SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS DECEMBER 2009

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS DECEMBER 2009

• India successfully test fired its nuclear-capable ballistic missile 'Dhanush', with a range of 350 kilometers, from INS Subadhra near Integrated Test Range off the Orissa coast. It is the single-stage ship-based surface to surface missile.
  
• The World Meteorological Organization announced that the first decade (2000-09) of the 21st century was the hottest decade on record.
  
• Scientists from the Indian Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) of CSIR in New Delhi, led by Dr. S. Sridhar and PhD student Vinod Scaria have decoded the genome sequencing of a human being. It was previously done by USA, UK China, Canada and Korea.
  
• The recently restarted Large Hadron Collider has become the world's most powerful particle accelerator, after setting a new record for beam intensity. CERNhas announced that scientists working at the particle collider successfully accelerated a beam of protons up to 1.18 tera-electron-volts (TeV), beating the previous record of 0.98 TeV held by the Tevatron at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago since 2001.
  
• NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite was launched from Space Launch Complex-2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket carried it..
  
• Russia's Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) successfully test-launched RS-20V heavy intercontinental ballistic missile. It can carry a load of 200 tons and has a maximum range of 11000km.
  
• The Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakistan with American, Russian, and Japanese astronauts onboard. They are headed to the International Space Station as new members of the ISS Expedition 22 crew.