SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS JULY 2015

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS JULY 2015

• China launches two new satellites into space
  China launched two new satellites into space as it builds a homegrown satellite navigation system to rival the US's Global Positioning System. A rocket carrying the satellites was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern Sichuan province on 25th July.
  
  The satellites are the 18th and 19th launched by China as it develops its domestic navigation system Beidou, or Compass.
  
  Beidou is currently centred on the Asia Pacific region but is slated to cover the whole world by 2020. The Beidou system is currently used for civilian services such as navigation and messaging, as well as in the transportation and weather forecasting sectors. It also has military applications.
  
• Scientists successfully 'edit' human immune cells
  By using a popular genome editing technique, researchers at the University of California were able to precisely modify a key type of human immune cell that protects the body against a wide range of diseases, from diabetes to AIDS to cancer. They used the genome-editing tool known as CRISPR/Cas9 to precisely modify the human T cells.
  
  They were able to disable a protein on the T-cell surface called CXCR4, which can be exploited by HIV when the virus infects T cells and causes AIDS.
  
  The team also successfully shut down PD-1, a protein that has attracted intense interest in the burgeoning field of cancer immunotherapy, as scientists have shown that using drugs to block PD-1 coaxes T cells to attack tumours.
  
  The CRISPR/Cas9 system makes it possible to easily and inexpensively edit genetic information in virtually any organism.
  
  Until recently, editing human T cells with CRISPR/Cas9 has been inefficient, with only a relatively small percentage of cells being successfully modified.
  
  A team led by first authors Kathrin Schumann, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Alexander Marson, a UCSF Sandler Fellow, and Steven Lin, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of University of California, Berkeley's Jennifer Doudna, cracked these problems by streamlining the delivery of Cas9 and single-guide RNA to cells.
  
• Earth-like planet found by NASA's Kepler telescope
  Scientists using NASA's powerful Kepler telescope have found a planet beyond the solar system that is a close match to Earth. The planet, which is about 60 percent bigger than Earth, is located about 1,400 light years away in the constellation Cygnus.
  
  While similarly sized planets have been found before, the latest one, known as Kepler-452b, is circling a star that is very similar but older than the sun at a distance about the same as Earth's orbit.
  
  Based on its size, scientists believe Kepler-452b is rocky and Earth-like and positioned at the right distance for liquid surface water, which is believed to be necessary for life.
  
• ISRO-NASA jointly working on NISAR mission
  The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are jointly working on the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission to co-develop and launch a dual frequency synthetic aperture radar satellite.
  
  The NISAR mission is a dual frequency (L&S Band) Radar Imaging Satellite. In this joint mission, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)/ NASA will be responsible for design & development of L-band SAR, 12m unfurlable antenna, GPS system and data recorder.
  
  ISRO will be responsible for design & development of S-band SAR, Spacecraft Bus, data transmission system, Spacecraft integration & testing, launch using GSLV and on-orbit operations. The aim and objectives of NISAR mission are:
  
  1) Design, Develop and launch a Dual frequency (L and S Band) Radar Imaging Satellite.
  2) Explore newer application areas using L and S band microwave data, especially in natural resources mapping; monitoring; estimating agricultural biomass over full duration of crop cycle; assessing soil moisture; monitoring of floods and oil slicks; coastal erosion, coastline changes and variation of winds in coastal waters; assessment of mangroves; surface deformation studies due to seismic activities etc.
  
  Implementation Arrangement (IA), defining the roles and responsibilities of ISRO and NASA has been signed by the two agencies in September 2014. ISRO has completed the Baseline Design Reviews of Spacecraft and S-band SAR payload.
  
  JPL has successfully completed the Mission Concept and Key Decision Point reviews. The first Joint Steering Group (JSG) meeting of NISAR was held on July 21, 2015. NISAR satellite is expected to be launched during the year 2021.
  
  The cost of the project comprises of (i) cost of ISRO’s work share, which is estimated to be Rs 788.00 Cr and (ii) cost of JPL’s work share, which is expected to be around USD 808 millions.
  
• Scientists can forecast flu outbreaks in subtropical climates
  Just like weather forecasting, scientists can now predict the timing and intensity of influenza outbreaks in subtropical climates, where flu seasons can occur at different times and more than once during a year.
  
  Since the 2013-2014 season, scientists of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health have published weekly regional flu forecasts for over 100 cities in the US.
  
  Their system employs a computer model to generate multiple simulations that mimic the behaviour of an outbreak and are then knit together to generate an overall prediction.
  
  In the new study, the researchers used data from a network of 50 outpatient clinics and laboratory reports in Hong Kong from 1998 to 2013 as a test case to retrospectively generate weekly flu forecasts.
  
