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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.

  • New rice variety: Muktoshri (IET 21845)

    Researchers have developed and commercialized a rice variety that is resistant to arsenic.

    Muktoshri

    • The new rice variety, Muktoshri — also called IET 21845 —, was developed jointly by the Rice Research Station at Chinsurah coming under West Bengal’s Agriculture Department and the National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow.
    • A gazette notification for the commercial use of Muktoshri was made by West Bengal last year.
    • During our multilocational trials, it was found that this variety uptakes very less amount of arsenic from soil and water in comparison to other varieties of rice.
    • The rice is long and thin, and aromatic. Across the State, thousands of farmers have started cultivation, even in areas where arsenic in groundwater is not an issue, because of the aroma and the yield.

    Significance

    • West Bengal is among the States with the highest concentration of arsenic in groundwater, with as many as 83 blocks across seven districts having higher arsenic levels than permissible limits.
    • Several studies have shown that arsenic from groundwater and the soil can enter the food chain through paddy.
    • According to the WHO, long-term exposure to arsenic, mainly through drinking water and food, can lead to poisoning. Skin lesions and skin cancer are the most characteristic effects.

  • Cancer Gene Mapping

     

    A series of new papers in the journal Nature has revealed the most comprehensive gene map ever of the genes causing cancer. It shows departures from normal behaviour i.e. mutations trigger a cascade of genetic misbehaviours that eventually lead to cancer.

    What is Mutation?

    • A mutation is a change that occurs in our DNA sequence, either due to mistakes when the DNA is copied or as the result of environmental factors such as UV light and pollution etc.
    • Structural variations mean deletion, amplification or reorganization of genomic segments that range in size from just a few bases to whole chromosomes.
    • Bases are the structural units of genes.
    • Over a lifetime our DNA can undergo changes or ‘mutations’ in the sequence of bases A, C, G and T.

    Why study cancer?

    • Cancer is known to be a disease of uncontrolled growth.
    • The growth process, like all other physiological processes, has genetic controls so that the growth is self-limiting. When one or more genes malfunction, the growth process can go out of hand.
    • Not just cancer, there are many other diseases with a genetic link in varying degrees.
    • Just a handful of “driver” mutations could explain the occurrence of a large number of cancers, the researchers said, raising hopes of a cancer cure being nearer than ever.

    How big is the cancer burden?

    • Cancer is the second most-frequent cause of death worldwide, killing more than 8 million people every year; incidence of cancer is expected to increase by more than 50% over the coming decades.
    • 1 in 10 Indians will develop cancer during their lifetime, and one in 15 Indians will die of cancer, according to the World Cancer Report by WHO.
    • The Northeastern states, UP, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Haryana, Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh account for 44% of the cancer burden in India, says a recent analysis, published in The Lancet.

    Is the genetic link to cancer well established?

    • Yes, it is. One such association, for example, is of breast cancer with the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes; the actress Angelina Jolie, who discovered that she carried the former gene, chose to undergo a preventive double mastectomy.
    • This is personalised therapeutics where, instead of traditional toxic medications like chemotherapy, drugs that specifically target the delinquent genetic mutation are already being used.
    • Such therapy, however, remains very expensive.

    What is the new study that has oncologists around the world excited?

    • It is a major international collaboration called the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG), in which researchers has published a series of papers after analysing some whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumor types.
    • They concluded that on average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements.
    • This is the largest genome study ever of primary cancer.
    • Various kinds of cancers required to be studied separately because cancers of different parts of the body often behave very differently from one another; so much so that it is often said that cancer is not one disease but many.

    Breakthrough achievement of the study

    • The mutations identified by the team have been catalogued. Identification and cataloguing of the genes is a very crucial step and has taken science’s understanding of cancer and its genesis ahead by several leaps.
    • The catalogue, which is already available online, allows doctors and researchers from all over the world to look things up, consult and find information about the cancer of a given patient.
    • The study has discovered causes of previously unexplained cancers, pinpointed cancer-causing events and zeroed in on mechanisms of development, opening new vistas of personalized cancer treatment to strike at the root of the problem.
    • When it comes to drug development, however, the gene mapping is but a first step.

