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GS Paper: GS3-17.Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nano-technology, Bio-technology and issues relating to Intellectual Property Rights.

  • James Webb Space Telescope

    NASA has unveiled images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most powerful orbital observatory ever launched.

    What is the image about?

    • NASA released a deep field photo of a distant galaxy cluster, SMACS 0723, revealing the most detailed glimpse of the early universe recorded to date.
    • The collection also included fresh images of another galaxy cluster known as Stephan’s Quintet, first discovered in 1877.

    James Webb Space Telescope

    • JWST is a joint NASA–ESA–CSA space telescope that is planned to succeed the Hubble Space Telescope as NASA’s flagship astrophysics mission
    • It is the most powerful space telescope ever built.
    • It will enable a broad range of investigations across the fields of astronomy and cosmology, including observing some of the most distant events and objects in the universe,
    • It would help understand events such as the formation of the first galaxies, and detailed atmospheric characterization of potentially habitable exoplanets.

    Its significance

    • Some have called JSWT the “telescope that ate astronomy.”
    • It is said to look back in time to the Dark Ages of the universe.

    What does the ‘Dark Ages’ of the universe mean?

    • Evidence shows that the universe started with an event called the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, which left it in an ultra-hot, ultra-dense state.
    • The universe immediately began expanding and cooling after the Big Bang.
    • One second after the Big Bang, the universe was a hundred trillion miles across with an average temperature of an incredible 18 billion F (10 billion C).
    • Around 400,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe was 10 million light-years across and the temperature had cooled to 5,500 F (3,000 C).
    • Throughout this time, space was filled with a smooth soup of high-energy particles, radiation, hydrogen and helium.
    • There was no structure. As the expanding universe became bigger and colder, the soup thinned out and everything faded to black.

    This was the start of what astronomers call the Dark Ages of the universe.

    How will JWST study this?

    Ans. Looking for the first light

    • The Dark Ages ended when gravity formed the first stars and galaxies that eventually began to emit the first light.
    • Astronomers aim to study this fascinating and important era of the universe, but detecting first light is incredibly challenging.
    • Compared to massive, bright galaxies of today, the first objects were very small and due to the constant expansion of the universe, they’re now tens of billions of light years away from Earth.
    • Also, the earliest stars were surrounded by gas left over from their formation and this gas acted like fog that absorbed most of the light.
    • It took several hundred million years for radiation to blast away the fog. This early light is very faint by the time it gets to Earth.

     

     

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  • India must prepare for 5G technology

    Context

    5G technology is going to make inroads into the country very soon.

    Making Digital India project successful

    • With over 117 crore telecom users and more than 82 crore internet subscribers, India is one of the fastest-growing markets for digital consumers.
    • A 2019 Mckinsey study rated India as the second-fastest digitising economy. 
    • Internet connectivity is critical for making the Digital India project inclusive, and widespread use of optical fibre in the remotest corners of the country is vital to ensure that no one is left behind in this endeavour.

    Digital infrastructure for 5G

    • Digital infrastructure, which seamlessly integrates with physical and traditional infrastructure, is critical to India’s growth story and the country’s thrust towards self-reliance.
    • Networking equipment that relies on optical fibre and other semiconductor-based device ecosystems are at the heart of building the infrastructure that will be needed when the country takes the next step in its digital journey.
    • The government has taken several measures to build the next generation of digital infrastructure.
    • A basic requirement of 5G will be data transmission networks.
    • Optical fibre is the backbone of the digital infrastructure required for this purpose — the data is transmitted by light pulses travelling through long strands of thin fibre.

    Optical fibre industry in India

    • In the last 10 years, domestic manufacturers invested more than Rs 5,000 crore in optical fibre industry, which has generated direct and indirect employment for around 4 lakh individuals.
    • Exports from India: India exported optical fibre worth $138 million to over 132 countries between April 2020 and November 2021.
    • India’s annual optic fibre manufacturing capacity is around 100 million fibre km (fkm) and the domestic consumption is around 46 million fkm. Indian optical fibre cable consumption is predicted to increase to 33 million fkm by 2026 from 17 million fkm in 2021.
    • A little more than 30 per cent of mobile towers have fibre connectivity; this needs to be scaled up to at least 80 per cent.

