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Subject: Science and Technology

  • [pib] Asteroid 2020 ND

    NASA has issued a warning that a huge “Asteroid 2020 ND” will move past Earth on July 24.

    Try this question from CSP 2014:

    Q.What is a coma, in the content of astronomy?

    (a) Bright half of material on the comet

    (b) Long tail of dust

    (c) Two asteroids orbiting each other

    (d) Two planets orbiting each other

    What are Asteroids?

    • Asteroids are small, rocky objects that orbit the Sun. They are leftover from the formation of our solar system.
    • Although asteroids orbit the Sun like planets, they are much smaller than planets.
    • There are lots of asteroids in our solar system. Most of them live in the main asteroid belt—a region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
    • Some asteroids go in front of and behind Jupiter. They are called Trojans.
    • Asteroids that come close to Earth are called Near-Earth Objects, NEOs for short. NASA keeps a close watch on these asteroids.

    Asteroid 2020 ND

    • The 2020 ND is about 170 metres-long.
    • It will be as close as 0.034 astronomical units (5,086,328 kilometres) to our planet and is travelling at a speed of 48,000 kilometres per hour.
    • Its distance from Earth has placed it in the “Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs)” category.

    How are PHAs defined?

    • PHAs are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid’s potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth.
    • NASA classifies objects like these as ‘near-Earth objects’ (NEOs) as they get nudged by other planets’ gravitational attraction resulting in their proximity to our solar system.
    • It is not necessary that asteroids classified as PHAs will impact the Earth. It only means there is a possibility for such a threat.

    Can they be deflected?

    • Over the years, scientists have suggested different ways to ward off such threats, such as blowing up the asteroid before it reaches Earth or deflecting it off its Earth-bound course by hitting it with a spacecraft.
    • The most drastic measure undertaken so far is the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA), which includes NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission and the ESA’s Hera.
    • Both mission’s target is Didymos, a binary near-Earth asteroid, one of whose bodies is of the size that could pose the most likely significant threat to Earth.
    • In 2018, NASA announced that it had started the construction of DART, which is scheduled to launch in 2021 with an aim to slam into the smaller asteroid of the Didymos system at around 6 km per second in 2022.
    • Hera, which is scheduled to launch in 2024, will arrive at the Didymos system in 2027 to measure the impact crater produced by the DART collision and study the change in the asteroid’s orbital trajectory.

    Back2Basics: Near-Earth objects (NEOs)

    • NEOs are 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, and 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.

  • What is Itolizumab, newly cleared for Covid?

    The Drug Controller General of India recently approved Itolizumab as a novel biologic therapy for restricted emergency use.

    Various drugs in news these days are:

    1) Remdesivir: Ebola

    2) Lopinavir: HIV

    3) Hydroxychloroquine: Malaria

    What is Itolizumab?

    • Itolizumab is an existing drug used for psoriasis, a chronic skin disease involving unregulated growth of some skin cells that develop into red patches mostly on knees and elbows, but also on some other parts of the body.
    • The drug, developed by Bengaluru-based Biocon, was approved in 2013.
    • It is a monoclonal antibody which is used to treat acute psoriasis.

    Why it is being used for COVD-19?

    • The coronavirus has been observed to induce an overreaction of the immune system, generating a large number of cytokines that can cause severe damage to the lungs and other organs.
    • Itolizumab is safe and efficient in preventing cardio-renal complications in Covid-19 patients who also have acute respiratory distress.

    What are monoclonal antibodies?

    • Monoclonal antibodies are proteins cloned in the lab to mimic antibodies produced by the immune system to counter infection.
    • They have their genesis in serum, the colourless constituent of blood that contains antibodies.
    • These proteins bind to an antigen, the fragment of an infectious virus in the case of SARS-CoV-2, and either destroy it or block its action.

  • Vitamin D and its health benefits

    There have been considerable discussions in scientific circles on the importance of vitamin D in these days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Try this question from CSP 2017:

    Q.Regular intake of fresh fruits and vegetables is recommended in the diet since they are a good source of antioxidants. How do antioxidants help a person maintain health and promote longevity?

