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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.

  • Water on the Moon

    The Moon has water at places where none had been detected before and has potentially more water than previously believed in regions where it was already understood to exist.

    Try this MCQ:

    Q.NASA’s VIPER mission sometimes seen in news is related to the study of-

    a)Moon

    b)Venus

    c)Sun

    d)None of these

    Water on the moon

    • In two separate studies in Nature Astronomy, scientists have reported findings with potentially huge implications for sustaining humans on the Moon in the future.
    • One study reports the detection of water on the Moon’s sunlit surface for the first time.
    • The other estimates that the Moon’s dark, shadowy regions, which potentially contain ice, are more widespread than thought.

    Why is the discovery of water important?

    • Apart from being a marker of potential life, water is a precious resource in deep space.
    • For astronauts landing on the Moon, water is necessary not only to sustain life but also for purposes such as generating rocket fuel.
    • NASA’s Artemis programme plans to send the first woman and the next man to the Moon in 2024 and hopes to establish a “sustainable human presence” there by the end of the decade.

    What was known about water on the Moon?

    • Previous Moon studies, including by the ISRO Chandrayaan-1 mission, have provided evidence for the existence of water.
    • In 2009, the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) instrument aboard Chandrayaan-1 found water molecules in the Polar Regions.

    What is different in the new discovery?

    • This time, it is confirmed H20 molecules, discovered in Clavius Crater in the Moon’s southern hemisphere.
    • And it is the first time water has been detected on the sunlit side, showing it is not restricted to the shadowy regions.
    • SOFIA, which is a modified Boeing 747SP jetliner that flies at altitudes up to 45,000 feet, has an infrared camera that picked up the wavelength unique to water molecules.
    • The data showed water in concentrations of 100-412 parts per million trapped in 1 cubic metre of soil.

    How could the water have formed?

    • Space rocks carrying small amounts of water could have bombarded the Moon.
    • Alternatively, the Sun’s solar wind could have carried hydrogen, which then reacted with minerals in the lunar soil to create hydroxyl, which later transformed into water.
    • The sunlit surface retaining the water presents a puzzle since the Moon does not have a thick atmosphere.
    • One possibility is that the water gets trapped into tiny bead-like structures that were created in the soil by impacts from space rocks.
    • Alternatively, the water could be hidden between grains of lunar soil and sheltered from the sunlight, NASA said.

    So, how widespread is water on the Moon?

    • On the sunlit side, it is not yet known whether the water SOFIA found is easily accessible.
    • On the other hand, the hidden, shadowy pockets on the lunar surface called “cold traps” are spread across a combined 40,000 sq km, the other study has reported.
    • The cold traps have gone without sunlight for potentially billions of years. If they do contain ice, it means water is going to be more accessible than previously assumed.

    What next?

    • SOFIA will look for water in additional sunlit locations to learn more about how the water is produced, stored, and moved across the Moon.
    • Meanwhile, NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) will carry out a mission to create the first water resource maps of the Moon.

  • Debate over Plasma Therapy’s efficacy

    Recently published findings on convalescent plasma therapy on Covid-19 patients have triggered a debate over its efficacy.

    Plasma Therapy

    • Plasma is the liquid part of the blood. Convalescent plasma, extracted from the blood of patients recovering from an infection, is a source of antibodies against the infection.
    • The therapy involves using their plasma to help others recover. For Covid-19, this has been one of the treatment options.
    • The donor would have to be a documented case of Covid-19 and healthy for 28 days since the last symptoms.

    How is it done?

    • The process to infuse plasma in a patient can be completed quickly.
    • It only requires standard blood collection practices, and extraction of plasma.
    • If whole blood is donated (350-450 ml), a blood fractionation process is used to separate the plasma.
    • Otherwise, a special machine called aphaeresis machine can be used to extract the plasma directly from the donor.
    • While blood is indeed extracted from the donor, the aphaeresis machine separates and extracts the plasma using a plasma kit, and the remaining blood components are returned into the donor’s body.

