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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.

  • Mission Samudrayan: India’s First and Unique Manned Ocean

    Union Minister of Earth Sciences has launched India’s First Manned Ocean Mission Samudrayan at Chennai.

    Mission Samudrayan

    • The Samudrayan project has been undertaken by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT).
    • It will be a part of the Rs 6,000 crore Deep Ocean Mission.
    • It is designed to carry 3 persons in 2.1meter diameter Titanium Alloy Personnel Sphere with an operational endurance of 12hrs and systems to support emergency endurance up to 96hrs.
    • It could work at a depth between 1000 and 5500 meters.

    Objectives

    • Samudrayan shall facilitate carrying out deep ocean exploration of the non-living resources such as polymetallic manganese nodules, gas hydrates, hydro-thermal sulphides and cobalt crusts.
    • The mission would carry out subsea activities such as high-resolution bathymetry, biodiversity assessment, geo-scientific observation, search activities, salvage operation and engineering support.

    Focus areas of the Project

    • Ocean climate change advisory services
    • Underwater vehicles
    • Underwater robotics-related technologies
    • Deep-sea mining: Exploitation of polymetallic nodules

    Components of the mission

    Some of the critical subsystems of the manned submersibles are:

    • Development of Titanium Alloy Personnel Sphere, Human support and safety system in enclosed space, low density buoyancy modules, Ballast and Trim System
    • Pressure compensated batteries and propulsion system, control and communication systems and Launching and Recovery System.

    Progress till date

    • The preliminary design of the manned submersible MATSYA 6000 is completed.
    • Sea trials of 500 metre rated shallow water version of the manned submersible are expected to take place in the last quarter of 2022 and the MATSYA 6000.
    • The deep-water manned submersible will be ready for trials by the second quarter of 2024.

    Why need such mission?

    • This manned submersible mission provides a feel of direct physical presence for researchers and has better intervention capability.
    • With the advancing subsea technologies, the recent Fendouzhe manned submersible developed by China in 2020 has touched ~11000m water depths.
    • With Samudrayan, India joins the elite club of nations such as USA, Russia, Japan, France and China to have such underwater vehicles for carrying out subsea activities.

    Back2Basics: India and International Seabed Authority (ISA)

    • The ISA, an autonomous international organization established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, allots the ‘area’ for deep-sea mining.
    • India was the first country to receive the status of a ‘Pioneer Investor’ in 1987 and was given an area of about 1.5 lakh sqkm in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) for nodule exploration.
    • In 2002, India signed a contract with the ISA, and after a complete resource analysis of the seabed, India surrendered 50%, and the country retained an area of 75,000 sqkm.
    • Further studies have helped narrow the mining area to 18,000 sqkm, the ‘First Generation Mine-site’.

     

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  • What is White Dwarf?

    Using the Hubble Space telescope and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers have identified several white dwarfs over the years.

    Where is this white dwarf?

    • A white dwarf is what stars like the Sun become after they have exhausted their nuclear fuel.
    • Near the end of its nuclear burning stage, this type of star expels most of its outer material, creating a planetary nebula.
    • Only the hot core of the star remains. This core becomes a very hot white dwarf, with a temperature exceeding 100,000 Kelvin.
    • Unless it is accreting matter from a nearby star, the white dwarf cools down over the next billion years or so.

    Limits for white dwarf

    • White Dwarf is half the size of our Sun and has a surface gravity 100,000 times that of Earth.
    • There is a limit on the amount of mass a white dwarf can have.
    • Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar discovered this limit to be 4 times the mass of the Sun. This is appropriately known as the “Chandrasekhar Limit.”

    Observing white dwarf

    • Many nearby, young white dwarfs have been detected as sources of soft, or lower-energy, X-rays.
    • Recently, soft X-ray and extreme ultraviolet observations have become a powerful tool in the study the composition and structure of the thin atmosphere of these stars.

    What is TESS?

