World Bank Group, Climate Transparency analysed key indicators, including carbon intensity and share of coal in total electricity produced, to assess the performance of these countries and found that half of G20 countries are “inadequate” as regards actions taken to curb climate change. This is despite energy intensity and the carbon intensity of the G20 economies decreasing as overall economic activity increased, notes the report released on 1st September.
India received a ‘medium’ rating with good scores for emissions, share of renewables in total primary energy supply (TPES) and climate policy, but poor scores in carbon intensity, share of coal in TPES and electricity emissions. The worst overall performers were Australia, Argentina, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.
The carbon intensity of the energy sector was found increasing, due to the strong and continuing role that coal plays.
Of all the G20 member-states, Australia, Canada, Saudi Arabia and the United States stand out with by far the highest per capita energy-related CO{-2}emissions. Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Japan still show an increase over the five-year period 2008-2013. Argentina and South Africa have declining per capita emissions, as with the EU and its big member-states Germany, France, Italy and the U.K., the report notes. China’s per capita emissions were found to be above the G20 average: at 38%, with China having the highest economic growth rate between 2008 and 2013.
The coal share of China, India, South Africa and Turkey will remain clearly above the maximum 2°C benchmark in the time period until 2030, the report notes.
To be in line with a 2°C-compatible trajectory by 2035, G20 countries face an investment gap of almost $ 340 billion/year in the power sector. Though plugging the gap requires an increase in green investments, G20 governments provided, on average, almost $ 70 billion in subsidies for fossil fuel production between 2013 and 2014, the report points out.
Climate Transparency was co-founded under the leadership of Peter Eigen, Founder of Transparency International and Alvaro Umana, former Minister of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica in 2014. - China parliament ratifies Paris climate change agreement
China's parliament ratified the Paris agreement on climate change, the Xinhua state news agency said, which could help put the pact into force by as early as the end of the year.
The standing committee of China's National People's Congress voted to adopt "the proposal to review and ratify the Paris Agreement" at the closing meeting of a week-long session. The announcement came as leaders from the world's 20 biggest economies, the Group of 20 (G20), began to arrive in the Chinese city of Hangzhou for a summit on 4th and 4th September
The G20 nations are responsible for about 80 percent of global carbon emissions. The United States, the second biggest emitter, is also set to ratify the agreement in a bid to put the deal into legal force before the end of the year. Nearly 200 countries agreed in Paris in December on a binding global compact to slash greenhouse gas emissions and keep global temperature increases to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius.
While 180 countries have now signed the agreement, 55 nations - covering at least 55 percent of global emissions - need to formally ratify the treaty to put it into legal effect. Before China, 23 nations had ratified it - including North Korea - but they collectively accounted for just 1.08 percent of global emissions, according to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
China is responsible for just over 20 percent of global emissions while the United States covers another 17.9 percent. Russia accounts for 7.5 percent, with India pushing out 4.1 percent.
Countries that ratify the deal will have to wait for three years after it has gone into legal force before they can begin the process of withdrawing from it, according to the agreement signed in Paris last year. - US, China reatify Paris global climate agreement
The United States and China, together responsible for 40 percent of the world's carbon emissions, have ratified the Paris global climate agreement.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping submitted their plan to join the agreement to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is in China to witness the announcement In the Chinese city of Hangzhou, US President Barack Obama said the Paris deal was the single best chance to deal with a problem that could end up transforming this planet. He added that history would show that the Paris deal would "ultimately prove to be a turning point".
Earlier on 3rd September, China's parliament ratified the agreement, with President Xi saying his country was "solemnly" committed to the deal and hoped other countries would follow suit. In Paris last December, nearly 200 countries agreed on a binding global compact to slash greenhouse gases and keep global temperature increases to well below 2 degrees Celsius.
While 180 countries have now signed the agreement, 55 nations, covering at least 55 percent of global emissions, need to formally ratify the treaty to put it into legal effect. - Scientists develop laser from fluorescent jellyfish proteins
Scientists have, for the first time, developed laser from fluorescent jellyfish proteins that were grown in bacteria. According to researchers, these lasers have the potential to be far more efficient and compact than conventional ones and could open up research avenues in quantum physics and optical computing.
They said, the breakthrough represents a major advance in so-called polariton lasers.
