Subject: Basic Sciences

Central idea: The article discusses a pan-India study conducted by scientists at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) which found that background radiation levels in parts of Kerala are nearly three times more than what’s been assumed.

What is Background Radiation?

• Background radiation is a measure of the level of ionizing radiation present in the environment at a particular location which is not due to deliberate introduction of radiation sources.
• Background radiation originates from a variety of sources, both natural and artificial.

Nuclear Radiation and its Types There are three main types of nuclear radiation: alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma rays. 1.      Alpha particles are made up of two protons and two neutrons and are essentially helium nuclei. They have a positive charge and are relatively large and heavy, which means they can be stopped by a piece of paper or the outer layer of skin. 2.      Beta particles are high-energy electrons that are emitted from the nucleus of an atom. They have a negative charge and are much smaller than alpha particles, which means they can penetrate through the skin and into the body. 3.      Gamma rays are high-energy electromagnetic radiation, similar to X-rays. They are emitted from the nucleus of an atom and have no charge. They are extremely penetrating and can travel long distances through air and most materials, including the human body.

 

How is it measured?

• The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) specifies maximum radiation exposure levels and this has also been adopted by India’s atomic energy establishment.
• Public exposure shouldn’t exceed 1 milli-Sievert every year, those who work in plants or are by virtue of their occupation shouldn’t be exposed to over 30 milli-Sievert every year.
• Generally it is measured in nanogray per second. A (nGy/s) is a decimal fraction of the SI-derived unit of ionizing radiation absorbed dose rate.

Natural sources-

1. Cosmic radiation
2. Environmental radioactivity from naturally occurring radioactive materials (such as radon and radium)

Man-made sources-

1. Medical X-rays,
2. Fallout from nuclear weapons testing and nuclear accidents.

Factors affecting such radiation

• Natural background radiation is all around us.
• Background radiation varies from place to place and over time, depending on the amount of naturally occurring radioactive elements in soil, water and air.
• Weather conditions also affect radiation levels, as snow cover may shield these elements, and radioactive particulates can wash out of the air during rain storms.
• Cosmic radiation from the sun, our galaxy, and beyond is constantly around us and contributes to natural background radiation.
• Altitude and latitude can also influence the level of background radiation at any one site.

How threatening is it?

• All rocks and soils contain some trace amount of natural radioactivity and can sometimes be ingested or inhaled if disturbed.
• Radon is a gas that can concentrate indoors and be inhaled, along with its decay products.
• We can also ingest radioactivity from the food we eat and the water we drink.
• A number of factors determine the annual dose you and your family receive from background radiation.
• Typically, Gamma rays are a type of such radiation that can pass through matter unobstructed, and are harmless in small doses, but can be dangerous in concentrated bursts.

Findings of the BARC Study

• The study found that the average natural background levels of gamma radiation in India was 94 nGy/hr (nano Gray per hour) (or roughly 0.8 millisievert/year).
• The last study conducted in 1986 computed such radiation to be 89 nGy/hr.
• The study found that the levels in Kollam district, Kerala were 9,562 nGy/hr, or about three times more than what was assumed.
• This computes to about 70 milliGray a year, or a little more than what a worker in a nuclear plant is exposed to.
• This however does not necessarily mean that those at Kollam are being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation, as past studies have not found any higher rates of cancer or mortality.

Reasons for Higher Radiation Levels in Kerala

• The higher radiation levels in Kollam are attributed to monazite sands that are high in thorium, which is part of India’s long-term plan to sustainably produce nuclear fuel.
• Southern India has higher levels of radiation due to the presence of granite and basaltic, volcanic rock, which contains uranium deposits.

 

 

Central idea: OpenAI announced GPT-4 as the next big update to the technology that powers ChatGPT and Microsoft Bing.

What is GPT-4?

• GPT-4 is a large multimodal model created by OpenAI that accepts images as input, making it a more advanced version of GPT-3 and GPT-3.5.
• It exhibits human-level performance on various professional and academic benchmarks, and it can solve difficult problems with greater accuracy.

How is GPT-4 different from GPT-3?

• GPT-4 is multimodal, allowing it to understand more than one modality of information, unlike GPT-3 and GPT-3.5, which were limited to textual input and output.
• It is harder to trick than previous models, and it can process a lot more information at a time, making it more suitable for lengthy conversations and generating long-form content.
• It has improved accuracy and is better at understanding languages that are not English.

GPT-4’s abilities

• GPT-4 can use images to generate captions and analyses, and it can answer tax-related questions, schedule meetings, and learn a user’s creative writing style.
• It can handle over 25,000 words of text, opening up a greater number of use cases that include long-form content creation, document search and analysis, and extended conversations.
• It significantly reduces hallucinations and produces fewer undesirable outputs, such as hate speech and misinformation.

Multilingual abilities of GPT-4

• GPT-4 is more multilingual and can accurately answer thousands of multiple-choice questions across 26 languages.
• It handles English best, with an 85.5% accuracy, but Indian languages like Telugu aren’t too far behind either, at 71.4%.