    (a) They activate the enzymes necessary for vitamin synthesis in the body and help prevent vitamin deficiency.

    (b) They prevent excessive oxidation of carbohydrates, fats and proteins in the body and help avoid unnecessary wastage of energy.

    (c) They neutralize the free radicals produced in the body during metabolism.

    (d) They activate certain genes in the cells of the body and help delay the ageing process.

    Vitamin D and its prevalence

    • It is produced when sunlight (or artificial light, particularly in the ultraviolet region of 190-400 nm wavelength) falls on the skin.
    • Light triggers a chemical reaction to a cholesterol-based molecule and converts it into calcidiol in the liver and into calcitriol in the kidney.
    • It is these two molecules that are physiologically active.
    • Since sunlight is important for the generation of vitamin D, tropical countries have an advantage over the northern countries.
    • India, being a tropical country, one would expect naturally derived vitamin D levels to be good.

    Why Vitamin D is important?

    • Vitamin D deficiency can affect COVID-19 high-risk patients, particularly those who are diabetic, have heart conditions, pneumonia, obesity and those who smoke.
    • It is also associated with infections in the respiratory tract and lung injury.
    • Besides, vitamin D is known to help in having the right amount of calcium in the bones, catalyse the process of protecting cell membranes from damage, preventing the inflammation of tissues.
    • Moreover, it helps stop tissues from forming fibres and weakening bones from becoming brittle, leading to osteoporosis.

  • How to treat data as public good

    This is the age of Big data. Even after anonymising it, we gain useful information using analytical tools. So, given its potential, there is a call for treating the public data as a public good. This article analyses the suggestion of Kris Gopalakrishnan panel in this regard.

    Why data matter

    • By one brave count, the world generates over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day.
    • A significant chunk of it is highly valuable.
    • With the increasing sophistication of tools designed to analyse it, the value of the data is increasing further.
    • This analysis of data can yield market patterns, traffic predictions, epidemic risks and much more.[Remember why Google shows you only particular ads.]
    • Data need not be either big or personal for it to be highly sought after.

    Non-personal data: A public good

    • Would it not be better if at least some data were treated as a public good?
    • Treating it as a public good will allow its open use by startups, do-gooders and government bodies.
    • Dealing with such questions, a centre-appointed panel, headed by Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, submitted its draft report on the regulation of non-personal data in India.
    • “Non-personal data” is defined as that which is either devoid of people’s details or anonymized to prevent individual identification.

    Proposals of Kris Gopalan panel

    • The panel has proposed a new data authority to regulate non-personal data.
    • It has also outlined the need of a framework that would require companies to share its databanks with others.
    • Sharing of databank will help the country catalyse business innovation, bolster India’s startup ecosystem, and help governments and local authorities frame data-enriched public policies. 

    Challenges

    • What data a private entity can be forced to disclose must follow a commonly accepted set of principles.
    • Data authority demanding companies to share data painstakingly acquired often with large sums invested to acquire it won’t work.
    • Also, if sharing data blunts companies’ strategic edge over competitors, they would probably appeal against it in court.
    • If enterprises fear that their confidential learnings could be threatened by intrusive data authority, then the cause of innovation would actually be set back.

    Way forward

    • A clear set of guidelines could be set down that specify what sort of data qualifies as a public good and must be kept open to all.
    • For other kinds of data, maybe a market mechanism could evolve that lets various parties bid for privately-held information.

    Consider the question “There is a growing demand for treating the non-personal data as a public good. What are the benefits and challenges of treating the non-personal data as public good?

    Conclusion

    Given its potential, big data does deserve regulation. But it needs to be done with clarity.

  • Trending in news: 5G Technology

    One of India’s business tycoon recently announced that his company’s telecom venture has designed and developed from scratch, a complete indigenous 5G solution ready for deployment.

    Try this question from CSP 2019:

    Q.With reference to communication technologies, what is/are the difference/differences between LTE (Long-Term Evolution) and VoLTE (Voice over Long-Term Evolution)?

