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Subject: Science and Technology

  • Rare-earth based Magnetocaloric materials for cancer treatment

    Indian scientists have developed a rare-earth-based magnetocaloric material that can be effectively used for cancer treatment.

    Magnetocaloric Effect does have other applications like in the field of medical implants but for use in energy field, it is still in nascent stage.

    From exam perspective, do understand what principles lies behind this effect.

    What is Magnetocaloric Effect?

    • Magnetocaloric effect (MCE) is a phenomenon where the application and removal of a magnetic field cause certain materials to get warmer and cooler, respectively.
    • This effect normally occurs near its Curie temperature where the application of the field makes the material to warm up and cools up when the field is removed.

    Issue of hyperthermia in cancer treatment

    • Advancements in magnetic materials led to the development of magnetic hyperthermia to try to address the issues of side effects of cancer treatment like chemotherapy.
    • In magnetic hyperthermia, magnetic nanoparticles are subjected to alternating magnetic fields of few Gauss, which produce heat due to magnetic relaxation losses.
    • Usually, the temperature required to kill the tumour cells is between 40 and 45°C.
    • However, the drawback in magnetic hyperthermia is the lack of control of temperature, which may damage the healthy cells in the body and also have side effects like increased BP, hair losses etc.

    Here comes in, Magnetocaloric materials

    • This hypothermia can be avoided by using magnetocaloric materials, as it can provide controlled heating.
    • The advantage of magnetocaloric materials which heat up or cool down with the application and removal of the magnetic field, respectively is that as soon as the magnetic field is removed, the cooling effect is generated.
    • The team at ARCI chose rare-earth-based alloy for studies as some of the rare earth materials are human body compatible.
    • The heating capacity would increase with the increase in the magnetic field.

  • Serotonin Hormone causes Locust to form Swarms

    Scientists have attempted to answer an important scientific question of how and why locusts collect together by the thousands in order to make a swarm.

    Quite often, Oxytocin hormone is seen in the news for its commercial uses and associated ethical concerns. Kindly go through Oxytocin and issues over its commercial use

    What causes Locusts to form huge swarms?

    • When lone locusts happen to come near each other (looking for food) and happen to touch each other, this tactile stimulation, even just in a little area of the back limbs, causes their behaviour to change.
    • This mechanical stimulation affects a couple of nerves in the animal’s body, their behaviour changes, leading to their coming together.
    • The central nervous system of the locust, the most important among them being serotonin which regulates mood and social behaviour is the mystery behind swarms.
    • Their coming together triggers a mechanical (touch) and neurochemical (serotonin) stimulations to make crowding occur.

    What is Serotonin?

    • It is a monoamine neurotransmitter.
    • It has a popular image as a contributor to feelings of well-being and happiness.
    • Its actual biological function is complex and multifaceted, modulating cognition, reward, learning, memory, and numerous physiological processes such as vomiting and vasoconstriction.

  • Near-Earth Object (NEO) 163348

    NASA announced that a giant asteroid is expected to pass Earth at a safe distance, today.

    Do you remember Osiris-Rex spacecraft of NASA? It is the only spacecraft to touch an asteroid called ‘Bennu’. NASA has brought back comet dust and solar wind particles before, but never asteroid samples.

    This makes it a landmark feat and thus a hotspot for UPSC prelims.

    What are NEOs?

    • NASA defines NEOs as comets and asteroids nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits which allows them to enter the Earth’s neighbourhood.
    • These objects are composed mostly of water ice with embedded dust particles.
    • NEOs occasionally approach close to the Earth as they orbit the Sun.
    • NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Study (CNEOS) determines the times and distances of these objects as and when their approach to the Earth is close.

    Significances of NEOs

    • The scientific interest in comets and asteroids is largely due to their status as relatively unchanged remnant debris from the solar system formation process over 4.6 billion years ago.
    • Therefore, these NEOs offer scientists clues about the chemical mixture from the planets formed.
    • Significantly, among all the causes that will eventually cause the extinction of life on Earth, an asteroid hit is widely acknowledged as one of the likeliest.
    • Over the years, scientists have suggested different ways to ward off such a hit, such as blowing up the asteroid before it reaches Earth, or deflecting it off its Earth-bound course by hitting it with a spacecraft.