Availability of GPT-4

• GPT-4 has already been integrated into products like Duolingo, Stripe, and Khan Academy for varying purposes.
• Image inputs are still a research preview and are not publicly available.

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Central idea: Researchers at Winona State University, Minnesota, have created a design for a rudimentary fluorescence microscope.

Why in news?

• The development can be put together at a cost of $30-50 (Rs 2,500-4,100) using products purchased on online marketplaces.
• The device aims to democratize access to fluorescence microscopy.

What is Fluorescence Microscopy?

• An optical microscope views an object by studying how it absorbs, reflects or scatters visible light.
• A fluorescence microscope views an object by studying how it reemits light that it has absorbed, i.e. how it fluoresces.
• The object is illuminated with light of a specific wavelength.
• Particles in the object absorb this light and reemit it at a higher wavelength.
• These particles are called fluorophores; the object is infused with them before being placed under the microscope.

How does it work?

• The setup consists of two plexiglass surfaces, an LED flashlight, three theatre stage-lighting filters, a clip-on macro lens, and a smartphone.
• The smartphone (with the lens attached) is placed on one surface that is suspended at a height (say, a foot above).
• The second sheet is placed below and holds the object.
• One of the stage-lighting filters is held between the flashlight and the object and the other two were held between the object and the smartphone.
• The sources of illumination were also LED flashlights emitting light of correspondingly different wavelengths.

Key observations

• With this setup, the researchers were able to image the creatures’ brain, spinal cord, heart, and head and jaw bones.
• They were able to zoom in and out using the smartphone camera and the clip-on lens.

How accessible is this?

• Using a ‘glowscope’ still requires access to fluorophores, suitable biological samples, the know-how to combine the two, and some knowledge of physics to work out which LED flashlight to buy.
• The Foldscope was truly remarkable because all its required components were simple to understand.
• However, the fact that a simple fluorescent microscope can be set up with a few thousand rupees means researchers can prepare samples and take them to schools, where students can observe them.

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The European Space Agency is planning a universal timekeeping system for the moon.

Timekeeping on the Moon

• The Moon has its own day and night cycle, which lasts about 29.5 Earth days.
• This means that if humans were to live on the Moon, they would need to develop their own timekeeping system.
• Currently, the time on the Moon is measured using Universal Time Coordinated (UTC), which is the same timekeeping system used on the Earth.
• However, because the Moon’s day is much longer than Earth’s day, it would be difficult to use UTC for day-to-day activities on the Moon.

 

Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) is a time standard used to keep time consistent around the world. UTC is based on International Atomic Time (TAI), which is maintained by atomic clocks around the world. It is the primary time standard used by many countries, international organizations, and scientific research institutions. UTC is expressed as a 24-hour clock and is used to indicate the time offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC+0). Time zones are defined as an offset from UTC, with some time zones being ahead of UTC (UTC+1, UTC+2, etc.) and others being behind UTC (UTC-1, UTC-2, etc.). UTC is adjusted periodically to account for changes in the Earth’s rotation, which can cause variations in the length of a day. These adjustments are made through the addition of leap seconds to UTC, which help to keep the time standard synchronized with the Earth’s rotation.

 

Why need lunar time zone?

• The Moon is the Earth’s only natural satellite, and humans have been interested in exploring and colonizing it for many years.
• With recent advancements in space technology, there is renewed interest in lunar exploration and settlement.

Proposed Lunar Time Zone

• To address this issue, scientists and researchers have proposed creating a lunar time zone that would be based on the Moon’s day and night cycle.
• This would make it easier for lunar settlers to keep track of time and coordinate activities.

Benefits offered

• Having a lunar time zone would also make it easier for scientists and researchers to conduct experiments and collect data on the Moon.
• It would also help to prevent confusion and errors that could arise from using different timekeeping systems on Earth and the Moon.

Various challenges

• Time on Earth is precisely tracked by atomic clocks, but synchronizing time on the moon is tricky because clocks run faster there, gaining around 56 microseconds, or millionths of a second, per day.
• It would also be difficult to establish a consistent time zone for the entire Moon, given that the terrain and lighting conditions vary widely across its surface.
• Additionally, any timekeeping system on the Moon would need to be able to account for the Moon’s irregular rotation and movement.

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Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, have developed a cheap paper microscope (foldscope) connected to a smartphone camera that could find wider application in a variety of research areas, and in some cases potentially replace more expensive equipment.

What is Foldscope?

• The Foldscope is a handheld microscope made mostly of paper that can be easily linked to a smartphone camera.
• It has a magnification of around 140x and can identify objects just 2 micrometres wide.
• It was first created by researchers at Stanford University in 2014.
• IISc version of Foldscope costs around Rs 400, much cheaper than that of Stanford’s one.

How is Foldscope comparable to electron microscope?

• The researchers found that Foldscope could capture the roundness and aspect ratio of an object to within 5% of those imaged by a state-of-the-art instrument called a scanning electron microscope (SEM).
• SEM costs more than Rs 50 lakh each.
• Preparing a sample for study through a Foldscope takes less than an hour, whereas the same process for an SEM was “tedious and time-consuming”.