    The next step

    • The process of drug development will have to now kick in with pharmaceutical companies first identifying the compound(s) that target these gene mutations and then it being subjected to the rigours of clinical trials to prove its safety and efficacy.
    • That could take anything from a few decades to a few years to cover all the mutations identified.

  • [pib] SARAS Initiative

    Coal India’s flagship subsidiary NCL (Northern Coalfields Limited) has set up a centre named SARAS.

    SARAS Initiative

    • SARAS stands for Science and Applied Research Alliance and Support.
    • It aims to promote innovation, R&D and skill development along with improving company’s operational efficiency and utilize resources at optimum level.
    • SARAS will help and enable the company in Integration of Innovation and Research for enhancing coal production, productivity, and safety in mines.
    • Besides, the SARAS would also help establish centres of excellence to ensure technical support to R&D along with thrust on quality skill development and employment to local youths in and around company’s operational area.

    About NCL

    • NCL accounts for 15 per cent of India’s coal production and 10 per cent of thermal power generation of the country is met by the coal produced by this Miniratna Company of Govt. of India.
    • The company produces more than 100 million tonnes of coal every year.
    • It has planned to produce 107 million tonnes of coal in the current fiscal.

  • Remdesivir: Under-trail vaccine against Coronavirus

    The Wuhan Institute of Virology at Wuhan, China has filed for a patent on Remdesivir, an antiviral experimental drug from the US which may help treat the novel coronavirus (nCoV-2019).

    Remdesivir

    • It is an experimental drug and has not yet been licensed or approved anywhere globally. It has not been demonstrated to be safe or effective for any use.
    • It is currently being developed for the treatment of Ebola virus infection.
    • Remdesivir and chloroquine effectively inhibit the recently emerged novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in vitro.
    • Chloroquine is a “widely used” anti-malarial and autoimmune disease medicine that has recently come to light as a potential antiviral drug.

    Can Remdesivir treat coronavirus?

    • Significantly, Remdesivir has demonstrated in vivo (experimentation using a whole living organism) and in vitro (activity performed in a controlled environment) activity in animal models against viral pathogens that cause MERS and SARS.
    • Even so, the use of the experimental drug has been allowed only as an emergency treatment, which can be administered in the absence of any other approved treatment options.
    • These two diseases are also caused by coronaviruses structurally similar to the nCoV-2019.
    • Additionally, limited clinical data is available from the emergency administration of Remdesivir in patients with Ebola.
    • Even so, it is yet to be seen if Remdesivir and chloroquine can be effective against the novel coronavirus in humans.

    How can the novel coronavirus infection be treated?

    • As of now, there is no known treatment for the novel coronavirus, and an appropriate antiviral drug is required for this.
    • Ideally, a vaccine against the infection can also prove to be effective, but such a development does not seem to be in the offing for at least three-four months.

  • Euthermia: the anomaly of human body temperature

     

    Euthermia refers to normal body temperature. The thermometer reading of 98.6°F has been a gold standard for a century and a half, ever since a German doctor laid it down as the “normal” body temperature.  A new research has found that body temperatures have, in fact, been declining over the last two centuries.

    Why we follow 98.6°F?

    • In 1851, Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich pioneered the use of the clinical thermometer.
    • It was a rod a foot long, which he would stick under the armpits of patients at the hospital attached with Leipzig University, and then wait for 15 minutes (some accounts say 20 minutes) for the temperature to register.
    • He took over a million measurements of 25,000 patients, and published his findings in a book in 1868, in which he concluded that the average human body temperature is 98.6°F.
    • Most modern scientists feel Wunderlich’s experiments were flawed, and his equipment inaccurate.
    • Another study concluded that the average human body temperature is closer to 98.2°F, and suggested that the 98.6°F benchmark be discarded.

    The body is cooler

    • The Stanford University the researchers confirmed some known trends — body temperature is higher in younger people, in women, in larger bodies and at later times of the day.
    • Additionally, they found that the bodies of men born in the early to mid-1990s is on average 1.06°F cooler than those of men born in the early 1800s.
    • And the body temperature of women born in the early to mid-1990s is on average 0.58°F lower than that of women born in the 1890s.
    • The calculations from the research correspond to a decrease in body temperature of 0.05°F every decade.

    Why there’s decrease in body temperature?