By repurposing the fluorescent proteins that have revolutionised biomedical imaging, and by allowing scientists to monitor processes inside cells, the team created a polariton laser that operates at room temperature powered by nanosecond pulses - just billionths of a second.
Malte Gather, a professor at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and one of the laser's inventors said, picosecond pulses of a suitable energy are about a thousandfold more difficult to make than nanosecond pulses, so it really simplifies making these polariton lasers quite significantly. The research was published in the journal Science Advances. - North Korea test fires new ballistic missile
North Korea on 23rd August test fired a new ballistic missile. South Korea's military said, it was launched from a submarine in the Sea of Japan, off North Korea's eastern coast. The test comes one day after the United States and South Korea launched joint military exercises on the peninsula.
Pyongyang had warned against the drills, threatening to launch a preemptive nuclear strike. North Korea has test fired a number of ballistic missiles in recent months, and has also conducted nuclear tests. Condemned by the international community, these resulted in the implementation of harsh new sanctions by the United Nations. - Scientists discovered Earth-sized planet orbiting star nearest to Sun
Scientists have discovered an Earth-sized planet orbiting the star nearest to the Sun. A team of European scientists wrote in the journal Nature that the planet, known as Proxima b, is located just four light-years away from the Earth.
The discovery is potentially a major step in the quest to find out if life exists elsewhere in the universe. The researchers said, Proxima b could be within the habitable zone, where it is neither too hot nor too cold to support life and where temperatures could allow the presence of liquid water.
The scientists, who collected data over 16-years, discovered the planet with data from the European Southern Observatory telescope in Chile. - China unveils first images of 2020 Mars mission
China has unveiled the first images of the designs of a rover it aims to dispatch to Mars in 2020, as part of its ambitious plans to catch up with India, the US, Russia and the EU to reach the Red Planet. The mission faces "unprecedented" challenges and is designed to explore the planet surface for three months.
China, which became the third nation after the US and the former Soviet Union to put man in the space in 2003, plans to send a spacecraft to orbit Mars, and deploy a rover in July or August 2020, said Zhang Rongqiao, chief architect of the Mars mission.
Images displayed at a press conference on 23rd August showed a device with six wheels, powered by four solar panels, two more than the rover sent to the moon.
Weighing around 200 kg, it is designed to operate for three Martian months, Sun Zezhou, the probe's chief designer. Though China's space programme has achieved milestones like landing a rover on the Moon and successful manned space mission, but Mars has alluded it.
India's successful 'Mangalyaan' mission - accomplished with a low budget of USD 73 million - caught the attention of China.
India became the fourth country after the US, Russia and the EU to successfully send a probe to Mars.
China's attempts to send exploratory probe Yinghuo-1, in a Russian spacecraft in 2011 failed as shortly after the launch it was declared lost and later burnt during the re-entry. This is the first time China has revived its Mars mission since then. - Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory at Pune
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory's (LIGO) first data centre in India will come up at the city-based Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) this year. The centre would bring together all data analysts within the Indian gravity wave community and also put the LIGO-India team on a global map for international collaboration, according to the IUCAA director Somak Raychaudhury. The observatory already has four data centres in Germany and one in the US.
The data centres in Germany were the first one to detect the gravitational waves in February while the second detection was made from the centre in the US.
According to the Raychaudhury the next run of LIGO will begin next month. With India having a centre, scientists here will also be able to do analysis of the data received from LIGO detectors
While building the telescope in India would take another 10 years, Indian scientists can start analysing data in the meantime. Once the telescope is operational, the experts would be ready for huge infrastructure. The data received from the telescope will be humongous and analysing the same would require more centres to be built here - China launches first quantum communication satellite
China successfully launched the world's first quantum satellite. In a cloud of smoke, the satellite, Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS), roared into the sky a top a Long March-2D rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gobi Desert.
The over 600 kg satellite will circle the Earth once every 90 minutes after it enters a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 500 km.
It is nicknamed "Micius", after a 5th century BC Chinese philosopher and scientist who have been credited as the first one in human history conducting optical experiments.
In its two-year mission, QUESS is designed to establish "hack-proof" quantum communications by transmitting untraceable keys from space to the ground, and provide insights into the strangest phenomenon in quantum physics -- quantum entanglement.
