💥Mains Ready By December. Smash Mains & Smash PYQ Admissions Open
Talk to Mentor

Civilsdaily

Login

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

  • Species in news: Raksasa Cockroach

    A team of researchers has discovered a supergiant cockroach when they explored waters of the Indian Ocean in Bantan, off the southern coast of West Java in Indonesia.

    Try this MCQ:

    Q.The ‘Bathynomus Raksasa’, a species recently discovered is basically a:

    a) Mollusc

    b) Annelid

    c) Arthropod

    d) Flagella

    Bathynomus Raksasa

    • The Bathynomus raksasa is a giant isopod (phylum: Arthropoda) in the genus Bathynomus.
    • It is described as the “cockroach of the sea”. The epithet is the Indonesian word “raksasa” for giant, alluding to its enormous size.
    • The giant isopods are distantly related to crabs, lobsters, and shrimps (which belong to the order of decapods), and are found in the cold depths of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans.
    • It has 14 legs but uses these only to crawl along the bed of oceans in search of food.
    • As a scavenger, Bathynomus raksasa eats the remains of dead marine animals, such as whales and fish, but can also go for long periods without food, a trait that it shares with the cockroach.

    Why this cockroach matters?

    • Bathynomus raksasa is the sixth ‘supergiant’ species from the Indo-West Pacific and is one of the largest known members of the genus.
    • The discovery takes the number of known giant isopods to 20.
    • As the Bathynomus raksasa reveals its secrets, it will contribute towards increasing knowledge about the deep.

  • How to treat data as public good

    This is the age of Big data. Even after anonymising it, we gain useful information using analytical tools. So, given its potential, there is a call for treating the public data as a public good. This article analyses the suggestion of Kris Gopalakrishnan panel in this regard.

    Why data matter

    • By one brave count, the world generates over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day.
    • A significant chunk of it is highly valuable.
    • With the increasing sophistication of tools designed to analyse it, the value of the data is increasing further.
    • This analysis of data can yield market patterns, traffic predictions, epidemic risks and much more.[Remember why Google shows you only particular ads.]
    • Data need not be either big or personal for it to be highly sought after.

    Non-personal data: A public good

    • Would it not be better if at least some data were treated as a public good?
    • Treating it as a public good will allow its open use by startups, do-gooders and government bodies.
    • Dealing with such questions, a centre-appointed panel, headed by Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, submitted its draft report on the regulation of non-personal data in India.
    • “Non-personal data” is defined as that which is either devoid of people’s details or anonymized to prevent individual identification.

    Proposals of Kris Gopalan panel

    • The panel has proposed a new data authority to regulate non-personal data.
    • It has also outlined the need of a framework that would require companies to share its databanks with others.
    • Sharing of databank will help the country catalyse business innovation, bolster India’s startup ecosystem, and help governments and local authorities frame data-enriched public policies. 

    Challenges

    • What data a private entity can be forced to disclose must follow a commonly accepted set of principles.
    • Data authority demanding companies to share data painstakingly acquired often with large sums invested to acquire it won’t work.
    • Also, if sharing data blunts companies’ strategic edge over competitors, they would probably appeal against it in court.
    • If enterprises fear that their confidential learnings could be threatened by intrusive data authority, then the cause of innovation would actually be set back.

    Way forward

    • A clear set of guidelines could be set down that specify what sort of data qualifies as a public good and must be kept open to all.
    • For other kinds of data, maybe a market mechanism could evolve that lets various parties bid for privately-held information.

    Consider the question “There is a growing demand for treating the non-personal data as a public good. What are the benefits and challenges of treating the non-personal data as public good?

    Conclusion

    Given its potential, big data does deserve regulation. But it needs to be done with clarity.

  • Trending in news: 5G Technology

    One of India’s business tycoon recently announced that his company’s telecom venture has designed and developed from scratch, a complete indigenous 5G solution ready for deployment.

    Try this question from CSP 2019:

    Q.With reference to communication technologies, what is/are the difference/differences between LTE (Long-Term Evolution) and VoLTE (Voice over Long-Term Evolution)?