    • The researchers have proposed that the decrease in body temperature is the result of changes in the environment over the past 200 years, which have in turn driven physiological changes.
    • The decrease in average body temperature in the US, they said, could be explained by a reduction in metabolic rate, or the amount of energy being used.
    • The environment that we’re living in has changed, including the temperature in our homes, our contact with microorganisms and the food that we have access to.
    • Actually the human body is changing physiologically.

    So what’s the normal temperature?

    • The strong influences of age, time of day, and genders determine the healthy body temperature.

  • [pib] National Mission on Quantum Technologies & Applications

    The Finance Minister in budget 2020 has announced a National Mission on Quantum Technologies & Applications (NM-QTA).

    What is Quantum Technology?

    • Quantum Technology is based on the principles of quantum theory, which explains the nature of energy and matter on the atomic and subatomic level.
    • It concerns the control and manipulation of quantum systems, with the goal of achieving information processing beyond the limits of the classical world.
    • Its principles will be used for engineering solutions to extremely complex problems in computing, communications, sensing, chemistry, cryptography, imaging and mechanics.
    • This key ability makes quantum computers extremely powerful compared to conventional computers when solving certain kinds of problems like finding prime factors of large numbers and searching large databases.

    What is Quantum Mechanics?

    • It is a fundamental theory in physics which describes nature at the smallest – including atomic and subatomic – scales.
    • At the scale of atoms and electrons, many of the equations of classical mechanics, which describe how things move at everyday sizes and speeds, cease to be useful.
    • In classical mechanics, objects exist in a specific place at a specific time.
    • However, in quantum mechanics, objects instead exist in a haze of probability; they have a certain chance of being at point A, another chance of being at point B and so on.

    About NM-QTA

    • The mission will function under the Department of Science & Technology (DST).
    • It will be able address the ever increasing technological requirements of the society, and take into account the international technology trends.
    • The mission will help prepare next generation skilled manpower, boost translational research and also encourage entrepreneurship and start-up ecosystem development.

    Why such mission?

    • Quantum technologies are rapidly developing globally with a huge disruptive potential.
    • The range of quantum technologies is expected to be one of the major technology disruptions that will change entire paradigm of computation, communication and encryption.
    • It is perceived that the countries who achieve an edge in this emerging field will have a greater advantage in garnering multifold economic growth and dominant leadership role.
    • It has become imperative both for government and industries to be prepared to develop these emerging and disruptive changes.
    • It will establish standards to be applied to all research and help stimulate a pipeline to support research and applications well into the future.

    Also read: https://www.civilsdaily.com/news/quantum-supremacy/

  • [op-ed of the day] A sneeze, a global cold and testing times for China

    Context

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the coronavirus outbreak a global emergency, as the outbreak continues to spread outside China.

    Coronavirus outbreak and Chinese response

    • What is coronavirus? Normally, coronavirus is a large family of viruses that are often the source of respiratory infections, including the common cold.
      • A small number of common infecting virus: Most of the viruses are common among animals and only a small number of them infect humans.
      • Mutation of animal base virus: Sometimes, an animal-based coronavirus mutates and successfully finds a human host.
    • Dangers of rapid urbanisation: Rapid urbanisation that forces animals and humans into closer proximity (as in the “wet market” in Wuhan) creates a perfect petri dish from where such zoonotic outbreaks can originate.

    Concern for India

    • Reported case in Nepal and cause of concern for India: For India, the most critical is cases being reported in Nepal since India and Nepal share an open border though so far.
    • All tests undertaken in India have been negative.
    • A tweet by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on January 30 said that one positive case of a novel coronavirus patient

    Understanding the new virus

    • The possible mode of transmission: According to the World Health Organization, during previous outbreaks due to other coronavirus, human-to-human transmission occurred through droplets, contact and fomites (objects or materials which are likely to carry infection, such as clothes, utensils, and furniture).
    • This suggests that the transmission mode of the 2019-nCoV can be identical.
    • The transmission even in incubation period: More significant is the new understanding that the virus is contagious even during incubation, that is even before a patient exhibits any symptoms.
      • This characteristic amplifies