With the help of the new satellite, scientists will be able to test quantum key distribution between the satellite and ground stations, and conduct secure quantum communications between Beijing and Xinjiang's Urumqi.
QUESS, as planned, will also beam entangled photons to two earth stations, 1,200 km apart, in a move to test quantum entanglement over a greater distance, as well as test quantum teleportation between a ground station in Ali, Tibet, and itself. - Venus may have once been habitable: NASA
Ancient Venus may have been habitable, according to a new NASA study that suggests that the planet had a shallow liquid-water ocean and cooler surface temperatures for up to 2 billion years of its early history.
The findings were obtained with a computer model of the planet's ancient climate, similar to the type used to predict future climate change on Earth.
These results show ancient Venus may have been a very different place than it is at present. Venus at present has a carbon dioxide atmosphere 90 times as thick as Earth's. There is almost no water vapour.
Temperatures reach 462 degrees Celsius at its surface. Scientists long have theorised that Venus formed out of ingredients similar to Earth's, but followed a different evolutionary path.
Measurements by NASA's Pioneer mission to Venus in the 1980s first suggested Venus originally may have had an ocean. However, since Venus is closer to the Sun than Earth and receives far more sunlight, the planet's ocean evaporated, water-vapour molecules were broken apart by ultraviolet radiation, and hydrogen escaped to space.
With no water left on the surface, carbon dioxide built up in the atmosphere, leading to a so-called runaway greenhouse effect that created present conditions.
Until recently, it was assumed that a thick atmosphere like that of modern Venus was required for the planet to have slow rotation rate. However, newer research has shown that a thin atmosphere like that of modern Earth could have produced the same result. - BARC develops portable kit to detect chromium contamination in water
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) has developed a portable kit to check chromium contamination in water in five minutes. Chromium, which is widely used in industries such as leather, steel, chrome-plating, paint manufacturing, wood preservation etc, is one of major effluents found in water in several parts of the country.
Hexavalent Chromium Cr(VI) is toxic and the World Health Organisation has classified it as carcinogenic, adding that its presence in water can cause stomach ulcers and cancers and severe damage to kidneys and liver.
BARC’s kit is simple, user-friendly, quick and cost-effective for onsite determination of Cr(VI) and meets IS10500 as well as US Environmental Protection Agency criterion, said a release from the Department of Atomic Energy, adding that it provides the much needed solution to measure the level of chromium contamination in drinking water and tap water, lakes, rivers as well as ground water.
While the existing imported kit for onsite detection of chromium (VI) cost about Rs. 100/sample, analysis using the BARC kit costs Rs. 16/sample, it said, adding that the technology of the BARC kit for Cr(VI) detection was transferred to LTEK Industries, Nagpur on 17th August. Once tested, water samples can be immediately categorised as being safe or toxic for drinking from Chromium (VI) point of view.
As per IS10500 standards for drinking water, the maximum permissible concentration of Cr(VI) in drinking water is 50 microgram per litre. The EPA recommends a lower permissible concentration of 10 microgram per litre. - China launches first mobile telecommunications satellite
- Endosulfan causes DNA damage in animals: Study
For the first time, researchers in India have found that mice and rats exposed to endosulphan suffer from DNA damage and genomic instability, and impaired DNA damage response.
The results published on August 4 in the journal,Carcinogenesis , by a team of researchers led by Prof. Sathees Raghavan from the Department of Biochemistry, IISc, Bengaluru show that endosulfan — an organochlorine pesticide — induces breaks in DNA strands and disturbs the damage response mechanism found in cells thus leading to compromised DNA strand repair.
The team found mice and rats exposed to endosulfan generated reactive oxygen species, a potent DNA damaging agent. The reactive oxygen species, in turn, caused DNA damage in the form of breaks in DNA strands. The broken DNA strands generally tend to repair themselves by rejoining. But endosulfan treatment was found to cause “extensive processing of broken DNA” leading to increased and long deletion in the strands.
Endosulfan also increased the damage by promoting erroneous repair of the broken DNA strands. Erroneous repair would lead to undesirable genome level changes leading to genomic instability, which may cause cancer and genetic abnormalities.
One of the major mechanisms by which broken DNA strands are repaired is through non-homologous end joining (NHEJ).
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