    Unfair competition from cheap imports

    • India’s optical fibre industry has also seen unfair competition from cheap imports from China, Indonesia and South Korea.
    • These countries have been dumping their products in India at rates lower than the market price.
    • What is dumping? The World Trade Organisation defines dumping as “an international price discrimination situation in which the price of a product offered in the importing country is less than the price of that product in the exporting country’s market”.
    • Way ahead: Imposing anti-dumping duties is one way of protecting the domestic industry.
    • The Directorate General of Trade Remedies has recently begun investigations against optical fibre imports.

    Suggestions

    • India needs to invest in R&D, offer production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes to support indigenous high-tech manufacturing and develop intellectual property in critical aspects of digital connectivity.

    Conclusion

    The need of the hour is to unlock the full potential of India’s optical fibre industry and enable India to emerge as a major manufacturing and technology hub while achieving atmanirbharta in its 5G journey.

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    Back2Basics: About optical fibre

    • Fiber optics, also spelled fibre optics, the science of transmitting data, voice, and images by the passage of light through thin, transparent fibers.
    • In telecommunications, fiber optic technology has virtually replaced copper wire in long-distance telephone lines, and it is used to link computers within local area networks.
    • Fibre optics is also the basis of the fiberscopes used in examining internal parts of the body (endoscopy) or inspecting the interiors of manufactured structural products.
    •  Through a process known as total internal reflection, light rays beamed into the fibre can propagate within the core for great distances with remarkably little attenuation or reduction in intensity.

  • Three new ‘exotic’ sub-atomic particles discovered  

    The Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment has observed three never-before-seen particles.

    What is the discovery?

    • CERN was investigating the slight differences between matter and antimatter by studying a type of particle called the “beauty quark”, or “b quark”.
    • The three “exotic” additions — a new kind of “pentaquark” and the first-ever pair of “tetraquarks” — to the growing list of new hadrons were found.
    • This discovery will help physicists better understand how quarks bind together into these composite particles.

    What are Quarks?

    • Quarks are elementary particles that come in six “flavours”: up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom.
    • They usually combine together in groups of twos and threes to form hadrons such as the protons and neutrons that make up atomic nuclei.
    • But they can also combine into four-quark and five-quark particles, called tetraquarks and pentaquarks.
    • These exotic hadrons were predicted by theorists about six decades ago — around the same time as conventional hadrons — but they have been observed by LHCb and other experiments only in the past 20 years.

    What about tetraquarks and pentaquarks?

    • Most exotic hadrons discovered in the past two decades are tetraquarks or pentaquarks.
    • They contain a charm quark and a charm antiquark — with the remaining two or three quarks being an up, down or strange quark or their antiquarks.

     

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  • What is Fields Medal, the ‘Mathematics Nobel’?

    Ukrainian mathematician Maryna Viazovska was named as one of four recipients of the prestigious Fields Medal, which is often described as the Nobel Prize in mathematics.

    What is Fields Medal?

    • The Fields Medal is awarded by the International Mathematical Union (IMU), an international non-governmental and non-profit scientific organisation.
    • It is awarded every four years to one or more mathematicians under the age of 40 in recognition of “outstanding mathematical achievement for existing work and for the promise of future achievement”.
    • The winners are announced at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), which was supposed to be held in Russia this year, but was moved to Helsinki.

    Belongings of the award

    • The honour carries a physical medal of 14K gold, 63.5 mm in diameter and weighing 169 g, and with a unit price of approximately 5,500 Canadian dollars.
    • There is also a cash award of CAD 15,000.
    • The obverse of the medal is embossed with the head of Archimedes facing right, and some Latin quotes.