    Experience from the past outbreaks

    • Comparison with SARS: Comparisons are being drawn the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in 2002-03.
      • Zoonotic case: SARS is also a zoonotic case, part of the coronavirus family with clues pointing to horseshoe bats in China as the likely source.
      • Late reporting by China in SARS:
      • The first incidents were reported in Guangdong province in November 2002 but WHO was officially informed only after three months.
    • Different response this time: Comparison with SARS: Comparisons are being drawn the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in 2002-03.
      • Zoonotic case: SARS is also a zoonotic case, part of the coronavirus family with clues pointing to horseshoe bats in China as the likely source.
      • Late reporting by China in SARS: The first incidents were reported in Guangdong province in November 2002 but WHO was officially informed only after three months.
      • Different response this time: This time around, the Chinese government has been more open but the question being asked is whether it has been open enough?
      • The difference in time to develop vaccine: For SARS, it took 20 months from the genome sequencing to the first human vaccine trials; for the 2019-nCoV, authorities in the U.S. are working on a deadline of 90 days.

    Lessons from Kerala in Nipah outbreak

    • Managing an outbreak with few casualties: Kerala managed to curtail the Nipah outbreak with few casualties.
      • Nipah is also zoonotic and made the jump from fruit bats to humans.
      • Though there were 17 deaths in India, effective quarantine measures by local authorities prevented the spread.
    • Infectious disease on the rise: Infectious diseases including those of the zoonotic variety are on the rise in India.
      • In addition, regions in India suffer from seasonal outbreaks of dengue, malaria and influenza strains.
      • The nation-wide disease surveillance programme needs to be strengthened.

    Conclusion

    India should brace itself for the possible outbreak of infectious diseases and frame policies to deal with such outbreaks in fast and effective ways.

  • Yellow Rust

     

    Yellow Rust was detected in wheat crops in parts of Punjab and Haryana.

    Yellow Rust

    • Yellow Rust disease appears as yellow stripes of powder or dust on leaves and leaf sheaths of the wheat crop. This yellow powder comes out on clothing or fingers when touched.
    • This occurs when the rust colonies in the leaves drain the carbohydrates from the plant and reduce the green leaf area.
    • In India, it is a major disease in the Northern Hill Zone and the North-Western Plain Zone and spreads easily during the onset of cool weather and when wind conditions are favourable.
    • Rain, dew and fog favour the disease’s development.

    Impact of the disease

    • The disease can spread rapidly under congenial conditions and affects crop development, and eventually the yield.
    • Yield due to the disease can affected by between 5 and 30 per cent.
    • According to the IIWBR advisory, if farmers observe yellow rust in patches in their wheat fields, they should spray fungicides.

    Other facts: Pusa Yashasvi

    • Last year, a new variety of wheat called HD-3226 or Pusa Yashasvi was released by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute.
    • It had higher levels of resistance against major rust fungi such as the yellow/stripe, brown/leaf and black/stem.

  • Spitzer Space Telescope

     

    NASA’s Spitzer Mission, which studied the universe in infrared light for more than 16 years, will come to an end since it is low on fuel and has been drifting away from Earth for a few years now.

    Spitzer Space Telescope

    • The Spitzer Space Telescope is a space-borne observatory, one of the elements of NASA’s Great Observatories that include the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray.
    • Using different infrared wavelengths, Spitzer was able to see and reveal features of the universe including objects that were too cold to emit visible light.
    • Apart from enabling researchers to see distant cold objects, Spitzer could also see through large amounts of gas using infrared wavelengths to find objects that may otherwise have been invisible to human beings.
    • These included exoplanets, brown dwarfs and cold matter found in the space between stars.
    • Spitzer was originally built to last for a minimum of 2.5 years, but it lasted in the “cold” phase for over 5.5 years. On May 15, 2009 the coolant was finally depleted and the “warm mission” began.

    Major discoveries

    • Spitzer also studied some of the most distant galaxies ever detected.
    • The light from these galaxies reached us after traveling for billions of years, enabling scientists “to see those objects as they were long, long ago”.
    • Hubble and Spitzer in 2016 identified and studied the most distant galaxy ever observed.
    • Using these two telescopes, scientists were able to see a bright infant galaxy as it was over 13.4 billion years ago, roughly 400 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was less than 5% of its current age.
    • It assisted in the discovery of planets beyond our solar system, including the detection of seven Earth-size exo-planets orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1.
    • Three of its seven planets were located in the “habitable zone,” where the temperature might be right for liquid water to exist on the planets’ surfaces.