    • The researchers observed this phenomenon using Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
    • TESS is a space telescope in NASA’s Explorer program, designed to search for extrasolar planets using the transit method.
    • The primary mission objective for TESS is to survey the brightest stars near the Earth for transiting exoplanets over a two-year period.
    • The TESS project will use an array of wide-field cameras to perform an all-sky survey. It will scan nearby stars for exoplanets.

    How does white dwarf ‘switch on and off’?

    • In these types of systems, the donor star orbit around the white dwarf keeps feeding the accretion disk.
    • As the accretion disk material slowly sinks closer towards the white dwarf it generally becomes brighter.
    • It is known that in some systems the donor stars stop feeding the disk.

     

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  • What is Hybrid Immunity?

    A study has shown that a combination of natural infection with a single dose of vaccine provides greater immunity than either natural infection without vaccination or full vaccination in individuals.

    What is the new study?

    • People without prior infection but fully vaccinated with the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine showed a decline in neutralising antibodies over a period of three to seven months.
    • But the decline was much less in vaccinated people with prior infection.
    • People with hybrid immunity had a higher and more durable neutralising antibody response.
    • The hybrid immunity offers stronger protection than just infection or full vaccination alone.

    What is Hybrid Immunity?

    • It is natural immunity from an infection combined with the immunity provided by the vaccine.
    • The immunological advantage from hybrid immunity arises mostly from memory B cells.

    What are memory B cells?

    • In immunology, a memory B cell (MBC) is a type of B lymphocyte that forms part of the adaptive immune system.
    • B lymphocytes are the cells of the immune system that make antibodies to invade pathogens like viruses.
    • They form memory cells that remember the same pathogen for faster antibody production in future infections.

    How do they assist hybrid immunity?

    • While the bulk of antibodies after infection or vaccination decline after a short while, the memory B cells get triggered on subsequent infection or vaccination.
    • The memory B cells triggered by infection and those triggered by vaccination have different responses to viruses.
    • Infection and vaccination expose the spike protein to the immune system in vastly different ways.
    • After full vaccination, antibodies produced by natural infection continued to grow in potency and their breadth against variants for a year after infection.
    • Unlike after vaccination, the memory B cells formed after natural infection are more likely to make antibodies that block immune-evading variants.

     

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  • What are Non-Transgenic Gene Editing techniques?

    The Centre is yet to decide on a research proposal from scientists which would allow plants to be genetically modified without the need for conventional transgenic technology.

    What is Genome Editing?

    • Genome editing (also called gene editing) is a group of technologies that give scientists the ability to change an organism’s DNA.
    • These technologies allow genetic material to be added, removed, or altered at particular locations in the genome.
    • Several approaches to genome editing have been developed.

    Techs for Genome Editing

    The core technologies now most commonly used to facilitate genome editing are

    1. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)- associated protein 9 (Cas9)
    2. Transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs)
    3. Zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs)
    4. Homing endonucleases or meganucleases

    Newer technologies

    • The Institute has now moved to newer technologies such as Site-Directed Nuclease (SDN) 1 and 2.
    • They aim to bring precision and efficiency into the breeding process using gene-editing tools such as CRISPR, whose developers won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2020.

    About CRISPR

    • CRISPR-Cas9 was adapted from a naturally occurring genome editing system in bacteria.
    • The bacteria capture snippets of DNA from invading viruses and use them to create DNA segments known as CRISPR arrays.
    • The CRISPR arrays allow the bacteria to “remember” the viruses (or closely related ones).
    • If the viruses attack again, the bacteria produce RNA segments from the CRISPR arrays to target the viruses’ DNA.
    • The bacteria then use Cas9 or a similar enzyme to cut the virus DNA apart, which disables the virus.
    • This method is faster, cheaper, more accurate, and more efficient than other existing genome editing methods.

    What is Non-Transgenic Gene Editing?