    WHO’s guidelines

    • WHO guidelines in 2014 mandate a donor’s permission before extracting plasma.
    • Plasma from only recovered patients must be taken, and donation must be done from people not infected with HIV, hepatitis, syphilis, or any infectious disease.
    • If whole blood is collected, the plasma is separated by sedimentation or centrifugation, then injected in the patient.
    • If plasma needs to be collected again from the same person, it must be done after 12 weeks of the first donation for males and 16 weeks for females, the WHO guidelines state.

    What has happened to spark the debate?

    • An ICMR study has found convalescent plasma was not associated with a reduction in progression to severe Covid-19 or all-cause mortality.
    • While the use of this therapy seemed to improve the resolution of shortness of breath and fatigue in patients with moderate Covid-19, this did not translate into a reduction in 28-day mortality or progression to severe disease.
    • Progression to severe disease or death at 28 days after enrolment occurred in 44 (19%) of the participants in the intervention arm as compared to 41 (18%) in the control arm.

    What happens if ICMR does remove the therapy from its guidelines?

    • The authorisation of convalescent plasma as a treatment for Covid-19 in India has led to questionable practices such as calls for donors on social media, and the sale of convalescent plasma on the black market.
    • The ICMR has been cautious because of the trial findings.
    • However, those guidelines are not necessarily binding and it is too early to dismiss convalescent plasma therapy. But there are other issues.
    • The therapy involves resource-intensive processes such as plasmapheresis, plasma storage, and measurement of neutralizing antibodies.

    Way ahead

    • This is a new virus, and around the world, the evidence is still emerging on the best therapeutic options.
    • Covid care is individualized care. Use of the right medication on the right patient does work.
    • Some of the therapies can be continued on compassionate grounds.
    • However, the potential harms of the non-immune components of convalescent plasma should be rigorously investigated.
    • Only donor plasma with detectable titers of neutralizing antibodies should be given to trial participants, to ensure that the potential for benefit exists for all intervention arm patients.

    Try this question:

    Q.What is convalescent plasma therapy? Discuss its efficacy and limitations for COVID-19 treatment.

  • Room Temperature Superconductivity

    A study has shown that a new material superconducts at 15 degrees Celsius but at extremely high pressure.

    In India, we often get to hear about the transmission losses in DISCOMS. Such losses can be zeroed with the application of superconducting cables (which is practically impossible unless we find a normal working one). The phenomena, superconductivity, however, is not new to us, UPSC may end up asking some tricky statements in the prelims regarding it.

    What is Superconductivity?

    • A superconductor is a material, such as a pure metal like aluminium or lead, that when cooled to ultra-low temperatures allows electricity to move through it with absolutely zero resistance.
    • Kamerlingh Onnes was the first scientist who figured out exactly how superconductor works in 1911.
    • Simply put, superconductivity occurs when two electrons bind together at low temperatures.
    • They form the building block of superconductors, the Cooper pair.
    • This holds true even for a potential superconductor like lead when it is above a certain temperature.

    What is the new material?

    • A new material composed of carbon, hydrogen and sulphur superconducts at 15 degrees Celsius.
    • However, it needs ultrahigh pressure of about 2 million atmospheres to achieve this transition, putting off any thoughts of application to the future.
    • The pressure they needed was 267 Gigapascals (GPa), or 2.6 million atmospheres.
    • The pressure at the centre of the Earth is 360 GPa, so it is 75% of the pressure at the centre of the Earth.

    What are Superconductors?

    • Superconductors are materials that address this problem by allowing energy to flow efficiently through them without generating unwanted heat.
    • They have great potential and many cost-effective applications.
    • They operate magnetically levitated trains, generate magnetic fields for MRI machines and recently have been used to build quantum computers, though a fully operating one does not yet exist.

    Issues with superconductors

    • They have an essential problem when it comes to other practical applications: They operate at ultra-low temperatures.
    • There are no room-temperature superconductors. That “room-temperature” part is what scientists have been working on for more than a century.
    • The amount of energy needed to cool a material down to its superconducting state is too expensive for daily applications.

  • NASA’s OSIRIS-REx lands on Asteroid Bennu

    NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft briefly touched asteroid Bennu, from where it is meant to collect samples of dust and pebbles and deliver them back to Earth in 2023.