    About 163348 (2002 NN4)

    • A Near-Earth Object (NEO), the asteroid is called 163348 (2002 NN4) and is classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA).
    • Asteroids with a minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) of about 0.05 (AU is the distance between the Earth and the Sun and is roughly 150 million km) or less are considered PHAs.
    • This distance is about 7,480,000 km or less and an absolute magnitude (H) of 22 (smaller than about 150 m or 500 feet in diameter).

  • Electrolytic splitting of Water

    Scientists from The Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), have found out a low cost and efficient way to generate hydrogen from water using Molybdenum dioxide as a catalyst.

    Practice question for mains:

    Q. Hydrogen is the future of clean and sustainable energy. Discuss.

    Electrolytic splitting of water

    • Electrolysis of water is the decomposition of water into oxygen and hydrogen gas due to the passage of an electric current.
    • This technique can be used to make hydrogen gas, the main component of hydrogen fuel, and breathable oxygen gas, or can mix the two into oxyhydrogen, which is also usable as fuel, though more volatile and dangerous.
    • It is a promising method to generate hydrogen but requires energy input that can be brought down in the presence of a catalyst.

    Using Molybdenum Catalyst

    • The scientists have shown that Molybdenum dioxide (MoO2) nanomaterials annealed in hydrogen atmosphere can act as efficient catalysts to reduce the energy input to bring about water splitting into Hydrogen.
    • Molybdenum dioxide has the potential to replace the currently employed catalyst platinum, which is expensive and has limited resources.
    • MoO2 is a conducting metal oxide that is one of the low-cost catalysts with good efficiency and stability for hydrogen evolution.
    • The catalyst is highly stable for a longer duration of reaction with sustained hydrogen evolution from water.
    • About 80 % efficient conversion of electrical energy into hydrogen has been achieved using this catalyst.

    Significance

    • Hydrogen is considered as the future of clean and sustainable energy as it can be generated from water and produces water on energy generation without any carbon footprint.
    • Hydrogen can be directly used as a fuel similar to natural gas or as input for fuel cells to generate electricity.
    • It is the future energy for a clean environment and an alternative to fossil fuels, underlining the necessity of low-cost catalysts for its production.

  • Debate over a homoeo drug – Arsenicum album 30

    A homoeopathic drug, Arsenicum album 30, has become a subject of debate after several states and AYUSH Ministry recommended it for prophylactic (preventive) use against Covid-19.

    Practice question:

    Q. The furore over the usage of several medicines has created an chaos in treating COVID. Critically comment.

    Arsenicum album 30

    • Arsenicum album is made by heating arsenic with distilled water, a process repeated several times over three days. The drug has less than 1% arsenic.
    • A small bottle with one course costs Rs 20-30.
    • Arsenicum album is considered to correct inflammation in the body. It takes care of diarrhoea, cough and cold.
    • It is used commonly by homoeopaths to treat anxiety, restlessness, cold, ulcerations, burning pains. It is taken in powder form or as a tablet.
    • The health hazards of arsenic contamination in water are well known: long-term exposure to the metal can cause skin cancer, pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases.
    • It has been recommended against COVID by the state governments in Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

    The Covid-19 context

    • Arsenicum album 30 could be taken as prophylactic medicine against Coronavirus infections.
    • It is only “possible prevention” against flu.
    • The AYUSH Ministry recommended taking the medicine for three days on an empty stomach and repeating the dose after a month if an outbreak continues locally.

    Issues with such medicines

    • The WHO neither has any guidelines nor any effective evidence on using Arsenicum album as a Covid-19 treatment.
    • The debate stems from the fact that there is no scientific evidence that the drug works against Covid-19, a fact stressed not only by medical scientists but also by some homoeopathic practitioners themselves.
    • There have been reports about people flocking to homoeopathic clinics to buy Arsenicum album, sometimes at triple the cost.
    • Even local chemists have started stocking this medicine.
    • Self-medication can prove harmful as prevention or cure for COVID-19.

  • What is Superconductivity?

    On a larger scale, electric grids, such as high power lines, lose over 5 per cent of their energy in the process of transmission.

    In India, we often get to hear about the transmission losses in DISCOMS. Such losses can be zeroed with the application of superconducting cables (which is practically impossible unless we find a normal working one). The phenomena, superconductivity, however is not new to us, UPSC may end up asking some tricky statements in the prelims regarding it.

    Heat losses

    Waste heat is all around you. On a small scale, if your phone or laptop feels warm, that’s because some of the energy powering the device is being transformed into unwanted heat.