    History of the Medal

    • According to the IMU website, the 1924 ICM in Toronto adopted a resolution that at each conference, two gold medals would be awarded to recognise outstanding mathematical achievement.
    • The Canadian mathematician Prof J C Fields, who was secretary of the 1924 Congress, later donated funds to establish the medals, which were named in his honour.
    • In 1966, it was agreed that, in light of the great expansion of mathematical research, up to four medals could be awarded at each Congress.

    Indian-origin winners

    • Among the more than 60 mathematicians who have been awarded the Fields Medal since 1936, there are two of Indian origin.
    • Akshay Venkatesh of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, won in 2018, the last time the honour was announced.
    • Manjul Bhargava of the Department of Mathematics at Princeton University was awarded in 2014.

     

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  • Outer Space

    Recently, the UK hosted the fourth summit for Space Sustainability in London in collaboration with the Secure World Foundation.

    What does Sustainability in Outer Space mean?

    • One of the hot issues when it comes to space sustainability is orbital crowding.
    • With the emergence of large constellations and complex satellites, there is a risk of collisions and interference with radio frequencies.
    • It poses a direct threat to the operations and safety of a mission and is likely to cause legal and insurance-related conflicts.
    • Space debris is another prominent issue.
    • After the completion of a mission, an ‘end-of-life protocol’ requires space objects to be moved to the graveyard orbit or to a low altitude.
    • Other causes of concern are solar and magnetic storms which potentially damage communication systems.
    • Such space weather threats need to be addressed along with the efforts to identify the terrestrial carbon footprint of outer space missions.

    Why was a conference held in the UK?

    • Long-term sustainability looks toward space research and development of technology to ensure the reuse and recycling of satellites at every stage.
    • The UK plan proposes active debris removal and in-orbit servicing.

    Policy measures so far

    • As the outer space is considered a shared natural resource, the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) in 2019 adopted a set of 21 voluntary, non-binding guidelines.
    • They aim to ensure the long-term sustainability of outer space activities.

    What does the UK plan for space sustainability entail?

    • The UK calls for an “Astro Carta” for space sustainability, based on the Artemis Accords model for sustainable space exploration.
    • The UK Space Sustainability plan mentions four primary elements:
    1. To review the regulatory framework of the UK’s orbital activity
    2. To work with organisations such as the G-7 and the UN to emphasise international engagement on space sustainability
    3. To try and develop safety and quality-related metrics that quantify the sustainability of activities; and
    4. To induce additional funding of $6.1 million on active debris removal
    • The UK also confirmed investments in its National Space Surveillance and Tracking Programme, which works on collision assessment services for UK-licenced satellite operators.

    Where does India stand on space sustainability?

    • India is well on its way to create a subsystem that addresses global sustainability questions.
    • The headquarters of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (In-SPACe) was formally inaugurated last month.
    • One can expect an increased role of the private sector in India’s space activities.
    • The ISRO has initiated ‘Project NETRA’ to monitor space debris.
    • To provide in-orbit servicing, ISRO is developing a docking experiment called ‘SPADEX’.
    • It looks at docking a satellite on an existing satellite, offering support in re-fuelling and other in-orbit services while enhancing the capability of a satellite.

    Way forward

    • Outer space in the 2020s can no longer be considered a ‘space race’ because of the cost, when compared to the beginning of this century.
    • Today, any entity (government or private) with the necessary access to resources and technology can invest in outer space.
    • Sustainable practices in outer space would directly help reduce orbital crowding and collision risk while nurturing future technologies.
    • As the natural course of evolution, the Plan for Space Sustainability, which includes private industries, is a timely move.
    • This would serve as a model for other space programmes.

     

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  • What is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)?

    The world’s most powerful particle collider, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), will begin smashing protons into each other at unprecedented levels of energy beginning July 5.

    What is the LHC?

    • The Large Hadron Collider is a giant, complex machine built to study particles that are the smallest known building blocks of all things.
    • Structurally, it is a 27-km-long track-loop buried 100 metres underground on the Swiss-French border.
    • In its operational state, it fires two beams of protons almost at the speed of light in opposite directions inside a ring of superconducting electromagnets.
    • The LHC’s second run (Run 2) began in 2015 and lasted till 2018. The second season of data taking produced five times more data than Run 1.
    • The third run will see 20 times more collisions as compared to Run 1.