    Other landmarks

    • Spitzer has logged over 106,000 hours of observation time.
    • Thousands of scientists around the world have utilized Spitzer data in their studies, and Spitzer data is cited in more than 8,000 published papers.
    • Spitzer’s primary mission ended up lasting 5.5 years, during which time the spacecraft operated in a “cold phase,” with a supply of liquid helium cooling three onboard instruments to just above absolute zero.
    • The cooling system reduced excess heat from the instruments themselves that could contaminate their observations.
    • This gave Spitzer very high sensitivity for “cold” objects.
    • In July 2009, after Spitzer’s helium supply ran out, the spacecraft entered a so-called “warm phase.”
    • Spitzer’s main instrument, called the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC), has four cameras, two of which continue to operate in the warm phase with the same sensitivity they maintained during the cold phase.

  • [op-ed snap] Here’s looking at you

    Context

    Face recognition technology calls for a more comprehensive domestic framework that promotes the use of new technologies for the public good as well as imposes necessary constraints against their abuse.

    Debate on finding the balance between regulation and promotion

    • Google calls for partial ban: TheGoogle CEO’s recent support for a temporary ban on facial recognition technologies seems uncharacteristic.
      • It is not often that companies developing a technology call for its ban.
      • Their interest is in promoting the use of technology, not proscribing it.
      • Not every one of the leading tech companies agrees with Google on facial recognition.
    • Microsoft against the ban: Microsoft has questioned the idea of a ban. Calling facial recognition a “young technology”, it said “it will get better.
      • To get better the technology has to be used: The only way to make it better is actually to continue developing it.
      • And the only way to continue developing it actually is to have more people using it.
    • IBM’s precision regulation: IBM has taken a step forward in developing the policies for the use of technology by setting up a “lab”.
      • The lab will generate actionable ideas for policymakers to manage the emergence of new technologies like facial recognition that are shaping our digital future.
      • Precision regulation vs. complete ban: The idea is to develop “precision regulation” rather than enforce “blunt” instruments like the ban.
    • The EU’s plans for temporary ban: The debate on finding the right balance between regulation and promotion of emerging technologies comes in the wake of leaked plans of the EU to issue a temporary ban.
      • The ban could be up to five years.
      • Ban on use in public places only: The proposed ban is not a comprehensive one and will be applicable to the use of facial recognition in public spaces.
    • India’s own plans for law enforcement agencies: The intensifying global debate also coincides with India’s own plans to roll out a massive project on deploying facial recognition technologies, essentially for law enforcement.
      • The international discourse provides the context for developing a broad and effective Indian policy framework for the use of facial recognition.

    Background of the backlash against the tech companies

    • Techlash: Well before the EU had begun to discuss a temporary ban on facial recognition, there has been a “techlash” against the companies.
      • The companies faced backlash because they have so dramatically altered our lives in the last few years.
    • The idea of “digital is different”: For nearly two decades, the idea that “digital is different” and does not need public oversight had triumphed in most capitals of the world.
    • Problems with regulations: The main argument was that regulation constrains technological innovation and retards progress.
    • AI and Big data:  The urge to regulate has triggered widespread concerns about the dangers of digitalisation, especially the use of big data and AI by private companies as well as governments.

    Major concerns against facial recognition

    • Surveillance capitalism and surveillance state: The companies were seen as monetising the data generated by the widespread use of digital platforms like Google and Facebook.
      • Surveillance state:  China became the prime example of states using data and information to exercise ever more control over its citizens.
    • Accuracy: At the other end are concerns that facial recognition is not entirely accurate and could lead to punitive actions against innocent people.
    • Racial bias misogyny: There is also a concern in the US that the algorithms behind facial recognition carry the baggage of racism and misogyny.
    • Concerns in India: It also remains a fact that the Indian state has always been tempted to empower itself against its citizens in the name of collective security.
      • It has also tended to weaponise information against political opponents and dissidents.

    Potential Advantages

    • In the control of crime.
    • Better border controls and countering terrorism.
    • Aid the Police: In India, a severely under-policed nation, facial recognition surely offers many benefits.

    Conclusion

    The foreign office must reclaim India’s place in the international discourse on AI and facial recognition and develop a productive alignment between India’s national interests and the development of new digital norms.