    • Unlike the older GM technology which involves the introduction of foreign DNA, the new proposal involves the use of gene editing tools to directly tweak the plant’s own genes instead.
    • It does not involve inserting any foreign DNA.

    Use in India

    • Scientists at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) are in the process of developing resilient and high-yield rice varieties using such gene editing techniques.
    • However, this proposal has been pending with the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) for almost two years.

    Why need such technique?

    • Similar to natural mutation: But in this case, this protein is right there in the plant, and is being changed a little bit, just as nature does through mutation.
    • Faster and cheaper: It is much faster and far more precise than natural mutation or conventional breeding methods which involve trial and error and multiple breeding cycles.
    • Safe for consumption: When a protein comes from an outside organism, then you need to test for safety.
    • Pathbreaking: It is potentially a new Green Revolution.

    No approval issues

    • The SDN 1 and SDN 2 categories of genome-edited plants do not contain any foreign DNA when they are taken to the open field trials.
    • The US, Canada, Australia and Japan are among the countries which have already approved the SDN 1 and 2 technologies as not akin to GM.
    • So, such varieties of rice can be exported without any problem.
    • The European Food Safety Authority has also submitted its opinion that these technologies do not need the same level of safety assessment as conventional GM.

     

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  • Punjab farmers create Bio-Enzymes from Kinnow

    Some farmers in Punjab, especially in the Kinnow belt, have started making Bio-Enzymes (BEs) from this waste fruit — peel and ‘D’ grade, very small kinnows.

    What is a Kinnow?

    • The ‘Kinnow’ is a high yield citrus fruit cultivated extensively in the wider Punjab region of India and Pakistan.
    • It is a year-long duration crop and the main harvesting period is from November-end to March.
    • It looks similar to orange but is smaller in size.

    Agricultural significance of Kinnows

    • Fallen fruit is a major challenge for kinnow farmers in the state as one needs to dig up small pits to bury them, otherwise the fallen fruit rot and invite a fly attack on the healthy fruit still on the plants.
    • But now, some farmers are using this waste kinnow to improve the pH level and soil fertility of their land by making BEs from this waste fruit.

    What are Bio-Enzymes?

    • Chemically, the Bio Enzymes are a mixture of complex organic substances such as proteins, salts and other materials that are by-products of the bacteria/yeast.
    • They produced through fermentation of organic waste including various fruits, vegetable peels and flowers, by mixing in sugar, jaggery/molasses and water.
    • BE’s also have a lot of usage in our daily lives. They can be used as natural cleansers.

    Benefits offered by BEs

    • BEs have a lot of good microbes and one of the major methods which helps overall improvement of our ecology.
    • It helps in mitigating the imbalance occurred due to overuse of chemicals, in our soil, air and water.
    • In a state like Punjab where water table is depleting fast and water contamination is also major issue, BEs can bring the soil back to life.
    • It helps in better water recharging and also stops the contamination of water by improving the health of soil.

     

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  • What is the Lucy Mission?

    The NASA has launched Lucy, the spacecraft on a 12-year cruise to look back into the origins of the solar system through Trojans.

    Lucy Mission

    • Lucy will fly by eight Jupiter asteroids—seven Trojans and one main-belt asteroid — over the next 12 years.
    • It is NASA’s first single spacecraft mission in history to explore so many different asteroids.
    • Lucy will run on solar power out to 850 million kilometers away from the Sun.
    • This makes it the farthest-flung solar powered spacecraft ever, according to NASA.

    What is Jupiter Trojan Asteroids?

    • Simply known as Trojans, they are a large group of asteroids that share Jupiter’s orbit around the Sun.
    • Thousands of such asteroids exist in a gravitationally stable space.
    • The swarms lead and follow the planet Jupiter along its orbit around the Sun.

    What exactly are Trojans?

