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Subject: Science and Technology

  • SpaceX-NASA’s Crew-1 Mission

    SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft will lift off carrying a crew of four people to the International Space Station (ISS) on a six-month-long mission.

    What is the Crew-1 Mission?

    • The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, whose objective is to make access to space easier in terms of its cost.
    • This will carry four astronauts on NASA missions, maintaining a space station crew of seven to maximize time dedicated to scientific research on the orbiting laboratory.
    • With this, the cargo and crew can be easily transported to and from the ISS, enabling greater scientific research.
    • At the ISS, the crew will join the members of Expedition 64, the space station crew currently in residence at the ISS.

    Mission goals

    • The goals of the mission are the same as that of Expedition 1 that lifted off 20 years ago.
    • NASA has called both of these ISS missions “historic”.
    • At the ISS, the Crew-1 team will join members of Expedition 64 and conduct microgravity studies and deliver new science hardware to ISS.
    • Once in orbit, NASA astronauts will collect samples to provide data to scientists back on Earth so that they can continue to study how dietary changes affect his body.
    • The crew will also study the effects of dietary improvements on immune function and the gut microbiome and how those improvements can help crews adapt to spaceflight.

    The term micro-g environment is more or less synonymous with the terms weightlessness and zero-g, but with an emphasis on the fact that g-forces are never exactly zero—just very small.

  • Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT)

    With regime change in the US, hopes have been raised for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) in Hawaii. India is one of the partners in the ambitious next-generation observatory project along with the US, Canada, China and Japan.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.“Event Horizon” is related to:

    (a) Telescope

    (b) Black hole

    (c) Solar glares

    (d) None of the above

    Thirty Metre Telescope

    • The TMT is a proposed astronomical observatory with an extremely large telescope (ELT) that has become the source of controversy over its planned location on Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii.
    • It is being built by an international collaboration of government organisations and educational institutions, at a cost of $1.4 billion.
    • “Thirty Metre” refers to the 30-metre diameter of the mirror, with 492 segments of glass pieced together, which makes it three times as wide as the world’s largest existing visible-light telescope.
    • The larger the mirror, the more light a telescope can collect, which means, in turn, that it can “see” farther, fainter objects.
    • It would be more than 200 times more sensitive than current telescopes and would be able to resolve objects 12 times better than the Hubble Space Telescope.

    Utility of the telescope

    • One of its key uses will be the study of exoplanets, many of which have been detected in the last few years, and whether their atmospheres contain water vapour or methane — the signatures of possible life.
    • For the first time in history, this telescope will be capable of detecting extraterrestrial life.
    • The study of black holes is another objective.
    • While these have been observed in detail within the Milky Way, the next galaxy is 100 times farther away; the Thirty Metre Telescope will help bring them closer.

  • GRACE-FO Mission

    The GRACE-FO mission has mapped deviation in Earth’s surface mass and spatial variations in the rate of sea-level rise between 1993 and 2018 using altimetric and gravimetric analysis.

    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

    GRACE-FO Mission

    • The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission launched in 2018 is a partnership between NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ).
    • It is a successor to the original GRACE mission, which orbited Earth from 2002-2017.
    • It carries on the extremely successful work of its predecessor while testing a new technology designed to dramatically improve the already remarkable precision of its measurement system.

    How did NASA measure this?

    (1) Altimetric Study

    • Altimetry missions are used to know the ocean surface topography — the shape and height of the ocean’s peaks and valleys.
    • Radar altimeters continually send out pulses of radio waves (microwaves) that bounce off the surface of the ocean and reflect back toward the satellite.
    • The instrument calculates the time it takes for the signal to return, while also tracking the precise location of the satellite in space. From this, scientists can derive the height of the sea surface directly underneath the satellite.

    (2) Gravimetric Study

    • Gravimetry is a process of using ice’s gravitational pull on a pair of satellites. It helps estimate ice loss and its contribution to sea-level rise.
    • The twin satellites in each mission detect subtle shifts in Earth’s gravity field.
    • The strength of gravitational forces is determined by mass, so changes in Earth’s gravity field indicate a change or redistribution in mass.

  • What is Einstein’s Eclipse?

    This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in the DownToEarth.

    Einstein’s Eclipse

    • Albert Einstein’s prediction of the bending of light by the gravity of the Sun, one of the components of his general theory of relativity, can be tested during a solar eclipse.
    • Following an unsuccessful attempt to validate this prediction during the Solar eclipse of June 8, 1918, two expeditions were made to measure positions of stars during this eclipse.
    • The eclipse presented a rare chance to verify one of the essential consequences of general relativity, the bending of light by gravity.
    • Einstein’s theory predicted that rays of light passing near a massive body in space would be visibly bent as they followed the curve in space-time created by the body’s mass.
    • In the case of a ray of light originating from a distant star and passing near the edge of the Sun, Einstein calculated a deflection of about 1.75 arc seconds.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Consider the following phenomena:

    1. Light is affected by gravity.
    2. The Universe is constantly expanding.
    3. Matter warps its surrounding space-time.

