SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS SEPTEMBER 2012

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS SEPTEMBER 2012

• Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams has taken over command of the International Space Station (ISS) — yet another feather in her cap as she already holds three records for women space travellers, including a new record for spacewalk time by a woman astronaut.Nasa reported that,expedition 32 Commander Gennady Padalka handed over control of the space station to Expedition 33 Commander Sunita Williams in the Destiny laboratory ,in the traditional change-of-command ceremony.Ms. Williams, Russian cosmonaut Yury Malenchenko and Japan’s Akihiko Hoshide remain on the ISS.On September 6, Ms. Williams set the record for total cumulative spacewalk time by a woman astronaut with her sixth space walk to repair a faulty power distribution unit using a toothbrush and a wire brush fashioned out of a spare cableThe spacewalk lasted 6 hours 28 minutes. Ms. Williams has now worked outside the station for a total of 44 hours and 2 minutes.
  
• India on 19 september, successfully test-fired the nuclear capable Agni IV missile from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) managed missile launching centre located at the Wheelers Island off the coast of Bhadrak district in north Odisha.Indigenously designed and developed by the DRDO, Agni IV has the capability to hit a target at a distance of 4,000 km, carrying both conventional as well as nuclear warheads weighing around one tonne.The important missile had its maiden successful test flight from the same DRDO facility on November 15 last year.
  
• Over the years, access to affordable gluco-meters has eased the process of taking sugar readings at home, here is something that technology has provided for patients to keep track of their blood sugar levels.Diabetois, a non-intrusive bluetooth hardware device, facilitates the transfer of glucose readings from a regular gluco-meter into a specially developed Android app. The readings can then be analysed easily with the help of the application. Patients can select time frames, analyse the shifts and even email the sugar level graph to doctors.Shreekant Pawar, Co-Founder of Diabeto says that, being diabetic is more than just medicines and doctor visits. It is also about managing the condition and ensuring that sugar levels are monitored regularly.Mr. Pawar says,The app is a tiny bird-shaped device that has been designed with ease of use in mind. “It easily fits in your palm and can be used not only by patients with diabetes but also diabetics with motor disabilities, visual impairment, senior citizens and even children with type1 diabetes,” After China, India has the largest number of persons with diabetes.
  
• Endangered birds, the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) and Lesser Florican, are back in their annual breeding lands in Rajasthan’s Shonkaliya region in Ajmer district. Though the population of GIB, Rajasthan’s State Bird,cannot be termed sizeable the Lesser Floricans are in greater numbers this time with the males among them displaying their plumes jumping up in the air to attract the females in the middle of the breeding season with copious rains in the area coming as an extra incentive.The nests of both GIB and Lesser Florican are visible in the crop lands. The task ahead for the conservationists in the area is to ensure that the nests and the eggs remain safe and the hatching is successful.
  
• A comprehensive atlas of the adult human brain that reveals the activity of genes across the entire organ has been created by scientists. The map was created from genetic analyses of about 900 specific parts of two “clinically unremarkable” brains donated by a 24-year-old and 39-year-old man, and half a brain from a third man.Researchers at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle said the atlas would serve as a baseline against which they and others can compare the genetic activity of diseased brains, and so shed light on factors that underlie neurological and psychiatric conditions.Scientists have constructed similar genetic atlases for rodents in the past, but the shortage of donated human brains, their size and the destructive nature of the tests meant a human equivalent was more of a challenge.Writing in the journal Nature , the scientists describe how they scanned the donated brains and then chopped them into tiny pieces. For each piece, they measured activity levels for all of the 20,000 or so genes in the human genome.The atlas, which overlays the genetic results on to a 3D image of the brain, is freely available for researchers to use online.
  
• India on 21 september, successfully test-fired Agni-IIImissile, which has a strike range of over 3,000 km, from Wheeler Island off the Odisha coast.Within three days, India successfully test-fired a second surface-to-surface nuclear weapons capable ballistic missile— Agni-III was fired for its full range of 3,000 km from the Wheeler Island, off the Odisha coast.On 19 september, the 4,000-km range Agni-IV was successfully launched by the missile technologists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).Agni-III, which has already been inducted into the Services, is capable of carrying a payload weighing 1.5 tonnes. It is equipped with an advanced guidance and navigation system to ensure accuracy.In the past five months, all the variants of Agni, from Agni-V to Agni-I, have been successfully test-fired.
  
• Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd has handed over on 21 september, the basic satellite structure of the Mars Orbiter Mission to the ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore. HAL’s Aerospace Division assembled the structure at its Bangalore facility. ISRO will build the other satellite sub-systems and scientific payload on to this structure.HAL also supplies key sub-systems for ISRO’s launch vehicle programme.ISRO plans to launch the Mars mission in November 2013.The spacecraft will travel 55 million km over 300 days and study the climate, geology, origin and evolution of the red planet from an elliptical orbit.
  
• India test-fires Agni-III :
  Two days after the successful trial of the long-range Agni-IV missile, India on 21 September test-fired its nuclear-capable Agni-III ballistic missile with a strike range of 3000 km from an island off the Odisha coast.The indigenously developed surface-to-air missile, which can carry a warhead of 1.5 tonne protected by a carbon all composite heat shield, took off at 13:15 hours from a mobile launcher at launch complex-4 of Integrated Test Range at Wheeler Island, defence sources said. The trajectory of the trial was monitored for data analysis through telemetry stations, electro-optic systems and sophisticated radars located along the coast, and by naval ships anchored near the impact point, they said. The launch operation was carried out by strategic forces command of the Indian army with logistic support from Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Agni-III missile is powered by a two-stage solid propellant system. With a length of 17 metres, the missile's diameter is 2 metres and launch weight is around 50 tonnes. The missile is equipped with hybrid navigation, guidance and control systems along with advanced on-board computers.
  
• Arctic sea ice shrinks to lowest level:
  Arctic sea ice has melted to its minimum extent for the year due to climate change, setting a ecord for the lowest summer cover since satellites began collecting data. The 2012 extent has fallen to 3.41 million sq km, which is 50 per cent lower than the 1979-2000 average. Arctic sea ice has long been regarded as a sensitive indicator of changes in the climate. "We are now in uncharted territory," said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Center (NSIDC) in Colorado, US.
  
• Photographs from NASA’s Curiosity rover revealed clear signs of an ancient waterway winding from the northern edge of the Gale crater towards Mount Sharp, a mountain that rises 5km from the crater floor. A shallow river once coursed through a great crater on Mars, according to the latest surface images, which suggest the dusty planet was more hospitable in ancient times. The dried-up riverbed left a trail of pebbles and sand grains that over time became locked in rock. Their size and shape indicate a river that flowed at a metre per second at depths from ankle to waist deep. The $2.5-billion mobile science laboratory began its work on Mars after a dramatic arrival last month in which the rover was winched to the surface from a spacecraft hovering overhead on rocket thrusters. Curiosity is not searching for signs of past or present life, but for evidence that Mars was once habitable. Scores of earlier missions have found evidence of water on the red planet. Snapshots from spacecraft in orbit around Mars have beamed back images of lakes and gullies. The north and south poles are largely frozen water. The rover’s destination is the slope of Mount Sharp, where clay and sulphate minerals have been spotted from orbit. These minerals can preserve the organic material that is crucial for life to thrive.
  
• GSAT-10, the country’s newest and heaviest satellite, was launched in the early hours of 29 september, from the Kourou launch pad in French Guiana in South America. It will directly boost telecommunications and direct-to-home broadcasting, among others. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said, the satellite, the 9th in ISRO’s present fleet, will become operational in November and will add 30 transponders to the domestic INSAT system. ISRO launched the 3.4-tonne spacecraft on the European Ariane 5 rocket as the agency cannot currently launch satellites of such mass on its own vehicles. The satellite and the launch fee cost the agency Rs. 750 crore. The agency said it was its 101st mission. ISRO’s Chairman K. Radhakrishnan and senior scientists were at the Master Control Facility (MCF), Hassan (some 80 km from Bangalore). It is also the first time that the Chairman was not present at the launch site. Indian scientists present at Kourou included Director, Satellite Communications, Prahlad Rao and Project Director T.K. Anuradha.The GSAT-10 carries 30 communication transponders — 12 in Ku-band, 12 in C-band and six in extended C-band. The ISRO is currently leasing 95 foreign transponders to meet domestic demand. The INSAT/GSAT system has 168 transponders. The Ku band is vital for seven DTH TV operators and thousands of VSAT operators who provide phone and Internet broadband connections. Public and private telephone and television providers also use the C band.GSAT-10 also has the second GAGAN payload which has fine tuned the U.S. GPS signals into far more accurate readings. GAGAN, a venture of the Department of Space and Airports Authority of India, is primarily meant to benefit airlines and their aircraft flying into and out of India.
  