    1. LTE ‘is commonly marketed as 3G and VoLTE is commonly marketed as advanced 3G.
    2. LTE is data-only technology and VoLTE is voice-only technology.

    Select the correct answer using the code given below.

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

    What is 5G?

    • 5G or fifth generation is the latest upgrade in the long term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks.
    • The first generation of networks allowed only mobile voice calls to be made, while the second generation allowed mobile voice calls as well as sending of short text messages.
    • It was the third generation or 3G network which allowed web browsing on mobile devices, the speed and latency of which improved with fourth-generation or 4G networks.
    • The 5G networks will have even faster speeds with latency down to between 1-10 milliseconds.

    (Note: Latency is the time a device takes to communicate with the network, which stands at an average of up to 50 milliseconds for 4G networks across the world.)

    How does 5G work?

    All 5G networks chiefly operate on three spectrum bands.

    • The low-band spectrum has been proven to have great coverage and works fast even in underground conditions. However, the maximum speed limit on this band is 100 Mbps (Megabits per second).
    • In the mid-band spectrum, though the speeds are higher, telcos across the world have registered limitations when it comes to coverage area and penetration of telephone signals into buildings.
    • The high-band spectrum offers the highest speed but has extremely limited network coverage area and penetration capabilities.

    The telcos using this band rely on the existing LTE networks and will need to install a number of smaller towers to ensure adequate coverage and high-speed performance.

    What does it mean to be 5G ready?

    • Globally many companies have been deploying 5G networks across their service areas as early as 2018.
    • Not only the network, but the devices will also have to be 5G ready for customers to be able to enjoy the maximum benefits of the latest upgrade in mobile broadband.
    • One of the major improvements in 5G is the use of beam tracking to follow all devices on the network to ensure consistent connection in real-time for the device.
    • 5G networks are also designed to multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) efficient which improves signal throughput for all devices on the network.

    Where does India stand on the deployment of 5G?

    • Companies, both telecom service providers and their equipment vendors, have completed lab trials of 5G network components but are yet to commence field trials, which were initially scheduled to happen last year.
    • For the same, telecom companies are awaiting allocation of test spectrum from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
    • The service providers have already tied up with equipment makers like Nokia, Ericsson, etc for deploying their 5G networks.

  • Hope:  UAE’s first mission to Mars

    The launch of the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) first mission to Mars has been delayed by two days due to bad weather conditions which were scheduled to take off from its launch site, Tanegashima Space Center, in Japan.

    Try this question from CSP 2014:

    Q.Which of the following pair is/are correctly matched?

    Spacecraft Purpose
    1. Cassini-Huygens Orbiting the Venus and transmitting data to the Earth
    2. Messenger Mapping and investigating the Mercury
    3. Voyager 1 and 2 Exploring the outer solar system

    Select the correct answer using the code given below.

    a) 1 only

    b) 2 and 3 only

    c) 1 and 3 only

    d) 1, 2 and 3

    Hope Mission

    • The Emirates Mars Mission called “Hope” was announced in 2015 with the aim of creating mankind’s first integrated model of the Red planet’s atmosphere.
    • Hope weighs over 1500 kg and will carry scientific instruments mounted on one side of the spacecraft, including the Emirates exploration Imager (EXI), which is a high-resolution camera among others.
    • The spacecraft will orbit Mars to study the Martian atmosphere and its interaction with outer space and solar winds.
    • Hope will collect data on Martian climate dynamics, which should help scientists understand why Mars’ atmosphere is decaying into space.

    Objectives of the mission

    • Once it launches, Hope will orbit Mars for around 200 days, after which it will enter the Red planet’s orbit by 2021, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the founding of UAE.
    • The mission is being executed by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, UAE’s space agency.
    • It will help answer key questions about the global Martian atmosphere and the loss of hydrogen and oxygen gases into space over the span of one Martian year.

    Back2Basics: Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)

    • The MOM also called Mangalyaan is a space probe orbiting Mars since 24 September 2014. It was launched on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
    • It aims at studying the Martian surface and mineral composition as well as scans its atmosphere for methane (an indicator of life on Mars).
    • It is India’s first interplanetary mission and it made it the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after Roscosmos, NASA, and the European Space Agency.
    • It made India the first Asian nation to reach Martian orbit and the first nation in the world to do so on its maiden attempt.
    • It was initially meant to last six months, but subsequently, ISRO had said it had enough fuel for it to last “many years.”