    The OSIRIS-REx mission

    • OSIRIS-REx stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer. This is NASA’s first mission meant to return a sample from the ancient asteroid.
    • The mission is essentially a seven-year-long voyage and will conclude when at least 60 grams of samples are delivered back to the Earth.
    • As per NASA, the mission promises to bring the largest amount of extraterrestrial material back to our planet since the Apollo era.
    • The mission was launched in 2016, it reached its target in 2018 and since then, the spacecraft has been trying to match the velocity of the asteroid using small rocket thrusters to rendezvous it.
    • This week, the spacecraft’s robotic arm called the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM), made an attempt to “TAG” the asteroid and collected a sample.

    About Bennu

    • Bennu is a B-type asteroid, implying that it contains significant amounts of carbon and various other minerals.
    • It was discovered by a team from the NASA-funded Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research team in 1999.
    • Because of its high carbon content, the asteroid reflects about four per cent of the light that hits it, which is very low when compared with a planet like Venus, which reflects about 65 per cent of the light. Earth reflects about 30 per cent.
    • Around 20-40 per cent of Bennu’s interior is empty space and scientists believe that it was formed in the first 10 million years of the solar system’s formation, implying that it is roughly 4.5 billion years old.

    Why are scientists studying asteroid Bennu?

    • Bennu is an asteroid about as tall as the Empire State Building and located at a distance of about 200 million miles away from the Earth.
    • Scientists study asteroids to look for information about the formation and history of planets and the sun since asteroids were formed at the same time as other objects in the solar system.
    • Another reason for tracking them is to look for asteroids that might be potentially hazardous. It is also relatively close to the Earth.
    • It is for these reasons that scientists are interested in gathering information about this particular asteroid.
    • Significantly, Bennu hasn’t undergone drastic changes since its formation over billions of years ago and therefore it contains chemicals and rocks dating back to the birth of the solar system.

    How do chemicals and rocks offer scientists clues about the solar system?

    • Because of Bennu’s age, it is likely to contain material that contains molecules that were present when life first formed on Earth, where life forms are based on carbon atom chains.
    • Even so organic material like the kind scientists hope to find in a sample from Bennu doesn’t necessarily always come from biology.
    • It would, though, further scientists’ search to uncover the role asteroids rich in organics played in catalyzing life on Earth.

    Back2Basics: Asteroid

    • Asteroids are rocky objects that orbit the Sun, much smaller than planets. They are also called minor planets.
    • According to NASA, 994,383 is the count of known asteroids, the remnants from the formation of the solar system over 4.6 billion years ago.
    • Asteroids are divided into three classes. First, those found in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which is estimated to contain somewhere between 1.1-1.9 million asteroids.
    • The second group is that of Trojans, which are asteroids that share an orbit with a larger planet.
    • The third classification is Near-Earth Asteroids (NEA), which have orbits that pass close by the Earth. Those that cross the Earth’s orbit are called Earth-crossers.
    • More than 10,000 such asteroids are known, out of which over 1,400 are classified as potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs).

  • Discovering the Tubarial Glands

    Researchers from the Netherlands have discovered a new location of salivary glands.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.With references to the scientific progress of ancient India, which of the statements given below are correct?

    1. Different kinds of specialized surgical instruments were in common use by 1st century AD.
    2. Transplant of internal organs in the human body had begun by the beginning of 3rd century AD.
    3. The concept of sine of an angle was known in 5th century AD.
    4. The concept of cyclic quadrilaterals was known in 7th century AD.

    Select the correct answer using the code given below:

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 3 and 4 only

    (c) 1, 3 and 4 only

    (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

    Tubarial Glands

    • The salivary gland system in the human body has three paired major glands and over 1,000 minor glands that are spread throughout the mucosa.
    • These glands produce saliva necessary for swallowing, digestion, tasting, mastication and dental hygiene.
    • When researchers were studying scans from about 100 people, they found a bilateral structure at the back of the nasopharynx and these glands had characteristics of salivary glands.
    • Researchers have proposed the name “tubarial glands” for their discovery.
    • The researchers believe that these glands would qualify as the fourth pair of major salivary glands.
    • The proposed name is based on their anatomical location; the other three glands are called parotid, submandibular and sublingual.

