Subject: Science and Technology

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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National Science Day is commemorated on Feb 28 every year to commemorate the bird anniversary of Sir CV Raman.

National Science Day

• In 1986, the Government of India, under then PM Rajiv Gandhi, designated February 28 as National Science Day to commemorate the announcement of the discovery of the “Raman Effect”.
• The Raman Effect was the discovery which won physicist Sir CV Raman his Nobel Prize in 1930.

Who was CV Raman?

• Raman conducted his Nobel-prize-winning research at IACS, Calcutta.
• While he was educated entirely in India, Raman travelled to London for the first time in 1921, where his reputation in the study of optics and acoustics was known to physicists such as JJ Thomson and Lord Rutherford.
• The Raman Effect won scientist Sir CV Raman the Nobel Prize for physics in 1930.
• It was also designated as an International Historic Chemical Landmark jointly by the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS).
• His speciality was the study of vibrations and sounds of stringed instruments such as the Indian veena and tambura, and Indian percussion instruments such as the tabla and mridangam.

The Raman Effect

• 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.

Observing the effect

• 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.

Real-life 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.

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Central idea: The article discusses recent research on the idea that neutrinos might be their own antiparticles, a concept that has been debated in the scientific community for many years.

What are neutrinos?

• Neutrinos are fundamental particles that are similar to electrons but have no electric charge.
• They are one of the most abundant particles in the universe, but they are also one of the most difficult to detect because they interact only very weakly with matter.
• Neutrinos are created in a variety of natural processes, including nuclear reactions in stars, radioactive decay, and cosmic ray interactions.
• They are also produced in particle accelerators and nuclear reactors.

Its types

• Neutrinos come in three different types or “flavors”:

1. Electron neutrinos
2. Muon neutrinos, and
3. Tau neutrinos

• Each flavor of neutrino is associated with a different charged lepton (electron, muon, or tau).

Why study neutrinos?

• Because they are electrically neutral and interact only weakly with matter, neutrinos can pass through enormous amounts of material without being stopped or deflected.
• This property makes them useful for studying astrophysical phenomena such as supernovae and the sun’s interior, as well as for exploring the fundamental nature of matter.

Neutrinos as their own antiparticles

• Particle physics explains that particles and their antiparticles have opposite properties, and they can annihilate each other when they meet.
• Neutrinos are fundamental particles that are difficult to detect as they have no electric charge and interact only weakly with matter.
• The idea that neutrinos could be their own antiparticles is supported by the fact that they are electrically neutral, and they could interact with themselves in a process called neutrinoless double beta decay.

Substantiation of this

• The Majorana Demonstrator experiment is designed to detect neutrinoless double beta decay.
• The experiment has reported some promising results that suggest that neutrinos could indeed be their own antiparticles.

Significance of this theory

• If confirmed, the idea that neutrinos are their own antiparticles could have important implications for our understanding of the fundamental nature of matter and the universe as a whole.
• More research will be needed before any definitive conclusions can be drawn, but the results of the Majorana Demonstrator experiment provide some promising evidence for the idea that neutrinos are their own antiparticles.

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Central idea: A rare and unique meteorite, known as the Diyodar meteorite, was discovered in Banaskantha, Gujarat in December 2022. It is significant because it is the first aubrite to be found in India in 170 years.

What are Aubrites?

• Aubrites are a type of meteorite that are believed to have formed on a different planet in the early solar system.
• They are known for their unusual mineralogy and composition and are believed to have originated from a differentiated parent body, such as an asteroid or a planetesimal.
• They are primarily composed of a mineral called enstatite, which is a magnesium-rich silicate. They also contain other minerals such as nickel-iron, troilite, and chromite.
• Aubrites are relatively rare, comprising only about 0.1% of all known meteorites.
• They are believed to have formed under highly reducing conditions, with very little oxygen present.

Meteorite found in Diyodar, Gujarat

• The Diyodar meteorite is thought to be around 4.5 billion years old, and it is believed to have originated from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
• Its discovery provides scientists with an opportunity to study the composition and structure of these unique meteorites.
• This, in turn, can help researchers to better understand the early solar system and the processes that led to the formation of planets.

Its composition

• Around 90% of the meteorite was composed of orthopyroxene.
• Pyroxenes are silicates consisting of single chains of silica tetrahedra (SiO 4); orthopyroxenes are pyroxenes with a certain structure.
• Pyroxenes such as diopside and jadeite have been used as gems. Spodumene was historically used as lithium ore.
• Rocks with pyroxene have also been used to make a crushed stone that is used in construction.

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