    Where does this wasted heat come from?

    • These elementary particles of an atom move around and interact with other electrons and atoms.
    • Because they have an electric charge, as they move through a material — like metals, which can easily conduct electricity — they scatter off other atoms and generate heat.

    Understanding Superconductivity

    • A superconductor is a material, such as a pure metal like aluminium or lead, that when cooled to ultra-low temperatures allows electricity to move through it with absolutely zero resistance.
    • Kamerlingh Onnes was the first scientist who figured out exactly how superconductor works in 1911.
    • Simply put, superconductivity occurs when two electrons bind together at low temperatures.
    • They form the building block of superconductors, the Cooper pair.
    • This holds true even for a potential superconductor like lead when it is above a certain temperature.

    What are Superconductors?

    • Superconductors are materials that address this problem by allowing energy to flow efficiently through them without generating unwanted heat.
    • They have great potential and many cost-effective applications.
    • They operate magnetically levitated trains, generate magnetic fields for MRI machines and recently have been used to build quantum computers, though a fully operating one does not yet exist.

    Issues with superconductors

    • They have an essential problem when it comes to other practical applications: They operate at ultra-low temperatures.
    • There are no room-temperature superconductors. That “room-temperature” part is what scientists have been working on for more than a century.
    • The amount of energy needed to cool a material down to its superconducting state is too expensive for daily applications.

    Future scope

    • In a dramatic turn of events, a new kind of superconductor material was discovered in 1987 at IBM in Zurich, Switzerland.
    • The material was a kind of ceramic. These new ceramic superconductors were made of copper and oxygen mixed with other elements such as lanthanum, barium and bismuth.
    • They contradicted everything physicists thought they knew about making superconductors.
    • Since then, curiosity regarding the superconductors has been ever increasing.

  • Radio lights from Sun’s Corona

    A group of India scientists have recently discovered tiny flashes of radio light emanating from all over the Sun, which they say could help in explaining the long-pending coronal heating problem.

    Possible prelim question:

    The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) Telescope recently seen in news is a landmark in observing: Gravitational Waves/Black Holes/Sun’s Corona/ etc..

    What is Sun’s Corona?

    • The corona is the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere. It is the aura of plasma that surrounds the Sun and other stars.
    • The Sun’s corona extends millions of kilometres into outer space and is most easily seen during a total solar eclipse, but it is also observable with a coronagraph.
    • Spectroscopy measurements indicate strong ionization in the corona and a plasma temperature in excess of 1000000 Kelvin much hotter than the surface of the Sun.

    Radio lights observed

    • These radio lights or signals result from beams of electrons accelerated in the aftermath of a magnetic explosion on the Sun.
    • While the magnetic explosions are not yet observable, these weak radio flashes are ‘smoking guns’ or the evidence for the same.
    • Hence it brought the researchers closer to explaining the coronal heating problem.

    Their significance

    • These observations are the strongest evidence till date that the tiny magnetic explosions originally referred to as ‘nanoflares’ by eminent American solar astrophysicist Eugene Parker.
    • It is the possible phenomena that could be heating up the corona (the aura of plasma that surrounds the sun and other stars).

    The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA)

    • The phenomenon of coronal heating has been known for the last 70 years, the availability of cutting edge data from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) radio telescope proved to be a game-changer.
    • The MWA is a low-frequency radio telescope, located at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in Western Australia.
    • The MWA has been developed by an international collaboration, including partners from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, India, Canada and the United States.

    Solving the mystery

    • The strength of the magnetic fields varies a lot from one place on the surface of the Sun to another, by more than a factor of 1,000.
    • But the corona is hot everywhere. So, this heating process has to work all over the corona, even in regions of weak magnetic fields.
    • Until now, the process of how this magnetic energy is deposited in the corona had remained a mystery.

  • THAAD defence system

    China has issued a statement reiterating its long-standing objections to the presence of the US THAAD missile defence system in South Korea.

    Try this question from CSP 2018:

    Q. What is “Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)”, sometimes seen in the news?

    (a) An Israeli radar system

    (b) India’s indigenous anti-missile programme

    (c) An American anti-missile system

    (d) A defence collaboration between Japan and South Korea

    What is THAAD?