Potential applications

• Foldscopes can be used in pharmaceuticals (to inspect drug products), environmental science (to observe pollutants), and cosmetics (to observe powders and emulsions), among other fields.
• They can also be used to study “soil particles’ morphology,” which can “help understand soil structure, nutrient availability, and plant growth” in agriculture.
• It allows for in-field soil analysis and visualisation of soil structure per Indian Standard Soil Classification System which earlier required bulky microscopes with high resolution.

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There is currently a demand-supply gap of proton beam therapy machines in India, leaving many cancer patients in a difficult situation.

What is Proton Beam Therapy?

• Proton beam therapy is a type of radiation therapy — a treatment that uses high-energy beams to treat tumors.
• Radiation therapy using X-rays has long been used to treat cancers and noncancerous (benign) tumors.
• It uses protons rather than x-rays to treat cancer. At high energy, protons can destroy cancer cells.
• It can also be combined with x-ray radiation therapy, surgery, chemotherapy, and/or immunotherapy.
• Like x-ray radiation, proton therapy is a type of external-beam radiation therapy.

How it works?

• Fundamentally, all tissue cells are made up of molecules with atoms as their building blocks.
• In the center of every atom is the nucleus. Orbiting the nucleus of the atom are negatively charged electrons.
• When energized protons pass near orbiting electrons, the positive charge of the protons attracts the negatively charged electrons, pulling them out of their orbits. This is called ionization.
• It changes the characteristics of the atom and consequentially the character of the molecule within which the atom resides.
• Because of ionization, the radiation damages molecules within the cells, especially the DNA.
• Damaging the DNA destroys specific cell functions, particularly the ability to divide or proliferate.
• While both normal and cancerous cells go through this repair process, a cancer cell’s ability to repair molecular injury is frequently inferior.
• As a result, cancer cells sustain more permanent damage and subsequent cell death than occurs in the normal cell population.

Why in news?

• There is currently a significant demand-supply gap of proton beam therapy machines in India, with only a few machines available in the country.
• This has resulted in long wait times for patients who need the treatment, and many patients are forced to travel abroad to access the treatment, which can be prohibitively expensive.

Various challenges

• Huge demand: The demand for PBT machines is also increasing, as more and more patients are being diagnosed with cancer and are seeking the latest and most effective treatments available.
• High cost: One of the major challenges in setting up PBT machines is the high cost involved, as the machines are complex and require a significant investment.
• Shortage of personnel: In addition, there is a shortage of trained personnel who can operate and maintain the machines, which further limits their availability.

Way Forward

• The government and private sector need to invest more in setting up and maintaining the machines. This could include-

1. Offering tax incentives and subsidies to private healthcare providers who invest in PBT machines
2. Providing training and education to personnel who can operate and maintain the machines
3. Setting up more public hospitals that offer proton beam therapy, which would help to make the treatment more accessible and affordable to patients who need it

 

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Central idea: Organ-on-a-chip technology has emerged as a new laboratory setup that scientists are using instead of animals to test new drugs.

What is Organ-on-a-Chip?

• Organ-on-a-chip is a microfluidic device that aims to mimic the structure and function of specific human organs or tissues in vitro.
• It is a small, transparent chip made of biocompatible materials such as silicon, glass, or polymers, and contains tiny channels lined with living cells.
• The living cells are derived from human tissues and can be cultured to replicate the microenvironment of the specific organ being modelled.

How does Organ-on-a-Chip work?

• Microfluidic channels simulation: Each organ-on-a-chip contains a complex network of microfluidic channels and chambers that can simulate the mechanical and chemical environment of a specific organ.
• Mimics the blood flow: The microfluidic channels can mimic the flow of blood and air, while the living cells provide a realistic environment for drug testing and disease modelling.

Potential applications of organ-on-a-chip

• Organ-on-a-chip technology has numerous potential applications, including drug development, disease modelling, and toxicity testing.
• By replicating the structure and function of human organs, researchers can study how organs interact with drugs and other compounds.
• This could lead to the development of more effective and personalized treatments for a variety of diseases.
• Additionally, organ-on-a-chip technology provides a more ethical and effective approach to testing drugs and other compounds, reducing the reliance on animal testing.

Examples of Organ-on-a-Chip

Several examples of organ-on-a-chip technology have been developed, including-

• Lung-on-a-chip mimics the air-blood interface in the lungs
• Heart-on-a-chip mimics the mechanical and electrical properties of the heart
• Liver-on-a-chip replicates the metabolic activity of the liver
• Brain-on-a-chip models the blood-brain barrier and neural activity in the brain

Future prospects

• Organ-on-a-chip technology is a promising and rapidly evolving field that offers numerous advantages over traditional drug development and testing methods.
• It provides a more ethical and effective approach to testing drugs and other compounds, reducing the reliance on animal testing.
• Furthermore, it has the potential to revolutionize the field of drug development by enabling more personalized and effective treatments for a variety of diseases.

 

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