SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS MARCH 2013

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS MARCH 2013

• India and the US in the Month of March 2013 agreed for cooperation on future missions to the Moon and Mars after successful collaboration in Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission.The highly successful Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission who was launched by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in October 2008 led to strong evidence of the presence of lunar water. So, In light of the Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission NASA and ISRO agreed to explore further cooperative space exploration work, including future missions to the Moon and Mars.
  
• The scientist from both the working group of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) agreed to continue discussions in planetary science and Helio physics to identify areas of potential cooperation. The value of cooperation was well reflected, it could be supported from the fact that with the addition of two NASA instruments on the successful Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission, led to significant discoveries about lunar surface characteristics. The existing cooperation, in the use of US and Indian earth observation satellite data, helped in producing information yielding a broad range of societal benefits including improved weather and monsoon forecasting, disaster management and response, improved agricultural and natural resource use and better understanding of climate change.
  
• The indigenously-built cryogenic engine was successfully tested in high altitude environment at the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), Mahendragiri, on 27 March evening, ISRO officials said Thiruvanatapuram on 28 March. The hot-test was conducted at the High Altitude Test Facility (HAT) at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu at 7.55 p.m. ‘’the performance of the cryogenic engine was as per prediction,’’ LPSC officials said in a statement. The success of the test gives an immense boost to the prospects of the GSLV-D5 mission planned for July this year that plans to use the indigenously built engine, they said. The engine uses a liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellant combination developing a thrust of 7.5 tones and powers the cryogenic upper stage of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). Developed by the LPSC, the engine has undergone ground tests, in sea level conditions, more than 30 times as part of development and qualification. The directors of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, LPSC, ISRO Inertial Systems Unit and other top ISRO officials were present.
  
• Unknown Huge Radio Galaxy Discovered by ASTRON’s International LOFAR Telescope
  An international team of astronomers led by ASTRON astronomer Dr. George Heald, in the third week of March 2013 discovered an unknown huge radio galaxy, by making use of the powerful International LOFAR Telescope (ILT), built by ASTRON. The galaxy was discovered in the LOFAR's first all-sky imaging survey called Multi-frequency Snapshot Sky Survey (MSSS). The new source which was equivalent to the size of full Moon was identified while analysis of the MSSS images. The radio emission was observed, which is associated with the material that is ejected from one of the members of interacting galaxy triplet system. Physical extent of this material is said to be much larger than system of galaxy, which actually extends millions of light years across the intergalactic space. It is important to note that the MSSS is still under process. The newly found galaxy is the member of group of objects known as Giant Radio Galaxies (GRGs). GRGs, as the name suggest, are kind of radio galaxies which have huge physical size, indicating towards the fact that either they are very old or very powerful. LOFAR is one of the most efficient tools for exploring the GRGs because it is very sensitive to the large objects. LOFAR operates at low frequencies which are very much suitable for observation of the old sources. The team of astronomers which is performing this ongoing MSSS comprises of 50 members from different institutes, most of which are in Italy, Poland, France, Netherlands and Germany.
  
• India on 20 March 2013 successfully test fired its submarine-launched version of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile of the over 290 km-range in the Bay of Bengal off the coast of the southern port city of Visakhapatnam. The launch of Missile is counted as the first test-firing of an underwater supersonic cruise missile anywhere in the world. The missile travelled its complete range of over 290 km. Earlier in last few years, Ship and ground-launched versions of the missile have been successfully tested and put into service with the Indian Army and the Navy. The missile took off vertically from the submerged following a pre-defined trajectory, the missile emerged from underwater, took a turn towards the designated target meeting all mission objectives. All the telemetry and tracking stations, including Indian naval ships positioned throughout the flight path, confirmed the pin-point accuracy of the mission.
  