    • THAAD is an acronym for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, a transportable, ground-based missile defence system.
    • It is coupled with space-based and ground-based surveillance stations, which transfer data about the incoming missile and informs the THAAD interceptor missile of the threat type classification.
    • THAAD is alarmed about incoming missiles by space-based satellites with infrared sensors.
    • This anti-ballistic missile defence system has been designed and manufactured by the US company Lockheed Martin. South Korea is not the only country with the THAAD missile defence system.
    • It has been previously deployed in the UAE, Guam, Israel and Romania.

    The South Korea-China controversy over THAAD

    • In South Korea, the THAAD missile defence system is operated by the US army stationed in the country.
    • The US had previously announced that the deployment of this missile defence system was a countermeasure against potential attacks by North Korea, particularly after the country had engaged in testing ballistic missiles.
    • In 2017, matters escalated in the Korean Peninsula after North Korea test-fired a few missiles in the direction of US bases in Japan.
    • Following this incident, the US amended its plans and moved the systems to its army base in Osan, South Korea while the final deployment site was being prepared.
    • These moves by the US and by extension, South Korea, particularly angered China.

    China’s reservations against THAAD

    • China’s opposition has little to do with the missiles itself and is more about the system’s inbuilt advanced radar systems that could track China’s actions.
    • The controversy also has much to do with the geopolitics and complex conflicts in East Asia, with the US having a presence in the region particularly through its many military bases in Japan and South Korea.
    • According to some observers of East Asia, China believes the US exerts influence over South Korea and Japan and may interfere with Beijing’s long-term military, diplomatic and economic interests in the region.
    • The US and South Korea have consistently maintained that these missiles are only to counter potential threats by North Korea.
    • South Korea also issued a statement saying the number of missiles had not increased but had only been replaced with newer versions.

  • Starman Suits in Demo-2 Mission

    NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 test flight has now been rescheduled for May 31, due to weather conditions. Apart from the test flight itself, what’s getting attention are the spacesuits that the astronauts will wear while travelling in the SpaceX capsule, called Crew Dragon.

    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 SpaceX spacesuit

    • The so-called “Starman suits” the astronauts will wear on the Demo-2 mission have been designed by a famous Hollywood costume designer.
    • The SpaceX spacesuits are different from other spacesuits typically worn by astronauts because of their sleek design and are being described as resembling a tuxedo.
    • These spacesuits are meant to be lighter and more flexible, are equipped with touchscreen gloves, have vents that allow astronauts to be cooler while maintaining pressure inside the suit, and have an incorporated helmet and visor.
    • The helmets of these suits are 3D printed with touchscreen-sensitive gloves and the suit is all in one piece, customised for the wearer.

    How are launch-and-entry spacesuits different from EMUs?

    • The SpaceX suits are only meant to be worn inside the space shuttle and are not suitable for carrying out spacewalks.
    • Spacesuits for spacewalks, called Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs), are heavier than launch-entry suits (LES) and are already present aboard the ISS.
    • While inside the spacecraft, the atmosphere can be controlled, to explore and work in space, humans require that they take their environment with them because there are atmospheric pressure and no oxygen to sustain life.
    • Such spacesuits – EMUs — are worn for spacewalks or extravehicular activities (EVA) conducted outside a space shuttle.
    • These provide astronauts with oxygen supply and protect them against extreme temperatures, radiation and space dust.

    Back2Basics

    Demo-2 Mission by SpaceX

  • Species in news: Super mushroom “Cordyceps militaris”

    A university in Assam has developed a fungal powder to help people boost their immunity to disease.

    Try this question from CSP 2019:

    Q.) Recently, there was a growing awareness in our country about the importance of Himalayan nettle (Girardinia diversifolia) because it is found to be a sustainable source of

    (a) anti-malarial drug

    (b) bio-diesel

    (c) pulp for paper industry

    (d) textile fibre

    A similar question related to Cordyceps militaris can be asked. UPSC may ask whether it is a Fungi, Algae, a Moss or a Lichen.

    Cordyceps militaris

    • The powder is from a parasitic but rare “super mushroom” called Cordyceps militaris.
    • The militaris underwent powdering through lyophilisation or freeze-drying at –80°C.
    • The earth has more than 400 species of Cordyceps, a fungus parasitic on insects as well as other fungi.
    • Often referred to as a super mushroom, Cordyceps known for its anti-ageing, anti-viral, energy and immunity-boosting effect.
    • Natural Cordyceps is hard to get and if dried, costs at least ₹8 lakh per kg.