  The system was able to forecast both the peak timing and peak magnitude for 44 epidemics in 16 years caused by individual influenza strains, including influenza A (H3N2), influenza B, and both seasonal and the 2009 pandemic outbreaks of influenza A (H1N1).
  
• Draft Rules for Mass Emission Standards for Bio-diesel fuelled vehicles
  The Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways on 31 July 2015 formulated a Draft Notification for Mass Emission Standards for Bio-diesel (B100) fuelled vehicles also called flex-fuel bio-diesel vehicle.
  
  The Draft rules further seek to amend the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 and these Rules may be called Central Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Rules, 2015.
  
  These standards have been long awaited by the industry especially those manufacturing bio-diesel and will provide alternate source of income to the farmers and the forest dwellers.
  
  The notification provides for the standards for test requirements for type approval and extension for four-wheeled and three-wheeled vehicles using both B100 and diesel as fuel, or either of the two.
  
  The compatibility of vehicle to level of bio-diesel blend or B100 shall be defined by the vehicle manufacturer and the same shall be displayed on vehicle by putting a clearly visible sticker.
  
  The standards also include the conformity of the production tests and the deterioration factor.
  
  Further, the technical specification of the reference fuel B100 has also been included in the draft notification. This Draft is for wider consultation with all the stakeholders so that vehicles fuelled on bio-diesel (B100) or in all similar blends of bio-diesel with diesel can be manufactured and used in the country.
  
• Russian entrepreneur promises $US100 million for alien search
  Extending his idea of philanthropy beyond the earth and even the human species, Yuri Milner, the Russian Internet entrepreneur and founder of science giveaways like the annual $3 million Fundamental Physics Prizes, announced in London on 20th July that he would spend at least $100 million in the next decade to search for signals from alien civilizations.
  
  It will allow astronomers to see the kinds of radar used for air traffic control from any of the closest 1,000 stars, and to detect a laser with the power output of a common 100-watt light bulb from the distance of the nearest stars, some four light-years away, according to Milner's team.
  
  It also guarantees bounteous observing time on some of the world's biggest radio telescopes - a rarity for SETI astronomers who are used to getting one night a year.
  
  Stephen Hawking leads the team that searches aliens
  Milner has recruited a small coterie of scientists to run the project. Among them are the Astronomer Royal, Lord Martin Rees, of Cambridge University, who will lead an advisory group; Peter Worden, former director of the NASA Ames Research Laboratory, home of the Kepler effort; Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley, a renowned exoplanet hunter; Werthimer; Andrew Siemion, also of Berkeley; and Ann Druyan, a co-author of both "Cosmos" television series and widow of the astronomer Carl Sagan.
  
  According to Werthimer, about a third of Milner's money will go toward building new receiving equipment, and about a third will go toward hiring students and other astronomers.
  
  The rest will be used to secure observing time. For now, that effort will include two of the largest radio telescopes in the world: the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and the Csiro Parkes Telescope in New South Wales, Australia.
  
• Indigenous high-thrust cryogenic rocket engine ground tested
  India's first indigenously designed and developed high-thrust cryogenic rocket engine generating a nominal thrust of 19 tonnes has been successfully endurance hot-tested for 800 seconds, ISRO said.
  
  This duration is approximately 25 percent more than the engine burn duration in flight, Bengaluru-headquartered Indian Space Research Organisation said on 20th July, announcing the test at ISRO Propulsion Complex at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu on 16th July.
  
  The engine will be used for powering the Cryogenic stage (C25), the upper stage of the next generation GSLV Mk-III launch vehicle of ISRO, capable of launching four-tonne class satellites.
  
  ISRO said the cryogenic engine of C25 Stage operates on Gas Generator Cycle using extremely low temperature propellants Liquid Hydrogen (LH2) at 20 Kelvin (-253 deg C) and Liquid Oxygen (LOX) at 80K (-193 deg C).
  
  The high performance cryogenic engine was conceived, configured and realised by Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), the lead centre of ISRO, responsible for developing liquid propulsion systems for the Indian Space Programme.
  
  The engine design was totally an in-house effort with experts from different fields like fluid dynamics, combustion, thermal, structural, metallurgy, fabrication, rotor dynamics and control components working together, ISRO said.
  
  The fabrication of major subsystems of the engine was carried out through Indian industries, it said, adding, assembly and integration of the engine and testing were carried out in ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC), a unit of ISRO.
  
  LPSC has also developed a cryogenic upper stage of 12.5 tonne propellant loading and successfully flight tested it in GSLV Mk-II vehicle on 5th January 2014.
  
  Compared to this stage, ISRO said, the C25 stage has a higher propellant loading (27 tonnes versus 12.5 tonnes) and higher engine thrust (19 tonne versus 7.5 tonne).
  
  The recent successful endurance hot test of the first high-thrust cryogenic engine is the tenth test in a series of tests planned and executed as part of the development of the engine employing complex cryogenic technology.
  