• Union Minister Kapil Sibal on 6 March 2013 launched the Electronics Project Proposal System (e-PPS), developed by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, through the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) during a round table discussion with Academia, Industry and R&D Organisation. The e-PPS system will initially start as a pilot project. It is a web based system in form of solution to fund the R&D projects, which will start from online submission of the project proposal for funds and will monitor as well as manage the funded projects. It will replace existing manual system of project funding in which the project investigators submit hard copies of R&D proposals, which are presented to a Working Group and based on the recommendations of the Working Group the proposals are further processed. The system would create a One-Go-Dash-Board to monitor the projects from its initiation to completion
  
• The oil-rich United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 17 March 2013 officially opened the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant. The solar power plant opened is the 600-million dollar project which is aimed at providing electricity to 20000 homes. The solar power station which is named Shams 1 was inaugurated in Madinat Zayed by the President of UAE and the Ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.The solar power plant was constructed over a three-year period by an international conglomerate, with UAE’s Masdar having 60 percent stake, France’s Total having a 20 percent interest and Spain’s Abengoa which has a 20 percent stake. With this new solar project, Masdar will be producing 10 per cent of world’s renewable energy.
  
• India ranked third on list of countries which distribute spam all over the world, after US and China, as per the new report of SophosLabs. SophosLabs is the Sophos’s global network of threat analysis centers. In the study, US was single highest ranking country, but Asia ranked at number 1 position in the list of the continents with 36.6 percent of overall spam of the world. US sent 18.3 percent of the junk emails overall in the world. In last few months of 2012, India topped the spam spewing nations’ list, but eventually fell back to the third position. Second position was held by China. In the study, the spam sent from December 2012 to February 2013 was tracked. China and India took second and third positions respectively with 8.2 percent and 4.2 percent of the spam of the world. In order to prevent spamming, the PC users can keep the anti-virus software updated and regularly run the malware checks. Apart from this, updating passwords regularly can also help.
  
• Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), which is the state-owned centre of India, announced that it was developing the largest magnet of the world. This largest magnet would weigh 50000 tons. The magnet is said to be much bigger than the one which is found at Compact Muon Solenoid detector at CERN in Geneva. This magnet will play a crucial role in the India-based Neutrino Observatory which will come up almost 4300 feet below the cave in the mountain in Tamil Nadu. The Head of the atomic research centre's nuclear physics division announced that the magnet to be developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre would be the largest in the world in terms of its dimensions. The magnet will be iron-based and will weigh 50000 tons. The weight of the magnet at CERN ranges somewhere between 4000 and 5000 tons.
  
• Researchers from Norway, South Africa, Britain and Germany, in the last week of February 2013 discovered a sunken and small continent beneath the Indian Ocean. This is the ancient and mini continent named Mauritia and it lies beneath the lava flows which led to the formation of islands of Mauritius and Reunion. This lost continent called Mauritia, dates back to the time when the super continents of the Earth- Laurasia and Gondwana shattered into the familiar geography like present. Mauritia is said to be a part of the mass of Gondwana which had eventually split into Antarctica, India, Australia and Madagascar after around 170 million years ago. The mini continent was later torn apart as it passed over the mid-ocean ridges. The lava eruptions later covered this sunken continent. But later, due to the volcanic eruptions on the Island of Mauritius the pieces of this lost continent were brought on the surface of the Earth. These pieces were crystals called zircons which dated back to 660 and 1970 million years ago. This hinted towards the fact that the rock which lied beneath the crust was in fact the part of this ancient mini-continent. The team of geoscientists also suggested that there might be other lost micro-continents on Earth which are buried beneath the lava.
  
• In a development that might represent a breakthrough in the treatment of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and the deadly disease it causes, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS), a child treated by doctors in Mississippi was said to be “functionally cured” after being exposed to the virus during birth. The child was given standard anti-retroviral (ARV) drug therapy within 30 hours of birth by specialists at the University of Mississippi Medical Centre. A series of sensitive blood tests performed on the child 29 days after birth revealed “progressively diminishing viral presence in the infant’s blood, until it reached undetectable levels. “The research team behind this project included Johns Hopkins Children’s Centre virologist Deborah Persaud, University of Massachusetts Medical School immunologist Katherine Luzuriaga, and University of Mississippi Medical Centre pediatric HIV specialist Hannah Gay. According to the team, the infant was now deemed “functionally cured,” a condition that occurs when a patient achieves and maintains long-term viral remission without lifelong treatment and standard clinical tests fail to detect HIV replication in the blood. However, it is likely that a minute amount of the virus remains in the body, and the researchers said they believed this was what happened in the case of the child described in their report. Doctors said in this case the infection was caught early, possibly even as the virus was still entering the baby’s system and then the doctors supplied the ARVs.