    • Lucy’s Trojan destinations are trapped near Jupiter’s Lagrange (L) points, which are gravitationally stable locations — it is where the gravity from the Sun and from Jupiter cancel each other out.
    • This means their orbits are stable and the Trojans are trapped in the space between.
    • This also means that asteroids are as far away from Jupiter as they are from the Sun.
    • Jupiter’s leading and trailing Lagrangian points (L4 and L5) have been stable over the age of the solar system.
    • This means that their orbits have accumulated many, many asteroids.
    • It makes sense to call a Trojan a co-orbital object, which moves around one of the two stable Lagrangian points.

    When and how were they discovered?

    • It took many a scientist to understand Trojans, and subsequently, name them so.
    • A German astro-photographer in 1906 made an important discovery: An asteroid with a particularly unusual orbit. As Jupiter moved, this asteroid remained ahead of Jupiter.
    • It was observed that the asteroid was nearly 60 degrees in front of Jupiter.

    Students with engineering background would better understand who Lagrange was. Rest need not care.

    Lagrange’s propositions

    • This specific position of a peculiar behaviour was predicted by the Italian-French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange over 100 years earlier.
    • Lagrange had argued that if a small celestial body is placed at one of two stable points in a planet’s orbit around the Sun (the L4 and L5), the asteroid would remain stationary from the planet’s perspective.
    • This is due to the combined gravitational forces of the planet and the Sun.
    • Thus, Lagrange’s prediction acquired credibility. More such asteroids were discovered over subsequent months in Jupiter’s Lagrange point L5.

    Behind the name: Lucy

    • It is the fossil of a hominin that lived 3.2 million years ago.
    • She is known to be one of the most famous pre-human fossil in history.
    • Nearly 40 per cent of the fossilised skeleton of this hominin was discovered in 1974 by a team of paleoanthropologists led by Donald Johanson.
    • The name was inspired from the famous Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” which Johanson’s team listened to at camp the night of their discovery.

     

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    Back2Basics: Lagrange Points

    • Lagrange points are positions in space where objects sent there tend to stay put.
    • They are named after Italian-French mathematician Josephy-Louis Lagrange.
    • At Lagrange points, the gravitational pull of two large masses precisely equals the centripetal force required for a small object to move with them.
    • These points in space can be used by spacecraft to reduce the fuel consumption needed to remain in position.
    • There are five special points where a small mass can orbit in a constant pattern with two larger masses.

     

  • Places in news: Mawsmai Cave

    A micro snail species named Georissa mawsmaiensis has recently been discovered from Mawsmai, a limestone cave in Meghalaya, 170 years after the last such discovery was made.

    Georissa mawsmaiensis

    • Georissa is found in soil or subterranean habitats in lowland tropical forest as well as high altitude evergreen forests or on rock surfaces rich in calcium.
    • The members of the Georissa genus are widely distributed across and reported from Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.
    • However, they are confined to microhabitats consisting of limestone caves or karst landscapes formed by the dissolution of limestone.

    About Mawsmai Cave

    • The Mawsmai cave is situated in the small village of Mawsmai, around four kilometres from Cherrapunjee (Sohra) in the East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya.
    • It is located at an altitude of 1,195 metres above sea level and is indirectly influenced by the streams of the Kynshi river originating from the East Khasi Hills.
    • The term ‘Mawsmai’ means ‘Oath Stone’ in the Khasi language. The Khasi people use the local term ‘Krem’ for the cave.
    • It is famous for its fossils, some which can be spotted looking at the walls and formations inside.
    • The longest is Krem Liat Prah in the Jaintia Hills, which is 30,957 m (31 km approx.)

     

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  • Type Of Technologies in Solar Panels

    Context

    Large-scale solar projects in Tamil Nadu have seen rapid growth in recent years. By embracing advances in solar technologies, India can continue to lead in this sector.