    Which of the above is/are the predictions of Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, often discussed in media?

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 3 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

    What was studied during the eclipse?

    • Einstein published his theory and predictions in 1915, and in 1919 the British physicist Sir Arthur Eddington took advantage of a total solar eclipse to attempt to detect the shifting images of stars near the limb of the sun.
    • The problem was that during totality the sky does not get perfectly dark, and only a handful of stars were visible near the sun from which to make the measurement.
    • The darkness of an eclipse, though, would allow the astronomers to observe and photograph the field of stars around the Sun.
    • By comparing the photographs with reference images taken at night, it would be possible to measure how much the presence of the Sun had bent the stars’ light.
    • Conveniently, a cluster of bright stars known as the Hyades would appear near the Sun during the eclipse.

    Significance

    • After several months of analysis, researchers announced in November that their findings supported the theory of general relativity.
    • Media coverage tended to dwell on the recondite nature of Einstein’s work, emphasizing that there were only a handful of people in the world who could understand it.
    • It could be argued that 1919 was the year when Einstein’s name became a byword for superhuman intellectual ability—making possible the small industry of Einstein-themed merchandise that still exists today.

    Back2Basics: General Relativity

    • Einstein’s theory proposes that gravity is not an actual force, but is instead a geometric distortion of space-time not predicted by ordinary Newtonian physics.
    • The more mass you have to produce the gravity in a body, the more distortion you get.
    • This distortion changes the trajectories of objects moving through space, and even the paths of light rays, as they pass close-by the massive body.
    • Even so, this effect is very feeble for an object as massive as our own sun, so it takes enormous care to even detect that it is occurring.
    • General Relativity predicts how much of this bending of light you should see given the mass of the object.
    • Called ‘gravitational lensing’ it has been detected on the cosmological scale as entire clusters of galaxies distort the light from more distant galaxies behind them as this image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows.

  • What is a Fast Radio Burst (FRB)?

    NASA has reported that it observed a mix of X-ray and radio signals never observed before in the Milky Way.

    Such news makes us think about alien and extraterrestrial life at the first. Do not get carried away with such thoughts. Its simply a space based phenomena.

    What is an FRB?

    • The first FRB was discovered in 2007, since when scientists have been working towards finding the source of their origin.
    • Essentially, FRBs are bright bursts of radio waves (radio waves can be produced by astronomical objects with changing magnetic fields).
    • Its durations lie in the millisecond-scale, because of which it is difficult to detect them and determine their position in the sky.

    Who discovered it?

    • The X-ray portion of the simultaneous bursts was detected by several satellites, including NASA’s Wind mission.
    • Further, a NASA-funded project called Survey for Transient Astronomical Radio Emission 2 (STARE2) also detected the radio burst.

    Why are they significant?

    • First noticed in 2018 by the Canadian observatory the waves have created ripples across the globe for one reason — they arrive in a pattern.
    • This gave birth to theories that they could be from an alien civilization.
    • Initially, it was believed that the collision of black holes or neutron stars triggers them.
    • But the discovery of repeating FRBs debunked the theory of colliding objects.

    What is the origin of the FRB detected in April?

    • The source of the FRB detected in April in the Milky Way is a very powerful magnetic neutron star, referred to as a magnetar.
    • Magnetar is located in the constellation Vulpecula and is estimated to be between 14,000-41,000 light-years away.
    • The FRB was part of one of the magnetar’s most prolific flare-ups, with the X-ray bursts lasting less than a second.

    What is a magnetar?

    • A magnetar is a neutron star, “the crushed, city-size remains of a star many times more massive than our Sun.”
    • The magnetic field of such a star is very powerful, which can be over 10 trillion times stronger than a refrigerator magnet and up to a thousand times stronger than typical neutron stars.
    • Neutron stars are formed when the core of a massive star undergoes gravitational collapse when it reaches the end of its life.

  • Kawasaki Disease

    Children in the world over have shown to be affected by either Kawasaki Disease (KD) since the reopening of schools.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.H1N1 virus is sometimes mentioned in the news with reference to which one of the following diseases?

    (a) AIDS

    (b) Bird flu

    (c) Dengue

    (d) Swine flu

    What is Kawasaki Disease?

    • Kawasaki disease is an illness that causes blood vessels to become inflamed, almost always in young children.
    • Its cause is yet unknown. It is one of the leading causes of heart disease in kids.
    • But doctors can treat it if they find it early. Most children recover without any problems.

    Symptoms

    Kawasaki disease comes on fast, and symptoms show up in phases. Signs of the first phase of Kawasaki disease include:

    • High fever that lasts more than 5 days
    • Swelling and redness in hands and bottoms of feet
    • Red eyes
    • Swollen glands, especially in the neck
    • Irritated throat, mouth, and lips

    In the second phase, symptoms include:

    • Joint pain
    • Stomach trouble, such as diarrhoea and vomiting
    • Peeling skin on hands and feet

  • What is the D614G mutation in coronavirus?