  • What is T Cells Immunity?

    A recent study has shown that people unexposed to and not infected with novel coronavirus may still exhibit T cell responses specific to this virus. It is thought that Coronavirus specific T cell responses seen in healthy people might arise from memory T cells derived from exposure to ‘common cold’ coronaviruses.

    Try this question from CSP 2010:

    Q. Widespread resistance of malaria parasite to drugs like chloroquine has prompted attempts to develop a malaria vaccine to combat malaria. Why is it difficult to develop an effective malaria vaccine?

    (a) Malaria is caused by several species of Plasmodium

    (b) Man does not develop immunity to malaria during natural infection

    (c) Vaccines can be developed only against bacteria

    (d) Man is only an intermediate host and not the definitive host

    What are T Cells?

    • T Cells also called T lymphocyte, type of leukocyte (white blood cell) that is an essential part of the immune system.
    • T cells are one of two primary types of lymphocytes—B cells being the second type—that determine the specificity of the immune response to antigens (foreign substances) in the body.
    • T cells originate in the bone marrow and mature in the thymus.

    Why are they called memory cells?

    • In the thymus, T cells multiply and differentiate into helper, regulatory, or cytotoxic T cells or become memory T cells.
    • They are then sent to peripheral tissues or circulate in the blood or lymphatic system.
    • Once stimulated by the appropriate antigen, helper T cells secrete chemical messengers called cytokines, which stimulate the differentiation of B cells into plasma cells (antibody-producing cells).

    How do they control immunity?

    • Regulatory T cells act to control immune reactions, hence their name.
    • Cytotoxic T cells, which are activated by various cytokines, bind to and kill infected cells and cancer cells.
    • Because the body contains millions of T and B cells, many of which carry unique receptors, it can respond to virtually any antigen.

    Vaccination outcomes on T cells

    • There is a possibility that pre-existing T cell memory might influence vaccination outcomes.
    • Pre-existing immunity could help elicit better immune responses against novel coronavirus, and these responses can manifest faster.
    • Meanwhile, pre-existing immunity could be mistaken as an enhanced efficacy of the vaccine in eliciting immune responses.
    • This could be particularly confusing in Phase-1 trials where the vaccine is tested on a small group of healthy participants.

    Its drawbacks

    • The pre-existing immunity can reduce the immune responses that the vaccine causes through a mechanism called the “original antigenic sin”.
    • It can also lead to antibody-mediated disease enhancement, where antibodies present at sub-neutralizing concentrations can actually augment virus infection and cause more severe disease.
    • This was seen in the case of chikungunya and dengue.

  • Kuaizhou-11 Rocket

    China’s 19th launch of 2020, the Kuaizhou-11 rocket, failed in its mission.

    Try this question from CSP 2014:

    Q.Which of the following pair is/are correctly matched?

    Spacecraft Purpose
    1. Cassini-Huygens Orbiting the Venus and transmitting data to the Earth
    2. Messenger Mapping and investigating the Mercury
    3. Voyager 1 and 2 Exploring the outer solar system

    Select the correct answer using the code given below.

    a) 1 only

    b) 2 and 3 only

    c) 1 and 3 only

    d) 1, 2 and 3

    The Kuaizhou-11

    • Kuaizhou, meaning “fast ship” in Chinese, was operated by the commercial launch firm Expace and was originally scheduled for 2018 after being developed three years earlier.
    • Also known as KZ-11, it had a lift-off mass of 70.8 tonnes, and was designed to launch low-Earth and Sun-synchronous orbit satellites.
    • It was carrying two satellites — the first being a remote sensing satellite that would provide data to clients on a commercial basis for forecasting and managing geological disasters.
    • It would also provide the information required for natural resource exploration. The second was part of a series of satellites for low-Earth orbit navigation.
    • Both satellites were built by Changguang Satellite Co. Ltd., a commercial entity born out of the state-owned firms.