    How does it work?

    • The magnetic field created by the superconducting electromagnets keeps the protons in a tight beam and guides them along the way as they travel through beam pipes and finally collide.
    • Just prior to collision, another type of magnet is used to ‘squeeze’ the particles closer together to increase the chances of collisions.
    • The particles are so tiny that the task of making them collide is akin to firing two needles 10 km apart with such precision that they meet halfway.

    Extreme conditions involved

    • Since the LHC’s powerful electromagnets carry almost as much current as a bolt of lightning, they must be kept chilled.
    • The LHC uses a distribution system of liquid helium to keep its critical components ultracold at minus 271.3 degrees Celsius, which is colder than interstellar space.
    • Given these requirements, it is not easy to warm up or cool down the gigantic machine.

    What is the latest upgrade?

    • Three years after it shut down for maintenance and upgrades, the collider was switched back on this April.
    • This is the LHC’s third run, and it will operate round-the-clock for four years at unprecedented energy levels of 13 tera electron volts.

    Note: A TeV is 100 billion, or 10-to-the-power-of-12, electon volts. An electron volt is the energy given to an electron by accelerating it through 1 volt of electric potential difference.

    Targets this year

    • It now aims to be delivering 1.6 billion proton-proton collisions per second.
    • The last time, the proton beams will be narrowed to less than 10 microns — a human hair is around 70 microns thick — to increase the collision rate.
    • ATLAS is the largest general purpose particle detector experiment at the LHC.
    • The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment is one of the largest international scientific collaborations in history, with the same goals as ATLAS, but which uses a different magnet-system design.

    Previous runs & ‘God Particle’ discovery

    • Ten years ago, in 2012, scientists at CERN had announced to the world the discovery of the Higgs boson or the ‘God Particle’ during the LHC’s first run.
    • The discovery concluded the decades-long quest for the ‘force-carrying’ subatomic particle, and proved the existence of the Higgs mechanism, a theory put forth in the mid-sixties.
    • This led to Peter Higgs and his collaborator François Englert being awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 2013.
    • The Higgs boson and its related energy field are believed to have played a vital role in the creation

     

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  • What is PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM)?

    The ISRO has launched three Singaporean satellites in precise orbit through the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module or ‘POEM’.

    What is POEM?

    • The POEM is a platform that will help perform in-orbit experiments using the final, and otherwise discarded, stage of ISRO’s workhorse rocket, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
    • The PSLV is a four-stage rocket where the first three spent stages fall back into the ocean, and the final stage (PS4) — after launching the satellite into orbit — ends up as space junk.
    • However, in PSLV-C53 mission, the spent final stage will be utilised as a “stabilised platform” to perform experiments.
    • POEM is carrying six payloads, including two from Indian space start-ups Digantara and Dhruva Space.

    Features of POEM

    • POEM has a dedicated Navigation Guidance and Control (NGC) system for attitude stabilisation, which stands for controlling the orientation of any aerospace vehicle within permitted limits.
    • The NGC will act as the platform’s brain to stabilize it with specified accuracy.
    • POEM will derive its power from solar panels mounted around the PS4 tank, and a Li-Ion battery.
    • It will navigate using four sun sensors, a magnetometer, gyros & NavIC.
    • It carries dedicated control thrusters using Helium gas storage. It is enabled with a telecomm and feature.

    Has ISRO repurposed and used PS4 rocket junk earlier?

    • The Indian space agency first demonstrated the capability of using PSLV-C44 as an orbital platform in 2019.
    • It injected Microsat-R and Kalamsat-V2 satellites into their designated orbits.
    • The fourth stage in that mission was kept alive as an orbital platform for space-based experiments.
    • While in that mission, the fourth stage had Li-Ion batteries, solar panels are an addition this time.
    • The latest repurposing and upgrade of the fourth stage of the PSLV rocket involves the stabilization of the orbital platform.