    1. LTE ‘is commonly marketed as 3G and VoLTE is commonly marketed as advanced 3G.
    2. LTE is data-only technology and VoLTE is voice-only technology.

    Select the correct answer using the code given below.

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

    What is 5G?

    • 5G or fifth generation is the latest upgrade in the long term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks.
    • The first generation of networks allowed only mobile voice calls to be made, while the second generation allowed mobile voice calls as well as sending of short text messages.
    • It was the third generation or 3G network which allowed web browsing on mobile devices, the speed and latency of which improved with fourth-generation or 4G networks.
    • The 5G networks will have even faster speeds with latency down to between 1-10 milliseconds.

    (Note: Latency is the time a device takes to communicate with the network, which stands at an average of up to 50 milliseconds for 4G networks across the world.)

    How does 5G work?

    All 5G networks chiefly operate on three spectrum bands.

    • The low-band spectrum has been proven to have great coverage and works fast even in underground conditions. However, the maximum speed limit on this band is 100 Mbps (Megabits per second).
    • In the mid-band spectrum, though the speeds are higher, telcos across the world have registered limitations when it comes to coverage area and penetration of telephone signals into buildings.
    • The high-band spectrum offers the highest speed but has extremely limited network coverage area and penetration capabilities.

    The telcos using this band rely on the existing LTE networks and will need to install a number of smaller towers to ensure adequate coverage and high-speed performance.

    What does it mean to be 5G ready?

    • Globally many companies have been deploying 5G networks across their service areas as early as 2018.
    • Not only the network, but the devices will also have to be 5G ready for customers to be able to enjoy the maximum benefits of the latest upgrade in mobile broadband.
    • One of the major improvements in 5G is the use of beam tracking to follow all devices on the network to ensure consistent connection in real-time for the device.
    • 5G networks are also designed to multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) efficient which improves signal throughput for all devices on the network.

    Where does India stand on the deployment of 5G?

    • Companies, both telecom service providers and their equipment vendors, have completed lab trials of 5G network components but are yet to commence field trials, which were initially scheduled to happen last year.
    • For the same, telecom companies are awaiting allocation of test spectrum from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
    • The service providers have already tied up with equipment makers like Nokia, Ericsson, etc for deploying their 5G networks.

  • Hope:  UAE’s first mission to Mars

    The launch of the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) first mission to Mars has been delayed by two days due to bad weather conditions which were scheduled to take off from its launch site, Tanegashima Space Center, in Japan.

    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

    Hope Mission

    • The Emirates Mars Mission called “Hope” was announced in 2015 with the aim of creating mankind’s first integrated model of the Red planet’s atmosphere.
    • Hope weighs over 1500 kg and will carry scientific instruments mounted on one side of the spacecraft, including the Emirates exploration Imager (EXI), which is a high-resolution camera among others.
    • The spacecraft will orbit Mars to study the Martian atmosphere and its interaction with outer space and solar winds.
    • Hope will collect data on Martian climate dynamics, which should help scientists understand why Mars’ atmosphere is decaying into space.

    Objectives of the mission

    • Once it launches, Hope will orbit Mars for around 200 days, after which it will enter the Red planet’s orbit by 2021, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the founding of UAE.
    • The mission is being executed by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, UAE’s space agency.
    • It will help answer key questions about the global Martian atmosphere and the loss of hydrogen and oxygen gases into space over the span of one Martian year.

    Back2Basics: Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)

    • The MOM also called Mangalyaan is a space probe orbiting Mars since 24 September 2014. It was launched on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
    • It aims at studying the Martian surface and mineral composition as well as scans its atmosphere for methane (an indicator of life on Mars).
    • It is India’s first interplanetary mission and it made it the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after Roscosmos, NASA, and the European Space Agency.
    • It made India the first Asian nation to reach Martian orbit and the first nation in the world to do so on its maiden attempt.
    • It was initially meant to last six months, but subsequently, ISRO had said it had enough fuel for it to last “many years.”

  • Who are the Tangams?

    Last week Arunachal CM released a book titled “Tangams: An Ethnolinguistic Study Of The Critically Endangered Group of Arunachal Pradesh”.