  • Rare Comet ‘C/2020 F3 Neowise’

    The C/2020 F3 comet also dubbed NEOWISE will be visible with the naked eye for around 20 minutes every day for 20 days across India.

    Try this question from CSP 2014:

    Q.What is a coma, in the content of astronomy?

    (a) Bright half of material on the comet

    (b) Long tail of dust

    (c) Two asteroids orbiting each other

    (d) Two planets orbiting each other

    What are Comets?

    • Comets or “dirty snowballs” are mostly made of dust, rocks and ice, the remnants from the time the solar system was formed over 4.6 billion years ago.
    • The word comet comes from the Latin word “Cometa” which means “long-haired” and the earliest known record of a comet sighting was made by an astrologer in 1059 BC.
    • Comets can range in their width from a few miles to tens of miles wide.
    • While there are millions of comets orbiting the sun, there are more than 3,650 known comets as of now, according to NASA.

    How do they illuminate?

    • Comets do not have the light of their own and what humans are able to see from Earth is the reflection of the sun’s light off the comet as well as the energy released by the gas molecules after it is absorbed from the sun.
    • The visibility cannot be precisely predicted since a lot depends on the way the “outbursts” of gas and dust play out determining how much of a “good show” the comet will put out for observers.
    • As they orbit closer to the sun, they heat up and release debris of dust and gases that form into a “glowing head” that can often be larger than a planet.

    Why do they get close to the sun?

    • Comets may be occasionally pushed into orbits closer to the sun and the Earth’s neighbourhood due to forces of gravity of other planets.
    • The appearance of some comets, like those that take less than 200 years to orbit around the sun is predictable since they have passed by before.
    • These may be referred to as short-period comets and can be found in the Kuiper belt, where many comets orbit the sun in the realm of Pluto, occasionally getting pushed into orbits that bring them closer to the sun.
    • One of the most famous short-period comets is called Halley’s Comet that reappears every 76 years. Halley’s will be sighted next in 2062.
    • Comets in this cloud can take as long as 30 million years to complete one rotation around the sun.

    Significance of the comets

    • NASA tracks all Near Earth Objects (NEOs) that includes comets and asteroids using telescopes placed all around the Earth, as part of its NEO Observation Program.
    • Comets hold important clues about the formation of the solar system and it is possible that comets brought water and other organic compounds, which are the building blocks of life to Earth.

    Back2Basics

  • Carbon enrichment of the Universe

    A recent study has provided new insights on the origins of the carbon in our galaxy.

    Try this question from CSP 2016:

    Q.Consider the following:

    1. Photosynthesis
    2. Respiration
    3. Decay of organic matter
    4. Volcanic action

    Which of the above add carbon dioxide to the carbon cycle on earth?

    (a) 1 and 4 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 2, 3 and 4 only

    (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

    Why study Carbon?

    • Carbon is essential for life: It is the simple building block of all the complex organic molecules that organisms need.
    • It is known that all the carbon in the Milky Way came from dying stars that ejected the element into their surroundings.
    • What has remained debated, however, is what kind of stars made the major contribution.
    • The study shows the analysis of white dwarfs — the dense remnants of a star after its death.

    How does carbon come from stars?

    • Most stars — except the most massive ones — are doomed to turn into white dwarfs.
    • When the massive ones die, they go with a spectacular bang known as the supernova.
    • Both low-mass and massive stars eject their ashes into the surroundings before they end their lives.
    • And these ashes contain many different chemical elements, including carbon.

    How is it synthesized?

    • Both in low-mass stars and in massive stars carbon is synthesized in their deep and hot interiors through the triple-alpha reaction that is the fusion of three helium nuclei.
    • In low-mass stars, the newly synthesized carbon is transported to the surface [from the interiors] via gigantic bubbles of gas and from there injected into the cosmos through stellar winds.
    • Massive stars enrich the interstellar medium with carbon mostly before the supernova explosion, when they also experience powerful stellar winds.

