SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS DECEMBER 2013

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS DECEMBER 2013

• An international team of researchers has found more than 40 new areas in DNA that increase the risk of rheumatoid arthritis. The work is the largest genetic study ever carried out, involving nearly 30,000 patients.The investigators believe new drugs could be developed to target these areas that could one day provide a cure for the disease. The findings are published in the Journal Nature. The research team compared the DNA of arthritis patients with those without the disease and found 42 'faulty' areas that were linked with the disease. The hope is that drugs can be developed to compensate for these faults. The lead researcher Professor Robert Plenge of Harvard Medical Schoolfound that one of these areas produced a weakness that was treated by an existing drug that was developed by trial and error, rather than specifically made to correct the genetic problem. This finding, he says, shows such discoveries could be used to design new drugs."What this offers in the future is an opportunity to use genetics to discover new medicines for complex diseases like rheumatoid arthritis to treat or even cure the disease," he said. According to Prof Jane Worthington, director of the centre for genetics in Manchester, this observation suggests that drugs that are being used to treat the cancer could be effective against rheumatoid arthritis and so should be fast tracked into clinical trials.
  
• Europe has launched the Gaia satellite - one of the most ambitious space missions in history. The 740m-euro (£620m) observatory lifted off from the Sinnamary complex in French Guiana on 19 December. Gaia is going to map the precise positions and distances to more than a billion stars. This should give us the first realistic picture of how our Milky Way galaxy is constructed. Gaia's remarkable sensitivity will lead also to the detection of many thousands of previously unseen objects, including new planets and asteroids. Separation from the Soyuz upper-stage was confirmed just before 10:00 GMT. The satellite is now travelling out to an observing station some 1.5 million km from the Earth on its nightside - a journey that will take about a month to complete. Gaia has been in development for more than 20 years.
  
  It will be engaged in what is termed astrometry - the science of mapping the locations and movements of celestial objects. To do this, it carries two telescopes that throw light on to a huge, one-billion-pixel camera detector connected to a trio of instruments. Gaia will use this ultra-stable and supersensitive optical equipment to pinpoint its sample of stars with extraordinary confidence. By repeatedly viewing its targets over five years, it should get to know the brightest stars' coordinates down to an error of just seven micro-arcseconds. Gaia will compile profiles on the stars it sees. This will enable scientists to use them as three-dimensional markers to trace the evolution of the Milky Way, to in essence make a time-lapse movie that can be run forwards to see what happens in the future, or run backwards to reveal how the galaxy was assembled in the past.
  
• In the fifth consecutive success of its flight trial, nuclear weapons capable Agni-III surface-to-surface ballistic missile was test-fired for its full range of a little over 3,000 km from the Wheeler Island, off the Odisha coast on 23 December. The mission was carried out by the personnel of Strategic Forces Command (SFC) as part of regular user training. This was the sixth trial of Agni-III and the fifth successful mission in a row with two of them conducted by the users. The two-stage, solid propelled missile took off from a rail mobile launcher. After a flight time of about 800 seconds, the missile carrying a dummy payload impacted the pre-designated target point more than 3,000 km away in the Bay of Bengal with an accuracy of about 100 meters. The performance of the17-metre tall missile was tracked in real time by radars along the East Coast.
  
• The fourth generation Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas received its second operational clearance on 20th December 2013 in Bangalore. Union Defence Minister A. K. Anthony and Chief Air Marshal Browne attended the occasion. Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) II of Tejas is to replace the Mig21 fleet of IAF, which was decommissioned on 11 December 2013. The attainment of initial operational clearance is an important milestone towards indigenization through self-reliance and several programs like inclusion of fifth generation of fighter aircrafts. The Production of Tejas was taken up by Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL) and it would be ready for battle by December 2014.The salient features of IOC-II include Safe flying up to High angle of Attack as mandated and enhance the combat performance of the aircraft. The Initial Operational Clearance-I of Tejas was achieved on 10 Jan 2011.India indigenously designed and developed frontline fighter Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) was christened Tejas. Tejas is the smallest, light weight, single engine, single seat and supersonic, multirole, combat aircraft. LCA Tejas is capable of flying non-stop to destinations over 1700 km away.
  
• The Minister of New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on 9th December said that the Government has set up an autonomous Institute namely “National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE)” under the administrative control of Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) by converting the existing Solar Energy Centre (SEC) with its headquarters and research facilities at Gwalpahari Village, Dist. Gurgaon (Haryana). The NISE has been registered under the Haryana Societies Registration Act on 24th October, 2013.The main objective of setting up the National Institute would be to assist the Ministry and function as the apex National Centre for research and technology development and related activities in the area of solar energy technologies in the country. The institute would also perform all related tasks to achieve this objective to coordinate various S&T related tasks under the Mission and other activities as decided by the Government from time to time. Its affairs will be managed by a Governing Council to be headed by Secretary, MNRE and an Executive Committee headed by Director General.
  
• Tejas, India’s first indigenously designed, developed and produced 4th generation plus Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) on 7 December, achieved yet another milestone by launching an infrared seeking air to air missile that hit the target in a direct hit with precision and destroyed it. The test, demonstrating required parameters was conducted off the coast of Goa in Arabian Sea, and has taken the aircraft closer to its induction in the Indian Air Force. Tejas, one of its kind combat aircraft, has been developed by DRDO with Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), Bengaluru, as the lead laboratory and HAL as the production partner.