     

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  • CAPSTONE: NASA’s satellite, newly launched

    NASA has launched CAPSTONE, a microwave oven-sized CubeSat weighing just 55 pounds (25 kg).

    What is CAPSTONE?

    • CAPSTONE, short for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, is designed to test a unique, elliptical lunar orbit.
    • It aims to help reduce risk for future spacecraft by validating innovative navigation technologies, and by verifying the dynamics of the halo-shaped orbit.

    Its launch

    • It is heading toward an orbit intended in the future for Gateway, a Moon-orbiting outpost that is part of NASA’s Artemis program.
    • The orbit is known as a near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO).
    • It is significantly elongated, and is located at a precise balance point in the gravities of Earth and the Moon.
    • This offers stability for long-term missions like Gateway, NASA said on its website.

    Mission details

    • CAPSTONE will enter NRHO, where it will fly within 1,600 km of the Moon’s North Pole on its near pass and 70,000 km from the South Pole at its farthest.
    • The spacecraft will repeat the cycle every six-and-a-half days and maintain this orbit for at least six months to study dynamics.

     

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  • Typhi: A more drug-resistant Typhoid

    The bacteria causing typhoid fever is becoming increasingly resistant to some of the most important antibiotics for human health.

    What is the news?

    • The largest genome analysis of Salmonella Typhi (S. Typhi) also shows that resistant strains — almost all originating in South Asia — have spread to other countries nearly 200 times since 1990.
    • The researchers noted that typhoid fever is a global public health concern, causing 11 million infections and more than 1,00,000 deaths per year.
    • Antibiotics can be used to successfully treat typhoid fever infections, but their effectiveness is threatened by the emergence of resistant S. Typhi strains.

    What is Salmonella Typhi?

    • Salmonella Typhi (S. Typhi) are bacteria that infect the intestinal tract and the blood.
    • It is usually spread through contaminated food or water.
    • Once S. Typhi bacteria are eaten or drunk, they multiply and spread into the bloodstream.
    • The disease is referred to as typhoid fever. S. Paratyphi bacteria cause a similar, but milder illness, which comes under the same title.
    • Paratyphoid has a shorter duration, generally, than typhoid.
    • Typhi and S. Paratyphi are common in many developing countries where sewage and water treatment systems are poor.

    How does it spread?

    • Salmonella Typhi lives only in humans.
    • Persons with typhoid fever carry the bacteria in their bloodstream and intestinal tract.
    • Symptoms include prolonged high fever, fatigue, headache, nausea, abdominal pain, and constipation or diarrhoea.
    • Some patients may have a rash. Severe cases may lead to serious complications or even death.
    • Typhoid fever can be confirmed through blood testing.

     

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  • What is Black Death?

    In a study published in the Science journal, researchers have claimed that the bubonic plague was originated in modern day northern Kyrgyzstan around 1338-1339 – nearly 7-8 years before it ravaged large parts of the world.

    What is Black Death?

    • The term Black Death refers to the bubonic plague that spread across Western Asia, Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe in 1346-53.
    • Most scholars agree that the Black Death, which killed millions, was caused by bacterium Yersinia pestis and was spread by fleas that were carried by rodent hosts.
    • The microorganism Y. pestis spread to human populations, who at some point transmitted it to others either through the vector of a human flea or directly through the respiratory system.

    Why this plague was called the Black Death?

    • It is commonly believed that the term Black Death gets its name from the black marks that appeared on some of the plague victims’ bodies.
    • In the 14th century, the epidemic was referred to as the ‘great pestilence’ or ‘great death’, due to the demographic havoc that it caused.
    • The world black also carried a dark, gloomy emotional tone, due to the sheer amount of deaths generated by the plague.

    Why is the new discovery significant?

    • The geographical origin point of the plague has been debated for centuries.
    • Some historians have argued that the plague originated in China, and spread across Europe by Italian merchants who first entered the continent in trading caravans through Crimea.
    • Another story argues that Mongol army hurled plague-infested bodies into the city during the siege of Caffa (Crimea) and led to the spread of the disease.

     

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