    Why are these glands being discovered only now?

    • The location of these glands is at a poorly accessible anatomical location under the base of the skull, which is an area that can only be visualized using nasal endoscopy.
    • Further, conventional imaging techniques such as a CT scan, MRI and ultrasound have not allowed the visualization of these glands.
    • For the scans done on the 100 patients, a new type of scan called the PSMA PET/CT scan was used, which was able to provide the high sensitivity and specificity required to detect these glands.

    What is the purpose of these glands?

    • So far, researchers suspect that the physiological function of the glands is to moisten and lubricate the nasopharynx and the oropharynx.
    • However, this interpretation needs to be confirmed with additional research.

    Significance of this discovery

    • The discovery is potentially good news for some cancer patients with head and neck cancers.
    • Patients with head and neck cancers and tumours in the tongue or the throat are treated with radiation therapy that can damage the new salivary glands, whose location was not previously known.
    • Oncologists will be able to circumvent these areas and protect them from the side effects of radiation which can lead to complications such as trouble speaking, swallowing and speaking.
    • Some patients may even face an increased risk of caries and oral infections that can significantly impact their life.

  • The NEP 2020 must look beyond just data science and AI

    The article deals with the issues with the emphasis on the coding instead of understanding the basic algorithmic process.

    Issues with focusing on coding in NEP 2020

    • The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) envisages putting greater emphasis on mathematical and computational thinking throughout the school years.
    • The framing in the NEP appears to put it at the same level of distinction as the more instrumental ‘coding’, and almost as a mere tool towards the utilitarian goals of artificial intelligence (AI) and data science.
    • An overemphasis on learning the nitty-gritty of specific programming languages prematurely — even from middle school — may distract from focusing on the development of algorithmic creativity.

    What is coding?

    Coding is basically the computer language used to develop apps, websites, and software. Without it, we’d have none of the most popular technology we’ve come to rely on such as Facebook, our smartphones, the browser we choose to view our favorite blogs, or even the blogs themselves. It all runs on code.

    About computation and algorithms

    • Algorithmics is the abstract process of arriving at a post-condition through a sequential process of state changes.
    • It is among the earliest human intellectual endeavours that has become imperative for almost all organised thinking.
    • All early learning of counting and arithmetic is method-based, and hence algorithmic in nature, and all calculations involve computational processes encoded in algorithms.
    • The core algorithmic ideas of modern AI and machine learning are based on some seminal algorithmic ideas of Newton and Gauss, which date back a few hundred years.
    • Though the form of expressions of algorithms — the coding — have been different, the fundamental principles of classical algorithm design have remained invariant.

    Algorithms in modern world

    • In the modern world, the use of algorithmic ideas is not limited only to computations with numbers, or even to digitisation, communication or AI and data science.
    • They play a crucial role in modelling and expressing ideas in diverse areas of human thinking, including the basic sciences of biology, physics and chemistry, all branches of engineering, in understanding disease spread, in modelling social interactions and social graphs, in transportation networks, supply chains, commerce, banking and other business processes, and even in economic and political strategies and design of social processes.
    • Hence, learning algorithmic thinking early in the education process is indeed crucial.

    So, how coding is different from arithmetics?

    • Coding is merely the act of encoding an algorithmic method in a particular programming language which provides an interface.
    • AS computational process can be invoked in a modern digital computer.
    • Thus, it is less fundamental.
    • While coding certainly can provide excellent opportunities for experimentation with algorithmic ideas, they are not central or indispensable to algorithmic thinking.
    • After all, coding is merely one vehicle to achieve experiential learning of a computational process.

    Way forward

    • Instead of focusing on the intricacies of specific programming languages, it is more important at an early stage of education to develop an understanding of the basic algorithmic processes behind manipulating geometric figures.
    • Indeed, this is a common outcome of the overly utilitarian skills training-based approaches evidenced throughout the country.