    While novel coronavirus is undergoing many mutations, one particular mutation called D614G, according to a study, has become the dominant variant in the global COVID-19 pandemic.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Which one of the following statements is not correct?

    (a) Hepatitis B virus is transmitted much like HIV.

    (b) Hepatitis B, unlike Hepatitis C, does not have a vaccine.

    (c) Globally, the number of people infected with Hepatitis B and C viruses is several times more than those infected with HIV.

    (d) Some of those infected with Hepatitis B and C viruses do not show the symptoms for many years.

    D614G mutation

    • When the virus enters an individual’s body, it aims at creating copies of itself. When it makes an error in this copying process, we get a mutation.
    • In this case, the virus replaced the aspartic acid (D) in the 614th position of the amino acid with glycine (G). Hence the mutation is called the D614G.
    • This mutated form of the virus was first identified in China and then in Europe. Later it spread to other countries like the U.S. and Canada and was eventually reported in India.

    Threats posed

    • This particular mutation aids the virus in attaching more efficiently with the ACE2 receptor in the human host, thereby making it more successful in entering a human body than its predecessors.
    • D614G show increased infectivity but it also displayed greater ability at attaching itself to the cell walls inside an individual’s nose and throat, increasing the viral load.

    How prevalent is it in India?

    • A study (reveals that the D614G was one of the most prevalent spike mutations even during the initial phase of the pandemic.
    • Since then, D614G mutation’s ‘relative abundance’ has increased over time to 70% and above, in most states except Delhi.

  • Asteroid 16 Psyche

    A recent study has found that asteroid 16 Psyche, which orbits between Mars and Jupiter, could be made entirely of metal and is worth an estimated $10,000 quadrillion.

    A NASA mission has recently landed on and collected samples from an asteroid. Do you remember that? Yes. Its the Asteroid Bennu

    16 Psyche

    • Located around 370 million km away from Earth, asteroid 16 Psyche is one of the most massive objects in the asteroid belt in our solar system.
    • The somewhat potato-shaped asteroid has a diameter of around 140 miles.
    • It was first discovered on March 17, 1853, by the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis and was named after the ancient Greek goddess of the soul, Psyche.
    • Unlike most asteroids that are made up of rocks or ice, scientists believe that Psyche is a dense and largely metallic object thought to be the core of an earlier planet that failed in formation.
    • Its surface may mostly comprise iron and nickel, similar to the Earth’s core, according to a study.

  • Anomaly over Normal Body Temperature

    For several years now, doctors and researchers have known that 98.6°F is not really the gold-standard “normal” body temperature it was once considered to be.

    The “normal” body temperature

    • 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 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 anomaly

    • Studies in the US and Europe have found average body temperatures declining over time.
    • In recent years, however, different studies have found the human body temperature averaging out differently, including at 97.7°, 97.9° and 98.2°F.
    • One of the largest such studies, published last year, found that body temperatures among Americans have been declining over the last two centuries.

    Now try this PYQ based on health sciences

    Q.Which of the following diseases can be transmitted from one person to another through tattooing?

    1. Chikungunya
    2. Hepatitis B
    3. HIV-AIDS

    Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

    (a) Only 1

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

  • [pib] POWER Initiative

    The Union Minister for Science & Technology has launched a Scheme titled SERB-POWER (Promoting Opportunities for Women in Exploratory Research).

    Try this MCQ:

    Q.The POWER initiative sometimes seen in news is related to

    a)Reforms in the DISCOMs

    b)Renewable Energy Sector

    c)Women Empowerment

    d)Health Sector

    POWER Initiative

    • It is a scheme to mitigate gender disparity in science and engineering research funding in various S&T programs in Indian academic institutions and R&D laboratories.
    • The Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), a statutory body of the DST has been contemplating to institute a scheme to mitigate gender disparity in science and engineering.
    • SERB – POWER Scheme will have two components namely (i) SERB-POWER Fellowship (ii) SERB- POWER Research Grants.

    A. Salient features of the SERB-POWER Fellowship

    1. Target: Women researchers in 35-55 years of age. Up-to 25 Fellowships per year and not more than 75 at any point in time.
    2. Components of support: Fellowship of Rs. 15,000/- per month in addition to regular income; Research grant of Rs. 10 lakh per annum; and Overhead of Rs. 90,000/- per annum.
    3. Duration: Three years, without the possibility of extension. Once in a career.

    B. Salient features of the SERB – POWER Research Grants

    POWER Grants will empower women researchers by funding them under the following two categories:

    1. Level I (Applicants from IITs, IISERs, IISc, NITs, Central Universities, and National Labs of Central Government Institutions): The scale of funding is up to 60 lakhs for three years.
    2. Level II (Applicants from State Universities / Colleges and Private Academic Institutions): The scale of funding is up to 30 lakhs for three years.

    Why need such a scheme?

    • Integration of the gender dimension in research design has gained considerable attention in the global scenario.
    • Enhancement of participation and promotion of women in the research workforce has to be one of the prime priorities.