    Try this question from CSP 2019:

    Q.Consider the following statements about Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in India:

    1. PVTGs reside in 18 States and one Union Territory.
    2. A stagnant or declining population is one of the criteria for determining PVTG status.
    3. There are 95 PVTGs officially notified in the country so far.
    4. Irular and Konda Reddi tribes are included in the list of PVTGs.

    Which of the statements given above are correct?

    (a) 1, 2 and 3

    (b) 2, 3 and 4

    (c) 1, 2 and 4

    (d) 1, 3 and 4

    Who are the Tangams?

    • The Tangams is a little-known community within the larger Adi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh and resides in the hamlet of Kugging in Upper Siang district’s Paindem circle.
    • In 1975, the community’s population was pegged at 2,000 spread across 25 villages.
    • From 2016 to 2020, a team from the Centre for Endangered Languages (CFEL) of Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU), carried out extensive field research and documented the community.
    • Their survey revealed that Tangams were now concentrated in only one village (Kugging), with only 253 reported speakers.
    • As per the UNESCO World Atlas of Endangered Languages (2009), Tangam — an oral language that belongs to the Tani group, under the greater Tibeto-Burman language family — is marked ‘critically endangered’.

    Why are there only a few speakers?

    • Kugging is surrounded by a number of villages inhabited by Adi subgroups such as Shimong, Minyongs, as well as the Buddhist tribal community of Khambas, among others.
    • To communicate with their neighbours over the years, the Tangams have become multilingual, speaking not just Tangam, but other tongues such as Shimong, Khamba and Hindi.
    • They rarely speak their own language now since their population is restricted to a single village. Moreover, the Tangams are relatively unknown — even within their state.
    • The village lacks proper infrastructure in all basic sectors of education, health, drinking water facilities, road and electricity. Roads have reached Kugging only in 2018.
    • Not a single person from the community has gone to university.

    Why are the languages at risk?

    • The diversity of languages has led various communities to depend on English, Assamese and colloquial variety of Hindi called Arunachalee Hindi as the link languages.
    • Many believe this shift has led to the loss of native languages of the tribal communities.
    • Even the numerically larger tribes like Nyishi, Galo, Mishmi, Tangsa etc. whose population exceed the ten thousand mark are also not safe from endangerment, hence marked unsafe.
    • The younger generation of these tribes especially in the urban areas has mostly discarded the use of their mother tongue.

  • What is T Cells Immunity?

    A recent study has shown that people unexposed to and not infected with novel coronavirus may still exhibit T cell responses specific to this virus. It is thought that Coronavirus specific T cell responses seen in healthy people might arise from memory T cells derived from exposure to ‘common cold’ coronaviruses.

    Try this question from CSP 2010:

    Q. Widespread resistance of malaria parasite to drugs like chloroquine has prompted attempts to develop a malaria vaccine to combat malaria. Why is it difficult to develop an effective malaria vaccine?

    (a) Malaria is caused by several species of Plasmodium

    (b) Man does not develop immunity to malaria during natural infection

    (c) Vaccines can be developed only against bacteria

    (d) Man is only an intermediate host and not the definitive host

    What are T Cells?

    • T Cells also called T lymphocyte, type of leukocyte (white blood cell) that is an essential part of the immune system.
    • T cells are one of two primary types of lymphocytes—B cells being the second type—that determine the specificity of the immune response to antigens (foreign substances) in the body.
    • T cells originate in the bone marrow and mature in the thymus.

    Why are they called memory cells?

    • In the thymus, T cells multiply and differentiate into helper, regulatory, or cytotoxic T cells or become memory T cells.
    • They are then sent to peripheral tissues or circulate in the blood or lymphatic system.
    • Once stimulated by the appropriate antigen, helper T cells secrete chemical messengers called cytokines, which stimulate the differentiation of B cells into plasma cells (antibody-producing cells).

    How do they control immunity?

    • Regulatory T cells act to control immune reactions, hence their name.
    • Cytotoxic T cells, which are activated by various cytokines, bind to and kill infected cells and cancer cells.
    • Because the body contains millions of T and B cells, many of which carry unique receptors, it can respond to virtually any antigen.