    Conclusion

    The NEP guideline of introducing algorithmic thinking early is a welcome step, it must be ensured that it does not degenerate and get bogged down with mundane coding tricks at a budding stage in the education process.

  • Analysing the success of NPCI

    The article tracks the evolution of digital payments system in India and the transformational role played by the NPCI in it.

    Adoption of digital payments in India

    • Digital payments have found strong ground in India reducing all other modes of payments to the background.
    • Through a faster system of simultaneous debits and credits, the money value is transferred from one account to the other across banks.
    • With such versatility and ease of settling financial transactions, the growth of digital payments is going to be phenomenal, supported by banks and Fin-Tech companies.

    Evolution of digital payments in India

    • A major thrust toward large value payments was effected through the Real Time Gross Settlement System, or RTGS, launched by the RBI in March 2004.
    • The large value payments on stock trading, government bond trading and other customer payments were covered under the RTGS.
    • It substantially reduced the time taken for settlements.
    • Around the same time, the RBI introduced National Electronic Funds Transfer, or NEFT to support retail payments.
    • Now, NEFT is available round the clock and RTGS will follow from December 2020 — only a few countries have achieved this.
    • These systems were seeded and reinforced with the setting up of the umbrella retail payments institution: National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
    • NPCI was set up by 10 lead banks at the instance of the RBI in 2009.
    •  The NPCI as a not-for-profit company

    How NPCI transformed retail payment systems in India

    • The NPCI’s success against deeply entranced formidable international players, supported by innovative technology, viz. Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), is well recognised by central banks in many other countries.
    • The Bank for International Settlements’s endorsement of the NPCI model in 2019 is a major accolade.
    • With digital payment being a public good like currency notes, it was necessary that the corporation was fully supported by the RBI and the government as an extended arm of the sovereign.
    • It was also necessary to contain expectations on profits, avoiding direct or indirect control by powerful private interests could dilute the public good character of the outfit.

    Issue of converting NPCI into for-profit

    • Converting NPCI intro for-profit company will be a retrograde step with huge potential for loss of consumer surplus along with other strategic implications.
    • Instead the strategy should be to assist the NPCI financially, either by the RBI or the government, to provide retail payment services at reduced price (in certain priority areas).
    • This may also help support expansion of the payment system network and infrastructure in rural and semi-urban areas in partnership with Fin-Tech companies and banks.

    Issue fo MDR

    • In Budget 2020-21, the government prescribed zero Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) for RuPay and UPI, both NPCI products.
    • Zero MDR on UPI and RuPay will help to popularise digital payments benefiting both customers and merchants.
    • There is justification in this zero MDR prescription by the government.
    • It is justified because depositors implicitly pay around 3% to banks as net interest margin, being the difference between saving and risk free bond rate, for enjoying certain payments services traditionally.
    • When banks enjoy such a huge amount of current account savings account (CASA) deposits, in return, is it not incumbent on them to provide such payment services?
    • The government left out other providers of digital payment products from this MDR prescription.
    • Taking advantage of this dichotomy, many issuing banks switched to mainly Visa and Master cards for monetary gains.
    • As customers were induced by such supplier banks, it created a kind of indirect market segmentation and cartel formation, though there is hardly any quality difference in payment products.
    • It may be noted that even the European Central Bank imposed a ceiling on MDR for all, protecting consumer interest.
    • It is hoped that the government will take corrective action in the next Budget to ensure a level playing field and to relieve the NPCI from such policy-induced market imperfection.

    Pricing for digital payments

    • The ideal pricing for digital payments products should be based on an analysis of-(i) producer surplus (ii) consumer surplus (i.e. gain or loss of utility due to pricing) (iii) social welfare for which we need cost-volume-price data.
    • A factor which needs to be reckoned is the float funds digital payments allow (cash withdrawal is a drain on the banking system), which is a source of sizeable income for banks.
    • The RBI will do well to study and arrive at a rational structure of pricing including MDR (possibly also penalty on default by customer).

    Consider the question “Elaborate on how the NPCI has been successful in transforming the digital payment landscape in the country through innovations? What are the challenges facing retail payments infrastructures?”