• ISRO scores on 100th mission, PSLV rocket launch successful:
  A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C21) blasted off from from the Satish Dhawan Space Research Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, and placed two foreign satellites in orbit on 9 Septemebr accomplishing the Indian Space Research Organisation’s 100{+t}{+h}mission, a milestone in the country’s space journey.After a 51-hour countdown, the PSLV lifted off at 9.53 a.m., two minutes behind schedule, to avoid any collision with space debris. In the textbook launch, it carried SPOT-6, a 712-kg French earth observation satellite and injected it into an orbit of 655-km altitude, inclined at 98.23 degrees to the equator. Proiteres, a 15-kg Japanese microsatellite, was put into orbit as an additional payload. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and a host of dignitaries watched the flight path on electronic screens, as the 44-metre tall PSLV accomplished its task, reinforcing the fact that it is the ISRO’s workhorse, with 21 successful missions in a row. The four-stage ignition and the injection of the satellites into the orbit took 18 minutes and 37 seconds. As Proiteres separated at the final moment, the scientists erupted into joyous applause. SPOT-6, an optical remote-sensing satellite capable of imaging the earth with a 1.5-metre resolution, is built by Astrium SAS, a European space technology company. Proiteres is meant to study the powered-flight of a small satellite by an electric thruster and to observe Japan’s Kansai district with a high-resolution camera.
  
• A prototype of an eye-controlled television that uses a sensor placed on a table in front of the user to track the eye movements was unveiled at a recent IFA trade show in Berlin. Haier’s Gaze TV uses technology developed by Tobii, a Swedish firm that already offers eye-tracking technology for computers. Users control the set by staring at the top or bottom of the screen to activate a user-interface. The users can then change the volume, switch channel or carry out other functions by looking at icons shown on the display. The technology has the potential to offer an alternative to the traditional remote control. Existing smart TVs offer hand gesture and voice-controls as alternatives but the functions can be hit-and-miss in real-world use. By tracking the shift in gaze and blinks given, it allows the user to point, zoom, scroll, select and navigate menus and features. The device has to be adjusted according to each user before use and becomes less accurate if they are wearing glasses.
  
• The Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR, India) has collaborated with the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC, UK) and three other European research organisations to launch India’s first multilateral social science research project. The collaboration is aimed at enhancing Europe's efforts to engage with India and produce social science research that can address major global challenges around economic growth, climate change, and health and well-being. The three European research organisations include France’s Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR, France), Germany’s Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, Germany), and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO, The Netherlands). These organisations along with ICSSR and ESRC will launch the first set of projects for networking and social science research cooperation between researchers in India, the UK and Europe. The organisations have agreed for a funding for six projects over a period of three years. The six projects awarded funding will cover areas of growing social concern ranging from ageing and well-being, bullying and pupil-safety, globally accessible medicine to mapping the cultural authority of science, and climate governance. It will also include a research in the quantitative and qualitative explanations of electoral change in rural and urban India
  
• Australian scientists along with US experts claimed that they are a step closer to create a treatment for Alzheimer patientsfollowing a study finding a link to abnormalities inside brain cells. In a joint study, researchers at Queensland Brain Institute and Havard medical School team found that when a toxic protein builds up, it starves brain cells of energy, causing them to die. Resources say, in the study of over three years, scientiests tried to unveil the mystery surrounding Alzheimer's disease and a section of the brain cell called the mitochondria, the part responsible for metabolising energy, was analysed. This is the first study to directly link toxic levels of Tau, a protein in the brain that is related to dementia, to abnormalities in the mitochondria, which starves them of energy and destroys brain cells. Researchers claimed that the latest development was a promising step towards developing an effective treatment for sufferers.
  
• Indian-American NASA astronautSunita Williams and her Japanese counterpart Akihiko Hoshide have successfully restored power to the International Space Station on their second attempt on 6 September. With this Spacewalk, Williams surpassed Peggy Whitson's record during yesterday's excursion for total cumulative spacewalk time by a female astronaut. Whitson worked outside for 39 hours and 46 minutes over the course of six spacewalks. Williams has conducted six spacewalks for a total of 44 hours and 2 minutes. Peggy Whitson, sent up congratulations: "You go, girl!" Williams replied: "Anybody could be in these boots." The astronauts had to go into space for the second time in less than a week. The spacewalk lasted 6 hours 28 minutes. Williams and Hoshide have finally completed repairs on the main power unit switching mechanism, the repairing of which ran into problems earlier this week. As a result of the faults in the system, the astronauts had to save energy by turning off part of the solar cells and de-energised some compartments of the station. This was the second attempt to correct the problem. Earlier, last Thursday(30th August), Williams and Hoside were in space for more than eight hours, but failed to fix the unit and attach it correctly to the ISS.