    Factors driving growth

    • In the past five years, the cumulative installed capacity witnessed a four-fold increase in Tamil Nadu to 4.4 GW, as of March 2021.
    • High insolation level: Aiding this capacity addition is the State’s reasonably high insolation levels and matching solar potential, estimated at 279GW.
    • Decline in price: The sharp decline in the prices for solar and resulting cost competitiveness is another factor.
    • National target: Additionally, in response to the ambitious national targets and to spur sector specific development, Tamil Nadu released the Solar Policy of 2019, aiming for 9GW of solar installations by 2023.

    Type of technology use for solar panel

    • 1) Mono-crystalline Vs multi-crystalline panels: ‘First-generation’ solar cells use mono-crystalline and multi-crystalline silicon wafers.
    • The efficiency of mono-crystalline panels is about 24%, while for multi-crystalline panels it is about 20%.
    • Mono-crystalline cells are dominant today.
    • Although mono-crystalline panels are priced higher than multi-crystalline ones, the difference is diminishing and will soon attain parity.
    • This would result in mono panels being preferred over multi due to their higher efficiency, greater energy yield and lower cost of energy.
    • 2) Bifacial solar cells: Newer technologies incorporating crystalline silicon focus on bifacial solar cells, capable of harvesting energy from both sides of the panel.
    • Bifacials can augment the power output by 10-20%.
    • Within this, the Passive Emitter and Rear Contact technology is predicted to gain popularity. However, it is yet to achieve price parity for large-scale deployment.
    • 3) Thin-film technologies: It is classified as the ‘second generation of solar PVs.
    • In addition to being used in solar farms and rooftops, thin films with their low thickness, light weight and flexibility are also placed on electronic devices and vehicles, power streetlights and traffic signals.
    • Mainstream thin films utilise semiconductor chemistries like Cadmium Telluride with module efficiencies of around 19%.
    • Other technologies include Amorphous Silicon and Copper Indium Gallium Di-Selenide.
    • Nanocrystal and dye-sensitised solar cells are variants of the thin film technology. These are in early stages for large-scale commercial deployment
    • However, the efficiency of thin films is lower than that of crystalline silicon.
    • 4) Perovskite: These are grouped as ‘third generation’ and contain technologies such as perovskite, nanocrystal and dye-sensitised solar cells.
    • Perovskites have seen rapid advances in recent years, achieving cell efficiency of 18%.
    • They have the highest potential to replace silicon and disrupt the solar PV market, due to factors such as ease of manufacture, low production costs and potential for higher efficiencies.
    • 5) Use of Graphene Quantum-dots: Graphene is made of a single layer of carbon atoms bonded together as hexagons.
    • Solar cells made of graphene are of interest due to high theoretical efficiency of 60% and its super capacitating nature.
    •  Quantum-dot PVs use semiconductor nanocrystals exhibiting quantum mechanical properties capable of high efficiency of about 66%.
    • However, both these are in the early stages of research.

    Technologies to better integrate solar PVs into the grid

    • These technologies include weather forecasting and power output prediction systems; operation monitoring and control systems; and scheduling and optimisation systems.
    • Additionally, automatic systems have been developed for the smooth resolution of output fluctuations.

    Way forward

    • A portion of the budget for renewable energy targets should be set aside exclusively for new technologies.
    • Grants and subsidies can also be provided for their adoption.
    • Efforts must be taken to address gaps in research, development, and manufacturing capabilities in the solar sector through sector-specific investment and incentives.
    • There must also be greater industry-academia collaborations and funding opportunities for startups.
    • A comprehensive sector-specific skilling programme is also required for workers.

    Conclusion

    All these efforts would help the country become a global player in the solar power sector.

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  • EU food recalled over alleged GM rice exports from India

    The European Union has recalled some packaged food items which were made up of Indian GMO.

    GM crops in India

    The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) under Environment Ministry oversees the approval of GM Crops in India.