  The performance of the engine closely matches with the pre-test prediction made using the in-house developed cryogenic engine mathematical modelling and simulation software, ISRO said.
  
  As part of the C25 Stage development, further tests are planned in high altitude conditions and in Stage configuration, prior to the flight stage realisation. Mastering this complex, high-performance cryogenic propulsion technology will go a long way in building self-reliance for the Indian Space programme, ISRO said.
  
• Haryana: NDRI scientists develop technique to decrease cholesterol level in Ghee
  In Haryana, the scientists at National Diary Research Institute Karnal have developed a technique to decrease cholesterol level in Ghee (clear butter) and the Ghee produced using this technique has been found up to the prescribed standards. Director of Institute AK Shrivastava said that the scientists have succeeded in lowering the level of cholesterol in Ghee up to 85 to 90 percent using this technique. He said it has not affected the taste and quality of Ghee. He said the technique has been transferred to Vaishal Patliputra Milk Union, Patna, who will soon bring it in the market.
  
• Soyuz rocket with three astronauts launches towards ISS
  Three astronauts aboard a Soyuz spacecraft successfully launched towards the International Space Station after a two-month delay.
  
  The spacecraft blasted off carrying cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, US astronaut Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yui of Japan.
  
• SAARC satellite to cost Rs. 235 cr.
  The launch of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) satellite has been pegged at an estimated Rs. 235 crore and the cost associated with the launch will be met by the country, Parliament was informed on 23rd July.
  
  It will enable full range of applications and services to the member-nations in the areas of telecommunication and broadcasting applications namely television, direct-to-home, very small aperture terminals, tele-education, telemedicine and disaster management support, Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space Jitendra Singh said in the Rajya Sabha.
  
  The satellite was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the SAARC summit in Nepal in November last. The Indian Space Research Organisation will build the satellite with 12 Ku-band transponders and launch it using the Indian Geostationary Launch Vehicle Mk-II.
  
  A one-day conference was held in New Delhi on June 22 to discuss the proposal in which delegations from all the SAARC member nations participated.
  
• NASA probe discovers bigger, older cousin to Earth
  NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has spotted "Earth's bigger, older cousin": the first nearly Earth-size planet to be found in the habitable zone of a star similar to our own. Though NASA can't say for sure whether the planet is rocky like ours or has water and air, it's the closest match yet found.
  
  The planet, Kepler-452b, is about 1,400 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. It's about 60% bigger than Earth, NASA says, and is located in its star's habitable zone -- the region where life-sustaining liquid water is possible on the surface of a planet.
  
• CERN discovers new class of particles
  Scientists at CERN's Large Hadron Collider on 14th July announced the discovery of a new class of exotic subatomic particles called the pentaquarks. Pentaquark was first predicted to exist in the 1960s but, much like the Higgs boson particle before it, the particle eluded science for decades until its detection at the LHC.
  
  It represents a way to aggregate quarks, namely the fundamental constituents of ordinary protons and neutrons, in a pattern that has never been observed before in over 50 years of experimental searches. Studying its properties may allow to understand better how ordinary matter, the protons and neutrons is constituted.
  
• India Working With 27 Countries on Earthquake Early-Warning System
  Taking a lead, India is working on an ambitious project with scientists, geophysicists, and seismologists of 27 countries to develop an early-warning system for "prediction" of earthquake.
  
  The warning could be the issued some seconds before the earthquake strikes. India is also planning to launch a satellite to track the changes that take place on earth's surface before the tremors, a top official has said. "If the effort is successful and the model is developed, we could reduce the number of human casualties substantially.
  
  Before earthquakes, some chemical changes under the earth's surface and some physical displacements on the surface occur and hoped if parameters are developed to observe, study and analyse these changes, the quakes can be predicted.
  
  For this purpose, India is going to launch a satellite by 2019 which will send images of surface displacement up to the accuracy of few centimetres," Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Shailesh Nayak said.
  
• Scientists discover winged dinosaur
  Scientists have discovered a winged dinosaur, an ancestor of the velociraptor, that they say was on the cusp of becoming a bird. The 6 feet 6 inch creature was almost perfectly preserved in limestone to a volcanic eruption that had buried it in north-east China.
  
  And the 125 million year old fossil suggests many other dinosaurs, including velociraptors, would have looked like big, fluffy killer birds. University of Edinburgh and the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences collaboration is published in the journal Scientific Reports.
  
• ISRO's heaviest commercial mission; launches 5 British Satellites
  Indian space agency ISRO launched its heaviest commercial mission that put five British satellites on board PSLV-C28 from the spaceport of Sriharikota on 10th July
  
  According to ISRO, PSLV-C28 placed five British satellites in Sun-Synchronous Orbit. With the overall mass of five satellites is about 1,440kg, this successful launch becomes the "heaviest commercial mission" ever undertaken by ISRO and its commercial arm Antrix Corporation.
  