    Vaccination outcomes on T cells

    • There is a possibility that pre-existing T cell memory might influence vaccination outcomes.
    • Pre-existing immunity could help elicit better immune responses against novel coronavirus, and these responses can manifest faster.
    • Meanwhile, pre-existing immunity could be mistaken as an enhanced efficacy of the vaccine in eliciting immune responses.
    • This could be particularly confusing in Phase-1 trials where the vaccine is tested on a small group of healthy participants.

    Its drawbacks

    • The pre-existing immunity can reduce the immune responses that the vaccine causes through a mechanism called the “original antigenic sin”.
    • It can also lead to antibody-mediated disease enhancement, where antibodies present at sub-neutralizing concentrations can actually augment virus infection and cause more severe disease.
    • This was seen in the case of chikungunya and dengue.

  • Kuaizhou-11 Rocket

    China’s 19th launch of 2020, the Kuaizhou-11 rocket, failed in its mission.

    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 Kuaizhou-11

    • Kuaizhou, meaning “fast ship” in Chinese, was operated by the commercial launch firm Expace and was originally scheduled for 2018 after being developed three years earlier.
    • Also known as KZ-11, it had a lift-off mass of 70.8 tonnes, and was designed to launch low-Earth and Sun-synchronous orbit satellites.
    • It was carrying two satellites — the first being a remote sensing satellite that would provide data to clients on a commercial basis for forecasting and managing geological disasters.
    • It would also provide the information required for natural resource exploration. The second was part of a series of satellites for low-Earth orbit navigation.
    • Both satellites were built by Changguang Satellite Co. Ltd., a commercial entity born out of the state-owned firms.

  • Rare Comet ‘C/2020 F3 Neowise’

    The C/2020 F3 comet also dubbed NEOWISE will be visible with the naked eye for around 20 minutes every day for 20 days across India.

    Try this question from CSP 2014:

    Q.What is a coma, in the content of astronomy?

    (a) Bright half of material on the comet

    (b) Long tail of dust

    (c) Two asteroids orbiting each other

    (d) Two planets orbiting each other

    What are Comets?

    • Comets or “dirty snowballs” are mostly made of dust, rocks and ice, the remnants from the time the solar system was formed over 4.6 billion years ago.
    • The word comet comes from the Latin word “Cometa” which means “long-haired” and the earliest known record of a comet sighting was made by an astrologer in 1059 BC.
    • Comets can range in their width from a few miles to tens of miles wide.
    • While there are millions of comets orbiting the sun, there are more than 3,650 known comets as of now, according to NASA.

    How do they illuminate?

    • Comets do not have the light of their own and what humans are able to see from Earth is the reflection of the sun’s light off the comet as well as the energy released by the gas molecules after it is absorbed from the sun.
    • The visibility cannot be precisely predicted since a lot depends on the way the “outbursts” of gas and dust play out determining how much of a “good show” the comet will put out for observers.
    • As they orbit closer to the sun, they heat up and release debris of dust and gases that form into a “glowing head” that can often be larger than a planet.

    Why do they get close to the sun?

    • Comets may be occasionally pushed into orbits closer to the sun and the Earth’s neighbourhood due to forces of gravity of other planets.
    • The appearance of some comets, like those that take less than 200 years to orbit around the sun is predictable since they have passed by before.
    • These may be referred to as short-period comets and can be found in the Kuiper belt, where many comets orbit the sun in the realm of Pluto, occasionally getting pushed into orbits that bring them closer to the sun.
    • One of the most famous short-period comets is called Halley’s Comet that reappears every 76 years. Halley’s will be sighted next in 2062.
    • Comets in this cloud can take as long as 30 million years to complete one rotation around the sun.

    Significance of the comets

    • NASA tracks all Near Earth Objects (NEOs) that includes comets and asteroids using telescopes placed all around the Earth, as part of its NEO Observation Program.
    • Comets hold important clues about the formation of the solar system and it is possible that comets brought water and other organic compounds, which are the building blocks of life to Earth.

    Back2Basics