    • Bt cotton: It is the only GM crop that has been approved for commercial cultivation in 2002.
    • Bt Brinjal: Resistant to brinjal shoot fly, it was approved by GEAC in 2009. However due to 10 years moratorium imposed on GM crops by the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) appointed by the Supreme Court of India, its commercialization has stalled.
    • GM Dhara Mustard Hybrid 11: DMH 11 developed by Delhi University is pending for commercial release as GEAC has advised to generate complete safety assessment.

    However, unauthorized HtBt Cotton and Bt Brinjal are being grown commercially, with hundreds of growers blatantly defying the governmental ban.

    What about GM Rice?

    • GM rice is not grown commercially in India.
    • However, multiple GM rice varieties have been approved for confined field trials.
    • There seems a possibility of cross-contamination from such field trials directly or through seed leakages.

    India’s rice exports

    • India’s annual rice exports amount to 18 million tonnes worth ₹65,000 crore, and reach more than 75 countries.

    What is the EU move?

    • A European candy has recalled several batches of its product from the market due to the use of rice flour with genetically modified (GM) contamination that allegedly originated in India.
    • The EU notification has identified the product as ‘Unauthorised genetically modified (p35S and tNos) rice flour from India’.

    Impact of the EU move

    • This has led to the loss of reputation of India and its agricultural market.
    • With such a move by the EU, it is Indian farmers and exporters who have much to lose.

    Threats posed by GM crops

    • It is believed that consumption of genetically engineered foods can cause the development of diseases which are immune to antibiotics.
    • Besides, as these foods are new inventions, not much is known about their long term effects on human beings.
    • Genetically modified rice may potentially cause serious public health and environmental problems.
    • Two major issues about GM rice are their tendencies to provoke allergic reactions and the uncertainty of gene transfers.

    What can be done to reverse this?

    • Ban on field trials of GM crops
    • Slapping liability for illegal release of GMOs into the environment on developers
    • Probe to identify the source of the GM rice contamination

    Try answering this PYQ:

    With reference to the Genetically Modified mustard (GM mustard) developed in India, consider the following statements:

    1. GM mustard has the genes of a soil bacterium that give the plant the property of pest-resistance to a wide variety of pests.
    2. GM mustard has the genes that allow the plant cross-pollination and hybridization.
    3. GM mustard has been developed jointly by the IARI and Punjab Agricultural University.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) 1 and 3 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) 2 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

     

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  • Zeolite Oxygen Concentrators: Chemistry in 3-D

    To meet the demand of oxygen supply in the country during the peak of pandemic, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) had chartered the Air India to import ‘Zeolite’ from different countries.

    What are Zeolites?

    • Zeolites are highly porous, 3-dimensional meshes of silica and alumina.
    • In nature, they occur where volcanic outflows have met water.
    • Synthetic zeolites have proven to be a big and low-cost boon.

    Uses in Oxygen Concentrator

    • One biomedical device that has entered our lexicon during the pandemic is the oxygen concentrator.
    • This device has brought down the scale of oxygen purification from industrial-size plants to the volumes needed for a single person.
    • At the heart of this technology are synthetic frameworks of silica and alumina with nanometer-sized pores that are rigid and inflexible.
    • Beads of one such material, zeolite 13X, about a millimeter in diameter, are packed into two cylindrical columns in an oxygen concentrator.

    How does it work?

    • Zeolite performs the chemistry of separating oxygen from nitrogen in air.
    • Being highly porous, zeolite beads have a surface area of about 500 square meters per gram.
    • At high pressures in the column, nitrogen is in a tight embrace, chemically speaking, with the zeolite.
    • Interaction between the negatively charged zeolite and the asymmetric nucleus (quadrupole moment) of nitrogen causes it to be preferentially adsorbed on the surface of the zeolite.
    • Oxygen remains free, and is thus enriched.
    • Once nitrogen is captured, what flows out from the column is 90%-plus oxygen.
    • After this, lowering the pressure in the column releases the nitrogen, which is flushed out, and the cycle is repeated with fresh air.

     

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