  Earlier in March 2015, ISRO launched its first navigation satellite-IRNSS-1D. PSLV-XL will be the second launch by the space organisation.
  
  Since 1999, ISRO has launched 40 satellites with its workhorse PSLV. But this is first one this year in terms of commercial launches. This launch takes this tally to 45.The British satellites, three DMC3 and the CBNT-1 satellites are built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd while the De-OrbitSail is built by Surrey Space Centre.
  
  These satellites can image any target on the Earth's surface every day. Major application areas include surveying the resources on earth and its environment, managing urban infrastructure and monitoring disasters.
  
  For this special launch, Britain not only rented premium space from the Indian Space Research Organisation or ISRO, but its Surrey Satellite Technology Limited also hired an entire rocket for the first time.
  
  The 320 tonne (320,000 kilograms) rocket is as tall as a 15-storey building and will hoist, apart from a constellation of three disaster-monitoring satellites, two smaller experimental satellites into space.
  
  The total weight of the British satellites is 1440 kg, making this the heaviest commercial launch ever to be undertaken by India. This is the 30th launch of India's PSLV or Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.
  
  The Britain satellites i.e. the DMC3 constellation, comprising three advanced mini-satellites DMC3-1, DMC3-2 and DMC3-3, is designed to address the need for simultaneous high spatial resolution and high temporal resolution optical Earth observation.
  
  Launched into a single low-Earth orbit plane and phased with a separation of 120° between them, these satellites can image any target on earth's surface every day. Major application areas include surveying the resources on earth and its environment, managing urban infrastructure and monitoring of disasters.
  
  CBNT-1, weighing 91 kg, is an optical Earth Observation technology demonstration micro satellite built by SSTL. The 7kg De-orbit Sail from Surrey Space Centre is an experimental nanosatellite for demonstration of large thin membrane sail and drag deorbiting using this sail.
  
  The DMC constellation satellites which have a mission life of seven years weighs 447kg. CBNT-1 and De-Orbit Sail weigh 91kg and 7kg respectively. Till date, India has launched 40 satellites from 19 countries on a commercial basis.
  
• Indigenously developed surface-to-air Akash Missile inducted in Air Force
   Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on 10th July dedicated indigenously developed surface-to-air Akash Missile to Air Force at Maharajpur Airbase in Gwalior. He handed over the symbolic key to Air chief Marshal Arup Raha. This missile has already been included in Army. The anti-aircraft missile Akash has a strike range of 25 km and capability of carrying warhead of 60 kg.
  
• New butterfly species discovered in Bangladesh
  A new species of tiny butterfly species called Banded Tit (Hypolycaena Narada) discovered in the green forests of the Changlang district in Arunachal Pradesh. The Banded tit is a resident of low-lying evergreen forests of Changlang and carries an interesting life cycle. Adult butterflies of the species live only for approximately two weeks in March every year. It spends a large part of the year in a dormant state in larval or pupal stages, which is still unknown. The species primarily feeds on bird-droppings along cool streams in the forests.
  
• June 30 will have an extra second: NASA
   June 30 this year will officially be a bit longer than usual because an extra second, or 'leap' second, will be added to the day, according to NASA.
  
  Daniel MacMillan of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre said that the Earth's rotation is gradually slowing down a bit, so leap seconds are a way to account for that.
  
  A day lasts 86,400 seconds. That is the case, according to the time standard that people use in their daily lives - Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC.
  
  However, the mean solar day - the average length of a day, based on how long it takes Earth to rotate, is about 86,400.002 seconds long.
  
• Planet formation identified at early stage
  For the first time, scientists are now able to directly study the planet formation process at a very early stage. Astronomers of PlanetS have confirmed the existence of a young gas giant planet that is still embedded in the gas and dust rich disk around its young host star.
  
  For a full night a high-resolution infrared camera at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile observed only one object although telescope time at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) on Mount Paranal is very precious.
  
  Analyzing the dataset collected by the instrument called NACO, an international team led by Sascha Quanz of ETH Zurich was able to confirm its earlier hypothesis: a giant planet candidate is orbiting the star named HD 100546.
  
  The object is still in the process of formation and possibly surrounded by a disk from which it continues gathering material, explains researcher Sascha Quanz.
  
  How, where and when giant planets form in the disks around young stars was so far mainly addressed via theoretical considerations and computer simulations, but now they have a ‘laboratory’ from which they can obtain empirical information, added Quanz.
  
  HD 100546 is a young star. In astronomical terms this means that the object is “only” five to ten million years old. Located 335 light-years from Earth it is a relatively nearby cosmic neighbor.