    Conclusion

    Given that the digital payment system is like a national superhighway, for which the government has a crucial role to play in protecting consumers against exploitation.

    Back2Basics: RTGS and NEFT

    • With NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer)
      you can transfer any amount to the recipient’s account in a one-on-one transfer basis.
    • NEFT transactions don’t have a maximum limit for funds that can be transferred in a single day.
    • The NEFT system is available round the clock throughout the year on all days (24x7x365).
    • Funds are transferred in batches that are settled in 48 half-hourly time slots throughout the day.
    • There is no maximum or minimum limit on the amount of funds that could be transferred through NEFT.

    RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement)

    • Business owners can use RTGS when they need to transfer large amounts instantly.
    • One advantage that RTGS has over the other methods is the transaction speed, since the entire amount is transferred in real time.
    • The available hours for RTGS transactions vary based on the individual banks and their branches.
    • There’s a minimum limit of Rs. 2 lakhs for RTGS transactions, and there’s no maximum limit as such.

    What is MDR?

    • The merchant discount rate (MDR) is charged to merchants for processing debit and credit card transactions.
    • To accept debit and credit cards, merchants must set up this service and agree to the rate.
    • The merchant discount rate is a fee, typically between 1%-3%, that merchants must consider when managing business costs

  • New Shephard Rocket System

    New Shephard, a rocket system meant to take tourists to space successfully completed its seventh test launch.

    Note the features of the Karman Line. It is a new terminolgy in our recent space vocab.

    What is New Shephard?

    • New Shephard has been named after astronaut Alan Shephard, the first American to go to space, and offers flights to space over 100 km above the Earth and accommodation for payloads.
    • Essentially, it is a rocket system that has been designed to take astronauts and research payloads past the Karman line – the internationally recognised boundary of space.
    • The idea is to provide easier and more cost-effective access to space meant for purposes such as academic research, corporate technology development and entrepreneurial ventures among others.
    • It is built by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Space Company called Blue Origin.
    • In 2018, Blue Origin was one of the ten companies selected by NASA to conduct studies and advance technologies to collect process and use space-based resources for missions to the Moon and Mars.

    How does it work?

    • The rocket system consists of two parts, the cabin or capsule and the rocket or the booster.
    • The cabin can accommodate experiments from small mini payloads up to 100 kg.
    • The cabin is designed for six people and sits atop a 60-feet tall rocket and separates from it before crossing the Karman line, after which both vehicles fall back to the Earth.
    • The system is a fully reusable, vertical takeoff and vertical landing space vehicle that accelerates for about 2.5 minutes before the engine cuts off.
    • After separating from the booster, the capsule free falls in space, while the booster performs an autonomously controlled vertical landing back to Earth.
    • The capsule, on the other hand, lands back with the help of parachutes.

    Back2Basics: Karman line

    • The Karman line is an attempt to define a boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.
    • The line is named after Theodore von Kármán (1881–1963), a Hungarian American engineer and physicist, who was active primarily in aeronautics and astronautics.
    • He was the first person to calculate the altitude at which the atmosphere becomes too thin to support aeronautical flight and arrived at 83.6 km (51.9 miles) himself.

    Locating the line

    • The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) defines Karman Line as the altitude of 100 kilometres (62 miles; 330,000 feet) above Earth’s mean sea level.
    • However, other organizations do not use this definition. There is no international law defining the edge of space, and therefore the limit of national airspace.
    • For instance, the US Air Force and NASA define the limit to be 50 miles (80 km) above sea level.
    • The line is approximately at the turbopause, above which atmospheric gases are not well-mixed.

  • Mars ‘Opposition’ Event

    Due to an event referred to as “opposition”, which takes place every two years and two months, Mars will shine the brightest.

    Try this question from CSP 2017:

    Q.Which region of Mars has a densely packed river deposit indicating this planet had water 3.5 billion years ago?

    (a) Aeolis Dorsa (b) Tharsis (c) Olympus Mons (d) Hellas

    What is the Opposition Event?