    Findings of the news research

    • It was earlier debated that whether the carbon in the Milky Way originated from low-mass stars before they became white dwarfs or from the winds of massive stars before they exploded as supernovae.
    • The new research suggests that white dwarfs may shed more light on carbon’s origin in the Milky Way.
    • The researchers measured the masses of the white dwarfs, derived their masses at birth, and from there calculated the “initial-final mass relation”.
    • The IFMR is a key astrophysical measure that integrates information of the entire life cycles of stars.
    • They found that the relationship bucked a trend — that the more massive the star at birth, the more massive the white dwarf left at its death.
    • So far, stars born roughly 1.5 billion years ago in our galaxy were thought to have produced white dwarfs about 60-65% the mass of our Sun.

    What explains this?

    • From an analysis of the initial-final mass relation around the little kink, the researchers drew their conclusions about the size range for the stars that contributed carbon to the Milky Way.
    • Stars more massive than 2 solar masses, too, contributed to the galactic enrichment of carbon.
    • Stars less massive than 1.65 solar masses did not. In other words 1.65-Msun [1.65 times the mass of the Sun] represents the minimum mass for a star to spread its carbon-rich ashes upon death.

  • Who was Herbert Kleber?

    With today’s doodle, Google is remembering Dr Herbert David Kleber, who reframed the field of addiction treatment.

    Try this question from CSP 2016:

    A recent movie titled The Man Who Knew Infinity is based on the biography of-

    (a) S. Ramanujan
    (b) S. Chandrasekhar
    (c) S. N. Bose
    (d) C. V. Raman

    Herbert Kleber

    • Born on June 19, 1934, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Dr Kleber studied medicine, where he discovered that psychology was his calling.
    • He viewed addiction as a medical condition rather than a moral failure.
    • He spent years treating people with drug addiction and realized that the treatment needed a new approach backed by scientific research.
    • His new methods of treatment gained an appreciation and he was appointed as the deputy director for demand reduction at the Office of National Drug Control Policy by the then U.S. President George H. W. Bush.
    • He headed many projects on developing new methods to treat individuals with alcohol, cocaine, heroin and alcohol addictions.

  • What is Raman Spectroscopy?

    Mumbai-based researchers have turned to Raman Spectroscopy to detect RNA viruses present in saliva samples.

    Try this question from CSP 2017
    Q.Which Indian astrophysicist and Nobel laureate predicted rapidly rotating stars emit polarized light?
    (a) Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
    (b) CV Raman
    (c) Ramanujan
    (d) Amartya Sen

    The Raman Spectroscopy

    • Raman spectroscopy is an analytical technique where scattered light is used to measure the vibrational energy modes of a sample.
    • In 1928, Raman discovered that when a stream of light passes through a liquid, a fraction of the light scattered by the liquid is of a different colour.
    • While Raman was returning from London in a 15-day voyage, he started thinking about the colour of the deep blue Mediterranean.
    • He wasn’t convinced by the explanation that the colour of the sea was blue due to the reflection of the sky.
    • As the ship docked in Bombay, he sent a letter to the editor of the journal Nature, in which he penned down his thoughts on this.
      Subsequently, Raman was able to show that the blue colour of the water was due to the scattering of the sunlight by water molecules.
    • By this time he was obsessed with the phenomenon of light scattering.

    How does it work?

    • The Raman Effect is when the change in the energy of the light is affected by the vibrations of the molecule or material under observation, leading to a change in its wavelength.
    • Significantly, it notes that the Raman effect is “very weak” — this is because when the object in question is small (smaller than a few nanometres), the light will pass through it undisturbed.
    • But a few times in a billion, light waves may interact with the particle. This could also explain why it was not discovered before.
    • In general, when light interacts with an object, it can either be reflected, refracted or transmitted.
    • One of the things that scientists look at when light is scattered is if the particle it interacts with is able to change its energy.

    Applications

    • Raman spectroscopy is used in many varied fields – in fact, any application where non-destructive, microscopic, chemical analysis and imaging is required.
    • Whether the goal is qualitative or quantitative data, Raman analysis can provide key information easily and quickly.
    • It can be used to rapidly characterize the chemical composition and structure of a sample, whether solid, liquid, gas, gel, slurry or powder.