    • ‘Opposition’ is the event when the sun, Earth and an outer planet (Mars in this case) are lined up, with the Earth in the middle.
    • The time of opposition is the point when the outer planet is typically also at its closest distance to the Earth for a given year, and because it is close, the planet appears brighter in the sky.
    • An opposition can occur anywhere along Mars’ orbit, but when it happens when the planet is also closest to the sun, it is also particularly close to the Earth.
    • It will outshine Jupiter, becoming the third brightest object (moon and Venus are first and second, respectively) in the night sky during the month of October.

    When does opposition happen?

    • Earth and Mars orbit the sun at different distances (Mars is farther apart from the sun than Earth and therefore takes longer to complete one lap around the sun).
    • In fact, the opposition can happen only for planets that are farther away from the sun than the Earth.
    • In the case of Mars, roughly every two years, the Earth passes between sun and Mars, this is when the three are arranged in a straight line.
    • Further, as the Earth and Mars orbit the sun, there comes a point when they are on the opposite sides of it, and hence very far apart. At its farthest, Mars is about 400 million km from the Earth.
    • In case of opposition, however, Mars and Sun are on directly opposite sides of the Earth. In other words, the Earth, sun and Mars all lie in a straight line, with the Earth in the middle.

    Logic behind the name

    • As per NASA, from an individual’s perspective on the Earth, Mars rises in the east and after staying up all night, it sets in the west just as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
    • Because from the perspective on Earth, the sun and Mars appear to be on the opposite sides of the sky, Mars is said to be in “opposition”.
    • Essentially, the opposition is a reference to “opposing the sun” in the sky.

  • Need for guidelines for gene-editing research in India

    The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2020 has been awarded for the discovery of CRISPR Cas9. The two scientists have pioneered the use of CRISPR  – Cas9 (CRISPR-associated protein 9) system as a gene-editing tool.

    Background of discovery of CRISPR

    • In 1987a group of Japanese researchers observed an unusual homologous DNA sequence bearing direct repeats with spacing in a eubacterial gene.
    • In subsequent years CRISPR was discovered and showed to be a bacterial adaptive immune system and to act on DNA targets.
    • A notable discovery on the use of CRISPR as a gene-editing tool was by a Lithuanian biochemist, Virginijus Šikšnys, in 2012.
    • Šikšnys showed that Cas9 could cut purified DNA in a test tube, the same discovery for which both Charpentier and Doudna were given the credit.
    • Thus, the exclusion of Siksnys from this year’s Nobel is going to raise discussions.

    Issue of gene-edited babies

    • The world was alarmed by such a mission in 2018 when Chinese scientist edited genes in human embryos using the CRISPR-Cas9 system which resulted in the birth of twin girls.
    • The incident became known as the case of the first gene-edited babies of the world.
    • Following the incident, the World Health Organization formed a panel of gene-editing experts.
    • The expert panel suggested a central registry of all human genome editing research in order to create an open and transparent database of ongoing work.

    Guidelines and regulations in India

    • In India, several rules, guidelines, and policies are notified under the Environment Protection Act, 1986 to regulate genetically modified organisms.
    • The above Act and the National Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical and Health Research involving human participants, 2017, by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and the Biomedical and Health Research Regulation Bill implies regulation of the gene-editing process.
    • This is especially so in the usage of its language “modification, deletion or removal of parts of heritable material”.
    • However, there is no explicit mention of the term gene editing.

    Consider the question “What is CRISPR-Cas9? How it helps in the gene-editing? What are the concerns with use of it for gene-editing?”

    Conclusion

    It is time that India came up with a specific law to ban germline editing and put out guidelines for conducting gene-editing research giving rise to modified organisms.

    Back2Basics: What is CRISPR?

    • CRISPRs: “CRISPR” stands for “clusters of regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.”
    • It is a specialized region of DNA with two distinct characteristics: the presence of nucleotide repeats and spacers.
    • Repeated sequences of nucleotides — the building blocks of DNA — are distributed throughout a CRISPR region.
    • Spacers are bits of DNA that are interspersed among these repeated sequences.
    • In the case of bacteria, the spacers are taken from viruses that previously attacked the organism.
    • They serve as a bank of memories, which enables bacteria to recognize the viruses and fight off future attacks.